(2005-01-25) -- In another apparent attempt to position herself as a centrist candidate for the White House in 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, yesterday told 1,000 abortion supporters that she's neither pro-life nor pro-choice.
"I'm Pro-Chife," she announced to the stunned crowd. "Being pro-chife means you support a woman's right to end the life of a fetus that will never exist because the government will prevent the pregnancy."
Mrs. Clinton said the federal government should announce a policy of "zero tolerance" for unwanted pregnancies, and could begin to achieve the goal through a combination of condom distribution and government promotion of homosexuality in the public schools.
"And while critics will note that the government already does that, I believe that these are just intermediate measures," she said. "Ultimately, abortion is caused by pregnancy, which is a manufacturing activity carried on by small enterprises with no government regulation. During the 109th Congress, we plan to expand the mandate of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the IRS to regulate and tax the production of human embryos. We have found that the best way to control any creative activity is with government oversight and taxes."
Mrs. Clinton said she looks forward to the day when the burden of filing OSHA and IRS paperwork makes pregnancy "safe, legal, expensive and rare."
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005
9:43:33 AM ||
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President George Bush at the Alfalfa Dinner Saturday night.
Bush also said, "Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice is here. People often ask me what Condi is like. Well, she is creative; she is tough -- think Martha Stewart with access to nuclear codes."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
9:36:48 AM ||
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Wonderful! And later in the article:
The crowd was also thick with Bushes.
"Because of the inauguration, we have a lot of Bushes here tonight," the president said. "George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, Jeb Bush, George Prescott Bush, Marvin P. Bush, Laura Bush, William H.T. Bush, Doro Bush Koch and John Ellis Bush Jr.
"Or, as we are known within the family: 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, and Marvin."
Authorities will arrest prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi after the current Islamic religious holiday for allegedly defaming the Defense Ministry, the defense minister said Friday. Legal proceedings against Chalabi are to begin after the Eid al-Adha holiday ends Sunday, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said. Shaalan's statement followed allegations by Chalabi that the defense minister shifted $500 million from the ministry. That has led to charges and countercharges by the two Shiite politicians, who are running for parliament on separate tickets in the Jan. 30 national elections. "We will arrest him and turn him over to the Interpol," Shaalan told Al-Jazeera television. "We will arrest him based on facts. He wanted to tarnish the image of the Defense Ministry. ... He wanted to tarnish the reputation of the defense minister because he is frank and clear. One of those who want to commit crimes against the Iraqi people is Ahmad Chalabi."
Chalabi could not be reached for comment. Last year, a judge issued a warrant for Chalabi's arrest for allegedly counterfeiting money but the charges were dropped. Al-Jazeera quoted Shaalan as saying Chalabi would be turned over to Interpol because of his 1992 conviction in absentia by a Jordanian court for embezzling funds from a Jordanian bank, which collapsed in 1989. Chalabi, who founded the bank, has denied any wrongdoing and says the charges were fabricated because of his opposition to ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. I guess they're still working out how this running for office thing works. Actually, its kinda cute!
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Tuesday submitted an adjournment motion with the National Assembly Secretariat demanding a debate on recent statements by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, that Pakistan was providing the US information about the activities of nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. "In her statement she also said that US could control Pakistan's nuclear programme," in case the government of General Pervez Musharraf were replaced by one headed by extremists, the motion said.
The motion said that General (r) Jehangir Karamat, former chief of army staff and now Pakistan's ambassador to the US, had admitted that Pakistan had given the US all the required information about Khan. "And in response to this, the US authorities asked for more information and that was also provided," it said. The motion said that Pakistanis wanted to know how the US would be able to "control" Pakistan's nuclear programme. It demanded that the government unveil all the steps taken by the US to keep Khan restricted. The motion was submitted with the signatures of 14 members of the National Assembly of the MMA.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
9:08:44 PM ||
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For a while now I've assumed that we have control of Pakistan's nuke capabilities. This seems to back up my claim a little.
College student lynched in city
A student of Jagannath University College, apparently in deep emotional distress over his failure to go abroad, was beaten to death by an angry mob after he stabbed a neighbour at Shyampur on the Eid day. The dead was identified as Monir Hossain, a student of Management of Jagannath University College and son of Habibur Rahman, a resident of 1336/2, East Jurain under Shyampur police station.
According to police, Monir went to Jigirullah Mosque at East Jurain at around 7am on the Eid day and stabbed an old man named Yunus. The angry musallis of the mosque overpowered Monir and beat him up mercilessly. At that time the victim's elder brother was present at the mosque and tried to prevent them from beating his brother. Seriously injured in the mob beating, Monir was sent to the Emergency Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where he succumbed to his injuries.
It is learnt that Monir had got upset after having failed to go abroad for higher study.
Couldn't get into a good Saudi or Pak maddrass?
The day before Eid-ul-Azha he had a blazing row with his family members and smashed the home TV set and other articles at his resident. The locals of East Jurain took out a procession in the neighbourhood demanding arrest of the persons responsible for the killing of Monir. Mir Abdul Karim, maternal uncle of Monir filed a murder case with Shyampur police station but no arrest was made in this connection.
Bus passenger beaten to death in Khulna
Jan 24: A young passenger travelling in a Khulna—bound bus from Dhaka was lynched allegedly by his co-passengers and others on Khulna-Jessore highway at Patherbazar area of the city last night after he was found carrying an illegal arms. The dead was identified as Pabitra, 26, inhabitant of Tootpara area of the city.
Police said, the on-duty policemen halted the Khulna-bound bus of Ananda paribahan on Khulna-Jessore highway at Patherbazar to conduct searches to see if any bus passenger was carrying any contraband items or illegal arms. Bus passenger Pabitra pointed the revolver at police havilder Abdul Hakim when the cop came to search him and his bag inside the bus.
"What ya got in da bag?"
"Nothing but this here piece, copper! Stick em up!"
Sources said, Pabitra was immediately overpowered by the policemen aided by some passengers. According to police, the other travellers took him for a dacoit and gave him severe beating after snatching him from their custody. The law enforcers rescued seriously injured Pabitra from the wrath of the public and got him admitted to Khulna Medical College Hospital. He died soon after his hospitalisation, said police officer of KMP. There was no bullet inside the revolver which was seized by the police. Two cases have been filed suo moto by the police with Khanjahan Ali police station.
3 Bangla Bhai men lynched on Eid day
Jan 24: Three activists of Jagrata Muslim Janata (JMJ) were lynched and an Awami League leader was killed in bomb attack at Koalipara village under Sreepur union of Bagmara upazila of the district on Saturday night.
Earlier on Saturday Mokbul Hossain Mridha, Chairman of Sreepur union parishad and Local Awami League leader and six others were injured in bomb attack at about 8-30 pm reportedly by a group of JMJ activists. The victims were returning home after visiting relatives at village Koalipara.
The activists of Bangla Bhai's party JMJ also fired shots at Mokbul Hossain which missed him. Mokbul raised alarm and started fleeing.
"Feet, don't fail me now!"
The JMJ terrorists chased him. He received bullet injuries in his legs. Hearing his cry and sound of gunshots and bombs, the devotees at a local mosque called the people of the village over microphone to resist the terrorists. Hearing the announcement over the microphone, the villagers came out of their houses with sticks and other weapons and chased the terrorists. During chase and counter- chase, the terrorists hurled bombs at the villagers when Mahbubur Rahman (30), an Awami League leader of the same village was wounded fatally in the bomb attack. He died on way to hospital.
The villagers managed to catch three of the terrorists and lynched them. Other terrorists managed to flee. After lynching the terrorists, the villagers took them to Khaira marsh, some 200 yards from the village and dumped the dead bodies beside the swamp. They were identified as Abdur Rahman(20), son of Arshadur Rahman of village Konabari under Bagmara upazila, Zahedul Islam (18), son of Abdul Malek of village Adamdighi of Bogra and Ibrahim (20), son of Mohammad Ali of village Tegachi of Bagmara. Villagers complained, even after informing the local thana repeatedly, no police came to the spot till late in the morning. Police recovered the bodies from the spot and sent those to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for autopsy.
Five killed in 'crossfire'
Five people including two outlaws and a top terror, were killed in crossfire with police since Friday last. Of the two outlaws, one belonged to Purba Banglar Communist Party (Lalpataka) and another to Biplobi Communist Party (BCP). Two snatchers were killed and a cop was injured in crossfire at Shyampur in the city on the night of January 21. The injured cop was identified as Sub-Inspector (SI) Abul Kashem.
According to police, the shootout took place at around 11pm on January 21 at Kuderbazar of Muradpur under Shyampur police station. Solaiman boarded a taxi cab from Jatrabari while four others also boarded the same cab. As the cab reached Shanir Akhra the snatchers who boarded the cab as passengers snatched nine thousand taka from the passenger after hitting him with rod. As he cried out for help the patrol police of Demra Thana followed the taxi cab. Police stopped the car at Kuderbazar of Muradpur under Shyampur police station. Sensing danger the criminals jumped out of the cab and tried to flee after firing upon the police. The police fired back and two snatchers were hit by bullets and died on the spot. A sub inspector was also injured during the shootout. But the rest of the criminals managed to flee from the scene. Police recovered two. 22 bore revolvers and two rounds of bullet from the spot, police sources said. The injured passenger was rushed to the Emergency Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for treatment. The dead bodies of the snatchers were sent to Mitford Hospital for autopsy. Solaiman filed a case with Demra police station and SI Abul Kashem filed another case with Shyampur police station in this connection.
Our Chittagong Correspondent adds; Mohammed Kala Meah alias Cola, one of the top terrorists of Chittagong was killed in crossfire with police last night at Rangunia.
Police said, they learnt that notorious top terror Mohammad Kala Meah alias Cola was staying at his village home at Joynagar under Rangunia upazila in the district. Cola, accused in several cases including abduction, dacoity and terrorism was arrested by Rangunia thana police from his village home at Joynagar under Rangunia upazila in the district at around 1 pm yesterday. The police team took him to Rajar Hat Police outpost. Police interrogated Kala Meah at the outpost. Cola confessed that he received taka two lakh 20 thousand as ransom from two abducted victims last year. He also confessed that he stored one AK 22, one DBBL, one Shutter Gun and bullets of different firearms at Dhong Nala village under Chandraghona.
"You're gonna kill me now, aren't you?'
According to the statement of Cola, a police team led by the Additional SP Jahangir Hossain Matabber started for the Dhong Nala village under Chandraghona along with Cola to recover the firearms. A gang of miscreants numbering 20/25 attacked the police to snatch Cola from custody when the team was crossing the Shukh Bilash area at Podua under Rangunia at around 10 pm last night. The miscreants fired at least 40 rounds of bullet to snatch the criminal. The police also fired back. The arrested criminal received bullet injuries during the encounter.
"Ouch, ouch....Rosebud........"
Cola died on the spot. The RAB team recovered 22 rounds of bullet from the spot.
Our Staff Correspondent from Rajshahi adds; Shafiqul Islam(38), an accused in criminal cases and leader of Purba Banglar Communist Party(PBCP), Lalpataka, was killed in crossfire with police at Lalpara Sluice gate area in the early hours of Saturday. Police said, Shafiqul Islam, son of Harun Shah of Naidighi village under Atrai thana was wanted in six murder cases. He was also an accused in Advocate Sobhan murder case. Police further informed that Shafiqul was the regional leader of PBCP and a member of "PBCP killer group." The people at Atrai areas took out a procession on Sunday noon hailing the death of PBCP leader Shafiqul.
Meanwhile, an alleged leader of outlawed Biplobi Communist Party (BCP) was killed in a shootout between his and police near Balarampur accomplices village in Sadar upazila on Friday. The deceased was identified as Aynal Hossain Mondal, the local leader of the BCP and son of Sattar alias Shata Mondal of Balarampur. Police said Aynal was arrested by Kushtia Islami University thana police with the cooperation of Pabna police from Mahishbathan village in Bhangura thana of Pabna district on Wednesday morning. On the basis of his statement, police along with Aynal proceeded towards Balarampur in search of hidden arms and ammunition.
Hidden arms, early morning search, looks bad for Aynal
"As the police party reached Balampur village, the of Aynal opened fire accomplices on the law-enforcers in a bid to snatch him at about 3:30 am today, prompting police to return the fire," said a member of the police party. Aynal was caught in "crossfire" and died on the spot.
I think that statement is loaded as a macro.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
9:06:44 AM ||
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Eid was so...er, "festive" in Bangla this year.
A Tanzanian al-Qaida operative who was captured in Pakistan last year and is on the FBI list of most-wanted terrorists was handed over to U.S. officials and flown out of the country months ago, Pakistani security officials said Tuesday. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in east Africa that killed more than 200 people. He was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agents in July after a shootout in the eastern city of Gujrat. Since then, officials have refused to divulge the whereabouts of Ghailani, who had a $5 million bounty on his head. But on Tuesday, a senior security official confirmed on condition of anonymity that the suspect had left Pakistan months ago.
"He's leaving, on a jet plane, don't know when he'll be back again....."
However, the official would not say whether Ghailani had been shifted to the U.S. high security detention facility for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "We have no idea, and as a matter of fact we don't ask such questions," he said.
Either Bagram in Afghanistan, or the black hole known as Deigo Garcia.
Another security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ghailani was handed over to the U.S. officials because he had committed a "heinous crime against them" in Africa. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he had no information about Ghailani's whereabouts.
The CIA isn't about to tell the State Department
Ghailani, believed to be aged between 30 and 34, is one of the FBI's 22 most wanted terror suspects. He has been indicted in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Twelve Americans were among the more than 200 people killed. At the time of his arrest, about 15 other people, including women and children, were also captured. It's unclear what has happened to them.
We're hoping it was very painful, whatever it was...
After Ghailani's capture, intelligence officials said that they found "valuable information," including plans for attacks against the United States and Britain, on a computer recovered from a house where Ghailani had been staying. Officials said that Ghailani was captured on a tip given to Pakistani officials by Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a Pakistani and alleged al-Qaida computer expert, who was arrested about two weeks before him in the eastern city of Lahore.
Pakistan has so far arrested more than 600 al-Qaida suspects from different parts of the country. They include al-Qaida No. 3 leader, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital, Islamabad. Almost all the foreign suspects, including Mohammed, were later handed over to U.S. officials. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri remain at large. They are still suspected to be hiding in the rugged border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/25/2005
8:48:32 AM ||
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#1
I can understand the CIA wanting him, but why the FBI? Is this part of the new Intelligence reorganization? Or simply reporter error...
#2
I can understand the CIA wanting him, but why the FBI?
FBI holds the trademark rights to "Most Wanted", so they post the list and pay the reward. CIA handles overseas ops, after they suck his brains dry they'll hand him off to FBI and Justice to stand trial.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005 12:46
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#3
I'd rather he's fed slowly to the sharks. No trial necessary
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 13:07
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#4
Trials aren't going to be possible for these folks as they are being interrogated without benefit of counsel. He's simply not going to return, in my opinion.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 13:42
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#5
Under Clinton, the FBI handled the investigations into the African embassy bombings...perhaps the relevance of the FBI is residual jurisdiction issues.
#6
Probably leaned against the unsecured hatchway door half way to Deigo Garcia. "We have no idea, and as a matter of fact we don't ask such questions"
Posted by: Tom ||
01/25/2005 13:45
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#7
What is the law with respect to illegal combatants? I believe that they can be subject to summary trial and execution when caught, but if you hold them as prisoners and interrogate them, does that still hold? I have no problem with immediately executing every terrorist caught, but holding someone in Gitmo, say, for several years and then saying "you're an illegal combatant" bang, kind of bothers Me a little. Not a lot, but a little.
#8
Don't get me wrong, but I always thought this guy had a future as a basketball player.
Mohammed JumpShot
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005 15:12
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#9
I dunno jackal, I actually kinda like that sequence. If they are subject to summary trial and execution due to their deeds, then it can "summarily" take place after they've been pink pantied into giving up all the information they have.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 15:19
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#10
I think you will see this goon and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed sent to the states for trial. Like the Rat said, their still wearing the pink panties.
Well sir, we had to ship them back to the US via the most secure and clandestine means due to threats on their lives from fellow terrorists. So to us, that meant put them on a submarine.
Yes Sir, we gave them the High Value Guest tour of the boat as directed - and thats where the problem was. There was a bit of an accident when we were at 800 ft depth doing 40 kts... the guests were inspecting the torpedo tubes and the Chief of the Boat started a firing drill, and well, sh*t just happened sir...
Well sir, we had to ship them back to the US via the most secure and clandestine means due to threats on their lives from fellow terrorists. So to us, that meant put them on a submarine.
Yes Sir, we gave them the High Value Guest tour of the boat as directed - and thats where the problem was. There was a bit of an accident when we were at 800 ft depth doing 40 kts... the guests were inspecting the torpedo tubes and the Chief of the Boat started a firing drill, and well, sh*t just happened sir...
Well sir, we had to ship them back to the US via the most secure and clandestine means due to threats on their lives from fellow terrorists. So to us, that meant put them on a submarine.
Yes Sir, we gave them the High Value Guest tour of the boat as directed - and thats where the problem was. There was a bit of an accident when we were at 800 ft depth doing 40 kts... the guests were inspecting the torpedo tubes and the Chief of the Boat started a firing drill, and well, sh*t just happened sir...
Passion of the Christ received 3 minor nominations, no surprise. No nominations at all for F911, which is a surprise.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
8:47:32 AM ||
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#1
Unbroken link, please?
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 9:01
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#2
Works for me...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 9:18
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Surprise? IIRC the Oscar telecast the last couple of years has been dropping faster than a 500 lb bomb in terms of viewership. Its becoming the tar baby of prime time programming. How can you have a "Hey look at me, I'm so beautiful/important" moment when most channels are turned to re-runs in most American homes. If your industry is based upon bringing the people to the show, you don't do it by flashing the customers the finger. If you want to send a message, use Western Union. Calling Mr. Stone, Calling Mr. Stone.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:50
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#4
Good lord, an unbroken sweep! I haven't seen a bloody one of any of the nominated pics!!
I'm not even sure if some of them even showed in theaters here in San Antonio...
#5
The two best movies of last year (The Passion of the Christ and The Incredibles, IMNTBHO) were too politically incorrect to be nominated for Best Picture. OTOH, good to see the Moore expelled from consideration.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 10:26
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#6
Agreed - Best two films last year was Passion of the Christ and the Incredibles. Great Movies.
#8
The Oscars, as always is a politically correct responce to national events. The Passion Of The Christ should have been nominated for best picture; best foreign language film; and best actor for Jim Cavezal! Michael Moore's F911 should have been nominated for best documentary...a child could see through all this hypocrisy!
#9
smn - a documentary? lies, edited fraud, qualifying as a documentary, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 12:38
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#10
..and the fat SOB had the nerve at the GLobes to say he dedicated it to the troops which he trashed in F911. But the left never did get the miltary, never will.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/25/2005 12:43
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#11
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
I demand a recount. F911 voters repeatedly broke fingernails trying to cast their ballots. Karl Rove stole the election. Diebold rigged the voting machines. My ideas can't fit inside their ballot boxes.
Posted by: Michael Moore ||
01/25/2005 14:21
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#13
I haven't seen any of the 'top honors' movies! I saw Shrek 2 but the others are mystery to me.
#14
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year... Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
Gerard Vanderleun (American Digest) sumrises that F911 didn't get any nominations was because the Academy and Hollywood were fearful of "paying the price".
Besides the industry's institutional bias, I suspect that POTC didn't get any major nominations because Hollywood wanted to avoid giving the impression that it was 'pandering' or had caved in.
#17
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
#18
What I cannot fathom is how they left out the Best Actor nomination for Caviezel in POTC. Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY? I like Clint Eastwood, and I've seen the film, but I'm sorry, his job there is nto nearly as good as he has done before, much less better than Caviezel.
I don't know how anyone could rate that above POTC in terms of acting performance.
Then again, you have things like the travesty (last year?) of Sean Penn robbing Bill Murray of an oscar he very much deserved.
And the movie itself certainly should have been nominated for best foreign language motion picture at a minimum - it certainly was not in English.
Anyway, IMHO Don Cheadle deserves the best actor, even if Caviezel had been nominated.
But the best acting job all this year in film that I have seen was Jeffrey Rush in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" - which HBO stupidly did not release into movie theaters here although it did so to good crowds and super reviews overseas.
All that, and Gibson shoudl certainly have gotten at least a nomination for POTC - this was every bit as much an acheivement as Braveheart or Hamlet for Gibson as a director, especially compared to the drab competition. TO take that many chances in cinema (aramaic, latin, the bloodiness of the whoel thing, the challenege of characterizing all those historical figures from Christ to Pontious Pilate) - and to pull it off as a work of cinema verite - that speacks ofd a great directorial acheivement.
The Academy and its liberal and anti-Christian bias (or fear of being percieved as pro-Christian in some cases) has never been more evident than this year - thier lack of guts to even NOMINATE POTC in any of the main categories shows quite clearly tht Hollywood does philosophically piss on the Flyover country (the Red States) that feeds them.
Maybe its time to make them pay the price somehow.
Luck, courage and skillful handling of the media have won German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a comeback thought impossible last year when his welfare cuts plunged his party into a record series of regional election defeats and sparked talk of the "Twilight of the Chancellor." He has been helped by the economy, which pulled out of a three-year slump in 2004 with 1.7 percent growth, according to figures released last week. They coincided with a poll showing Mr. Schroeder's coalition of Social Democrats (at 35%) and Greens (10%) neck-and-neck with the opposition conservatives (38%)and liberals (7%) for the first time since late 2002... The article finishes with lots of details about Germany's internal politics, for those who are interested.
The idea of an American right of secession -- a state's right to abandon the union -- today invites a veritable cyclone of scorn and bafflement. Secessionism, you will be told, is immoral, treasonous, seditious, the failed machination of slave-holding Southerners whose nutty dream died in the judgment of 1865. "What insanity it is to reopen this issue," says Pauline Maier, professor of American history at MIT.
What you will not hear is that secessionism is as old as the states themselves, that is was not always a reviled idea, that it cleaves to the heart of a celebrated but perhaps outmoded American principle -- the rebellion against centralized power -- and that it is a founding American act enshrined in our most revolutionary document. "[W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive," counsels the Declaration of Independence, "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." Although secessionism today is politically impossible, if tenuously legal, the secession specter has arisen again, waking to the Declaration's call to self-governance. In 2005, it is the blue-state Northerners, bitter from the defeat of Nov. 2, who are, ironically, wearing its robes.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/25/2005
8:42:39 AM ||
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#1
In 2005, it is the blue-state Northerners, bitter from the defeat of Nov. 2, who are, ironically, wearing its robes.
Curiously, it's always the Democrats who want to split the country when they lose. Is there something karmic that makes the party that extreme, or is it just the natural home to the spoiled brats?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 9:06
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#2
And if Kerry had won these sanctimonious jerks would be mocking any similar calls from the "Red" states. ****ing crybabies.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 9:17
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#3
Yep, and it was us Dem's in 1860 and 2004 who didn't give a rats ass about freedom and human rights. Better them all shut up and obey their masst'ers. Them's not like us white folks.
#4
Notice how they invoke the wording of the Declaration of Independence but seem to ignor the words of the Constitution, Article I -
"To provide for the calling forth of the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions"
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:21
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#5
Secession makes sense if the political and cultural differences concerned are rooted in a fundamentally incompatible economic system. Slaveholding states whose economies were driven mainly by exports of cash crops indeed had a fundamentally different socio-political structure antagonistic to the North's industrializing, protectionistic political economy.
So what is the distinctive political economy of today's secessionist wannabes? Media professions, academe and interior design don't count. Try again, folks.
#6
Let's see: the Northerners had the legitimacy (who brought many Southerners to fight for the Union: eg Farragutt) the Navy and the industry but the Southerners had the better soldiers and generals (I know about Grant and Sherman but it took a looong time until they displaced the McLellans, Burnsides or Mc Dowells). Notice too that there were strong majorities for secession in all the slavist states.
This time the Union would have the Navy, the soldiers, the generals, at least as much industry and the legitimacy. Plus the fact that in many "Democrat" states the Democrat majority is small and given that many Democrats would not approve secession the moonbats would never get a majority accepting to secede (and still less spend blood and treasure or suffer hunger for the new CSA). In fact there would be no secession: you don't proclaim secession when you are Vermont and Massachusetts facing a war against 48 states.
#7
cmon folks - nobody serious in the 'blue states" or in the Dem party is interested in this. Its a pet of pundits and internet commentors. I dont read Salon anymore - theyve never been very serious, and while they were amusing when defending Clinton - they somehow didnt get the word from Raines et al that Clinton was NOT LEFT - theyve been a bad joke recently. Read Slate instead. No sessesh there.
Does this count as a sign or a portent?
As rains lashed the Saudi desert, tens of thousands of drenched Muslim pilgrims welcomed the deluge yesterday as a blessing from God while they circled the cubic Kaaba shrine in this holy city's Grand Mosque, the final rite in the annual hajj pilgrimage.
A record estimated 2.56 million people attended this year's hajj snip
While lightning cracked overhead, thousands of the faithful in Mina, about 4 miles from Mecca, opened umbrellas to shield them from the rain while hurling rocks at rectangular, billboard-sized stone blocks symbolizing the devil.
"Rain is always a blessing, and for it to fall so hard at the end of our hajj rituals means our sins are washed away and God has accepted our prayers," said a soaked Mohammed Jamal Khan, 42, from the Pakistani city of Peshawar, before a gust of wind blew away the plastic bag he had tied to his head. snip
A confidential summary of talks between key European powers and Iran made available to The Associated Press on Tuesday shows there has been no progress in getting Iran to scrap nuclear enrichment - even though Tehran acknowledged it does not need nuclear energy. ... "Iran recognizes explicitly that its fuel cycle program cannot be justified on economic grounds," the document says. Diplomats [...] said the atmosphere between the two sides had improved during the second round held in Geneva on Jan. 17. But they agreed that no progress was being made on the Europeans' insistence that Iran's present temporary suspension of its enrichment programs be turned into a commitment to permanently mothball all such activities...
Backgrounder:
Concerns about Iran grew after revelations in mid-2002 of two secret nuclear facilities - a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water production plant near Arak. That led to a subsequent IAEA investigation of what turned out to be nearly two decades of covert nuclear activities, including suspicious "dual use" experiments that can be linked to weapons programs.
#1
Whatever it takes, Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 20:54
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Damn it, how did this information get out. Here we were enjoying the Iranian theocracy's dance of seven veils and this article has to surface. Iran has convinced us that they are only going to use nukes for energy consumption, that they have every right to have their own nukes, and that the real problem is the joos nuke and how about the Eqyptians?
#3
And so we might be approaching a crisis in which Europe will impose economic sanctions on Iran.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 21:58
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"The two positions cannot coexist," said one of the diplomats, from a West European nation. "If the impasse cannot be resolved, then there will be no solution," clearing the path for Iran to resume work on activities that will allow it to enrich uranium, he said.
Another diplomat agreed there was no progress on the core issue but expressed hope that common ground could be found in future rounds.
Yea, Petro there IS a solution and I got their FINAL ROUND right here.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/25/2005 22:01
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#5
Oooooh, it's official now. Thanks AP, if it wasn't for you guys, we would n-e-v-e-r have known....
#6
And so we might be approaching a crisis in which Europe will impose economic sanctions on Iran
the MS fairy tale continues. The Euros would gladly allow the Iranians nukes were they to committ to long term commercial trade contracts. Whores and traitors to the western world.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 22:17
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#7
Mike: And so we might be approaching a crisis in which Europe will impose economic sanctions on Iran.
You've forgotten sarc tags.
Noooo, you don't mean that you were serious!?
In that care I want to be on the planet you are on. Dream on.
A group of suspected illegal immigrants was being questioned early today after federal officials forced their single-engine plane to land here. The Cessna carried at least four suspected illegal immigrants who were detained along with the craft's pilot by homeland security officials in connection with a possible smuggling operation, according to newspaper and broadcast reports. A police dispatcher said federal authorities forced the craft to land at Stinson Municipal Airport just before 10 p.m. Monday. "They brought a plane down. They are holding it," a San Antonio Police Department dispatcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press. "They asked us to assist them. The FBI is handling it now."
Be afraid, be very afraid
Representatives of the Homeland Security Department, FBI and Federal Aviation Administration did not return telephone calls early today from the AP. Online records of the Federal Aviation Administration show that the 20-year-old plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del. The other co-owner is listed as Alyce S. Taylor, but no address is given for her.
Afzal Hameed, according to San Antonio TV news report this morning, is of Syrian desent and runs a flight school.
The FAA records state that the plane's last three-year registration was filed in 1999, and that the agency received no response in 2002 after mailing new registration forms to Hameed.
Let's see, 2002-2003-2004-2005, that's a little overdue, ain't it? Don't suppose you checked up to see why he didn't register that plane, did you?
Early today, the small white Cessna 172P with maroon and gray trim sat unattended next to the airport's darkened terminal, located a few miles south of downtown San Antonio. Capt. Jeff Humphrey, San Antonio police special operations commander, told the San Antonio Express-News in today's editions that the five suspects were under investigation in connection with a smuggling operation involving Chinese nationals. The newspaper said the five had been flying south of San Antonio when they were intercepted and ordered to land. Federal agents and San Antonio police surrounded the plane after it landed. Federal authorities said the plane was flying in American airspace illegally and that those aboard the craft appeared to be Chinese, according to San Antonio television and radio station WOAI. The Express-News said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials asked for backup from San Antonio police, who provided a Chinese linguist to translate for the two male and two female passengers. Last week the FBI, citing a tip, notified law enforcement officials to watch out for four Chinese nationals -- two men and two women -- described as possible terror suspects who may be headed to the Boston area.
Gee, we seem to have a match.
A man suspected of telling authorities about the Boston terror suspects was detained Monday by Mexican authorities in Mexicali, on the California border. Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones was on an FBI list of 16 people sought for questioning about the alleged terror plot. FBI special agent Kiffa Shirley told the AP that Quinones was being questioned on behalf of the FBI.
If he's not "connected" with the Mexican cops, he's not having a good day.
FBI officials have said they haven't been able to corroborate the terror claim. A leading theory in the case is that a smuggler of illegal immigrants made up the plot to get revenge on the group, perhaps because members failed to pay.
Better safe that sorry, especially since we now have a Syrian flight school instructor with a unregistered light plane full of illegals.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
8:10:10 AM ||
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#1
What airport did that "flight school" operate out of? Didn't anyone ever bother to check the registration on the plane?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 9:11
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#2
The C172 has 4 seats, so with one pilot and 4 passengers, it was pretty crowded. Probably 1 pax in the rear baggage space.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 9:38
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#3
This is very curious. A Hameed Afzal is actually trying to sell a 1979 Cessna T210 in Texas(see http://www.aircraftdealer.com/
aircraft_for_sale_detail/Cessna_210/
1979_Cessna_T210/2004.htm) and is actually a Pakistani Doctor who has done research on "Heavy Metals" found in some drinking water in Pakistan: see http://www.pakmedinet.com/view.php?id=6014 . Those heavy metals(Ni, Pb, Cu, Cd, Zn AND Cr) are the same types found at sites such as the department of Defense and energy with radioactive C's. See http://www.serdp.org/research/CU/CU-1084.pdf
#8
I never watch TV news so I missed this. It concerns me since I live in San Antonio. I hope it is actually a false alarm as Homeland Security says now.
Beginning today, big-name anchormen will report live from Baghdad and beyond — a full six days before the elections, scheduled for Sunday. "We want to tell the story of democracy in action," said John Stack, vice president of news gathering for the Fox News Channel.
The list:
Fox:Shepard Smith, four correspondents in Baghdad and Tikrit. CBS:Dan Rather (to "patrol" with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit) ABC:Peter Jennings, Iraqi reporters in 37 towns, a joint project with Time magazine and BBC CNN: anchorman Anderson Cooper, Christiane Amanpour, Nic Robertson, Jane Arraf, coverage from polling sites in Iraq, locations in Syria, Jordan, and Dearborn, MI — an urban stronghold of Iraqi-Americans NBC: Brian Williams, other details to be announced later
and locally The Iraqi Media Network (IMN) — which includes 24-hour Al Iraqiya TV and a radio station — has been upgraded to broadcast in Baghdad and 30 other locations. Thanks to new printing equipment, the network's nationally distributed newspaper Al Sabah is now printing 350,000 daily copies — up from 60,000 last year. The project was funded "solely by the Iraqi government," said Howard Lance of Harris Corp., a Florida-based media production consultant that received a $22 million contract to upgrade IMN facilities.
#4
But don't blame the Marines if Rather gets killed.
In fact, we should tell the insurgents that the American people would rise up in revolt against Bush if the Anchors whom they idolize were harmed in any way.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 20:58
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#5
I hope the marines use Dan Rather to 'leak' bad intel to the terrorists.
And yes, I think Dan would 'leak' intel to the terrorists in order to get americans killed and get a good 'story'.
#6
Certainly no one believes that the Marines would do anything but their complete and utter most to insure the safety such as Dan Rather . . . although, I am reminded of a joke about Dan, Hillary and a Marine being taken prisoner . . . maybe they could use him for sniper bait?
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/25/2005 21:03
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Really, they are all going in search of a bloodbath. Ghouls...
Immigration-control activists announced a bill to crack down on benefits available to illegal aliens in Arkansas, the first in what is expected to be a wave of initiatives and bills following the success of a similar proposition in Arizona in November's election.
Arkansas state Sen. Jim Holt yesterday said he will sponsor a bill in the legislature this year to deny benefits and inhibit the ability of illegal immigrants to register and vote. And state resident Joe McCutchen promised to lead a grass-roots effort to support the bill.
Mr. McCutchen said he thinks it's up to citizens to take action on illegal immigration. "If our republic's to be saved, we'd better," he said. "It's obvious the president has no intention to secure the borders, and I think this is by design. I think they're dedicated to destroying the sovereignty and heritage and culture of this nation for their own purpose, whatever that may be." Mr. McCutchen's group, Protect Arkansas Now, is following the lead of Kathy McKee, the woman who described herself as a Quaker Sunday School teacher and led Protect Arizona Now, the group that put Proposition 200 on last year's ballot.
Proposition 200 forces those registering to vote to prove their citizenship, those showing up to vote to provide identification, and denies some state benefits to illegal aliens. It passed with 56 percent of the vote, despite opposition from the majority of the state's congressional delegation, many state officials and a host of immigrant advocacy groups.
Ms. McKee recently announced that Protect Arizona Now has become Protect America Now, and will try to foster similar initiatives or state statutes throughout the nation. "Hopefully, others can learn from our success and not try to re-invent the wheel," she said.
Ms. McKee said her goal is to avoid becoming like some of the national lobbying groups on immigration. "Over the past decade, entirely too much money has gone away from local efforts -- going instead to Washington groups with huge overheads -- for there to be meaningful success combating illegal immigration," she said. "Goodness knows, Protect Arizona Now's Prop. 200 has been one of the two to three significant successes with this issue the past two decades; while I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a single major success that has come from the Beltway fund-raisers."
In the midst of the Arizona effort, her group clashed with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national lobby, over which group should be leading the petition drive. The two groups since have disagreed over the scope of the ban on benefits.
Virginia Deane Abernathy, chairwoman of the National Advisory Board of Protect America Now, said there are efforts in states other than Arkansas. She would not say where else the group may be active, but Colorado is considered a prime opportunity. She said 23 states allow citizen initiatives, including Arkansas, but the group decided to go ahead with a bill rather than an initiative in Arkansas because it takes less money and grass-roots manpower, she said.
California pioneered a crackdown on benefits to illegal aliens with the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994. But federal courts ruled it unconstitutional, and state officials did not appeal the decision.
Both the new national and Arkansas efforts are bound to run into opposition from immigrant and civil rights groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), which sued to try to stop the Arizona initiative. MALDEF lost in federal district court and now is appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the benefits provisions. It also has asked the Justice Department not to approve the voter identification measures, arguing that the provisions are discriminatory, since Hispanics and other minorities are less likely to have the required identification.
Araceli Soledad Perez, a staff attorney at MALDEF, had not seen the Arkansas bill but said the same objections hold true for any state statute or initiative. "Immigration is exclusively the province of the federal government, and that's been our position all along, and that's been the crux of our appeal in the 9th Circuit," she said.
Miss Perez said the move to go state by state is not the right approach. "I think what voters and states need to do is, if they think there are immigration problems and they want immigration reform, they need to lobby their congressmen for nationwide immigration reform," she said. "States are not the channel to change immigration law."
But Mr. McCutchen said President Bush has failed citizens. "I've heard him say 'secure the Iraqi borders,' but in four years I've never heard the man say one time 'secure the U.S. borders' " Mr. McCutchen said. Mr. McCutchen said his freedom of information requests to Arkansas state officials to try to determine the costs of illegal immigration have been turned down, with state officials saying they do not have the data.
#1
I hold the darkest suspicions about this taking place in Arkansas. First of all, for many years, Arkansas struggled to do anything it could to keep their (African-American) poor, poor, so they would have very cheap labor for their rice plantations. Many of these laws still exist. Second, almost every illegal immigrant in the State is employed by one corporation, Tyson Foods, so many that hispanics are the majority in one rural county. Tyson, for its part, had a widely distributed executive memo a few years ago, a "price list" of the bribes to be paid to every State employee from the governor down. So pardon me if I am distrustful of their claim that illegals are draining their State coffers. I think they would pass a law making them officially slaves if they thought they could get away with it.
#2
I see your point 'Moose, but your concerns are something that needs to be monitored. That said, it is important that people obey the law. President Bush should be pushing this, but he is not and I am angry and disappointed about it. Back to the old adage,
When the People Lead, the Leaders will Follow
The politicians and the LLL judges have sold their souls, so it is up to the people to save our republic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 23:50
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I wonder where they got the idea for some of this????
A friend of CQ forwarded an e-mail from a family member serving in Iraq and working on the elections slated for Sunday. In his e-mail, he alerted his friends and family to these instructions on the Arabic forum "Lion's Den" frequented by terrorists and their sympathizers, giving instructions on how to disrupt polling on January 30. None of the following is terribly surprising, but it shows how sophisticated and detailed their plans have become.
"Mudad Iluj" instructed the Iraqi dead-enders last January 1 on specific tasks to wreak havoc:...
**SNIP**
This missive makes clear that the bombings are just a prelude, a softening of the opposition, in advance of the main attempt to dismantle the elections. In the next two or three days, we need to watch for the following:
1. Sudden withdrawals of large numbers of candidates from the elections just before the ballots go out to the polling stations
2. Ballots stolen before and after the election in large quantities
3. Mainstream media stories showing stolen ballots
4. Of course, all-day attacks on polling stations.
We're just five days away from Election Day, and from this message, it looks as if we can expect these operations to begin as early as tomorrow or Thurday. Forewarned, however, is forearmed.
One Senate Democrat called Condoleezza Rice a liar Tuesday and others said she was an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq, but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state.
Rice, who has been President Bushââ¬s White House national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said. She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
"I donââ¬t like impugning anyoneââ¬s integrity, but I really donââ¬t like being lied to," Dayton said. "Repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally."
Rice is expected to win confirmation on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., predicted that Rice would have "an overwhelming majority" of votes.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., cautioned against "inflammatory rhetoric that is designed merely to create partisan advantage or to settle partisan scores."
...
"There was no reason to go to war in Iraq when we did, the way we did and for the false reasons we were given," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Rice is not directly responsible for intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war that overestimated Saddamââ¬s nuclear capability, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. "But she is responsible for her own distortions and exaggerations of the intelligence which was provided to her," Levin said.
"Dr. Rice is responsible for some of the most overblown rhetoric that the administration used to scare the American people," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said.
The Senate set aside most of the day Tuesday to debate the Rice nomination after Democrats revolted against a plan to confirm Rice last week, on the same day that Bush took his oath for a second term.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005
5:05:40 PM ||
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Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 17:06
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#2
On one side, we've got Mark "Buck-buck-braaawk" Dayton, a drunk driver, and the Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan (W. Va. District #2).
On the other side, we've got Condi the Warrior Princess.
How did Karl Rove arrange this? The man's a genius!
Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 17:13
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#3
The Dummycrats are way over the top on this one. I will work to exterminate the Mark Dayon rodent. Kinda funny though, that Dayton was sniveling about sending the troops to Iraq. Here he was the one Senator who cut-and-ran from his Senate office when an alert was sounded.
#4
Bullshit. Pure, utter bullshit. This is the kind of crap that led to my vow that I will never, NEVER vote for another Democrat so long as I live. Not for President, not for Congresscritter, not for governor, or State Rep., or county commissioner, or mayor, or even Dog Catcher.
And until 2 years ago, I'd been a Democrat all my life. NEVER AGAIN!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 17:29
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#5
Dr. Rice never struck me as a person who gives a rat's ass about names, so fire away, DemocRATS.
#6
I agree with Mike. Next month I want to see the grilling by the Grand Kleagle, Town Drunk, and Village Idiot of Judge Pricilla Owens. That makes for great TV! Are they going to hurl things at the Hispanic fellow now? God I hope so! FYI, I can't wait to catch the Daily Show, you know it's going to be good!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2005 18:39
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#8
Hi, Sen. Dayton! Glad to see that you've come back to town after scurrying off at the first sign of trouble. Do you have plans after the 2006 election? Maybe you and Tom Daschle can get together on a Lexus dealership in South Dakota or something.
Best Wishes for a Happy Retirement in '07,
The Coalition that helped Defeat former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle
This is precisely the thought that crossed my mind after just observing more of this petty bloviating on the part of Boxer and the rest of her despicable cohorts on the local evening news. And in the future, should the opportunity arise to be paid back for this, I hope they get repaid completely, PLUS INTEREST.
This petty insulting and tantrum-throwing is absolutely disgusting.
#3
Ted Turner called FOX an arm of the Bush administration and compared FOXNEWS's popularity to Hitler's popular election to run Germany before WWII ... His no-nonsense, humorous approach ... generated frequent loud applause and laughter ...
Well, I guess that depends on what your chosen meaning of the word 'nonsense' is.
...the "Minuteman Project" will field volunteers from 37 states, many of them ex-military and law enforcement personnel, to man observation posts and a communications center, along with seven pilots from Arizona who will provide aerial surveillance.
"I believe we will bring serious media and political attention to the shameful fact that 21st century minutemen/women have to help secure U.S. borders because the government refuses to provide the manpower and funding required to do so."
Posted by: Ebbavith Angang9747 ||
01/25/2005
4:06:15 AM ||
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Admendment X of the Constitution
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Seems the people are taking up the slack created by inaction or refusal to act by the government to enforce its own laws. This is the militia, not vigilantes.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:26
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#2
This is good. Thin out the economic migrants and the bad guys will be easier to find. Do they plan to make citizen's arrests as well?
#3
"Do they plan to make citizen's arrests as well?"
240 volunteers vs 10,000 illegal crossings a day.
And that is if all the volunteers were working everyday. Not wise.
I have seen bullets flying while floating on the Rio-Grande on the tex-mex border. It is a very dangerous place. Bodies floating in the river are fairly common.
#8
I've only ever experienced civilized borders like Canada at Buffalo, NY, and international airports. Never mind.
Hmmm... does the Detroit/Windsor crossing count as "civilized"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 14:34
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Tex:
According to the article, they are simply spotters. They just observe and report to Border Patrol who may detain them for a while, then let them go return them to Mexico. It's a start, anyway.
That area is pretty nice. To the west is the Coronado nat'l forest, lots of trees and some impressive vistas. Importantly, it has water and lots of concealment. If you are healthy enough to do some mountain climbing, it's probably the best area to cross. To the east it's more range land, mostly grass and scrub, but some actual creeks (part year, anyway).
By patrolling that area, you are forcing the law breakers west into the desert (maybe scaring them off the idea) or east into the Bisbee/Douglas area, which has more development and trespassers can be found more easily.
RC:
Having lived in the Detroit area (Dearborn Heights/Livonia) for 20 years, I can say that the Windsor side was civilized.
#10
I think it is a great start jackal.
If I did not have to work for a living I would head west and help them " spot ".
This is a major problem in my eyes.
I am pro Bush, but on this stance I disagree.
But remember, it is probably political suicide to support lock down on the border.
#11
I dunno, Tex. Cutting down illegal immigration is pretty popular from all the polls I've seen, usually like 60-70%. Many of the grassroots Republicans and many state-level officeholders support the idea; it's just the national GOP that is the problem.
It's not impossible that someone like Hillary could get to the right of the GOP candidate in 2008 on this issue. Of course, once in office, it would be the "Middle-Class Tax Cut" all over again, but it would be too late.
Edited for length
Last spring, Bangla Bhai, whose followers probably number around 10,000, decided to try an Islamist revolution in several provinces of Bangladesh that border on India. His name means ''Bangladeshi brother.'' (At one point he said his real name was Azizur Rahman and more recently claimed it was Siddiqul Islam.) He has said that he acquired this nom de guerre while waging jihad in Afghanistan and that he was now going to bring about the Talibanization of his part of Bangladesh. Men were to grow beards, women to wear burkas. This was all rather new to the area, which was religiously diverse. But Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, as Bangla Bhai's group is called (the name means Awakened Muslim Masses of Bangladesh), was determined and violent and seemed to have enough lightly armed adherents to make its rule stick. Because he swore his main enemy was a somewhat derelict but still dangerous group of leftist marauders known as the Purbo Banglar Communist Party, Bangla Bhai gained the support of the local police -- until the central government, worried that Bangla Bhai's band might be getting out of control, ordered his arrest in late May.
The Bangladeshi government's arrest warrant doesn't seem to have made much difference, although for now Bangla Bhai refrains from public appearances. The government is far away in Dhaka, and is in any case divided on precisely this question of how much Islam and politics should mix. Meanwhile, Bangla Bhai and the type of religious violence he practices are filling the power vacuum.
In Bangladesh, ''Islam is becoming the legitimizing political discourse,'' according to C. Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, federally financed policy group in Washington. ''Once you don that religious mantle, who can criticize you? We see this in Pakistan as well, where very few people are brave enough to take the Islamists on. Now this is happening in Bangladesh.'' The region, Fair added, has become a haven where jihadis can move easily and have access to a friendly infrastructure that allows them to regroup and train.
This was not supposed to be the fate of Bangladesh, which fought its way to independence 34 years ago. While its population of 141 million is 83 percent Muslim, the nation was founded on the principle of secularism, which in Bangladesh essentially means religious tolerance. After the guiding figure of independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated in 1975, military leaders, seeking legitimacy, allowed a return of Islam to politics. With the return of fair elections in 1991, power became precariously divided among four parties: the right-leaning Bangladesh National Party (B.N.P.), the mildly leftist Awami League, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami and the conservative Jatiya. The two leading parties are led by women: the B.N.P. by the current prime minister, Khaleda Zia, widow of the party's murdered founder; the Awami League by Zia's predecessor as prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, herself the daughter of the assassinated founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Zia and Sheikh Hasina, as she is known, have a legendary antipathy toward each other. Each of their parties regularly accuses the other of illegal acts.
The political breach between those two parties is being filled primarily by Jamaat-e-Islami, which agitated against independence in 1971 and remains close to Pakistan. The group was banned after independence for its role in the war but has slowly worked its way back to political legitimacy. The party itself has not changed much -- it was always socially conservative and unafraid of violence. The political context, however, has changed enough to give it greater power. Since 2001, Jamaat-e-Islami has been a crucial part of a governing coalition dominated by the B.N.P. The two parties have ties dating to the late 1970's, but it is only since 2001 that a politically aggressive form of Islam has found, for the first time since independence, a strong place at the top of Bangladeshi politics. It's a sad story the way that the collaborators of the JI, who fought alongside the Pakistani Army against their own people in the name of Islamic solidarity, have been able to return to power, lead by the same men who killed thousands of Hindus and independence supporters.
By the early 1990's Islamist groups began appearing, mainly at the periphery of the jihad centered on Afghanistan. The most important of these has been the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji), which has been associated with Fazlul Rahman, who signed Osama bin Laden's famous declaration in 1998 endorsing international, coordinated jihad -- the document that introduced Al Qaeda to the larger world. But Bangla Bhai's group and others have since emerged and are making their bids for power.
Six years ago, Huji chose its first prominent target: Shamsur Rahman, who is Bangladesh's leading poet. Rahman has lived under police protection since Jan. 18, 1999, when three young men appeared at his house and asked for a poem. Immediately one of the men ran upstairs and tried to chop Rahman's neck with an ax. ''He tried to cut my head off, but my wife took me in her arms and my daughter-in-law too,'' Rahman recounted. The two women fended off the blows until the neighbors, hearing their screams, rushed into the house and caught the attackers. The attack led to the arrest of 44 members of Huji. Two men, a Pakistani and a South African, claimed they had been sent to Bangladesh by Osama bin Laden with more than $300,000, which they distributed among 421 madrassas, or private religious schools. According to Gowher Rizvi, director of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard and a lecturer in public policy, bin Laden's reputed donation is ''a pittance'' compared with the millions that Saudi charities have contributed to many of Bangladesh's estimated 64,000 madrassas, most of which serve only a single village or two.
Communists are just one target of Islamic militants in Bangladesh. Most attacks have been carried out against either members of religious minorities -- Hindus, Christians and Buddhists -- or moderate Muslims considered out of step with the doctrines espoused at the militant madrassas. International groups like Human Rights Watch cannot gather information freely enough to be certain of the scope of the problem. Yet anecdotal evidence is abundant. In Bangladesh, as part of the militant Islamists' agenda, religious minorities are coming under a new wave of attacks. One of the most vulnerable communities is that of the Ahmadiyya, a sect of some 100,000 Muslims who believe that Muhammad was not the last prophet. In Pakistan, the Ahmadiyya have been declared infidels and many have been killed. In Bangladesh, religious hardliners have burned mosques and books and pressured the government to declare the sect non-Muslim. Last year, the government agreed to ban Ahmadiyya literature; earlier this month, however, Bangladesh's high court stayed the ban pending further consideration by the court.
The Ahmadiyya are hardly the only group at risk. ''For the Hindus, the last couple of years have been disastrous,'' says Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. ''There are substantial elements within the society and government itself that are advancing the idea that Hindus need to be expelled.'' On the ground, attacks against Hindus include beatings and rapes.
In this environment, Bangladesh's radical leaders have ratcheted up their ambitions. Responding to the American invasion of Afghanistan, supporters of the Islamic Oikya Jote (I.O.J.), the most radical party in the governing coalition and a junior partner to the Jamaat-e-Islami, chanted in the streets of Chittagong and Dhaka, ''Amra sobai hobo Taliban, Bangla hobe Afghanistan,'' which roughly translates to ''We will be the Taliban, and Bangladesh will be Afghanistan.'' The I.O.J. is considered a legitimate voice within Bangladeshi politics. The I.O.J.'s chairman, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini, who has served as a member of Parliament for the past three years, says he believes that secular law has failed Bangladesh and that it's time to implement Sharia, the legal code of Islam. Amini is the author of books in Arabic, Bangla and Urdu. (He learned Urdu while completing graduate work in a madrassa in Karachi, Pakistan.) I did some searching and was completely unsurprised to find that the Karachi madrassa he attended was Binori town, formerly run by Mufti Shamzai, and the source of the leadership level of the Deobandi Jihadist movements.
The mufti has been named in Indian intelligence documents as a member of the central committee of Huji (itself linked to Al Qaeda), an association he would, of course, deny. He is also rumored to have close friends among the Afghan Taliban, which he denies, while adding that it's better not to discuss the Afghan Taliban, as they are so frequently misunderstood. Outside his office, the sound of boys' voices reciting the Koran rises and falls. Fifteen hundred students study at the madrassa, and the mufti's party, the I.O.J., sponsors madrassas all over the nation; how many, he claimed not to know. Financing, the mufti said, comes mostly from Bangladesh itself, but some money also arrives from friends throughout the Arab world. Of all his political influence, the mufti is most proud of his fatwas, which, he said, give him a means to speak out against those who violate Islam. ''Whoever speaks against Islam, I issue a fatwa against them to the government,'' he said. ''But the government says nothing.'' He shook his head, frustrated. That's next on his agenda: to pressure the government to recognize his religious injunctions. ''It's possible,'' he said, ''now more than ever.'' It appears the IOJ serves as a branch of Pakistan's JUI-F, just as Bangladesh's JI answers to Pakistan's JI. The former being Deobandis, the latter being more akin to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/25/2005
3:54:54 AM ||
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Candidates and others raised vote fraud allegations following the November election. Without East St. Louis votes, Reeb had a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent over his Democratic opponent, Mark Kern, and a 4,000-vote edge. After East St. Louis was included, the numbers reversed ... FBI agents raided City Hall on Nov. 23 and took from [Mr.] Ellis's office computer hard drives, boxes of files and his lizard-skin briefcase. He's a Democrat precinct committeeman with ties to other leaders in the city. According to his indictment, within two days of learning about the witness's contact with authorities, Ellis worked on a plan to plant one-half ounce of crack cocaine on the witness this refers to a witness to the vote rigging and fraud in his precincts
and have her arrested. Conversations between Ellis and an undisclosed person were apparently recorded. The talk shifted from a set-up to Ellis' alleged instructions to "dispose of her."
"She knows too much, Muggsy! She gots ta disappear!"
The other person showed Ellis a photograph "depicting what appeared to be the murdered" witness, the indictment states. The other person told Ellis, falsely, she was thrown to the bottom of Horseshoe Lake in Madison County. According to the indictment, Ellis also tried to corruptly influence several witnesses to invoke their right to remain silent when they appeared before a grand jury in November. For all this alleged activity, including the attempted murder accusations, he faces four charges of obstruction of justice.
#1
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
#6
OS, sounds like you haven't heard about Milwaukee. Check this out. sKerry won Wisconsin by 14,000 votes. But based on this, he probably lost it when the dead and fraudulent are removed. I suspect the same is true in Philadelphia and every other big city. We just don't have a Sharkansky or Captain Ed in them.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 17:40
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#7
Mrs. Davis -- I have no doubt Kerry won in the big cities. What I wonder about, in light of Milwaukee, is if the fraudulent margin in those cities was enough to swing a couple states.
Like, say, Pennsylvania.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 17:51
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#8
I agree. Bush is really misssing a beat by not having Gonzales focus on this like, say , a laser. There should be a whole bunch of prosecutions of Democrats for violations of civil rights by Federal prosecutors in 2007.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 17:54
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#9
RC:
College roommate of mine who's big on politics and such went to Philly to help raise votes for Bush right before the election, and even though he's blind he could see the voter fraud. He couldn't believe the political machine that the Dems have operating in that area, and he's convinced that if it wasn't for that, Bush would have won PA.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/25/2005 18:14
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#10
Holy cow! East St. Louis is one weird place. Do not miss the article referenced by Gateway Pundit, detailing all the shennanigans and goings-on.
The mayor, Carl Officer, is (or used to be) one crazy SOB. See here, especially after the part "Carl turned strange." -- sleeping in coffins ... pistols ... Uzis ... speeding Jags ... jail ... "monkey blood".
Seems he's back to being mayor again. Last fall he was out stumping for Bush. (Naturally he's a Democrat.) Of course, this was only a week before the election, so damage was minimized.
#11
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
#12
Add this to the dead people and felons voting in Washington State - and it paints a picture of the Democratic Party as the PArty of Fraud and deciet.
From the Blog thats pushing this story (since the MSM are ignoring it)...
could you imagine if Ellis would have been Republican? This story would be on the front of every major newspaper in the country. The New York Times would finally have their story to replace Abu Ghraib. And, CNN would be set up outside his home.
Media Bias?
You're damned straight it is. We need to call our congress-critters and demand that a FEDERAL inquiry into systematic fraud at the polls in Democratic run areas be investigated byt he FBI and FEC.
Hey you grandstanding prick McCain, here's a good one for you to go after if you have the testicular fortitude. But I dont expect anything from you - you are good only at beating up on wives and kids of MIAs and trying to drag down the president and the SecDef.
The treaty in question is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST). It was drafted more than 20 years ago at the behest of Soviet Bloc and "nonaligned" nations as the centerpiece of their so-called "New International Economic Order," a scheme to transfer wealth from the industrialized to the developing world. Ronald Reagan objected to LOST's creation of a supranational agency to govern the world's oceans at the expense of U.S. sovereignty and America's capacity to utilize and assure freedom of the seas. When American concerns were ignored or simply voted down, he refused to sign the accord. The treaty has not improved with age, despite claims by its supporters that Mr. Reagan's objections have subsequently been addressed. For example, it still allows an international organization for the first time to collect revenues from U.S. taxpayers as the price for exploiting the world's seabeds. LOST also would still infringe in significant ways on the movement and activities of U.S. military and intelligence operations at sea. It still would oblige the U.S. to transfer sensitive data and technology to potentially hostile nations. Note last paragraph as it applies to WOT.
#1
Law of the Sea Treaty? Is this that blast from the past that was whipped up by the Soviets and their satellites back in the days of the Glomar Explorer to keep the Evil Capitalist Running Dog Imperialists from exploiting the mineral riches on the seafloor? IIRC, the cover story for Glomar Explorer was mining manganese nodules on the bottom of the ocean; as opposed to it's real task of hoovering up sunken rooskii missile subs.
#2
This shows why TV glamor puss RINOs like Lugar are so dangerous. It is hard to believe this crap is coming up for a vote and thaat president would sign it. So much for his speech on freedom.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 16:57
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WITH American military casualties climbing, the US Army is preparing to send 18 remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq in March or April. Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp. Military officials like to compare the roughly metre-high robots favourably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.
But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the robot's cameras. "The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it's up to half a mile a way," Foster-Miller Inc general manager of Talon robots Bob Quinn said. As one marine fresh out of boot camp said after seeing the robot: "This is my invisibility cloak."
Mr Quinn said it was a "bootstrap development process" to convert a Talon robot, which has been in military service since 2000, from its main mission — defusing roadside bombs in Iraq — into the gunslinging SWORDS. It was a joint development process between the army and Foster-Miller. Working with soldiers and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, it took just six months and only about $US2 million ($2.6 million) in development money to outfit a Talon with weapons, according to Mr Quinn and Picatinny technology manager Anthony Sebasto. The Talon had already proven itself to be pretty rugged. One was blown from the roof of a Humvee and into a nearby river by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Soldiers simply opened its shrapnel-pocked control unit and drove the robot out of the river, Mr Quinn said.
Its developers say its tracks, like those on a tank, can overcome rock piles and barbed wire, though it needs a ride to travel faster than 7km/h. Running on lithium ion batteries, it can operate for one to four hours at a time, depending on the mission. Operators work the robot using a control unit which has two joysticks, a handful of buttons and a video screen. Mr Quinn says that may eventually be replaced by a "Game Boy" type of controller hooked up to virtual reality goggles. The army has been testing it over the past year at Picatinny and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland to ensure it won't malfunction and can stand up to radio jammers and other countermeasures.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/25/2005
3:12:58 PM ||
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Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 16:22
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#3
The reason that it only took a few months to put the weapon payload onto the TALON is because my company already had that system (the one in the middle...the other two demo only). With the M-240 on the SWORDS, it is one bad piece of kit. Now you understand my handle.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/25/2005 16:36
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#7
Works on a standard tripod or on top of vehicles too. We even have units in housings for permanent fafcility security. Easy to operate and super accurate. I love my job.
Posted by: Johnny 5 ||
01/25/2005 17:00
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"WITH American military casualties climbing...."
Whenever I read things like this, I find it rather difficult to keep myself reading further. Does the number of casualties ever go down? Lazy writers and obvious spin.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
01/25/2005 17:39
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#11
Does the number of casualties ever go down?
Well, if there's a necromancer involved. But not in the real world.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 17:46
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#12
Remote kontrolled veapons vere a German specialty in my day!
Thanks for what you're doing -- putting a bit of the fear of God into our adversaries. Please pass on our best regards and deepest gratitude to your buddies.
#18
TA: They are rather quiet since they are electric. RC: They deal with steps pretty well from what I've seen. Cingold, much appreciated. I know that I would not want to see one of these coming down an alley my way.
The violent Islamic Hamas is prepared to suspend attacks if Israel stops targeting militants and agrees to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, the top Hamas leader told Ariel SharonColin PowellKofi Annan The Associated Press on Tuesday. The apparent softening [?] of Hamas' position raised hopes that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would be allowed to live soon reach a formal cease-fire with militant groups that would pave the way for a new round of peace talks with Israel. Speaking to The Associated Press by cellular phone from an undisclosed location, Mashaal said success of the truce effort depends on Israel.
"Cos us Hamas gunnies, we can't control ourselfs. The jinns just take OVER, know what I mean?"
"This is a moment of test," Mashaal said. "It puts the responsibility on the international community and the United States to force Israel to recognize the Palestinian rights. If the Zionist enemy abides by certain conditions, such as releasing all prisoners and detainees and halting all acts of killing, assassination and aggression against our people inside and outside (the Palestinian territories), the general national position of all Palestinian factions has become that they are ready to positively deal with the idea of a temporary truce," Mashaal said.
"At least until we get our best hard boyz back from jug and properly armed," The Associated Press forgot to report.
Abbas has been in contact with militant groups in recent days to try to win broad agreement to a cease-fire. But Mashaal warned Hamas would respond to any Israeli attacks.
"Especially if you helizap me. Don't even think about it."
Lower-level Hamas leaders have talked in recent days of accepting a temporary truce, but Tuesday was the first time Mashaal had publicly given his approval. A senior Hamas leader in the West Bank has said the group has agreed to suspend mostsomea few attacks for 30 days to test Israel's response.
#3
although Hamas is putting impossible terms on their truce this is still a public relations disaster and lose of face for them because their recruiters and leaders had promised over and over and over again never to call a truce
#4
I am going to give credit where credit is due. I think the deployment of the police along the Gaza border is the single most significant step towards peace since the Egypt peace treaty. I think Hamas is will find it difficult not only to recruit but also to cross the border (most of them come from Gaza). Call me cautiously optimistic. Hamas see that peace is coming and they have a choice to join, start a civil war, or just be left out of the power base with the Paleos.
#9
Hamas is a gang, nothing more. They are not going to stop attacking Israel or being tough guys to other Paleos because to do so negates the purpose of their existance. What, they disband and become regular old criminals? Not likely. Nothing will happen until the PA and the IDF put these guys into a squeeze they can never get out of.
Grab your popcorn, open your wallets! Via Lucianne:
The co-author of the Swift Boat veterans' book that attacked Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] plans to move to the Bay State this year so he can challenge Kerry for his Senate seat in 2008.
``I'm going to do it,'' said Jerome Corsi, 58. ``I've got serious political aspirations now.''
Corsi, who has had to apologize for inflammatory comments he made about Islam, the pope and Judaism, lives in New Jersey but plans to establish residency in Boston this spring.
Though not a veteran himself, Corsi co-authored ``Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.''
#2
OS - you're right, unfortunately. But it would be refreshing to to at least have some viable opposition to Kerry up here in Mass. Last time out he ran unopposed, at least by a Republican.
#3
Should make good folly though. Corsi has his own problems, but he has performed considerable research on Kerry, and he will be prepared to confront Kerry on his four month tour, the only thing that Kerry has run on during his senate career.
#2
Try a different Character Encoding setting on your web browser. Unicode (UTF-8) will make the apostrophes display properly in the text samples you cited.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 6:14
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#3
Thanks, Dave.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/25/2005 7:45
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#4
YW, Mrs. Davis. But I'm still trying to find an encoding setting that unravels the following:
"The activists � all employees of the John Kerry (news - web sites) campaign � are accused of..."
What I see there, are question marks where the original Yahoo article had "long dash" characters.
When I look at the page source for the Yahoo article, I can see the character was written as an HTML code (an ampersand, a pound sign, then "151" for the ASCII code for long dash), but my theory is that the code doesn't carry over when copying and pasting the article to Rantburg.
Does ANYONE see long dashes instead of question marks in the text I italicized above? If so, then my theory is wrong...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/25/2005 8:22
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#5
Eds -
I've included the fix for this in the "squish" function. I'll apply it to the regular save routine when I get a few minutes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 8:59
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#6
OT - Fonts
Dave D. - I set my browser to use my fonts all the time, switched to Book Antiqua and ISO-8859-1 and I can see the long dashes, apostrophes, etc., in the article. However looking down at the comments as I type this, I see all manner of strange characters.
MAMDOUH Habib could lose any money paid to him for selling the story of his detention, with the Federal Government signalling it would use laws designed to seize money from criminals to scrutinise his future media payments. Habib is expected to be besieged by media outlets willing to buy his story when he returns to Australia from Guantanamo Bay within two weeks, with some agents already touting six-figure sums on behalf of TV networks and publishers. However, Attorney General Philip Ruddock said he had asked lawyers to advise him on whether the new Proceeds of Crime legislation could be used to stop Habib profiting from his ordeal - despite returning home a free man. "There is potential for the legislation to cover this," Mr Ruddock said. "If he is paid for his story on his treatment in Guantanamo Bay, the Government will examine closely the implications."If obligations do arise, the Government will seek to enforce the legislation."
At issue is a clause in the legislation that allows for a person's assets to be confiscated if he is deemed to have committed an indictable offence in a foreign jurisdiction. One of the more likely bidders, the Nine Network's 60 Minutes program, yesterday confirmed it was keen to air the former Sydney cleaner's story, but said its own legal advice echoed that given to the Government. Executive producer John Westacott said Habib's ordeal since his capture in October 2001 was "important to the national history". "This is a story that reflects the political views of the country and it should be treated in that regard," he said.
A "60 Minutes" story supporting terrorists, who'd a thunkit?
Habib will shortly be released from Guantanamo Bay after the US military announced earlier this month it does not intend to charge him, despite having detained him for almost three years. Mr Ruddock earlier said the release came despite "the strong view of the US" that Mr Habib had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks and had trained with al-Qaeda. Habib's lawyer, Stephen Hopper, confirmed that media outlets had made approaches, but said no deal had yet been made. "The legislation is fairly clear and we will be taking detailed instructions from Mr Habib," he said. "He is going to tell us what he knows. "We are going to wait until we speak to him before we know where he stands in relation to any laws.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/25/2005
2:33:21 AM ||
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Ted Turner called Fox an arm of the Bush administration and indirectly compared the Fox News Network's popularity to Adolph Hitler's popular election to run Germany before WWII. Turner made those fiery comments in his first address at NATPE since he was ousted from Time Warner five years ago. The 66-year-old billionaire who leveraged a television station in Atlanta into a media empire, made the comment before a standing-room-only crowd at NATPE's opening session Tuesday. His no-nonsense, humorous approach during the one-hour Q&A generated frequent loud applause and laughter.
Among the highlights:
On Fox News: While Fox may be the largest news network, it's not the best, Turner said. He followed up by pointing out that Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda tool for the Bush Administration.
Nothing about CNN being the propaganda tool of the Democratic Party?
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down," leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff," he said.
So, that's why you hired Bobby Batista to be the female anchor of CNN back in the day, her really big....brains?
On TV news in general: "We need to be very well informed. We need to know what's going on in the world. "a little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news would probably be good for our society."
A little more truth in the hard news would help as well.
On media consolidation:"The consolidation has made it almost impossible for an independent. It's virtually impossible to start a cable network." Broadcasters and programmers "don't want more independent voices out there. They own everything. That's why I went into the restaurant business. Either that or I'd work for a salary for one of the big jerks.
No, it's because Time lured you to merge networks with them and then didn't even leave cab fare on the dresser.
The war in Iraq: "We've spent 200 billion destroying Iraq. Now we've got to spend 200 billion to rebuild it, if they'll let us -- and all to find a nut in a fox hole -- one guy," Turner said. "He posed no threat to any of his neighbors, particularly with us there with overwhelming military superiority." --"it is obscene and stupid"
Still following CNN policy to avoid saying bad things about Sammy to maintain access, eh, Ted? We haven't forgotten that.
Why selling his company to Time Warner turned out to be a huge mistake: At the time he agreed to sell his company, "it was from a business standpoint the right thing to do." He owned 9 percent of the merged company, which "which got me some real serious respect." But after the company acquired AOL, Turner's stake in the new company was diluted to 3 percent. "Then I got the pink slip"
The slip and a pair of panties over your head
Why it wasn't that huge a mistake: "I have a responsibility not to be too critical of my old company. It is a good company and I had a lot of experiences there. A lot of time things that are painful at the time they occurred turn out to be for the best."
Translation: I still own stock and I don't want it going down
Ted Turner for President? "I'm too old and too burned out to take on that responsibility. I thought about it when I was younger. I don't know if I could have gotten elected or not. It would have been a lot of fun to do when I had higher energy levels."
It would be a lot of fun, for us.
What he'll put on his tombstone: "I have nothing more to say."
Can we speed that day up, please?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
2:28:16 PM ||
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#1
sarcasm on/
Ted Who?
Oh that guy. Wasnt he married to some aerobics video check or something? He's so 80's anyway.
Note for editors: Someone, Paul Moloney I think, posted this article yesterday. But I can't find it, anywhere. He said RTWT, and I agree, it's an important article.
The inquiry noted that following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War, 250,000 Palestinians emigrated from Kuwait to Jordan. This phenomenon was called "those who returned from Kuwait." The inquiry stated: "According to calculations by Jordanian experts and researchers, some 160,000 of these displaced persons came only to Al-Zarqaa. The experts noticed a connection between their return and the flourishing of the Salafi Jihad trend in Jordan, particularly in Al-Zarqaa."
I still regard Mylroie's theory as the best concerning the origins of Ramzi Yousef. However, I have a slight refinement: Basit was not an innocent victim of the Iraqi occupation. A Kuwaiti minister has been quoted as saying that he was a collaborator. Perhaps Basit was did indeed help the Iraqis (as did many other Palestinian residents, which is why they were expelled), but Basit was killed in some damnfool looting incident or something during the occupation. And an old pro assumed Basit's identity. I think that would better reconcile the Kuwaiti minister's quote.
However, I'm quite aware that this debate will likely never be fully settled. Mylroie might be wrong: Basit is Basit. (Keep scrolling up.) All the more reason to pay close attention to this article, then.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/25/2005
2:19:40 AM ||
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#1
from yesterday's page... "But I'm still missing a puzzle piece. Why, if Saddam supported them, and they supported Saddam, did he expell them after the Gulf War."
Methinks the answer is in the meaning of support. He supported the palestinians becuase there is no surer, and cheaper, and easier, way to make any middle-east diplomacy more difficult for the US. He didn't give two shits about the palestinians as people - only as a wedge to divide the middle east and arabia. (so palestinians making a living in kuwait doesn't help him much.) i think this is true for almost all the power players over there.
"Saddam being a pragmatist had no purpose for the Palestinians any longer."
re: my above statement... yes and no (if we're talking about the same time-frame).
he did still send out money to facilitate 'martyrdom'. He was a pragmatist alright. It seems to me that at the time when the odds of an American invasion were greatest, the intifada was in full gear.
#2
I agree Rawsnacks that Saddam did in fact contribute to the Palestinian Intifada. Any swipes at Israel fit in with Arab loathing of Israel. Saddam's pragmatism reach it's end when he no longer wished to offer humanitarian support for the Paleo's. The price of 10k-25k was a samll price to pay for devastating suicide bombings. But, like his arab brethren in Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia there is no love for Palestinians themselves, just the destructive purpose they serve with regards to Israel.
#3
re: the link by Pete Stanely above (Basit is Basit) -
this makes no sense to me at all:
commissioned former CIA director Jim Woolsey to fly to England to retrieve fingerprints of WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef, in order to show that Yousef was a "false double" inserted by Iraqi intelligence. The FBI objected to this wild-goose chase, but Wolfowitz insisted. As it turned out, the fingerprints disproved Mylroie's theoryâthey matched those of the Ramzi Yousef sitting in a U.S. federal prison
Should the bold above not read Abdul Basit? And that hardly answers the question of where is Basit, Basit's family and whether or not people who knew Basit from England think that the fake info on him in the Kuwaiti Ministry matches his real description. Afterall, at this current time, it would have been very easy to doctor more files and switch more fingerprints. Just saying "the fingerprints match Yousef's does nothing to dispute Mylorie's claim that we should speak to people who knew Basit and compare what he really looked like to the possibly doctored information in Kuwait.
Just more media lies and distortions - as we have come to expect. And the fact that the reporter didn't even know to write "Basit" instead of "Yousef" shows he was an clueless idiot, at best.
#4
Secondly thanks for helping me to better understand.
That Sadaam used the Paleo fundies in his midst and screwed them in the end reinforces your point.
This article is freaking unbelievable. You can only be left with the impression that someone inside the FBI was complict in Saddam's plans.
I don't have much time - so if anyone is interested I'll try to expand my thoughts later.
But look at the overall picture here. You have Nosair AN KNOWN IRAQI AGENT!! convicted in 1991 with local fundi's turning up for the parade. Somebody somewhere in the FBI chooses Salem, an FBI informant with ties to Egyptian intelligence to be the provocateur. Ok...fine. That Salem would connect with Salemeh, whose uncle is a well known PLO terrorist who "became number two in the 'Western Sector', a PLO terrorist unit under Iraq influence" and living in Baghdad isn't all that surprising either - ok....still fine.
And it's highly plausible that if the bozo Salemeh called his uncle in multiple phone conversations that Sadaam could pick up on the phone conversations and see a golden opportunity for revenge plans already being contemplated by Saddam.
But how is it, if Salem is a provocateur for the FBI that the FBI fails to notice these phone conversations as well. I mean, it's not like that don't know that Nosair is an Iraqi agent. It's not like they don't know that Salameh's uncle is a well know PLO terrorist under Sadaam's influence in Baghdad. How on earth could it be that the FBI would not have also noted these same phone conversations!!!!
But look at the freaking time line here:
Around the beginning of 1992, the FBI sets up Salem as a plant and Salameh is "soon" recruited by him. Almost immediately after he calls his PLO terrorist uncle, under Sadaam's control in Baghdad, on June 21st Yasin, (also a paleo fundi) shows up and moves in with his brother Musab (also a paleo fundi) WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO LIVE IN THE SAME BUILDING AS SALAMEH. Oh really - isn't that just a bit too convenient? I'd like to know, and Mylorie doesn't tell us, WHEN did MUSAB, bother of Yasin, move next door to Salameh.
YET IT IS PRECISELY AT THIS POINT - WHEN IT SUDDENLY SHOULD HAVE COME TO THE FBI'S ATTENTION THAT SALAMEH WAS CONVERSING WITH HIS TERRORIST UNCLE IN BAGHDAD AND YASIN MOVES INTO HIS BROTHER'S APT CONVENIENTLY SHARED BY SALAMEH THAT THE FBI LOSES TRACK OF HIM!! LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE YOUSEF SHOWS UP!!!!
I'm sorry.
We are told that it is because Salem, the plant, refuses to file the necessary paperwork or cooperate that the FBI loses track. But it is RIGHT AT THIS POINT THAT THE FBI LOSES TRACK. Let's remember that Salem has ties with Egyptian Intelligence, thus a potential double agent and somewhat suspect- witness by dropping him that even the FBI seems to agree. But please note it is IMMEDIATELY AFTER Salameh's phone converstations WHICH SHOULD have been noted by our own FBI as well AND AT EXACTLY THE SAME POINT IN TIME THAT SADDAM BECOMES INTERESTED, that the FBI backs off. Coincidence - yeah right.
IN Sept 1, 1992, barely a month later, Yousef arrives in JFK and they work on their plans unnoticed by the FBI.
I'm sorry. I think someone needs to be looking at WHO, exactly who, a name-attached-who decided to drop this case at this point. They are solely responsible for the first attack on the WTC. And who picked Salem as the provocateur?
Also, I think it very interesting that Yousef waited until AFTER the election to start making his bomb. So he waits until AFTER the election to start making phone calls to make a bomb - activities that MOST CERTAINLY should have caught the FBI's attention - especially since he was living with a known terrorist wannabe - yet miraculously the FBI does not notice. Could it be that he waited until after the election so that whoever was providing top cover for these incredible oversights would not be removed in political shifting?
Hey - many things can be coincidences but there are just too many oversights here to be plausible. Unfreakingreal.
#5
I suppose it could be that Salem - once granted his position as a provocateur, expanded his opportunities to become a double agent against the US. But it seems that if the US FBI dropped him if? this became apparent - that they would have paid MORE attention to Salameh, not less.
#6
OK, a couple of misconceptions here. Let's start with mine: sorry for double-posting the article! I honestly couldn't find it.
Second, the Palestinian residents of Kuwiat. They were generally supportive of Saddam's invasion in August 1990. After Kuwait was liberated, then the Kuwaiti government expelled them en masse, because of their behavior. I found it interesting that an outright majority fled to Al-Zarqaa, the very spot where Zarqawi came from, and that so many of these families are apparently sending their young men to fight for the Iraqi Baath even now. Yet another link, which I speculated on in a comment here.
>>Should the bold above not read Abdul Basit?<<
Well, for the sake of clarity, yeah, it probably should read that. But I knew what he meant. And you're right that there would have been ample time for fingerprint-switching, if they had only official records to go by. Even if the Iraqis hadn't been careful with their spycraft initially, the Mylroie article appeared in late 1995, and no-one (apparently) checked the fingerprints till early 2001.
>>And the fact that the reporter didn't even know to write "Basit" instead of "Yousef" shows he was an clueless idiot, at best.<<
The guy I linked to isn't a reporter, but a blogger doing this on his own time. And I don't believe him to be an idiot, not in the least. The Hatfill Project is one of the best analysis-blogs I've seen on the war, on par with The Belmont Club or Alphabet City, or the editors here. I disagree with him on this issue, and a few others. But he's no fool.
>>Hey - many things can be coincidences but there are just too many oversights here to be plausible. Unfreakingreal.<<
It's good, and healthy, to be extremely suspicious of coincidences in this area. But in this case I think it's been adequately explained. There was some explanation in The Cell but a very detailed explanation of the FBI's blunders in 1000 Years for Revenge. Basically (I'm going by memory here) the FBI put an ex-cop in charge of the investigation, whose name was Carson Dunbar. He'd been a high muckety-muck in the NJ State Police before joining the FBI. He took a law enforcement mindset to the whole thing, not a counter-intelligence mindset. And this basically sunk the case, because he insisted Salem wear a wire and possibly even testify in open court. Salem (rightly, in my opinion) refused to do these things. When Salem started resisting these things, Dunbar started to get upset about Salem's intelligence ties, and rumors started that Agent Nancy Floyd (who was basically running Salem as her agent) wasn't being "objective." And so Floyd was ordered to sever contact with Salem, despite her misgivings and Salems.
Salem actually said at their last meeting, with bitterness, "don't call me when the bombs go off." But then when a bomb did go off, they of course activated him. Salem was integral to stopping the Day of Terror plot, whereby the blind Sheikh's cell would bomb the UN and several tunnels around NYC. So I don't think there was a mole in the FBI or DoJ or anything - just dumbassness.
>>Also, I think it very interesting that Yousef waited until AFTER the election to start making his bomb.<<
That's a good observation, one I hadn't considered. Perhaps Yousef was waiting for maximum disruption that would come at the top of the DoJ. Perhaps Yousef got explicit orders to test the new president's reaction.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/25/2005 15:45
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#7
Pete, thanks for responding. First - let me apologize to the blogger noted. I thought it was from a reporter - and so I bow down humbly and acknowledge that it's far easier for a blogger - thoughts flying off fingers - to make minor mistakes such as that. God help me if that were a sin.
It's the first time I've read this report - despite it being much referred to, and it's just shocking, to say the least. I should read more about what's been already written before I say more.
But..can't help myself...
It's easy to believe that at the time, the enforcement mindset would have prevailed and the explanation given is plausible.
It seems likely, from what you say about Salem, that he was not complicit in wanting the bombs to ever explode.
If Salem was on the "level", I'm left wondering, who found whom? Did Salem find Salameh? Or did Salameh find Salem. If it were the latter and Musab moved in after June of 1992 - it gives me more pause. But NYC is probably not all that big in terms of paleo fundies of a terrorist mindset. Regardless...it's all meaningless musing on my part.
And you know...I'm sorry...but Salameh, a player in a sting operation, started making phone calls to his uncle who was a well known terrorist - at time and consistency that can only leave me to wonder: how is it possible that no one in the FBI took note??
On June 10 - he's recruited into the plot. June 21 Abdul Yasin moves into his building. And in "early July" they "lost track of the Nosair-Salameh conspiracy". All after long phone calls from Salameh to his famous uncle took place. Phone calls that it's staggering to think were not noted by the FBI.
I guess I just have to wonder, was it Dumbbo's, I mean Dunbar's idea to make demands that clearly Salem would refuse - or did it come from someone above?
But I digress, you were talking about Paleos being expelled from Kuwait- and how they came to Al Zarqaa - the very place where Zarqawi came from - which is a whole nother (is that a word) subject indeed. That's very intriguing...and I'd love to read more about those connections :-)
#8
which is a whole nother (is that a word) subject Its not a word, but it is a common Americanism. To which you are certainly entitled, after all that analysis. Whew!
#9
And Hatfill project leaves me even more confused....so here's another thing I don't understand. From Mylroie's paper, we are told that "Ramzi Yousef arrived at JFK with an Iraqi passport without a visa" and stayed with Musab Yasin. I guess we are to assume, though she doesn't precisely say, that he used the name Ramzi Yousef. Elsewhere in the article she says he was known among the Fundo's as Rashid, the Iraqi.
Now...here's an interesting random thought. Nov 9, 1992, just after the green light was given for the plot - he reports his Abdul Basit passport stolen. He makes calls to people later found to be along the way of his escape routes. On Dec 31, 1992, New Year's Eve, a night sure to be understaffed, he goes to the Pakistani consulate in NY with old documents to request a new passport - which they give to him.
January, they build the bomb and Feb 23 the rent the truck - the bomb explodes at noon the 26th - the anniversary of the war.
"That evening, Salameh drove Yousef and Ismail to JFK airport; Yousef escaped to Pakistan on the falsified docs and Ismail flew home to Jordan. But Salemeh looks to have been deliberately left behind by Yousef, not provided any money needed for the ticket. Salameh had a ticket to Amsterdam on Royal Jordanian flight 262 which continues onto Amman, dated for March 5th, but it was an infant ticket that had cost him only $65. While Salameh had been able to use this ticket to get himself a Dutch visa, he could not actually travel on it."
Now, Mylroie doesn't tell us when they bought these tickets. Was it that day? No does she tell us when Salameh used the infant ticket to get his visa. At some point after the bomb explodes Salameh realizes he is desperate for money - thus he realized his ticket was no good. He has no money to upgrade it and desperate - Salameh returns to get the refund on the rental van 4 times before being picked up on the 4th.
Later we are told that Abdul Rahman was picked up because of the phone number used on the rental van..calm, cool and collected, he manages to fly out on the very flight that Salameh was supposed to catch on March 5th.
Now...don't you wonder about this? Why was Salameh so desperate for money - if his ticket was dated for the 5th? He must have found out ahead of time, that it was an infant ticket, no?
This is just a random brainstorm thought, but on the eve of the bombing, obviously everyone thought they had a flight out of the country with no problems. We are told that Yousef left Salameh behind with no money - to take the blame. But what if Yousef was screwed as well? Did he perhaps worry that just in case something went wrong that he had an alternate passport - one in his old name - using his old documents to procure it. A failsafe?
What if after the the bomb went off, Yousef suddenly discovers that he too has been cut off - no money to purchase tickets (or some other reason that Yousef is forced to buy himself a ticket under his own name, using his failsafe passport).
#10
tw and pete...sorry for a-nother long post, but thinking on Pete's comment and rereading the Basit is basit post - it was one of those thought bubbles I had to burst to get out of my head :-)
#11
Now...don't you wonder about this? Why was Salameh so desperate for money - if his ticket was dated for the 5th? He must have found out ahead of time, that it was an infant ticket, no?
As I understand it, Salameh was left with only enough cash for the infant ticket, so he bought it. He needed cash to upgrade it to an adult ticket, so tried to report the van stolen.
As for Salameh calling his uncle -- I don't think his uncle's identity was known BEFORE the bombing, but only after.
There was some speculation that Salem was an Egyptian agent, in the US to keep an eye on the blind sheik and to set him up if possible. That's one of the reasons the higher-ups at the FBI were suspicious of him; they didn't want to get used in a foreign intelligence operation.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/25/2005 19:07
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#12
ok...but before I give it a rest, I want to make one more point - just from the reading of this.
Maybe I missed it, but one thing that is vague and seems to be intentionally so in this article - is what name Yousef used when he came into the country. She says, "Ramzi Yousef arrived at JFK with an Iraqi passport without a visa" and stayed with Musab Yasin"
But they never actually tell us that the name Ramzi Yousef is on that passport. Later she says he was known as "Rashid the Iraqi" by his collegues in NY - and later she says that, "it should be clear to the world that the bomber's real name is not Ramzi Yousef nor Abdul Basit. Afterall, why would someone intending to blow up NY's tallest tower go to such trouble to get a passport in his own name? Yousef was a man of many passports".
Is she talking about using Basit here, or Yousef, or both? It clearly NOT clear.
We are never, ever told that he used the name "Yousef" to enter the country or that he used that name while here - it's all just general talking about Yousef - never confirmation that's the name he used prior to the bombing or on the visa that he used to get into the country. Look carefully and you will see that I am right.
In fact she says, "The first concrete knowledge we have of Ramzi Yousef/Abdul Basit comes in 1991 when he showed up in the Phillipines". Again intentionally vague - what name was he using then? We don't know and she doesn't say.
Re: the justice dept she says, "Moreover, it has decided to try the bomber as Ramsi Yousef - even though no one, including yousef by now, maintains that is his real name."
Don't know what it means - but just pointing it out for others to see. Now maybe it's all just implied and clear if you know more about this case - but in this document - he's referred to as Yousef - but it's not clear that's the name he was using.
#2
"Europe's intervention in what has become a major issue in the election campaign took Westminster aback."
I'll say! If the Tories had engineered this in some way, I'd say there was political genius at work. Not the case though: just good luck. The Tories can thank Brussels for massively bolstering the their eurosceptic credentials.
"The Conservative leadership responded by saying that a Tory government would immediately opt out of the new rules. If that were blocked, it would insist on renegotiation to allow Britain to determine its own asylum and immigration policies."
The EU aren't the only ones to attempt to interfere with Howard's plans for immigration reform. Incredibly, the UN also immediately bitched about it:
"The UNHCR said it would not cooperate with a Conservative government over its quota plan if Mr Howard withdrew from the convention on refugees."
#3
Give up your sovereignty to the Beauzeaux of Brussels⢠& look what happens. What do you think of your new Continental Overlords now?
Hey, Brussels, I've got an idea! You take in all migrants who want to emigrate it Europe - from anywhere in the world. ALL of them.
And make sure you follow all your hand-tying regulations. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2005 18:29
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#4
"The UNHCR said it would not cooperate with a Conservative government over its quota plan if Mr Howard withdrew from the convention on refugees."
Hey, Bulldog, if they won't go along with a "quota" plan do you think they'd accept a "no immigrants at ALL" plan? That would get their knickers in a twist. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/25/2005 18:34
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#5
BD: The Tories can thank Brussels for massively bolstering the their eurosceptic credentials.
The Tories have euroskeptic credentials? Can't say I've detected any euroskepticism in that lot.
#6
Barbara - I think there would be a lot of spilled lattes somewhere in Manhattan.
Howard's proposals are for a quota system which would in effect dictate the number of immigrants to the UK every year. Howard (himself the son of refugees) doesn't want to stop immigration - just make the rate of immigration manageable. I'm not sure if a quota's the right option myself (I'd prefer a fairly high cap to allow for contingencies, but with a lot stricter screening), but he's not calling for an end to granting asylum to refugees. He also wants a new system whereby immigrants cannot claim refuge after illegal entry to this country - they'd have to apply elsewhere. That, it would seem to me, would deal effectively with the sort of scum which turns up here uninvited and successfully claims asylum because they've engaged in such barbarity back home that they're under sentence of death. Under Labour the rate of immigration has shot up - and that's just officially acknowledged immigration.
#7
The Tories have euroskeptic credentials? Can't say I've detected any euroskepticism in that lot.
Then you haven't been watching, ZF. They're not all Chris Pattens and Ken Clarkes. Generally the Tories are the more eurosceptic party, Labour the more europhile. Howard's going to run on a platform of rejecting the proposed Consitution outright, at the next election.
Number 1 Keep the Pound
Number 2 Oppose the European Constitution
Number 3 Spend more on our Armed Forces
Number 4 Get a grip on asylum and immigration
Number 5 Bring back powers from Brussels
#9
If a future British government were to enact laws that contravened EU regulations, the commission would begin "infringement proceedings". Those would be followed, if resistance continued, by legal action in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Y'know, that might not be a bad idea. Fight it out in a court of law to see if the regulations are actually legal -- how many of us suspect regulatory overreach by the Brussels bureaucrats? If they are legal, the various national referenda on the constitution take on a new level of seriousness; if they are not legal, the immediate problem goes away and the Brussels bureaucrats will start controlling their efforts to avoid such a face-losing exercise in the future.
#10
That's an overly optimistic appraisal I'm afraid, tw. For one, this is Howard talking - not Blair. For Blair, there's no problem (though you can guarantee with absolute certainty that he's working on a speech echoing his concerns about the issue but will do nothing in practice). He'll go along with whatever Brussels dictates in order to not rock the boat. So all we're going to see for the moment is this threat, which may or may not be picked up elsewhere.
As for any overreach - Brussels bureacrats will work on how to gain the powers they don't yet have, not accept their limitations. Any oversights would be written into the next treaty or added to the draft Constitution (added and re-added to drafts as necessary until accepted eventually during horse-trading).
#1
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
#3
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
#4
If this is true then we need to put somone's feet to the fire to get them moving. And I dont care if its Kerry, Kennedy, or even President Bush. We need to lock down the borders, or at least enforce them far better than we are doing now.
The greatest shooting festival in the world for youngsters takes place every year in Zurich, Switzerland. Imagine thousands of boys and girls shooting military service rifle over three days amid an enormous fair with ferris wheels and wild rides of all kinds. You're at the Knabenschiessen (boys' shooting contest).
<SMALL>**SNIP**
It's September 13, 2004. In the U.S. on this date, the Clinton fake "assault weapon" ban sunsets. In Zurich, some 5,631 teens — 4,046 boys and 1,585 girls, aged 13-17 — have finished firing the Swiss service rifle, and it's time for the shootoff.
Geschossen wird mit dem Armee-Sturmgewehr
That rifle is the SIG Strumgeweher (assault rifle) model 1990 (Stgw 90), a selective fire, 5.6 mm rifle with folding skeleton stock, bayonet lug, bipod, and grenade launcher. The Stgw 90 is a real assault rifle in that it is fully automatic, although that feature is disabled during the competition. Every Swiss man, on reaching age 20, is issued one to keep at home. Imagine all those teenagers firing this real assault rifle while their moms and dads look on with approval, anxiously awaiting the scores.
**SNIP**
Ends:
Zurich's youngsters who shoot military rifles have a lesson to teach Americans. It is a lesson of peace, thru strength???SPAN> family values, and responsibility, while gaining the ability to defend oneself and one's community from aggression. As was well known to America's Founders, who were enamored of the Swiss model, teaching the young to shoot is both a civic virtue and a wonderful sport.
#5
Switzerland actually has a gun law. What most people don't know is that in Switzerland every adult male is legally required to own a rifle which can fire standard military ammunition, and is required to fire at least 100 rounds per year. Women have no such obligation, but are encouraged to participate as well.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
01/25/2005 18:37
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#7
Yes, when I was a lad and spending my summers in Switzerland, I would see the citizen soldiers riding their bikes up the mountain roads to meet at their prescribed rendezvous points high up in the mountains. Later, as an adult, I was taking a training course there, and the instructor invited us home, and showed us his assault rifle and other gear he kept in his closet. Every male citizen is essentially on call and must report to the secret rendezvous points when the general mobilization order is given. He said IIRC that Switzerland could field 1 million men in two weeks using this approach.
Debka. Sometimes they'fre awful, sometimes right on. One thing you'fve got to keep in mind is that Debka is apparently a channel for Israeli intelligence to release information (or disinformation).
That same week, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 189 revealed that Russian experts from the Raduga OKB engineering group in Dubna near Moscow had just completed the installation of two advanced radar systems around the Bushehr nuclear reactor on the Persian Gulf. These improved mobile 36D6 systems, Western codenamed Tin Shield, were custom-made to upgrade the air defense radar protecting Iran's key nuclear facilities from American or Israeli aerial, missile or cruise missile attack... However, the fat hit the fire when the Russians were discovered to be building the same system at Iran's uranium enrichment plants for military purposes in Isfahan in central Iran. It was taken to mean that Moscow has undertaken to secure all of Iran's nuclear industry from top to bottom ?Efrom the installation of sophisticated equipment to military planning and operational cooperation - against American or Israeli attack. They go on to list some of the supposed capabilities of the system, and speculate that the Russkies might sell the same radar to Syria, and that the recent hub-bub over the SA-18s might be cover for that.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/25/2005
1:37:09 AM ||
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#1
No real surprises here. Just about every European power sold weapons to the natives during the era of European imperialism. Did not prevent the natives from being conquered, even though many native sovereigns hired European officers to train and command native units armed with these weapons.
#3
hmmm - any of those oh so effective "GPS Jammers" also sold?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 11:11
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#4
This time around, let's hope that Russia expert Condi Rice will have the foresight to approach Putin and ask, What's your price?
Russia's military export sector is desperate for cash. If we can wean them off of middle eastern basket-case clients-- who don't provide Russia any real clout in the region, only cash-- with a few billion $$, then it's money well spent.
#6
The only way to counter threats like this, is for the US to tell Russia we could supply the Chechen resistence also; and the US knows this. We have both trump cards and 'Aces In The Hole' on this one!
#7
smn: The only way to counter threats like this, is for the US to tell Russia we could supply the Chechen resistence also; and the US knows this. We have both trump cards and 'Aces In The Hole' on this one!
The Russians will know it's a bluff. Having Muslims carve a nuclear-armed Islamic empire out of Russian soil isn't on the list of American priorities.
#9
Frank: We referred to the GPS Jammers as "HARM beacons." I still understand the thinking that says "Here's a valuable target. Let's put a transmitter on top of it."
#11
Russkies can give and we or the Israelis will take away. Fire 1...
Posted by: Senator Barbara Boxer ||
01/25/2005 14:41
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#12
I'm sure it's quite easy to reconfigure a Tomahawk warhead to home in on a particular radar signature. Once within a given range, changing the 'signature' does no good - the missile has locked in on the coordinates, requires no further guidance. Done correctly (usually using three missiles, one with HE, another with WP, and a third GP), the antenna is taken out, the area is sprayed with 36,000 half-inch ball bearings at 3200fpm (does nasty things to control vans, generator vans, and human bodies that get in the way), and set afire. The alternative is a tac nuke to take out both the radar and the site it's trying to protect.
The thing to consider is the possibility of combining scramjet technology with other missile technology to attack installations like this. The missile will impact before the radar can identify it. I wonder just how advanced scramjet technology REALLY is...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/25/2005 16:08
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#13
Bah.... I thought that the lesson of the first gulf war is that ex-soviet weapons (indeed, any weapons other than those built by americans (with certain exceptions)) were worthless. Good for keeping your populace under your iron boot, but not very combat effective. Money spent on them would be better spent on swiss bank accounts for when you have to flee suddenly.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
01/25/2005 18:01
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#14
Thanks Pappy and OP. So in other words, we want the Russians to increase their sales of such things to Iran, so our troops can play a bit longer with their toys, yes? Oh, and does this also apply (given Mark E's comment) to European weapons sales to Red China?
EFL: The Pentagon says the political uproar over the disclosure of a secret military intelligence group is overblown and based on misinformation about the group's makeup and mission. Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, rushed to Capitol Hill on Monday after some members of Congress reacted strongly to a Washington Post report that revealed the existence of the group, which is managed by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.
Senator Diane Feinstein and others appeared puzzled by the disclosure that the Pentagon had created a new battlefield intelligence group — "strategic support teams," in Pentagon parlance — to perform clandestine missions that had been largely the province of the CIA. Some suggested Rumsfeld had skirted congressional oversight to expand his domain. Pentagon officials told reporters, however, that the arrangement had been worked out in close coordination with the CIA and that appropriate congressional committees had been fully informed. A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said CIA director Porter Goss told him Monday that he had "no issue or questions or concerns" about the Pentagon arrangement. Another defense official said lawmakers may not recognize the news media's descriptions of the intelligence group because its name was changed after they were briefed on it last year. Now called strategic support teams, they were previously known as humint augmentation teams, the official said, speaking only on condition that he not be further identified. (Humint refers to human intelligence, or information provided by spies.)
In an additional point of clarification, the senior military official said the intelligence teams are not to be used for covert actions, which are unacknowledged by the government and which require a legal "finding" by the president. Rather, they are for clandestine actions, which are meant to be secret but are subject to acknowledgment by the government if publicly disclosed. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner, a Virginia Republican, and the panel's top Democrat, Carl Levin of Michigan, met for more than an hour with Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Later, Warner said he was satisfied by the briefing and would ensure that other committee members were briefed fully as well.
The teams — each with about 10 mostly civilian linguists, case officers, interrogators and debriefers — are designed to provide the military's conventional and special operations forces with more sustainable battlefield intelligence to support combat and other activities. The defense officials said this is not a new mission for military intelligence; rather, they said, it is being structured in a new way so that it can be provided to battlefield commanders in a more standardized manner. It previously had been done in a more ad hoc way, they said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
12:46:07 PM ||
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#1
Permit me to better state this headline:
Washington Post Plays Up Black Opns for Self Interest and Political Bias Motives.
Isn't Marine Times now run by Gannet? Gannet of USA Today fame.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005 14:57
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#2
Just what we need "santitized" war making dipped in heavy bureacracy.
As for DiFi, "appearing puzzled" is her nature state.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005 15:03
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#3
I hate to disclose military secrets, because they made me sign those disclosure agreements, but we have had "strategic support teams" or something like them for as long as we have had a military. This is not news, but an overblown story. For some reason the LLL gets squirmy when they think of Rumsfield having Intelligence assets or spies working for him. People they were there long before he showed up, if only under a different name. They are not going to show up on som LLL doorstep anytime soon, unless the rules have changed. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be funny to fake a Black Helicopter/Secret Soldier ops onto some LLL doorstep? Can you imagine the stain Hersch would make if he saw black-clad troops landing on his front lawn?
Posted by: ed ||
01/25/2005
12:45 ||
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#1
Keep your freedom and democracy to yourself
President Bush: Keep your freedom and democracy to yourself
The international community does not want George W. Bushâs Freedom and Democracy neither does it want its Hearts and Minds won over by Shock and Awe tactics, thank you very much. If George Bush was elected President of the United States of America, why does he address himself to the rest of the world?
Letâs face it, if there was an election in the international community, George W. Bush might get elected as a member of a freak show, or perhaps a kitchen hand, handing out plastic turkeys in tents but for the leadership of a country? Perhaps, in a handful of countries like Albania, for instance, which might think first about the bank account rather than any notion of political leadership but in the international community as a whole, the NO vote would be far in excess of 80%, as is patently evident in numerous opinion polls.
If President Bush is an example to go by, we do not want his freedom and democracy. We do not want a model of freedom and democracy which sees the President of a country slink into his office in an armoured car which resembles a tank, guarded by 13.000 bodyguards plus countless other security personnel, creeping along a route lined by thousands of protesters.
We do not want his freedom and democracy which saw him slip out the back door of Number 10 Downing Street on his visit to London, the first such escape route used by any international leader any time in history, and during whose visit for the first time ever a statue of the President of the United States of America was toppled, to the cheers of thousands of lookers-on. Jimmy carter got out of his car and walked to the White House. Why canât Bush? The answer is simple: people do not like his Freedom and Democracy.
We do not want his freedom and democracy which is so popular that even in London, the capital city of the country and government closest to Washington, his state visit was restricted to three streets and a hurried trip to Tony Blairâs constituency in a heavily guarded motorcade.
We do not want his freedom and democracy, which saw the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, a country invaded upon a pretext which did not exist. We do not want a freedom and democracy based upon barefaced lies.
We do not want a freedom and democracy based on the US model, where the electoral system can be rigged so easily, in this, one of the few countries which still has the death penalty. We do not want a freedom and democracy based on Washingtonâs flawed model, controlled by a clique of corporate elitists who gravitate around the White House, making a mockery of their people and a mockery of democracy and which practise a policy of freedom of the press which makes the Gestapo look like fairy godmothers.
The international community is made up of hundreds of sovereign nations with models of government which reflect in some cases thousands of years of history and culture, which is to be respected, not obliterated in a wave of blind arrogance fuelled by the greed of Washingtonâs invisible masters.
The international community does not want, nor does it need, the model imposed by a country barely 200 years old, with serious human rights problems, whose history is associated with ethnic cleansing of its native population, whose history is based upon the illegal deportation of races, a country whose military forces even today practise torture and which has concentration camps in more than one continent where the terms of the Geneva Convention are broken.
George Bush can keep his freedom and democracy to himself and to his own country. Nobody asked for his opinion abroad and nobody is interested in his opinion abroad. Each and every movement of the US regime outside its territory will be seen as belligerence, interference, and arrogance and is bound to produce an exponential reaction of hatred in the four corners of the Earth.
The very notion that George Bush can make a speech to begin his second and last term as president of the USA, referring to the international community, gives rise to the notion that he has a self-opinionated and inflated sense of his own importance.
Who asked for his opinion outside the USA and basically, who gives a two penny damn about what he believes in? It is his problem and that of the people he claims elected him. As for the restauguration "party", neither do a substantial proportion of American citizens., take a look at Iraq to see how very successful his foreign policy can be. Two years on, his forces are on the defensive, have lost control of the situation and there are now more Resistance Fighters than US troops.
Washingtonâs Freedom and Democracy, anyone? No thanks. Let George Bush sort his own problems out and leave the rest of the world alone. Nobody called him and nobody wants him and judging by his in
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Posted by: forest hell burn the bush ||
01/25/2005 15:47
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#2
Wow.
Sounds like coming off a crack high is really very painful and disconcerting.
#4
FHBTB: We do not want a model of freedom and democracy which sees the President of a country slink into his office in an armoured car which resembles a tank, guarded by 13.000 bodyguards plus countless other security personnel, creeping along a route lined by thousands of protesters.
That's what freedom is all about. First, the technical inaccuracy - the armored limo doesn't resemble a tank (which fires a 120mm tank round and has over a foot of armor). The tank weigh 70 tons; the car weighs about 2.5 tons. Comparing a tank to the presidential limo is like comparing a lion to a pussycat.
Second the fact that he needs to be surrounded by bodyguards comes from the fact that Americans are free. Saddam could stroll around in the street without much protection because many who might have opposed him had long been killed - and those who tried to kill him would have their entire families tortured to death. Hitler equally did not require much protection - his secret police efficiently killed off any threats to his security, even if they simply thought that he was a bad person. The fact that FHBTB is able to write these articles while staying alive is proof that we live in a free country.
#5
"As we wandered through the Rantburg Community Playground & Rifle Range, trying to pick up the signal from Boris' tracking collar, we caught sight of the biggest troll yet! Crikey! It's a Portugese Red-Striped Troll, sometimes called Bancroft-Hinchey's Troll, a huge one, verbose as they come. They're dangerous when cornered, but seein' as I'm with the other Steves in the Army of Steve, I'm not worried. 'C'mon mate . . . he's a beaut, ain't he!"
Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 16:14
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#6
The international community is made up of..
Screw you and your "international community". If y'all can't put principle before economic gain, fine, then we'll do the dirty work. Just go to the corner, sit down, and shut the hell up.
#7
Dammit, he snuck out of his cage when I wasn't looking. He posted this drivel as a article earlier, when I read it in the Holding Tank, I flushed it. Oh, well, time to break out the mop and disifectent.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005 16:54
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#8
It is not Bush's fault. While visiting Israel (henceforth the Illegal Zionist Entity = IZE) several years ago he had a transmitter/controller instaled in his head, and since then all his actions are dictated by the IZE controllers.
#9
Yupp! The "International Community", now there's a group of folks who really got there st together! Just look at the global problem-solving machine whirr like a finely tuned foreign car! No need for any American ideas!
Posted by: Janos Hunyadi ||
01/25/2005 18:14
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As part of an intensified effort to capture terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, the State Department is considering doubling the bounty on his head to $50 million, State Department officials said Monday.
Legislation passed in November by Congress as part of the appropriations bill allowed the State Department to double the current $25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture, under the Rewards for Justice Program.
The program seeks to prevent acts of terrorism against the United States. It pays rewards for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of terrorists attempting to commit or committing acts against U.S. interests.
Bin Laden is still thought to be hiding somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but intelligence officials in both countries say there has been no sign of him for the past 20 months, according to Time magazine.
In 2003, the Bush administration paid a $30 million reward -- $15 million each for Uday and Qusay Hussein -- to the informant who provided the tip that led U.S. troops to the home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul where Uday and Qusay were hiding. They died there in a firefight with American forces.
Last July, the State Department raised the bounty for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the accused terrorist mastermind in Iraq, from $10 million to $25 million.
On Monday, the al-Zarqawi group al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, at a checkpoint near the headquarters of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, according to an Internet statement. (Full story)
Officials said the State Department is reviewing whether to double the reward for bin Laden to $50 million, with the final decision to be made by incoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
This month, the Rewards for Justice Program also launched an advertising campaign in Pakistan to publicize the existing reward for bin Laden.
Print ads in Urdu and Pashto languages have begun to run in Pakistani newspapers featuring photos and reward amounts for bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and other Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.
The print ads will be followed by a broadcast ad blitz in cities and border areas where U.S. officials believe bin Laden is hiding.
"The people there are largely illiterate," said Rep. Mark Kirk, who wrote the legislation that would allow the doubling of the reward. "So we're going to back up this campaign with a radio campaign that is the primary way people find out about the world."
Kirk, an Illinois Republican, returned last week from a visit to Pakistan.
Officials said the scripts for the radio ads are being finalized, and that the ads should be running within 10 days to two weeks. A television ad campaign is also in development, the officials said.
Posted by: (-Cobra-) ||
01/25/2005
1:24:18 AM ||
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#1
Can an average member of the society this man travels and hides in, understand what $50 million dollars is, let alone $30 Million? Unbelievable may be the operative word. We need someone with some cultural awareness to peg the number.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:34
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#2
From ratty caves on the Afgan- Paki border to a luxery hotel suite on the French Riviera - these are the lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
#3
Me, I think we ought to make the reward a buck 97 and make sure that all of islamoland hears it over and over again.
That ought to be great for their islamic manhood and let them know exactly what we think of them.
Posted by: Michael ||
01/25/2005 10:41
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#4
I guarantee the members of the ISI understand what that $ value means...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 11:17
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#5
Is it possible to set up a private fund for people to donate money to this, like they did for tsunami aid? I don't know if there are legal considerations with citizens putting a bounty on someone's head if the gov't already has, but I'd like to think we could do a little better than 50 million.
A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist."
The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, "The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence."
The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia.
Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin's government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said lawmakers were looking for support "by playing the anti-Semitic card."
The prosecutor general's office could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter, which the Interfax news agency said was signed by lawmakers from the nationalist Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties as well as the Communist Party.
Krutov, a Rodina member, is deputy chief of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy.
With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was "horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day ... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism."
While the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are "anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations," she said.
"The economic situation is ripe for this. An enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional," Gerber said.
Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."
"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.
Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."
Do you mind me saying I am stunned at this article? I need to go sit down. This is awful.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/25/2005
12:38:55 AM ||
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#1
with a cossack heritage--a fat out of shape body--a small dick--and vodka for breakfast--any russkie worth his samovar will revert to jew hating--it was the national sport for years
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/25/2005 2:33
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#2
Damn! Cover has been blown again! Well, no more loans for them. And we re-possess all the tanks bought on credit.
Posted by: Elders of Zion ||
01/25/2005 7:08
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#4
At least this time the Jews have a nation of their own to flee to and the military power to defend themselves.
Posted by: Charles ||
01/25/2005 8:24
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#5
This is an example of Russians imitating the EU.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/25/2005 9:13
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#6
Russia's parallels with 1930s Germany keep on increasing and increasing, ain't they? This isn't even the disguised antisemetism of the "Israel is wholly at fault for everything" variety -- this is the naked revealed antisemetism of the "Jews everywhere are part of an evil global conspiracy" variety.
And as a sidenote: try not to be so much of a fucking idiot, Mark Z.
#7
My ancestors on my mother's side were Jewish farmers that had enough of the Russian pogroms, and decided to skidaddle to the USA, a decision I still support today.
I can see from #5 and #6 that this is going to be a loooooooonnnnnng thread. ***sigh***
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 9:30
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#8
Raptor: Stalin's Legacy,alive and well.
Anti-semitism in Russia predated Stalin. Communism provided Jews with opportunities for advancement in the Russian government. It wasn't perfect, but it was preferable to Tsarist rule, from a Jewish standpoint.
#9
Relax, folks. In the post-communist era there has always been a flagrantly anti-semitic hardcore minority with representation in the Duma, Zhirinovsky being the most visible advocate. (Zhirinovsky's own father is jewish, which he hides by describes his father as "a lawyer." Which has earned him the media epithet of syn advokata, or "Son of a Lawyer"...)
The people to watch are not a few wackos in the Duma but those in the big chairs in the Moscow Mayor's office and of course the Kremlin. Neither of whom has shown the slightest inclination to attack, or for that matter tolerate attacks on, jews.
#10
Putin has done more than any Russian leader, ever, to improve the standing and acceptance of jews in a notoriously anti-semitic nation. There are plenty of reasons to scorn Putin-- I myself believe he's merely a puppet for coirrupt security service officers-- but this ain't one of them. It's too early to say whether Russia has turned a corner in its acceptance of its jewish population, but there is no doubt about where the Russian government stands.
If this were not so we would not be seeing thousands of Russian jews returning to Russia from Israel, as has occurred in the last three years due to Russia's oil and other commodities bonanza.
#12
Lex, at least part of the reason the Russian Jews go home is that they don't like the rough'n'tumble Israeli culture. They went there expecting to be coddled and adored for their culturedness and education, and were shocked to discover that PhDs with honors in physics or linguistics are almost as common as dirt over there, concert violinists ditto. And to add insult to injury, they had to support themselves driving taxis and suchlike, whatever they could find, instead of a spot being made for them in the field of their choice. Some couldn't handle that much reality, so they grabbed the opportunity to go back to familiar discomforts.
#13
Interesting, tw. But the point for this discussion is that Russian Jewish emigrants are returning to Russia, which has never happened in recent history and which implies that anti-semitism in contemporary Russia is not a major force.
#14
trailing wife - Hmm, that sounds rather like some of those stories about people getting out of the USSR during the cold war, coming to the US and then freaking out and wanting to go back.
Spring of 1989 there were some exchange students from Russia that visited the Univ of Texas. My wife's roommate was one of their student "sponsors" while they were here.
The girls never would smile because they were self conscious about their dental work (not even when they were taken to visit Bergstrom AFB, now Austin's airport, and several fighter pilots at the base were all but fighting each other to try and ask them out).
The young men, though, spent most of the trip drunk and sitting around sulking. What started that, and I am not kidding, was a trip to the local grocery store (HEB). After that, they were just depressed and spent the rest of the trip getting sloshed.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 12:50
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#15
lex, I honestly think that, had the opportunity to go back been available to the Soviet/Russian emigrants in the past, there would have been a noticeable number of returnees then, too. LotR's tale rings true with what I remember of the Soviet Jews who came out in the old days. While some gorged themselves on opportunity, or were simply grateful to escape, quite a few did not make a good transition, even with the massive support of the local Jewish community.
What I think this means is that the familiar strains of antisemitism are not enough to prevent the uncomfortable from returning during a more favourable economic environment, not that the antisemitism is more or less pervasive than it was when they left. And I cannot judge that because, as you say, the nationalists and their fellow travelers have long been openly and flagrantly antisemitic.
#16
lex-It's not finally about Putin. It's about whether those politicians and populaces who consider themselves Europeans (Putin, Schroeder, Chirac and their constituencies) are heading down the path for a repeat of WWII. Sound impossible? As I said in my commentary #100 of 1/20, what percentages of the populaces I describe above side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict? Very few. The majority's sympathies tend to side with "the other"-in this case, with Mother Russia, in the case of Germany, with the Aryans---the other always meaning non-Jewish. Europe has some self-examination to do (and so does America, as anyone has been listening to the number of anti-Semitic callers coming in on C-Span regularly can attest). Schroeder may be making his comments to the BBC today in memory of the Holocaust, but let's not let him, Germany, the EU or anyone else off the hook when it comes to siding with the other. When Europe sides with the other, Jews end up dead.
#17
It's about whether those politicians and populaces who consider themselves Europeans (Putin, Schroeder, Chirac and their constituencies)
This is just a sidepoint but from everything I gather, I believe Russia doesn't consider itself to be "European" in the sense that France and Germany do.
I think it's a more fitting interpretation of global politics if you see Russia as a separate thing. It's Europe *and* Russia, not Europe-including-Russia. Russia is a global player and a "pole" in its own right.
As I said in my commentary #100 of 1/20, what percentages of the populaces I describe above side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict?
I don't have statistics to show it, but my feeling is that the overwhelming majority of Europeans supports the existence of Israel. That puts them in ideological opposition to terrorist groups like Hamas, Islamist Jihad or Hezbollah.
However I think that the overwhelming majority of European also supports the existence of a free and unoccupied independent Palestinian state.
Israel already exists, and (even though I think them wrong) most European don't consider its existence to be in danger. It's the independent Palestinian state that doesn't exist however.
So from that point on, I think it depends what you mean by "side with Israel in the Israel/Palestinian conflict".
Most Europeans see the basics of the conflict as being "the Israelis have an independent state but denying the Palestinians one". And since not large amounts of people are exactly informed of the full rhetoric of groups like Hamas, they see the Palestinians as using horrible means in order to achieve a just cause -- freedom.
I know many want to conflate the two, but I do believe there's a vast difference between anti-semetism and merely anti-Israel opinions, even though the latter indeed occasionally disguises the former.
#18
This is just a sidepoint but from everything I gather, I believe Russia doesn't consider itself to be "European" in the sense that France and Germany do.
In my more limited experience (in comparison with yours, since you live in Europe and I only lived there in 1993 and 1994), they DO consider themselves European culturally, intellectually, globally. It is one of the things that keeps their heads held high.
Europe may support the idea of an Israel or the idea of a Palestine (and I still disagree with you here-I think Europe has a very ugly skeleton in its closet, as I said in #100), but support of an idea and carrying through on actions to manifest that idea are two different things. What does Europe do to help each side? Well, they help by sending aid to Palestinians (which doesn't always end up in innocent hands) and always coming to their (verbal) defense, but they cannot seem to even muster the slightest sympathy for blown up Israelis. As I contended, most Europeans I hear from (on websites, news commentary blogs, acquaintances) will stand and shout wholeheartedly for Palestine, but always qualify their support for Israel with "buts"--this combination puts into question their true beliefs. Since the voice seems to reign supreme in Europe these days, why don't European leaders lead the calls denouncing terrorism against Israel? If they comment at all, it is to second someone else's comment--but most times, it seems that Europe is strangely silent or making excuses for people who blow up babies.
#19
Most Europeans see the basics of the conflict as being "the Israelis have an independent state but denying the Palestinians one".
For their part, I don't believe Americans as a majority want to stop the statehood of Palestine. That said, Americans will not be behind statehood for terrorists or terrorist backers, which is how the Palestinians have defined themselves in our eyes. These two differing views (EU's & US's) of the parties make our work together unpromising. We hope Mr. Abbas is able to move Palestine beyond this deadly impasse, but with Palestinians being held unaccountable (having to produce no security results of their own), with unconditional preference in Europe for Palestinians over Israelis, hope in the Peace Plan remains slim.
#20
Russia today is not all the Russia of 1989. At that time, Russians visiting the West were like carmelite nuns suddenly free to talk with others beyond the convent and to explore the world. After a lifetime spent in near-total isolation-- you really can't imagine it, but in fact they had no access to information, to ideas, no ability to travel, no relatives abroad in 99.999% of cases-- it was hugely disorienting for any Russian who was not a diplomat's kid or party hack to spend time in any western state. Which is why most resorted to the state of inebriation or of self-imposed isolation.
As to the danger of a revival of anti-semitism in Russia, I don't see it. It's simply not a major issue in Moscow or StP, and what anti-semitism exists is nothing new or virulent. It's the same old cranks-- and they are all old and getting older-- but without the crucial element of state support, which was solid and widespread under the soviets. Simply not a major issue in that country.
#22
lex's comments above are correct. These anti-Semites do occupy some positions in the Duma, but they're relatively insignificant.
One thing to keep in mind is that after the Soviet Union fell apart, several Jews became fabulously wealthy by acquiring assets that previously had belonged to the communist state. That development gave a fresh impetus to anti-Semitic attitudes.
There's a lot of anger in the society, and a lot of the old prejudices and beliefs persist. In general, though, anti-Semitism is whithering away.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 18:24
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#23
Lex and Mike, I disagree. I am watching trends since mid 90's and the antisemitism is on the increase worldwide, Russia is no exception.
I have a feeling we're back in 1930's again. In 5 years or so, the EUros would have a choice, giving up their Jews to Mohamedans for appeasement, or else. After a while, the jihadis would declare they were kidding, infidels must be cleansed too.
#24
Lex-Perhaps I am overreaching, but can we break it down?
Is Russia's identity European in their own eyes? They certainly shared a significant past, in trade and secondary language spread, in wars and alliances, in music and art...Germany was the enemy of Russia in WWII, but ask your relatives and colleagues that lived at that time: outside of Jewish families, what was the opinion of Jews among rank and file Russians in the 1930s and 1940s? Did anything in the subsequent decades change that view, from a demographic aspect?
#25
To broaden the topic a bit (how complicated our world is becoming):
Is Russia a part of Europe in EUROPE's eyes?
With whom is Russia more likely to ally itself, its Moslem neighbors along its southern borders, its European neighbors to the west, with America, China, with countries in South America, in Africa? Or to every place at every time for Russia's own well-concealed reasons?
What about Cat D12's point? The general conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims has a vigorous second front now-Europe. How are the Europeans responding to that threat? Who has been trying to "work with who"; who is being sought out for satisfaction? That should be of much concern to Mr. Putin, who has ridden through 2 very ugly terror incidents (that I know of) in the last couple of years and will need to get his hands around a sound policy. Is he taking America's track (or so we would wish it)-fighting any and all affiliates of terror, or is he more attracted to the EU elixir for hudna, commerce-based solutions with a dash of dialogue? Makes one wonder. Mr. Putin has some potentially massive problems on his hands along that southern Russian border.
Is the reason Putin became so cold with the US (predating Beslan) primarily an economic one-that we have ruined a good thing he had going in Iraq? What on earth has made him throw away a good hand?
Lex-I agree that anti-Semitism may not be at crisis stage in Russia, nor in Europe. Yet.
#26
Re #24 (jules): what was the opinion of Jews among rank and file Russians in the 1930s and 1940s?
There was a lot of prejudice against Jews in the 1930s and 1940s among Russians, as there was among Germans, other Europeans, and North Americans. The reasons everywhere were similar. Jews were non-Christians. Jews were prominent in finance, trade, crime, radical politics, and other endeavors that upset people. Jews had Asiatic, not European blood. Jews were not loyal to their governments. Jews were involved in secret conspiracies to take over the world. Such ideas were widely spread.
In Russia and Germany such ideas were aggravated by military defeats, economic catastrophes, political violence, tyranical government, censorship of information, suppression of dissent, and systematic brainwashing.
In Russia several of these factors persisted through the 1980s.
As the Soviet Union collapsed and people were allowed to criticize Communism, the criticism included accusations that Jews were largely to blame. Russians read such accusations for the first time, and many Russians were impressed by the evidence. They read long lists of Communists who Jews or who were thought to be Jews. They also learned that many Jews became fabulously rich after the Soviet Union fell apart.
More generally, though, the Russians are gradually and freely learning, discussing and accepting their true history. They are hearing all sides of arguments, and they gradually are putting Russians and Jews in proper relationships and perspectives in their thinking. You can be sure that this proposal in the Duma is being critized and that Russians are hearing that criticism.
Also, most of the Jews have left Russia. I don't know the percentage, but I think that Jews now must constitute less than one percent of the population. So, blaming the Jews for current problems just can't resonate much in a real way.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 21:45
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#27
Mike, you don't understand. You have no idea how deeply anti-semitism is weaved into the EUro and Russian cultures.
The ability to learn freely does not in any way diminish this trait, otherwise it would have been eliminated already in EUroland, it's a red herring.
It really does not matter how many Jews remain in Russia, when the opportunity arises and people would feel the need to elevate the blame game to social events, because it is easier than to resolve the issues by exerting an effort, who do you think they will target?
Some Russians still blame Jews for social and economic problems. The posted article is a vivid example. Those Russians are a small, vocal minority who exert decreasingly little influence on Russian society's thinking. Blame for current problems is placed much more on organized crime, official corruption and Moslem terrorists than on Jewish conspiracies. Hostility toward Jews has been withering away along with the departure of Jews themselves from Russia. Most young Russians have never personally met any Jews.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:34
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#29
I know quite a few people that never met any Jew personally, and yet they are anti-semites. How do you parse that?
#30
Some people study evidence for Jewish conspiracies and become convinced that there are such conspiracies and that they are very important. Most people don't bother to study such issues, and they are influenced more casually by general talk, general impressions, and personal experiences. The latter group, which is much larger, is decreasingly influenced by the smaller group of anti-Semite zealots. Their accusations do not resonate with most people's experiences and concerns.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:46
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#31
Okydoky then. How do you explain that the anti-semitism incidents are on the increase worldwide? According to your analysis, the trend should be just the opposite, n'est ce pas?
#32
Mike, your analysis is flawed. When I lived in Frankfurt during the first half of the '90s, there were fewer than 50,000 Jews living in all of Germany, including me. And yet some 25% of Germans admitted in surveys to hating the Jews (a significant and joyfully-acclaimed decrease from previous levels). I suggest to you that at that time not only did most Germans not know any Jews personally, but they also didn't know anyone who'd ever met a Jew. So where did the antisemitism come from?
Antisemitism, it is said, is the philosophy of the mentally impoverished. It explains everything in a most satisfying way, and as such needs no true facts or real persons to justify its existence. Certainly not the existence of real Jewish people! Else why would the Japanese, who as a group are neither Christian nor Muslim, who have never had any Jews living in their midst, and who have no dog in the Israel v. Palestine fight, be antisemitic?
FLASH: 'We have a leak of reactor coolant into the containment structure... leak rate was about 75 gallons a minute but is reducing,' John Austerberry, spokesman... 'there is no indication of a radioactive release'... MORE...
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/25/2005
12:26:39 AM ||
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On the 16th, the Fermi 2 facility completed a scheduled 27 day outage for maintenance and refuelling. Detroit Edison
Quite a bit of work was done during that period:
-Replacement of the computer that manages the visual annunciator system in the control room.
-Replacement of 23 control-rod drive mechanisms, 13 control rod blades and eight local power range monitors.
-Replacement of 15 main steam safety relief valves.
-Replacement of the coolant water pump on one of the plantâs four emergency diesel generators.
-Inspection and maintenance of the reactor core isolation cooling system turbine, which is performed every 10 years.
#5
...Fermi had a weird accident in the 70s not long after it opened that IIRC was similar to this and was badly overhyped in the book We Almost Lost Detroit - but the point of the book (that Detroit Edison badly botched the design and construction of the plant) was never seriously questioned.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/25/2005 22:22
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Sorry - that was the 60s, and here's some more data on the record of the plant:
LIBERATED JERUSALEM — The chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said yesterday arch-foe Iran was on the brink of enriching uranium, a process key to building a nuclear bomb. "The assessment is that by the end of 2005 the Iranians will reach the point of no-return from the technological perspective of creating a uranium-enrichment capability," Mossad head Meir Dagan told parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Iran, which says its nuclear programme is for energy needs only, agreed in November to suspend uranium enrichment under a European Union-brokered deal. Israel and the US suspect Iran of buying time while it covertly seeks the bomb. "The Iranians are striving to secure from the Europeans an agreement that would allow them to continue enriching uranium, even on an intensified level, under supervision and with guarantees," Dagan said. "The moment that you have the technology for enrichment, you are home free," he said, adding that from that point it would take Iran around two years to manufacture nuclear weapons.
Believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, Israel has hinted it could hit Iran militarily to stop it getting the bomb. An Israeli air strike on the Iraqi reactor at Osiraq in 1981 dealt a severe blow to Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme.
Iran — and any Israeli pre-emption — are core concerns for US President George W. Bush in his second term in office. "If, in fact, the Israelis become convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards," US Vice-President Dick Cheney said last week.
But Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres sounded a note of caution, saying the Jewish state should defer to its US ally. "The Iranian issue is an international issue," Peres told Army Radio yesterday. "The party that will decide is the US and not us."
"After you!"
"No, after you!"
"Oh no, I insist, after you!"
"I know! Let's go together!"
"Capital idea! Capital!"
Peres predicted Washington would exhaust diplomatic options for getting Iran to come clean on its nuclear programme, noting that unlike Saddam-era Iraq, the Islamic republic had dispersed its reactors, making a military strike difficult. "We must recognise our limitations," Peres said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2005
12:20:09 AM ||
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i hope mr. oslo perez has recognized his limitations--nice posture of weakness shimon--dreamer
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/25/2005 2:40
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As I said day before yesterday on the missile-defense thread, I strongly suspect that some of Israel's Arrow interceptors have nuclear warheads. This is the best way to be sure that an oncoming ballistic missile is killed dead rather than just damaged or knocked off course.
This raises a sticky political problem: Any ballistic missile coming from Iran must be assumed to have a nuclear warhead. It may not have, but it will too late by the time this is definitely determined, most likely by a rising mushroom cloud.
Hence the nuclear Arrow would have to be launched without definite knowledge that the target was also a nuke, which would be "first-use" and therefore condemned by the global moonbat-appeasement community. The PM would have about 60 seconds to decide, and he would have to get it right.
Personally, I would give the "go" signal and tell the "international community" to get stuffed.
#3
" Peres told Army Radio yesterday. âThe party that will decide is the US and not us.â
I know Iran is our problem also but come on .....
This is literaly in Isreals backyard.
I expect a little stronger stance than this from Peres. Isreal is playing a trump card right now.
It has worked in Iraq, now they are hoping the Mullahs are next. Isreal knows the U.S. does not want them in any " large " conflict anywhere in the Region in fear of a major escalation of the conflict. Isreal is watching with a careful eye hoping American blood will eliminate their enemys.
#4
AC - If faced with that decision, then it seems prudent for Israel to go ahead and launch their own counter strike nuclear missiles at Iran. Why leave them sitting on the ground if Iran is firing nukes themselves (and like you pointed out, you pretty much have to assume that they are).
Israel needs to make it know to Iran, and the rest of the barbarians around them, that if anybody launches a missile at Israel, then Israel will assume that's its a nuke and will let fly.
Leaves the decision on whether or not to get nuked entirely up to the Iranians and anybody else looking for trouble.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 9:07
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AC the old Nike Hercules systems employed both conventional and nuke warheads for air defense. The intent was to blow down of mass bomber formations. The US had no problem with employing the setup in case its security was threatened in the late 50s through the 70s. Just hope the Israelis have EMP hardened their defense grid beyond the first shot.
Posted by: Don ||
01/25/2005 9:40
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AC---from my reading, IIRC, the USSR made an antimissile defence using nuclear tipped missiles. Kinda made up for the lack of advanced technology that a true missile interceptor would need, witness our system now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 9:50
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It's Shimon Peres from the Labour Party, guys. He doesn't speak for the government of Israel, and may well not even be privy to the decision making. Note Dick Cheney's comment -- if Israel is deferring to America's decision, that has already been made, and made public.
An al-Qaida lieutenant in custody in Iraq has confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the U.N. headquarters in the capital, authorities said Monday. Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, ``confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad'' since the Iraq war began, according to the interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib.
Take him out in the middle of a field, pop a stick of dynamite down his shorts, light the fuse and leave...
A government statement said Al-Jaaf was taken into custody Jan. 15 and was responsible for 32 car bombings, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters that killed the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people. The suspect, a top lieutenant of al-Qaida's Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also built the car bomb used to attack a shrine in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that killed more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, in August 2003, the statement said. It said he also assembled the car bomb used in May to assassinate Izzadine Saleem, then president of the Iraqi Governing Council.
Busy boy.
Two other militants linked to al-Zarqawi's terror group also have been arrested. They included the chief of al-Zarqawi's propaganda operations and one of the group's weapons suppliers, the government statement said. The government offered no evidence to support its claims, and the announcement followed a series of car bombings, kidnappings and assassinations of Iraqi security personnel, all of which have lowered public morale as the nation prepares for elections next weekend. Since June 28, when the interim Iraqi government took power, there have been 202 car bombings across Iraq, including 70 in the Baghdad area, according to an Associated Press tally. The attacks have killed 1,061 people and injured 2,753.
Most of whom are Iraqis, someething the press doesn't often point out.
Al-Zarqawi has been trying to incite Sunni Arabs against the Shiite majority, playing on Sunni fears that the elections will spell the end of their privileged position in Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2005
12:13:20 AM ||
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I'll give that murderous bastard credit for at least recognizing the UN would run immediately and start complaining about the US not providing adequate security for those corrupt scummy NGO leeches.
And they didn't even use a Rachel Corrie Memorial D-9 Dozer!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian Authority workers began demolishing illegal buildings next to Gaza City early Tuesday, signaling that new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas intends to enforce laws that have been long ignored. Police commander Moussa Allaian said hundreds of structures would be torn down in Gaza City and the northern part of the coastal strip. Dozens of shops, cafes and kiosks have sprung up along the Mediterranean beach in recent years.
"Ugh! Icky! Free enterprise! Tear it down!"
You know what they can sell that waterfront property for? That's a lot of money there...
More than 200 heavily armed Palestinian police in uniform lined the street to protect the workers, but there was no violence and no resistance. A large crowd watched as two bulldozers leveled the structures. The first to go were small, flimsy kiosks built of wood, with red tile roofs. Police helped a cafe owner remove furniture as a bulldozer waited nearby. Allaian said Abbas gave the order for the after-midnight operation. ``The president gave strict instructions to remove all buildings built illegally on government land,'' he said. ``We are a new era now. We must respect the law for once,'' Allaian said. There was no Israeli involvement, he said, and the operation was not near Israel or any Israeli settlements.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2005
12:09:56 AM ||
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Is Barbara Streisand building a new beachfront villa in Gaza?
Posted by: Mike ||
01/25/2005 13:37
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration plans to announce Tuesday it will request about $80 billion more for this year's costs of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides said Monday. The request would push the total provided so far for those wars and for U.S. efforts against terrorism elsewhere in the world to more than $280 billion since the first money was provided shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Money well spent.
That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for World War I or the $623 billion it expended for the Vietnam War, when the costs of those conflicts are translated into 2005 dollars.
White House officials refused to comment on the war spending package, which will be presented as the United States confronts a new string of violence in Iraq as that country's Jan. 30 elections approach. The forthcoming request underscored how the war spending has clearly exceeded initial White House estimates. Early on, then-presidential economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey placed Iraq costs of $100 billion to $200 billion, only to see his comments derided by administration colleagues.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday it was Congress' ``highest responsibility'' to provide the money that American troops need. But in a written statement, she said Democrats would ask questions about Bush's policies there. ``What are the goals in Iraq, and how much more money will it cost to achieve them? Why hasn't the president and the Pentagon provided members of Congress a full accounting of previous expenditures?,'' Pelosi added.
Liberty, as much as it takes, and look under your desk blotter.
She also said she wanted to know why Iraqi troops aren't playing a larger role in security there.
The package will not formally be sent to Congress until after President Bush introduces his 2006 budget on Feb. 7, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonmity. They said White House budget chief Joshua Bolten or other administration officials would describe the spending request publicly Tuesday.
Until now, the White House had not been expected to reveal details of the war package until after the budget's release. The decision to do so earlier comes after congressional officials argued to the administration that withholding the war costs from Bush's budget would open the budget to criticism that it was an unrealistic document, one aide said. Last year, the spending plan omitted war expenditures and received just that critique. Adding additional pressure, the Congressional Budget Office planned to release a semi-annual report on the budget Tuesday that was expected to include a projection of war costs. Last September, the nonpartisan budget office projected the 10-year costs of the wars at $1.4 trillion at current levels of operations, and $1 trillion if the wars were gradually phased down.
Aides said about three-fourths of the $80 billion was expected to be for the Army, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting in Iraq. It also was expected to include money for building a U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has been estimated to cost $1.5 billion.
One aide said the request will also include funds to help the new Afghan government combat drug-trafficking. It might also have money to help two new leaders the U.S. hopes will be allies, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko. The aides said the package Bush eventually submits to Congress will also include money to help Indian Ocean countries hit by the devastating December tsunami.
Not including the latest package, lawmakers have so far provided the Defense Department with $203 billion for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorists, according to the Congressional Research Service. That includes $121 billion for the war in Iraq, $53 billion for Afghanistan and $29 billion for improved security and anti-terror efforts in the United States and abroad. In addition, Congress has provided nearly $21 billion for rebuilding Iraq and almost $4 billion for Afghan reconstruction. Large portions of that money has not been spent, especially in Iraq, where an armed insurgency and bureaucratic delays have slowed many projects.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2005
12:01:53 AM ||
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Article: That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for World War I or the $623 billion it expended for the Vietnam War, when the costs of those conflicts are translated into 2005 dollars.
AP is lying with statistics. US expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan are about $100b a year, or about 0.6% of GDP, a relative nit compared with past conflicts, including Vietnam. WWI expenditures* were about 4% of GDP in the first year, and about 18% of GDP in the second year, as befitted a major conflict with some of the biggest powers in Europe - Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman empire. The huge expense of that war was one reason why it was called the Great War, and a reason why the Central Powers agreed to an unfavorable armistice - they could no longer sustain it. It was also why Wilson became hugely unpopular for agreeing to jump in - many Americans felt it was an unnecessary war, which killed 100,000 Americans in just two years. Note that AP never mentions this.
* Note the following stats: In WWI the initial defense outlay in 1917 of $26 billion occurred while real GNP fell $0.7 billion -- a 1% decline. In 1918 expenditures rose $93 billion accompanied by a $6.3 billion increase in GNP.
As usual, AP lies with statistics. The appropriate measure isn't the dollar amounts, it's the percentage of GDP.
#2
Note that AP is also lying about the inflation adjusted amounts - 93+26 = $119B. The inflation factor, which I feel understates inflation, is .068 for 1917 and .08 for 1918. This brings WWI expenditures to $1.54T in 2004 dollars for an average expenditure of $750B a year, dwarfing War on Terror expenditures in inflation-adjusted terms, never mind percentage of industrial output terms.
#3
Why are percentages of GDP more meaningful? Because they provide a better picture of the strain on ordinary Americans of war expenditures. In the second year of WWI, $1800 out of every $10000 earned by each American was being spent on the war. In the second year of the Iraqi campaign, $60 out of every $10000 earned is being spent on the war. That's a huge difference.
#4
What ZF said. Plus, the tax burden in the WWI era fell far more heavily on working class families than it does now. So adjust the WWI figure even higher relative to today's per-taxpaying household figure.
One note: every time I read similar misleading claims in articles, I keep in mind that the journo school yutz who wrote it is probably functionally innumerate.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
01/25/2005 12:11
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#6
The appropriate measure isn't the dollar amounts, it's the percentage of GDP.
Ah, but it's not possible to influence the regular Schmoe's thinking unless it's framed in nice, simple terms.
#7
Not quiet good enough BAR, should be more like:
"That's enough money to supply every elementary school teacher with a $50,000 a year raise with enough money left over to buy every 3rd child a free Harvard education plus allow all people now age 42-62 to retire immediately at triple their current salary."
I see Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew as a Trudeau-style dilettante and a fob. Basically, a wine-sipping boulevardier, without Maurice Chevalier's talent or charm. Within a week or so, Pettigrew is set to release a new policy review on where our nation should stand in world affairs. Do we hypocritically continue to treat both free democracies and brutal dictatorships with "moral equivalency" -- closing our eyes to the evils of dictatorships -- or get some backbone and start forcing dictatorships to respect human rights?
Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day, who knows Pettigrew reasonably well, will be looking intensely at where the newly-appointed minister stands on the issue. In the column "Day shines." (Jan. 11) I talked about my recent chat with Day and how the former Canadian Alliance leader is appalled at shipping tycoon Paul Martin's lackadaisical performance on all issues, and especially foreign affairs. Martin's regime has been going down the same road in foreign affairs as his predecessors Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien. The mantra of all three: Ignore our friends; embrace our enemies. Sacrifice Israel, curry favour with the sheiks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
11:44:31 AM ||
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A computer that learns to play a 'scissors, paper, stone' by observing and mimicking human players could lead to machines that automatically learn how to spot an intruder or perform vital maintenance work, say UK researchers.
CogVis, developed by scientists at the University of Leeds in Yorkshire, UK, teaches itself how to play the children's game by searching for patterns in video and audio of human players and then building its own "hypotheses" about the game's rules.
In contrast to older artificial intelligence (AI) programs that mimic human behaviour using hard-coded rules, CogVis takes a more human approach, learning through observation and mimicry, the researchers say.
The older approach is fraught with problems, as computers struggle when faced with situations that fall outside the remit of these rules and when new rules are introduced.
Participate and learn
"A system that can observe events in an unknown scenario, learn and participate just as a child would is almost the Holy Grail of AI," says Derek Magee from the University of Leeds. "We may not have solved this challenge quite yet, but we think we've made a small dent."
The system was demonstrated at an event sponsored by the British Computer Society in Cambridge, UK, in December 2004. It went on to win the society's Prize for Progress Towards Machine Intelligence.
CogVis observed human volunteers playing a version of the game using cards marked with a pair of scissors, a piece of paper, or a stone. They were also told to announce when they had won or when the game was a draw. After watching for several rounds, CogVis was able to call the outcome of each game correctly.
Inductive logic
Chris Needham, another member of the CogVis team, says the system's visual processor analyses the action by separating periods of movement and inactivity and then extracting features based on colour and texture. Combining this with audio input, the system develops hypotheses about the game's rules using an approach known as inductive logic programming.
"It was very impressive," says Max Bramer, a researcher at Portsmouth University, UK, and chair of the British Computer Society's AI group. He told New Scientist that CogVis could have many future applications. "You can think of lots of times when you'd like to be able to point a camera at something and have a computer interpret things for itself."
He suggests that machine's could one day use this technique to learn how to spot an intruder on video footage or how to control a robot for important maintenance work. "It's a very good start, and almost mysterious in the way it works," Bramer adds.
Stephen Muggleton, an AI expert at Imperial College London, UK, says CogVis combines several strands of AI research, from vision analysis to logic programming. "The result is an explicit plan-oriented theory, learned directly from visual and auditory perception," he told New Scientist.
But Muggleton says a key challenge will be to push the system to learn more difficult things. "It would be interesting to see if this approach will scale up to more complex games such as noughts-and-crosses or even beginner-level draughts," he adds.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005
11:28:44 AM ||
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I don't see a problem, Dave.
Posted by: Hal ||
01/25/2005 12:07
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I'm very leery of AI.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 12:08
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Malaysia, responding to orders a call by Saudi Arabia, has agreed to organise a summit meeting of Muslim leaders that would seek to heal rifts in the Islamic world, local media reported on Tuesday. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, chairman of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), told Malaysian reporters accompanying him on a visit to Paris that he would despatch his foreign minister to Riyadh to discuss the plan. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Friday urged Malaysia to organise a summit "so that we can overcome, with our faith in God ... the state of dismemberment and fragmentation" among Muslims.
"Dismemberment" and "fragmentation", those words always pop into my mind when I think about a Islamic Summit. Those, and "JDAM".
The leaders' conference should be preceded by meetings among "Council of Boskone the (Islamic) nation's thinkers and scholars ... to outline visions of the nation's future and thus assist the gathering of the leaders, which I hope will be held here, in this pure land," he said. The leaders would "search for common ground and strengthen the bonds" among Muslims, the Saudi prince said. Malaysia's Abdullah, who was in Paris for a conference on biodiversity, told reporters that the preliminary meeting would be held soon to identify the scope and topics for discussion at the summit. "We do not want the summit to be without focus and engage in discussions aimlessly without any fruitful conclusion. We want to see implementation of resolutions adopted," he said. Asked whether the summit was being called following US President George W. Bush's refusal to rule out the possibility of an attack on Iran, Abdullah said: "Let us talk about our concerns first. Otherwise, we will be confused. If we are weak, others will threaten us." Abdullah said the summit would touch on political issues and Islamic ideology among other matters, the official Bernama news agency reported.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
11:20:45 AM ||
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âWe do not want the summit to be without focus and engage in discussions aimlessly without any fruitful conclusion."
Oh, so you want to try something new. My, that's not very Islamic of you.
#2
I wonder how much money the Saudis paid for their request to be granted? Its great PR for them and makes them seem responsible and mature at least to other islamic nations anyway. I wonder if the Shia will be invited. You know that when Soddies talk about their religion they always mean just the sunnis.
As usual, islamics strive to imitate the West but the talk always rings hollow in the end. We all know what peace talks mean in the islamic world ie its just another way to gain advantage over your opponents at some future date. Make nice to the other parties until you are in a strong enough position to defeat them.
#3
"If we are weak, others will threaten us.â Abdullah said "
So you want to be strong to dominate the world, no? Weak, is the state you deserve to be in.
January 25, 2005: The U.S. Army Special Forces has been meeting its recruiting goals, bringing in 1,628 new men last year. The Special Forces recruits from troops already in the army, and has found that the growing number of combat experienced soldiers has made recruiting easier. Since the 1980s, most potential recruits did not have any combat experience. While many troops were exposed to combat during the 1991 Gulf War, that one lasted only four days. Iraq and Afghanistan are giving many more troops a lot more time under fire, and convinced a lot of them that they really do want to take it up a notch, and join the Special Forces. This provides better prepared, both in terms of skills and expectations, recruits for the 2-3 years of intense training required to become a Special Forces operator. The Special Forces are highly selective, and members are highly trained. Having seen this in action themselves, many combat soldiers are inspired to see if they can reach that level of professionalism. The troops also realize that the Special Forces have a lower casualty rate than regular combat units. This has been a hallmark of elite combat units for centuries. Serving in the Special Forces also means faster promotions, and more money.
Special Forces recruiters have taken advantage of this trend by visiting units that have just returned from duty in a combat zone. With the experience of combat fresh in their minds, the troops can more realistically consider the Special Forces recruiters pitch. Many troops have encountered, or even worked with Special Forces in combat zones, and that has proved to be a major help for the recruiters. For the Special Forces, getting combat veterans is a big plus. These recruits are more easily trained, and get up to speed, with veteran Special Forces operators, more quickly.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
11:19:19 AM ||
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Article: The troops also realize that the Special Forces have a lower casualty rate than regular combat units.
This is one of the reasons the Army has a stormy relationship with the Special Forces. Commanders don't like having their best men poached. Every combat unit relies on its best people to lead the way. Having these men lured away decreases the effectiveness of the combat units.
#2
But without having the best men poached away, the SF goes downhill. You have to be a vampire that sucks its own blood . . . unit commanders simply have to concentrate on making their soldiers the best and congratulate those that get chosen to go on up the chain into the SF community.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/25/2005 11:44
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This problem isn't unique to the military. Any large organization that trains its cadres internally will face the "train the best, keep the rest" syndrome. Internal competition for prized positions is normal and healthy, as is turnover of 5-10% in any given year for any competitive private sector organization.
#4
This needs updating. SOCOM is no longer limited to recruiting solely from the active duty ranks. They discovered that there are a lot of talented individuals out there who want to do such things, but are turned off by a regular military lifestyle. Please also note that with a 2-3 year prep time, a lot of new blood is going to be coming on line soon, radically enlarging the forces.
#5
Moose, a lot of those 'freelancers' are ex-military types and go into that work BECAUSE they like working with and on the fringe of the Military. If I were a 11B I would transfer over to Special Ops simply because of the better training and duty. They don't do much security or convoy details and that is where most of the casualties are coming from. Plus there is a ceratin amount of satisfaction of going on the offensive and not standing around being a target.
EFB Condoleezza Rice is no longer on a fast track to Senate confirmation as secretary of state, but the slowdown appears to be temporary as Democratic foes of the war in Iraq line up to have their say. Like real temporary Nine hours have been set aside Tuesday for bitching, whining and howling debate, divided equally between Idiots Democrats and Republicans. On Wednesday, a brief series of statements is expected - and then the vote to put her in charge of U.S. diplomacy. "We are talking about the safety and security of this country, so I very much and very quickly want to move with Secretary Rice," Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said. He said he was extremely pissed off disappointed by the delay and was confident the Senate would confirm her on Wednesday. Two Democratic opponents of the war, Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California, have booked an hour each to speak, with eight other Democrats due to weigh in with briefer speeches. My God, an hour of Byrd and Boxer ranting? Better keep sharp objects away today. Does the Senate have one of those stage hooks used to yank people off the stage?
Last week, White House chief of staff Andrew Card said the Democrats' decision to have a day or more of debate on the nomination amounted to "petty politics." That pretty much sums it up.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada denied Republicans' suggestions that Democrats were playing politics with Rice's nomination. He also promised a visit from Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny!
At first I was against this, but I am betting that after two hours of Byrd/Boxer late night comedy and John Stuart will have enough material for the rest of the season. Also will expose the Democrats for what they truly are: petty whining sore losers. I will be looking for two things today: Will Frist keep the Dems on the time table they are allotted and the final vote tally. The final vote will be a key to who can be dealt with (up for election in 2006) and who is a partisan hack. Over at DU they are all giddy that maybe Rice will get torpedoed today by Byrd/Boxer. The fact that an ex-Klansman is holding up the nomination of a Black Female is lost on them.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge ||
01/25/2005
11:16:21 AM ||
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Who says he's an EX- Klansman?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/25/2005 12:00
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DB, good point.
(1)If the point of this is to bitch about the war, why don't Byrd/Boxer go the straightforward route and introduce a resolution requiring the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq?
(2) I had heard about Boxer, but it wasn't until I saw her asking Condi questions that I understood just how stupid Boxer is. I've seen shrubbery with a higher IQ.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/25/2005 13:15
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#3
Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a period of time in the early 1940s. In a 1946 letter, he wrote, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia." However, when running for Congress in 1952, he announced, "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan."
Talk about a flip flopper - I was for the clan before I was against it.
All above from the nationmaster.com online Encyclopedia
#4
Here's a good quick summary of Robert Byrd and the Klan:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin030801.asp
Excerpt: "The ex-Klansman vowed never to fight 'with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.'"
Posted by: Tom ||
01/25/2005 13:58
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#5
Condoleezza Rice is the worst National Security Advisor ever and rather than fire her, she is being promoted to cover up her failures. She will be a good Secretary of State but she should have been held responsible for the biggest national security failure in the US.
Like I posted - she will make a VERY good Secretary of State but she was put in a job that she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing. She thought that her job was to be a cheerleader for the president. Terrorism was something that before 9/11, I believe, she took very lightly.
#9
..but she should have been held responsible for the biggest national security failure in the US.
Tony Lake wasn't held responsible for the first WTC, so what makes this any different? Just because more people died and two buildings were brought down?
#10
Denver, did it ever occur to you that the planning and set-up for 9/11 was well underway before Bush even took office? Do you recall the first World Trade Center bombing and the other similar attacks during the Clinton anministration? Why should Rice have been held responsible?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/25/2005 14:37
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#11
Pros and Cons on that statement Denver.
It was a failure of the entire National Security System. From every president, senator, congress-man, or woman, FBI and CIA director, Advisor, and so on and so on ... since terrorism was first analyzed after the 1972 Olympics. Our entire government let the American people down. To pin 9/11 on her shoulders is ridiculous.
#12
Terrorism was something that before 9/11, I believe, she took very lightly.
Before 9/11/2001, everybody took terrorism lightly. The difference is, the person occupying the White House at that time actually did something of substance in response.
#13
Re #8, I quit reading Slate last year when I realized that it was sounding more and more like a Sunday magazine for the New York Times.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/25/2005 14:50
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From the 9/11 commision findings:
In his book, testimony, and several TV interviews, Clarke has argued that the Clinton administration thwarted al-Qaida's plot to set off bombs at Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium because intelligence reports of an impending terrorist attack were discussed at several meetings of Cabinet secretaries. Knowing they'd have to come back and tell the president what they were doing to prevent an attack, these officials went back to their departments and "shook the trees" for information. When Bush came to power, Rice retained Clarke and his counterterrorism crew, but she demoted their standing; terrorism was now discussed (and, even then, rarely) at meetings of deputy secretaries, who lacked the same clout and didn't feel the same pressure.
Rice's central point this morning, especially in her opening statement, was that nobody could have stopped the 9/11 attacks. The problem, she argued, was cultural (a democratic aversion to domestic intelligence gathering) and structural (the bureaucratic schisms between the FBI and the CIA, among others). But this is the analysis of a political scientist, not a policymaker. Culture and bureaucracies form the backdrop against which officials perceive threats, devise options, and make choices. It is good that Rice, a political scientist by training, recognized that this backdrop can place blinders and constraints on decision-makers. But her job as a high-ranking decision-maker is to strip away the blinders and maneuver around the constraints. This is especially so given that she is the one decision-maker who is supposed to coordinate the views of the various agencies and present them as a coherent picture to the president of the United States. Her testimony today provides disturbing evidence that she failed at this taskâfailed even to understand that it was part of her job description.
#15
Pretty words Denver, and like I said, I can see some of your views. But the problems ran much deeper and for much longer. She made some mistakes
no doubt. Maybe if Clinton would have taken out Osama when he had a chance it could have been stopped. To many if's and's and butts.
Hard lesson to learn.
#16
"Clarke has argued that the Clinton administration thwarted al-Qaida's plot to set off bombs at Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium" Pure BULLSHIT! There was NO border patrol alert and NO directions from "Shit for Brains" Clarke. And the only "shaking" going on was in Billy Bob's pants. Denver please reread the comiision report and Dr. Rice's OPEN testimony and you will conclude two things: One Clarke is the BIGGEST asshole ever appointed and that Clinton/Albright/Gore/Clarke/Clark were ALL asleep and oblivous to the Islamists therat.
#18
the Clinton administration thwarted al-Qaida's plot to set off bombs at Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium because intelligence reports of an impending terrorist attack were discussed at several meetings of Cabinet secretaries.
The next time something really good happens because it was discussed in a meeting will be the first. Face it, LAX was a lucky shot based on an agent's intuition. She did a great job... but do you think she ever saw so much as a TPS report from a Cabinet Secretary?
#19
Clarke is a self aggrandizer and liar. He personally took credit in the apprehension of the terrorist on the Washington border when in fact it was the border guard herself who should have been credited. She has stated that there were no warnings or alerts issued beforehand, contrary to Clarke's sworn testimony.
Clarke also placed blame on others (FBI) for letting the Bin Laden family members fly away when other aircraft were grounded during his 911 testimony. Then, with the cameras off during Senate testimony three months later, he admitted being the one who had in fact authorized the Bin Laden flight.
But what really iced it for Clarke was on the morning of the Rice testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Clarke was interviewed by one of the MSM morning shows at the location of his choice. Interestingly, he selected a location within viewing range of Ground Zero.
Why this guy has not been put in cuffs is a mystery to me. Why people give him any credence is even more puzzling.
Rice kept him on because she knew the country needed continuity during the transition from Clinton to Bush administrations.
#20
Re #19 (Denver): Clarke has argued that the Clinton administration thwarted al-Qaida's plot to set off bombs at Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium because intelligence reports of an impending terrorist attack were discussed
I have never believed that story about the border guard perceiving that the driver seemed nervous as he drove through the border control. I have always thought that our government knew about the plans and the operation and was waiting for him when he approached the border. There we had a legal right to search his car, and we did and we found the evidence we were looking for. The yarn we tell about the alert border guard is a cover for some other intelligence means and methods.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 21:55
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#21
riiigghhttt MS.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2005 22:13
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Your right mike. Clarke had been tipped off by the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus......
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair hinted that US and British forces could begin handing over their security operations in large swathes of Iraq to local security forces after this month's elections there, in an interview published today.
Mr Blair said US and British forces would set "timelines" with the new Iraqi government for a handover of control to Iraqi forces, at least in peaceful parts of their country.
"There are areas where we would be able to hand over to those Iraqi forces. Remember, 14 out of the 18 provinces in Iraq are relatively peaceful and stable", the Prime Minister told the Financial Times newspaper.
Mr Blair did not give any firm dates for a British pullout, but said London and Washington would have a better idea of when to withdraw their troops after the landmark vote on Sunday.
"Both ourselves and the Iraqis want us to leave as soon as possible. The question is what is 'as soon as possible'. And the answer to that is: when the Iraqi forces have the capability to do the job."
Analysts have pointed to Mr Blair and his war ally US President George W. Bush's desire to find an exit strategy for their soldiers.
With 150,000 troops on the ground, US forces are at their highest level in Iraq since they overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad in April 2003.
Like Mr Blair, Mr Bush has refused to lay out a clear timetable for withdrawal, saying it will be "as quickly as possible".
MALAYSIA, which chairs the world's biggest grouping of Muslim countries, has warned that the United States will stand alone in the world if it attacks Iran.
The world community, including allies of the United States, was opposed to any such action by the superpower, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on his return from a trip to Paris late yesterday.
"Europe does not agree, the United States' close ally Britain does not agree, and I believe no one else will agree," Abdullah, who chairs the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said.
"The Islamic world will definitely not agree to an attack on Iran," he said.
"Talks should instead be held and made a priority, rather than military action."
US President George W. Bush - who once lumped Iran in an "axis of evil" with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea - said last week he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans.
Iran, which denies wishing to acquire a nuclear bomb, in November announced the suspension of its nuclear enrichment programme following protracted talks with Britain, France and Germany.
In mid-December, the three countries again took up talks with Tehran to try to conclude a long-term deal whereby the Iranians would definitively give up any ambitions of producing a nuclear weapon.
#1
Well, I have feeling that Soddies and other Gulf states will be uttering condemnations, but privately the would place big order on candies as they would run out in no time.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:49
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MALAYSIA, which chairs the worldâs biggest grouping of Muslim countries, has warned that the United States will stand alone in the world if it attacks Iran.
That sure simplifies setting up the old command net, doesn't it?
#8
Because The UN is good. I love the UN. The UN should be in charge of all governmental power world wide. Then there would be no wars and everyone would be nice. The UN is better than God. I love Kofi too.
Just make the UN in charge of everything. That would be super cool and make me happy.
#9
I agree with the thoughts of Zhang Fei (#6); The US need not have to invade per se in order to accomplish it's primary objectives of neutralizing the nuclear threat. I would recommend to the president: No boots on the ground (other than CIA, special forces, and or mercenaries)! Hit the 300+ targets, both known and suspected in a first stage wave; wait for reaction and prepare for the second demoralizing hit. Take them back atleast 22 years!
LONDON (Reuters) - Police called in a spotter plane, helicopter and video-equipped patrol car to help convict a woman who ate an apple while driving to work, newspapers have reported.
After nine court hearings and a trial lasting more than two hours, nursery nurse Sarah McCaffery was fined 60 pounds on Monday when a court upheld a police decision to give her a penalty ticket.
Police used the plane, helicopter and car to film road conditions on the route she took in Tyneside, northeast England, after officers pulled her over in December 2003.
"It is a joke they put so much effort into this," McCaffery, 23, told the Sun newspaper on Tuesday. "You would think they had better things to do."
She said she had both hands on the wheel of her Ford Ka and was driving safely.
But police and public prosecutors said she was not in control and they were obliged to gather evidence when she chose to fight the fine in court.
They expended 1000's to save face . . . they couldn't be the fool of. It matters little what the infraction was, it was the principle of getting that nasty mean apple eating crook . . .
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/25/2005 23:34
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I'm so suprised. Iraq's always been such a gentle land, with no tradition of police brutality...
Mohammed Khalaf al-Jumaily, a judge in west Baghdad's major crimes court, says he regularly sees suspects hauled before his bench who have been clearly badly beaten. "Sometimes they cannot even stand up," he said. "I often order them to be sent to hospital to treat their broken bones." However, he says, the suspects will not admit to having been tortured, for fear that the police will take them back to the cells and do worse. "They never complain to us, and if they do not complain then I can do nothing to help them."
Presumably, he'd be helping them after they were taken back to the cells and thoroughly re-thumped...
The Iraqi police's use of torture against criminal and insurgent suspects is an open secret in Baghdad's criminal justice system.
But don't tell nobody, okay?
In a report issued on Tuesday, the US-based Human Rights Watch accused Iraqi security forces of committing systematic torture against detainees.
Such things never took place under Saddam Hussein...
However, many police and others involved in the system think that torture is justified, given that the rule of law has virtually collapsed, and guerrillas and criminal gangs are often better armed than the police. "I can't condemn the officers who practise torture," said Alaa Hamed, a guard in the major crimes court. "Crime is very widespread, and the criminals are very professional."
... and what justice does get meted out is very unofficial...
Baghdad's policemen regularly complain that they do not have the equipment to fight criminal gangs, and that they are afraid to make arrests for fear that the suspect's families will target them for retribution. Court officials say that most victims appear to have been picked up during massive sweeps of high crime districts or insurgent strongholds, and the torture appears to be a way of deterring any retribution.
I guess it's hard to take Dire Revenge on the coppers when both your arms are broken.I suppose you could ask Cousin Mahmoud to do it, but he's waiting for kneecap replacement...
One judge who refused to disclose his name said he tried to let off lightly insurgents who had targeted Americans — they needed to be coached to prevent them from boasting about their exploits. However, if the suspect had targeted a policeman or other Iraqi official, he would not be brought to trial but beaten, thrown in a cell, and forgotten.
It's an old Iraqi tradition...
Some of the abuses appear to have sectarian roots. During the Shia rebellions in the poor Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, many residents complained of abuses by the capital's largely Sunni police force. Residents of Sunni areas also often complain of ill-treatment at the hands of Shia recruits to the National Guard. Sometimes security forces have even been observed to come to blows over the issue. Last summer, an FT correspondent witnessed about two dozen National Guardsmen, mostly recent recruits, brawl with a roughly equal number of police, mostly veterans of the Saddam Hussein era, in an attempt to stop them from beating up a taxi driver who had insulted an officer. The police managed to retain control of the taxi driver, whom they took back to the station, slapped around and then let go.
I don't think anyone's particularly surprised by this, not even HRW. The roots of the current crop of police are in the same soil that sprouted Saddam. Things weren't sweetness and light before him, either. The important thing, at this point, is that it's not policy. Hypocrisy has its uses, and one of them is dealing with a real problem — a surfeit of thugs — using methods that you publicly disapprove of. As time goes by and things get better, the thumpings can dwindle away to next to nothing as the coppers take on the aspect of Officer Friendly. At the moment they're at war, literally, with the Bad Guyz of all stripes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
1:03:23 PM ||
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#1
Oh man do I feel sorry for those poor terrorists
I don't think anyone's particularly surprised by this, not even HRW.
This is just too funny. When U.S. personnel engage in something that can only be called "torture" by really stretching the definition, HRW and their ilk squeal loud and long. When something much, much closer to torture is engaged in by non-Americans, the reaction is rather underwhelming.
#3
This is just too funny. When U.S. personnel engage in something that can only be called "torture" by really stretching the definition, HRW and their ilk squeal loud and long. When something much, much closer to torture is engaged in by non-Americans, the reaction is rather underwhelming.
The lefts all over this. At another site I visit, its "evil Allawi, another Saddam, this is just like Viet Nam, yadda, yadda"
#7
Re #2 (Bomb-a-rama): When U.S. personnel engage in something that can only be called "torture" by really stretching the definition, HRW and their ilk squeal loud and long. When something much, much closer to torture is engaged in by non-Americans, the reaction is rather underwhelming.
The posted article says that "Human Rights Watch accused Iraqi security forces of committing systematic torture against detainees."
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 22:01
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Police have arrested three radical islamists, believed to be the brains behind the Umm Al-Haiman terrorist attacks, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting a high-level security source.
"Hokay! Which of youse guys is the brains of the outfit?"
The three men are identified as BK, AK Al-Enezi and MS Al-Ajmi.
Oboy! Another Enezi for our collection! Kids! Collect the entire set!
The same source said M.S. Al-Ajmi - who had earlier been arrested and released some time before the shoot-out in Umm Al-Haiman - is an ex-policeman and has admitted to being the leader of the Umm Al-Haiman cell. He also told police he and Al-Enezi escaped in two stolen cars which were parked in front of Adan Hospital.
"Nyah, coppers! We had da getaway cars waitin'!"
"Drat! And we had them surrounded!"
The source added the parents of Fawaz Al-Otaibi - who was killed during the shoot-out in Maidan Hawalli - had earlier filed a missing persons report on their son and provided police with information about nine persons - Ahmad M., Mohammd S, Hamed A., Salah Sh., Mohammad A., Amer Kh., Bandar M., Kanaan and Mohammd Sh. - who maintained contacts with Fawaz. They also guided police to a tent in Subbiya where the victim and his friends held meetings.
Ahah! The old tent in the desert trick!
Sources believe the suspects might be using the tent to plan their strategies and to conduct military training. Former preacher of Malek Bin Auf Mosque in Jahra, identified as A Kh Al-Enezi and a prominent cleric Hamed A. allegedly visited the tent several times before the incident.
Well, shucks. That's never happened before. Has it?
Time to start a rumor about Kh and Hamed in a tent, alone ...
A brother of one of the fugitives told police on one occasion he followed his brother wherever he went and saw him meeting the preacher of the mosque who used a laptop computer inside his vehicle. The source also said 16 key suspects are in police custody and police have launched a manhunt for 35 others, whom the authorities have described as "very dangerous." Meanwhile, personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) have provided the State Security men with more than 100 fingerprints lifted from various sites. The police have handed over to the CID some of the suspects to match the fingerprints.
"Dose ain't our fingerprints, coppers! Dose fingerprints was planted!"
In other news Al-Anba daily said Kuwaiti security authorities had received warnings from their Saudi counterparts two months ago about the likelihood of terrorist attacks on Kuwaiti soil by Saudi elements. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz was quoted by Saudi daily "Okaz" as saying the sources of terrorism in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are one.
Whoa! Who'da ever guessed that!
The same source quoting Prince Nayef added Saudi Arabia has not received any reports from Kuwait about the involvement of Saudi citizens in terrorist operations in Kuwait, however, he added the Saudi Interior Ministry expects to receive such reports soon.
... since they have the carcasses and all.
On the other hand, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Dr Adel Al-Falah described the recent bloody events in Kuwait as "frightening", reports Al-Anba daily.
"I'm very frightened! I hope none o' them fingerprints is mine!"
Al-Falah said the radicals who have been brainwashed by vested interests are tools in the hands of the enemies of Islam. Al-Falah admitted radicalism must be eradicated and the ministry is planning to prepare preachers and experts who can intimidate, rather than hold official dialogues with persons who embrace such unscrupulous and unsound ideas.
Have you considered shooting them on the spot?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
10:29:06 PM ||
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#1
Check the ammo belt in the pic. I think I found the missing link....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 9:33
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#2
Radical Islamists....brains
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Hamas is ready to accept a temporary truce with Israel provided the Israelis halt their targeted killings and release Palestinian prisoners, Hamas leader in Beirut Khaled Mashaal said in remarks published Tuesday. In an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Mashaal said that recent meetings between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian factions had produced "positive results." The talks had focused on their halting attacks on Israel to pave the way for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to resume. "There is a talk about pacification," Mashaal said, referring to a truce. "But it is a conditional pacification whereby the (Israeli) occupation must abide by specific conditions. The most important of which is the cessation of all kinds of aggression, invasion, assassination, killings and the release of all Palestinian prisoners."
"If the (Israeli) enemy abides by these conditions, we, in Hamas, and other resistance forces in general, are ready to deal positively with the issue of pacification or temporary truce," Mashaal told the London-based newspaper, which did not say when and where the interview was conducted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
10:26:38 AM ||
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Hamas is ready to accept a temporary truce with Israel provided the Israelis halt their targeted killings and release Palestinian prisoners,..
Uhh, NO.
"If the (Israeli) enemy abides by these conditions,..
This is all that needs to be said. Keep on killing those Hamas members, guys.
'BA'AD!" This is what one is likely to hear whenever talking to Iraqis these days. It's short for the phrase ba'ad al-intikhabat — "after the elections."
Weddings are being postponed until after Election Day, as are business contracts, poetry recitals, play openings, the start of the soccer season and, of course, the rebuilding of towns and villages wrecked by months of insurgency. Also on hold are big projects financed by the $18 billion U.S. aid package and the $6 billion-plus pledged by Europe, Japan and the Arab states.
Never have so many people pinned so much hope on a single day of voting.
Jan. 30 is to give Iraq its first freely elected Parliament, plus provincial and regional councils. It will not only set the course for 25 million Iraqis but could also determine a new balance of power in the Middle East and the United States' status as a "superpower" capable of reshaping the regional status quo.
The interim government's determination to hold the election is matched by the equally firm insurgent/terrorist resolve to disrupt the voting. In parts of Baghdad and several towns in the so-called Sunni Triangle, northwest of the capital, a slogan has appeared on some walls: Min Al-Sanduq il Al-sanduq! — "From the ballot box into the coffin."
The 160,000 or so U.S. and Coalition troops represent a small force in a country the size of France with some 18,000 villages and almost 300 towns and cities. Over a year of effort to create a new Iraqi army and police has not produced the desired results. On paper, the interim government employs almost 200,000 soldiers and policemen. But Iraqi officials admit in private that no more than three battalions are reliable.
Yet despite almost daily terrorist attacks, most Iraqis appear determined that the election should take place. Almost 75 percent of those eligible have registered to vote.
Campaigning is most intense in the Shiite and Kurdish areas — where the insurgents, despite a number of spectacular attacks, have failed to make an impression. Meetings are held in mosques, schools, village halls and the homes of the candidates where would-be voters are often treated to free meals. In parts of southern Iraq, big tribal tents double as town halls for the election.
Much of the debate takes place through talk on the 50 or so privately owned radio stations, especially in and around Baghdad, and in the columns of the 200 or so newspapers and magazines that have sprung up since liberation.
"We know that there are criminals determined to blow us up," says Abdul-Hussein Hindawi, head of the independent Electoral Commission. "But we cannot allow fear to shape our future. Iraqis know that they must take risks to build a free society."
Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the primus inter pares of the Shiite clergy, has issued a fatwa (edict), urging everyone to vote. "Taking part in the elections and building a democratic system are religious duties," he asserts. Sistani has endorsed a candidate list in the race but insists that the clergy must not seek a direct role in the government.
The election, based on proportional representation, treats Iraq as a single constituency. This may lead to a hung Parliament in which the three Shiite lists would represent the largest bloc but be unable to form a majority without some Kurdish and Sunni support.
Most participants have already approved a draft constitution designed to turn Iraq into a democratic, pluralist and federal state. They have also agreed that at least 25 percent of the seats should go to women. But there are divisions over other issues, including the role of the state in the economy, the sharing of oil revenues and water resources, the future of the city of Kirkuk (claimed by both Arabs and Kurds) and the relationship between secular legislation and Islamic Shariah (theological law.)
Those issues intensely interest a majority of Iraqis, hence the current view that the turnout will be even larger than the insurgents fear. "I am hungry to vote," says Ghazban Fayyad, owner of a bookstall in downtown Baghdad. "All I hope is that I am not blown up before I cast my ballot."
Iraq today is the scene of several inter-related conflicts, each of which could kill hopes of stabilization let alone democratization. Some Sunnis oppose any election because it could end their dream of regaining the dominance they had in government since the British turned Iraq into a state in 1921. Kurds, meanwhile, are determined to secure as much autonomy as possible — which both Shiite and Sunni Arabs see as a threat to central government authority.
A third conflict pits the U.S-led coalition against Iran and Syria. Those nations fear that, were America to succeed in Iraq, they could be the next targets for regime change. So they are doing all they can to ensure that the election does not produce a pro-American majority.
The best-case scenario runs along these lines: The election produces a Parliament that chooses a new government of national unity. Enjoying popular legitimacy, this government deprives the insurgency of its claim of fighting against foreign occupation. The U.S. and Coalition allies are then able to scale down their military presence while accelerating the recruitment, training and deployment of Iraqi armed forces and police — allowing Coalition forces to withdraw by 2007.
Also in this scenario, Iraq would mobilize its immense manpower and natural resources to rebuild its economy. The International Monetary Fund reported last November that even now the Iraqi economy is performing better than any other in the Arab Middle East, and could become the region's engine of growth over the next decade.
The worst-case scenario is equally stark: Widespread violence could disrupt the election, while mass Sunni boycott casts doubt on the results. The insurgents could extend their attacks to Shiite areas, provoking Shiite counterattacks. This could lead to a de facto partition of the country or intermittent ethnic war of the kind Lebanon experienced in the 1970s and 1980s — followed by an American retreat from the quagmire, a Kurdish breakaway, clashes with Turkey and Iran . . .
I think the best-case scenario is more likely. Nevertheless, let's wait with the Iraqis, for "ba'ad" — after the election.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/25/2005
10:12:22 AM ||
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Take that, all you soft racists who believe the little brown people prefer not to have to think for themselves! We look to be batting .1000 with this democracy thingy -- first Afghanistan, then the U.S., now Iraq. I can't wait to see what happens next. :-)
#2
Things like this make me proud to be a citizen of the nation that helped put these people on this path. Now we just need to put the smackdown on those thugs . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
01/25/2005 15:12
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But Iraqi officials admit in private that no more than three battalions are reliable.
Evidently the number has tripled since November, I recall only the 36th Commando (Kurdish mainly) was considered reliable.
#4
The International Monetary Fund reported last November that even now the Iraqi economy is performing better than any other in the Arab Middle East, and could become the regionâs engine of growth over the next decade.
A host of Hollywood celebrities are backing a bill to allow illegal migrants to get driver's licenses.
The usual "A-list" celebs. And we all know what word begins with the letter "A".
More than 30 celebrities including Diane Keaton, Carlos Santana and "Million Dollar Baby" writer Paul Haggis are urging California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to approve the bill, saying it would make roads safer and calling driving a civil right, according to brachman.com. An estimated 2.4 million people living in California are illegal immigrants. "A lot of us in the entertainment business are terribly spoiled, and we live in a world where we are overprotected and overpaid," Haggis was quoted as saying. "At the same time, I think we have a duty to give voice to those who perhaps haven't the same access. It's about basic fairness."
"If those poor oppressed immigrants don't have licenses, how will my gardener get to my estate?"
Among the other celebrities supporting the campaign are Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez, Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover and musician Jackson Browne.
Like I said, the usual A*&holes
But there are also opponents like Mike Spence, who is leading a campaign to permanently prohibit illegal immigrants from getting a license. "I think it's another example of how rich Hollywood elites are out of touch with what's going on in California," Spence was quoted as saying. "They don't see the impact of immigration unless it's hiring someone to help out with chores around their mansions and they're not in competition with illegal immigrants for jobs."
Posted by: Steve ||
01/25/2005
1:01:14 PM ||
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..saying it would make roads safer and calling driving a civil right, according to brachman.com.
Ooooh, giving licenses to illegal aliens will magically make our roads safer! What a concept!!
Phuquing idiot.
An estimated 2.4 million people living in California are illegal immigrants.
An Iraqi lawyer in Saddam Hussein's defence team has gone into hiding after receiving several death threats, the chief attorney for the deposed Iraqi leader said yesterday. Khalil al-Duleimi, one of 25 lead attorneys representing Saddam, told other lawyers in the defence team that the threats began after he met the ousted dictator in December. Ziad al-Khasawneh, Saddam's chief defence attorney, said his colleague had received phone calls warning that "suicide cells had been formed specifically to liquidate him so that he would set an example to all other attorneys who have volunteered to defend President Saddam".
Bravo sierra. Suicide bombers don't call ahead; they just detonate. Not to mention it's Sammy's Baathist buddies who have been doing all the exploding lately.
"He feared for his and his family's lives; therefore, he has since gone into hiding," Mr al-Khasawneh said.
Any theories on what the real story is? Other than Sammy's legal team is trying to build a case that he can't be tried safely anywhere but Paris?
#1
I'm sure the locals are not pleased with those who choose to defend the indefensible. It needn't be, and likely isn't, the "insurgents" threatening him, but rather the next door neighbors, who'd rather he just quit.
The debate on Iraq is taking a new turn. The Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30, only recently viewed as a culmination, are described as inaugurating a civil war. The timing and the voting arrangements have become controversial. All this is a way of foreshadowing a demand for an exit strategy, by which many critics mean some sort of explicit time limit on the U.S. effort. We reject this counsel. The implications of the term "exit strategy" must be clearly understood; there can be no fudging of consequences. The essential prerequisite for an acceptable exit strategy is a sustainable outcome, not an arbitrary time limit. For the outcome in Iraq will shape the next decade of American foreign policy. A debacle would usher in a series of convulsions in the region as radicals and fundamentalists moved for dominance, with the wind seemingly at their backs. Wherever there are significant Muslim populations, radical elements would be emboldened. As the rest of the world related to this reality, its sense of direction would be impaired by the demonstration of American confusion in Iraq. A precipitate American withdrawal would be almost certain to cause a civil war that would dwarf Yugoslavia's, and it would be compounded as neighbors escalated their current involvement into full-scale intervention.
Posted by: Senator Barbara Boxer ||
01/25/2005
10:01:38 AM ||
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#1
I want the exit strategy for Germany, first troops in 1945. First in, first out.
#2
"Exit strategy" is generally a useless/dangerous concept, except as applied to very minor military interventions, or to most humanitarian assistance operations.
#3
Watch for NPR and Gail Collins of the NYT to distort Kissinger's advice as she did in the runup to the war. Kissinger said explicitly, with a few caveats, in a WaPo editorial that he supported the war, and the next day NPR, Collins and Howell Raines spun his caveats as "Leading Republicans Oppose Iraq War."
#4
Let's see - Kissinger was responsible for the disastrous withdrawal from Vietnam and Shultz was responsible for the other disastrous withdrawal from Lebanon. Vietnam and Lebanon made Uncle Sam's name synonymous with weakness, failure and defeat. And now they presume to lecture us about another disastrous withdrawal? I guess they would be qualified - they appear to know a thing or two about disastrous withdrawals.
#5
Actually, ZF, I think everyone's well aware of Kissinger and Schultz's disastrous record, which is why IMO these two are trying to atone for their failures by contributing something sane and reasonable to the debate. Specifically by administering a pre-emptive bitch-slap to Scowcroft, Zbiggy, Baker and their pseudo-realpolitiker groupies in Congress, the NYT and WaPo.
#6
The proper exit strategy in war is always victory.
Posted by: Gen. Karl Phillip Gottlieb von Clausewitz ||
01/25/2005 13:05
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#7
Let's see - Kissinger was responsible for the disastrous withdrawal from Vietnam...
ZF, didn't the failure of Congress to fund Vietnamisation of the war also have something to do with it? Not being ornery, just not sure he was wholly responsible.
#8
Direct hit, Pappy, it was Congressional whimpery that resulted in our pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. Killng untold numbers of our friends and allies in South Vietnam in the process.
Some things about Congressional Dummycrats never change, just ask me. -- Calif BB
Posted by: Senator Barbara Boxer ||
01/25/2005 14:39
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#9
Actually there *is* an "exit strategy", but it is a strange one. Compare it to the "exit strategy" of the US Army leaving Germany at the end of WWII. They didn't but they did. Iraq is no longer the issue for the US military, any more than Germany was at the end of WWII. In Germany, not all, but many of the rifles turned east, to the new enemy. In Iraq, it will be the same situation, except the remaining rifles will be pointed towards Syria, Iran, Central Asia, or Northern Africa, wherever necessary. The new "Iraq Regional Commander" is a regional command (3 star), equal to CENTCOM in stature, but separate from the "Iraq National Commander" (2 star), who will report to him. Divisions will be semi-permanently garrisoned in Iraq with a Status of Forces agreement, much like they are in Germany. So all told, the "exit strategy" is a rotation policy.
#10
There is no exit strategy, nor should there be. Setting a timetable for withdrawal would be a recipe for disaster for Iraq. It would also defeat perhaps the main purpose of the war, which was to establish a base to fight from in the heart of the Middle East. Unless something awful happens, there will be Americans in Iraq for the rest of the century.
Posted by: Van Helsing ||
01/25/2005 16:42
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#11
Exit strategy? Exit strategy? First victory, then we'll see.
You are slightly too pessimistic. I suspect the "winds of liberty" will blow stong throughout the Middle East. That should allow us to reduce our time in Iraq to 25 years or so, NOT a century.
#1
If the Spectator is Columbia U's newspaper, expect every copy of the issue to be stolen.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
01/25/2005 9:17
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#2
Money quotes:
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
#3
You should see the tripe coming out of Columbia as cutting edge ESL. It's complete nonsense, wrapped up in the school's (fading) reputation. Thank God there are some smaller, lesser known researchers, publishers and educators dedicated challenging these educational behemoths.
Over the past few days, the media in Israel have reported a scandal at the Hebrew University involving a radical feminist professor who was forced to resign because of alleged gross fabrication and distortion of research results.
At Weissâ initiative, it was decided to allow her to resign in the middle of the academic year, rather than face âprosecutionâ or probable dismissal in disgrace. She hopped the first plane to California and is now a visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.
#5
The clips of her quotes sound more like boilerplate guilty-Westerner/self-hating liberal talk than feminist commentary to me. Maybe we'll get some specifics that will explain Frontpages' headline. In any case, there sure seems to be more than a few nutcases in the ranks of Columbia.
#6
The point is: that guy has paid a (big) sum for being teached. But he is not getting what he paid for, instead he is receiveing propaganda. Thus he should sue the University in order to get not merely a refund but a BIG compensation for the year he lost. When enough people do this universities will no longer professors using their pulpits for propaganda on tax pyaer/sytudent money.
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
Challenge Israelâs policiesâfine. Call Israel a racist stateâsure, thatâs your opinion. But how dare you label all people of the Israeli nation, including my friends and family, as possessing a âvulgarity of character?â Professor Dabashi, while your freedom to teach your political viewpoint must be protected, your bigoted statement should mark you as a racist.
...
The plain truth is that if a professor had made the same comments about blacks, Muslims, or Chinese, he would have been rightfully attacked by a plethora of students denouncing his racist and colonial attitude. The lack of response from current students, especially those who are closely associated with Professor Dabashi and the MEALAC department, is a shame and will stain the University in my mind for years to come.
------
And to think that this place and Northwestern are famous for thier journalism schools. Now what was it we have been saying here at Rantburg about journalism bias....
In "Al Qaeda's New Front," airing Tuesday, January 25, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings) FRONTLINE, in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The New York Times, investigates the alarming threat radical Salafist jihadists pose to Western Europe and its allies - including the United States.
"It might come as a surprise to many Americans," says correspondent Lowell Bergman, "But the most pressing threat to the United States is not the suspected Al Qaeda cells at home, but rather the cells operating overseas, especially in Western Europe."
Home to an estimated 18 million Muslims, Western Europe has become the new and deadly battleground in the war on terror. That's because disenfranchised Muslims inspired by local radical imams and jihadist Web sitesãare taking up the cause of jihad. And Al Qaeda, once just a loose organization on the continent, has morphed into a powerful ideological movement.
"The threat is before us, not behind us," France's top antiterror judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, tells FRONTLINE. "And we are quite concerned....I think that the terrorist threat today is more globalized, more scattered, and more powerful...than it was before September 11."
What's driving the terrorism threat? Many experts in counterterrorism say it's the belief that violence is justified in order to free the Muslim world from corrupt governments and the influence of the United States and Europe. And because it's difficult for jihadists to launch an attack on U.S. cities and institutions, their focus has turned to local targets in Western Europe.
FRONTLINE follows Rabei Osman El Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian charged with 191 murders in connection with the Madrid attack. Rabei, also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian," is an example of this new generation of jihadi operatives who apparently operate independently of the old Al Qaeda network set up by Osama bin Laden. He is an example of the next generation of Islamist terrorist that Europe must now contend with.
#1
This appears to be more liberal bull shit. The underlying message is that because the US invaded Iraq, and the terrorists from Europe joined the fight, that the US is held responsible for these now trained terrorists to return to Europe to do their Jeehad at home.
Typical blame America dribble.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005 14:55
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IT SHOULD have been a friendly game of darts between two pub league teams. Instead, the match erupted into a furious row, with accusations of homophobia and the winning team being banned for life from the league. The feud broke out soon after The Bevendean Hotel side beat The Stag, the host pub, 8-1, putting them 18 points ahead in the United Darts League in Brighton. Within days of celebrating the victory, which put them on course to top the mixed league, the winning team were accused of homophobia and banned from the tournament for life. The players are appealing against the decision by the league and say that they have not been given the chance to defend themselves.
However, members of the all-gay team at The Stag said that the abuse they suffered was "disgusting and offensive". Fran Bailey, captain of the Stag team, said: "There was constant abuse all night. If their darts fell on the floor, we heard them say: 'I wouldn't bend over to pick up your darts in this pub.' " After the match the Stag team wrote to Steve Burtenshaw, chairman of the league, to complain and the Bevendean team were given lifetime bans. Penny Priest, landlady of the Bevendean and a team member, said: "We completely deny we were or are homophobic in any way. I never said anything like what they're accusing us of and I've spoken to the rest of the team and they say they didn't." And just think, Valentines Day is fast approaching.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005
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#1
Who says that it's just a friendly game of darts?
Posted by: Senator Barbara Boxer ||
01/25/2005 7:35
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#2
Actually, it sounds like they play a very friendly game of darts...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005 8:41
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#5
I doubt any of these whiners played real sports in school. Imagine their horror at the trash talk they might have been exposed to in serious competition where every little advantage, such as getting in their head through "unpolite" language, is sought.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/25/2005 10:45
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#6
What LOTR said. Sports is the last redoubt against political correctness: there's real meritocracy at work, and tender souls aren't protected by PC speech codes.
Information obtained through the interrogation of a Guantanamo Bay detainee led to a spectacular series of counterterrorism raids in Germany this month, in which more than 700 police swept through mosques, homes, and businesses in six cities and arrested 22 suspected militant extremists, according to a senior Defense Department official. The role of the Guantanamo interrogations in triggering the raids had not been previously reported. In Europe, the interrogations have been widely denounced as flagrant violations of international law, and many leaders have expressed concern over alleged abuses.
The United States is holding 558 detainees at Guantanamo, and some have been imprisoned for as long as three years. Officials say that only a quarter of the detainees still regularly meet with interrogators, but they maintain that that core group still provides valuable intelligence. The German raids of Jan. 12 are the most extensive intelligence coup attributed to the operation. The sweep was the largest counterterrorism operation in recent months in Europe. In the series of raids, German police seized computers, cellphones, large sums of money, counterfeit identity documents, and literature espousing jihad, or holy war. German police and prosecutors also told reporters that portions of the suspected Al Qaeda-related network had been under surveillance by Bavarian authorities. They did not say how the alleged cell first came to their attention. Na, we don't want to give credit to the evil Gitmo jailers.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005
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#1
Probably the result of interrogators using persistent persuasion, not using physical discomfort and other such gimmicks.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 0:21
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Like parading goats through the interrogation cell wearing nothing but lipstick and lingerie.
Interrogator: "Ok Achmed, this can all be yours IF you spill the beans."
Achmed: "I SPILL YOUR BEANS! I SPILL YOUR BEANS!!!
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today admitted that strict action against southern insurgents was being put on hold until after the 6 February general election, saying that arresting the militants prior to the election would make the government look as if it were acting out of spite. The prime minister, who this morning convened a meeting on the southern insurgency which brought together the heads of the Southern Border Provinces Peace Building Command and the Royal Thai Army, police and intelligence chiefs, said that he had ordered stricter action on the southern security situation. Speaking of the need for continuing arrests, he said that failure to take quick action could see lower-ranking militants attempt further violence as a way of wresting power from their commanders. But while insisting that the government was monitoring the 90 insurgents on its blacklist, he said that more arrests at the present time would be inappropriate. Any concerted crackdown prior to the general election on 6 February would make the government appear to be acting simply out of political spite, he said. However, he confirmed that one of the 90 blacklisted insurgents was arrested last night on charges of shooting a local teacher.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
01/25/2005
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#1
From what I've read the Thais are bad-asses when it comes to suppressing terror. If so, and if they're as resolute against the islamofascists as they are against other insurgents, then we should think about stepping up our cooperation with them in hopes of eventually adding another pillar to our emerging alliance with the Responsible Asian Democratic Powers: Japan, Australia, India.
Question: How can one tell whether Putty is happy or mad? The forced smile and expression is the same.
UKRAINE'S Western-minded new President, Viktor Yushchenko, risked further aggravating Moscow yesterday when he appointed Yuliya Tymoshenko, his outspoken ally, as acting Prime Minister, despite the Kremlin's objections. Mr Yushchenko made the appointment shortly before flying to Moscow for talks designed to mend ties with President Putin, who backed his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, in the election. It was a highly provocative choice, coming the day after Mr Yushchenko had pledged at his inauguration to lead Ukraine out of the circle of corrupt, authoritarian postSoviet states and into the European Union. This just in: Yushchenko won the election. Hello?
Mrs Tymoshenko, 44, is one of Mr Yushchenko's key allies and financial backers (a Ukranian dish) and was perhaps the most inspirational figure in the Orange Revolution that overturned the rigged election in November. She is, however, wanted in Russia on charges of bribing defence officials in the 1990s and is widely reviled in Russian-speaking eastern and southern Ukraine as antiRussian. She has denied the charges, which she says are politically motivated. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin on the appointment, which was announced as Mr Yushchenko began talks with Mr Putin. The Ukrainian leader, making his first official trip, told Mr Putin: "This is a sign of great respect for our relations. Russia is our eternal strategic partner."
Mr Putin received Mr Yushchenko warmly, despite the Kremlin's humiliating foreign policy failure. "Recently we did only that which was asked of us by the Ukrainian Government (crooks)," he said. "We only hope that we can also have the same friendly relationship with you." Nevertheless, Russia — Ukraine's main energy supplier and biggest trade partner — could try to scupper Mr Yushchenko's efforts to deliver the reforms that he has promised if he does not agree to compromise. Mr Putin wants him to commit Ukraine to economic and political bodies grouping former Soviet republics. Mr Yushchenko appears to be determined to move Ukraine towards the West. English translation: Yush, watch your back.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/25/2005
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#3
Putin's not in control of his own government. It's unlikely that he'll finish out his term. I'd say that Yushchenko, if he's patient and plays his cards right, will end with a much stronger hand in 3 years than he currently has in his dealings with Moscow. We'd be wise to let the Kremlin know that we know this.
#4
Putin's not in control of his own government. It's unlikely that he'll finish out his term.
You've said that before, but I don't remember you providing any datapoints to back it up.
I'd urge Yushchenko to be extremely *impatient* at pushing forward reform. Recent Eastern European history has shown that it's the nation that speeded up, like Poland and Estonia that solidified their western democratic orientation. The ones that were "patient", like Kazakhstan, Moldova, and so forth, just regressed to oligarchic tyranny.
With a murderous-imperialist tyranny still nearby, it's imperative that Yushchenko moves as quickly as possibly to have his country break away from the Russian sphere and cleanse away as much of the Kremlin-Kuchma corruption as quickly as possible.
#5
A further point: given a largely horrid "election package reform" pushed forward just before the rerun election, large powers of the president will be moved to the Parliament the next year.
Yushchenko doesn't have five, or four, or three years to push forward reform. He has only one. (that's, btw, why I've called the Orange Revolution a very *partial* victory, rather than the triumph for democracy others consider it). He needs to break the corruption instituted by the old regime as much as possible before the next parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for 2006.
Former US Attorney General and leftist fool Ramsey Clark says his decision to join Saddam Hussein's defence team springs from his conviction that the United States has already destroyed any hope of legitimacy, fairness or even decency by its treatment and isolation of the former President and its creation of the Iraqi Special Tribunal to try him.
His victims, however, remain dead, so they had no comment.
In an article published by the Los Angeles Times on Monday Clark, who also tried hard to save Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's life but failed, points out that international law requires that every criminal court be competent, independent and impartial. The Iraqi Special Tribunal lacks all of these essential qualities. It was illegitimate in its conception - the creation of an illegal occupying power that demonised Saddam Hussein and destroyed the government it now intends to condemn by law.
Whereas Sammy's gummint was legit -- after all, 100% of the people voted for it.
According to Clark, "The intention of the United States to convict the former leader in an unfair trial was made starkly clear by the appointment of (Ahmed) Chalabi's nephew to organise and lead the court. He had just returned to Iraq to open a law office with a former law partner of Defence Undersecretary Douglas J Feith, who had urged the US overthrow of the Iraqi government and was a principal architect of US postwar planning. "The concept, personnel, funding and functions of the court were chosen and are still controlled by the United States, dependent on its will and partial to its wishes. Reform is impossible. Proceedings before the Iraqi Special Tribunal would corrupt justice both in fact and in appearance and create more hatred and rage in Iraq against the American occupation.
Other than in the hearts of the Kurds and Shi'a who will ululate and toss candy into the streets the day Sammy swings.
"Only another court - one that is actually competent, independent and impartial - can lawfully sit in judgment."
Clark, whom some in this country view as a nitwitfricking lunatic maverick, argues that is Saddam's trial and that of other Iraqi officials, affirmative measures must be taken to prevent prejudice from affecting the conduct of the case and the final judgment of the court. While conceding that this would be a major challenge, he adds that "nothing less is acceptable to him and his socialist tools." He writes that any court that considers criminal charges against Saddam must have the power and the mandate to consider charges against leaders and military personnel of the US, Britain and the other nations that participated in the aggression against Iraq, if equal justice under law is to have meaning.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Come on, think about it. He has cornered the market. Can you think of any other time where if a Lawyer loses (which Nancy boy here usually does) that he still wins. He doesn't care about Saddam. It's FREE money and at the same time this media whore gets to scream. "Look at me! I'm a moonbat Socialist! Woo Hoo" Sad but true.
#3
Sammy's got to be feeling confident here. His star attorney is out grandstanding at every public event he can stick his nose in. Clark uses every opportunity to panhandle for money to fund his seditious activities against the US. It has been years since he actually had a meaningfull win and now his big input to Sammy's defense is "Only another court - one that is actually competent, independent and impartial - can lawfully sit in judgmentâ a change of venue? Probably to the Hague where Sammy can wait for decades before trial. Somehow I do not think the Iraqi Special Tribune, now that Clark has just deeply insulted them, will give this more than just a polite review and then hang him.
#6
Uhh, when's the last time this guy tried a case? Not talking about trying cases, I mean, but actually examining witnesses in a courtroom?
Posted by: Matt ||
01/25/2005 10:43
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..that the United States has already destroyed any hope of legitimacy, fairness or even decency by its treatment and isolation of the former President..
Really, who gives a damn about Hussein besides idiots like Clark? Where was Clark's concern during Hussein's rule when the mass graves found so far in Iraq were being filled up?
In order to be the rightful recipient of fairness and decency, it would be a good idea to demonstrate an ability to be capable of both, and Saddam Hussein doesn't fit that bill.
#8
Its very un-Christian of me, but Ramsey Clark is on my mental list of people that need to hurry up and die in order to make the world a better place.
#10
Its very un-Christian of me, but Ramsey Clark is on my mental list of people that need to hurry up and die in order to make the world a better place.
#11
Its very un-Christian of me, but Ramsey Clark is on my mental list of people that need to hurry up and die in order to make the world a better place.
A man has been killed and 11 others have been injured in clashes between Muslim and Christian residents of the Shadbagh area for the past two days. Yousaf Masih alias Billa and his sons, Pitras Masih and Marcus Masih, allegedly harassed women on their way to a funeral of Essa Nagri (a Christian dominated area) resident Haseeb Khan's sister-in-law on Sunday. Later, Haseeb and his relatives asked Billa whether he was involved in the incident and got into a fight with him. Billa and his sons shot Haseeb dead and tried escaping but police managed to arrest them. A case was registered against Billa on the complaint of Haseeb's brother, Abdul Waheed. Haseeb's body was sent for autopsy before his sister-in-law's funeral.
The issue was revived when Billa's friend, Kalo Masih, and two accomplices got angry at Billa's arrest and shot at 12-year-old Suleman and Zainab. Suleman is in serious condition. Muslims and Christians came out in force and threw stones and exchanged gunfire with each other. Senior police officials reached the scene and settled the matter. Usman, Baber, Imran and Tanveer were among the 11 people injured by stones and were taken to Mayo Hospital. Lahore Superintendent of Police Dr Usman told Daily Times that the matter got out of control during the stone throwing, but things settled down once police got to the scene. He said Kalo Masih and his accomplices were arrested while the injured were being treated. The SP also said Christian councillors of the area were helping resolve the matter and they (the councillors) had said that the Christians started the fight. He said police was deputed in the area and around Churches to avoid other such incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he will not sign a contract to sell SA-18 surface-to-air missiles to Syria, according to an Israeli daily. The reported promise, said to have been made in a phone call by Putin on Thursday, came on the day that Syrian President Bashar al-Asad begins a four-day official visit to Russia.
The Haaretz newspaper said Sharon had explained to the Russian leader that the weapons, also called Igla missiles, risked falling into the hands of Hizb Allah, which is opposed to Israeli occupation. Hizb Allah was successful in driving Israeli forces out of occupied southern Lebanon in May 2000. Sharon's office had said on Thursday that the Putin-Sharon phone call centred on the situation in the Middle East, the unilateral Israeli plan of disengagement from the Gaza Strip, relations with Syria and Hizb Allah and their implications, and the recent election of Mahmud Abbas as Palestinian president.
Posted by: Fred ||
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this is bullshit--they are still going to sell the alawites vehicle mounted "iglas"--i'm so sure israel feel secure
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/25/2005 2:36
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Just a few days ago the Russians were saying
What arms deal ? There is no arms deal. today they are saying We will not go thru with the deal.
What will they be saying tommorow ?
Congrads Mr. Asad, your really gonna like this new SA-18.
#3
The only way to counter threats like this, is for the US to tell Russia we could supply the Chechen resistence also; and the US knows this. We have both trump cards and 'Aces In The Hole' on this one!
#4
But also apply a carrot, for Russia's desperate arms export and nuclear sectors, in the form of cash. Increase spending on the Nunn-Lugar antiproliferation program with Russia as well. Putin's Russia is not Iran. They can still make rational calculations, even though Putin's recent record's been abysmal.
Myanmar government forces have launched an offensive against a rebel ethnic minority group just across the border from one of Thailand's northern provinces, a senior Thai army officer said on Monday. Government forces and rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have clashed three times in the past week, Thai army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.
About six mortars fired during the attacks landed across the border near the Thai village of Ban Mae Suay Oo, in Mae Hong Son province, 924 kilometers north of Bangkok, he said. They fell in jungle areas and caused no casualties, he said. "The Thai border committee has sent a letter of protest and met local Myanmar authorities urging caution in their operations near the border," he told AFP. Myanmar's shelling of a KNPP base located near the Thai border started last Monday after the rebels attacked an army base and killed eight Myanmar soldiers, border sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Foreign Office has denied a British press report that Pakistan blames Iran for fuelling a growing insurgency in Balochistan. The Sunday Telegraph cites senior government officials as saying that Iran is encouraging "intruders" from within its own Baloch community to cross the 550-mile border with the Pakistani province and give support to the rebels. "All this violence is a part of a greater conspiracy," a senior Pakistani government official was quoted as saying. "These militants would not be challenging the government so openly without the backup of a foreign hand."
Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said the report had "no credibility". He said Pakistan was investigating the disturbances in Balochistan, but did not point a finger at another country. "Pakistan and Iran can talk to each other directly," he said, adding they did not have to speak through the media. He said there was no misunderstanding or misperception between the two countries and they were able to develop effective coordination to police the border areas. According to the Sunday Telegraph report, a Pakistani intelligence agency set up a unit in Quetta last year to monitor suspected Iranian activity in Balochistan. Officials told the paper that in addition to directly supporting the insurgency, Tehran's state-controlled radio had launched a "propaganda campaign" against Islamabad. "Radio Tehran broadcasts between 90 and 100 minutes of programmes every day which carry propaganda against the Pakistan government," a former interior minister was quoted as saying. He added that Iran was suspected of providing financial, logistical and moral backing for the insurgency.
Earlier this month, rebel tribesmen disrupted gas production in a series of rocket and mortar attacks, which killed eight people. "However, Islamabad is delaying a formal complaint to Tehran in the hope that private diplomatic channels may prove more effective," the report says. Ansari writes that Pakistani officials believe that Tehran has stepped up its activity in Balochistan because of its anger at the construction of a vast deep-water port at Gwadar, close to the border, which it fears could be used by Washington as a base for monitoring and infiltrating Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Trials for more than 300 people linked to Myanmar's disbanded military intelligence unit began on Monday under a cloud of secrecy inside the notorious Insein prison, a legal source said. "The trials have started today," the source told the news agency. "No fewer than 16 special tribunals being presided over by 16 divisional and district-level judges were set up inside the jail premises," said the source, who went inside the prison. Some 30 special courts are expected eventually to be operating within the prison walls, and the trials are expected to end within 45 days. Thousands of people have been summoned for closed-door preliminary hearings in recent months.
Most defendants face multiple charges, including corruption and possession of illegal foreign currency. Some of the higher-ranking officials are likely to be charged with conspiracy, the legal expert said. The defendants are closely connected to former military intelligence chief and deposed premier General Khin Nyunt, who has been accused by the ruling military junta of insubordination and abuse of power. Two of his sons are among the 300 people facing trial. Khin Nyunt himself faces several charges including high treason, abuse of power and graft but is unlikely to be put on trial at this time, sources said.
Khin Nyunt, who led military intelligence for two decades, had favoured limited dialogue with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was replaced by junta hardliner General Soe Win. Myanmar's military rulers have painted the purge as a crackdown on corruption. In October they scrapped the National Intelligence Bureau, the body that gave widespread powers to military intelligence officers. The intelligence wing was believed to control much of the black market and drug money in Myanmar - the world's second largest opium producer - and was a bitter rival of hardline army factions loyal to the junta leadership. But the hardline faction is also deeply involved in corruption, and analysts have said the crackdown is in part a battle over who controls black-market money. Myanmar is ranked among the world's top five most corrupt countries by watchdog Transparency International.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Officials of the Karachi Central Prison (KCP) recovered a hit list of police officials from the chief of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, in the last week of December. The list contained names of police officials involved in an operation against hardcore elements of extremist religious parties. Tasadduq Husain gave the list in a letter to Akram Lahori when the latter was lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. Sources said Karachi Central Prison officials recovered the letter during a search of Akram Lahori's luggage after he was shifted to the KCP from Kot Lakhpat jail in December. The Superintendent of KCP, Amanullah Khan Niazi, promptly informed high officials of the Sindh home department, Inspector-General Police Sindh Syed Kamal Shah and sensitive agencies of the matter.
Makin' a list and checkin' it twice... Y'know, the coppers might want to take that personally.
They were muttering something about a 'cross-fire' ...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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HYDERABAD: Sindhi nationalists went on strike in the province on Monday, protesting against possible military action in Balochistan and the rape of a woman doctor in Sui. The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party claimed more than 50 of their activists had been arrested, mostly in Larkana and Mirpurkhas. They were charged with disturbing traffic and forcing shopkeepers to pull their shutters down. Sukkur police reportedly arrested 35 activists trying to start a rally at the Sindh High Court Sukkur Treasury. Police baton charged the protestors, injuring some of them. Seventeen activists were arrested at Arrow Chowk. Traffic was disrupted for about half an hour at Military Road when a mob threw stones at cars.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Mehbooba Mufti, ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) president and daughter of Held Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, escaped an attempt on her life on Monday as militants hurled a grenade at her motorcade at Pandch on the outskirts of Srinagar city. The grenade, tossed by militants at the motorcade of Mehbooba, a member of parliament who is touring parts of Srinagar district to woo the voters for the ensuing civic bodies elections, missed the target and exploded on the road injuring one person. Later, Ms Mufti told PTI that she heard an explosion but was not sure whether it was a grenade blast or a big cracker burst as part of Eid celebrations. The PDP president, however, continued her canvassing in the city areas, they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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The radical Islamist groups said on Monday they had narrowed their differences with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas over his calls for a ceasefire while insisting Israel would have to pay a price for peace. Abbas, who has been in Gaza since January 18 in a bid to persuade factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to lay down their weapons, expressed confidence in a television interview Sunday that an agreement could be reached soon. Both groups echoed his optimism on Monday as a key mediator in their talks said that an unofficial "cooling down" period was already in place. "We have reached, in principal, agreement on important issues and the differences are very narrow," Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for the radical Islamist group, told AFP. "Everyone on the Palestinian side is determined to have a collective position," he added.
Abbas, elected president of the Palestinian Authority on January 9, is understood to be trying to tempt the factions into a change of strategy by dangling the carrot of participation in the political process. While both Hamas and Jihad boycotted the presidential contest they have agreed to take part in July's legislative elections and in municipal polls which are due to take place in Gaza later this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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These Islamic killers are LYING AGAIN. They always do.
If Israel releases ANY PRISONERS, then all of the politicians who aree to that need to be shot by the relatives of the next Israeli citizen to die from any terrorist action. That would make them face the reality of the bloodthirsty Demons presently gorging in Palestine (and their Islamofascist co-horts in Iraq).
Philippine police yesterday cleared a Saudi national, who was earlier arrested in Zamboanga City on suspicion of being a terrorist, officials said. Airport police and immigration agents arrested Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer at the Zamboanga City International Airport when he arrived from Manila on Jan. 17, after his name was included in the government's watch list, said Supt. Ibar Padao, chief of the Aviation Security Group.
Police intelligence chief Ismael Rafanan said the Saudi was not a member of the Al-Qaeda terror network. "He is not a member of the Al-Qaeda and he is not a terrorist," Rafanan told reporters in Manila. He said the Saudi was only invited for questioning a week after agents interrogated him on suspicion that he was an Al-Qaeda operative. Sughayer, who claimed to be a businessman, was initially interrogated in Zamboanga City, but flown back to Manila on Jan. 18 where he was further investigated. A local newspaper Sunstar Zamboanga yesterday ran a story about Sughayer and linked him to the Al-Qaeda network. It said the man, described in the report as a wealthy businessman, traveled to Zamboanga to link up or help finance the terror activities of a local militant group Abu Sayyaf.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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The Dutch government said on Monday it would set aside more than $520 million to combat terrorism in coming years, citing threats to national security in the wake of attacks in Europe by extremists. The money will be used to boost by more than 10 percent the number of employees at the national Intelligence Service to more than 1,000, and add hundreds of staff at the National Police Service, Military Police and other intelligence services.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Must be a joke, they set every terrorist on free food and then they will spent 520mln dolar to fight terrorism muahahahaaa jokers.
Posted by: Murat ||
01/25/2005 9:54
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A car bomb has exploded in western Baghdad, near the party headquarters of the interim prime minister, killing at least five people, including four police officers, and injuring 15, officials say. Smoke was seen rising on Monday near the Green Zone compound where the interim Iraqi government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US embassy are. Allawi was not in the area at the time of the blast, officials in the prime minister's office said. US and Iraqi troops sealed off the area and helicopters buzzed overhead. Ambulances were also seen rushing to the site. Iraqi journalist Ziyad al-Samarrai told Aljazeera that the car bomber attempted to enter the headquarters of the Iraqi National Accord (al-Wifaq) party headed by Allawi, but he was stopped at an Iraqi police checkpoint. The bomber detonated his vehicle at the checkpoint as he could not pass through them, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Police have arrested a third suspect in the murder of a Kazakh diplomat at his house in Sector F-6/4 on Wednesday. Ahsan Saddiq, a superintendent of police for investigation, said the third suspect, Muhammad Hussain, was from Kazakhstan and was arrested in the NWFP. He said police had arrested two Chinese suspects, Hassan and Muhammad Ibrahim, in Islamabad earlier. He said police were also on the trail of a fourth suspect and would arrest him soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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TEHRAN: Iran may allow UN inspectors to re-enter a military base where Washington says tests linked to a covert atomic weapons programme could have taken place, said a senior Iranian official on Monday. Earlier this month, after a prolonged delay, Iran allowed a team from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to acquire environmental samples from the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran. However, IAEA inspectors did not obtain complete access to their desired site and would like to return to take additional samples, say diplomats in Vienna. Asked whether the inspectors would be allowed back into Parchin, Hossein Mousavian, one of Iran's chief nuclear negotiators, said: "I cannot rule that out."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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#1
We'll let you know when it is sanitized enough ready for inspection.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/25/2005 0:31
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You can tell when our intelligence is out-of-date or just plain wrong when they decide to let us in to look around.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/25/2005 11:47
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Pakhtoon leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai has called a strike on February 12 to condemn an alleged military operation in Sui and the establishment of cantonments in Balochistan. "We are opposed outright to the military operation in Sui," Achakzai said at a public gathering here on Monday. The government denies a military operation is underway in Balochistan.
Achakzai, a leader of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement and chairman of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, urged the government to give the Baloch control over the natural resources in their province, otherwise their could be more violence. "It is a 50-year dream of Punjab to crush the Baloch tribes and use their gas and mineral resources," he said. He said the Pakhtoon people were also ignored in Pakistan. He called for a separate province where Pakhtoons could practise their own culture and have control of their own resources. Party leaders Mustafa Khan Tareen, Maulvi Nazir Akhund, Abdur Rauf Lala, Fazl Qadir Shirani, Sardar Raza Muhammad Burraich, Usman Kakar, Kahar Khan, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai and others also spoke at the rally.
... and said about the same thing.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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The United States will back President Gloria Arroyo in the fight against breakaway Muslim militant groups threatening fragile peace talks in the southern Philippines, its envoy to Manila said on Monday. US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government were being made difficult by many groups claiming to be legitimate separatist rebels. While the ongoing peace negotiations brokered by Malaysia to end the MILF's 28-year insurgency were welcome, Ricciardone said Washington would provide military support against those continuing to carry out attacks.
He said 70 US military personnel were training troops in the southern Philippines in intelligence gathering, leading to the arrest or killing of "25 identified, known, no-doubt-about it terrorist leaders" last year. Development assistance would also continue in the mostly poverty-stricken southern Mindanao island and in Muslim areas, he said. "Our concern is not merely to get a piece of paper ... a peace accord. What we want to see is a peace (agreement) that will be durable and that will permit development to go ahead," Ricciardone told foreign correspondents.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Baloch leaders will not hold negotiations with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain or any other figure appointed by the centre, in a situation where thousands of security personnel, with heavy tanks and artillery, were positioned at Nawab Akbar Bugti's hometown of Dera Bugti, Mr Bugti's son-in-law Agha Shahid Bugti said on Monday.
Mr Shahid Bugti, who is secretary general of Akbar Bugti's Jamhoori Watan Party, alleged at a press conference at the Press Club here that the rape of the woman doctor of the Sui hospital recently had been a planned act intended to sabotage the negotiations between Baloch leaders and the government's parliamentary committee. The said the Baloch people would not abandon their rights, as he put it. But he denied they were fighting to secure the royalty for Sui gas, of which, he said, the federal government started paying 12.5% to Balochistan as a result of protests by the people of the province. He added that royalty was a constitutional matter and was not paid to individuals.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, NWFP governor, on Monday urged tribal elders from South Waziristan tribal zone to unite and fight against foreign militants. Mr Shah said this while addressing a 50-member jirga of the Sulemankhel tribe at Governor's House. The governor also announced a special Rs 100 million development package for the area and said the package would be part of next year's annual development programme. "Development priorities will be determined by the tribe itself," he said and urged the elders to constitute a committee for this purpose. Malik Baz Muhammad Khan, an elder, told Mr Shah that the Sulemankhel tribe had "confidence in the leadership" of President General Pervez Musharraf and assured the governor that his tribe would support the ongoing military operation against militants. The NWFP governor agreed to the demand of the jirga to give representation to the Sulemankhels in the agency council on the basis of current population and approved one additional seat for the tribe.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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A Pakistani national suspected of having links to terrorists after a police officer saw him videotaping Charlotte's skyscrapers in July will soon be returning to his homeland. Federal authorities have apparently not uncovered any ties to terrorist activities. But Kamran Akhtar was scheduled to be sentenced on Monday in this North Carolina city on charges that he failed to leave the US, possessed false identification cards and made false statements to investigators.
Defence Attorney George N Miller told The Charlotte Observer newspaper he thought Akhtar would be sentenced to the maximum punishment — six months in prison. Akhtar already has spent six months in jail and will likely be turned over immediately to immigration authorities for deportation. Miller says he expects Akhtar will get credit for the six months he's already served and then be sent to Pakistan as quickly as possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2005
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Bye bye, Kamran! When you're in Pakistan, think back every day about how nice life here was.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/25/2005 0:23
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Torture the guy first, then deport him. If he really is a terrorist, he'll know that he can expect the same or worse if he tries his shit again. If he's not a terrorist, then he'll know what terrorists can expect in the event they are caught. In either case, he should tell his friends.
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.
(2005-01-25) -- In another apparent attempt to position herself as a centrist candidate for the White House in 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, yesterday told 1,000 abortion supporters that she's neither pro-life nor pro-choice.
Authorities will arrest prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi after the current Islamic religious holiday for allegedly defaming the Defense Ministry, the defense minister said Friday. Legal proceedings against Chalabi are to begin after the Eid al-Adha holiday ends Sunday, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said. Shaalan's statement followed allegations by Chalabi that the defense minister shifted $500 million from the ministry. That has led to charges and countercharges by the two Shiite politicians, who are running for parliament on separate tickets in the Jan. 30 national elections. "We will arrest him and turn him over to the Interpol," Shaalan told Al-Jazeera television. "We will arrest him based on facts. He wanted to tarnish the image of the Defense Ministry. ... He wanted to tarnish the reputation of the defense minister because he is frank and clear. One of those who want to commit crimes against the Iraqi people is Ahmad Chalabi."
The 
A Tanzanian al-Qaida operative who was captured in Pakistan last year and is on the FBI list of most-wanted terrorists was handed over to U.S. officials and flown out of the country months ago, Pakistani security officials said Tuesday. 
Luck, courage and skillful handling of the media have won German Chancellor 
The idea of an American right of secession -- a state's right to abandon the union -- today invites a veritable cyclone of scorn and bafflement. Secessionism, you will be told, is immoral, treasonous, seditious, the failed machination of slave-holding Southerners whose nutty dream died in the judgment of 1865. "What insanity it is to reopen this issue," says Pauline Maier, professor of American history at MIT.
Candidates and others raised vote fraud allegations following the November election. Without East St. Louis votes, Reeb had a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent over his Democratic opponent, Mark Kern, and a 4,000-vote edge. After East St. Louis was included, the numbers reversed ... FBI agents raided City Hall on Nov. 23 and took from [Mr.] Ellis's office computer hard drives, boxes of files and his lizard-skin briefcase. He's a Democrat precinct committeeman with ties to other leaders in the city. According to his indictment, within two days of learning about the witness's contact with authorities, Ellis worked on a plan to plant one-half ounce of crack cocaine on the witness 
WITH American military casualties climbing, the US Army is preparing to send 18 remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq in March or April. Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp. Military officials like to compare the roughly metre-high robots favourably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle. 
The violent Islamic Hamas is prepared to suspend attacks if Israel stops targeting militants and agrees to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners, the top Hamas leader told 
MAMDOUH Habib could lose any money paid to him for selling the story of his detention, with the Federal Government signalling it would use laws designed to seize money from criminals to scrutinise his future media payments. Habib is expected to be besieged by media outlets willing to buy his story when he returns to Australia from Guantanamo Bay within two weeks, with some agents already touting six-figure sums on behalf of TV networks and publishers. However, Attorney General Philip Ruddock said he had asked lawyers to advise him on whether the new Proceeds of Crime legislation could be used to stop Habib profiting from his ordeal - despite returning home a free man. "There is potential for the legislation to cover this," Mr Ruddock said. "If he is paid for his story on his treatment in Guantanamo Bay, the Government will examine closely the implications."If obligations do arise, the Government will seek to enforce the legislation."
The Pentagon says the political uproar over the disclosure of a secret military intelligence group is overblown and based on misinformation about the group's makeup and mission. Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, rushed to Capitol Hill on Monday after some members of Congress reacted strongly to a Washington Post report that revealed the existence of the group, which is managed by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.
An al-Qaida lieutenant in custody in Iraq has confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the U.N. headquarters in the capital, authorities said Monday. 
I see Foreign Affairs Minister 
Malaysia, responding to 
Nine hours have been set aside Tuesday for 
Police have arrested three radical islamists, believed to be the brains behind the 
The debate on Iraq is taking a new turn. The Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30, only recently viewed as a culmination, are described as inaugurating a civil war. The timing and the voting arrangements have become controversial. All this is a way of foreshadowing a demand for an exit strategy, by which many critics mean some sort of explicit time limit on the U.S. effort. We reject this counsel. The implications of the term "exit strategy" must be clearly understood; there can be no fudging of consequences. The essential prerequisite for an acceptable exit strategy is a sustainable outcome, not an arbitrary time limit. For the outcome in Iraq will shape the next decade of American foreign policy. A debacle would usher in a series of convulsions in the region as radicals and fundamentalists moved for dominance, with the wind seemingly at their backs. Wherever there are significant Muslim populations, radical elements would be emboldened. As the rest of the world related to this reality, its sense of direction would be impaired by the demonstration of American confusion in Iraq. A precipitate American withdrawal would be almost certain to cause a civil war that would dwarf Yugoslavia's, and it would be compounded as neighbors escalated their current involvement into full-scale intervention.
IT SHOULD have been a friendly game of darts between two pub league teams. Instead, the match erupted into a furious row, with accusations of homophobia and the winning team being banned for life from the league. The feud broke out soon after The Bevendean Hotel side beat The Stag, the host pub, 8-1, putting them 18 points ahead in the United Darts League in Brighton. Within days of celebrating the victory, which put them on course to top the mixed league, the winning team were accused of homophobia and banned from the tournament for life. The players are appealing against the decision by the league and say that they have not been given the chance to defend themselves. 
Information obtained through the interrogation of a Guantanamo Bay detainee led to a spectacular series of counterterrorism raids in Germany this month, in which more than 700 police swept through mosques, homes, and businesses in six cities and arrested 22 suspected militant extremists, according to a senior Defense Department official. The role of the Guantanamo interrogations in triggering the raids had not been previously reported. In Europe, the interrogations have been widely denounced as flagrant violations of international law, and many leaders have expressed concern over alleged abuses.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today admitted that strict action against southern insurgents was being put on hold until after the 6 February general election, saying that arresting the militants prior to the election would make the government look as if it were acting out of spite. The prime minister, who this morning convened a meeting on the southern insurgency which brought together the heads of the Southern Border Provinces Peace Building Command and the Royal Thai Army, police and intelligence chiefs, said that he had ordered stricter action on the southern security situation. Speaking of the need for continuing arrests, he said that failure to take quick action could see lower-ranking militants attempt further violence as a way of wresting power from their commanders. But while insisting that the government was monitoring the 90 insurgents on its blacklist, he said that more arrests at the present time would be inappropriate. Any concerted crackdown prior to the general election on 6 February would make the government appear to be acting simply out of political spite, he said. However, he confirmed that one of the 90 blacklisted insurgents was arrested last night on charges of shooting a local teacher.
Former US Attorney General 
A man has been killed and 11 others have been injured in clashes between Muslim and Christian residents of the Shadbagh area for the past two days. Yousaf Masih alias Billa and his sons, Pitras Masih and Marcus Masih, allegedly harassed women on their way to a funeral of Essa Nagri (a Christian dominated area) resident Haseeb Khan's sister-in-law on Sunday. Later, Haseeb and his relatives asked Billa whether he was involved in the incident and got into a fight with him. Billa and his sons shot Haseeb dead and tried escaping but police managed to arrest them. A case was registered against Billa on the complaint of Haseeb's brother, Abdul Waheed. Haseeb's body was sent for autopsy before his sister-in-law's funeral.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he will not sign a contract to sell SA-18 surface-to-air missiles to Syria, according to an Israeli daily. The reported promise, said to have been made in a phone call by Putin on Thursday, came on the day that Syrian President Bashar al-Asad begins a four-day official visit to Russia. 
Myanmar government forces have launched an offensive against a rebel ethnic minority group just across the border from one of Thailand's northern provinces, a senior Thai army officer said on Monday. Government forces and rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have clashed three times in the past week, Thai army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.
The Foreign Office has denied a British press report that Pakistan blames Iran for fuelling a growing insurgency in Balochistan. The Sunday Telegraph cites senior government officials as saying that Iran is encouraging "intruders" from within its own Baloch community to cross the 550-mile border with the Pakistani province and give support to the rebels. "All this violence is a part of a greater conspiracy," a senior Pakistani government official was quoted as saying. "These militants would not be challenging the government so openly without the backup of a foreign hand."
Trials for more than 300 people linked to Myanmar's disbanded military intelligence unit began on Monday under a cloud of secrecy inside the notorious Insein prison, a legal source said. "The trials have started today," the source told the news agency. "No fewer than 16 special tribunals being presided over by 16 divisional and district-level judges were set up inside the jail premises," said the source, who went inside the prison. Some 30 special courts are expected eventually to be operating within the prison walls, and the trials are expected to end within 45 days. Thousands of people have been summoned for closed-door preliminary hearings in recent months.
Officials of the Karachi Central Prison (KCP) recovered a hit list of police officials from the chief of the 
HYDERABAD: Sindhi nationalists went on strike in the province on Monday, protesting against possible military action in Balochistan and the rape of a woman doctor in Sui. The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party claimed more than 50 of their activists had been arrested, mostly in Larkana and Mirpurkhas. They were charged with disturbing traffic and forcing shopkeepers to pull their shutters down. Sukkur police reportedly arrested 35 activists trying to start a rally at the Sindh High Court Sukkur Treasury. Police baton charged the protestors, injuring some of them. Seventeen activists were arrested at Arrow Chowk. Traffic was disrupted for about half an hour at Military Road when a mob threw stones at cars.
The radical Islamist groups said on Monday they had narrowed their differences with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas over his calls for a ceasefire while insisting Israel would have to pay a price for peace. Abbas, who has been in Gaza since January 18 in a bid to persuade factions such as 
Philippine police yesterday cleared a Saudi national, who was earlier arrested in Zamboanga City on suspicion of being a terrorist, officials said. Airport police and immigration agents arrested Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer at the Zamboanga City International Airport when he arrived from Manila on Jan. 17, after his name was included in the government's watch list, said Supt. Ibar Padao, chief of the Aviation Security Group.
The Dutch government said on Monday it would set aside more than $520 million to combat terrorism in coming years, citing threats to national security in the wake of attacks in Europe by extremists. The money will be used to boost by more than 10 percent the number of employees at the national Intelligence Service to more than 1,000, and add hundreds of staff at the National Police Service, Military Police and other intelligence services.
A car bomb has exploded in western Baghdad, near the party headquarters of the interim prime minister, killing at least five people, including four police officers, and injuring 15, officials say. Smoke was seen rising on Monday near the Green Zone compound where the interim Iraqi government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US embassy are. Allawi was not in the area at the time of the blast, officials in the prime minister's office said. US and Iraqi troops sealed off the area and helicopters buzzed overhead. Ambulances were also seen rushing to the site. Iraqi journalist Ziyad al-Samarrai told Aljazeera that the car bomber attempted to enter the headquarters of the Iraqi National Accord (al-Wifaq) party headed by Allawi, but he was stopped at an Iraqi police checkpoint. The bomber detonated his vehicle at the checkpoint as he could not pass through them, he added.
Police have arrested a third suspect in the murder of a Kazakh diplomat at his house in Sector F-6/4 on Wednesday. Ahsan Saddiq, a superintendent of police for investigation, said the third suspect, Muhammad Hussain, was from Kazakhstan and was arrested in the NWFP. He said police had arrested two Chinese suspects, Hassan and Muhammad Ibrahim, in Islamabad earlier. He said police were also on the trail of a fourth suspect and would arrest him soon.
TEHRAN: Iran may allow UN inspectors to re-enter a military base where Washington says tests linked to a covert atomic weapons programme could have taken place, said a senior Iranian official on Monday. Earlier this month, after a prolonged delay, Iran allowed a team from the UN's 
Pakhtoon leader 
The United States will back President Gloria Arroyo in the fight against breakaway Muslim militant groups threatening fragile peace talks in the southern Philippines, its envoy to Manila said on Monday. US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said negotiations between the 
Baloch leaders will not hold negotiations with 
Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, NWFP governor, on Monday urged tribal elders from South Waziristan tribal zone to unite and fight against foreign militants. Mr Shah said this while addressing a 50-member jirga of the 
A Pakistani national suspected of having links to terrorists after a police officer saw him videotaping Charlotte's skyscrapers in July will soon be returning to his homeland. Federal authorities have apparently not uncovered any ties to terrorist activities. But 
