He hasn't found an elevator shaft for his uncle yet?
Benon Sevan, who used to oversee Iraq's Oil-for-Food program, wants more time to respond to allegations that he improperly steered oil contracts to certain companies, the United Nations said Wednesday. Sevan failed to meet Wednesday's 5 p.m. EST deadline after being given two weeks to answer the charges against him. Instead, he sent a letter "requesting an extension before replying," U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "That request is being considered." Sevan was recently suspended by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan following an interim report from former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was commissioned to head up the investigation into the Oil-for-Food scandal. Sevan was suspended for recommending a friend's oil company for the contracts. Joseph Stephanides, head of the U.N. Security Council Affairs Division, also was accused of misconduct by Volcker's committee. Stephanides responded to the charges against him and his reply will be reviewed before any action is taken, Dujarric said. Annan could decide to strip Sevan of his diplomatic immunity and that, in turn, could open the door for U.S. authorities to file criminal charges against him.
I doubt he will, Sevan knows too much.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., recently said Sevan should have that immunity taken away so that he can face congressional investigators and be prosecuted for his alleged criminal activities. Coleman's Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee recently announced that it had acquired new Iraqi documents that show that Sevan made as much as $1.2 million through oil deals with Saddam Hussein's government. Sevan has been identified in Iraqi Oil Ministry documents as having participated in a scheme by Saddam to issue vouchers to people that let them profit from illicit sales of Iraqi oil. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who has been investigating financial relationships within the Oil-for-Food program, also plans to probe Sevan's activities.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
9:59:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Annan could decide to strip Sevan of his diplomatic immunity"
That is a lot of power - especially to be in the hands of a self-serving coward.
The equation seems simple:
a) Sevan's toast if it will save Kofi
b) Sevan's saved if he can toast Kofi
Hundreds of Iraqi students demonstrated Wednesday to protest a government decision to extend the weekend to include Saturday, denouncing the scheme as a "Zionist plot".
Irate high school students marched through Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, denouncing outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision to extend the weekend from the traditional Islamic holy day of Friday to include Saturday.
"We don't want Saturday as it is a Jewish holiday," the crowd chanted.
Saturday is the weekly Jewish day of rest, the Sabbath, when all forms of work and business are barred for observant Jews.
But it is also a day off, if not a holy day, in most places around the world -- including in many Arab countries where banks and government offices remain closed.
"The decision to include Saturday as a rest day is the start of Zionist plans in Iraq," read a banner at the demonstration, organised by the Baquba Students' Union.
Students carrying Iraqi flags also chanted: "Let Muslims here raise their hands: we don't want holiday on Saturday."
While there was reportedly a similar demonstration in the town of Ramadi on Tuesday, participants did not reject outright the option of having another day off during the week -- just as long as it isn't Saturday.
"We organised this demonstration in protest at considering Saturday a holiday. We prefer it to be Thursday. Saturday is a holiday for Jews and we are Muslims and reject that decision," said high-school student Mohammed Abbas, 17.
Allawi's government announced the doubling of weekend leisure time earlier this month, adding that the move did not affect the private sector.
The cabinet stressed at the time that government employees would have to work longer days during the week in order to benefit from the Saturday bonus.
Wednesday's demonstration lasted an hour and a half and ended after protestors had voiced their complaint outside the governor's office.
I love it. I love it because, well, because it's just so Arab, lol!
The Saudis practice the Thurs / Fri "weekend". The net result, on a business level, is that they have only 3 business days / week when they overlap with the West, and only a few hours per day on those days with the US, within reason. More hours with Europe, of course.
It suits the Saudis fine - another set of excuses available for why shit doesn't get done.
If Syria killed Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister and mastermind of its revival after the civil war, it must be judged an act of political suicide. Syria is already under great international pressure from the US, France and Israel. To kill Hariri at this critical moment would be to destroy Syria's reputation once and for all and hand its enemies a weapon with which to deliver the blow that could finally destabilise the Damascus regime, and even possibly bring it down. political suicide. yeah. right. syria is a masterful geopolitical chess player. sees ten moves ahead. would never, ever have considered killing Hariri. nope. never.
That's if it's pinned on Syria, of course. My guess is that there's an active witness elimination program underway. Check for auto accidents and missing persons. And look for new faces in Mosul...
So attributing responsibility for the murder to Syria is implausible. The murder is more likely to be the work of one of its many enemies.
Actually not. Syria's got its wet work people all over Lebanon — it's one of the things the Lebanese have been bitching about. I'd call them the first of many suspects. Just saying it would have been stoopid for them to do it doesn't eliminate them.
This is not to deny that Syria has made grave mistakes in Lebanon. Its military intelligence apparatus has interfered far too much in Lebanese affairs. A big mistake was to insist on changing the Lebanese constitution to extend the mandate of President Emile Lahoud - known for his absolute allegiance to Syria - for a further three years. Syria's military intelligence chief in Lebanon, General Rustum Ghazalah, was reported to have threatened and insulted Hariri to force him to accept the extension. This caused great exasperation among all communities in Lebanon. Hariri resigned as prime minister in protest. This is not to deny that Syria has made grave mistakes in Lebanon. Wait. didn't we just say that they never commit political suicide? I'm confused now.
Syria appears to have recognised its mistake. President Bashar al-Assad last week sacked General Hassan Khalil, head of military intelligence, and replaced him with his own brother-in-law, General Asaf Shawkat. A purge of the military intelligence apparatus in Lebanon is expected to follow. Is it me or doesn't it seem just a tad suspicious that this guy was fired right after Hariri was blowed up? Does the term "scapegoat" mean anything to anybody? Well, apparently not to al-guardian.
It remains to be seen whether this will calm Syria's opponents in Lebanon, who have declared a "democratic and peaceful intifada for independence" - in other words, a campaign of passive resistance to drive Syria out.
I doubt it greatly. If it does, it'll be one of the very few times in history that naming your brother-in-law head of military intelligence ever mollified anyone.
Hariri was not a diehard enemy of Syria. For 10 of the past 12 years he served as Lebanon's prime minister under Syria's aegis. A few days before his murder on February 14 he held a meeting with Syria's deputy foreign minister, Walid Muallim. They were reported to have discussed a forthcoming visit by Hariri to Damascus. Hariri had not officially joined the opposition in Lebanon, but was thought to be attempting to mediate between Syria and the opposition. So, Hariri was warming up to make Syria his #1 enemy. Therefore, it stands to reason who did it. Doesn't it? Not to al-guardian, apparently
If Syria did not kill Hariri, who could have?
We still haven't eliminated Syria as a suspect. But let's go over the other candidates...
There is no shortage of potential candidates, including far-right Christians, anxious to rouse opinion against Syria and expel it from Lebanon; Islamist extremists who have not forgiven Syria its repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 80s; and, of course, Israel. of course.
I'm not sure what Syria's repression of the Moose limb Brotherhood has to do with Hariri. I suppose there's still a Phalangist movement in Lebanon, but they're not a significant power bloc anymore, and both Christians and Sunnis seem to have united in mourning his passing.
Israel's ambition has long been to weaken Syria, sever its strategic alliance with Iran and destroy Hizbullah. Israel has great experience at "targeted assassinations" - not only in the Palestinian territories but across the Middle East. Over the years, it has sent hit teams to kill opponents in Beirut, Tunis, Malta, Amman and Damascus. so Israel killed opponents. seems assad, not hariri would be on the list.
Nobody's mentioned Hezbollah as a suspect yet. I wonder why?
Syria, Hizbullah and Iran have stood up against US and Israeli hegemony over the region. Syria continues to demand that Israel return the Golan Heights, seized in 1967. Damascus will not allow Lebanon to conclude a separate peace with Israel unless its own claim is also addressed. Hizbullah, in turn, is possibly the only Arab force to have inflicted a defeat on Israel. Its guerrillas forced Israel out of south Lebanon after a 22-year occupation. Hizbullah continues to be a big irritant to Israel because it has acquired a deterrent capability. Israel can no longer attack Lebanon with impunity - as it did for decades - without risking a riposte from Hizbullah rockets.
The riposte from Hizbullah rockets is likely to be ineffective, while Israel's air force is perfectly capable, as they've demonstrated, of booming Damascus. It would be much more to Israel's advantage to rub out Nasrallah or Mullah Fudlullah than Hariri.
Iran's nuclear programme threatens to break Israel's regional monopoly of weapons of mass destruction, which is the main reason it is under immense pressure to abandon uranium enrichment.
Something which, again, has naught to do with Hariri. The writer is reaching here...
The US and Israel have been trying to rally international support against Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has condemned Iran as a prime sponsor of international terror. Syria has been condemned as a "destabilising" force in the region, and is in the dock because of Hariri's assassination. The US and Israel have also been urging European governments to declare Hizbullah a "terrorist organisation". France has its own quarrel with Syria, and President Jacques Chirac is outraged at the murder of his close friend Hariri, but Paris does not consider Hizbullah a terrorist organisation. For France, and for the vast majority of Arabs, Hizbullah is a national liberation movement as well as a big political actor in Lebanon. There is far more to this crisis than a struggle between rival clans in Lebanon. this is as bad a conspiracy nutcase as I've ever seen. except this isn't simply on some internet website or the arab media. the unvarnished, biased vitriol this article spews is disgusting. therefore, so is the writer.
I also notice that al-Guardian didn't suggest once that al-Qaeda dunnit.
Posted by: PlanetDan ||
02/24/2005
9:42:49 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Daniel Pipes reviews this column's author Patrick Seale's book Assad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East. http://www.danielpipes.org/article/31
Seale is a talented political writer whose first book, The Struggle for Syria (1965) remains a minor classic of Middle East studies. All the more pity, then, that he sold out to become the Syrian regime's leading apologist in the West. Passages in Asad of Syria recall the old talent, for Seale can write deftly about the subject of his biography, Hafiz al-Asad, as well as the whole course of Syrian history. Also, Seale turns up much new information about Asad's life before he became president of Syria in 1970.
But two-thirds of the book deals with events since 1970, and here Seale provides not much new information and few insights. He paints a picture of Asad so hagiographic, the reader can only hope it was as painful for Seale to write as it is to read. Seale obsequiously swallows every lie put out by the hacks in Damascus, accepting even the claim that Nizar al-Hindawi, the man who tried to blow up an El Al plane in 1986, was a double agent controlled by Israel. With cruel audacity, he deems Asad-who in 1982 called out the air force to bomb the Syrian city of Hama, killing tens of thousands-a man who seems to "abhor violent confrontations." Similarly, he presents Asad, the Arab ruler with the greatest number of Arab enemies, as a "statesman" who best "represents the Arabs' aspirations to be masters of their own destiny."
Why does a university press consent to publish so obvious a whitewash? Was it naive or complicit? California is hardly the first university press to endorse Middle East thugs (Columbia University Press in recent years has made a sub-specialty of lauding the PLO), but Asad of Syria is perhaps the most disgraceful book yet to appear under the imprimatur of a major scholarly house.
Posted by: ed ||
02/24/2005 10:14
Comments ||
Top||
#3
To kill Hariri at this critical moment would be to destroy Syriaâs reputation once and for all and hand its enemies a weapon with which to deliver the blow that could finally destabilise the Damascus regime, and even possibly bring it down.
Unless they were able to frame someone else for Hariri's death, something al-G is trying to help with.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/24/2005 11:46
Comments ||
Top||
#4
What a crock. I've been looking for a deeper meaning since Chirac seems to creepily be assisting us and I actually think there must be more to this story.
But even though I am hungry for scraps, the only thing Al Guardain left me with was a feeling that someone is desperately trying to get the nut-bag crowd to point away from Syria, Hezbollah, Al Q, by carelessly blaming their usual suspects, "far right Christians" and of course, Joos. But apparently even Al Guardian realized saying there were plenty of suspects to go around, but then just blaming the Christians and Joos was just a bit too obvious, even for their faithful, so to come up with a third to round out their "plenty of other suspects" they create another suspect almost cute in it's "complexity" - Islamists. But not Islamists because they are, you know, Islamists .... but because Syria was so mean to them, repressing the Muslim Brotherhood.
Poor Syria. Working so hard to put down the Islamist threat and doing so well until the Joos and Americans messed things up for them by killing Harari. If it hadn't happened they could all still be flying kites in their beautiful suburbs.
What I like about this is that if the Al Guardian puppets are being forced to grovel with such drivel as this, then it's clear that whoever killed Harari understands they are up the creek without a paddle.
Chishtian Civil Judge Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti on Wednesday sentenced Bashir Masih, 30, to seven years rigorous imprisonment on charges of desecrating the Quran. Bashir can file an appeal against the judgement within 30 days in the Lahore High Court. A court official alleged that Bashir Masih was a magician cum exorcist and police had caught him tearing a copy of the Quran in Chak No 109/Fateh in Bahawalnagar district last year. Bashir was tried under Section 295-B of the Blasphemy Law. The convict confessed to the crime, saying tearing the Quran was part of the magic he was doing.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/24/2005
9:38:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm confused. Where's the "Christian" part, other than in the headline?
#6
He was showing off that trick with a single hair "magically" pulling the torn paper.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/24/2005 12:08
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I am not kidding... C-17s loaded with toliet paper with korans printed on it and dumped over the Pak frontier regions will keep hundreds of thousands busy saving each and every floating sheet instead of protecting Osama.
An Iranian journalist was jailed for 14 years on charges ranging from espionage to insulting the country's leaders in an unusually heavy sentence in Iran, where tens of journalists have been tried in recent years.
Rights activists said on Tuesday that Arash Sigarchi, 28, was convicted by the Revolutionary Court in the Caspian province of Gilan in northern Iran.
Sigarchi, a newspaper editor in Gilan who also wrote an Internet journal or "weblog," was arrested last month after responding to a summons from the Intelligence Ministry.
"In total, he has been given 14 years in prison," Mohammad Saifzadeh, a member of Centre for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran told Reuters by telephone.
Sigarchi's family has asked Saifzadeh and Iran's 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi to represent him in an appeal.
"I have compiled almost 12 pages of wrongdoings in the process of his arrest, interrogations and detention," Saifzadeh said. "His charges are political and journalistic and he should have been tried by a public court in the presence of a jury."
Iran's judiciary has closed down more than 100 liberal publications in the past five years and jailed many journalists, earning Iran the reputation as the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East, according to rights groups.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Sigarchi had been updating a weblog in which he had spoken out about the arrest of more than 20 Internet journalists, technicians and webbloggers late last year.
Most of that group have subsequently been released, although several complained of being tortured and forced to write false confessions while in detention.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/24/2005
9:33:14 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I posted this in the wrong place :
Nyaah nyaah nyaah - Come and get me Magic Mullahs - If you dare!
Three little mullahs from Qom are we,
Clueless as ayatollahs can be,
Filled to the brim with zealots glee,
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Maiming is a source of fun. (Chuckle)
Nobody's safe, for we care for none! (Chuckle)
Life is a joke that's just begun! (Chuckle)
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs who, all unwary,
Come from Islamist seminary,
Filled with its genius tutelary--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
One mullah with a child bride, Yum-Yum--
Two little mullahs in attendance come--
Three little mullahs is the total sum.
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
From three little mullahs take one away.
Two little mullahs remain, and they--
Won't have to wait very long, they say--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs watch, all wary,
Come from Islamist seminary,
Filled with its genius tutelary--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
He's toast. He probably knows it. In his condition, he's probably looking forward to it.
Pope John Paul II was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance Thursday suffering fever and congestion from a relapse of the flu, the Vatican said. The 84-year-old pontiff had the same symptoms of the breathing crisis that sent him to Gemelli Polyclinic on Feb. 1, a Vatican official said on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, the pope made his longest public appearance since being discharged from the clinic two weeks ago. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope was taken to the Rome hospital for "necessary specialized assistance and further tests." He was taken by ambulance at 10:45 a.m., officials said.
Vatican officials played down the seriousness of the hospitalization, saying a patient of the pope's age is always at risk from the flu. The pope also has Parkinson's disease and crippling knee and hip ailments. But aides said on condition of anonymity that the pope had a fever, congestion and had suffered a relapse of breathing problems. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that the pope arrived conscious at Gemelli in a private ambulance. He was taken inside in a stretcher, the report said, and quoted people who saw him enter the hospital as saying his face looked "quite relaxed." The news agency said he did not need a tube inserted into his windpipe to assist breathing.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
02/24/2005
9:14:53 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...This does not bode well for His Holiness. I hope if the worst happens, it is without suffering.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/24/2005 22:18
Comments ||
Top||
This is the Executive Summary of country by country studies of the European economy and the challenges each faces. Created by the Stockholm Network a consulting group based in London, this was found at Eursoc. Interesting reading.
The historic rapprochement that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall fifteen years ago saw eight former Communist countries (plus Malta and Cyprus) become members of the European Union —the world's largest capitalist club —in 2004. Unsurprisingly, accession has brought with it significant challenges for both the new members and the EU-15. For the former, greater access to European markets is mitigated by constant calls for tax harmonisation, and their comparative workforce advantage is ever more encumbered by regulation and prohibitive 'minimum standards'. These are sources of great friction between the competing member states, as the previously sheltered economies of 'Old Europe' struggle to compete with efficient foreign competitors.
The rapid ageing of Europe's population over the next few decades is likely to exacerbate these tensions. Current budget deficits and levels of national debt will appear insignificant as the cost of maintaining the continent's bountiful welfare system become increasingly apparent. Economic growth and productivity will level off and begin to decline as an ageing workforce is unable to replace itself. Commensurately, government programmes that rely on current revenue streams will fail to meet the ever increasing demand for healthcare and social security. As conditions worsen, socialism and protectionism will seem all the more appealing to the public, and government's populist instinct to centralise power will only strengthen.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005
9:14:26 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
Three people have been killed in clashes between Shia and Sunni Muslims in a northern Nigerian city. Fighting broke out when a Shia group attacked Sunnis at a mosque in the city of Sokoto, in front of the Sultan of Sokoto's palace. Police say they made several arrests after the violence, which follows the killing of a Shia last weekend. The BBC's Ibrahim Dosara in Sokoto says Shia are a minority among the predominantly Sunni population. Nigeria's 130 million people are roughly equally divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Correspondents say that poverty drives rival groups to compete for scarce resources, such as land.
Leaving out the real reason, Sunnis and Shia don't play well together
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
9:04:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Religion of Peace, right Gentle?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 10:09
Comments ||
Top||
The government on Wednesday launched a crackdown against radical Islamists, banning two organisations for their alleged involvement in anarchic and subversive activities across the country, and arresting an alleged extremist leader. The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the ban on Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Jamaatul Mujaheedin hours after the police arrested a professor of Rajshahi University, Dr Asadullah al-Ghalib, for instigating violence in the name of Islam.
The police also conducted raids in different parts of the northern region to arrest Siddiqul Islam, popularly known as Bangla Bhai, who is the linchpin of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh. 'The government is firm to take action against anyone involved in destroying peace and discipline, and instigating anarchic activities in the name of any organisation,' said a press note issued Wednesday by the home ministry. 'The two banned organisations have been engaged in killing, dacoity, bomb attacks, issuing threats and other subversive activities in different parts of the country, endangering the lives of the common people and destroying their property,' the press note said.
Wonder what they did to fall out of favor?
The government's admission of the existence of radical Islamist outfits in the country comes at a time when quarters at home and abroad — the media in particular — have long been warning of their existence and motives.Foreign lenders and development partners have been the latest to express 'grave concern' over the emergence of Islamist outfits in Bangladesh. Sources in the ruling party said Wednesday's admission and action against radical Islamists came following mounting pressure from international lenders who are currently meeting in Washington DC to review their aid policy towards Bangladesh.
Ahhh... That's it. Crack down or the money flow turns off. That means the crackdown won't last long...
The government press note, however, mentioned as a reason for the ban order the recent attacks on socio-cultural and non-governmental organisations including the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and the Grameen Bank in the northern part of the country. The Islamist outfits have continued to threaten such attacks. Following the latest bout of attacks, the government launched a countrywide police-drive and has nabbed as many as 50 alleged extremists in the last couple of days, including Wednesday's arrest of Ghalib, a professor of Arabic at Rajshahi University. Ghalib's arrest came following many of the arrested people naming him as their leader. The press note said Ghalib has been 'trying to create instability in the country exploiting religious sentiments and distracting a group of youths'. Expressing the government's commitment to handle 'these elements' with an iron hand, the press note said, 'Such activities will not be tolerated.'
I'll believe that when he's dangling from a rope.
Mentioning the recent attacks on different organisations, the press note said the government has strengthened police activities across the county. A number of people were caught red-handed in Bogra, Jaipurhat, Sirajganj, Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Moulavibazar, Gopalganj, Dhamrai and Savar, it said. The press note said that the police operations also recovered explosive items and objectionable books and documents. From the confession of some of the arrested people, it was known that they are all active members of the JMJB or the Jamaatul Mujaheedin. 'They have engaged in such criminal activities to materialise their objectives. In their identical confessional statements, they disclosed Siddiqul Islam alias Bagla Bhai and Rajshahi University teacher Ghalib as their leaders,' the press note added.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
8:59:49 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
FYI: "dacoity" noun (pl. dacoities) a violent robbery committed by dacoits in India or Burma (Myanmar).
Literally, those who have an irrational fear of Islamicists. Not many of those around, I think. Most fear of Islamists is totally rational, given current circumstances.
Long article at the link about the Islamic Saudi Academy of Alexandria, Virginia and their illustrious alumni and staff. In addition to Ali arrested for a plot to assasinate our president, two students were arrested in Israel for suspicion of being terrorists. The accountant, Ismail Elbarasse, a high ranking Hamas operative and financier, was arrested for casing American bridges. Read the above article for details and an ever expanding cast of characters. Apt Pupil ( Ahmed Omar Abu Ali)
In addition Frontpage profiled Wahhabi funding two years ago and the Islamic Saudi Academy was prominently mentioned: The Wahhabi Fifth Column
The most malleable minds belong to children. An estimated 30,000 of them attend Saudi-funded Wahhabi day schools.
In America, parochial schools have long been noted for their high educational standards. But Wahhabi schools do not emulate other American church-based nativities of faith and knowledge; nor do they follow the American model of rigorous intellectual inquiry.
The Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Northern Virginia forthrightly states that even though it exists on U.S. soil, it is "subject to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
Students at ISA are not required to study U.S. history or government. They do, however, receive instruction in Wahhabism.
Outsiders are not permitted to observe Wahhabism lessons or any other classes at ISA. But early this year, students at the academy told two Washington Post reporters some of the things they learn at school. Among other things, students discover the intricacies of Judgment Day.
One event on that formidable day will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews. The cowardly Jews will seek refuge behind trees. Much like the trees in the forest scene from the Wizard of Oz, these trees will become animated and aggressive. They will call out to the righteous: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him."
Students also said they are taught "it is better to shun and even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims." Furthermore, students learn, it is okay to hurt or steal from a non-Muslim.
The Saudi-supplied textbooks at this and other Wahhabi schools state that Muslims are obliged to consider all infidels the enemy. Certain enemies are not even acknowledged in geography class. Wahhabi schools in America are notorious for doctoring maps of the Middle East, and hanging them in classrooms - with Israel blotted out.
Such is the curriculum of education-minded Saudis.
Close the madrassas and deport the imams, staff, students and their families.
And their little dogs, too.
Posted by: ed ||
02/24/2005
8:00:29 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There must be some set of laws Virginia can find to shut this "academy" down. If you can prove they teach a sort of hate, you could legally close the school.
#3
Shellback the international schools in Saudi have to provide all sorts of info re curriculum, etc to Saudis. Virginia could do same unless the ISA have diplomatic immunity. Am I right, folks?
Posted by: chicago mike ||
02/24/2005 15:31
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sounds like a nice place for a fire...a big fire.
#5
screw the fire - tell em to pack up and GTFO - and no more Saoodi funding of their pernicious little brand of hate or we take the oil. F*&k emn
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 17:21
Comments ||
Top||
#6
The head of the ISA has diplomadic immunity: The schoolâs director has diplomatic status, and ISA reports that it is âsubject to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.â The schoolâs students learn the same curriculum as their counterparts within the kingdom.
What pisses me off is that some of the 30,000, like Ali, are immigrants or US citizens. It has been shown that what they learn, with the acquiescence of the US govenment, is a direct threat to Americans. Allah's little soldiers, trained in the good ole USA. The threat will only grow as the number of graduates increase. Close the madrassas and deport them.
Posted by: ed ||
02/24/2005 17:43
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I can't speak for Virginia, but here in Pennsylvania to graduate from a public or parochial high school you have to have four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, etc. It sounds to me like the Virginia Department of Education needs some attitude adjustment.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 19:58
Comments ||
Top||
#8
sounds like foreign funding of American schools (with associated curricula) should end. Make em home school the little hatesponges. At worst, it's not cost-efficient for their Arab masters
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 20:05
Comments ||
Top||
Military trains students to use rifles; study guerilla tactics in the case of an external threat to Venezuelan national sovereignty Remember the assasination plot of a few days ago? That was the exuse to arm his supporters a la Cuba style. It is the same excuse Fidel used: the yankees are coming, the yankees are coming! Meanwhile, Venezuelans will have armed thugs to supress any dissenting voice for decades to come. VHeadline commentarist Carlos Herrera writes:
The threat of intervention in Venezuela's sovereign affairs ... either directly from the US beach head in Latin America represented by Plan Colombia or direct intervention using US troops, cruise missiles, smart bombs etc., or the constant stream of distorted statements from US State Department spokesmen laying the ground to "prove" that Chavez is consorting with terrorists are all elements of the growing US hostility from the government of George W. Bush towards the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its sovereign people. The latter strategy has been implemented with the connivance of corporate US media outlets such as Fox News, CNN en español and the help of deluded extreme right-wing journalists such as Mary Anastasia O'Grady writing in the Wall Street Journal, Michael Rowan in various Caracas-based publications such as El Universal and The Daily Journal, Phil Gunson operating out of Miami ... as well as other paid hacks.
Posted by: TMH ||
02/24/2005
7:58:45 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Then give him what he wants. Off him with a midnight JDAM through the bedroom window. Whatever "martyr" crap will come will be less trouble than what this jerk would do in the years to come.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/24/2005 9:01
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Laurance of the rats,
From your mouth to God's ears!
this destabilization policy with a view to invasion or assassination of Chavez, then the consequences could be disastrous on a long, long term basis, as described in my article published yesterday.
Yeah, having a JDAM shoved up your ass and ignighted can really ruin your day. It will be disastrous allright for Chivez and his bootlickers like this guy.
#4
Pure evil. Venezuela will join Cuba. It may even come to resemble N. Korea. The bitter part is that Chavez appears to have really won the referendum. The opposition in Venezueala made a critical mistake with the attempted coup. But they had many years and a lot of oil but failed to develop Venzueala economically and now just enough of the poor idolize Chavez to make him untouchable. It will be a long time before the majority of Venezuealans come to recognize the folly and it will be too late. Sucks for my Venezuealan friends who hate Chavez. The middle class will be destroyed.
Posted by: Prince Abdullah ||
02/24/2005 10:31
Comments ||
Top||
#5
The fact that it was Jimmy Carter that certified the referendum as free and fair proves to me that it was not.
You are correct. But the jerk does have certain degree (not enough to have won the referendum without recurring to fraud) of support among the poor for the same reasons that certain minorities here support the Democratic Party: always the promise of the government solving their problems and the encouragement of blaming their poverty as being caused by somebody else's "richness".
#11
It seems that the U.S. alone sent 400,000 AK-47s to Afghanistan for fighting the Soviets. Chavez doesn't stand a chance.
http://www.nisat.org/database_info/country.asp?Key=3
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 14:38
Comments ||
Top||
#12
North Korea did the same kind of thing at one point early on, but never issued any bullets, for fear of a real People's Revolution. No doubt Chavez is of a similar mind. Bombast, not a real threat.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 17:30
Comments ||
Top||
#15
No, no - include batteries with the Stingers. Just not the type of batteries that the Stingers uses : I am thinking lots of AAA batteries to power Walkmans and boomboxes.
Diesel pollution is responsible for more deaths than drunk drivers and homicides, according to a new study that estimates how many premature deaths, asthma attacks and heart attacks are caused by diesel pollution in every U.S. county. Nationwide, diesel pollution causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, including 475 in Massachusetts and 81 in Middlesex County, robbing those who die of an average of 14 years of their lives, according to the report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force. Residents in nearby Suffolk County suffer the third highest risk of exposure to diesel pollution in the nation, researchers found.
The numbers point to a failure of New England states to curb emissions, said Michael Stoddard, an attorney for Environment Northeast, a group that distributed the new report in New England. "No state in New England currently has a systematic plan in place to address this problem," Stoddard, director of ENE's New England Diesel Initiative, said yesterday. "We have legislation about power plants. We have legislation about drunk drivers. We have legislation against firearm violations. Here's something that's in the same class in terms of impact."
To determine diesel pollution's health effects in each U.S. county, the Clean Air Task Force said it employed methodology the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses to assess the health benefits of new rules. The group also used the EPA's county-by-county estimates of diesel emissions. The report compares the estimated 21,000 diesel pollution deaths with the 17,000 annual deaths caused by drunk driving and the nation's 20,000 annual homicides. The analysis concludes diesel pollution has widespread impacts in Massachusetts, including 727 nonfatal heart attacks per year, 9,925 asthma attacks, 43 cancer deaths, 289 cases of chronic bronchitis and 61,842 lost days of work. The effects include 43 premature deaths in Norfolk County, which includes Franklin, Bellingham, Millis and Wellesley, and 23 premature deaths in Worcester County, which includes Milford, Upton and Uxbridge. *snipped, more cooked stats and voodoo science at link ie cumulative effect assumed but not proven or supported, selective analysis of causation, etc.
In any case, we can now tell the eco-wackies their diesel problem is solved:
This is only a pipsqueak 4-wheeler but the technology could obviously be adapted to power buses, trucks, tractors; heck, even submarines. ;)
It's quiet, smooth, and runs fifty thousand miles on one fill-up.
Homicidal right-wing SUV drivers would think twice about t-boning it and, best of all, it will not emit any planet-destroying CO2 (unless it melts down and the tires/occupants catch fire).
Beat the heat with the cool blue glow of uranium.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy ||
02/24/2005
7:42:12 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The studies are BS. If they want to study Diesel they have to go to Europe where it is much more widely used. I bet they can't find any proof for what they are trying to state as fact.
#2
We already have emission regulations for diesels, and they get stricter every year.
The problem I always see is that diesels need to be tuned up more often, the tune-up costs more, and the emissions get much worse if you let it go. I think the city of Tucson holds a raffle every year to see which of their buses gets a tune-up. I am always behind one of the losers. People who had the VW diesels of the 70s and 80s found out that while the fuel economy is nice, having to pay hundreds of dollars every 12,000 miles for a tune-up negates it. So, they would let it slide and you would see Rabbits with black smudges on their back ends.
#3
Seems to me that groups like the Clean Air Task Force won't be satisfied until we're all riding horses again, and even then would probably complain that equine flatulence is some sort of pollution problem.
#4
In other news, Mother Nature is blamed for cellular atrophy, resulting in the fact that every living thing dies. Lawyers eyeing global class-action suit.
#5
Mix biodiesel fuel into those existing diesel engines (except during winter) and I bet those numbers change drastically. Such a move would also require no changes to existing diesel engines.
Since the Clean Air Task Force isn't looking for solutions and simply wants to ban diesel I have to wonder about their motivation and source of funding.
#7
Now, now . . . Chronicles of Riddick was not that bad. Vinnie might not have given an Oscar performance, but for his normal stuff, this was above average.
#8
"Mix biodiesel fuel into those existing diesel engines (except during winter) and I bet those numbers change drastically."
Whatever gave you the idea that biodiesel is inherently clean, rjschwarz? We could refine petroleum-based fuel further too -- it's just that nobody wants to pay the price.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 13:46
Comments ||
Top||
#9
This just in.....exposure to sunlight causes cancer. Thousands die annually. Government regulations pending.
HA'TIP - Mr Drudge... A teenage girl and two young men in Iran have been sentenced to lashes for having sex.
The court dismissed the girl's claim that she was raped. It said she had sex of her own free will, the official Iran Daily newspaper reported. The girl was sentenced to 100 lashes because her accusations of rape and kidnap could have landed her partners a death penalty, the Tehran judge said. OK - We don't whip people here, but I'd put her in a nasty prison for the false accusation.
Sex outside marriage is illegal in Iran and capital punishment can be imposed. The young men in the case were sentenced to 30 and 40 lashes each. Capital punishment can be imposed? Sounds like the mystic mullahs are jealous...
Rights violations
The Iran paper quotes the girl, who has not been named, as confessing: "I trusted one of these young men, whom I got to know by phone, and went to his place. Geez. Innocent by reason of ignorance and stupidity???
"But because he betrayed me, I filed the case against him and his friend out of revenge." International concerns continue to be raised about women's rights in Iran. Not so wise girl.
In December the UN General Assembly voted to censure Iran for human rights violations, including discrimination against women and girls. Tehran rejected the criticism as propaganda. Under Iranian law, girls over the age of nine and boys over 16 face the death penalty for crimes such as rape and murder, while capital punishment can be imposed in certain cases of illegal sexual relationships. Age of consent for sex for girls is 9? Death penalty? Shows the degenarate nature of the ROP, I guess...
#2
How old was she getting whipped ? Define Teenager being constituted as being of what age in Iran ? How was she whipped with the men is not being fully reported in where it was done ? Was she made to go Topless in getting whipped , wearing burkha , or bra , or being braless , going in getting whipped ? What is Human Rights Watch doing about this ?
Niman might be on to something here. It seems a manmade flu gene sequence has been in the pigs for a while. I was unable to find any info on live pig exports from North Korea to the South, but that would seem a likely source. Norks experiment on pigs and infection gets into pigs for export.
In December, the biologist Henry Niman of Recombinomics, a biotechnology company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, examined the data as part of an analysis of flu sequences. He concluded that the samples contained genes from a strain of human flu virus that was created decades ago by scientists experimenting with the virus that caused the global flu pandemic of 1918.
Neither the World Health Organization (WHO), which coordinates the international response to flu, nor the South Korean government have commented on the claim. But Laurie Garrett, a former journalist and analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, says that the WHO attributes the sequence to an error at the lab that deposited the information.
Sang Heui Seo, one of the Korean researchers, says he is unable to comment yet, adding that "further confirmation" of the sequence "is under way at this moment". <<
As indicated earlier, the lab error story has some significant flaws. The explanation of computer files sent in error is not credible because there are over 30 WSN/33 sequences involved. Virtually all are slightly different from each other as well as WSN/33, although all share greater than 99% homology. The contamination is hard to understand because each of the 30 sequences is slightly different, there is no WSN/33 in the lab, and the viruses were isolated in eggs.
As noted above, the sequences are being independently confirmed. Confirmation will eliminate the lab error story. However, the route of the sequences from lab to swine remains open, as does the possibility of bioterrorism. The inability to resolve the existence of the sequence after being in the public domain for almost 3 months also raises serious bioterrorism preparedness issues.
#1
lets see. There is the known cycle of ducks -> ponds -> fish -> pigs -> people that creates most flus. So this one is spotted at the pig tap point. One would expect a pond with fish having these genes and maybe some duck flying about.
#2
3dc the point is that a gene sequence somehow got from a lab into Skor pigs. Niman knows his stuff when it comes to this topic and seems to have found a smoking gun.
#3
I got the point... just where there are pigs in Asia look for ponds fish and birds to be a factor too. If it is in the pigs... some pond in NK is filled with it.
A car bomber drove into a parking lot inside police headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown and detonated explosives on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 22, police and witnesses said. The massive blast in Tikrit set ablaze 20 cars and sent clouds of smoke into the sky. At least 10 charred bodies could be scene laying on the ground. Police Lt. Sha'alan Allawi said the bomber drove a vehicle into a parking lot inside the police compound before detonating the explosives. Several ambulances ferried casualties to a local hospital.
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/24/2005
3:37:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
A suspected Islamic extremist believed linked to a group that planned attacks on key targets in Madrid was found dead in his prison cell in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza after apparently hanging himself, prison officials told AFP.
Oh. Gosh. Darn.
They said Mustafa Zanibar, a Moroccan, was found by prison staff as they came to deliver lunch. The sources said he was strangled by his belt in his isolation cell. The 41-year-old Zanibar was sentenced to 29 years in jail in 1996 for murder after burning a compatriot alive at El Ejido in southern Spain. His conversion to radical Islam came after his sentencing.
Before that he was just a homicidal maniac...
Spain's top investigating magistrate, Baltasar Garzon, accused Zanibar of belonging to a terrorist organization in the course of a probe into an alleged plot to blow up the Real Madrid soccer stadium, the main law courts and several railway stations. Investigations following attacks on Madrid suburban trains last March in which 191 people were killed and 1,900 injured has thrown increasing light on a network of Islamic radicals, with ramifications in Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland, according to judicial officials. Last October, Garzon ordered the arrest of about 30 people who were suspected of being involved in the alleged plot to attack targets in Madrid. The sources said Garzon believed that a cell of activists involved in the alleged plot was formed in prison between 2001 and 2003, which explained the connection with Zanibar.
An "assisted" suicide, perhaps?
"'Ere you go, Mustafa!"
"Wot's that?"
"It's a belt. You use it to hold yer pants up. Here, lemme help you on with it."
"Hey! That ain't my waist!"
This article starring:
Baltasar Garzon
MUSTAFA ZANIBAR
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
3:32:18 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Mmmm... I would have said Zaragoza was more in central, or eastern Spain. It's in the old kingdom of Aragon, in the Ebro river valley, almost equidistant from Barcelona and San Sebastian.
#5
The 41-year-old Zanibar was sentenced to 29 years in jail in 1996 for murder after burning a compatriot alive at El Ejido in southern Spain. His conversion to radical Islam came after his sentencing.
#6
Assisted suicide? Probably. I have been tracking Spanish press and it looks probable the ETA people provided logistics and tecgnical help for the Islamists who killed 199 people in March, 11. Afer the bombings a mearing campaign led by the press, radios and TVs controlled by Jesus Polanco (a friend of the socialists) caused the defeat of the right-wing government on the basis that ETA was innocent and that it was the governemnt who had brought disaster on Spain through its stance on Irak.
Now imagine if that guy had told that ETA had ben involved and that the bombing was linked not to Irak but to Al-Andalus or perhaps to Morroco's ambitions over the Canary Islands.
BTW the police has been suspiciously slow in going after the people who had provided the explosives and there is a woman who semed to have info (she was the mistress of one of the providers) and drowned in front of two policemen who did nothing to rescue her
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 17:21
Comments ||
Top||
#10
there is a woman who semed to have info (she was the mistress of one of the providers) and drowned in front of two policemen who did nothing to rescue her
Those cops sure picked a fine time to decide that it was important to remove the green loogies from thier nostrils.
DEBKAfile's intelligence sources reveal: A high-placed Iranian mole has been caught in Iranian president Mohammed Khatami's office in Tehran. Hossein Marashai, head of Iran's cultural heritage council, was caught using a sophisticated US-manufactured listening-long-distance-transmitting device at top-level Iranian leadership meetings. DEBKAfile's sources calls this the deepest foreign intelligence penetration in all 26 years of Iran's Islamic regime
#1
Who knows if this is true? Who knows who boomed Hariri? What we know is that the game is on with regard to Syria/Lebanon/Iran and that will be the thread to watch on Rantburg 2005.
#2
Could be they (the mullahs) just want to off him and calling him a US spy is an easy way to get it done.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/24/2005 15:08
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Like I said, who knows at this point. Actually, wouldn't it be pretty impressive job by Iranian counter intelligence if the best mole we've got really is just the cultural heritage minister. I assume people with such titles here are on the other side.
In the full article is a list of the 25 settlements on the P-side of the Green line that Sharon wants gone ASAP....When Ariel Sharon began singling out settlements for future eviction, he knew just where to look.
Arguing that Israel could best cement its grip on major West Bank settlement blocs - which polls show are supported by the majority of Israelis - by relinquishing control over the areas Israelis care about least, Sharon began with the unwanted stepchild enclaves of Gaza and the northern West Bank.
Years of opinion surveys have shown that these were settlements a majority of Israelis wished never had existed. Settlements for which even the settlement movement itself had shown little support
MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev reportedly used a party celebrating his third marriage to call for a new holy war against Russia, The Independent said Thursday.
Dammit, we don't bomb one islamic wedding and look who we miss.
The claim was posted on the official Chechen separatist Web site, which said the wedding took place Feb. 14 in southern Russia, where he exchanged vows with "the sister of a Russian Islamist warrior."
Keeping it in the family, again
The site said he also held meetings with rebel leaders from across the region and quoted his optimism.
Islamic wedding = terrorist high command meeting
"The meetings were pleasant and useful and (God willing) a jihad will rage over the whole Caucasus this year," the site said.
Russia has a $10 million bounty on his head and that of rebel Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov after last September's Beslan school siege, which Basayev claims to have masterminded. A unilateral rebel ceasefire expired Wednesday but Maskhadov extended it, making a fresh call for the Russians to enter into negotiations with him, an offer they have consistently refused.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
2:05:48 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"What is shocking is not only Cadman's reluctance to express regret but the fact that he wasn't absolutely mortified by what he'd stooped to say. It would never occur to most people to use such an expression even in private, no matter how incensed they were over an affront, let alone utter such words in public before other elected officials."
Oh I agree completely. Yewbetcha.
You see, some vibrations in the air resulting from the vibration of a set of human vocal chords are deeply injurious and offensive. Others are not. We all know precisely which are which and everyone agrees.
The listener, the person whose ear mechanics pick up those vibrations and translates them into an electrical neural signal bears no responsibility whatsoever for what meaning or resulting feelings are invoked.
Everyone knows this. We all, as listeners, have an identical collection of external buttons which are "pushed" by certain vibration sequences -- and others push them at their peril -- and we bear no responsibility for the result.
Those gosh darn rascally vibrations make me do all sorts of things - and it's not my fault or even my choice how I respond or how I feel... or anything else for that matter.
#2
hmmm - I guess I'm in the minority, but it's usually been my boot instead of fist.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 20:41
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Lol! Um, we may be in a minority, but you're not alone, heh.
I was being a total smartass. The pussified wankers who wrote this piece live that that feel-good zone. What a shock it would be if anyone were to notify them that not everyone subscribes to their view.
#4
One look at the graphic in at the link shows the "inclusive/liberal" leanings of the source of the Opinion. I have an opinion to. If some pussy leftist call me anything I will consider it fighting words. I don't and won't take any shit off of them at all unless they are blood relations. I would not have told them crap the boot would have flown.
#5
It's amazing that the whole brouhaha is started by some lefty, yet the Rocky Mountain News sees fit to paint Cadman as the monster because he dared to push back.
MOUNT ST. HELENS, Washington -- Mount St. Helens has shown an upswing in volcanic activity over the past two days, U.S. volcano scientists reported.
Small collapses of hot rock from the south end of the lava dome -- which is growing at a rate of about 15 feet per day -- have sent several ash clouds upward and over the rim of the mile-wide crater, according to U.S. Geological Survey scientists at Johnston Ridge Observatory, about five miles northeast of the volcano.
About 3 a.m. Tuesday, scientists said they detected a seismic signal and witnessed a bright glow inside the crater that persisted for about 15 minutes. The glow apparently resulted from the collapse of material at the top of the lava dome, which for that brief time exposed hot rock from deeper inside the mountain.
The last major eruption at Mount St. Helens occurred in May 1980, when the volcano lost nearly a quarter-mile of its elevation. The latest activity, which began last Oct. 11, is not expected to result in a comparable event, scientists said.
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
02/24/2005
1:52:55 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well, there'll be more global cooling if she pops the cork. Better fire up your SUV's and circle the parking lot a few extra times looking for that perfect space that will save you walking 5 more ft.
#2
It may go on like this for a couple of years, a little steam off here and there. Something is brewing underneath, perhaps in larger area.
Once I flew just south on Mt Baker and it was a crystal clear day with superb visibility for hundreds of miles. It was an amazing sight--all the major Western Rockies volcanos lined up almost in a straight line, like a dormant army waiting for a signal. The last one still visible was Mt Shasta.
I like flying mainly for the reason that the geology is readily available like an open book. Many features that are not apparent on the ground are prominent from the bird perspective. I can trace the movement of glaciers that are long lost in the stream of time and see the results of forces with life spans totally alien to our experience.
#6
I climbed Mt. St Helens in 1990. It was an expierience that really let me see just how frail humans are in the face of a violent event like the eruption in 1980.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/24/2005 7:39
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Sobiesky - After my first geology class in college I flew home for the holidays, and I spent the entire flight looking out the window going "Holy crap! I can SEE it ALL!" Amazing how a little knowledge changed how everything appeared.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
02/24/2005 9:08
Comments ||
Top||
"On 14 and 15 February, the GPS instrument installed on the new lava dome moved an average of 6 m per day mostly southeastward with an upward component of about 1 m per day."
Heh, faster than a congresscritter responding to your email...
#11
I will never forget running into an old pre-1980 highway map of Washington State which touted the trout fishing in "Beautiful Spirit Lake Beneath Mount Saint Helens" there was a picture of the lake, and of course a pre-1980 mountain in the background...
#12
Deacon Blues---I flew around Mt. St. Helens a few times close up in the summer of 1991 in my plane. Very humbling. Seeing the devastation of the forests and esp. Spirit lake was something else. We are pretty small creatures on this earth.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 11:50
Comments ||
Top||
#13
AP, I spent a week hiking the area in 1990 and the almost total lack of vegetation even after 10 years was mindbogling. I was gobsmacked. I very much enjoyed hiking the Oregon Cascades that year.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/24/2005 12:06
Comments ||
Top||
#14
Crap. When I saw the title "That She Blows", I thought it was an article about some fresh Michael Moore blathering...
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
02/24/2005 13:04
Comments ||
Top||
A woman accused of using her lover's sperm to impregnate herself without his knowledge can be held liable for the unwitting father's emotional pain, the Illinois Appellate Court has ruled.
This is a story that's being splattered all over the front pages...
In the ruling released Wednesday, a three-judge panel reinstated part of a lawsuit against Sharon Irons, a doctor from Olympia Fields. The ruling sends the case back to Cook County Circuit Court. Irons was sued by her former lover, Chicago family physician Richard O. Phillips, who accused her of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" of him after a brief affair they had six years ago.
Its' a story that's dripping with passion and suspense...
Phillips alleges that he and Irons, who practices internal medicine, never had intercourse during their four-month affair, although they did have oral sex three times.
Three times in four months? And that was it? So it wasn't an affair that really erupted. She was just paying lip service to the idea...
His suit contends that Irons, without his knowledge, kept some of his semen and used it to impregnate herself.
And the judge swallowed that?
The relationship ended when Phillips learned Irons had lied to him about being recently divorced and was, in fact, still married to another doctor, according to court documents.
So she was lying to him about her marital status? I guess they were both suckers...
Nearly two years later, Irons slapped Phillips with a paternity suit. DNA tests showed Phillips was indeed the father, court papers state. Phillips was ordered to pay about $800 a month in child support, said Irons' attorney, Enrico Mirabelli.
Three episodes of foreplay in four months, then two years later she screws him...
Phillips then sued Irons, claiming her actions robbed him of sleep and caused him to have trouble eating. He is haunted by "feelings of being trapped in a nightmare," court papers state.
Boy, he just said a mouthful. The very thought leaves me feeling limp and empty.
Irons responded that her alleged actions weren't "truly extreme and outrageous" and that Phillips' pain wasn't bad enough to merit a lawsuit. The circuit court agreed and dismissed Phillips' suit in 2003.
Ummm... We object, yer honor! If that's not "truly extreme and outrageous" then what the hell is?
But the higher court ruled that, if Phillips' story is true, Irons "deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy, to use plaintiff's sperm in an unorthodox, unanticipated manner yielding extreme consequences."
I'll bet that really stuck in her... ummm... craw... I'd certainly call that unanticipated.
But the judges agreed with the lower court's decision to dismiss fraud and theft claims against Irons. They agreed with Irons' lawyers that she didn't steal the sperm. "She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift -- an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."
Too bad. I'da wanted to see her make restitution.
Irons has since divorced, Mirabelli said.
Boy, doesn't that come as a surprise? I understand he applied for a divorce when her cheeks started getting plump...
"There's a 5-year-old child here," Mirabelli said Thursday. "Imagine how a child feels when your father says he feels emotionally damaged by your birth."
Imagine how the child feels knowing Mommy wrung him out of a kleenex.
Phillips is representing himself in the case. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
This can't be the whole story. I'm sure that something was gargled in translation...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
1:32:59 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[31 views]
Top|| File under:
James Thurber, the deceased cartoonist for the New Yorker, told a story about when he was a kid. There was this "club" and, of course, all the kids in the neighborhood wanted to belong. The initiation ritual was to tell the prospect to sit in the corner of their treehouse / clubhouse for 5 minutes and "absolutely, do not think of a white bear", heh. At the end of the 5 minutes they asked you if you had thought of a white bear, even once. If you said "No" you were in. If you said "Yes" you were out.
FARC Guerrilla kills Seven Comrades and Then Hands Himself Over to the Police Translated from Spanish
Apparently, the other subversives had been opposed to his plan of desertion. The incident occurred in the rural zone of the town of Colombia (Huila). The operational commander of the police considered this incident to be a indicator of the weakening of FARC that has been generated by the pressure of the Army. "This kid couldn't bear any longer the constant bad treatment, the degradation, and the humiliation by his comrades and squad leader," stated General Alberto Ruiz, who arrived in Neiva yesterday to learn first hand what occurred. His conclusion was supported by the statements of "Sergio", a 21-year old youth, who in the vicinity of the Bellavista ranch murdered five men and two women with his AK-47 rifle, in order to escape and turn himself into the authorities. "Lulu", one of his comrades, is believed to have escaped but is gravely injured, said the Army.
Posted by: 11A5S ||
02/24/2005
1:28:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
some "comrade".
I'm amazed that there is some MSM sympathy for this individual: a 21 year old AK wielding man is not a "YOUTH" in my book.
Translated from Spanish. Narcoterrorism goes green with hillarious results.
With road blocks and protest marches, today was the beginning of two days of strikes in favor of cocoleros [cocaine growers] in Tochache in the Huanuco region with the goal of ending the spraying of their crops with suspect prohibited products by antidrug authorities. This show of force was carried out three days after the bloody assault in Tingo Maria, a city also located in the Huanucanian jungle, where a unit of terrorists ambushed and murdered three policemen that patrolled the area.... The main reason for the cocolero strike is the opposition of cocaine farmers to the use of prohibited chemicals to eradicate this plant.... Nancy Zamora, mayor of the town of La Polvora, near Tochache, confirmed that the fumication was carried out by helicopters. She said that these chemicals got into the water resevoir in her town, were consumed by the farmers and caused nausea and digestive problems in many people.
Posted by: 11A5S ||
02/24/2005
12:59:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Aw, pobrecitos.
Of course, I'm just a self-centered Yankee, but I'd rather they have tummy aches than see that crap coming up here.
Important steps have been achieved in the last few days by the Iraqi forces to arrest important leaders in the terrorist groups.
Some were arrested in Mosel and Baghdad including Arabs from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen and others.
Adam Doma (42 years) from Sudan confessed that he received training in Syria under the supervision of Syrian Intelligence officers. He confessed that he beheaded 10 Iraqi civilians by his own hands so as he was given a leadership activity as Amer. He studied (Sunni Shariah) and lived in Iraq for 15 years! He confessed that he is a Syrian Intelligent agent. He was responsible for many terrorist activities including beheadings and recruiting Arabs in Syria and Iraq.
Some members of his network were also arrested including a terrorist from Egypt who decapitated at least 6 Iraqis and was responsible for attacks against Shiite sites and a terrorist group called the Net of Palestine responsible for attacks against Shiite mosques.
Anis Al-Essa is a Syrian who works as an officer in the Syrian Intelligence Security. He was arrested with Doma and after 3 weeks pretending as deaf and dumb he collapsed and confessed about his role and his job with SIS.
Other terrorists who were arrested confessed that they received different kinds of training by the Syrian Intelligence Security and forces in Lathikiyah in Syria. Once they pass the courses the SIS facilitate their entry to Iraq from at least three points in Mosel and Ramadi. They then keep communication with SIS via tech and human communicative ways.
The confessions were video recorded and copies were sent via the Iraqi PM to the UN as well as to the Syrian government according to news sources.
That's rubbing it in their faces, but since they're shameless their response will probably be that they didn't receive anything through official channels, followed by studied indifference, followed by an accusation of interfering in Syria's internal affairs.
We could have pictures of Assad shaking their hands and giving them their diplomas from the Syrian School of Mass Murder, and the reaction would be a yawn and a half-hearted "Bush Lied".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/24/2005 14:14
Comments ||
Top||
The United States has welcomed Australia's decision to send an additional 450 ground forces to Iraq to provide protection for multinational reconstruction crews and to train Iraqi security forces. Prime Minister John Howard announced on Tuesday that Australia will send an extra 450 troops to Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian mission in the south. The decision, which follows requests by the governments of Britain and Japan, will increase the size of Australia's contingent in Iraq from 950 to 1,400 troops. "The new Australian contribution, which adds to the positive momentum generated by Iraq's national elections on January 30, will assist Iraq's transition to a secure democracy," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Australia continues to demonstrate that it is willing to make difficult and courageous choices to promote democracy and combat terrorism around the world."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
02/24/2005
12:39:22 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Our local grocery store has about four feet of shelf space for French wine and about sixty for the Ozzie vintages.
No fuss. No statements. No press releases. Just a moral stance, plus figuring out the Frog piss wasn't selling the way it used to. For some reason.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/24/2005 12:55
Comments ||
Top||
Prime Minister John Howard says Labor's attacks on the Federal Government's decision to send more troops to Iraq are contradictory and confused. Mr Howard says that until recently, he was not persuaded that Australia should commit another 450 soldiers to Iraq. "It was only right towards the end that we, as a group of ministers, and then the national security committee, came to the view that we should make this contribution," he said.
Labor's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says Mr Howard's comments confirm that it was a rushed decision. "How could there be such a U-turn in government decision-making within the space of a couple of weeks?" he asked.
But Mr Howard says Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has previously accused the Government of misleading voters by planning the troop deployment before the election. "This is Mr Beazley on every issue - he walks both sides of the street," Mr Howard said. "He sort of test runs an argument and if it doesn't work he then changes to another argument.
"The truth is that we did not have this in contemplation at the time of the election and what I said at the time of the election was an honest statement of the Government's position."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
02/24/2005
12:37:22 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
AN Australian national jailed in Lebanon for terrorist activities will be interviewed over a shooting attack on a Sydney police station upon his release, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said today. Saleh Jamal is wanted by NSW Police after fleeing Australia using a fake passport in March last year while on bail for alleged involvement in the 1998 shooting attack on Lakemba police station. A military court in Beirut today sentenced Jamal, a Jordanian-born Australian, to five years jail on charges of possession of weapons and explosives, forging an Australian passport, forming a group and planning acts that endangered state security. He will serve his time in a prison with hard labour.
Oh bloody good!
The same court sentenced another Australian, Lebanese-born Hayssam Melhem, and another Australian resident to one year in jail. The identity of the third Australian is yet to be confirmed. Mr Carr said NSW Police would interview Jamal when he was released from prison. "When he completes his jail sentence in Lebanon we will be waiting for him," he told reporters. No formal extradition treaty exists between Lebanon and Australia, but Mr Carr said he had been assured Jamal would be returned. "I've been advised that arrangements are in place now to restore him to Australia and the Australian justice system when he leaves Lebanon," Mr Carr said.
Australian Federal Police will also interview Jamal over alleged immigration offences. A Department of Foreign Aaffair and Trade spokeswoman said the department had taken a close and active interest in Jamal's case. "The Lebanese military court found Mr Jamal guilty of terror-related charges and sentenced him to five years imprisonment with hard labour," she said. "We have undertaken consular visits to ensure his welfare (and) access to legal counsel." Jamal fled Australia using a fake passport in March last year, while on bail for his alleged involvement in the 1998 shooting attack on the Lakemba police station in southwestern Sydney. He was arrested in May on terrorism charges while trying to flee Lebanon, again using a false passport. Jamal was found guilty of "creating an illegal association, together with two Lebanese men, in order to carry out activities harming state security", one source said.
This article starring:
HAISAM MELHEM
al-Qaeda
SALEH JAMAL
al-Qaeda
Posted by: God Save The World ||
02/24/2005
12:32:04 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmm. No demands that the sentence be commuted, which is what the Canucks would have angled for.
Radical Islamist groups that originated in Iraqi Kurdistan are responsible for most of the attacks now taking place in the northern insurgent stronghold of Mosul, senior Kurdish officials say. The activities of the related jihadist groups, Ansar al-Sunna and Ansar al-Islam, have overshadowed those of the nationalist insurgent cells in Mosul led by members of the former ruling Baath Party, the officials say. The nationalist fighters have quieted down since December, when the Americans increased the number of troops in Mosul to clamp down on the insurgency in advance of the Jan. 30 elections, the Kurdish officials say.
Though the two Ansar groups have little connection to the Baathists, the officials add, they are forging strong ties to the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who has claimed responsibility for bombings, beheadings and ambushes that have killed hundreds across Iraq. "Smaller cells have spread throughout Iraq and have concentrated in Mosul," said Bafel Jalal Talabani, the head of a counter-insurgency wing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdish party that rules eastern Iraq Kurdistan. "It needs to be controlled because it has the capacity to spiral and grow."
Mr. Talabani is one of two sons of Jalal Talabani, the head of the party and the leading candidate for president of the new Iraq. The counter-insurgency group is a branch of the party's militia, called the pesh merga, and was founded about four years ago to combat Ansar al-Islam. At that time, Ansar al-Islam, made up of mostly of hard-line Islamist Kurds, had established a stronghold along the rugged Iranian border several hours north of Sulaimaniya, the capital of eastern Kurdistan.
In March 2003, after the American-led invasion of Iraq got underway, pesh merga fighters and American Special Forces soldiers stormed the mountain villages held by Ansar al-Islam and broke up the group. Some members later reorganized to form Ansar al-Sunna, which recruited fighters from conservative Sunni Arab cities like Falluja and Ramadi.
Mr. Talabani declined to specify what operations Ansar al-Islam might have conducted in Mosul, but said the group was responsible for an entire range of attacks seen in the city, from detonating roadside bombs to seizing police stations. The group paled next to Ansar al-Sunna, though, which has grown No mention of Iran but they were behind Ansar. Otherwise the Kurds seems to be working on the problem.
Posted by: phil_b ||
02/24/2005
12:31:54 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Cut those female Tankers loose with Carte Blanche.
Profile of Jalal Talabani from the Times. Half snipped, but it's all good.
JALAL TALABANI, the former Kurdish guerrilla commander, prisoner and outlaw who seems likely to become Iraq's President, has more reason than most to want Saddam Hussein dead. The enmity between the two men is such that on one occasion, during the brutal struggle between Saddam's forces and the Kurds in northern Iraq, Saddam offered an amnesty to every Kurdish fighter except Mr Talabani. As President, Mr Talabani would have a chance to turn the tables on the fallen dictator. If Saddam is convicted of war crimes, including the slaughter of more than 182,000 Kurds, Mr Talabani would sign his execution warrant. But he has a problem. "I've thought about it and this is one of my big problems," he told The Times in an interview at his base in Qala Chwallan, northern Iraq. "Why? Because as a lawyer I signed an international appeal against executions and now this gentleman will be sentenced to death, and Iraqi people want to sentence him, to kill him. What can I do?" Asked if he can resolve the dilemma, he laughed. "I hope so."
With the Kurds securing a strong second place in elections last month, and the victorious Shia having chosen Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the Prime Minister's job on Tuesday, Mr Talabani, 71, is the favourite for the presidency. Yet there would be many ironies in him becoming titular head of a country whose rule he has spent most of his life fighting to escape.
[snip]
"Ask Kurds: 'Do you want independence?' Of course everyone will say 'yes'," he said. "But is it possible to have independence now? There are two things: wishful thinking and reality. Most Kurds voted for a legislature to be part of a united democratic federative Iraq . . . a federation within the framework of Iraq.
[snip]
Mr Talabani, nonetheless, has drawn up some tough conditions for accepting the presidency. They include federal status for the Kurdish lands, and the departure of Arabs sent by Saddam to populate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in place of Kurds. "We are not ready to accept posts without reaching agreement with our partners in the parliament on the main issues like federation, like democracy for Iraq, like the relation between religion and state," he said. "Kirkuk must be normalised and returned to the stature before Saddam Hussein's 'ethnic-cleansing' policy." With the Kurds commanding 75 seats in the 275-member National Assembly and the Shia well short of the two-thirds majority required to enact legislation, Mr Talabani can afford to take a strong line.
He is withholding judgment on the nomination for the prime ministership of Mr Jaafari, who has strong Islamic credentials, and said that Kurds will not co-operate with a Shia-led government unless it supports democracy and federalisation. He is emphatic that the Kurds will insist on secular government. "We will never accept any religious government in Iraq. Never," he declared, thumping the table. "This is a red line for us. We will never live inside an Islamic Iraq. We respect Islam. Islam is our religion . . . The Islamic identity of Iraqi people must be respected, but not an Islamic government."
#2
This has to be the sweetest moment in Kurd history - at least since the day they came to be under a foreign boot-heel so many centuries ago.
I hope they savor it - and protect it by making certain of every step taken. Overplaying your hand can be as destructive to your aspirations as failing to seize the moment. It's a delicate balance, indeed. Talabani is a tough smart old SOB - so I'll trust he knows what he's doing... but so much, so many events, had to fall just so to reach this moment -- so I fear for them.
My very best regards and hopes to the Kurds. May they make the smartest move at each opportunity - increasing their prospects for true freedom, peace, and prosperity. They deserve it.
Bedford County officials are waiting to see whether the federal government will revoke immunity for a foreign diplomat they say showed up in the Forest area yesterday expecting a tryst with a 13-year-old girl.
Guess who?
Dr. Salem Al-Mazrooei, a diplomat from United Arab Emirates, has not been charged with any crimes, but Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown said if Al-Mazrooei's immunity is revoked, he will be charged with four felony counts of electronic solicitation of a minor.
13? Isn't that a little old for a member of the ROP?
Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, a group of Bedford County investigators who focus on Internet crimes against children, has been working this case for about a month, Brown said. He said one investigator posing online as a 13-year-old girl was contacted by Al-Mazrooei, who lives in Vienna, Va., six to eight times during the investigation. Brown said the suspect believed the girl lived in the Lynchburg or Bedford area and that he arranged a meeting with her in the Forest/New London area of Bedford County on Wednesday afternoon.
When Al-Mazrooei showed up at the location, which police did not disclose, he had a Mapquest map of the location on the front seat of his car, Brown said.
Al-Mazrooei was handcuffed by officers at the scene, but he immediately pulled out his credentials as a diplomat. Brown said one investigator had seen diplomatic credentials before, but Al-Mazrooei was brought back to the sheriff's office so his status could be verified with the U.S. Department of State. When Bedford County investigators determined that Al-Mazrooei is a diplomat, they had to let him go. "As far as we know, he is back in Vienna and back at the embassy," Brown said.
But the sheriff said he has requested that the man's immunity be revoked and is faxing a case report and other paperwork to Washington, D.C., to support the request. He did not know how long it would take to learn whether Bedford County officials can charge Al-Mazrooei with any crimes.
They won't revoke, at the most they'll recall him.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
12:17:41 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm thoroughly shocked. Are you sure he was trying to contact a 13-year-old girl?
From the Islamic Paradise
... According to Islamic Republic Daily, groups of youth in Mohseni Square and Mirdamad Ave in Tehran, on the eve of Shame-Ghariban, one of the holiest Shiite days in the calendar, were dancing, whistling and clapping rather than observing the sombre mourning rituals....The news article finished, by accusing the youth of ridiculing the dearest evening of the Shiite calendar and Islamic credence in the most offensive manner possible.
It also accused the Law Enforcement Forces of not being able to stop these insults to Islam...
#1
It also accused the Law Enforcement Forces of not being able to stop these insults to Islam
Don't the Iranian youth understand? Be a good boy and you'll have virgins peeling you grapes in paradise for eternity! Isn't that enough of a promise to get you to mind your mullah?
Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said on Wednesday his party would not take sides between the opposition and the loyalists, denying that the Ain al-Tineh pro-Syrian gathering replaces the anti-government Bristol gathering.
Probably surprised at the depth of reaction, I'd guess they're waiting to see which way the wind is going to blow. Hezbollah's looking out for Hezbollah, not for Lebabon, but they wouldn't want to remind people too loudly of that fact, and Nasrallah's already opened his mouth too wide...
Speaking on the Arabic News Broadcast (ANB) to a group of students representing different political affiliations from the loyalists and the opposition, Qassem added that the issue of disarming the resistance group was not a subject of discussion between any groups because the arms are not confronting any other Lebanese armed force.
Not at the moment, anyway. But civilized nations don't allow armed "militias" to maintain themselves, precisely because they represent a danger to the state...
"Why does Hizbullah reject the opposition's call to join the 'forces of change and democracy?' The answer is that we do not believe in such definition to describe the rift between the different Lebanese parties; in this respect, we are not talking about volume and strength," Qassem said.
Hezbollah resists the opposition's called to join the 'forces of change and democracy' because Hezbollah's against change and democracy. They're theocrats.
"If we join one side it means we cancel out the other side; both represent factions of the Lebanese people from all sects and religions," he added.
"And we haven't figured which side's going to win yet. Once we do, we'll have been with them from the very beginning, you betcha."
Qassem said that Hizbullah did not extend President Emile Lahoud's mandate in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1559. "The resolution was prepared earlier in June by France and stipulated only the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon. When they needed the U.S. to pass the resolution, they added the issue of disarming the resistance," Qassem added.
"Therefore that part of it doesn't count."
Asked if Hizbullah would submit to the will of a new majority choosing to disarm all militias including his party, Qassem said that the question was wrong.
As I've mentioned before, when somebody says "the real issue is..." they're trying to draw attention away from what you were actually talking about...
"The question should never be whether to disarm Hizbullah or not but rather which political stance should the Lebanese people and their political parties take to safeguard the country against any Israeli threats or invasion," he added.
But the question as put was whether Hezbollah will submit to the will of the majority and give up its armaments. The answer appears to be "no."
"It is a political question whereby each party expresses its views. Some would advocate a diplomatic approach, others would suggest a military deterrence," Qassem said. "We believe the threat is imminent and we must keep our arms to defend ourselves."
"Regardless of what the rest of you want. Nobody tells us what to do, least of all you."
As to Monday's vote of confidence session in Parliament, Qassem would not reveal Hizbullah stance. "We should keep our cards covered; why expose one stance or the other before the vote of confidence is laid out on the table," he said.
"Like I say, we don't know who's going to come out on top at this point. Whichever one does, we'll probably be on the winning side."
In all cases, according to him, Hizbullah would not vote out the government on the grounds of holding it responsible for assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "We consider the government responsible for a thorough and effective investigation into the murder. If they fail to do so, then we hold them responsible for this failure," he said.
What if they dunnit? That's one of the more loudly proclaimed theories at the moment...
"So far we believe the government is doing what is within its capacity and capabilities, hoping to use the expertise and cooperation from other countries and international agencies," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
11:42:45 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeap,Fred.It's like when someone says"To tell you the truth..."indicates that person was lying before.
#2
Part of the subtext here is that Hizbollah gets its munitions from Syria and it gets its subsidy from Iran thru Syria. Without Syrian help Hizbollah would be seriously compromised.
Obviously if Syria pulls out Hizbollah could still bribe Lebanese officials to keep the flow of munitions going, etc. However, it would be much dicier for Hizbollah in this case and the heavier weapons would probably not get to them.
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
Mayor Yury Luzhkov promised to punish the Moscow weather service for what he said were unreliable forecasts that frustrated the work of various municipal services and disrupted people's plans.
Although pre-mature heart attacks in custody were ruled out
Speaking at the weekly meeting of the city government on Tuesday, the mayor said the Moscow Weather Bureau would receive no more funding until it signed an agreement with the city that introduced "financial responsibility," allowing the city to impose penalties for inaccurate forecasts.
So how may weathermen will resign and start new careers with crystal balls and tarot cards?
"Let us switch to contractual relations," said Luzhkov, who over the years has shown an obsession with the weather, addressing city officials and Alexei Lyakhov, head of the Moscow Weather Bureau. "We are paying and would like to receive a quality product," Luzhkov was quoted by Ekho Moskvy radio as saying. "Instead of that you are giving us tufta," he said, asking to be forgiven for using the harsh expression. Tufta is loosely translated as bullshit.
Dosen't hizz-honor realize that there is an old saying, "Everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.", should be in play here?
Luzhkov's words were milder as reported by state news agency Itar-Tass: "In a case when instead of a quality product you give us lies, the Moscow Weather Bureau must pay us a fine."
I guess not!
Luzhkov was picking up on an idea first proposed last year by Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose ministry's rescue workers are called out to cope with natural disasters. Speaking in April in Irkutsk, which was threatened with flooding, he said weather forecasters should also be held responsible for protecting the population.
So, under the "eye for an eye" scenario, does Mr. Mayor propose errant meterologists be dunked in flooding rivers too?
Nikolai Pavlov, head of the city's housing and communal services department, said that for a city as big as Moscow, weather forecasts needed to be more detailed as well as more accurate, Ekho Moskvy reported. This year alone, Moscow has seen a few spells of bad weather for which municipal services were caught unprepared.
Municipal services unprepared? 70 years of Communist Bureaucracy is as much to blame as anything!
The heaviest snowfall witnessed in the capital on a single day since weather records began in the 19th century hit Moscow on Jan. 28. Planes were diverted from the city's airports, traffic was snarled and pedestrians had to wade through meter-high drifts.
Try swimming home from work in the Los Angeles area for the last week or so. We are approaching an annual rainfall record too...
City officials explained their failure to adequately prepare by saying they had been expecting the snowstorm but at a different time. "We had expected abundant snowfalls ... although we expected them to occur earlier and be, of course, not so great," Pyotr Aksyonov, the first deputy mayor, said on Jan. 30, according to Interfax.
Gotta blame someone...
Moscow Weather Bureau officials said they are used to criticism but refused to comment on Luzhkov's plans to fine them for incorrect forecasts. "However, if the head of the region makes a statement like this, he gives our [bureau's] leadership food for thought," said Valery Lukyanov, deputy head of the Moscow Weather Bureau. "Everyone would like to have 100 percent precise forecasts," he said. "With all the latest technology available, the science has made a giant breakthrough recently. However, it does not yet allow us to give absolutely accurate forecasts."
Mr. Lyukyanov - most resonable people realize that, but your mayor is on a mission, and YOU are in his sights...
Last Sunday, for instance, the Moscow Weather Bureau said the temperature in the city on Monday afternoon would be 5 degrees below zero Celsius. Instead, it was minus 14. Lukyanov, however, said that on average, 94 percent of his bureau's forecasts each month are accurate.
-5C = +23F
-14C = +7F
But what's a few degrees amongst friends...
Luzhkov has attacked weather forecasters before. After a severe thunderstorm brought down trees throughout the city in June 1998, he accused forecasters of "telling lies." The previous year, when record-breaking snowfalls blanketed the city in March, he threatened to fire all the meteorologists at Rosgidromet, even though it was a federal agency and did not report to City Hall. He then pushed for a separate weather service for Moscow.
Why does Luzhkov have such a thing about weather?
In 1999, the Moscow Weather Bureau was founded by Rosgidromet, or the Federal Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service, jointly with the Moscow city government and the administration of the Moscow region. The lion's share of its financing comes from the budgets of the city and Moscow region.
Luzhkov's enthusiasm for the weather also extends to a desire for guaranteed sunny skies over the city on important holidays. He has regularly sent up planes to seed the clouds ahead of celebrations.
Guaranteed Sunny Skies? "From his mouth to God's ears?"
Posted by: BigEd ||
02/24/2005
11:36:12 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Lysenko must be smiling in whatever corner of Hell he occupies.
The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said. The plan would weaken the long-standing "chief of mission" authority under which the U.S. ambassador, as the president's top representative in a foreign country, decides whether to grant entry to U.S. government personnel based on political and diplomatic considerations.
Don't want to upset the locals, don't you know. The Ambassador might not get invited to a cocktail party
The Special Operations missions envisioned in the plan would largely be secret, known to only a handful of officials from the foreign country, if any. The change is included in a highly classified "execute order" -- part of a broad strategy developed since Sept. 11, 2001, to give the U.S. Special Operations Command new flexibility to track down and destroy terrorist networks worldwide, the officials said.
"This is a military order on a global scale, something that hasn't existed since World War II," said a counterterrorism official with lengthy experience in special operations. He and other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal is classified.
The Pentagon sees the greater leeway as vital to enabling commando forces to launch operations quickly and stealthily against terrorist groups without often time-consuming interagency debate, said administration officials familiar with the plan. In the Pentagon view, the campaign against terrorism is a war and requires similar freedom to prosecute as in Iraq, where the military chain of command coordinates closely with the U.S. Embassy but is not subject to traditional chief-of-mission authority.
The State Department and the CIA have fought the proposal, saying it would be dangerous to dilute the authority of the U.S. ambassador and CIA station chief to oversee U.S. military and intelligence activities in other countries. Over the past two years, the State Department has repeatedly blocked Pentagon efforts to send Special Operations forces into countries surreptitiously and without ambassadors' formal approval, current and former administration officials said.
The State Department assigned counterterrorism coordinator J. Cofer Black, who also led the CIA's counterterrorism operations after Sept. 11, as its point person to try to thwart the Pentagon's initiative. "I gave Cofer specific instructions to dismount, kill the horses and fight on foot -- this is not going to happen," said Richard L. Armitage, describing how as deputy secretary of state -- a job he held until earlier this month -- he and others stopped six or seven Pentagon attempts to weaken chief-of-mission authority.
In one instance, U.S. commanders tried to dispatch Special Forces soldiers into Pakistan without gaining ambassadorial approval but were rebuffed by the State Department, said two sources familiar with the event. The soldiers eventually entered Pakistan with proper clearance but were ordered out again by the ambassador for what was described as reckless behavior. "We had SF [Special Forces] guys in civilian clothes running around a hotel with grenades in their pockets," said one source involved in the incident, who opposes the Pentagon plan. Other officials cited another case to illustrate their concern. In the past year, they said, a group of Delta Force soldiers left a bar at night in a Latin American country and shot an alleged assailant but did not inform the U.S. Embassy for several days.
In Pentagon policy circles, questions about chief-of-mission authority are viewed as part of a broad reassessment of how to organize the U.S. government optimally to fight terrorism. In this view, alternative models of U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence authority -- possibly tailored to specific countries and situations -- should be considered. Pentagon officials familiar with the issue declined to speak on the record out of concern that issues of bureaucratic warfare would overshadow a serious policy question. Debate over the issue reignited last month, as Armitage and then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell departed and Condoleezza Rice prepared to replace him, said an administration official familiar with the matter. When the Pentagon refused to change language in the execute order, that put the issue before Rice.
In the past week, however, she has made it clear that she intends to protect the existing chief-of-mission authority. "Rice is resolute in holding to chief-of-mission authority over operations the way it exists now, for a very rational reason -- you need someone who can coordinate," said a senior State Department official. Some officials have viewed the debate as an early test of how Rice will defend State Department views on a range of matters in bureaucratic infighting with the Pentagon.
The State Department's concerns are twofold, officials said: Conducting military operations would be perilous without the broad purview and oversight of the U.S. ambassador, and it would set a precedent that other U.S. agencies could follow. "The chief-of-mission authority is a pillar of presidential authority overseas," said the administration official familiar with the issue. "When you start eroding that, it can have repercussions that are . . . risky. Particularly, military action is one of the most important decisions a president makes . . . and that is the sort of action that should be taken with deliberation."
U.S. ambassadors have full responsibility for supervising all U.S. government employees in that country, and when granting country clearances they are supposed to consider various factors, including ramifications for overall bilateral relations. For example, one reason the U.S. military never conducted aggressive operations against al Qaeda in Pakistan was a fear that such actions would incite the local population to overthrow the fragile, nuclear-capable government of President Pervez Musharraf.
The rift between the Pentagon and State Department over chief-of-mission authority parallels broader concerns about the push to empower the Special Operations Command in the war on terrorism. The CIA, for example, has concerns that new intelligence-gathering initiatives by the military could weaken CIA station chiefs and complicate U.S. espionage abroad. Without close coordination with the CIA, former senior intelligence officials said, the military could target someone whom the CIA is secretly surveilling and disrupt a flow of valuable intelligence.
Which they cross-reference, colate and file away in nice neat folders. Heaven forbid anyone act on that intelligence, why some file clerk might be put out of work if the flow stopped.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
11:30:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I dunno...this sort of thing just screams "blow up in your face". All it takes is one occasion of bad intelligence, and the U.S. has blood all over its hands and the Islamists have another reason to crow (I'm not sure if that matters, if they don't have reasons, they invent them).
#2
But it's how you go where the bad guys are and make them uncomfortable. That the bad guys can get all upset is , as Martha would say " a good thing". Like I've said all along you just deny, bold faced anyway. These Syrians are over due for a little hello kitty.
#3
I dont think its a bad thing. The intellegence gathering and miilitary type missions should not need some diplomat approval. Polititians only see thier little political world. The Stepping on eachothers toes thing I can see somewhat but I would imagine that rare the pentagon SFC would kill or attack a CIA mole, after all istnt the whole point of the Department of Homeland Securtity supposed to have everyone pooling resources? Persoanally I think the SFC should be going full tilt into every country were the terrorist are we will come dont like it kick em out period. And personally I believe one of the worst decisions ever was the elimination of the CIA's ability to assasinate foriegn leaders. If Bashar or Kim Jong Il were assasinated tommorow as long as blame could be sent else were it would be a good thing. The resulting chaos would leave todays week Democratic group with sudden US weapon and SOF supported in a position to take over.
Canada's tenuous minority government pledged to pump $11.2 billion into the military and anti-terrorism efforts, determined in the budget presented Wednesday to burnish the country's credibility as a global peacekeeper and fend off opposition threats of early elections. The 2005 budget has a $7.2 billion surplus. Also promised was $2.7 billion in foreign aid and five years of tax cuts that will cost the government $7.1 billion but save middle-class families an average of $327 each. The biggest winner was Canada's armed forces, hit with budget cuts of about 30 percent between 1988 and 2000. NATO members have long grumbled that Canada spends less on defense than nearly all its partners as a percentage of gross domestic product. Ottawa's opposition to the war in Iraq has only heightened impatience among the alliance's biggest partners, the United States and Britain, for an overhaul of the Canadian military.
Goodale said his pledge of $10.5 billion over the next five years was the largest commitment to the armed forces in two decades. Defense Minister Bill Graham announced last week that Canada would nearly double its troop strength in Afghanistan to about 1,100 by this summer. And Ottawa has pledged up to 30 instructors to train Iraqi troops, mostly likely in Jordan. ``This significant investment in our military means that we will be able to better meet our responsibilities abroad and protect our people at home,'' Goodale said.
It's a start, I'll grant him that.
Canada will spend another $980 million to secure the 4,000-mile border with the United States to prevent terrorist attacks, with money going to air and marine security, border protection, policing and emergency readiness and response.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
11:27:48 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hmmm. $41 bil loonies on NHS over 10 years, $11.2 bil for the armed forces.
No to the defense shield, but yes to boots on the ground.
#2
As far as I can tell, the opt-out of BMD is virtually meaningless. The NORAD agreement earlier in the year means we have access to all the radar sites we need in Canada. Had Canada made a financial contribution, it would not have been critical or relatively significant to the US. Instead, Canada starts to rebuild its military, a move that might have garnered opposition had it not been done under the cover of seeming to put Canada's thumb in the eye of the Great Bronze South.
If someone can explain to me the significance of the BMD decision, I'd like to understand it; but at this point it looks like a smokescreen to cover an increase, however minimal, in Canadian defence spending. Maybe we shouldn't militarize the border.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 9:21
Comments ||
Top||
#3
$980 million to secure the 4,000-mile border. $245,000 per mile. That's a lot per mile, even in Canadian dollars. Why am I thinking it will still leak like a sieve? Perhaps it's because of that U.N./EU mentality -- 99% to bureaucrats and 1% for the benefit of the masses.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 9:40
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Well, it won't be Canada unless they spend at least $20 mil on diversity training for the troops.
#5
The Canadian military is on the verge of self-extinction. Their equipment is old and constantly breaking down,and their more experienced NCOs are leaving in mass numbers.
After a string of embarrassing incidents involving the military the Pols are pretending to spend some money to try and keep from being thrown out at next election.(Leased junk Brit subs,that resulted in deadly accident;had no way of responding when Denmark sent a ship to claim a disputed island;had a disaster response team that couldn't be sent to help in Tsunami relief because had no way of getting them out of Canada;had only one infantry battalion that was deployable and stated when that batt. came home from Afghanistan it would be 18 months before it could be replaced;had to admit it had no way of patrolling its Northern borders.)
Note that the $11.2 for defence includes antiterrorism,and later defence is only $10.5bil and that prob includes still more antiterrorism funding,which will go to police,fire,rescue,etc. units,which means even less for actual military. Either way,foreign aid $2.7 bil/yr,Defence allegedly @$2.1bil/yr.-that tells us where Canada's priorities are.
Posted by: Stephen ||
02/24/2005 11:06
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Well, the Canadian senate did wake up and say if something happens in the US and they come via our border, we're toast since they're our biggest trading partner.
A member of the planning and budget commission of Tehran's City Council criticized the process of aiding the victims of the Arg Mosque fire incident, Iran's Aftab Daily reported. Criticizing the unsuitable situation of hospitals where the injured are treated, Habib Kashani said: "A patient with only one percent of his body burnt is charged at least one million tomans ($1,000) in private hospitals. One of the victims of the Arg mosque with 80% of his body burnt couldn't be treated because he couldn't afford the 80 mln toman ($90,000) charge. Many hospitals have driven out the victims as they found that they have been injured in the Arg incident." Private hospitals assert that the government will not pay for the costs as it had earlier promised and that they cannot meet the treatment expenses on their own. Kashani called on Tehran's City Council to gather a report of the situation of the victims of the blaze and hand it over to the government.
#2
Yet the government has money for ballistic missiles and a nuclear program.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 8:54
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Of course they can build missles and have a nuclear program. Aren't we and the rest of the west going to step in and pick up the tap for their medical care and food (like we do for North Korea)?
Nor can Canada claim that it has opted out of the concept of missile defence, so long as its military personnel are watching for and tracking that possible threat.
As for taking a stand against the "militarization" of space: The current (and still not operational) missile defence system uses ground-based missiles. The satellites that form part of the detection and targeting system aren't weapons, although they are part of a weapons system. And so are the satellites that guide bombs dropped from Canadian warplanes.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
11:15:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm becoming more convinced this was just a smokescreen for the increase in defence expensitures that othewise would have been the focus of attention.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 11:50
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Maybe we should make it so that Americans are the ones determining if it is a missile and checking out the radar so that the Canadians can just completely wash their hands of the whole thing.
Like the preacher told me, we all come to Jesus in our own way and in our own time...
A week after the death of Rafik Hariri, we can only reflect again how a stellar Lebanese public figure has fallen victim to the perfidy of the political behavior of neighboring political regimes.
He's decided the killing wasn't a home-grown act...
Larger-than-life, charismatic figures like Hariri, who exude the redeeming virtues one longs for in visionary and proactive leaders, are rare in the lives of nations. They appear at momentous interludes to shake them out of deep slumber.
I come to bury Hariri, not to praise him. As a politician, he was all over the map, guided much more by expediency than by vision. But that was the kind of man that was needed in the wake of Lebanon's horrible civil war: men who were willing to turn a blind eye when necessary, to make alliances with Beelzebub if needed, to pretend things were one way when they patently weren't. As part of a strategic planning exercise I took part in about 20 years ago, I predicted, with tongue only partly in cheek, that sometime around 2000 the last Lebanese would shoot the second-last Lebanese. It was the feet-of-clay pols like Hariri and Jumblatt that shifted the Beirut paradigm enough that it didn't turn out like that.
Brutal and cold-blooded assassinations are an indelible feature of Lebanese political culture. Abominable as they are, usually such acts remain unexplained. The perpetrators and criminals are never recognized or brought to justice. Barely four months ago, former Economy Minister Marwan Hamade miraculously survived a bomb attack. If the same malicious forces were also behind Hariri's murder, and the incriminating traces are strewn all over, they made certain that providence would not this time foil their crime.
#2
I think he's referring to the fact that this is Lebanon's wakeup call, as 9-11 was for us.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005 8:50
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Will the last troll please shoot the second to last troll and turn out the lights? Thank You.
I'm sure most strategic planning exercises don't envision the impact of a Bush.
Posted by: john ||
02/24/2005 9:53
Comments ||
Top||
#4
They don't. You plot trends, breaking them down into probable, possible, and unlikely. When a major player like Bush arrives on the scene he becomes a new factor. That means you have to cast the magic sticks again and examine the sheep entrails so you can revise your data.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005 10:34
Comments ||
Top||
February 24, 2005: Singapore has built one of the most powerful air forces in the world. This is to be expected, due to the highly educated population and the fact that air power is a huge equalizer. Singapore's air force is huge for a country of its size and population (four million people). Well over a hundred combat aircraft are in service, and consist of a mixture of modern fighters, and older planes with the latest upgrades. Singapore also has acquired capabilities that few other countries in the region have.
The most numerous fighter plane in Singapore's inventory is the A-4SU Super Skyhawk. This is not your father's Skyhawk. The aircraft have new engines (a non-afterburning version of the F404 used on the F/A-18), and modern avionics, to include a Marconi HUD, a multi-function display, and a new inertial navigation system. This is the fastest (1128 kilometers per hour) and Skyhawk that has ever flown. Sixty-four of these aircraft are in service in three squadrons.
Singapore has also upgraded its force of 42 F-5E/F Tigers. These new planes, now called the F-5S/T, with a new Grifo F/X Plus radar (also used on Taiwan's F-5Es), HOTAS controls (Hands On Stick And Throttle), two multifunction displays, and two extra missile pylons. These Tigers will be potent complements to Singapore's best fighters.
Singapore's best fighters in service are their force of 26 F-16C and 36 F-16Ds. These Block 52 aircraft are virtually identical to the versions in U.S. service. The major difference has been reluctance on the part of the United States to ship AMRAAMs to the region. These F-16s have reportedly received the Python 4 infra-red homing missile from Israel (which has also supplied the Gabriel), and some of the F-16Ds reportedly have the same dorsal "hump" that Israeli F-16s also carry. Singapore's F-16s are also equipped with the Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Singapore also has acquired a total of twenty AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters. Currently based in the United States, they will eventually provide superb capabilities for Singapore in a variety of roles (depending on which versions of Hellfire are purchased). Singapore also is acquiring CH-47D Chinooks for search-and-rescue and as troop carriers. Nine are already in service, with plans to reach a total of twelve. Singapore has an option for four more CH-47s. There are also 16 UH-1H Hueys and 16 Super Puma transports.
However, Singapore's air force has capabilities on par with air forces like the United States. Singapore purchased four E-2C Hawkeyes. These planes are the same as those used by Israel, Taiwan, France, Japan, the U.S. Navy, and Egypt. No other country in Southeast Asia has this capability, which gives Singapore a huge advantage in any fight.
Singapore also has acquired four KC-135R tankers — which extends the reach and endurance of Singapore's air force. These aircraft can refuel using a centerline boom, or a drogue can be attached. Singapore's F-16s use the boom method. The A-4SUs use the drogue method to refuel, and Singapore has also modified four C-130Bs into aerial tankers to support that.
Singapore also has a mixture of Fokker maritime patrol aircraft — the F27 and F50 Maritime Enforcers. These planes provide a long-range anti-submarine and anti-surface aircraft. The Fokker F27s have a longer range (5,000 kilometers compared to 3,148 for the F50), but the F50s are faster (522 kilometers per hour compared to 480 for the F27).
Combined with the Republic of Singapore Navy, the Republic of Singapore Air Force outclasses the forces of the other nations in Southeast Asia. It has a solid quantity of top-of-the-line combat aircraft, and capabilities unmatched by other forces in the region. You might be able to overpower the Republic of Singapore Army, but getting an invasion force to Singapore will be very difficult.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
11:07:06 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Heh - that is quite an inventory! The training component isn't addressed, however, and that is definitely non-trivial.
But I'll put my money on the Singaporeans doing it right. They "get it" on every topic I've ever seen addressed.
#2
They train very hard. We have a little known AF detachment in Singapore that works closely with them, plus they send their pilots to the States for training. Note in the story that their Apache's are currently based in the US.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005 12:13
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yes pretty soon they will start to evacuate so that they can build enough hangers to house all these aircraft. The big question is, WHO GETS VOTED OFF THE ISLAND?
#5
Harpoons from an F-16???? I don't believe it.
Oh yea of little faith:
Air-to-surface missiles carried on the F-16 include Maverick, HARM and Shrike missiles, manufactured by Raytheon, and anti-ship missiles include Boeing Harpoon and Kongsberg Penguin. The first guided launch of the new Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) was successfully carried out from an F-16 and the F-16 was the first USAF aircraft to be fitted with the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) in April 2000.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005 13:41
Comments ||
Top||
#6
More:The A/R/UGM-84 was first introduced in 1977, and in 1979 the air-launched version was deployed on the Navy's P-3C Orion aircraft. The Harpoon was also adapted for use on USAF B-52H bombers, which can carry from 8 to 12 of the missiles. The Harpoon missile has been integrated on foreign F-16 aircraft and is presently being integrated on foreign F-15 aircraft.
Block 50 F-16s can carry the Harpoon. And I've seen that video of a C-130 landing on a carrier. It rates at 10 on the pucker factor.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005 14:02
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Yipe! An island with 4 million people has some 60+ F-16s and 100+ older fighters, plus tankers and radar direction planes.
Belgium, with over 10 million people, has 70 F-16s and no other fighters. No tankers or AWACS.
Canada, with 32 million people, only has 104 F-18s.
#9
Once total air superiority is established, picture the pucker factor of being on the receiving end as a pair of Buffs drop to about 500 ft and fire off a salvo of 12 Harpoons each at your Chinese invasion force - now about 50 clicks out of port... Heh.
Yummm. I'm thinking of that sweet-hot dish of beef medallions called Tiger's Tears on Chinese menus... Neua yang on Thai menus...
#11
Singapore is well aware of the threat mines pose for the Straits; mines were used there during WWII, forcing the Japanese to rely on rail transport.
Singapore's long had a good MCM (mine- countermeasures)fleet. The 194th MCM squadron has four modern ships equipped with Remote Operated Underwater Vehicles. Their Special Diving Unit is also trained in MCM. They train extensively with other navies.
As for offensive/defensive-deployment MIW (MIne Warfare), let's just say Singapore has a good defense industry, and their air force and navy are very capable. ; )
#12
message to their neighbors? Don't Tread on Me? Sounds familiar
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 20:12
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I strongly suspect that you could call Singapore a reserve Air Force/Royal Air Force component. Nothing else can explain the mind-boggling size of the AF force such an country.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/24/2005 20:25
Comments ||
Top||
#14
..I had the pleasure of working with the RoSAF on their first ever foreign deployment - Red Flag 98-2. They were flying our F-16s, as they weren't quite up to dragging their birds across the Pacific at that time, but they established a solid reputation right quickly. Very quiet, very polite, and very VERY good, up to our standards across the board and past them in a couple of places.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/24/2005 21:34
Comments ||
Top||
February 24, 2005: A battalion of American Rangers headed for duty in Afghanistan, is taking 16 Stryker armored vehicles with them. Normally, the Strykers are only used in mechanized infantry brigades. But since the rangers will be moving around a lot in Afghanistan, and not always by helicopter or on foot, it was thought that the Strykers would be a useful vehicle for that kind of work. The Strykers are equipped with satellite communications equipment and remote control (from inside the vehicle) gun turrets. The regular infantry who have been using Strykers in Iraq have been very satisfied with the vehicles.
Normally, the rangers are "light infantry", and are trained to use helicopters or parachutes to arrive at the combat zone. In previous trips to Afghanistan, the rangers have used hummers to get around on the ground.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
11:03:18 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This just plain doesn't compute. In a way, it is like issuing horses to infantry--they cease being infantry--but even more so. The Stryker is designed to work in concert with other Strykers. By comparison, the progenitor of the Stryker was used in South Africa for bush patrols in the early 1980s. But then, add that to the mission of the Rangers, which is medium to long range combat patrolling through hostile territory, and it makes no sense. Now, granted, I'm sure the Rangers can think up something creative to do with them, but they would if you gave them something else odd, like light artillery or fifteen field kitchens. The one other possibility that comes to mind is if they want to get into and out of Pakistan in a hurry.
#2
Anonymoose -
It seems to me the part about the satcom systems and the remote turret controls - not standard Stryker equipment - indicates that the Rangers may be up to something...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/24/2005 21:14
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Foot infantry are mobilized all the time in American practice. Infantry division after infantry division were "motorized" on the fly during the Normandy breakout and pursuit. Wilder's "Lightning Brigade" in the Union Army of the Cumberland is an even older example of foot converted to dragoons, when the resources were available.
Once you start putting Rangers in armored humvees, there's no good reason why not Strykers, aside from the training issue. Except expense and availability, I suppose. Aren't they busy Strykerifying a lot of brigades stateside? I know that the 2nd Cavalry is converting to Strykers, and the 28th Infantry Division here in Pennsylvania was getting ready to convert one of its heavy infantry units to a rapid-deployment Stryker brigade. There must be a lot of Stryker units training up if the 28th is getting them. Wonder what the Stryker production numbers look like?
Hmm. Looks fairly restrained. Some 2000 vehicles among the various subclasses, spread out over six brigades.
That's the 25th Infantry's 1st Brigade, the 2nd Infantry's brigade, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the 28th Infantry's brigade, one mentioned in Alaska (172 Separate Armored Brigade) - where's the sixth brigade? Ah! Another brigade for the 25th.
Damn, that's an average cost of $4 million per vehicle - these aren't cheap rides, even before maintenance gets factored in...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/24/2005 21:25
Comments ||
Top||
A top official wants the Intelligence Ministry to identify those who will probably use the fake title "Gulf" in their correspondence, Fars News Agency reported. Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rohani, in a letter Tuesday to First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, urged him to follow up the issue. He noted that since several commercial and tourism units do not use the full form of "Persian Gulf of Rumsfeld" in their correspondence, the Intelligence Ministry should take up the matter. It added that Kish and Qeshm free trade zone organizations should change names of streets and other places from "Gulf" to "Persian Gulf of Rumsfeld". Rohani also asked Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry to instruct newspapers, magazines and publishers to avoid using "Gulf" in their articles and advertisements. "Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization should prevent activities of travel agencies that operate under the name of "Gulf" in the country," he said.
"It's 'Persian Gulf of Rumsfeld' or nothing, my brothers," he added.
#1
Who does this remind you of? Who else is so petty, so insecure, so banal, so image-over-reality focused, and so minutia-driven that this would prompt a Ministerial "purge"?
#4
"Gulf of Rumsfeld" has a nice ring to it, don't you think!. Can't wait to see this show up on a map at a Pentagon briefing. Of course, we will have to pretend to sacrifice some minor clerk for this 'horrible and embarassing mistake'. Heehee.
ISN SECURITY WATCH (24/02/05) - British arms giant BAE Systems is bowing to pressure from Washington not to sell arms to China as the EU prepares to lift the arms embargo on the country. A BAE spokesman told Reuters that the company was "concerned about the impact of these measures on the US". "We very much hope the British government does everything it can to ensure the US government feels that we are supportive of their point of view," the spokesman said.
On Tuesday, The Times of London quoted an unnamed senior BAE official as saying that the arms giant would "spurn China" even if the EU lifted the embargo. According to British media reports, BAE is not willing to risk its â¬5.5 billion in annual sales to the US in exchange for taking on new clients in China once the embargo is lifted. "We can't do America and China, and we want to preserve our business relationship with the US; we're not going to spoil that for the sake of winning new business in China," The Times quoted the BAE official as saying. BAE Systems has nearly 30'000 employees working in North America, with US sales larger than European sales. The company is the fourth largest defense and aerospace firm - after Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and EADS.
The EU imposed the arms embargo on China after the June 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Washington has been pressuring the EU to maintain the embargo, citing China's poor human rights record and defense concerns in the Taiwan Strait. The issue reached a new climax on Monday and Tuesday at the EU-US summit in Brussels, where US President George Bush once again urged the EU to reconsider lifting the embargo. Bush failed to convince EU leaders, but Washington's pressure on BAE and other threats have been successful where diplomacy has not.
The head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee told the media he would support curbs on US sales of advanced military technology to Europe to stop that technology from reaching China if the EU lifted the embargo. "The technology the US shares with European allies could be in jeopardy if allies were sharing that through these commercial sales with the Chinese," US Senator Richard Lugar told the Financial Times. The EU plans to lift the arms embargo on China by the middle of this year.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:58:19 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Good. It's all about money - so focus on making it hurt.
And keep a careful watch on the formation of "new" companies which seek to sell to China - front companies.
The entire logic of having the embargo was laudable, sensible, and logical. Lifting it is pure mercenary greed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 12:01
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"Good. It's all about money - so focus on making it hurt."
Yeah, what he said! What gets me is the irony of the whole thing. I thought America was the home of greedy capitalist bastards who would sell their grandmothers for a Euro, er, a dollar.
Apparently, the logic is that those selling arms are not the ones who will be fighting when push comes to shove over Taiwan. Oh, well. Garcon, more dictator teat for my friends!
The International Atomic Energy Agency has urged the removal of nuclear fuel production from individual states in a move that could affect Iran's program. Instead, the IAEA report said nuclear fuel production should be the responsibility of a multilateral regime, which has already been launched in Europe. The report said each region should have a multilateral group to ensure that nuclear fuel would not be transferred to countries that sought to develop nuclear weapons. "A joint nuclear facility with multinational staff puts all participants under a greater scrutiny from peers and partners, a fact that strengthens non-proliferation and security," IAEA deputy director Bruno Pellaud said. "Moreover, they have the potential to facilitate the continued use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." Pellaud told a briefing in Vienna on Tuesday that the proposed multilateral groups would ensure the supply of fuel to civilian nuclear power programs. He said the 103-page report sought to issue recommendations ahead of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review scheduled for May 2005 in New York. More than 180 countries, including Iran, are signatories to the NPT.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
10:49:21 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Okay, this would end the need for the clueless IAEA but would put Middle Eastern nuclear programs under Middle Eastern supervision. Right. Go back and try again, Bruno.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 8:40
Comments ||
Top||
The Palestine Liberation Organization is planning to reopen its offices in Beirut, which have been closed since Israel expelled PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from Lebanon in 1982, Lebanese media reports said on Thursday. The move suggests that the Palestinian Authority and the PLO are seeking to boost their influence in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps -- perhaps to counter the influence of more radical groups, said Israeli counter-terrorism expert Dr. Ely Karmon. The Palestinians have never been integrated into Lebanese society, Karmon said. More than 370,000 of them live in Lebanon, more than half in crowded camps, according to statistics from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which tends to their humanitarian needs. The PLO's reported return to Beirut comes at a time when talk of Israeli-Palestinian "permanent status" issues -- such as the right of return for refugees -- are resurfacing after four years of violence and terrorism. "The Lebanese government is interested in a solution to Palestinian refugees [and] that those in southern camps will go out of Lebanon," Karmon said.
Coincidentally, it comes in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Hariri, no doubt kindling not so fond memories of the late festivities.
Israel adamantly opposes the idea of having hundreds of thousands of Palestinians -- along with millions of their descendants -- return to the homes and land they left during the Israeli-Arab wars in 1948 and 1967. An influx of Palestinians into what is now Israel would erase the identity of the Jewish state, most Israelis agree. Jordan's new ambassador to Israel, Ma'aruf Bakhit, said his country sees a difference between recognizing the Palestinian right of return and actually implementing it. "Recognizing the right of return is important," the Jerusalem Post quoted Bakhit as saying. "But the implementation of the right of return is something different and it is up to the parties concerned." Due to the implications of such a move, Israel has not been willing to recognize the right of return for Palestinians.
If they're going to have a Paleostinian state, that'd be the place for them to "return."
On Wednesday, Farouk Qaddoumi, the head of the PLO's Central Committee, met with officials from 10 Palestinian factions in Beirut, Lebanon, the online version of the Lebanese daily The Daily Star reported. Qaddoumi reportedly emphasized the importance of national unity, including Palestinian groups that froze their ties with the PLO in 1983. Qaddoumi urged the various factions to participate in a forum that will "defend refugees' right to return to their homeland and refuse permanent settlement," the paper said. Dozens of international activists are currently attending a three-day conference in Beirut entitled, "The Palestinian People's Right of Return to their Homeland." It was organized by the Council Of Boskone International Union of Parliamentarians, headed by former Iranian interior minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi.
Ah, the Iranians are gathering the Paleothug groups together, bet that the future of Syria in Lenbanon is on the agenda.
Although Syria hosts the headquarters of a dozen Palestinian terrorist organizations in its capital, Damascus, relations between Syria and former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat had been strained for years. The Israeli army entered Lebanon in 1982 in an attempt to rout Arafat's PLO, which was using Lebanon as a base for launching terror attacks against Israel. Arafat and the PLO were eventually expelled to Tunisia, amid international pressure for Israel to spare Arafat's life. But shortly after Arafat's death last November, Palestinian Authority Chairman Machmoud Abbas met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, ending decades of Syrian-Palestinian hostilities. The reopening of PLO offices in Beirut -- where Syria is the main powerbroker -- would indicate a further warming of relations between Syria and the Palestinians, Karmon said.
Birds of a feather...
Those warmer relations come as Syria faces increasing American and international pressure to withdraw its 14,000 troops and intelligence services from Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:47:38 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
The U.S. military has begun to transfer authority to Iraqi security forces. Officials said the U.S.-led coalition has been quietly handing over the command to Iraq's military and security units in the four most violent provinces in the country. Fourteen of the 18 provinces have already been under Iraqi security control.
Fourteen of 18, ya say? Golly, I hadn't read that in the New York Times. Sounds almost ... peaceful ... in those provinces.
You still read the New York Times?
In the latest move, the U.S. military has transferred control to the Iraq Army in Baghdad. The U.S. Army's First Cavalry Division has handed over authority in several areas to Baghdad to the Iraq Army's 40th Brigade. "We have reached a certain stage," Iraqi Brig. Gen. Jalil Khalaf said at the handover ceremony on Feb. 21. "The Americans are very accurate. They saw that we reached a certain stage in advanced training and in [the ability to] take over responsibilities."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
10:46:38 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This will be another step in the process, another quiet success. While the MSM, the LLL, and LDSOTW knock US policy and actions, President Bush is sticking to the plan and making things happen. When they finally wake up and THEY realize that events and history have passed them by, they will only see a bit of smoke from the train on the horizon.
[/waxing semi-poetic]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 0:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hey, AP, can you define LDSOTW for the acronymically challenged?
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/24/2005 6:56
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Wha...?! But what about the QUAGMIRE?! It can't be!
Posted by: Dar ||
02/24/2005 9:27
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Interesting article on page 1 of the WSJ-odt this morning.
"Capt. Jamie Farelly, leader of the nine man U. S. team [and member of the Gen. Mattis of Tomorrow Club], was furious. Even though no one was injured, his men could have been hurt. The Iraqis' commander, who is called Col. Yassir, immediately said it wasn't his fault. His soldiers weren't professionals like the Marines, he said, and shouldn't be expected to perform at the same level.
"' B***s***! It is your fault,' Capt. Farrelly says he screamed at Col. Yassir. "Just like everything here is your fault, because you don't hold anyone accountable. You don't discipline your troops. You don't maintain basic standards.' Col. Yassir confirms the account."
Marines. Gotta love 'em. But that poor Col Yassir has spent 25 years under the Hussein regime learning that every screw-up is somebody else's fault or you die. Now he gets to read about it in the WSJ. Fortunately, there's a new generation coming.
" 'My junior leaders are supbeerb. But my battallion commander is a coward,' says Capt. Chuck Green who leads a U. S. advisory team in Mosul."
We may be there for 20 years till the next generation can fly solo, and that's OK with me.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 9:39
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Jame Retief---I threw out the acronym on a whym, heh heh. Believe it or not, MacNails nailed it! MacNails, have a see-gar!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 11:43
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Mrs D I read that article this morning and came to the same conclusion. It was interesting how Col. Yassir said he wanted his troopers to be his friend. Sounds like bad parenting to me. Consistent discipline, clear expectations of character and performance and leadership by example are what are needed. These are not qualities of the Arab officer corps up till now. It will take time for them to change.
A group that wants "blue state" voters to patronize like-minded companies is making the case for having liberals switch auto insurance companies. In a press release, BuyBlue.org noted, "The chairman of appropriately named Progressive Insurance contributed over $68,000 to Democratic politicians in the last election cycle, including Howard Dean and groups like America Coming Together." Moreover, Buy Blue notes that Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter Lewis is "part of a joint venture with George Soros and Herb and Marion Sandler to fund progressive think tanks." Buy Blue says its mission is to make liberal voices "heard loud and clear, from board rooms across the country to Wall Street to Capitol Hill." According to Buy Blue, most auto insurers contribute to the "conservative war chest." It envisions a multi-million dollar shift, if liberals would only switch to Progressive. It's not clear if a liberal shift to Progressive might be offset by a conservative switch away, however.
Oh, I think it's very clear, at least for this consumer. And my thanks to Buy Blue for compiling this list for us.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:37:54 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This will hurt them far more than it will help them. Think Air America.
Besides, who wants to belong to an insurance company associated with a ruthless profit-bandit like Soros. He's screwed many a little person before - for his own personal gain. I wouldn't be putting my life savings or security in the hands of a crowd like that....scary!
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005 11:53
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"The chairman of appropriately named Progressive Insurance contributed over $68,000 to Democratic politicians in the last election cycle, including Howard Dean and groups like America Coming Together."
Good money going after bad. Give them a wide berth. They are bad investors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 12:01
Comments ||
Top||
#6
And it looks like Conservatives can switch to Geico (Lizard not withstanding)!
#10
J D Power does give GEICO a very good rating, whereas Progressive is pretty much an also-ran, if you need any more incentive to switch. J D Power gave Amica the award in this category, but I'm not sure where their loyalties lie.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/24/2005 13:48
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Before we start the Red state surge over to GEICO, it might be best to recall that GEICO is part of the Berkshire Hathaway group, whose head muckety-muck is Warren Buffet, who served on Kerry's economic advisory board. Mr. Buffet is certainly not a moonbat, but he ain't exactly on our side either.
#12
OK Dreadnaught, how about State Farm. Also Red though not as Red as Geico...
Besides just cause Swami Warren invests in a company such as GEICO doesn't mean he influences policy, it means as all good mega-swami know, he knows they run it well and there is profit to be made.
He was only $500,000 less generous to the Dems than George Soros.
Posted by: ed ||
02/24/2005 21:00
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Geico's ads are goofy-good, but 21st Century gives an engineer discount...
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 21:19
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Progressive is cat poop. Yea your premiums are low but so are their pay outs. They avertise like hell on cable/satelite channels no one watches along with the weight loss and hair growth pills.
I got something progressive for you right here Chris W.
U.S. police have captured the head of a notorious Honduran youth gang who is wanted at home for the killing of 28 people in a bus attack last December that shocked Central America. The Department of Homeland Security said Ebert Anibal Rivera, head of the Mara Salvatrucha gang in Honduras, was arrested after a vehicle stop in Falfurrias, Texas on Feb. 10. Rivera was later handed over to the Border Patrol. "We are trying to find out if the U.S. authorities will press charges against him and if not we will immediately ask for his extradition so he can face justice here," Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez told a news conference on Wednesday in Tegucigalpa.
Only if you promise to keep him locked up. Does Honduras have the death penalty?
Rivera, 29, is wanted for his gang's attack on Dec. 23 when half a dozen gunmen armed with assault rifles stopped a bus in a rough neighborhood of the northern city of San Pedro Sula and opened fire on passengers. Six of the dead were children. Honduras said the Mara Salvatrucha carried out the attack in a warning to the government, which began a harsh crackdown on youth gangs in 2003. Police have already arrested 12 people in connection with the murders but Rivera is believed to have fled to the United States in late December, entering the country illegally. He is accused of masterminding the bus shooting.
Honduran security forces have arrested more than 2,000 leading members of the Mara Salvatrucha and a rival gang, the Mara-18, in less than two years. The maras youth gangs are also active in neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador and have their roots in Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles. They established a strong presence in Central America when illegal immigrant convicts in the United States were sent back to their home countries in the late 1990s. El Salvador said this week it wants the U.S. government to provide criminal records for the thousands of Salvadorans it deports every year.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:33:50 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We should not extradite any one to another country for a capital crime if that country does not have the death penalty.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 11:54
Comments ||
Top||
#2
or effective "crossfire" incidents
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 11:56
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Or frequent "work accidents".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/24/2005 12:12
Comments ||
Top||
#4
or the conclusive "heart failure".
Posted by: Mac Suirtain ||
02/24/2005 12:49
Comments ||
Top||
#5
One of the real problems is if they get put in prison and then someway "break out" because the guards are given $$$ and then go on a coffee break.
#7
Here it is, Sea: The gunmen left behind a note saying they represented a guerrilla group, the Cinchonero People's Liberation Movement, opposed to the reintroduction of the death penalty in Honduras.
However, the group in question has not been active since the 1980s and is thought to be defunct. The attackers' note also challenged a number of leading politicians who have come out strongly against organised crime - particularly the president of Congress, Porfirio Lobo.
Mr Lobo, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election, has been a strong advocate of the death penalty for serious crimes.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005 13:34
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Better he serve out his term in a Honduran prison, than an easy U.S. federal pen. I'm sure the Hondurans are longing to show him their down-home hospitality.
Latin America's infection
Robert Novak
February 24, 2005
Realistically, besides deposing the little tyrants, what can the US do to stop the spread of the modern version (Participative Democracy) of the old communist doctrine?
WASHINGTON -- When Gen. Omar Halleslevens was installed Monday in Managua as chief of the Nicaraguan army, the U.S. government was represented by a mere major at the change-of-command ceremony. The slight was intentional. Halleslevens is regarded at the Pentagon as a hard-line Sandinista, whose rise to power represents profound problems in Latin America.
The Sandinistas, the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary party repeatedly rejected by Nicaraguan voters, are on the verge of accomplishing what U.S. officials call a "golpe technico" (technical coup), stripping President Enrique Bolanos of power. It is no isolated event restricted to a small Central American country. The Sandinistas have a rich and powerful ally in Hugo Chavez, the Marxist president of Venezuela. Chavez has not only survived all Venezuelan challenges to his power but is making great strides in spreading his "Bolivarian Revolution" throughout the region. Besides the Nicaraguan connection, Chavez endangers shaky elected presidents in Peru and Ecuador and is aiming at unseating Bolivia's president, as he did his predecessor. At the same time, Colombia's conservative regime is busy staving off narco-guerrillas backed by Chavez. The Venezuelan is spreading his influence through Latin America more effectively than his friend and ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro, ever did. George W. Bush, while preaching global democracy, clearly has his hands full in his own hemisphere but until now has ignored this deepening regional crisis. A few low-level officials in Washington have been ringing the warning bell in the night. The intentional slight at Monday's change-of-command ceremony was a small sign of success for them. After a spirited debate among middle-level Bush administration officials, an inter-agency meeting decided not to send anybody to an event that normally would be attended by a four-star U.S. officer, Gen. Bantz Craddock, the Miami-based Southern Command commander in chief. Protests from the U.S. Embassy in Managua resulted in a low-level U.S. Army officer being sent.
Elevating Halleslevens to command of the army suggests how completely the Sandinistas are back controlling Nicaragua. Chavez has taken two years to radicalize the Venezuelan army. Nicaragua never really purged the Sandinista influence from its military. The CIA has reported that Col. Halleslevens was in the party's inner circle 15 years ago as chief of the counter-intelligence directorate, funneling arms to foreign terrorists.
The state of the country's military is reflected in the conclusion by U.S. officials that Nicaraguan officers supplied the SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles that were intended to be sold to Colombian narco-terrorists last month. The purchasers were actually undercover Nicaraguan police and U.S. drug agents. The sellers caught in the sting stayed behind bars only for a short time before Sandinista lawyers got them released.
The message of disapproval from Washington is being delivered personally this week on a mission to Managua by Rose Likins, a tough foreign service officer who serves as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. She is known to speak bluntly and will express outrage at the use of extra-parliamentary maneuvers to return to effective power the Sandinista former president, Daniel Ortega.
Ortega is collaborating with the disgraced President Arnoldo Aleman, the Liberal Party stalwart convicted of massive corruption who is under house arrest and is virtually a free man. They have combined to thwart the efforts of the Bolanos government to destroy the Soviet surface-to-air missiles Nicaragua collected during Sandinista rule.
The return of the Sandinistas 15 years after the voters of Nicaragua dismissed them comes at a time when the anti-American, anti-capitalist Chavez is arming Venezuela. In addition to the widely publicized purchase of 100,000 AK-47 automatic rifles from Moscow, Chavez is also buying 24 Super Tucano combat aircraft from Brazil.
Leftist presidents in Brazil and Chile turn a blind eye to the Bolivarian Revolution. The situation goes virtually unnoticed on Capitol Hill. At her confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was criticized by Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd and Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee for being unkind to Chavez (who has profanely and inexcusably attacked her). President Bush hardly ever mentions Latin America, but Rice brings a voice to the Cabinet that appreciates the infection spreading throughout America's backyard.
Posted by: TMH ||
02/24/2005
10:30:13 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey yesterday outlined a plan to expand the District's use of speed and red-light cameras, but was not aware of details to reimburse a private contractor for issuing as many as 103,000 traffic-camera citations a month...
Meanwhile,
Closed circuit TV systems are of little use in the fight against crime, a surprise government report claims today. Home Office researchers who studied 14 schemes across Britain found that only one had brought a clear fall in the local crime rate. While there was strong public support for CCTV before it was installed, opinion began to shift when people realised the cameras made little difference...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
02/24/2005
10:29:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Obviously there is some waste of time because, being in DC, there will be ambassadors who will claim diplomatic immunity, and file protests over the pictures of them fudging the red lights...
#2
That they don't work may be a feature rather than a bug in the eyes of DC politicians. If they worked, revenues from traffic infractions would decrease.
#3
BigEd- Nah, chances are they won't have to do that at all.
If their program runs anything like here in Phoenix, you have someone checking out the photos to see if they are usable (have to have a good face shot). If not, it doesn't get charged.
Even if they decide to go for it and send them the citations/pictures, there's plenty of ways to get out of responsibility for the red light violation if you know your 5th Amendment rights well enough.
#6
The Wash. Times had an article a while ago that showed 80% of the speeding tix are issued to drivers commuting into DC from Maryland and Virginia. Most of the cameras are placed on major arteries in/out of the city. It's sort of a back-door commuter tax that the city leaders keep trying to push thru Congress. I've avoided their evil clutches so far...
Two gunmen stormed government offices in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, sparking a three-hour siege Thursday that resulted in seven deaths -- including the two gunmen -- police officials said. Police killed the gunmen, who are suspected Islamic militants, ending the siege. Three security forces and two civilians died in the violence.
At one point, as many as 200 people were inside the offices, but all were evacuated safely from the compound and surrounding buildings after two hours, according to Syed Mohammed Syed, the senior superindent of police in Kashmir. The attack took place early Thursday afternoon, and police moved quickly to surround the complex. After the civilians were evacuated, police went into offensive operations inside the office complex shortly before sunset, engaging in gun battles with the suspected militants and firing mortar shells.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:18:18 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Police said Thursday they thwarted planned attacks on an airport, malls, a church and U.S. troops with the arrests of three members of an al-Qaida linked terror group who allegedly came to the Philippines to train Muslim militants to make bombs. The two Indonesians and a Malaysian - all alleged Jemaah Islamiyah members - were arrested in southern Zamboanga city in December along with a Filipino member of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group with bomb-making manuals, bomb parts and money for attacks, officials said. "We were able to foil an attempt to bring into the country terrorists with firearms, with training materials, with explosives, before they can do their thing," Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes told reporters as the men were presented to media. One of them shouted "Allahu fubar akbar!" - or "God is great."
The men allegedly belonged to a previously unknown Jemaah Islamiyah terror cell in the country, the authorities said. The arrests were not immediately announced to allow authorities time to identify six of their local comrades, one of whom has been arrested, said Chief Supt. Ismael Rafanan, head of the police Intelligence Group. Excellent!
Police intelligence officials said the targets included a Roman Catholic church and the airport in the bustling port city of Davao, unspecified malls in Manila and U.S. soldiers participating in joint training with the Philippine military. Authorities recovered bomb components, about $7,000 and at least two pistols from the four, who were located in part due to intelligence provided by Indonesia and Malaysia. While under surveillance, they were monitored meeting some Abu Sayyaf members, officials said. The money was intended to finance the attacks and training to make explosives, including car bombs to be organized by Jemaah Islamiyah in the southern region of Mindanao, officials said.
The arrests are an indication of continuing collusion between foreign militants and local Muslim radicals. They also rekindled concerns over the government's limitations in dealing with terrorism and the need for the public to help guard against attacks. "We couldn't place an intelligence operative in every nook and corner of the country," Rafanan said. The four have been charged with illegal possession of explosives and firearms. The foreigners also violated immigration laws, they said. Rafanan said investigators were trying to verify whether the four have links with suspected Muslim militants responsible for three almost-simultaneous bombings that killed eight people in Manila, General Santos and Davao last week. Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for several deadly attacks in Southeast Asia, including bombings on Indonesia's Bali island in 2002 that killed 202 people. Authorities also blame the group for a series of bomb attacks in Manila in December 2000 that left 22 people dead. Philippine security officials say Jemaah Islamiyah has worked with members of Abu Sayyaf, a small but brutal al-Qaida-linked group on a U.S. list of terror organizations, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a larger group which has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/24/2005
10:04:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yep, he's tapped into the Magik Moonbat Money. He will become another icon - revered by the LLL and reviled by the Sane.
The lines are clearly drawn and unless we are willing to go out like lambs to the slaughter, suborned from within, we must take back the educations system - to stem the brainwashing of even more generations.
I don't fear the Islamofascists - but the insanity of our own population is truly dangerous. A Second Civil War is in our future if we fail to flush the excrement from Academia's Ivory Towers.
#2
true .com. The merge of the Islamofascists with our LLL seems a logical one to me. They are two groups that wrap their identity around blaming/shaming others to make themselves feel superior to others. Had they been children of the 20's, they would have been members of the KKK, blaming the blacks - but today the focus d'jour of their hatred is "The US" and "The Zionists".
What a perfect merger. Since blame/shame crowd has never been about their own convictions but instead simply looking to avoid responsibility for what's wrong in the world by assigning blame. I guess by assigning it to "someone else" it allows them to sleep with a clear conscience that have done their best to fix the problem by pointing out whose to blame. That the Islamists are against everything that the LLL claimed it stood for that is not as important as the fact that they agree on who should take the blame.
Anyway I digress. Good article. It's interesting seeing how these money trails trace back to the same little circle of friends. But what I find most interesting about Churchill was his comment that he went to Libya ""not to buy guns". It's going to be fun watching this web untangle.
#3
Colorado has been embarassed by this huckster, and painfully and rightfully so. The only greater embarassment to Colorado would be to keep this charlatan on payroll.
Lawsuit or not, Colorado is money ahead letting Churchill go now. Were it me running the show I would announce in a press conference that U of Colorado has retained outside council to seek a dismissal of Churchill.
Grounds? We don't need his services any more.
What Colorado should not do is to keep him on the payroll. The man will make a stink in either case and it is better to flush this turd now than to continue serving it to students.
#5
Lawsuit or not, Colorado is money ahead letting Churchill go now. Were it me running the show I would announce in a press conference that U of Colorado has retained outside council to seek a dismissal of Churchill.
Unfortunately, there's this thing called tenure.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/24/2005 11:48
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Since he falsely claimed to be a Native American there may be grounds to fire him on that account.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/24/2005 12:15
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Unfortunately, there's this thing called tenure.
Don't think for one second such a 'thing called tenure' can force an institution to retain a bad employee. Tenure or not, man is an academic huckster. He became a liability the second the university accepted his employment.
#8
Don't think for one second such a 'thing called tenure' can force an institution to retain a bad employee.
In that case, sack him already!
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/24/2005 13:01
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Not only should he be sacked but he should be thrown in a state (or federal) pound-me-in-the-ass-prison for fraud and theft and (I'm sure the LLL willl LOVE this...) stealing the job of a minority (a real Indian) - would that be considered a *hate* crime?
#10
Thomas Brown, a professor of sociology at Lamar University: "One has only to read the sources that Churchill cites to realize the magnitude of his fraudulent claims for them," Brown writes. "We are not dealing with a few minor errors here. We are dealing with a story that Churchill has fabricated almost entirely from scratch. The lack of rationality on Churchill's part is mind-boggling." (Brown's essay can be read here.)
Source: Paul Campos, Rocky Mountain News link
#11
And remember, folks. Academic tenture makes it difficult to fire a professor. Not impossible, but difficult.
My thinking is that Churchill before the fall term will meet with U of Colorado lawyers and a settlement will be worked out to let him leave without any bad remarks about his employment there.
#13
the bad remarks have already been made - he won't get tenure anywhere outside Berkley
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 19:09
Comments ||
Top||
#14
I'd like to see if he could make it on his own, without a Public Tit to suck on or Magik Moonbat Money. Real Native Americans certainly wouldn't support this lying sack of shit sociofascist imposter.
Itinerant Professor of Ethnic Studies. Pretty valuable stuff, eh?
Now we ask ourselves how the US ever got along without people teaching such jewels as Ethnic Studies. Yep, it's a puzzle. Methinks he's 'B' Ark material.
#17
All Colorado needs to do is eliminate his position or department. Tenure doesn't help you if your job doesn't exist anymore. "Ethnic Studies" is bull shit anyhow. If it's real history and culture it can be taught in regular history courses and social sciences courses.
#2
Therefore, it is folly to the highest degree to treat Muslim' Islamofascist plebiscites as democratic elections. At the risk of being called a "troll," the Middle East Democratic Initiative is a suicide-pill. Read what the author says about democracy.
5. Islam and Democracy are compatible.
Democracy and Islam are contradictory terms. The goal of Islam is Sharia law, the implementation of the Quran as the law of the land. What you see in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan is the Moslem global vision. The idea we express in a democracy, "I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it" is not understood in Islam. There is no right to dissent. There are 16 Moslem nations in the Middle East; not one of them is Democracy.
#3
Therefore, it is folly to the highest degree to treat Muslim' Islamofascist plebiscites as democratic elections. At the risk of being called a "troll," the Middle East Democratic Initiative is a suicide-pill. Read what the author says about democracy.
5. Islam and Democracy are compatible.
Democracy and Islam are contradictory terms. The goal of Islam is Sharia law, the implementation of the Quran as the law of the land. What you see in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan is the Moslem global vision. The idea we express in a democracy, "I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it" is not understood in Islam. There is no right to dissent. There are 16 Moslem nations in the Middle East; not one of them is Democracy.
CAIRO - Several unprecedented protests have rocked Egypt over the past three months as demonstrators took to the streets to denounce the likelihood of President Hosni Mubarak being elected to a fifth term in office. The rallies, organised by the Egyptian Movement for Change, have coined a slogan—"kefaya" (enough) -- to vent their exasperation with Mubarak and his consecutive administrations. Their simple message broke ground in Egypt, where the president was always sheltered against public rage.
On Monday, the third protest since December 12, demonstrators shouted "Down with Hosni Mubarak" as they gathered in front of Cairo University while around 50 trucks packed with police were deployed nearby. Under the state of emergency in force since the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, demonstrations are normally tolerated in Egypt only on university campuses or outside mosques. But even then, hardly was a word heard against Mubarak himself.
The organisers represent a coalition of groups that first surfaced two months ago when it organised a protest by some 300 people outside the Palace of Justice. The second protest was held February 4 at the Cairo international book fair.
The demonstrators, mostly intellectuals and never more than a few hundred, included the usual collection of motley fools Marxists, Nasserites, liberals and Islamic dissidents from the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mubarak, 76, succeeded Sadat who was killed by Islamists in 1981. If he wins a fifth six-year term later this year, he will become the longest serving president since the overthrow of the monarch in 1954.
"A quarter of a century in power is enough" and "Mubarak, admit you're a despot", the protestors chanted on Monday. They also brandished banners with the slogan "No to hereditary power"—a reference to steps being taken by the government in an apparent move to groom Mubarak's eldest son, Gamal, as a successor.
Leaflets handed out at the rally called for a constitutional amendment that would limit presidents to two, four-year terms in power, instead of an indefinite number of six-year terms, as now. "Any Egyptian who meets the conditions required to become president must be able to vye freely for the post," the statement said.
"Mubarak, you bankrupt, what are you doing with our money," the demontrators chanted. "We want a free government, life is becoming bitter."
He's spending your money, what did you think?
A speaker told the crowd: "During Mubarak's four terms in office, a quarter of a million Egyptians have been jailed. If you want others to follow them, vote for a fifth term."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON - As diplomatic efforts to end a nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang make little headway, a resolution has been introduced in the US Senate demanding that North Korea return an American intelligence ship seized by the hardline communist state 37 years ago. The attack on the USS Pueblo by North Korean naval vessels and MiG jets on January 23, 1968, left one American dead and several more wounded while 82 surviving crew members were captured, held prisoner and tortured for a year.
The Senate resolution demands the return of the vessel, believed still in North Korean hands. "North Koreas inhumane treatment of our sailors, and the refusal of Pyongyang to return this vessel should not be forgotten," said Senator Wayne Allard, who filed the resolution this month after the Stalinist state stunned the world by publicly boasting about its nuclear weapons arsenal. The Republican senator from Colorado said although it had been more than three decades since the "disgraceful episode" occurred, "the United States government should demand the return of the USS Pueblo to the US Navy without further delay."
I sure hope this is more than just a publicity stunt.
Washington has been quite reluctant to demand its return because of the embarrassment caused by the incident. It had to apologize to North Korea for the spying mission before receiving the surviving crew. It was the first US Navy ship to be hijacked on the high seas by a foreign military force in over 150 years.
Fred Carriere, executive director of The Korea Society and an experienced Korea hand, said he visited the ship last year during a trip to Pyongyang with the society's chairman and ex-ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg. "It was docked in the Tedong River and is still impressive and seaworthy," he told AFP. "From the Korean point of view it is an educational exhibit and one of the most sacred trophies aimed at making the point of history about American invasions of Korea," he said.
It is believed that North Korea had given serious consideration to returning the USS Pueblo to the United States in the spring of 2002 as part of a "confidence building measure," just months before a nuclear standoff flared up in the fall of that year, an Asian diplomat close to Pyongyang told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How about this confidence building measure---Sink the ship in the harbor and be done with it. Nothing spectacular. Just a hole in the hull and sink it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 0:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"It had to apologize to North Korea for the spying mission before receiving the surviving crew."
Lefty revisionists will do everything possible to legitimize this "apology" not mentioning that the US Admiral who signed it denounced it as false, meaningless, and extracted under duress the very moment the crew were released.
#3
"It is believed that North Korea had given serious consideration to returning the USS Pueblo to the United States in the spring of 2002 as part of a âconfidence building measure,â just months before a nuclear standoff flared up in the fall of that year, an Asian diplomat close to Pyongyang told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity."
My a*s. That ship is staying in Wonsan until it sinks from neglect or we sink it...and frankly, I think we need to whack it now, just to prove a point.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/24/2005 7:28
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Absolutly,AP(hows that new Grandbaby),but it should be loud,spectacular,& devastating.I sugest 1/2 dozen cruise missles,2 with HE,2 with CBU,2 with FAE.
#5
We should remember that the Norks took the Pueblo at the behest of the Soviets during the Walker spy-ring time. The Sovs used the Nork reputation for craziness in order to get US naval codes and encryption gear.
#6
"...return of the vessel, believed still in North Korean hands..."
Believed? Journalists are such jerks. Read the whole article and you can put a pin on your North Korean map. It's a f##king museum and a monument to our lack of testosterone. Sink it now.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 8:46
Comments ||
Top||
#7
If it's possible I think a Mk48 ADCAP torpedo under the keel would make all kinda points.
#9
By the by, I had the unique misfortune of hearing Ambassador Gregg of the Korea Society speak to a group of naval officers. Any statements from the Korea Society should be taken with a dumptruck of road salt. They're starting point is basically that we provoked the Korean War and have been needlessly antagonizing the Norks ever since. He was also shamelessly anti-Japanese. Gregg is ex-CIA, so interpret that as you will.
#10
Carriere said it all. It's a "sacred trophy" to the North Koreans. They have museums that exhibit pictures of the Korean War...gloating over dead Americans. They gotta go.
#13
I'm with AP and Shipman here. Blow the damn thing up. An ADCAP from 40,000 yards is stealthy and provides lots of WTF WAS THAT??!!?? when it detonates. Stuff blowing up unexpectedly just might jump start the stalled negotiations!
Reformists are calling for an elected Parliament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an unprecedented public demand for a greater say in the government. Although there is no political dissent or extremist violence in the UAE, it is now the only state without elected bodies in the Gulf region after Saudi Arabia held municipal elections earlier this month. "It has become embarrassing for the UAE to lag behind others politically in the region. It is high time for us to have a fully elected house — enough of an appointed council without legislative powers," Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a professor at UAE University told Gulf News daily in remarks published yesterday.
"With elections being held in Saudi Arabia, the UAE will be the only country in the region that does not have elections," added Saeed Hareb, another university professor. "It is strange that Iraqis were registering and voting in the UAE for their country's election and yet UAE citizens do not have the right to vote," Gulf News quoted him as saying. They were referring to the consultative Federal National Council (FNC) whose 40 members are currently appointed by the seven semi-autonomous emirates that make up the UAE federation, presided by Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan. The highest federal authority in the UAE is the Supreme Council, comprising the rulers of the seven emirates. The country, which enjoys political, security and economic stability, has a population of 4 million, mostly foreigners. Late President Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan Al-Nahayan, who died last year, said in 1998 he was willing to consider elections for the National Council but defended the system of government without elaborating.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami has signalled his willingness to concede to opposition demands to resign, but President Emile Lahoud has refused to succumb to pressure. Lahud said his government would not bow to pressure as repercussions of the 14 February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri continued to ripple across the nation.
"I'm bought, and I'll stay bought!"
However, speaking to Aljazeera over phone from Beirut, Karam Karam a Lebanese State Minister said the government did not favour continuing disagreement over the killing of al-Hariri.
"Can't we all get along, now that he's dead?"
"I am for the resignation of the government if that will overcome the current crisis and pave the way for a serious dialogue among all sides", he added. Prime Minister Karami meanwhile told the leading An-Nahar newspaper, "I am ready to resign on condition that we agree on a new government in order to avoid falling into a constitutional vacuum." Karami, however, said he will seek a vote of confidence in Parliament on Monday, when lawmakers will convene to discuss the assassination. The debate was requested by opposition legislators. "If the result is a no-confidence motion, we are ready and will bow to the will of the legislators," Karami said.
So they've got until the beginning of next week to bring the pressure...
As Karami's remarks appeared in one paper, President Emile Lahoud took a tougher line. While both he and Karami in the separate interviews called for dialogue, Lahoud said there can be no action under pressure.
That's why they have pressure, isn't it? To force action? But Schevardnadze and Yanukovych and Ceaucescu all said the same thing. And what ever did happen to Egon Krenz?
In an interview with the Sada al-Balad newspaper, Lahud said the government "cannot succumb to opposition demands," adding that the only way to solve problems is through dialogue. Lahoud, in the interview, said the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon can only be decided in line with a 1989 Arab-brokered agreement, shrugging off UN, American and French demands for a total, immediate pullout.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Egon was attacked by the Stay-Puff marshmellow man???
Two soldiers were yesterday convicted of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a case that has seriously undermined the standing of the British army and been dubbed the country's Abu Ghraib. Another pleaded guilty and a fourth was sentenced last month.
Judge Advocate Michael Hunter said that the scandal had "undoubtedly tarnished the international reputation of the British army and to some extent the British nation too". He described the behaviour uncovered by the court martial as brutal, cruel and revolting, and said it had jeopardised the safety of soldiers in Iraq.
The men were found guilty at a court martial in Germany of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the British Camp Breadbasket outside Basra two weeks after the conflict was declared over in May 2003. The abuse was captured in photographs which were published around the world. The defendants claim that they were being held up as "sacrificial lambs" for the failings of the military.
The military didn't fail: you did.
Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, of the 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was convicted on three charges, including the failure to report that soldiers under his command had forced two Iraqi males to strip naked and simulate sex acts. He was also found guilty of aiding and abetting another soldier who assaulted a prisoner and hung his victim from a forklift truck. He was found guilty of failing to report this to his superior officers.
Lance Corporal Mark Cooley was found guilty of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind after he drove the forklift truck with the bound Iraqi suspended from it. He was convicted of having brought the army into disrepute by posing for a picture in which he pretended to punch an Iraqi prisoner.
Both men face a maximum two-year prison sentence and a dishonourable discharge. Their fellow soldier, Lance-Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, who pleaded guilty to assaulting an Iraqi man after he was photographed standing on his body, faces up to six months.
It can now be reported for the first time that their colleague, Fusilier Gary Bartlam, 20, the soldier who sparked the abuse inquiry when he took his photographs to be developed, was sentenced to 18 months in youth custody last month and given a dishonourable discharge for being a "willing participant in this very brutal and very cruel act".
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every society has its share of assholes. Unfortunately, you can't always tell in advance. It's good that this isn't swept under the rug.
It's too bad for their mates, who will be tarred with a very broad brush in the MSM.
A US marine, captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi at point blank range during November's assault on Fallujah, will not be formally charged due to lack of evidence, according to a report Wednesday on CBS News. A Marine spokesman, Captain Dan McSweeney, told AFP, however, he had been informed by the Navy Criminal Investigative Services, which is investigating the killing, that "the case is still very much open." The November 13 shooting occurred during a search of a mosque in a widely broadcast incident that sparked worldwide outrage and was described by the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross as a demonstration of "utter contempt for humanity."
They weren't there, of course, they didn't see the mook playing dead, and they hadn't lost a friend the day before in a similar situation.
In the incident, a trooper raised his rifle and shot point blank at an apparently unarmed, wounded Iraqi who was slumped against one of the mosque walls, in footage captured by an embedded camaraman working for the NBC network. Although the insurgents were found to be unarmed, investigators said the one the Marine believed he had seen moving could have been reaching for a weapon. The rifleman was withdrawn from combat pending the results of the investigation. CBS News said Wednesday it had learned that military investigators had concluded insufficient evidence existed to formally charge the marine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hopefully sense prevailed. It's awful how thte media made a big deal of this. I can only imagine how tough it must be to carry the memories of close quarters combat in Fallujah. The media compounded it by making him a pariah from their comfy chairs in New York.
#3
What do you guys and gals think about imbedded reporters that are part of the military, instead of imbedding others with an agenda? I am all for freedom of the press, but in a wartime situation, what is reported, or more to the point, how it is reported is literally as much a a weapon against us as a terrorist's rifle, IED, or RPG. I see how things were done in WW2 as a model, though it will be hard to find the likes o' someone like Ernie Pyle.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 0:43
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The November 13 shooting occurred during a search of a mosque in a widely broadcast incident that sparked worldwide outrage and was described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a demonstration of âutter contempt for humanity.â
What then, would the TERRORISTS in Iraq that are DELIBERATELY targeting CIVILIANS be responsible for, in the Red Cross' eyes?
#5
BAR- How could the Terrorosi be responsible for their own actions? They were only driven over the edge into violence by the actions of the Marines in Fallujah, whacking the almost dead, the children in their beds, the young men who did not wish to fight against the Americans . . . wait . . . who were we talking about?
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/24/2005 6:59
Comments ||
Top||
#6
No spin in this article ,nope,none at all.(Sheesh,frigging wankers)
#7
My utter contempt for the Red Cross is reflected by my directing all that sort of donation to the Salvation Army.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 7:46
Comments ||
Top||
#8
There was a financial audit in the early 90s about the French Red Cross: basicaly from each Franc they collected only 30 cents went to cure people. The remaining 70 cents went to ad campaigns for donations and for supporting its bureaucracy. No wonder that the Red Cross has been infiltrated by leftists who want to live in the dole and use it to further their political aims.
#9
The November 13 shooting occurred during a search of a mosque in a widely broadcast incident that sparked worldwide outrage and was described by the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross as a demonstration of âutter contempt for humanity.â
And yet it was completely in accordance with the Geneva Conventions...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/24/2005 8:09
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Good news, common sense prevailed. From what I recall from the original report, what's left out of the "captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi" was the technique of feigning injury or having wounded jihadist committed suicide with a grenade to kill and wound our forces in Fallujah was an apparent tactic the bad guys were using.
When it came to that split second to make a decision to shoot or not, the young Marine reacted to the situation confronting him then and with the training he had gotten to that point. He did not have the opportunity to have the event placed on "instant replay" so he could then make a call; and, guess what, the ICRC wasn't there to help him make the call. Warfare is dirty business and unfortunately their are far too many second guessers out there who've never had to confront those life or death situations, but are more than willing to cirticize those of us who've been there and those who are currently in that postion on a daily basis.
#14
I am hyper-reluctant to second guess *any* decision made in the heat of combat. Especially when the penalty for a wrong choice is death.
As for the Red Cross, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the International Red Cross - a corrupt group of political wankers - is completely separate from the American Red Cross who actually provide useful disaster relief.
#16
I highly recommend looking at Charity Navigator when comptemplating making a charitable donation, if you want to make sure the largest portion of your dollars will actually do some good. The American Red Cross is one of the best orgs with a 4-star rating, meaning the largest part of your dollar will make it to the people who need it and not get lost in paying for administrative overhead and fund-raising efforts.
The Salvation Army is not on their site because they do not file a Form 990 with the IRS, but they are also one of the best causes you can give to.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/24/2005 10:23
Comments ||
Top||
#17
That jerk playing dead wasn't wearing a uniform, so he got exactly what he deserved under the Geneva Convention.
That's what the military's response should have been to this episode. Throw some bogus "international law" back in these leftist's faces.
LotR, didn't you mean to say:
Throw some REAL "international law" back in these leftist's faces.
#20
The day the Red Cross walks point for all our foot patrols, is the day I start caring what they think about shooting. I don't/they don't so neither of us can judge the actions of that Marine. I do have to question why arms were in the mosque after U.S. troops had swept the area. The fcirst thing you do when you come upon wounded is DISARM THEM. Nobody wants to be part of the enimies last 'stab' before death. FYI: 'International Law' is whatever the super powers of the world determine, not what the IRC interprets.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 11:58
Comments ||
Top||
#25
"He deserves a MEDAL."
The best support for the "he deserves a medal" argument is the observation that "the MSM and IRC would have spasms for days."
Maybe we should just let the attention to this episode just fade into the sunset. The fact that the Marine isn't going to be charged with murder for shooting the nearly dead Iraqi, doesn't just naturally lead to the conclusion that he deserves a medal. The Marine, believing the man was a threat and knowing that other nearly dead or playing nearly dead terrorists killed Americans before their end, made a split second decision in combat to make sure that didn't happen again. If those are the facts, then all second guessers should conclude the correct decision was made, regardless of whether the nearly dead Iraqi was in fact a threat. The Marine was doing his job, but he is not alone, alot of Marines are doing their jobs. They can't all get medals, for if they do, then what are medals worth?
Posted by: Sam ||
02/24/2005 12:08
Comments ||
Top||
#26
I would like to walk into the offices of the International Red Cross and take a dump on the president's desk. They are complete a**holes.
/immature comments for today
#27
At first, I was very angry that this Marine was put on trial. But, someone here at RB made my anger subside. This particular RB'r stated on one of his/her comments that the trial was necessary so that he will NEVER be charged for this incident, in the future. Supposedly, this brave Marine was going to be declared innocent anyway. Lucky for him that Rummy is in charge.
Increasing the pressure on Damascus further, the United States warned Syria Wednesday it must withdraw its "secret services from Lebanon in addition to its troops" or face new sanctions. Speaking during a joint press conference in Mainz, Germany with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Wednesday, U.S. President George W. Bush for the first time mentioned Damascus' secret services, adding that he would await the Syrian response before seeking any further sanctions. Bush also insisted that Lebanon's May parliamentary elections be completely free of any interference from its neighbor. "These are the demands, loud and clear, and let's see if Syria complies," he added.
French President Jacques Chirac also stressed the issue of independent Lebanese elections, declaring that Syria should get out of Lebanon before the May elections or face international sanctions. Speaking to Jordan's King Abdullah II Wednesday, Chirac said the Lebanese elections will "only be credible, if [United Nations Security Council] Resolution 1559 is applied." A day earlier, Chirac had said he was "surprised by the unanimous determination, not only of the U.S. president, but also of the entire European Union, that Resolution 1559 be really applied and under the attentive watch of the UN."
"France has never been very favorable to the sanctions system," Chirac said, "but it's up to the Security Council to decide ... Therefore, if the application of 1559 does not begin, the Security Council will deliberate on sanctions in light of the report submitted by the UN secretary general." Also for the first time, Chirac added the withdrawal should - more importantly - include Syria's intelligence services "that are coercing Lebanon."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"France has never been very favorable to the sanctions system," Chirac said
What chutzpah! (for our British speakers, "Bloody cheek!")
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is moving to deport three Muslim clerics because of accusations they represent a threat to public order and national security.
"Seethe and be damned...somewhere else."
The three imams will be declared undesirable aliens and two of them will have their residence permits cancelled, the first such action has been taken against clerics. In the third imam's case, an application for an extension of a residence permit will be refused. The Dutch security service AIVD said one of the imams originates from Bosnia and a second comes from Kenya. The origin of the third imam was not released, newspaper De Volkskrant reported.
The Arabian Entity, perhaps?
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Dont matter where they come from - they are Muslims. Cant anything more than deportation be done? Why allow them to continue polluting the world?
#2
That sounds awf'ly bigoted, Glereper. It reads as thought the next sentence should be, "Kill the kids, too, so they don't grow up vicious like their daddies."
The German talks seem not to have been as tense as the talks with France. I credit TGA.
Visiting US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder emphasised their common policy goals on Wednesday, citing such issues as Iran's nuclear ambition, the Mideast peace process and Iraq's reconstruction, while declaring that they had put their past disagreements behind them. At a press conference after about 90 minutes of bilateral talks in Mainz, the two leaders stressed the message of transatlantic cooperation in dealing with issues facing the globe. Both acknowledged there had been differences between the United States and Germany, but there were overriding common positions. "We cannot deny that in the past there were different views (on Iraq)," Schroeder said about the main point which had severely strained US-German ties. "But this is past ... We have a common interest that there should be a stable, democratic Iraq."
And so on and so forth, more diplospeak...
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Whatever end result Hariri's killers intended to achieve by his death, I suspect that this wasn't it.
French President Jacques Chirac warned Tuesday that the UN Security Council could slap sanctions on Syria if it fails to comply with a UN resolution calling for its withdrawal from Lebanon. Chirac said he was "surprised by the unanimous determination, not only of the president of the United States (George W. Bush), but also of the entire EU, that 1559 be really applied and under the attentive watch of the UN". Resolution 1559 calls for Syria's 14,000 troops in Lebanon to be pulled out and for militias such as Hezbollah to be dissolved. "France was never very favourable to the sanctions system," he said at a press conference on the sidelines of dual EU-US and NATO summits attended by US President George W. Bush.
"Unless, of course, France could wring some profit out of the suffering of others."
But he added: "It's up to the Security Council to decide. That will depend on the nature of the sanctions and that will depend on the sanctions." Therefore, if the application of 1559 does not begin, the "the Security Council would deliberate on the basis of the secretary general's (Kofi Annan) report," he added.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Whenever I hear some dink say that the UNSC is the proper venue for decisions, I know that's simply code for either blackmail or obstruction - and the entity that insists the UNSC "works" is the beneficiary, regardless of which outcome occurs.
#4
Chirac said he was "surprised by the unanimous determination, not only of the president of the United States (George W. Bush), but also of the entire EU, that 1559 be really applied and under the attentive watch of the UN".
The asshole is "surprised" that both Bush and the EU insist that a UN resolution "be really applied"!
Some Fwench company with interests in Lebanon that profits from the current situation evidently didn't get their memo out to ChirASS in a timely fashion. Or probably one that IS losing money on the current situation DID.
#5
Ze cur, zat Assad! My fah-mah-lee has ze investment in ze Beiruit. And zey can't use dem unless ze nasty soundrel gets his nah-stee Syrian boo-tox out of ze Lebanon toot sweet!
I shall suu-fr and go to zee US and to the UN secu-e-tee counceel, and it will be ze end of ze cur Assad!
Posted by: Jacques Chirac ||
02/24/2005 12:32
Comments ||
Top||
A secret entry door and videotaped images of several people inside a landmark Madrid skyscraper as it burned now suggest arsonists set fire to the Windsor building. Six days after the fire, television stations broadcast an amateur video shot by a resident of the area in which several people can be seen moving about the 16th floor as the flames advanced, some three hours after the structure was evacuated. Another local resident told local media that she too saw people moving around inside the building as it burned, and that they turned on, then off, the lights of some offices. Firefighting experts told local media that anyone who was in the building more than a few minutes after it caught fire would have needed an asbestos suit, otherwise they would have not been able to stand the high temperatures. The daily ABC quoted investigators as saying the images appear to depict individuals wearing helmets, and that at least one of the silhouetted figures appears to be talking into a hand-held radio.
Two other papers, El Mundo and La Razón, report in Tuesday's editions that a secret passage into and out of the building has been discovered. The door appeared to have been forced open. "The discovery of this secret door indicates that someone could have entered and exited the building without being seen the night the flames devoured it," said La Razon. The Tele 5 television station claimed investigators now believe the fire was probably started deliberately. Under the headline 'The Mystery of the Windsor Grows' another paper published photographs showing two separate blazes in the building, one four floors below the other.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
It was a cold day in London, but the near zero degree temperature did not chill the second day of Saudi-British conference, where the two nations' chief diplomats reflected on eight decades of warm relations between their two peoples and charted an equally amicable course for the future. Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced plans to appoint women to the Foreign Ministry for the first time this year. He pointed out that successful political reforms required "an evolutionary process."
Prince Saud said the two kingdoms were uniquely positioned to cooperate and play an effective role in dealing with major global issues. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who led his country's delegation to the conference, said the entire British government greatly valued the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia. The conference, entitled "Two Kingdoms: Facing the Challenges Ahead," aimed at strengthening Saudi-British ties. In his keynote address, Prince Saud said the role of Saudi women was changing rapidly. "Our educational reforms have created a new generation of highly educated and professionally trained Saudi women who are acquiring their rightful position in Saudi society. I am proud to mention here that this year we shall have women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
After all, wasn't it the Brits who created Saudi Arabia in the first place?
#3
Not quite, TW. The Hejaz (Red Sea coast, including Mecca and Medina) were put under a Hashemite king (as were Jordan and Iraq) because they liked the family. Saud invaded in the 1920s (30s?) I think. The Brits didn't invite them in, or set it up that way, but they didn't do anything to stop it.
#4
So they're going to give them positions in the Foreign Ministry, eh? They can't have their own passports, but they're going to be part of the ministry that administers them? Hell, they aren't allowed to drive themselves to work, what sort of positions is he blathering about, Tea Service?
#5
If the women sit behind a screen, they could direct visitors to the appropriate office. Tea service only in a meeting room, where the tea can be delivered, and the women whisk themselves out of sight, before the men walk in. Perhaps the Saudis will open a Women's Section, where female citizens can come and talk to female civil servants, so long as no real action is taken until the women's male guardians come in person to sign the approval papers, over on the Men's side of the building.
#6
.com, the tea service will be given by the ladies' female servants. Sauid ladies won't do. And TW, I was thinking the same thing. Woman to woman discourse, but nothing important.
BTW, Mister minister: Yeah, the US had to go through a civil war to eliminate slavery and voting rights were granted to British women in two stages, but open up your calcified brain and understand all that means is that your country should be smart enough not to follow the same wrong policies.
Posted by: chicago mike ||
02/24/2005 15:20
Comments ||
Top||
#7
and a full week of "she's unavailable - menstruating"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 16:06
Comments ||
Top||
ISLAMABAD — After studying the rules of the Indian and British parliaments, a panel of Pakistan's National Assembly has recommended that unruly members be deprived of their salaries and allowances. The report by a special committee on rules has proposed sweeping changes in the rules of business, but abolished the speaker's powers to delay the nomination of the leader of the house.
According to Press reports, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi will table the report in the house. The committee finalised its recommendations after a series of meetings and after studying the rules of the Indian and British parliaments. Under the amended rules, a member of the National Assembly cannot obstruct the proceedings and make "running commentaries" when speeches are being made. "He or she would not indulge in rowdy behaviour, not approach the dais of the speaker in a threatening manner, not act to erode the sanctity of the house by acting in a manner which lowers the dignity of the house."
He or she will also "not display banners, placards, not throw or tear documents and reports, not raise slogans, not act in any manner detrimental to the order and the decorum of the house, not applaud when a stranger enters any of the galleries except when a foreign delegation or dignitary is invited to the sitting."
"He or she would not occupy a seat in the galleries nor while in the chamber engage himself in conversation with any visitor in the gallery; not use mobile telephone; not chew or eat or drink or smoke and not bring any stick unless permitted by the speaker," the proposed rules say.
It says members will also not read books, ...
that shouldn't present a problem ...
... newspapers or letters except in connection with the business of the assembly; not pass between the chair and any member who is speaking; not interrupt any member while speaking by disorderly expression or noises in any other disorderly manner.
The News daily, quoting the report, said a member, if named thrice in a session by the speaker for creating unruly scenes, would lose his pay and allowances for one month in that session.
So make those first two count!
The speaker would also have powers to suspend the member for the remainder of the session and the assembly or for more than one session, on a motion moved by a minister or a member.
The decision and ruling of the speaker can be challenged by the house through a motion. Under the present rules, no one can challenge or move a motion against the speaker's rulings.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, I lost my allowance for stuff like this once.
Is a Rose Revolution in Bashir's future? Stay tuned...
Two eastern Sudanese rebel groups, the Beja Congress and the Free Lions, have merged to form a new party called the Eastern Front, officials from the organizations announced here yesterday. The "suffering of the people of Eastern Sudan ... can come to an end only under one leadership and unified programs and objectives," said Beja Congress Chairman Mussa Mohammed Ahmed. "We are ready for peace talks with the government based on the Naivasha model, the peace accord between Khartoum and South Sudan," he said, flanked by Free Lions chief Mabruk Mubarak Selim at a joint news conference.
The Naivasha agreement, concluded at a signing ceremony in Kenya in January, ended Sudan's 21-year north-south civil war in Sudan pitting Khartoum against the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army. The painstakingly negotiated accord ended Africa's longest-running civil conflict with a series of power and wealth-sharing packages. Like other Sudanese rebel movements, including those in the troubled western region of Darfur, the Eastern Front says its region has been a victim of "marginalization" by Khartoum. At the news conference in the Eritrean capital yesterday the front called for "a just sharing of the wealth of the national resource."
In early February, 14 people were killed when Sudanese police dispersed a riot in Port Sudan which they blamed on the Beja Congress. The Beja Congress has disputed the official death toll and maintains that 36 people were in fact killed. The Beja Congress claims to be the sole representative of eastern Sudan and last year, along with the Free Lions, withdrew from the national opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance, charging its demands were not being taken into account in talks with Khartoum.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But wouldn't a much neater name for the new group have been the Beja Lions? They could have a soccer team, and neat jackets, and stuff.
Wielding unexpected political clout, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas stepped in yesterday to quell a legislative rebellion that has held up the appointment of a new Cabinet and threatened to bring down his prime minister. Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has been trying all week to install a new Cabinet. Lawmakers objected to his first list because it was stacked with political cronies of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
Yasser is now safely dead, so nobody has to kiss his hand anymore.
A second lineup dominated by professional appointments didn't mollify legislators, either. Several said they wanted to push out Qorei and would not support any Cabinet he proposes. Qorei would have to step down if he fails to get his Cabinet approved in coming days. Abbas summoned legislators from his majority Fatah party yesterday and told them this was no time for a political crisis. "The whole world is watching, and we have a lot to do," Fatah legislator Abdel Karim Abu Salah quoted Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, as telling party lawmakers. Fatah legislator Mohammed Horani said the struggle appears to be over. "We have agreed in principle with Abu Mazen to let this crisis pass," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Venezuela has rejected recent US accusations against President Hugo Chavez as slander, designed to prepare the ground for an impending "attack" against the country. Casting itself as the victim in a spat with Washington, Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez dismissed as "impertinent" charges Venezuela limits free speech on Wednesday. He also ruled out accusations that Caracas associates with Colombian guerillas and is a destabilising force in the region. "The absurdity of these accusations against our government would not cause us the least anxiety if it were not for so many facts demonstrating that these signs appear because, sooner or later, there will be an attack," Rodriguez said.
Addressing the Organization of American States in Washington, the minister said the history of Latin America, where the United States is notorious for seeking decades ago to undermine leftist governments, showed such rhetoric was a way of preparing the ground for more drastic moves against Venezuela. Rodriguez, however, did not elaborate what sort of attack he was referring to, but he repeated Chavez's assertion that the Bush administration is behind a plot to assassinate him.
Political analysts said Rodriguez's appearance at the headquarters of the top diplomatic body was part of Venezuela's counteroffensive to win over Latin American governments in its spat. Chavez has angered Washington with his friendship of Cuban President Fidel Castro, hawkish oil price policies in OPEC and fierce opposition to US free trade moves in the region. But political analysts say US options against Chavez are limited because he has won a clear mandate from his electorate, has generally friendly ties with governments in the region, and is buoyed by high oil prices. Larry Birns of the Washington-based think-tank, the Council on Hemisphere Affairs, said Venezuelan worries over a possible attempt on Chavez should not be dismissed as paranoia. "Chavez's rhetoric can be disregarded as bark without bite but when the Bush administration is barking so much you can understand the Venezuelans would be concerned it may actually be ready to bite," Birns said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Interesting. Almost tracks precisely with the Spanish version in the BBC. Who's copying who?
#4
his friendship of Cuban President Fidel Castro
Not only is he buddies with Fido, he's using Fido's playbook: when in trouble, say the US is planning to invade. Must be a good strategy, Cuba's held off the US for over forty years;-)
No only when in trouble. They (Chavez and Fidel) also invoke the "defense of sovereignty" excuse when they want to further their control over the citizenry.
Remember the 100,000 AK 47 assault rifles from Russia? He had to find an excuse to supply his supporters with them and what better than a supposed threat by every dictator's favorite escape goat: the US! Military trains students to use rifles; study guerilla tactics in the case of an external threat to Venezuelan national sovereignty. http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=25845
#7
As Castro before him, Chavez is following the consolidate power step in Lenin's classic disinformation campaign for usurping power: exaggerate your own weakness and the strength of the "enemy elements" and you are justified in circling the wagons, arming your supporters, and (absurdly) draping the flag across your shoulders as the Great Defender of (imaginary) Freedom.
It's very effective when used against those who do not naturally think for themselves - and the wet dream of the fascist / socialist ivory tower intelligentsia and press who hope to feed them soma.
#8
Chavez is ofcourse a vicious dictator wannabe, but if the Rantburgian rhetoric (about the desirability of killing him, bombing him, assasinating him, deposing him in a coup ala Allende, etc etc) -- if such rhetoric is widespread in American conservative circles, then I'd say you are giving him exactly all the ammo he needs. Congrats.
#11
Well, if you want me to be less painting-everyone-with-the-same-brush, here you go:
Whenever *individuals*, especially ones considering themselves supporters of the ideology currently in charge of the White House, talk about violently overthrowing a person who *still* has the popular mandate of his people, (even if such result was the product of his demagoguery), then they become themselves perfectly convenient specimens of such American imperialism of the support-the-Contras-and-overthrow-Allende variety that demagoguical tyrant-wannabes such as Chavez and his kin all over the world can use to their supreme advantage.
There you go: No painting everyone with all the same brush necessary, no need to refer to past or current Rantburg threads. Just telling you how convenient the imperialist rhetoric becomes for all third-world dictators trying to consolidate their power through claims of external threats.
#12
Aris, most people in the US are content to allow Latin America to ruin itself. They are not a serious threat, they are all grown ups and can read a history book and see the failures of communism and successes of capitalism and democracy.
Chavez says this crap because he knows he has nothing to fear from the US unless he attacks us.
#14
TMH> He still has a democratic mandate AFAIK. Quiet or no, "overthrowing him" would not be a restoration of democracy, it would be the abolition thereof.
What I'm suggesting that you do the most you can to encourage democratic forces in Venezuela. Same as happened in Ukraine.
Eventually he'll either be removed from power by the Venezuelan people themselves, or will go full-dictatorial on Venezuela's ass, at which point you'd have every right to overthrow him by any means necessary to restore democracy.
But not before he *does* become a dictator. Or you'll just provide ammo for the next Chavez to come along, same as the Contras and Allende affair did.
Aris, you know even less about Latin America than you do about the United States.
It's always been a big crowd pleaser in Latin America to scream that the Yanqui imperialists are coming to get you. It takes away attention from how you are screwing up at home and flushing your country down the toilet.
He can scream, yell, and throw a temper tantrum, but quite frankly he is not the biggest problem we have south of the border. And he knows it. He gets to talk tough, act like a badass and keep up his street cred knowing that it is highly unlikely that we're going to do a damn thing unless he does something almost criminally stupid. He's crazy, but I don't think Chavez is stupid.
#16
He will never become your typical dictator. He is smarter than that. He is doing it through a process he calls "participative democracy." Here is a little excerpt of how he has been consolidating power under the veil of "democracy":
"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."
It is very easy for someone who is not leaving there to say lets encourage democratic forces, for whatever long it takes. Unfortunely, my entire family is living there and facing a very obscure future.
#18
Most of Latin America, like most of Africa and the Middle East, has been shooting itself in the foot ever since the end of colonialism. They are entitled to be foolish without my blessing and without my financial support.
I for one have absolutely no desire to have my country attack Venezuela as long as Venezuela respects our security (i.e., keeps the oil pumping continuously at fair prices, does not promote the illegal drug business, and does not become a base for hostile foreign powers).
That said, and the arrogant Greek's strawmen and asterisks aside, Chavez seems intent on pressing his luck. Eventually his arrogance will cost him dearly either at the hands of his own people or otherwise. Venezuela is not an island selling sugar and cigars; it is a large country with porous borders, troubled neighbors, and an economy that's very much about selling oil to the U.S.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 13:03
Comments ||
Top||
#19
Tom,
I take that you were opposed to the US attacking Iraq since Iraq never directly attacked the US, right?
#20
It's always been a big crowd pleaser in Latin America to scream that the Yanqui imperialists are coming to get you.
And the reasons that's been a big crowd pleaser and believable is probably because for decades upon decades, the "Yanqui imperialists" were indeed coming to get them. All I'm saying is, if you want such rhetoric to *ever* end, don't give them further justification for it.
The fact is, whether we were actually going to do something or not, it has always been precisely what I said it was....a way to look like a badass and deflect attention away from how you are screwing things up.
TMH- Sorry that your family is having to deal with this idjit, but...Iraq has absolutamente nada to do with this. Y usted lo sabe.
#22
TMH, I don't know where you get the "never directly attacked" crap. My words were "respects our security".
Iraq did not respect our security. Iraq invaded Kuwait, risking the stability of our oil supply. Then Iraq failed to respect the no-fly zones. And then Iraq blamed us for their "oil-for-food" failures and threatened us with missle development and WMD programs. [Real or imagined, I don't care. They gased Iranians and Kurds for sure and they had nuclear and other WMD programs even if they weren't very advanced.]
If it were up to me, Saddam would have been swinging from a noose a long, long time ago.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 13:32
Comments ||
Top||
#23
I do care about what happens to the people of Latin America. I'm stating the reality, the big Imperialist America is not actually an imperialist and is very unlikely to get involved in Venezuela unless we are attacked. We don't wage wars for oil despite what fools, idiots and dolts are constantly droning on about.
The middle east is an area with no history of democracy and along history of international terrorism. Latin America has a recent history of democracy and no history of international terrorism so comparisons don't work.
Fact is US involvement often works backwards in Latin America because it's so easy for the masses to believe the worst from the Yankees. What we need is for the OAS to stand up for Venezuela's people. We need the pressure to come from other Latin American nations, other third world nations, and the UN.
#24
TMH, Iraq had invaded another country, been under UN sanctions that it flauted for a decade, was a threat to regional stability, had used chemical weapons on its own people and had attempted to develop nuclear weapons. That's a long way from what Chavez has done.
The U. S. and Argentina survived Peron, the U. S. and Cuba have survived Castro. There were a lot of individuals in Argentina and Cuba for whom this meant misery and death. But the U. S. cannot and should try to right every wrong in the world. The Venezuelan people have known some form of democracy in the past. In that, they are ahead of where the Ukranians were a few months ago. If the Venezuelan people think they have lost their democracy, they have an example of how to get it back.
If you think the Venezuelans have lost their love of freedom or are just being conned by Chavez, I hope you get the chance to get out before things get too bad. But until we have a litany of wrongs and dangers like we did for Saddam, the U. S. isn't going to do much to change things if the Venezuelan people don't want to do much.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 13:33
Comments ||
Top||
#25
aris....STFU.
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
02/24/2005 13:59
Comments ||
Top||
#26
I am not advocating US military intervention. I am responding to comments like: "Most of Latin America, like most of Africa and the Middle East, has been shooting itself in the foot ever since the end of colonialism. They are entitled to be foolish without my blessing and without my financial support."
That comment sounded a lot like we deserve it and I thought it was a bit hypocritical with all the talk of spreading and preserving democracy coming from this country nowadays. My apologies!
I do understand that Chavez is not Saddam and as far as the public knows, he has not threatened the security of this country.
A word of caution though.... You have not seen Chavez government "direct" involvement with Islamic terrorists but I suggest that you play close attention to the Muslim population there (the ones who danced on the street on Margarita Island on Sept 11). We just "elected" our first Hamas supporter Muslim governor (Anzoategui State) who by the way has been denied a visa to the States for his ties to the latter group.
rjschwarz,
OAS is as useless as the UN and the other third world countries are either being bribed with offers of discounted oil or share Chavez's visceral hatred for this country.
I understand the need to democratize the ME, believe me I lived 8 years in that part of the world but why would you let democracy die right at your backdoor?
Desert Blondie: Creo que la habladuria de Chavez va mas alla de desviar la atencion del pueblo. Este es un hombre que desde sus principios ha manisfestado un odio tan intenso como el que sentia Che por este pais. Creo que los EEUU subestima a este payaso.
Mrs. Davis,
I am not presently residing in Venezuela. And maybe you are right. It has to come from the Venezuelan people. How? We are open for suggestions.
#27
TMH, glad to hear you're not there. Have you started a Spanish language blog for Venezuelans to recount their stories and consider they are not alone in their desire to restor democracy? That would be a great place for Venezuelans to figure out what to do.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 14:52
Comments ||
Top||
#28
Latin America hasn't been shooting itself in the foot since the end of colonialism; instead it is suffering from the stupidity of the Spanish Habsurgs, Bourbons, and "hijos de algo" ("Sons of Something") who, like the second sons with "great honor and little property" in the English and French colonies, created the plantation economy and brought serfdom (peonage) to the New World. Corruption, repression, and ignorance are endemic to many parts of Latin America. The landowners in some places, especially in Bolivia, still haven't gotten it through their thick heads that feudalism died centuries ago.
Try reading local newspapers from the "prensa nacional" section of Yahoo news for a Latin American country, if you can read Spanish. Local news is still dominated by the cacique family. You have to have the right last name to get anywhere.
Throughout Latin America, urban caciques are as poisonous as the rural ones. The caciques skim outrageous sums from humanitarian projects, send anyone who wants to build a house or start a business through dozens of permits and years of paperwork, strangling hopes for good jobs, medical care, education, and everything else we in the US take for granted. Ignorance plus poverty plus corruption plus hopelessness equals golden opportunity for the Chavezes and Castros of the world.
It also opens up opportunities for islamofascism. Someone recently pointed this out in a comment on islamists getting a foothold in Mexico.
TMH, you have our prayers. We have a friend in Colombia trying to keep his business running despite corruption in his city and gangsters in the countryside. Question: How can outsiders, such as the rest of us at RB, help?
#29
"...why would you let democracy die right at your backdoor?"
No, why are you and your family allowing democracy to die right at your backdoor, TMH? Why does your democracy not focus more on education and building a middle class? Why are you spending your time in the Middle East and the U.S. and expecting my tax dollars and the blood of my sons and daughter to go save your homeland?
Latin America, like most of Africa and the Middle East, is wallowing in victimhood instead of solving its own problems. And Venezuela, rich in oil, is behaving no better than a Middle Eastern tyranny. The only difference is the blaming-the-Yankee-Imperialist crap instead of the blaming-the-Jooos crap. The affluent want it both ways, be they in Saudi Arabia or in Venezuela: they do little to share the wealth in their country and then they want to use my resources to save them when their affluence is threatened.
There is nothing hypocritical in holding people accountable for what goes on in their own countries. Who should be most accountable, especially in democracies? The U.S. has spent a fortune in money and U.S. blood to rescue people from their dictators, and the world is starting to think of it as an entitlement program.
My family has paid to liberate western Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In some cases in blood. What have you and your family sacrificed for democracy in your homeland, TMH?
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 15:35
Comments ||
Top||
#30
Well said Tom. A Democracy earned has a significantly higher chance of success than a Democracy bestowed.
Well the middle class revolt (Cruzada Civica) against Noriega was an abysmal failure. When Noriega started shooting at the civilly disobedient, the whole thing folded. Plus Noriega was able to label the middle class leaders of the revolt (mostly Rotarians and other service club members) as rabiblancos (white asses) and effectively associated them with the criollo uperclasses in the mob's mind. Finally, Noriega was able to buy the loyalty of most civil servants through free gas, groceries, etc. And in most countries (US included) government workers represent a considerable fraction of wage earners.
Coups failed as well. They just didn't get any popular support and were poorly organized as well.
I see Chavez as having more in common with facists than communists. Or maybe Noriega, Mk II. He's certainly using the same tactics. To the best of my knowledge, facist regimes have only died of two causes: killed by outsiders (Italy, Germany, Panama) or death from old age (Spain).
I still think that the best tool we had for preventing freaks like Chavez was the School of the Americas. We taught almost two generations of Latin American officers that coup-making wasn't the best use of their time. Unfortunately, the hard left caused it to be shut down. I used to think that the lefty's, while wrong, were at least being true to their principals, but thanks to blogs, I know realize that they were just trying to help out their heroes like Chavez.
TMH: Keep posting. Argument is good. We all need to learn more about this.
mom: I went looking for the Prensa Nacional link and still haven't been able to find it on Yahoo. This is what I've been using. BTW, I agree with every word you say. In Panama, many of the "names" were right off the manifest of Pizarro's men from 450 years in the past! Have you ever read the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto?
#32
I think you made the point right there. "When Noriega started shooting at the civilly disobedient, the whole thing folded."
When the British started shooting at the Colonists the Americans shot back. If you simply wait around for others to take the risks it means you don't really care one way or the other. It means it will never happen. If you ever hear someone ask why the US is so gun crazy that we put it in our Consitution this is why. We don't like to be pushed around.
#33
Tom,
Where do you get the idea that I am blaming the US for our problems? I am the first one to criticize any signs of victimhood as I have done it several times on this site.
I do not expect you or any other American (including my husband of 24 years and our son) to give their tax dollars and lives for any other country.
I am sad to read that you think that my only interest in saving Venezuela's democracy is because my "wealth" has been threatened. You could not be further from the truth.
#34
The big night was when the power and water workers walked out. All of Panama City was dark. People were literally manning barricades. Then the Cruzada Civica leaders, from all accounts, got a case of the vapors and ordered everyone to go home because someone might get hurt.
I've never seen TMH claim to be a victim. I think that she's just asking for insight. As mom points out, there is no tradition of freedom in any of these countries. The middle class is weak and under capitalized (i.e. no power). There are _no_ small freeholders to take up arms in the countryside like in the American revolution. The landowners are as reactionary as the ones in Pakistan. Personally, I think the only two solutions are what I outlined previously: invade or let it die (of which the latter is what we're doing with Castro). There are some preventatives like the School of the Americas, but we've given up some of these. I just don't want to see us ignore this and then have it blow up on us ten years later like OBL and Noriega,
#36
TMH, I did not say that your wealth was threatened. I just compared the wealthy of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela -- neither doing much to develop a middle class.
As for your comment:
"I do not expect you or any other American... to give their tax dollars and lives for any other country."
How does that square with your comment:
"...why would you let democracy die right at your backdoor?"
What do you want of us?
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 16:44
Comments ||
Top||
#37
Have a Carrier Air Wing make a practice run right at Venezuela some night and lets' see how much Hugo shits himself.
#38
Tom,
"What do you want of us?
That is exactly why this is being discussed here. We need to find a solution that will benefit both countries. I know that you do not believe that Venezuela represents a threat to the US but if Venezuela becomes a totalitarian State, you will have a country that will harbor and support terrorism 2 hours and 58 minutes from your door steps.
Please do not think I am justifying the way our society has developed but it does have a lot to do on how the country was settled and by whom. The Spanish did not go there to build a new country like the English did here. They went there to pillage and plunder and left a legacy of corruption and nepotism that has hindered the development of the country. We need to break that cycle and we need help doing this.
#39
TMH - I'm going to continue this in English for the rest of RB who may not speak Spanish.
Yes, he's full of hate, and maybe we are underestimating him by treating him like some kind of clown. But there remains the crucial problem....what do the Venezuelans want to do about it?
Look, we aren't going to do either country any good by coming down there with the 82nd Airborne (assuming they were free to do the job, which right now, they're not) if the Venezuelans don't or won't stand up to the guy. Basically, it is up to the Venezuelans to determine when they have had enough and how they are going to deal with this idiot.
The history of the US & Latin America hasn't been a good one. I don't care if all of heaven's angels preceeded us down the streets of Caracas, singing hallelujahs in our direction, the fact remains that anything supported by the US is suspect to many, if not most, of the people in Latin America. We can't be too obvious, because that is more likely to hurt than to help.
It is not a hopeless situation, but there's only so much that America can do. Chavez knows that. He's arming his goons not because of anything America might do, but because of anything his own people might do.
#40
Article: Larry Birns of the Washington-based think-tank, the Council on Hemisphere Affairs, said Venezuelan worries over a possible attempt on Chavez should not be dismissed as paranoia. "Chavez's rhetoric can be disregarded as bark without bite but when the Bush administration is barking so much you can understand the Venezuelans would be concerned it may actually be ready to bite," Birns said.
The Council for Hemisphere Affairs is a left-wing think tank that blames Uncle Sam for anything bad that Latin American governments do. The quasi-religious belief prevalent at this organization is that Uncle Sam only has to crook his finger, and Latin American countries will comply with administration wishes on human rights. In other words, the Great White Father only has to say the word, and our Hispanic neighbors to the south will tremblingly obey. What. A. Crock. Of. Shit. It also opposes administration attempts to punish Latin American governments for acting against American interests.
#41
Speaking of south of the border nations I have never quite understood what this institution implies: US - Cuba Cooperative Security
It is part of the CDI.
#42
Not sure I'm buying the Spanish plantation legacy excuse (#28) or the Spanish pillage and plunder excuse (#38). The U.S. had plantations too and Bolivar liberated Venezuela from the Spanish in 1821. Call me not politically correct, but I think it's a cultural problem.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 20:15
Comments ||
Top||
#43
#35 is the cultural excuse.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 20:26
Comments ||
Top||
#44
Book report:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n18_v46/ai_15844242
Posted by: Tom ||
02/24/2005 20:45
Comments ||
Top||
#45
What I found intriguing and unmentioned in the review is that the precedent for the centralizing tendency found in Spanish culture was the need for unity in expelling the Moors from Spain.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 21:06
Comments ||
Top||
#46
I believe Mr. Chavez needs to be removed rather than rattled. Before he has a chance to sabotage his oil industry as a last-gasp tactic
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2005 21:08
Comments ||
Top||
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Wednesday he was forming a broad coalition to fight for the post of prime minister after Iraq's dominant Shiite political party nominated a conservative candidate. Allawi, a secular Shiite, skirted criticism of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was nominated Tuesday by the United Iraqi Alliance as its candidate for prime minister. The decision made al-Jaafari the overwhelming favorite for the post. When asked if he feared that al-Jaafari's alliance could impose Islamic rule, Allawi responded that he opposed the creation of any form of Islamic government. ``We are liberal powers and we believe in a liberal Iraq and not an Iraq governed by political Islamists. But as a person, he is an honorable man, fighter and a good brother,'' Allawi said.
Allawi would not provide details of his proposed coalition. ``There are other lists and other brothers in smaller lists which won the elections, and we are working with some of those lists to form a national Iraqi democratic coalition which believes in Iraq and its principles,'' Allawi said at a news conference, flanked by two interim ministers who are members of his secular party, The Iraqi List.
Al-Jaafari is one of two interim vice presidents and leader of a religious party that fought Saddam Hussein. In order to take the premiership, al-Jaafari must build a coalition to gain agreement from Kurds and others on the presidency and candidates for Cabinet posts before seeking the support of a majority of the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali placed not only herself and right-winger Geert Wilders, but also their bodyguards and other officials, in danger by revealing the location of her safe house, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said on Tuesday.
Piet, you have this exactly wrong. The danger is not from Ms. Hirsi Ali, but from radical murderous Islamonutz. Put the thugs and "spiritual advisers" in jail, not your legislators freely exercising their personal freedoms.
The Christian Democrat CDA minister told MPs he severely regretted the fact that Hirsi Ali revealed last week the locations where she and Wilders were being kept, news service NOS reported...Hirsi Ali spoke to the media last week and was highly critical of the living circumstances imposed on Wilders and herself, claiming that her freedom was being restricted. She stated that threatened MPs should not be hidden away, but instead be housed in secure locations known to the public. "If you put Wilders in a jail cell, what do you think the message is for the terrorists who are threatening him? Conversely, when you arrange a normal house for him: you are saying that threatened MPs may continue unobstructed, without any censoring," she said.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
An unprecedented visit to Jerusalem by a senior official from Dubai, during which he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other leaders, has caused an outcry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"Eww! Ucky! He can't do that!"
Mohammed Al-Abbar, who was received last week in Ramallah by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also met briefly with Sharon and held talks with his deputy Shimon Peres over his offer to buy settler homes in the Gaza Strip. It was the first publicly reported encounter between officials from the two countries which have no diplomatic relations. Billionaire property magnate Abbar has offered to buy up all settler homes in the Gaza Strip, which are set for demolition after Israel pulls out its troops and 8,000 settlers from 21 settlements later this year. He is chairman of Dubai-based property developer EMAAR properties, responsible for many of the emirate's ambitious construction projects, and director of the Dubai government's department of economic development. "When Abbar dared to lead a foreign policy of his own ... this became totally unacceptable," said an editorial Monday in Al-Ittihad newspaper, the official daily of the government of Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. "He wanted to embarrass the State of the Emirates by private contacts (with) the Israelis, which is irresponsible and unacceptable," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A lot of things seem to be changing in the Middle East. Its like an ice jam where one piece comes free then another and before you know, its a flood.
#3
hope this deal doesn't go through...Israel shouldn't have given them up in the first place. Much less let Arab entrepreneurs come in and make a profit off of their misfortune.
Apparently the Moose-limbs aren't alone in their nuttiness ...
NEW DELHI — Two small boys and two girls were married off to four puppies by tribal villagers in Jharkhand to ward off 'evil', a report said yesterday. Local officials in Kuluptang village in Jharkhand said the 'kukur vibaha' or dogs' marriages, were organised on the last day of a local tribal festival, PTI said. One of the tribals, 54-year-old Sonamuni, who blessed the marriage of her three-year-old grand-daughter Priya, said the wedding was no less important than other such ceremonies and all customs normally associated with marriage were followed. The mother of 'groom' Durga, aged one, said that if the first tooth of a baby came out in the upper jaw it was considered 'inauspicious' for the child as well as the family and dog marriages had to be performed. After a bath, the children are taken to a place of worship in a procession accompanied by a band.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Ah, your teeth are coming in the wrong order? Let's see what the dental textbook says... Page 184... Hmmmmmmm. Marry patient to a dog.
"That will be $45, please. Do you need me to write out a prescription?"
#11
Multiculturalphobes and caninephobes. That they are different don't mean they aren't as good or a moral. Don't be trapped by your capitalist/Judeo-Christian/afraid-of-thems-who-is-different mind set. There are probably lots of reasons why marrying dogs is good.
The threat of a US military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is absurd because Washington is far too stretched in the region to even consider taking on a new enemy, a senior Iranian diplomat has said. "Any notion of threat of attack, or attack, by the Americans is purely absurd," said Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's delegation to the UN nuclear watchdog. "The US is simply too vulnerable with its overstretched presence in the region to engage in such silly threats or attacks," he said on Wednesday, referring to Washington's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whatever they're paying their intel analysts, it's too much...
Asked if he thought the United States might be bluffing by refusing to rule out the military option, Naseri said Washington should be open about any possible plans to destroy Iran's atomic sites with military force. "If there is any truth in this (that attacking Iran is a real option) I think what the Iranians would say is put it on the table," Naseri said in an interview.
I thought he just did?
Earlier, US President George Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder put aside their dispute over Iraq and united in warning Iran against developing a nuclear weapon. Bush, who is on the second leg of a visit aimed at repairing transatlantic ties hurt by the Iraqi war, said in the German city of Maines: "It's vital that the Iranians hear the world speak with one voice that they shouldn't have a nuclear weapon. "We absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of nuclear weapons, full stop," Schroeder said through an interpreter at a joint press conference following closed-door meetings with his guest.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
'Sweet nothings' I say...question is, will Schroeder stand with "W" when he gives them (Iran) their 48 hour notice?
#2
Actually, it won't matter - Bush has already demonstrated he will not sacrifice US security interests just to make nice with people who would sell their grandmothers for a song.
Either Israel or the US will do what has to be done when the time comes. They, the Euros, can cheer or jeer - it's irrelevant. Expect the worst, however, since Chirac and Schroeder have made their bones by demonizing Bush - and sold this tripe to their adoring masses.
#3
What an idiot.
He apparently thinks we have our B-2 and SSN crews out patrolling the streets of Baghdad and all our Tomahawks were used up in Fallujah.
#7
LotR: Don't forget Syria as a weekend project. Especially is Assad has to send in troops to squash any Lebanese uprising! Man, I'm sure Rummy's gonna hate working weekends soon, but I'm sure he's up to the task!
Posted by: BA ||
02/24/2005 10:33
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I saw the tape on the news of Bush saying they could not be allowed to have a bomb. It doesn't get any clearer than that.
#11
DN, I'm not turning that thing on. Nope. Not me.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 11:46
Comments ||
Top||
#12
DN, LOL.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/24/2005 12:05
Comments ||
Top||
#13
With Apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan :
Three little mullahs from Qom are we,
Clueless as ayatollahs can be,
Filled to the brim with zealots glee,
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Maiming is a source of fun. (Chuckle)
Nobody's safe, for we care for none! (Chuckle)
Life is a joke that's just begun! (Chuckle)
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs who, all unwary,
Come from Islamist seminary,
Filled with its genius tutelary--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
One mullah with a child bride, Yum-Yum--
Two little mullahs in attendance come--
Three little mullahs is the total sum.
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
From three little mullahs take one away.
Two little mullahs remain, and they--
Won't have to wait very long, they say--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs watch, all wary,
Come from Islamist seminary,
Filled with its genius tutelary--
Three little mullahs from Qom!
Three little mullahs from Qom!
#14
You know that one shot from a Barrett .50 could probably go through all three of those old fart's heads. Now that would make a pretty picture. They could even use the turbans to mop up the mess.
Rebels ambushed Sudanese troops and Sudan's military bombed and destroyed eight villages in Darfur, officials said Wednesday, detailing the latest reported violations of a largely ignored cease-fire in the western region of Sudan. The rebel ambush reportedly took place on Tuesday in Graida, a town about 100 kilometers south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, one of the three states that make up Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, said Ahmat Allam-mi, a member of a commission monitoring the cease-fire. The government has reported the attack to the commission, but African Union monitors in Darfur have not yet been able to investigate the report, said Allam-mi, who is also an adviser to Chadian President Idriss Deby. Meanwhile, the Justice and Equality Movement, one of Darfur's two main rebel groups, said on its Web site Wednesday that the military has in the last four days bombed and completely destroyed eight villages in Darfur. No other details of the attacks were provided, and it was not immediately possible to independently verify the report. It was not clear if the bombing was reported to the cease-fire monitors.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
Israel's military has concluded that Hamas seeks to torpedo the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israeli military sources said military intelligence has obtained information of Hamas plans to carry out suicide strikes to shatter the ceasefire declared in February 2004. The sources said the Hamas plans stem from operatives in the northern West Bank. Some of the information on Hamas's plans came from a senior operative, identified as Said Ahras. Ahras, said to be a key operative in the northern West Bank, was captured on Feb. 21 in a joint military-police operation near Nablus. The sources said Ahras planned a major attack on Israeli military forces in the Nablus area. They said Ahras was promised that he would receive several large bombs from Hamas in Nablus.
This article starring:
SAID AHRAS
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They torpedo any plan that respects the Israeli right of respiration.
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/24/2005 9:05
Comments ||
Top||
Nicaragua has told the United States it will not destroy all of its Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, which Washington fears could fall into the wrong hands. Concerned by the whereabouts of missiles dating from the clash between leftist Sandinistas and contra rebels in the 1980s, the United States this week sent a mission to Nicaragua to review President Enrique Bolano's progress on his pledge to find and eliminate them. But after a meeting with the US team on Wednesday, Defence Minister Jose Adan Guerra said not all missiles would be destroyed. "The intention, the clear and firm will of the government is precisely to continue to dispose of the excess missiles while retaining a strategic reserve of 20% of the total so as to not undercut the state's defence capacity," Guerra said.
So here's the deal, Nicaragua: keep your 20 percent for the state's defense capacity. But keep very close tabs on them, because you're betting your own lives that they're not going to fall into the wrong hands. Not just the population of Managua, mind you, but your lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred,
This post doesn't show on my listing for the day.
We should be making them very aware of our targeting policies after an American aircraft is lost to an SA-7; an 8.5 megaton earthquake for Managua.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/24/2005 14:56
Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
THAT little missive will get them on the Sh*t List or in some assassin's crosshairs. It will take more than 200 of them to make change with the Syrian Thugocracy.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 0:53
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I don't know, AP. I can think of one instance, back in the late 1700's when less than 200 successfully stood up to take a stand against a much more powerful army.
#3
"A growing exodus of Syrian workers, fearful they will be scapegoated for the killing of Hariri, threatens to cost Lebanonâs construction and agriculture sectors millions of dollars. Businessmen in Beirut say many building sites are scarcely functioning amid reports of a spate of beatings, robberies and arson attacks targeting the 300,000-plus Syrian migrant workers, the backbone of Lebanonâs cheap labor force."
Hey, don't Syria and Lebanon have foriegn workers (insurgents) in Iraq who can help the Lebanese here?
Fiercely contested anti-terrorism measures cleared their first hurdle in Britain's parliament on Wednesday. The planned "control orders" would, in extreme cases, allow ministers to confine suspects to house arrest without trial - a move critics say overturns basic freedoms enshrined in Britain's centuries-old judicial system. Prime Minister Tony Blair's large majority in parliament's lower chamber ensured the bill's approval by 309 votes to 233, although some members of his ruling Labour Party voted against it. But the House of Lords could throw out the legislation in coming days. Labour lacks a majority in the upper chamber. The fight over the laws has catapulted national security up Britain's political agenda weeks before an expected election. "There is a serious security threat to this country ... I think these people would kill thousands of our citizens if they could. I think this is terrorism without limit," Blair told parliament on Wednesday ahead of a debate on the bill.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2005
00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Iranian MMs are willing to spend BILLIONS on reactors they don't need, missiles that will send them to hell, but aren't willing to upgrade building codes and make safe buildings in high seismically active areas. They need to pay for this one themselves.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/24/2005 1:03
Comments ||
Top||
#2
An earthquake is a sign. In this particular case, it a warning: "stop playing with matches"
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.
Chishtian Civil Judge Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti on Wednesday sentenced Bashir Masih, 30, to seven years rigorous imprisonment on charges of desecrating the Quran. Bashir can file an appeal against the judgement within 30 days in the Lahore High Court. A court official alleged that Bashir Masih was a magician cum exorcist and police had caught him tearing a copy of the Quran in Chak No 109/Fateh in Bahawalnagar district last year. Bashir was tried under Section 295-B of the Blasphemy Law. The convict confessed to the crime, saying tearing the Quran was part of the magic he was doing.
Pope John Paul II was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance Thursday suffering fever and congestion from a relapse of the flu, the Vatican said. The 84-year-old pontiff had the same symptoms of the breathing crisis that sent him to Gemelli Polyclinic on Feb. 1, a Vatican official said on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, the pope made his longest public appearance since being discharged from the clinic two weeks ago. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope was taken to the Rome hospital for "necessary specialized assistance and further tests." He was taken by ambulance at 10:45 a.m., officials said.
The historic rapprochement that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall fifteen years ago saw eight former Communist countries (plus Malta and Cyprus) become members of the European Union —the world's largest capitalist club —in 2004. Unsurprisingly, accession has brought with it significant challenges for both the new members and the EU-15. For the former, greater access to European markets is mitigated by constant calls for tax harmonisation, and their comparative workforce advantage is ever more encumbered by regulation and prohibitive 'minimum standards'. These are sources of great friction between the competing member states, as the previously sheltered economies of 'Old Europe' struggle to compete with efficient foreign competitors. 
Three people have been killed in clashes between Shia and Sunni Muslims in a northern Nigerian city. Fighting broke out when a Shia group attacked Sunnis at a mosque in the city of Sokoto, in front of the Sultan of Sokoto's palace. Police say they made several arrests after the violence, which follows the killing of a Shia last weekend. The BBC's Ibrahim Dosara in Sokoto says Shia are a minority among the predominantly Sunni population. Nigeria's 130 million people are roughly equally divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Correspondents say that poverty drives rival groups to compete for scarce resources, such as land. 
The government on Wednesday launched a crackdown against radical Islamists, banning two organisations for their alleged involvement in anarchic and subversive activities across the country, and arresting an alleged extremist leader. The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the ban on 
Military trains students to use rifles; study guerilla tactics in the case of an external threat to Venezuelan national sovereignty
Diesel pollution is responsible for more deaths than drunk drivers and homicides, according to a new study that estimates how many premature deaths, asthma attacks and heart attacks are caused by diesel pollution in every U.S. county. Nationwide, diesel pollution causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, including 475 in Massachusetts and 81 in Middlesex County, robbing those who die of an average of 14 years of their lives, according to the report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force. Residents in nearby Suffolk County suffer the third highest risk of exposure to diesel pollution in the nation, researchers found. 
A car bomber drove into a parking lot inside police headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown and detonated explosives on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 22, police and witnesses said. The massive blast in Tikrit set ablaze 20 cars and sent clouds of smoke into the sky. At least 10 charred bodies could be scene laying on the ground. Police Lt. Sha'alan Allawi said the bomber drove a vehicle into a parking lot inside the police compound before detonating the explosives. Several ambulances ferried casualties to a local hospital.
A suspected Islamic extremist believed linked to a group that planned attacks on key targets in Madrid was found dead in his prison cell in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza after apparently hanging himself, prison officials told AFP. 
A woman accused of using her lover's sperm to impregnate herself without his knowledge can be held liable for the unwitting father's emotional pain, the Illinois Appellate Court has ruled. 
The United States has welcomed Australia's decision to send an additional 450 ground forces to Iraq to provide protection for multinational reconstruction crews and to train Iraqi security forces. Prime Minister John Howard announced on Tuesday that Australia will send an extra 450 troops to Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian mission in the south. The decision, which follows requests by the governments of Britain and Japan, will increase the size of Australia's contingent in Iraq from 950 to 1,400 troops. "The new Australian contribution, which adds to the positive momentum generated by Iraq's national elections on January 30, will assist Iraq's transition to a secure democracy," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "Australia continues to demonstrate that it is willing to make difficult and courageous choices to promote democracy and combat terrorism around the world."
AN Australian national jailed in Lebanon for terrorist activities will be interviewed over a shooting attack on a Sydney police station upon his release, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said today. 
Canada's tenuous minority government pledged to pump $11.2 billion into the military and anti-terrorism efforts, determined in the budget presented Wednesday to burnish the country's credibility as a global peacekeeper and fend off opposition threats of early elections. The 2005 budget has a $7.2 billion surplus. Also promised was $2.7 billion in foreign aid and five years of tax cuts that will cost the government $7.1 billion but save middle-class families an average of $327 each. The biggest winner was Canada's armed forces, hit with budget cuts of about 30 percent between 1988 and 2000. NATO members have long grumbled that Canada spends less on defense than nearly all its partners as a percentage of gross domestic product. Ottawa's opposition to the war in Iraq has only heightened impatience among the alliance's biggest partners, the United States and Britain, for an overhaul of the Canadian military.
A member of the planning and budget commission of Tehran's City Council criticized the process of aiding the victims of the 
A week after the death of 
A top official wants the Intelligence Ministry to identify those who will probably use the fake title "Gulf" in their correspondence, Fars News Agency reported. Secretary of Supreme National Security Council 
The 
Farouk Qaddoumi, the head of the PLO's Central Committee, met with officials from 10 Palestinian factions in Beirut, Lebanon, the online version of the Lebanese daily The Daily Star reported. Qaddoumi reportedly emphasized the importance of national unity, including Palestinian groups that froze their ties with the PLO in 1983. Qaddoumi urged the various factions to participate in a forum that will "defend refugees' right to return to their homeland and refuse permanent settlement," the paper said. Dozens of international activists are currently attending a three-day conference in Beirut entitled, "The Palestinian People's Right of Return to their Homeland." It was organized by the 
U.S. police have captured the head of a notorious Honduran youth gang who is wanted at home for the killing of 28 people in a bus attack last December that shocked Central America. The Department of Homeland Security said 
Two gunmen stormed government offices in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, sparking a three-hour siege Thursday that resulted in seven deaths -- including the two gunmen -- police officials said. Police killed the gunmen, who are suspected Islamic militants, ending the siege. Three security forces and two civilians died in the violence.
Police said Thursday they thwarted planned attacks on an airport, malls, a church and U.S. troops with the arrests of three members of an al-Qaida linked terror group who allegedly came to the Philippines to train Muslim militants to make bombs. The two Indonesians and a Malaysian - all alleged 
Reformists are calling for an elected Parliament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an unprecedented public demand for a greater say in the government. Although there is no political dissent or extremist violence in the UAE, it is now the only state without elected bodies in the Gulf region after Saudi Arabia held municipal elections earlier this month. "It has become embarrassing for the UAE to lag behind others politically in the region. It is high time for us to have a fully elected house — enough of an appointed council without legislative powers," Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a professor at UAE University told Gulf News daily in remarks published yesterday.
They were referring to the consultative Federal National Council (FNC) whose 40 members are currently appointed by the seven semi-autonomous emirates that make up the UAE federation, presided by Sheikh 
Lebanese Prime Minister 
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is moving to deport three Muslim clerics because of accusations they represent a threat to public order and national security.
Visiting US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder emphasised their common policy goals on Wednesday, citing such issues as Iran's nuclear ambition, the Mideast peace process and Iraq's reconstruction, while declaring that they had put their past disagreements behind them. At a press conference after about 90 minutes of bilateral talks in Mainz, the two leaders stressed the message of transatlantic cooperation in dealing with issues facing the globe. Both acknowledged there had been differences between the United States and Germany, but there were overriding common positions. "We cannot deny that in the past there were different views (on Iraq)," Schroeder said about the main point which had severely strained US-German ties. "But this is past ... We have a common interest that there should be a stable, democratic Iraq." 
A secret entry door and videotaped images of several people inside a landmark Madrid skyscraper as it burned now suggest arsonists set fire to the Windsor building. Six days after the fire, television stations broadcast an amateur video shot by a resident of the area in which several people can be seen moving about the 16th floor as the flames advanced, some three hours after the structure was evacuated. Another local resident told local media that she too saw people moving around inside the building as it burned, and that they turned on, then off, the lights of some offices. Firefighting experts told local media that anyone who was in the building more than a few minutes after it caught fire would have needed an asbestos suit, otherwise they would have not been able to stand the high temperatures. The daily ABC quoted investigators as saying the images appear to depict individuals wearing helmets, and that at least one of the silhouetted figures appears to be talking into a hand-held radio.
It was a cold day in London, but the near zero degree temperature did not chill the second day of Saudi-British conference, where the two nations' chief diplomats reflected on eight decades of warm relations between their two peoples and charted an equally amicable course for the future. Addressing the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced plans to appoint women to the Foreign Ministry for the first time this year. He pointed out that successful political reforms required "an evolutionary process."
Wielding unexpected political clout, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas stepped in yesterday to quell a legislative rebellion that has held up the appointment of a new Cabinet and threatened to bring down his prime minister. Prime Minister 
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Wednesday he was forming a broad coalition to fight for the post of prime minister after Iraq's dominant Shiite political party nominated a conservative candidate. Allawi, a secular Shiite, skirted criticism of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was nominated Tuesday by the United Iraqi Alliance as its candidate for prime minister. The decision made al-Jaafari the overwhelming favorite for the post. When asked if he feared that al-Jaafari's alliance could impose Islamic rule, Allawi responded that he opposed the creation of any form of Islamic government. ``We are liberal powers and we believe in a liberal Iraq and not an Iraq governed by political Islamists. But as a person, he is an honorable man, fighter and a good brother,'' Allawi said.
MP 
An unprecedented visit to Jerusalem by a senior official from Dubai, during which he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other leaders, has caused an outcry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
NEW DELHI — Two small boys and two girls were married off to four puppies by tribal villagers in Jharkhand to ward off 'evil', a report said yesterday. Local officials in Kuluptang village in Jharkhand said the 'kukur vibaha' or dogs' marriages, were organised on the last day of a local tribal festival, PTI said. One of the tribals, 54-year-old Sonamuni, who blessed the marriage of her three-year-old grand-daughter Priya, said the wedding was no less important than other such ceremonies and all customs normally associated with marriage were followed. The mother of 'groom' Durga, aged one, said that if the first tooth of a baby came out in the upper jaw it was considered 'inauspicious' for the child as well as the family and dog marriages had to be performed. After a bath, the children are taken to a place of worship in a procession accompanied by a band.
The threat of a US military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is absurd because Washington is far too stretched in the region to even consider taking on a new enemy, a senior Iranian diplomat has said. "Any notion of threat of attack, or attack, by the Americans is purely absurd," said Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's delegation to the UN nuclear watchdog. "The US is simply too vulnerable with its overstretched presence in the region to engage in such silly threats or attacks," he said on Wednesday, referring to Washington's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
Rebels ambushed Sudanese troops and Sudan's military bombed and destroyed eight villages in Darfur, officials said Wednesday, detailing the latest reported violations of a largely ignored cease-fire in the western region of Sudan. The rebel ambush reportedly took place on Tuesday in Graida, a town about 100 kilometers south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, one of the three states that make up Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, said Ahmat Allam-mi, a member of a commission monitoring the cease-fire. The government has reported the attack to the commission, but African Union monitors in Darfur have not yet been able to investigate the report, said Allam-mi, who is also an adviser to Chadian President Idriss Deby. Meanwhile, the Justice and Equality Movement, one of Darfur's two main rebel groups, said on its Web site Wednesday that the military has in the last four days bombed and completely destroyed eight villages in Darfur. No other details of the attacks were provided, and it was not immediately possible to independently verify the report. It was not clear if the bombing was reported to the cease-fire monitors.
Israel's military has concluded that Hamas seeks to torpedo the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israeli military sources said military intelligence has obtained information of Hamas plans to carry out suicide strikes to shatter the ceasefire declared in February 2004. The sources said the Hamas plans stem from operatives in the northern West Bank. Some of the information on Hamas's plans came from a senior operative, identified as 
