DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader said in a videotape broadcast on Sunday that governments could not stop al Qaeda attacks and that the security of the West depended on respect for Islam and an end to aggression against Muslims. respect must be earned, not demanded
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the tape aired by satellite channel Al Jazeera that the "new crusader campaign" -- al Qaeda's term for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" -- would end in defeat. didn't the last crusades end the dark ages and produce the renaissance? I don't see this being appreciably different. Maybe the arab world will finally come out of the dark ages.
The Arabic television channel said the tape, which was not dated, was new. That was not immediately possible to verify. It did not mention recent events such as last month's elections in Iraq. 'course not. too many arabs actually like the idea of elections. al-z wouldn't win too many over by spewing vile against that.
Osama bin Laden's right hand man, who was wearing a white turban and seated with a machinegun next to him, said his comments came three years after the first prisoners were taken from Afghanistan to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. and 3 1/2 years after Sept 11.
"If you Western nations believe that these carton governments will protect you from our responses then you are deluded. Your real security lies in cooperating with the Muslim nation on the basis of respect and ending aggression," said the bearded and bespectacled Zawahri in the broadcast excerpts. sounds desperate. if this was their position all along, explain Sept 11.
"Your new crusader campaign will end, God willing, in defeat as did those that preceded it but after the deaths of tens of thousands, the destruction of your economy and exposing you in the pages of history," he added. Allah hasn't been all that "willing" to help him out, recently. don't know if he's noticed.
ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence source said it was too early to make a determination on the tape's authenticity, adding: "We will certainly be looking very closely at it."
The Egyptian militant said U.S. calls for democracy in the Middle East were a farce after allegations of abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Guantanamo Bay, which holds hundreds of suspects detained during the 2001 U.S.-led war to oust al Qaeda and the ruling Taliban from Afghanistan and in other operations. it pales in comparison to what we COULD do. or what arab despots do, regularly. Anyway, even the victims of the abuse would rather have gone through that than have been beheaded on tape. go on. ask 'em.
"It has been three years since the first group of Muslim prisoners were sent to Guantanamo prison ... One may ask why all this interest in Guantanamo when our countries are filled with a thousand Guantanamos under U.S. observation," he said.
"It is because it exposes the truth of reform and democracy that America claims it aims to spread in our countries.
"The reform which emerges from U.S. prisons like Bagram, Kandahar, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and from the launch of cluster bombs and rockets and the appointment of the likes of (Afghanistan's President Hamid) Karzai and (Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi," he said.
Zawahri and bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have eluded capture since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, carried out by al Qaeda.
The last videotape from Zawahri was aired in November, warning that al Qaeda would continue to attack the United States until Washington changed its policies toward the Muslim world. we will. over his dead body.
#4
Please note: "...Your new crusader campaign will end, God willing, in defeat as did those that preceded it but after the deaths of tens of thousands..." This is a critically important statement, because it says that this guy doesn't have the slightest clue who he's dealing with, here. Some years ago, I talked with some technically (electronics) educated Lebanese Arabs. They let slip that they believed that *most* of the US defense budget was spent on weapons for Israel. They had seen the Israeli military in operation and were utterly amazed and distraught by its size and power, which could *only* exist if they had a vast amount of wealth to buy it--and that if America would just stop funding Israel, then they would be on an equal footing with the Arabs who live around them. Now, despite my best efforts to convince them that any monies sent from the US are the tiniest of fractions of the money we spend on defense, they would not, could not change their beliefs. The alternative, that the Israelis were leaps and bounds ahead of them, was unacceptable. Now, concerning this luser, I would hazard to guess that, having cut off about 3" of the tip of the end of one of Cthulu's tentacles, he thinks that he is well on the way to slaughtering the destroyer of worlds. I would propose that he is in for some seriously rude awakenings. He really has no grasp that when the US involves itself in a real war, killing ten thousand of the enemy is nothing, even a hundred thousand, or hundreds of thousands. In a real knock down and drag out, the US would be prepared for the death of millions, and would come back for more, as we have done in the past. This twerp really has no clue, no clue at all.
#5
Even with Afghanistan and Iraq right in front of his nose. And we're talking smackdowns. None of the 'Nam Era Russian stalemate blah blah blah. Wham! Next. If only we had such Presidents every time...
Washington: AN estimated 1.5 million former convicts are unable to vote in 14 states around the country because of state policies that make it cumbersome, confusing and difficult for them to return to voter rolls after completing their sentences, according to a study released last week.
The question of whether and how former convicts should be allowed to vote has generated a growing nationwide debate in recent month's. The Sentencing Project said its study was the first to survey how frequently felons were denied voting rights in states with restrictive policies. It examined 14 states that do NOT automatically restore voting rights to felons after they have complete their sentences. Those states are ALabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.
The study found that Florida, with 48,000 felons returned to voting ranks, was the only state where a significant number had their voting rights restored, but only after extended court battles there- The report also blamed long and confusing waiting periods before a felon can seek eligibility, poor statistic's in the records system and arbitrary standards.
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005
7:20:18 PM ||
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#1
May Senator Hillary Clinton fix this mess!
Any input from other Rantburgers??
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Uncle Sam ||
02/20/2005 20:59
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good? I don't want a felon to vote. Ever. Sorry about *mary*
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 21:03
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The left's latest crusade -- returning the franchise to people who committed violent crimes!
If you're in the military serving overseas, they don't think your vote should count, though.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/20/2005 21:41
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Frank- I was always told that if you do NOT appear in court in Connecticut - It is a felony
failure to appear/on your record. and Unless God writes you an excuses, in the hospital/military duty etc. you are SCREWED.
I really don't agree with you on being a felon and NOT being able to vote- they need to make an adendum- listing's what types of felony conviction to exclude from voting. I just think of so many that are wrongfully convicted.
(will check your response on Tuesday- ski and be free tomorrow).
Andrea Jackson
#5
MR. Crawford: First of all- you are in the armed forces serving our country...and your vote should not be counted? PLease clarify- HUM.
(will check on Tuesday for your response)
THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE**
Good NITE~~~
Andrea Jackson
One of the world's top researchers investigating outbreaks of bird flu in South-East Asia says she is extremely concerned by the scientific evidence emerging about the virus. Nancy Cox is the head of the flu division of the United States Centre for Disease Control. She says research now shows that bird flu is capable of mutating into a form that can spread from humans to humans. "We found that for the 2003 virus, the virus had actually changed its receptive binding or its ability to bind to the receptors that are in human cells," she said. "This shows that the virus can actually change in such a way, or has actually changed in the past in such a way, that might make it more easily transmitted from person to person."
She also says the recent spurt of human infections increases the likelihood that a mutant strain would arise that could spread between humans "It's impossible to predict what the consequences would be. We might have a relatively mild pandemic like we did in 1968," Dr Cox said. "Alternatively, we could have a relatively severe pandemic as occurred in 1918 or perhaps even worse." The World Health Organisation says there have been 55 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans and 42 deaths. Although others maintain the incidence is much higher due to undetected cases.
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/20/2005
6:03:45 AM ||
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Bill- This interest me. "We found that for the 2003 virus, the virus had actually
changed its recepive binding or its ability to bind to the receptors that are in human cells".
WHAT HUMAN CELLS OR WHICH ONES?
YES, I do believe the incidence is much higher due to undetected cases. The Center for Disease Control has a way (government) of keeping epidemic, pandemic MUM. They did this with Lyme Disease back in the 1970's when that disease was discovered**
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Biology Jackson ||
02/20/2005 13:49
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An income of $90,000--even $150,000--is hardly rich if you're trying to raise a family in many areas of this country. Lifting the cap amounts to a whopping 12.4-percentage-point marginal tax rate increase on middle-class households, as well as on small-business owners who don't even get to enjoy the fiction that their employer is paying half. These are some of America's most productive people, and, by the way, they tend to vote Republican.
Rather than proposing such punishment for his own supporters, President Bush might instead have pointed out that Mr. Greenspan went a long way toward rebutting the argument for such a tax increase. The Fed Chairman opined that, as long the phase-in of personal accounts was done gradually, the financial markets would probably yawn at $1 trillion in new borrowing--and maybe more--to cover "transition costs" that are largely an accounting shift anyway. That is, the borrowing would merely be an acknowledgment of liabilities everyone knows are already there. Mr. Greenspan was essentially endorsing Mr. Bush's view that the sooner we start reform the better.
We supported personal Social Security accounts before most Republicans now in Washington were elected, but the early direction of reform is looking more and more worrisome. First, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas proposes to finance private accounts with a huge new VAT levy, and now Mr. Bush puts his own tax hike on the table. What an unhappy irony it would be if Republicans finally gained control of the levers of power in Washington only to pass the largest entitlement expansion since 1965 (the Medicare drug bill) in Mr. Bush's first term, and effectively repeal his income tax cuts in the second.
My view is that the first business of government is to stay/go out of business; that at every level of politics, starving an already bloated government such as ours will always yield benefits, whereas creating a de facto tax increase will never yield anything but a more powerful government.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/20/2005
5:57:55 AM ||
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#1
I'm convinced that, more and more, economics is less influenced by "real" dollars and is more in the purview of "imaginary money". By imaginary money, I mean the vast amounts of money based in *nothing*, of which far more exists than "real" money. For example, if you take out a loan of $10M, using a $1M building as collateral, you have created $9M of imaginary money. Now, that is an example of the creation of bad imaginary money; but far more imaginary money is created through "economic leverage." An example of this, good imaginary money, would be to say that you are paid $1, then you spend that dollar, and the person who gets it also spends it, and the next person does the same. However, the government demands 1 cent from *each* of you from each transaction. So, in traditional economics, after 100 transactions, the value of that dollar should be *zero*. Of course, intuitively you know that it is still worth $1. But the reality is the exact opposite from what traditional economics would say: in fact, that dollar is now "worth' $2! And these are just two examples of how imaginary money is created. "Real" money has probably less than a 20th the power of imaginary money in influencing economics. Last, but not least, imaginary money is the hidden driving force behind the Laffer curve, and *it* is what makes the Laffer curve so dramatic and pronounced in its effects.
But the likes of Reid and Pelosi probably will... loudly and confidently. Hopefully louder and louder come mid-term elections. That ought to go over well for Dem candidates.
#4
Raj: the first example was the cause of much of the S&L scandal, that is, "friendly" overinflating of the value of collateral. The $1M building would be assessed at $10M for the purposes of the loan, by a lender who was "friendly" with the lendee. Only afterwards, in default, would its true value become known. But even though a few people went to prison for that particular example, there are many others, of bad imaginary money creation that make such things as "market bubbles", where valuation, esp. stock valuation, is FAR above actual value. It is the very essense of speculation. The imaginary bill for the S&L imaginary money crisis was $500B that had to be paid in "real" money.
As to my second example, of good imaginary money creation, I was being simplistic, but the same holds true of income tax. If you earn $100,000, you are taxed on $100K. And this year, you spend $50,000, on whatever. But all the people who get your $50k in exchange for goods and services, in turn pay taxes on that same money that *you* already paid taxes on. But it is harder to envision the creation of good imaginary money with this model, though the principal is identical. The end result is the same: by the time a person who makes $100k's money gets through the system, it may be worth double or even 10 times as much, in good imaginary money.
#6
hmmm I seem to remember a Senator McEgo (AZ) who was involved in the Keating scandal - that's why he's such a wself-righteous prick on campaign financing et al...trying to redeem himself
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 15:02
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Raj: The value of looking at imaginary money in economics is clarity. Many of today's flawed economic assumptions are based in the "gold standard" logic of real money, that being that money has no value beyond *something* physical to base it on, in the oldest case, gold or 'specie'. Now wealth based on specie at the national level was known as "mercantilism" (the country with the most specie is the strongest); and once currency was no longer backed by specie, the belief evolved that "mercantilism is dead". What was missed was that mercantilism was not dead, that it had in fact expanded to include things such as oil; then renewable resources such as food; then value added products, such as milled steel, and assembled goods; then services, especially financial services and military force projection; and finally imaginary money itself. Not ironically, the US is the world leader in both "real" money economics, but also in the realm of imaginary money. But old school economists are continually befuddled by the US "breaking the rules" of real money, again and again, yet not suffering the predicted consequences. The federal deficit, for one, "should have" destroyed our economy and our currency, long ago; as should any number of other "real" money factors, and the efforts by our foreign competitors. And yet it is very clear why not, when the imaginary money economy of the US is compared with the other major economic powers. To put it in real money terms would be to add a zero to the 3-6 Trillion dollars that exchange hands in the US economy every day. An imaginary economy that challenges in scale the entire rest of the world's economies put together.
Now they're just holed: Security forces on Sunday stormed an apartment building in southern Russia where a small group of suspected Islamic militants had barricaded themselves, killing all the rebels, police said. A heavy firefight broke out early Sunday morning and security forces then entered the apartment building, said an officer in the Interior Ministry department in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya, where the day-old standoff came to an end. He said it was not yet known how many militants had been in the apartment. The alleged militants had been holed up inside a second-floor apartment in the latest in a series of confrontations between law-enforcement authorities and alleged extremists in the volatile North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya. "Alleged" are they? If Al-Socialist Press cannot bring itself to tell the non-Orwellian truth, that these are Islamic terrorists, they could at least acknowledge that people who barricade themselves in an apartment and shoot it out with security forces are definitely pretty militant.
Last month, security forces killed seven alleged Islamic extremists in the same city in a two-day battle with members of the so-called Yarmuk group. More "alleged" and "so-called."
A duty officer at the southern district office of the Interior Ministry said Saturday that at least three suspects were inside the apartment. He said the suspects were believed to be lightly armed, and discussions aimed at their surrender had been conducted Saturday. Russia's NTV television reported, however, that the suspects were refusing to negotiate. Yarmuk is a radical Islamic group affiliated with Chechen baby-killer warlord Shamil Basayev. It was blamed in a December attack on an office belonging to the Federal Drug Control in Nalchik, when raiders killed four of the agency's employees, looted its arsenal and set the office ablaze.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
02/20/2005
5:05:09 AM ||
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Search for a Russian produced video called "Dogs of War"...this video was given to Russian conscript troops destined for Chechnya in order to give them some understanding of their alleged, so-called enemy (tongue firmly in cheek)
The video shows Chechen and Arab terrorist-produced kidnapping-videos where multiple victims plead for their lives, ask for someone to save them, and are then savagely murdered. (And you thought Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg were the first ones? This is not new to those animals.)
This video proves that Russians have been dealing with those monsters for a long time now. I have a copy, but I can't give it out (can't tell you why or I would have to kill you ;)
Suffice it to say that this video would interest the uninitiated and certainly make others realize that Islamo-fascists are a plague on the earth and must be dealt with accordingly.
Lebanon's embattled government said yesterday that it wanted an explanation from the United Nations of its decision to appoint a commission of inquiry into the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri and hit out at France over opposition calls for an "uprising".
Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said his government was poised to boycott the UN probe, a move likely to put Lebanon on a collision course with both the former mandatory power and the United States, which have demanded an independent investigation into the bombing, in which 14 other people also died. The decision to protest to the United Nations followed a meeting between Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, Justice Minister Adnan Addoum and presidential adviser Georges Dib, a foreign ministry official said. Asked earlier if the government would work with the UN inquiry to be headed by senior Irish police officer Deputy Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, the defence minister said: "I do not think so."
"This issue was proposed by the opposition and we did not agree on that," Mrad told state television, saying the government had not even been notified by the world body as to the commission's terms of reference. He took particular issue with Fitgerald's appointment, saying that Beirut should have been given a veto over the choice. "This issue is up to the council of ministers and chiefly the prime minister," he said. Mrad vowed that the security forces would clamp down on any illegal demonstrations following the opposition's call for a wave of sit-ins against his government. "We will not allow any security breaches," he said. More than 40 of Lebanon's 128 MPs called on the international community on Friday to back their peaceful "uprising for independence" and accused the government and its political masters in Damascus of having a hand in Hariri's assassination.
Prime Minister Omar Karameh struck back, accusing the opposition of "planning a coup d'etat" but adding that his government remained open to "dialogue". Information Minister Elie Firzli accused French President Jacques Chirac, who attended Hariri's private funeral here Wednesday, of having a direct hand in the opposition's campaign. "Chirac made himself a direct party to lead the battle on the Lebanese scene," Firzli charged. Mrad lashed out at a French government advisory warning nationals against all non-essential travel to Lebanon in a new blow to the fledgling recovery of its tourism industry. The Hizbollah warned the opposition not to go down a path that would only prompt counter demonstrations by Damascus's supporters in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
5:01:38 PM ||
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First words in the Foreword (Sorry I wasn't able to find the English version so I translated)
His Majesty the King of the Belgians, the President of the Czech Republic, Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the president of the Republic of Estonia, the president of the Hellenic Republic, the King of Spain, the President of the French Republic, the President of Irealand, the President of the Italian Republic, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, the President of the Republic of Letonia, the President of the Republic of Lituania, his Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary, the President of the Republic of Malta, Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, the President of the Republic of Austria, the President of the Republic of Polonia, the President of the Portuguese Republic, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, the President of the Republic of Slovaquia, the President of the Republic of Finland, the governement of the Kingdom of Sweden, the Quen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland
Let's put the lights out and leave. If we continue the comparison it is still worse
in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The improved Uropean version (1)
Conscious that Europe is a continent that has brought forth civilisation; that its inhabitants, arriving in successive waves from earliest times, have gradually developed the values underlying humanism equality of persons, freedom, respect for reason. Drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, the values of which, still present in its heritage, have embedded within the life of society the central role of the human person and his or her inviolable and inalienable rights, and respect for law,
Believing that reunited Europe intends to continue along the path of civilisation, progress and prosperity, for the good of all its inhabitants, including the weakest and most deprived; that it wishes to remain a continent open to culture, learning and social progress; and that it wishes to deepen the democratic and transparent nature of its public life, and to strive for peace, justice and solidarity throughout the world,
Convinced that, while remaining proud of their own national identities and history, the peoples ofEurope are determined to transcend their ancient divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common Convinced that, thus "united in its diversity", Europe offers them the best chance of pursuing, with due regard for the rights of each individual and in awareness of their responsibilities towards future generations and the Earth, the great venture which makes of it a special area of human hope,
Notice the caracteristic modesty of the makers of the European constitution
grateful to the members of the European Convention for having prepared this Constitution on behalf of the citizens and States of Europe, Who, having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows
Those guys would have the chutzpah of making us pay for the right to vote.
(1) Unlike for the first words (King of Belgian) I didn't translate the following it is from the the official English version . Even if in the preamble it is irrelevant I found non-trivial differences between the English and Spanish version. Are the peoples of Europe voting for the same constitution?
Posted by: JFM ||
02/20/2005
4:45:46 AM ||
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#1
The significant comparison would not be between the European Constitution and the American one, but rather between the European Constitution and the treaties it is replacing.
It's always a deceitful game, when a person compares an actual possibility with what is not an alternative and never was one. Applying the US Constitution to Europe was never a possible alternative. Retaining the Treaty of Nice, or replacing it with the European Constitution -- *these* two are the current alternatives being discussed.
Compare *those* two, and keep the comparisons with the American Constitution for when the time comes to improve and amend the European Constitution *further*.
People attack the European Constitution for not being merely a treaty ("we don't need no steenking constitution", etc, etc), and then they attack it for being one, and phrased like one.
#2
The comparison it is easy: it is a lot worse than the French one both in the verbiage, in the fact it fixes in the Constitution things who ahave no business being there since they belong to the day to day management by the government like "Europe must have a space policy" and in the warranties it gives to the citizen.
Democracy was born in Greece but, in Europe, it is dying in Brussels.
#3
Aris, can't you see all that vaporware in the European version? Who cares about storytelling like those "successive waves", about "inspired", "embedded", "path of civilisation, n'stuff.
"Deepen democratic nature"? With an EU Commission we cant elect, with a constitution we had no part in writing and (the German case) not even voting on? And let me not go into the "transparent nature"...
"Soliidarity"... with whom? Without qualifyer, it's an empty word, with qualifyer it's usually an empty promise.
#4
The Constitution talks in detail about what competences the EU will have, yes. Because all those competences that the Constitution *doesn't* talk about, the EU *wouldn't* have. Or so I gather.
I agree with changing the Constitution to allow for much greater flexibility in policy matters. But ofcourse then you face the disapproval of all those people who are terrified of the supranational institutions taking *any* more power on themselves or making any actual decisions without the further unanimous consent of all member-states.
#6
TGA> I see lots and lots of vaporware. Yes. And it's unfortunate.
But "Solidarity" seems rather defined to me in places: Solidarity clause
1. The Union and its Member States shall act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster. The Union shall mobilise all the instruments at its disposal, including the military resources made available by the Member States, to:
(a) â prevent the terrorist threat in the territory of the Member States;
â protect democratic institutions and the civilian population from any terrorist attack;
â assist a Member State in its territory, at the request of its political authorities, in the
event of a terrorist attack;
(b) assist a Member State in its territory, at the request of its political authorities, in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
2. The detailed arrangements for implementing this Article are set out in Article III-329.
The democratic nature of the European Union is among other things enhanced by the million-citizens initiative which is for the first time embedded in the constitution. No, it's not enough. But it's a step to the right direction.
No, we can't elect the Commission unfortunately, but neither could we with the treaty of Nice.
Once again I'm not comparing the Constitution with some currently non-existent and unavailable ideal. I'm comparing it to what it's replacing.
Another good thing for enhancing the democratic nature of the Union is that for the first time Germany will have more influence in the Council than France, UK or Italy, since we will no longer have bargained vote arrangements but rather a qualified double majority of states and *populations* instead.
#7
That Constitution was made by Giscard d'Estaing the one who received diamonds from "Emperor" Bokassa, a guy who pierced the eyes of children and, allegedly ate some of them.
Frankly I am atonished by your pavlovian defence of that Constitution even in its most questionnable and undemocratic aspects: even Mao's Red Guards didn't have the same kind of wooden tongue. Now I remember thet the EU Commission is paying people for going into blogs and putting texts in favour of the EU. You should apply for the job, really. At least you would get paid.
#8
Aris, the treaty of Nice isn't any better. And I define "democratic state" of the EU less by voting rights of member states, but by voting rights and rights of control (and impeachment) of the people.
#9
JFM, when I'm calling the Constitution an utterly sucky watered-down document with lots and lots of vaporware, I don't see myself "defending it even in its most questionable and undemocratic aspects".
So screw you.
What I see myself doing is this: seeing which aspects it improves and which aspects it worsens from the *current* de facto constitution of the EU.
You know -- comparing it with what actually is there, rather than with hopes and fantasies. TGA just mentioned that under the Treaty of Nice, the City of Berlin had to pay lots and lots of money for some useless law.
And I suppose his criticism of the Constitution is that it doesn't improve the situation in this respect.
However he should keep in mind, that the Constitution wasn't in effect when the city of Berlin had to pay that amount, so I don't see what this item has to do in discussing whether the Constitution is an improvement or a worsening of the situation.
#10
JFM, I doubt that the EU commission does that. I don't think they know what a blog is before they have worked out the standard regulation ISO-BLOG 203443 for blogs, the language quota, the number and length of admissable comments, the clear identification of every blogger with passport number and VAT Id etc.
That's all I'm talking about. The Constitution is a small improvement over the current situation, that's all.
It formalizes for the first time an exit clause for states that want to leave. For the first time it has an article about citizens' initiative, a first step towards direct democracy on a European level. It gives some tiny more flexibility to the Common Foreign policy. It allows for further enlargement of the Union in that its ends the rotating presidency and trims down the size of the Commission. The Parliament's role is enhanced a bit. It has a Charter of Fundamental rights for the first time embedded in it. So forth, so forth. All these I find steps to the right directions.
#13
Aris, the Constitution does indeed not change or amend these lunacies, but it sanctifies them.
Does it? I believe that for the first time the Constitution also adds the protocol which insists that all legislative acts must be justified on the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
Draft European legislative acts shall be justified with regard to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Any draft European legislative act should contain a detailed statement making it possible to appraise compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. This statement should contain some assessment of the proposal's financial impact and, in the case of a European framework law, of its implications for the rules to be put in place by Member States, including, where necessary, the regional legislation. The reasons for concluding that a Union objective can be better achieved at Union level shall be substantiated by qualitative and, wherever possible, quantitative indicators. Draft European legislative acts shall take account of the need
for any burden, whether financial or administrative, falling upon the Union, national governments, regional or local authorities, economic operators and citizens, to be minimised and commensurate with the objective to be achieved.
And there's also a process there that national parliaments vote to call such a legislative act as non-compliant to such principles.
"Where reasoned opinions on a draft European legislative act's non-compliance with the principle of subsidiarity represent at least one third of all the votes allocated to the national Parliaments in accordance with the second paragraph, the draft must be reviewed. This threshold shall be a quarter in the case of a draft European legislative act submitted on the basis of Article III-264 of the Constitution on the area of freedom, security and justice."
Now, you may say again that this is not *enough* -- it doesn't order the act necessarily withdrawn, only reviewed, but once again it seems to me to be a step in the right direction.
#15
At the risk of violating my lenten absolutions, I'll post to this thread:
The various treaties previously in effect in Europe were the equivalent of the federal code here in the US.
That the current document called the "European Constitution" is being defended because it's allegedly a better federal code for Europe than the previous federal code it's replacing.
To those of us in America, this still sounds like bull puckey, because it's not being called the New Federal Code, but the new constitution.
It's not a constitution, which would be a collection of meta-laws about law, but a collection of laws and bureaucratic decisions. It's not the difference between the constitution-as-implemented and an ideal pie-in-the-sky constitution that bothers us, it's the fact that this part of what in the US would be the Federal Register is being passed off as a constitution.
It doesn't matter how much better it is than the current European version of their federal code; it's still not a real constitution.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/20/2005 12:38
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#16
So, is it simply that it's called a "Constitution"? If we called it the "Treaty of " but the content was the same, all would be okay?
It would also be better because it wouldn't preclude the authorship of a real constitution somewhere down the line. And it would be better for the bureaucrats writing the current treaty to be more held accountable as treaty authors rather than letting them pretend to be writing a real constitution.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/20/2005 12:54
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#21
I agree. Let the people write the real constitution (the internet is a great place to do it) and let bureaucrats write bureaucratic texts without the excuse that "the people approved them".
And hell, make it short and make it start with "WE THE PEOPLE".
We can borrow at least this phrase from the US constitution. It's not copyrighted.
#22
TGA and Phil> Lol! Okay, and calling it a "Treaty of whatever" would certainly help people to focus on the contents of it instead of on the word "Constitution" instead. I'd have no problem with that.
Ofcourse then people would accuse the writers of being dishonest by labelling it a treaty instead of a constitution, but you can't have everything. :-)
Raj Believing that reunited Europe... You mean, like how Hitler united Europe?
Another so-very-original comparison.
The difference between day and night, between war and peace, between voluntary union and coercive imperialism, between consentual sex and rape, between freedom and tyranny... but yeah, other than that *exactly* like when Hitler united Europe.
#23
TGA: Isn't there an old joke somewhere about how the Venetian Constitution worked for hundreds of years, and after it broke they were still able to sell it off to the US?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/20/2005 13:15
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#24
Aris, then you'll have to at least deal with the problem that you now have a treaty/federal code hybrid with the force of constitutional law instead of federal code.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/20/2005 13:22
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#25
The difference between ... between voluntary union and coercive imperialism ....
#26
I have heard of "the perfect being the enemy of the good," but I had never heard of the "the better being the enemy of the just barely good enough."
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/20/2005 13:33
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#27
The real problem remains that by reading that constitution the people don't get a real idea why they need a political union. What's its point? The union doesn't give its citizens fundamental rights that they didn't already enjoy in the national context.
If you make a union, the first question should be: What for?
You usually marry because you want to found a family and give your kids a protected environment.
The economic advantages of a European Economic Union are clear to see. What are those of a political union of 25 rather different states. The Finns know that they benefit from a economic union with Portugal. But politically, how do the Finns and the Portuguese profit from that?
#28
While Aris tries to "give us cat for hare" (Spanish expression), about the European Constitutaion saying that it is not a problem since it is only the codification of existing lmaws and practice we have to consider the fundamental differnece between laws and Constitution: laws are made to be changed, Constitutions are made to last and in any country the process for amending the Constititution is ever difficult and constraing in order to avoid a government modifying it just for convenience (or for say, modifying the electoral system is such way governemnnt cannot lose). That is why, because Constitutions are diffiucult to change (and the EU one has a provision who forbids modifying the Constitution for, I think, twenty years) that it is very important to get it right, to never say YES to a bad constitution and for not allowing in the Constitution matters who belong to state policy and thus who need to be changed when the economic, demographic or politic environment changes.
#30
Left to their own devices, the bureaucrats of the EU will ultimately render Europe into a micropower. The people, who are surrendering to the bureaucrats, will be getting what they deserve. There is NO comparison to the U.S. Constitution.
#31
The Union of Socialist European Republics is about to get the "Consitution" it deserves. If it were truly an exercise in freedom, the Europeans would have written and argued about the equivalent of The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers in recent years. It will be interesting to watch which European people has the courage to vote no (assuming they are asked).
It's rather ironical that the lofty, self-laudatory opening statements in the EuroCon so thoroughly contradicts the major 20th century contributions of Europe to history: death and slavery for hundreds of millions by Communism and Nazism.
In other news, my mother has finally given up on hoping for the end of socialism in Sweden. Took her about 35 years. Now she says --quote-- "the Swedes are getting what they deserve, since a majority keeps voting Socialist and Communist despite their unhappiness with the system."
#32
is about to get the "Consitution" it deserves.
What about the "New Europe" nations?
If it were truly an exercise in freedom, the Europeans would have written and argued about the equivalent of The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers in recent years.
Perhaps I don't understand what you mean, but I thought that was indeed what we were doing.
As a sidenote, Sweden's human development index seems to be second best in the world. So I don't that nation is the best possible example for the supposed ills of socialdemocracy.
It's rather ironical that the lofty, self-laudatory opening statements in the EuroCon so thoroughly contradicts the major 20th century contributions of Europe to history: death and slavery for hundreds of millions by Communism and Nazism.
And this sentence is rather revelatory about how your hatred for the Constitution in reality just disguises your hatred and contempt for the entire continent.
Tell me now, is there *any* possible blueprint for a political union of the nations of Europe that you'd have supported?
Europe has the RIGHT to pick whatever kind of constitution it wants. As an American my only concern is that people have not really recognized how much power they are surrendering to an unelected bureaucracy of the "elites." I can accept that Europe has, in general, been more comfortable with being governed by such elites than has been the case for Americans, but it disturbs me, so as a friend, I feel obligated to ask, "have you really thought about what you are about to do?"
The fundamental difference IS between the US and Europe IS illustrated in the preamble: In the the US, the PEOPLE granted the power to the government, in the EU, the esisting governing powers are creating the consititution.
It is your RIGHT to accept that, but I think you should consider whether or not perpetuating that aspect of your existing system and if anything reinforcing its remoteness from the power of the people,is truly in your interest.
I wish you the best of success.
Posted by: Ralph Tacoma ||
02/20/2005 20:43
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#34
Convinced that, while remaining proud of their own national identities and history, the peoples ofEurope are determined to transcend their ancient divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common Convinced that, thus "united in its diversity", Europe offers them the best chance of pursuing, with due regard for the rights of each individual and in awareness of their responsibilities towards future generations and the Earth, the great venture which makes of it a special area of human hope,
The heretofore unknown deleted clause...
We proclaim, There she was just a-walkinâ down the street,
Singinâ, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do
Snappinâ her fingers and shufflinâ her feet,
Singinâ, do-wah diddy-diddy down diddy-do
She looked good, looked good
She looked fine, looked fine
She looked good, she looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind
President Jacques Chirac may consult all French political parties in the next few days on an early date for France's referendum on the European Union constitution. Faced with opinion polls, published and unpublished, showing a draining of support for the treaty, M. Chirac is said to be considering a referendum on 22 May, instead of in early or mid June. Opponents of the treaty say the government is showing signs of "panic". The longer the French people consider the treaty, the more likely they are to vote against it, they say. M. Chirac has therefore been forced to consider a snap poll.
Opinion polls have shown a gradual erosion of support for the treaty in France. In part, this is because the question has become infected by other issues, ranging from Turkish membership of the EU to the unpopularity of Jean-Pierre Raffarin's centre-right government. At the same time, arguments against the treaty by the extremes of left and right have begun to shake the support of a mainstream electorate which has barely considered the text. The "no" campaign has been in full swing for several weeks; the "yes" campaign has not begun.
The Senate, the upper house, gave a first reading yesterday to a change in the French constitution, allowing the referendum to go ahead. It has been passed by the National Assembly, and M. Chirac is expected to announce this week the date of a meeting of both houses to amend the constitution. This would lift one of the remaining obstacles to a referendum. The others are largely technical and relate to how soon copies of the proposed constitution and the wording of the referendum question can be printed and distributed to the 41.5 million voters. Officials suggest 22 May is the earliest feasible date.
Opinion polls originally showed support for the new constitution above 65 per cent. Private polls by the government have warned it is likely to be lower, and recent public surveys have shown support of below 60 per cent. If France rejects the constitution - which streamlines EU decision-making, solidifies some EU powers and creates a permanent president of the EU council - the treaty would be as good as dead. The text could barely survive rejection by popular vote in any member state, and certainly not in such a large and key founder state as France.
Government confidence was high in December when a vote within the main opposition party, the Socialists, showed it was strongly in favour of the treaty. Many more radical Socialists, and parties further to the left, reject it as an "ultra-liberal" Anglo-Saxon conspiracy to abolish the continental model of the welfare state. On the right, although formally supported by all mainstream parties, the treaty is seen by some as an erosion of national sovereignty. Despite a government promise that Turkish membership would be put to a separate vote, many right-wing politicians argue that a vote against the constitution would be the best way to kill Turkish membership stone dead.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/20/2005
4:39:04 AM ||
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#1
Maybe we should take out ads in LeMonde that say the EU "Constitution" will make it easier for Britons to buy Brittany.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 8:31
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#2
Someone should suggest to the Europeans a simple idea: take the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and replace the words "United States" with "Europe". Then, ask the question: "Would life be *intolerable* living under *just* this minimal document?" That is, accepting the notion that the purpose of a constitution is to limit government, *not* to detail every possible thing that government *could* do. This would entailabandoning the Roman and Napoleonic Law idea that "That which is not allowed by the government is prohibited", and replacing it with the Common Law idea that "That which is not expressly forbidden by government is legal." And then, to add the part that is the most essential, most important, and the most precious part of the US constitution, its Bill of Rights. Because nothing matters in the composition of a state that allows the government to trample the rights of its citizenry. A constitution is just words unless it has a Bill of Rights, a recognition that the state is there *solely* to serve the people, and not the other way around. That, of itself, the state has no intrinsic value AT ALL.
#3
I've stayed clear of this EU/EU costitution debate,because I know very little about it.But I would like to ask a couple of questions.
1)Do the citezens of the EU have the right to vote on thier Representatives to the EU?
2)Do they have the right to vote on laws proposed by the EU?
3)Do the citzens of individual countries have the right to recall/impeach thier EU reps?
4)Do the citezens of the (collective)EU have the right to impeach members of the Executive Branch(ex:EU priesident)?
How are EU judges chosen and do the citezens have any say as to who sits on the bench?
#4
Personally I don't really understand all of the hoopla surrounding the EU Constitution. Population demographics will once and forever unite the Caliphate Europe in the latter half of the century anyway so what's the big deal?
#6
Someone should suggest to the Europeans a simple idea: take the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and replace the words "United States" with "Europe".
LOL! Bravo for the innovative idea of the "United States of Europe" which has never ever been proposed before!
But let's see, a single foreign policy, a standing army and single defense, a single currency throughout the Union (too bad UK or Sweden, no opt-outs allowed for you), federal taxation, the federal government enforcing a full separation of church and state throughout the continent no matter what the regional traditions are (sorry UK, sorry Greece), no state vetos at *all*, no right to secede from the Union...
Most of this is a federalist wet-dream for me (though even *I* wouldn't go that far towards federalism -- for example I'm in full favour of the rights of any state to secede), but when some people loathe it whenever the EU takes even tiny, *tiny* steps towards federalism, do you really think that they would currently accept the full-blown United States of Europe that you are talking about?
#9
Thanks,TGA.Now let me see if I've got this straight.
The EU is going to be an un-elected government, ran by un-elected beuracrats,with a judiciary un-accountable to the people they are supposed to protect.All this and the people of Euorpe have no way(short of armed revolt)to correct problems,or get rid of incompetant,corrupt,or inneffective leaders.Are my conclusions correct,TGA,JFM,BD,Howard?
I find it hard to believe,Aris,that you are in favor of this hegmonic dictatorshp.Aris,thier are a lot of examples that are much,much worse than U.S. Federalisam,after all how many Euoropean Democracies have lasted over 200 hundred years.Just where the hell do the Euros get off calling the U.S.hegomnic when they are in favor of this crap?
#10
The people only have an indirect influence through their national governments and parliaments, and a very limited influence through the European Parliament.
Not good enough. The EU commission already affects our daily lives as much as our national government.
#11
I'm curious: are there provisions from withdrawing completely from the bureaucratic lunacy while remaining completely within the economic union? If not it might not be a stretch to call the withdrawl provisions illusory.
You atre right, we have no way short of armed revolt to get rid of corrupyt and incompetent leaders, except it would be unarmed revolt.
Btw, one of the nice things in that EU Constitution we are invited NOT to read is that there are many provisions who can be translated as "liberty is guaranteed until the government decides it not longer suits it" or "property is guaranteed unless the governement decides it is in public interest to expropriate you".
#13
I'm curious: are there provisions from withdrawing completely from the bureaucratic lunacy while remaining completely within the economic union?
Yeah, there's that article that says "Any member stay may withdraw completely from the bureacratic lunacy, while remaining completely on those parts of the agreement it still likes. Also pink elephants fly in happy circles."
There are provisions to negotiate the terms and aspects of your withdrawal, yes, and reach an agreement after consultations. But the absolute right retained under the Constitution is that of having the treaty cease to apply to you in its entirety.
That's the way treaties work. You can withdraw completely from it, or you can respect it, or you can renegotiate it with your partners and reach a compromise solution. But you don't get to pick and choose which chapters to respects and which not to.
"... The National Audit Office found that in 2002 alone there were 10,000 examples of possible fraud in the EUâs accounts. For nine consecutive years the EU court of auditors has refused to sign off the budget. The numbers are huge. The annual EC budget is around 100 billion [Euros] (£65 billion). The auditors cannot clear 95 per cent of that. We simply cannot tell what is happening to that money; the system does not allow us to say even if the money is well or fraudulently spent. ..."
#15
That's the way treaties work. You can withdraw completely from it, or you can respect it, or you can renegotiate it with your partners and reach a compromise solution. But you don't get to pick and choose which chapters to respects and which not to.
Unless you're frogland or Germany
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 13:29
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Bulldog - 95% can't be accounted for? I guess the other 5% aren't trying hard enough?
Makes the UN look good by comparison....sheesh.
#19
DB - I was reading a letter in the Times (IIRC) recently about a chap who's taking the British Government to court over its payments to the EU (£1,500,000 per hour). under British law, it's illegal for HMG to hand over taxpayers' money to businesses or orgnisations which do not have audited accounting and open books. Our payments to the EU, quite obviously, are therefore illegal.
#20
For a concise and clear description of the development of Common Law, referred to in #2 above, check your local library for the book "Magna Carta," written by an excellent legal scholar with the unfortunate name of William Swindler. The book was written for junior high students years ago; very few students probably see it today, probably. I have used it in home schooling my daughters.
The idea that the king could be answerable to the law was revolutionary; everywhere else the law depended on the king's whim. In England, as successive kings renewed the Charter, economic conditions helped the crown to evolve from personal rule to an institution larger than the king himself. The barons and politicians responsible for the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses killed each other off and left the field open for new leadership and, compared to the rest of Europe at the time, a more stable and prosperous nation.
Note the differences between the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man" and the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The French Clergy had become so corrupt under the Bourbons, and the religious behavior of the Bourbon kings had become such a travesty of faith, that the French threw God out of their reckoning entirely. I believe that abandonment of principles led in part to the horrors of the French Revolution.
Glad to see the lawyers are useful for something after all.
Of course, the way things seem to be going, the British government will probably just change the law. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 14:33
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#22
Mom
The Declaration of Rights of Man has more in common with Us Constiution than you believe: let's review the two first articles.
First Article: "Men are born and remain free and equals in rights"
Second Article: Those rights are freedom, property, security and resistance to oppression"
(Notice that this implies the right to bear arms).
Of course that part was quickly "forgotten" by the revolutionary authorities.
The problem was not the Declartaion of Rights but what happenned later. In order to understand contemporary France you have to realize the French Revolution was basically a scam. The people was sant to die in the battlefields of Europe with promises of liberty and democracy but in the meantime the bourgeois who controlled the Constituante made that you only were allowed to vote if you were rich enough on the basis that the poor were not learned enough. But they also closed the free schools set by Monarchy and Clergy and who allowed the people to get instruction. You see for the French Enlightenement philosophers instruction was bad for the people. The Revolution leaders had also the State sell the lands of Nobilty and Clergy in a such way that the bourgeoisie was able to buy them at a fraction of their value while the peasants or workers weren't able to buy. They also suppressed syndicates and Napoleon put workers under watch of the police through a booklet any worker had to keep and present to the police or employer whenever he moved or chnged jobs.
In America workers were able to escape their condition through governement's distribution of free lands or by creating their own company (partly because they had had instruction: at the time of the Civil War over 90% of men in New England were able to read and write). But in France the oppressed, police-controlled and unlearned workers never had those opportunities (1): instead they became resentful and embraced socialism
(1) It is difficult to create a business if you can't read, write and count. In addition it ws much harder for badly paid French workers (no syndicates) to get enough funds to start it or to get loans from the banks.
#23
Thanks, JFM. May I ask where you got the above material? I need the short, concise form for homework in April; #3 daughter has Asperger's Syndrome, also known as high functioning Autism, and has a hard time with cause and effect, so I need to be able to reduce things dramatically without sacrificing the point.
#24
The auditors cannot clear 95 per cent of that. We simply cannot tell what is happening to that money; the system does not allow us to say even if the money is well or fraudulently spent. ..."
Question, for comparison: I know the U.S. government accounts are supposed to be audited. How well are they able to account for the monies disbursed (other than, I assume, CIA and Military, at least part of which is supposed to be secret)?
#25
#24 do you think this is a case of THE FOX IN CHARGE OF THE HEN HOUSE? It seems that way to me.
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 19:32
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#26
The GAO is a Bulldog (apologies, Bulldog, heh) and can account for all non-black expenditures. They regularly testify before Congress regards where the money went - for any member who wants to chase it.
Our money is being watched carefully, but that doesn't prevent Congress from spending it on asinine pork barrel projects. That's legal - we elected the jerks.
Mayor balks at endorsing Arab group for panel
Efforts to establish a New Jersey Arab Heritage Commission are falling short of winning the support of one Hunterdon County mayor. Birthplace of James Marshall, whose discovery of gold in California led to the forty-niner' rush.
That's because Raritan Township Mayor Peter Kinsella said he disagrees with the philosophy espoused by one of the organizations backing the formation of the commission. Its nice to see leaders with insight, and backbone.
Kinsella objects to the Council on American-Islamic Relations' involvement in the movement and suggests the state "do a better job" of selecting an advocacy group with which to align itself. "They are a lobbying group intent on promoting differences between cultural groups, in a negative manner, to serve their own agenda," Kinsella said in a prepared statement released in response to a state request for a resolution supporting the creation of the commission. "They have exhibited an anti-U.S. attitude in the war on terror." You got that right.
While Raritan's township committee has not taken action on the resolution, more than 20 other municipalities throughout the state have passed resolutions of support for the establishment of the commission, according to Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. The idea for the commission came out of a collaborative effort of CAIR and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots civil rights organization. New Jersey is home to more than 750,000 Arabs and Muslims -- there are about 10 million nationwide -- yet their religions, culture and customs remain a mystery to most Americans, said Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey chapter of ADC...
Posted by: IToldYouSo ||
02/20/2005
4:20:09 AM ||
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#1
Well, halle-freakin'-lujah.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 20:16
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#2
give him his due :-)
F&^kin A!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 20:37
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#3
Barbara Skolaut: I think it was you who needed to make a bumper sticker "f**k the DNR or something like that? check out www.cafepress.com/politics/browse
thousand's of bumper stickers to choose from.
click onto # 3 see the sticker Asses of Evil then page # 6 open mouth chimp sticker. HE HE HE
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: inquizitive Liberal ||
02/20/2005 21:37
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Les peasants sont revoltinque! See - I could integrate, really je could.
Breton villages protested yesterday against an "invasion" of Britons blamed for pushing up property prices and forcing out locals. Around 100 people took to the streets of Bourbriac and called on all "proud French natives" to express their anger at "colonisation". They demanded more low-cost housing, criticised estate agents for "market speculation" and set fire to piles of property magazines. The protest was part of a growing backlash against the increasing number of Britons moving to rural France. It came six months after hostility to settlers erupted with "Brits out" and "Anglais integres, oui. Colons, non!" [Integrated English, yes. Colonisers, no!] slogans daubed on walls in the village near the Armor coast.
Bourbriac is now home to about 700 Britons, 100 Germans and Dutch, among a French population of 1,200. Maiwenne Salomon, one of the protest organisers, said the demonstration was not racist or xenophobic. "Our problem is not with the British in general, it's with the people who arrive here, who don't speak French, who don't mix, don't take part in the life of the community and who create Anglo-Saxon ghettos where they keep themselves to themselves," she said. "It's been complete madness over the last few years with foreigners, particularly the Anglo-Saxons, arriving in incredible numbers. "The result of this has been that property prices have rocketed in the whole of Britanny and Bretons themselves can't find anywhere to live, whether it's to rent or to buy." She said that the cost of buying a home had risen by up to 600 per cent.
Still talking in francs, rather than euros, Mrs Salomon, added: "You used to be able to buy a small house which needed some work on it for around 50,000 francs [£5,000]. Now it's impossible to find anything - even if it needs completely renovating - for less than 300,000. "This has had a knock-on effect on properties for rent. Even if you could find somewhere, the monthly rent is far too high for most ordinary families to pay. "I've got friends living in caravans because they can't afford to live anywhere else."
A census last year showed that about 100,000 Britons live in France. This figure does not include children or those owning holiday homes.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/20/2005
4:08:48 AM ||
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#1
"...itâs with the people who arrive here, who donât speak French, who donât mix, donât take part in the life of the community and who create Anglo-Saxon ghettos where they keep themselves to themselves..."
As an exercise, let's replace "Anglo-Saxon" with "Moslem" or "Arabic." Now how do you feel about them, Maiwenne?
#5
"Zay come in heer, wit' zere money and zere expensive cars, and zay don' talk Francais like zey should, and zay say t'ings like "Hey, Froggie! 'Avent you any arf-decent," er, how you say? "Poisson and Pommes Frites shoppes about, or is all you eat about here 'ese bloody snails and cheese? Sod that! Where can I get a pint?" TRES INTOLERABLE! English poopy-pants!"
#6
When they have the same protest in Paris against their hordes of un-integrated Muslim welfare cases. I'll show some interest.
Until then, *yawn*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 9:52
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#7
#3. They should be so lucky,Mrs. D. "Caravan" is British for "travel trailer". But you probably already knew that. A very small European style trailer comes to mind.
Our problem is .... with the people who arrive here, who don't speak our language French, who don't mix, don't take part in the life of the community and who create .... ghettos where they keep .... to themselves....
Wanna trade? At least they're bringing money into the economy instead of exporting the currrency to their homeland. Have any signed up for welfare or free medical care yet?
#8
GK, Yes, I do read my son the Famous Five before bed, but the thought of a frog trailer park was just too good to ignore. Makes me wonder if they have tornados in frogland.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 10:13
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#9
Mrs Davis - If they don't have tornados then they will as soon as enough "caravan's" gather in one place. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/20/2005 10:28
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#11
Barbara # 6 *Yawn* I call this a real eye opener. Welfare- most do NOT choose that path in life and for some it is a volition issue. Where are all these folk's going to? Homeless Shelter's?
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 18:06
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#12
Andrea, things are different with regard to welfare (which they call "social security") on the other side of the pond. The unemployment is so high anyway (on the order of 10% of those that are being counted) that in Germany most people do not graduate from university until they are well into their 30's, and most women never even try to hold a job. Social Security payments are enough to live comfortably -- not in subsidized poverty as in the States. Remember, too, that the Europeans are fond of their work/life [leisure] balance, which is much more tilted toward leisure, so too many are happy to join the leisured class without any effort.
Assassins who killed Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, travelled from Iraq through Syria to carry out the attack, according to the Beirut judge leading the inquiry into the bombing. Rachid Mezher, the senior investigator for the Lebanese military tribunal, said that the organisers had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the US-led coalition in Iraq. Although no firm ties with the Syrian regime have been established, his comments suggest strong circumstantial evidence of a connection.
There's something in my head that keeps repeating "Mugniyeh... Mugniyeh..."
Investigators believe that a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into the 60-year-old billionaire's convoy last Monday, killing him and 14 others. Judge Mezher said that a video in which a fanatic called Ahmed Abu Adas said the attack was the work of "Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria", an unknown group, was a genuine claim of responsibility.
My instinct is that the vid is genuine, and that the "group" is very small, pick-up, and will be heard from no more, unless somebody else needs boomed. Like Wally Jumblatt. Abu Adas is probably now back in Mosul, unless it actually was a suicide car boom, in which case the witnesses are all dead.
Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
That could be significant, or it could mean that they brought in a top-grade professional to do the job. Guys with turbans stick out less in the Muddle East than an Irishman would.
Investigators suspect that the mosques have ties to Sheikh Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped fighters travel through Syria to Iraq. The Beirut attack bore similarities to suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by al-Zarqawi, who has increasingly strong ties to al-Qaeda. "We know that Adas had Saudi Arabian nationality and used his passport to travel to Iraq and Syria," said Judge Mezher in his only interview with a British newspaper. "The man converted to strict Muslim beliefs two years ago and returned to Lebanon only recently."
"Strict Muslim beliefs" is a polite way of saying "Salafism," of course...
The regime of the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, denies involvement in the attack and has rebuffed calls from Lebanon and America to remove its 15,000 troops from the country. It has a history, however, of using extremists in Lebanon as proxy killers. However, a Syrian intelligence official based in Lebanon said: "There was a gap in security exploited by the terrorists and their web must be investigated. This criminal act was an attack on Syria as much as it was on Lebanon."
So do we see swarms of Syrian investigators, following up every clue? Watch the hands, not the mouth...
Mr Hariri, prime minister for 10 years, resigned last year after Syrian pressure led to the extension of the term as Lebanese president of Emile Lahoud, his chief rival. Previously pro-Syrian, Mr Hariri had planned to campaign during May's general election against Syrian influence. Walid Jumblatt, now the leading Lebanese opposition leader, has accused Damascus of commissioning the attack on Mr Hariri.
... and the UN warned of the possibility of just such an attack, against either Hariri or Wally, just a day or two before the boom. This leads me to believe the UN knew something was in the works, probably something uncovered by the Frenchies, who are often very good.
He is now at the vanguard of a popular movement to force the Syrian troops out of Lebanon. "He got killed and we are all on that list, there is no immunity," he said. "Syria is responsible. Who else? We don't want to open war with Syria, but they must go out."
Since the warning pointed to Syria, and "we" equals at least Wally, he's got cause for concern...
The Syrian president is a member of the Alawite religious sect, feared throughout medieval Europe as the Assassins. When its leader wanted an opponent killed, he handed a follower a dagger and his wishes were carried out. Many Lebanese believe that Mr Hariri's death was commissioned in similar fashion by Syria's Mukhabarat intelligence service. At the Zoqaq al-Blat mosque, a stronghold of the pro-Syrian Akbash sect, the imam blamed foreign powers - meaning America and Israel - for Mr Hariri's death. "This intervention is designed to disfigure Lebanon and is the work of foreign forces who mean us harm," he said.
That's the F7 key on their word processor...
American support for Lebanese opposition demands is growing. One administration figure said of the assassination: "If Syria did authorise this, it's the stupidest thing they could have done."
Makes you wonder how Baby Assad made it through eye doctor school, doesn't it?
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/20/2005
3:58:34 AM ||
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How does this square with the crater? Other reports say it was a bomb planted in the sewer or in the road and it was not a car bomb.
#2
Previously pro-Syrian, Mr Hariri had planned to campaign during Mayâs general election against Syrian influence.
Suddenly his convictions change? Or were the Syrian people really just being given the choice of 2 pro-Syrian candidates with Hariri posing as anti-Syrian influence to let some steam out of the kettle.
Let's see...he's a personal friend of Chirac, A personal friend of the Saudi Royal Family, A billionaire whoe is "loved for his charity work" and he was previously pro-Syrian government.
Given all of this, we're supposed to believe that this guy was the good guy? I'm not even close to being convinced.
#3
I could be wrong but it doesn't look like a car bomb crater. I was briefly involved with a project for the Thai government back in the late 70's in which they wanted to dig an anti-tank ditch very fast. The tests done were for a large quantity of explosives burried and sequencially detonated similar to what is done in strip mining. Unlike strip mining, the dirt had to be completely removed by the explosions which requires an earth-shattering ka-boom. The tests proved it was feasable to do but very impractical. The explosives have to be burried and maintained as well as all the wiring. My point is the crater in the Harriri killing looks almost exactly like the craters one gets from burrying explosives and not like a crater from an above ground explosion. An above ground explosion leaves a shallow, wide crater. A below ground explosion leaves a deep, narrower crater. The force of an above ground explosion is directed mostly up and out. Dirt doesn't compact all that much and tends to reflect the blast up. In a below ground explosion the crater is deeper because, as with an above ground boom, the force is directed up and out but the sides of the forming crater reflect some of the blast back toward the center. That is why a below ground blast is deeper and narrower than an above ground.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/20/2005 16:05
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An extremist group of female Israeli settlers, some still teenagers, have vowed to unleash anarchy across the country in protest over disengagement plans drawn up by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli premier. The women, from settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, have already taken part in violent demonstrations, and support a campaign of threats and intimidation. Several teenage girls were among those arrested last week after rush-hour protests at busy road junctions brought much of Israel to a halt. Demonstrators burnt tyres, attacked police officers, smashed police cars and vandalised cells where they were being detained. Graffiti scrawled on the walls referred to Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's former prime minister, who was shot dead in Tel Aviv in 1995 by an ultranationalist Jew who wanted to derail a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. "Rabin is waiting for Sharon," the protesters wrote. "Death to Arabs." A policewoman who required hospital treatment after the scuffles was shocked when one woman called her a "Nazi". Three protesters were later interviewed on Israeli television. "I would be happy if Sharon was dead," one 17-year-old said. Her 16-year-old companion smiled as she said: "But I would not waste my bullet on him."
The protests broke out after Mr Sharon's disengagement plan cleared one of its final hurdles last week. The Israeli parliament approved a compensation package for settlers who will be evacuated from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in the coming months. The cabinet is expected to give its seal of approval to the package at its weekly meeting today. In the atmosphere of growing intolerance, threats have been made to the lives of several cabinet ministers, and Mr Sharon has hired a security company to protect the grave of his late wife, Lily, after receiving threats that Right-wing vandals would dig up her body at his ranch in the Negev. Mrs Sharon died of lung cancer in March 2000. Brig Gen Ilan Paz, the head of the civil administration in the West Bank, also received a death threat from a far-Right activist.
Many mainstream settlers have been angered by the protesters, claiming that their actions are undermining their cause. The protesters, however, come from hard-core settler communities in towns such as Hebron, on the West Bank. Several have begun moving down to the Gaza settlements earmarked for evacuation, to prepare for an anticipated fight with the security forces. Meir Rotenstein, a resident of Neve Deqalim settlement, received threats after he agreed to take the compensation money and leave. He has seen many young settlers arrive in the area. "I have met some of these young men and women and they said they want to attack the security forces," he said. "They are real crazies. I hope they will not try to kill anyone, but it is possible." They are considered even by other settlers to be dangerously fanatical, and among the so called "hilltop youth" are American Jews who build outposts not approved by the Israeli Cabinet. While the majority of those involved are Israeli-born there is a sizeable minority from American Jewish families, who are often among the most uncompromising settlers. Many have moved within the past 20 years from large communities in the United States, such as one in Brooklyn. They live in areas with a reputation for zealotry, such as Kiryat Arba, in Hebron, and a chain of settlements near Nablus, the main Arab city in the northern West Bank. Religious settlers say that the Bible defines the south-western boundary of the land of Israel as the "river of Egypt" and therefore insist that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of Greater Israel and was included in God's divine promise to the Jewish People. Some also claim it has military signifiacnce as a buffer to Egypt.
Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service and the police were caught off guard by last week's demonstrations. The organisers managed to keep details of the protests secret by spreading word via mobile telephone text messages. While information about the organisation is sketchy, one of its driving forces is believed to be Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Right-winger linked to the outlawed, militantly anti-Arab Kach party. His 17-year-old wife, Ayala, was among those arrested. Last night Mr Ben-Gvir revealed that the protest group is several thousand strong and warned that there would be extreme violence if the Israeli settlements were evacuated. "It would be better if these women were doing something else but Sharon has left us with no choice but to fight back," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "Sharon has crossed a red line. We have to protest as this is the only language Sharon understands."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
02/20/2005
3:54:54 AM ||
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Right wing - extreme - American. No agenda here obviously.
#3
Bulldog the article blends reportage with agenda peddling. There is no advocacy of murder. To say you wish someone were dead is not the same as advocacy. I have have recently said I wish Castro would hurry up and die. I was certainly not advocating murder. Otherwise this is people being driven out of their homes to satisfy geopolitics. At best it leaves a bad taste.
#4
My daughter who lives in Israel has met some of these hilltop settlers.
A few of them are just naive, a few are groupies of charismatic leaders, a few are just mentally ill but some are basically sadistic thugs.
Israel would have arrested the thugs long ago but their civil rights laws are as difficult to navigate as ours, maybe more so since the groups, naivites, etc. don't testify against the thugs.
#5
Wack-job religous nuts need to be shut down if they have violent tendencies. The specific nature of their religion is immaterial. If civilized governments don't do this then they have no right to condemn other govt's who are slow to clean up messes in their tent.
EFL - RTWT
Europeans hate the way Americans talk. They think we're loud and uncouth and they don't like our jokes, except for
Michael Moore. Plus, they resent the fact that they've had to learn our language because if they didn't we wouldn't buy their stupid metric widgets or visit their overpriced ruins.
So when the president goes to Europe to give his speech to all the EU-niks in Brussels on Tuesday, it's important that he speak clearly — or at least clearfully. Because there are a few things he needs to say, and they can all be summed up in seven handy, easy-to-utter phrases:
1. Get a job. With their endless vacations and pint-sized workweeks, Europe can't produce enough of anything — including more Europeans — to save themselves from doom. So the French and Germans have only one realistic strategy when it comes to revitalizing their comatose economies: Wait for the U.S. economy to rise high enough to float their petits bateaux. Meanwhile, the EU's own reports have long shown the complete failure of the Lisbon strategy that was supposed to have the EU on a competitive par with the U.S. by 2010. Now, as noted in the EU Observer, the EU is failing to compete in technology and research, lagging behind not only the U.S., but also countries such as India *snip* RTWT
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005
3:49:15 PM ||
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Yup. Outstanding.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 16:36
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Phrase number eight: "Well met, True German Ally. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Give my best to Fred and the gang at Rantburg. Oh, and Laura asked me to see if you can swing by the ranch sometime in May."
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- United Nations refugee chief Boob Rubbers Ruud Lubbers told Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday that he was resigning because of a lack of confidence in him over sexual harassment charges.
Lubbers' letter of resignation as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees was sent to Annan on Sunday, a spokesman said. "The complaint of sexual harassment could not be substantiated," Lubbers wrote. Oh, really?
"For more than four years I gave all my energy to eating at the finest restaurants in the world UNHCR," he said. "Now in the middle of a series of problems and with ongoing media pressure you apparently view this differently." Looks more like a pattern to me.
After allegations first surfaced last year that Lubbers had made unwanted sexual advances toward a female employee, Annan said there were insufficient grounds to fire him. Gotta protect your own.
But on Friday, Annan consulted lawyers, clearly angered at the heat his inept organization is drawing resurgence of sexual harassment allegations following a newspaper report that included graphic details. In other words, Lubbers is dead to rights.
Lubbers maintained his innocence, and noted that Annan had closed the case last July after obtaining legal advice. "I wuz framed! I'm the victim here!"
"That bitch set me up!"
Indicating the secretary-general had decided it was time for him to go, Lubbers said, "To be frank, and despite all my loyalty, insult has now been added to injury and therefore I resign as high commissioner." See ya later, peckerwood. Can't wait for the lawsuits.
#2
Heh - nothing graphic I've seen in print. Fox said it was an American woman on his staff... he came up from behind, held her and ground his crotch into her hindquarters. That's the gist, anyway. Not very graphic, I agree. I can provide links to graphic stuff, but not UN-related - except for the NY Escort Services sites, heh.
Somebody had entirely too much time on his hands aftere this battle.
My last link doesn't show up in the title and it's short, so here it is in clear
http://24.26.33.179/RedSix/
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005
2:57:59 PM ||
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Awesome - killer production! Thx, Mrs D!
I have this funny feeling that this would (should) scare the living shit out of anyone who's stupid enough to wear a Kick Me sign. The wrong end of an M1A2? Right, yewbetcha... you can only make that mistake once. Next!
I have to admit, I like the connotations of Sparta that these pieces, getting a good close-up view of our military, invoke in me. Hell, I don't know why I said it that way. I am happy and proud to say that I like the... Yeah, that's closer to home. These people just rock.
#4
Or if they had the good sense to offer the DL without forcing a Bit Torrent client to get it.
I have it on an FTP, but I won't post it openly on RB. If anyone wants access without the Bit Torrent Bullshit, which did not DL any faster than a straight DL, BTW, we can prolly hook up via someone I trust who's willing to pass along the FTP login info. Post a request on this thread and we'll see if some middleman will handle it for me.
#5
If you don't know, some of these guys got to Germany today -- 20th.. RedSix6 did.
Also, if you haven't read all his writings about the Battle of Fallujah -- well, get a cold one, and settle back. These guys are incredible -- from the sleeping on their tanks the night before, to their finds of weapons.
#7
Bittorerent is SLOWER. it's supposed to be that way by spreading the load. There is no server except for the seed. I have downloaded my last 2 copies of Mandrake Linux that way (multi CD.) If you want to wait you can get them via FTP or HTML download that is weeks after the release to Mandrake Club members like. Bitorrent is a cheap way to distribue files by sharing bandwidth. It's not the faster or best.
I am a sponger anyway. I don't open any ports in my firewwall to allow anyone to get data from.
In an AP article today the President was attributed with this:
...But Bush says blacks would stand to benefit from his privatization plan because, on average, they die earlier than whites and would not have to wait until retirement to receive benefits...
Now when did he say that? Read the rest if you can stand it.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
02/20/2005
2:17:03 PM ||
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Washington- Safe for a decade, military bases in the United States face an uncertain future. The Pentagon plans to shut down or scale back some of the 425 facilities, the first such effort to save money in 10 years. The downsizing is part of Defense Seretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's long-term transformation of the Cold War- era military. The Pentagon chief argues that closing or consolidating stateside facilities could save 7 billion annually and that the money would be better spent improving fighting capabilities amid threats from terrorists.
Lousy idea. Really lousy idea. Think Pearl Harbor, with all those ships, and all those aircraft, neatly lined up...
Posted by: Andrea Biology Jackson ||
02/20/2005
2:00:20 PM ||
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I have to disagree strongly to that sentiment. A good number of the existing bases are simply placeholders in congresscritters' districts : make-work pseudo-welfare establishments with skeleton maintenance staffs and infrastructure worthy only of bulldozing. The larger bases in this country can handle the training of the needed troops for the WOT, the placeholder bases need to be shutdown - since a number of them are now in suburban zones and cannot be used for livefire training due to political/legal constraints.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 16:12
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Agree. BRAC is painful but necessary to control wasteful spending. It is also a good way for the Generals and Admirals to even things up with congresscritters who have screwed them in the past. That's why Pelosi, Lee, Woolsey et al no longer have any military bases in the SF Bay Area, except Onizuka AFB and the two ships left in reserve at Mare Island. All that should be moved too. Tell Lockheed to move it all out and put the offices on the market. Sobrato and Ariellaga can afford it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 16:24
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Provided they continue to roll out aircrat carriers, the "static" bases become obsolete anyway. I say go for it and sell off alot of the land, plus there's immense savings vs. having to man all those bases.
This is not, by the way, the same thing as Clinton and his wholesale dismantling of the military budgets and base closures. The Pentagon is finding more efficent ways to spend the existing funds, NOT cutting down our military strength.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/20/2005 16:52
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Live from my news desk in Vermont # 2 Barbara Skolaut and et al you are correct about "static"
bases, putting the tax doller to bettter usage.
However, Do they ever "weed" out position's in Congress and the other offices where these decision's are made?? I can see a Pearl Harbor situation happening. And YES, we will get hit again by terrorist- and I HOPE THE U.S. is fully
prepared with ample military.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 17:41
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The assumption is we know what we will need. BRAC is all good and fine till you discover the assumptions they base their actions upon don't hold up over time for all the grounds they close. Its easier to keep some installations open for future expansion than it is to fill all the &&^^^%*&## forms and reports and surveys to open a new facility later on. If you need to park materials enroute to a deployment site, either air or sea, a military compound near the deployment site may not be huge, but it'll get around all the local, state, and federal BS when it comes time to store stuff, the type the government neither confirms or denies, a night or two.
But, getting on for two years later, we're in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a "French bank"— but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais's holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN's banker for its Iraqi "humanitarian"? program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam's favourite oilman.
I'm not a conspiracy-minded guy, and, if I were, I'd look for a sinister global organization with a less obvious name. If "Power Corp." was the moniker given to the sinister front operation for the latest Bond villain, critics would bemoan how crass the 007 franchise had become. And a "Power Corp." that controlled the "Total Group" would have them hooting with derision. But it's nevertheless the case that M. Desmarais's bank functioned as the cashier for Saddam's gaming of the global-compassion crowd: if a company agreed to sell Iraq some children's medicine for $100 million, Iraq would invoice BNP Paribas for $110 million, pay the supplier and divert the skim-off into other areas. Everyone knew this was happening. It seems impossible, even with the minimal auditing, that BNP Paribas did not.
So here is a Canadian "making a difference in the world." Suppose Conrad Black controlled a bank that had enriched a brutal dictator with a fortune intended to go to starving children, and that he also had an oil company that had cooked up an arrangement to make billions from the same dictator's oil resources. Think Maude Barlow and the CBC might show an interest? But Paul Desmarais's no-publicity clause is apparently enshrined in the Charter of Rights. So on it goes. Only the other week, M. Desmarais was hosting at his home in Quebec Nicholas Sarkozy, very likely the next president of France. Even after they'd become heads of government, neither Bush nor Blair could be bothered swinging by Ottawa to look in on Chretien; not for years. But an invitation from M. Desmarais, and France's coming man can't wait to hop on the plane.
M. Desmarais's spectacular rise from an obscure Quebec bus company operator to an obscure global colossus is an amazing story. Instead of struggling to find a local angle on the international scene, why doesn't the CBC just start from the basic premise that whatever the subject--Iraq, oil-for-food, the European Union--somewhere at the heart of it will be the world's least famous Canadian.
Instead, not a whisper. The good news is it's not because Robert Rabinovitch, president of the CBC, is another discreet Power Corp. alumnus. He's not. Rabinovitch's close buddy, John Rae, who ran Chretien's campaigns, is. And so's Rabinovitch's old colleague Joel Bell, who was Trudeau's chief economic adviser. And so's Rabinovitch's old boss, Senator Michael Pitfield. And so's . . .
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005
1:36:55 PM ||
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#1
I live quite close to Canada (I'm driving up to Ottawa today to spend a couple of days skating on the Canal with the family) and you cannot believe how little Canadians are aware of this situation with the Desmarais/Chretian/Martin stuff.
The boorish ones (usually students) can go on ad nauseum about Bush/Rummy/Wolfowitz but ask them about Demarais ? *crickets chirping*
I love Canada and Canadians but sometimes it's like they're under some sort of North Korean-style news blackout.
Hugo Chavez's Threat to U.S. Security and Regional Stability Take a look at the comments posted on this article for a good example of USEFUL IDIOTS operating to destroy this country.
By Frederick Stakelbeck, Jr. Although their actions have slipped largely under the radar screen due to America's continuing duties in the War on Terror and in Iraq, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his minions have initiated an aggressively anti-American campaign in recent months that poses a direct threat to the security of the United States.
In late January, Venezuelan General Melvin Lopez Hidalgo, Secretary of the country's National Defense Council, and Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez both commented on perceived "hostile expressions" and "plans for a U.S. attack" on Venezuela. U.S. officials have responded by denying any suggestion of an overthrow of the Chavez government. However, given the frequency and nature of the anti-American comments coming out of Caracas, should the Bush Administration be concerned?
The answer is a resounding yes. The Chavez presidency poses a substantial national security threat to U.S. interests, Latin America and the Venezuelan people. During his often tumultuous tenure as president, Chavez has systematically eroded many of the freedoms gained with the overthrow of Venezuela's last dictator, General Marcos Perez Jimenez. He has authorized an end to the privatization of state holdings, augmented his presidential powers, weakened the judiciary and legislature, cut oil production to raise prices, and expanded the governing role of the military.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Use great caution when reading news articles from and about Venezuela. There are very limited news service resources in country that provide info for the US, in past as little as a single AP correspondent who was adamantly opposed to Chavez and willing to distort the news or even fabricate news items. Their national papers are also controlled by the opposition, so often are terribly biased. Last but not least, for many years now the Republicans have had a blind spot in central and South America in their otherwise brilliant foreign policy. This is a cabal of about half a dozen individuals whose ideology would be comfortable with the likes of Pinochet, Somoza, and Diaz. They, more than anything else, have driven Chavez away from the US by openly supporting his opposition; by openly sponsoring at least four crude and buffoonish attempts to violently overthrow his government; and by trying to scare the hell out of him with rhetoric, rather than by dealing with him rationally. Hell, if they had treated Arnold that way, he would be trying to make friends with Castro. I met a "second-tier" member of this aforementioned cabal and was appalled at the man, a US Ambassador, who was clearly clinically insane (paranoid). Now, I don't mind if there are true believers in government, but I object if they want to steer the US away from our best national interest because voices in their head tell them to. Six kooks should not be able to screw up foreign policy for an entire continent.
#2
As a Venezuelan whose entire family is living there, I can tell you that the article is not exaggerating.
Moreover, US policy toward Chavez did not drive him away. Please read how this asshole rose to power and what his intentions were from the beginning.
By your logic, if Nixon (then Vice-president) who have been more helpful when he met Fidel, the latter would not be the tyrant he is today, right?
Would you give the name of the terrible biased AP reporter? I would really, really want to know. Thanks!
I assume that you read Spanish fluently to be bold enough to make the following statement: "Their national papers are also controlled by the opposition, so often are terribly biased." Have you read the Government owned newspapers, Venpress for example?
"Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in December of 1998. Almost immediately, he took his first steps towards consolidating all of the power of the Venezuelan state into his own hands. He organized a series of referenda. The first authorized re-writing the Venezuelan constitution. The second selected delegates to a Constitutional Assembly, distinct from his country's legislature, to do the re-writing. The rules governing the election of the Constitutional Assembly featured a few non-standard items. Although no candidates -- neither Chavez's supporters nor his opposition -- were allowed to run under party banners, Chavez used state funded media to campaign for the election of his supporters. This, combined with Chavez's personal popularity, allowed Chavez supporters to win 120 of the 131 assembly seats.
The Constitutional Assembly, with the backing of Chavez, moved beyond re-writing Venezuela's Constitution. In August of 1999, the assembly set up a "judicial emergency committee" with the power to remove judges without consulting any other branch of government. The New York Times quoted the judicial emergency committee chairman as saying, "The Constitutional Assembly has absolute powers. The objective is that the substitution of judges will take place peacefully, but if the courts refuse to acknowledge the assembly's authority, we will proceed in a different fashion."
In the same month, the assembly declared a "legislative emergency." A seven-member committee was created to perform congressional functions, including law-making. The Constitutional Assembly prohibited the Congress from holding meetings of any sort. In a national radio address quoted in the Times, Chavez warned Venezuelans not to obey opposition officials, stating that "we can intervene in any police force in any municipality, because we are not going to permit any tumult or uproar. Order has arrived in Venezuela."
The new constitution -- increasing the President's term of office by one year, increasing the power of the president in general, and placing new government restrictions on the media, among other things -- was approved in a referendum held in December of 1999. Elections for the new, unicameral legislature were held in July of 2000. During the same election, Chavez stood for election again -- restarting the clock on his Presidential term of office. Though Chavez supporters won about 60% of the seats in the new unicameral assembly, Chavez still did not feel that he had enough power. In November of 2000, he pushed a bill through the legislature allowing him to rule by decree for one year.
In December of 2000 there was another set of elections. During elections for local officials, Chavez added a referendum on dissolving Venezuela's labor unions. Though it is unclear what authority was invoked, he attempted to consolidate all Venezuelan labor unions into a single, state controlled "Bolivaran Labor Force."
I like this analogy:
"Put this sequence of events into perspective. Imagine, after winning the October 2003 election for Governor of California, Governor Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger called a second election for a constitutional convention to replace the state constitution with a new document increasing the power of the governor, then called a third election to replace existing California legislature with a new unicameral legislature, then called a fourth election to grant himself another full term of office, then called a fifth election to oust the labor union leadership in California, all within the space of two years. Would these be considered legitimate democratic practices because they involved elections?"
http://www.techcentralstation.com/041304B.html
#5
TMH, that analogy looks pretty attractive to a lot of Caliphornians because the legislature runs the state in a fashion Chavez of which would approve. And Ahnuld is increasing the power of the Governor relatively, by taking the power for redistricting out of the hands of the legislature. I believe he has also cut the power of the plaintiffs bar, which supports the Democrat party in Caliphornia.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 14:23
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Mrs, Davis,
Are you saying that Californians want the Governor to have absolute power through a General Assembly packed with his supporters?
#7
If it gets the Democrats, the prison guards' union, the teachers' union, the trial attorneys and Hollywood stars out of power, they might find it worth considering. That is why poor Governor Davis was thrown out of office. Or was it the energy crisis? Or the car tax? or the Air Resources Board Or...
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 14:43
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#8
TMH,
I am being somewhat humorous, but Caliphornia did have a lot of one party rule problems that did lead to Arnold coming to power, and right about now, he can do just about whatever he wants as far as I can tell.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 14:45
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#9
Anonymoose: There are very limited news service resources in country that provide info for the US, in past as little as a single AP correspondent who was adamantly opposed to Chavez and willing to distort the news or even fabricate news items. Their national papers are also controlled by the opposition, so often are terribly biased. Last but not least, for many years now the Republicans have had a blind spot in central and South America in their otherwise brilliant foreign policy. This is a cabal of about half a dozen individuals whose ideology would be comfortable with the likes of Pinochet, Somoza, and Diaz.
Actually, Pinochet, Somoza and Batista were pretty nice guys compared to the opposition. All you have to do is compare the body counts. (Note that Allende expropriated private industry and the press. What would they call GWB if he did that?) One of the things you have to remember is that our guys weren't perfect, but they really weren't our guys in the sense of being our hand puppets. We had *some* leverage, but they got to power the old-fashioned way by bribing and killing off the opposition. Despite the fantasies of left-wing white supremacists who think that black, brown and yellow Third World leaders are all controlled by white Yankees pulling the strings, Uncle Sam is just one player out of many - after all, these leaders have the resources of entire nations at their fingertips. Latin American strongmen could just as easily have sided with the Soviets, just as Saddam and Assad did, providing bases for further subversion throughout Latin America.
#10
ZF: Latin American strongmen could just as easily have sided with the Soviets, just as Saddam and Assad did, providing bases for further subversion throughout Latin America.
Note that Iraq and Syria used to be Soviet client states, and they were really Nazi-style fascist autocracies, rather than communist countries ruled by committee. If the Soviets could do business with Arab fascists, you can bet they could do business with Latin American strongmen, whatever their ideology. All that jockeying around during the Cold War was in order to get a better position on the strategic chessboard. In planning for potential war, geography and natural resources matter - one does not win by drinking from the cup of moral vanity alone.
#11
It must be recognized that neither the right or the left in Latin America are anything like they are in the US. Both are extremes historically populated with brutalitarians, and we should refuse to accept the notion of "a lesser of two evils". I refuse to choose Somoza over the Sandinistas: both are reprehensible, as were Diaz and Poncho Villa. And this is where our problem lies in the regional foreign policy. From the very beginning, Chavez should have been constructively engaged. Positively and negatively US foreign policy should have surrounded him up to his ears. But instead, they ignored him, and tried to wish him away by embracing his enemies. We don't much care for Putin, either, but we don't ignore him and cotton up to his rivals--that would be stupid. But in the case of Chavez, we have *neither* confronted him to his face, *nor* have we tried to get on his good side. I do not embrace Chavez, but I do suggest that trying to make a silk purse out of the sows' ears that are his opponents is a waste of time. For further, and one-sided, information about how the whole situation has been bungled up: http://tinyurl.com/5jzur
"From the very beginning, Chavez should have been constructively engaged.."
Can you please elaborate on how does one constructively engage a man that from 1992 (year he staged his coup against presidente Carlos Andres Peres) has had in mind to establish a "democracy" a la Castro?
#13
Anonymoose: I refuse to choose Somoza over the Sandinistas: both are reprehensible, as were Diaz and Poncho Villa.
We don't choose them. They choose themselves. Much as you'd like to think a great white Yankee hand put this guy in place, the reality is that he emerged out of a handful of men with large numbers of troops willing to follow him. Like every other Latin American strongman, Chavez has had a bee in his bonnet from the beginning. He's not our guy - he's his guy. He cooperates with us when he feels like it, or not when he chooses not to. Note that Noriega was supposed to be our lapdog, but it took an invasion to oust him. I think people need to rid themselves of the notion that these guys are our guys - if we decided not to have diplomatic relations with folks like this, 5/6 of the UN would be off-limits. They rise or fall on the basis of their efforts, not because of Uncle Sam.
#14
Good debate here. I think Anon. is wrong, Chavez should be isolated, not engaged, depending on how pro-Commie and pro-Terrorist he wants to be. Note: Short of open/direct support for Jihad, I do not think he should be overthrown.
I think Anon. does have a point or 2 about avoiding repeating the blunders of the past. Conservatives in the US and in Latin America have blown chances to improve things over the past decade (Peru's Fujimori was the ultimate missed opportunity for wasting all that he had achieved when he overreached and clouded all his successes - fighting terrorism and economic development, etc. - in disgrace). The Venezuelan opposition still needs to appeal more to the poor and peel off a significant chunk of Chavez's base of support. The failed military coup was a grade A disaster. L. America must kick the coup d'etat habit and embrace democracy and rule of law, even when the bad guys win.
My Peruvian friends are so militantly pro-Fujimori that they would acccept him as President-for-Life. They can't understand that this willingness to sacrifice the democratic ideal to ideological gain is their achilles heel. You need a strong robust system that can withstand the vagarities of a bad administration. The U.S. is strong because we can survive someone like Jimmy Carter.
No matter how strong and just the opposition to Chavez is, I still see no indication that they have a majority - yet. Time to learn from mistakes and play your cards right. Chavez now has the winning hand and so we'll have to wait a while and rebuild our own hand while he overplays his. Trying to kick over the table just acknowledges that you're a loser.
In the long run, I think the U.S. has the strong hand and Chavez can only lose by trying to challenge us. With time, that will become clear.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
02/20/2005 23:07
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Some of the money stolen in December during a Northern Ireland bank heist worth $50 million was found in the restrooms of a Belfast country club run by police, Northern Ireland authorities said Saturday. Police said currency worth $95,000 was abandoned Friday in five packages and discovered after an anonymous tipster called the police-complaints authority in the British territory. In a statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said they suspected that whoever planted the money in the New Forge country club did so "in an effort to distract the police from investigating the Northern Bank robbery." A detective in Belfast, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the money was unlikely to produce any leads in the hunt for the alleged Irish Republican Army gang responsible for the Dec. 20 heist - the biggest cash heist in history.
In the neighboring Republic of Ireland, more than 100 detectives spent a third day scouring piles of cash, financial records and computers seized in raids nationwide against suspected IRA money launderers. The swoops netted about $4.75 million in cash, most of which was found in the County Cork home of private banker Ted Cunningham. He walked free from a Cork police station Saturday after two days' interrogation, but police said they were preparing a file of evidence against him to send to state prosecutors, a process that could take weeks. A Republic of Ireland detective involved in the raids told the AP on condition of anonymity that police were close to confirming that at least one consignment of cash seized Wednesday night came from the raid on the Northern Bank.
Most of the cash worth $115,000 that was found in a house in the Douglas suburb of Cork City consisted of newly printed British bank notes bearing the Northern Bank's own design. They appeared to bear serial numbers matching those of stolen notes, he said. Such a confirmation would be the first public breakthrough for police since a well-organized gang took the families of two key Northern Bank employees hostage and forced them to clear out the bank's central vault. Since then, money-laundering authorities across Europe have been keeping an eye out for any large transactions involving British currency, particularly any bearing Northern Bank designs. About two-thirds of the money stolen was new Northern Bank notes.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:47:33 AM ||
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Officials at the highest levels in Syria and Lebanon organized the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper a-Siasa. The report revealed that two high-ranking Syrian generals — including Syrian president Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Asef Shawkat, whom he appointed Friday to head military intelligence — and a Lebanese general. The newspaper did not reveal the sources of the report.
My guess would be the rumor mill, but we'll see how it plays out...
The Lebanese and Syrian governments have denied any role in the death of Hariri, who was killed by a massive bomb as he was driven in his motorcade through central Beirut. The blast killed 16 other people and wounded more than 100. The murder of Hariri, a politician who was seen as a key figure in applying international pressures to effect Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, was evidently intended as a bloody warning to the Lebanese to think twice before demanding that Syrian troops pull out, the report commented.
That seems to have worked well...
Over the weekend Lebanese opposition stepped up its campaign against the country's pro-Syrian government Friday, calling for a "peaceful intifada" to force the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami and the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon. Since Hariri's murder, the anti-Syrian Lebanese opposition has blamed the government and its Syrian backers for the assassination. Friday the opposition issued a statement calling on people to stage a peaceful "independence uprising" against the government.
Maybe the warning was too subtle? Do you think they missed the point? Or did the Syrians miss a point?
In its statement, the opposition said the government should resign and a transitional Cabinet should be formed "to protect the people, and to ensure an immediate and full withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon as a prelude for free and fair elections." Parliamentary elections are due to be held in April and May. The statement - which was read out by Samir Franjieh, a second cousin of the interior minister - also urged Lebanese to continue to gather daily at Hariri's grave in Martyrs' Square in Beirut, to light candles and say prayers.
Another Orange Revolution? I said it was too early for the one in Ukraine. Maybe I'm wrong on this one, too...
Shortly after the rebellious declaration, about 1,000 opposition supporters staged an anti-Syria rally in front of parliament, a few blocks from Hariri's grave. They carried placards reading "Syrians out now" and chanted anti-Syrian slogans. Security forces watched but did not interfere, and the protesters dispersed peacefully. Expressing their mourning and deference to Hariri, thousands of people signed a 30 meter (90 ft.) banner with the word "Resign," written in French and Arabic, addressed to the government. The banner was unfurled at Hariri's grave, situated outside of a Beirut mosque that he had built. Responding to the protests which have steadily grown in fervor over the past few days, Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh warned the government would not tolerate any public disturbances. "The state will not stand idly by," he warned.
"It's our power, and you can't have it!"
Meanwhile, in the first cabinet fallout from Monday's assassination, Tourism Minister Farid Khazen resigned Friday, saying the government was not capable of running the country at this crucial stage. The departure of a minister close to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud caused surprise, but was not expected to cause the government to collapse. Prime Minister Karami quickly appointed a new tourism minister, Wadih Khazen, who is not related to his predecessor. "Any minister who resigns will be promptly replaced," Karami said, signaling the government's determination to stay in office.
"We got lots more where he came from!"
Hariri's family, as well as France and the United States, have called for an international enquiry into his killing. Karami's government has rejected these calls, but it has commissioned foreign experts, such as Swiss forensic scientists, to assist its investigation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:45:14 AM ||
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On the eve of his first foreign trip since reelection, President Bush said yesterday he would seek to persuade European allies to form a unified front against Syria and Iran, countries that Bush considers dangerous regimes that have relentlessly frustrated US efforts in Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
''Mine is a mission and a trip that says, we share values," Bush told Slovak State Television yesterday as he prepared for departure tomorrow. ''It's those values that should unite our voices when it comes to spreading those values in parts of the world that are troubled parts of the world," he said, going on to mention Iran and Syria.
He declined to rule out a military option against Iran, but said, ''I believe diplomacy can work, so long as the Iranians don't divide Europe and the United States."
US officials hope to persuade European countries to use the threat of economic sanctions and political isolation to pressure Iran and Syria to undertake reforms, and also seek to toughen the European stance against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, an anti-Israeli group that Iran and Syria support.
The US push is occurring after Syria and Iran reiterated their longstanding alliance against the United States in a statement this week and as US officials said they found fresh evidence that Iran is bent on building a nuclear bomb. In addition, the United States accuses Syria and Iran of allowing insurgents free movement across the countries' borders into Iraq.
Developing a shared strategy with Europe for confronting Syria and Iran is a key item on Bush's agenda next week as he meets with the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, and Russia.
The United States already has imposed limits on trade and assistance to Syria and Iran, under the Syrian Accountability Act and laws against funding state sponsors of terrorism. US officials are considering cutting off banking ties with Syria under the USA Patriot Act or an executive order. But most of Europe continues to trade freely with Syria and Iran, accounting for about half of all imports into both countries.
Russia provides arms to Syria and helped build Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. Yesterday, President Vladimir Putin of Russia pledged further nuclear cooperation with Iran.
''No effort to impose sanctions or politically isolate the two regimes would work without the cooperation of Europe," a State Department official said. ''It's obviously going to be an effort to get everyone working from the same page."
A separate US official who closely follows the Middle East said that while in Europe, Bush would talk about ''the fact that a sanctions regime that only includes the US still gives these countries the access to the kinds of material or money that lets them continue their negative behavior."
In the case of Iran, the United States has been focusing on possible punishments and has been sending unmanned drones and conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside the country to find targets for a possible commando raid on its facilities, according to published reports.
By contrast, France, Germany, and Britain have focused on offering Iran economic inducements to coax concessions from Tehran. Europeans have said they want Bush to support Iran's entry into the World Trade Organization if Iran verifiably renounces its nuclear program. They also want Bush to consider offering Iran a security guarantee and assurances that the United States is not pursuing a policy of regime change, according to two Western diplomats.
Joining the WTO would give Iran new legitimacy and greater access to world markets.
''Iran is very much interested to be part of the WTO," said a European diplomat in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''If the US opposes Iran to be a member of the WTO, we can promise Iran a lot of things, but it won't work."
France's foreign minister, Michel Barnier, told the French Senate yesterday that Bush administration officials said they would consider signing on to the WTO offer. But the US official who closely follows the Middle East said yesterday that the administration's policy against such a move has not changed.
''Our position has been that economic incentives for a country like Iran that is a state sponsor of terrorism and a country that has meddled in Afghanistan and Iraq and is dedicated to opposing the Middle East peace process . . . are not appropriate," he said. ''The Europeans have tried to do this as the 'light at the end of the tunnel' process. . . . We've not been a believer in that."
But, he said, Washington might show more flexibility on the issue if European negotiators promised to enact their own sanctions if negotiations with Iran fall through.
There seems to be far more agreement between the United States and European nations on how to approach Syria, which came under the microscope this week after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister. Along with a host of European leaders, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for an international investigation to determine whether Syria, which has occupied Lebanon since 1976, was responsible for the attack.
Syria's Ba'athist regime has long angered the Bush administration by allegedly providing safe haven for Saddam Hussein loyalists and supporting Hezbollah. In September, US and French officials cooperated for the first time since the divisive Iraq war, on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the removal of all foreign troops from Lebanon.
In a separate move that would hit both Iran and Syria, the Bush administration is seeking to persuade European countries to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group as Washington does. Hezbollah periodically launches attacks on Israel but also provides social services to a large swath of Lebanon.
Syria is not a member of the WTO, but the issue of its membership has not been raised by European leaders.
Bush and Rice stepped up their rhetoric this week, calling Iran and Syria ''out of step" with democratic developments in the Middle East. In his State of the Union address, Bush said that if Iranians challenged their leadership, Washington would support them.
But some say such tough talk makes Syria and Iran more belligerent because it convinces them the United States will accept nothing less than their downfall.
''Sometimes we can create self-fulfilling prophecies by the way in which we deal with authoritarian regimes," said Theodore H. Kattouf, US ambassador to Syria from 2001 to 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:38:30 AM ||
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#1
In title, You mean "...will TRY TO enlist...."
Not even an Islamo-Nazi nuke booming in Paris or Berlin will convince the Euros to go after anyone - they are weak, weak, weak.
Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced a resolution yesterday calling on President Bush to work to suspend Russia's membership in the G-8 group of leading industrial democracies until Russian President Vladimir Putin proves his commitment to democracy. "President Putin's assault on democracy in Russia violates the spirit of the industrialized democracies and the letter of Russia's obligations to the Group of Eight," said Mr. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat. "We must openly confront anti-democratic backsliding in Russia for the sake of all those who look to the United States as a beacon of freedom."
The move came only days before the president is to meet with Mr. Putin in Slovakia on Thursday and just as Mr. Putin alarmed the international world yesterday by saying he now believes Iran does not aspire to develop nuclear weapons.
Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman, a prolific and potent legislative pair, introduced a similar resolution in 2003, and California Reps. Tom Lantos, a Democrat, and Christopher Cox, a Republican, introduced a companion resolution in the House. Yesterday Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, said that "since then, Russia has actually moved backward. Mr. Putin has moved to eliminate the popular election of Russia's 89 regional governors, has cracked down on independent media, continued his repression of business executives who oppose his government and is reasserting the Kremlin's old-style central control. The coup is no longer creeping — it is galloping."
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:36:36 AM ||
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#1
The ghost of Woodrow Wilson returns.
In isolation, I would support this, but I fear that we may have too many enemies. It's one thing to deal with a Russia that sometimes helps us and sometimes works behind our back. It another to deal with a Russia that, like the USSR, backs its client states with its full military might, up to and including nukes.
Now, if we're not getting any benefit, then there is less reason to go along to get along. Still, though, unlike Iran or Syria, I'm worried that Russia could be much more effectively anti-US in its policy.
Police and military across Northern Ireland have been put on high alert against a terrorist attack as the peace process plunged deeper into crisis over the widening investigation into IRA money laundering and robberies and the involvement of Sinn Fein.
As Irish police recovered millions of pounds of bank notes from the pre-Christmas raid on Northern Bank - Europe's biggest bank robbery - The Observer has learnt that the most serious security warning since the breakdown of the 1996 ceasefire has been issued to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
'Every serving officer has been told to take their weapons everywhere they go, even off duty,' a senior detective said. The warnings come just one week after the Army put troops on stand-by for a booby trap attack.
It is unclear if any attacks would constitute a breach of the Provisional IRA ceasefire or instead come from one of the two main republican dissident groups. Detectives claim that in parts of Northern Ireland, such as North Antrim and South Derry, there has been an 'overlapping relationship'.
While police will not comment publicly about the fresh security alert, senior detectives expressed concern that the attack could involve a large explosion in the north.
Sinn Fein has reacted angrily to reports that the Garda has uncovered an IRA money-laundering scam that involved cash from December's Northern Bank robbery. On his return from a book tour in Spain yesterday, party president Gerry Adams predicted that Sinn Fein would 'weather this storm'.
Adams said he would never allow himself to be tainted with criminality. 'What's happening is quite disgraceful and an attempt to destroy Sinn Fein and it won't work,' he added.
The West Belfast MP also denied suggestions that there were serious divisions within mainstream republicanism.
Irish Labour leader Pat Rabbitte agreed the republican movement remained cohesive and united, but urged voters across Ireland to reassess the opinions and motives of the leadership.
'Are they planning to contest the democratic space on an equal basis as the rest of us, or do they have an ideology that means an overthrow of this state and an overthrow of the northern state that will lead to a Sinn Fein government on both parts of the island?' he asked.
The Garda's investigation into an alleged IRA money-laundering scam had been going on for almost three weeks before the raids and is expected to last for at least three months. A detective said yesterday that the breakthrough came with the discovery of Northern Bank notes being burned on a bonfire at a garden in Passage West, Cork. He said police were now 'very confident' that they could link a quantity of the estimated £3 million seized at several locations in the Irish Republic to cash taken from the Northern Bank raid.
'The burning of the bank notes was a significant breakthrough because they belonged to the Northern Bank,' an officer from the PSNI monitoring the Garda operation told The Observer.
Among the lines of inquiry the Garda and the Republic's Criminal Assets Bureau are focusing on is the channelling of 'dirty money' out of Ireland and into Libya and Bulgaria.
'We are talking about holding companies, and in Bulgaria's case the purchase of vast amounts of property. The money we think that's out there is not tens of millions but hundreds of millions,' one Gardai said.
All but one of the eight people arrested in Cork and Dublin have been freed. It could take six months before files are sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Don Bullman, a chef in his thirties, was described in court as a dissident, but it has since emerged that he sold tickets to Sinn Fein functions in 1999.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:32:41 AM ||
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For the latest in bigoted libelous claims from the Brit-dhimmi whorehouse media, check out this absurd Goebbelism from Al-Mirror, noted friend of terrorist swine everywhere:
Dubya bars Camilla from White House ..because she is a divorcee
By Paul Gilfeather Political Editor Gilfeather is a top pig-demon of the Hate-America bigot media, a mouth-breather's Fisk or Pilger. GEORGE Bush has banned Camilla Parker Bowles from the White House - because she is a divorcee.
That would imply he's banned 97.2 percent of the population of Washington, D.C., from the White House as well.
The unprecedented snub has effectively sabotaged Charles's plan to take his bride on a Royal tour of America later this year. The trip would have been the pair's first official tour as a married couple. But the US President - a notoriously right-wing Christian and reformed alcoholic - told aides it was "inappropriate" for him to be playing host to the newly-weds, who are both divorcees. Dubya is in fact a member of the United Methodist Church, which has no policy of discrimination against divorced persons even in ecclesiastical positions.
Well, in that case he must have banned them because he's a reformed alcoholic...
The decision was made even though the late President Ronald Reagan was divorced. BULLSHIT! Not only was Reagan divorced, so is Rudy Giuliani, who has stayed at the White House several times with his new wife even after the very public and messy divorce that preceded their marriage. Karl Rove, regarded in Al-Mirror circles as the mastermind of the Bush/Halliburton/Zionist conspiracy for world domination, is also divorced, as are hundreds of other WH officials and employees.
A Government insider said: "It was relayed to us from Washington that Mrs Parker Bowles would not be welcome at the White House. "The Americans are aware that the visit will be subject to a lot of media attent ion and did not want the President drawn into what they view to be a public relations exercise. It's now uncertain if the visit will even go ahead."
Yasss... Think of the protocol problems. Does one arrange for the prince and his paramour to share the same bed when staying over at the White House? What if they ask for a trapeze? Or Jolly Green Giant creamed corn? Viagra? Or are separate rooms in order? Better to wait until he's made an honest woman of her, I say...
Insiders point out that hosting a lavish Royal dinner for Charles and Camilla would be bad PR for President Bush because while Princess Diana is still much loved by many Americans, her ex-husband is seen and dull and aloof - and both he and Camilla are widely blamed for the break-up of his marriage. Possibly because he is and she was, but who cares anyway?
Al-Mirror is making the assumption Americans give a phart. Quick, American readers: who was entertained in the White House last week?
The trip, which has been planned for three years, was being portrayed as a "trade mission" and Charles and Camilla were expected to dine with Mr Bush and his wife Laura at the White House.
Oh, I doubt if Bush wants to trade. He seems very happy with Laura.
Mr Bush's shock decision is the latest in a sting of crises to hit the couple. Charles was forced to abandon plans for a Windsor Castle wedding on April 8 after he discovered the Royal Family would have to let other couples get married there too.
"'Ere, Ducks! We been shackin' up for 12 years now! Wot say we pop on down to Windsor Castle an' make it official?"
"Oh, Nigel!... Shut up, you kids!... Will I get to meet the Queen?"
The blunder saw the couple hastily switch the venue to the register office at Windsor Guildhall, sending the Queen into a rage. She summoned Charles to Buckingham Palace and torpedoed his plans for a swanky reception at Windsor Castle.
"Looky here, Sonny! I ain't dead yet! Reserve the Legion hall, dammit!"
Charles's trip to the US would have been his first State visit to America since Princess Diana's death seven years ago. The prince wants to win acceptance for Camilla and believed the US public might have taken her to their hearts if the visit was planned properly. The source said: "The potential fall-out from this decision could be massive." I think the President should have a double size banner copy made of this headline so he can wave it at the cameras when Chuck and Camilla appear together at the White House.
#1
If he chooses to move, Gilfeather has a promising future with Jihad Unspun. Anyone who can make up stories like this out of whole cloth is bound to fit in with the story inventors at J. U.
Posted by: Mums the woid ||
02/20/2005 13:19
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#4
I don't understand the part of being alcoholic?
Banned because you have a disease?? I think Betty Ford was allowed to LIVE in the White House
with her disease!. Diana said in an interview "There was NOT room for three in this marriage". Personally, I have NO respect for Camilla and Prince Charles- I label him a pompus,
arrogant, bastard. The true victim was Diana in all of that mess. I am sure Diana would turn over in her grave!!
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Drop DEAD ||
02/20/2005 13:30
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#5
I am afraid the best Prince Chuckles can hope for in the USA is a resounding 'I'd hit it!' from the 50 and older crowd like me.
#10
"I don't understand the part of being alcoholic?
Banned because you have a disease?? I think Betty Ford was allowed to LIVE in the White House"
Err, no. It's Bush who is supposedly the reformed alcoholic here. I had rebutted Al-Mirror's attempt to connect the ban with the President's religion, thus leaving the sarcastic alternative that Bush banned them because he, Bush, is a reformed alcoholic ie reduced the claim to nonsense.
#12
OKay- out the door on my way to Vermont!
I thought that is what you meant*** I would advise Camilla to put a bag over her head!
beauty is ONLY skin deep but, UGLY is right to the bone!
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 14:28
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#13
# 9 Badanov- Something was "right" look at Prince William and Harry? Diana did not conceive by sitting on a toilet!
ANdrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 14:31
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#14
Anybody find this repeated in any other news sources? I think it's a lot of BS.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/20/2005 14:33
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#15
When the priest asks " DOES ANYONE OBJECT TO THIS MARRIAGE" I wish I could be there!!***
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea drop dead Jackson ||
02/20/2005 14:49
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#16
Damn those Reformed Alcoholics. The Bishop is sooo sanctimonious.
Posted by: King Henry ||
02/20/2005 14:58
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#18
I am sick of seeing that horseface (apology to horses).
Good Sunday reading from a Japanese-Jewish woman from NYC, who wants us to treat Islam like Nazism:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316886/posts
On Nazis and Muslimutts: "...There are two major differences between them: one is that Islam is much older, the other is that while Nazis saluted their idol by raising their arms, Muslims do it by raising their behinds." You go girl!
#21
Fortunately, nobody cares about Charles's antics except the Guardian, the Royal Court, and his mother. Certainly nobody on this side of the pond, Andrea clearly excepted. However, I imagine Vermont will make up for her distress ;-)
Police are closing in on two of the three suspects in the Valentine's Day bombing in Makati City that killed four people and wounded 103 others.
The Philippine National Police chief, Director General Edgar B. Aglipay, said after a meeting Saturday with the Southern Police District director, Chief Supt. Wilfredo Garcia, in Camp Crame that the arrest of the suspects is imminent.
Aglipay said the PNP knows the suspects' identities and whereabouts. He would not give further details, for fear of compromising the manhunt.
"We have to get more evidence and look deeper into the incident. We want to make sure we are arresting the right people," he said in an interview.
Information on the suspects was provided by a man who turned himself in after his conscience troubled him.
Earlier, the Metro Manila police chief, Director Avelino I. Razon Jr., said the witness, who was identified only as Francisco, is very credible and knew about past operations of the group that carried out the attack.
Razon would not give details on the three suspects except to say that they "are not foreigners."
The Department of National Defense declined comment on speculations that the bomb used in the Makati bombing might have come from the military.
Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz asked for patience, saying it is better for everybody to wait for the result of the police investigation instead of indulging in wild guesses.
"We should not speculate. Let us give the police more leeway to gather enough evidence and complete their investigation," Cruz told reporters.
He said the Armed Forces has no plans to do an inventory on its supplies and will wait for the results of the police investigation.
Traces of TNT and the plastic explosive C-4 were found at the scene of the bombing near the intersection of Ayala Avenue and EDSA.
Cruz said the explosives, like TNT, could come from many sources, not only the military, and that if investigators can find the serial number of the bomb used in Makati it can easily be traced from its source.
He said action would be taken if the results of the investigation showed that the bomb or its components came from the military.
Garcia had linked the Makati bombing to the discovery of bomb components in Parañaque City, 10 hours before the blast.
He said four dynamite sticks, C-4 and blasting caps were found Monday morning in front of Triumph Co., on East Service Road in Barangay Martin de Porres.
The explosives were in a plastic bag left by two men on a motorcycle.
"The explosives in Parañaque were intended for another bombing, but we were able to prevent it. Had the suspects managed to detonate the explosives, it would have caused a much bigger blast than that in Makati," Garcia said.
The three bombings have been claimed by the Abu Sayyaf, an armed Muslim militant group engaged in bombings and kidnappings in Mindanao. It is on the US State Department's blacklist of "foreign terrorist organizations."
The group firebombed a passenger ferry on Manila Bay nearly a year ago, killing more than 100 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in the country.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesman earlier said the Valentine's Day bombings were to avenge an offensive against Muslim rebels in Jolo.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:25:04 AM ||
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Monday's terrorist attacks in Makati, Davao and General Santos cities have thrust the Jemaah Islamiah into the limelight again.
The country's security authorities strongly suspect that the near-simultaneous bombings were orchestrated by the JI, using its links with such terrorist groups as the Abu Sayyaf and Balik Islam.
As an integral part of the al-Qaeda network in Southeast Asia, the Jemaah Islamiah is believed to be trying to bring other rebel groups in Mindanao under its sphere of influence.
The JI has long been suspected of having forged an alliance with the Abu Sayyaf, the most active terror group operating in the country.
There are reports that it has brought into its fold Balik Islam members and is trying to forge a pact with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas who remain loyal to Nur Misuari.
With the exception of the New People's Army, JI has now access to all rebel forces operating in Mindanao and has given them technical and even financial support.
JI is one of the most active terrorist organizations operating in Southeast Asia and has been blamed for several bombings in the past.
The group, founded in the late seventies in Indonesia, has a long-term goal of establishing a Pan-Islamic state in the region.
JI's network covers Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and possibly Thailand.
It established its roots in the Philippines in the mid-nineties by forging an alliance with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao.
Through the years the MILF has provided JI operatives safe haven and a place where they could train their members in guerrilla warfare and explosives handling.
JI has also helped train MILF fighters in bomb making and has even provided technical and financial assistance to MILF missions.
With the MILF deep in peace talks with the Philippine government, the JI has been forced to expand its network in Mindanao.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:24:08 AM ||
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Russian police have laid siege to an apartment block in the country's turbulent south, saying militants fighting for the independence of Chechnya are holed up inside, Russian media report. Police were talking with the militants in the centre of the Caucasus city of Nalchik in the Kabardino-Balkariya region, about 150km west of Chechnya, Interfax news agency said on Saturday. "We are talking about members of illegal armed formations which took part in different terror acts and military actions on the territory of Chechnya," Interfax quoted Kabardino-Balkariya Prosecutor General Yuri Ketov as saying.
Itar-Tass news agency said the house was surrounded by about 100 police and armoured vehicles. "We are not talking about storming the apartment block," the agency quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying. In earlier raids yesterday, police detained three suspects and seized guns, grenades and "extremist literature", an Interior Ministry spokeswoman said. In late January, police stormed another apartment block in Nalchik and killed seven suspected militants inside. Nalchik lies in the foothills of Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain, and the rugged terrain provides a wealth of hiding places within a few hours' drive from Chechnya, where Russian troops have been fighting rebels for a decade.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:22:34 AM ||
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Yunadi Turchayev, so-called "emir of Grozny" and the right hand of separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, who was eliminated yesterday, planned to perpetrate a terror act in Grozny on February 23, the regional operational HQ for the antiterrorist operation in the North Caucasus informed RIA Novosti on Saturday. "Not long ago Turchayev came from abroad, where he had been instructed and funded to carry out a series of major terror acts in Chechnya and other regions of Russia. He planned to perpetrate a terror act in Grozny on February 23," a source in the HQ was quoted as saying.
Turchayev, 33 years old, was eliminated by a patrol of the Chechen Interior Ministry on February 18. The terrorist commanded the so-called Islamic regiment and coordinated actions of terrorists in Grozny and the republic's central part, RIA Novosti's interlocutor said. Also, Turchayev was involved in the arrangement of the attack on Grozny on August 19, 2004, the Chechen Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti. According to preliminary information, the eliminated militant was involved in a number of terror acts, including that of June 7, 2002, when his armed group blew up a ZIL-131 truck on the Grozny-Baky motorway, killing two and injuring three men. Beside, Turchayev was one of the organizers of a terror act in Grozny on September 20, 2002, when police officers were injured in a car explosion.
"Moreover, he was involved in a murder of Magomed-Said Vakhayev, Deputy Head of the Urus-Martan Interior Department, on November 17, 2002. On December 3, 2002 Turchayev's gang killed Head of the Criminal Police of the Urus-Martan Interior Department Khalkayev," the source in the regional department reported. Turchayev's gang was reported to have attacked the car of head of the Kulary village administration Ibragimov in September 2003, killing two men. According to the HQ, the group also carried out a raid to Ingushetia in June 2004 and a sally in Grozny on August 21, 2004. "Turchayev's group members recruited young men into illegal armed formations. By Maskhadov's instructions Arab mercenary Abu-Omar funded this activity," the HQ source was quoted as saying.
This article starring:
ABU OMAR
Chechnya
YUNADI TURCHAIEV
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:21:16 AM ||
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Chechen leadership is negotiating a solution to the problem of Chechen refugees in Pankisi with Georgia. Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
"We spoke about solving the problem of the Chechen refugees in the Georgian Pankisi Gorge," Mr. Alkhanov said, calling the Georgian take on solving the problem "rather positive."
Mr. Alkhanov expressed the hope that the searches for the solution of the problem in the future will also continue positively.
Speaking about the situation on the Chechen-Georgian section of the Russian border, Mr. Alkhanov said that no trespasses on the 100-kilometer section were registered in the past few months.
"We are strengthening the border with Georgia. The Grozny frontier detachment, which has already started fulfilling its duties, controls that part of the border. There should be no problems with the border on the Chechen section," he said.
A round-table conference on Chechen problems will be held in Moscow in April, he said at a news conference organized by the Association of Foreign Correspondents in Moscow, on Friday. Representatives of international organizations, the federal government and the Chechen Republic will be in attendance.
Mr. Alkhanov said that Chechen leadership had supported Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis on holding such a representative forum.
"The proposal was made at the end of last year when I was invited to PACE," he said.
"We proposed its organization in Grozny, but there is also a proposal that it should meet in Moscow. So that means we'll hold it in Moscow," he said.
"We are ready to discuss any problems connected with Chechnya and the citizens of the Chechen Republic. There are no closed themes for us," Mr. Alkhanov said. "We have something to say at this round-table conference. We want peace, stability and creative work for our people," Mr. Alkhanov concluded.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:20:24 AM ||
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Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession Saturday in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites marched and lashed themselves with chains in ritual mourning of the 7th century death of a leader of their Muslim sect. Ninety-one people have been killed in violence in the past two days.
For the second year running, insurgent attacks shattered the commemoration of Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite religious calendar, but the violence produced a significantly smaller death toll than the 181 killed in twin bombings in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala a year ago. The dead this year included a U.S. soldier who was killed in Baghdad when American troops responded to calls for assistance from Iraqi forces unable to cope with a slew of attacks.
With majority Shiites poised to take control of the country for the first time in modern Iraqi history, the interim government and Shiite politicians vowed the bloodshed would not cause the nation to spiral into civil war. The suicide bombings were attempts "to create a religious war within Iraq. Iraqis will not allow this to happen, Iraqis will stand united as Iraqis foremost, and Iraq will not fall into sectarian war," Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for the interim government, told The Associated Press.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:18:44 AM ||
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#1
QUESTION:
=======
Why can't the Sunnis and/or their leaders STOP this carnage of other muslims (Shittes) comitted in name of their own SUNNI doctrines?
Posted by: abdul ||
02/20/2005 12:10
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#2
Because allah likes those who kill in his name.
The Senate has begun taking a harder look at U.S. intelligence on nuclear threats facing the United States, including revelations of missing nuclear materials in Russia, congressional officials said on Friday. The Republican-led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which held a closed-door hearing on nuclear issues earlier this month, has come to view nuclear proliferation as a threat that overshadows other dangers posed by terrorist groups. "We're going to be following it very, very closely," said Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate oversight panel. He said the nuclear threat against the United States was posed "not just from North Korea, but most dangerously from unaccounted for weapons that could be black-marketed to terrorists."
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who chairs the Senate panel, first referred to the committee's deepened focus on nuclear terrorism this week when CIA Director Porter Goss presented his agency's annual report on world threats to the committee. A Senate aide said the heightened scrutiny on nuclear issues is part of a larger effort to enhance intelligence oversight on potential spots including Iran and North Korea. The intelligence panel, which produced a highly critical report about prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq last year, is expected to hold a series of classified hearings on nuclear issues with officials from the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies, officials said.
The dangers were made disturbingly clear this week by Goss, who told the senators that enough nuclear material to make a weapon was missing from Russian facilities. Asked by Rockefeller for an assurance that the material had not found its way into the hands of terrorists, Goss said: "No. I can't make that assurance. I can't account for some of the material, so I can't make the assurance about its whereabouts." U.S. authorities have long struggled with the nightmare possibility of a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. "The concern is greater than what was expressed in public," said another Senate aide.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:16:29 AM ||
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The brutal harsh Afghan winter has limited Taliban attacks against government and foreign troops and the militants are regrouping to resume their raids after the end of cold spell, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday.
"Yeah! Youse guys're gonna get it!"
Abdul Latif Hakimi also dismissed reports of Taliban defections to President Hamid Karzai's government, more than three years after U.S.-led forces ended their rule in late 2001.
"Lies! All lies!"
Hakimi telephoned Reuters
"Hello? Is this Reuters?... This is Mullah Hakimi... H-A-K-I-M-I... Yeah. I'm from the Taliban... T-A-L-I-B-A-N... Okay. I'll wait..."
to say that elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had ordered that attacks be stepped up once the snow thawed in the mountains, which usually happens in April. "I spoke to Amir Ul Mominin (Commander of the Faithful) Omar on the phone today and he said the attacks will restart, and will have to, after the completion of winter," Hakimi said.
"That's 'cuz we gotta stop those elections..."
"The Taliban have enough forces now and we are regrouping to increase the number of fighters and attacks following the winter throughout Afghanistan." Hakimi said he was speaking from a snow-covered mountaintop in the restive southern province of Zabul. Zabul was one of the main Taliban bastions during their rule until late 2001 and has been a key base for their guerrilla activities since then. Like many other Afghan provinces, Zabul been badly hit by an especially harsh winter that has killed hundreds nationwide. The militants are still seen as a threat to more complex parliamentary polls due later this year.
I tend to doubt it, since Afghans have now taken to hunting down and killing Bad Guys who screw with them...
Hakimi said the winter had hampered operations. "Villages have been cut by snow. There is lack of wheat and firewood. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for us to operate properly."
Y'don't think that might have something to do with Taliban control of those backwoods areas, do you? First you bump off the aid workers in the summertime, and you make sure all the farmers spend their time praying or growing opium for the Talitreasury, and then you wonder why there aren't any groceries in the wintertime? Brilliant.
On Monday, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said some "senior" Taliban members had taken up a government amnesty offer but he and the government refused to give details. Wednesday's Washington Post quoted a Western official as saying they included the Taliban's former U.N. envoy, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, two former deputy ministers, Arsullah Rahmani and Rahmatullah Wahidyar, and a former charge d'affaires at the Afghan embassy in Saudi Arabia named Fawzi. It said 22 low-level Taliban members had agreed to lay down their arms. None are known as senior figures in the Taliban guerrilla campaign and Hakimi dismissed talk of defections. "Karzai and Americans have been speaking about these so-called negotiations for the past 16 months," he said. "Has any Taliban changed sides? No. If the Taliban are in contact with the government, why then are their names not revealed? This is not true; it is psychological warfare aimed at creating rift among the Taliban."
This article starring:
ABDUL HAKIM MUJAHID
Taliban
ABDUL LATIF HAKIMI
Taliban
ARSULLAH RAHMANI
Taliban
RAHMATULLAH WAHIDYAR
Taliban
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:13:51 AM ||
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#1
damn--they're still calling omar-the commander of the faithful-when he's more like an army of one
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/20/2005 5:23
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#2
In a separate development, Taliban asked the UN when global warming would reach Afghanistan.
#4
My heart goes out to those poor thugs, unable to conduct murderous attacks as they freeze and starve in the Afghan winter because they want to retake power and repress everyone . . .
Anyone want to contribute a few cents to their cause? Think about it: For less than a dollar a day you could be the proud sponsor of a terrorizing thug! You could directly contribute to their attempt to retake the country and place it under their repressive thumb!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
02/20/2005 21:03
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#5
What dipstick reporters haven't figured out is that the elements presented a big problem for expeditionary forces before the age of machines, when outsiders and locals were moving things around with exactly the same mules, donkeys and horses. The Soviets never had a problem with the "brutal" Afghan winter, any more than they had a problem with the brutal Russian winter - their issue was that they decided to fight just about all of Afghanistan at the same time. We only wanted al Qaeda and the Taliban, and most Afghans were glad to be rid of them. (Of course, there was the implicit threat that we would kill every last Afghan in return for the deaths on 9/11 - that may have made Afghans somewhat cooperative in turning in some of their co-religionists).
Thai police narrowly missed catching the suspected maker of the first car bomb to explode in a year-long separatist uprising in the Muslim-majority far south, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The 36-year-old Muslim man ran off when police raided his house on Friday afternoon, but the makings of bombs were found there and in an adjacent house, Lieutenant-General Tani Twidsi told Reuters.
Four sticks of C4 plastic explosive were found in one house, and four bags of urea fertiliser, the main ingredient in the car bomb which killed six people and wounded a dozen in nearby Sungai Kolok on Thursday, were found in the other, he said.
A younger brother, later taken for questioning by the army along with his mother, said the explosives and fertiliser belonged to his older brother, said Tani, the deputy commander of police in the south.
"We've been keeping a close eye on him for more than a week" because he was a former communist who had a reputation as a bomb maker, he said.
On Friday, police arrested a man near Sungai Kolok in a stolen car heading for the nearby Malaysian border and said he was also a suspect in the bombing.
here have been different theories about which group might have ordered the latest bombing, the worst since the violence began in the provinces of Pattan, Yala and Narathiwat.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has refused to consider separatist calls while promising aid and development to those shunning the rebel movement, said it was planted by relatives of hunted militant leaders.
General Sonthi Boonyakarin, a top army commander in the region, said the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, or National Revolution Front, a group fighting the government, was responsible.
But the governor of Narathiwat province said he was not so sure there was no foreign involvement.
The attack on Sungai Kolok, a Narathiwat border town that draws tourists with its bars and brothels, worried neighbouring Malaysia and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said southern Thailand was dangerous and Malaysians should not go there.
"We are certainly worried about the latest development," the national Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:12:07 AM ||
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#1
Everywhere there is Muslims, there is trouble. Thai authorities were facing 5 hits a day, last week. Its time to beat down these mutts, and do some cross-border work in the Malaysian pig-pen.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has sacked Information Minister Jonathan Moyo after he defected from the ruling ZANU-PF party to run as an independent in upcoming parliamentary elections. Mugabe spokesman George Charamba on Saturday said Moyo — who has spearheaded Mugabe's propaganda campaign through five years of mounting political and economic crisis — had been stripped of party membership, his legislative seat and cabinet post. "By his actions, he ceases to be a member of parliament and a minister in [the] government," Charamba said in a statement. Moyo registered on Friday as an independent candidate for the 31 March parliamentary elections after being sidelined in a power struggle to become Mugabe's likely successor when he retires in 2008.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:11:27 AM ||
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"Please, please," the young Saudi appeals in a whisper, "don't turn me over to the Americans."
His face is charred and blistered. His head and arms are enveloped in gauze. Each word seems to beget pain. His haunted eyes dart about, his only noticeable movements. He is here to repent, under the stern guidance of an Iraqi intelligence agent. The setting is an anonymous office in the heavily barricaded Iraqi Interior Ministry.
So what does he think now of "Sheik" Osama bin Laden, the interrogator asks? "He kills Muslims," the Saudi murmurs, his lips barely moving.
And Abu Musab Zarqawi? "If they are all like this," he says of the Jordanian militant, "I want to take revenge on all of them."
#2
Just shoot him. He has no useful information. His life is a drain on the resources of Iraq. Then sew him iuto a pigs carcas and bury him with his ass towards Mecca.
#3
Nice testimony for the fine and relevant education, values, and use of the great gift of oil wealth by the Saudis. Which, by the way, boys and girls, is still going on in a Madarassa or mosque near you. The world's oil wealth has produced a whole generation or two of dead enders that are broken and cannot be fixed. They will keep doing this until the Saudis are stopped.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/20/2005 3:33
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#4
that U.S. officials once dismissed as being waged by no more than 5,000 "dead-enders."
The a**hole writer does a three card monty by slipping in a reference to indigenous Iraqis, dead-enders, as one for anyone, in this case a Saudi. News twister, better than Koolaid.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:10:01 AM ||
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#1
that's called "a good start"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 13:39
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#2
Chavez is a disaster for Venezuela, and a danger for Columbia, Guyana and the U.S.
A typical central/south american a-hole dictator, the likes of which the U.S. used to support, but has not for many a year.
Chavez is a buffoon who's weekly rants on tv may eventually show enough of him to his supporters for them to realize that he has nothing to offer them but bluster, bombast and threats.
In the meanwhile, press freedom is over, and even bloggers are living in fear.
Kuwaiti police Saturday arrested two men wanted for allegedly being connected to a terror group planning to attack Americans and Kuwaiti security forces, an Interior Ministry official said. The men surrendered peacefully in a Kuwait City suburb, the official said on condition of anonymity. He would not identify them except to say they were Kuwaitis. Since Jan. 10, four policemen and eight suspected terrorists have been killed in clashes around the country. A group of Muslim extremists is suspected of planning to attack American civilians living in Kuwait and members of the U.S. military stationed here or on their way to Iraq. Kuwait's state security apparatus also was a target, authorities said. The alleged ringleader of the group, Amer al-Enezi, died of a heart attack while in custody, authorities said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:08:49 AM ||
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Three soldiers were killed and one wounded in a clash yesterday with suspected members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the strife-torn Philippine island of Jolo, a military task force commander said. The clash comes just days after about 2,000 soldiers overran the headquarters of Muslim rebel leader Habier Malik in Panamao town in Jolo following some 10 days of fighting which claimed the lives of 25 soldiers and some 70 to 100 of Malik's men.
Troops were securing a road in Indanan town in the southern island when they encountered the members of the Abu Sayyaf, a feared Muslim kidnapping and bombing gang, said Brigadier General Agustin Dema-ala. The Abu Sayyaf suffered an undetermined number of casualties, he said. Dema-ala said the clash came as the military was re-positioning some of its forces from Panamao town, Malik's stronghold, to other parts of Jolo island where the Abu Sayyaf are based.
Malik, a respected religious leader and loyal follower of jailed Muslim rebel and politician Nur Misuari, mounted attacks on military outposts in Jolo on Feb. 6. He was backed by members of Misuari's old guerrilla group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) but Abu Sayyaf fighters also took part in some of the fighting, the military has said. Dema-ala said Malik did not want to be linked to the Abu Sayyaf who are known mainly for kidnapping for ransom and bomb attacks, but some of Malik's men had "dual personalities," easily switching their affiliation with the Abu Sayyaf, Dema-ala said.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesman said his group was responsible for a series of bombing attacks in Manila and the southern cities of General Santos and Davao on Feb. 14 that claimed about 10 lives and left about 100 injured in retaliation for the military attack on Malik's MNLF forces. Dema-ala said two battalions of Marines had been left in Panamao to deal with Malik's forces but that the other troops were being sent to go after the Abu Sayyaf, who are largely based in Indanan. "Our offensive against them continues. We really plan to finish them off," the general said.
This article starring:
Brigadier General Agustin Dema-ala
HABIER MALIK
Moro National Liberation Front
Abu Sayyaf
Moro National Liberation Front
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:07:03 AM ||
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The United States and Germany are "well on the way" to repairing their breach over Iraq, a top German diplomat said Saturday ahead of this week's talks between President Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Asked if things were back to the level before the Iraq crisis, Karsten Voigt, the government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations, told The Associated Press, "we are well on the way there." "If one speaks of a new beginning, then one speaks of a positive start with a goal," Voight said. "And the goal is exactly the level that you described." He pointed to U.S.-German cooperation in forgiving Iraq's debts, training new Iraqi security officers and stabilizing Afghanistan, where Germany has contributed 2,500 soldiers to a NATO security force. Schroeder also said in comments released Saturday that he welcomed Bush's readiness for improved trans-Atlantic cooperation and was looking forward to discussions with the U.S. president.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:05:57 AM ||
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#1
[semi-rant]
Let's talk about root problem, pragmatism and fairness. No punches pulled.
Root Problem: The demonization tactics against the US & Bush used by Schroeder's regime to get re-elected. They made the US the focus of German frustrations and deepened what level of mistrust was there dramatically, same as the Arab world uses the Paleos - no difference. Non-negotiable: I don't want to be buds with Schroeder or Fischer. Period. I'd develop a cold and skip meeting Schroeder. While they are in office, the Ice Age is on.
Pragmatism: Civility, yes, but no more until we see what the German people want. I assume they are not Schroeder / Fischer - we shall see by whom they elect. If they elect leaders who are rational we'll be glad to meet them in the middle - we've been waiting there quite awhile, now. Ice Age shows signs that a warming spell is possible.
Fairness: The first job of a new Govt should be an ongoing and serious campaign to undo the Bush / US demonization insanity. They whipped up public sentiment against the US - and anything the US did, particularly Iraq - and it's the job of the German Govt to undo the damage perp'ed by the German Govt. All of it. Yeah, I know, they're in Afghanistan. Fine and good - but let's be real: that's part of their god-damned NATO obligation, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts. Beyond that, they've been intransigent and collaborated with France in lock-step on almost everything else.
Credit where due. Blame where due. No punches pulled. No bullshit. No pretenses. No posturing.
Bush could have been much nastier to both Germany and France, but wasn't - most Americans would've backed it, too, at least 51%. But he didn't fall for the Chirac bait trail - he played fair even while they were inhaling Kool Aid like it was going out of style and France actively sought ways to stab us in the back, front, throat, you name it. We owe no apologies and none should be forthcoming. We do not need to move toward their position - we've been in the right place all along. Everybody should cut the public statement crap - let's just do what should be done and get on with it.
[/semi-rant]
When the German Govt wants the relationship to be based upon reality, again, and it's clear the German people are behind the move, we'll be there waiting. But not Schroeder / Fischer.
And to correct the (inevitably) distorted premise of the whole discussion, it's not a case of meeting the Germans half-way. It's a case of Germany's crawling back into some sort of favor with us.
We haven't and won't change one iota of our policy and operations in Iraq to suit Germany. Period. Obviously. So all the "movement" is on their side.
Germany, AFAIK, never altered their actual behavior of relevance (intel cooperation, naval patrols in support of GWoT, Afghan deployments) in any way to reflect the "split". If they want to "do more" (train Iraqi cops, help repair infrastructure, etc.), fine. If not, fine.
As James Lileks brilliantly put it:
"Germany? Whatever.
And it took a lot of dead Americans to be able to write that."
#4
Here goes another red-green government. The voters of the northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein just threw out the most incompetent prime minister (SPD) of a German land.
#5
I have reservations with the Schroeder/Fischer focus of comments here.
The world is pretty upside down now that the cold war is really over but history isn't. New sides are being picked for the next match. France clearly wants to manage the other team and has heavily recruited the Arabs and Chinese.
The Germans are going to have to make a choice here, France or the U. S. And France is certainly willing to make it tough for a German government that wants to side with the U. S., expecially with the high level of anti-Americanism of the Geman populace. I'm not so sure a CDU government could side with the U. S. against France in the near future, especially if France puts the EU on the line.
And I expect similar problems in post-Blair Britain. The problem is with the people, not the leaders. Till the 68 generation is out of power, it will be touch and go.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 16:16
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#6
Mrs Davis, I must disagree here. Germany must never be forced to make a choice between the United States and France, it's biggest neighbor. It never did before.
Germany has always pushed for balance. Adenauer welcomed De Gaulle and signed the Elysee Treaty with him, but not after throwing out De Gaulle's provisions against the United States.
Germany will need to accomodate both. But when it came to defense Germany has always put the United States first. We need to return there, strengthening NATO, reigning in France without opposing it.
The importance of France, if it continues its current policy, will fade further. Same with Germany. But we will stop the decline.
#7
Before, ironically, we had the Russians to keep the French in line. Now that threat is gone and the French are showing their true colors. These games they are playing will go out of their control before long.
Or else the Germans need to find a way to get them to clean up their act. The problem I fear is that the well of public opinion has been so thoroughly poisoned by the 68 generation that a responsible German government will not be able to restrain the French.
I hope you're right, but I fear you are not.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 16:44
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#8
Chirac won't have much fun with neither Merkel nor Stoiber.
#9
I am sure TGA will correct me but I am not afraid to learn. BTW with a last name of Hess I can't be considered a rabid anti-german.
I don't think you will see a change in government in Germany. Sorry. I have to go with .com. No punches pulled. Schroeder is a useless backstabber who will resort to anti US propaganda again. He is in lockstep with Chirac in wanting to be a power in opposition to the US. Why the heck else would he want to sell arms to China?
Fischer would have preferred the Communists won the cold war. I mean when you have a FM that is proud of the fact he was street fighter who chucked rocks, bricks and firebombs at the police and was in active support of the RAF and Carlos you have major problems. He is in support of a EU that is a counter weight to the US not a partner. The Eu constitution is a document that will put the EU on a collision course with the United States.
When Bush shakes these peoples hand he should count his fingers afterward.
#11
I based much of what I posted regards the German people on commentary here in Rantburg U. I have come to see "Blue" and "Red" areas in Germany, much like the US. For instance, I see a demonstration in Berlin demonizing Bush (Warmonger / Blood for Oil / etc) as no different than such a display in NY. Blue power center. From TGA's comments, I have come to think of "Red" Germany as flyover country, just as in the US, as well... and they are in the majority just as in the US and, in the end, Schroeder's days are numbered.
For me, Schroeder's behavior in getting himself re-elected was unforgivable. Fischer is a political calculator who has done nothing to demonstrate he's anything but an opportunist riding Schroeder's gambit, as far as I can see. I, too, will never trust him, given his past.
I will give the benefit of the doubt to the German people - everyone can be manipulated once... If they correct that mistake and move back to the center, then I am more than happy to wait for them there. If not, well, we'll move on ahead and leave them to stew.
BTW, I feel the same about the French people. They've been fed a load of shit for a long long time. Reality, should they elect someone who'll allow reality to shine in once in awhile, will begin waking some of them up to the fact that we, the US, are not the source of their problems, nor are we a realistic scapegoat, we are the friends they've turned their backs upon. Perhaps they, too, will come to the middle, someday. JFM certainly shines out as an example of a man who knows WTF he's talking about and who his friends are. You never know. Economic implosion could bring someone like Sabrine Herold to power - and she's got much of her shit wired tight. She'd blow the wheels off the anti-US wagon and expose it for a lie.
It is a truth of politics that, when things are going badly and there is no easy solution at hand, an effective technique is to select a bogeyman for distraction. And a foreign one is better than a domestic one, so you can add nationalism to the fervor. It's very effective and has been used by the best manipulators throughout history.
#12
Not exactly the flyover thing. South and Southwest (prosperous, ex-US-zone) are firmly in the conservative field, and they have the high tech as well.
In Munich, about 2000 demonstrators showed up against the Security Conference and most were imported from the North and Northeast.
I think we'll see gradual success in the Middle East and nothing convinces more like success.
The Iraqi elections had quite a few anti-Bush people thinking.
#13
But it was more than one election. Bush's policies have worked. Every attempt at doing it the "European way" has failed. Bush after 9/11 said to hell with that.
Now we have had elections in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine (Arafat died on his own may he rot in hell rot in hell.) But still Europe has not shifted away from it's path. It is still anti US and anti Israel in it's main stream press and media. Our way worked. But very few will admit it. Instead we hear excuses for lack of support for what works. The claim that all the European wars has made them smarter, wiser, better and more peaceful is bullshit. There is a lack of will to actually do what needs done.
I doubt Bush will bring any one in Europe to a life changing experience that corrects that.
#14
Brit Hume, today, had an interesting comment. In his SotU address Bush mentioned Freedom 20+ times. In his Inauguration, another 18 (IIRC) times. Schroeder's recent speech at the Blah Blah Security Conf had zero references to Freedom. He did mention "stability" 8 times, however.
Hume's take, which I found interesting, was that the focus here in America is on progress - looking forward. In Europe it's on status quo - looking at what, their navels? [Italics are my take...]
New Zealand has warned that there is information of possible terrorist attacks on western aid workers involved in tsunami relief efforts in Aceh in Indonesia.
New Zealand's foreign ministry has also upgraded its travel warning for Indonesia, saying non-essential travel to the country, even to the resort island of Bali, should be deferred.
"The information we have, which is the same I understand as what the Australian's have received, does point to some quite specific and credible threats in terms of possible terrorist risks," New Zealand Foreign Ministry spokesman Brad Tattersfield told Radio New Zealand.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Prime Minister John Howard discussed the threat to relief workers at their annual bilateral talks in Auckland on Sunday.
Mr Howard said aid agencies had been advised that if they did not have an established security plan they should consider whether to remain in Indonesia.
Both leaders said the warning would not affect their military aid to the region.
New Zealand's foreign ministry said all travel to tsunami-devastated Aceh and northern Sumatra province should be cancelled.
"Recent information suggests that terrorists may be planning attacks against foreigners involved in tsunami relief efforts in Aceh and other parts of northern Sumatra," the ministry said in a statement.
New Zealanders should not travel to Banda Aceh or other parts of Aceh to work on humanitarian relief efforts unless "the aid organisation they work for has a robust security plan approved by the Indonesian authorities".
"We recommend that New Zealanders not covered by such arrangements, or more generally concerned for their security, leave the area immediately."
The foreign ministry said there was an ongoing risk of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, and recent reports suggested attacks on a range of targets could happen at any time.
Last month Sweden and Denmark warned that they had received information that militants were planning to strike humanitarian organisations in Aceh.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:05:10 AM ||
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#1
I'm in favor of ending the practice of calling the gutless jihadis who kill the weak, unarmed, and innocent "hard boyz". Let's have a contest for a more appropriate term for these cowards. I don't care except that we remove any trace of bravado and replace it with scorn and derision. Hitting Aid workers is just about as low and cowardly as it can get, except for attacking schools and hospitals, perhaps. Let's give them a name worthy of their pathetic worthless gutless cowardice.
#2
In total agreement, .com. How about 'jihadi scum' or 'cowardly scum'. At the end of the day they're really just murderers and wannabe murderers, so how about 'Islamic murderers'? 'Murd-o-slims'; 'Islamopaths'?
#3
How about "vermin?" Usually applied to rats and cockroaches and other creatures who can't stand the light of day. Also, as used in Brian Jacques's "Redwall" books, for pirates and other creatures whose lives are one act of mindless violence after another.
#9
I hate name calling but I have descended to it twice in the last 24 hours. I retract and apologize. Never assume anybody, no matter how evil, is beyond redemption. I promise to use adjectives to describe beahvior, not nouns to label a person--any person, however hateful their behavior may be. To this end, I will have to throw out "vermin." Unfortunately, "verminous" is too lumpy an adjective. Per #5, above, GT Behavior may be appropriate.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 14:35
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#11
Anne McCaffrey's "City who Fought" had the attackers calling the city dwellers "scumvermin". The city dwellers took the epiteth and converted it into a rallying cry. I wouldn't want to call islamofruitcakes such names, since it detracts from the heroics of McCaffrey's novel. I would suggest 'slamvermin' - descriptive of them, and indicative of what needs to be done TO them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/20/2005 14:53
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#12
Why not call them what they are?
Worthless loser murdering bastards.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 20:13
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Egypt said Saturday it was putting off a U.S-backed conference originally scheduled next month to discuss plans for political reforms in the Middle East, apparently over a dispute over the detention of a prominent opposition leader. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abould Gheit said the conference scheduled for March 3 will be postponed indefinitely. "The conference is postponed and a new date will be set after consultations with the countries invited," Aboul Gheit said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:04:36 AM ||
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#1
So, about that $2Bn annual "aid" to Egypt... It can be "postponed indefinitely" - or simply aborted permanently. I'm sure there are 10 or 20 thousand other little nudge thingy's available in our one-sided "relationship" with this crew of thugs.
Get real, go hardball. Mubarek's in no position to dictate - flip the tables and nail his ass.
#2
Er, not yet, .com. Egypt is a tinder-box sitting on a desert highway at noon on a hot day. Wouldn't take much for it to burst into flames, and we don't need that right now. Maybe after Babyface has been deposed in Syria, and the various generals in the Sudan have been hanged. Then we'd have Mubarek and his idiot son surrounded (Sixth Fleet to the north of course). And that's when we can tell him exactly how we want our money spent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005 13:37
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Conflicts in Muslim areas of Buddhist Thailand and the mainly Christian Philippines have been fuelled by local issues but are getting increasing attention from Islamic militants outside the region, they say.
Arab websites supporting Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network have begun "highlighting the Thai issue," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert with Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
"Prologation of this conflict will mean greater involvement of other regional groups and global groups like Al-Qaeda."
The southern Philippines, where separatist conflicts have raged for decades, already has a "permanent Al-Qaeda presence", Gunaratna told AFP.
Increasing foreign involvement, particularly in Thailand, is "certainly a risk," said Robert Broadfoot of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Consultancy.
"The grievances in southern Thailand are local but as we saw in Indonesia and the Philippines, Al-Qaeda and international groups have been able to take advantage of those local situations.
"Their scope has broadened beyond strictly domestic issues to where they are commenting on United States policy in Iraq and international issues."
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Philippines President Gloria Arroyo both pledged tough action against separatists in the wake of bomb attacks last week which killed a total of 16 people and wounded nearly 200.
Ten were killed in three blasts in the Philippines and six in the deadliest single bombing in Thailand's Muslim-dominated deep south, where separatist violence has claimed about 600 lives in the past 13 months.
Arroyo vowed to crush the rebel group Abu Sayyaf, which claimed the Valentine's Day bombings and is said by the United States to have Al-Qaeda links, but added: "The government shall focus its operations against terrorist cells and there should be no fear of a witch hunt."
Thaksin, however, has unveiled a plan to cut state funds to villages deemed supportive of southern separatists.
With Muslims already complaining of political and economic marginalisation, critics say the new plan will simply make things worse.
Increased Muslim suffering could make southern Thailand a fertile area for exploitation by Al-Qaeda militants, Gunaratna said.
"We saw on January 5 an Arab website for the first time carrying images of the Tak Bai incident" in which 87 Muslim demonstrators died, most of them through suffocation after being piled onto the backs of army trucks.
"And we are seeing Arab pro-Al-Qaeda websites are highlighting the Thai issue, so certainly it is in the long term strategic and national interest of Thailand to resolve this problem as soon as possible."
Thaksin has charged that militants seek refuge across the border in mainly Muslim Malaysia and even train in the jungles in the north of that country, accusations which have led to sharp exchanges with Kuala Lumpur.
Instead of antagonising Malaysia, Gunaratna said Thailand should seek a special relationship with its Muslim neighbour, establishing common data bases on militants, setting up joint training and operations and sharing resources and experience.
"We are seeing that the operational leaders and the spiritual leaders are shuttling through the porous border between Malaysia and Thailand but we do not see any Malaysian government support for these groups," Gunaratna said.
Broadfoot pointed out that "the Malaysian government has at least as much interest as Thaksin does in not having this get out of hand."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:04:02 AM ||
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Two Cabinet ministers on Saturday angrily accused French President Jacques Chirac of supporting the Lebanese opposition's effort to unseat the pro-Syrian government, with one minister saying Chirac was leading the battle. The harsh criticism followed Chirac's recent visit to Beirut, where he visited the family of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a longtime friend. Hariri died with 16 others in a massive bombing in Beirut on Monday. Opposition leaders and Hariri's supporters have blamed the Lebanese and Syrian governments for the assassination. Both governments deny involvement, and the Lebanese government has accused the opposition of exploiting Hariri's slaying to reap political gains ahead of parliamentary elections expected by May. A statement issued by Hariri's family following Chirac's visit Wednesday said the French president was in Lebanon on private visit to pay his condolences. He did not meet any Lebanese officials, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:03:24 AM ||
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#1
That photo begs for a Photoshop job.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/20/2005 0:15
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#3
He was just checking to see if the Hariri "donation" to his retirement plan had been affected by Rafik's death. Priorities.
RC - Which is the operative word - "Photoshop" or "job"? Either can be accomodated, but one must have the correct theme in mind. I'm sure there are some more than qualified 'puter artiste's who read RB...
#4
Thank heaven for zee leetle girlz. For zey grow beegger every day.
Posted by: Jacques ||
02/20/2005 2:00
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#5
" Hey everbody, this is how you blow goats! My Muslim fiends taught me!
Posted by: Annie War ||
02/20/2005 5:28
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#6
"Two Cabinet ministers on Saturday angrily accused French President Jacques Chirac of supporting the Lebanese oppositionâs effort to unseat the pro-Syrian government..."
So the French government admits to supportting the occupation of Lebanon by Syrian thugs.Nice to hear thier confession.
Iraqi security forces on Saturday arrested the alleged commander of an insurgent cell close to Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, police said. "Early this morning Iraqi security forces assisted by US forces raided the house of Haidar Abu al-Buwari in western Baquba," said a police spokesman for Diyala province, whose capital is Baquba. "He is one of the mujahideen princes who works with Zarqawi in the position of cell leader," he said. Police found rocket-propelled grenades, grenades, drugs, computers and a photocopier in the house, he added.
Iraqi security forces also arrested a former high-ranking officer under Saddam Hussein allegedly involved in the insurgency in the northern city of Mosul, said a government statement. "Harbi Abd al-Khudaier Hamudi, 50, also known as Abu Nur, was arrested on February 12," it said.
This article starring:
ABU NUR
Iraqi Insurgency
HAIDAR ABU AL BUWARI
Iraqi Insurgency
HARBI ABD AL KHUDAIER HAMUDI
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/20/2005
12:02:14 AM ||
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Sudan has said it will revert to using the pound as legal tender, abandoning the dinar that the government adopted in the mid-1990s. Central Bank governor Sabir Muhammad al-Hasan made the announcement on Saturday after a joint committee of delegates from the government and the Sudan Liberation Movement agreed on the issue at a meeting in Kenya.
Khartoum and the SPLM signed a peace agreement in Nairobi last month ending more than two decades of civil war between southern and northern Sudan, the longest-running conflict in Africa. Under the terms of the agreement, the north will have an Islamic-based monetary system and the south a Western system regulated by a central bank. Southerners rejected the dinar due to its perceived Islamic character and said they wanted a currency that reflects the country's cultural and historical diversities. Hassan told the official SUNA news agency that the joint committee in Kenya would continue its meetings with the aim of determining the value, design and features of the new currency. The dinar is equivalent to 100 Sudanese pounds and is officially pegged at 2,500 dinars to the US dollar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
12:00:22 AM ||
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1$ = 2,500 Dinar = 250,000 pounds.
One wonders what could you possibly get for 1 pound... Maybe some Sudanese would like to become billionaires? $4k and you are in the club.
Last night NPR described the Carter as the most heavily armed submarine in history. This may come as news to the drivers of Trident subs as well. Or is there a new system in those 100 extra feet we havenââ¬t heard of but NPR has?
NEW YORK, February 20 (Itar-Tass) - The submarine Jimmy Carter was officially commissioned on Saturday. It has become the first submarine in the U.S. history to be named after a failure living former president. I think this was so that they wouldnââ¬t have to name a carrier after him. And if it ever gets caught in flagrante, the headline will be Jimmy Carter Caught Spying. Bwahahaha.
Jimmy Carter himself attended the ceremony. The submarine, the third and last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines, is considered the most heavily armed of all submarines ever built. Maybe this is where NPR got the idea the Jummah was badder than a boomer. Maybe this is where NPR gets all its news.
The submarine is carrying Tomahawk winged missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes. There are 50 torpedoes in the arsenal of the submarine. Precisely the number required to sink an entire ChiCom invasion fleet.
Military experts say one of its main functions is to eavesdrop on the communications passing through undersea cables. You guys found out about that, eh? The Jimmy Carter is the most noiseless submarine of the Seawolf type. Too bad he wasnââ¬t a noiseless President too. The Carter was extensively modified from its basic design.
The submarine has cost the country 3.2 billion dollars. Specialists believe it will finish the era of powerful and costly submarines.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005
1:19:16 PM ||
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#1
Key woid is Heavily Armed... itn have big arms and elbows.
Posted by: Mums the woid ||
02/20/2005 13:36
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#2
"Specialists believe it will finish the era of powerful and costly submarines."
What? I can understand that we may not build as many as we used to in Cold War times, but there's no way in hell we should give up building bigger and better subs--or any other weapons platform, for that matter! Do any of these "specialists" read history? Are we supposed to lose our edge and return to the woeful state we were in at the beginning of WWII?
Posted by: Dar ||
02/20/2005 14:31
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#3
The submarine has cost the country 3.2 billion dollars. Specialists believe it will finish the era of powerful and costly submarines.
Spare me. The only times NPR types are 'concerned' about the cost of federal expenditures are 1) when they're made by the military and / or 2) when they're made by a Republican President.
#4
Actually its the last Seawolf class to be done. The followup class will be the Virginia class submarines which are supposed to be cheaper while attaining approximately 90% of the same capabilities of the Seawolf class in a slightly smaller hull, at the same time the Virginia class is supposed to be designed for closer to coast warfare unlike our normal deep blue ocean types.
#12
...The USN took the opportunity to name the most secret and low-profile vessel in the fleet after Jimmah before some idiot President ordered a CVN named after him. (You could BET that had Algore won in '00, CVN-78 would have been USS James E. Carter instead of USS George H.W. Bush)
The good news is that Congress passed a non-binding resolution a couple of years ago that the first of the new generation of carriers should be named Lexington .
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/20/2005 18:48
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#13
I wonder what nickname the crew is going to bestow on the Carter.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/20/2005 19:00
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#14
Rosalyn
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 19:02
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#15
Peanut.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 23:03
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#1
I have severe and deep reservations about the source, but there is a smidgen here for the grist mill.
If true...
1) Only one of the factions is represented - and may not have "authority" to actually broker a deal.
2) There is the obvious problem with such people keeping agreements.
1 + 2 = ~0
Negotiation only works when binding. How is anything binding on anti-everything groups who have no compunction against terror? They have been primarily killing Iraqis for the last year or so, after all, not exactly the actions of someone worthy to be called a partner in negotiations.
I will believe there is something to this when there is visible evidence - actions, not words - of their ability to control themselves and assist in stopping the other factions from perpetrating violence.
Otherwise, the binding condition that can be relied upon is their deaths.
#2
This seems like a good sign but these Sunnis are pretty dumb. They must not understand what an election is or that U. S. is going to have a hard time doing anything the elected government doesn't like.
When these guys can find a Gerry Adams to raise money for terrorists in Dearborn, then they can be Sein Fein. Till then, they're outlaws who should be hunted down till they give up.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 12:10
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#3
Excellent point, Mrs D. Had this happened about 18 months ago, then there would be something to negotiate with the Mil Cmd. Now, total surrender of violence and peaceful participation in civil processes - or death. They could choose temporary exile in Syria... but Ba'athism is about to die out, literally, so it would, indeed, be temporary.
#4
I suspect that this is an effort to "bring home" Baathist officers, and could be compared to how SS and Werhmacht officers were treated at the end of WWII. At first, entire W units were just recommissioned on the spot as Bundeswehr, and told to discard all but rank insignia ("Attention. Turn East!" (they dug it)); however SS officers were executed on the spot. Later, after examination, W officers were often retained with their units, and SS officers were either arrested for membership in the General SS, or released to civilian life, had they been in "no-wants-no-warrants" Waffen SS units. (At least one WSS battalion was converted entirely to French Foreign Legion and shipped off to Indochina. They did well there, fighting communists again.) Those that fled to mostly South America ceased to be an issue, despite fears that they would try to reactivate the dritte Reich.
#5
fuck 'em ... kill 'em all and hang 'em up outside for all to see. Screw their bullshit demands. Do you hear me baathists and other assorted assholes. Fuck you!!!!!!!
#6
Further evidence of the success of the election. Given a chance to save a little face the Iraqi insurgents may call it quits and hang their foreign insurgent brothers out to dry. Best case scenario I guess. Worst case is more of the same of what we have now. Can't hurt to talk - it will make the rest of the insurgents a little uneasy worrying about who is jumping ship on them next.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 10:22
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#2
"The walls will be bare but for a banner with the words 'Allah is Great' opposite a video camera whose tripod legs are protected with a drop cloth. On a table will be a single knife. And then they will know. Then they will see."
Not even then will they see: There is a 56 yr old Italian pro-Jihadi newswoman who will be slughtered by her champions in a few days...
System: Conservatism
Variation: Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: PaleoConservatism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
5.8% were to your right on the chart.
92.8% were to your left on the chart.
#10
Nixon here as well. Guess I should head to the thread on audio tapes then, lol.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/20/2005 10:37
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#11
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism, Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George W. Bush (95.06%)
#15
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism, Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Ultra Capitalism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: Ronald Reagan (90.12%), George W. Bush (90.12%)
Split 'em! and got the same score as Frank G.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
02/20/2005 11:32
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#16
# System: Conservatism
# Variation: Economic Conservatism
# Ideologies: Conservative NeoLiberalism
# US Parties: Republican Party
# Presidents: Ronald Reagan (100%)
# 2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (86.02%), John Kerry (71.70%), Ralph Nader (53.02%)
What's up with the "2004 Election Candidates" numbers? Is this saying John Kerry and Ralph Nader had that much overlap in outlook with Ronald Reagan? If so, doesn't seem so right.
Posted by: DO ||
02/20/2005 12:17
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#17
OK, I clicked the fourth choice on every one:
The following items best match your score:
System: Socialism
Variation: Moral Socialism, Extreme Socialism
Ideologies: Activism, Libertarian Socialism
US Parties: No match.
Presidents: Jimmy Carter (77.90%)
2004 Election Candidates: Ralph Nader (86.02%), John Kerry (68.13%), George W. Bush (33.71%)
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/20/2005 12:24
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#18
Ford 100% - Must be something in the water, we're both from GR.
#19
Reagan here, too--hot damn! That made my day. :-)
Posted by: Dar ||
02/20/2005 14:23
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#20
System: Conservatism
Variation: Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Ultra Capitalism
US Parties: No match.
Presidents: George W. Bush (87.12%)
Dang. Not bad for an ex-Democrat...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/20/2005 16:26
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#21
Let me make this perfectly clear...
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/20/2005 16:36
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#22
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism
Ideologies: Ultra Capitalism [Yup, that would be l'il ole' me. :-D]
US Parties: No match. No shit.
Presidents: Ronald Reagan (93.37%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (82.74%), John Kerry (67.15%), Ralph Nader (48.41%)
This is BOGUS! I am NO percent like Jf'ingK and/or Ralphie.
But Reagan.... Yea! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/20/2005 17:02
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#23
System: Liberalism
Variation: Moderate Liberalism
Ideologies: Capital Democratism
US Parties: Democratic Party
Presidents: Gerald Ford (97.79%)
2004 Election Candidates: John Kerry (88.10%)
Mmm! I'm the most right wing person I know.
#24
What a weird survey...why are so many for Reagan?
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 17:45
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#25
# System: Conservatism
# Variation: Economic Conservatism
# Ideologies: Ultra Capitalism
# US Parties: No match.
# Presidents: Ronald Reagan (93.01%)
# 2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (84.38%)... the rest, as Barb sez, is bogus.
Andrea, Reagan ... probably because most of us identify with his views?
#27
Yes, that is what I am told. I just asked several folk's at the lodge where I am at
and the response's I heard were as follows:
1)He was good to the people.
2)HE helped the economy.
3)He was NOT a skirt chaser.
4) Many thought he brought his Hollywood talent
to D.C., was a hard worker and truly tries to accomplish all he possibly could.
5) one man told me he gave out a lot of money, loan's for college purpose's that did not need
to be paid back - which is how he could afford to go to college.
6) One man told me he gave Patty Hearst a pardon?
I can only remember getting off the school bus, walking in the house and my Mother yelling "President Regan was shot". Then the Brady law was passed during his term in office.
(James Brady who was shot/disabled).
ANdrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 18:15
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#28
The following items best match your score:
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism, Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Capital Republicanism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George W. Bush (95.58%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (95.58%)
#29
System: Liberalism
Variation: Moderate Liberalism
Ideologies: Capital Democratism
US Parties: Democratic Party
Presidents: Gerald Ford (90.12%)
2004 Election Candidates: John Kerry (90.12%), Ralph Nader (76.20%), George W. Bush (68.13%)
Barbara, I'm with you. There is NO WAY I am the least bit like Kerry.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/20/2005 18:29
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#30
System: Conservatism
Variation: Moderate Conservatism
Ideologies Capital Republicanism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George H. Bush 95.06
2004 Election Candidates Bush 88.95% John Kerry 70.94 % Ralph Nader 54.45%
Statistics: Of the 38083 who took the test along with me ONLY 0.4% had the same score as
me! I feel the need for a bell curve here!
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 18:54
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#31
Sobiesky # 25 and Barb # 22 you are RIGHT
BOGUS. Math is my middle name, and that survey is insane! VERY SUBJECTIVE and many variables can come into play here.
(can anyone find a better survey?).
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 18:58
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#32
I can NOT stand Ralph Nadar. My result's were close to a few on this page, BUT RALPH NADAR???
ANdrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 19:00
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#33
Same as Whiskey Mike: Reagan 95.58%
For those of you upset with being aligned with Kerry, remember that if you hold any position at all, he'll agree with you 50% of the time.
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism
Ideologies: Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: Ronald Reagan (97.79%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (88.10%), John Kerry (69.94%), Ralph Nader (51.34%)
Statistics
Of the 38239 people who took the test:
2% had the same score as you.
82.2% were above you on the chart.
4.2% were below you on the chart.
13.8% were to your right on the chart.
77.2% were to your left on the chart
Looks like a pattern are we all R.R. But I look to have the highest R.R. so far. Anyone beat 97.79%?
#37
How can the survey hold any validity?
The choice's are filled with should have, could have, would have choice's. Moral's are not based on feeling's ex: 14 Financial security:
what is the difference between ONLY and First for individual responsibility. Same for Q 15.
The wording of the answer's effects the outcome.
Andrea
Posted by: inquizitive Liberal ||
02/20/2005 21:33
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#38
1. System: Conservatism
2. Variation: Economic Conservatism
3. Ideologies: Ultra Capitalism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
4. US Parties: Republican Party
5. Presidents: Ronald Reagan (93.75%)
6. 2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (80.24%), John Kerry (71.70%){WTF?}, Ralph Nader (53.02%)
0.4% had the same score as you.
95.8% were above you on the chart.
1% were below you on the chart.
22.8% were to your right on the chart.
70.8% were to your left on the chart.
....go figure. I checked q's 14 & 15 for clarification but didn't get any. I also had the same question about *first* versus *only* wrt charity, financial responsibility, etc.
#40
BTW, I took the test a couple times. When I just looked at the questions *without* clarifying any of them I came out way more conservative vice when I did click them for clarification. Seems that *nuance* thing really made me more sensitive, almost got in touch w/my inner child, *sigh*.
#44
The following items best match your score:
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism, Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Capital Republicanism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George W. Bush (95.58%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (95.58%)
#45
The following items best match your score:
System: Conservatism
Variation: Economic Conservatism, Extreme Conservatism
Ideologies: Capital Republicanism, Conservative NeoLiberalism
US Parties: Republican Party
Presidents: George W. Bush (95.58%)
2004 Election Candidates: George W. Bush (95.58%)
A Korean-registered cargo ship broke down in the Suez Canal today, blocking the passage of at least 40 ships, a canal official said. The northbound ship, Great Polaris, carrying 74,000 tons of coal to Europe, was stranded at the southern entrance of the waterway. The ship's crew and another from the Suez Canal Authority were trying to fix malfunctions in the engine and rudder.
The official, in Suez, said aid some 32 ships were stuck behind the Great Polaris, all heading to the Mediterranean. Eleven southbound ships are also waiting to go through. On average, nearly 50 ships carrying fuel and other merchandise pass through the 120-mile each day. The Egyptian government-run Suez Canal authority says about 7.5 % of world sea trade passes through the canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red seas and saves ships the longer, costlier route around South Africa.
I looked at a couple news sources and couldn't tell if the ship is SKor or NKor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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#1
74,000 tons of coal to Europe
It's come to that already? 50 years ago that would have been a Coals to NewCastle deal.
And they have to use that funny duck voice. And they have to wear green...
In a major ruling governing the Shia community, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has stated that divorce in Shia sect can be valid only if it is pronounced in Arabic.
And they can only demand jihad in Swahili.
The ruling was given by Justice Shailendra Saxena in a revision petition filed by Riyat Shamim, a Shia woman. The high court held that the services of an agent could be taken if the husband has little or no knowledge of Arabic. The court stated that the divorce of petitioner Riyat Shamim was "invalid because the pronouncement was not made by her husband Syed Nabi in Arabic although Arabic-knowing people were available in abundance." The court, however, made an exception: "If no one speaking Arabic was available only then divorce could be announced in a language other than Arabic."
The two were married in 1976. The husband had pronounced divorce on January 15, 1993. On August 16, 2001 the court had partially accepted the petitioner's plea and had fixed a maintenance of Rs500 per month pending final disposal of the petition. The high court also stated that the pronouncement must be made in the presence of two reliable witnesses as was stated in religious books. The court ruled that the two lawyers who were present when divorce was pronounced could not be considered as witnesses.
Okay, that's one thing they got right.
In this case, the husband had pronounced divorce three times in a language other than Arabic and had not done so in the presence of two respected and independent witnesses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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LAHORE — Pakistan and India are using secret channels for the solution of the Kashmir dispute, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri disclosed here yesterday. Addressing a news conference at the State Guest House, he said the presidents, the prime ministers and the foreign ministers of the two countries were also involved in the secret channels. According to him the credit for starting Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service from April 7 also went to the secret channels.
He said while the launch of the bus service was a victory for both the countries, the credit for keeping the matter secret for about nine months went to the people involved in secret talks.
The foreign minister, who is scheduled to proceed on a visit to Japan today, made it clear that Islamabad would never accept the Line of Control as border between the two countries. He said Islamabad and New Delhi had fought three wars on the Kashmir issue and thus it was not possible for Pakistan to agree to the LoC as international border.
So much for any new secret channels.
In response to a question, the minister said nuclear CBMs, trade links and people-to-people contacts would be given top priority during the next few months. He welcomed the support extended to Islamabad-New Delhi agreements by opposition parties, including the PPP of Benazir Bhutto and the PML-N of Mian Nawaz Sharif. "I welcome a bipartisan approach on the foreign affairs issues".
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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I thought this was sufficiently interesting to post in its entirety. BTW, the headline doesn't make sense to me. Statistically speaking, it seems that things can only get worse. A study of the statistics of global terrorism concludes that attacks will become more severe in the future, and that an attack that kills as many people as the destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 is likely within the next seven years.
It all sounds very depressing and seems to imply, depending on your viewpoint, either that the 'war on terror' is essential or that it is futile. But can we really assert these things based on statistics alone? Computer scientists Aaron Clauset and Maxwell Young of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, have analysed the data on terrorist attacks compiled by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City. They say the numbers follow a 'power-law' relationship.
A graph of the number of attacks n plotted against their severity x (in terms of injuries and/or fatalities) reveals that n is roughly proportional to x -1.85. Put simply, this means that the frequency of attacks decreases as their size increases - which is what you'd expect - but also that this relationship holds for events ranging from those that injured or killed just a few people to those that, like the Nairobi car bomb in August 1998, produced over 5000 casualties.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/20/2005
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#1
I was sufficiently intrigued by this to find the original paper. It makes certain things clear that the article makes a hash of explaining (I'll ignore that the writer is trying to reconcile the data with his anti-WOT agenda resulting in obsfurscation). In summary terrorist attacks are getting more frequent and more severe.
#2
Tipper, IMO the 'natural' in the last para is highly debateable (and probably stems from the writers agenda - WOT = bad). If you rephrase it as 'social phenomena have cut-off points' it makes a lot more sense. Societies act to resolve problems that reach a certain level and this results in a 'cut off point'. Note the paper clearly shows that actions to date (the data is up to 2004) have not been sufficient. More data may show the problem is 'slowing down' due to the WOT but to date it does not. And before I get flamed for that statement, this is global data and the USA may well be safer but at the expense of other places being less safe.
#6
Unfortunately, as with most things societal, mathematics can only outline past trends. It cannot predict the future.
What of the major attacks that are foiled by good work or just plain dumb luck? Or even better, by remorseful jihadi's? The stats are meaningless in a future tense.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/20/2005 8:02
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#7
Who was the author, Hari Seldon?
Seriously, a statistical relationship does not mean a cause and effect relationship.
#9
What about our side of the us versus them relationship? If you took the growth in the lethality of US conventional weapons from 1980 to 2005 and projected it over the next 25 years, by 2030 one Marine battalion with air cover will be able to fight its way from Morocco to Pyongyang successfully and with minimal casualties.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/20/2005 10:46
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#10
"But it is worth bearing in mind that several apparent power-law statistics in social phenomena have turned out, on closer inspection, to have natural cut-off points that preclude very large events" I wonder if folks said something along the same lines about revolution in Russia in 1917 and about Germany during the rise to power of the Nazi in the 1930s. Both did have "natural cut off points" so to speak, but consider the huge amount damage done before then.
#12
I knew this was gonna happen, I just can't tell you until Adlai is elected.
Posted by: Hari S ||
02/20/2005 13:11
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# 7 Math and stat's keep track of the past event's- not a good way to determine the future.
Associated Press- More military Bases in the U.S. to be Closed. Washington- safe for a decade, military bases in the United States face an uncertain future. The Pentagon plans to shut down or scale back some of the 425 facilities, the first such effort to save money in 10 years. The downsizing is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's long-term transformation of the Cold-War-era military. The Pentagon chief argues that closing or consolidating stateside facilities could save $ 7 billion annually and that the money would be better spent improving fighting capabilities amid threats from terrorists.
"It's a good example of good policy and good politics not fitting in the same room together", said Christopher Hellman, an analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington".
I ask ~~ Why is the United States military increasing it's recruitment effort's??(now have recruitment center's open on Sunday). Why are we building 1st class submarines (Jimmy Carter).
Where are our soldier's going to train, work, stay/live etc. DOES THE LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT HAND IS DOING?
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 14:22
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#14
as with most things societal, mathematics can only outline past trends. It cannot predict the future. I beg to differ. It can and does predict the future. Whether that future eventuates depends on whether the underlying dynamic that results in the phenomena changes.
This is a fundamental issue about terrorism and goes to the heart of how to deal with it. If terrorism was a series of unconnected events then the law enforcement model makes sense, i.e. more law enforcement will manage the problem. But the data clearly shows there is an underlying dynamic and arresting/killing terrorists aint gonna work. I don't know if regime change/democratization is going to work either but the evidence says this is the type of solution required.
#15
# 15 phil_b yes and no. you are correct in saying that there is an underlying dynamic and arresting/killing terrorist aint gonna work. I don't know either if democratization is going to work. I have always felt that the world will never achieve homeostasis.
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
02/20/2005 17:52
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#16
#14--Andrea,
Do you know of what you speak? Most military bases that see the heaviest use are largely empty space. Lots of room between buildings. Very old buildings. The bases that should be closed are those which are under-utilised and so close in urban-suburban area that live-fire has become a serious liability issue. And screw local economies. Making the remaining bases cover all the terriroty would be ridiculously easy, but would take thoughtful planning and foresight, things lacking in the budgetary process over the past 200 years.
The remaining bases will need updates . . . like replacing barracks that were built in WWII. Houses that have been in constant use and abuse at least that long. Without having to maintain more bases than are needed we can free up cash that can be used for better things.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/21/2005 0:05
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New light has been shed on the mysterious disappearance of the longest-serving head of South Korea's intelligence agency, last seen in Paris in 1979. According to an unidentified intelligence officer quoted by a South Korean newspaper, the former spy chief was murdered by a French hitman hired by the South Korean government. Kim Hyung-Wook, who served as the chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) from 1963 to 1969, was a one-time favorite and confidant of Park Chung-Hee, South Korea's president who took power in a military coup.
But by the late 1970s an increasingly autocratic Park had fallen out with Kim, who had become an outspoken critic of the South Korean leader's dictatorial rule. Kim vanished mysteriously when he was travelling in Paris alone and was last seen at a casino in the French capital on October 7, 1979. "I've learned that the former KCIA director was murdered by Mafia hired by the KCIA," a former senior intelligence officer was quoted as telling Seoul's Hankyoreh daily Saturday. "Eight KCIA members were involved in this operation and all are still alive," said the unidentified former spy, who worked at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) during former president Kim Dae-Jung's administration of 1998-2003.
He told the left-of-center newspaper there was a "high possibility" that the body of Kim Hyung-Wook was disposed of in an unmarked grave somewhere in France. The disappearance of Kim occurred during one of the murkiest passages in modern Korean history. The KCIA, which has since changed its name to the National Intelligence Agency, was at the time headed by Kim Jae-Kyu, who was himself arrested and executed for the assassination of president Park only a few weeks after the mysterious disappearance of the former spy chief. The death of Park sparked another military coup which brought Chun Doo-Hwan to power in 1980 and paved the way for another military general, Roh Tae-Woo, to take over as his successor in 1987. There have been persistent rumors in South Korea over the years that Kim Hyung-Wook was murdered after a falling out with president Park.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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Long NYT piece. Money quote: "We believe in the right to choose how we live our lives," said Julia Hodgkinson, one of the hunt's leaders. "This government is trying to stop that."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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Retired Marines set up a security watch yesterday around the North Carolina home of accused 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, after a Pakistan-connected Web site depicted a beheading of the Marine Corps officer. "It's a show of solidarity for Pantano," Charles Gittins, his civilian attorney, said of the former Marine volunteers.
Mr. Gittins said Lt. Pantano has been charged unfairly with premeditated murder by the Corps at Camp Lejeune, N.C., arguing that he killed two Iraqi insurgents in self-defense. Lt. Pantano reported the beheading on the Web site to the local sheriff, who is investigating. Mr. Gittins also said the FBI has opened an investigation after a Web site established by the officer's mother was shut down by repeated cyberattacks that might have come from Pakistan. The Web site, www.defendthedefenders.org, was set up by Merry K. Gregory Pantano to explain her son's case and his life story and to raise money for his criminal defense. The site crashed several times Tuesday and yesterday. An FBI official in North Carolina had no immediate comment last night. Mr. Gittins said he spoke with a special agent assigned to the investigation. The attorney said a check of who set up the beheading site shows that it was created in Pakistan. It has an address similar to defendthedefenders.org.
Posted by: Sherry ||
02/20/2005
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#1
Pantano is a scapegoat, set up to catch all of the flack from any collateral damage that might arise from the hair-trigger fighting imposed on Iraq theater troops, by the terrorists. Washington bureaucrats have ordered theater commanders to peddle Pantano as a supposed bad-apple. Marines know that Pantano played by the same rules of engagement as they do. Obviously, the State Department advised the Joint Chiefs that if they want to practice quick-draw tactics, then they will need a patsy, who will be pillorized for alleged excessive force. Marines stand together.
DAMASCUS — The barrage of criticism that Syria suffered after the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has led many Syrians to conclude it is time to withdraw the 15,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon.
This is not yet the opinion of the Syrian government, which has spent the week denying it has any responsibility for Monday's assassination and reaffirming its close ties to 'brotherly' Lebanon. But some intellectuals and people on the street feel the Syrian presence in Lebanon has become too troublesome to sustain. "Syria should withdraw its army and intelligence agents from Lebanon immediately, today rather than tomorrow," said Michel Kilo, a prominent Syrian writer. "The dangers (of this presence) go beyond Lebanon and have come to threaten Syria itself," Kilo warned. "The Syrian people and the Syrian government are the ones suffering as a result."
"We have nothing to do with what happened in Lebanon, and I am confident of that," said a Syrian engineer, Toufic Razzouk. "But I am for the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon according to (Lebanese) demands."
Many Lebanese accuse Syria of heavy-handed interference in their country, calling the shots on affairs big and small. In September, Syria was seen as single-handedly engineering the extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term by three years. The move required an amendment to Lebanon's constitution. It also defied a UN Security Council resolution calling for presidential elections to be held and for Syria to withdraw its troops.
Subsequently, Lebanese opponents of Damascus became bolder in their calls for Syria to leave, and Hariri's assassination produced the widest movement ever seen in Lebanon to get the Syrians out.
Following the assassination, US President George W. Bush recalled his ambassador to Syria. On Thursday, Bush said he would work with his European allies to put pressure on Syria to pull out from Lebanon. Analysts say Syria regards Lebanon as a strategic card in the Arab-Israeli dispute and one that is too important to drop. Syria cannot afford to let Lebanon sign a separate peace deal with Israel, as that would make Syria the only Arab country to remain technically at war with Israel.
Syria backs the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and uses it to put pressure on Israel across its northern border.
It's not like the Syrian military can pressure the Israelis.
In addition, Syria has about 1 million workers in Lebanon. Their remittances are a substantial contribution to the sluggish Syrian economy.
Kilo, the writer, said Syria should find a way to safeguard its security interests in Lebanon, but without a military and intelligence presence. "We need normal diplomatic relations with Lebanon like those between any two countries," Kilo said. Syria has long argued that its historically close ties with Lebanon renders diplomatic relations unnecessary. "(The Syrian government) says we entered Lebanon to render the Lebanese a service. That service has long been accomplished."
But some Syrians support their government's position on Lebanon. George Obeid, the owner of a gadget shop in the Qassaa neighbourhood of Damascus, said Syria is ready to leave Lebanon immediately if the Lebanese government requested it. "We are there to safeguard Lebanese and Syrian security," he said. Â
"Even if they don't want it!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2005
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WHEN future US President George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, The New York Times reported today. The newspaper's website said that in the past several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr Bush's father, had disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them. In those conversations, Mr Bush weighed the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discussed campaign strategy and commented on rivals, the report said.
The president said that his main Republican rival in the 2000 primary campaign, Senator John McCain, "will wear thin", the Times reported. The future president went on to suggest that John Ashcroft would be a "very good Supreme Court pick" or a "fabulous" vice-president, according to the paper. In exchanges about his handling of media questions on his past, Mr Bush appeared to have acknowledged trying marijuana, the Times said.
Mr Wead reportedly said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr Bush as a historic figure, but knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes. The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or respond to their contents, the paper said. It quoted White House spokesman Trent Duffy as saying: "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend." Asked about drug use, Mr Duffy said: "That has been asked and answered so many times there is nothing more to add."
You can read the full NYT article here, hat tip to BigEd.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/20/2005
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#1
Sounds to me like this guy should be prosecuted.
#4
PF: I would suspect that prosecuting him or suing him would give him credibility he does not deserve.
Credibility? This guy taped a private conversation without authorization. I believe that's a felony. Do felons have a lot of credibility? Good question. At the very least, convicting him would subject the earnings from his book to seizure.
"12 states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington."
#7
it depends if these were telephone conversations--or he just had a recorder on him--they have to be over the phone to be illegal--if your wearing a wire with the battery pack under your balls-- that's ok
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/20/2005 6:04
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#8
..After reading the whole thing, this is what I believe the MSM is going to run with:
*He used drugs!!He's no better than Clinton!!
*He's a religious maniac!!
*My God, he wanted to make Ashkkkroft a Supreme Court justice!!
There are probably some others in there, but I think that is what will be slammed down our throats over the next few days. On the other hand, I sure as hell hope that ol' Mr. Wead considered the fact that the Blogosphere will be checking him out with a carrot peeler over the next few days.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/20/2005 9:17
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" the Blogosphere will be checking him out with a carrot peeler over the next few days..."
LOL, Mike. There'll be a "Weadwatch" site up by the end of today.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/20/2005 10:55
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#10
Wead was a pastor and a friend. Neither of which should be taping conversations without the other's knowledge. He's worse than scum
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2005 11:02
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#11
Some blogs are picking this up but the story is not spreading as fast as I thought it would. Wait until Monday radio gets their hands on it though. Between Limbaugh on the radio and O'Reilly on TV this jagoff will be exposed everywhere.
What the HELL is going on here anyway? These were old tapes from 98, right? And Doug Dickwead claims that they weren't supposed to get out? Well, how the fuck DID they get out after all this time, assmunch??! Answer: YOU PLAYED THEM FOR A FUCKING REPORTER.
I'm going to look through this deceitful money-grabbing attempt to sell more books and smear my "friend" article one more time to see if I can find the part where dickWead APOLOGIZES for making the tapes public. I doubt I'll find it.
This dickWead jerk just sold his last book.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
02/20/2005 14:27
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#12
..Just heard part of the tapes on CBS, whose reporter's face was showing barely concealed his glee, and they were harping on the "Bush confessed to using marijuana" meme.
The interesting part was that the voice of President Bush didn't sound very much like him...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/20/2005 18:41
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#13
I got the same feeling, Mike, when I heard a snippet on Fox.
Just imagine how the press would be reacting if these were tapes of Clinton, being sold downriver by some trusted friend. Nothing could surprise me about Clinton so I wouldn't care less, but they'd be going crazy excoriating the leaker.
#15
No, why would snorting coke be any worse than perjury before Congress?
I did it all, at least once - and I mean all of it. We make choices, every single day. Some of my early days, 13-16, I made some extremely stupid choices - I had a lot of help along those lines given who I knew and hung out with. I lucked out when our little family made a major move from Texas to the Mountain states region - the opportunities and enticement changed dramatically. Despite the conventional wisdom which says you can't, I learned from those days and didn't seek out the truly unforgiving stuff, like smack. At age 20, when my ex-wife announced she was pregnant, I had an epiphany. I turned 180 deg and have refused everything except nicotine and caffeine since. I did have 2 beers last Nov 3rd. I'd still have the other 4 in the fridge except that I've pawned 3 of them off on visitors. So there's one lonely Beck's Dark in there - the only German product I've bought in the last 2.5 yrs.
Snorting a little coke doesn't impress me much. Doing it after your High School years tells me he never grew up or took responsibility for his actions, basically, he's learned nothing important in life, despite his political successes. Usually people in his situation only get squared away when John Law slaps on the cuffs. Since he's immune from all that (not literally, but effectively), it's likely he destined to keep on doing stupid things. Such is the way of the world, I guess. And no, I'm not an anti-everything zealot - I learned that doesn't serve any purpose.
#16
Fwiw and perhaps I misheard, but I saw an âexclusiveâ interview this morning with Wead on the weekend edition of Good Morning America. The way I understood him was that he originally had written the portion of his book having to do with W crediting anonymous sources. Then his publisher came back to him and said that the NY Times wouldnât review his book (which I assume is a big deal) unless he named his sources. He agreed to play portions of his tapes to prove his points, but once the reporters discovered the tapes they coerced him to reveal the rest.
This doesnât absolve him for his betrayal of course (on that score I agree with Frank G), but if true then one could only wish for an alternative universe where the NYT went after Eason Jordan or John Kerry with such zeal. Funny how something so clearly âoff-the-recordâ that itâs borderline illegal to release here is fair game, but âoff-the recordâ in Davos is sacrosanct.
For someone willing to pay Real Networks (who I despise), the interview is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=516740&page=1
#18
Wasn't there an incident a while back where some Democratic 'vacationers' (who just happen to have come from some DNC function and just happen to... ) recorded a cell-phone conversation of Newt? I happen to remember because Congressman McDermitt (D-Wa) handed the tape off to the press?
What ever happened to those operatives 'vacationers'?
#3
..The way I understood the article, a delegation is going to India to pitch the PAC, not close the deal. On the other hand, it's a good opportunity to send a message - "If you know - or suspect you know - where OBL is, tell us NOW, or we give the Indians the ability to make you wish you had."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/20/2005 12:52
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A Pakistani academic told a meeting here on Friday that according to a recent survey taken in Balochistan, 65 percent of those polled favoured "armed struggle" for the achievement of their objectives. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, currently doing a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, said this while reading a paper on Balochistan at the Johns Hopkins University. She said only 26.6 percent of the population was literate and civic facilities were lacking. Tracing the history of the province, she said Balochistan alone had resisted the acquisition of its land by the army. She described the present situation is one of "complete chaos and mayhem". She was sceptical about the state claiming that it retained control of the situation. There were fears, she added, of the country's break-up as happened in 1971.Pakistan, she said, is a "troubled state under siege" and hence there was greater use of authority being witnessed. She was quick to add that the Pakistani state had far more resilience today than it had in 1971 and was not "unravelling." Nevertheless, what was happening in Balochistan today could not be ignored because it was going to define the future of Pakistan.
Dr Siddiqa, who is working on a book detailing the commercial and entrepreneurial side of the Pakistan army, warned that Balochistan would prove a "major catalyst" and if the state continued to pretend that all was well and under control, it would be faced with a few surprises. It was her view that because of what was taking place in Balochistan, federal-provincial relations would have to change. The situation could also change the "dynamics of key organisations such as the army". How the top management of the Pakistan army handles the situation, she added, would determine the course of events. How the crisis was managed would affect the future of the federation. The main grouse of the people of Balochistan is, she explained, that their resources are bringing disproportionate benefit to others not to them. There are "multiple faultlines," she said, in Balochistan, some of them real, some of them "created" ones. The Balochis fear that they are going to be turned into a minority. She said secession was a "lesser possibility". She was of the opinion that the "divide and rule" policy followed by the federal government can no longer work.
She said the situation had become more complicated because of the induction of religious and extremist elements. Another factor was the Baloch-Pushtun divide. There were also accusations of foreign intervention and India and Iran had been named as being responsible for that.
Continued on Page 49
An Afghan has avenged the killing of his brother by gunning down three suspected Uzbek terrorists on February 17 in North Waziristan Agency, a senior official said on Saturday. The body of an Afghan national identified by his killers as Wasayel Shah was found on main Miranshah-Bannu Road near Mir Ali town on February 14. A message was also found with the body reading that Shah was spying on "mujahideen" for the United States.
"The Thursday killing of three foreigners in the Kurram Kot area was a revenge by the brother of Wasayel Shah," the official told Daily Times requesting not to be named. There were conflicting reports from the region after the mysterious killing of the three foreigners. One of the reports said that a group of men had opened fire at the foreigners while the second report said the Afghan, who escaped arrest after sheltering in a village, gunned down the three Uzbeks on his own. "It was Wasayel Shah's brother who killed the three foreigners," the official said.
This clarifies yesterday's story.
Keeping track of the plutonium as it passes through the reprocessing system is challenging, because the spent fuel is so radioactive that its plutonium content cannot be measured directly. "You have to rely on the reactor operators' estimates," says Barnaby. As a result, he says, "some accounting error is inevitable". The nuclear industry agrees, and says that this error is typically around 1%; independent experts have argued that it is more like 3-5%.
The 'missing' 30 kilograms of plutonium falls comfortably within this error margin, given that Barnaby estimates that Sellafield reprocesses around 30 tonnes of the radioactive element each year. But Keith Barnham, a physicist at Imperial College in London who has studied the UK nuclear industry's auditing, says that "it's a lot compared with previous years".
Inadequate training, lack of resources, corruption and absence of transparency are responsible for the inability of Pakistan's security forces to effectively counter militant groups engaged in urban violence. According to a report prepared by Christine Fair, for the US Army under a Rand Corporation programme, there is "immense distrust between the police and the policed", while intelligence-sharing arrangements among state and federal law enforcement agencies are "deficient".
She writes that the public perceives the police as an "occupying force" and many police activities have exacerbated the gulf between the people and the police. The cordon and research method used in Karachi, for example, felt humiliating to residents, increased public distrust of the security forces, and provided a system whereby individuals could manipulate the security apparatus to execute vendettas. Fair, now head of the South Asia programme at the US Institute of Peace, believes that Pakistan's experience with urban violence should focus the attention of US policymakers. Pakistan, she points out, is being treated as a capable partner in the war against terrorism. Sectarian violence and other internal security threats only destabilise Pakistan and interact "synergistically" with Pakistan-based militant outfits operating in Indian-held Kashmir and beyond India's hinterland.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2005
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#1
*snicker* And written by an infidel American female, no less.
The two biggest parties in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Jammat-e-Islami (JI) and Jammiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) will contest the upcoming local government elections separately. "Both parties have decided that they will contest the next local body elections from their own platforms," sources in the MMA told Daily Times. The issue was discussed in a recent meeting of the MMA Supreme Council and it was the JUI-F that proposed member parties contest the local elections separately.
"The JI was against this, but the JUI-F was adamant on going solo because it is participating in local body elections for the first time," the sources said. They said the JUI-F expected to cash in on its greater popularity relative to the JI in Balochistan and the NWFP. The JI, they added, wants to secure more seats in Punjab and Sindh. JI leaders proposed that since local government elections would be held on a non-party basis, the MMA could use another name — they proposed "Al-Khidmat" - and contest the elections jointly, but the JUI-F rejected the proposal.
The cockles of my heart are a bit warmer for reading this. Qazi and Fazl going their separate ways can only be a good thing. And Sami's already gotten in his Huff and driven off into the political sunset. This is one of those things Perv does well, and the ghost of Anna Comnena advises me not to bother him while he's working.
Posted by: Fred ||
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ITV News has been given exclusive access to a tape recording in which a radical Muslim cleric talks about flying a plane into Downing Street. Shiekh Omar Bakri Mohammed - who is based in Britain - talks of suicide bombings and says that an attack on No 10 would be reconcilable with the Muslim faith. He also claims that missions of "self sacrifice" and "martyrdom" would be welcomed by Allah.
It is a statement that will horrify and disgust people across Britain, but he made these statements without any fear of prosecution. On the tape he was heard to say: "You want to call us extremist, yes I am extreme. Somebody he fly aeroplane and he decide to fly the aeroplane over 10 Downing Street.... It's another self-sacrifice operation... What people call suicide operations they mean somebody he wear explosives or he carries explosives and he go and he blow it in the building with the people... Martyrdom is what you want. Make sure you have nothing left behind you to think about or cry for and fight in the name of Allah."
#3
Given the chance I would wack this turd in the head and sew him up alive in a pig carcas. I would then place that in a cage with a very few hungry wolves.
In Quetta on Saturday, police arrested at least 27 Sunnis suspected of planning attacks on Shia religious processions. DIG Rafi Pervez Bhatti said the arrested men belonged to two banned extremist groups, both of which were planning assaults. JUI-F leader Maulvi Noor Muhammad said a student had been shot and injured in a police raid on a seminary.
Gee. Golly. I'm so sorry to hear that.
This article starring:
MAULVI NUR MUHAMAD
Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islam Fazl
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Security forces on Sunday stormed an apartment building in southern Russia where a small group of suspected Islamic militants had barricaded themselves, killing all the rebels, police said. A heavy firefight broke out early Sunday morning and security forces then entered the apartment building, said an officer in the Interior Ministry department in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya, where the day-old standoff came to an end. He said it was not yet known how many militants had been in the apartment. The alleged militants had been holed up inside a second-floor apartment in the latest in a series of confrontations between law-enforcement authorities and alleged extremists in the volatile North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya.
Lebanon's embattled government said yesterday that it wanted an explanation from the United Nations of its decision to appoint a commission of inquiry into the assassination of former premier 
First words in the 
Assassins who killed 
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- United Nations refugee chief 
But, getting on for two years later, we're in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a "French bank"— but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais's holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN's banker for its Iraqi "humanitarian"? program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam's favourite oilman.
Although their actions have slipped largely under the radar screen due to America's continuing duties in the War on Terror and in Iraq, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his minions have initiated an aggressively anti-American campaign in recent months that poses a direct threat to the security of the United States. 
Some of the money stolen in December during a Northern Ireland bank heist worth $50 million was found in the restrooms of a Belfast country club run by police, Northern Ireland authorities said Saturday. Police said currency worth $95,000 was abandoned Friday in five packages and discovered after an anonymous tipster called the police-complaints authority in the British territory. In a statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said they suspected that whoever planted the money in the New Forge country club did so "in an effort to distract the police from investigating the Northern Bank robbery." A detective in Belfast, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the money was unlikely to produce any leads in the hunt for the alleged Irish Republican Army gang responsible for the Dec. 20 heist - the biggest cash heist in history.
Officials at the highest levels in Syria and Lebanon organized the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister 
Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced a resolution yesterday calling on President Bush to work to suspend Russia's membership in the G-8 group of leading industrial democracies until Russian President Vladimir Putin proves his commitment to democracy. "President Putin's assault on democracy in Russia violates the spirit of the industrialized democracies and the letter of Russia's obligations to the Group of Eight," said Mr. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat. "We must openly confront anti-democratic backsliding in Russia for the sake of all those who look to the United States as a beacon of freedom."
GEORGE Bush has banned 
Russian police have laid siege to an apartment block in the country's turbulent south, saying militants fighting for the independence of Chechnya are holed up inside, Russian media report. Police were talking with the militants in the centre of the Caucasus city of Nalchik in the Kabardino-Balkariya region, about 150km west of Chechnya, Interfax news agency said on Saturday. "We are talking about members of illegal armed formations which took part in different terror acts and military actions on the territory of Chechnya," Interfax quoted Kabardino-Balkariya Prosecutor General Yuri Ketov as saying.
Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession Saturday in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites marched and lashed themselves with chains in ritual mourning of the 7th century death of a leader of their Muslim sect. Ninety-one people have been killed in violence in the past two days.
The Senate has begun taking a harder look at U.S. intelligence on nuclear threats facing the United States, including revelations of missing nuclear materials in Russia, congressional officials said on Friday. The Republican-led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which held a closed-door hearing on nuclear issues earlier this month, has come to view nuclear proliferation as a threat that overshadows other dangers posed by terrorist groups. "We're going to be following it very, very closely," said Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate oversight panel. He said the nuclear threat against the United States was posed "not just from North Korea, but most dangerously from unaccounted for weapons that could be black-marketed to terrorists."
The 
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has sacked Information Minister 
Kuwaiti police Saturday arrested two men wanted for allegedly being connected to a terror group planning to attack Americans and Kuwaiti security forces, an Interior Ministry official said. The men surrendered peacefully in a Kuwait City suburb, the official said on condition of anonymity. He would not identify them except to say they were Kuwaitis. Since Jan. 10, four policemen and eight suspected terrorists have been killed in clashes around the country. A group of Muslim extremists is suspected of planning to attack American civilians living in Kuwait and members of the U.S. military stationed here or on their way to Iraq. Kuwait's state security apparatus also was a target, authorities said. The alleged ringleader of the group, Amer al-Enezi, died of a heart attack while in custody, authorities said.
The United States and Germany are "well on the way" to repairing their breach over Iraq, a top German diplomat said Saturday ahead of this week's talks between President Bush and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Asked if things were back to the level before the Iraq crisis, Karsten Voigt, the government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations, told The Associated Press, "we are well on the way there." "If one speaks of a new beginning, then one speaks of a positive start with a goal," Voight said. "And the goal is exactly the level that you described." He pointed to U.S.-German cooperation in forgiving Iraq's debts, training new Iraqi security officers and stabilizing Afghanistan, where Germany has contributed 2,500 soldiers to a NATO security force. Schroeder also said in comments released Saturday that he welcomed Bush's readiness for improved trans-Atlantic cooperation and was looking forward to discussions with the U.S. president.
Egypt said Saturday it was putting off a U.S-backed conference originally scheduled next month to discuss plans for political reforms in the Middle East, apparently over a dispute over the detention of a prominent opposition leader. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abould Gheit said the conference scheduled for March 3 will be postponed indefinitely. "The conference is postponed and a new date will be set after consultations with the countries invited," Aboul Gheit said in a statement.
Two Cabinet ministers on Saturday angrily accused French President Jacques Chirac of supporting the Lebanese opposition's effort to unseat the pro-Syrian government, with one minister saying Chirac was leading the battle. The harsh criticism followed Chirac's recent visit to Beirut, where he visited the family of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a longtime friend. Hariri died with 16 others in a massive bombing in Beirut on Monday. Opposition leaders and Hariri's supporters have blamed the Lebanese and Syrian governments for the assassination. Both governments deny involvement, and the Lebanese government has accused the opposition of exploiting Hariri's slaying to reap political gains ahead of parliamentary elections expected by May. A statement issued by Hariri's family following Chirac's visit Wednesday said the French president was in Lebanon on private visit to pay his condolences. He did not meet any Lebanese officials, the statement said.
Iraqi security forces on Saturday arrested the alleged commander of an insurgent cell close to Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, police said. "Early this morning Iraqi security forces assisted by US forces raided the house of 
Retired Marines set up a security watch yesterday around the North Carolina home of accused 2nd Lt. 
A Pakistani academic told a meeting here on Friday that according to a recent survey taken in Balochistan, 65 percent of those polled favoured "armed struggle" for the achievement of their objectives. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, currently doing a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, said this while reading a paper on Balochistan at the Johns Hopkins University. She said only 26.6 percent of the population was literate and civic facilities were lacking. Tracing the history of the province, she said Balochistan alone had resisted the acquisition of its land by the army. She described the present situation is one of "complete chaos and mayhem". She was sceptical about the state claiming that it retained control of the situation. There were fears, she added, of the country's break-up as happened in 1971.Pakistan, she said, is a "troubled state under siege" and hence there was greater use of authority being witnessed. She was quick to add that the Pakistani state had far more resilience today than it had in 1971 and was not "unravelling." Nevertheless, what was happening in Balochistan today could not be ignored because it was going to define the future of Pakistan.
An Afghan has avenged the killing of his brother by gunning down three suspected Uzbek terrorists on February 17 in North Waziristan Agency, a senior official said on Saturday. The body of an Afghan national identified by his killers as Wasayel Shah was found on main Miranshah-Bannu Road near Mir Ali town on February 14. A message was also found with the body reading that Shah was spying on "mujahideen" for the United States. 
Inadequate training, lack of resources, corruption and absence of transparency are responsible for the inability of Pakistan's security forces to effectively counter militant groups engaged in urban violence. According to a report prepared by Christine Fair, for the US Army under a Rand Corporation programme, there is "immense distrust between the police and the policed", while intelligence-sharing arrangements among state and federal law enforcement agencies are "deficient". 
The two biggest parties in the 
ITV News has been given exclusive access to a tape recording in which a radical Muslim cleric talks about flying a plane into Downing Street. Shiekh 
In Quetta on Saturday, police arrested at least 27 Sunnis suspected of planning attacks on Shia religious processions. DIG Rafi Pervez Bhatti said the arrested men belonged to two banned extremist groups, both of which were planning assaults. JUI-F leader 
