HT to LGF
Federal authorities have decided to deport a former Florida professor and longtime Palestinian rights activist after failing to convict him on charges he helped finance terrorist attacks in Israel. Ship his troublesome ass OUT!
Sami Al-Arian, who had met with U.S. presidents and other political leaders before his terrorism indictment in 2003, reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be deported, two lawyers familiar with the case said Friday. The arrangement requires the approval of a judge. It was not clear where Al-Arian would be sent. suggestions? hell?
Al-Arian has remained in jail since a jury in Tampa, Fla., acquitted him in December of eight of the 17 federal charges against him and deadlocked on the rest. Stung by the defeat in the high-profile case, prosecutors pondered whether to retry him on the remaining charges, including three conspiracy counts, or deport him.
Justice Department and immigration officials declined to comment on the agreement, as did Linda Moreno, a lawyer who represented Al-Arian during his trial. Moreno and William Moffitt withdrew as Al-Arian's lawyers in March and it was not clear who currently represents him.
No one answered the phone at the home of Al-Arian's wife, Nahla.
The lawyers spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been made public by the court.
The case against Al-Arian was once hailed by authorities as a triumph of the anti-terror Patriot Act, which allowed secret wiretaps and other information gathered by intelligence agents to be used in criminal prosecutions.
Al-Arian and three co-defendants were charged with running a North American cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian had been under FBI surveillance at least since the mid-1990s.
But at the end of a five-month trial, jurors said the mountain of intercepted phone calls and other materials did not directly link Al-Arian and the others to violent acts, specifically a terrorist attack in 1995 that killed seven Israelis and American Alisa Flatow.
A Palestinian who was born in Kuwait, Al-Arian has lived in the United States for 30 years and holds permanent residency status. He was raised mostly in Egypt. multi-state ingrate jerk
He had been a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida but was fired after his indictment. He has been held without bail for more than three years.
Al-Arian was a nationally known activist who organized voter registration drives, campaigned for candidates and lobbied politicians.
His attorneys have said he has been to the White House and met with Presidents Clinton and Bush on four separate occasions. Al-Arian also had contact with nearly two dozen political and government leaders, including Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott and Dennis Hastert, his lawyers have said.
The handling of his case became an issue in the 2004 U.S. Senate election in Florida, won by Republican Mel Martinez. Betty Castor, the Democratic candidate, was the University of South Florida president when Al-Arian was on the faculty.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006
19:42 ||
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad .. paid a stealthy visit to Neyshabour in Khorassan ..
There, he inspected a project he omitted to mention in his Mashhad speech about low-level enrichment, namely, a top-secret plant under construction that is designed to run 155,000 centrifuges, enough to enrich uranium for 3-5 nuclear bombs a year.
This is Project B, or the hidden face of the enrichment plant open to inspection at Natanz.
This plant, due for completion next October, is scheduled to go on line at the end of 2007. According to our intelligence sources, running-in has begun at some sections of the Neyshabour installation, which is located 600 km northeast of Tehran.
..
the Neyshabour plant has been built 150 m deep under farmland covered with mixed vegetable crops and dubbed Shahid Moradian, in the name of a war martyr as obscure as its existence.
...
with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days.
..
since 155,000 aprox = 3x 54,000 that would be 5days per bomb.
#1
Centrifuges won't run without electricity and we can very easily make it very dark in Iran. Further, we can gut their economy by taking out the 9 refineries they have. They have oil to sell, but they have to import most of the gasoline and petroleum distillates necessary for a modern industrial state to operate. They can bury the nuke stuff, but not the infrastructure necessary to make it work.
Not to mention, we should make very certain that we arrange personal meetings with Allah for the upper layers of the regime and as many of the IRGs as we can find.
#2
with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days.
..
since 155,000 aprox = 3x 54,000 that would be 5days per bomb.
Is this calculation done using FAS SWU calculator?
Assuming 85% enrichment (weapons grade HEU) for an amount of about 50kg you'd need about 8000 kg-SWU per year do it. Assuming that the plant in Natanz has parts for 3000 centrifuges mean in about a year depending on when they started they'd have enough material for about a nuke, again this would be of Little Boy level and design type. Course this also means they need to mine about 13,000 metric tons of natural grade sandstone ore to get that much. That would be a significant section of known Iranian stores of U308. Thats the good news. Heres the bad news. According to the calulcations above and those are somewhat pessimistic at that we got about a year since they began enrichment before their first nuke. Its also a question of how fast are they mining the ore. The absolute low ball end of the argument is they only will have 350 odd centrifuges (including the 164 they just announced so I'm just merely adding a bit more than double that figure for the most conservative estimate). With 350 units at roughly at 3 kg-SWU rate you're probably looking at a bomb in about 7 years for the 50kg weapons grade level.
#3
Bomb will not be Little Boy type.
So HEU needed will be less - 15-20 kg.
Thanks to AQ Khan Iranians have the blueprints for a Chinese designed and tested (1966) implosion type weapon, one small enough to fit on a missile.
Mass of 500 kg, size - less than one meter in diameter.
As part of disarmament inspections, early Chinese nuclear weapons designs were handed over to IAEA inspectors by Libyan scientists, wrapped in plastic bags bearing an address in Islamabad. The possession by a third party of complete step-by-step instructions for a workable implosion-type bomb raised anew concerns over China's proliferation history with Pakistan, as notes included in the package of documents reportedly suggested that China continued to mentor Pakistani scientists on the finer points of bomb-building over several years following the technology transfers. Both China and Pakistan have refused to admit any knowledge of the transfer.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 19:50
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#4
from the article there was this too:
Russian experts completed the initial plans in 2003 and construction began in early 2004. In late 2005, Bulgarian transport planes delivered tens of thousands of centrifuges from Belarus and Ukraine; they were transported directly to Neyshabour. In January 2006, 23 Ukrainian engineers arrived to start installing the equipment, joined in February by 46 Belarusian nuclear experts who are working in shifts to prepare the 155,000 P-1 and P-2 centrifuges for operation.
This compares with 60,000 in Nathanz of which 40,000 are accessible for inspection while 20,000 are hidden in closed subterranean chambers.
Neyshabour, however, still needs to undergo experimental stages, according to our Iranian sources. It is far from sure that the Ukrainian and Belarusian experts will be able to put together a well-synchronized centrifuge project that is workable in the long term.
The Natanz project was long slowed by serious malfunctions in running the centrifuges purchased from Pakistan.
and this claim:
Tehrans success in enriching uranium, announced with fanfare last Tuesday, actually happened, according to our sources, eight months ago.
The documents also included a drawing showing a cascade layout for 6 cascades of 168 machines each and a small plant of 2000 centrifuges arranged in the same hall.
Also among the documents was one related to the procedural requirements for the reduction of UF6 to metal in small quantities, and on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical form
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 20:43
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#6
Valentine's points are acurate within the context of a solely Iranian-produced, Iranian-managed, Iranian-controlled "indigenous" bomb - however, the parallel fear during the Cold War was for one side to quickly or covertly transfer nuclear weapons to proxy nations in times of war or crisis. Few iff any in Washington or the USDOD believe that North Korea controls its own military or warfighting assets, while the same also do not believe that Russia-China will long tolerate a Radical Iran having a large enough nuclear arsenal [of any caliber] to threaten Russia's andor China's regional or global ambitions. As long as America is the focii of Radical Iran's hate/angst, Russia-China will for now tolerate Iran having at best a minor handful of low-yield nukes, enough to humiliate Washington before the MSM-World but not enough to seriously challenge or defeat any Russo-Chinese anti-US intervention force. In any case, it is useless in LR for America to only take out Iran's nuclear capability/infrastructure but NOT induce or empower "regime change" in favor of democracy.
IRAN has said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.
"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.
"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."
Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.
The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.
At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.
And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance".
"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.
"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.
On Thursday, Ms Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations".
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear".
Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
#2
Mohamed ElBaradei...The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear".
If Mo see's his shadow, does that mean six more weeks of winter?
#5
Bush is playing his cards close to his chest. Condi is spouting out the required State pablum. The military is not saying much, and neither is Rummy. Everything is just MSM wild speculation or Iranian bluster.
I would imagine, and it is my fervent hope that most everything is prepositioned and ready to go. The sites will have to be taken out AND the MM regime decapitated. The stakes are too high for Israel (they would lose everything), for us, and like it or not, for the rest of the ME oil consuming nations, INCLUDING the Chicoms.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/14/2006 16:31
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#6
My biggest fear is he is right. Our military can demolish them. But thier people are just canon fodder to them. They would extend it out, and with our press constantely pounding on the reasons for attaching we would back off. It was my biggest fear in the Iraq war, and I'm not convinced we will finnish there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 17:11
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#10
My biggest worry: that we'll stomp all over their nuclear toys and set back their plans by a couple of years-- but without taking out the Mad Mullahs.
That would be a horrible mistake.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2006 17:14
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#11
Goes down after November mid-term elections. Open wide AhMad, bend over and spread em.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 17:18
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#12
General Yahya Rahim Safavi, what's your cross-street?
#15
and you also post under a generated name, how courageous! Showtime's ineveitable. Hopefully the Persian/Kurds/etc. people will take the chance to take back the then smouldering hole they call a country
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:12
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#18
The quoted general seems to assume the US would send in troops rather than simply bomb the snot out of everything we vet as a proper target.
I think any kind of actual invasion is very unlikely. In fact I think, the first strike might be against the Mullahs. We just need assets in country to tell us when, and planes nearby enough to hit when the call comes in.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2006 19:32
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#22
WIll say again the RINO, agenda-less, Lefties/Commies-for-Fascism-for-Communism Dems have nuthin' and no one for 2008, and the anti-Bush-GOP MSM and Hollyweird isn't cutting it despite all the PC anti-Bush/America rants and Left-centric Reality- and Alternatism-themed shows. WILL SAY AGAIN THAT ITS HIGHLY DOUBTFUL HILLARY WILL RUN FOR POTUS OR WILL WANT TO BE POTUS AS LONG AS THE VARIOUS ROGUE CRISES REMAIN UNRESOLVED, i.e. aren't over. wid 2-3/4 years left in Dubya's term, IRAN andor NORTH KOREA, to include TAIWAN, will prob be the last Rogues Dubya and his boyz get to effectively deal with - Africa, etal. world states will be left to Dubya's REPUBLICAN successor. NEW 9-11's AND EAST-WEST GEOPOL CONFRONTATION IS ALL THE WEAK-AND GETTIN-WEAKER DEMOLEFT HAVE RIGHT NOW, WID OR WIDOUT THE CLINTONS, and whatever the Dems desire or need to do to forcibly usurp GOP pre-eminence HAS TO OCCUR NOW, NOW LATER, espec iff they expect Hillary to win the Presidency. WITHOUT NEW 9-11's OR EAST-WEST CONFRONTATION OVER IRAN-NORTH KOREA-TAIWAN, ITS DOUBTFUL THAT EVEN GORE, KERRY, OR DEAN, wid Hillary as VEEP?, WILL WIN IN 2008. NOt just new 9-11/s/Amer Hiroshimas, but new 9-11's/Amer Hiroshimas which destroy the credibility, iff not existence, of the GOP and its major candidates as a potent organized force and Party. The DemoLefties for 2008 need catasrophic events which are violent, NPE-minimum casualty-heavy, PC/PDeniable, AND ABOVE ALL SHORT LEAD TIMES TO CAMPAIGN FOR ELEX.
#23
I'm not sure he's wrong, as mad as his comments make me. Ultimately I'm not sure we have the will for an all out bloody war. What I see is that we have a bunch of fools in this country that don't understand what a military and political achievement it's been for our troops to take control of an entire nation, begin retraining of that nation's military and rebuilding of the country, while being attacked by outside terrorists and rebels from Sadam's regime. We've only had 2367 deaths in that time period and the amount of Iraqi civilian deaths although much higher pales in comparison with past wars. History is going to look back at those figures in awe.
What concerns me is that I don't think we would see the same thing in Iran. We can't just take out the nuke sites. At the very least there would be retaliation and large increase of US casualties in Iraq which would lead to more of our cowardly politicians voting to turn tail and run. I think it could overwhelm Bush at this point in time. It's also possible it would lead to the overthrow of more or less friendly Arab leaders, an attack on Israel and a much wider war then just Iran. Even in the best case scenerio, where our only concern is Iran, it will not be an easy nut to crack. I have no doubt we could obliterate the mullahs and their military, but with the differences in terrain, the amount of money that Iran is pouring into their military, and Iran having been able to observe our military in action and get some idea of how we operate, our casualties would be a lot higher. If people in this country can't handle under 2400 deaths in 3 years how are they going to handle 10 times that amount in a much shorter period of time? All of this doesn't even take into consideration the international response which would not be particularly in our favor.
I do think it's going to have to be done, but I think it's going to take some sort of open action by Iran against Israel, or our forces, or another attack on this country by terrorists before we'll see it and by the time it actually comes to pass it'll be whole lot bloodier then it might have been.
FORMER Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has produced a bizarre home video to show the world his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the US military.
The homemade film - a dramatised recreation of his three-year stint in the Cuban prison - stars Mr Habib's eldest son Ahmed, who plays the role of his father.
Mr Habib himself plays one of his American captors in the video, which he plans to air publicly today.
The documentary-style film features one scene in which Ahmed, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, is dragged across the floor by his father using a rope.
Another scene demonstrates how Mr Habib was struck on the fingers with a hammer, while another segment shows Mr Habib fitting electrodes to his son's chest before subjecting him to mock electric shocks.
Yesterday, Mr Habib's wife, Maha, said her whole family had been involved in making the video, which had brought back painful memories for her husband.
"It is a film to show the experience of the torture he suffered," Mrs Habib said.
"It took us a long time to make. Mamdouh had to stop on many occasions because he became very emotional."
Mrs Habib said she welcomed all interested viewers to see the film, which will be shown today at the University of Technology, Sydney.
"We want people to be aware of what is happening to Australian people over there," she said yesterday.
Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, specifically of having prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks in America.
He claimed that after being detained in Egypt and sent to Guantanamo Bay, he was subjected to three years of abuse - most of which is demonstrated in the video account of his time at the prison camp.
Mr Habib claims he was not only beaten with hammers, given electric shocks and dragged across the floor by a rope, but also had dogs set on him.
In an apparent effort to fully understand his father's time in incarceration, Ahmed allegedly asked Mr Habib to subject him to the same treatment for the bizarre film.
"He told me to hurt him like they hurt me," Mr Habib said, adding that he had refused his son's request.
Mr Habib has previously expressed a desire to move his family from Australia to the Middle East to escape what he claims to be an atmosphere of constant harassment.
But first, he must win back his passport.
The Habib home video will be screened at 3pm today at the UTS campus in Broadway.
#2
nice home movies. We always just had pics of us on vacation, kids playing baseball or swimming, or of the pets...Guess there's a cultural difference
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:05
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#3
Someone needs to copy this vid, dub the appropriate snarky music & put it out on YouTube or some such site.
TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"
The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon." He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon." "The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
The three-day conference on Palestine is being attended by officials of Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian territories. Iran has previously said it will give money to the Palestinian Authority to make up for the withdrawal of donations by Western nations who object to Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. But no figure has been published.
#1
He must hate iranians cuz this is a good way to wind up with a lot of dead ones.
simple sequence:
1. Israel attacked (suitcase bomb, missile or otherwise)
2. regardless of "proof," the assumption will be that iran is behind it
3. massive, disproportionate retaliation
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/14/2006 14:14
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#4
Gee sounds like a rational person to me. I can't think of why Bush doesn't want him to gain access to nukes. Maybe Bush is just a racists? (end sarcasm)
#6
How would the UN/EU pussies like this speech with a few corrections changes?
"TEHRAN, Iran WASHINGTON, D.C. - The president of Iran the United States again lashed out at Israel Iran on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Bush called Israel Iran a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime Iran is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad Bush said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians freedom and liberty in the Middle East. "The Zionist regime Iran is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm of Cruise missles and B-52's."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world an outcry from the U.S. and a couple of other decent nations in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." Most, however, grinned from ear to ear and prayed it would be so."
There, how's that? At least it has a ring of truth to it - which is more than the original had.
The LLL and the Dems (but I repeat myself) will say NOTHING about this latest oral diarrhea from Iran. But if Bush had spoken my version, seething would have begun yesterday.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 15:28
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#7
Oh - forgot to mention:
I wish Bush would give that speech.
I've got dibs on the popcorn concession. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 15:30
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#10
If I was Israel and the US/West punks out on Iran I think I would just launch a first strike. I would send nearly all my nukes holding enough in reserve to burn every Arab capitol just in case. This would totally annihilated the Iranians weapons economy military hell population while at the same time showing everyone else you are not going out without taking the vast majority of your enemy with ya. And since you just hit the no limits scorched earth level might as well go for gold and have a couple launches fall short just happening to hit the Paleo population centers.
The world hates em anyway so they will still be the wiping post for the UN just short some outside threats that unlike the UN can actually back their rhetoric up.
This is a insane scenario but many would say the same thing about waiting all nice and proper in the corner while the murderer sharpens his knife telling you the whole time how he is going to cut you up first.
#11
So, is ElBaradei still in town? Will these Ahmadinejad quotes make it into his April 28 report to the U.N. Security Council? No, I thought not. The U.N. will condemn the U.S. and Israel when we do the compelling task. And Kerry and Gore and Carter and the Clintons and all the other sorry Neville Chamberlains will paint Bush to be the mad man.
#12
"Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
"It sneaked up behind us and hit us on the head, and then, when we woke up, we were tied over the hood of our car with our pants around our ankles. There was grease and chicken feathers all over our buttocks, and though we tried, we could not break free. Only then we saw Israel, with clown makeup and wearing lederhosen and scuba flippers, and it had broken off our car aerial and was grinning menacingly at us, the Islamic nations. And I can say no more..."
#13
There has got to be something to this. Any game theory strategist's in the house?
Scenario 1
His puppet masters know the Iranian theocracy is doomed and they put this lunatic in power knowing he can mobilize passions against a commom enemy. If we don't attack, their position strengthens. If we do attack, their position strengthens. Either way this lunacy is the only way for the theocrats to keep control.
Scenario 2
He truly is a lunatic with a deathwish believing that glory will come to him and his people if they sacrifice themselves in a glorious fight for Islamic supremacy. Not a good scenario at all - a lunatic with nuclear power that sees more glory in death is the most dangerous lunatic of all.
This is not a good thing.
Our best bet - hard, quick, hard, decisive strike, hard that minimizes collateral damage but is hard enough that the lunatic wing takes a very long nap. Did I mention it needs to be a hard hit?
We're in the midst of watching the rebirth of every lunatic from the 20th century rolled into one coming back to haunt us - and pussies at the UN are fiddling with themselves.
Posted by: Digital Patriot ||
04/14/2006 17:29
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#14
First night of bombing should take out him, his buddies and the mad mullahs with their major personal businesses and assets.
#15
First night of bombing should take out him, his buddies and the mad mullahs with their major personal businesses and assets.
Like we did with Saddam?
Realistically, if the Iranians want to have nut jobs run the country, they will. I don't care if they do. I only care whether they've got nukes. So we bomb and raid and Shermanize to assure that they don't and that they learn there's a penalty. If they make nukes again, we'll stomp them again. That's all that matters, not whether nutjobs run the country.
#16
Their assets especially, NS - they're common knowledge in Iran: factories, MB/BMW dealerships. Make them take an involuntary vow of poverty
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:04
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#17
This guy sounds as plausible as Baghdad Bob but it is eerily similary to the clownish and outlandish pronouncements Hitler made in the 30s. People laughed then and paid the price later. I think this boy is big trouble and needs to be stomped quick.
Now, dicks have drive and clarity of vision, but they are not clever. They smell pussy and they want a piece of the action. And you thought you smelled some good old pussy, and have brought your two small mincey faggot balls along for a good old time. But you've got your parties mangled up. There's no pussy here, just a dose that'll make you wish you were born a woman. Like a prick, you are having second thoughts. You are shrinking, and your two little balls are shrinking with ya. The fact that you've got "Replica" written down the side of your gun. (withdraws his gun) And the fact that I've got "Desert Eagle point five O" written on the side of mine, should precipitate your balls into shrinking, along with your presence. Now...
#19
MadMoud's on-going rants have already over-justified either Irael, the USA, and even the UNO-UNSC taking unilateral or joint mil action against him and the Mullahs. He and the Mullahs are going hell-bent for nukes, and at minima Iran-centric/controlled regional ME empire within our present lifetimes. Every person and Muslim in the ME is s future Iranian citizen or peon in the making. Aymmetric warfare allows a weak society to fight a militarily or technologically superior or dominant society in non-suicidal combat while preserving as much fighting manpower as possible for suture use by said weaker society - this means that, as wid the Russo-Chicom "War/Battle Zone" strategem, POLITICAL-DIPLOMATIC VICTORY is PRIORITIZED OVER MILITARY-ARMED VIOLENCE. BY definiontion this ergo means that MadMoud's, etal. ULTIMATE ACE IN THE DECK are those anti-American Americans already existing or soon to exist within the American NPE-MIC's. WHY WAGE WAR WHEN YOUR ENEMY WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT ANYWAYS!?
Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, one of several high-ranking military men urging the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Friday there is no coordinated effort to get him fired, calling a recent series of critical statements "absolutely coincidental." And so is the sudden media attention to us five.
"I have not talked to the other generals," Batiste, interviewed from Rochester, N.Y., said on NBC"s "Today" show. Nevertheless, he said he thinks the clamor for Rumsfeld to step down is "happening for a reason." Never see 'em at the VFW, never talk to 'em. Nothin.
Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division forces in Iraq, said he declined an opportunity to get a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general and return to the wartorn country as the No. 2 U.S. military officer because he could not accept Rumsfeld's tough management style. Rumsfeld is too tough for him, but he commanded the Big Red One? Sorry, something doesn't compute. We should replace the Big Red One with Rummy or this guy should never have been in the job.
He said he does not believe Rumsfeld has been sufficiently accountable for the plan that led to the invasion of Iraq and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, although he also said that "we have no option but to succeed in Iraq." Being crudified daily by the MSM is insufficient accountaiblity? And this guy is till wuss enough to say "we have no option but to succeed in Iraq." But just without Rummy.
"I support civilian control (of the military) completely," Batiste told interviewers on CBS's "The Early Show." Especially now that I'm a civilian.
But, he added, "we went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the piece after we took down the regime. We also served under a secretary of defense who didn't understand leadership, who was abusive, who was arrogant, and who didn't build a strong team." "That's why I served without protest or without any statement of protest when I turned down the last star they offered me." Riiight.
The White House insisted that Rumsfeld continues to have President Bush's confidence. New White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten settles into his job starting next week, but few expect any moves regarding Rumsfeld.
"The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said as two more retired generals called for the secretary's resignation Thursday, bringing the number this month to six.
"I have not talked to the other generals," Batiste told NBC Friday. "I think it is absolutely coincidental. ... I think it's healthy for democracy. I have nothing to gain in doing this. There is no political agenda at all." Nope. None.
Retired Army Major Gen. John Riggs told National Public Radio that Rumsfeld fostered an "atmosphere of arrogance." And retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack told CNN that Rumsfeld micromanaged the war. "We need a new secretary of defense," he said. "We liked it more when we could be ther arrogant ones adn Bill Cohen would stick to writing poetry." Democrat Military experts say the parade of recently retired military brass calling for Rumsfeld's resignation is troubling and threatens to undermine strong support that Bush has enjoyed among the officer corps and troops. Sounds like time for Bush to go to Tehran or Ft Bragg to see what the men in the field have to say.
With public anti-war sentiment increasing, "the president and his team cannot afford to lose that support," said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Bill Clinton.
Earlier calls for Rumsfeld's replacement came from retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold and retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton.
Rumsfeld has been a lightning rod for criticism since the war began in March 2003. I'd say it started a lot earlier than that. Like when Rummy told the Army the cold war was over and Crusader was history.
He was blamed for committing too few U.S. troops and for underestimating the strength of the insurgency. He took heat in 2004 over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S. Army-run Abu Ghraib prison, and for a brusque response he gave to an Army National Guard soldier in Kuwait who questioned him on inadequate armor.
Republicans in Congress have offered Rumsfeld little in the way of public support. Big surprise there. They're a real disappointment.
Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said Thursday that Rumsfeld has not talked to the White House about resigning and is not considering it. Good.
#1
Defense Secretaries fire generals. Not the other way around. There are countries where generals fire Defense Secretaries. They are located mainly in Africa and Latin America.
#2
My humble opinion: When this many recently retired generals - from two different services - all with "boots on the ground" time in one or both theaters, leading divisions or higher - say that the 74 year old SECDEF is "going sideways" and needs to be replaced, that's good enough for me. Better Rumsfeld steps down now, before things get worse - if he is actually inspiring key leaders to depart the service DURING WARTIME - then something is seriously wrong.
Until all this came up, I was pretty accepting of Rumsfeld. But - if there is this much heatburn, then the situation needs fixing pronto.
And - (as someone who is an alumnus of the same undergraduate institution that Eaton, Swannack, and Batiste graduated from), I feel comfortable with the generals airing their criticisms AFTER leaving active duty. That is the only way such comments should ever be aired - when it is clearly not a challenge to the concept of total civilian control over military commanders.
#3
that's true lone ranger, you make a good point. But I still don't agree in the principle of going to the media - who is clearly on the side of our enemy to bring attention to this matter. Five isn't very many. In an arena with egos this big, you can always find five that will disagree with the method to move forward. It happens in war and it happens in school boards, and city councils etc., etc.
The difference here is that the ONLY people being given the microphone are those who thought it should be done differently.
Even if Rumsfeld made mistakes - then I'd have to say ....well, duh. Mistakes are always made in war. I always tire of the bastards that grandstand and say, if only they had done it my way ..... because if it had been done their way, then it would be the others standing up bitching about how they didn't plan the immaculate war.
Clearly, Rummy has made enemies. I don't know if these complaints are valid or not, but I sure as heck am not going to make my decision that based on only 5 guys. What say we wait until we hear from the other 8,9995?
#4
That is the only way such comments should ever be aired - when it is clearly not a challenge to the concept of total civilian control over military commanders.
I'd agree if the comments were made the day after he left the service. That was the message of McMasters book about how the generals should have behaved in Vietnam. But this game of let's-gang-up-with-the-MSM-to-get-even strikes me as low office politics. I've read nothing positive from these guys in the sense of "this is what we should be doing" beyond get rid of Rummy because he intimidated me.
If they thought something was going down that was bad for the country, they owe it to the country to resign and explain what the bad thing is in real time. Not to skulk around and a year later say this is what 20-20 hindsight shows the boss who wasn't nice to me did wrong.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/14/2006 15:40
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#6
he declined an opportunity to get a promotion to the rank of lieutenant general and return to the wartorn country as the No. 2 U.S. military officer because he could not accept Rumsfeld's tough management style. This really sounds like someone whining that he doesn't like taking orders. HE should be in charge, dammit! How dare the Secretary of Defense order him around! He's General!! He may very well have done a marvelous job commanding for which he should be commended but you just don't air your grievences in public like that. Patton didn't like how Eisenhower was running things but he did not complain to the press.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2006 16:08
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#7
Obviously these retirees must be Democrats. Only Republican generals and servicemen "get it".
#8
So, he's a military man who can't accept a tough management style...hmmm...
Should we call him Courtney or Wesley.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
04/14/2006 16:40
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#9
I had to take DW to the hospital this morning for a routine medical appointment. I caught part of the Fox News broadcast while I was there. One of the guests on the show was a total a$$hole, and blamed Bush for everything from eggs not cooking properly to forcing the Iranians to build nuclear weapons. The other guest said something that caught my attention. Basically, she said that most of the generals whining about Rumsfeld were those that didn't like the SecDef coming in and making wholesale changes in the military, trying to reorganize and reconstitute the forces to something more in line to what the nation needs. Those generals are uncomfortable with change, and take their discomfort out on Rumsfeld. That struck me as very plausible, because I've known several dozen general officers during my military career, and many of them were like that. That could also be why many are retiring: they can't accommodate themselves to the changes taking place as the result of Rumsfeld's reorganization. Now they're retired and bitching. They need to be cognisant of the fact that, although they're retired, they still fall under the auspices of the UCMJ, and CAN be held accountable for violating the military's rules.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 16:43
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#10
Mark Larson on KOGO radio sez there are 875 active Generals in the latest Census. 9000 retired Generals still living. These should get that same % of attention.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:02
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#11
Ernest Brown, I recommend calling him General George McClellan.
Posted by: Scott R ||
04/14/2006 18:02
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#12
Secretary of War Elihu Root Part Deux.
Secretary Root had to drag the Army into the 20th century with all the moaners and groaners, particularly the old generals and colonels, who didn't want change. Go read up on it. Its basically the same 'critics' playing the same game.
We're not going to refight WWII again for a long while. Meantime we need a force structure to support what we are actually are going to be doing with some degree of fiscal responsibility. I've never seen a general who didn't think he needed more troops, more money, more resources.
#13
We have some Generals that had no problem with Rumsfield when they were doing their job, and getting good intel from the military. Then in civilian life they getting their intel from CNN and the NY Times and suddenly their opinions on the war change.
#14
I'm with you Ranger. Anyone with any sense knows you can't speak up while serving. Gen. Shinseki did and they forced him out even though he was correct. Truth is, Dummy (er, Rummy) is the worst Defense Sec'ty since McNamara. He's arrogant like Mac and his whole scope of the problem was wrong. Now we have another unending mess. Time to gather our guys and go. If problems continue, time to start mass eliminations.
#15
Well the white house website from the President just said he is keeping Rummy, so this is mute like I said yesterday McArthur was a poular general pissed off the boss, lost job end of story
#16
LR: My humble opinion: When this many recently retired generals - from two different services - all with "boots on the ground" time in one or both theaters, leading divisions or higher - say that the 74 year old SECDEF is "going sideways" and needs to be replaced, that's good enough for me. Better Rumsfeld steps down now, before things get worse - if he is actually inspiring key leaders to depart the service DURING WARTIME - then something is seriously wrong.
I don't worship military men. A few dozen generals supported Kerry. Should I have voted for Kerry?
I don't worship Bush or Rumsfeld either. But the facts on the ground tell me that the war in Iraq could not have been better-run. By all historical measures, this is the lowest-casualty large scale guerrilla war I have seen. The retired generals who accuse Rumsfeld of incompetence are telling us that they could have done better. I seriously doubt it.
The guerrilla war in Iraq has been going on for several years not because our people, civilian or military, can't hack it. It's going on because there is nothing we could have done to convince Arab Sunnis that it is better for Arab Shias and Kurds to rule Arab Sunnis than it is for Arab Sunnis to rule Arab Shias and Kurds. It's also been going on for three years because that's the nature of guerrilla wars - the whole guerrilla strategy is to draw out the conflict over years - decades if necessary - and avoid decisive battles so as to psychologically wear down the government (but primarily to avoid getting destroyed by government forces).
Malaya's (now Malaysia and Singapore) guerrilla war is often quoted as an example of how counter-insurgency operations should be run. And yet British involvement that war lasted for ten years - against a few thousand guerrillas fighting with looted Japanese military equipment from the end of the war. Note that Malaya had no porous borders in evey direction - just a short border of under 500 miles with Thailand to the north. Iraq's borders are thousands of miles long. Unlike Iraq, Malaya had no adjoining neighbors supporting the guerrillas with bases and rest areas - just Communist China almost 2000 miles north. Malaya's guerrillas also had nothing like Saddam's tens of billions of dollars of oil money to spend on personnel and weaponry. And British involvement in Malaya not only lasted ten years, the guerrilla war went on for another twenty years, until the Chinese government stopped spending billions on communist guerrilla movements in Southeast Asia, around the time of the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979.
EFL
During the last three decades, the resort community on Florida's Gulf Coast has been overrun by the black, spiny-tailed, nonnative lizards that demolish gardens, nest in attics and weaken beach dunes with burrows. Last month, Lee County Democrat commissioners agreed to create a special tax for Boca Grande to cover costs of studying the infestation on the barrier island of Gasparilla, where scientists estimate there are up to 12,000 iguanas on the loose, more than 10 for every year-round resident. Note they are going to study them. There will be an additional tax if they decide to do anything about them.
I'm available if they need to spend more research grant dollars.
The frustration here has led to frenzy. Bonnie McGee keeps a pellet gun by her door ready to take on the slithering enemy. "They eat your flowers and their feces is everywhere," she said, adding that she's killed dozens. "Some people toss them in the canal and the hermit crabs feed on them."
Iguana: it's what's for lunch.
Aaron Diaz, owner of Boca Grande's Barnichol hardware store, said he has sold 75 traps in the past three weeks alone. "For some people, they've really taken over, climbing into attics, into vents and even into their toilets," he said.
"Mo-o-m-m-m! It keeps staring at me when I tinkle!"
County Commissioner Bob Janes doesn't know how much eradication will cost, so he's not sure how much the tax will be. He said the issue has finally come to a head. "In 1988, there was talk of a program but people at that time thought they were kind of cute," Janes said. "They're no longer cute little guys. They're very pesky insurance salesmen."
Kevin Enge, an exotic species expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said he believes the iguana was introduced to Boca Grande in the 1970s by a boat captain who brought a few from Mexico for his kids but released them when they grew too large. More problems caused by illegal immigrants. Though they just tunnel into the sand dunes that American lizards won't.
The county hired Florida Gulf Coast University biologist Jerry Jackson to study the problem. He is worried the lizards aren't just a nuisance, but are destroying native habitat, spreading other invasive species through their droppings and endangering the town in the event of a hurricane. "The majority of their burrows are in the dunes along the beaches," Jackson said. "We're threatening the human population on Gasparilla Island to the extent that the dunes are in danger of just disappearing with a storm surge."
Which the storm surge might do anyways ...
The lizards also carry salmonella. "The disease organism alone could be a problem for native species, even for humans," Jackson said. "It's a zoo out there. It's an ecosystem gone crazy."
Even the local weekly paper, the Boca Beacon, gets flooded with letters about iguanas. "Iguanas are not human. They do not deserve humane treatment," resident Richard Zellner wrote. "As far as I am concerned, they can be burned, shot and mutilated." Kind of like Al Queda.
Some have made catching iguanas into a family outing. Boston resident Michael Mavilia, 49, who owns a house on the island, spent a recent day with his family casting a fishing rod with a tiny green rubber worm toward the foundations of beach homes. "Crikey! Ain't he a beaut! This is a nice one," Mavilia said, pulling a writhing, two-foot iguana from a cage in his car trunk. "You should have seen us wrestling him in. It was like catching the big one." Iguanas, why do they... Oh, forget it.
#2
Don't tell Muck4doo but I think the Lizard People might be taking over.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2006 18:40
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#3
cross breed with kudzu and we're all history
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 19:03
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#4
You know this is really bogus. There are the same iguanas down in Miami. So the problem in Lee county is either a lack of "island folk" to consume them or they have registered as democrats in Miami-Dade. Any sunny day you can see them sunning off Old Culter Road. Just remember one organism, one vote!
Posted by: bruce ||
04/14/2006 19:38
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#5
GUess I'll have to go wid Monty Python's HOLY GRAIL and armed knights running away from the giant killer rabbit.
#5
So personages within the great State of Florida is now firing at poor little Fort Sumter too - gee whiz, Mr. Wilson, unlike a few other states its even after 9-11 too, not before. Dare the US NINTH renew its infamous decision to declare America, its own country/venue of jurisdiction, an illegal and unconstitutional nation ??? YES DENNIS, YES GILLIGAN, YES DOBY GILLIS, LASSIE, FARAH AND COSBY, ....... ETAL. YER ALL CRIMINALS IN A NATION THAT HAS NO LEGAL STANDING TO DO ANYTHING, AND NEVER DID.
This past Friday night I was privileged to visit Fran O'Brien's steakhouse in the Capitol Hilton, Washington, DC. Every Friday night, Hal Koster, the restaurant manager and Vietnam Vet, invites our wounded soldiers convalescing at nearby Walter Reed Army Center to a free steak dinner and drinks. It was supposedly a "slow" night for our heroes as many were on a ski trip in Colorado. But I walked into an absolutely packed room of wounded soldiers and their families enjoying a minor but well-deserved recognition for their service to our country.
I've also discovered since then that the Hilton Corporation will not be renewing the lease. Apparently, there are too many "liability issues" in accommodating American heroes in wheelchairs. In fact , the lease (and therefore the dinners) will expire in a few short weeks. If America had responded as we would in the past, this would be inconsequential really. Obviously we have not and it is a tragic commentary on today's PC-ness.
Please read the attached e-mail with more of the details.
Best,
Buzz
Buzz Patterson
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired)
***********
MAYDAY! MAYDAY!! MAYDAY!!!
Flight, we need your help!
This is long but you need to read it all.
I'm Jim McDaniel, webmaster for the 174th Assault Helicopter Company's web site. I refer you to one of our web pages that I put together back in 2004. It is about Hal Koster, one of our 174th crew chiefs from Vietnam. Hal crewed the UH-1C SHARK gunships that I flew 1967-68. Hal and I flew together. Please see the page about his restaurant and his support of our veterans at http://www.174ahc.org/koster-iraq.htm.
Now, having read the page, Hal has continued to host our veteran amputees every Friday night. I have been to several of the dinners, and it is absolutely WONDERFUL what Hal has been doing at significant effort and personal expense (every dollar he spends on our veterans could be money he puts in his pocket). You really have to be one of these dinners to fully appreciate what this means to these soldiers.
Well I received this message (below) from Jack Cunningham, and I couldn't believe it. I was last in Hal's on St. Patrick's Day, and Hal didn't mention his difficulties to me then. I just called Hal and he confirmed for me this report is TRUE. Hilton has terminated his lease and the restaurant has been ordered closed on April 31 (just over TWO WEEKS from now). Apparently Hal's support of our wounded veterans is playing a MAJOR part in Hilton's decision to shut him down. Part of it is that Hilton has refused to put in wheelchair access to the restaurant and their concern over liability if one of the amputees should be injured in the restaurant.
I can't believe it! Just how callous can this company be?
If Hilton does this, I will NEVER set foot in a Hilton Hotel again. And I am going to tell them that. If you agree, it is IMPERATIVE you let Hilton know immediately of your feelings. In two weeks (April 31, 2006) it'll be too late. Below are names, e-mail addresses, and website addresses for Hilton.
Hal has NOT asked for any support on this from me or any of us, but he absolutely needs our support.
Call or write to Hilton NOW. Let them know how you feel.
Thank you, and please feel free to forward this to any people or organizations you believe could help.
Jim McDaniel
174th AHC Webmaster
http://www.174ahc.org
jim.mcd@cox.net
174th AHC Dolphin pilot 1967
174th AHC Shark pilot 1968
116th AHC Hornet pilot 1971
"Nothing Impossible"
============ Jack Cunningham's note ===============
Fran O'Brien's Restaurant in Washington, DC should be given a special award for true American Patriotism, instead the restaurant is being closed by the Hilton Hotels. Please read the email and send the Hilton Family your comments...
Thanks
Jack Cunningham
#2
Chalk this up to one part distaste for wounded vets, one thousand parts white-hot DC real estate market and changing demographics. Franny's is one of those old-school restaurants that the Olive Garden/ Ruby Tuesdays/ Applebees juggernauts have mostly wiped off the map. Rising rents and a growing preference for arugula are working their black magic on the neighborhood restaurants everywhere in the DC metro area.
A SYDNEY church leader has used a Good Friday address to tell his congregation that Christianity and Islam cannot both lead to God. Compare with the Catholic view "NOSTRA AETATE"
3. The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.
Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.
Anglican Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen told a service at St Andrew's Cathedral that Islam denies some of the Christian beliefs about Jesus.
Islam views Jesus as a prophet but does not believe he was the son of God who died on Good Friday to save humanity from its sins and was resurrected on Easter Sunday. "Now that Islam has become more common in our society, you need to know the difference between Christianity and Islam," he said. "For the Koran, and therefore Islam, denies that Christ dies."
But Dean Jensen said that the two religions cannot both be right. "Either both are wrong or one is right and the other is wrong," hw said. "But both of them cannot be right."
Bishop of South Sydney Robert Forsyth said the comments were in no way inflammatory towards Muslims, but instead were an attack on the naive who believed all religion was the same. "What he was attacking was not Muslims," Archbishop Forsyth said. "The thing he was attacking was the unwise who people think that all religions are part of the same thing so he was attacking the seculars."
#1
The difference between Christianity and Moslems is that Christianity is a religion based on the sunny side of life; faith, hope, repentance, forgiveness, charity, and tolerance. Christians share with you in the hopes that you too can share in the goodness.
Islam is faith based on submission not to just to God, but to Islam itself. It does not separate church and state, so they must submit to members of the state and their clerics, who are men. The Moslem must submit to men to get to God, but the Christian does not have to. Islam demands death to those who do not participate. It is not a religion of tolerance, but of intolerance. It does not seek to understand others but demands you follow the will of the men who have established themselves as the Allah's representatives.
In the form that is being put forth by Islamists today, it is not compatible with a tolerant society.
I think the most Moslem people are great people and if they could get rid of the radical clerics could easily move into the 21st century and be great neighbors. But I think they are a century away from ridding themselves of the destructive 7th Century beliefs and in the mean time - we are going to have one big and bloody clash to sort it all out.
#2
One thing both Christianity and Islam have in common is that they deny the essential message of the other side. Traditional Christianity asserts the Trinity, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, and Islam asserts the Prophet's message has supplanted both Judaism and Christianity. Might as well say it plainly.
Never forget that for islam, Jesus IS NOT the son of God, he's just *a* prophet to whom lip service is given, but who has been made obselete by The Prophet(tm), and he DIDN'T DIE on the cross, he was remplaced by a stunt double, basically, and went on to perform the haj.
Not only islam denies the Trinity (which for them is The Father, the Holy Spirit and... Mary; someone got mixed up, this comes from early chrisitan heresies IIUC), but its basic tenet is that it is the SAME religion as judaism and christianity (whose followers are muslim, in fact, just as everyone else, since islam is the religion "by default" of humanity, every baby is born muslim), BUT the jewish and the christians maliciously altered their scriptures and do not follow the voice of allan anymore... so The Prophet(tm) came to correct that, and is the ultimate word on everything... when the koran(tm) lifts the Bible and misquotes it, it is actually the koran(tm) which is right, the christian version has been forged.
In short, the basis of the muslim faith is that it is a superior religion, and that its two parents are FALSE. Oecumenism and interfaith dialog is trivial from this point of view.
Btw, the muslim Jesus is far from the christian Jesus; not only does he worship The Prophet(tm), but at the end of times, he will come back to *serve* the mahdi(tm), and his first action will be to break all crosses, IE to destroy christianism (he will also kill all pigs...).
One thing both Christianity and Islam have in common is that they deny the essential message of the other side
My point is that in Christianity, even if you don't believe in the Trinity - then there is no repercussion. No one will cut your head off.
Christians just believe it is your loss. They feel bad you don't get to share in the power that a belief in Christ and following his teachings will bring to you.
Forgive me for going into sensitive ground here, and if I'm wrong, don't get mad - it's just how I see it, but it seems to me that for Jews, it's less about a religion than it is a shared heritage. Basically, one is born a Jew and remains one through their shared heritage, as well as DNA. If a Jew converts to Christianity - they still remain Jewish. But if a Christian converts to Judiasm, they are no longer a Christian, and not truly a Jew.
And though Moslem's, Christians, Americans, Germans, etc. all share common heritage - to be a Moslem or a Christian or most other religions, is not determined by birth, but by a shared belief.
But my point is that Jews and Christians and Moslems all believe in the same God. Supposedly, we all believe in the God of Abraham. But there are differing opinions on who'se entitled to walk on the alabaster stones in the afterlife.
The Moslem religion demands no difference between church and state and punishes the non-believer in this life - not the next. It's not about the power you can obtain by believing - but that they will kill you if you do not.
As it stands today, Islam is not compatible with a tolerant society. I'm not saying that Moslems themselves aren't compatible - I'm saying their belief in Sharia is not compatible with a tolerant society. It's worked fine until recently when they were over there and we were over here. Now our world's collide.
#5
5089 - I don't have time to read the link. But if I were to predict, I think we'll see a battle. I don't think the Islamists will win. For several reasons, but primarily because they don't have the better way. Good ideas usually win in the end.
Does that mean that we won't have a bloody conflict. No. I think we will. If history is any guide, it will become very ugly before it becomes better.
I'm just hoping, that after centuries of making fun of people on street corners holding signs that say, "the end is near", that we aren't really entering end times. Certainly we have the capability today to make Revelations come true - more so than ever before in the recorded history of makind. But I'm an optimist and I don't think so. We in this generation have just lived in peace for so long that we don't really believe a world war will happen to us. Unfortunately, a look at history shows us that the odds are not on our favor and the idea that we are immune to a global conflict is just a happy face fantasy that has little basis in reality.
#6
Islam is and will be the primary vehicle of the Antichrist and his system that will overwhelm much of the world just prior to Christ's return. Although not a popular position today, it is a position that has been held by many notable Christian leaders throughout history begining from the first great Islamic Jihad/conquest. Not only is the position quite defendable biblically, it is quite likely.
Posted by: Joel Richardson ||
04/14/2006 21:09
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#7
Here's my take: Mohammed had to deny Jesus died, not out of a sense of piety, but because Jesus is TOO BIG OF AN ACT TO FOLLOW.
Mohammed tells the faithful what to do in order to be saved. Not coincidentally, what he told them to do profited himself quite a bit. Jesus, on the other hand, DID HIMSELF what it took to save the faithful. Forget about being ABLE to save the faithful by dying: Mohammed would NEVER have done ANYTHING for his faithful, while Jesus lived for the day he would die for you and me.
Iran's diverse population should be fertile ground for a covert operation. Iran is only 51 percent Persian. Azerbaijanis and Kurds comprise nearly 35 percent of the population. Seventy percent are under 30, and the jobless rate hovers near 20 percent.
Fertile ground for producing terrorists & other kinds of "insurgents" a la Iraq, but I really doubt they like the US at all. The mullocracy has already eliminated most of their potential domestic opposition. A great many Iranians support the mullocracy, a great many Iranians (even those who hate the mullahs) support Iranian nuclear weapons production, just as many/most Germans and Japanese supported their governments in WW II until their support became meaningless as Nazi and Imperial Japanese military power was destroyed.
Any country involved in the attack would be subject to retaliation by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al Qaeda, the Iranians have claimed. If nothing else, this threat demonstrates how closely tied Iran is to terrorist groups.
How right this is, but you can already imagine the MSM saying Iran had nothing to do with 9/11 or with WMD, can't you?
---- In a related article, William Kristol asks the rhetorical question "Is the America of 2006 more willing to thwart the unacceptable than the France of 1936?" A few of us are willing, a big chunk of our electorate is still on a holiday from history, and the MSM is only interested in spreading mental agitation, fear and confusion. Things are a bit better today on this front than they were on 9/10/2001, though.
No mention is made a relationship between a military strike against Iranian nuclear weapons research and the world oil supply, which is already strained. Keep your shoes well-heeled and your bicycles in good running condition, everyone. The road ahead is twisted and full of potholes.
#2
Iran's leaders have threatened to unleash a firestorm of terrorism in the event military action is taken against them. Any country involved in the attack would be subject to retaliation by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al Qaeda, the Iranians have claimed. If nothing else, this threat demonstrates how closely tied Iran is to terrorist groups.
Sort of says it all. Iran is a festering boil that needs to be lanced before blood poisoning and gangrene sets in.
#3
Zenster - as long as it's their blood poisoning and their gangrene (which I think have already set in), I don't give a shit.
Unfortunately, they're trying to pass their derangement disease on to us. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 15:35
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#4
Still comes down to either Americans fight and win, or surrender to the Global Caliphate/
Jihadist/Islamist State, and then hope to God they don't decide to kill you 'for Honor/Allah" after you surrender. POST-SHAH IRAN FOR MANY YEARS OFFICIALLY PROCLAIMED TO NOT SUPPORT TERROR, ERGO IS WHY THEY THREATEN TO UNLEASH SAME AGAINST AMERICA - OOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPSSSSS.
BAGRAM, Afghanistan A computer drive sold openly Wednesday at a bazaar outside the U.S. air base here holds what appears to be a trove of potentially sensitive American intelligence data, including the names, photographs and telephone numbers of Afghan spies informing on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The flash memory drive, which a teenager sold for $40, holds scores of military documents marked "secret," describing intelligence-gathering methods and information including escape routes into Pakistan and the location of a suspected safe house there, and the payment of $50 bounties for each Taliban or Al Qaeda fighter apprehended based on the source's intelligence. The documents appear to be authentic, but the accuracy of the information they contain could not be independently verified.
On its face, the information seems to jeopardize the safety of intelligence sources working secretly for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, which would constitute a serious breach of security. For that reason, The Times has withheld personal information and details that could compromise military operations.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan said an investigation was underway into what shopkeepers at the bazaar describe as ongoing theft and resale of U.S. computer equipment from the Bagram air base. The facility is the center of intelligence-gathering activities and includes a detention center for suspected members of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups flown in from around the world. "Members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command are conducting an investigation into potential criminal activity," a statement said.
The top U.S. commander here, Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, has ordered a review of policies and procedures for keeping track of computer hardware and software. "Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," the statement added.
The credibility and reliability of some intelligence sources identified in the documents is marked as unknown. Other operatives, however, appear to be of high importance, including one whose information, the document says, led to the apprehension of seven Al Qaeda suspects in the United States. One document describes a source as having "people working for him" in 11 Afghan cities. "The potential for success with this contact is unlimited," the report says.
Even the names of people identified as the sources' wives and children are listed details that could put them at risk of retaliation by insurgents who have boasted about executing dozens of people suspected of spying for U.S. forces.
The drive includes descriptions of Taliban commanders' meetings in neighboring Pakistan and maps of militants' infiltration and escape routes along its border with Afghanistan. In another folder, there is a diagram of a mosque and madrasa, or Islamic school, where an informant said fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had stayed in Pakistan.
Another document describes in detail how a member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the Taliban's former mentors, tried to recruit an Afghan spying for the U.S. by promising him $500 a month.
Some of the documents can't be opened without a password, but most are neither locked nor encrypted.
Numerous files indicate the flash drive may have belonged to a member of the Army's 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), based at Ft. Bragg, N.C. The unit is operating in southern Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition is battling a growing insurgency. Some of the computer files are dated as recently as this month, while others date to 2004. The clerk who sold the computer drive said an Afghan worker smuggled it out of the Bagram base Tuesday, a day after The Times first reported that military secrets were available at several stalls at the bazaar.
The 1-gigabyte flash drive sold at the bazaar Wednesday is almost full and contains personal snapshots, Special Forces training manuals, records of "direct action" training missions in South America, along with numerous computer slide presentations and documents marked "secret." There is also a detailed "Site Security Survey" describing the layout of the Special Forces unit's "Low Visibility Operating Base" in southwestern Afghanistan. Another document outlines procedures for defending the base if it comes under attack, and there are several photographs of the walls and areas inside the perimeter.
The drive holds detailed information on a handful of Afghan informants identified by name and the number of contacts with U.S. handlers. In some cases, photographs of the sources are attached. A report on a spy involved with a code-named operation says the Afghan has been used in "cross border operations." But it cautions that an American officer "has come to the conclusion that Contact may or may not be as security conscious as thought to be or expected."
The report describes a potential "low-level source" who reportedly has "brought in active and inactive Taliban and Al Qaeda associates/operators who have expressed a desire to repatriate/end conflict peacefully." The man is identified as a former ISI agent in the 1980s, during the U.S.-backed mujahedin war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He also provided a document on Al Qaeda's cell structure to the CIA, the report adds.
The document also names the man's wife and children and lists his cellphone number. It describes the informant as very punctual, with a good sense of humor. Politically, it adds, he is "much like a Republican in the United States."
The computer files also provide a rare look at how the U.S. military contracts and pays its Afghan spies, and the commitments they make in signed contracts, written in English. In a two-page "Record of Oral Commitment," marked "secret" and dated Jan. 28, 2005, a source agreed to work for the U.S. Army by providing information on Al Qaeda, the Taliban and an allied militia, the Hizb-i-Islami, led by fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. "The source will be paid $15 USD for each mission he completes that has verified information," the agreement stipulates. "This sum will not exceed a total of $300 USD in a 1-month period," the report says. The sum rises to $500 a month for information "deemed of very high importance."
And there are serious consequences for any breaches of the commitment, such as failing to disclose information on the terrorist organizations or missing either of two meetings scheduled for each month. The penalty for "using his new skills to participate in activities that are deemed" anti-U.S. or against the Afghan government is "termination with prejudice," according to the document.
Another document describes how an Afghan informant for the U.S. military said he was contacted by an official from Pakistan's Embassy, who asked the Afghan to spy for the ISI. A high-level ISI official then offered the Afghan $500 a month and other incentives, the document says.
The report adds that the ISI official "said that he's looking for an U.S. Embassy employee to aid in the bombing of the embassy that [he] is planning." The ISI official promised he would pay the Afghan $100,000 after the destruction of the embassy in Kabul. The report concludes: "Everything that [Pakistani] told the Source could be made up or inflated as to look good and exciting to the Source; a possible ploy to get the Source to 'sign up' for the ISI . However, my 'gut' tells me otherwise, and this guy really is trying to recruit my source for the other side."
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006
10:37 ||
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ISI official "said that he's looking for an U.S. Embassy employee to aid in the bombing of the embassy that [he] is planning." The ISI official promised he would pay the Afghan $100,000 after the destruction of the embassy in Kabul.
Interesting recruiting technique these ISI officers have...
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 11:33
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And I'd be willing to bet our intrepid LA Times reporter copied everyone of them he could get his hands on...
#5
I really wonder about this. Either our troops are very, very sloppy about classified documents, or this is bogus as a $3 bill.
Why weren't these easily-stolen drives locked up at night, if they contained classified, or even sensitive - material? If this guy is "right outside the main gate at Baghram", why haven't security forces closed him down, or at least discovered who is stealing this stuff? This story just smells to me, and I wonder how much truth there is in it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 13:55
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Old Patriot--I would say they got real sloppy. When we left diyala, right up to the day I got on the chopper I was running Shredit(tm) on laptops at Reg. HQ. I know we did not manage to zeroize all the classified disks. I wonder how much classified info wound up in the Hajji market.
The sucessful Comsec/Opsec mentality requires a level of instituional parinoia we simply do not posess. The attitude seems to be "Better that we make the enemy worry about what we are going to do to them, and not worry about what they are going to do to us".
WRT to the GWOT, and the Mad Mullahs--Faster please. We make more (fatal) mistakes when we slow down and let the world cach up with us.
Posted by: N guard ||
04/14/2006 14:08
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April 14, 2006: Comparing notes with the Israelis, it was found that al Qaeda and the Palestinian terrorists agreed that, in general, the "best" candidates to recruit for suicide operations are poor, uneducated young men with low self-esteem. These poor lads can be easily indoctrinated. Since they are uneducated, but not stupid, they can be quickly taught the necessary skills to enhance their chances of carrying out their attacks successfully.
One reason for Western nations cutting off over a billion dollars in annual aid to the Palestinians, unless Hamas (the new terrorist group that got elected as the new Palestinian leaders) makes some convincing noises about not being terrorists, is because paying large sums of money to the families of suicide bombers, is a big inducement for poor young guys to sign up. Young Palestinian, and Iraqi Sunni men, know that their future is bleak without cash to get married and start some kind of business. Arabs tend to put family before self, so it's a reasonable choice for a son to do a suicide bomber thing, knowing that the family will get respect, and a large chunk of change, because of it. The likeliest volunteer for this kind of job is the son with the most meager prospects. Namely, the one that did poorly at school, and has a low opinion of himself. Being a suicide bomber is one way to finally get some respect. And once you volunteer, and then until the time you actually do the deed (which might be weeks or months in the future), you get to enjoy the respect.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
10:14 ||
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no wonder that woman wants all her sons to become suicide bombers. she has her eye on a really sweet bmw.
April 26 marks the 20th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Anti-nuclear activists are still trying to turn Chernobyl into a bigger disaster than it really was.
Although the Number Four nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded just before dawn on April 26, 1986, Soviet secrecy prevented the world from learning about the accident for days. Once details began to emerge, however, the anti-nuclear scare machine swung into action.
Three days after the accident Greenpeace scientists predicted the accident would cause 10,000 people to get cancer over a 20-year period within a 625-mile radius of the plant. Greenpeace also estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 people in Sweden would develop cancer over a 30-year period from the radioactive fallout.
At the same time, Helen Caldicott, president emeritus of the anti-nuclear Physicians for Social Responsibility, predicted the accident would cause almost 300,000 cancers in 5 to 50 years and cause almost 1 million people either to be rendered sterile or mentally retarded, or to develop radiation sickness, menstrual problems and other health problems.
University of California-Berkeley medical physicist and nuclear power critic Dr. John Gofman made the most dire forecast. He predicted at an American Chemical Society meeting that the Chernobyl accident would cause 1 million cancers worldwide, half of them fatal.
But the reality of the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident seems to be quite different than predicted by the anti-nuke crowd.
As of mid-2005, fewer than 50 deaths were attributed to radiation from the accident thats according to a report, entitled Chernobyls Legacy: Health Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts, produced by an international team of 100 scientists working under the auspices of the United Nations. Almost all of those 50 deaths were rescue workers who were highly exposed to radiation and died within months of the accident.
So far, there have been about 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children. But except for nine deaths, all of those with thyroid cancer have recovered, according to the report.
Despite the UN report, the anti-nuclear mob hasnt given up on Chernobyl scaremongering.
According to a March 25 report in The Guardian (UK), Greenpeace and others are set to issue a report around the 20th anniversary of the accident claiming that at least 500,000 people may have already died as a result of the accident.
Ukraine's government appears to be on board with the casualty inflation game, perhaps looking for more international aid for the economically-struggling former Soviet republic.
The Guardian article quoted the deputy head of the Ukraine National Commission for Radiation Protection as touting the 500,000-deaths figure. A spokesman for the Ukraine governments Scientific Center for Radiation Medicine told The Guardian, Were overwhelmed by thyroid cancers, leukemias and genetic mutations that are not recorded in the [UN] data and which were practically unknown 20 years ago.
Putting aside the anti-nuclear movements track record of making wild claims and predictions in order advance its political agenda, I put more credence in the UNs estimates because it squares with what we know about real-life exposures to high levels of radiation.
Among the more than 86,000 survivors of the atomic bomb blasts that ended World War II, for example, only about 500 or so extra cancers have occurred since 1950. Exposure to high-levels of radiation does increase cancer risk, but only slightly.
There is no doubt that Chernobyl was a disaster, but it was not one of mythical proportions.
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island the U.S. nuclear plant that accidentally released a small amount radiation in 1979 are examples of how the anti-nuclear lobby takes every available opportunity to scare the public about nuclear power.
But no one was harmed by the incident at Three Mile Island. The Chernobyl accident can be chalked up to deficiencies in its Soviet-era design and operation. Neither reflect poorly on the track record of safety demonstrated by nuclear power plants designed, built and operated in countries like the U.S., U.K., France and Japan.
Its quite ironic that while Greenpeace squawks about the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to avert the much-dreaded global warming, the group continues spreading fear about greenhouse gas-free nuclear power plants the only practical alternative to burning fossil fuels for producing electricity.
Apparently, Greenpeaces solution to our energy problems is simply to turn the lights off for good. Well, they ARE anti-capitalist
#2
But no one was harmed by the incident at Three Mile Island.
That's not quite true. Instead of correcting the errors in the US domestic nuclear power industry, we put it on the shelf and increased our reliance on imported petroleum products. I can think of 5,000 Americans harmed by this.
#3
There is no doubt that Chernobyl was a disaster, but it was not one of mythical proportions.
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island...are examples of how the anti-nuclear lobby takes every available opportunity to scare the public about nuclear power.
Nothing to worry about, except: 1) the hundreds of square miles of contaminated land, which will remain useless for decades to come; 2) the smoldering reactor remains still capable of restarting a chain reaction as it almost did in 1990.
So yeah, just another Katrina. Or a lesson for terrorists. Nothing big. Really.
#4
This also applies to the use of nukes on Japan in 1945. The numbers have been greatly inflated.
The Army wanted to know the real effect of the weapons. They conducted an extensive survey of the bombing. They tracked down the rice allotments being shipped to the cities to determine the population before hand. They then conducted a census of the survivors to include having residence identify people living on their streets and neighborhoods. This took time, so they were also accounting the radiation sickness casualties as well. By the completion of the survey the number for Hiroshima was near 66,000 with another 5,000 from long term radiation. As related in this article, most of the radiation victims died within a year of the event. Both Japanses and American authorities tracked the authentic radiation cases. This was a census not a sampling.
However, the Anti-American and anti-nuke community has for years inflated the numbers, never showing how they got those same numbers. Its was interesting in the late 90s as the 'death' number from Hiroshima rose beyond a 100,000, then 150,000. Its finally starting to dawn on some that those are just people who were there when the event occured and their deaths are not linked in any fashion to that event.
Cheeta the chimp, star of a dozen ''Tarzan'' movies in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrated his 74th birthday with sugar-free cake. Although healthy and active, Cheeta is diabetic. ''He had a good time. The party went real good,'' said keeper Dan Westfall, operator of the primate sanctuary Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes or CHEETA.
Representatives from a Spanish film festival also showed up for Sunday's party to present Cheeta with the first award of his career an International Comedy Film Festival of Peniscola prize. Cheeta has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest chimp. Chimps rarely live past the age of 40 in the wild, but can reach 60 in captivity. The graying, 150-pound Cheeta, one of six primates at the desert sanctuary 110 miles east of Los Angeles, is very active and ''he still has every tooth in his head,'' Westfall said Monday.
Westfall said one of Cheeta's favorite activities is riding around with him in the car. He also likes to paint, what Westfall calls ''ape-stract'' pieces that are sold to raise money for the nonprofit sanctuary. Westfall adopted Cheeta in 1992 from his uncle Tony Gentry, an animal trainer who worked in Hollywood and obtained Cheeta from Africa in the 1930s.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2006
09:55 ||
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Cheeta the chimp celebrated his 74th birthday with sugar-free cake
Did you here the one about the penguin who ate ice cream
#7
OMG, CHEETAH, T-H-E CHEETAH, IS STILL ALIVE - here in Guam we kids loved her and Tarzan, movies and series, to death. Several of us boys got our first scars trying to swing like Cheetah and Tarzan from trees, laundry posts, and anything at a height. * GENTLE BEN THE BEAR and CLARENCE THE CROSS-EYED LION from the series DAKTARI. CHEETAH, ETC. WE STILL LOVE AND REMEMBER YA!
April 14, 2006: In the last six months, the U.S. Army is seeing 15 percent more soldiers re-enlist than expected. This continues a trend that began in 2001. Every year since then, the rate at which existing soldiers have re-enlisted has increased. This despite the fact that 69 percent of the troops killed in Iraq have been from the army. New recruits continue to exceed join up at higher rates as well. All this is extremely important, especially when there is a war going on. Experience saves lives in combat, and more of the most experienced troops are staying in. This means that, a decade from now, the army will have a large and experienced corps of senior NCOs. That, in turn, means the younger troops are likely to well trained and led.
The army makes a big thing, internally, about the number of troops re-enlisting, especially within combat units that are in Iraq or Afghanistan. Pictures of mass re-enlistments are published in military media, but the civilian media has generally ignored this phenomena. Also ignored, except by some local media interviewing locals who are in the army, is the positive attitude of the troops, especially those in combat units. The large number of re-enlistments occur because the troops believe they are making a difference, and winning. This is especially true for soldiers who have come back to Iraq on a second tour, and noted the improvements since the first tour.
The large re-enlistment bonuses, paid to some specialists, does get some media attention, as do those who did not re-enlist, as do the wounded and the families of the dead. But the attitudes of the troops themselves, the people closest to the war, are generally ignored by the mass media. If these attitudes are noted at all, they are dismissed as misguided, because the troops are too close to what is going on.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:46 ||
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"This means that, a decade from now, the army will have a large and experienced corps of senior NCOs."
Not if the LLL get back in power. If Kerry, or Gore, or Hillary, or Russ Feingold becomes President in 2008, don't count on anybody being left in the military 10 years from now.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2006 10:22
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Not much of an endorsement of the patriotism of the troops. The Army serves America, not a particular President. Luckily, the soldiers know that better than you.
#3
The occupant of the White House has little bearing on re-enlistment. Pay, benefits, advancement, and opportunity have EVERYTHING to do with re-enlistment. I also think the same reasons are true for someones decision to stay with a civilian job. I started my career with Jimmy Carter and ended with Bill Clinton and at no time did the President, his policies, or his party had no bearing on my decision to stay one enlistment to the next. People in the military today are getting nice (deservedly so) bonuses, better pay, more benefits, and lots of opportunities to advance in rank. That is why they are staying in record numbers.
But the reasons are that such an LLL predicetn woudl be a disaster for morale, pay, equipment and employment of the military.
Which military do you wast, the timid one under Jimmy Carter (Iran Afghanistan), or the resurgent one under Reagan that wonthe cold war? The babysitter military under Clinton (hands tied in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somolia, Afghanistan, Sudan), or the Hunter military under Bush II (even tho Bush now seems to be wavering)?
#7
Unless we are involved in a conflict the pay and benifits don't get increased under any administration (Dem or Rep). Actually Bush 41 rifted a large number of people from the services and started the "Peace Dividend" reduction. There was a time when few in the military were sure IF we could re-enlist let alone if we wanted. We closed a lot of bases after the Berlin wall fell and cut our intelligence structure to the bone under Clinton. It made sense at the time because NOBODY saw the rising tide of Islamofacists as a threat (even after the first WTC bombing). I am sure that some people serve because they love the country, are patriotic, or have a sense of duty but they are very small group. That doesn't mean that those serving are not motivated by pride or sense of duty because they are and I respect them for that. I doubt very seriously that there would be large re-enlistments if pay and benifits were cut or remained stagnant.
#8
The administration in power has a great deal to do with the makeup of the senior officer corp. It should come as no surprise that generals promoted under Clinton do not like the aggressive use of force. Clinton was not looking for fighters.
The expectation can be that the military, including the senior ranks, will be much more geared to war fighting as the current crop of senior and mid-level officers rise. The next administration will then determine what qualities it chooses to promote.
#9
...or have a sense of duty but they are very small group.
CS I have to disagree with you on this statement, the rest is spot on. Units that had a genuine mission and where the soldiers were performing their missions experienced great re-up rates, even during the bad times. Soldiers join for many reasons, school, adventure, etc..., but most stay because of the love for their country and their honor of being able to defend it. For example I was lucky enough to serve in a company, in USASOC, in the mid 90's. I did not have or need a reenlistment folder on the soldiers. We had a 100% reenlistment rate for the years I was there. Even though it was tough times with the drawdown and all, these troops had a good mission and they loved what they were doing, and they stayed as long as we could let them. The troops today do not enlist for the college or a bonus, they have no misconceptions about their roll in the military, their risks, and why they are there. As long as we let them do their missions they will continue to re-up.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/14/2006 15:19
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49 Pan, your right but USASOC isn't a small select group? I did not infer that those that serve are any less dedicated and your are correct that when the shit hit the fan we were ALL dedicated to the mission. I only had experience in the Balkans and EVERYONE worked hard to ensure success. FYI many (if not most) of us were dumbfounded by the lack of a planned ground campaign and by the Russians showing up (seeming uninvited). I think Wes Clark, Clinton, and Half-Bright really should explain that strategery to the rest of the world.
#11
CS, I think Wes Clark, Clinton, and Half-Bright really should explain that strategery to the rest of the world. As well as Short, who burned Belgrade to the ground in order to shut down a radio tower, who should go to jail for it in my opinion.
I did not take insult, I probably did not get my point across right and would never infur any one soldier is better than another one. My poor explaination was I really think most soldiers stay in from a sence of honor and duty, and thats all. I was in 1AD during the start up of the Balkans and was stunned as well by the lack of attention to mission planning by the CORPS HQ while our soldiers, you and I included, busted our asses.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/14/2006 18:01
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My son just enlisted - graduates HS and enters in September. He has a SAT rating at 86% percentile, a GPA at 3.76 and could've got into college easily. I asked him why he chose the Army and when he decided, he said 9/11/01. He's not in for the money, hopefullly will get to use the College money, but he's there for each and every one of us.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:09
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CS,
I still remember the late 70s with Carter. I saw a lot of good NCOs and officers leave because their pay was crap. Don't you recall how may of the troops qualified for food stamps. And the guys overseas were screwed because they didn't have access at that time to the stamps. The guys had to feed their families and the amount of pay that the Carter Administration was budgeting wasn't doing the job. They left to feed their families. Carter didn't recommend a decent pay increase till the election year when it became an issue. At the same time the inflation had started to head to double digits because of the impact of the oil embargo. Troops getting 2 and 3 percent pay increases with prices going double digit didn't cut it.
#14
I left the Air Force in 1977, due primarily to President Carter's words and deeds. My wife and I wanted to adopt a couple of children, and knew we'd never be able to do so in the military. I joined the Reserves shortly after I left active duty. We adopted one child, tried to adopt another and were turned down. When Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980, I re-enlisted in the Regular AF, and stayed until 1991, when I was forced to retire for medical reasons.
A president and his attitude toward the military can have a HUGE influence on whether people reenlist or not. I know dozens that bailed on Carter, and more that left under the Clintons. Most of the people I knew on active duty were highly patriotic, knew the work they were doing was important, and would work 20-hour shifts for weeks at a time to accomplish the mission. They also have a very distinct impression on Congress, the Presidency, and the government in general. The pay and promotion isn't enough to compensate for the work required. It's only the sense of pride, honor, and duty that keeps most of the military in uniform. Show open disrespect for those people, as Carter and the Clintons did, and watch the best of them leave in droves.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 21:02
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All things equal, NUMBERS BEATS QUALITY - iff as Jerry Corsi, author of ATOMIC IRAN, that any US-Iran regional war may induce or trigger a potentially worldwide nuclear confrontation and war amongst the major nuke powers, i.e. against Russia andor China, etal. then for America and its USDOD going back to Cold War levels of volunteer manpower may no longer be sufficient. We will eventually need a draft, andor in the alternate a raising of Reserve and Guard allotments - the Guard as example can be stratified into younger men [Ready Guard]for immediate or ready military service in suppor of the Reserves and Regulars, while the older men [Inactive/Reserve Guard]can be put for State and Community defense and policing in suppor of non-activated Guard or Reserve units. GREAT BRITAIN during WW2 had its HOME GUARD while even NAZI GERMANY had its VOLKSTSTURM. iff memory is correct, during WW2 the maxi legal limit for drafted Amer men was age 45 or 47, of which the US Army by itself was able to form approxi 100 well-trained divisions, not all or most of which saw actual combat, and NOT including the then US Army Air Corps/USAAF or Sea Service. Its not well known in America that during WW2, and many years afterwards, the Army actually controlled more planes, ships, and crafts than the US Navy or its child the USAF. My point is - AMERICA IS IN A WAR FOR CONTROL OF THE WORLD, THE NWO, AND FUTURE OWG,AND WHERE ITS VERY EXISTENCE, SURVIVAL, BELIEFS SYSTEMS, COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES/
ENDOWMENTS, AND SOVEREIGNTY, ETC. IS UNDER THREAT!
GOP-CONSERVATIVES AND ALL AMERICANS MUST DO WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR OUR SIDE TO PREVAIL AND WIN, AND TO DO SO DESPITE WHAT THE WAFFLING, DIALECTICAL, POLICRATIC, HYPER-CORRECT, BIG GOVT.-, LAISSEZ FAIRE = TOTALITARIANISM, ETC. LOVING LEFTIES DO OR DESIRE AGAINST ANYONE AND ANYTHING.The Right wants AMerica to win, the Left wants America to win and then to surrender, where winning = surrendering and vice versa, but somehow is also not the same. The Dems and Lefties are going hell-bent for that handful of special reserved seat(s) on the future Socialist-Communist Amerikan Politburo, Presidium, and People's Congress which the Commies from Russia-China never promised them.
We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.
Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"
"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: First to destroy America, "Turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: 'The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."
Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.
Third, "We could make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: 'The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved! Not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.'"
Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America reinforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."
"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."
"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity! Unity is what it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games.
A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to over come two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell.
"E. Pluribus Unum" From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."
"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits ~ make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'x! xenophobes' halt discussion and debate."
"Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."
In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."
There was no applause.
A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Every discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America take note of California and other states to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."
Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy are deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.
#1
Scary... true and scary.
It is part of the reason the Roman Empire fell. Massive non-latin speaking peoples coming in the borders and not being Romanized.
#3
So, what do YOU do ? As an American, what steps do you take, NOW ?
The first step may be to destroy the democrat party. Why ? Because they require a constant counter move by patriotic Americans to keep focused on the problem. I could also include the MSM. They also NEED to be destroyed. They are focused against Bush, but he isn't the problem. To win a war, we must wage a war. To wage a war, we must first identify the enemy, or, in this case, the problem. We can't put up with being constantly sidetracked by MSM and democrats.
Only a few men have the problem in focus. If we were to join with them with both verbal support and financial support, we could advance their message and place these few at the front of the political reality. Among them are Congressmen Hayworth and Tancredo. There are others, I'm not totally aware of who. I'm just a concerned patriot. We should keep the discussion going and spreading. Do what you can, but above all, don't ever surrender.
Time is vital, so don't delay.
#5
I agree with a lot of what the Gov said. And I contrast it with the experiences of other recent immigrant groups.
The Asian-Indian demographic is a rapidly growing group. In my town they are the largest minority group. And, no, they are not all doctors and engineers. More and more are shopkeepers and employees in grocery stores and other "regular" jobs. One thing I have noticed is that most of them seem to enthusiastically embrace American culture and customs - especially the kids - without losing their own. Maybe the fact that they speak English (at least the ones that work) is the big difference.
#6
wxjames is on to something. Something drastic (unfortunately) needs to happen and soon. Here in Atlanta, diversity is gonna kill us. Heck, my own suburban county has moved from something like 85% white in 1990 to 54% white in 2005. The increases? Blacks are now about 20%, Asians are about 10% and Hispanics make up about 15%. Nothing against other races, and I enjoy sharing my cul-de-sac with a black couple (1 neighbor), Mexican couple (other neighbor) and an Asian family across the street. BUT, when your groups go out demanding "rights" when you're not here legally, and then overcrowd our local hospitals for "free" healthcare (I've seen this change in just the 2 years between my daughter and son being born), demand spanish be mandatory in some schools, etc., you've crossed the "border" so to speak with us as a nation. So, I say Ron Paul (R-TX)/Tom Tancredo (R-CO) as the next Presidential ticket. Tancredo for the immigration issue and Paul for the spending/new "laws" issues (he's pretty much a libertarian in many people's minds). Sadly, this will never happen with the national Repubs.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 14:47
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#7
Historical currents. We'll go imperial before the fall. A lot of people aren't going to be happy. Particularly the ones who keep hitting the thousand pound gorrilla with a stick. When they finally get the gorrilla's attention, they're not going to like it.
BTW, the Romans may have had a lot of internal problems, but letting in the Goths was the one that killed them.
#10
IOW, transform America into separate and co-equal, co-sovereign State(s) within a State. The Lefties suppor these pro-ilegal immigration marches are fighting for illegals to stay permanently illegal, and permanently supported in their agendas by both the State and AMerican taxpayers, i.e a STRATIFIED OR MULTI-STRATIFIED, WILFULLY DEFICIT-BURDENED SOCIETY WID MANY AUTONOMOUS OR SELF-GOVERNING CANTONS/ENCLAVES.
* BURTH-ISM > the Dems-Lefties will fight and vote for these before they take it away from you, and them, later on. THey'll fight for these in the name of the deficit, etal. and later take it away in the name of same.
RAMADI, Iraq (AP) -- The young Marine had just shot a suspected insurgent and was walking back across the villa's rooftop when he keeled over from a terrific thud to the back of his head. A sniper had fired a single, well-aimed bullet that tore through the top of Lance Cpl. Richard Caseltine's helmet, traced a path along the edge of his skull and buried burning bullet fragments in the back of his neck. Less than a minute later, the 20-year-old from Aurora, Ind., was up on his feet - crouching, shaking and miraculously, still alive.
"You expect when somebody gets shot in the head, they're dead," the soft-spoken Caseltine told The Associated Press in an interview, cradling the battered camouflage helmet that saved his life Saturday. "I consider myself very lucky."
Caseltine was among two squads from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment's India Company moving through the rocket-blasted streets of downtown Ramadi on a joint foot patrol with the Iraqi army. Caseltine and several others were tasked with providing "overwatch" - finding a place from where they could watch over the rest of the patrol. They entered the front gate of a two-story villa and herded a man, his wife and their children into a room. Four Marines then climbed the stairs to a rooftop enclosed by shoulder-high walls, each taking positions in separate corners to scan adjacent buildings and streets.
Half an hour later, Lance Cpl. Benjamin Congleton, 22, of Lexington, Ky., spotted a man in a black T-shirt crouching on the ground near a light pole. He was fiddling with a tangle of wires and looking from side to side. Congleton called Caseltine over for a second opinion. They agreed the man was trying to plant a bomb. Congleton fired his M-16, but missed. The startled man tried to stand up. Caseltine fired his M-4 Carbine, hitting the man in the leg. Congleton then shot the man in the head as he tried to flee down an alleyway, apparently killing him. Caseltine took three or four steps back to his position in the rooftop corner when he felt something strike the top backside of his helmet.
"It felt like somebody came from behind and punched me in the back of the head as hard as they could," Caseltine said. "It just rocked me. I went forward and my ears started ringing really bad. I couldn't hear anything." It wasn't clear at first if one of the Marines had misfired one of their weapons. But in a split-second, they understood the sole shot had not come from them. Ducking to the ground, they rushed to Caseltine's aid.
"He was yelling, 'I got hit! I got hit!' Congleton said. A cursory check revealed blood at the back of Caseltine's neck but no serious wounds. Caseltine was still conscious. Able to walk, he got up and, crouching, moved to the relative safety of a room downstairs, where a Navy medic examined him. The back of his neck burned, but he was fine otherwise. "He had this big smile on his face," said Lance Cpl. Jefferson Ortiz, 21, of Miami. "He knew he'd gotten very, very lucky." As troops popped smoke grenades, a Humvee arrived to evacuated the wounded Marine.
Congleton said he believed the sniper had been providing "overwatch" for insurgents planting bombs in preparation for a major assault on the Marine-protected provincial government headquarters. The attack began the minute the rest of the squad exited the villa. "We were taking fire from every street corner," Congleton said. "It seemed like we were fighting the entire city."
Bounding across rubble-strewn intersections nearby, one Iraqi soldier was hit by a bomb that blew other Iraqis into the air. Some got up and kept running, but one soldier lay writhing and bloodied - one of legs was partially detached. A couple Iraqi soldiers began dragging him by his clothes, but a Marine lifted the soldier onto his back and carried him away, Congleton said.
Caseltine, meanwhile, was flown to a military medical facility at nearby Balad air base, where medics removed fragments from the bullet that were lodged a quarter-inch into the back of his neck. "They said I was lucky it didn't go in deeper. My luck was running pretty good that day," Caseltine said. "If I had bought a lottery ticket, I probably would have won."
On Tuesday, three days later, Caseltine was back on base, hours away from rejoining his squad at an outpost elsewhere in Ramadi. Sitting outside his sandbagged tent, he pulled out a photo that showed him cradling his wife. It had been ripped in two by the bullet - right down the middle. Caseltine had stuffed it into the netting inside the top of his helmet, known as Kevlar for the protective material, "so my wife would be with me."
"They always tell us not to throw our Kevlars around or bang them on the ground. I usually do, but I ain't gonna' be throwing my new one down," Caseltine said. "I ain't gonna' take it for granted anymore because I know they work."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:36 ||
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#1
"The young Marine had just shot a suspected insurgent and was walking back across the villa's rooftop when he keeled over from a terrific thud to the back of his head."
Typical fighting tactics of the brave Lions of Islam -- shot the Marine in the back of the head as he walked away.
#4
Cpl. Caseltine's guardian angel gets the "Employee of the Month" certificate, a 10% bonus in his next paycheck, and the use of the Boss' parking space for the month of May.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2006 12:48
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#5
This reminds me of that video that one of the Brave Lions of Islam(tm) shot and our boyz got a hold of afterwards of them lining up on one of our boyz (in front of a hummer) at basically what looks like point blank range (across the street). You hear Machmoud chanting something as the pulls the trigger, and our boy goes down. But, then the unthinkable...he hops up quickly, M-16 aiming for whatever hit him and dashes behind the hummer. You hear the stress in Machmoud's voice as he's chanting more and more because he realizes he either missed or didn't take our guy out permanently. Backups swoop in, and the rest is history (not on tape) from what I understood.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 15:25
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The indvidual in this story first gained national notariaty on ABCs Good Morning America. The narrative, at that time, was about the plight of a young mexican boy struggling to survive and the outpouring of support from the local community.
BOSTON (AP) - A young illegal immigrant who became a cause celebre in Minnesota after secretly living in a high school for weeks has been arrested here on home invasion charges, months after he was supposed to have left the country.
Francisco Javier Serrano, 22, had waved goodbye to supporters and journalists who saw him off at the Minneapolis airport in January, but he apparently never boarded his plane for his home country of Mexico.
Two weeks ago, police arrested him after finding him with a knife in an apartment in Boston's North End, struggling with the tenant, who was unharmed, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. He remained in Suffolk County Jail facing home invasion charges and eventual deportation.
Serrano, who overstayed a 2002 tourist visa to live with his father and attend high school in suburban Minneapolis, was embraced by Minnesotans after he was discovered sleeping in the school's auditorium in January 2005 and told how he had spent weeks hiding there, foraging for cafeteria food and showering in the locker room. Apparently the AP couldnt find any faculty, parent or student to quote that was concerned about lax security at a school that would allow an adult to freely roam their school.
Students handed out "Free Francisco'' T-shirts, and a developer gave him a place to live and hired an immigration lawyer for him. Ahhh Doesnt that just tug at the ole heart strings?
Last fall, a federal judge ruled that Serrano must leave the country but gave him until Jan. 5 to do so. That day Serrano went to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, but his plane ticket was never used. Forced back into the shadows.
Serrano's mother said he had fallen in love with the U.S. and wanted to go to college and get a job that would let him send money to his family in Mexico. When his father moved from Minnesota to Connecticut, Serrano followed, but the two had a falling out, Guadalupe Flores told the Globe from her home in Mexico City.
"He decided to live his life on his own,'' she said, crying. "But he did it very badly.''
A pretrial hearing was set for April 28. The charges against Serrano probably will be reduced to breaking and entering because he has no history of violence and did not hurt the tenant, said David Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney.
Oddly enough, in the first AP report, the fact that an adult illegal alien had broken into the place where parents send their children for 8 hours a day, five days a week, didnt have as much impact as the human intrest angle. Apparently this time the AP didnt find it necessary to add Serrano was quoted as saying "I'm not here to steal, I'm here to kill."
#2
and I love this line: The charges against Serrano probably will be reduced to breaking and entering because he has no history of violence and did not hurt the tenant
So, ya see, it wasn't like a home invasion or anything...the police just happened to walk in while he was struggling with some guy whose appartment he illegally entered. Can you blame the Francisco for his confusion? It's clearly not a problem to illegally enter our country and feel entitled to all our taxpaid stuff - so how was he to know it would be a problem if illegally enter some guy's homes and demanded that stuff too?
And sure, they "found him with a knife" but hey it wasn't like the reporter said he was "using the knife" in a threatening way or anything. It was probably just in his pocket. And afterall, he didn't hurt the guy, he just struggled with him until the police got there.
#3
Maybe he (Francisco) was holding the tenant until the police got there so they can arrest him (the tenant) for the high crime of defending his own life.
#5
GC8020, you say that in jest but when I was living and working in Cambridge back in 91-92 there was an incident where a former husband drove his truck around back of his formerwife's hose, climbed on to the deck, smashed the glass sliding door and was holding a gun to her neck. The woman's current husband heard all the ruckus, grabbed his pistol (legaly owned) and shot the ex. The current husband was then arrested and held for trial. He was evenyually acuitted but had to go through the whole legal process.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/14/2006 19:24
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BERLIN - Kidnappers of two German engineers seized in Iraq 11 weeks ago are seeking a ransom of 12 million dollars, the news magazine Focus reported on Friday. The sum was conveyed to the German Foreign Ministry by Iraqi mediators working to obtain the mens release, the magazine quoted sources in the security services as saying. A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report.
After studying a video released by the kidnappers April 9, the government in Berlin believes the two hostages might have been sold by their original abductors to a criminal gang, Focus said in its online edition. Changing political demands by the kidnappers were seen in Berlin as a possible attempt to cover up the criminal background to the abduction, the report said.
Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Braeunlich, 32, were seized on January 24 in Bayji while they were on their way to do contract work at an Iraqi factory.
In the latest video, Nitzschke appealed for help to the German government. Weve been in captivity here for more than 60 days. We are at the end of our tether. We cant stand it any longer. Help us please, Nitzschke said in German in the video which appeared on an Islamist website. There had been no word on their fate since an early February video message.
The video, only a few seconds long, was the fourth to be issued by the abductors, who have not identified themselves. The film appeared to have been made on March 28. A printed message in Arabic appeared to threaten the men with murder. A banner running through the video said in Arabic, In the name of God the Merciful, Battalion of the Supporters of Tawhid and Sunna. It also contained a black panel with a final ultimatum demanding US forces release prisoners in Iraq. If you do not meet our demands to release the detained men and women from the prisons and if you do not cease all support for the Americans and their helpers, you will immediately suffer the just penalty, it said, according to one translation.
Relatives and friends of the two engineers staged a vigil in support of the men in their home town of Leipzig on Thursday evening. The employer of the two, Peter Bienert of the firm Cryotec near Leipzig, had earlier complained that he was not receiving enough information from the foreign ministry about efforts to gain the mens release. Bienert had been criticized for sending the men to Iraq.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:32 ||
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KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti police have arrested a member of the ruling Al Sabah family with a large drugs haul, including at least 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of cocaine, newspapers reported on Friday. Al Qabas newspaper quoted unnamed security sources as saying the prince, whose name was not revealed, also had 120 kilogrammes (264 pounds) of hashish.
Sounds like he was planning one hell of a party
His arrest came at the orders of Interior and Defence Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah, who is a leading figure in the ruling family.
The Al-Rai Al Aam daily gave a different breakdown of the drugs seized, saying they consisted of 18 kilogrammes (40 pounds) of cocaine, five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of heroin and 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of hashish. The drugs were found at the royals house, the paper added.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:30 ||
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TEHERAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday once again rejected a demand by the UNs International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to suspend its uranium enrichment process. This is a legitimate and irrevocable right of the Iranian nation which we will decisively pursue regardless of threats and pressures, Ahmadinejad said on state-television during the last day of his visit to the north-eastern Khorassan province. While terming uranium enrichment as a red line over which Iran would not compromise with anyone, the president proclaimed Thursday that Iran had already joined the worlds nuclear states and there would be no way back.
Despite defying international demands to suspend uranium enrichment, Iran on Friday still hoped that the final report by the head of the to the United Nations Security Council would be fair. Iranian officials hope that (Mohamed) ElBaradeis report would be fair, logical and satisfactory for both sides, said Mohammed Saedi, deputy of Irans Atomic Energy Agency.
Although Iran on Thursday promised the visiting IAEA chief further cooperation, it termed his demand to suspend the uranium enrichment process as irrational.
Irans nuclear programmes are in no way contradictory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and this is a fact which even even ElBaradei confirms, Saeidi told the Iranian news network al-Alam. He reiterated that the IAEA could still use all its legal capacities to make sure that the Iranian nuclear projects followed a peaceful course.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:28 ||
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AHMEDABAD - Rival Muslim groups clashed in a town in western India on Friday injuring eight people, including a police officer, and set fire to a local Islamic school, police said. The trouble began when some Shia Muslims objected to the presence of people from the Sunni community outside a mosque in Kalol town in the western state of Gujarat. Several houses and a madrasa were set ablaze before police fired teargas to disperse the rioters, a government official said. The situation is under control, but we are maintaining a strict vigil in the areas, the district administrator D.H. Brahmbhatt said, adding several people had been arrested.
Gujarat has a history of violence, mainly involving Hindus and minority Muslims.
Rights groups say that more than 2,500 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked and burned to death in the state in 2002 after 59 Hindu pilgrims and activists were burnt to death in a train.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:17 ||
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#1
Well gee Reuters. Thanks for your re-iteration of all the poor innocent muslims "hacked and burned to death".
Nothing to do with your story which is muzzie on muzzie violence. Stick with the story. No infidel Hindus in this display of muslim peace and tolerance.
#2
"2,500 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked and burned to death in the state in 2002 after 59 Hindu pilgrims and activists were burnt to death in a train."
While the Hindu retaliation might be a tad bit on the *ahem* excessive side, I wonder if the Muzzies learned a lesson as in don't go around murdering Hindus in the first place. Sure looks like they did in this part of India.
In a hairbrained scheme that was personally approved by then-President Clinton, the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.
The allegation, detailed recently in the book "State of War," by New York Times reporter James Risen, comes as the Iranian nuclear crisis turns white hot, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasting ominously on Wednesday that his nation has joined the world's nuclear club.
Reports Risen: "It's not clear who originally came up with the idea [to give Tehran nuclear blueprints], but the plan was first approved by Clinton."
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006
09:15 ||
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#1
My surprise meter groaned, but didn't move.
Clinton is an anti-American oddball. Come to think of it, so is Carter and Gore and Kerry.
Where do these peculiar queerbates come from ?
#3
This is bad news. Now the left will twist themselves into a pretzel to try an explain how BOTH Kimmie and Ahmadisnutz are now sabre atom rattling because of Billy Boy and his sidekick, Lil' Jimmuh.
#5
Will say again, as said times before over the years, that the super-PC Clintons [and cabal]are not just Commies but de facto [silent/quiet/
shadow] enemies to both major Parties and America in general - the only real good news for the Dems-US Left is that the GOP-Right have a higher prob of being fractionalized and destroyed first, before its the Dems-USLeft's turn. IN THE END, HOWEVER, IT COMES DOWN TO BOTH PARTIES, OR ANY AMER PARTY(S) AND POLITICIANS-ACTIVISTS THEREIN, AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN NATION, ETC. MUST LOSE AND BE DESTROYED. As also said before, no matter where Americans are in the world, running back to America in LT may not save you becuz the Commies, Socialists, and aligned will be trying to take over AMerica as well. STAND AND FIGHT FOR YOUR BELIEFS AND COUNTRY, OR YOU AND YOURS WILL DIE. 9-11 was the opening shot of the "Final Conflict/Struggle" between Communist and Capitalist, West vs East, Right vs Left, etal. - NO MATTER WHAT INDIVID AMERICANS BELIEVE OR VALUE, ANY EACH EVERY and ALL AMERICANS AND AMERICA-ALLIES MUST EITHER DE FACTO RULE THE WORLD, OR BE DESTROYED IN THE NAME AND SAKE OF ANOTHER, AND BE SO NO MATTER HOW MUCH APPEASIN', CONCEDIN', PAYIN' OR ISOLATIN' AMERICANS DO FOR THE SAKE OF [SHORT-TERM] "PEACE". No matter the PC. diplomatic rhetoric to the contrary, America's enemies [e.g. IRAN] as a class are "goin' for broke" - Mainstream Americans are already being PC told our holocaust and destruction is good for everyone, space aliens and the environment, even for us. Americans are supposed to be "Me first, D*** you!" happy when we report to our local mass extermination death camps and gulags.
A local official has been detained in Russias northern Murmansk province on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, security services reported Friday.
The official is suspected of being involved in preparing a terror attack on an oil tanker, a spokesperson for local FSB directorate, Yelena Golovanova, told the news agency RIA-Novosti.
The official allegedly planned to blow up the tanker with a view to causing an environmental disaster in the Kola Bay, she said. The man has been charged with preparing a terror attack, she added. An investigation is underway.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:14 ||
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Two British soldiers have suffered minor injuries in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. A spokeswoman said the pair, and a local person, were hurt in an incident in Lashka Gar, the Helmand provincial capital, in the south of the country. Local authorities have confirmed that a suicide car bomber drove into a military convoy.
Meanwhile, four soldiers were injured in an incident involving an explosion in Shaibah, in southern Iraq. This incident happened near the Shaibah logistics base, just outside Basra. Squadron Leader Al Green, spokesman for British forces in Basra, said: "As far as I know they are fine, they are being treated in Shaibah British Military Hospital on Shaibah logistics base."
"That's in Shaibah, by the way"
Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched into the latest attack in Afghanistan, which reportedly took place near the provincial reconstruction team (PFT) base, run by British personnel. A spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province told the BBC that it was a suicide bomb attack. And Capt Drew Gibson, a spokesman for British forces in southern Afghanistan, said the attack was carried out "with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device". It was the 17th attempted suicide attack on Nato forces since the beginning of the year, but the first on British soldiers. Friday's blast also comes a week after UK troops escaped another attack near the Lashka Gar base.
Helmand is known to be a centre for the opium trade and still has a Taleban presence. BBC Defence Correspondent Paul Wood said there were fears that the latest attack could stop British troops conducting foot patrols. However, he said that he had spoken to an officer serving in Afghanistan who had made it clear that "their commitment to getting out and meeting people has not been affected by this incident". On Tuesday, three British soldiers were injured in an explosion, in southern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:10 ||
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At least three people have been injured in two explosions inside the Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) in the Indian capital, Delhi, police say. The chief cleric of the mosque, Imam Bukhari, told the BBC that the blasts occurred inside the complex . It is not clear what caused the blasts which came shortly after Friday prayers, mosque officials say.
I'd guess explosives, but that's just me
The 17th century mosque is one of the largest in India. A bomb disposal squad has gone to the site, police say. Police have sealed off the area.
"The blasts took place near a water tank used by worshippers," a mosque official, Mr Amanullah, told the BBC. He said that most worshippers were inside the mosque and not by the tank when the blasts took place.
The Jama Masjid is located in Delhi's old city which is mainly populated by Muslims and has a history of religious tension. Imam Bukhari has issued a public appeal asking for people to remain calm.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:07 ||
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#1
Gas leak?
"The blasts took place near a water tank used by worshippers,"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 17:59
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#3
For ritual cleansing (wudu)
Muslims perform a ritual before prayer
1. Have the intention of purifying your heart.
2. Wash your hands, front and back, up to and beyond the wrist three times, right hand first, then left.
3. Rinse your mouth three times, scooping the water up with your right hand.
4. Wash your nose three times by sniffing water up the nostrils and blowing it out.
5. Wash your face three times.
6. Wash each arm up to and beyond the elbow three times, right arm first and then the left.
7. Pass the wet palms of both hands over your head and back. Then rub the inside and outside of the ears with the thumbs and forefingers.
8. Wash your feet up to and beyond the ankle three times, right foot first and then the left. Make sure the water gets between the toes by using your fingers.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 18:02
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#4
we have a senior civil engineer who's Paleo/Jordanian - he does the farmer blow in the men's restroom sink every day, despite everyone complaining
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 18:17
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#5
This is RantBurg Mr. G., a family blog, it not a "farmer blow" - it's a reverse nasal, digitaly enhanced, sentence fragment.
One person has been killed and at least 12 others injured by knife-wielding attackers at three churches in northern Egypt, police have said. The attacks happened in Coptic churches in the city of Alexandria. The simultaneous incidents took place during Friday Mass, and the attackers fled immediately afterwards. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims outside the churches, the Associated Press news agency reported. Hundreds of Christians had gathered outside the churches in protest at the attacks, the agency said.
Police were reported to be searching for three assailants, one for each attack.
Witnesses said that at least one attacker had been detained, but no arrests have been confirmed. An employee at one of the churches told the AFP news agency that people inside the church had fought back with sticks, but that the attacker had tried to escape through an underground passage.
Most Christians in Egypt are Copts - Christians descended from the ancient Egyptians. Their church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 451AD because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ, but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox church.
Copts make up an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population of about 70 million, and they complain of discrimination and harassment. They are concerned that new electoral rules are benefiting Islamist parties but not increasing Coptic political representation. Three people died in Alexandria in October 2005 after Muslim demonstrators attacked a church which had put on a play seen as offensive to Islam.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
09:03 ||
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Florida Italian officials are checking more than 80,000 contested ballots not included in the election results that gave George Bush Romano Prodi a narrow victory. Vice President Al Gore Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refused to admit defeat until the last checks have been made. But his allies are starting to distance themselves from his claims of fraud.
Mr Gore Berlusconi, heading a centre-left right coalition, has voiced concern over more than a million spoilt and blank ballots. He said there had been "much fraud" in the poll, held on Sunday and Monday.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
08:55 ||
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But his allies are starting to distance themselves from his claims of fraud.
Maybe. But this is the BBC and I notice they don't name any "allies" who are distancing them from him. The MSM couldn't get enough of making sure every vote counted in Floriduh, but since their guy won, they just announce the election is over, nothing to see and move on.
It may be that Berlusconi has lost - but the US and Britain have not congratulated Prodi yet - and I think that says volumes.
#3
heh, I didn't know that. It's tough to prove fraud - and Prodi's probably gonna get to sit in the big chair - but I'm not counting Berlusconi out just yet.
Hundreds of people have fled their homes in central Nigeria after three days of communal clashes. The fighting in Plateau State has left at least 25 people dead, according to unconfirmed reports. State Information Commissioner Yakubu Datti would only confirm the deaths of two policemen and a soldier during efforts to restore order.
The violence was apparently triggered by a dispute over rights to take sand from a river for building.
You read that right, they're fighting over sand
Ethnic militias armed with guns, machetes and bows and arrows, attacked each other and burnt many homes. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the area. Hundreds fled their homes in and around the town of Namu, carrying what they could and seeking shelter with the security forces, the BBC's Alex Last reports.
Residents say tension has been rising recently between the pan-ethnic group and other tribes over the location of a new government building which would create jobs and bring money to the area. The trigger, though, was a dispute over who had the right to take sand from a riverbed in Namu - a right which is claimed by different ethnic groups.
"That's our dirt, keep yur hands off!"
Plateau State, where these clashes occurred, has been riven by ethnic violence in the past. Two years ago, hundreds were killed in clashes which began in a land dispute but quickly escalated. Nigeria has more than 300 ethnic groups and there are often disputes, sometimes violent, over access to land and resources.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
08:48 ||
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Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena on Thursday. Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the United Force for Change rebels, who were beaten back by troops after launching a daring dawn raid. On Friday, Chad paraded 160 captives, said to be rebels, in a public square while crowds and soldiers looked on. A minister said 300 prisoners had been captured and some 400 killed in total.
They ran pictures yesterday of government troops dumpng dead rebels on the capital steps. Looks like they did win this one, so far
"We have taken the decision to break our diplomatic relations with Sudan today and to proceed to close our frontiers," Chadian President Idriss Deby told a rally in N'Djamena. Sudan has served as a base for Chadian rebels. The BBC's Stephanie Hancock says the parading of prisoners was a carefully choreographed affair, sending a clear message that the rebels had been subdued and the capital was under control. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Thursday's attack, which was aimed at toppling President Deby.
Earlier on Friday, Chadian Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah said 150 people on the rebel side had been killed in fighting in the town of Adre, near the Sudanese border. "All attackers withdrew into Sudan," the minister said in an interview with Radio France Internationale. The rebels have vowed to overthrow Mr Deby before the polls, which the opposition are boycotting. The rebels accuse Mr Deby of being a dictator and say they want to organise a national forum that will lead to a transitional government and then democratic elections. A spokesman for the rebels told the BBC they had not been defeated and would attack N'Djamena again.
"We'll be back"
Chad accuses Sudan of supporting and arming the attackers while Sudan says Chad backs rebels in its Darfur region. The UN Security Council urged both nations to resolve differences through talks and not support hostile actions. The council "condemned any attempt to seize power by force... and calls on the rebels to put an end to violence and to participate in the democratic process". UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "greatly troubled by the worsening security situation in Chad".
"And we shall look at it most carefully first thing Monday morning. It's a holiday weekend, you know."
Gunfire and shelling in the capital began at dawn on Thursday, and fighting in the city continued for more than two hours. Mr Deby said a small rebel column attempted to enter the capital but was "completely destroyed".
Wonder if those French troops have any recon drones and passed the info to Chad?
He said elections scheduled for early next month would go ahead as planned. Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the UN envoy from France, which has some 1,350 troops in its former colony, said the rebels came from Sudan's Darfur region. Chad, which is rich in oil, has been hit by the conflict in Darfur, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing across the border.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006
08:32 ||
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#1
I thought so: The surprise strike on the capital put on full alert a 1,200-strong French military contingent in Chad. French warplanes flew reconnaissance flights to track the insurgent columns and at one point fired warning shots.
That explains the apparently easy victory, Chad was waiting for them
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 10:25
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Hey, don't discount a few Marines or Green Beanies in the brush.
A windsurfer who went for a quick sail off the south Wales coast had the wind put up him when a gust blew him way off course and across dangerous shipping lanes. Adam Cowles, 24, was blown 68 kilometres from Swansea across the busy Bristol Channel to south-west England, dodging cargo ships as he breezed by.
Stunned locals near Lynton, on the north Devon coast, rushed to the aid of the exhausted windsurfer after his three-hour, death-defying ordeal - by taking him straight down the pub.
"I had decided to venture just a little further than usual after setting off from close to County Hall," Cowles told the South Wales Evening Post newspaper.
"But I knew something was not quite right when I noticed it was just a speck in the far distance. I then went past a cargo ship. "I had a moment of inspiration. I just thought I would carry on and head towards Devon."
He emerged from the sea at Woody Bay asking baffled passers-by where he was.
"Even though I did not have any money, a couple took me off to a pub and bought me some beer. "There I was sitting in a pub, completely soaking and in my wetsuit but no-one batted an eyelid." Hardly in the mood for a return journey, he then had the tricky task of phoning his wife Sarah to come and collect him 450-kilometre round trip.
The sea temperature was just nine degrees centigrade and one slip could have proved fatal. "Turning round would have meant going into the wind and dodging the ships at slow speed - and I didn't like the look of them," The Sun newspaper quoted him as saying. "I was too tired to hang on any more and was afraid of getting into even more trouble. "I was very cold and if I fell off I might not have survived."
The local coastguard were not impressed. A spokesman said: "It was a completely foolish thing to do without proper planning. "If he had got into trouble we would have no idea whatsoever where to search."
#3
And, how the heck does that translate to a 400+ km round trip for his wife to pick him up, unless England has a lot fewer coastal roads than we do? I'm not sure...just truly asking.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 8:41
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It's complicated, BA. You'd best leave the calculations to the professionals.
#10
#1 - well put "6", and pithily correct. Couple this bloke with the former Royal paratrooper walking around the world, and things don't look so bad. I wonder which Sura covers necessity, mothers, and invention?
Stunned locals near Lynton, on the north Devon coast, rushed to the aid of the exhausted windsurfer after his three-hour, death-defying ordeal - by taking him straight down the pub.
Ya' gotta love the English! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 12:55
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"Stunned locals near Lynton, on the north Devon coast, rushed to the aid of the exhausted windsurfer after his three-hour, death-defying ordeal - by taking him straight down the pub."
Now there's people who know proper first aid! Perfect treatment for the condition. Spot on!
AL-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui said he had "no remorse" for September 11, dismissed grief-stricken survivors as "disgusting" and hoped new attacks would bring America more pain. "It make my day," Moussaoui replied when asked at his death penalty trial for his reaction to the heartbreak of families shattered by the loss of loved ones in the 2001 attacks.
On the witness stand in his death penalty trial, days before jurors will be asked to decide whether he should be executed, Moussaoui said he dreamed that President George W. Bush would release him before he leaves office in 2009.
Amid signs that the jury would be handed the case early next week, he justified Al-Qaeda's strikes with Koranic verses. In an anti-Israel tirade, he argued the United States is "the head of the snake" that acts as "life support" for "The Jewish State of Palestine."
Asked by prosecutor Rob Spencer about September 11, Moussaoui replied quickly, "No regret, no remorse." "I just wish it had happened on the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, we can go on and on."
"So would you be happy to see 9/11 again?" Mr Spencer asked. "Every day," Moussaoui answered.
Mr Spencer asked Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with the attacks, if he had enjoyed video of the Pentagon in flames. "I would have laughed but I knew I would have been kicked out of court," he replied.
One officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Thurman, described on Wednesday terrible scenes moments after a hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon and how he crawled out of the inferno. "It was pathetic. I was regretful he didn't die," said Moussaoui.
Asked about sobs on the witness stand from navy Lieutenant Nancy McKeown, who lost two subordinates in the Pentagon, he replied: "I think it was disgusting."
While the defence has been urging jurors to send him to prison for life so that he does not become a martyr, the Al-Qaeda operative said he dreamt Mr Bush would release him. "I have 100 per cent belief that you will never get my blood because I will be free," he said.
The jury has ruled that Moussaoui, already in jail at the time of the attacks, is eligible for execution, accepting prosecution arguments his "lies" let his Al-Qaeda "brothers" go ahead with the attacks. They must now decide whether the sentence should be carried out.
The defence plans to portray Moussaoui as a paranoid schizophrenic and highlight his tough upbringing to support pleas for life imprisonment. But Mr Spencer asked Moussaoui to diagnose his own condition. "Are you crazy Mr Moussaoui?" he asked. "Thank God, I am not," the defendant answered.
Asked by the prosecutor if he wanted to die, Moussaoui replied: "I want to fight." Did he want to stay alive to kill Americans? "Any time, anywhere," Moussaoui answered.
Moussaoui lambasted US support for Israel, which he said was little more than a US colony and "the missing star in the American flag". "You (Americans) are the head of the snake for me. If we want to destroy the Jewish State of Palestine, we have to destroy you first," Moussaoui told the court.
Moussaoui leafed through the Koran, finding chapter nine, which he said calls on Muslims to fight for supremacy.
Defence lawyer Gerald Zerkin asked Moussaoui why he hates the United States and Americans, apparently working from a list of questions that Moussaoui said he was prepared to answer. "It is going to be long," he said. "You are on a crusade, like George W. Bush says. In Europe, they call New York 'little Israel'," he replied.
Moussaoui condemned the United States for being the first country, in 1948, to recognise Israel, which he referred to as the "Jewish State of Palestine". "There is no difference between the Jewish State of Palestine and Hawaii," declared Moussaoui.
Moussaoui was in detention during the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. But the jury agreed in an earlier part of the trial that he was eligible for the death penalty because his lies about the planned attacks contributed to the almost 3000 deaths that day.
The first defence witness was a senior former prison officer, James Aiken, who said if he was jailed for life, Moussaoui would "rot" in isolation in the most secure US prison.
#1
From an AP report yesterday on Moussaoui's trial:
In a lengthy explanation of why he hates Americans, Moussaoui said Islam requires Muslims to be the world's superpower as he flipped through a copy of the Quran searching for verses to support his assertion. He said one verse requires Muslims "to fight against all who believe not in Allah."
"We have an obligation to be the superpower. You have to be subdued," Moussaoui said. "America is a superpower and you want to eradicate Islam."
It's either them, or us.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/14/2006 7:15
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#3
I saw in a different post, someone stateing "he dose'nt live in our world". And that's right. But if we don't fight this, someday we will be living in his.
Go South Park, at least you got nads.
#5
I'm usually for zapping everybody, but this guys trying a little too hard.
Throw him in a cell with Ramzi Yussef and Richard Reid and a Penthouse and see if they can circle jerk each other to death.
#6
We've got a nice, 14,110-foot-tall mountain here near Colorado Springs. I suggest we bolt old Moussaoui up there in his birthday suit around the first of November, and go back and hunt for the pieces somewhere around the 15th of May. I'm sure he'll experience a LOT of "pain" before his rosy pink rear freezes solid.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 21:07
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Iran remains years away from obtaining the materials and technology necessary for a nuclear weapon despite its announcement this week that it has begun enriching uranium, several top U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday.
Kenneth Brill, the head of the newly created National Counterproliferation Center, said the U.S. assessment on the timeframe of Iran's weapons development was sufficiently broad that it does not need to be modified.
Senior intelligence officials alternatively say Tehran will have a nuclear weapon within a decade, or within several years.
"What the Iranians have announced, is what they've announced," said Brill, speaking alongside nine senior intelligence officials at a discussion of the Office of the National Intelligence Director's first year. "They need to let the (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors in there to see it, because they have obligations."
He noted that the regime has blustered before about developments that did not readily materialize.
"We really have to see what's happened in Iran," Brill said. "There is still a very significant amount of time that needs to be worked through by the Iranians to get to where they want to go."
Defending the quality of intelligence assessments, Brill said much of what the intelligence agencies have predicted has been validated by the IAEA and others.
U.S. intelligence officials are scrubbing their information and analysis on Iran as tensions increase over its nuclear program. Tehran insists its work is solely for peaceful, civilian purposes, but the U.S. and a number of its allies believe it is after a nuclear arsenal.
The nation's No. 2 intelligence official, Gen. Michael Hayden, said the Iran intelligence has benefited from the lessons-learned exercises on estimates about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Based on all the data available to spy agencies, he said confidently that Iran is intent on developing a nuclear weapon. Over time, he added, "We are able to be more clear." He declined to offer specifics about the information or the gaps in information.
The top U.S. intelligence analyst, Thomas Fingar, said changes have been made in how analysis is done. "All of us have greater confidence in the judgments that we are making and bringing forward on Iran," Fingar said.
He said the various intelligence agencies took to heart the various reports on the flawed intelligence leading up to Iraq. "We get it," Fingar said. "We realize we have got to rebuild confidence."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:21 ||
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"We realize we have got to rebuild confidence."
Yup and all of that confidence building activity will go down the drain the moment the Iranians explode a nuke somewhere.
#4
Yep, Anon the same one who didn't see that collapse comin', but that old-west Cowboy of a President did, lol! We miss you, Ronnie!
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 9:07
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I wonder whether Iran has not been attempting to draw the U.S.'s fire, trying to encourage a strike that, even if successful, will show a nuclear program only in relative infancy. The result could be to innoculate the regime against steps that might be taken in the future. My guess is that (1) Iran is making slow progress toward going nuclear; and that (2) the Bush administration has no intention of doing much about it because if Iran gets nukes and doesn't use them, we don't much care, and if they do use them, we don't have to pussyfoot around how to respond. For those who wonder whether it makes sense to wait until we (or someone else) gets nuked in order to respond, I cannot say, but I believe that this is current U.S. policy. Speak loudly, offer no carrots, but threaten no sticks.
On May 18, 1974 to the surprise of the U.S. Intelligence Community, India conducted an underground nuclear test at a site in the desert at Pokhran - making it the world's seventh nuclear power and the sixth to test
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 9:51
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Note that Iran doesn't have to do ANY of this.
It already has detailed blueprints of the (tested) chinese U235 implosion bomb, suitable for a missile warhead, provided by the AQ Khan network.
The blueprint copies from Libya had detailed notes
on the fabrication of various parts of the weapon.
From
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/IndiaFirstBomb.html
Late in 1967 the scientific leadership at BARC led by Homi Sethna and Raja Ramanna undertook a new effort to develop nuclear explosives, one that was larger and more intense than any previous efforts. One that would lead to the successful design of a nuclear device, a device that India would successfully test.
It is not completely clear why they decided to revive the effort and move forward at that time, but due to the convergence of a number of trends perhaps the time simply seemed ripe. China had just exploded a thermonuclear device in 1967, and had become very belligerent - moving troops into disputed areas and making threats. And India's supply of separated plutonium, necessary for anything beyond purely theoretical work, was slowly accumulating. Some researchers (like Perkovich) have concluded that the new effort was begun at the initiative of the scientists involved. Chengappa however states that Gandhi directly approved the new effort at the urging of her new secretary Parmeshwar Narain Haksar [Chengappa 2000, pg. 112], and that she specifically told Vikram Sarabhai, chairman of the IAEC, not to interfere. In any case Sarabhai did not try to stop this work when he became aware of it and appears by the spring of 1969 to have become at least a moderate supporter of the program.
That fall Rajagopala Chidambaram - then a researcher in molecular biology at BARC - was recruited by Raja Ramanna to investigate the equation of state of plutonium (how its density varies with temperature and pressure) - knowledge essential for designing an implosion bomb. Chidambaram would later become the chairman of the IAEC, and head of India's nuclear weapons program leading up to the 1998 test series.
Other key researcher's who became involved in the project in 1967-68 include P.K. Iyengar, Ramanna's deputy, and Satinder Kumar Sikka, who would lead the development of India's hydrogen bomb in the 90s. The team would eventually grow to between fifty and seventy five scientists.
1970 saw expansion of the nuclear weapons program in many ways. Due to the requirements of Purnima the program needed to develop facilities and experience in handling large amounts of plutonium (developed under the supervision of P.R. Roy), and work also began on fabricating plutonium metal alloys for the eventual construction of the bomb core. To advance the development of the essential implosion system V.S. Ramamurthy also began performing numerical implosion simulations on an antiquated Soviet Besm 6 computer
Development of the technology for implosion got underway in April 1970 when Ramanna sent Pranab Rebatiranjan Dastidar, the electronics expert at BARC, to Waman Dattatreya Patwardhan at the Explosive Research and Development laboratory (ERDL) at Pune to begin work on the detonation system for the bomb. Patwardhan was well known to the BARC scientists, since he helped them with the explosives tests years before as part of SNEPP. In July nuclear physicist Dr. Basanti Dulal Nag Chaudhuri took over as science adviser to the Defense Minister, and as Director of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The following month, he and Ramanna began working together to recruit the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), located in Chandigarh, to develop the explosive lenses for the implosion system.
During 1971 work on weapon design continued. Srinivasan working with K. Subba Rao developed models of the fission process on a nuclear bomb, and equations to predict its efficiency. Chidamabaram completed his work on the plutonium equation of state, and Ramamurthy developed computational models of the implosion, nuclear reaction, and disassembly process to predict the devices behavior. Throughout this period Ramanna and his lieutenant, P.K. Iyengar, held frequest reviews of the projects progress.
By the beginning of 1972 the basic design for India's first nuclear device was complete, and other parts of the program for developing the necessary expertise to implement the design were coming along. During that year the data from operating Purnima (starting in May) began flowing in allowing confirmation and refinement of the device's nuclear design; and the work in plutonium metallurgy reached the point where the device could be successfully fabricated.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 10:14
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Sarabhai was a follower of Mohandas Gandhi and a pacifist who opposed nuclear arms. His selection was probably politically motivated as Sarabhai hailed from a rich and politically powerful family.
At the beginning of June 1966 Sarabhai ordered a halt to SNEPP, and the confiscation of the papers that had been generated on the project. It appears that this was Sarabhai's personal decision, rather than a reflection of PM Gandhi's policies at this time, and he may not have even consulted with her on it.
The bomb makers recovered from Sarabhai's attempt to shut down the bomb project (who BTW was the father of India's rocket program) and it took them five years to produce a working design. They actually tested two years later (after getting approval from Indira Gandhi).
5 years - starting from scratch.
Iran doesn't have to do the physics or most of the engineering - they already have a proven design.
An this is not the 1960s - computers are vastly more powerful now and mathematical simulation techniques far more advanced.
Question is - are there other centrifge cascades in operation? How fast are they accumulating HEU?
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 10:54
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#9
To he|| with "years". How about "decades" or "centuries"?
#13
All the hard stuff is already done for them...
I don't know about that. Have you tried to translate Chinese?
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:46
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#14
I don't know about that. Have you tried to translate Chinese?
Already done for them.
Thank AQ Khan.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 21:26
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#15
Its only Uranium, NOT Plutonium, ergo NO WMDS IN IRAN = NO WMDS IN NORTH KOREA, etal. Unreliable, defective, dishonest, MOther Hillary/Cindy-less Fascist=HalfCommunist SOCIALIST AMERIKA made, or will soon make, yet another l'serieuse international mistake ergo SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH, SOcialist AMerika must surrender and submit to full-fledged, Holocaust-centric, Motherly Communism and OWG in order to save our imperfect, anti-Utopian Male Brute souls.
Terrorist groups, which for years have used the Internet and its various tools to organize and communicate, are paying more attention to addressing security and privacy concerns similar to those of other Web users, counterterrorism experts say.
The Internet has long been a convenient gathering place for radical Islamists advocating violence against Western influences, known as jihadists. Through online chat, e-mail and Web postings, communities of people have relied on one another for advice, political debate, even movie reviews and biographical information on suicide bombers and religious leaders.
Recently, postings on jihadist Web sites have expressed increasing concern about spyware, password protection, and surveillance on chat rooms and instant-messaging systems.
One forum recently posted a guide for Internet safety and anonymity on the Internet, advising readers of ways to circumvent hackers or government officials.
"The Shortened Way of How to be Cautious; To the User of the Jihadi Forums, In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious and Merciful" was posted last month by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group calling itself the Global Islamic Media Front and was translated by the SITE Institute, a group that tracks international terrorist groups.
The posting advised Internet cafe users to set up a proxy -- a software program that erases digital footsteps such as Web addresses or other identifiable information -- before Web surfing. "I advise you to carry this program in your e-mail and it should be with you anywhere you are," it said.
"There's a lot of things like that," said Evan Kohlmann, a consultant on international terrorism. Last month, Kohlmann said, he found a jihadist Web site posting pirated McAfee anti-spyware software, which the site encouraged users to download to avoid monitoring. "Technology is as much a part of their lives as it is part of our lives."
Google Inc. and its growing arsenal of powerful software tools, for example, are both a boon and a bane for terrorist technologists who are increasingly wary that the programs might be turned against them to gather information about their activities. One of the jihadist Web sites cautioned its readers to "Beware of Google!!!" with specific warnings about its relatively new product Google Toolbar. The posting cited another technology blog that said the tool could be configured to operate like spyware, finding data on computers remotely.
In recent months, Google Video has also become a favorite tool among jihadist groups for uploading and accessing videos, said Rita Katz, director and co-founder of the District-based SITE Institute.
Google said its privacy policy says the toolbar records keyword searches, the computer's Internet address and other identifying markers. Unless someone is using Google Toolbar's advanced features, it does not collect information about the Web addresses visited by the user, the policy says.
Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. declined to comment on their policies. Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the nonprofit research group Rand Corp., said that such postings indicate that electronic communication is still popular among terrorists but that they must constantly keep up with ways to avoid leaving electronic tracks.
"This kind of tradecraft is essential to survival," Hoffman said. They know the authorities are using wiretaps and monitoring satellite phones, so they are constantly trying to come up with ways to go around it, he said. When terrorist groups learned that the National Security Agency could track electronic communication only when it was in transit -- not when it was sitting in an inbox -- users started drafting messages in free e-mail accounts, then allowing others to log in to the accounts and read the drafts. No message ever had to be sent. "I would be surprised if this kind of electronic communication is diminished," Hoffman said. "They are just going to greater efforts to obfuscate it. They are hoping that with the volume of e-mail traffic, if they take the appropriate precautions, they can [communicate] undetected."
Like mainstream Internet users, terrorists have varying levels of technology knowledge, and plenty of other Web sites offer more prosaic advice for basic users.
"If an e-mail address ends with .sa, then this e-mail is registered [in] Saudi Arabia and can never be secure, and Saudi authorities can reach it at any time," said one recent posting, according to translations provided by SITE. The guide advocated, instead, use of anonymous accounts through Microsoft's Hotmail or through Yahoo. "It is preferable to use long and difficult passwords, and that it should be changed every now and then," the posting said.
Increased sophistication among users creates a kind of cat-and-mouse game between terrorists and law enforcement, experts said.
Chatter on jihadist Web sites often provides an important tactical and cultural window into how these group members think, communicate and coordinate, Kohlmann said. Shutting each site down would be almost impossible, and potentially counterproductive to U.S. homeland security interests, he said. But communications have become so vast, with so many outlets and in so many forms, it has also become increasingly difficult for government agencies to monitor it all, he said.
There is no evidence that Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have cooperated with federal spy agencies to monitor terrorist communications. But privacy groups point out that it would be fairly easy for the federal government to subpoena any of these companies' records or issue a national security letter to them, essentially requiring them to turn over the data. In those instances, the companies would be precluded from disclosing publicly what they turned over to federal officials.
Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN are quiet about how much user data they save, and for how long, but Google makes clear that it wants to store more and more user data on its servers, said Daniel Brandt, founder of a privacy-advocacy Web site called Google Watch.
"From a jihadist perspective, they are absolutely right. They should avoid Google like the plague," Brandt said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:19 ||
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Wow, they're finally reaching a basic level of security. We had highly secure machines back in 1992, when I used to be on phone phreaking BBS-es. The only way to get in was to make the system operators trust you, usually by extensive teleconferencing or a face-to-face meeting. Same way these days, only AQ is about 15 years behind.
An associate of Russia's most wanted terrorist has been arrested in the southern region of Daghestan, local police said Thursday.
A local Interior Ministry spokesman said the militant had been involved in terrorist attacks in 1999 alongside Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for a string of bloody attacks in Russia including the Beslan school tragedy, which claimed the lives of 331 people.
The spokesman said the militant, a resident of Chechnya's south-eastern Nozhai-Yurt district, which borders on Daghestan, was detained in a joint operation by regional police and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers while trying to infiltrate Daghestan from Chechnya.
The militant led police to a hidden arms cache, including a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, bullets, and an under-barrel grenade launcher with ten rounds of ammunition, police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:17 ||
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Not much of an arsenal for a big time terrorist.
Botched CIA operations may have handed Iran vital information on how to make nuclear weapons and betrayed the identities of America's spies in the country, according to a new book on US intelligence. The latest account of American intelligence failures includes details of how the CIA allegedly tried to slip Teheran some Russian designs for an atomic bomb, which contained hidden flaws that would have made any device inoperable. The Iranians, however, were tipped off by the very agent sent to give them the documents. In a separate incident, the book claims a CIA officer mistakenly sent an Iranian agent - who turned out to be a double agent - information that was used to arrest virtually all of the agency's spies in Iran.
The claims are made in State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, by James Risen, the New York Times reporter who also revealed that the National Security Agency had tapped phone calls and e-mails of some US citizens without warrants. The CIA says the book contains "serious inaccuracies", but has not elaborated. The claims about Iran are startling because of the scale of bungling that Mr Risen claims has taken place.
He highlights one operation, known as Merlin, in February 2000, when the CIA allegedly sent a Soviet-era defector to Vienna where, posing an unemployed scientist selling nuclear secrets, he was supposed to contact the Iranians. The Russian scientist, who had previously worked as an engineer on the Soviet nuclear weapons programme, was given Soviet documents for a key bomb component. These had been provided by another Russian defector and then doctored by the CIA. Had they used the documents, "instead of a mushroom cloud the Iranian scientists would witness a disappointing fizzle", Mr Risen writes.
But the Russian scientist immediately spotted the flaw and told his CIA handlers: "This isn't right." When told to go ahead with his mission, he apparently feared the Iranians would find the errors and decided to include a letter that alerted them to the flaws in the designs. Mr Risen describes Operation Merlin as "one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA, one that may have helped put nuclear weapons in the hands of a charter member of what President George W Bush has called the 'axis of evil' ".
Mr Risen also claims that in 2004 a CIA officer mistakenly sent one of its agents some information that was used by Iran to "roll up" the CIA espionage network in Iran. "It left the CIA virtually blind in Iran, unable to provide any significant intelligence on one of the critical issues facing the United States - whether Teheran was about to go nuclear," Mr Risen writes. Such tales of incompetence coming after the fiasco over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, will inevitably raise fresh doubts about the accuracy of Western intelligence reports that claim Iran is bent on building nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it seeks nuclear power only to generate electricity and has steadily dismantled its agreement with European countries to freeze activities linked to its uranium enrichment programme. Western countries have so far failed to muster enough political support to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council for breaches of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
European governments have given detailed intelligence briefings to Russian, Chinese, Indian and South African officials in an attempt to persuade them to back American claims that Iran has obtained designs for nuclear warheads, which could be fitted to its range of missiles.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:15 ||
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Call me crazy but W. didn't assume the office until Jan 2001. Oh sorry - that doesn't fit the script. Maybe he does criticize Slick Willy but by reading the title one would not immediately get that. No surprise.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
04/14/2006 5:17
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I didn't read that account of Merlin as a hit against Bush - I read it as saying Bush inherited a true mess.
#3
I know we don't hear the good news about them, but why oh why
do the CIA always come out looking like a bunch of fools?
Something wrong with their vetting process?
#7
The CIA was initially a branch off the military, and had integrity. Since then, politics has crept in and now the integrity level is low. May I remind you that it was the CIA that made a 'film'
of TWA 800 blowing up because of an electrical short. When hundreds of eyewitnesses saw a missle hit the plane. Yet another Slick Willy cover-his-ass effort ? One wonders if the CIA was involved in removing the evidence of the murders of Vincent Foster and Ron Brown. With the CIA and the Park Police, Slick Willy could have done a lot more damage than he did. Those sex breaks kept him busy.
#8
Selection bias is an issue, but it's also true that part of what makes a successful CIA operation a success is actually keeping it a secret. Sort of a sore spot with my father-in-law, a retired CIA lifer.
#10
Snens, I can sympathize with your dad, but the other half of "secret successes" is "public failures," and the latter in this case are PARTICULARLY ugly.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
04/14/2006 13:55
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Iran's recent declaration that it has successfully enriched uranium is bound to further increase tensions between Tehran and the United States. But the Iranian government also has an internal crisis on its hands. The country's high level of poverty has triggered a series of intense social struggles.
Increasing dissatisfaction about economic conditions in Iran is placing additional pressure on the regime in Tehran. Despite a ban on strikes in the country, the number of workers protesting poor conditions is increasing across Iran.
Angered by unpaid salaries and generally low wages, workers in the northern Iranian provincial capital Rasht blocked streets and protested in front of government offices a fortnight ago brandishing banners that read: "We are hungry!" It wasn't the first time that thousands of employees at the country's largest state-owned textile factory had laid down their tools. But this time they were joined by dam workers in the western province of Elam and employees of a pharmaceutical factory in Tehran. Recently, workers have also gone on strike against harsh work conditions and impending layoffs in mines and petrochemical plants across the country, with hundreds of coal miners from the northern province of Gilan protesting the fact that they have not been paid for 13 months. Workers were also on strike in the car factories of the Iran-Khodro company, already the site of a massive work stoppage on last year's Day of Social Welfare and Securities (July 16), when strikers demanded the introduction of a minimum wage.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised an improvement in living standards and income when he took office in August 2005, but the country's economic difficulties persist despite annual oil revenues of about $50 billion. Even though the government has introduced various measures to combat inflation and mass unemployment -- in addition to initiating projects designed to combat homelessness -- more than 50 percent of the Iranian population continues to live under the poverty line, according to official estimates provided by the Iranian Central Bank. The government institution sets the poverty line at an income of 230 ($280) per month for a family of five.
The current strike wave was initiated by Tehran bus drivers in January, and it immediately provoked a harsh response from the government. Several hundred bus drivers were arrested within a few hours of the beginning of the strike. The strike's leaders -- Mansur Hayat-Gheibi and Mansoor Ossanlou -- have been held ever since in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for, among other reasons, violating the national ban on unions by creating the "Wahed" organization of bus drivers. Hayat-Gheibi went on a hunger strike two weeks ago that is now being closely watched throughout Iran.
While Iran-related statements by Western politicans have largely focused on Iran's nuclear weapons program, some commentators are beginning to draw attention to the country's internal conflicts. "Iran's new government boasts of representing the interests of working men and women. But their violent crackdown on the bus workers' union make these words ring hollow," Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, said earlier this year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:14 ||
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Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
`Tis a better world in birth.
Never more traditions' chains shall bind us
Arise ye toilers no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We are naught but we shall be all.
Then comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race.
#4
Uh...that war would be to dispense with the number of mouths who are hungry. A routine strategy of all leftist communist governments. When the population is reduced, fewer complaints and far more loot to divy up betwen the trough monitors.
Unarmed young people, along with the police, are keeping watch over Catholic churches in Baghdad during the Easter triduum celebrations.
"In this way, we would like to convey a feeling of tranquility and give a sign of peace in this special time of prayer and meditation," Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad told the SIR news agency.
"Our youth will help, pointing out people who are not known to the community or suspect vehicles that want to stop in front of the places of worship," he explained.
The bishop said that for the initial celebrations this Holy Week the "churches were brimming with people and everything is going in the best possible way, without any problems."
On Jan. 29, a series of attacks took place against six Christian churches of Iraq, leaving three people dead, including a 13-year-old altar server.
"We trust ... that everything will go in the best possible way," Bishop Warduni said. "We will offer all our Masses for peace in the world and for the rebirth and security of Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:11 ||
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Thank you, guys.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 12:48
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Could you imagine this in Iran?
Coudl you imagine seeing this as a Page 1 Item in tne Wash Post or NYT?
Sad thing is the former is probably more likely than the latter. This is *news* - Islamic youth protecting a Christian church! But to them, its B-7 material, below the fold, for the anti-Bush/Anti_Iraq/anti-US agenda driven MSM.
A suicide car bomber attacked a police station north of Baghdad Friday, wounding at least seven people when he detonated his explosives, he said. The bomber hit about 7:15 a.m. in the city of Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Five civilians were among those wounded, police Brig. Abdul-Hamid al-Jibouri said.
The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers buying food for their evening meals, police said. At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:08 ||
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In an another sign of the Palestinian leadership growing alliance with al-Qaida, Damascus-based Hamas head Khaled Mashaal recently met in Yemen with a representative of Osama bin Laden's organization who is wanted by the US for his involvement in supporting and funding global terror, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
During a visit to Yemen two weeks ago, the local Hamas branch organized a fund-raising event to recruit financial aid for the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government. During the event, Mashaal met with Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani - suspected by the US as being a "loyalist to Osama bin Laden and supporter of al-Qaida" - who even donated 200,000 Yemenite rials to Hamas, the equivalent of a little over $1,000.
"This meeting reinforces the fact that Hamas and al-Qaida come out of the same ideological well-spring of global jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood," said former ambassador to the UN Dore Gold, whose Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs carefully followed the meeting and recently published a paper on the Hamas-al-Qaida alliance. "They still share the same financial infrastructure to this day."
At the fund-raising event, Zindani praised Hamas suicide bombers and called on his followers to donate money to assist the Palestinian people. "The Hamas government is the Palestinian people's government today," he told the crowd of several thousand. "It is the jihad-fighting, steadfast, resolute government of Palestine."
In 2004, US authorities designated Zindani as a terror supporter and a spiritual figure for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Zindani, the authorities claimed, played a key role in the 2004 purchasing of weapons on behalf of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
"The US has credible evidence that Zindani, a Yemeni national, supports designated terrorists and terrorist organizations," a statement released by the US Treasury Department said. "Zindani has a long history of working with bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders. In this leadership capacity, he has been able to influence and support many terrorist causes, including actively recruiting for al-Qaida training camps."
Senior IDF officers have confirmed that al-Qaida has already established terror cells in the Gaza Strip and has begun working on creating a similar infrastructure in the West Bank. Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Harel, head of the IDF's Planning Directorate, told the Post recently that al-Qaida was operating within the PA territories.
"Al-Qaida is about money," he said. "There is always a flow of funds to terrorism in the territories and it is difficult to get our hands on the money."
Last week, the London-based Al Hayat newspaper reported that 10 al-Qaida activists who had recently entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt had been captured by PA security forces. Citing Jordanian security sources, the paper said that the cells were in the midst of planning "large-scale" terror attacks on sensitive and strategic targets - possible the crossings from Gaza into Israel.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:04 ||
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Nice work, Khaled. You've single-handedly guaranteed that the US will NEVER play "nice government" with your bunch of lunatics the way they did with ol' Yasser's mob. The kiss of freakin' death, baby!
A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base -- including the Social Security numbers of four American generals. This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files. The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.
Five military investigators, surrounded by heavily armed plainclothes U.S. soldiers, searched many of the two-dozen rundown shops outside the sprawling base. Asked if any disks had been found, one soldier, who declined to give his name, said: "We are looking. That's all I can say."
The shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears he may be arrested, said he was not interested in the data stored on the memory sticks and was selling them for the value of the hardware. "They were all stolen from offices inside the base by the Afghans working there," he said. "I get them all the time." About 2,000 Afghans are employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at the Bagram base. Though they are searched coming in and out of the base, the flash drives are the size of a finger and can easily be concealed on a body. The shopkeeper showed an Associated Press reporter a bag of about 15 and allowed them to be reviewed on a laptop computer. Only four contained data. The rest did not work or were blank.
News of the breach was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Monday. The paper said its reporter saw files containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said the military "has ordered an investigation into allegations that sensitive military items are being sold in local bazaars. "Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," he said. U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has ordered a review of policies and procedures relating to the accountability of computer hardware and software, Cody said.
The shops around Bagram sprung up when U.S. forces took over the base in 2001 after ousting the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. They sell a range of military equipment, much of which has been stolen from the base, according to several shopkeepers -- all of whom declined to give their names for fear of repercussions. One shopkeeper wanted $20 for a used U.S. soldier's uniform and said he could get more. Other items apparently were stolen from a duty-free store on the base, including range-finding binoculars and handheld global positioning systems -- items that could be useful to Taliban rebels, who have stepped up their insurgency in the past year. The computer files seen by the AP ranged from the very personal, such as a soldier's letter to the wife of a dead comrade, to confidential personnel information. Social Security numbers were listed next to the names of hundreds of soldiers, including Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, who left Afghanistan in February after serving for a year as the coalition's operational commander. One document listed the names of 20 members of a platoon who had undergone "the required Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) training and chamber exercise." It did not elaborate. Another listed the names of 16 soldiers and the types of weapons they had been trained on. There were biographies of six soldiers, including a sergeant who had served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Two of the drives contained several photographs, one showing a group of about 40 soldiers posing at a base, while others had troops inside a helicopter. A 502-page manual on how to operate a CH-47 Chinook chopper, a mainstay of the 18,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan, was also there, including photos and diagrams. Many of the other goods on sale in the stores still had stickers indicating the price at the military store. The Afghan shops were selling them for about 25 percent less.
In one store, two Afghans with long flowing black beards were haggling over the price of compasses. Nearby, two young boys were trying to sell cartons of fresh yogurt. One, who gave his name as Nazar, said a friend had stolen them from the military mess hall.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:03 ||
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Ah, yes, another black market selling stolen goods from the PX and commisary. Could have been written about Vietnam, Korea, Germany or Fort Hood.
Flash drives are a new twist, but the OPSEC program got started back in the day when someone noticed that food being sold in a local Vietnamese market was wrapped in papers picked out of the base trash cans. Contained the same kinds of rosters and personnal documentaion. More things change, the more they stay the same,.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/14/2006 8:12
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The AP is just ticked that the Afghan shopkeepers got hold of this data and sold it to the enemy before the AP did. Sounds like their "stringers" are falling down on the job.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/14/2006 15:50
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God! (forgive me)...we've been compromised!
We'd might as well put our heads between our legs and kiss our asses "Good-bye". AH-Yeeeee...Oh, the humanity (sob).
Al-Sahab, an al-Qaeda production company, released a 28:31 minute video of a speech by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri yesterday, April 12, 2006. The message titled: From Tora Bora to Iraq, is indicated to have been recorded in November 2005, and marks the four year anniversary of the American-led bombing campaign of the Tora Bora region in Afghanistan against Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership. Throughout his speech, Zawahiri continuously emphasizes the fabrications of the American government and its president, George W. Bush, to its people concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to purported lies of bring liberty to Muslim nations. These lies provided for the central theme of his message, stretching American actions in Tora Bora in 2001 to Iraq in 2005, and instances in between of Americas agents in Egypt and Jordan maintaining their power by alignment with the United States.
Zawahiri opens his speech by extending his condolences to the Muslims in Kashmir and Pakistan who were affected by the earthquake in October, reiterating his anger with his inability and that of Muslim charity organizations to assist in relief efforts as he made in a previous speech. He then moves a discussion of American cowardly actions in Afghanistan, refusing to station and move ground troops in Tora Bora to capture Usama bin laden and rather repeatedly bombing the terrain. Afghanistan, its presidential elections, in addition to Egypt and the reelection of President Hosni Mubarak are also highlighted to allegedly evince corruption in ballot counting.
A speech by President Bush concerning al-Qaeda strategy in reestablishing the Caliphate is also attacked, Zawahiri arguing that it is incumbent upon Muslims to strive to create the Caliphate and to eliminate Israel. He states: You have to understand that we are one nation and we don't recognize Sykes-Picot and the maps of Percy Cox, whether you like it or not. You won't have any peace or security unless you deal with the Muslim Nation on an equal basis of respect, and not on the basis of crimes and theft. You have to understand, Bush, the son of Bush, that removing Israel is a must on every Muslim, whether you like it or not. The Caliphate of which you conspired against and caused to collapse eight years ago is coming back in spite of you.
Turning to Iraq, Zawahiri states that its battlefield of jihad is the most difficult and its mujahideen and people are to be supported. In this part of his speech he urges support for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq, stating: The Nation of Islam, I ask you to support your brothers, the mujahideen in Iraq, and our brother, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom I didn't see anything about but good things the whole period I knew him. Zawahiri also asks for support to the real scholars of Islam, as opposed to the new scholars who were charged with defending American and Iraqi Shiite policy.
The speech concludes with a call upon all Muslim states to provide material and financial support to the mujahideen in Iraq, hoping that their victory will provide for a continued drive to the doors of Palestine.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
03:01 ||
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Jordanian security forces stormed a high security prison outside Amman on Thursday, quashing a daylong uprising by Islamist prisoners and leaving one inmate dead and more than 35 guards and inmates wounded, government officials said.
It was the second such riot in Jordan in less than two months, adding to rising concerns that the growing Islamist population within prisons is organizing and giving Al Qaeda a new avenue for control.
Rioting broke out early on Thursday morning at the Qafqafa prison, about an hour north of Amman, the capital. The incident started when Islamist prisoners, including suspected members of Al Qaeda, refused officers' attempts to inspect their cellblock. One prisoner, who reportedly contacted the Arab news channel Al Jazeera on a contraband cellphone, said that prisoners had taken two guards hostage and that security forces had used bullets and tear gas to quell the riot. The government did not immediately confirm the claims.
Interior Minister Eid Fayez said the inspections were part of a nationwide effort to crack down on contraband in the country's prisons.
In March, prisoners at the Juweideh prison, on the outskirts of Amman, took a prison official hostage and wounded several police officers in a 14-hour standoff that erupted when officials sought to transfer two members of Al Qaeda, prisoners who were scheduled for execution. During that uprising, inmates at Swaqa prison, about 60 miles south of Amman, and at Qafqafa prison also rose in solidarity, pointing to cooperation between groups in different prisons.
Signs of a prisoner movement have been apparent in other countries. In Yemen in February, 23 prisoners linked to Al Qaeda broke out of a prison by digging a tunnel under it. Yemeni security officials believe that the men were able to win the sympathies of low-level prison guards and officials who allowed them to continue digging.
"Things no longer end in prison anymore. In fact, increasingly they begin there," said Hassan Abu Hanieh, who studies militant movements in Amman. Arab prisons have become recruitment centers, Mr. Hanieh and other analysts say, where Al Qaeda is building its ranks.
As governments in the region have cracked down on Islamists, the militants have flooded into prisons and become a much more powerful part of the population there. Wardens have had more difficulty keeping them separated from other prisoners, raising pressure on officials to give in to the Islamists' demands to keep the peace. The prisoners who rioted Thursday had been allowed to cook their own meals and received money from their families, said Shaher Bak, commissioner of the National Center for Human Rights.
"They control the world inside the prisons," Mr. Hanieh said of the Islamists. Almost every prison in Jordan is now controlled by an informal emir among the Islamist prisoners, who can decide much of the future of inmates, oversees prayers and searches for recruits, he said. "What really helps them is that the society inside has borne a sense of oppression and now view the government as the enemy," he added.
The changing prison population has left officials with a dilemma, said Faris Breizat, an analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University. "The authorities have a problem: if they want to put them in solitary confinement, there's not enough space; if they combine them with other prisoners they will recruit; but if they leave them together, they will only solidify their networks," Mr. Breizat said. "In many ways, their hands are tied."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:57 ||
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What, they can't build more prisons? They're cheaper than the alternative of getting your cities blown up.
#2
The United States was able to build the first nuclear device in 3 years from a standing start.
What is amazing is that with the amount of information freely available, funding from an economy as large as the U. S. in WWII and the knowledge the Iranians have gained from overseas study as well as A. Q. Khan they have been unable to develop a bomb in at least 6.
#3
Whenever I hear the term "prison riot" I always wonder why it isn't followed by "inmates massacred by guards." If you're in prison, by definition you're a POS who has seriously broken society's rules and is being allowed to pay the price to eventually come back into society. If you screw up while in the pen, like by rioting, for example, you've demonstrated that the decision to let you pay that price was a wrong one. Society should simply then remove you from the land of the living and stop paying for your maintenance.
Posted by: mac ||
04/14/2006 20:04
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#4
Jordan will have a limited tolerance of this sh*t. Next uprising, expect excessive casualties.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 20:11
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Military sources said Atwah was killed along with six other Islamic radicals in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday.
The strike was ordered after the military received information, apparently gleaned from other radicals detained in the past month, that the Egyptian explosives expert was hiding in a walled compound in Nagar, a village about four miles south of the town of Miranshah.
[A senior U.S. intelligence official said the man the Pakistanis reported killing was "al-Qaeda's key explosives trainer," Washington Post staff writer Walter Pincus reported. Atwah is a very important figure but is not near the top of the network's hierarchy, said the official, who was unable to independently confirm the Pakistani assertion.]
Wali Mohammad Khan, a commander of local extremists in Nagar, earlier denied that any foreigners were in the compound when it was attacked. "They were all local tribesmen, and the five bodies were immediately buried," he said. The funeral of two others killed in the attack would be held later in the day, he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:56 ||
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I just spoke with him this morning in fact. We talked business first and later the conversation turned to golf. Can you believe that Phil Mickleson?
The United States has refused to confirm reports of a senior al Qaeda operative being killed in Pakistan.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack deferred questions on the subject to Islamabad saying that it was in a "best position" to offer any comment on the matter. The al Qaeda operative suspected to be killed was wanted in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya.
"I am not in a position to confirm the reports for you one way or the other. I know there is a high-ranking Pakistani official who spoke to the matter. I think that they are probably in the best position to offer any comment on the matter", McCormack said yesterday.
"Certainly, fighting al Qaeda is an important priority for President Musharraf. We believe that in President Musharraf, we have a good partner in fighting the war on terrorism, fighting al Qaeda. It's not only important in the global fight against terrorism, but al-Qaeda presents a threat to Pakistan itself, so they devote quite a few resources to that fight", he added.
"In terms of an individual wanted in connection with the embassy bombing, we want to see justice be done. We want to see individuals held to account for what they have done." McCormack said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:54 ||
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Al Qaeda in Iraq and its presumed leader, Abu Musab Zarqawi, have conceded strategic defeat and are on their way out of the country, a top U.S. military official contended yesterday.
The group's failure to disrupt national elections and a constitutional referendum last year "was a tactical admission by Zarqawi that their strategy had failed," said Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who commands the XVIII Airborne Corps.
"They no longer view Iraq as fertile ground to establish a caliphate and as a place to conduct international terrorism," he said in an address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Gen. Vines' statement came as news broke that coalition and Iraqi forces had killed an associate of Osama bin Laden's during an early morning raid near Abu Ghraib about two weeks ago.
Rafid Ibrahim Fattah aka Abu Umar al Kurdi served as a liaison between terrorist networks and was linked to Taliban members in Afghanistan, Pakistani-based extremists and other senior al Qaeda leaders, the military said yesterday.
In the past six months, al Kurdi had worked as a terrorist cell leader in Baqouba. Prior to that, he had traveled extensively Pakistan, Iran and Iraq and formed a relationship with al Qaeda senior leaders in 1999 while in Afghanistan.
He also had ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, formed while he was in Iran and Pakistan, and joined the jihad in Afghanistan in 1989, the military said. He was killed March 27.
Gen. Vines said the foreign terrorists had made a strategic mistake when they tried to intimidate and deny Iraqis a way to vote.
"I believe Zarqawi discredited himself with the Iraqi people because of his willingness to slaughter Iraqi people," he said.
Huthayafa Azzam, whose father was seen as a political mentor of bin Laden, told reporters in Jordan in early April that Zarqawi had been replaced as head of the terrorist fight in Iraq in an effort to put an Iraqi at the head of the organization.
Azzam said Zarqawi had "made many political mistakes," including excessive violence and the bombing last November of a Jordanian hotel, and as a result was being "confined to military action."
Gen. Vines, who from January 2005 to January 2006 led all coalition forces in Iraq, did not comment on those reports. But he did caution that although the foreign extremists were leaving Iraq "looking for more fertile ground," they could come back.
"The question now is what kind of government is going to be formed and is it going to be credible," he said, acknowledging that Iran had significant influence over Iraq's religious Shi'ite population.
"Iran wants us out, but not too soon -- after a Shi'ite government friendly to Iran is established," Gen. Vines said. "Iran's view is that the current government is not strong enough, and if we pulled out now, there would be a low-level civil war."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:52 ||
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#1
IOW, they'll be waiting for us in IRAN, alongst wid "Saladin" Osama???, and definitely MadMoud of the Apocalypse. * DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR HILLARY-GORE!?
The US Treasury says it has blacklisted the spiritual leader and three other members of Indonesia's al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
Radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is in jail for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, but is to be freed in June.
The US Treasury said the members had "been trained, funded and directed by al-Qaeda to pursue a like-minded terrorist agenda". The move freezes assets and bans US citizens from transacting with the men. Although the Treasury froze the assets of the four men in the US it did not give any details of their accounts, if any.
The others blacklisted are:
* Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, said to be the younger brother of Jemaah Islamiah operations head Hambali who was arrested in Thailand and is now in US custody.
* Taufik Rifki, believed to be the group's ex-finance officer in the Philippines and currently detained there.
* Abdullah Anshori, head of a Jemaah Islamiah branch called Mantiq II, the Treasury says. He is one of the most senior leaders still free, it says.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:51 ||
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U.S. troops have sharply increased patrols in Baghdad since the spike in sectarian violence, a U.S. general said Thursday, raising questions about the capabilities of Iraqi forces. A car bomb killed least 15 people in a Shiite area of the capital.
At least 21 other people, including an American soldier and seven members of a Sunni family, were killed Thursday.
With sectarian violence on the rise in Baghdad, the U.S. command boosted the number of armed patrols in the capital from 12,000 in February to 20,000 since the beginning of March, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters.
Lynch said the increase provides a "more visible presence for the security forces in the streets of Baghdad," which he said insurgents consider their "center of gravity" to stop formation of a new unity government.
"We're taking the fight to the enemy specifically in Baghdad with the presence we have on the ground," Lynch said.
In a video posted Thursday on the Internet, Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq particularly Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and called on all Muslims to support them. He called on Muslims to support his "beloved brother" Al-Zarqawi, who heads the terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq. "I have lived with him up close, and have seen nothing but good from him," al-Zawahri said.
Gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, and killed seven people a father, five of his sons and another relative, police said. A navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters while walking downtown in the largely Shiite city.
Late Thursday, insurgents ambused a convoy of Iraqi police enroute from Najaf to the U.S. base at Taji just north of the capital to pick up new vehicles, police said. Officials in Najaf said there were casualties but they had no figures.
In Baghdad, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother heads Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party, was slain along with a companion Thursday as they drove through a mostly Shiite area, the Iraqi Islamic Party said. Tariq al-Hashimi is among the key players in negotiations over a new national unity government, which have stalled over the issue of who will be the next prime minister.
Tit-for-tat killings between Shiites and Sunnis soared after the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics. Violence was worse in religiously mixed areas of Baghdad, forcing the Americans to return to neighborhoods such as Shula that had been turned over to the Iraqis.
That casts doubt on the capability of Iraqi forces to deal with sectarian violence, despite assurances from American officials that the new army and police forces were gaining steadily in professional skills.
The renewed American presence has not been enough to stop the carnage. The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers buying food for their evening meals, police said. At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded. Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.
A roadside bomb Thursday killed a U.S. soldier southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also reported that a Marine died Wednesday of wounds suffered in hostile action near Baghdad.
More American troops were killed in the first two weeks of April 37 than in the entire month of March, when 31 died, according to an Associated Press count. At least 2,366 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to AP.
The Shiites, the biggest bloc in the 275-member parliament, have nominated Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a second term. But Sunni and Kurdish parties, whom the Shiites need as coalition partners, have rejected al-Jaafari and called on the Shiites to name a new candidate.
Al-Jaafari's supporters within the seven-party Shiite alliance have refused to replace him, and other groups within the bloc fear that trying to force him out will shatter the Shiite political movement.
Parliament speaker Adnan Pachachi has called for parliament to convene Monday to try to resolve the crisis, but Shiite politicians are reluctant to attend until a deal has been struck on the premiership and other top government posts that require parliamentary approval.
Khudayer al-Khuzai, who supports al-Jaafari, proposed that leaders of major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties meet Sunday to try to reach consensus on candidates for top jobs.
"If we don't agree on the key posts, then why should we go to parliament?" al-Khuzai asked Thursday.
Voters chose the 275-member assembly on Dec. 15, but the legislature met briefly only once last month. The lack of progress has frustrated Iraqis, especially as steady violence much of it sectarian continues to claim hundreds of lives and threatens to push the country into a large-scale civil war.
Politicians echoed the discontent, chastising the top leaders' failure to agree.
"There are some political blocs who'd rather just be in power than provide security to the people," Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq told reporters. "We demand the political entities speed up the formation of the national government and stop the bloodshed in Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:50 ||
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#1
Why do American troops have to carry the load ? I thought this was turned over to Iraqis some weeks ago. Let them handle it.
The United States is enlisting the help or armed militiamen and factional leaders in its campaign to track down five al Qaeda members in hiding in Somalia.
CIA agents have asked local Somali chiefs to assist them in their search, according to a high-ranking official in the transitional Somali government. He told Asharq al Awsat in a telephone conversation his government had information that a series of meetings were held between US government representatives and tribal and militia leaders in order to prepare for a large-scale operation to detain the five men. At least three of them are believed to hold non-Somali passports, the official added.
The official, who asked not be identified, said Prime Minister Mohammed Ghedi had repeatedly requested the U.S authorities refrain from contacting any Somali group or individual without his governments knowledge.
The latest US campaign comes amid fear of an imminent clash in Mogadishu between militants loyal to the Islamic religious courts and other militias belonging to the anti-terrorism coalition, which the interim government claims is financially and logistically supported by the Americans.
For its part, US intelligence says Sheikh Taher Uways, one of the most prominent extremist Somali leaders, is harboring terrorists in the area under his militias control in the Somali capital.
Uways denied these accusations in a telephone conversation with Asharq al Awsat and blamed the US for holding a grudge against the Somali people. The 60-year old said al Qaeda maintained no presence in Somalia as the tribal system in place made it impossible for foreigners to hide in a country ravaged by civil war. Al Qaedas existence in Somalia was a figment of the USs imagination, he added.
Wanted by the Ethiopian and US intelligence services in connection with his support for terrorist activity, Uways said he was being accused for championing an Islamic government in Somalia. He has fiercely opposed plans by the current interim government to request peacekeepers from neighboring countries, especially Ethiopia, describing them as an occupation force.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:49 ||
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#1
Nothin like gettin outed by an Arab news group. Ouch!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/14/2006 15:25
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The official, who asked not be identified, said Prime Minister Mohammed Ghedi had repeatedly requested the U.S authorities refrain from contacting any Somali group or individual without his governments knowledge.
Security forces in Saudi Arabia are on the lookout for unknown persons in the Al Qaseem region, who are believed to have distributed envelopes with CDs inside, containing models of Al Qaeda military works, anthems of suicide bombers, and advice by some men wanted by the authorities in the kingdom.
According to a report carried by the Arabic daily Al Riyadh yesterday, a teacher at the Al Ras Secondary School in Al Qaseem was shocked when he found an envelope inside his motor vehicle.
He contacted his colleague telling him of what he had found and asked him whether he had found a similar envelope. The latter, who teaches Islamic studies, moved to the car parking lot where he found a number of CDs in the car trunks, and collected a number of them.
The paper said the two teachers informed police patrols in Al Ras province, which searched the scene. The school management and the security patrols had collected nearly 59 envelopes, each containing two CDs with matters related to the military activities of Al Qaeda, the paper said.
The school management had filed a report on the incident and notified the education department in the region.
The incident was not the first of its kind in the region as Al Moznib province had experienced a similar incident sometime ago.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:48 ||
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#2
I am a slave to this cave
Sung to "Wichita Lineman"
(Glenn Campbell)
I am a slave to this cave
And Great Satan's bearing down
Tora Bora's just to place that makes me wear a frown
I know I need to get infidel Bush
I just wanna take my time
And Big Bad Osama
Is Still this cave...
Strap yourself with TNT
Sung to Sunny Side of the Street
(Louis Armstrong)
Make sure that belt fits just right
Filled with plenty O' Dynamite
Ya got some infidels to kill
And we'll drive them right to hell...
Nightmare of Swine
Sung to "We Are The Champions"
(Queen)
This is the Nightmare of Swine
To and fro in the streets
Swine are all over
Swine are all over
And we dare not touch them
For cooties will infest us
From the swine...
Pakistani villagers pulled three bodies out of the rubble of a suspected hideout of Islamist militants that was razed in an overnight attack by army helicopter gunships in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
A number of foreign militants are believed to have been killed in the attack on a compound in Nagar, six km (4 miles) south of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan region where the army has been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas and their local Pashtun sympathisers.
"Three bodies have been pulled out. A search is underway for others," a resident of Nagar told Reuters. He did not say whether bodies were of militants or tribesmen.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said details about the number of militants killed and their identity were still being gathered.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:47 ||
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A senior member of Al Qaeda who was wanted for his part in the bombings of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 has been killed in an airstrike on a compound in Pakistan's restive tribal region of North Waziristan, two senior security officials said today.
The Al Qaeda member, Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwa, who has several aliases, including Abdul Rahman and Abdul Rahman al-Muhajir, appears on an F.B.I. list of most wanted terrorists with an offer of a reward of up to $5 million for his capture and conviction.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Web site, Mr. Atwa is an Egyptian, aged 41, of medium build, "believed to currently be in Afghanistan." He is named with 13 of the top Al Qaeda figures, "believed to be responsible for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzanai and Kenya on August 7, 1998."
"These terrorist attacks indiscriminately killed 224 innocent civilians and wounded over 5,000 others," the Web site says.
Mr. Atwa was killed by Pakistani helicopter attack late Wednesday in the village of Anghar, nearly four miles north of the town of Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, the officials said, requesting anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. "He has been confirmed dead," one of the officials said. "The confirmation is based on multiple intelligence sources."
Villagers reached by a local reporter in Anghar for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn confirmed the death of foreign militants, including "one big man" whom they identified by an alias, Abu Turab.
The attack was carried out by a pair of Pakistani-piloted Cobra helicopters that attacked a compound in Anghar close to a religious seminary shortly before midnight Wednesday. "This was his abode for quite some time," one security official said.
Besides Mr. Atwa, four to six other foreign militants whose nationalities were not immediately known were also killed in the attack, along with four local tribesmen, the security officials said.
Militants removed the bodies immediately after the attack and buried them at a secret location, making the job of finding the remains for DNA tests very difficult, the officials said. The four tribesmen were buried in the local graveyard.
Pakistan has claimed to have killed senior Al Qaeda operatives and foreign fighters in the past in the tribal areas along Afghanistan's border, but it has often been unable to produce the bodies or evidence of the deaths.
In January, an American missile strike aimed at Al Qaeda's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly killed four or five important Al Qaeda figures, including his son-in-law, but not Mr. Zawahiri. The bodies of the foreign militants were never found, but officials said they had intelligence that the bodies were carried away for a secret burial.
The officials said that information extracted from 19 militants captured in a successful ambush by Pakistani security forces on April 5 in the Shawal region of North Waziristan led them to Mr. Atwa. The militants had attacked a Pakistani security post killing four soldiers after returning from an operation inside Afghanistan.
The captured men told their interrogators that weapons for the attack in Afghanistan had come from Mr. Atwa.
Maj. Gen Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Inter Services Public Relations, the public affairs arm of the Pakistan Army, confirmed the attack on Anghar, but declined to speculate on the reported death of a senior Al Qaeda operative.
"We had information about the presence of Al Qaeda people in a compound in Anghar village," he said. "Troops launched sting operation and hit the compounds from Cobra helicopters."
General Sultan added, "I can't say about the presence or killing of any senior Al Qaeda man in the operation," noting that that security forces could not retrieve the bodies.
Residents of Anghar village told the local reporter for Dawn that the man known as Abu Turab was an Arab, who was commanding militants in North Waziristan near the Afghan border. Two vehicles laden with weapons, which were parked inside the compound, were also destroyed in the operation, they said.
"Cobra helicopters, roaring overhead fired missiles," one witness said. "Later one helicopter dropped a big bomb, which completely destroyed the compounds."
The foreigners were in one compound that was bombed. The four tribesmen, including a minor, were killed in another house. One woman was also wounded in the attack, the reporter said, quoting the local hospital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:46 ||
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Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant has released an Internet video calling on Iraqi insurgents to remain strong in the fight against Americans and praising the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who directs Al Qaeda's operations in Iraq.
An introductory title on the video indicates that the lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recorded the message last November, months after he is believed to have written a 6,000-word letter asking Mr. Zarqawi to refrain from slaughtering Shiites.
In recent months, perhaps in response to the letter, Mr. Zarqawi has not personally taken responsibility for any major attacks in Iraq.
"The Nation of Islam, I ask you to support your brothers, the mujahedeen in Iraq, and our brother, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, about whom I didn't see anything but good things the whole period I knew him," Mr. Zawahiri said in the video, as translated by the SITE Institute, an organization that tracks terrorists' messages. "I know him to be true, and how he is defending Islam with all his powers."
In the video, Mr. Zawahiri wears a white turban and gray robes and has a thick beard, while an automatic rifle leans against a brown backdrop. A former physician from Egypt, he is believed to be hiding in the mountainous area that straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"You, my brothers in Iraq, stay firm, stay firm, be ready, be ready," he added. "Your enemy is now dizzy, and do not stop fighting until he is defeated by the grace of God."
That message came as violence continued to roil Iraq. Gunmen killed Mahmoud Ahmed al-Hashemi, the brother of a leading Sunni Arab politician, Tariq al-Hashemi. A car bomb exploded at a market on the outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday evening, killing at least 15 and wounding 22, an Interior Ministry official said.
In Hawija, in the north, insurgents killed two local contractors who delivered food to Iraqi Army units. Three men in Basra were abducted in two separate incidents; in one case, the kidnappers wore commando uniforms, officials said.
An American soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad, and a marine died from "enemy action" west of Baghdad on Wednesday, the military said.
The American military said Thursday that last month Iraqi troops killed Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi, identifying him as a terrorist with ties to Mr. bin Laden and other senior Qaeda figures, in a raid near Abu Ghraib, The Associated Press reported.
The Iraqi government said a year ago that it had arrested a man with the same pseudonym and a similar background, but that report gave a different name for him, and it was unclear whether the reports referred to the same person.
The title sequence of Mr. Zawahiri's video indicates that the taping was done to honor the fourth anniversary of the American bombing of Tora Bora, the rugged area of Afghanistan scoured by American forces in December 2001 during a search for Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahiri.
Mr. Zawahiri opened the video by offering his condolences to the victims of the enormous earthquake in Kashmir last fall, which killed tens of thousands.
It is unclear why Mr. Zawahiri or Al Qaeda waited so long to release the video. Mr. Zawahiri appeared in three other videos that surfaced over the winter, after the November one was made. In the last one, dated March 4, he praised the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections.
This video appears at a time of conflicting reports about whether Mr. Zarqawi and his band of foreign fighters are closing their rift with some Iraqi insurgents who reportedly see them as interlopers. Some American officials here and sheiks from Anbar Province, the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency, say the divisions, which emerged over the winter, seem to be fading. Other officials say the split persists.
Mr. Zarqawi has adopted a lower profile in recent months. He has renamed his group the Mujahedeen Shura, or Council of Holy Warriors; it was called Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and before that, One God and Jihad. The new group supposedly includes leading Iraqi insurgents. Mr. Zarqawi also has not put out any Internet messages signed by himself and has not released any beheading videos, a staple of the war in 2004.
In his voluminous earlier letter to Mr. Zarqawi, dated July 9, Mr. Zawahiri advised him to avoid beheadings and warned him that the mass killings of Shiites would amount to "action that the masses do not understand or approve." The letter was released by Bush administration officials in October.
The Washington Post reported this week that the American military started a propaganda campaign years ago to portray Mr. Zarqawi as a towering villain in order to galvanize Iraqi opinion against him. Some military officials have said that campaign has enlarged Mr. Zarqawi's reputation, The Post reported.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a military spokesman who often attributes violence in Iraq to Mr. Zarqawi's group, released a statement in response saying Mr. Zarqawi was a substantial enemy, not a boogeyman concocted by the military.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:45 ||
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Of the smattering of retired generals who have called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, none has surprised the Pentagon's inner circle more than retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste.
Gen. Batiste commanded the 1st Infantry Division, responsible in Iraq for the hot spots of Tikrit and Samarra, north of Baghdad. On a chilly December night in 2004, he introduced Mr. Rumsfeld to his soldiers thus: "This is a man with the courage and the conviction to win the war on terrorism."
A Rumsfeld aide said that when the two talked privately, the general voiced no complaints on how Washington, or Mr. Rumsfeld, was waging war.
But Gen. Batiste has now called on Mr. Rumsfeld to resign, one of five retired generals who have done so in recent weeks.
"I believe we need a fresh start in the Pentagon," Gen. Batiste said Wednesday on CNN. "We need a leader who understands teamwork, a leader who knows how to build teams, a leader that does it without intimidation."
Of the Iraqi people, he told CNN, "Iraqis, frankly, in my experience, do not understand democracy. Nor do they understand their responsibility for a free society."
But in Iraq last year, Gen. Batiste said: "The Iraqi 4th Division represents what is and what is meant to be in Iraq. The soldiers of the division not only reflect the rich ethnic/religious diversity of Iraq, but they also imbue with the energy, courage and determination which the vast majority of the Iraqi people have for freedom and representative government."
Yesterday, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs also made the resignation plea, this time on National Public Radio.
The acting Army secretary at the time demoted Gen. Riggs and forced him to retire in 2004 because he let a civilian contractor do congressional liaison work that rules said should have been done by a government employee. The forced retirement infuriated some retired officers, who saw the infraction as minor.
Five retired generals hardly constitute a groundswell among what the Pentagon estimates are 9,000 active and retired generals and admirals. But Pentagon officials fear there will be more such calls against Mr. Rumsfeld.
The list now reads: Gen. Batiste; Gen. Riggs; retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, who opposed the Iraq invasion from the start; Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold and Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton.
"I was particularly taken aback by Batiste," said Larry Di Rita, a senior Rumsfeld adviser. "It seemed very contrary to the interaction I saw in Iraq."
Gen. Batiste, who now runs a steel company, did not return a phone message for comment.
As to criticism that Mr. Rumsfeld does not meet with senior officials, Mr. Di Rita said the secretary has met more than 60 times this year with Joint Chiefs of Staff members and four-star combatant commanders. In the winter, he conducted a three-day conference with those officers and other Pentagon leaders. The group sat in a conference room, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for three days, hashing out strategies.
Mr. Rumsfeld is known as a direct, some would say brash, manager who will dress down subordinates. He also encourages aides and officers to push back and challenge him, former advisers say.
Interviews reveal deep-seated resentment toward him within the retired Army officer corps for the way he has managed the war and the Army.
An Army officer who asked not to be named said he wished Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman, would "distance himself from Rumsfeld" to show displeasure with the Iraq war planning. But Gen. Pace on Wednesday delivered a spirited defense alongside his boss.
Retired officers say Mr. Rumsfeld failed to plan for the ongoing insurgency in Iraq that has killed hundreds of soldiers and kept too few troops there after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, a former commander of the Army War College, said the Army, Marines and special operations need 100,000 more troops.
"If you're going to fight a long war," Gen. Scales said, "if this war is generational, and if our grandchildren are going to be fighting this war, and if this war continues to be principally ground warfare, then it just seems overwhelmingly obvious that over the long term we are going to need a bigger ground force."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/14/2006
02:40 ||
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#1
Monday-morning-quarterbacking and sour grapes.
Maybe general Pace likes Rummy.
He encourages subordinates to push back? I bet that does intimidate some folks!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/14/2006 7:11
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#2
Under Rumsfeld, Marines command Strategic Command (!) and hold the Chair of the Joint Staff.
A Special Ops guy was brought back FROM RETIREMENT, over the heads of serving regular generals, to be Chief of Staff of the Army.
In Fallujah, we used a joint ops structure in which marines reported to soldiers and v.v.
It's a revolutionary change for the Army and not one that some officers are comfortable with, it would appear.
Note that the Marines - in part because their smaller force size and expeditionary organization makes it possible - have pioneered the use of a lot of high tech in Iraq - for instance, the Raven mini-UAV for tactical recon. And in some places in Iraq, Marine style small wars doctrine has replaced Army doctrine with what some would say was greater success.
Note also the increased emphasis on Special Opns and the move to smaller units of deployment/action (from division to brigade). Again, a move away from the massive army force-on-force doctrine to a doctrine a lot closer to what the Marines do well.
Change isn't easy and revolutionaries aren't necessarily correct. But it would seem these changes have a lot to do with the discomfort of many old school Army leaders. I'll leave it to others to argue whether they or Rumsfeld are more right.
#3
Good summary, lotp. And, i'd note that (at least) 1 of these 5 got "screwed" (in his mind) in being forced to retire. Wonder how many others will be writing "insider" books soon? If so, that could very well be the motive.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 9:01
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#4
lotp, did the transfer of primacy from the division to the brigade have any impact on the number of high level slots available?
Also don't forget sacking Crusader.
I predict Rumsfled will be the first Sec Def to serve two full terms. That ina an of itself says something about the old man.
#5
I assume all of these Generals attended West Point or Annapolis. As graduates, they were perfect gentlemen. They're not such gentlemen any more. That doesn't say much for 30 or 40 years in the service, does it ?
#6
The leader takes the arrows, particularly when instituting change into a tired, Cold War era military.
There will be many more who didn't have the balls to challenge Rummy while in service who will strike out against him in the media. Rummy's got big shoulders; Prez Bush knows the important role Rummy plays in history, so fuck the (not soon enough) retired generals.
Besides, retirement of the Old School brings opportunity for those capable of adapting to 21C demands.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 12:47
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#7
"brown people Iraqis, frankly, in my experience, do not understand democracy. Nor do they understand their responsibility for a free society."
OK, he's officially announced he's a liberal.
Also a bigot. But I repeat myself. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2006 12:51
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#8
here's the meat of the story right here.
Five retired generals hardly constitute a groundswell among what the Pentagon estimates are 9,000 active and retired generals and admirals.
#14
As graduates, they were perfect gentlemen. They're not such gentlemen any more.
Yes, combat experience changes a man. Also makes you second guess the dupes in Washington, especially when they fuck up like Rumsfeld. Another way to look at it, is that combat turns Republicans into Democrats. :-)
#15
Oh and, there's no converse. Democrats are turned into even bigger weenies. It's like a political red shift of sorts, except the shift is in the blue direction.
#16
Change isn't easy and revolutionaries aren't necessarily correct.
Oh yeah, Rumsfeld a revolutionary. A regular Che Guevara. That's why Iraq and Afghanistan are such examples of success. Iraqi insurgents deserve more credit than Rummy for all the changes in the US armed forces.
To the recent anon poster with various names and the IP address of 85.195.123.22: we don't put up with trolling or taunting around here. If you have a point to make, make it. Differing opinions are fine, even strongly dissenting opinions. But trolls end up banned.
Steve White (AoS), moderator, Rantburg
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2006 19:41
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#20
Yep..that qualifies. Hint: your parents weren't evil. They were prophetic.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/14/2006 19:41
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#21
Well you have my apologies SW...y'all can catch me at the tip jar ;]
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/14/2006 19:45
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#22
Why if Americans were just more like the Germans. Germans REALLY KNEW how to take of the primitives.
2008? That's the year muslims begin massive head removal in your shitty little country. Try not to scream like a little girl. It ruins the audio on the video.
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:02
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#23
how to take care of the primitives.
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:02
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#24
To the recent anon poster with various names and the IP address of 85.195.123.22: we don't put up with trolling or taunting around here.
So I take it Republican commenters can make whatever comments they like without opposition, because, as I'm sure you've noticed, all my "taunts" have been directed at statements made previously by others here, and I'm the one singled out as the troll.
If you have a point to make, make it.
Can I make my point through satire? Honest question.
But if you insist, here's my point: I've seen pretty much every regular at RB at one time or another exalt our service men and women. I've seen comments such as "they get it". Well it seems that's been a pretty thin veneer because the many comments that we see today clearly indicate that Democrat soldiers don't count. And there's a lot of them. Most of them critical of Rumsfeld and Bush. I know, it's hard to believe and it's even harder to accept...for Republicans.
#25
Ok. Batiste is confusing. There are only 2 critical sentences by Batiste in the whole article.
1. He calls for more teamwork, not leadership. That's just a recipe for paralysis.
2. So does he want to kill them all or fence the muslims off so they can kill each other. Or does he want to withdraw and wait for the next mega-attack? If he has a plan, he should let the public know about it. People will follow a plan. They tune out general criticism.
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:12
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#26
since active soldiers are not allowed to criticize the C-in-C or SecDef - I call Bullshit on your statements - wishful thinking. There are, no doubt, many many Democratic party voters in the ranks - I doubt they support the same party views as you
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 20:18
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#27
I would imagine that the use of a smaller force overall would limit the number of general officers needed IN COMBAT. All Army officers know that combat is an essential ingredient in getting promoted. It seems the generals wanted a Vietnam-style deployment, with 500,000 troops and a corrseponding number of general officers. A lot of this may be nothing more than sour grapes.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/14/2006 20:20
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#28
OK Fritz, what are the valid points that Batiste is trying to make? What would you do you suddenly became the US Secretary of War?
Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:20
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Posted by: ed ||
04/14/2006 20:37
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#31
Elmiling U - I'll make a deal with you. I won't discuss Celebrity Gossip (since I don't know anything about it) and you stick with what you know. Clearly you know absolutely NOTHING about the military and it shows. Go back to one of those chat sites where you can be the hero just by making really witty jokes along the lines that Bush looks like a Chimp and doesn't know how to read. That seems to be the height of humor and wit on the left these days.
THE Federal Government has indicated its tough new asylum policy is aimed squarely at appeasing Indonesia, despite the prime minister denying he is pandering to Jakarta.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has admitted a key aim of the hardline decision to turn away boat people to offshore processing is to prevent Australia being used as a protest platform to create unrest in other countries.
Australia's decision to grant refugee status to 42 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua, a group which included pro-independence supporters, has sparked one of Canberra's biggest diplomatic crises with its northern neighbour.
Senator Vanstone's comments have put her at odds with Prime Minister John Howard, who insisted the policy change was "not done as a concession to Indonesia".
"We can make it a great disincentive for people to use Australia, seek to use the Australian mainland, as a protest point to stir up civil unrest in other countries and interfere in the domestic issues of other countries, and use us as a staging facility to do that," Senator Vanstone said on ABC television.
Jakarta also appeared certain that the policy was a reaction to its protests.
"We appreciate this step from Australia, which is in response to our reaction on 42 Papuans already granted temporary protection visas," Foreign Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya said.
Indonesia wanted more details, he said, including whether the policy could change the status of the Papuans granted visas.
There also appears to be confusion in Howard government ranks over whether or not, under the new policy, Australia constitutes a third country where those who successfully claim asylum would be resettled.
Under the proposed changes, anyone entering Australia illegally - whether they make it to the mainland or not - would be sent to one of three offshore immigration detention centres for processing.
Senator Vanstone has said the Government will be looking to resettle asylum seekers in countries other than Australia.
"Well, we'll be looking to place them in other countries," she told the ABC.
Asked if it would be the Government's first preference to resettle asylum seekers in a third country, or in Australia, she replied: "No, the press release says what it means, they'll be resettled to a third country, that's clearly the first preference."
However, the prime minister said Australia would be considered a third country.
"People who are found to be refugees will remain offshore until resettlement in a third country is arranged. And in that description Australia, of course, is a third country because the offshore processing will in most cases not occur in Australian territory," Mr Howard told reporters yesterday.
Labor has said the announcement will invite other nations to pressure Australia to change domestic policies.
Asylum seeker advocates have also lashed out at the policy, with the Refugee and Immigration legal centre saying it would turn Australia into a "dehumanised" zone.
The Papuans, who landed on Cape York in January, would have been caught out under the new policy.
While Australia had excised thousands of island from its migration zone in 2001 as part of the Pacific Solution, Senator Vanstone said the mainland would not be excised under the new policy.
Dozens of refugee activists are shaking the gates and fences of Sydney's Holsworthy Army Barracks in a bid to gain access to 160 asylum seekers moved to the facility from Villawood detention centre. About 80 activists gathered outside the barracks say they want to visit the detainees, who were temporarily relocated from Villawood this week due to asbestos fears. A moderate police presence is also at the site, including PolAir, the dog squad and officers on foot.
New South Wales Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said activists planned to ask for permission to visit the asylum seekers. Some of the protesters were also considering jumping the barracks' fences if they are not allowed in, he said. "We'll see how we go," Mr Rintoul said of attempts to enter the facility. "We're here to make the point that the fences should not be here." None of the detainees sent to Holsworthy have been allowed visits since being transferred from Villawood this week, Mr Rintoul said.
Dozens of refugee activists are shaking the gates and fences of Sydney's Holsworthy Army Barracks in a bid to gain access to 160 asylum seekers moved to the facility from Villawood detention centre. Liverpool Local Area Commander Mick Plotecki later told the activists they would not be allowed through the gates. "My understanding is that while there is a protest on, visiting has ceased," Superintendent Plotecki told the demonstrators.
The group gathered without shade in 30C heat, frequently shaking the flimsy front gates while chanting slogans and making speeches. About 20 operational support group officers were standing in a line on the other side of the gate.
The hour-long protest at the Holsworthy gate broke up about 2pm as the group made plans to continue the protest at the empty Villawood detention centre.
A small section of the group was nominated to formally seek permisison to enter the Holsworthy facility to visit the detainees. But an Immigration Department spokesman said visits at Holsworthy had been cancelled for the rest of today.
He said there had been visits earlier today and yesterday but that they were halted at 11am on police advice concerning the protest.
#2
Its a bit more complex - some of these are issues from the families due to the fathers being put in one detention center, the mothers and children in antoher - hundreds of miles apart. And these are Chinese, Pacific Islanders, even an Iranian who are asking to be allowed to stay. Complicating things further, some of the children are legally Australian citizens. The seperations and resuling anger are simply the results of the typical big-statist government bureaucracy - the kindthat tend to blindly follow rules - but at random, and without regard to consequence or circumstance.
Its a big mess, and its due to lax enforcement of immigration laws.
Of course, the protester organizers could give a rats ass - they are there mainly to make political hay against the Howard government, and to try to provoke a reaction so there's even more political crap they can fling against Howard.
Tonight is Erev Pasach, the beginning of Passover, and all over the world Jewish families, including the most secular, will gather at seders. I wish them joy.
In Israel, the security forces will be on special alert, for Palestinian terrorists have always been partial to massacring Jews on their most holy days. Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York, a motion to condemn Israel for recent strikes against Palestinian terror camps in Gaza has been withdrawn from the Security Council. The Arab states sponsoring it found it wouldnt fly, even there.
I juxtapose these things, expressly to bring out how crazy the world is. Our media hardly reported that when the Israelis voluntarily withdrew their settlements from Gaza, as part of the one-sided peace process, the sites of two of them were turned into terror camps. Nor have we read or heard much, if anything, about the escalating rounds of Qassam rockets being fired daily into southern Israel from these new Hamas bases at former Neve Dekalim, and Slav. We hear now, when the Israelis strike back.
The Gaza perimeter fence, in place for many years, has offered fairly secure protection against the infiltration of suicide bombers to Israel, though the border guards themselves suffer the occasional detonation. But the fence is no use against rockets.
Since it is not acceptable to be the target of constant rocket attacks, the Israel Defence Forces must do something. The only thing they can do, is attack the people launching the rockets. This must now be done almost exclusively from the air. Civilian casualties -- including two Palestinian children in the last few days -- are made inevitable by the Palestinian habit of moving families into the likely target areas, to serve as human shields. When they are maimed or martyred in the crossfire, they become so much more heart-wrenching material to feed the international Islamist grievance machine.
As more extensive reports in Israel have made clear, Gaza has now become a bigger security problem for Israel than it ever was during the nearly four decades that Jewish settlements were established there. This is because the need to defend the settlements gave the IDF a forward position within Gaza, and better local intelligence. They could respond more immediately to developing threats. Now they have been withdrawn from Gaza, they must watch the enemys preparations only electronically.
It has become clear that Al Qaeda and other terror affiliates are now setting up shop in Gaza at the invitation of both Hamas and Fatah. This could not have happened, with the IDF still there.
The withdrawal from Gaza was a small thing, however, in comparison to the impending withdrawal of forward Israeli settlements from the West Bank. Some 80,000 Israelis, most of whom have lived there more than a generation, will be removed behind more defensible lines. The acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is hoping to get international, or at least American, recognition for the borders behind which they are withdrawn. Good luck to him. Israel has never been repaid, except with more violence, for any of its tactical retreats, and no other fate is foreseeable. The abandonment of forward positions in the West Bank will repeat the mistake in Gaza, but on a much larger scale, while the sight of ten-thousands of Israelis being evicted from their homes, by their own army, will tear at the fabric of Israeli society.
Israel faces, as we in the West also face, an enemy who will not be reconciled. It makes no sense to offer concessions to such an enemy. The whole idea of withdrawing behind more defensible borders is built upon illusion. Either you carry the battle to the enemy, or the enemy carries the battle to you. It is the same story, finally, in Iraq and Afghanistan. We fight them there, or they fight us here. Israel is looking directly into that quandary. We still look on from far away.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2006
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Gaza may be a worse problem but now there are no Israeli civilans mixed into that target rich environment.
...M***s...?
#3
There is a school of thought,3dc,that states put all your rotten eggs in one basket then smash that basket.
LOL.
Andrew Carnage, I bleev?
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
04/14/2006 15:18
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Warren can be so right sometimes, and such a hand-wringing puss at others. Israel is behind defensive borders, continuing the fence/wall, and in control. They can turn the barrage up or down at will. The paleos scurry out, shoot theit miniscule wad, and retreat. Who is eating ell, running a functioning economy, able to travel at will? Not the Paleos..they are stuck in a coming civil war, a death cult trying to see who's better at killing and theft. No economy other than international begging. Dependent on the Jooooos for power and more importantly WATER. I'll take the Joooos and go all in
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 17:10
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In less than a week, two more tribesmen were shot dead Thursday by suspected Islamic militants on suspicions of spying on them for the US troops, said intelligence sources. Armed men in a car fired on two tribesmen in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal agency, and fled, leaving them dead, sources told KUNA. Few days back, another tribesman was killed in neighboring North Waziristan tribal agency on the same charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006
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The US army said Thursday that two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents in eastern Baghdad and in the City of Talafar in Mosul. The US army said in a statement that a soldier belonging to the Multi-National Forces was killed in Baghdad on Wednesday "when he was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol east of Baghdad." Another statement for the army said that an American soldier passed away on Tuesday from wounds he had sustained during a non-combat operation in an operations base near Talafar. The two statements did not give any further details but indicated that the two incidents are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said Thursday that up to 118 armed men were arrested for suspicions of their involvement in terror acts in several areas, such as Talafar and Fallujah. According to a statement issued by the Iraqi government, the army forces arrested 68 terrorists in the city of Talafar and 20 others in Fallujah. It added that 15 other terrorists were arrested and was found in their possession different kinds of weapons. Another terrorist was arrested in Al-Karada area in central Baghdad, the statement noted. In Kirkuk, three terrorists were arrested during a joint operation between the interior ministry forces and the army.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006
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The Hamas-led Palestinian government is willing to recognise Israel if the latter withdraws fully from West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera.net has reliably learnt. Sources close to Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, described the Hamas decision as a "significant change in policy".
"What it means is that the Palestinian government is willing to recognise Israel if Israel met certain conditions, including a complete withdrawal from the territories Israel occupied in 1967," a source told Al Jazeera.net on Wednesday. Speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, the source added that he expected the "new posture" to be announced officially by Haniya in the coming few days.
The Hamas-led government is coming under intense international pressure to recognise Israel, abandon armed resistance and accept outstanding agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. If true, the new development will constitute a significant departure from Hamas' dogged refusal to accept Israel's right to exist. Hamas' officials and spokespersons in the West Bank have refused to comment on the movement's willingness to recognise Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state on 100% of the occupied territories.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006
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Hamas willing to recognize Israel if all Israelis voluntarily jump into the ocean but leave their purses and wallets behind. -- Such a deal.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 0:43
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There's a 50/50 chance that the EU and US State Department would push for it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 0:45
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Demands: A viable Palestinian state on 100% of West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
90 Would-be Suicide Bombers Apprehended
(IsraelNN.com) According to security officials, 90 would-be suicide bombers were taken into custody during the first three months of 2006. Officials report this represents a sharp increase in the number of potential suicide bombers, adding the 90 terrorists in custody represent over one-half of the total number arrested in all of 2005.
and, in responce, Security Establishment Approves Wheat Shipment to Gaza
(IsraelNN.com) Security establishment officials are confirming that for the first time, goods will be permitted into Gaza via the Sufah Crossing in southern Gaza.
The crossing will be opened on Sunday for 48 hours, during which time 3,000 tons of wheat are expected to be brought into Gaza, providing basics towards the production of flour.
#6
That "viable" is a real problem and a big laugh. No word on renouncing violence against this newly-recognized Israel, I note. Or keeping to the word once spoken.
"New posture" indeed. That's all it is. Heads still firmly up their butts, same posture. What's new? Rocking from side to side?
#7
TW, you forgot the lack of funds coming in. I imagine if we keep that pressure up, eventually they'll even run out of bullets or RPGs (that is, if the Israeli force field thingy doesn't make RPGs obsolete first). Gawd, I love being on the winning team!
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 8:51
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#8
Israel is in charge of borders. Hamas is in charge of terror, false doctrine, and hiding behind women and children.
#9
Why would anyone believe "Hamas"? Oh, that's right, they're the government now, not a bunch of AK-47 weilding baby-murdering religious fanatics. Of course they'd never lie....
#10
Let's make it a reality show. Tell Hamas the length of time till the money spigot gets turned back on will be equal to the time it takes them to recognize Israel. We could have a fast moving ounter showing the delay time till money gets restarted and the amount saved thus far. Each day Rice or Rummy could come out and talk about what happened over the last day with pictures of Paleos crying, etc. Great ratings opportunity.
#12
Funny how Hamas has hardly absorbed the fact that they'd won the election when their hand was out for more money from the West - the same West that they despise. Great moral fibre there.
And where is it written that the West is obliged to give them money? Now they are making civilized noises about recognising Israel. But it's just a ploy to lull the West into complacently handing over more millions.
Hamas will never civilize themselves. It's like expecting Neanderthals to have manners.
#14
I think they are wise to send in the wheat. It's not going to bother their Arab brothers and sisters if the babies starve, but it will bother us in the west. So if they don't have food, then it becomes a big PR thing and the RFSP will send them money, which won't go to food, but to bombs. Giving wheat is like handing leftovers to the bum on the corner. If that's all everyone ever did, he'd only sit there if he was hungry and after awhile, he'd get full and go home.
Give em' food and water and leave them strong enough to demand from their government more than just a daily ration of gruel.
Iranian police are poised to launch a fresh pre-summer crackdown on women disrespecting the Islamic dress code, a press report said yesterday. Unfortunately we see some immodestly and inappropriately dressed women who violate the rights of others, the hardline Jomhuri Islami newspaper quoted Tehrans police chief as saying. There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values, Commander Morteza Talai said, adding the clampdown will start on April 21.
Every post-pubescent female in Iran, regardless of her nationality or religion, is obliged to observe the Islamic dress code. Police crackdowns on skimpy dressers are common every summer, when many women defy the rules by wearing three-quarter length trousers, sandals showing off painted toenails, lighter coats revealing their curves and headscarves that barely cover their hair.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006
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Good Allen! They launch an assault on women wearing 3/4 length pants and showing painted toenails? Man, these guys need to "loosen up" a bit. Maybe after Indonesia, Hugh Hefner can start publishing in Iran.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 8:38
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Unfortunately we see some immodestly and inappropriately dressed women who violate the rights of others,"
There is no "right" that protects you from being offended. There is no "right" to force your beliefs on other people.
The muslims have the wrong end of the stick on what "rights" are. But they sure do use the word every chance they can get to support their demand the world enforce intolerance. The "right" to be intolerant. Good gravy.
#5
That's it. I'm going to Iran and am gonna run around the public square in just a man thong. I'll show these morons what discrespecting social values really is!
An Egyptian prosecutor yesterday froze the assets of the businessman who owned the ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February with the loss of more than 1,000 lives, the state news agency MENA said. Socialist Prosecutor Gaber Reihan, whose post dates from the nationalization period of the 1960s, said he was freezing the assets of Mamdouh Ismail because a report on the ferry disaster showed he committed serious violations of safety regulations.
Ismail, owner of the ferry Salam 98 and a fleet of other Red Sea ferries, has already been stripped of his immunity as a member of the Shoura Council or upper house of Parliament. The report on the disaster said that the ferry had forged safety certificates, the life rafts and fire extinguishers were unfit for use and the ship did not have enough winches to lower the rafts into the sea in an emergency, MENA said. The vessel was originally licensed in Italy to carry 1,187 people but the owners obtained an Egyptian license to carry 2,890 people, in violation of international standards, it said. It was carrying about 1,400 people when it sank.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Isn't it strange that _right after_ this accident happened, all we were hearing about were those darn infidel cartoons?
JMB chief Abdur Rahman yesterday said that he had directed his followers to kill the lawyers who practise in 'worldly' courts. He made the comment when a lawyer asked him whether he would appoint a lawyer to defend him during the hearing on a five-day remand petition. The JMB chief made the same statement on March 23 and April 3 during the hearings on his remands.
The Detective Branch (DB) of police accompanied by the members of Rab took Rahman to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court amid tight security on expiry of his 10-day remand in the case filed for the August 17 blast near the Jatiya Press Club. In his forwarding report, DB Inspector Shah Mohammad Moshiur Rahman, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, said that Rahman was directly involved in the countrywide bomb blasts on August 17 last year, including the one near the Jatiya Press Club. He needs to be quizzed further to find out vital information about the bombings and the whereabouts of other JMB leaders and members, the IO added. After the hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate M A Salam granted the remand prayer.
Earlier, JMB military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny, operations commander of banned Harkatul Jihad (HuJi) Bangladesh chapter Mufti Abdul Hannan and JMB Gazipur regional commander Enayet Ullah were shown arrested in the same case and placed on remand.
JMB military commander Sunny and its Majlish-e-Shura member Abdul Awal were placed on fresh remands yesterday. Sunny was placed on a five-day remand while Awal on a seven-day remand in the case filed with Ramna Police Station for August 17 blast on the Supreme Court premises.
Another Dhaka court yesterday could not frame charges against Sunny and eight others in two cases filed with Sabujbagh Police Station on September 12 last year, as they were not produced before it. Judge Mohammad Shamsul Alam Khan of the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court fixed May 16 as the hearing date and directed the authorities concerned to produce the accused before it on that day.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Rahman admits to ordering killing of lawyers
Abdur, for this singular act done for the betterment of humanity we grant you 5 seconds of redemption...5...4...3...2..
(1) was this order issued to Dick Cheney? (/moonbat channeling off/) and
(2) a military leader named Sunny? Maybe a translation error, but anyways...bwahahahaha! Man, we just might win this war after all.
Posted by: BA ||
04/14/2006 8:55
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Oh, I beg to differ, gromgoru. Some people are entirely bad, from the hairs on their head to the toenails of their murderous rampaging feet. Oh, wait a minute...too strong?
Hamas has intimated that the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, along with "familiar symbols of the previous Palestinian Authority," is emptying the coffers of the new Palestinian government.
In a statement issued Thursday in a flyer, Hamas leveled its harshest attack to date against the PA and Abbas' office, adding a veiled accusation that the previous government was working with foreign elements to bring down the new government. The Hamas statement said the government "had been stripped of all its savings and cleaned out of all income sources such as border crossings and the Palestinian investment funds and other sources." These funds, controlled in the past by the Palestinian finance ministry, have now been placed under the personal aegis of the PA chairman.
Yup, it's a real shame that Abbas has turned into a garden-variety klepto. Just think what Hamas could do with all that money.
"Hamas is surprised at the participation of Palestinian elements in the campaign against our people. Those symbols are conspiring to place responsibility for the economic crisis on the Hamas government," the statement said.
Their statements and their actions make clear that their aim, in cooperation with the occupation and America, is to bring about the failure of the government and to establish a new government contrary to the Palestinian interest," Hamas said in the statement.
Always amusing to listen to a Paleo talk about the 'Palestinian interest'.
Hamas says it has information that elements in Fatah are already organizing marches and protests against the withholding of PA salaries, which have not been paid since the beginning of the month with no payment date in sight.
That shoe on the other foot is beginning to pinch, huh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Imagine the money Isreal could save if the Paloes wiped themselves out.
The money Israel could save? How about the money WE could save? (Not to mention all that unused newspaper space that could carry OTHER news than their whining and mewling.)
The new Hamas government, broke and increasingly isolated, has turned to ordinary people for financial help, launching a fundraising drive on websites and Arab satellite TV stations, a spokesman said Thursday. The appeal, which is sponsored by the Arab League, comes at a time when the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority is not only being shunned by the West, but Hamas leaders are also getting the cold shoulder in some Arab capitals.
Arab governments have been reluctant to make good on pledges of financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, apparently in part because they see Hamas as part of a global Islamic movement that is challenging autocratic Arab regimes. In addition, some Arab countries are reluctant to cross the United States. Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas was to embark on a fundraising tour of five Arab nations on Friday, but was expected to be snubbed by officials in at least two countries, Egypt and Jordan.
By sheer coincidence, Hamastan has borders on both Jordan and Egypt. Who may have good reason to keep Paleos on a very short leash
Other stops include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I know, let's have a bake sale!
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
04/14/2006 0:59
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The words:
Old Mother Hubbard she went to the cupboard to get her poor doggy a bone
But when she got there the cupboard was bare and so the poor doggy had none
The second performance of the Hubbard Saga - commissioned by Trafford Council for Sale Festival - was at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester in October 2001.
The performers were Moorlands Junior School Choir under Pat Quirk, the Owen Wynne Chorale under Owen Wynne and the Sale Festival Orchestra (leader Esther Laing)
#4
Oh an arabic fundraiser! They'll call in their pledges like good muslims - millions and billions of dollars promised; the fundraiser is declared a huge success. And like good muslims, no-one will actually send any money. Still broke Hamistan - but can't you just feeeel the love?
#8
Maybe the left can put together something like a "Concert for Bangladesh", except for Hamas. It could headline acts like The Dixie Chicks and Barbara Streisand could use it to kick off another one of her farewell tours.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said on Thursday they will attend peace talks in Switzerland, surprising diplomats who had taken recent attacks to mean the meeting was off. Repeated suspected rebel attacks on government forces and ethnic violence have killed more than 40 people over the past week, sharply raising fears of a return to civil war.
"The Geneva talks will happen," head of the rebel peace secretariat, S Puleedevan, told Reuters by satellite phone from Kilinochchi, the de facto rebel capital. "But the dates will have to be moved by a bit. We will go once we have met our eastern commanders from April 15 to 22."
Posted by: Fred ||
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France has denied claims it has bombed the strongholds of rebels trying to oust the Chadian President, Idriss Deby.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't nous."
Rebels from the United Front for Change, who accuse Mr Deby of being a dictator, have launched an assault on the capital, N'Djamena. The Government of Chad claims to have thwarted the attack. "The rebel columns have been completely destroyed. The situation is completely under control," Mr Deby told Radio France Internationale (RFI).
Isn't that what they usually say just before the rebels take the capital and hang them from lamp posts?
The rebels accuse French forces based in Chad of bombing their strongholds. However, the French have denied the claim.
"Who? Nous? Certainment non!"
The Chadian Government says the rebels are being supported by neighbouring Sudan and they have been operating out of Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
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An Iraqi businessman linked to Saddam Hussein told a US television network the kidnapping of US journalist Jill Carroll was a mistake and a ransom was paid for her release. Sheikh Sattam al-Gaood, a middleman behind Carroll's release on March 30 and self-proclaimed insurgency leader, told ABC News in an exclusive interview how her release was arranged and why he supports the insurgency in Iraq. "They are defending their country," he said in an interview at his summer house outside Amman, Jordan. "They are an honest resistance. And sometimes they do mistakes."
One of those mistakes was kidnapping Carroll, a 28-year-old freelance journalist mainly working for The Christian Science Monitor, Gaood said. Carroll was abducted in Baghdad on January 7 by an armed group, which shot dead her Iraqi translator and was held hostage for 12 weeks. Gaood, once one of Saddam Hussein's closest business associates, said he used his influence to help free Carroll, even refusing kidnappers' demands for a huge ransom. "There was a demand for eight million dollars," he said.
Instead, at the kidnappers' request, he told ABC News he agreed to arrange payment to widows and orphans tied to the resistance. "We did good donations," he said. "I don't want it to go into the wrong hands, the money."
He did not say how much was given, but says he was willing to arrange payment for as much as one million dollars. Within a few weeks, the kidnappers contacted him saying she was going to be released, and 10 hours later she was freed.
The editor of The Christian Science Monitor said Wednesday he was unaware of any ransom paid by anyone. "While we are grateful for the efforts made by so many people to obtain Jill's release, as of today, with the information we have, neither The Christian Science Monitor nor Jill's family is aware of any evidence to support that claim," Richard Bergenheim said in a statement.
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ABC News, home for thugs, murders, kidnappers, and extortionists.
America's sworn enemies are welcome at ABC News.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 0:53
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And, of course, ABC tried to verify all this stuff to make sure it wasn't all, you know, bullshit?
Thirteen people have been killed and eight wounded in a car bomb attack on a market located in a Shia-dominated Baghdad neighbhourhood, an Interior Ministry official said. The blast occured at 7:45pm (1545 GMT) on Thursday on the outskirts of Baghdad's western Kadhimiyah neighbhourhood, the official said.
Iraq's Shia community has been hit by a surge of attacks in recent weeks in what US officials say is a campaign by the al Qaeda leader in Iraq to draw them into a sectarian civil war. Last week, a triple suicide bombing at a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad killed up to 90 people.
In a separate attack on Thursday, armed men killed the brother of a top Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad on Thursday, members of his Iraqi Islamic Party said. Mahmoud al-Hashimi, brother of Iraqi Islamic Party leader Tariq al-Hashimi, died on Thursday, according to senior party official Ayad al-Samarei. He refused to give further details. Al-Hashimi is being tipped as the speaker of the new parliament, which is scheduled to meet on Monday. The Islamic Party is one the country's main Sunni political organisations.
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STOCKHOLM - Sweden has told the United Nations that its current legal framework does not enable it to imprison Liberias ex-president Charles Taylor if he is convicted of crimes against humanity, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The UN had asked Sweden and several other countries whether they would consider the possibility of imprisoning Taylor if he is convicted. We cant make any commitments at this point... We dont have the appropriate legal framework, Swedish foreign ministry spokesman John Zanchi told AFP.
"And he's ucky."
However, Swedens parliament is due to consider new legislation this summer that would enable the Scandinavian country to take in Taylor, Zanchi said. Under current Swedish law, the country can only assist the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the UN non-permanent courts the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The former Liberian leader and ex-warlord has been indicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges stemming from atrocities committed during Sierra Leones brutal civil war. If the Swedish law is changed, Sweden may at that point reconsider a new request from the UN, Zanchi said.
They'll get around to it, you betcha.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
So he gets to stay in a Swedish prison?
Send Taylor to the filthiest prison in Africa. Let him share a cell with ten other men, sleeping on a concrete floor, all fighting to use the single bucket in the corner that is the toilet.
Maybe then he will think about what he has done, all the children he kidnapped for his army, as soldiers and sex slaves, all those whose hands were cut off, who were forced to bash in the heads of their own parents.
Posted by: john ||
04/14/2006 9:43
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#2
For some reason, unlike "Turkish prison", "Swedish prison" dosen't exactly send chills down my spine...
#7
However, Swedens parliament is due to consider new legislation this summer that would enable the Scandinavian country to take in Taylor
sounds like he's not there...yet. He needs to fall down the stairs. Or use Benin Savan's elevator
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/14/2006 17:12
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Yes John, you're right, unfortunately. Article 19 Article 8 seems a bit odd...
I can't blame the Swedes for not wanting him: I'm trying to imagine somebody offering us a maximum security prisoner to hang onto for life.
Posted by: James ||
04/14/2006 19:42
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KARACHI: The Sindh High Court acquitted on Thursday appellant Sabir Ali Waseem from charges of firing a rocket at Government Commerce College in the limits of Artillery Maidan police station back in 2001. Sabir Ali was awarded an aggregate of 30 years of imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in April 2003. According to the prosecution, the appellant had confessed that he wanted to hit the Sheraton hotel in the vicinity, but missed the target and hit Government Commerce College instead.
He was awarded 10 years imprisonment each on three counts which the court had ordered to be run concurrently. Sabir challenged his conviction and sentence in the Sindh High Court. The anti-terrorism appellate bench of the SHC comprising Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the appellant and state acquitted the appellant from charges through a short order the reason for which would be recorded later.
I'm sure the learned judges can think of some reason for letting him go.
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#3
Apparantly it isn't terrorism to fire a rocket at an American hotel, only at a Government College, so his crime is not terrorism, but merely poor aim.
Iran will ignore renewed international calls to halt uranium enrichment, its president said on Thursday. "Our answer to those who are angry about Iran obtaining the full nuclear cycle is one phrase, we say: Be angry and die of this anger," Ahmadinejad said late on Wednesday, in comments reported by the official IRNA news agency.
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#1
Jerry Corsi, author of ATOMIC IRAN, was on CoasttoCoastAM radio show this early morn wid George Noory - Corsi emphasized that unless the West succeeds in stopping Iran, either diplomatically or militarily, IRAN WILL LIKELY HAVE A WORKING BOMB IN EIGHT MONTHS, and that the world will inevitably face a near term, very high risk of nuclear confrontation and conflict wid no assurances the world's major powers will be able to refrain from pushing the nuke button, nor distinguish between real or imagined enemies once ICBMS fly thru the air. Corsi made it very clear Iran's government, i.e. the Mullahs-MadMoud, are fanatical/radical enough to wilfully induce a deadly confrontation amongst the world's nuke powers, and that MadMoud wants his Apocalypse.
#2
Mahmoud Armagheddon is driving hard towards his goal. He is nuts. He does believe his life goal is to start the carnage that heralds the return of his beloved Mahdi. He is willing to sacrifice all to see his Apocalypse commence.
It's not the bombs he's building that scare me as much as the ones he has purchased. We are only weeks away from some action on his part, not the long months stated otherwise.
New laws making it illegal to glorify terrorism came into force across Britain on Thursday following months of bitter political debate. The Terrorism Act 2006 allows groups or organisations to be banned for glorifying terrorism and distributing publications promoting terrorist acts.
The most controversial element of the act, allowing terror suspects to be detained for up to 28 days instead of 14, will come into force later this year. The law was drafted after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the London transport system last July. It was given greater urgency earlier this year when demonstrators in London condemned the publication in several European newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PTUI PBUH) by calling for those who insulted Islam to be beheaded. The demonstrators also praised the July 7 attacks.
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Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday asserted his country's support for India's permanent membership of expanded United Nations' Security Council (UNSC). "We believe India deserves a seat in the UNSC," Papadopoulos said. "We recognize India's contribution in international affairs," he said while delivering a lecture on "Cyprus as a bridge between India and the European Union."
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Chad on Thursday accused Khartoum of engineering the ongoing military offensive by dissident forces to unseat President Idriss Deby, an allegation echoed in Sudan by the Darfur rebels but denied by the government. "We have always said there was a premeditated aggression from Khartoum against Chad," Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami told AFP. "What we have been witnessing over the past 72 hours is only the continuation of the Khartoum regime's aggressive policies against Chad," he said in Cairo after a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit.
I think Bashir's boyz must have studied foreign policy in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
It's about time someone gave the rebels in southern Sudan more arms and political support.
Personally I think the US should work behind the scenes to get the South African government to take responsibility for their continent, at least the subsaharan part. If South Africa wants to be treated as a world power that would be the place to start.
#3
Besides which, the ANC is in bed with the Islamists in SA, and has consistently voiced support for the various terrorists and thugs in the Middle East, and beyond. The ANC is the worst possible choice for a continent-spanning regional power, at least for America. Might work out nicely for the Red Chinese. Never forget that the African National Congress is made up of hardcore Communists and other assorted nasties.
#4
Yes Sudan is in the North, South Africa is in the south. The US is in the Western Hemisphere and we are able to act around the globe, I don't think the distance is too far for South Africa to show influence. If you are questioning if Sahara is part of sub-sahara africa do a google search and you'll find that half the time maps show it as part of sub sahara africa and the other half show it as not. Basically the line should go through the middle of the Sudan since the south of that nation is non-Islamic and much more to do with the rest of Africa than it does with the Islamic North.
And the ANC and company are fools, I will grant you that, but the opportunity to become the heros of black Africa could be the one inducement to get them to stop playing with the enemy. Nigeria would be a better bet but they've actually got that Islamic/non-Islamic line running right through their nation which would make it far harder.
President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday directed all federal intelligence agencies to investigate the Karachi suicide bombing on Eid Miladun Nabi and bring the people behind it to justice, sources said.
In a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the president expressed firm resolve to fight terrorism. The prime minister briefed the president on his Karachi visit. The president and the prime minister reviewed the overall law and order situation in the country, especially in the context of the terrorist act in Karachi. They expressed the government's determination to punish the culprits. They appealed to the people to show restraint and calm and assist the government in its efforts to deal with the terrorists. The prime minister informed the president about his visit to Karachi and his meetings and discussions with the political leadership.
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Romano Prodi has said he is confident of forming a new Italian government despite allegations from his rival, Silvio Berlusconi, of widespread fraud in the recent general election. "There is nothing to worry about, we are serene," the centre-left leader, who won a razor-thin majority in the elections, was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile Berlusconi, the incument prime minister, who initially demanded a recount of 43,000 contested votes after Prodi won, has called for a wider check of returns from all 60,000 polling stations, as well as more than one million votes deemed invalid. "The result must, and will, change because there has been endless vote rigging in different places, all over Italy," Berlusconi said late on Wednesday after visiting Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Italian president. "Did you think you'd got rid of me?" he asked reporters.
Responding to the call, Prodi accused the prime minister of delaying tactics and told supporters at a victory rally in his home city of Bologna that the media magnate politician should "go home".
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#1
has said he is confident of forming a new Italian government despite allegations from his rival, Silvio Berlusconi, of widespread fraud in the recent general election.
so shouldn't the headline read, Prodi can't form new goverment until fruad investigation complete?
Italy's prime minister-in-waiting, Romano Prodi, yesterday stumbled into his first big row since winning this week's general election when he was quoted as saying he would try to get the European Union to change its approach to Hamas.
The centre-left leader's aides rushed to correct what they said was a mis-translation. But by then he had come under fire from his opponents in Italy, and even the accurate version of his remarks prompted criticism from a Jewish representative.
The left wing of Mr Prodi's broad alliance made big advances in the vote and can block legislation in either chamber of parliament. There was speculation that its influence was already showing up in Mr Prodi's foreign policy after he was quoted by news agencies as having told the Arab satellite channel, Al-Jazeera: "I shall commit myself at the European level to shape a new position with respect to the new Palestinian government. I am looking with great attention at the signs of an opening being made by Hamas."
A spokesman for the right accused Mr Prodi of complicity in "the worst sort of anti-westernism". The remarks had been translated into Italian from the Arabic voiceover and what Mr Prodi actually said was: "Now I'll get to work in an active way in Europe and we shall see the position in future. Beside, there have been openings by Hamas that are very interesting."
He meant it and it didn't take long for him to say it.
Yasha Reibman, the spokesman for the Jewish community in Milan, was unimpressed. "I was expecting a better start," he told the daily Corriere della Sera.
The incident is unlikely to further Mr Prodi's stated aim of building a cordial relationship with Washington and, at the same time, re-aligning Italian foreign policy more with Europe. Two days after official figures showed he had won the election, Mr Prodi had been congratulated by France's president, Jacques Chirac, Spain's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel. But Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, and the US president, George Bush, were waiting for the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to concede defeat.
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At least two people including an elderly woman were killed and four others injured when Janajuddha faction of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) threw bombs into a small gathering at Paka village of Jibannagar in Chuadanga last night.
I sense a shutter gun in their future
Police and witnesses said 10 outlaws led by Badal Roy hurled five homemade bombs into the gathering at a shop at around 9:30pm injuring the six people. Of them, 85-year-old Fatima Khatun and Lal Chand, 45, died on way to a Jessore hospital. Shop owner Sanwar, 34, Lutfor, 24, Arjel, 40, and Moktar were admitted to the hospital in critical condition.
Janajuddha leader Badal made phone calls to a number of local journalists and claimed the responsibility for the attack. He, however, said their target was Fatima Khatun's daughter Nasima Begum who is a Union Parishad member and BNP leader.
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Intelligence agencies have unearthed an assassination plan targeting former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and a federal secretary. Two Afghan nationals entered Pakistan recently to kill Jamali and a federal secretary, government sources told Daily Times. The Afghan nationals are trained saboteurs and have Pakistani national identity cards issued from Khuzdar, Balochistan. They are Azhar Mahmood and Mahmood Khan according to their Pakistani identity cards, sources said.
The intelligence agencies have identified one Ghulam Baloch from Muzaffargarh in Multan area as the Pakistani contact of the alleged militants to coordinate attack. The saboteurs are trained in the use of remote controlled explosive devices, sources said, adding that the criminals planned to blow up their targets vehicles. The government has ordered security measures for the former prime minister and the federal secretary and directed the authorities to arrest the alleged criminals, sources said.
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It is a "factual reality" that beans make you break wind, says South Africa's advertising watchdog.
No! Reeeeeeally?
A TV advert for sweet onions showed a rugby player eating beans that made him smell "stinky". The advert claims that "with sweet onions there are no tears, no burn and definitely no stink".
I kinda like chopped onions in my pinto beans, though I wouldn't ruin them with sweet onions. So where's the conflict?
The country's Dry Bean Producers Organisation complained about the advert on the basis that the "stinky" charge was untrue.
Did they use the same ad agency Phillip Morris used to use?
However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) farted them off has thrown out the charge, saying it is widely known that beans produce gas. "It plays on an objectively determinable factual reality which cannot be denied..." the ASA said on its website.
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#1
Beans and franks farts have an empirical provenance for every bean eater, and are traditionally passed around back and forth between one generation and the next. This can verified in a long history of legume reports dating back to the pre-petard epoch.
#2
The Tale of Abu Hassan, from the unexpurgated Arabian Nights, by Sir Richard Burton.
They recount that in the city of Kaukaban in Yemen there was a man named Abu Hasan of the Fadhli tribe who left the Bedouin life and became a townsman and the wealthiest of merchants. His wife died while both were young, and his friends pressed him to marry again.
Weary of their pressure, Abu Hasan entered into negotiations with the old women who procure matches, and married a woman as beautiful as the moon shining over the sea. To the wedding banquet he invited kith and kin, ulema and fakirs, friends and foes, and all of his acquaintances.
The whole house was thrown open to feasting: There were five different colors of rice, and sherbets of as many more; kid goats stuffed with walnuts, almonds, and pistachios; and a young camel roasted whole. So they ate and drank and made merry.
The bride was displayed in her seven dresses -- and one more -- to the women, who could not take their eyes off her. At last the bridegroom was summoned to the chamber where she sat enthroned. He rose slowly and with dignity from his divan; but in do doing, for he was over full of meat and drink, he let fly a great and terrible fart.
In fear for their lives, all the guests immediately turned to their neighbors and talked aloud, pretending to have heard nothing.
Mortified, Abu Hasan turned away from the bridal chamber and as if to answer a call of nature. He went down to the courtyard, saddled his mare, and rode off, weeping bitterly through the night.
In time he reached Lahej where he found a ship ready to sail for India; so he boarded, arriving ultimately at Calicut on the Malabar coast. Here he met with many Arabs, especially from Hadramaut, who recommended him to the King. This King (who was a Kafir) trusted him and advanced him to the captaincy of his bodyguard. He remained there ten years, in peace and happiness, but finally was overcome with homesickness. His longing to behold his native land was like that of a lover pining for his beloved; and it nearly cost him his life.
Finally he sneaked away without taking leave and made his way to Makalla in Hadramaut. Here he donned the rags of a dervish. Keeping his name and circumstances a secret, he set forth on foot for Kaukaban. He endured a thousand hardships of hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and braved a thousand dangers from lions, snakes, and ghouls.
Drawing near to his old home, he looked down upon it from the hills with brimming eyes, and said to himself, "They might recognize me, so I will wander about the outskirts and listen to what people are saying. May Allah grant that they do not remember what happened."
He listened carefully for seven nights and seven days, until it happened that, as he was sitting at the door of a hut, he heard the voice of a young girl saying, "Mother, tell me what day was I born on, for one of my companions wants to tell my fortune."
The mother answered, "My daughter, you were born on the very night when Abu Hasan farted."
No sooner had the listener heard these words than he rose up from the bench and fled, saying to himself, "Verily my fart has become a date! It will be remembered for ever and ever.
He continued on his way, returning finally to India, where he remained in self exile until he died. May the mercy of Allah be upon him!
#3
McGinty was a man of dignity. His entire family was noted for its dignity, and had been for hundreds of years in their native town.
One day McGinty was standing in the town square speaking with the bishop, the mayor and five silver-haired fellows from Parliament about the new town hall they wanted to build. Most of his friends and neighbors were standing around them, listening as he spoke, for McGinty was also a fine speaker.
And then, as McGinty stretched forth his hand to point to the site, suddenly, without warning, he cut the loudest, smelliest fart anyone had ever encountered. The cheese was so ripe, the bishop's eyes rolled up in his head. The mayor gagged. Several women and one member of Parliament swooned on the spot.
That very afternoon, McGinty packed a single bag and left town, left Ireland entirely. He joined the French Foreign Legion, changing his name to Nadir. He spent 16 years in North Africa, tromping the desert, seldom saying a word. From there, he went to the Yukon, where he lived for eight years in the wilderness, panning for gold. He spent six years in Central America, running guns to the rebels, then went to Katmandu, where he lived on top of a mountain for ten years. Finally he went to India, where he worked with the nuns for ten more years, feeding the hungry and caring for the sick.
Full fifty years went by before McGinty set foot in the land of his birth again. McGinty's plane landed in Dublin and he took his breath of fresh Eire. The old man, now in his nineties, hired a driver to take him home, so that he might see his boyhood home once more before he died.
The cabman stopped in the town square and McGinty got out and looked around. They had built the town hall, and the church now had a fine stone facade. There were a few different names on the signs over the shops, but the town looked much as it had when he left.
"Do y'know this town?" McGinty asked the cabman.
"Aye," said the man. "Been here several times."
"And would y'be knowin' when they put that facade on the church over there?"
"Ah, that's been many years now," the cabman said, thinking hard to recall. "It was before my time. In fact, it couldn'ta been more'n ten, fifteen years after McGinty cut that big fart in the town square!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006 11:26
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#5
I once had a bowl of white raisins on my kitchen table. Every morning on my way out to work, I'd grab a handful and drop them into my mouth. My son would do the same before going to school. One day, the white raisins got small dark spots on them. That day, I could empty a room silently, secretly with a warm sulfer dioxide bomb. When I got home, I asked, and sure enough, my son emptied the study hall with a silent SDB. This is highly classified info, so don't try it at home.
One man was killed and several injured at a Jordanian prison north of Amman on Thursday when Islamist prisoners clashed with police, a security source said. The source said Islamist prisoners took two policemen hostage during the clashes, which erupted at Qafqafa jail when police tried to enter the cells to enforce solitary confinement. A government official said the disturbance had been brought under control, but gave no further details. The security source later said one dead body and a number of injured police and inmates were taken to hospital. It was not immediately clear if the dead man was an inmate or a policeman but pan-Arab Al Arabiya television identified him as a prisoner.
An Islamist prisoner told Al Jazeera satellite station that a 1,000-strong security force had entered the jail to try to kidnap two inmates and fired tear gas when some prisoners put up resistance. He said one inmate had been wounded by a gunshot. Government spokesman Naser Juda said violence erupted when some prisoners tried to stop security forces from searching their cells for drugs and sharp weapons, but made no mention of hostages or casualties.
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NEW YORK: About three dozen of Al Qaeda's worst will likely remain in secret CIA prisons indefinitely, US spy chief John Negroponte said in an interview published Wednesday. "These people are being held. And they're bad actors. And as long as this situation continues, this war on terror continues, I'm not sure I can tell you what the ultimate disposition of those detainees will be," Negroponte told Time magazine, admitting to the existence of a secret system of CIA prisons. Prisoners such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks are likely to remain jailed for a long time.
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#1
Pump em for intel, than kill em
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/14/2006 0:55
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QUETTA: Suspected tribal rebels fired at least 10 rockets at a check post in Dera Bugti and also blew up a water supply line in Pir Koh. The rockets targeted the FC Fort and the Gori Bill check post, but fell outside the fort. No loss of life or property was reported, but the army retaliated. In the second incident, suspected rebels blew up a water supply line that resulted in the suspension of water supply to the Pir Koh area. The security forces also defused two landmines in Pir Koh.
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RAMALLAH: Masked gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Thursday briefly occupied the Palestinian prime minister's West Bank offices to demand benefits from the cash-strapped Hamas government. Around two dozen militants forced their way into the downtown building in the middle of a video-conference linking senior civil servants based in the West Bank town with their counterparts in Gaza City, while storming the transport ministry at the same time, security sources and witnesses told AFP. Although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, new prime minister Ismail Haniya has had to operate out of Gaza as a result of travel restrictions imposed on the new Hamas-led administration.
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#2
According to Khaleej Times the gunnies stormed the Transport Ministry to demand resumption of free cab fare for the widows/kiddies of suicide bombers...
#4
Seafarious, it's not free cab fare, but free taxi licenses. The deal has always been the gunnies get several hundred taxi licenses each that they sell for a couple of thousand bucks each. It's the perks they're demanding. The ones they are used to and to which they are entitled.
Troops were deployed in Karachi on Thursday as trouble broke out before funerals for Sunni Muslim leaders who were among 60 people killed in a suicide blast two days ago. An estimated 50,000 people, a vast majority of them young men and teenagers, attended the funeral prayers and burial of the top religious leaders on MA Jinnah Road on Thursday evening. Ten top leaders of the Sunni Tehreek religious party, including its patron-in-chief Abbas Qadri, chief Iftikhar Bhatti, Akram Qadri and Dr Abdul Qadeer, were among those killed in the blast. Police and paramilitary soldiers were also deployed in strength around Qadris home. Regular troops paraded along major roads before taking up positions at intersections.
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Ukraine's estranged "orange revolution" allies have signed an agreement in principle to reunite in a coalition following parliamentary elections. The key question of who will become the next prime minister is still undecided. "We declare our intention to create a coalition of democratic forces," read the framework agreement penned by President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and the Socialists.
The document lays out steps the trio will take on their way to formally creating a majority coalition in parliament after the newly-elected chamber convenes for its first session. The three blocs together will control 243 seats in the 450-member Upper Rada legislature following a March 26 parliamentary ballot. But it remains unclear whether Ms Tymoshenko will return to head the government. "Let's not name any names... everything in due course," Roman Bezsmertnyi, a top Our Ukraine official, said.
The fiery "orange revolution" heroine split with the Ukrainian President after he fired her as premier last September. She has demanded a return to the premiership in any union after she drubbed Mr Yushchenko's party in the March ballot. Analysts say Mr Yushchenko opposes Ms Tymoshenko's premiership because he does not trust the ambitious and charismatic politician.
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Clashes between the Sudanese army and opposition forces in the country's east saw eight people killed, the army said in a statement Wednesday. The incident saw forces loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement, from Darfur, western Sudan, team up with the Beja Congress, from the east, to attack army positions in eastern Sudan, according to an army statement run by SUNA, the official news agency. Brigadier Osman Mohammad Al Aghbash said six civilians and two people from the attacking groups died.
But no gummint troops?
The clashes are the first the army has contended that groups from the two areas teamed up to fight the central government.
They've got tentative peace in the south, rebellion in the west, rebellion in the east, and rebellion in the north. But really, it's not their fault. It's those Zionists, coming in and stirring things up in an otherwise peaceful land.
The opposition forces "attacked army positions in Wagar and Tinay, simultaneously," destroyed a truck, burnt down a police station and knocked down telecommunications equipment, the statement said. Troops, with the support of the air forces, pushed back the attackers.
And took no casualties in the process of having a truck blown up and having a cop shoppe burnt down?
The Beja Congress is a loose alliance of tribesmen and disgruntled Democratic Unionist Party elements that seeks a greater share of resources for national wealth and development for their region. JEM emerged during the conflict in Darfur.
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#1
Ya, man. It be 127 degrees here and I got da Russian tanker helmet on my head. It look good though.
Posted by: Fightin B. Hard ||
04/14/2006 15:42
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Confessed 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui has lashed out at his own defence team after taking the witness stand in his death-penalty trial. "You have put your vested interest in keeping this case in your hands, above my interest to save my life," Moussaoui said on Thursday in response to questions from defence lawyer Gerald Zerkin.
Zerkin had asked Moussaoui if he believed his court-appointed defence team was in a conspiracy to kill him. Moussaoui responded that they had been engaged in "criminal non-assistance". Specifically, he said, the lawyers should have sought a change of venue from Virginia because jurors there were more likely to give the death penalty because of the proximity of the Pentagon, one of the targets of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
One of the first motions Moussaoui filed when he won the right to represent himself in 2002 was seeking a change of venue. Moussaoui also said he no longer wanted to be executed as the death penalty was not in line with Islamic teaching, but doubted that his testimony held any sway with the jurors considering his sentence.
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Moussaoui also said he no longer wanted to be executed as the death penalty was not in line with Islamic teaching,
Unless, of course, you're an infidel. Funny how many people who are suddenly caught are all the sudden against the death penalty. And, why in the world would he say these things right after laughing at the Navy witness yesterday and all of his recent outbursts about more 9/11's? Maybe he is trying for the insanity plea. Me? I'm beginning to wonder if we should rule Islam itself as insanity.
Posted by: BA ||
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The United States has frozen the funds of jailed Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakar Bashir and three other members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant network.
The Treasury Department, acting on a presidential order, has officially froze the assets of the four Indonesian men and prohibited Americans from conducting any transactions with them. A Treasury statement says the Government will also join other countries, including Australia, in seeking to have the men's names added to a United Nations list of terrorists tied to Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2006
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Britain and the United States announced that four Sudanese were named for United Nations sanctions over war crimes in Darfur, but Russia and China signalled disapproval. The four, reduced from a longer British list, are one Sudanese government official, one pro-government militia member and two rebel leaders, UN diplomats said.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, told reporters on Wednesday that a 48-hour silence procedure kicked in to secure required unanimous approval by all 15 council members of the list of four deemed to be impeding the peace process and violating international human rights law. The list was submitted more than a year after the council adopted Resolution 1591, which authorises measures against people committing atrocities or undermining peace efforts in Sudan's western region. Bolton said the fact that only four people were named did not mean that others would not be considered. "The investigation and consideration of other individuals continue," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
FORMER Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has produced a bizarre home video to show the world his alleged mistreatment at the hands of the US military.
TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time. 
BAGRAM, Afghanistan A computer drive sold openly Wednesday at a bazaar outside the U.S. air base here holds what appears to be a trove of potentially sensitive American intelligence data, including the names, photographs and telephone numbers of Afghan spies informing on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Cheeta the chimp, star of a dozen ''Tarzan'' movies in the 1930s and 1940s, celebrated his 74th birthday with sugar-free cake. Although healthy and active, Cheeta is diabetic. ''He had a good time. The party went real good,'' said keeper Dan Westfall, operator of the primate sanctuary Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes or CHEETA.
We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.
BERLIN - Kidnappers of two German engineers seized in Iraq 11 weeks ago are seeking a ransom of 12 million dollars, the news magazine Focus reported on Friday. The sum was conveyed to the German Foreign Ministry by Iraqi mediators working to obtain the mens release, the magazine quoted sources in the security services as saying. A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the report.
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti police have arrested a member of the ruling Al Sabah family with a large drugs haul, including at least 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of cocaine, newspapers reported on Friday. Al Qabas newspaper quoted unnamed security sources as saying the prince, whose name was not revealed, also had 120 kilogrammes (264 pounds) of hashish. 
AHMEDABAD - Rival Muslim groups clashed in a town in western India on Friday injuring eight people, including a police officer, and set fire to a local Islamic school, police said. The trouble began when some Shia Muslims objected to the presence of people from the Sunni community outside a mosque in Kalol town in the western state of Gujarat. Several houses and a madrasa were set ablaze before police fired teargas to disperse the rioters, a government official said. The situation is under control, but we are maintaining a strict vigil in the areas, the district administrator D.H. Brahmbhatt said, adding several people had been arrested.
Two British soldiers have suffered minor injuries in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. A spokeswoman said the pair, and a local person, were hurt in an incident in Lashka Gar, the Helmand provincial capital, in the south of the country. Local authorities have confirmed that a suicide car bomber drove into a military convoy. 
At least three people have been injured in two explosions inside the Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) in the Indian capital, Delhi, police say. The chief cleric of the mosque, Imam Bukhari, told the BBC that the blasts occurred inside the complex . It is not clear what caused the blasts which came shortly after Friday prayers, mosque officials say. 
One person has been killed and at least 12 others injured by knife-wielding attackers at three churches in northern Egypt, police have said. The attacks happened in Coptic churches in the city of Alexandria. The simultaneous incidents took place during Friday Mass, and the attackers fled immediately afterwards. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims outside the churches, the Associated Press news agency reported. Hundreds of Christians had gathered outside the churches in protest at the attacks, the agency said. 
Hundreds of people have fled their homes in central Nigeria after three days of communal clashes. The fighting in Plateau State has left at least 25 people dead, according to unconfirmed reports. State Information Commissioner Yakubu Datti would only confirm the deaths of two policemen and a soldier during efforts to restore order. 
Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena on Thursday. Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the 
A suicide car bomber attacked a police station north of Baghdad Friday, wounding at least seven people when he detonated his explosives, he said. The bomber hit about 7:15 a.m. in the city of Mosul, which is 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. Five civilians were among those wounded, police Brig. Abdul-Hamid al-Jibouri said.
A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base -- including the Social Security numbers of four American generals. This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files. The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.
Military sources said Atwah was killed along with six other Islamic radicals in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in the North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday.
The United States has refused to confirm reports of a senior al Qaeda operative being killed in Pakistan.
A senior member of Al Qaeda who was wanted for his part in the bombings of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 has been killed in an airstrike on a compound in Pakistan's restive tribal region of North Waziristan, two senior security officials said today.
In less than a week, two more tribesmen were shot dead Thursday by suspected Islamic militants on suspicions of spying on them for the US troops, said intelligence sources. Armed men in a car fired on two tribesmen in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal agency, and fled, leaving them dead, sources told KUNA. Few days back, another tribesman was killed in neighboring North Waziristan tribal agency on the same charges.
The US army said Thursday that two American soldiers were killed in separate incidents in eastern Baghdad and in the City of Talafar in Mosul. The US army said in a statement that a soldier belonging to the Multi-National Forces was killed in Baghdad on Wednesday "when he was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol east of Baghdad." Another statement for the army said that an American soldier passed away on Tuesday from wounds he had sustained during a non-combat operation in an operations base near Talafar. The two statements did not give any further details but indicated that the two incidents are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said Thursday that up to 118 armed men were arrested for suspicions of their involvement in terror acts in several areas, such as Talafar and Fallujah. According to a statement issued by the Iraqi government, the army forces arrested 68 terrorists in the city of Talafar and 20 others in Fallujah. It added that 15 other terrorists were arrested and was found in their possession different kinds of weapons. Another terrorist was arrested in Al-Karada area in central Baghdad, the statement noted. In Kirkuk, three terrorists were arrested during a joint operation between the interior ministry forces and the army.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government is willing to recognise Israel if the latter withdraws fully from West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera.net has reliably learnt. Sources close to Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, described the Hamas decision as a "significant change in policy".
Iranian police are poised to launch a fresh pre-summer crackdown on women disrespecting the Islamic dress code, a press report said yesterday. Unfortunately we see some immodestly and inappropriately dressed women who violate the rights of others, the hardline Jomhuri Islami newspaper quoted Tehrans police chief as saying. There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values, Commander Morteza Talai said, adding the clampdown will start on April 21.
An Egyptian prosecutor yesterday froze the assets of the businessman who owned the ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February with the loss of more than 1,000 lives, the state news agency MENA said. Socialist Prosecutor Gaber Reihan, whose post dates from the nationalization period of the 1960s, said he was freezing the assets of Mamdouh Ismail because a report on the ferry disaster showed he committed serious violations of safety regulations. 
JMB chief 
Hamas has intimated that the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, along with "familiar symbols of the previous Palestinian Authority," is emptying the coffers of the new Palestinian government. 
The new Hamas government, broke and increasingly isolated, has turned to ordinary people for financial help, launching a fundraising drive on websites and Arab satellite TV stations, a spokesman said Thursday. The appeal, which is sponsored by the Arab League, comes at a time when the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority is not only being shunned by the West, but Hamas leaders are also getting the cold shoulder in some Arab capitals. 
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said on Thursday they will attend peace talks in Switzerland, surprising diplomats who had taken recent attacks to mean the meeting was off. Repeated suspected rebel attacks on government forces and ethnic violence have killed more than 40 people over the past week, sharply raising fears of a return to civil war. 
France has denied claims it has bombed the strongholds of rebels trying to oust the Chadian President, Idriss Deby.
An Iraqi businessman linked to Saddam Hussein told a US television network the kidnapping of US journalist 
Thirteen people have been killed and eight wounded in a car bomb attack on a market located in a Shia-dominated Baghdad neighbhourhood, an Interior Ministry official said. The blast occured at 7:45pm (1545 GMT) on Thursday on the outskirts of Baghdad's western Kadhimiyah neighbhourhood, the official said.
STOCKHOLM - Sweden has told the United Nations that its current legal framework does not enable it to imprison Liberias ex-president Charles Taylor if he is convicted of crimes against humanity, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court acquitted on Thursday appellant Sabir Ali Waseem from charges of firing a rocket at Government Commerce College in the limits of Artillery Maidan police station back in 2001. Sabir Ali was awarded an aggregate of 30 years of imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in April 2003. According to the prosecution, the appellant had confessed that he wanted to hit the Sheraton hotel in the vicinity, but missed the target and hit Government Commerce College instead.
New laws making it illegal to glorify terrorism came into force across Britain on Thursday following months of bitter political debate. The Terrorism Act 2006 allows groups or organisations to be banned for glorifying terrorism and distributing publications promoting terrorist acts.
Chad on Thursday accused Khartoum of engineering the ongoing military offensive by dissident forces to unseat President Idriss Deby, an allegation echoed in Sudan by the Darfur rebels but denied by the government. "We have always said there was a premeditated aggression from Khartoum against Chad," Foreign Minister 
President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday directed all federal intelligence agencies to investigate the Karachi suicide bombing on Eid Miladun Nabi and bring the people behind it to justice, sources said. 
At least two people including an elderly woman were killed and four others injured when Janajuddha faction of 
Intelligence agencies have unearthed an assassination plan targeting former prime minister 
It is a "factual reality" that beans make you break wind, says South Africa's advertising watchdog. 
One man was killed and several injured at a Jordanian prison north of Amman on Thursday when Islamist prisoners clashed with police, a security source said. The source said Islamist prisoners took two policemen hostage during the clashes, which erupted at Qafqafa jail when police tried to enter the cells to enforce solitary confinement. A government official said the disturbance had been brought under control, but gave no further details. The security source later said one dead body and a number of injured police and inmates were taken to hospital. It was not immediately clear if the dead man was an inmate or a policeman but pan-Arab Al Arabiya television identified him as a prisoner. 
QUETTA: Suspected tribal rebels fired at least 10 rockets at a check post in Dera Bugti and also blew up a water supply line in Pir Koh. The rockets targeted the FC Fort and the Gori Bill check post, but fell outside the fort. No loss of life or property was reported, but the army retaliated. In the second incident, suspected rebels blew up a water supply line that resulted in the suspension of water supply to the Pir Koh area. The security forces also defused two landmines in Pir Koh.
RAMALLAH: Masked gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Thursday briefly occupied the Palestinian prime minister's West Bank offices to demand benefits from the cash-strapped Hamas government. Around two dozen militants forced their way into the downtown building in the middle of a video-conference linking senior civil servants based in the West Bank town with their counterparts in Gaza City, while storming the transport ministry at the same time, security sources and witnesses told AFP. Although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, new prime minister Ismail Haniya has had to operate out of Gaza as a result of travel restrictions imposed on the new Hamas-led administration.
Troops were deployed in Karachi on Thursday as trouble broke out before funerals for Sunni Muslim leaders who were among 60 people killed in a suicide blast two days ago. An estimated 50,000 people, a vast majority of them young men and teenagers, attended the funeral prayers and burial of the top religious leaders on MA Jinnah Road on Thursday evening. Ten top leaders of the 
Ukraine's estranged "orange revolution" allies have signed an agreement in principle to reunite in a coalition following parliamentary elections. The key question of who will become the next prime minister is still undecided. "We declare our intention to create a coalition of democratic forces," read the framework agreement penned by President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and the Socialists. 
Clashes between the Sudanese army and opposition forces in the country's east saw eight people killed, the army said in a statement Wednesday. The incident saw forces loyal to the 
The United States has frozen the funds of jailed Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakar Bashir and three other members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant network. 
Britain and the United States announced that four Sudanese were named for United Nations sanctions over war crimes in Darfur, but Russia and China signalled disapproval. The four, reduced from a longer British list, are one Sudanese government official, one pro-government militia member and two rebel leaders, UN diplomats said.
