Actually, I consider alienation a good sign. Eventually it leads to ennui, then to cafard, and eventually to a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the driver's side window. Perhaps we should buy some flowers in anticipation?
In the main hub of Iraq's Shia-dominated south, Sunni politicians work secluded in a heavily guarded compound on a street strewn with the wreckage of a recent suicide car bombing. The Iraqi Islamic Party's fortress-like headquarters reflect the plight of Saddam Hussein's Sunni minority, increasingly embattled in the countdown to January 30 elections that majority Shias embrace but most Sunnis are shunning. Bearded party leaders accuse US-led occupiers and Iraq's interim government of favouritism toward the Shias, who will cement their new-found hold on power after decades of oppression under Saddam. They also complain of growing intimidation by militias run by Shia religious parties and fledgling security forces filling their ranks with mostly Shia recruits — trends that are deepening the Sunnis' sense of alienation in the new Iraq.
Many Sunnis, who made up the backbone of the ruling class under Saddam, are boycotting Iraq's first multi-party elections in nearly half a century because of a raging Sunni insurgency they say will make a fair vote impossible. A low Sunni turnout could undermine the credibility of Iraq's new parliament and the constitution it will write. "The election is a farce and we won't participate," said Jamal Khazal Makki, the party's regional chief, in his ornate office as guards with AK-47 assault rifles stood watch outside. Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, so far has been spared the worst of the violence that has shaken Baghdad and the Sunni heartland north and west of the capital. But Sunni guerrillas are now escalating their campaign in the south, threatening coexistence in a city where Sunnis and Shias have long inter-married.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:42:22 AM ||
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#1
dial 1-800-Wah Waah
It's already clear that this is going to be the talking point for many. That there wasn't adequate Sunni participation so the elections aren't meaningful.
#2
It gives the MSM something to talk about that's negative. Wouldn't want to talk about the huge turnout or successful elections by brave Iraqi's...nope, nope...doom and gloom for all!
#3
If they don't participate, then you must liquidate.
Posted by: Johnny Crocran ||
01/22/2005 11:06
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#4
Is anyone seeing parallels between the former Bathists and the former majority party in the U.S. (ie Democrats)? They don't trust people to make the 'right' ballots decision and are going to contest the validity of the vote as soon as it's finished. The violence prior to the elections is no worse than any other developing Democracy. Ever see a 'peaceful' Indian, Pakistani, Mexican, etc. election? Oposition parties being bombed, candidates killed, and voters hassled. Heck that's a NORMAL election in Mexico and I don't hear about the lack of validity of any Mexican election. Yes there will be people that can't or won't vote but it's not because we haven't tried and if there is 30-40% voter turnout that would be a HUGE success.
#9
The difference between the Sunnis and the Democrats is that the Democrats would keep counting the ballots until their 20% of the population gets 51% of the vote.
#10
Many Sunnis, who made up the backbone of the ruling class under Saddam, are boycotting Iraqâs first multi-party elections in nearly half a century because of a raging Sunni insurgency they say will make a fair vote impossible.
So instead of doing what they can to discourage fellow Sunnis from going the insurgent route, they're going to boycott the election? Sorry, no sympathy here.
A low Sunni turnout could undermine the credibility of Iraqâs new parliament and the constitution it will write.
Err, no. The threat of a low Sunni turnout means nothing more than a temper tantrum, and should be ignored accordingly.
#11
Right, B-A-R. Someone is taking liberteeeees with the pen in order to further an agenda to discredit an election that is a start to get Iraq out of the hole that it is in. When you have been on top for 35 years on Sammy's coat-tails, taking the good jobs, the graft, and throwing a willing hand in on murders and torture (we are talking shredders, not undies on the noggin), people on the bottom will get their day in the sun. The Sunnis and ex Baathists better hope that they can exist peacefully without retribution for the crimes that were done.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 20:59
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#12
Who said everyone needs to be getting along for an election to be legitimate.
In preparation for the post election questions regarding the legitimacy of the results let me remind the MSM that in the US in 1864, 11 confederate states did not participate in the election that resulted in Abraham Lincoln's second term.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami wrapped up a seven-nation tour of Africa in Uganda on Thursday after sealing a raft of cooperation deals that Teheran hopes will boost its influence on the continent.
"We like dealing with Africa. We can buy influence at about 9 cents a head. European influence costs us almost twice that much, though I'll admit it's better quality..."
Khatami won backing, or at least kind words, from leaders at each stop on his 10-day swing that ended here, where his visit was overshadowed by a new war of words with arch-foe the United States. In Kampala, Khatami was blunt in his criticism of the United States over the war in Iraq and recent hints that Washington may be considering the use of force to compel Teheran to change Middle East and nuclear policies. He warned that Iranians are "strong enough to defend ourselves" and said the American people could not possibly benefit from a war with Iran, especially as it still has its hands full in Iraq. "I think the United States would (be doing) a great job if they tried to put out the fire that has already been lit in Iraq," he said, adding that the US-led invasion had "created fertile ground to breed terrorists."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:40:28 AM ||
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#1
What's most comforting about this is that neither side will honor any aspect of any agreement or declaration.
I wonder WTF Khatami is doing on the road. He's powerless, toothless, inconsequential - ah, *slaps forehead* so that's why KhaleejTimes felt such affinity. Ok, now I get it.
#2
Khatami can campaign as much as he wants to outside Iran, but the Government of the Islamic Republic pf Iran does not have the support of its own people. Students and educated people in the cities have been demonstrating for years against the government. It is ashame that CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and other Major news networks fail to report this or do in depth coverage on it...
As far as the United States taking military action...the US would win, but at a heavy price. The Iranian military is strong, unlike the Non-existent Afghan military and the degraded Iraqi Armed Forces (after 10+ years or embargos and 2 wars). Iran has reverse engineered components for US military equipment, made new purchases from Russia & China, and manufacture their own weaponry.
For Example:
The Iranian Air Force still operates the F-14A Tomcat and other jets & helicopters. During the 1970s (Shah's reign), the US built 2 Helicopter Factories (by Bell Textron), 1 Aircraft Factory (built by Northrop), 1 Major Aircraft Overhaul facility, and many more arms factories that are being used to overhaul, produce, and reverse engineer spares or whole new equipment.
An attack against Iran will unify everyone behind the government under the banner or Patriotism.
The only way to overthrow the government is to isolate economically and politically...and support the elements from within the country to change the government.
Iran is a major $$$ supporter ot terrorism outside its borders...because it is the only country in the world where religious fanatics control a resource rich economy and an entire nation.
It would serve the Iranian people, the Middle East, and the world to remove the government by means of internal revolution supported by democracies...see Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's recent interview with the TELEGRAPH.
Yemen will soon put on trial 826 extremists, including 26 suspected members of the Al Qaeda terror network, a judicial source said on Friday. The trials, to start after the current Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, will involve "26 suspected Al Qaeda members, including two extradited by Saudi Arabia and one by Kuwait late last year," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity.
The suspects "have links with those accused of bombing the (French supertanker) Limburg (in October 2002) and with other terrorist attacks which took place in Yemen over the past two years," the source said. The 800 other suspects, who will be tried "in batches," are members of the Faithful Youth organization, which was headed by a Yemeni rebel preacher killed by the army last September, according to the same source. The Yemeni government announced last September that the army had killed Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, nearly three months after he started a rebellion in the country's mountainous northwest, near the border with Saudi Arabia, triggering clashes which left more than 400 people dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:37:02 AM ||
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The 800 other suspects, who will be tried âin batches,â are members of the Faithful Youth organization, which was headed by a Yemeni rebel preacher killed by the army last September, according to the same source.
Lol! Since these Yemeni Boy Scouts were rebelling against the Yemenis, they'll get whacked - no revolving door without heavyweight repentance.
Now the 26 AlQ types, well, the "judge" will prolly find something untoward in how they were arrested, handled, the charges, or the time of day. It's a complex matter, and only Yemeni Jurisprudence Experts can fathom it.
Amid scenes of wild jubilation, the head of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) arrived Saturday in the new provisional capital of southern Sudan for the first time since signing historic peace deal.
Several thousand people were packed into the town's Freedom Square to welcome John Garang on his return, while along the route dozens of bulls were offered to him as gifts by the population. Garang, set to be named as Sudan's new vice president,
... and then to be assassinated...
will install in Rumbek a transitional administration which will take charge of the region after the Khartoum government and his rebels signed a final peace accord in January in Kenya. The agreement ended Africa's longest-running civil war, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million people displaced four million more in 21 years of conflict between the Muslim-dominated government and the mainly Christian south. As Garang arrived at the town's landing strip, locals slaughtered a white bull in a traditional welcome and Garang, in line with the regional custom, stepped over the blood that spouted out onto the tarmac. Hundreds of supporters were at the airstrip as he landed, chanting slogans in favour of the peace deal and waving the multicoloured flag of the south as children danced to the music of drums and other traditional instruments.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:29:45 AM ||
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A top North Korean official has told US legislators that the communist state possessed nuclear weapons, Radio Free Asia reported on Friday. North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said the country was a nuclear weapons state but its nuclear arsenal was defensive in nature and Pyongyang did not intend to possess it forever, Radio Free Asia quoted US Rep. Curt Weldon as saying. Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania, led a six-member congressional delegation to North Korea last week and met with its senior officials. North Korea aimed to denuclearise itself and it was willing to move toward that end in a transparent manner, Weldon quoted the North's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun as saying. "The president of the country said that he foresaw the day when America and North Korea would be friends," Weldon was quoted as telling a forum in Washington last week about his meeting with the North's number-two official and president of its assembly, Kim Yong-nam.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:28:29 AM ||
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#1
I have a feeling the Norks are shooting for a junta government, that leaves their current leaders, with one notable exception, in power. Their serious, and not neccessarily unreasonable, assumption would be that the Skors would gleefully hang most of them from lightpoles. So they would probably prefer to evolve an increasingly close relationship with China, minus that one irritant, and again, evolve a more Chinese-style open market. Right now, Chinese consumer goods are achingly close to Norkland, and their leaders are itching to try out a Big Mac and a pair of Gucci loafers, once you-know-who is wearing concrete galoshes.
#5
Somebody drop leaflets stating the person(s) to kill Kimmy will be provided with free steaks for the rest of their lives. Or better yet, just offer them Micheal Moores grocery list for one month.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/22/2005 11:41
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#6
Every time I see a headline about North Korea a smile starts to form. Then I click the link, and yes, there's my favorite graphic of Kimmy.
A bomb blast blew up a railway track here early on Saturday, disrupting train services in Pakistan's insurgency-wracked southwestern province of Baluchistan but causing no injuries, officials said. "A powerful bomb ripped about four feet (more than a meter) long track at a level crossing here," provincial home minister Shoaib Nausherwani told AFP.
The minister blamed the attack on "terrorists" who wanted to create unrest in the province by resorting to rocket and bomb attacks. "They are terrorists, they took advantage of Eid holidays and planted bomb on the main track to cause hardships for the people," he said. The three-day Eid al-Adha festivities started in Pakistan on Friday. Railways authorities said the bomb was placed at a level crossing near the city's university area. The device went off at about 6:00 am (0100 GMT), deputy controller of Pakistan Railways, Ghulam Rasool, said. The blast occured only half an hour before a passenger train was to arrive in Quetta from the southern port city of Karachi, he said.
Kim Jong Il coming to visit, was he?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:27:14 AM ||
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"They wouldn't be allowed to win, of course, but they can run..."
Iran's legislative watchdog said on Saturday women could run in June's presidential election, clearing up an ambiguous article of the constitution. Iran's constitution says that candidates should be political "rejal", an Arabic word for men. But Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the conservative Guardian Council, said the word could also refer to women. "Women who have the necessary qualifications have the right to run in the presidential elections," he told state television. June's poll is expected to end Iran's reform movement, with conservatives tipped to extend their grasp on power to the presidency after taking control of parliament in May. Iran's 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has repeatedly said she has no intention of running for the presidency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:26:08 AM ||
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That should set some turbans spinning in SA.
If we weren't caught in the middle, watching the Sauds and Iranians go at each other would be fun.
A female Iranian president making the hajj. Head of State to the funerals.
#2
They *could* be approved to be candidates by the Guardian Council, if they were conservative enough. But Iranian women who are conservative enough know their place and wouldn't *want* to run for office. By asking to run for office, it would *prove* that they are not conservative enough.
Calling for more Press freedom for a balanced and non-partisan media, senior Arab journalists have cautioned governments against taking them lightly. "Arab societies have to admit that they are influenced only by the superficial things in the civil societies of the West, not by more substantial developments there, Ahmed Abdul Aziz Al Jarallah, Editor-in-Chief of As Siyassah newspaper, Kuwait, told your favourite No. 1 newspaper on the sidelines of a recent conference on "Arab Media in the Information Age."
"There is a lot of talk in this part of the world about the values of freedom, democracy and political and economic reforms," the outspoken Jarallah said. "Nevertheless, they are just words, since the values we speak about are Western and do not exist in our culture. If we compare the conditions of our societies with those of Western societies, we often cannot claim that we have democracy or democrats or elected governments. Democracy in the Arab world is still only nominal. Freedom is very limited and most Arab governments have come to power in other ways than general elections. To conclude, the Arab media as a product of civil society is non-existent."
He said that even though this assessment cannot be generalised for the whole Arab media, it is substantially true for most. "We need a long time to be able to remove the impact of Arab governments on the media." Hazim Saghiya, Editor and columnist of Al Hayyat, said that the association of Arab capitalism with a political regime has in many cases blocked any investment in a free, independent and market-oriented Press. "At the same time, the decline in the middle classes of the Arab countries has deprived the Press of the ability to survive and expand in order to influence the shaping of the public opinion in these countries." Saghiya added that the absence of an independent sphere had narrowed the freedom of action of the Press.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:20:51 AM ||
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The lasting impact of Bush's words cannot be underestimated. Let the naysayers of democracy and freedom prattle on and give Bush's words all the negative publicity they want. No such thing as negative publicity - as I always say - this discussion's on a roll
Insurgents in Iraq released eight Chinese labourers they had taken hostage and threatened to kill, as guerrillas attacked more Shiite targets ahead of Jan. 30 elections. A video tape produced by the insurgents and seen by Reuters correspondents showed the Chinese standing or kneeling in two rows in the desert, holding their passports open for the camera. A man with his face covered by a traditional chequered headdress then shook hands with each of the hostages before they walked off camera. China's embassy in Baghdad later confirmed the eight had been released, China's official Xinhua news agency said. On Tuesday, the guerrilla group holding the men said it would kill them within 48 hours unless Beijing -- which opposed the war in Iraq -- explained why they were in the country.
Guerrillas fighting US-led troops and Iraq's American-backed government have kidnapped more than 100 foreigners over the past year. Around a third have been killed. They are also waging a campaign of suicide attacks and ambushes ahead of Iraq's Jan. 30 elections, targeting Iraqi security forces, Shiite groups and election officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:19:41 AM ||
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"You better let 'em go, dumb-arse... where do you think we get all our best stuff?!"
The weather is looking distinctly Not Good for tomorrow today, but what the hey, I don't feel like staying home.
For those of you still coming, DC has invoked its snow emergency rules and there is no street parking on 7th or H; I recommend you park in a nearby garage or (like me) park in a Metro garage and take the train in. Let someone else do the shoveling!
Here are Metro's preparations for this weekend: Metrorail will operate on a normal Saturday schedule, with service from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m.; all trains will operate with four cars; (Note: Metrorail will maintain its normal Saturday schedule as long as conditions are favorable. Service plans could change depending on weather conditions throughout the day)
Metro can move trains in the snow without any problems until the snowfall accumulation reaches eight inches or more at which time the depth of snow starts to interfere with the electronic components under the trains. In the past, during the blizzards of 1996 and 2003, major snowfalls in excess of eight inches of snow caused extensive railcar damage...
...If the Washington metropolitan area faces a major winter storm where snowfall is expected to reach eight inches or above, Metro will operate underground rail service only at 30-minute intervals. This will help Metrorail service to return to normal as quickly as possible. Under this plan, Metrorail service would operate as follows:
Red Line: between Medical Center and Union Station
Orange Line: between Ballston-MU and Stadium Armory
Green Line: between Georgia Ave-Petworth and Congress Heights
Yellow Line: between Pentagon and Crystal City Blue Line: between Rosslyn and Stadium Armory which parallels a portion of the Orange Line
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/22/2005 2:24
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UPDATE...INCREASINGLY CONCERN ABT PRECIP TYPE FCST WHERE FZRA HAS
BEEN REPORTED AT ELKINS AND PKB WV. ONLY MODEL DOING THE BEST JOB IS
06Z 12KM ETA WHERE SHOWS FZRA THAT FAR NORTH. WILL MONITOR PRECIP
TRENDS VERY CLOSELY THIS MORNING AND AWAIT 12Z SOUNDING BEFORE
MAKING DRASTIC PRECIP TYPE CHANGES TO FCST. ETA SUGGEST AS DEEP
RH/OMEGA EXITS THE AREA AFTER 21Z AND AROUND 00Z ACROSS ERN COUNTIES LACK OF ICE CRYSTALS AND WEAK FORCING SUGGEST A PERIOD OF FZDZ THIS
EVENING UNTIL SFC WINDS SHIFT TO THE NW. GIVEN RELATIVE SHORT
DURATION OF EVENT SN TOTALS LIKELY TO BE NEAR THE LOWER END OF THE
FCST.
BTW: Ensemble was built at FSU.
PREVIOUS AFD...
.SHORT TERM (TODAY-TONIGHT)
.TODAY...DESPITE BEING SO CLOSE TO EVENT FCST REMAINS QUITE
CHALLENGING ESPECIALLY REGARDING PRECIP TYPE. MODEL GUIDANCE HAS
TRENDED STRONGER WITH FEATURES SFC/ALOFT. MID-LVL TROUGH DEEPENS AS
IS IT SWINGS SEWD CLOSING OFF A H5 CENTER OFF THE NJ COAST BY 12Z
SUN. AT THE SFC...BASED ON 22/00Z GFS ENSEMBLE MEANS LOW PRES OVR
WRN IL EARLY THIS MORNING FCST TO TRACK EWD ALG THE OH RIVER THEN
ACROSS THE SRN HALF OUR FCST AREA REFORMING OVR THE SRN BAY AND
DEEPENING QUICKLY SOUTH OF LONG ISLAND ON SUN. 00Z ENSEMBLE DATA
STILL REVEALS CONSIDERABLY AMT OF UNCERTAINTY WITH SFC LOW TRACK
INDICATING POSSIBLE TRACKS AS FAR NORTH AS DC AND AS FAR SOUTH AS
NRN NORTH CAROLINA. EVENTUAL TRACK OF SFC LOW WOULD DICTATE HOW FAR
NORTH DOES SLEET/FZRA GETS. HAVE TO SAY THAT HOW FAST DOES WARMER
AIR ARRIVES ALOFT AND HOW FAR NORTH IT GETS STILL REMAINS VERY
UNCERTAIN. BASED ON HPC WWE GRAPHICS HAVE BROUGHT IT A CHANCE OF
SLEET AS FAR NORTH AS DC ALTHOUGH MOST OF THE PRECIP WILL FALL AS
SNOW. HIGH CONFIDENCE IN THE SOUTH FOR A QUICK CHANGEOVER TO
FZRA/PL. THEREFORE...CUT DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY IN SNOW ATMS FROM
PREVIOUS FCST. ALTHOUGH THIS WILL BE A SIG SNOW EVENT FOR THE REST
OF THE AREA CONFIDENCE IN AMTS CLOSE TO 10 INS OR HIGHER REMAINS
VERY LOW GIVEN TRACK OF H85 LOW IS ACROSS SRN PA AND PRECIP DURATION
LOOKS LIKE MAINLY TO BE 6-12 HRS AS PRECIP IS FCST TO EXIT THE AREA
QUICKLY AFTER 00Z SUN. THINK OUR SNOW TOTALS WILL BE CLOSER TO OUR
LOWER END OF THE FCST. THE ONLY THING THAT LOOKS CERTAIN IS THAT
COLD AIR WILL HOLD AT THE SFC WITH STRONG WEDGE IN PLACE AND VERY
COLD SFC TEMPS.
#13
Worked all night; got to bed at 7 this morning. I have to go back this afternoon, but Dottie said to call her after 2 for the time, so I'll be joining in the toast from home. :-D
Sea, I'll call you shortly for a number.
I didn't get the chance to check back yesterday - does anyone know if Aris answered my question? Is he willing to join us? Just curious.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2005 13:03
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#14
No, I don't believe he ever answered it. Somehow I get the impression he's not what we would call a "people person".
Here's wishing for a good turnout despite the shitty weather, and I'll be joining in at 2pm with a toast here in my nice, snug, warm abode. Cheers, all!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/22/2005 13:13
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#15
Cheers, all!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/22/2005 14:09
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#16
Thanks for the call, Jackass, so I could join in the fun. Hope I looked good in the picture with the President Bush life-size cut-out. ;-p
For those of you not there or on the phone, we toasted Rantburg, the President, America ("God Bless America"), and Ronald Reagan (he rolled the darkness back).
Feel free to lift your glasses to any or all of these toasts. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do just that - again.
Back to work. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2005 14:16
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#17
Its a little late, but am thinking of you all. Thanks for the report, Barbara -- I raise a glass to all those toasts, to our boys and girls overseas and at home who keep us safe, and especially to all of you, who are helping keep me as sane as can be expected. Bless them and you all!
Al-Jizzles interviews the Muslim innalekshul in the street with predictable results...
George Bush's pledge to spread liberty around the globe has earned a frosty reception in the Arab world, with observers dismissing as hollow rhetoric his insistence on promoting freedom.
"Nope. Nope. We don't want none o' that stuff!"
On Friday analysts warned that the US president's ambition to promote democracy would only be regarded with suspicion in the Middle East so long as Iraq is plagued by violence after the US-led invasion.
"Yeah. Ain't nobody can be free until the U.S. is out of Iraq and the fascists can kill anybody they want again. Now that's freedom, by Gum!"
An Arab professor of political science drew parallels between the words of Bush and Usama bin Ladin, saying the president had made the word freedom banal in the same way as the al-Qaida leader had the word jihad. "The two men have both invoked their favourite concepts without ever putting them into practice," Assad Abu Khalil, who works in the United States, told Aljazeera.
Wouldn't it be nice if Arabs and Moose limbs swarmed to the banner of liberty the way the love to do to the banner of jihad? Wouldn't it be loverly if they rounded up those who opposed liberty and human dignity and chopped their heads off? Wouldn't it be wonderful if they blew up the mosques and the homes and the cars of those who want to grind their fellow men into the dust?
Simplistic solutions
He said Bush's notion of freedom as the solution is just as simplistic as the belief of Islamists that Islam is the solution in a region largely ruled by totalitarian regimes that reject religious extremism. "By wanting to explain all through freedom, Bush ends up explaining nothing. We need to see how the idea of liberty can be translated into effective policies," he said. "The export of democracy is in no way a military operation."
Sure it is, when it needs to be. Arabs and Moose limbs spend hours wailing about how the region is largely ruled by totalitarian regimes. Liberty is the exact, 180-degree opposite of totalitarianism. How can it not be the solution to the problem? And if oppressed peoples can't throw off the yoke of dictatorship, and we help them do it, what's wrong with that? We're doing you a favor, Assad, but you can't accept it as such. Instead, you leave your goat farm in the Olde Countrie and head off the the liberty of the U.S.A. to bitch.
In a speech marking his inauguration on Thursday to a second, four-year term, Bush said the United States would support the growth of democracy "with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world".
There go those totalitarian regimes that largely rule...
"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
That's because the part of the world that's largely ruled by totalitarian regimes or under attack by would-be totalitarian regimes wants to export its problems to the civilized world.
He did not name any countries specifically not even Iraq - but Vice-President Dick Cheney told US media that Iran was "right at the top of the list" of trouble spots.
Kinda went without saying, since we're banging Bad Guyz there every day...
Reform
Critics say he has yet to put any real pressure on US-friendly Arab states to reform and Washington's support for Israel at the expense of the Palestinians has further shredded his credibility in Arab eyes.
Yeah, there's always Israel, isn't there? Can't have a free society in an area of the world that's largely ruled by totalitarian regimes, can we? And every time the U.S. does put real pressure on those regimes to reform, the people like Assad are busy hopping up and down and rolling their eyes and demanding they be left alone like Iraq was defended before we went in and threw Sammy out. Make up your minds: do you want pressure on the totalitarian regimes or not? It sounds like you're giving a lot of lip service and it looks like you're not lifting many fingers to help alleviate the problem.
"We don't see any credible handling of despotic regimes in the Arab region," said Egyptian political analyst Muhammad al-Sayid Said. "There are people in the region who are his own dictators working for him."
I'd say giving Sammy the toss was a pretty credible handling of a despotic regime. There are others that people like Muhammad are more than willing to defend, like Baby Assad and the ayatollahs. It's fun to speak hypothetically, without naming a specific despotic regime you want handled credibly, but we're probably open to suggestions if you can come up with someone more deserving of deposition than the two regimes currently at the top of our list.
"I'm expecting US pressure on friendly dictators, even if they cannot do anything with some of their foes. They could demand a timetable for democratisation," Egyptian civil rights activist Saadiddin Ibrahim added.
Like in Egypt? Without demanding, without grasping their own liberty, I guess Egyptians will have to wait until we get around to deposting their despotic regime. We're trying to do it nicely, behind the scenes, but once we're done with Syria and Iran, the Land of the Nile's going to look like it might need some attention.
Bush had disappointed by not pushing US allies such as Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia to pursue democratic reform, said Ibrahim, who is making a symbolic bid for the Egyptian presidency this year. "One simple test would be to stop inviting despotic leaders to Washington," he said. "Use aid, trade and technology as peaceful pressure on these regimes to bring about the required democratic change," he said.
Seen Assad in Washington recently? Seen any ayatollahs there? Let's face it, compared to those two, Egypt and Tunisia are pretty pleasant places.
Liberty
Egyptian writer and analyst Abd al-Karim al-Karimi said Bush's lavish "coronation ceremony" was a throwback to the colonial era and lambasted the president's address for promoting "democracy without content".
He wasn't crowned, like Egyptian kings used to be. He was elected. There was a certain amount of pomp and circumstance involved with his inauguration, but that's the way we do it. Look on the bright side: he didn't have his predecessor shot or chased out of the country. There weren't any corpses involved in the transfer of power, just a few defaced yard signs.
"All the world talks about liberty, but what liberty is it? What is the meaning of the democracy and the political liberties that the United States wants to impose in the Middle East? Bush does not say," he told Egyptian television.
You're not paying attention. Individual liberty involves the right of the citizen to be left alone except when his actions have a negative effect on other citizens. That means no one can tell an American what to say, no one can tell him what religion to practice, no one can tell him how to vote, no one can take his property away from him without due process of law. It means having a government that governs, rather than rules. It means, in the words of Huey Long, that every man is a king. We have no peasantry, we have no serfs, and we have no slaves. We bow to no man. Contrast that with what you've got now, Muhammad. I know you could live like that, but the common folk couldn't handle it, right?
For Iraqi analyst Abd al-Hussain Shaaban the US administration has lost its credibility to promote democracy after launching an invasion of Iraq that two years on has left the country lacking the most basic security. "The United States is closing its eyes towards dictators who serve its own interests but attacks those that damage it," he added, in a reference to key US ally Saudi Arabia. "The fact that Iraq is in chaos and under military occupation does not bode well for democracy coming to the country and to the Middle East."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
9:00:47 PM ||
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Like a cobra is wary of a mongoose? Or like a deranged mental patient is wary of the shrink with his meds? The days of insanity are numbered, one way or another. You can shitcan the SOP Muslim apologia recitation - Allan missed this call, he never counted on Dubya. Happy Eid, asshats.
#3
From above: WS) Since we can't reproduce Ronald Reagan himself, what practical lessons from him can we apply today to achieve a similar effect?
NS) Linkage. This is the most important thing Reagan did. He established the pattern and insisted upon compliance. It worked to bring down the greatest, most totalitarian empire in all history. It can surely work today against enemies no less dangerous but far less powerful. But linkage takes both courage and moral clarity. Reagan's great strength was his optimistic faith in freedom and that every human being deserved freedom and that this freedom is a force that can liberate and empower and enrich and ennoble.
I'd wager that Sharansky saw a draft of the speech, and commented on it.
#4
"The fact that Iraq is in chaos and under military occupation does not bode well for democracy coming to the country and to the Middle East."
That does he thinks will happen to the Arabs if the rest of the world (including their Euro friends) decides that Arabs cannot be reformed, and remain a danger to everybody else as long as they exist?
The planning of Bush's second inaugural address began a few days after the Nov. 2 election with the president telling advisers he wanted a speech about "freedom" and "liberty." That led to the broadly ambitious speech that has ignited a vigorous debate. The process included consultation with a number of outside experts, Kristol among them.
One meeting, arranged by Peter Wehner, director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, included military historian Victor Davis Hanson, columnist Charles Krauthammer and Yale professor John Lewis Gaddis, according to one Republican close to the White House. White House senior adviser Karl Rove attended, according to one source, but mostly listened to what became a lively exchange over U.S. policy and the fight for liberty.
Gaddis caught the attention of White House officials with an article in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs magazine that seems to belie the popular perception that this White House does not consult its critics.
Gaddis's article is, at times, strongly critical of Bush's first-term foreign policy calculations, especially what he calls the twin failures to anticipate international resistance to Bush's ideas and Iraqi resistance to peace after the fall of Baghdad. But the article also raises the possibility that Bush's grand vision of spreading democracy could prove successful, and perhaps historic, if the right choices are made in the years ahead.
The former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky also helped shape the speech with his book about the hopes of democratic dissidents jailed by despots around the world. Bush recommended the book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," to several aides and invited Sharansky, now an Israeli politician, to the White House in mid-November to discuss it, according to one official.
Palestinian security forces took up positions across the northern Gaza Strip with orders to prevent attacks by militants, winning plaudits for new leader Mahmud Abbas from Israel. As Abbas continued his efforts to persuade militant factions to call a halt to violence, hundreds of police and members of other security services deployed in areas that have been both the launch pad and scene of attacks. Armed members of the national security force inspected vehicles at checkpoints set up by the main Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza in the north and by the Karni border terminal further south, an AFP correspondent reported.
Israel temporarily severed contacts with the Palestinian Authority a week ago in the aftermath of a suicide attack at Karni which killed six Israelis, an event that cast a huge shadow over Abbas's inauguration on Saturday. However, contacts were resumed on the security level last Wednesday, leading to an agreement for around 2,500 security forces to be deployed across the territory. Large numbers of jeeps containing security forces in dark blue uniforms and red berets could be seen on patrol throughout the north on Friday. A statement from Abbas' office said that while the first batch of forces were being sent to northern Gaza, more would fan out across the territory over the weekend. Security officials have said that anyone suspected of trying to carry out an attack against Israel will be arrested, although Abbas has vowed to avoid any descent into "civil war."
Wonder where they got the colored guy? He doesn't look Paleostinian to me...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
8:50:38 PM ||
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Security officials have said that anyone suspected of trying to carry out an attack against Israel will be arrested, although Abbas has vowed to avoid any descent into "civil war."
...and after a short interval, the suspect will then be released.
#2
I'm actually a wee bit impressed. Abbas is consolidating power and it appears that there is a chance that they won't fall into total disarray or civil war. I know - the hudna just allows them to rearm - but certainly he's done more than I expected in terms of cooperation between the competing power groups.
He's hands-on, detail-oriented and hates 'yes' men. The George Bush you don't know has big dreams—and is racing the clock to realize them.
Jan. 24 issue - It was time to clean out his cabinet. The top jobs in his administration, President Bush decided last fall, had left people burned out and too beholden to the perks of high office. Besides, he was planning a big new agenda for his second term and wanted fresh legs to power it through. When asked how many cabinet officials he would fire, Bush told one close friend: "Basically everybody." The official story was that many of the cabinet officials were ready to move on; members would volunteer their own resignations. But as the election neared, several began to waver; it became clear they'd need to be shown the door. Other presidents might leave the tough stuff to subordinates, but Bush wanted to do the job himself. When it came time to say farewell, the exchanges in the Oval Office were surprisingly emotional. "They were shocked and really hurt, and that hurt him," says one confidant.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was one of the walking wounded. A former governor like Bush, he'd toiled on the president's first White House campaign and considered himself a friend. Thompson talked openly of moving to the private sector after 40 years in public life. Yet behind the scenes he also floated the idea of staying around as head of Homeland Security. Early in the new year, three weeks after Bernard Kerik's nomination had fallen apart, Thompson traveled to the Oval Office for one final chat as a cabinet member. Thompson grew tearful, saying he'd always be there for Bush, and hinted one more time that he would jump at the chance to stay on. But Bush stuck to his plan, and said goodbye. "There are strong emotions from the president and strong emotions from the people who are leaving," says White House chief of staff Andrew Card. "But he's looking for a new term and changes. Agents of change frequently are new people."
[...]
Another popular misperception: that Bush doesn't read. Aides describe numerous debates inside the Oval Office, where the president digs deep into his briefing books. "I've seen it time and time again," says Rove. "We all get the briefing papers the night before, we've all read them, and he'll inevitably have thought about three steps ahead of anyone in the room." And he's not just poring over white papers. Friends and aides speak of his passion for novels, including Mark Mills's "Amagansett" (a murder mystery set in postwar Long Island), and Tom Wolfe's racy college tale "I Am Charlotte Simmons." Bush has also adopted Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy" as his own manifesto in the Middle East—a tome he recommends to all comers in the Oval Office.
Aha!
Judging from the press coverage of his new cabinet, you'd think Bush's guiding principle was to put yes men in positions of power. But Bush draws a sharp line between people who can get things done, and those who simply agree with anything he says. His style in policy briefings is to narrow the debate with a series of questions, crystallizing the competing opinions and exploring the disagreements between his staff. Those debates also require a rare quality in Washington—the self-discipline of his staff to keep their disputes behind closed doors. With the notable exception of his foreign-policy team, Bush has succeeded in staunching the leaks that plagued his predecessors—leaving the impression that there are no arguments within the White House walls. "People seem to be fascinated by this administration in that people don't walk out the door after losing an argument and complain about it," says Nick Calio, Bush's former congressional liaison. "Just because nobody complains publicly about losing an argument doesn't mean they haven't disagreed with him." (That discipline will be harder to maintain as Bush steams toward lame-duck status.)
To hear his friends tell it, Bush hates toadies, and loves to mock sycophantic remarks with his trademark reply: "My, Mr. President, that's a nice-looking tie you're wearing today." "If anyone is too much of a suck-up, the president is the first one to call them on it," says Card. "That's not a label you want to have in a meeting, because then he discounts everything you're saying." Flying back to Washington after his second TV debate against John Kerry, Bush asked his strategist Matt Dowd for an honest assessment of the first showdown. "It wasn't your finest hour," said Dowd. "What do you mean?" Bush shot back. "You got your a-- kicked," Dowd explained. Bush frog-marched his aide through Air Force One, repeating Dowd's assessment. "He said I got my a-- kicked," Bush told his staff. "And you all said I won."
Don't tell them you have a brain! They're supposed to misunderestimate you!
There's more, including hints that Rumsfeld may be asked to resign in the future.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/22/2005
8:14:03 PM ||
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Frankly, I don't read Newsweak because it basically takes a preset position and attempts to build a totally fabricated story around it that is after refuted.
I get more satisfaction from writers better schooled in fictional writing.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 20:41
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Activists are getting bolder in a campaign of vandalising adverts that display naked flesh. Billboard adverts featuring partial nudity are being defaced by Muslim activists who are offended by displays of flesh. The advertising watchdog has confirmed that increasing numbers of posters are being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas. A website giving advice on how to vandalise billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).
The campaign has gathered momentum since the Advertising Standards Authority banned an underwear advert from being sited near mosques. Advertisements for perfume, hair dye, bras and television programmes are among those that have been attacked. Photographs of semi-dressed women are the most frequently targeted, with the offending body parts painted over or ripped off.
A poster advertising the Channel 4 programme Desperate Housewives is the most recent target; the images of two scantily-clad actresses have been torn from an East London billboard but three fully-dressed characters were left intact. Adverts bearing Dove's "Real Women" adverts — six ordinary women pictured in their underwear — were painted over at several locations last year.
MAAD, based in Birmingham, gives an index of defaced adverts in the city, including Levi's, Wonderbra, PaddyPower, a radio station and a strip club. It says on its website that it believes in "direct action" and "has paint and isn't afraid to use it", adding: "There is no longer any need to cringe as you walk past a sleazy poster, we'll improve it." Advice on how to attack posters is also given:
"The procedures outlined here are based on our six months' experience of executing poster attacks professionally, safely and without injury or arrest. A paint roller, a blithe spirit and a balmy night are all you really need. After choosing your board, be sure to inspect it both during the day and at night. Take note of all activities in the area. Who is about at 2am? How visible will you be? Bring a camera — it's a good cover for doing anything you're not supposed to. Check your escape routes. For work on larger boards we recommend walkie-talkies . . . the ground crew should monitor oncoming traffic and maintain radio contact with the lookout on the board."
The ASA told Triumph to remove its advert for Sloggi thongs from a billboard near a mosque in Bury, after complaints and a petition. One Muslim reportedly complained that it was "insulting" and constituted "environmental pollution". An advert for hair dye, which showed a woman peering into her bikini bottoms, was painted over by Muslims in Luton. A spokesman said the poster would be "extremely offensive" to a Muslim man if he passed it on his way to prayers.
Another Luton billboard for Marks & Spencer, showing the back of a naked woman, was also defaced. And a poster in Bradford, featuring the tennis player Anna Kournikova modelling a sports bra, was covered with paint. An Advertising Standards Authority spokeswoman said:
"There do seem to be more incidents. It's a criminal offence and private property is being defaced . . . it happens in a lot of Muslim areas such as Luton, Bradford, Glasgow and Birmingham. We encourage people to contact us and make their complaints known, then we can go through the proper channels in getting an advert taken down if it's offensive. One area we're concerned about is causing religious offence — the use of religious imagery and also being sensitive to location. If something is offensive in a particular area then the company will normally take it down. We're getting more and more complaints about the inappropriate location of adverts, outside schools or places of worship."
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said the ASA's code of practice made it clear that companies should be sensitive to the location of certain adverts. He said: "We don't condone posters being defaced and would always encourage Muslims to raise their concerns with the ASA, so that it is made aware of the strength of feeling. Defacing adverts is akin to hooliganism." A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Defacing a poster is a criminal offence but would be dealt with by us only if someone was caught in the act."
ADVERTS ATTRACT NAKED DISLIKE
# PlayStation 2 computer game, America's 10 Most Wanted, showed a photo of Osama bin Laden next to the words "Go Get 'Em"
# Elida Faberge hair dye pictured a woman looking inside her bikini bottoms and the words: "Keeps hair colour so long you'll forget your natural one"
# Lastminute.com advert showed a photo of a woman's breasts sprinkled with sand as she lay in dunes and the words "enjoy every lastminute.com". Complaint upheld this week by ASA
# Vodka poster depicting a semi-naked woman was sited near a Bolton mosque. Muslim leaders said the siting was "insensitive"
# Publicity posters for the BBC television programme Babyfather, which showed four naked men standing under a shower with their backs to the camera, were daubed with red paint
Posted by: kam ||
01/22/2005
7:34:37 AM ||
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PlayStation 2 computer game, Americaâs 10 Most Wanted, showed a photo of Osama bin Laden next to the words âGo Get âEmâ
Was he naked in it? Or what really offended them about it?
#3
What are they going to do when they start on Amsterdam? How about the Red District? The sex shops? Marijuana Houses? Muslims have a lot of work to do there. What stupid people these Muslims are!
#4
The obvious solution is to hire thugs to attack the vandals. A group of businessmen on a street take out a little "insurance" with the local toughs, sort of as private security guards. If properly done, the toughs act like beat cops, except whenever any troublemaker starts something, they mosey him into a dark alley and beat seven bells out of him. It takes remarkably little of this before the vandals know which neighborhoods *not* to create trouble in. It also radically lowers other types of crime and generally improves the quality of life for the residents. To spread the message, the businessmen can actually put out "bait" posters, to draw in the first few suckers when their enforcers are rarin' to go.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 15:02
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These guys aren't going to stop until everything is done their way. Makes me wonder why the phuque they bothered to leave their home countries in the first damned place.
Rummaging in the dirt, Costas Kakoseos pulls up pieces of history steeped in legend.
It is an archaeological site dubbed "Hercules' House" — the place, experts say, that the ancient Greeks may have held to be the mythological hero's birthplace.
Thebes, an unattractive town about 70 kilometers (about 45 miles) north of Athens, stands on a spectacular buried heritage. The latest excavation, begun last February, revealed the remains of an altar and ancient dwellings used for more than 3,000 years.
Vassilis Aravantinos, head of the regional archaeological service, said finds on the site tally with descriptions by the poet Pindar some 2,500 years ago of a shrine to Hercules built on his legendary birthplace.
"We had waited for many years for this discovery but it never came... These findings support the ancient writings," Aravantinos said. "There are signs of worship of Hercules."
Small bronze figures, including one showing Hercules grappling with a lion — both characters standing as if posing for a photograph — are a key piece of evidence.
While shaking soil through a mesh-bottomed crate, Kakoseos throws clay chips — fragments of ancient pots — into a plastic bag. A few are put aside and marked with labels for special attention.
"We're still finding beads, bones and coins. There are so many, you can't imagine," said Kakoseos, who performs much of the labor.
The illegitimate son of almighty Zeus, Hercules was best known for the 12 labors imposed on him by the gods, including slaying a lion and a nine-headed serpent.
With most of the 335-square-meter site explored, archaeologists have recovered several hundred ceramic vessels, small bronze statues, animal bones, and a thick layer of ash created from burning animals sacrificed to the gods. Objects discovered date from the third millennium BC to the late Byzantine era. The dig and the findings began when construction workers were moving earth to build a hotel.
Hotel construction has been suspended indefinitely. Development in this ancient town comes with the risk of finding more history in the foundations.
"Every bit of earth that is moved, we take a look at," said Aravantinos, whose archaeological service is currently excavating half a dozen Theban sites. "We have to."
He said the latest discovery was long sought by archaeologists because of the legends about Hercules' birthplace.
Other finds are still being pieced together at a small workshop beside Thebes' tiny museum, where cats roam around ancient marble statues in the courtyard and the inside rooms are packed with some of the finest artifacts in Greece. Restorers, dressed and equipped like dentists, repair the statuettes and assemble vases and other pottery from an enormous array of fragments. Their room is filled with glued remains in stacked crates, and the tables littered with solvents, scalpels and adhesives.
The discoveries from "Hercules' House" will not be properly displayed until a new museum — still in the planning stage — is built. Archaeologists are still attempting to decipher a strange, circular, ring-like metal object, which the ancient Greeks called a "Chakram", found at the site.
A year ago today Chuck Simmins posted my favorite Rantburg head line: "Soldiers block hole in gushing Chinese dyke" Link to comments only; the story is gone.
Spell checkers can be a bytch.
Are making shadow puppets are prohibited? or simply playing with one's shadow as if it were a pretend person?
Playing with ones shadow is a futile act and prohibited.
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What is sunnah way of wearing turban?
A turban may be worn with a Shimla (tail) or without a Shimla.
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Are ornaments of animals such as dolphins or birds allowed in the house, like a vase, etc?
Picture frames and photographs of animate objects are not permissible to display. .... Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, 'The people with the most severe punishment by Allah will be the picture makers.' Hadhrat Ibn Abbas (RA) narrates, 'I heard the messenger of Allah saying, "Every picture-maker will be in the fire. A life will be created for every picture the picture-maker made, and he will be tortured in Hell."
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What parts of an animate (tasweer) objects is one not allowed to draw. Does it only refer to the eyes or any part of the body. Also, why is it not permissible to draw animate(tasweer) objects.
The entire head cannot be drawn.
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I wish to know whether it is permitted to draw faces? If there is an outline of a drawing (faces/animals faces)and you go over the outline, is it permitted?
We have not come across any specific ruling in this matter. Thus, the safest would be to regard such drawings as Haraam, as is the position with the drawings of all animate objects. However, if the head is totally removed, such drawings will be permissible.
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I also have some nike products from before when i didnt know it was haraam to have them. However, these products do not have the word 'nike' on them, they only have the swoosh logo (which looks like a tick) is it permissible to use these products?
On account of the "tick" being a salient and distinguishing characteristic of "Nike" products, it would be necessary to remove it before wearing any of these products.
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The keeping of statues in museums and other public places?
This is not permissible.
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The keeping of statues as objects of worship confined in places of worship by non-muslim minorities?
This is permissible as long as it is not exposed to the public.
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Did the Taliban go against Shariah by destroying images and statues in Afghanistan?
It was an Islamic duty for the Taliban to have destroyed the statues. This should have been carried out a long time ago.
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Should/can I destroy a large idol of Buhdda that my world religions teacher has placed in my classroom?
The classroom does not belong to you and you do not enjoy control over it either. Hence, you are not responsible for what the teacher places within the confines of the classroom. You are not allowed to destroy the idol in this classroom. We suggest you very politely approach the teacher requesting him to remove or conceal this idol as it offends your religious sentiments.
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Is it permissible to have photos and videos taken of the Jihad that is being fought in Chechnya and place it on the internet for keeping the Muslims informed.
Yes, it is permissible.
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What if one muslim only believes in Allah and his messenger, regularly thinks about Allah, reads namaz, gives zakat, fasts, introduces others to Islam, always talks about Islam to non-muslims about how it is the one and only Religion and passes on Knowledge, influences others to stop doing bad but does not drink or smoke, or or backbite but listens to english or urdu music. Will he/she still have a bad punishment and enter hell? If yes what type of punishment is it?
Listening to Music is a sin. In principle, one should make Tawbah (repent) from the sin. If a person did not make Tawbah, if Allah wills, he will forgive the person or may punish the person. We have not come across any specific punishment on the day of Qiyaamat for the sin of listening to music.
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I come from Indian background and the tradition there is not to cut nails/hair on Tuesdays and Sat? Is this tradition based on any Islamic priniciple ?
We have not come across any Shar'ee reference prohibiting the trimming of nails on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
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Is there any "correct" way of cutting the nails ?? (Starting from the fore-finger etc.)
It has been mentioned that Nabi (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) used to pair his nails on a Thursday, but no sequence has been mentioned. However, many pious people recommend that one should commence with the index finger of the right hand moving towards the small finger, thereafter the small finger of the left hand leading towards the thumb and finishing with the thumb of the right hand. The toe nails, from the small toe of the right leg and complete with the small toe of the left leg.
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Can one shave above the lips and around the beard during the 10 days prior Eid?
Rasulullah is reported to have said "whoever intends offering Qurbaani should not cut his hair". In view of this Hadith, it is Mustahab (preferable) not to cut the hair and nails. However, this should not be regarded as Farz or Wajib. If one does not carry out this, he/she will not be sinful.
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Is it permissible to cut one's nails at night time or is this a superstition I have heard that it is not permissible?
There is no prohibition for clipping nails at night.
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i am 18, i am trying to grow a beard, but my mom thinks im too young and says i don't need to keep it. ... she doesnt like it. am i supposed to keep it anyway, or should i listen to her and shave it because it doesnt look good
For Muslim males to grow a beard is Waajib (compulsory), and to let it grow a fist length is Waajib. Without any Sharie reason to cut or shave is Haraam (totally prohibited). He who does so is a Faasiq (sinner) and to shorten it less than a fist length is Makruh Tahrimi (near Haraam).' You should not obey your mother's wish against the orders of Shari'ah. You should keep a beard and follow the Sunnah of our beloved Rasul (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam).
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I really want to grow a beard but am being pressurised not to by my elder brother, who is very un-islamic. Whenever I merely mention the fact of keeping a beard he bitterly argues with me. I have even thought of moving away from him because of this, but this isn't possible. What do you suggest?
The objection of your brother to keep a beard is not an exception. Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, 'There is no obedience of a creation in the disobedience of the Creator.' We suggest you apply wisdom and diplomacy and start keeping a very small beard.
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if you want to go to jihad do you have to get permisssion from your parents, please explain.
If Jihaad did not reach a situation of Fardh-e-Ayn, then one needs the permission of his parents require his service.
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What is the difference between jinns and devils? Does everyone have a devil/jinn assigned to them? Are all devils locked up in Ramadan?
The Shaytaan who disobeyed Allah and refused to prostrate before Aadam [alayhis salaam] was a Jinn. He is also known as a devil. The Shaytaan has vowed to lead others astray. Those who are influenced by the Shaytaan are also Shaytaans. There are two views regarding the locking up of the Shaytaan during Ramadhan. One view is that all the Shayaateen big and small - are locked up. Rasulullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] said that every person has a Shaytaan with him who endervours to lead the person astray. Allah has also granted every individual the strength and ability to oppose and go against the endervours of Shaytaan.
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Do jinns ever tell us what to do?
Allah Ta'ala tells us in the Qur'aan that He created Jinn and mankind to worship Him. Jinns are created from fire and have been granted strength and power. Jinns, like humans, are of two categories obedient and disobedient.
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can human and jins can become friends is there any dua for this?
It is possible for humans and jinns to be friends. Unfortunately, we do not deal with befriending humans and jinns. However, if one is obedient to Allah, then even jinns respect and honour such a person.
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Modernistic opinion is not to believe in Jinns. Please give valid proof for proving they a separate creation of Allah (swt)?
Jinns are a creation of Allah. He says in the Quran, 'And I have not created the jinns and man but that they worship Me'. .... Allah Ta'ala discusses the incident of the jinns bringing iman on Allah. Not being able to see jinns is not a proof of non-existence just as the existence of U.F.O. (unidentified flying object) cannot be outruled.
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We have a very disturbing situation in our community. There is a person who claims that he has Jinnat in his control. .... Now many people have accepted him as a spiritual leader and go to him for their needs. .... He is getting money from them and if they stop going to him he creates wearisome and trouble for them. I believe this is causing a huge Shirk in the society.
The control of a Jinn does not indicate the religiousness of a person. It is possible for a person to control a Jinn. His unusual activities or miraculous feats does not make him a pious man. Yes, if he is a staunch adherent of the Sunnah, he is a pious man and the miraculous feats he performs are from Allah, otherwise they are from Shaytaan. .... If the people think that he is deceiving them, they should abstain from him and turn to Allah for assistance against the mischief of such miscreants.
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I want to know about the dreams we see. I know dreams are from Allah. Can you tell us how to differentiate which dream is from Allah and which one from Shaitan.
In brief, dreams are of three types, i) Pious dreams, ii) Shaytaani dreams, and, iii) Reflections of the mind. Pious dreams are from Allah and Shaytaani dreams are from the Shaytaan. If one is unable to determine whether the dream is good or bad he should refer to an expert who understand the sciences of interpretations of dreams.
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In my dream the quran shrunk, ayats erased and the pages were ripped to fit the new quran size. My best friend - Hindu died as a result.
It is important that you adhere to all the injunctions of the Quraan. It is not appropriate to act upon some and discard some. Therefore you should seek forgiveness and make a firm commitment to follow all the commands of Shariah and the Sunnah of Muhammed (Sallahu Alyahi Wasalam).
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I have small "Cactus Tree's" in my garden, I am told that I should remove them immediately. The reason for this is the Jews will hide behind these tree's and therefore we should nor grow these trees.
It is not necessary to remove the cactus trees from your garden. The Hadith refers to a thorny tree that will assist the Jews. It does not specify which thorny tree.
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I heard that there will be gold coming out of the river the Euphrates river, is this true?
Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) mentioned that among the signs of Qiyaamat, 'the Euphrates and Tigris will bring up pillars of Gold.' He also advised that people should stay away from that as people will fight for the gold and many people will be killed.
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I live in a US City and a restaurant here gives all its profit for temple. Are we allowed to eat from there?
.. it is not appropriate to eat at the restaurant that is known to give its proceeds to a temple or any un Islamic avenue that is against Deen and Islam. It is because of our support, the forces of Kufr and Shirk will be helped. Their agenda is to destroy Islam and Deen. therefore eating at such a restaurant is assisting in their cause.
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Could we sing national anthem and say the plegde of allegience to the secular state while the flag is being raised up? Our school children are forced to attend national school, and every morning they are forced to sing and make the pledge. Muslims religious ulamas in my country also have to make the pledge during national day. Is it a act of blapshemy?
As Muslims, our pledge of allegiance is only to Allah and His Rasul (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam). However, as Muslims in a non-Muslim state, we are obliged to follow the laws of the country which are not contrary to Shari'ah. The allegiance of pledge by singing the national anthem of a secular state which has many un-Islamic laws, for example, legalising homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, etc. is not permissible.
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My company used to provide me for medical insurance as a benefit for me. .... They now pay 80% of the insurance premium and we pay the remaining 20%. Please Advice if I should stay in or opt out of the program? Is it ok to have comprehensive car insurance in north america or should one have minimum insurance required by law?
According to Shariah, it is not permissible to subscribe to a voluntarily Medical Aid scheme as it contains elements of Interest and Gambling. However, if it is a requirement of the company or the Government, you will be excused from subscribing to the scheme. You state you have an option to opt out, if so it is necessary for you to do so as you will be involved in a haraam transaction. If the car insurance is a government Law, you should subscribe to that plan that entails the minimum insurance.
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I've heard that there'd be no Azab-ul-Khabr, for people who die of stomach ailment. Can I pray to die this way to escape the torment of the grave?
Rasulullah is reported to have said "A person who dies due to stomach ailment will be a Shaheed (martyr)". We have not come across a Hadith that shows he will be saved from the punishments of the grave.
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how do we know the Quran is the word of Allah, and not the prophet's. I know they said he couldn't read or write, but what if he kept it a secret?
Allah Ta'ala says in the Noble Qur'aan, "And man is a big disputer'. In view of the disputant nature of man, it is advisable to apply wisdom and diplomacy in conveying the truth. Lack of wisdom and diplomacy in conveying the truth may have negative consequences, for example, branding truthful ones as causing Fitnah, etc.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005
4:38:43 PM ||
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#1
Ask a Holy Man(TM)! No need to think for yourself when they can do it for you! Call today!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/22/2005 17:13
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#2
"The people with the most severe punishment by Allah will be the picture makers."
Lol! Think Hollyweird is aware of this? I know what it's like to have zero artistic skill, I'm a mechanic, not an artiste', but Little Mo must've really been talentless, lol, not to mention the most petty asshole of all time.
Probably due to this "Allah" issue. Nike caved with abject apologies all around, but they are still considered haram by Islamowhackos. Think corporations learned anything from this ? (Me neither)
why hasn't Fred added commentary?
Who do you think made up the "imam's" answers ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/22/2005 18:44
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#7
He's at the Rantapalooza, playing Nanook of the North, I'd guess.
#9
No wonder these people are so difficult: "God" (excuse me, Allan) forbids playing with shadows and listening to music. God permits being friends with "jinns" and uploading videos of human misery (slaughter of human beings). This would be sad if they were not so doggone violent.
WOW. WOW. WOW. This is about the best case for the war in Iraq I have ever read. And he unabashedly calls for "Total and Complete Victory". WOW.
Hi,
To start with, I wish to congratulate all Muslim people on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.
As I said right at the beginning (of my blogging), the battle with the stubborn peasants opposing change in our country was going to depend on the balance of intimidation as I called it then. The basic error was in allowing this balance to tip in favor of the enemy through inadequate security measures coupled with underestimation of his ability to subvert and cripple civil life. The enemy should be well known by now as being an alliance of former regime elements with the Bin-Ladenists, if we may coin this new term; not to mention the motley assortment of petty criminals and mercenaries. The basic ideas and strategies of this enemy are broadly laid out in that famous Zarqawi document. Unfortunately, his plan has been implemented more or less successfully so far. I have always insisted on the paramount importance of that document, which I believe to be authentic. Careful reading of it could shed much light on what has been going up to the present time. He clearly states that one of the most important elements of his plan is to gain control of the Sunni areas and incite the people therein against the rest and majority of the population namely the Shiaa, the Kurds, Christians etc., thereby creating the conditions that would lead to civil war of the worst kind: religious and sectarian conflict. Thus and in pursuit of this vile scheme, the most heinous barbaric crimes have been committed, especially against the Iraqi people, and I do not think we need to enumerate these.
There is also very little doubt that regional powers are playing an important role in financing and aiding the terrorist campaign in Iraq, as a means of thwarting U.S. and Allied strategies. All what the U.S. is expounding is anathema to these neighboring regimes (and others more far away): Democracy, freedom, standing up for the oppressed, the promotion of more enlightened and open political systems. Moreover; the hostility against these ideas are perfectly understandable from their point of view, since they spell death and doom to social systems based on tyranny, despotism , blind bias, arrogance and prejudice.
Regarding the elections, it is almost evident what is going to happen. Voting will take place mostly in those places that are more or less out of reach of the intimidators, namely, the South and Kurdish North. Unfortunately, much of Baghdad is on the wrong side of line. In fact, this intimidation is working against the interests of secular and moderate political forces, and in favor of the more religiously inclined and intransigent parties, since those likely to favor the former are largely to be found in Baghdad and the major cities. And; if the latter parties gain power, they are not likely to treat the "insurgents" very kindly; so, probably, the intimidators are stupidly digging their own graves.
Moreover, no one should expect that the security situation and strife would somehow improve after the elections; it is more likely to intensify. This is an unfinished war; the Saddamists and their allies have fully regrouped and rearmed and are being very well financed and supported. The brave American people have given President Bush the mandate to finish this war despite the painful sacrifices and material cost. The Iraqi people are up in arms through the political groupings, new army, N.G. and various security forces and are suffering the greater part of the sacrifice. Despite all the snags and faltering, these forces are getting bigger and stronger and should be supported and nurtured until they can bear the full responsibility; this is the only viable "exit strategy" available. In fact, we do not like this phrase, for what is required is a "victory strategy". This war must be fought to the bitter end, and there is only one outcome acceptable both to us and to you: Total and Complete Victory. Anything else is completely unthinkable.
Well, this explains the 25% on tranqs, via Lucianne: IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future. This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale - or rather the lack of it - was made public yesterday in a damning report by France's prefects, the country's top administrators. "The French no longer believe in anything," the report said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more."
#3
I wouldnt take this report seriously. The French kvetching about their decline, pessimism, cynicism et cetera is a daily part of French life. This "report" states nothing new. The intellectuals always seem to fret at the "lost" of France even during its height as a Western Power.
Indeed, a French who isnt pessimistic and cynical isnt a Frenchman.
#4
Ironic. The French are pessimists whose socialist ideology is built on an assumption of the perfectability of man and the Americans are optomists and have a Smithian ideology built on the assumption of man's corruptability.
What is amazing is that it has taken the frogs 200 years to figure out they are wrong. No wonder they are depressed.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 8:10
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It's indeed new and disturbing. The French suicide rate is the highest in Europe, and increasing. It may seem odd to Americans who've been fed distortions by francophiliac MSM journos for years, but the French have a massive inferiority complex and are increasingly convinced of what Rantburgers have long known: their way of life is an anachronism, their influence in Europe is waning and they are unable to cast much weight in a world whose axis of power runs from Washington to Tokyo to Beijing and Delhi.
The French ever think that everying in France including themselves, their wines and their dog shit is the best of the best of the best of the best. In fact, in order to kill a Frenchman you have to shoot above his head, in his superiority complex.
#7
That's a pity. There's much we can adopt from France, notably a better work-life balance, better diets, high-speed rail travel and a greater appreciation for history and for preserving lovely buildings and towns instead of bulldozing them (not even the Manassas/BullRun battlefield can be spared the developers' onslaught, acc to Congress).
The best way to preserve what's best about transatlantic, specifically US-French, cooperation IMHO would be for US thought leaders and diplomats to ignore the aging, 1968er mandarins of Le Monde and the NYT and start to appeal directly to the next generation.
Stress high technology ventures that inspire the young to seek excellence without the blessing and backing of the state. Bring young Frenchmen and women to Silicon Valley and show them the glory of US capitalism and technological brilliance. Let them see for their own eyes the truth, without the distortions and lies peddled by Le Monde and the French elite.
#8
lex, when you bring them to silicon valley, they just turn into another group of immigrants, except that they continue to dump on America and teach their children to also. They are almost the only immigrants whom I have met who come to this country, get rich off it and dump on it. It is part of why I detest them and their country. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. JFM is correct.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 9:29
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A large part of Europe, centered in France, has the odd philosophy of realistic pessimism. The seemingly endless wars that Europe endured for 1500 years drained every spark of optimism and idealism out of them. And their philosophy is far more pervasive then they would admit. If you examine the other half of their philosophy, realism, you see how passionate they are about it: as expressed by Voltaire, with the rejection of religion in public life. Unlike the US, where the realism is based in freedom of religion, and not forcing others to obey your faith; the French emphasis is based on a revulsion and rejection of religion, and forcing others to not express their religion in public. And their pessimism is just as strong. Again, by comparison, the American attitude is "On every day, and in every way, things are getting better and better"; whereas the French version would be, "Times are bad and in slow decline, punctuated by steep drops in quality and a rise in misery." In the long run, it is the way of despair and failure, and France will never amount to much until it swallows a gigantic Prozac, and gets over its depression.
#11
Unlike the US, where the realism is based in freedom of religion, and not forcing others to obey your faith; the French emphasis is based on a revulsion and rejection of religion, and forcing others to not express their religion in public.
Moose - interesting thought and quite right.
I feel compelled, having grown up in CA, similar in size to France(?), to note that, while the percentage is far, lower in the US, that we probably have more of the latter here in the US than there are in France. But CA isn't nearly as pessimistic - maybe the influence of the happy Latino culture mixed with hardworking Asian immigrants plus thriving capitalism helps :-)
Those students you want to exchange will have to be younger than you believe. A few months ago I heard one of the women in the caretaking center singing an antiamrican song to my three years old daughter.
#14
Mrs. Davis,
".....They are almost the only immigrants whom I have met who come to this country, get rich off it and dump on it. It is part of why I detest them and their country.."
The French are not the only ones. Argentinians behave the same way.
#19
But CA isn't nearly as pessimistic - maybe the influence of the happy Latino culture mixed with hardworking Asian immigrants plus thriving capitalism helps :-)
Yes, 2b, the biggest difference between us and Europe is our fast-growing immigrant populations. Ours is devoutly Christian and pro-capitalist, theirs is devoutly muslim and anti-capitalist. When asians and hispanics exceed 40% of the population of California, Texas, and other key states, relations with the French will cease to be a concern for most Americans. Pacific Century now.
posted this in the other thread, but it is more appropriate here. From Best of the Web:
UC Berkeley recently completed what a press release describes as "the first attempt to compare measures of mental health and general well-being among California's general population on a county-level basis." The study finds that the two counties with the lowest "mental health scores" are Alameda, which includes Berkeley, and San Francisco, which is coterminous with the city.
What else do these counties have in common? They are the California counties where John Kerry did best: 83% of the vote in San Francisco and 75% in Alameda. You don't have to be crazy to oppose President Bush, but it doesn't hurt.
#21
As a foreigner who has lived in this country for a while, I have to say that those foreigners who are here and complain about this country are losers and will always be losers no matter where they go or how many opportunities they are given.
When I come across people like that I love to tell them what happened to me when I applied to attend the University of Houston (1980s). Because I am Hispanic I was immediately offered a full scholarship (Engineering Dept). I was surprised. It turns out that they had a minority quota to fill and they were not enough takers. Most Hispanics preferred to major in Barrios Studies and other useless degrees.
I also tell them the story of my neighborâs cleaning lady, an illegal alien, who got pregnant by another illegal alien. She was an insulin dependent diabetic who had to be put in the hospital for 3 months before her due date, had a c-section, and received the same level of health care as my son whose fatherâs salary is taxed to maintain the level of health care that she and her son received.
#27
thanks..a2u. You might be interested to know that they are all rabid dems. All nice people though....well meaning and kind. Also have a Argentine friend (doesn't use prozac) who shocked me one day by saying Ted Rall was a favorite cartoonist. Rall's so mean-spirited that I've never really gotten past that what that must mean.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 15:36
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Some excerpts from Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech of July 15, 1979:
"The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."
"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."
"When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."
"Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide."
Does France have its own Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings? Let's hope so.
their way of life is an anachronism, their influence in Europe is waning and they are unable to cast much weight in a world whose axis of power runs from Washington to Tokyo to Beijing and Delhi.
Now, where'd I put my nanoviolin? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2005 19:49
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THE largest emission of radiation by the sun in 15 years could disrupt mobile telephone communications as well as television and radio reception, scientists said today. Large solar flares were unleashed when energy stored in magnetic fields above sunspots was suddenly released, said scientists at Britain's Royal Astronomical Society. The effects of the solar flares have been seen at different points on Earth, including brilliant auroras over parts of Britain. "Flares can affect shortwave communications and satellites in the Earth's orbit which could mean problems for phones, television and radio signals," said Peter Bond, spokesman for the Royal Astronomical Society. "The flares have caused a huge amount of geo-magnetic activity as the magnetic field takes a while to settle," he said. It was the largest radiation storm since October 1989, according to experts.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/22/2005
2:48:03 PM ||
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Kinda suspicious, this happening right after Bushitler(tm) gets inaugurated, eh? On the other hand, it may just be Chainey and those zany Haliburtoneers charging up the EarthQuake Machine. Dollars to donuts, they have already plugged in the lat & long for Tehran.
RANCHI — Adding one more chapter to Jharkhand's history of blind deaf and stupid belief, an eight-year-old girl was married to a neighbourhood dog in the certainty that it would ward off evil spirits. The event in a village in Dhanbad, 240km from here, earlier this week included all the trappings of a normal wedding including a marriage feast and dowry.
The girl's father, Shankar Munda, was quoted as telling local newspapers that his daughter had grown "dog teeth" on her upper jaws which was considered a bad omen in a world filled with superstitous nutbags . "If the marriage had not been solemnised, our family might have faced some trouble," he reportedly said. Villagers showed little remorse, justifying the incident. "If she had not been married to a dog, it could have invited evil spirits and the village could have faced serious trouble," said Raju Mandal.
Okay, I give. Just how in the world do you drag people like this into the 21st century?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2005
2:15:16 AM ||
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Once I had a Usenet accident. I didn't mean to subscribe, download headers, and decode those pictures. My mouse slipped. Won't happen again.
#8
...included all the trappings of a normal wedding including a marriage feast and dowry.
Er, including the consummation?
...his daughter had grown "dog teeth" on her upper jaws...
Don't almost all humans have canine teeth?
You know, I'm not really sure this sort of thing is condoned by Islam. I'd think that marrying girls to dogs to ward off evil spirits is the sort of behavior that Islam was meant to oppose.
#13
This one's humorous, but too many of these sub-continental superstitions can be brutal or deadly. I grew up in India (I'm not Indian), and my older sister was raped when she was 8 by a guy who had the Clap, because of this pernicious belief in that area that you can get rid of VD by having sex with a virgin. She didn't know at the time why it happened, but she researched it later in life and learned about this lovely bit of "folklore".
CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt has shut down an unauthorized polling station that Iraqi residents had set up in an attempt to take part in their country's first free elections in nearly 50 years, Iraqi activists said on Friday.
The activists said Egyptian security officials told them to leave the office in downtown Cairo from which they were running an unofficial registration campaign for Iraq's elections on Jan. 30. "They told us the office is illegal: either you close it or we will beat the snot out of you shut it down," an activist told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the officials did not give a reason, but they said the decision had been taken by "higher authority."
Setting a bad example, were they?
Egyptian government officials could not be reached for comment Friday, an Islamic holiday.
Egypt has an estimated 6,000 Iraqis, many of whom went into exile under the former dictator Saddam Hussein. But the Geneva-based body that is arranging polling for Iraqis abroad, the International Organization of Migration, has not included Egypt in the 14 countries where it is setting up voting facilities. Carried away with enthusiasm for the polls, a group of Iraqis in Egypt took over the office of the defunct Iraqi News Agency in Cairo and invited compatriots to register for the elections. They planned to turn the office, which fronts on to a main street, into a polling station complete with foreign monitors on Jan. 30 and send the results and ballots to the IOM polling center in Amman, Jordan.
"We want to prove the point that we want to vote," one of the Iraqis, Talib Murad, said earlier this week. "We want to tell everyone we just want the chance to vote." Dozens of Iraqis did register to vote, an activist said Friday.
Now that the government has told them to leave the office, the activists said they were thinking of distributing their unofficial ballots by hand or e-mail, and sending them to the IOM in Amman. However, the IOM has said it will not recognize any results coming from undesignated countries. But the activists are determined to go ahead whether their ballots are counted or not.
But the progressive Democrats have told us that the Middle East isn't ready for democracy!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2005
2:09:58 AM ||
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#3
Bush's inaguration address sent shockwaves around the planet, and is still reverberating in the halls of the newly nervous. It must be like knowing that there is a huge contract out on you by a Mafia Capo di tutti Capi--open to all takers.
#2
I guess I can hold off on topping off the tank for a few days.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 4:24
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#3
There are drill sights all over Arizona(core samples searching for minerals),if done right,after a year or so you would never know they were there(unless you know what to look for).I'm sure AP knows what I'm talking about.
#4
Every drop of oil edxtracted from Alaska means less money for Al Quaida.
BTW: South Korean TV is broadcasting that SouthKoreans have found a way to make bio-degradable plastics who are as cheap than normal ones and in addition of being bio-degradable are not made from oil. :-)
A poor turnout by Iraqi expatriates enrolling to vote in the Iraqi election has prompted organisers to extend the registration period. In Australia only 6,500 expatriates have registered to vote from and estimated 50,000 people.
Too busy on the beach.
Head of the program, Bernie Hogan says they will extend the registration period, which was to end tomorrow, for a further two days. "It's been a worldwide trend that there has been a disappointing lack of people registering in Australia and throughout the other 14 countries that are involved in the program," he said. "We've been reviewing that and trying to understand why and the message that keeps coming back to us is that it's a mixture of apathy and apprehension." "The apprehension comes form those people who are distrustful of any Government in Iraq, considering that they have had decade and decade of tyranny and abuse, that some people do not want to freely and willingly submit their name to any potential future government that may then victimise them." There are nine registration venues across Sydney, Melbourne and Shepparton in regional Victoria. Iraqis in other states and territories have complained that there are no registration venues in their vicinity.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/22/2005
1:42:05 AM ||
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Most of those who were allowed to go abroad during Saddam's three decade reign were, of course, Sunnis and Ba'athists - precisely those least sympathetic to a free Iraq and an election that will forever seal the end of Sunni / Ba'athist control. Additionally, one has to wonder how many Iraqis abroad are actually illegals. These two factors would certainly put something of a dent in the registration process.
#2
I have heard that about 20 buses full of Iraqis are on a road trip from Seattle to the nearest poll in San Francisco. I also imagine Detroit has a heavy turnout. Remember that you must register, then vote a week later, a major burden if you live far away.
From Jihan Unspun Attacks were also reported elsewhere in Iraq Thursday ... The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in Fallujah reported eyewitnesses as saying that a US Apache helicopter had exploded in mid-air at 2am Thursday morning over the al-'Amriyah area, about 12km south of Fallujah. The crew of the US aircraft was reportedly killed instantly, even before the craft hit the ground. US forces encircled the area and carried out a search operation for the attackers, but turned up empty handed. ....
Resistance fighters armed with rockets infiltrated an airport in Diyala Province at 5:50am Thursday. The fighters destroyed three US Bradley armored vehicles, an Abrams tank, and two Humvees and killed twenty-six US troops, Mafkarat al-Islam is reporting. No other details were available. .... An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded in al-'Alam in Salah ad-Din Province at 11:30am Thursday, reportedly killing three US troops and wounding one more. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005
1:35:51 AM ||
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Well, since the jihadis are soooo deadly and proficient, I guess we'll be running out of vehicles and men by, what, next weekend? And people complain about tossing Al Jizz and shutting down Arab satellite news channels. Even when they're not inciting violence against Jooos, they can't report anything straight. Arabs reporting for Arab consumption - the liars and the lies they love. I'm sure Allan had a haddith about this giving it a big thumbs-up 1400 yrs ago.
#5
More good work from Jihad Unravelled, this should inspire dozens of ignorant would-be mujas to head for Iraq and feed themselves into the meat-grinder.
From Jihad Unspun .... Bombs exploded under a US column in the al-Qatta' area of ar-Ridwaniyah, southwest of Baghdad at 7am Thursday, striking a Bradley armored vehicle and a Humvee and reportedly killing eight US troops. .... Two roadside bombs exploded in the az-Zaydan village area near Abu Ghurayb at 8:30am Thursday, destroying a US Abrams tank. Witnesses said that the blast sent the turret flying through the air. Five US troops were reportedly killed in the attack. .... A bomb exploded as a US Humvee was passing along the highway in the Sadr al-Qanat area north of Baghdad at 9:30am Thursday. The blast flipped the Humvee over, reportedly leaving one soldier dead on the road and three others seriously wounded. ....
A heavy Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded on the highway in as-Sayyidiyah at 1pm Thursday, destroying a Humvee and reportedly killing four US troops, one of them believed to be an officer. .... An Iraqi Resistance roadside bomb exploded on al-Mudakhkhat Street in the as-Suwayrah area at 2:45pm Thursday, destroying a US Humvee and reportedly killing two US troops. ..... An Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded in Hur Rajab, south of Baghdad at 4:15pm Thursday, destroying a US armored vehicle and reportedly killing five American troops. .... About 30 fighters armed with rocket launchers and machine guns, according to eye witnesses, ambushed a joint force of American troops and Allawi "national guards" in the southern Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah at 3:30pm Thursday. The attack destroyed five pickups belonging to the Allawi guards and reportedly reportedly killed 21 guardsmen. Fighters destroyed two US Bradley armored vehicles and two Humvees in the attack, reportedly killing thirteen US troops. .... Two bombs planted next to each other in the middle of a dirt road exploded in the al-Mushahadah area at 4:35pm Thursday, blasting an Abrams tank apart. All those aboard the vehicle were reportedly reportedly killed, their body parts scattered around the area. US forces opened fire indiscriminately around the area but inflicted no significant damage.
Fighters armed with rockets, machine guns, and explosive devices attacked US forces in the area of the pumps in al-Mushahadah at 7:30am Thursday, reportedly killing seven US troops and wounding five more. .... Iraqi Resistance fighters armed with hand grenades attacked an American foot patrol in Baghdad's al-Karakh District at about 3pm Thursday, reportedly killing two US troops and wounding five more. Witnesses said that one of the Americans who was wounded had his leg blown off. .... A heavy Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded in the middle of Airport Road in Baghdad's al-'Amil district, at about 5:15pm Thursday, destroying a Humvee and reportedly killing three US troops. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005
1:29:03 AM ||
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#1
This stuff is almost comical except the Jihadis are intentional in their killing women and children and that isn't funny.
The brave islamic resistance is killing kids and their mom's no matter how you spin that your still scum that must be wiped off the face of the planet.
#2
Apart from intentional exaggeration, these reports may be influenced by a misunderstanding. Battlefield medicine is orders of magnitude better than in Gulf 1 and many wounded soldiers who might have died a decade ago are being saved and healed today.
That said, this sort of claim just causes amused disgust: "All those aboard the vehicle were reportedly reportedly killed, their body parts scattered around the area. US forces opened fire indiscriminately around the area but inflicted no significant damage. "
If that were happening, there would be video all over the Internet.
#3
...I keep thinking of Imperial Japanese propaganda from, say, about late spring of 1945. They routinely announced the destruction of more ships than the US Navy actually had - and that's truly saying something - and when battleships appeared within sight of people on the beach and started shelling factories, the official answer was that the military, in its infinite wisdom, was allwoing them to get that close so they could lull them into a false sense of security before being destroyed.
These guys really need to start printing something plausible.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/22/2005 8:59
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JPost - Reg Req'd EFL - News Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody. "I wouldn't like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Let's see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it." Pressing him, a reporter asked, "Does that mean he is in custody?" "No comment," the minister repeated. I Can Say No More
He's teasing us. Could it be they only have part of him in custody? Enquiring minds want to know. The Fat Lady is lubricating her lovely throat with gin, just on the off chance a performance is called for...
The rumors about al-Zarqawi followed an interview aired on an Arab television station earlier this month in which a Saudi man arrested for a deadly truck bombing claimed that he heard from other insurgents that al-Zarqawi had been arrested by Iraqi police in Fallujah but released because authorities didn't recognize him. Rumors spread that Iraqi authorities had al-Zarqawi in custody but were waiting to announce it just before the Jan. 30 elections. In an audiotape posted Thursday on the Web, a speaker who identified himself as al-Zarqawi called on his followers to prepare for a long struggle against the Americans and denounced Iraqi Shiites for fighting alongside US troops in last November's assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah. hmmmmmm - I'm starting to get my hopes up
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2005
1:25:55 PM ||
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#1
Let's send Barbara Boxer over to question him! Though she wouldn't be as nasty with HIM as she was with Condi, just the sight and sound of that moron should scare the information out of him!
In fact she should stay in the came cell with him...you know, to, uh, ensure we don't mistreat him and all.
The voice tape broadcasted by Al-Jazeera TV claimed to be for Abo-Mosab Al-Zarbawi is actually fabricated.
It is not done by Al-Zarqawi but by one among his followers in Syria or in Jordan. It may have been done inside the studios of Al-Jazeera TV.
More terrorist attacks with at least 5 bobby-trapped cars in Baghdad killed more than 30 Iraqis and wounded others.
Insar Al-Sunnah beheaded Swedish and Belgium citizens in Iraq.
Ten days to go for election!
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 15:55
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#4
"I wouldnât like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Letâs see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it."
The Minister wouldn't make remarks like these unless he actually believed the Z-man was in captivity. My hopes are up!
#5
The Minister may have learned from the Americans that some times it pays to put something out just to see who starts buzzing. Doesn't need to be true, just titilating. Didn't we learn that from the Brits?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 17:10
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#6
Please oh please let this be true.
I'd tell him Saddam snitched on him and then put him in Saddam's cell with a dull butterknife.
Most likely the first rumor is true - the one where he was not recognized and then released.
#9
Question: Did John F'ng Kerry take his three Purple Hearts with him to Iraq?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 22:13
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#10
Seems standard operating procedure when any hot terror operative is nabbed to delay announcing it so as to continue to gather info on his cohorts' activities. I recall someone in the intel agencies saying something like a 6-week window between apprehension and announcement as standard. Perhaps Old Spook can enlighten us.
#11
It is common for Iraqi politicos to show a little leg before the main dish.
Have the fat lady down another case of brewsky, gobble down another Turkey leg, while there is still time.
Suggest the "Dance of Seven Veils" more appropriate at this juncture.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 22:16
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#12
Lex and CA are right I think, but Iraqi politicos also have a tendency to occasionally say something thats more or less spun from whole cloth, I think. The Interior Minister could just be playing too cute for his own good, as Mrs D implies.
Id hold to the 48 hour rule on this, and no Im not sure when to clock that from.
#1
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N. strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of âNice china, really makes me feel special,â in reference to the fact that we were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no business being there in the first place.
Yeah, he's special. And he thinks he's better than 99% of the world, too. And he demands the good china. The sailor who wrote this has FAR more self-control than me, I'll tell you what...
#2
This year is the bicentenniel of Trafalgar, October 21 1805. This was a crucial turning point in modern history since it eliminated any threat of sea-borne Napoleonic expansion and confined the emperor's ambitions to the European Continent.
#3
This year is the bicentenniel of Trafalgar, October 21 1805. This was a crucial turning point in modern history since it eliminated any threat of sea-borne Napoleonic expansion and confined the emperor's ambitions to the European Continent.
An unidentified man stabbed a American Christian clergy in the downtown of Algiers, while the security forces started plenary investigations to know the implications of the incident. The security and diplomatic source on Thursday did not rule out that behind the incident are reasons pertinent to operations of what it called Islamic rebels, noting that the injured American clergy Hug Johnson, the patron of the Algerian Protestant Church, is currently undergoing surgery operation to treat the consequences of the stab.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
12:18:12 AM ||
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#1
cut the prisoners Achilles tendons and stake them to a single spot for years, sound barbaric, welcome to Afghanistan..just one of many imprisonment practices reborn by the Mujahideen.
#2
fartwa, my brother-in-law was a Marine in the first Gulf War. They captured a company sized bunch of Iraqis who had all had their achilles tendons cut by their commanding officer so they couldn't run away. Then the officers all fled. He said his unit was not prepared for the barbarism they encountered there.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 9:51
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The Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas congratulated his fellow citizens on the fall of Eid al-Adha (holiday). He expressed in a statement to Journalists following Eid prayers in one of Gaza's mosques his hope that the Israeli occupation will be removed by the fall of Next al-Adha holiday" and peace will be established between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.
Get those guys to stop exploding and that might happen...
Abbas also renewed his commitment to promises to serve the people and establish security "so as the Palestinian to enjoy peace and prosperity," asking for help to implement his obligations stated in the Roadmap. President Abbas continued his meetings with the Palestinian groups in Gaza to discuss the possibility of announcing the cease fire with Israel. He expressed his optimism that the rounds of dialogue will conclude in finalizing agreements and understandings before leaving Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
12:16:49 AM ||
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#1
Lol! Pretty good - but don't give up your day job quite yet, heh.
#3
"...and peace will be established between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples."
First you have to have Palestinian people.
Next you have to teach them the basics of Ethics.
Then you've to teach them to be self supporting economically.
Lets wait and see how the Iraqi experiment comes out.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
12:16:00 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, that settles that! No genocide here! Uh, BTW, what were those cutoff numbers, again, for genocide, slaughter, massacre, etc? I'm sure there are 10-20 pages in some EU manual on this.
Leader of "al-Jihad organization in Bilad al-Rafeydeen (Mesopotamia)" said that some 800 Israeli and Jordanian soldiers took part in the military campaign launched by the American forces against Falluja city in November.
"Yeah. I mean, we wuz trippin' over 'em..."
The Jordanian al-Zarqawi said in a tape recording broadcast on Thursday on an Islamic website "this battle showed several military participation in the enemy backlines," noting that Jordanian army officers participated in drawing plans and the attack against the city. On the other hand, the organization announced in a special statement that it killed by bullets what it called "group of disbelievers" whom it accused of working for an America company in al-Musil. The statement said that the company they are working for is transporting goods and equipments to "the Iraqi army." The accused organization on Wednesday claimed responsibility for four attacks on the Australian embassy carried out by five booby trapped cars in Baghdad. According to the Iraqi police, 28 persons were at least in these attacks and where other scores were injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
12:12:35 AM ||
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#1
ROFL!!!
These guys are just precious. Get waxed and it just has to involve the Jooos, lol! You'd think they'd save Jooo references for sinister plots and such - to actually claim that Jooos aced a shitload of jihadis certainly diminishes the jihadis, no? Is that the message you want to tell your dumb-as-dirt brethren: that the Jooos can romp 'n stomp jihadi ass like you're total losers? Well, they could. And you are. But to advertise it? Lol! You're about a month late - the whole world knows who pasted your losers, sonny. And Jordanians, yewbetcha lol, a transparent Zarqi (the Jordanian) attempt to paint them with the Jooo brush. Got a grudge there, Zarqi? The boggle continues and, once again, Arab logic isn't.
#4
..Heard some interesting commentary on 'All Is Lost' 'All Things Considered' yesterday. They were arguing that Zarq 'isn't that important' to the insurgents. See, NPR knows the true dope - that the insurgency really is ALL Iraqi now, and all Zarq is is a figurehead.
Frankly, if Zarq's letting a few Joooos do this much damage to them, they need a new figurehead.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/22/2005 9:14
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Well in that case,I guess they won't mind if we cut off the head of the snake.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has urged for a tolerant Islam that bans all forms of fanaticism, extremism and terrorism. In a message to the leaders of Islamic countries to congratulate them on Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), the Moroccan monarch said this religious occasion encourages all Muslims to "highlight the image of the tolerant Islam that forbids all forms of fanaticism, extremism and terrorism."
It also encourages Muslims to keep in spirit the "values of sacrifice, brotherhood and equity" and to "renew their ties with our holy religion and its path that is based on moderation and tolerance." King Mohammed VI, president of Al-Quds Committee, also voiced in the message Morocco's constant support to the Palestinian authority and to its efforts to recover the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and establish an independent State with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as capital. The Moroccan monarch also expressed solidarity with the Islamic countries and all the countries hit by the Tsunami that left according to the latest toll over 200000 victims.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
12:05:34 AM ||
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From Compass Direct Anwer Masih was acquitted in Lahore last month by a Judicial Magistrate's Court, making him the first Pakistani Christian ever acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan's lower courts. All Christian citizens tried on alleged blasphemy charges in Pakistan over the past two decades have eventually been acquitted through appeals to higher courts. But since the lower courts hearing their cases initially convicted them, they remained in prison on death row for additional years until the verdict was overthrown.
Judicial Magistrate Dr. Mohammed Anwar Gondal ruled in the December 17 hearing that the accusations against Masih were based only on hearsay evidence. .... Masih, now 32, was arrested November 30, 2003, and charged with ... "disturbing someone's religious feelings" and slandering a religious prophet. A neighbor of the defendant who had converted from Christianity to Islam claimed that Masih had mocked his new beard and derided Islamic beliefs. The plaintiff now goes by the name of Naseer Ahmed. Masih was held in the Lahore District Jail for six months, until the Lahore High Court noted that no direct evidence had been produced against him and ordered him released on bail on June 4, 2004.
But according to lawyer Justin Gill, representing the Center for Legal Aid and Assistance Settlement in Lahore which defended Masih, his client remains in hiding, unable to be reunited with his wife and four children since his acquittal a month ago. Fanatic extremists from the banned but active Lashkar-e-Mujahideen (Islamic Religious Army) have vowed to kill Masih over his alleged remarks against the prophet Mohammed. In a handwritten threat in Urdu sent to Masih after he was released on bail, the group warned the defendant that only heavy police security at his court hearings on Friday, December 17, had prevented them from shooting him.
"But we will never let you go," the letter said. "We will shoot you whenever we find you alone, since you blasphemed against our holy prophet. We have an earnest desire to kill you because you have infuriated us. We Muslims don't want to see you alive. Someone from our Lashkar-e-Mujahideen will eliminate you one day." ....
While the trial was underway, Masih's accuser once tried to abduct the defendant's young daughters from their school grounds. Masih and his wife have three daughters and a son, ages nine to two years. "I am safe in hiding, but my wife and family, including my parents, have been under pressure because of me," Masih said. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005
1:18:49 AM ||
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#1
Anwer...let me say it for you. allan-worship is another name for Satan-worship.
#3
I am coming to the sad conclusion that the only way the rest of the planet will be safe from this so called religion is to kill every last practioner of it, burn every copy of every manuscript relating to it and to grind every monument and gathering place related to it into dust.
If anyone should say something against this kind of action by the members of the ROP some bastard co-reiligionist of theirs will defend them and say the accuesrs are wrong and that allen will punish the accuser. They will them threaten "dire revenge" against anyone who blasphemes the ROP.
#1
because he tells them what they so desperately want to hear: Their policies are sound, Americans really agree with them more than with Republicans, and if they just repeat their mantras loud enough, voters will eventually embrace the party.
Author provides lip service to this but doesn't get it either. In her world, the problem isn't the message - but the strategists that can't figure out the right message. If we just had the right strategists - then we could win. I just never seems to occur to them that the reason the GOP is stomping them is because they look for ideas that actually work - rather than ones that "resonate with the voters"
#2
When I hear the phrase "resonate with the voters" I get this mental image of a buncha vibrating people... then they all lose their lunch. So I'd say they've already got the frequency thingy down - they be resonatin' jes fine - as it's a fairly accurate description of the recent Dhimmicrap election experience.
A reliable security source told Al-Anba no Saudi officials are taking part in the interrogations of the detained suspects. The source said Saudi officials are coordinating with their Kuwaiti counterparts in the investigations in accordance with the security accord between the two countries. The daily also said explosive experts safely removed a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) found in a yard near Kuwait Entertainment City in Doha. A security source told the daily the ordnance might belong to the retreating Iraqi Army after Kuwait's Liberation in 1991. It added that the RPG may have been left in the yard by someone who feared being arrested with it in his possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:30:25 AM ||
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The United Nations refugee chief says thousands of Afghans may have been forced to return to Afghanistan because of Iran's policies.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has been increasingly concerned that Iranian officials are pressurizing Afghan refugees to go home.
There have been radio campaigns informing them that they have to leave.
Rudd Lubbers told the BBC that such actions went too far, saying thousands may have been forcibly returned.
He said that the UN refugee agency did not want its agreement on voluntary repatriation to be interpreted as being instrumental in deportation.
There have been reports of round-ups, or of people being denied extensions of their residence documents and then being denied access to public services, or even being arrested, for having no documents.
The high commissioner, who has just returned from a visit to the region, said there were indications that some Afghan refugees as well as illegal Afghan migrants, were being pushed out of Iran.
He said the UNHCR wanted more intensive discussions with Tehran before extending their current voluntary repatriation agreement.
"When we had a return last year of 380,000 [people from Iran] certainly not all was forced, no. The large majority was voluntary," he told the BBC.
"But when there are, let's say, 5% of them forced, it's 5% too much - we are talking almost 20,000 people. Therefore, I confirm that we are talking of a problem of at least thousands if not ten of thousands," he added.
Tehran has denied forcing legitimate Afghan refugees home, but says it has arrested many illegal Afghan workers. Mr Lubbers said voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan should continue at the current rate for some time.
But he added that in the long-term, it would be useful if Iran, Pakistan and European countries hosting Afghans would also consider allowing some to remain as migrant workers.
The UNHCR, he said, was arranging a conference with European countries, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan next month to discuss this and other long-term solutions for Afghan refugees. But then again, given a decade or so, Afghanistan will probably be prosperous enough so that Afghans won't want to leave home. With that much work, they might even start importing laborers.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/22/2005
11:27:53 AM ||
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First Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was quoted over the weekend as saying suspects arrested after the shoot-outs between securitymen and militants in Hawally and Umm Al-Haiman will not be referred to the prosecution until investigations into the incidents are completed, reports Al-Seyassah. Earlier reports quoted the minister as saying the suspects will be referred to the prosecution after the Eid Al-Adha holidays. Sheikh Nawaf said since some suspects are still on the run the case will be referred to the prosecution after all of them have been rounded up.
His statement comes on the backdrop of reports that securitymen have foiled several attempts by militants to carry out attacks in various parts of the country. Al-Rai Al-Aam also reported that Kuwaiti authorities will parade the militants and weapons seized from them on Kuwait TV after the Eid. Meanwhile, a security source said police raided a house in an undisclosed location and arrested three Kuwaitis, two of whom are brothers, for alleged links with the militants who were involved in the twin shoot-outs Hawally and Umm Al-Haiman. The source added that the police also tried to apprehend a bearded suspect in Kaifan but he managed to escape. It said police raided and searched the house of a man identified as Badi Krouz Al-Ajmi in Jaber Al-Ali but found no weapons. Security men found explosive-making devices, detonators and electric wires in another house in the area last week. A resident of the area was said to have told police many men, some with beards, used to meet regularly in the house on Fridays. He said they used to park their vehicles which had Saudi number plates on the street causing traffic problems and inconvenience to residents of the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:26:23 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, those damned Saoodis love double and triple parking. Always used to piss me off, too. The key here isn't beards, it's hats. Were they wearing headgear? That's the key. People who wear shit on their heads are devious, scheming bastards. I think we should declare a No Hats Tolerated policy. Everyone wearing Breeze towels, for instance, on their heads are considered guilty and very unhip dangerous. [insert policy decision here] on sight.
A Palestinian resistance group linked to Mahmud Abbas' Fatah faction has announced it is ready to seek a ceasefire with Israel. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said on Saturday it was prepared to halt attacks through a mutual ceasefire. This would come as a welcome boost for Abbas, who is seeking to persuade Israel of his ability to impose order in the territories. However, the group set a strict raft of conditions on agreeing to a ceasefire, including that Israel announces a cessation of military operations, a halt to its policy of targeted assassination of resistance fighters and releases Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, Abbas was to meet members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in his latest bid to ensure the new hope for a renewal of the Middle East peace process is not thwarted by resistance attacks. Israel temporarily severed contacts with the Palestinian Authority a week ago in the aftermath of an attack at Karni which killed six Israelis, an event that cast a huge shadow over Abbas's inauguration ceremony seven days ago. However, contacts were resumed on the security level last Wednesday, leading to an agreement for around 2500 Palestinian security forces to be deployed across Gaza in a move welcomed by Israel and the international community.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:23:15 AM ||
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#1
free prisoners, huh?....mmmmm no
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2005 13:20
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#2
A hudna and a recruiting drive - wow, they're starting to think. This could be a dangerous development. Should we call Sam McNeil?
I've been meaning to mention something, Sheriff...
If that isn't the dumbest picture ever, Fred, lol! Gives me precisely the wrong kind of willies - definitely not the kind they intended, heh. Perfection is damned rare, but you've served it up, lol!
The purported Islamist group Ansar al-Sunna has killed 15 members of the Iraqi army, according to a statement published on its internet site. "After having announced the kidnapping of 15 Iraqi apostate soldiers in the region of Hiyt, and after their interrogation, they confessed to the crimes they committed with the crusader forces against civilians and against the mujahidin," said the statement. "They were executed with bullets so that they serve as an example," added the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. On 15 January, the group claimed in an internet statement that it seized the 15 Iraqi national guardsmen west of Baghdad.
Still waiting for someone to bitch about this gross violation of the Geneva Conventions...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:19:54 AM ||
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#1
No, actions speak louder than words. I imagine that the Iraqis are putting out a reward for "information received", and there is a good chance some Iraqi text messager will make himself a tidy sum--shortly after the sound of automatic weapons fire and explosions. Virgins will rejoice.
Posted by: Kathy K ||
01/22/2005 11:51
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#3
Well, that should inspire the Iraqi people to back the terrorists. (NOT)
Keep it up, assholes. Every Iraqi you murder inspires hundreds, if not thousands, of others to hate and revile you. Every bombing, every murder drive more Iraqis to the polls on the 30th.
You lose, and soon you will die (and probably not at our hands).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2005 13:24
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The Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday declared that Nigeria did not have the financial strength to meet the $7.758 billion (about N1.031 trillion) debt service requirement due in 2005. The DMO, however, described as false reports by international media that Nigeria failed to pay an estimated $30 million on restructured commercial debt. Addressing finance correspondents yesterday in Abuja, Acting Director General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, noted that the successful bilateral debt rescheduling agreement, which the country signed with all the 15 members of the Paris Club, has now given some form of relief. He disclosed that amount due in 2005 stood at $3,241.88 million while expected arrears as at the end of last year was $4,516.62 million and the proposed amount for debt service in the 2005 budget was $1.7million.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:18:10 AM ||
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What we have here is a failure to economize. For example, when you ask a Nigerian leader how to spend $10B of oil revenues, the first thought that crosses their mind should *not* be "Parteeee!"
A senior Eritrean military official has dismissed guarantees that Ethiopian troop movements near their common border were purely defensive, according to the United Nations. Eritrean Col Zecarias Ogbagaber said he believed the troop deployment was "provocative", the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said. Ogbagaber "expressed serious concerns about the movement of additional Ethiopian troops towards the northern border of Ethiopia", UNMEE said in a statement. "He said that he did not consider these deployments defensive in nature and interpreted them to be provocative," the statement added. Ogbagaber also "expressed the hope that with the beginning of a new year, there would be fresh impetus, which [would] help move the peace process forward".
Ethiopian Gen Yohannes Gebremeskel stressed "the redeployment of Ethiopian army troops along the Eritrean border was a purely defensive measure and part of the reorganisation process of the army". Ethiopia first announced in December it would redeploy troops near the border region, providing details to the UN peacekeeping force. UNMEE force commander, Maj-Gen Rajender Singh told the MCC that the military situation remained "stable and calm". Singh said he was "fairly satisfied" with the security situation and urged both countries not to take any steps that would jeopardise the situation. He also added that the "sanctity and the stability" of the 25-km demilitarised zone was being "maintained effectively" by the 3,800 UN peacekeepers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
11:05:21 AM ||
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From Compass Direct
A young Christian shopkeeper in Pakistan's Punjab province had his arm chopped off by a Muslim customer who became enraged during a disagreement over a TV rental. Shahbaz Masih, 22, was approached last November 28 by a customer wanting to rent a television set from his video shop in Talwandi, a little village near Chak Jhumra in Faisalabad district. When Masih declined the request, his customer, a 26-year-old butcher named Ahmed Ali, became furious, declaring the Christian had insulted him.
"How dare you, a poor Christian, refuse my request?" he reportedly shouted at Masih before he left the shop. Returning home, Ahmed Ali consulted with his father, Maqsood Ahmed, also a butcher. Shortly afterwards he went back searching for Masih, armed with a butcher's ax. Ahmed Ali forced his way into Masih's house and attacked the shop owner, chopping off his left arm near the elbow. He left the house threatening the victim and his widowed mother, Munawar Bibi, with even more "dire consequences" for the alleged insult he had endured.
Later that same day, Masih was admitted for emergency treatment at the Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. After his discharge from the hospital four days later, the young man was forced to close his shop, take his mother and leave their village to go into hiding. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005
1:06:50 AM ||
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CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001 Inauguration, overnights show. The troubled news network only averaged 779,000 viewers during yesterday's Inauguration coverage from 10am-4pm with just 168,000 of those viewers landing in the coveted 25-54 demo.
Like CNN, MSNBC also suffered major losses, only averaging 438,000 viewers throughout yesterday's coverage (141,000 in 25-54), down a whopping 68% over 2001 and faring even worse in primetime with just 385,000 viewers.
In contrast, Fox News averaged 2,581,000 viewers from 10a-4p (up 30% over 2001) and their 25-54 demo average of 705,000 came close to CNN's total coverage ratings yesterday.
PRIMETIME:
FNC -- 2,439,000 (up 57% OVER '01)
CNN -- 1,353,000 (down 14% over '01)
MSNBC -- 385,000 (down 47% over '01)
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/22/2005
10:54:44 AM ||
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#1
The numbers are worse than shown since FNC isn't in nearly the same number of homes as CNN. FNC is often in a higher priced cable/satellite package than CNN.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2005 12:42
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#2
If anyone has watched many of the talking head shows,, you will note that Peggy Noonan's brain fart of yesterday is now being memed as a refutation of Bush and his entire second term agenda of priorities among the Kool Aid crowd. I've heard it at least 15 times today.
The half-wits keep giving the fuck-wits stupid statments which are immediately turned 180 deg and used as more meme ammo. If Peggy Noonan is 1/10th the American patriot she played for all those years, basking in the reflected glow of Reagan, she'd apoligize profusely on every network and fall on her sword. Aid and comfort to the no-shit internal and external enemies of progress. Reagan, were he alive, would bitch slap the bitch. Thanks, Peggy. Thank you so much for your malignant ego. Here, have some Kool Aid.
Thirty-six tribal elders have been accused of orchestrating deadly rocket attacks against natural gas facilities in southwestern Pakistan that disrupted supplies to millions of people, police said. At least eight people, including three soldiers, were killed during the January 7-11 attacks, in which renegade tribesmen were suspected of firing hundreds of rockets, damaging a gas plant and pipeline at Sui in Balochistan province. Tribesmen on Thursday claimed the government had deployed tanks and army troops that were searching house-to-house in Sui.
An intelligence official in Quetta said troops rounded up dozens of tribesmen for questioning and seized weapons during the search, but the account could not be independently confirmed. Phone lines to the town were not operating and no government official was available for comment. Khalid Dogar, a senior police officer in the area, said police filed a case against 36 tribal elders, after the head of security at the state-run Sui Southern Gas company accused them of ordering the attacks on the company's facilities and inciting people against the state. The elders include a son and grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe that dominates the area where the gas field — Pakistan's main source of natural gas — is located.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
10:22:26 AM ||
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#2
The Bugti guy in the pic isn't wearing a hat. Is this his norm? Or just another devious plot to undermine US Policy and evade detection? Is that County Fair ribbon for the best Bugti Pie Award? Is Foster Brooks involved? Are those Foster Grant frames? Is that a Rolex? Or a Seiko? Wheels within wheels. Really tiny ones.
*crickets chirping and other cricket stuff, rubbing various cricket parts against other cricket parts*
One thing is clear. The CIA has gone straight to shit. We don't know anywhere near enough. Tenet should be racked for this. Promote everyone who was not involved.
Two people have been arrested over the shooting death of a senior diplomat from Kazakhstan in Pakistan, police said on Saturday. Sapargali Aubakirov, deputy head of the central Asian republic's mission in Islamabad, was found lying in a pool of blood at his house in the capital on Wednesday with a single gunshot wound to the head. He died at hospital on Friday. "We arrested two suspects from Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday," police investigator Bashir Noon told AFP. Noon said two other suspects were to be rounded up over shortly.
Police had no immediate clues about a motive of the killers, but they have said there were no signs of a break-in. The diplomat was found sprawled on his sofa with critical head injuries on Wednesday by a servant who entered the house when he could not rouse his employer. Empty bottles of liquor and four partly-eaten hamburgers were discovered lying near Aubakirov, as well as a single empty bullet casing, police have said. The weapon used in the shooting has not been recovered, police added. Aubakirov's car, which had special red diplomatic registration plates, was also missing from the driveway of his bungalow in a leafy, exclusive area of Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
10:19:58 AM ||
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Four militants were killed and two soldiers injured in a gunbattle in troubled Indian Kashmir, a police spokesman said on Saturday. The encounter began Friday night when Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers challenged a group of militants hiding in the Gool forests of Udhampur district, 110 kilometres (68 miles) east of Kashmir's winter capital Jammu, the spokesman said. "As the soldiers were aiming to storm the hideout they came under heavy fire in which two border guards were wounded," he said. The shootout lasted for several hours in which two militants were killed Friday night and two early Saturday morning while two managed to escape. A manhunt has been launched to capture the two fugitives, the official said. A large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the hideout.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
10:19:06 AM ||
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An improvised explosive device killed an Afghan soldier and wounded 12 others in the central province of Oruzgan, where a suspected militant died in a separate clash, the US military said Saturday. "An improvised explosive device was detonated on Wednesday in the province of Oruzgan, killing one Afghan National Army soldier," US military spokesman Major Mark McCann told AFP. Twelve other soldiers were wounded in the incident, he added. On Friday one American unit was attacked in the same province by three militiamen. "As a result one militant was wounded and later died of his wounds," the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
10:17:53 AM ||
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Several hundred people, including many Moroccans, marched on Friday from the site in an immigrant neighbourhood in Amsterdam where the 19-year-old died on Monday. The woman whose bag he stole drove her car into his moped, crushing him against a tree. The friends and family of the youth, named by the media as Ali al-Bajjati, say his death was a racially motivated murder. Two months ago, filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed in the same district, allegedly by a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan. The story has been front-page news all week in the Netherlands, home to about one million Muslims, more than a quarter of Moroccan descent. De Telegraaf daily said on Friday it was the man's own fault.
Ummm... Yeah. Sure sounds that way, doesn't it? Unless you're a Moose limb, of course...
Geert Wilders, an anti-immigration politician whose popularity has soared since Van Gogh was murdered, called for the government to strip criminals with dual citizenship of their Dutch nationality. "Arresting the woman makes the victim the criminal and the criminal a victim. It's turning the world on its head," he said.
Sure is...
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was forced on Friday to defend Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, who said the woman had not committed murder and the death would never have happened if the youth had not stolen the bag.
That's pretty much Q.E.D. But the important issue is that van Gogh was brutally murdered in an overtly racist act by a Moose limb a couple months ago. Attention spans have by now drifted off to other subjects, like the latest girly sensation's bosom. Arabs and Moose limbs can now feel free to hop up and down and make faces and holler about how oppressed they are, and the Dutch guilt feelings should be kicking in any time now...
A placard reading "Verdonk, murderess" was placed at the site of the death. Van Gogh's murder on 2 November triggered a series of attacks on mosques and churches and a wave of death threats against politicians, including Verdonk and Wilders, shattering the Netherlands' reputation for tolerance. The woman, who prosecutors want to charge for manslaughter, was released on Thursday pending further investigations.
Just quietly drop the case and tell the holy men to piss off.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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The woman whose bag he stole drove her car into his moped, crushing him against a tree.
I confess I actually laughed out loud when I read this. So I'm a heartless sumbitch. Boo-'effing-hoo. If you don't go around stealing handbags, you don't find yourself in these situations.
#2
Typical liberal/european you may not defend your property at all thinking. She sould have drivin over him repeatedly for all the grief she will get. He was the cause of his own death. Robbery and theft is so common in Europe that the majority is not even reported. Police don't even bother to try and track down the property let alone the criminals. One of the reasons that Europes crime rate is so low. Most of it goes unreported.
Europeans do not understand the right to defend ones property at all. They act as if doing so makes you the criminal not the thief or robber ( this is robbery not theft.) So here is to you Europe and your wonderful justice systems FOAD.
#5
I've a perfect defense for the woman.
"I was so upset by the suffereing of the Palestinian people, I got stoned to relax and wasn't watching there I'm driving."
#6
God Bless her, a european with the stones to fight back against these bastards...
and sticking his ass to a tree, priceless!
Posted by: Big Sarge ||
01/22/2005 9:25
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#7
Clearly they need car control in Holland. This "cars don't kill, drivers do." nonsense is just propaganda from the AAA.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 9:34
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#8
Damn sticky gas pedal...gotta get that fixed.
Posted by: The Dutch Lady ||
01/22/2005 10:01
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#9
She had a superelectromagnet in her purse, which inadvertedly pulled the car directly into him. They should sue the Magnet companies.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/22/2005 11:47
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#10
maybe it was an Audi?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2005 11:57
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#11
All venting aside. (Oh, how I'm gonna pay for this), she should at least be charged with manslaughter as anyone in the US would....then given 100 hours of community service and let go.
#12
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was forced on Friday to defend Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, who said the woman had not committed murder and the death would never have happened if the youth had not stolen the bag.
Is anybody as stunned as I am to hear this sort of common sense out of a Dutch politician?
The woman, who prosecutors want to charge for manslaughter, was released on Thursday pending further investigations.
And what measures are the authorities taking to ensure she doesn't end up next week laying on the curb with her head on her lap?
Final thought for mister moozie criminal: You got run over... by a GIRL!
#13
Maybe this is why women aren't allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Are they allowed to drive in Iran? If this gets around in Islamic countries where women are allowed to drive it might give them ideas.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 13:22
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Israel has threatened "unlimited" military retaliation against Lebanon if Hizbullah attacks into the Shebaa Farms continue. Israel's powerful Security Cabinet, which includes senior members of the Israeli government including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, warned it will order the army to take "serious military action" in Lebanon if Hizbullah attacks continued. Following the meeting, an Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said: "The military has no limitation to act if the situation deteriorates further."
Lebanon's Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad was unavailable for comment. The warning comes at the same time as UN secretary general Kofi Annan issued a report which blamed Hizbullah for the increased tension along the southern border, but also warned Israel against its current policy of allowing military aircraft to fly over Lebanon. Annan's report comes in the wake two separate attacks launched by the resistance group into the Shebaa Farms in the last fortnight which led to the death of a UN peacekeeper. Presenting his report to the UN security council, Annan said: "The resumption of military measures, for which Hizbullah took credit, asserting its claimed prerogative to resist Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory by force, is disturbing." But he added: "If Israel carries on with its policy of flying over Lebanon whenever it sees fit, it risks provoking retaliatory acts from the Lebanese side." He added he was "greatly troubled by the disregard shown for the safety and security of the unarmed UN military observers." Annan recommended that the mandate of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which monitors all military activity on the border between Lebanon and Israel, be extended for six month, until July 31. Commenting on Israel's warning, Tyre MP Abdullah Qassir, who is also a member of Hizbullah Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, said: "This is not the first time Israel has threatened Lebanon with military actions." He added: "As long as there are Lebanese territories under occupation, we will keep up our struggle. We are not intimidated by Israeli threats."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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#1
Dear Kofi: Chicken and egg. That's right, the Hizbullah fires missles at civilians and the Israeli flies over Lebanon to find the bad guys. Got that?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 1:35
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Koffi, get used to being troubled --- yours are just starting.
The leader of Belarus has denounced the US President's statement made during his inauguration speech that America is destined to bring the freedom of speech to every nation. "The USA openly states that it is destined to carry freedom to every nation. But, perhaps, someone does not need their freedom, drenched in blood and smelling of oil," Alexander Lukashenko said at the Belarussian Security Council's meeting on Friday. "I do not want to be a great leader that opposes Americans, NATO, and so on. The Belarussian people have not set these goals for me. But as we live in a democratic and, as they say, free society, we should have the right to say openly what is going on in the world," he said.
Belarus is ready to cooperate with NATO, but only if its national interests are observed and only on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, the President emphasized. In its contacts with NATO Belarus will abide by the agreements signed within the Union State [with Russia], the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organization [that comprises Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia], he said. "We will first of all compare our steps against our commitments in these organizations. This is a sacred thing for us and in this respect we should be decent and, most importantly, reliable for out partners," Mr. Lukashenko stressed. The meeting also took up the issue of Belarus's accession to the agreement between NATO and other countries participating in the Partnership for Peace program. "The most important is to envisage efficient measures to protect our national interests. We cannot risk the lives of our Belarussian guys sending them for military adventures in the interests of the West, like the hostilities in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And we should not carelessly invite foreign armies for maneuvers on our territory," the President said. He did not rule out, however, that NATO units might be invited for the country's next military exercise.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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"I do not want to be a great leader that opposes Americans, NATO, and so on. The Belarussian people have not set these goals for me. But as we live in a democratic and, as they say, free society, we should have the right to say openly what is going on in the world," he said.
Orwellian. This guy is the last surviving stalinist leader in the FSU. Belarus is a nightmare state. He was Putin' On the Ol' Soyuz before Putin was cool.
#5
jackal my wife works in close contact with a man whose bride is from Belarus. That is the story she is getting from her family. You apprently are not allowed to speak ill of the government.
Posted by: Johnny Crocran ||
01/22/2005 11:14
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#6
Johnny, I think that's why jackal said "anyone who claims otherwise will be very sorry." Better get back to finding the real killer.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 11:20
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"This guy is the last surviving stalinist leader in the FSU". Well, there is Victor Von Doom of Latveria, but nobody ever notices.
Jean-Pierre Bemba, former Congolese rebel turned vice-president under plans to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he had straightened out differences between him and DRC President Joseph Kabila. "I was able to smooth out divergences between the head of state and myself," he said after a three-hour meeting with Kabila.
Bemba, head of the former rebel movement Congo Liberation Movement (MLC), is now one of four vice-presidents under Kabila under a peace accord ending five years of civil war in the vast central African state. He had earlier warned he would quit the government by January 31 if no progress was made in distributing top military and civilian jobs ahead of planned elections in June. "We were able to harmonize our viewpoints and divergences on all the questions necessary to advance the transition," Bemba said. "We have come to a good understanding, President Kabila and I."
But he declined to answer a question about the fate of former Public Works Minister Jose Endundo Bononge, also an MLC man, who was fired this month along with five others for alleged corruption. Bemba had at first insisted that Endundo remain in the government. Speaking in the Gabonese capital Libreville on Wednesday, Bemba accused Kabila of bad faith in the implementation of a 2002 accord signed by the warring parties to end the conflict in the former Zaire. "If progress is made by January 31, we will again support the transition. But we will not be complicit in the postponement of elections or elections on the cheap," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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The Sudanese government has released 38 members of the Popular Congress opposition party, including a senior leader, state media reported Friday. The release was seen as a gesture by the government toward rebels in Darfur, who the government is courting in an attempt to resolve the ongoing conflict that has killed tens of thousands. However, the government continues to detain Popular Congress party secretary Hassan Turabi and 12 other party members who are accused of plotting a coup to topple President Omar el-Bashir.
Well, that's a comfort. It'd be more of a comfort if he'd kicked it from "natural causes."
Although the Guardian reports that a solicitor for two of the men demands that they should be treated as "torture victims" rather than terror suspects, security forces take a sterner view The angle British newspapers take on the imminent return of four terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay tells you a lot about each paper's philosophy. The Independent, for example, screams "1000 Days of Hell" - a reference to the time one of the prisoners has spent in Camp X-Ray since his arrest in Afghanistan. The Guardian,typically, calls in the social workers, warning that the men may need "extensive counselling at least" for many years after their release.
Good idea. Make sure they have their heads examined...
However, The Times, not to mention the British authorities, expect that the returned prisoners may need something rather more than psychiatric care when they are released: 24-hour police surveillance. Although the Guardian reports that a solicitor for two of the men demands that they should be treated as "torture victims" rather than terror suspects, security forces take a sterner view. The Times reports that the men are unlikely to face trial in the UK, despite US accusations that they attended terrorist camps, volunteered on suicide missions and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The report adds that British intelligence service MI5 has compiled substantial dossiers on the men following interrogation in Camp X-Ray. However, this evidence is not admissible in British courts as the men had no legal representation and had not been cautioned when the interviews took place.
That does nothing to lessen the truth of the reports. Intel information is seldom suitable for introduction as evidence in court. Think how much of the evidence gathered against the Magnificent 19 in the wake of the 9-11 attacks would be admissible...
The government's only alternative, it seems, is to keep the men under round-the-clock surveillance. Indeed, Britain's foreign secretary Jack Straw has admitted that one of the conditions of the mens release was that their activities would be monitored "very closely." A similar situation arose last year, when the first batch of British terror suspects were released by the US. We reported then that surveillance could cost the taxpayer around £1 million per man annually. The Times' leader asks some tough questions. It will be fascinating, the paper says, to hear their explanations of what took them to Afghanistan, "which was not a popular tourist destination at the time," it adds, dryly.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005
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What did these guys think of the virtual imprisonment of Afghan women for their entire lives? What did these guys think about Afghan women being confined in sacks and veils for their entire lives? What did these guys think about the rules that Afghan women could not leave their homes without male escorts for their entire lives and could not attend schools or work outside their homes for their entire lives?
Such are the questions I wish that journalists would put to these guys.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 0:51
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#2
They're Muslims. Everything they need to know is in the qu'uran. They don't need no stinkin' thinkin'.
#3
Honestly, Mike! Who are you to question The Way Things Are Meant To Be? ;-)
Now I'm going to meditate on all those beautiful women who risked their lives to vote in the Afghan election, to make sure that their daughters won't live every day of their lives in Taliban-made hell.
My heartfelt thanks to all those who made it possible, and guard that freedom yet. God bless and keep you all.
#4
cut the prisoners Achilles tendons and stake them to a single spot for years, sound barbaric, welcome to Afghanistan..just one of many imprisonment practices reborn by the Mujahideen.
Russia said yesterday assertions by Washington that Syria had ties to terrorism could destabilize the Middle East. Moscow also again denied reports that it plans to sell missiles to Syria, whose President Bashar Assad is due to visit Russia next week. The reports have sparked concern in Israel, which says they could be launched against it. US Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice warned Syria earlier this week that it faced new sanctions because of its suspected interference in Iraq and ties to terrorism. Russia's Foreign Ministry sprang to Syria's defense, calling the Arab state one of its "most important partners" in the Middle East. "It's well-known that slapping labels on countries and unilaterally describing certain states as part of the 'axis of evil' has not improved anyone's security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Interfax news agency.
How well known is it, Alexander?
"Syria is one of the key players in the region and resumption of talks with Israel on the Syrian question is important in the context of the Middle East peace process," he said. Israeli and Russian media last week reported that Moscow wants to sell SA-18 shoulder-fired missiles and Iskander-E ground-to-ground missiles, which would bring most of Israel into Syria's range.
Syria's the backer of a number of terror groups, who've maintained headquarters in Damascus — now on and off, of course. But I don't think Baby Assad should worry too much, unless his backing of the Iraqi Bad Boyz pushes us over the edge. As a semi-colony of Iran, they're probably on the list after the ayatollahs. Of course, when the ayatollahs go, so do the Baathists in Syria, and probably without us having to dismantle them.
Yakovenko denied that but told Interfax that Russia's "wide-ranging" ties with Syria did include military cooperation. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov denied already last week that Moscow was in talks with Syria over arms sales.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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#1
Lol! Here we go again. Worried about that precious Middle East "stability", lol! Hey Putty, it is the expressed policy of the United States to destabilize the dictatorships, thugocracies, and mullacracies of the Middle East. You need new interpreters, shithead. And, BTW, what you want means less and less every day as you tighten your stranglehold on Russia in an obvious backslide into totalitarian rule. In fact, asshole, it adds you to the list. HAND.
#3
Russia always picks winners, heh. After the fall of the Soviet Union there was a golden chance for Russia to change, but gromgorru is right, it is again business as usual. And Russia will hang onto Iran's dirty business as long as it can, for some pieces of silver.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 23:14
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More on the continuing drama of the Murdered Mutt Manager...
Police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday filed formal charges against the high priests of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, a once powerful Hindu religious institution, accusing them of the murder of a temple manager. The charges filed before a local magistrate in this town lists the senior pontiff of the Mutt, Jayendra Saraswathi, as the first accused and the junior pontiff, Vijayendra Saraswathi, as the second accused in the murder case. The 1,873 page charge sheet also lists 23 other accused, one of whom has turned a state witness.
The two pontiffs are charged with ordering the killing of Sankararaman, who was murdered within the temple precincts on Sept. 3 last year. Superintendent of Police K. Premkumar, who is heading a special investigating team, filed the charges in the chambers of the magistrate, although the day was a holiday for courts on account of Eid Al-Adha. "We have enough corroborative and circumstantial evidence to prove the case against all the accused, including the two shankaracharyas," Premkumar said later. The police have filed 178 documents and a list of 370 witnesses along with the charge sheet. But they are mainly relying on the confessional statements of one of the key accused, Ravi Subrmaniam — a building contractor who is alleged to have made the payments to the hired killers. They have also based their case on bank transactions and records of telephone calls between some of the alleged killers and the Shankaracharyas. The accused will be given copies of the charges by Tuesday.
While Jayendra Saraswathi was arrested Nov 11 at Mehboob Nagar in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, Vijayendra was arrested Jan 12. If found guilty, the accused could get anything from three years rigorous imprisonment to death penalty. The trial though may take a couple of months to begin. A. Shanmugam, lead counsel for the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, said the defense would now formally move the Supreme Court to permit Jayendra Saraswathi to return to the Mutt. The Supreme Court, which granted Jayendra bail last week, had directed him to stay away from the Mutt until the charges were filed. Jayendra is now camping at an ashram at Kalavai, about 40 km from here.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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I think a graphic of Molaram (sp?) laughing maniacly and holding up the flaming heart from Temple of Doom would go well here...
Israeli officials said on Friday U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's comments about a possible Israeli strike on Iran was a message to Europe to take a tougher stance against Tehran's nuclear program. The comments came as European leaders sought to diffuse tensions, stressing that diplomacy would remain the strategy pursued. Cheney said on Thursday in an interview that there was concern Israel might attack Iran if it "became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability" due to Tehran's stated goal to destroy the Jewish state. Israeli officials said Cheney's remarks were not aimed at Israel but were intended as a message to Europe to take a harder line with Iran over its nuclear and missile programs. "It was intended to tell the Europeans: 'If you don't take a greater role in a policy of implementing sanctions and moving vigorously to stop Iran's nuclear program, then we are not responsible for what Israel will do'," a senior official said.
He added that Israel traditionally "followed the leadership of the U.S. regarding Iran" and supported international sanctions and pressure on Tehran to cease nuclear activities. "You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," Cheney said Thursday in a radio interview, hours before he and Bush were sworn in to a second term. "We don't want a war in the Middle East if we can avoid it," Cheney added, "and certainly, in the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would best suited by, and or best treated or dealt with, if we could deal with it diplomatically."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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What measurement is he indicating?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 1:43
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#2
Old photo - I've had the same image since pre-campaign time period. I'd guess he's talking about Chirac.
#5
That measurement is why the French are so pessimistic. That is as big as it's ever going to be. Augmentation surgery is not covered under the French National Health plan.
#8
When Dick Cheney speaks, I suspect that it is so profoundly nuanced that there are little hidden messages to about have the world's governments in there. The world's strategic analysts are still pondering every word, hand gesture and facial expression made by Bush in his inaugural, pouring over transcripts, trying to figure out the *order* in which he shook people's hands, how close various individuals were allowed to stand near him, and why certain people had their pictures taken by the CSPAN-2 cameraman.
#12
The Euros will jaw the Iranian nuke thing to death, Israel's death. The Euros will not care if Israel is oblitorated. They will wring their hands a bit and that's it. To Israel, Iran is stalling while the MMs crank up the nuclear program. This is life and death time for Israel.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 23:19
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THE European robot lab Huygens had found liquid methane on the Saturn satellite Titan, a chemical that seemed to have shaped the moon's peculiar landscape and weather system, scientists said overnight. "We've got a flammable world. It's quite extraordinary," said University of Honolulu researcher Toby Owen, referring to methane's combustibility with air on Earth. "There is liquid on Titan. It has been raining not long ago, there is liquid methane," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, director of the Huygens mission at the European Space Agency (ESA). "There are truly remarkable processes at work on Titan's surface," he said.
US researcher Marty Tomasko, of the University of Arizona, said the data sent back by Huygens showed "many familiar earthlike processes: abrasion, erosion, precipitation". "On the place where we landed, it had been raining not long ago, maybe two days ago," Mr Tomasko said at a presentation to the press at ESA headquarters in Paris. The rain - not water but liquid methane, which is toxic to humans - causes soil to run down from the hills and forms the rivulets and gullies that were visible in the raw images of Titan, shown to the world last week. Huygens, a 319kg craft fitted with cameras, atmospheric sensors and gas analysers, landed on Titan on January 14, sending back data to a US mothership, Cassini. Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, was chosen as, intriguingly, it is the only moon in the solar system that has a substantial atmosphere. Its thick mix of nitrogen and methane is suspected to be undergoing chemical reactions similar to those that unfolded on Earth billions of years ago. That process eventually provided the conditions for life on our planet.
The mission, the farthest landing from Earth ever attempted, was "exploration as well as science", said ESA's director of science, David Southwood, who described it as "the most wonderful event in my career". At best, scientists had hoped Huygens would keep transmitting for three brief minutes after hitting Titan's surface. Instead, they said, instruments probably continued to function for at least three hours after the 15km/h touchdown. The only flaw in the mission was the loss of one of two data channels that were used to relay the findings home via Cassini. Instead of 700 images being sent back, only about 350 were received, showing a fog-strewn orange-tinged planet surface. On Thursday, a study published in the British journal Nature reported that Cassini, carrying Huygens, ran into major dust storms as it raced towards its rendezvous with Saturn last year. The microscopic grains smashed into Cassini with an impact speed of more than 100km per second (360,000km/h).
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/22/2005
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Yesterday it was alleged by an insider that channel failure was human error.
#2
Huygen's designers should have rigged up a cigarette lighter flint to be struck after all planned experiments were done, just to see how flammable the place really is.
#5
The NewScientist had a somewhat more extensive quote from Owen that makes it sound less nutty:
"It means there's methane near the surface," says Owen, "Titan is a flammable world." But all the oxygen is trapped in ice. "That's a good thing, or Titan would have exploded a long time ago."
Still a silly thing for him to say. . .
Posted by: James ||
01/22/2005 0:51
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#6
It is conceivable that there are processes that would produce free oxygen on Titan, just as there are processes that produce free methane on Earth.
#8
How can this stuff be considered flammable if there's no oxidizer present to react with?
I read his statement to mean that normally, on Earth, this kind of stuff would be flammable (he should have said 'inflammable' but let's not split hairs).
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/22/2005 2:41
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Yes,but what is Titan's LEL(lower explosive limit),UEL(upper explosive limit).LEL:the lowest ratio of O2/methane that will sustain combustion.
UEL:The point at wich the ratio is to rich to combust
#10
That's what I was thinking Raptor. I wonder how hard it would be to "harvest" all this stuff to supply heating and other fuel needs fo future space exploration. There are a lot of good building blocks in methane and natural gas.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 9:42
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#13
I thought we weren't supposed to land on Europa. Titan is where the Puppet Masters are from.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 11:30
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#14
Curious. The photo is full of rounded rocks, of a couple of distinct size ranges. Must have been rolled around and banged into each other to knock the edges off. High velocity methane rivers into alluvial fans? Must be some mountains nearby then. So what made the mountains? Titanic plate tectonics?
Can't wait to see more. Planetary geology (between this and the Mars Rovers) hasn't had this much new stuff to play with since the moon landings and the Mars Viking mission.
#17
"Titan is a flammable world." But all the oxygen is trapped in ice. "That's a good thing, or Titan would have exploded a long time ago." . . .
So if we nuked it that would free some oxygen and the planet blows up? KABOOM
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/22/2005 15:26
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#18
lo end/high end flammable limits for methane is 5-15% in air. We're lucky that the atmosphere is not ethylene oxide, heh heh. Universe's largest thermobaric bomb.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 15:35
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#19
Dishman: We don't know if Titan has active tectonics. This is the first look we've gotten at it.
Says here in the CRC that methane is soluble in water. Maybe somebody who knows more chemistry can say if methane ices form at these pressures. Probably some form below the surface, where methane trickles deep underground the way water does here. Hmm. Release pressure==> release gas; methane ice volcanoes? I don't know if we could identify puffs in the atmosphere from volcanoes, but if so then local warm upwellings of gas might be an indicator for tectonic activity.
Posted by: James ||
01/22/2005 16:19
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#20
Deacon, I must be the only one who got your comment--I loved that book. Heinlein rules!
Posted by: mary ||
01/22/2005 16:33
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#21
Glenmore is right about the rocks. To me, they resemble glacial moraines more than alluvial deposits, ground to uniform size and smoothness under some sort of solid or semi-solid flow.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, in a joint speech yesterday, urged Muslims to shun terrorism which they said meant "warring against God and His Prophet", to follow Islam's teachings of moderation and forgiveness and to unite. "Terrorism is a result of a sick mentality and of a deviant methodology," King Fahd and Prince Abdullah said in the speech addressed to the pilgrims on the occasion of this year's Haj season. "Terrorism is corruption on earth and aims at destruction and fighting God, His Prophet and Muslims ... and God promised the harshest punishment for corruptors," they said in the speech carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
Doesn't like the fact that the princes are on Binny's poop list, huh?
"The Kingdom combats terrorism in all its forms. It fights terrorism locally and condemns it internationally.
"Except when it's blowing up Zionists, of course. We pray for the guys doing that in the Grand Mosque at Mecca. And Kashmir, of course. We pray for them, too. And Chechnya..."
The Kingdom strives to root out terrorism and debunk its principles as well as expose its wrong thoughts. The Kingdom will abide by the religion and implement its rules.
Cut any holy men's heads off yet? Maybe you could start with Hawali, and then you wouldn't have to cut off that many more?
Our stand is based on the rules and principles of the Shariah. This is a firm stand that does not change with circumstances. Abiding by the Shariah is a clear attribute of the Kingdom's policy,". they emphasized.
"So don't expect anything to change. Ever."
They said the Kingdom took the initiative to urge the international community to combat terrorism and it supported all the peace-loving countries in their endeavor to uproot terrorism. Combating terrorism requires international cooperation against the sheltering of terrorist elements and groups and to prevent them from exploiting the territories of countries they are living in as a staging point for their sabotage activities whatever the motives and pretexts, they added.
How about sending the Soddy secret service to help dismantle the ayatollahs? How's that sound, Prince?
On the basis of its pioneering role in combating terrorism, the Kingdom has organized an international conference on combating terrorism. The 4-day conference will begin in Riyadh on Feb. 5, they pointed out.
I've got a mullet under my tongue. I'm waiting with baited breath.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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#1
Allan put all that oil under Saudi Arabia so that it would belong to the Saud family. Allan wants everyone in the country to obey the Saud family.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 0:47
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A suicide bomber detonated an ambulance Friday at a Shiite wedding party in a village south of Baghdad, killing at least seven people and injuring 16, hospital officials said. The bride and groom were among the injured, officials said. The attack took place in a village near Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad. Members of the Shiite Buamer tribe were celebrating a wedding when the ambulance drove up and exploded, according to Saadoun Abdullah of the general hospital in Mahmoudiya, where some of the victims were taken.
Salah al-Ameri, a cousin of the groom, said the suicide attacker stormed the garden where the wedding celebration was taking place and detonated the vehicle. "The ambulance tried to approach the garden earlier but cars of the guests were blocking the way," al-Ameri said. "After the dinner, many of the guests left and the ambulance returned and the suicide attacker drove into the garden." He said dozens of people were at the place when the incident occurred. The Buamer tribe has had tense relations with Sunni Muslim clans in the area, local residents say, and several of their members have been killed or kidnapped by Sunni insurgents.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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This sort of thing would not happen if there were a just resolution of the Palestinian problem!
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 0:56
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One of the toughest tasks facing Viktor Yushchenko as Ukraine's new president likely will be overhauling the State Security Service, the KGB successor agency alleged to have been involved in an array of devious and deadly activities. The cases of other Soviet-bloc countries show that success or failure could determine how well democracy takes root in Ukraine _ but the issue is complicated by indications that security forces played a role in averting a crackdown on Yushchenko's "Orange Revolution." Since the 38,000-strong State Security Service, or SBU, was formed in 1991 after independence from the Soviet Union, it is alleged to have been connected to organized crime, shady weapons deals and the deaths of several prominent opposition politicians and journalists. It is suspected of involvement in the September dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko, which took him off the campaign trail for weeks and left his face badly disfigured. He fell ill within hours of having dinner with top SBU officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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At the same time, the NY Times alleges that in fact a faction of high-ranking officers known as siloviki in fact were key to Yushchenko's victory complete with constant leaks of Viktor Yanukovych's hijinks (such as the Ukrayinska Pravda transcripts) to the opposition, Col. General (SBU) Ihor P. Smeshko calling Yanukovych's bluff on whether he'd use Interior Ministry troops (which had already been infiltrated by SBU) to break a blockade of government buildings and even the deployment of SBU snipers and special forces to guard the opposition at any cost ... the NY Times article makes it look like a damn civil war nearly broke out.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
01/22/2005 0:36
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A bus-load of Palestinians crossed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip after the terminal was reopened for the first time in six weeks. Several thousand Palestinians have been stuck on the Egyptian side of the border which was closed after a December 12 attack by Palestinian militants which claimed the lives of five Israeli soldiers. The reopening of the crossing was approved by Israeli security officials after a meeting with their Palestinian counterparts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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This'll probably do the southerners more good than any number of UN aid packages...
Dutch Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne Thursday inaugurated the first western liaison office in post-war southern Sudan to in Rumbek, the region's provisional capital. The brief ceremony saw the raising of the Dutch and British flags in front of the office building located near the town's airstrip that will represent the interests of the two countries. "We do have an embassy in Khartoum, but Khartoum is too far away and here in Rumbek it should be done," van Ardenne told reporters. "The liaison office here will be strongly linked to our embassy in Khartoum and the British embassy in Khartoum," she added, saying the aim of having an office in the south was to ease contacts with the region's new leaders. Van Ardenne was the most senior western official to visit the war-ravaged town after Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace deal ending Africa's longest conflict. Many nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies have already moved their offices from bases in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to Rumbek.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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The United States is rejecting European proposals urging that the International Criminal Court prosecute Sudanese responsible for war crimes in the Darfur region of that country. Instead, the administration is pushing for a tribunal run by Africans, perhaps making use of the facility in Tanzania where trials growing out of the Rwanda genocide are taking place, a senior official said. The official, asking not to be identified, also said a U.N. commission examining the Darfur situation is not expected to classify the humanitarian crisis there as genocide. The commission likely will use language such as "grievous war crimes" or similar wording to describe the nearly two-year campaign by government-backed Arab militias against black African farmers in Darfur. In September, Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded that the abuses in Darfur constituted genocide. His finding was based on interviews by U.S. diplomats with hundreds of Darfur residents who have been uprooted from their homes. The Bush administration is eager for perpetrators of the abuses to be tried by a war crimes tribunal but strongly opposes the ICC as the venue.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005
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Conflict? No conflict - the issues are common tenets of law, common history of precendence, common agreement on procedural and evidenciary rules, common appeals processes, simple competence, and the mythical universal legitimacy. The ICC? Lol, it has none of these. Just another EU joke, an absurd usurpation and encroachment of wank-o-matic bureaucrats and poltical schemers. Let them stay on vacation, it's what they do best.
#3
"issues are common tenets of law, common history of precendence, common agreement on procedural and evidenciary rules, common appeals processes, simple competence, and the mythical universal legitimacy. The ICC? Lol, it has none of these."
And this African equivalent of the International Criminal Court will have them? If so, the article doesn't make it clear how.
"Only ICC is backed by the super ethical Eurabian block!!!"
States parties: http://www.icc-cpi.int/asp/statesparties.html
African states that have acceded: http://www.icc-cpi.int/php/show.php?page=region&id=3
Asian states that have acceded: http://www.icc-cpi.int/php/show.php?page=region&id=4
Seeing at the countries listed, the only Arab state there seems to me to be Jordan.
But as I've said, never any need for facts.
It seems to me that it's the super ethical American-Chinese-Russian-Arab bloc that refuses to support the ICC. Check out the list of member states yourself.
#5
Oh, no, I'm *sure* it's all coincidence. Absolutely utterly sure.
Still: for a Eurabian bloc, it seems to be sorely lacking any Arab members. And to be in extremly short supply of dictatorships and tyrannical regimes. Those tend to be gathered on the *other* side.
#6
I don't understand why the Bush administration would strongly oppose the ICC as a venue but support a tribunal in Tanzania? Why is one better than the other? What's the principle that is being asserted?
I know that the USA refuses to join the ICC. Why, though, does the USA object to other countries using that institution? If the USA opposes international tribunals on some principle, then why does it support an African international tribunal in this case?
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 16:53
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#7
.com, don't do it. Put they keyboard down and move away from the monitor before you go to 156/104. Just do it. It's for your own good.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 17:04
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#8
ROFLMAO!!!
I guess I am that predictable, lol! I have been clacking out a reply, of course...
Okay, you're wise, level-headed, and smarter than the average bear, Mrs D, not to mention an ace.
Keyboard down - and Peace to the intelligent life on RB. ;-)
#9
*yawn* Republicans in the United States know first hand a court run amuck while under the cover of "legal" jargon. And Aris expects us to imbibe of the hair of the dog that bit us?
#10
Mike, why would Bush sanction the use of an organization which has already demonstrated deliberate imbalance in seeking justice? The ICC has taken 10 years to handle a small number of Serbian atrocity trials, where the evidence is beyond question. It charged Ariel Sharon and other members of the Israeli government (current and former) and armed forces with war crimes based on acknowledged false evidence, making them liable to arrest should they travel to or through any of the countries which are signatory to the ICC -- or which wish to curry favour with those that are. It refuses even yet to charge various Palestinians with crimes for which there is ample evidence. It showed eager interest in trying British soldiers and member of the British government with war crimes for partaking in the invasion of Iraq.
The ICC, much like the U.N., is a lovely idea fatally and dangerously flawed in its execution. In my humble opinion, of course.
#12
Ptah> "And Aris expects us to imbibe of the hair of the dog that bit us?"
I never said that I expect USA to support the ICC. I don't expect such a thing to happen.
I do however expect people to stop calling "Eurabian" a bloc that among about 100 countries, almost all of them democracies, from all over the world, contains only one Arab country.
I do expect them to stop making nice little jabs that are utter lies through-and-through. I'm hopelessly optimistic in the sense that I expect Rantburgers to *eventually* become interested in facts.
trailing wife> "The ICC has taken 10 years to handle a small number of Serbian atrocity trials, where the evidence is beyond question"
They are attempting to convict Milosevic of genocide, because genocide was a nice cool word for a person they tried to present as the next worst thing since Hitler. Ofcourse Milosevic was merely a minor regional imperialist and tinpot dictator, who didn't seem to care particularly about genocide one way or another -- genocidal actions were tactical decisions of subordinates, not a policy that he ever bothered to order from the top.
So the ICC has its hands full trying to prove the unproveable. Not convicting Milosevic of genocide would be a failure in the eyes of the West, convicting him would be a discrediting of the court in a more fundamental sense.
So they're stuck.
As for charging Ariel Sharon, are you sure about that? I've never heard anything like that, nor does it seem possible to me, according to the little I've read about the ICC's function. Do you have a reference?
Are you perhaps confusing it with what a Belgian court tried to do?
#13
Btw, regarding Milosevic and "subordinates", the other problem ofcourse was that they were never officially subordinates to *him*, they were the boys of Karadjic and Mladic. *Them* they might be able to convict if they ever manage to catch.
Milosevic is rather trickier: It'd be like convicting Putin of the crimes that Yanukovych commited. Sure, *morally* responsible, but rather hard to prove in a court of law.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/22/2005 20:40
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#15
Aris, admit it, you and yer Jacques chiracs, yer Yoska Fischers, and yer de Vile Pans must love Prsident Bush; because, as an Iron Curtain of tyranny descends over your hopeless continent, you don't lift a finger, instead you're all jumping up and down and squealling over some chariqature of the form of a duly elected American President. You miserable sheep! You've really done it to yourselves this time. You euro trash are sooo superior, and your elites know sooo well what is good for all you miserable prols, and you give them every indication that you must indeed be led around by the nose, sqealling praise for your messianic, untouchable, unaccountable, ( the EU, for the 9th year running, can account for only 1/10th of its budget) captors as you load first others, then finally you load yourselves onto the cattle cars bound for the next Auschwitz, the next Buchenwald, the next Dachau... squelling " thank you sir, may I have another!"
you're crass indubitable, innimitable, persistent snobbery will burn you all alive, this time, if your new pet victims, the islamonazis don't do it first. Pseudo-upperclass twit wanabees, the lot of you! And don't forget, there is no smoking permitted, because if you do, well, you'll be in a lot, I mean ALOT of trouble, and you'll only make things worse for yourself, not to mention your credit rating! BWAHAHAHAH! Burn in hell! or wait, burn here first! Ah HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: Annie War ||
01/22/2005 20:44
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#16
Excellents points, all of them. I especially liked the maniacal laughter at the end.
Seeing a good maniacal laughter is so rare nowadays.
#17
What Annie War wrote, I couldn't possibly, no matter how I tried. That is serious invective.
Aris, you may be right about the Belgian court vs. the ICC wrt Sharon, et al. I'm a bit fuzzy headed today -- two parties last night, when I'm accustomed to one every few months. (Yes, we are old poops, Mr. Wife and I. Oh, well. And no, it was club soda for me all evening, and the car keys to drive home with. I got the hangover without the alcohol or the drunk, darn it!) On the other hand, if the officers of the ICC chose to try the unprovable, the more fools they. And the worse an idea it appears to me to turn over more cases to them, when they are out of their depth with what they've already taken on. The African courts have been handling its cases expeditiously, and proving the provable. A much better choice for pragmatic reasons as well as ideological.
#18
you're still a twit, with your nose so high in the air, too bad it doesn't work though, I don't see how you could miss each and every brand new, fresh, steaming heap the precious EU keeps piling up so high
Posted by: Annie War ||
01/22/2005 21:11
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#19
Annie, you are off-topic. Before you, only .com, mentioned the EU in this thread, not I.
As a sidenote, do you know what one of the first actions of the democrats in Ukraine (led by Yushchenko), were after they got into power? Seeking to speed up the process for eventual EU membership.
I'm sure that's just another case of utter coincidence, and it doesn't imply anything about whether freedom-loving people just outside the EU borders are seeing it as a beacon of hope.
trailing wife> If the African courts are doing the jobs better, jolly good: that's the kind of argument that's good to hear. If you have any links or references where I could find more information on that subject, I'd truly appreciate it.
The ICC has taken 10 years to handle a small number of Serbian atrocity trials, where the evidence is beyond question.
So, how many years has the Tanzanian tribunal spent prosecuting the Rwanda crimes? The question I asked is, why is the Bush administration condemning the one and pushing the other? I don't think you answered my questions.
These crimes are difficult to prosecute legally. The tribunals are proving not merely that there were atrocities. The tribunals are proving that specific persons committed specific acts that constitute specific crimes. Legal evidence has to be assembled and then presented.
The efforts of these international tribunals are complicated by problems of distance, language, law, and so forth. You sure are critical of the efforts of other people to solve difficult problems, Trailing Wife.
It charged Ariel Sharon ....
I assume you're talking about the fence. Remind me, because I honestly don't remember: Did the ICC find fault with the the fence itself, or with the fact that the fence encroached across a line?
It showed eager interest in trying British soldiers and member of the British government with war crimes for partaking in the invasion of Iraq.
I don't know anything about that. Did the ICC indict British soldiers for partaking in the invasion of Iraq?
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 22:14
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#21
Legal approach: Ten years and still counting, with no end in sight-- as Aris puts it, "the ICC has its hands full trying to prove the unproveable."
Agressive military approach: had this been applied in the early 'nineties, Milosevic would have been killed and the deaths of tens of thousands averted.
The ICC is worse than ineffectual. To the extent it replaces military action, reliance on the ICC to do the hard work of ending genocide will only abet such actions. It's bad medicine of the sort that makes righteous westerners feel good while doing nothing whatsoever to deter genocidal killers who have nothing but contempt for western norms and legal proceedings.
#22
The other day, a US court indicted a Ku Klux Klan member for a crime that was committed about 40 years ago. He had been indicted and tried before, and that trial ended in a hung jury for him, because one juror "refused to convict a preacher." So, why have we waited 40 years for the second trial? Because sometimes the millstones of justice grind slow, but exceedingly fine.
Germany's prosecutions of Nazis and concentration camp guards lasted for into the 1970s. The US Department of Justice is still prosecuting and deporting former Nazi collaborators who immigrated to the USA fraudulently more than 50 years ago.
The Nuremberg trials ended in 1949, four years after World War Two ended. The number of people who were tried was ...... 21.
This trial was followed by other trials, that extended over many years after that. These trials were conducted by the US and its Allied occupants. Relatively few people were convicted. Most of the sentences eventually were reduced to a few years of imprisonment. Many of the convicts were released immediately for time served. The sentences were reduced by decisions of the US occupation authorities.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 22:47
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#23
OK. Let the personal attacks against me begin.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 22:48
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#24
I couldn't agree with you moore Mike. The proper US course would have been to deeply regret the warlike British, and ask the League of Nations Criminal Court to indict Hitler & Co. William Jennings Bryant would surely have torn Hitler and Mussolini new assholes. A lot of American blood and treasure would not have been spilled on the fields of Europe, and would have been the morally superior thing to do. After all what did Hitler and the Germans ever do to us? At least the Germans had Mercedes to sell, and we had plenty oil to sell. What did the Brits have?
The ICC and African tribunal can indict away. As long as the murderous gang in Khartoum incite, organize, and protect genocide, sorry, "grievous war crimes", the ICC would get more satifaction pissing up a rope. And as long as they are indicting "grievous war crimes" in Sudan, why not work chronologically and start with the 2 million Christians and Animists killed the past 30 years in Southern Sudan. Or are they worth less than the black muslims of Darfur?
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2005 23:30
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#25
Re: #24 (ed)
as long as they are indicting "grievous war crimes" in Sudan, why not work chronologically and start with the 2 million Christians and Animists killed the past 30 years in Southern Sudan. Or are they worth less than the black muslims of Darfur?
We live in a world of difficult problems. Sometimes we let some problems pass and address subsequent problems.
It's easy to blame the people who eventually do address problems for the past problems that were not addressed. It's easy for you, and it's easy for me. Everyone will highly appreciate our abilities to point out the problems in the past that should have been addressed earlier and our abilities to point out the problems of the present that are being addressed slowly and with great difficulty.
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Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/22/2005 23:54
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#26
Mike the problem is the ICC and like minded supporters reliance on the "Then a miracle occurs" step to world problems. The model that Europe is so enamored with can be listed as:
1. Genocide is occurring.
2. Then a miracle occurs.
3. The bad guys are before the ICC for 10 years.
The only problem is that the ICC crowd have no idea that step 2 involves miltary force to kill or root out those responsible. In reality, enforcement is the most critical. In the examples you cited, the Nazi's were invaded and killed or captured. The KKK was infiltrated and the members arrested. Milosevic and Serbia were bombed to an early industrial stage. Without these actions, all three would still be going strong and, I dare say, would have taken over those who did not violently fight back.
Europe will again have to learn that without enforcement, actions of groups like the ICC are just an advertisement of their weakness that people like the Nazis and Islamists will take advantage of.
Posted by: ed ||
01/23/2005 0:19
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In the main hub of Iraq's Shia-dominated south, Sunni politicians work secluded in a heavily guarded compound on a street strewn with the wreckage of a recent suicide car bombing. The Iraqi Islamic Party's fortress-like headquarters reflect the plight of Saddam Hussein's Sunni minority, increasingly embattled in the countdown to January 30 elections that majority Shias embrace but most Sunnis are shunning. Bearded party leaders accuse US-led occupiers and Iraq's interim government of favouritism toward the Shias, who will cement their new-found hold on power after decades of oppression under Saddam. They also complain of growing intimidation by militias run by Shia religious parties and fledgling security forces filling their ranks with mostly Shia recruits — trends that are deepening the Sunnis' sense of alienation in the new Iraq.
Iranian President 
Yemen will soon put on trial 826 extremists, including 26 suspected members of the Al Qaeda terror network, a judicial source said on Friday. The trials, to start after the current Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, will involve "26 suspected Al Qaeda members, including two extradited by Saudi Arabia and one by Kuwait late last year," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Amid scenes of wild jubilation, the head of the former rebel 
A bomb blast blew up a railway track here early on Saturday, disrupting train services in Pakistan's insurgency-wracked southwestern province of Baluchistan but causing no injuries, officials said. "A powerful bomb ripped about four feet (more than a meter) long track at a level crossing here," provincial home minister Shoaib Nausherwani told AFP.
Iran's legislative watchdog said on Saturday women could run in June's presidential election, clearing up an ambiguous article of the constitution. Iran's constitution says that candidates should be political "rejal", an Arabic word for men. But Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the conservative Guardian Council, said the word could also refer to women. "Women who have the necessary qualifications have the right to run in the presidential elections," he told state television. June's poll is expected to end Iran's reform movement, with conservatives tipped to extend their grasp on power to the presidency after taking control of parliament in May. Iran's 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has repeatedly said she has no intention of running for the presidency.
Calling for more Press freedom for a balanced and non-partisan media, senior Arab journalists have cautioned governments against taking them lightly. "Arab societies have to admit that they are influenced only by the superficial things in the civil societies of the West, not by more substantial developments there, Ahmed Abdul Aziz Al Jarallah, Editor-in-Chief of As Siyassah newspaper, Kuwait, told your favourite No. 1 newspaper on the sidelines of a recent conference on "Arab Media in the Information Age."
George Bush's pledge to spread liberty around the globe has earned a frosty reception in the Arab world, with observers dismissing as hollow rhetoric his insistence on promoting freedom. 
Palestinian security forces took up positions across the northern Gaza Strip with orders to prevent attacks by militants, winning plaudits for new leader Mahmud Abbas from Israel. As Abbas continued his efforts to persuade militant factions to call a halt to violence, hundreds of police and members of other security services deployed in areas that have been both the launch pad and scene of attacks. Armed members of the national security force inspected vehicles at checkpoints set up by the main Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza in the north and by the Karni border terminal further south, an AFP correspondent reported.
Activists are getting bolder in a campaign of vandalising adverts that display naked flesh. Billboard adverts featuring partial nudity are being defaced by Muslim activists who are offended by displays of flesh. The advertising watchdog has confirmed that increasing numbers of posters are being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas. A website giving advice on how to vandalise billboards and listing potential targets has been set up by a group calling themselves Muslims Against Advertising (MAAD).
IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future. This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale - or rather the lack of it - was made public yesterday in a damning report by France's prefects, the country's top administrators. "The French no longer believe in anything," the report said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more." 
RANCHI — Adding one more chapter to Jharkhand's history of blind 
Attacks were also reported elsewhere in Iraq Thursday ... The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in Fallujah reported eyewitnesses as saying that a US Apache helicopter had exploded in mid-air at 2am Thursday morning over the al-'Amriyah area, about 12km south of Fallujah. The crew of the US aircraft was reportedly killed instantly, even before the craft hit the ground. US forces encircled the area and carried out a search operation for the attackers, but turned up empty handed. .... 
.... Bombs exploded under a US column in the al-Qatta' area of ar-Ridwaniyah, southwest of Baghdad at 7am Thursday, striking a Bradley armored vehicle and a Humvee and reportedly killing eight US troops. .... Two roadside bombs exploded in the az-Zaydan village area near Abu Ghurayb at 8:30am Thursday, destroying a US Abrams tank. Witnesses said that the blast sent the turret flying through the air. Five US troops were reportedly killed in the attack. .... A bomb exploded as a US Humvee was passing along the highway in the Sadr al-Qanat area north of Baghdad at 9:30am Thursday. The blast flipped the Humvee over, reportedly leaving one soldier dead on the road and three others seriously wounded. .... 
Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody. "I wouldn't like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Let's see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it." Pressing him, a reporter asked, "Does that mean he is in custody?" "No comment," the minister repeated. 
Leader of "al-Jihad organization in Bilad al-Rafeydeen (Mesopotamia)" said that some 800 Israeli and Jordanian soldiers took part in the military campaign launched by the American forces against Falluja city in November.
King 
Anwer Masih was acquitted in Lahore last month by a Judicial Magistrate's Court, making him the first Pakistani Christian ever acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan's lower courts. All Christian citizens tried on alleged blasphemy charges in Pakistan over the past two decades have eventually been acquitted through appeals to higher courts. But since the lower courts hearing their cases initially convicted them, they remained in prison on death row for additional years until the verdict was overthrown. 
A reliable security source told Al-Anba no Saudi officials are taking part in the interrogations of the detained suspects. The source said Saudi officials are coordinating with their Kuwaiti counterparts in the investigations in accordance with the security accord between the two countries. The daily also said explosive experts safely removed a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) found in a yard near Kuwait Entertainment City in Doha. A security source told the daily the ordnance might belong to the retreating Iraqi Army after Kuwait's Liberation in 1991. It added that the RPG may have been left in the yard by someone who feared being arrested with it in his possession.
First Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was quoted over the weekend as saying suspects arrested after the shoot-outs between securitymen and militants in 
A Palestinian resistance group linked to Mahmud Abbas' Fatah faction has announced it is ready to seek a ceasefire with Israel. The 
The purported Islamist group 
The Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday declared that Nigeria did not have the financial strength to meet the $7.758 billion (about N1.031 trillion) debt service requirement due in 2005. The DMO, however, described as false reports by international media that Nigeria failed to pay an estimated $30 million on restructured commercial debt. Addressing finance correspondents yesterday in Abuja, Acting Director General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, noted that the successful bilateral debt rescheduling agreement, which the country signed with all the 15 members of the Paris Club, has now given some form of relief. He disclosed that amount due in 2005 stood at $3,241.88 million while expected arrears as at the end of last year was $4,516.62 million and the proposed amount for debt service in the 2005 budget was $1.7million.
Thirty-six tribal elders have been accused of orchestrating deadly rocket attacks against natural gas facilities in southwestern Pakistan that disrupted supplies to millions of people, police said. At least eight people, including three soldiers, were killed during the January 7-11 attacks, in which renegade tribesmen were suspected of firing hundreds of rockets, damaging a gas plant and pipeline at Sui in Balochistan province. Tribesmen on Thursday claimed the government had deployed tanks and army troops that were searching house-to-house in Sui.
Two people have been arrested over the shooting death of a senior diplomat from Kazakhstan in Pakistan, police said on Saturday. Sapargali Aubakirov, deputy head of the central Asian republic's mission in Islamabad, was found lying in a pool of blood at his house in the capital on Wednesday with a single gunshot wound to the head. He died at hospital on Friday. "We arrested two suspects from Islamabad and the nearby city of Rawalpindi on Friday," police investigator Bashir Noon told AFP. Noon said two other suspects were to be rounded up over shortly.
Four militants were killed and two soldiers injured in a gunbattle in troubled Indian Kashmir, a police spokesman said on Saturday. The encounter began Friday night when Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers challenged a group of militants hiding in the Gool forests of Udhampur district, 110 kilometres (68 miles) east of Kashmir's winter capital Jammu, the spokesman said. "As the soldiers were aiming to storm the hideout they came under heavy fire in which two border guards were wounded," he said. The shootout lasted for several hours in which two militants were killed Friday night and two early Saturday morning while two managed to escape. A manhunt has been launched to capture the two fugitives, the official said. A large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the hideout.
Several hundred people, including many Moroccans, marched on Friday from the site in an immigrant neighbourhood in Amsterdam where the 19-year-old died on Monday. The woman whose bag he stole drove her car into his moped, crushing him against a tree. The friends and family of the youth, named by the media as Ali al-Bajjati, say his death was a racially motivated murder. Two months ago, filmmaker 
Israel has threatened "unlimited" military retaliation against Lebanon if 
The leader of Belarus has denounced the US President's statement made during his inauguration speech that America is destined to bring the freedom of speech to every nation. "The USA openly states that it is destined to carry freedom to every nation. But, perhaps, someone does not need their freedom, drenched in blood and smelling of oil," 
The Sudanese government has released 38 members of the Popular Congress opposition party, including a senior leader, state media reported Friday. The release was seen as a gesture by the government toward rebels in 
The angle British newspapers take on the imminent return of four terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay tells you a lot about each paper's philosophy. The Independent, for example, screams "1000 Days of Hell" - a reference to the time one of the prisoners has spent in Camp X-Ray since his arrest in Afghanistan. The Guardian,typically, calls in the social workers, warning that the men may need "extensive counselling at least" for many years after their release.
Russia said yesterday assertions by Washington that Syria had ties to terrorism could destabilize the Middle East. Moscow also again denied reports that it plans to sell missiles to Syria, whose President 
Police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday filed formal charges against the high priests of the 
Israeli officials said on Friday U.S. Vice President 
THE European robot lab Huygens had found liquid methane on the Saturn satellite Titan, a chemical that seemed to have shaped the moon's peculiar landscape and weather system, scientists said overnight. "We've got a flammable world. It's quite extraordinary," said University of Honolulu researcher Toby Owen, referring to methane's combustibility with air on Earth. "There is liquid on Titan. It has been raining not long ago, there is liquid methane," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, director of the Huygens mission at the European Space Agency (ESA). "There are truly remarkable processes at work on Titan's surface," he said.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques 
A suicide bomber detonated an ambulance Friday at a Shiite wedding party in a village south of Baghdad, killing at least seven people and injuring 16, hospital officials said. The bride and groom were among the injured, officials said. The attack took place in a village near Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad. Members of the Shiite Buamer tribe were celebrating a wedding when the ambulance drove up and exploded, according to Saadoun Abdullah of the general hospital in Mahmoudiya, where some of the victims were taken.
One of the toughest tasks facing 
A bus-load of Palestinians crossed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip after the terminal was reopened for the first time in six weeks. Several thousand Palestinians have been stuck on the Egyptian side of the border which was closed after a December 12 attack by Palestinian militants which claimed the lives of five Israeli soldiers. The reopening of the crossing was approved by Israeli security officials after a meeting with their Palestinian counterparts.
The United States is rejecting European proposals urging that the International Criminal Court prosecute Sudanese responsible for war crimes in the Darfur region of that country. Instead, the administration is pushing for a tribunal run by Africans, perhaps making use of the facility in Tanzania where trials growing out of the Rwanda genocide are taking place, a senior official said. The official, asking not to be identified, also said a U.N. commission examining the Darfur situation is not expected to classify the humanitarian crisis there as genocide. The commission likely will use language such as "grievous war crimes" or similar wording to describe the nearly two-year campaign by government-backed Arab militias against black African farmers in Darfur. In September, Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded that the abuses in Darfur constituted genocide. His finding was based on interviews by U.S. diplomats with hundreds of Darfur residents who have been uprooted from their homes. The Bush administration is eager for perpetrators of the abuses to be tried by a war crimes tribunal but strongly opposes the ICC as the venue.
