The ruling Zanu PF party is printing thousands of 'MDC T-Shirts' to be worn by Zanu PF thugs in order to spark trouble during the nationwide mass confrontation planned by the opposition at the onset of the cold season. Zimdaily unveiled the covert plan as the Zimbabwean army units begin deploying across the country in preparation for the planned opposition protest.
Government officials said soldiers in barracks around Harare were moving weapons and deploying in other cities and towns. Zimdaily heard that the ruling party was intent on using its "Green Bombers", spotting MDC t-shirts, to stir mayhem during the protests and give the army room to use live ammunition against unarmed civilians.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has insisted the protest should be a "peaceful democratic mass confrontation."
Officials said the entire Zimbabwean army had been mobilised and officers' leave cancelled. The MDC raised the stakes weekend during a first leg of nationwide rallies by insisting that it would press ahead with its plans. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was ready to go to jail or die for the liberation of Zimbabwe against Mugabe's marauding tyranny.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa warned yesterday that the planned demonstrations, illegal under the country's strict security laws, would be met with "the full wrath of the law." Chinamasa said this means the opposition has threatened to remove Mugabe from office by unconstitutional means. "The state cannot take such threats lightly," he told Zimdaily yesterday. The justice minister said the opposition's call for Zimbabweans to take to the streets meant they were bent on a campaign of violence and anarchy against the government intended to result in the overthrow of Mugabe's office. The opposition has promised only peaceful protests.
The army said it would not tolerate the protests because they were likely to turn violent. Mugabe warned the MDC that it had no chance of pushing him out of power. He said the opposition would rule Zimbabwe only "over our dead bodies" and said "it will never happen." The Zimbabwe Defence Forces warned the MDC that it was "standing ready" to resist against violence. But the MDC has called upon the army to disobey "illegal orders" to suppress the will of the people.
Starting yesterday, members of the police force and the army have started jogging across the city centre, clad in white jogger shorts and white vests with some of them brandishing firearms. Residents feel intimidated by the gun toting soldiers.
People have been panic buying this week amid fears of a mass shutdown. Zimdaily understands soldiers and police were deployed in populous suburbs on Saturday in what a spokesperson said was a bid to "reassure peace-loving Zimbabweans that the uniformed forces have the capacity to deal with anarchy, sabotage and banditry." But Tsvangirai said: "If the people of Zimbabwe are going to be intimidated by army or police presence then they must accept the status quo for ever."
Zimdaily heard the opposition was looking at ways to counter the plan which could include a call on all protesters not to wear any MDC regalia.
The ruling Zanu PF party is printing thousands of 'MDC T-Shirts' to be worn by Zanu PF thugs in order to spark trouble during the nationwide mass confrontation planned by the opposition at the onset of the cold season. Zimdaily unveiled the covert plan as the Zimbabwean army units begin deploying across the country in preparation for the planned opposition protest.
Government officials said soldiers in barracks around Harare were moving weapons and deploying in other cities and towns. Zimdaily heard that the ruling party was intent on using its "Green Bombers", spotting MDC t-shirts, to stir mayhem during the protests and give the army room to use live ammunition against unarmed civilians.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has insisted the protest should be a "peaceful democratic mass confrontation."
Officials said the entire Zimbabwean army had been mobilised and officers' leave cancelled. The MDC raised the stakes weekend during a first leg of nationwide rallies by insisting that it would press ahead with its plans. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was ready to go to jail or die for the liberation of Zimbabwe against Mugabe's marauding tyranny.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa warned yesterday that the planned demonstrations, illegal under the country's strict security laws, would be met with "the full wrath of the law." Chinamasa said this means the opposition has threatened to remove Mugabe from office by unconstitutional means. "The state cannot take such threats lightly," he told Zimdaily yesterday. The justice minister said the opposition's call for Zimbabweans to take to the streets meant they were bent on a campaign of violence and anarchy against the government intended to result in the overthrow of Mugabe's office. The opposition has promised only peaceful protests.
The army said it would not tolerate the protests because they were likely to turn violent. Mugabe warned the MDC that it had no chance of pushing him out of power. He said the opposition would rule Zimbabwe only "over our dead bodies" and said "it will never happen." The Zimbabwe Defence Forces warned the MDC that it was "standing ready" to resist against violence. But the MDC has called upon the army to disobey "illegal orders" to suppress the will of the people.
Starting yesterday, members of the police force and the army have started jogging across the city centre, clad in white jogger shorts and white vests with some of them brandishing firearms. Residents feel intimidated by the gun toting soldiers.
People have been panic buying this week amid fears of a mass shutdown. Zimdaily understands soldiers and police were deployed in populous suburbs on Saturday in what a spokesperson said was a bid to "reassure peace-loving Zimbabweans that the uniformed forces have the capacity to deal with anarchy, sabotage and banditry." But Tsvangirai said: "If the people of Zimbabwe are going to be intimidated by army or police presence then they must accept the status quo for ever."
Zimdaily heard the opposition was looking at ways to counter the plan which could include a call on all protesters not to wear any MDC regalia.
The newly elected president of the Moslem Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) says that "Palestine and the world in general, will be a better place without Zionism". In an exclusive interview with IRNA on Tuesday, Ml.Ihsaan Hendricks said that the MJC as the leading Moslem organization in South Africa, recognize that "the Zionists are the occupiers of the and of Palestine".
"We, who within the South African context, have rejected apartheid, similarly express ourselves vise vies the Zionist occupation," he said.
Wonder how the feel about their fellow non-muslim South Africans?
Denouncing the policies of the Zionists in ignoring the realities of the Palestinian politics, especially following the victory of Hamas in the late Palestinian elections, Ml. Hendricks underlined that "it is not the Zionist's right to dictate the terms to their victims". The president of MJC also criticized the Western powers for not crediting Hamas for its victory in the elections inside Palestine, saying that, by doing so "they have fallen short in appreciating the very democratic principles that they celebrate so mush [sic] in the West".
Unrepetentant terrorists elected to office are still terrorists.
"Now that Hamas has come up with the victory through the democratic process, it is irrelevant how the West view Hamas in this particular moment and time", He said.
As long as the West is giving money, it's relevant.
"The west has been very unfair with Hamas and now, they are using their financial muscles to squeeze them into silence and inevitably the Palestinian people will suffer the most" he said. "The Moslem community has now more than ever before a financial obligation to help the Palestinian people and to support Hamas and the new government of Palestine". If the west does not want to give the Palestinians the contributions that belongs to them, therefore it is the obligation of the Moslem world to contribute, he further said.
"the contributions that belongs to them" - they got the 'victim' routine down pat...
He warned that Palestine should not be treated as a "charitable case" and that Moslems must support the "aspirations" of the Palestinian people.
They're a charitable case, and a basket-case.
Commending the South African parliamentarians for calling for the non-proliferation of the Middle East, the president of MJC said that such a regime will not be established unless Israel is pressed by the international community to accept equal responsibilities.
"That is something that unfortunately we don't see", he said.
Not until you guys give up trying to wipe them off the map.
"The idea that Israel has never signed the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) does not mean that the world does not have a moral responsibility in addressing the nuclear developments in the state of Israel", he added. "We need hard core debate in the international community about the nuclear capabilities of Israel".
Hendricks Praised the Islamic Republic of Iran for setting up an international conference to discuss the Palestinian issues in continuation of its efforts in promoting the Palestinian cause.
"It will be important for us to listen attentively to the Palestinian people and the newly formed government and the Hamas and it is important that we respond to the objectives that they are clearly setting up for their people", he said. "Freedom loving people have a moral obligation to remain firm and committed in our support for the struggle of the Palestinian people for the liberation and the freedom of Palestine".
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it was not worried about Iran's Persian Gulf military exercise, saying Tehran does not pose any threat to its neighbors.
Slightly misleading title in the IRNA article...
"It is not the first time they have launched military exercises," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference. "We do not believe that they are a threat to any of their neighbors."
He's referring to the execise, not the concept of Iran getting nukes.
I thought he was engaged in some wishful thinking ...
The Saudi foreign minister called for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction. "We don't see a danger in Iran acquiring nuclear energy science for peaceful purposes," he said. "The best policy is not to expand the number of states that own weapons of mass destruction and to end the acquisition of such weapons in the region."
Iranian Armed Forces test-fired successfully high precision anti-aircraft the fastest surface-to-sea destructive missiles against warships in the ongoing 'Great Prophet (PBUH)' military exercise on Tuesday.
"The speed of the missile is to the extent that no radar can detect it and its high speed protects it completely from being targeted in case of being detected by other warning systems," Commodore Mohammad Ibrahim Dehqani said. He said that Misaq missile can be fired from man's shoulder and is capable of hitting air targets. Its smart warhead protects it from being hit by any other weapon ahead of accomplishing its mission. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) naval gunboats and vessels of the regular Army are equipped with Misaq high precision anti-aircraft missiles.
In the meantime, Kowsar, the second missile which was test-fired on Tuesday is a surface-to-sea missile with high veracity and capable of being fired from coasts or aboard vessels to destroy warships. Dehqani said that Kowsar has extraordinary advanced fire control system (FCS) which overcomes any electronic jamming.
"Its smart warhead leads it to the target and helps the missile to avoid any electronic jam in the air and it also manages to escape from being hit."
The Great Prophet (PBUH) military exercise in the southern territorial waters of the Persian Gulf will continue until Thursday.
Burglars will be allowed to escape without punishment under new instructions sent to all police forces. Police have been told they can let them off the threat of a court appearance and instead allow them to go with a caution. The same leniency will be shown to criminals responsible for more than 60 other different offences, ranging from arson through vandalism to sex with underage girls. But speeding? Haul 'em in. Need the revenue, dontca know.
New rules sent to police chiefs by the Home Office set out how seriously various crimes should be regarded, and when offenders who admit to them should be sent home with a caution. A caution counts as a criminal record but means the offender does not face a court appearance which would be likely to end in a fine, a community punishment or jail.
#1
So if I'm a British home owner and I forget to turn in my pistol and then when some bloke breaks into my home, I accidently discharge said weapon in the direction of the burglar's head - do they let me off with a warning?
#2
So each Islamo-fanatic gets one shot at arson without risking jail or fine? Just a note on their previously-unblemished record? Lovely. Scrappleface may as well shut down.
SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) -- At first, piles of skinned animals, mostly foxes and coyotes, turned up on the edges of dirt roads in this semi-rural community outside Ann Arbor.
Though gruesome, they looked like little more than the work of a sloppy trapper too lazy to properly dispose of the carcasses.
Things took a more shocking turn on March 16, when what appeared to be someone's pet was found along with more skinned coyotes. The Rottweiler had been decapitated and its feet were bound with duct tape.
Since then, eight more dead dogs, including three without heads, have been discovered by residents and investigators with the Humane Society of Huron Valley.
Despite a reward that has swelled to at least $18,000 with donations from community members, officials have so far been unable to determine even who the dogs belonged to.
The mysterious dog deaths -- now being investigated separately from the wild animal carcasses -- have rattled this picturesque Washtenaw County township, dominated by empty fields and wooded preserves and dotted with old, red barns.
Residents are keeping a close eye on their pets, and some have voiced fears that whoever is capable of killing and mutilating dogs is a danger to humans as well.
The community's outrage was on display recently on Vreeland Road, near the site where a medium-sized yellow dog, thought to be some kind of terrier, was found March 22.
"You will be caught! U will be punished U will Burn in Hell by God," read a sign nailed to a tree.
Township resident Kim Hart said she fears Duke, her 2-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, may have fallen victim to the dog killer or killers. He has been missing since February 16.
"There's one really, really disturbed person out there, or a couple of disturbed people," said Hart, 33. "I'm hoping, obviously, that he doesn't have my dog."
Officials initially believed that the dead dogs may have gotten caught in traps, but as more dogs have been discovered, that seems less likely, said Tanya Hilgendorf, the Humane Society's executive director.
The nine dogs include three Rottweilers and three pit bulls. Hilgendorf noted that while both kinds of dogs can make good pets, they also are considered "bully breeds" and can be common "among young men who probably have aggressive tendencies." She declined to say whether that was considered significant to the investigation.
The remaining dogs are a terrier, a Labrador mix and a cocker spaniel.
Hilgendorf said none of the dogs bears signs that they were used in dogfighting and it's not clear whether they are from the area.
Investigators have not matched any of the dogs with those on the Humane Society's missing list, which takes reports from all of Washtenaw County. Hilgendorf said it's hard to draw any conclusions from that, since the decapitations, as well as decomposition, makes identifying the dogs difficult.
If they are being brought in from somewhere else, Superior Township would make a good place to drop off evidence of illicit activity. The 36-square-mile township of about 11,000 people is a rural oasis surrounded by rapid development. However, whoever dumped the dogs made little effort to hide them, dumping them on the roadside.
Willful and malicious infliction of injury to animals, including killing, is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Until anyone is charged with the crimes, Hart is taking no chances with her remaining dog, 10-year-old Daisy, who is being kept on a cable.
"I don't want to take a chance of anything happening and somebody just trying to grab her," Hart said. "I'm just very protective, and this is exactly why."
#2
Is there any possibility that these might be jihadi field experience runs for how to do decapitations? Maybe not-these acts might just have been done by a run-of-the-mill American sicko-but the bound feet sure sound odd...
#6
While I share Jules' concern, my bet is that one sick, sociopathic individual is doing this. He's young, white, American, male, outwardly normal-appearing, underemployed, with a history of minor encounters with the law. He has never had a girlfriend and may live with a parent. And unless he's caught, he'll end up doing this to people. I'm very worried.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006 23:32
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#7
decapitations = head shots (for sure on Rotts) , don't want them to recover bulletts, and doesn't want o get hurt either
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 23:59
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The bizarre scuffle Wednesday between Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and an unnamed U.S. Capitol Police officer is winning the certifiable nutbag spirited congresswoman few new friends in her caucus. In fact, some Democrats are trying to distance themselves from her.
McKinney has been aggressively publicizing the incident, calling press conferences on each of the past two business days and even attracting a mention on the front page of The New York Times, something that the dozens of House and Senate Democrats combined couldnt match when they unveiled their homeland-security plan last week. Ouch.
Now, with McKinney facing a possible arrest warrant, the media frenzy is set only to escalate. The U.S. Capitol Police referred the issue to the U.S. District Attorneys office for prosecution yesterday.
All of the attention has some Democrats concerned that McKinney is drawing the limelight away from their policy goals and Republicans ethical missteps to focus on a momentary, disputed encounter in a Capitol Hill hallway. Theres been a lot of eye-rolling, said an aide to a moderate Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity. The national attention its been getting has been unfortunate. Its becoming a distraction.
A Democratic strategist concurred. This isnt the view of Democrats that we want to project in the tough races, one of victims and race-baiting, the strategist said.
McKinney often elicits strong opinions, even within her own caucus. She has a history of making controversial statements that delight progressives while irking moderates, yet even some of the caucuss more progressive members have had disagreements with her.
She and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) no longer speak, not even to exchange greetings when encountering each other in the Capitol hallways, said two House Democratic sources. Pelosi twice turned down McKinneys request to regain her seniority after she was defeated and then reelected in 2002 and 2004. McKinney first came to Congress in 1992. Finally, Nancy made a smart decision. Although putting her in charge of a committee could be pure comedy gold....
McKinney spokesman Coz Carson said his boss is apparently off her meds an effective member of Congress. Shes a gutsy leader who gets out in front of important issues, he said. She demonstrates bold and responsible leadership for the people who elected her to office.
They're all crazy, too.
McKinney raised some eyebrows when she attended hearings of the select committee on Hurricane Katrina even after Democratic leaders had decided that only three Democrats Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Bill Jefferson (La.) and Charlie Melancon (La.) would participate. 'Cause we all know that her district was especially hard hit.
At her news conference Friday, organizers originally expected to have members of Congress join McKinney in a show of support. None ultimately appeared, although Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) sent a statement saying that the most responsible and useful course for all involved would be to seek a resolution that would be satisfactory to both parties. Sounds like her fellow Congresscritters think she's guilty as sin...
Meanwhile, Republicans have had a field day with the allegations. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) called the incident in which McKinney allegedly struck the officer after he stopped her at a security checkpoint disgraceful and horrible. McKinney has said the officer inappropriately touched her. I recognize that there are 435 members and I look like a staffer sometimes an intern and sometimes memory fails, said McHenry, who is the youngest member of Congress. And anyway, I dont think its smart for any member to tussle with a Capitol Police officer. Theyre well-trained. McHenry and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) plan to introduce a resolution today to show appreciation for the Capitol Police.
Other members were more willing to give McKinney the benefit of the doubt. Its a question of fact and whether the officer put his hand on her first or whether he asked her to stop first and asked for ID. The facts will determine who was in the right and who was in the wrong, said Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.). I would be offended and upset if [an officer] put his hands on me prior to asking for ID. It's pretty sad if this is the most vigorous defense you can get out of your co-workers.
A House Democratic aide sided with McKinney. The notion that they would charge her is just beyond ludicrous, regardless of what happened. It sounds like a misunderstanding. She clearly wasnt intending to assault a police officer. "Is she hiring? Can you hand her my resume?"
Cynthia just assumed that she was so important that she doesn't need to follow the same rules that everyone else does. There are any number of people like that.
#1
I'd really hate to see McKinney given the boot; she fills a vital role as the perfect poster child for everything that's gone horribly wrong with the Democratic Party in the last 40 years.
Love that picture, by the way. It captures her subtle mix of stupidity and derangement.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/04/2006 18:14
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#2
I believe a multi-party system is critical to the health of this country. For their own well-being, and for our country's, the Dems need to move away from a-holes like mckinney. Don't let her get away with this crapola. We'll all be better off, and America will be stronger if we don't kowtow to this sort of stuff.
#3
She and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) no longer speak, not even to exchange greetings when encountering each other in the Capitol hallways, said two House Democratic sources. Pelosi twice turned down McKinneys request to regain her seniority after she was defeated and then reelected in 2002 and 2004. McKinney first came to Congress in 1992.
TEHRAN, Iran - A top Iranian military official said Tuesday the country can now defend itself against any invasion originating from outside the region a clear reference to the United States as it tested a second new radar-avoiding missile. That and $5 can get you a box of chocolates.
The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control and searching systems, state-run television reported. I doubt it does frequency hopping so can most likely be jammed.
It said the new missile, called Kowsar after the name of a river in paradise, was a medium-range weapon that Iran had the capability to mass-produce. It also asserted that the Kowsar's guidance system could not be scrambled You wanna bet on that?, and it had been designed to sink ships.
Shortly after the test, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned that Iran was now able to "confront any extra-regional invasion," referring to the United States without mentioning it by name. "The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able, while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any extra-territorial invasion," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Safavi as saying. Just as the airborne laser comes online too.
Safavi also called for foreign forces to leave the region. The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, from where it patrols the Gulf. "Iran wants durable peace in the Persian Gulf and it can't be achieved without foreign forces and those which invaded Iraq leaving (the region)," IRNA quoted Safavi as saying.
On Friday, the country tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously after it breaks up in flight using multiple warheads. Iran also has tested what it calls two new torpedoes. The second torpedo, unveiled Monday, was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.
The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military, have been holding their maneuvers code-named the "Great Prophet" since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces. You are gonna need 'em.
But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are. Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's radar but not more advanced types. They avoid radar by burrowing. Ya, that's it!
The United States said Monday after the second torpedo test that while Iran may have made "some strides" in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities. "We know that the Iranians are always trying to improve their weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington. "It's possible that they are increasing their capability and making strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology."
But "the Iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities," he said. Gee ... ya think?
It has not been possible to verify Iran's claims for the new armaments. But the country has made clear it aims to send a message of strength to the United States amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program. More stupidity at link.
#1
I saw a video on Special Report that was this new flying boat. It was very small and had an external engine that looked like a flat-six propeller job. It appeared to have neither offensive not defensive armaments nor the space or power to carry any.
Kamikaze aircraft without the ability to do any damage. Wudda joke.
#3
Sadly enough, I believe that they *think* they are invulnerable.
Years ago, I talked with a Lebanese who was studying to be an electronics engineer in the US. He said to me that "It was ridiculous that the US used most of its defense budget to buy arms for Israel."
I pointed out that the entire Isreali arms budget is spare change by Pentagon standards.
He refused to believe me, though I offered to prove it to him.
The point was, he couldn't believe me. He had seen the Israeli military at work, and couldn't, he refused to, believe that there was any army mightier than them.
In retrospect, I'm afraid that this truth is also not-known and not-believed throughout the Islamic world. They just cannot, will not grasp the reality.
#4
I'm OK with that - a permanent case of shock and awe
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 20:16
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#5
Brett, you obviously have not seen the damage a flying IRG can cause when he splatters on a windshield. Think skunk
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 20:52
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#6
So they kick our ass. We slap a bandage on the donkey and then go in and slap them all silly. I can only guess that Iran's propaganda writers must have gone to school with Baghdad Bob.
#7
Baghdad Bob indeed. These lunatics have bought a bunch of Russian junk and now think they're invincible. I almost feel sorry for them... but not quite. Glass 'em.
#8
It should be amusing seeing the Iranian boats blow themselves outta' the water trying to fire those Shkvals. If the Russkies couldn't fire a test torp properly aboard the Kursk (may her crew rest in peace) then I'm fairly certain that the Iranians will have a certain amount of problems torching theirs off as well.
A little rust in the wrong spot can apparently do wonders.
#9
So are these Iran's equivalent of Saddam's dual-use, nuke-capable, Russian-controlled, modern FROG rockets, the ones Saddam loyalists were trying to disguise as either outmoded SCUDS or other simple rockets??? "Tis a shame Saddam's boyz had to destroy such brand-new, glossy techy weapons.
For Ramazan, an elderly Kurdish businessman, the recent battles between masked Kurdish youths and Turkish police have rekindled a dream _ the creation of an autonomous zone for his people in Turkey, much like the one carved out of Iraq. But that dream is Turkey's worst nightmare. While Kurds look to northern Iraq for inspiration, Turks see it as an example of what the future could bring: a collapsed central state and a brewing ethnic civil war.
Iran and Syria also are concerned that Kurds in Iraq's oil-rich north could set up an independent state if the Iraqi central government collapses _ serving as a rallying call for their own restless Kurdish minorities and destabilize the entire region. Iran's ambassador to Turkey, Firouz Dowlatabadi, warned in an interview published Tuesday that Turkey, Iran and Syria need a joint policy on the Kurdish issue or "the U.S. will carve pieces from us for a Kurdish state."
Sounds like a plan to me.
But international politics was of little concern to Ramazan when he headed out into the streets as soon as he heard Kurdish protesters were confronting Turkish police. The protests started late last month in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeastern Turkey, the predominantly Kurdish region devastated by more than a decade of warfare between autonomy seeking Kurdish guerrillas and the army. At least 15 people were killed and hundreds were injured and detained as the rioting spread, with mass demonstrations throughout the southeast and smaller protests in Istanbul.
"I did not throw any stone, I did not enter the clashes. I am old, you know," said Ramazan, who refused to give his last name or details about his life for fear the police could track him down. "But I went out to support the Kurdish revolution. I had to be there since I am a Kurd." "I am a Kurd, we want our language, our rights," Ramazan said.
Turkey refuses to recognize Kurds as a minority, and speaking Kurdish was illegal until 1991. At the prodding of the European Union, Turkey recently has granted some cultural rights to Kurds such as limited broadcasts on television, but many say it is too little, too late. Turks fear that increasing cultural rights could lead to the breakup of the country along ethnic lines. Stoking that fear is a U.S.- supported Kurdish region in northern Iraq, complete with its own government and militia.
Kurds _ brutally repressed under Saddam Hussein before the autonomous zone was created after the Gulf War in 1991 _ have played a key role in the new Iraqi government and are prepared to stay in a federal Iraq. But many Kurds say their real aspiration is independence. Turkish businessmen already are flocking to the area as the Kurdish economy in northern Iraq grows. Some Turkish Kurds living on the border regions are sending their children to universities in the area. That is coming as Turkey's economic program to build up the southeast is faltering. The government has done little to improve ruined roads or the dilapidated health care system, and blackouts are common.
Fighting between government and rebel forces _ which has left 37,000 dead since 1984 _ largely ended after the 1999 capture of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan but began to flare up again after the guerrillas declared an end to their unilateral cease-fire in 2004.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged not to give in to the rioters. "No one should dare to test the power of the state or the nation," Erdogan said Tuesday in an address to his party. "The government will not step back from expanding democracy, laws and freedom of expression."
Many Kurds have pinned their hopes on Turkey's push to join the EU, which repeatedly has said Ankara's treatment of the Kurds will be a key determining factor in its decision on whether to accept the country. But that process could take at least a decade and frustrations among Kurds are growing. Unemployment is extremely high in the region, which helps increase support for Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq. Ankara says the guerrillas also have been able to acquire sophisticated plastic explosives in Iraq for bombings in Turkey. "No doubt, the region is affected by winds of change from northern Iraq," former Kurdish lawmaker Hasim Hasimi said.
For Ramazan, the fate of the Kurdish dream lies with Washington and the EU. "Give us a federal status like in Iraq, that's enough," he said. "I hope, it will happen this time."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
15:32 ||
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Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean will join General Wesley Clark, former DNC Chairman Don Fowler and Kentucky Congressional candidate and retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Andrew Horne for a conference call highlighting the Democratic Party's commitment to America's veterans and military families on Wednesday, April 5 at 12:15 p.m.
John Kerry must have been washing his hair. He's a veteran, you know
They will announce the membership of the DNC's new Democratic National Veterans and Military Families Council, which will be chaired by Fowler, and unveil a new "Fighting Dems" website highlighting the campaigns of dozens of veterans running for Congress as Democrats.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
15:26 ||
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CAIRO, Egypt - Iran has unveiled with great fanfare a series of what it portrays as sophisticated, homegrown weapons flying boats and missiles invisible to radar, torpedoes too fast to elude. But experts said Tuesday it appears much of the technology came from Russia and questioned Iran's claims about the weapons' capabilities.
Still, the armaments, tested during war games by some 17,000 Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf, send what may be Iran's real message: its increased ability to hit oil tankers if tension with America turns to outright confrontation. To underline that message, the maneuvers code-named "The Great Prophet" have been held since Friday around the Strait of Hormuz, the 34-mile-wide entrance to the Gulf through which about two-fifths of the world's oil supplies pass.
Throughout the war games, Iran has touted what it calls technological leaps in its weapons production. In recent years, Iran revved up its arms programs after long relying on purchases abroad to keep up its aging arsenal, hampered by U.S. sanctions and Washington's pressure on other countries against selling weapons to Tehran. The head of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, proclaimed Tuesday that Iran was now able to defend itself against "any extra-regional invasion."
It was a clear reference to Iranian worries of potential U.S. military action to stop its nuclear program, which Washington claims is intended to produce nuclear weapons. Iran says it aims only to generate electricity, but has so far defied U.N. Security Council demands that it give up key parts of its program.
The new weapons, many of them shown on Iranian state TV during their tests, have come with impressive claims:
A missile, the Fajr-3, that is invisible to radar and able to strike several targets with multiple warheads.
A high-speed torpedo, the Hoot, able to move at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo, and fired by ships cloaked to radar.
A surface-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled.
A "super-modern flying boat," undetectable by radar and able to launch missiles with precise targeting while skimming low over the surface of the water at a top speed of 100 nautical mph.
There are questions over Iran's claims. In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said "the Iranians have been known to boast and exaggerate" their weapons capabilities. And some experts cast doubt on just how radar-evading Iran's ships and missiles are.
Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example meaning that perhaps the weapons can avoid the radar that Iran has access to, but not more advanced types, said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born, Israel-based analyst. "The question here is, what radar did they test their own weapons against? If it's the radar they've been using for all these years, then that's not saying 100 percent that these things are undetectable," he said. Others questioned if Iran developed the weapons on its own.
The Hoot torpedo the name means "whale" closely resembles the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, the world's fastest known underwater missile, developed in 1995, said Ruslan Pukhov of Moscow's Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. The Shkval attains high speeds by coating itself in a cocoon of air bubbles, reducing friction, and Pukhov said its technology was too sophisticated for the Iranians to produce themselves. "Hypothetically, they could get access to the Shkval technology, but if so, I don't think they got it through Russian channels," he said.
Pukhov noted the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan once had a Soviet torpedo testing center on the remote mountain lake of Issyk-Kul. And he said that in the turmoil that followed the Soviet breakup, Kyrgyz authorities sold Shkvals to the Chinese, a major importer of Iranian oil. Kanybek Tabaldiyev, a senior official with a Kyrgyz company that makes torpedo and other military hardware at Issyk-Kul, denied his company transferred sophisticated technology to Iran. He said it was possible weaponry had been acquired through other means. Chinese officials had no immediate comment on whether their country provided Iran with Shkvals.
China has been pursuing closer relations with Tehran in hopes of help in meeting its energy needs, and the United States has sanctioned Chinese companies in the past, accusing them of violating international controls on transfers of weapons technology to Iran. Beijing has protested the U.S. sanctions and in 2003, it issued its first regulations controlling exports of missile, nuclear and biological weapons technology.
Whatever the Iranian armaments' capabilities or origins they likely won't greatly affect the military balance of power in the Gulf, where the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based, operating out of the island nation of Bahrain. For example, the Hoot torpedo if indeed based on the Shkval has too short a range, about 7,500 yards, to be militarily significant, said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian analyst.
But Iran may be aiming to show the world, and its people, that it has options if the standoff over its nuclear program escalates. That could boost its hand in negotiations with the United States and Europe. "They know they are inferior to the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, so this is their way of telling Americans .... we are not the only ones who would lose out if talks regarding the nuclear program fail," Javedanfar said. The torpedo tests in particular are significant, he said. "They know that if you sink one tanker in the Strait of Hormuz you can stop all shipping there, because the waters are quite shallow," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
15:21 ||
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#1
"...Iran may be aiming to show the world, and its people, that it has options ..."
Or it may be that they bought a good sales pitch from the Russians for some hardware that looks more important than it is.
#3
The Russian equipment didn't help Saddam. Its still Iranians that are gonna operate it. Their last big war was against Saddam. Massive suicide waves left that war at a stalemate. The best that they could do is make a big mess with shipping if they get the first shot off. I don't think that's gonna happen. JMO
#8
And the Bear is back. Let's see all the Putin-lovers defend his record since becoming Tsar, that's always worth some major laughs. Makes me dizzy. In the last 20 years, the outcome there since the fall of the Soviets is definitely one of the greatest disappointments from my point of view. So much potential totally wasted. The Russians dropped a huge opportunity, just as the Iraqis are doing today.
I'm learning. Lesson of the last few decades is: You just can't fix stupid. It isn't some surface condition, it's through and through. Brain-dead to the bone.
#11
RUSSIA > it was with Iraq during OPERS DESERT SHIELD/STORM and IRAQI FREEDOM, so why should Iran be any different, espec since the Russkis are already strongly believed by many to had de facto helped Saddam hide + transfer his WMD caches to various ME countries, includ but not limited to Iran per se. The Iranians know the Perfectionism-happy, agenda-less, Fascists = [imperfect] mere HalfCommies/Socialists Lefties will blame-and-constrain Dubya-America for everything anyways, and that the Clinton-led/centric USDemoLeft wants the Fed and only the Fed to expand and take over everything and anything domestically, while simul ensuring Dubya and America fail overseas. The Left > America voluntarily giving up its sovereignty and endowments = same as America being militarily forced to. We know why the RINO-CINO Failed/Angry Left wants America under anti-sovereign Socialism and OWG circa 2015-2020, becuz Russia itself now finally admits that it may likely be too costly or cost(s)-prohibitive for them to maintain any sort of effective mil-nuclearized counter arsenal against America's.
Pirates captured a South Korean-flagged fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday and efforts by a U.S. Navy ship and a Dutch vessel to intervene were abandoned when members of the South Korean crew were threatened with guns and the ship slipped into Somali territorial waters, the Navy said. Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said he did not know the number of crew aboard the South Korean vessel, the Dong Won.
It was the latest in a series of incidents off the coast of Somalia. On March 18, two U.S. Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates, killing one and wounding five. No U.S. sailors were injured. Somalis involved in that incident later claimed they were patrolling Somali waters to stop illegal fishing when the U.S. ships fired on them.
On Tuesday morning, naval ships patrolling international waters in the Persian Gulf region as part of an international Maritime security mission received a radio distress call from the Dong Won, which reported that it had been fired upon about 60 miles off the coast of Somalia, according to a statement issued by 5th Fleet. Some hours later the guided missile destroyer USS Roosevelt and the Dutch ship HNLMS Zeven Provincien arrived at the scene. Apparently, by that time the pirates had taken control of the fishing vessel.
Breslau said that when the Dong Won turned toward Somali territorial waters, one or both of the U.S. and Dutch ships tried to intercept it and fired warning shots in its direction. Members of the South Korean crew were seen on the deck of the Dong Won with guns pointed at them, so the intercept effort was broken off, he added. "The top priority is the safety of innocent lives," the 5th Fleet statement said. Breslau said the U.S. and Dutch ships remained in the area in international waters to monitor the situation.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
15:10 ||
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A former senior official of Sinn Fein recently exposed as a British spy was found fatally shot in northwest Ireland, police said Tuesday. Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein's former legislative chief in the failed power-sharing government of Northern Ireland, admitted in December he had been on the payroll of the British secret service and the province's anti-terrorist police for the previous two decades. He then went into hiding because the traditional Irish Republican Army punishment for informing is death.
Sure and the boys are very big on tradition in Ireland.
But Ireland's national police said it was not clear whether Donaldson, 55, had been killed or committed suicide. In a statement, the force said the scene around his body in Glenties, County Donegal, was cordoned off for a forensic examination planned for Wednesday.
CSI - Donegal is on the case
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern condemned what he called the "brutal murder" of Donaldson. The IRA said it was not involved in the death.
Yeah, right. You're just a peaceful, albeit heavily armed, social club
A Roman Catholic-Protestant power-sharing administration for Northern Ireland the central goal of the British province's 1998 peace accord fell apart in October 2002 because of an IRA spying scandal with Donaldson at its heart.
Donaldson, his nephew and a British civil servant all were charged with pilfering documents from inside the power-sharing government that identified potential targets of the outlawed IRA and detailed political opponents' private conversations. Protestants at the time accused the IRA of plotting a potential resumption of its violent campaign to oust Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.
But British prosecutors mysteriously dropped all charges against the trio in early December. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams initially defended Donaldson and the others but a week later announced that Donaldson had confessed, under questioning by Sinn Fein officials, to being a paid British spy. Within hours, Donaldson admitted this was so in an interview with RTE, the Irish state broadcasters.
The IRA last year declared it was renouncing violence for political purposes and backed the pledge by handing over its weapons stockpiles to disarmament chiefs. Both moves were supposed to spur a revival of power-sharing involving Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that represents most Catholics in Northern Ireland. But Protestant leaders have refused to cooperate with Sinn Fein, citing the IRA's refusal to disband and its alleged involvement in a range of criminal activities.
If police determine that Donaldson was killed, it would be certain to fuel the hostility of the major Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists, to cooperating with Sinn Fein. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ahern are expected Thursday to announce a new blueprint for reviving power-sharing.
That blueprint looks a lot like a certain roadmap we all know
The joint governments' proposals, which have been 3 1/2 years of diplomacy in the making, recommend that Northern Ireland's legislature reconvene in May and face a Nov. 24 deadline to elect an administration jointly led by the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
14:51 ||
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#1
Ratted out the boyos did he?
Looks like "natural causes" to me...
They are forced to acknowledge it exists by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. How traumatic for the poor dears.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, responding to allegations that an anti-Israel bias is rampant on college campuses, approved recommendations Monday aimed at ensuring that Jewish college students are protected from anti-Semitic harassment.
The recommendations grew out of a November hearing at which speakers cited examples of anti-Semitic incidents. One frequently cited involved a 2004 documentary that said Middle East Studies faculty at Columbia University were intimidating Jewish students who defended Israel. (A faculty committee investigated and found no evidence of anti-Semitism.) Last September, a non-profit group called "StandWithUs" showed a 45-minute documentary depicting examples of anti-Israel speakers on campuses.
The commission, an independent, bipartisan federal agency that does not have enforcement powers, also urged university leaders to "set a moral example by denouncing anti-Semitic and other hate speech," and to ensure that Middle East studies departments protect the rights of all students. It recommended Monday that the Department of Education "vigorously" enforce the federal law that bars discrimination based on "race, color or national origin," and that Congress clarify that "national origin" can refer to Jewish heritage.
"We should inform students of their right" to file a complaint if they believe they have been harassed, commissioner Jennifer Braceras said.
Students at the University of California at Irvine, including two who said they were assaulted because they were Jewish, filed a complaint in 2004 with the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. That case is still open. Now, "you'll see a number of suits filed," says Gary Tobin of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco.
#2
This is the best way to get the madness on campuses to stop (or at least lessen): use the ridiculous well-meaning laws against the people advocating them. I.e. hoist them by their own petards.
EFL. Woo hoo! Look for more begging letters between various branches of Al Qaeda, as the home office find itself in ever more straitened circumstances. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has shut down a massive terror-finance pipeline in which a whopping $3 billion in profits from drug deals and other crimes flowed through a major New York bank to Middle East fanatics terrorists. The DA said his office is pursuing a settlement involving possible penalties against one of the largest and most prominent banks in New York - which he declined to identify - for maintaining an account where funds that originated in South America's notorious "tri-border region" were rerouted to suspect accounts in the Middle East.
Evidence developed in the course of a three-year probe, which has already resulted in charges against other New York-based financial institutions, revealed that about $3 billion that flowed through the account over a two-year period was going to terror groups Hamas, al Qaeda and Hezbollah, Morgenthau said.
"I can't go out and arrest Osama bin Laden. But I can try to cut off his money," Morgenthau said of his massive probe.
He said most of the $3 billion in suspicious funds were generated, through criminal enterprises, in the lawless tri-border region of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Over a two-year period, the $3 billion was sent to the New York bank account by a shadowy money-transmittal company in Montevideo, Uruguay. The money then flowed into bank accounts in the Middle East locations including Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Beirut, Lebanon, and Ramallah in the Palestinian territories.
The probe of the New York bank grew out of the Manhattan DA's previous 2004 prosecution of the Beacon Hill Services Corp., an Upper East Side money transmitter that moved more than $9 billion in suspect funds through accounts in Chase Manhattan Bank and other institutions.
#3
I suspect that until the settlement is signed, sealed and delivered Morgenthau will keep his mouth shut. It isn't clear to me why they announced what they did unless it is a negotiating ploy. There is little doubt that we would see the biggest run on a bank since 1932 if the name of the institution were made public regardless of how obscure the bank is.
#4
There is always more to this than meets the eye. Remember that such transactions leave very detailed fingerprints hither and yon. Part of the deal means that we now own the information that had previously been secret.
We might decide to keep some of the pipelines open, to see who uses them; or to provide marked cash to the end users. We might fudge some of the accounts, so right after a major transaction suddenly funds are "not available", leading to much bad feelings.
In fact, this thing is only probably being closed down now that we have squeezed every drop of blood out of it.
#8
I just Googled LARGEST BANK NEW YORK and got a list
Top 150 Largest Banks
Source: American Banker, 9/05.
Rank Name Headquarters Deposits (billions) Assets (billions)
1 Bank of America Charlotte, NC $630 $1,214
2 Citicorp New York, NY $569 $1,490
3 JP Morgan Chase New York, NY $531 $1,179
4 Wachovia Charlotte, NC $299 $507
5 Wells Fargo San Francisco, CA $273 $435
6 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA $172 $337
Note only Citicorp and J P Morgan are NY based
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/04/2006 20:15
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Great News, but how come it took so long..RB has touched on this scandel before. Looks like an inside help thingy.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Monday that the European Union needs to take the Muslim world more seriously following the uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which he called one of the worst crises the bloc has faced.
"The cartoon crisis has shown that we have to pay more attention to that part of the world," Moratinos told reporters during a visit to Denmark, where the cartoons were first published.
The 12 drawings, which were reprinted in several European countries, triggered an international crisis earlier this year, with angry mobs attacking Western embassies in Muslim countries, including Lebanon, Iran and Indonesia.
#2
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Monday that the European Union needs to take the Muslim world more seriously following the uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which he called one of the worst crises the bloc has faced.
Nah, that's going to be when the Umyyad Caliphate [which is much of contemporary Spain] is given back to the Moor. You don't want to 'upset' the poor darlings now do you?
#3
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Monday that the European Union needs to take the Muslim world more seriously following the uproar over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which he called one of the worst crises the bloc has faced.
More serious than Bosnia?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 15:40
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But we DO take Islam seriously. Goodness, is it time for lunch already?
#1
Shahirah Gillespie, now 20, was snatched as a seven-year-old by her father, Malaysian Prince Raja Bahrinprince, in 1992, who grabbed Shahirah and her brother Iddin during an access visit. Shahirah flew into Melbourne on Saturday to visit her mother. Prince Bahrin said Iddin, now 23, was studying at college.
And this, children, is why we don't marry people like that, let alone follow them home afterward.
#3
trailing wife, unfortunately the ones who really need to hear that aren't going to listen.
While Muslims are by far the worst offenders in that regard, plenty of other paternalistic nationalities can be just as bad in regards to kidnapped children of Western mothers.
#4
I know, DB. But my children know, and so will yours, because you'll tell them about such things. And the girl in my university dorm who was dating that Arab boy listened to us, and didn't go with him to visit his family over the summer break. At least there's that much.
A nice gesture of support in a state that rates low in opportunity for returning troops. The Cook County sheriff's office has begun taking applications for 350 corrections officer jobs, but only veterans and reservists who have recently been released from active duty can apply.
Concerned after reading a Sun-Times News Group series that detailed how young Illinois veterans are having difficulty finding work, Sheriff Mike Sheahan ordered his staff to open hiring to new veterans and reservists returning from active duty. The sheriff's office usually offers applications only once a year, in November. But Sheahan consulted with his merit board and decided to open applications last week for those who were on active duty between November 2004 and November 2005 and unavailable to apply for jail jobs at the time. "The military people make good law enforcement people," explained Sheahan. "We're a semi-military organization. Military people know how to take an order and a command. They know the structure. They're used to structure. They have the same rankings as we do, and they turn out to be good employees." Also, "When you're looking to hire someone in law enforcement, you want someone who has weapons training," said Bill Cunningham, department spokesman. more details at link
#1
The Illinois LLL, ACLU and PC crowd will go absolutely ape-sh*t. The Sun-Times relegated the story to a "suburban" paper and the Tribune doesn't seem to have carried this story yet.
Pass the popcorn, please.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/04/2006 14:59
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Civil service usually has a provision for veterans preference, at least I know Mass. does.
That's assuming these are civil service jobs.
#3
Mullah Richard, I think their legal department already went over it. It's not a blanket "don't apply if you aren't a veteran" statement. There's the little catch in there of being on active duty between those dates and therefore not being able to apply during the regular time period.
As long as they open it up to everyone the next time, they should be just fine.
#4
Back in the late 70s ran among other things the separation transfer point at Fort Leavenworth. Most of the military guards were stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Had the wall of the processing office covered in job opportunities from law enforcement and prison operations. 'Please contact us'. The regular active duty received all the mandatory training dictated by various federal courts for prisons and prisoner handling. Besides the veteran discipline achieved by years of duty, that training was $$$ to the agencies that had to comply.
#5
Nice move by the Sheriff, he's to be thanked for doing the right thing. The ones who will question it are not my idea of patriots
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 16:13
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Thank you for the insight DB. And yes Fred, he is absolutely doing the right thing. I still think that the leftists will scream about this in some fashion. I don't believe they care anymore if they look 'patriotic' or not. Maybe I just live too close to Madison, Wisconsin and think that the socialists are just as vocal elsewhere, too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/04/2006 16:29
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#7
Did I call Frank "Fred"?? Silly me.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/04/2006 16:31
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Most Civil Servant jobs allow for Veteran preference. Even if the LLL moonbats want to whine about it they won't get too much support. FYI the unions usually support these preferences.
#9
This is a great gesture and I hope it works out. I tend to agree with the Mullah that some ACLU moonbat will protest. Public opinion will shut the ACLU down on this one and the Cook County Sheriff will have done a small but important thing for the Vets in his county.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
04/04/2006 19:21
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I had vowed not to think about, write about or otherwise spend valuable time ruminating over the bizarre and obnoxious antics of London Mayor Red Ken Livingstone, but a comment from a Canadian friend who is a neutral observer made me break my vow of silence. Please note that the Red tag does not connote ginger hair but a past career cultivating the extreme Left that so enraged Margaret Thatcher that she abolished the Greater London Council just to be rid of him.
So it will have gone virtually unreported that on 18 March the London Mayor got up at an anti-Iraq war, anti-Apartheid Israel rally in Trafalgar Square to announce that the Hugo Chavez government of Venezuela had agreed to participate in an upcoming summer peoples rally. Mayor Livingstone said we would celebrate the revolution sweeping South America and particularly Venezuela, whose aim it was to cut off its oil supply to the USA. Livingstone then said he hoped this would be an inspiration to the Arab peoples of the world to cut off the oil taps to George Bush.
There I stood, next to a demonstrator with an upside-down USA flag on which he had daubed F^** Bush, thinking of my large family in the United States who, if one were to take the London Mayor literally, would starve and freeze to death sometime soon along with the rest of America if his vision became reality. When I told my Canadian friend about this, she, with no axe to grind, made an astute observation: If Mayor Bloomberg of New York got up in Times Square and said he hoped the oil supply to Britain would be cut off, he would cause such an outcry that he would have to resign. Indeed, he would be taken away in a straitjacket.
Now we have a new wave of madness that has emanated from Red Ken. A few weeks ago I noticed a tiny item in the newspaper about his appearance in Cannes at an Olympic 2012 planning junket. The article said Livingstone had got up at the Riviera event and made a verbal aassault on property tycoons Simon and David Reuben that others in the planning group had found startling and out of place. This is the Mayor who was suspended so recently for insulting a Jewish reporter with a concentration camp guard slur. I said to myself, No, no, no, it isnt anti-Semitism again!
Lo and behold, a week later came his outburst in London in which he said the Reuben Brothers could go back to Iran and live under the ayatollahs. Go back! -- an expression that strikes a chill in every immigrant, but for our champion of multiculturalism, Ken Livingstone, to utter this epithet was an egregious act, made worse by his next jibe. When asked about his outburst by reporters Livingstone said he was not aware that the Indian-Jewish Reubens were not, after all, Iranians, and that he apologised unreservedly to all of the Iranian people for suggesting he would have inflicted the Reuben brothers on them. Then, to top it all, the Mayor said he thought the Reubens might perhaps be Muslims.
But, as the expression goes, it isnt over until it is over, so as this article goes to press we have the Mayor of London, the international envoy of goodwill of our ancient city, calling the United States Ambassador a chiselling little crook on nationwide television. Americans making British boys die in Iraq but not paying the London Congestion Charge, for which some fifty-five embassies are reported to be in arrears, is the cause of his ire. The Evening Standard has pointed out that Mayor Ken did not go after the Communist Cuban embassy, whom it reports also owe back charges.
Like many American expatriates in England I have never forgotten that Ken Livingstone boycotted the State Dinner for President and Mrs. Bush or forgiven him for insulting Her Majesty the Queen by this petulant act.
In recent weeks Holocaust survivors have told me how deeply hurt they were by his concentration camp guard slur. Liberals rushed to Livingstones defense, most notably The Guardian newspaper, which filled up with even more hurtful articles by non-Jewish writers suggesting the small Anglo-Jewish community was engaging in some form of intellectual blackmail. Having seen how devastated my elderly Holocaust-era friends have been since Livingstone berated the Jewish reporter and then refused to apologise (this resulted in his suspension) my inclination was for Livingstone to be removed for the Nazi slur. Now, to defame an ambassador to the Court of St James in a public forum is a further act worthy of removal from office.
Many argue that Livingstones trusted deputy Mayor is Nicky Gavron, who is Jewish, and that his top-level Transport executives, Bob Kiley and Tim OToole are Americans. Perhaps his regular attacks on Jews and Americans can be attributed to a mental quirk or what British journalist Melanie Phillips calls Londons Tourette Attraction.
This week Roger McGough has pulled out of a Liverpool Philharmonic concert because Condoleezza Rice will be in attendance. This is churlish behaviour, but he is not the Mayor of one of the worlds most important and economically influential cities. Ken Livingstone is an embarrassment; his refusal to apologise to a Jewish reporter is hideous, and in light of his slur against the American ambassador he should leave office.
#1
Londonstan's call. They deserve him and I hope he spends freely from the city's coffers for lots of moronic rallies and parades.
New Yawk has Bloomy who thinks profiling is the End of the World. Londy has Red who thinks failed ideologies are the cat's meow. Atlanta has Cynthia (and a host of other racist fools), etc.
You get exactly what you deserve coming out of the voting booth. Except in Russia, China, Iran, Belarus, and all the Arab shitholes. Include Iraq in that compost heap, since the Mullahs succeeded in stealing the first parliamentary election there.
#6
Zenster: I've been high on both and there is no comparison. Vicodin gives you this droopy, downer kind of high that puts you to sleep. Its like booze but less fun. X gives you a zippy, euphoric, upper kind of high that keeps you awake and makes you horny, while simultaneously destroying your ability to appreciate music more complex than a single drumbeat surrounded by repetitive, tape looped slogans. Its like LSD but drives you insane more slowly.
#8
This was an exceptional case. His long- term memory was fine but he could not remember day to day things - the time, the day, what was in his supermarket trolley,"
Sounds just like Alzheimers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/04/2006 21:20
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Its like LSD but drives you insane more slowly.
I seem to recall that is because it is essentially a hallucinogen, like LSD, but built from an amphetamine chemical base, so it is less intense.
My scrip and refill of Vicoden are finally running out five years later. After helping a friend move the other week, he gave me some double strength, Vic-like pills and they actually managed to produce some low level psychotropic effects. Regular Vicodin does precisely what it's supposed to for me, kill pain with astonishing rapidity.
As to the moron in the article, anyone who voluntarily commits such routine chemical insult to their mind and body deserves what they get. He||, I buy a bottle of aspirin once every three years after tossing out the expired half-full one. It is impossible for me to imagine how someone could possibly continue to ingest such a ridiculous amount of psychoactive drugs and not expect some sort of lasting, if not permanent, side effects. What an idjit.
#10
It is impossible for me to imagine how someone could possibly continue to ingest such a ridiculous amount of psychoactive drugs and not expect some sort of lasting, if not permanent, side effects.
Well, yes, but that's because you're a normal, intelligent person.
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States Turki al-Faisal expressed support for Israel's strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear facility in 1981.
Al-Faisal said that the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor by Israel was certainly a positive step, during a speech on foreign relations in San Francisco.
Hummmmm. Ambassadors chose their words very carefully. And saudi ambassadors would be speaking for the ruling princes. Wheels within wheels.
The prince said that a region clear of nuclear weapons would also serve Israel and increase its security. He said that it was known that Israel had nuclear weapons, and that that Arab world felt threatened by Israel, rather than the other way around. Faisal added that Israel possessed the best army, air force, and navy in the Middle East, and that these have been well used in the past.
Is he hinting they should be well used in the near future?
After becoming aware that Iraq was planning to construct nuclear weapons, Israel launched a surprise aerial attack on June 7 1981 on the Osirak facility near Baghdad, and destroyed the Iraqi reactor. The move was initially widely condemned, but was widely supported in subsequent years.
Is this a sign that an attack on Iranian facilities would be quietly supported?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
12:41 ||
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#1
"Is this a sign that an attack on Iranian facilities would be quietly supported?"
It seems that way to me. The surprising thing is that this was said publicly. It may be a slip by the ambassador, if it was entirely deliberate thats even more significant.
#2
Bottom line is the Sunnis fear an Iranian Shia dynasty. In spite of the "enemy of my enemy" cooporation between the Black Hats and AQ...that Brokeback SandDune lovefest would disentegrate overnight if Iran were to dominate Iraq overtly through Tater and his ilk.
#6
US will be there to help. It is US strategy to keep the sea-lanes open and no one power dominant over global petroleum reserves. So, ungrateful and obnoxious as they are, the US will defend SA.
#8
Trust Turki al-Faisal to do one thing and one thing only, and that is cover his @ss until he's farting through silk. Turki cannot be trusted, his prior ties to mullah Omar and al Qaeda have totally compromised him. I doubt that the State Department would trust him with more than a fountain pen. None of this changes the fact that the Saudi Arabia remains the real enemy in the Gulf region. Iran is merely a festering boil that needs to be lanced. The Saudis represent a metastasized Wahabbist cancer that will require excision.
#11
The Israelis crossed Saudi territory both ways to hit the Osirak reactor. Undoubtedly it was at very low levels (50 feet, probably), but that doesn't mean the Saudi radar couldn't or didn't pick them up. At the same time, the Saudis were the most vocal in attacking Israel after the attack.
NOBODY, even the Russians, really want a nuclear-armed Iran. The Russians also need all the foreign currency they can get, and will sell Iran ANYTHING to earn it - even the most sophisticated weapons in their arsenal. China needs Iranian crude, and will stand in the way of anything that threatens their supply.
Iran needs to be dealt with, and harshly. They're involved in Iraq and in Afghanistan, they're behind the trouble in Baluchistan, I wouldn't be surprised to learn they're aidng the pirates off the Somali coast, and they're certainly funding terrorism - Hisbollah, probably Hamas and the PFLP as well.
The Saudis may want Israel to do the dirty work, the condemn them again for their "unilateral" attacks on Islamic states. Israel, however, doesn't have the resources to do what really needs to be done - destroy the military capability of the Mad Mullahs. The United States does, but needs a few more assurances that Russia and China won't come to Iran's defenses if we attack. The Saudi comment may be a subtle signal that they will make a few offers China shouldn't resist.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 14:54
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One ccountry at a time Zenster, we deal with Mad Mullahs then onward to SA.
Works for me. Iran's Mullahs are like a pack of Rottweilers in the front yard of the Saudi crack house. Certainly a problem and something that must be dealt with first, but not the real threat.
"Whether or not any such structure exists or can be forged, the fact is that the fuel of Islamic imperialism remains as volatile as ever, and is very far from having burned itself out. To deny its force is the height of folly, and to imagine that it can be appeased or deflected is to play into its hands. Only when it is defeated, and when the faith of Islam is no longer a tool of Islamic political ambition, will the inhabitants of Muslim lands, and the rest of the world, be able to look forward to a future less burdened by Saladins and their gory dreams. "
#1
"Muslim political ambitions aren't a reaction to Western encroachments." Interesting, since this argument is what the media buys into (i.e., It's all our fault . . . )
#2
An interesting article which points out with considerable historical conviction that Islam is proactive, not reactive. Islam is not a religion of emasculated victims reacting to imperialist Western civilization. Islam is a virile, competing imperialist civilization angry with the West for outpacing it, and eager to overtake its perceived competitor as quickly as possible.
This is a hard concept for our liberal intellectuals to grasp as they wallow in the depths of their cognitive dissidence. Maybe when pork, Marxism, and lesbian sex become illegal, theyll catch on.
#4
Great article but it really doesn't raise my hopes that Islam can save itself from nuclear annihilation. Their lust for violence drives them to possess and deploy weapons of such magnitude that they instantly become a threat to their own continued existence.
Immigration rights organizers today will call for a nationwide boycott of work, school and shopping on May 1 to protest congressional efforts to clamp down on illegal aliens as part of pending immigration-reform legislation.
May 1st. May Day. International Workers' Day. The primary holiday of socialists and communists. Any questions?
The "Great American Boycott of 2006" is only one in a series of large-scale events the protesters hope will sway lawmakers to put millions of illegal aliens on track toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.
"The massive March 25 march and rally in Los Angeles of well over one million immigrant workers and their supporters -- along with protests and student walkouts throughout the United States -- is irrefutable evidence that a new civil rights and workers' rights movement is on the rise," said Raul Murillo, one of the key organizers and president of the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional.
"In order to realize the goal of legalization for the millions of undocumented workers, we have the obligation to keep pressing the Congress of the United States to legislate immigration reform that grants full legalization for all immigrants." Sarah Sloan, a spokeswoman for boycott organizers, said the boycott, additional marches and rallies in at least 30 cities nationwide beginning next week are designed to highlight opposition to House legislation that would crack down on illegal aliens.
The Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) coalition, which organized the Los Angeles march to win "full rights for undocumented workers," is confident its new "national action" will prove successful.
ANSWER is the anti-American, anti-war, anti-capitalism, pro-Saddam, pro-North Korea organization. No wonder they use a Communist holidy to make a statement.
ANSWER's steering committee includes the Free Palestine Alliance, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Nicaragua Network, the Korea Truth Commission, the Muslim Student Association, the Mexico Solidarity Network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. It denounces as racism attempts to criminalize illegal aliens.
"Workers of the world, er, illegal aliens, er, undocumented migrants, unite!"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
11:44 ||
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#1
That would make me sympathetic to their cause, it would. And make lots of friends for International ANSWER, too.
/end sarcasm. Is everybody jumping the gun these days? Are they subconsciously so afraid their cause will be successful?
#3
I hope the INS makes several LARGE raids on these "demonstrations", take tens of thousands into custody (especially ANSWER goons), hold them for the maximum amount of time allowed under the law, and see how many of the workers are "undocumented". Follow up with a long line of "Bluebird" school-type busses (no padded seats, no springs, uncomfortable as $^%%^#$&) to return these "undocumented" workers to their home nation. It's a long ride from LA to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador. One might even get "saddle sores".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 16:24
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Why don't they really show us how much we need them by going home for a few months?
Conservative politicians are beginning to take this religion seriously. President Bush has spoken about our addiction to oil and British Conservative Party leader David Cameron has installed a wind turbine on his London home.
The conservative media is also taking the religion of global warming seriously. The London Times and Daily Telegraph both ran opinion pieces April 1 on the religious nature of the global warming movement. As of old, its prophets warn us of the dangers of our luxurious times. They tell us, writes Matthew Parris, that
"Our age is not living as it should. The pursuit of riches has distracted us. Lives have been corrupted by lust, vanity, wastefulness and greed. We have become lazy and selfish. Our spirits are sick. And count upon it we shall be punished. One way or another we shall have to pay."
These new Jeremiahs, prophesying that we are all doomed unless we repent, are the prophets of climate change, and they are calling us to sacrifice.
Being slightly dyslexic, I first thought it read "Sucker Factor."
Which in this case works too. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/04/2006 14:24
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This from Reason. "The trend I get using the 85S-85N (latitude) values is +0.032 degrees Celsius per decade for January 1998 to February 2006. This is not significantly different from zero at all," replied Christy.
But we're all gonna die soon from Global Warming.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/04/2006 14:38
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I believe the new operative phrase is "Climate Change". That way, the experts are covered if we have a new Ice Age or if Greenland becomes the new Aruba. The most important thing here is that the experts can say they were right no matter what happens. Which is why they're experts...
50% chance of rain today and tommorow, but the local news said today that despite record rains next year we might have a *drought* 'cause of the dreaded *GLOBAL WARMING* trend!!
Tehran, 4 April (AKI) - The Iranian government is reported to have withdrawn its financial deposits from Swiss banks after the decision by the UN atomic watchdog to refer Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council over Western fears that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Anonymous sources say that in the past few weeks, Iran has withdrawn 700 tonnes in gold reserves and 26 billion euros. The gold reserves were transferred to the Markazi bank, the central bank of the Islamic Republic, while the cash was deposited in banks in the United Arab Emirates.
Tehran decided to withdraw the deposits fearing that the UN Security Council might impose an international embargo on the country. Iran has rejected a Security Council statement approved on 29 March which called on Tehran to halt all its uranium enrichment activities, claiming its nuclear programme is solely for civilian use. The Council has the power to impose sanctions, though two veto-wielding members of the UN body - China and Russia - oppose the measure.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
11:33 ||
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Interesting. That is actually/possibly a rational act. So from where I stand, it clearly identifies a weakness. The MM's don't want to lose their hard-earned stolen cash.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/04/2006 11:50
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The Swiss bankers must be crying in their fondue over this. I seem to be suffering from a major case of Schadenfreude over this -- I apologize to you all.
#4
In WWII, Swiss bankers bought gold from Germany in exchange for convertible currency (Germany's currency was not accepted in international markets). I guess the WOT isn't working out well as WWII for the Swiss bankers.
#9
Jimbo, are you suggesting that the Dubai Ports deal was wrong to block because, supposedly, now we won't have as much "leverage" and "influence" with Dubai? I'll trade both for REAL homeland security any day...not the illusionary kind that comes from investing billions in a plaqued missile defense system that only serves Bush's buddies in the defense industry, and prompts countries like Russia to improve their missile systems (Topol-M). And in the end, who helped broker the Dubai Ports deal? Bush's dadddy. And he and HIS buddies stood to make millions from the deal. This administration must be tired from washing each other's backs all day and night. And by the way, this wasn't partisan politics, either. There were many, many Republicans opposed to this deal...ones who don't fly around the world trying to score their next cash fix. If the Iranians want to invest in Dubai, let them. I'm grateful that we're not.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/04/2006 18:55
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Matt, how do you feel about Mother's too much or too good?
Riyadh, 4 April (AKI) - An internet site purporting to represent the al-Qaeda terror network's branch in Saudi Arabia has denied claims made by the Saudi authorities last week that 40 al-Qaeda linked militants had been arrested. It also announced that the group plans to post video and other propaganda material on the site in the coming days - a move that would appear to contradict reports by analysts who maintain that authorities have crushed al-Qaeda's Saudi cells.
"As for the arrest of 40 people who are allegedly members of al-Qaeda in the Arab peninsula, and that the group also included some who have been responsible in distributing our messages - we say that all this is false. It is all propaganda by the blasphemous Saudi government because our information office is still operational and no one has been arrested," the Internet message said.
"So there!"
In the statement, the group also denied that people linked to the Islamist Internet portal, al-Hesbah.org, which has been shut down by Saudi authorities, had been arrested. It said that militants operating the site had managed to thwart attempts by authorities from several Arab states to infiltrate the site.
On 30 March the Saudi interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested 40 suspected terrorists in three different operations carried out around the Kingdom. Those arrested were believed to be members of al-Qaeda terrorist cells, some of whom may be linked to a foiled attack on the Al-Abqaiq oil refinery in the Kingdom's Eastern Province on 25 February, the ministry said. It did not release the names of any of the detained suspects. According to a ministry statement, the sweep followed investigations by security forces tracking a number of people who were stockpiling weapons, providing material and financial support for the activities of the suspects, and using the Internet to spread "subversive propaganda" and promoting acts of violence.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
11:24 ||
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A fatwa issued by Egypts top religious authority, which forbids the display of statues has art-lovers fearing it, could be used by Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypts historical heritage.
Egypts Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the countrys top Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict which declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes, basing the decision on texts in the hadith (sayings of the prophet).
Intellectuals and artists argue that the decree represents a setback for art -- a mainstay of the multi-billion-dollar tourist industry -- and would deal a blow to the countrys fledgling sculpture business.
The fatwa did not specifically mention statues in museums or public places, but it condemned sculptors and their work.
Still, many fear the edict could prod Islamic fundamentalists to attack Egypts thousands of ancient and pharaonic statues on show at tourist sites across the country.
We dont rule out that someone will enter the Karnak temple in Luxor or any other pharaonic temple and blow it up on the basis of the fatwa, Gamal al-Ghitani, editor of the literary Akhbar al-Adab magazine, told AFP.
Wave of criticisms
Gomaa had pointed to a passage from the hadith that stated: Sculptors would be tormented most on Judgment Day, saying the text left no doubt that sculpting was sinful and using statues for decorating homes forbidden.
Gomaas ruling overturned a fatwa issued more than 100 years ago by then moderate and highly respected mufti Mohammed Abdu, permitting the private display of statues after the practice had been condemned as a pagan custom.
Abdus fatwa had closed the issue, as it ruled that statues and pictures are not haram (forbidden under Islam) except idols used for worship, Ghitani pointed out.
Novelist Ezzat al-Qamhawi said Gomaas ruling would return Muslims to the dark ages.
Movie director Daud Abdul Sayed said the fatwa simply ignored the spiritual evolvement of Muslims since the arrival of Islam... Clearly, it was natural that they forbid statues under early Islam because people worshipped them.
But are there Muslims worshipping statues nearly 15 centuries later? he asked.
The notion sounds ridiculous, Yussef Zidan, director of the manuscript museum at the prestigious Bibliotheca Alexandrina, told AFP.
Why would anyone even bring up the issue (of the statues) in a country where there are more than 10 state-owned institutions that teach sculpting and more than 20 others that teach the history of art?
Ghitani added: Its time for those placing impediments between Islam and innovation to get out of our lives.
The wave of criticisms against the fatwa has put clerics on a collision course with intellectuals and artists, who say that such edicts only reinforce claims -- particularly in the West -- that Islam is against progress.
Some, including Sayed, compared Gomaas edict to a similar one issued by the former fundamentalist rulers of Afghanistan, the Taleban, that led to the destruction of statues of the Buddha despite an international outcry.
Mainstream Islamic scholars, including Egypts then mufti, Nasr Farid Wasel, and the controversial Qatar-based Islamic scholar, Yussef al-Qaradawi, all condemned the Talebans actions in March 2001.
But Qaradawi joined Gomaa in declaring that statues used for decoration are haram or un-Islamic.
Islam proscribed statues, as long as they symbolise living entities such as human beings and animals, Qaradawi said on an Islamic website.
Islam proscribed all that leads to paganism or smells of it, statues of ancient Egyptians included, he added.
The only exception, he said, was childrens toys.
Forbidden
Gomaa was appointed as grand mufti by President Hosni Mubarak. The muftis fatwas carry much weight and generally represent the official line.
His legitimacy is often challenged by other Muslims over his affiliation to the government and his edicts are not always followed.
The government can choose to enforce or ignore the ruling and its reaction in the past often depended on public opinion.
The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, Egypts main political opposition force, dismissed the fatwa.
The people are more concerned with corruption. What they would like to see is a fatwa banning the presence of the same people at the helm of the country for 25 years and not against statues, the movements spokesman Issam al-Aryan told AFP.
Gomaa has already put out a few contentious decrees and appears set to break his predecessor mufti Wasels record on notorious fatwas.
Wasel stirred a controversy in July 2001 for issuing a fatwa against a popular television show, the Arab version of Who wants to be a millionaire? that was airing on Egyptian television, saying it was forbidden by Islam.
These contests are a modern form of betting, Wasel had said.
The show was eventually cancelled, although it was not clear if the move was related to the fatwa.
In another fatwa in May 2001, Wasel ruled that beauty pageants in which women appear half-naked in front of panels of male judges are haram. The authorities played deaf and Egypt continues to host them.
Wasel slapped a fatwa on watching solar eclipses and another on bullfights, but refused to support rights activists in their campaign to outlaw female genital mutilation.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he will step down as premier after his declared victory in a weekend election failed to resolve a political standoff that crippled his government. Thaksin, 56, speaking in a live television broadcast at a press conference in Bangkok tonight, said he will stay on as interim prime minister until a new leader is chosen. He met with the country's King Bhumibol Adulyadej this afternoon.
``I'm convinced that what I've done as prime minister was the best I could do,'' Thaksin said. Quoting words King Bhumibol Adulyadej has said in the past, he said: ``If we keep competing with each other at the end the loser is the country.''
Thaksin, Thailand's most popular prime minister since the country started electing its leaders in 1932, called snap polls three years early to secure his mandate amid mounting protests against his rule in the capital, Bangkok. Criticism of his rule grew after his family made a tax-free $1.9 billion selling its stake in telecommunications group Shin Corp. on Jan. 23. Thaksin last night declared victory with some 60 percent of the vote and vowed to do ``whatever it takes,'' including resign, to resolve the crisis. He thanked the 16 million who voted for him in snap polls last weekend and apologized to them. He said it was time for all to show unity.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
10:52 ||
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whatever it takes
Amazing how much benevolence you can get for 2 bill. tax free.
The two bloodied, wincing Iraqi soldiers - bandages wrapped around their legs - hobbled onto the waiting ambulance, wounded during a house-to-house search near this farming town. The culprit was a common one: Not insurgents, but gunfire from fellow soldiers. U.S. trainers who mentor Iraqi troops say a lack of gun safety, or what they call ''muzzle discipline,'' has led to many injuries and deaths across the country. And while the Americans say it is slowly getting better, it remains a major problem for a U.S. military trying to train more than 200,000 Iraqis to defeat the insurgency.
''When we first got here, it was a little scary,'' said Army Capt. Steven Fischer, a trainer from Washington, Pa. ''We have to correct it.'' In the Bidimnah case in late January, insurgents first fired on Iraqi and U.S. troops patrolling the rural area about 50 miles west of Baghdad. That prompted more than a minute of wild, continuous gunfire from the Iraqi troops. The two Iraqi soldiers were wounded while the militants escaped unharmed.
Other examples are rife and often startling to the Associated Press:
*In December in the town of Adhaim north of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier stepped out of a vehicle with his safety lever turned off and accidentally shot himself point-blank in the chest. Minutes later, as a U.S. helicopter carried the dying man away, an Associated Press reporter saw a frustrated American soldier storm up and lecture another Iraqi soldier, who also did not have his safety on.
*During a large-scale operation last summer in Baghdad, an antsy Iraqi soldier took aim at what he thought was an insurgent, prompting several other Iraqi soldiers to drill hundreds of rounds into an empty home. No one was hurt.
*Iraq had a million-man army under Saddam Hussein, but soldiers who served in the old army said they were given only a few bullets a year - apparently a way to prevent coups. That practice left Iraqi troops untrained in the most basic of soldiering skills.
*Iraq now has tens of thousands of rookie soldiers who only recently learned how to use a weapon. And misfires have led to dozens of military deaths.
This reporter is tiptoeing along the slippery edge of Quagmire Ravine. YES, training gun safety to Arabs is hard. And YES, people are getting hurt and killed by arrogance, superstition, and ignorance. But YES, the work must be done, and our citizen soldiers are making it happen.
#1
This one's not in the ravine though, since less accusatory sources have noted this problem as well; it's pretty dangnabit ugly, although hopefully they've fixed the "bullet goes where Allah wills it" problem. I've heard about the 'few bullets' issuance before, hence extreme differences in marksmanship.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
04/04/2006 13:14
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One of the great benefits HOllywood has done for the war effort was decades of movies showing hipshots and other unsafe gun practices. These action movies were huge hits overseas and I've seen lots of pictures of militia hardboys doing Rambo poses (usually in West Africa but I'm sure its semi-universal).
Now the good folks in Hollywood would quake to know they have helped along the death of America's enemies(1) but facts are facts.
(1) Along a similar line Jimmy Carter helped end the cold war by being so pathetic that in 1979 the Soviet Union expanded their influence far beyond their abilities (Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, Vietnam, etc) just in time for Reagan to bash them. I'm sure Jimmy would wake up in a cold sweat were he to hear that.
Egyptian security forces have detained eight more members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the southern city of Al-Minya, the Islamist movement's spokesman told AFP. "Eight members of the Brotherhood were arrested in Al-Minya, one of whom is the son of a Brotherhood member of parliament," said Issam al-Aryan. "It is clear that this is a reaction to the Brotherhood's activities in parliament which cause embarrassment to the goverment," said Aryan.
The Islamist movement which is officially banned in Egypt fielded candidates as independents in the country's November parliamentary elections and holds 88 out of 454 seats in the People's Assembly. The fresh wave of arrests comes just days after security forces arrested 10 Brotherhood supporters in the northern city of Alexandria and brought to 45 the total number of those currently behind bars. Aryan said that the presence of the Islamist bloc in parliament and its aggressive challenge to the regime had rejuvenated the People's Assembly. He accused the government of backtracking on its promises of reform. "It's the first time the government feels that the assembly wants to exercise its legislative rights, and this worries them," he said.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran successfully tested a "super-modern flying boat" on Tuesday and the land-to-sea Kowsar missile that military analysts say is designed to sink ships in the Gulf, state media reported. The tests came in the middle of Gulf war games that started on Friday. Iranian state radio said the Kowsar could evade radar and that its guidance system could not be scrambled.
The Defense Ministry was not immediately able to give details of a "flying boat" that was shown on television. The small propeller-driven aircraft floated on a trimaran hull until it took off and flew low over the surface of the water. State television said it could reach speeds of 100 knots.
"A super-modern flying boat was successfully tested in the 'Great Prophet' war game in Persian Gulf waters," state television said. "Because of its hull's advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can locate it. It can lift out of the water. It is wholly domestically built and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."
Iran Focus has a picture. Looks like a kit plane, could be mass produced for suicide attacks. Doesn't look big enough to carry the super torp.
An aviation web site showed the vessel shared features with WIGE vehicles, known to Russians as ekranoplanes.
Winged In Ground Effect (WIGE or WIG) The WIG vehicles take advantage of an additional lift provided by cushion of dense air trapped between large wing of the craft and the surface. Induced drag (drag due to the lift) of wing is considerably reduced if the altitude of the aircraft is similar to the chord of the wing. Ground effect provides a considerable fuel economy and increase of range than convenient flight. WIG can operate over water, flat surfaces of Earth (shallows and wetlands), ice and snow. The major application of WIGs is anti-submarine warfare (ASW), search and rescue, sealift, amphibious assault and coastal defense. This class of vehicles is commonly known as "ekranoplanes" in Russia. It is believed that Russia is far ahead of the West in air-cushion vehicle technology and in WIG in particular.
Earlier in the war games, Iran said it had tested a radar-evading rocket and the Hoot (whale) underwater missile which could outpace any enemy warship. On Monday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard test-fired a torpedo it said was being mass-produced in Iran. State television said another missile would be tested on Tuesday afternoon.
Iran rarely gives enough details of its military hardware for analysts to determine whether Tehran is making genuine advances or simply producing defiant propaganda while pressure ratchets up on its nuclear program. Although Iran can draw on huge manpower, its naval and air-force technology is largely dismissed as obsolete. The United States said it was possible Iran had developed weapons that could evade sonar and radar but warned the Islamic Republic had a tendency to "boast and exaggerate".
Although Iran's military technology might not be highly advanced, analysts say Iran would not need much know-how to cause chaos in vital oil shipping channels.
They say Iran could be testing arms in the Strait of Hormuz, a key tanker nexus, to dissuade Israel and the United States from taking military action against Tehran's nuclear program. Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council after failing to convince the world its atomic scientists are working exclusively on power stations and not branching into weapons.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
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From Jan 2005: TEHRAN, Jan. 22 (MNA) -- A number of Iranian engineers have designed a two-seat flying boat in the Malek Ashatar University of Industry in Shiraz which is able to fly over water for 1-4 meter distance and even 50 meter distance in emergency to jump over obstacles, according to a report released in the Persian Gulf exhibition that wound up on Jan. 21 in Kish.
That's a WIGE plane.
The flying boat is in final stages to be produced massively.
Gearing up asembly line for mass production.
It speeds as fast as 160 km per hour and can be continuously driven for two hours with a fuel tank of 60 liter. The boat is fully made by composite and is equipped with an Austrian-made 110 horse piston engine.
That matches the photos. 160 km at 2 meters off the water will make it difficult to hit with normal anti-aircraft missiles.
Less than ten countries such as Russia, Germany, China, the U.S., and Australia have so far been able to obtain the production technology of this sort of boat in the world.
Russians have been working on WIGE planes for years.
Meanwhile, the managing director of Fajr Air Industry Co., said that his company has produced four fully composite-structure planes entitled Fajr 3 so far but the figure will reach 11 by next year and 15 soon after that.
Einollah Qaleh added that Fajr 3 plane is mainly used for training, traffic control, and mapping. It might be used as an air taxi or for private flights. The minimum price of the planes stands at 2,700 million rials (300,000 dollars) and cost owners some 1,500 rials per hour flight which is much cheaper than helitaxis that cost 5,000 rials per hour flight, he said.
Cheap, mass-produced suicide planes, perfect for the Iranian jihadi corp.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006 10:52
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#2
I give up. They are way to advanced for us. Before they kill us all, let's give in. I want to live in a world where a earthquake kills 44,000 people, but they are far superior to us militarily.
Either that or just nuke them.
#4
Also testing new deep fry technology stolen from internship at American McDonalds. Can quickly heat oil to 350 degrees to pour on special forces infidals trying to breech the castle walls.
#5
The Iranian military better have enough gasoline stored for those Rotax engines. Domestic gasoline production will be a goin' down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/04/2006 11:20
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#6
Smacks of an extra-terrestrial intelligence being at work.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/04/2006 11:23
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That flying boat is pie in the sky. I don't see it's weapons capability. No armor, no lifting capability, probably doesn't manuver very well, and needs highly trained operators, but Iran feels a need to boast of it's superior technology.
I think we should hold manuvers called the Cartoon Strikes Back. We can feature those air colume thingys; a Mohammed with swinging swords trying to stand straight, weaving and bobbing, thrashing about with bloody swords.
#8
"...Back off, man - we've got super-advanced flying boats..."
No probs, guys. Our TARGET drones have better performance than that. Oh, and by the way, for people who are so obsessed with history, you should look up what happened to the Japanese when they mass produced special one-off suicide planes.
Mike
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/04/2006 11:36
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#9
next up?....a flying carpet! Something "nice" with great patterns and a fringe to die for
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 11:42
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#10
That WIGE should be meat on the table for the R2D2's
#11
What do people know about the Kowsar? I googled it and have come up the Shahab-6 ICBM. But given its purported role and capabilities, this doesn't mesh. Could it be the AS-15 they got from Ukraine, or the C-802 they got from China and further developed with North Korea? Or a reversed engineered, indigenously produced variant of either?
#19
Re # 13: the Russian craft is a pure WIG while the P6M was designed to be the USN's sea-going equivalent to the B-52: rotary bomb bay, 4 J-79's w/ AB (think F-4 Phantom) and the abiltiy to ride rough seas for mid-ocean refueling from tanker subs. Depending on which version of history you read, it fell victim to either budget cuts of USAF-USN in fighting and the AF won. All tooling and remainging aircraft were cut up and sold as scrap ( 2 crashed during tests and one story still circulating says that one of the engineers on the project saved a set of the wing tip floats and made a houseboat from them).
#23
I guess it's just coincidence that ALL the Russian WIG testing was done on the Caspian. The Russians began testing WIG aircraft in the mid-1960's, and had built several dozen different designs. Many of them failed, some spectacularly.
I see Iran boasting of devices that the Russians designed and built five, ten, twenty years ago, and which they had very little success with. Are the Russians selling Iran all their junk? Seems like it...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 15:39
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#24
All this publicity is Irans pitch to hugo chavez aka bobo. who needs new arms suppliers to put expropriated oil money to work? bobo.
who is building a million man army as a substitute for jobs and free enterprise? bobo is. The world as we'v known it has changed, the disentagled left has found its new useful idiots and the whole damn thing is being orchestrated by one vladimir putin.
#26
The Iranians might want to paint concentric circles on the craft with numbers increasing towards the center. Make it more challenging for our military.
#27
Hell, all I asked for was a flying Persian rug
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 20:42
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#28
It still has to survive both US-Allied air strikes
+ US Navy defenses-in-depth - its still slowewr than the Navy's curr missle systems, plus lest we fergit the Navy's PHALANX-based CIWS can take out. i.e. SHRED TO PIECES, ANY MULTIPLE AIR-SEA THREAT(S) within its scopes. This "flying boat" is likely most useful in night-time suicide attacks and where Iran still holds any beach area(s) near enuff to US naval units - in end, it still comes down to the Mullahs wilfully engaging US milfors in pre-planned, PC, asymmetric warfare, aka "People's War", to includ nuclearized suicide attacks.
Israeli warplanes fired three missiles into the presidential compound of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, wounding two people and leaving deep craters in the ground. Abbas was not there at the time.
Bet they knew that. This would be an "attention getter".
The Israeli airstrike came in response to homemade Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, though it was not immediately clear why Abbas' compound was targeted. Abbas has been a strong critic of the rocket fire and has urged the new Hamas Cabinet to accept peacemaking with Israel. The missiles landed at Ansar 2, a largely abandoned base of the presidential guard and about 100 yards from Abbas' office. The Palestinian leader was at his main office in the West Bank.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh called for the United States and other Western powers to intervene. 'This escalation will lead the area to more violence and instability,' he said.
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, which oversees some of the Palestinian security forces, condemned the Israeli 'aggression' and threatened to retaliate.
'For every action, there's a reaction,' ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said. 'The occupation must understand that our people have the ability to be steadfast in confronting acts of occupation.'
The Ansar 2 compound, formerly used by Palestinian security forces to store equipment, has been largely abandoned due to previous Israeli attacks. During five years of fighting, Israel repeatedly attacked the site, most recently in 2004. The missiles fired Tuesday landed on an abandoned helicopter landing pad. Israel destroyed the Palestinian presidential helicopter in December 2001.
The Israeli airstrike came in response to homemade Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. The army said it had attacked an empty building in a residential area and open fields in northern Gaza used by militants to fire rockets. Militants fired four homemade projectiles into Israel earlier Tuesday. There were no reports of injuries.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
09:57 ||
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#1
"'For every action, there's a reaction,' ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said."
Well, he's got the basic concept. Now he just needs the insight that it works both ways and Israel has the superior weapons.
#2
The IDF needs to take a lesson from the US and do some bunker busting modeling. Maybe a 250 pounder to model the effects of the 5000 pounder. This would also send a message, kill noone and make me smile. Here's the target....
#4
They really need to stop sending messages, and start actually breaking things and people. They've sent too many messages, which are clearly not being taken seriously.
Swaddled in a pale green blanket, 3-day-old Luis Ernesto Gómez dozed away in his mother's arms, unaware that his birth was part of the end of an era.
"My father came from a family of 11 children. I came from a family of four children," said Luis' mother, María Elena Cervantes. "Me, I'm having two. That's it."
Therein lies a major historic shift: Mexico, a predominantly Roman Catholic country where huge families were once the norm, is sending the stork packing after just two children. It's a development that could affect U.S. immigration as Mexico's population growth slows to a crawl and the trend toward smaller families leads to more disposable income.
After decades of decline, the national fertility rate dropped to a milestone 2.1 children per woman last year, according to Mexico's National Population Council. That puts Mexico's rate about even with the United States (2.08), lower than most Latin American countries, and it means more couples are using birth control and straying from Catholic teachings.
Census experts refer to 2.1 children as the "natural replacement rate," meaning Mexico is just barely replacing the generations who will die in coming years. Hispanic immigrants in the United States are now reproducing at a faster rate, 2.8 children per woman, than Mexicans in Mexico. Sociologists say that is because immigrants tend to be less educated and come from poorer, rural areas of Mexico.
"Here in Mexico, we have seen a substantial decline in fertility rates, and it's fundamentally due to the increasing education level of women and their participation in economic life," said Carlos Welti, a population expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico... Whoa. Bolt out of the blue. In past, economists have noted that (varying between countries), at a particular point, a plateau, in national economic development, birth rate suddenly plummets to 2.1 per family. This begins an extended period of economic prosperity and political stability.
#2
This isn't new. Mexico's fertility rate was 2.4 in 2000. Population growth isn't actually bad for national prosperity. The US population went from 35m during the Civil War to about 120m by the turn of the 20th century, roughly similar to Mexico's population growth from 1945 to 2000. The US went from mainly agrarian power to major industrial power in that time frame. Mexico went nowhere.
It still boils down to good government - in America, citizens have many outlets for their energy and creativity, whereas in Mexico, they have few. This is why Mexicans keep streaming across the border, and generally do much better here than they do in Mexico.
#3
ARMYGUY: Nope, it makes all the difference in the world. First of all, most of the pressure is coming from southern Mexico, in the PPP (Plan Puebla Panama) areas, where peasants are being pushed north to make room for the massive redevelopment of the region.
The peasants are told to head to the just-south-of-the-border businesses, the maquildoras, as cheap labor to stimulate the Mexican economy and create lots of industry; or, better yet, continue over the border to the US.
When the PPP gets in full swing, trying to turn southern Mexico into the hemisphere's trading center, there is going to be a major demographic shift south to support its construction and operations. At that point, much of the illegal flow north will dry up.
From that point, the demographic flows in Mexico will mostly be internal, decentralizing the District Federal and enlarging other cities and building new ones.
Right now, however, Mexico could be at a critical phase. If the US can stop the immigration with a wall, Mexico might collapse in a bloody civil war, or be taken over by a leftist similar to, and friendly with, Chavez and his cabal of other leftist South American leaders.
But if their birthrate remains low, within 20 years, their country will become progressively more stable and successful.
April 4, 2006: Iran recently announced the successful test of a new, high-speed torpedo, one that could move through the water at speeds of up to 100 meters a second. This is four times as fast as conventional torpedoes, and is thus nearly "unavoidable" by its intended target.
The new Iranian weapon is apparently based upon Russia's VA-111 Shkval (Squall) torpedo. The Shkval is a high-speed supercavitating rocket-propelled torpedo originally designed to be a rapid-reaction defense against US submarines. Basically an underwater missile, the solid-rocket propelled torpedo achieves its speed by producing an envelope of supercavitating bubbles from its nose and skin, which coat the entire weapon surface in a thin layer of gas. This drastically reduces metal-to-water friction. The torpedo leaves the tube at nearly a hundred kilometers an hour, then lights its rocket motor. In tests in the 1990s the Shkval reportedly had an 80 percent kill probability at a range about seven kilometers, although steerability was reportedly limited.
The reliability of such rocket-propelled torpedoes remains uncertain. The much publicized loss of the Russian submarine "Kursk" was, according to some sources, likely due to an accidental rocket motor start of such a torpedo while still aboard the boat. News of this new Iranian weapon was accompanied by the announcement that Iran had also tested a new ballistic missile, the Fajr-3, which employs some stealth technology and carries several warheads.
Iran's possession and successful testing of this weapon is troublesome for several reasons. One is Iran's increasing belligerence, especially towards nuclear-armed Israel (which is estimated to have at least 200 nuclear weapons and the missiles and submarines to deliver them) as well as an almost equal antipathy towards the US. Another reason to worry is Russia's apparent intent to continue close economic ties with Iran and the resulting transfer of its technology to this Islamic state run by fanatics and others who are apparently just plain nuts.
Iran is believed to have three late-model Kilo class SSKs bought from Russia, eight mini-subs purchased from North Korea, and several older boats of unknown type. The navy has several dozen fast attack boats that might carry the new torpedo but whose capabilities are in other ways modest. Its small fleet of P-3K "Orion" aircraft could conceivably also carry such a torpedo although it is unknown if Iran plans to arm its Orions with the new torpedo. Iran's navy is the smallest of its armed forces.
However, there is also the matter of credibility and capability. For decades, Iran has continually boasted of new, Iranian designed and manufactured weapons, only to have the rather more somber truth leak out later. Iran's weapons design capabilities are primitive, but the government has some excellent publicists, who always manage to grab some headlines initially, before anyone can question the basic facts behind these amazing new weapons. Take, for example, the new wonder torpedo. The Russians have not had any success convincing the world's navy that their rocket propelled torpedo is a real threat. For one thing, the attacking sub has to get relatively close (within seven kilometers) to use it. Modern anti-submarine tactics focus on preventing subs from getting that close. For that reason, the Russians themselves tout the VA-111 Shkval torpedo as a specialized anti-submarine weapon for Russian subs being stalked by other subs. This is also questionable, because Shkval is essentially unguided. You have to turn the firing sub and line it up so that the Shkval, on leaving the torpedo tube and lighting off its rocket motor, will be aimed directly at the distant target. Do the math, and you will see that there is little margin for error, or chance of success, with such a weapon. If the Iranians bought the Shkval technology from Russia, they got the bad end of the deal.Defense Tech has a lot more on this torpedo
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
08:58 ||
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#1
Its small fleet of P-3K "Orion" aircraft could conceivably also carry such a torpedo...
While the Orion is an excellent ASW plane, and not bad at taking out light/undefended surface targets, it's a prop plane. It simply couldn't get close enough to a defended target to deliver a torpedo with a 7nm range.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 9:41
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#2
The only problem here is that these torpedoes would likely be used against tankers, not naval vessels.
Go read up on the "Tanker war" when the US reflagged vessels to protect them from Iranians (and Iraqis too - Saddam was flying French fighter-bombers and using French Exocet missles. Bet you forgot that!)
Iran refrained from attacking the United States naval forces directly, but it used various forms of harassment, including mines, hit-and-run attacks by small patrol boats, and periodic stop-and-search operations. On several occasions, Tehran fired its Chinese-made Silkworm missiles on Kuwait from Al Faw Peninsula. When Iranian forces hit the reflagged tanker Sea Isle City in October 1987, the US retaliated by destroying an oil platform in the Rostam field and by using US Navy SEALs to blow up a second one nearby.
#3
this is too what im begining too see this as, a tanker threat more then anything,a card to use in a any new tanker wars and a powerful card it is to when used against unprotoected supertankers. US navy or DARPA has developed a weapons system apparently that firs bullets into the water to defeat wake homing torpeados, i think it uses a LADAR system to search for and aquire the target then fires a type of super cavitating bullets - much like a close in defense system like goal keeper i think but the bullets have no bother with water and its rigged to fire into the water anyway if you get me. Perhaps systems like these will become standard issue much in the same way the certain countrys airline aircraft are now being fitted with advanced counter measure systems. The whole web seems to have gone wild with excitment over this though - find me a military forum or newsforum that dosnt say about it so the Iranians certaily got thier propaganda value out of this. Anyway back to counter measures which brings about another thought - Decoys? do warships have sonar spoofing decoys that are towed out behind like the is it 'ALE-50' system on fighter and bomber jets do, something like that would be handy i'd guess and then theres that Acoustic defensive system i said about the other day that again i think DARPA said they invented which uses pulses of sound i think to make a torpedo think its hit and detonate - like a big fck off shockwave slamming into it i think - something like that could also end up standard fit on Tankers and warships operating in that region. Slat armour like a Stryker? lol joking on that last one but don't US carriers have alot of armour on them or is all of that above the water line? and could even a super carrier bear to take the huge force of pressure detonated by one or think maybe 3 or 4 at once of these detonating against and even worse under it hull? Hell a Super carrier is big i know but the blast of a torpedo detonating directly underneath would surly still have a hell of a chance of snapping her back in two pieces. I think the plan is gonna be to use these to shut down the straights of Hormuz (spelling) by swamping the area with launchers fitted and in various types of differant platforms. Yes alot of them would be taken out but you get 5 or 6 of these coming at you in a coordinated fight then your in trouble. Perhaps engaging the US navy with suicide boats and what not for hours and days to wear them down (ok debatable) using every tool in the book then a suprise attack with a mass Shkval attack - at night too so the wakes less visable. Ok might sound like some kind of doom mongering but you don't win wars by under estimating the potential of the enemy.
#4
I am not a Naval expert but how effective would this weapon be in the (somewhat) shallow waters around Iran? Also if push come to shove wouldn't it be difficult for a sub to evade an ASW screen in those waters? But maybe the only correct move would be to destroy everything now and not wait and see if they can employ them.
I'ts hard to believe that the Navy would ever let the Air Force get all the robot money [Preditor, Global Hawk etc]. I'm sure we've wired the whole Gulf way back and keep updating the sensors. And I wouldn't be surprised if we've mined it with the latest smart mines and or smart varities of robots.
#9
The only problem here is that these torpedoes would likely be used against tankers, not naval vessels.
Against a target as slow and unmanaeuverable as a tanker ypou don't need this torpedo. This torpedo is supposed to go after war ships not tankers, now that it will be effetive its to be demonstrated.
#10
I'm no naval expert either but it's pretty clear from articles that the Shkval was developed as a defensive weapon for a sub to fire off against US sub which would have to evade, letting the Russian sub gain the initiative in a sub to sub battle. I guess it could hit a carrier too if the sub got in that close, but then so could the other Russian torpedo models.
Correct me if I'm wrong but don't we also hunt subs effectively from P3s (which Iran also has but I assume we can shoot them down or we have other problems) and Helos. If so, aren't we really worried about Shkval-armed torpedo boats . I am curious if we have a problem tracking them.
Seems to me we're worried more about Exocet and Sunburn for our carriers.
As noted here before, blocking the Strait is not a necessarily a good idea for Iran which imports a lot of its own gasoline with tankers. I would assume such a provocative act would lead to a total blockade of Iran and we would destroy their electrical generation and distribution and petroleum refining capacity as well as their IRBMs and shore batteries. This would take a lot longer to restore than clearing the Strait.
#13
Trying a harassment campaign against the US is fruitless, as our Navy Seals live for the opportunity to scuttle everything that floats in Iran larger than most bathtub toys.
So using this as an axiom, their first attack almost has to be against one or two of our carriers. Their entire campaign is rooted in whether this attack works or not.
Ideally, for the Iranians, it would happen in the area of Port Said, Egypt, at the entrance or in the Suez Canal; South to the Bab el Mandeb passage opposite Aden, Yemen. In the North, if it was a nuclear detonation, it might also rain fallout on Israel, as well as close the canal.
They would make it an al-Qaeda operation, and diplomatically deny involvement around the world.
The US has already warned them that any such attack would be interpreted as an Iranian act of war. So continuing, any response by the US would immediately be met with a massive conventional missile barrage against US airbases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They would calculate that with the US Atlantic fleet blocked from entering the region, the Pacific fleet a week or two away, and the complete shut-off of Persian Gulf oil causing massive disruption in the world oil markets and economies, along with major diplomatic efforts, might limit US retaliation to "acceptable" levels.
#15
So what they have basically invented is an underwater unguided balistic missile that would have to be lit off close to the target? With the shallow depth around Iran, good luck with that.
#16
thing what is often forgotten though is Iran has no problem finding suicidal manpower to do these jobs - they think very very differantly to how we do when it comes to how they use thier forces. They have no worry for casualties regardless of number - these fckers would sacrifice 200000 just to kill 4000 of us, im not doom mongering again but this factor has to be bought into account when dealing with the Iranians. They have no shortage of brain washed idiots either willing to sacrifice themselves for Allan and the mad mullahs, also no media crying quigmire every 30 seconds either. These guys ain't stupid - they've been tooling up for this for decades and are willing to take heavy losses.
#17
The Persian Gulf is a noisy place. There are questions about how effective our anti-submarine efforts would be there. I assume that doctrine is being developed to deal with this but, the US Navy is primarilily a blue water Navy. The Gulf is not the environment that they have been designed for.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
04/04/2006 12:53
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#18
My understanding was that the carriers would stay off in quieter, deeper waters or the Arabian Sea and that P3s (based in Quatar or some friendly country), our attack subs and ship based helos would hunt Iranian subs. Doesn't that make the Iranian theater ballistic missile threat more of an issue than the Shkval since it can be used to attack our air bases in the region from which P3s and refueling aircraft must launch?
#21
I'd love to hear the explaination of how displacing water could be as easy as displacing air. Water to metal friction is only a fraction of the problem. I just don't see how this torpedo could work and I think the inherent design problem probably caused the Kursk accident.
#22
#13 They would make it an al-Qaeda operation, and diplomatically deny involvement around the world.
One more reason to tell Iran, North Korea and all other rogue nuclear states that a single terrorist nuclear explosion gets all of them glassed over. We need to have enough other nations so petrified over Iran's potential usage that they all put pressure on the mullahs to sit down and STFU.
#24
I don't care how noisy the Gulf is you can use active sonar to detect subs. I forget my basic sonar primer but I think it works better at shallow depths. Since we alreaady know where thse subs are based and I assume we are keeping an eye on them, so at the onset of hostilities they would be a first strike target. The other platforms (P-3, etc) are less of a threat.
#25
I forget my basic sonar primer but I think it works better at shallow depths.
Nah. All those echoes from rocks, the bottom, the SURFACE even. Active sonar is a two edged threat. It can detect but again only under certain conditions but then you've just announced to the listening world that you are out there.
The thing is meant to shoot down the throat of another attacking submarine and hopefully make it turn away, thus, breaking the control wire of it's own torpedo.
REMEMBER: There are only two types of ships at sea. (1) Submarines and (2) Targets!
#26
I'm pretty confident with our Navy that the gulf is the most-mapped/seeded with sensors body of water in the world....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 18:50
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#27
We should be careful of this new weapon because in it's only deployment, it was 100% successful and sunk a submarine. Course, the problem is, it sunk it's mothership. I think it is more dangerous for them than us.
#28
Dipping sonar and sonobouys - thats the biggie that most forget. Active sonar, but no giving away a big naval target (sub, surface ship) to do that. If we had ann FFG's with SURTASS left, they'd probably do OK on picket duty just off the brown water in the Persian Gulf.
#29
#21 I'd love to hear the explaination of how displacing water could be as easy as displacing air. Water to metal friction is only a fraction of the problem. I just don't see how this torpedo could work and I think the inherent design problem probably caused the Kursk accident.
Okay, lemme' try at least.
First, the damned thing has a sort of "burbler" which disperses a constant bubble of gas from the nose. Think of a fountain, only this fountain uses gas underwater instead of water above the surface.
The gas flows down all sides of the missile, coating it in a constant stream for the few short seconds it's going to be active and moving.
Now, what happens is that the gas forms a sort of "bubble" or "cavity" (opening in the surroudning water) around the entire missile. This cavity pushes on the water ahead of the missile, constantly forming ahead of the missile and allowing it to travel through a less dense medium than the water surrounding the cavity. The result is that the missile is pushing against a gaseous bubble which is pushing against a watery bubble. This lets the missile attain much faster speeds than a normal torpedo can.
Of course, it's noisier than hell and any launch will be instantly detected by anything using sonar even in the passive role within miles.
The USN had 2 submarines watching the Kursk the day she went down according to most reports (Memphis & Toledo) and I'm sure we've seen the Shkval test fired (or acquired a few of our own and test fired them ourseves) and acquired its acoustic signature. This thing will be instantly detected, identified, located, and very quickly destroyed along with its firing platform.
The danger is that it carries a fairly heavy warhead and will likely be used against tankers rather than in a faceoff with the USN. It can do a lot of damage even to newer double-hulled tankers, but it's unlikely to be able to sink a carrier unless it cracks her keel (also unlikely in my estimation). The warhead is only about 500 lbs high explosive. I believe the Sunburn carries a substantially larger warhead.
The Exocets (2 of them) that hit our OHP (Stark; a tiny little aluminum hulled frigate) in the Gulf had a warhead of about 250 lbs HE each, as an example.
Go here,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exocet
or Google "Exocet missile warhead" and go to the Wiki site for a picture of the Stark after she was hit.
#4
Despite their anger about incidents like this, the two rappers reject violence as a solution for conflicts.
Yea, thats the really swell thing about RAP, it's total respect for law enforcement, it's peace loving format, zero tollerence of drugs, law abiding nature have really become RAP hallmarks.
#5
Hey, if Vanilla Ice could rap about the mean streets of his suburb (snicker), why can't some goof from Tennessee rap about the indignity of a Gaza checkpoint he's never been to?
SAN DIEGO - A Pakistani man was sentenced on Monday to nearly five years in prison for his role in a plot to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taleban and Al Qaeda. Muhamed Abid Afridi, 32, pleaded guilty in federal court in March 2004 to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish.
Two other men pleaded guilty to the same charges. Sentencing for Syed Mustajab Shah, 57, also of Pakistan, is set for June 19. Ilyas Ali, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in India, is scheduled to be sentenced April 10.
Afridi admitted that he tried to sell five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin to undercover U.S. law enforcement officials in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to members of the Taleban. Such missiles could be used to shoot down airplanes, including commercial jets, flying at low altitudes.
Afridi knew at the time of the Talebans ties to Al Qaeda, prosecutors said.
The defendants were arrested in 2002 by police in Hong Kong. The three had been secretly videotaped in meetings with undercover FBI agents at a Hong Kong hotel.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
08:18 ||
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#1
5 YEARS ??????????????????????????????
five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taleban and Al Qaeda
#4
According to the article, two of the gentlemen in question are Pakistainis, one a naturalized American citizen of Indian extraction. As I recall, all three were settled in the U.S. with their families at the time of the arrests. So, five years in the calaboose, followed by immediate deportation, along with the families no longer having visible means of support. The wives and children (not to mention the extended family whose lives had been so much more comfortable on the remittances they'd been receiving from their Stateside relative these many years), deprived forever of the lifestyle to which they were happily accustomed, should be enough to make the gentlemen long for their prison days the rest of their sorry lives.
#5
Among drug dealers in the 70s it was a known fact that $20k would get them a lot of drugs in South America but $20K in weapons would get a whole lot more. Then the problem was how to consumate the deal without the weapons being turned on the dealer afterwards.
The interesting twist here is the drugs are delivered in the US. The story doesn't explain where the weapons were to be exchanged. Drug suppliers don't usually show that much savy. By already having smuggled the drugs into the US they could ask for way more weapons per unit of drugs.
That should have raised red flags to them. (they were a bit greedy.) If a dealer had weapons to sell, they are easier to export than drugs are to bring in. A sharp dealer would have just made the deal in Pakistan. (His return would have been so much better.)
They were idiots that they didn't suspect this.
(maybe using their product?)
British and American citizens have been detained in the Far Eastern Russian province of Chukotka, governed by Roman Abramovich, for illegally crossing the Russian state border, RIA Novosti reported. Presumably, the two foreigners are tourists. The detainees have passports, commercial visas, tents and arctic equipment with them. A .44 Magnum-Colt pistol and cartridges have been also found among their belongings, a local security services spokesman said.
That .44 would be for polar bears most likely
Would it bring down an elk?
They told the police that they were heading from South America to Great Britain, and had crossed the Russian-American border in the Bering Strait, traveling from Alaska.
Nice little hike
But Russian authorities seem to be doubtful about the aim of their visit to Russia and have started an investigation into the case.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
08:12 ||
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#1
What? No Second Amendment in Russia? Who woulda thought?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 11:13
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#2
"Comrade, we are simple, if well-armed, tourists, da?"
#3
Russian authorities did not identify the two or say when they were arrested.
But one of the adventurers, Briton Karl Bushby, said on his Web site that he and Dimitry Kieffer of Anchorage, Alaska, reached Chukotka province Friday. It took them 15 days to walk the 56 miles from Alaska to Russian territory. The Web site said Bushby, a 36-year-old former paratrooper, made the crossing as part of a round-the-world walk that began in 1998 at the southern tip of South America.
Bushby's father, Keith, of Hereford, England, confirmed the two had arrived in Russia on Friday and had been detained sometime after that, though he did not know exactly when. In a posting dated Friday, March 31, Karl Bushby's Web site said he and Kieffer were in the village of Uelen, near the point where the Bering Sea meets the Chukchi Sea, about 560 miles northwest of the provincial capital Anadyr.
Keith Bushby said the travelers were headed south down the coast en route to the city of Provideniya, about 380 miles northeast of Anadyr, to officially register with Russian authorities. But they were stopped on their way there in the small village of Lavrenty, about 500 miles northwest of Anadyr. They did not enter the country at a border crossing, so they had no stamps in their passports.
``Because they were walking across the Bering Strait, they could not take the normal route. Consequently, they didn't have the correct stamps and a landing permit,'' Keith Bushby told The Associated Press. ``We don't blame the Russian bodyguards because they are doing their job. Karl fully expected a problem, because he knew this would happen.'' He added that his son was feeling fine but was upset that his trip through Russia could be cut short if the authorities deny him permission to continue his travels.
Bushby wants to be the first person to walk all the way around the world, his Web site says. Since the beginning of his journey on Nov. 1, 1998, he has covered 17,000 miles, walking through South, Central and North America.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006 12:41
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#4
Pretty interesting story.
I hope the Russian sheriff, played by Brian Dennehy, doesn't try to give the Brit ex-soldier, played by Sly Stallone, a hard time or Richard Crenna may say, "You better order some more body bags".
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is to be charged with genocide over a 1980s campaign against the Kurds, an Iraqi tribunal has announced. Saddam Hussein and six others face new charges over a crackdown known as the Anfal campaign, which included the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja. Human rights groups say 180,000 civilians died in the Anfal campaign. Saddam and seven others are already on trial for the deaths of 148 people in Dujail after an assassination attempt.
"We declare the investigations are completed in the case called the Anfal campaign in which thousands of men and women were killed. The accused are being transferred to the criminal court," court spokesman Raid Juhi said as he made the announcement.
Saddam's co-accused include his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his role in the poison gas attack on Halabja in 1988, in which 5,000 people died. The others facing charges are former defence minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed and high ranking Baathists Saber Abdel Aziz, Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, Taher Mohammed al-Ani and Farhan al-Juburi.
Mr Juhi said the charges against the former president and his co-accused had been filed with a judge, who will review the evidence and order a trial date. Correspondents say it is not clear whether the trial will run in parallel to the Dujail trial or after it. The announcement comes a day before the Dujail trial - over the killing of 148 people in the Shia village of Dujail in 1982 - was set to resume.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/04/2006
08:07 ||
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Offers advanced recoilless RPGs, special ops equipment, helicopters. To be co-produced in Jordan, i.e. transferring manufacturing know-how as well as the end products.
#1
Nothing new here. Russia has been the primary and major arms supplier to the Arabs since the 50s. How well did those work against Israel in the wars against them, BTW? As well as the Russian made equipment the Iraqis had during the gulf wars? Really?
#1
Later ships in the class will include USS Arlington, the location of the Pentagon, also struck by a hijacked jetliner on Sept. 11, and USS Somerset, named for the Pennsylvania county where United Flight 93 crashed after its passengers fought off hijackers apparently planning to attack another Washington target.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2006 8:39
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#2
Fantastic story. People moved back after katrina, and one guy postponed retirement, so they could finish it.
What a country. Lincoln was right: we will either endure for all ages, or die by suicide.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 10:49
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#5
Finish them all and get them into commission in time for the landings at Dahran and Jiddah.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2006 13:14
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#6
Lincoln was right: we will either endure for all ages, or die by suicide.
Ptah, no better place for the complete quote by President Lincoln.
From his Lyceum Address on January 27, 1838 - Lincoln was 28 years old.
This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
The prophetic vision of Lincoln, as America was almost torn apart by civil strife, now resonates with almost supreme irony as our nation faces yet another struggle against those within it who would sooner dissolve or disarm the Union than see our democratic superpower survive intact.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/04/2006 8:36
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#4
I've read Debka for years and find they are ahead of the news curve and generally accurate (and they may well be right about Saddam's WMD going to Syria).
#5
Debka is full of $%!#. I don't fall for wishful thinking. Someone ought to keep track of these types of predictions. 3 years ago I fell for a rumor that Iran was on the brink of a counter-revolution. Never again.
#6
thats the thing with DEBKA, never beleive it 100% but don't discount what they say as twaddle either, they come up trumps a fair few times if you keep a close eye on them.
#7
It makes sense for al-Qaeda to move into Gaza. They are an entity that cannot thrive outside of chaos, and even Somalia has proven too orderly for them.
In Gaza, they can join the table as the junior partner, taking advantage of the Fatah, Hamas, and Hizbullah split. Remember they have no compunction against attacking Shiites of which there are many in the area.
Importantly, al-Qaeda in Gaza have a different focus: for now, they actually do not care very much about Israel. They want a headquarters, a base of operations for attacks outside of the Paleo territories, not including Israel, who would immediately retaliate.
They can guess that if they limit themselves to slaughtering Paleo opposition and setting up an "Emirate", the Israelis might actually leave them alone. Of course, the Paleos are like dogs to them, but useful dogs. Like other Arabs, they hope to use the Paleos to their own ends.
This is not a bad strategy. There are many Paleos who would be more than willing to commit terrorist acts somewhere else just for the chance to be somewhere else.
And, if al-Qaeda actually *stopped* the Paleo attacks against Israel, Israel might in turn be so tired of the whole thing they would leave al-Qaeda alone. Israel might actually accept the idea of Gaza being used as a base to attack other Moslem countries, as long as those other countries didn't retaliate against Israel.
#8
I wonder how many more of these thugs will be invited to the party before the Palestinians finally realize that they are the party. The Palestinians are like prostitutes invited to a convention. They think there's something to gain, when in reality, they're nothing more than a tawdry amusement to be passed around until tired of.
As to DEBKA, salt liberally and make sure you only pay heed to their less outlandish story lines. They are the ones that usually bear out in the long run.
#9
Israel might be satisifed if Al Queda removed the Paleo attacks but they'd probably be really happy for US involvement in the occupied territories and the reverse in international public opinion that would result if major Al Queda folks were shown to have been sheltered by the Palestianians.
The other thing is Al Queda might hit Israel hard enough hoping to provoke Holy War that they begin the displacement of Arabs from East Jerusalem or even the entire West Bank.
All in all I'm not sure the value for Al Queda or the Palestinians.
#12
Still seems very strange. Unless the threat of Al Q setting up shop, or heaven forbid, attack Palestinians is supposed to rally the the world around Hammas and turn the money spigots back in because it's supporting the WOT.
I'd rather believe in a plan for a huge hit on Israel, that cannot be be blamed on the poor, innocent Pals. If a few H and F honchos have to die to prove the "takeover", so be it.
They really think the world is backing Palestine and plan on claiming this as theirs, post Israel. Irans ready to back the draw the hit on troops sent to Israel and Palestine to counter Al Q. I dunno. Weird movements and allliances and rhetoric. Something's afoot. But nothing sounds right in speculation yet.
Senate Republicans searching for a compromise on whether more than 11 million illegal immigrants should be allowed to eventually seek citizenship moved toward limiting that opportunity to those who've lived in the country at least five years. Negotiators who met for about an hour late Monday evening in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., seemed to have settled on five years as a demarcation for who could remain and work and eventually earn citizenship.
Details were to be provided to other Senate Republicans at their closed-door Tuesday morning meeting. "We're looking at the roots concept, and that is if they have been here more than five years," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If they have been here less then five years and they do not have roots to the same extent and can be treated differently, and that is what we're looking at."
The fate of those with less time in the country was unclear, but Specter suggested they might be asked to go to ports of entry, like the Texas border city of El Paso, and would not have to return to their native countries.
A similar proposal made in Specter's committee received little support. However, the idea seemed to have some support from Frist, who told CNN over the weekend that 40 percent of illegal immigrants have been in the country less than five years and "need to be dealt with in a different fashion."
A bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee based on a proposal by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. would allow illegal immigrants in the United States before Jan. 7, 2004, and who have jobs, to work legally for an additional six years and eventually become citizens. Both Frist and McCain are considered likely candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
A separate bill filed by Frist does not deal with illegal immigrants, but boosts border enforcement and cracks down on employers who hire illegal workers. The House in December passed a bill that would make being in the country illegally a felony.
Opponents consider the Judiciary Committee bill amnesty. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country, before they can return legally to apply for permanent residence or be guest workers. Cornyn was not at the meeting at Frist's office, but his spokesman Don Stewart was skeptical of the suggested compromise. "It's a matter of giving amnesty to 8 million people or giving amnesty to 12 million people. It's still amnesty to millions of people," Stewart said. 1986 Illegal Alien Amnesty and Citizenship: 3 million
2006 Amnesty: 8 million
Didn't make this year's amnesty? Cross the border now and get a slot for the 2026 amnesty.
2026 Amnesty: 21 million
The overwhelming majority of the 3 million in the 1986 amnesty are now solid, responsible, good Americans. The 8 million will become the same if we let them.
Posted by: ed ||
04/04/2006
07:46 ||
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#1
if they have been here more than five years."
Let me get this straight the Undocumented have been keeping documentation to prove the length time they have been in the US. What about the ones that have been here at least five years but cant provide any proof? Im assuming if they cant provide something official such as an easily forged pay stub or letter from employer that the honor system will be acceptable.
#3
The overwhelming majority of the 3 million in the 1986 amnesty are now solid, responsible, good Americans. The 8 million will become the same if we let them.
Right now they're just law breakers. Why should they get a prefeerence over the 8 million in India, China , the Philippines who want to be citizens and have followed the law?
#4
I agree with you 100% nimble. Don't let a single one of them even apply until the last one which petitioned for an immigration visa the second before this goes into effect is eligible to apply for citizenship.
Do not reward their illegal behavior by allowing them to cut in line ahead of law-abiding applicants (some of whom have been patiently waiting for YEARS!) -- which this bill would 'piss on' once again.
Bush hopes the experiment will produce scores of young Michiganders who are fluent in Arabic, and he wants the program to be copied nationwide, said Robert Slater, director of the U.S. Department of Defense's national security education program...Michigan State University will begin planning Michigan's Arabic program this summer with a small federal grant...Slater and his colleagues at the Department of Defense said that the language programs will have the greatest chance of success in cities where the language they're trying to teach is already spoken by a large number of people...Language educators in Michigan and across the country said they are thrilled with the new interest from the government. Not since the height of the Cold War has so much attention been paid to foreign language study, they said.
Better late than never.
Imad Hamad, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee [said] "This initiative is gate-opening. It's going to open a lot of people's minds and eyes."
#1
Actually, I am in favor of this: the more natives we have knowing arabic, the less they can hide behind the language.
Yassir Arafat was an expert at saying one thing in English, and another in Arabic.
Also, the soddies DON'T WANT an ambassador that speaks Arabic, so anything that remotely pisses them off, like understading arabic, is a winner with me.
THE US Defence Department has approved a possible sale of up to four Boeing Co C-17 cargo planes and associated equipment to Australia, in a deal worth up to $US2 billion ($2.8 billion).
The Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency today told Congress the Australian government had requested the sale of the C-17s, up to 18 F-177 engines made by United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney unit, and up to four AN/AAQ-24 infrared countermeasures systems made by Northrop Grumman Corp.
Politicians now have 30 days to reject the proposed sale, which also includes night vision goggles and assorted other equipment, but Congress has rarely acted to block a sale.
DSCA, which oversees major arms sales, said the sale would give Australia a heavy airlift capability, which it currently relies on the US Air Force or contract carriers using Russian aircraft to provide.
"The C-17 will greatly improve Australia's capability to rapidly deploy in support of global coalition operations and will also greatly enhance its ability to lead regional humanitarian/peacekeeping operations," the agency said.
It said the proposed agreement would likely include offset agreements with Australian companies, but said those would be determined in negotiations between Australia and the contractors during detailed discussions if the sale is approved.
The proposed sale is welcome news for Chicago-based Boeing, which has been lobbying Congress to continue production of C-17 cargo planes beyond the current cap of 180 set by the Air Force, which would mean shutting down the production line in fiscal year 2008.
Boeing said it was in contract negotiations, and current plans called for production of 15 C-17s a year at the company's plant in Long Beach, California, said spokeswoman Kerry Gildea.
She said the company was also talking with other countries, including Canada and Sweden, that had expressed interest in the cargo planes.
In past years, Congress has added money to military budgets to help cover the services' so-called "unfunded requirements," which this year include seven more C-17s for Iraq. Air Force officials are hoping for extra funds to extend the C-17 line.
Australia said the first C-17 plane could be delivered later this year with the rest delivered by mid-2008. The Australian defence department's purchase came on top of an $US28.5 billion ($39.87 billion) increase in spending the government has committed to over the decade ending in 2010.
EFL: On March 17, DEBKA-Net-Weeklys intelligence sources in Baghdad revealed as a result of a discreet scan that almost 130 of the 275 candidates the Shiite Alliance posted for the December election were connected in some way or other with, or on the payroll of, the Iranian bodies pulling the wires of Iraqi politics from across the border.
Six Iraqi lawmakers elected on the United Iraqi Alliance ticket were identified as undercover amid officers brigadier-generals - of the Iranian revolutionary guards and intelligence service. They used political fronts to disguise their undercover missions on behalf of the Islamic republic.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly reveals the names and functions of those six Iraqi politicians-cum-Iranian brigadier generals.
Abu Muchtabi Sari former secretary general of the Iraqi Hizballah.
Abu Hassan Al Amari the last commander of the Badr Force at its base in Iran.
Abu Mahdi al Muhandis former Badr Force officer.
Rajah Alwan - former Badr Force officer.
Dager Moussawi Head of the Lord of the Martyrs Movement, which Irans military intelligence established in the Shiite regions of central and southern Iraq. (Lord in the Shiite sense refers to the holy Imam Hussein)
Tahsin Aboudi a high-ranking Iraqi interior ministry official, under which cover - and as an Iraqi member of parliament - he is aan undercover brigadier general of Irans external intelligence service, which is operated by the foreign ministry in Tehran.
Given the subversive nature of the high and mighty of Shiite politics, it is hardly surprising that obstacles are being piled up against the formation of a Shiite-led coalition government. The problem runs a lot deeper than sectarian disagreement over a prime minister. Most of the key players know exactly whom they are dealing with, behind the facades of Shiite Iraqi politicians and officials. Their resistance is not just focused on prime minister Jaafari, but aimed at thwarting the rise in Baghdad of a government that is a stooge of Iranian intelligence. It is no secret to Baghdads political insiders that the Iranians are in the middle of an artfully contrived program to exploit Iraqs democratic process for the capture of positions of political influence in Baghdad and the southern Shiite regions of Iraq.
#1
If we are as certain of our information as DEBKA is, arrest the gentlemen with great fanfare, publicize their connections, and immediately hold a vote for their replacements. If it's good enough for Chalabi, it is certainly good enough for such as these.
Iraq's interior ministry is refusing to deploy thousands of police recruits who have been trained by the US and the UK and is hiring its own men and putting them on the streets, according to western security advisers.
The move is frustrating US and British efforts to build up a non-sectarian Iraqi police force which would not be infiltrated by partisan militias.
The disclosure highlights growing US and British concern about the role of militias in sectarian killings, and their links to senior Iraqi politicians. "You can't have in a democracy various groups with arms - you have to have the state with a monopoly on power," Condoleeza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at the end of her two-day visit to Baghdad yesterday.
"We have sent very, very strong messages repeatedly, and not just on this visit, that one of the first things ... is that there is going to be a reining in of the militias... It's got to be one of the highest priorities."
The interior ministry, which is controlled by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI), has not deployed any graduates of the civilian police assistance training team (CPATT), a joint US/UK unit, for the past three months.
The CPATT was designed to put the police on a fair footing after Saddam Hussein's 30-year dictatorship. Its goal is to train 134,000 officers by the end of the year and ensure an equitable ethnic and sectarian balance.
The ministry's refusal to use the new graduates is causing alarm. "There are concerns about the infiltration of the police by extremist groups and the coalition is right to be concerned about transparency," a western security adviser told the Guardian.
Senior ministry officials say they refuse to deploy the graduates because they have no control over the CPATT's selection process.
Sunni politicians and residents of Baghdad have claimed that the ministry supports several "death squads" which are said to be responsible for abducting and murdering hundreds of Sunnis in recent weeks.
In one incident last week, men dressed in the camouflage uniforms of police commandos drove up in three vehicles and stormed into an electrical appliances store in Mansour, a middle-class Sunni district of west Baghdad. They rounded up three young women employees and five males in a room and shot them dead.
It emerged late last year that the interior ministry has been running secret detention centres. US troops discovered two prisons in which more than 800 men and boys, mostly Sunnis, were held in shocking conditions. Under the Iraqi constitution only the ministry of justice is allowed to run prisons.
Many Sunnis now say they would rather be detained by the Americans than the Iraqi police.
No figures are available for the police's religious and ethnic make-up outside Kurdistan, partly because there is no central data base, but estimates put it at 80% Shia. Until recently the special police and commando units were 99% Shia, according to a CPATT spokesperson.
Charges that the police were becoming partisan developed after Bayan Jabr, a SCIRI leader, became interior minister last April. The SCIRI's powerful armed wing, the Badr organisation, was founded in Iran during the supreme council's 20-year exile from the Saddam Hussein regime.
According to the International Crisis Group thinktank, Mr Jabr worked with the commander of the Badr organisation and its intelligence chief to give Iraq's police and paramilitary forces a sectarian thrust.He infiltrated Badr militia members into the commando units set up in 2004 to fight the anti-occupation insurgency.
Mr Jabr has denied that commando units have been involved in murders and says criminals use police uniforms to hide their identity.
Sectarian violence continued yesterday with a car bomb exploding near a Shia mosque in north-eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 30.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
02:00 ||
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#1
Housecleaning time. Enough of this shit. Jabr, Jaafari, throw the entire lot out and start over. No apologies.
#2
Obviously the Mullahs succeeded in planting agents and subverting the election - recall the tankers filled with phoney ballots, the millions ($70M, wasn't it?) spent every month for the militias and agents - and they bought the SCIRI party leaders outright. We should've taken those reports seriously and acted. Damn. I'm afraid we're just not devious enough or paranoid enough to do business with Arabs.
Take down the Mullahs and eliminate Sadr and his militia both with extreme prejudice, and then see if the assholes can win without the money and dirty tricks. If they do, then fuck em.
#3
I agree. With great misgivings and deepest regrets to the world community, we should decisively imprison or shoot all the throwbacks to the dark ages of history, disband SCIRI, and insist that modern, civilized, and approximately "neutral" professional forces hold all the power in Iraq.
Hey - it's not goung to be idealistic democracy, or open-minded tolerance of another culture - but, well, we live in an imperfect world, and everyone is just going to have to get used to a secular Iraq.
Weeping, gnashing of teeth, and howls of frustration will be allowed - but - to a certain extent, the fate of the world as we know it depends on Iraq not turning into a wellspring of the Caliphate, and if it takes an arrogance similar to that which spawned the "Monroe Doctrine", so be it.
I cannot friggin' believe that the lessons of just 60 years ago have been completely forgotten. In those days, no one involved in rebuilding Germany or Japan would have given ANY consideration WHATSOEVER to allowing remnants of the former population to resist establishment of a stable nation, with strong rule of law.
"Tolerance of different viewpoints and perspectives" - that sounds good in parlour arguments. But - forget about that on the ground.
Time to lay out the choices : either get with the modern program that runs most of the succesful part of the world, or become a revered ancestor - like, immediately.
We don't need to apologize, or squirm in embarrassment. Just get it done - carrying a bigger stick that the gangster militias. They don;t have to like it - they just have to live with it.
#5
It's going to be hard because of the publicity. Perhaps the shakeup could be done under cover from a monthlong bombardment of Iran's defence and nuclear facilities.
#7
Despite Jabr, SCIRI seems to have been more cooperative than the other Shiite parties. You can support having Jabr fired - but you cant just go in and disband Iraqi political parties. Not if you expect to have an Iraqi army and police force fighting by your side in large numbers. And if you dont want them, you need a lot more American forces. the 133,000 who are left are not enough. Does the admin have any appetite for a significant buildup in Iraq? I dont think so.
#8
You seem to forget, we just conquered this country. We'll conquer it again if necessary. We should dictate the removal of all things Iranian, period. All those not in favor, line up against the wall.
#10
In those days, no one involved in rebuilding Germany or Japan would have given ANY consideration WHATSOEVER to allowing remnants of the former population to resist establishment of a stable nation
Seems to me that Lone Ranger's never heard of Hirohito (and his successors). Oh wait, that'd just contradict you, now wouldn't it?
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
04/04/2006 13:02
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#8
we conquered it 3 years ago. And we never really conquered the Sunni triangle, not till the last few months. We didnt really conquer the Iraqi Shia, either, cause contrary to the MSM and the left, they DID welcome us (though not with flowers) What we did was destroy Saddams army. With the force we have in Iraq, we've only managed to really be able to hold gains in the Sunni Triangle since weve trained up enough Iraqis to give us more boots on the ground. Now I suppose we could play a game of terr hunting in the Sunni triangle indefinitely, with our current forces alone. I dont think anyone serious thinks thats a very good idea.
#12
Edward - You better go study the transcripts of Hirohito's radiu broadcast to the nation of Japan - explaining the decision to surrender -which was the first time a Japanese Emperor's voice had ever been heard by most Japanese citizens. After the surrender, Hirohito was completely cooperative with the true decision-maker in post-war Japan - GEN Douglas MacArthur.
Had MacArthur felt that Hirohito was an impediment, Hirohito would have been hung the next day.
You need to spend more time studying.
My father - an officer in the 11th Airborne Division - accepted the Japanese surrender in Sendai - and then served another year in the occupation forces. He was a minor player - but clearly understood that the Japanese Emporer had proclaimed cooperation - albeit at peril of utter destruction.
Nine more American troops died in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Monday, five of them in a vehicle accident in a remote, rain-soaked western area. Their deaths brought the number of service members killed so far this month to 13 nearly half the number who died in all of March.
Three more Americans two Marines and a sailor were missing in the Sunday accident in which a truck overturned near Asad air base, a U.S. statement said. All the dead were Marines, the statement added.
It gave no reason for the accident except that it was not a result of hostile fire. Heavy rains fell over the area during the weekend.
Also Sunday, three Marines and a sailor were killed by "hostile fire" in Anbar province, which includes the Asad base, the military said. No further details, including the precise location, were released.
It was the first time that four American troops had been killed in a single attack since Feb. 22, when four soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division died in a bombing in northern Iraq.
Thirty-one U.S. troops died in Iraq in March, the lowest monthly death toll for U.S. forces since February 2004. But the relatively good news quickly became worse on the first day of April, when four troops were killed including two pilots who died when their Apache helicopter crashed.
U.S. officials said the helicopter was probably shot down. The militant al-Rashideen Army claimed responsibility, and Al-Jazeera television aired footage Monday provided by the insurgents which they claimed showed parts of the wreckage.
Although U.S. casualties have been on the decline, deaths among Iraqis have increased because of rising tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. At least 1,038 Iraqi civilians died last month in war-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.
The AP count showed at least 375 Iraqi civilians killed in December, 608 in January and 741 in February. Most of the increase appeared a result of a sharp rise in the number of civilians found dead throughout Baghdad apparent victims of sectarian reprisal killings.
The alarming rise in civilian toll has put new urgency into efforts by Iraqi politicians to form a new national unity government following the December elections. That message was delivered by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a two-day visit that ended Monday.
"First and foremost, the purpose of this trip is to encourage and to urge the Iraqis to do what the Iraqis must do because the Iraqi people deserve it," Rice said. "But yes, the American people, the British people ... need to know that everything is being done to keep progress moving."
During their visit, Rice and Straw avoided any public call for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step aside as the Shiite nominee for a second term a key demand of Sunni and Kurdish politicians before they will join a new government.
Nevertheless, the visit clearly increased pressure on al-Jaafari, and for the first time officials of his own Shiite bloc called for him to step down.
Following the visit, al-Jaafari's supporters scrambled Monday to try to rally support for him, even as other politicians sought ways to remove him if he refused to step aside.
"We're waiting to hear the final position of the other blocs," al-Jaafari ally Ali al-Adeeb said. "Then we will study their position and decide. It is still to early for the (Shiites) to decide whether al-Jaafari's nomination should be withdrawn."
Al-Jaafari's critics accuse him of failing to curb the Sunni-dominated insurgency and calm tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. The Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra triggered a wave of sectarian attacks that threaten to plunge the nation into civil war.
In the latest violence, at least 12 Iraqis were killed Monday in three vehicle bombings in mostly Shiite areas of the capital, police reported.
Ten of the victims died when a suicide driver detonated a truck filled with dates as worshippers were leaving the al-Shroofi mosque after evening prayers. Another 38 people were wounded, police and hospitals said.
Two others, including a 9-year-old boy, were killed in a car bombing in the Sadr City area. The third bomb exploded in the central district of Karradah, wounding six, police said.
Late Sunday, four Shiite civilians died when gunmen burst into their home in the religiously mixed Dora district of southwestern Baghdad. Police said the assailants lined up a brother, two sisters and an uncle against a wall and killed them.
The mother of the family was visiting relatives at the time. Police said the father, a grocery shop owner, had been killed six months earlier by gunmen in the same neighborhood
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:41 ||
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#1
We need to cut and run redeploy to improve our security.
Think how many people would have lived if we had pulled out of Omaha beach.
The alleged leader of a plot to bomb Britain boasted he was in a video with Osama Bin Laden, a jury has heard. Omar Khyam, 24, of Crawley, West Sussex, said his masked face was seen in the video, the Old Bailey was told. But the main prosecution witness, American supergrass Mohammed Babar, 31, added he did not believe the claim. Seven men, who all come from London and the south-east of England, deny conspiracy to cause explosions between January 2003 and March 2004.
Babar told the jury he had also discussed plots to attack Big Ben and New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve with a British man not on trial, Ansar Butt. The defence says any discussions of plots were "all talk" and there had been no intention of going through with them. But Babar told the jury Mr Khyam "was saying he wanted to do multiple bombs in Europe". The trial has heard that the men were planning to bomb nightclubs, pubs, trains and shopping centres including Bluewater in Kent.
Babar has been flown from prison in the US to give evidence against the Britons.
Waheed Mahmood, 34, Jawad Akbar, 22, Mr Khyam and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, all of Crawley, West Sussex, each deny a charge of conspiracy to cause explosives. Denying the same charge are Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, 23-year-old Anthony Garcia - also known as Rahman Adam - of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey. Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain each deny possessing ammonium nitrate fertiliser - a chemical that can be used in bomb-making. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also used in bomb-making. The trial continues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:37 ||
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Pure fantasy - give em all 30 years tho...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/04/2006 6:58
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Hiding deep in Tora Bor, wait for the next bomb
And I'm feeling nearly as choked as my schmock.
Binny thumbed rose water down just before bombs did come,
It rode us all the way to Kabul Town.
I pulled my Uzzy gun out of my dirty black turban,
I was playing soft while Binny sang of Jihad.
Dust clouds swirlin' slapping time, Loadin' Binnys pipe with Hash,
We sang praises for that seventy-two.
Freedom is just another word for martyrdom this way,
Nothing means blow-ups for Jihad, or else you're gonna lose, now now.
And feeling good was easy, Allah, when Jihad blues were sung,
You know feeling good was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and my man, Sheikh Binny.
The palace where Arthur sought the Grail
Is the resting home of the weak and frail
And the knight who challenged death on its trail
On the ocean of death forward must sail
Chasing the temporal is to no avail
As soon as you go through deaths dark veil.
Hmmm...
Where Arthur sought the grail?...
Weak and frail?...
They are delusional!...
Two suspected Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels and a pro-government militiaman were killed in a clash in the southern Philippines, an army official said Tuesday.
Colonel Edgardo Gidaya said the fighting erupted late Monday when patrolling troops encountered about eight al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels in Sacol Island off Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.
Gidaya identified the slain rebels as Romy Akilan and his brother Patta who were suspected to be involved in several kidnapping and extortion operations of Abu Sayyaf rebels in the nearby province of Basilan.
'They (Akilan brothers) have a string of kidnapping and extortion cases in their area,' Gidaya said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:24 ||
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John Reid demanded sweeping changes to international law yesterday to free British soldiers from the restraints of the Geneva conventions and make it easier for the west to mount military actions against other states.
In his speech, the defence secretary addressed three key issues: the treatment of prisoners, when to mount a pre-emptive strikes, and when to intervene to stop a humanitarian crisis. In all these areas, he indicated that the UK and west was being hamstrung by existing inadequate law.
Mr Reid indicated he believed existing rules, including some of the conventions - a bedrock of international law - were out of date and inadequate to deal with the threat of international terrorists.
"We are finding an enemy which obeys no rules whatsoever", he said, referring to what he called "barbaric terrorism".
The conventions, he said, were created more than half century ago "when the world was almost unrecognisable". They dealt with how the sick and injured and how prisoners of war were treated, "and the obligations on states during their military occupation of another state", he said.
Given the big changes undertaken by the military over the past 50 years, he added, "serious questions" must be asked about whether "further changes in international law in this area are necessary".
Mr Reid declined to say whether he had come round to the US view that detainees at Guantánamo bay should not be allowed the protection of the conventions or the courts. Similarly, he would not say if he thought Britain should support the US practice of extraordinary rendition, the transferring of prisoners to secret camps where they risk being tortured. However, he said, it was not "sufficient just to say [Guantánamo] is wrong".
Mr Reid said yesterday that while domestic laws had been introduced to deal with new threats - he referred to the new offence of "glorifying terrorism" - international law had not changed.
He also spoke of the "concept of imminence" - the circumstances when a state could strike without waiting for an attack.
It was a principal issue during the debate over the invasion of Iraq and has clear implications for any possible future action against Iran.
Mr Reid noted that last year Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, advised that force could be used only against imminent attack, that it must only be used as a last resort, and that it must be proportionate.
"But what if another threat develops?", Mr Reid asked. "Not al-Qaida. Not Muslim extremism. Something none of us are thinking about at the moment." Terrorist groups were trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, he said.
The Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Nick Harvey, said: "After the disaster of Iraq, the idea that the doctrine of pre-emptive strike should be expanded will be met with incredulity in the west and alarm in the ministries of Tehran."
Sir Adam Roberts, professor of international relations at Oxford University, said: "Some of the biggest coalition problems in both Afghanistan and Iraq have come from failures of the coalition to observe basic norms on certain matters, especially with regard to treatment of prisoners.
"Dr Reid is certainly right to raise the question of whether we need new rules in face of imminent attack. This problem above all requires confidence in government and coalition decision-making processes - confidence that has sadly been undermined by Iraq."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:22 ||
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#1
How about applying the Golden Rule.
Posted by: ed ||
04/04/2006 1:59
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Nix that. Couldn't sleep. Must have known I mistook the Golden Rule.
Golden Rule: Do unto others what you want to be done unto you.
Better: Do unto others as they do unto you. (Works for me.)
Best: The Real Golden Rule: Do unto others before they do unto you.
Posted by: ed ||
04/04/2006 2:43
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Do unto others befo they do funky unto you. »:-)
#4
The Golden Rule works both ways, it also applies when the other person is a Murderous Asshole, then by the Golden rule that must be the way HE wants to be treated.
So follow the Golden Rule and kill him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/04/2006 8:45
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I think the problem is not in the Geneva Conventions, but in the asshats who THINK they know what's in the Geneva Conventions, or who SAY that their interpretations of the Geneva conventions ARE the Geneva conventions. The GC is inadequate in that it does not explicilty state what constitutes a violation that would free a signatory, making it a suicide pact in the hands of the left and the international glitterati and perveratti. I hear that the most recent addition proposed to the GC explicility FORBIDS retaliation for FAILURE to meet the GC requirments. We didn't sign it, and should propose an explicit "Going Roman" escape clause. It will be opposed, of course, but only by those without integrity who wish to bind those with integrity BY their integrity.
Theres nothing like roaring into Baghdad aboard a Rhino. A Rhino is a giant, heavily-armored bus that can withstand IEDs (small ones), and it is now the favored means of keeping Western visitors from getting blown to bits by these homemade bombs on the dangerous road between Baghdad International Airport and the secure Green Zone at the citys center. Rhino is an appropriately Disney-ish name for these wheeled monstrosities, adding to the surreal feeling one gets in moving from the howling chaos outside the Green Zone into the theme park-like confines within. You drive through several checkpoints, leaving behind tracts of litter and rubble and the desperate, dark faces of ordinary Iraqis trying to earn a few dinars. There, behind high concrete blast walls and razor wire, you find quiet streets and the heart of the American occupation: a double-sized Olympic pool with a palm-fretted patio restaurant, food courts and a giant coffee lounge where lessons in belly dancing and martial arts are offered. All these are huge improvements from the last time I was in Baghdad, two years ago. And all are intended for the Westerners who dwell in increasing comfort here.
The Green Zone, a vast secure, American area plunked down in the heart of the Baghdad (imagine foreign occupiers taking over the Mall in Washington, D. C.), was supposed to have been temporary. Like the occupation itself, it was an interim phase, a set of training wheels for the New Iraq. But as those of us who accompanied Condoleezza Rice on her surprise visit to Iraq learned this week, the lines between the real and surreal in Iraqbetween whats happening outside the Green Zone and withinare only hardening. They are getting bolder and clearer, rather than more blurred. Outside the Green Zone the sectarian violence is worseningensuring future dysfunction, if perhaps not outright civil war or breakup of the country. Inside the Green Zone a few Iraqi politicians live in splendor and permanent American structures are going upincluding a new U.S. embassy that did not await the OK of the new government-to-comeand its hard to find an ordinary Iraqi anywhere. In fact, several people remarked that speaking Spanish is more useful than Arabic when making ones way through the palatial embassy grounds.
Secretary of State Rice came here to bring the surreal and the real closer into contact. Acting on the orders of an increasingly anxious George W. Bush (so she admitted under questioning), she and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spent a day reading the riot act to the bickering Iraqi politicians and telling them to get governing, as Bush put it. She and Straw, sensing like everyone that their historical reputations are on the line (as are those of Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair), are hoping to break the stalemate that has kept the leading Iraqi political parties from forming a unity government for nearly four months. But again, reflecting the Green Zone prism, Rice and Straw seemed not to understand that a genteel coalition government, as designed by U.S. authorities, may not be what Iraq needs right now. What Iraq needs is strong leadership.
For Washington, the biggest problem is that despite increasing American desperation to pull out, the U.S. presence is gradually getting woven into the very fabric of the new Iraq, much as the Green Zone (now euphemistically called the international zone) is getting a permanent look. Picture NATO troops in Bosniathere more than a decade and countingand then multiply that pathological dependence several times over. So terrified are most Shia leaders of Sunni insurgents that they regularly blanch when faced with the prospect of U.S. withdrawal. So terrified are the Sunnis of Shiite militias that they insist on having Americans accompany any Iraqi military units that move into their towns. Absent U.S. guidance and advisors, the Iraqi army will become a Shiite Army, and the Sunni community will become a sea for the insurgency to swim in once again. When the war started, some observers worried that Iraq might become Americas 51st state, a virtual protectorate of Washingtons. Today the worry is that America has become Iraqs 19th provinceand the most important one in the country.
Again, the Americans don't seem to fully understand this. A Western intelligence expert who recently sat in on briefings by U.S. and Iraqi military officers in Baghdad described a disconnect between U.S. occupation authorities and Iraqi officials that was just as wide as what lies between the Green Zone and the rest of Iraq. The American officers, he said, spent an hour triumphantly describing how they had finally gotten the better of the insurgency while the Iraqis present doodled on their pads, their eyes glazing over. Then the Iraqis got up and described their nation's growing sectarian conflict in urgent terms while the Americans barely paid attention. The two teams, nominally allies, were simply talking past each other, he said.
Let us not forget that the great planner of this war, Donald Rumsfeld, once warned us about all this. (It was one of the few things he managed to anticipate.) In February of 2003a month before the Iraq invasionthe Defense secretary outlined his theory of occupation. When foreigners come in with international solutions to local problems, it can create a dependency, he said in a speech called Beyond Nation Building. His remarks were scornful of previous United Nations efforts in Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor. A long-term foreign presence in a country can be unnatural. It is much like a broken bone. If it is not set properly at the outset, eventually, the muscles and tendons will grow around the break, and the body will adjust to the abnormal condition. This is what has happened in a number of places with a large foreign presence. Economies remain unreformed, distorted and dependent. Educated young people make more money as drivers for foreign workers, than as doctors or civil servants.
This describes Iraq today. Rumsfeld, through fecklessness and arrogance, created the very problem that he criticized. Perhaps he doesnt really mind. One idea behind the war, it is clear, was to give America a big say in the future of this oil-flush nation. And, after all, weve never completely pulled our troops out of Germany or Japan either. Sixty years after occupation, that has worked fairly well for international peace. Rice, in a speech in Britain last week, laid out an eloquent vision of how she and Bush see their legacy. Someday, people in Baghdad and Beirut and Cairo and, yes, in Tehran will wonder how anyone could ever have doubted the future of liberal democracy in their countries. But most of all, they will remember fondly those fellow democracies, like Britain and the United States who stood with them in their time of need. Whether fondly or not, the Iraqis wont have too much trouble remembering that the Americans were there. Why? Probably because the Americans wont have left yet.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:08 ||
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#1
This Newsweek article is full of empty metaphors. They serve as a substitute for the raw numbers - which inconveniently contradict its whole thesis. We know that enemy propagandists are coming out with false reports of sectarian massacres - which are taken at face value by enemy-sympathizing reporters and Democrats. If Iraq is howling chaos, what would he call Chechnya, where up to a million Chechnyans have been displaced, and entire towns lie in rubble? What would he call Kashmir, where six decades after partition, Muslim terrorists have attacked Indian cities again and again, including government buildings? Newsweek's hysteria and tendency towards purple prose in place of numbers is worth of the Nation and Mother Jones. This isn't too surprising, I suppose, given that more and more writers from these two far-left publications are branching out into the mainstream media.
#2
What is real is Newsweek's inability to avoid rehashing drug-addled Vietnam war movies as a template for their Iraq commentaries. What is surreal is that Newsweek expects its audience to accept its demented hysterics as news.
#4
Picture NATO troops in Bosniathere more than a decade and counting...
Funny how that's never trotted out as a "quagmire", isn't it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 9:44
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Dump on Newsweak all you want, and I like to also, but I suspect there will be Americans based in Iraq in 50 years. And nobody will be bitching about it any more than they will be about the troops still in Japan, Germany, Italy, or the Grand Duchy of Fenwick.
An Ethiopian prisoner is scheduled to appear before a US military tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base this week on charges that include conspiring with US citizen Jose Padilla to build a radioactive "dirty bomb."
US officials said when Padilla was arrested in May 2002 that he plotted with al-Qaeda to set off a radioactive explosives in the United States. Padilla was never charged in connection with such a plot, but is mentioned as a co-conspirator in the charges against Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Muhammad, one of four detainees set to appear before a military tribunal this week for pretrial hearings on charges of conspiring to commit war crimes.
The charges say Muhammad, an electrical engineer, joined al-Qaeda in 2001 and got weapons and explosives training at the group's camps and guest houses in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
An al-Q guest house: stay the night and get explosives training for free.
The charges say Muhammad and Padilla viewed bomb-making instructions on a computer in Pakistan, and met with al-Qaeda operations director Abu Zubaydah to discuss the feasibility of carrying out dirty bomb attacks in the United States.
Muhammad later told officials at Guantanamo that the accusations were based on false confessions he gave to interrogators who tortured him in a Moroccan prison where he was sent after he was arrested trying to leave Pakistan in April 2002. At the prison, Muhammad was beaten and slashed on the chest and penis with scalpels, he said in court documents. "They had him confess to being part of the Padilla dirty bomb plot," said Muhammad's civilian attorney, Clive Stafford Smith.
And you have photos of his wounds, counselor?
"This whole dirty bomb plot came from the tip of a razor blade from Binyam Muhammad in Morocco. It's all absolute fantasy."
Stafford Smith said Muhammad "may have bumped into Padilla," but does not know him.
Muhammad is one of 10 Guantanamo detainees facing life in prison if convicted on the charges. The court is expected to rule in June or July. Military officials running the tribunals, formally called commissions, have been conducting pretrial hearings in hopes they can start the actual trials as soon as the Supreme Court rules.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
01:01 ||
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Anguish. Anger. Resignation. More than 2,700 pages of documents released by the Pentagon because of an Associated Press lawsuit are saturated with emotion from detainees held in this US military base.
About 715 prisoners have passed through the cells of Guantanamo Bay on Cubas southeastern coast since the US base began receiving men captured in Washingtons war on terror more than four years ago.
Some have divulged information that has helped Washington battle Al Qaeda, which launched the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington. But, in transcripts of hearings held at Guantanamo Bay, many detainees steadfastly proclaim their innocence, saying they were wrongly swept up in Afghanistan and other locales.
Im a poor guy, one Afghan detainee tells his US military tribunal, according to the newly declassified documents. I dont know why you brought me here and make me sit here.
You are here because Americans thought you shot at them when they were looking for very dangerous things, the unidentified presiding US officer responded. That is why you are here.
Nobody believes me so my words are nothing, the unidentified detainee shot back, adding: Why have I been sitting here for three years?
At the yellow cinderblock tribunal building overlooking the deep blue waters of the Caribbean, other detainees have pleaded for freedom as US military officers painstakingly tried to find holes in their stories.
My conscience is clear, said Algerian detainee Mohamed Nechla, who was accused of plotting to attack the US Embassy in Bosnia. If I left this place my only concern would be bread on the table for my wife and children.
The hearings - called Administrative Review Boards - were held to determine whether detainees still posed threats to the United States.
Human rights group Amnesty International, a frequent critic of US policies in its war on terror, said the transcripts would most likely reveal little. But Eric Olson, the groups acting director of government relations, said it welcomes todays actions, as even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees cases.Each of the detainees who faced such a review hearing was previously determined by other Guantanamo Bay panels - Combatant Status Review Tribunals - to be an enemy combatant, meaning they fought against the United States or its allies or provided support to Afghanistans former Taliban regime, Al Qaeda or associated forces.
As in a previous release of transcripts to the AP, the names were scattered throughout the documents and many detainees werent identified. There was no indication whether any had been released.
One unidentified Yemeni claimed he had hazy a memory, saying he did not recall when he was captured in Pakistan more than four years ago.
Was it cold? asked the presiding officer, trying to determine if not the date, then the season.
The weather was medium. It was not hot but it was not cold, responded the detainee.
Some detainees were accused of being low-level members of the Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001.
I dont know bin Laden and I dont know anyone else, said an Afghan detainee named Gano Nasorllah Hussain. I am a butcher and I have a shop in my village.
The transcripts released Monday were the second batch of Guantanamo Bay detainee hearings released by the Pentagon in response to a lawsuit by the AP. In response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the AP, the Defense Department released some 5,000 pages of transcripts March 3.
Most of those pages were from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. If a detainee is determined by the panel to be an enemy combatant, they fall under a classification that human rights groups complain is vague and confers fewer legal protections than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
00:43 ||
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Bah. Parole boards hear the same thing all the time.
A sharply split Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from the terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, leaving undecided for now deeper questions about the Bush administration's handling of detainees since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Six justices were apparently persuaded, at least for the time being, that Mr. Padilla's appeal is moot, since he was transferred from military custody to a civilian jail several months ago and is to go on trial. The federal government indicted him last fall on terrorism charges that could bring him a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted.
The administration had argued that since Mr. Padilla was going to get a trial, there was no need for the Supreme Court to rule on his appeal of a lower court order upholding the administration's authority to keep him in open-ended military detention as an enemy combatant.
The six justices who agreed today to defer consideration of the finding of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices John Paul Stevens, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
But there were hints of an internal struggle among the justices. For one thing, several justices took the somewhat unusual step of issuing opinions related to the court's order not to take a case. More commonly, when refusing to take a case, the court simply issues an order without comment.
The three justices who said the Supreme Court should have taken the case were Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.
Justice Ginsburg said the underlying issues are "of profound importance to the nation," and that it was high time the court ruled on the executive branch's power to hold a United States citizen after declaring him an "enemy combatant."
"Although the government has recently lodged charges against Padilla in a civilian court, nothing prevents the executive from returning to the road it earlier constructed and defended," Justice Ginsburg wrote.
The case the court declined to hear is titled Padilla v. Hanft, No. 05-533. (C.T. Hanft is listed as the commander of the Navy brig at Charleston, S.C.)
Even in voting not to hear the case, at least for now, Justice Kennedy wrote, for himself, the chief justice and Justice Stevens, "In light of the previous changes in his custody status and the fact that nearly four years have passed since he was first detained, Padilla, it must be acknowledged, has a continuing concern that his status might be altered again."
"In the court of its supervision over Padilla's custody and trial, the district court will be obliged to afford him the protection, including the right to a speedy trial, guaranteed to all federal criminal defendants," Justice Kennedy wrote on behalf of himself and his two colleagues.
And even though Justice Stevens found today that the Padilla case need not be considered now, he declared at an earlier stage in the case that "at stake in this case is nothing less than the essence of a free society."
An American citizen and a former Chicago gang member, Mr. Padilla was arrested in May 2002 when he arrived at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. He was soon declared an "enemy combatant," and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that he had planned to detonate a radioactive bomb in the United States.
The administration long resisted charging Mr. Padilla in a civilian court, preferring to hold him without charges in the Navy brig. Finally, last fall, the administration did bring charges, accusing him of being part of a terrorist cell. But those charges contained no mention of a radioactive-bomb plot.
The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a Richmond-based tribunal widely regarded as the most conservative of the circuits, ruled last September that President Bush had the authority to detain as an enemy combatant an American citizen who fought the United States on foreign soil. (The Pentagon has asserted that Mr. Padilla fought alongside Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan.)
But the Fourth Circuit was still critical of the administration, voicing its suspicion that it had decided to move Mr. Padilla to civilian custody to evade a Supreme Court ruling on the president's authority in incarcerating "enemy combatants."
The Supreme Court sidestepped a comprehensive ruling on government authority in January, when it granted the administration's request to transfer Mr. Padilla to civilian custody. Today's refusal by the justices to take Mr. Padilla's case means that the questions about government authority will have to wait for still another day.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
00:41 ||
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#1
John Paul Stevens - Mysterious stranger in this case. Welcome to sanity, Mr Justice.
#2
No surprise here - as an alleged memeber of an organized minor group, as opposed to being a regular soldier in the armed forces of a trad or diplomatically recognized sovereign nation, the core issue is whether Mr. Padilla as a US citizen had permanently relinquished his citizenship when he fought agz US milfors in Afghanistan, and how long the Army can keep him in jail before transference to American civilian authorities. As an Amer citizen, and in the absence of a formal declaration of war against a sovereign power by the Congress, he must inevitably be transferred to US civilian authority. In any case, Padilla's is most likely jailmeat anyways becuz the Army is usually very thorough about sny investigation into the MILITARY/MIL-RELATED aspect of Padilla's conduct, i.e. will NOT release Padilla until Padilla gives up the ghost/full monty on his role and actions. Ironically, Padilla is lucky becuz iff he weren't a US citizen, the Army can poten hold him forever, until such time the Army is satisfied of his role and that he is no longer of any threat to the Amer people after his release - until then, only an act of Congress can release/waiver his butt.
#6
Wishfull thinking. GWB and the Pubs are wringing their hands cause they fear the pain of staged outrage over executing the traitor. Just announce the time and place of the dude's release and let the public [sort of] vote.
Security forces in Morocco are holding nine suspected al Qaeda activists, whom local newspapers said were part of a ring that plotted bomb attacks in France, Italy and Morocco, state news agency MAP said on Monday.
Morocco has been on alert since 2003 when suicide bombers killed 45 people in Casablanca, the country's financial capital. More than 3,000 people have been arrested since on suspicion of having terrorist connections. Many have been released but hundreds have been jailed after trials, officials said.
That's what usually happens after a trial in which one is found guilty.
Local newspapers said the nine suspects planned to participate in a larger plot to blow up a church in Bologna and a commuter train station in Milan, the headquarters of French intelligence services in Paris and the U.S. consulate in Rabat. "The nine suspects, arrested and brought before Rabat appeals court recently, are accused of setting up a criminal gang in view of preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks within the framework of collective plot," said MAP, quoting an unnamed judiciary source.
MAP did not give more details. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
"We can say no more!"
Police sources said the nine were arrested early last week and that they were being held after appearing for questioning before an investigating judge at Rabat appeals court.
Pro-government daily al Alam, one of the dailies that had reported extensively on the case, said a Tunisian, named as Mohamed Benhedi Msahel, traveled from Italy, where he lived, to Algeria and Morocco to recruit bombers for the plots. It said al Qaeda network leader Osama bin Laden endorsed the planned attacks. Al Alam said the attacks in Italy were modeled on the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2003, in which 191 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured.
In Algeria, Msahel met a leader of the country's largest outlawed Islamic militant Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which is aligned with al Qaeda, to review details of the planned attacks before returning to Morocco. He had planned to return to Italy, but was arrested, the newspaper added.
An European Muslim convert was due to join five Jihadist bombers recruited in Italy, the daily added but gave no details about who was due to carry out the four attacks in France.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/04/2006
00:39 ||
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Capitol Hill police have referred a scuffle between one of their officers and U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., a spokesman for the office said Monday. "We are working with Capitol Hill police to fully understand and appreciate the incident," principal assistant U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Pending review, it is inappropriate for us to comment any further at this time."
"Except that she's a barking moonbat, but you didn't hear that from me."
Phillips would not say whether a warrant was issued for McKinney's arrest.
McKinney spokesman Coz Carson on Monday also acknowledged the investigation. "We're aware that the wheels are turning in Washington," Carson said. "We have no control over what they decide to do. We will make the appropriate statement and take the appropriate action once we know where they're going."
"And then the spittle will fly."
At a press conference Monday morning, black clergy and lawmakers came the defense of the firebrand congresswoman. McKinney smiled as her supporters heaped praise on her leadership and her new look _ her trademark cornrows replaced earlier this year by a curly brown afro.
Speaking during a meeting of the Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta, McKinney did not mention last week's altercation, which happened after a Capitol Hill officer failed to recognize her as she entered a House office building. Instead, McKinney's supporters did the talking, calling her face and record internationally famous.
Which is not necessarily a compliment.
Her supporters tried to minimize the incident _ which they called political, not criminal _ but they also suggested it was an example of racial profiling. They called publicity surrounding the episode a distraction that is being used by "her enemies" to keep the congresswoman from performing her elected duties.
Immediately after the news conference, McKinney was ushered out of the building and into a black SUV, smiling and keeping silent when reporters questioned her as she made her exit.
Officials have said McKinney could be charged with striking the officer. McKinney said last week the incident was initiated by the officer's "inappropriate stopping and touching" of her.
The Rev. Reverend Darrell D. Elligan, president of Concerned Black Clergy, called McKinney, competent, courageous and committed. "She has our support unconditionally," Elligan said. "She is not a threat to the security of our country."
Well, he's right about that.
Several Georgia black lawmakers spoke of similar treatment at the Georgia Capitol _ specifically referring to an incident where they said they were relegated to a balcony during the viewing of the body of Coretta Scott King in February.
State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who has represented Atlanta for 26 years, said he was treated like "a country bumpkin" the day of the viewing. "I was offended, I was angry," said Brooks, head of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. "If it happens to us in Atlanta, it happens to Cynthia McKinney in Washington. This is real."
State Rep. "Able" Mable Thomas, corroborated the Feb. 4 incident _ where she and other black lawmakers said they were relegated to the balcony of the Capitol and unable to participate in the procession. She said she did not mention the incident at the time out of respect for King.
Hard to buy this: any state pol who opens his/her mouth gets what he/she wants in such matters.
With her parents looking on in the audience, McKinney spoke at the end of the press conference, touting her service to her district. "Rest assured, I am doing the work they sent me to Washington to do. Nothing is going to keep me away from my responsibilities," she said.
More's the pity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006
00:11 ||
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#1
Right. The Race Card. Last refuge of Black Scoundrels.
Originally she was just another supercilious Member of Congress and this was comical because she's the perfect clown.
Not now. This racist BS taints the good guys goddamnit, the decent blacks, just to save her sorry skin. What a racist asshole. Same for all the other clowns who echoed her BS.
#3
At a press conference Monday morning, black clergy and lawmakers came the defense of the firebrand congresswoman.
So "firebrand" is press code for "black supremacist antisemite"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 7:35
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"We are working with Capitol Hill police to fully understand and appreciate the incident,"
Like one would "appreciate" a rabit dog, or a com mon criminal. Thank you fine citizens of Atlanta for electing this outstanding member of your community to public office. She represents you well.
#7
Now - put this as a white conservative souther congressman bulling his way past a security checkpoint, acting abusively toward a female security person, and then striking her with his cell phone.
The press woudl ahve forced his resignation already.
Why the double standard for this bigoted thug? Is being female and minority give you an exemption from the laws and from civility?
#15
Wow-rather ugly comments from a couple posters today on rantburg.
Of course she is stirring up trouble for nothing-it's what she does best.
I read that the security guard asked her three times for id and she ignored him; that's when he placed his hands on her. Who knows where; I highly doubt that restraint was inappropriate.
#16
She did not stop when verbally requested to do so, so what would make you think that she would have responded to a request to provide ID?
Well, EP, speaking as a former civilian with a police department.....if you have someone who just decides that she does not need to wear her security badge/pin in order to avoid going through security checkpoints, because, hey, she's special....and this same special person is ignoring requests to stop as she is heading towards a known terrorist target, even though she does not fit the profile of an al-Qaeda operative (male, middle eastern descent, etc.), hell yeah, the officer had every right to restrain her physically.
He did not toss her to the floor, body slam her, or put her in a headlock. He grabbed her arm, while in uniform, and she decided to strike out at him with her cell phone. Welcome to your assault charge, Rep McK.
What makes her whining and bitching about this incident even more of a joke is the fact that her own father was a police officer (duty or REMF behind a desk, I know not). Growing up in a cop family, she damn well knows better. She just doesn't give a rat's ass.
I guarantee if this same officer had not physically restrained any other person from reaching the chambers of Congress, and that person was carrying explosives or anthrax or some other kind of nasty terrorist toy into those hallowed halls, your darling Rep McKinney would have been the first one baying for that officer's blood.
And you would have been chanting along in her amen corner, EP.
#17
"Wow-rather ugly comments from a couple posters today on rantburg."
Jules, I don't know if your referring to my sarcastic comments but it was in response to a deleted comment that didn't even make it into the sink trap. Without it they take on a much different tone. Mods, please delete previous comments.
#18
EP8221, we just know her too well. Read her past speaches and listen to her other public announcements. She is an avowed racist and justifies her position because of the past discrimination against black Americans.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/04/2006 13:28
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#19
She's a piece of work. But she came by it honest. Never forget when she was beaten in 2002 by Denise Majette dad blamed the JOOOOOS.
He also pulled a knife on a fellow GA state congresscritter and threatened to cut him, in the capital. She carries Castro's water.....
Posted by: C Kramer ||
04/04/2006 13:40
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#20
Here are a few examples.
During a nasty 1996 congressional campaign with racial tension on both sides, she called supporters of her Republican opponent "holdovers from the Civil War days" and "a ragtag group of neo-Confederates." Never mind that her opponent was Jewish. And during the 2000 presidential campaign, she wrote that "Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time." Never mind that Gore's campaign manager was black.
Around every corner, McKinney sees a secret cabal plotting her demise. After the majority-black district that first elected her to Congress was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutionally gerrymandered, she lashed out at the court as racist. She compared the verdict to Dred Scott, the decision that declared slaves were nothing more than chattel, and Plessy v. Ferguson, which legitimized separate-but-equal American apartheid. (Never mind that she was re-elected in a white majority district two years later.) During her next election, she declared that Georgia's kaolin industry engineered the case that eliminated her district, as payback for her fights against the industry in Congress. (Kaolin is a white clay that is used in a number of products, including porcelain.) And last fall, she tried to solicit money for black Americans from a Saudi prince who said U.S. policy in the Middle East was partly to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks, then she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, "Why such a negative reaction to my letter? I believe that when it comes to major foreign policy issues, many prefer to have black people seen and not heard." (To which the National Review's Jonah Goldberg retorted that "she needs to explain why I keep finding these quotes in my morning paper by Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.")
And this isn't the first time she has had a run-in with the Capitol Police. In August 1993, during her first term in office, a Capitol Hill police officer tried to prevent her from bypassing a metal detector, as members of Congress are allowed to do. For years afterward, The Hill reports, the Capitol Police pinned a picture of McKinney to an office wall, warning officers to learn her face because she refuses to wear her member's pin. (And because officers are innately suspicious of a black woman with braided hair and gold shoes.) Five years later, she blasted White House security after guards thought her 23-year-old white aide was the congresswoman.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/04/2006 13:41
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#21
Oh, look, an anonymous coward coming to the moonbat's defense.
She's a race hustler, idiot. If she were white and male, you'd be screaming "Klansman!" over the comments she makes.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 13:42
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#22
I have seen some very snide/nasty comments directed at her by people that disagree with her
accusations about him regarding 9-11, such as calling her a "unhinged lunatic" who suffers from some sort of mental illness.
Nothing snide or nasty about that. She is an unhinged lunatic -- or a blatant manipulator who plays off the ignorance and prejudices of her electorate.
You remember who her father blamed for her losing her office very briefly?
Or who *she* blamed?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 13:47
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#23
That's the problem with Gerrymandering. It allows unhinged lunatics to continue to be re-elected in safe districts. For both sides.
#24
I doubt seriously they would keep re-electing a "unhinged lunatic".
Really? Why?
We're talking about a person who has blamed Jews and Hindus for her political failures. Someone who falls squarely into the "MIHOP" school of "thought" about 9/11. Someone who kisses the ass of every tyrant she can, treats people like crap, and yet plays herself as being the champion of the people.
She's a bleeding loon; if she had an (R) after her name instead of a (D), her every insane utterance would be fodder for the late night comedians, and every damned politician in her party would be held to task for the lunacy that drips from her lips.
Unfortunately, she's one of the ultimate protected -- a black Democrat woman -- and the press does its best to cover up her insanity while her party supports it.
Why does she win elections?
Because she drew the boundaries of her district!
She gerrymandered a district in which her brand of racism, conspiracism, victimism and outright hatred would go over well enough to win elections.
You can defend her all you want, you can take the position that she's disliked because she "asks questions about 9/11" -- the rest of us will realize she's one of the nastier warts on the American body politic -- a dark-skinned David Duke with slightly different plumbing.
And we'll remember that when Duke tried to run as a Republican, they endorsed his Democrat opponent instead and ran commercials against him. And we'll wonder why Democrats keep supporting McKinney.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/04/2006 14:09
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#25
RC you are exactly right. I remember one of her gerrymandered districts. Ran along I-20 from east Atl to West Augusta. It was the interstate for over 80 miles.
Posted by: C Kramer ||
04/04/2006 14:17
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#26
Right, EP, right. We're all picking on her for not being a big Bush fan, and we're all racists too.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Now, please, go back to living under a bridge. Thanks.
#29
Sorry but no one here has made any attempts to get rid of her, as far as I know. I certainly haven't. I don't live in Georgia, but that still doesn't prevent me from identifying a bigoted, weasely congresscritter when I see one.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/04/2006 16:14
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#36
It isn't too easy to unseat an incumbent these days either.
Does anybody know Georgia well enough to know whether she keeps getting reelected because her family has a lock on the political machine, or because she brings home some kind of bacon for the district, or because she gives them a vicarious thrill in "standing up to the man?" (God help the district if its the latter.)
Posted by: James ||
04/04/2006 17:14
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#37
EP,
You can discount what we're saying - your own eyes and ears for that matter. Listen to the leaders of your party
1. Not one member of congress stands by her at the press conferences
2. Nancy Pelosi refuses to even acknowledge her in the hallways (HT Drudge)
3. Pelosi also refused to re-instate her senority upon return to Congress
Bottom line - the liberal wing of her own party would like nothing better than to see her leave.
Other than the free ride and harm she does to the country, I'd like to keep her right there. A better example of a "useful idiot" and race baiting tool cannot be found
#38
I happen to be a Democrat, and have stated that numerous times on the 'burg. Pardon me if I haven't drank enough of the DailyKos Kool-Aid to give her, Cindy Sheehan, the Clintons, Howard Dean, and other people in the party an automatic free pass on stupid behavior.
#39
I, for one, spent most of my life in and around the districts where she serves, and "barking moonbat" IS what she is. I know this from personal experience, along with Billy McKinney and John Lewis. Her constituents keep re-electing her because they are the same, sadly enough.
#40
Cynthia Mckinney is STILL in Congress.
your attempts to get rid of her have FAILED.
GET OVER IT.
Hell, kid: we like having her in Congress. She's a living advertisement for our side. If it werent for Democrats like her, we might start losing elections. I hope your party runs her for the presidency!
Does anybody know Georgia well enough to know whether she keeps getting reelected because her family has a lock on the political machine, or because she brings home some kind of bacon for the district, or because she gives them a vicarious thrill in "standing up to the man?" (God help the district if its the latter.)
Maybe they just like to be entertained. Not everybody takes politics as seriously as we do.
#47
I'm sure she is a very nice young lady once you get to know her. She does however, always look a bit pissed... er, rather she generally always looks pissed and bitter about something. A few pints of Guinness can help that. I highly recommend finding a nice friendly pub and ordering some Guinness, maybe a meat pie as well. It's good for what pisses you.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 21:15
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#49
Frank G, great deer in headlights comment lol.
For McKinney to not be wearing her ID and still expect to gain entrance is wrong. For her to ignore the guard's first 3 attempts to stop and question her, then worse yet striking him. She needs to be punished, and shouldn't be allowed to get away with this horrible behavior. How dare she feel she should have special rights to gain entrance, she should be glad that the guards are so good at their job in protecting and standing watch.
This guard needs to be honored for doing his job well, and should press charges. It's not an easy job when you have the likes of McKinney acting like she's above the law.
Besoeker, I'll drink to that. Although I don't think she's a very nice person. The Guinness would help the person having to deal with her, I don't think it would help her a bit. ;)
Posted by: Jan ||
04/04/2006 21:41
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#53
Funny, thing is that none of you were actually there to witness the incident and yet you have assigned guilt to Rep. McKinney. Your snide comments about her remind me off the anger she touched off among repubs/conservatives with her accusastions against Prez Bush about 9-11.
Perhaps among Rantburg regulars if one doesnt agree with their dogma, one is guilty until proven innocent.
#54
McKinney is also a prominent critic of President Bush. I have seen some very snide/nasty comments directed at her by people that disagree with her
accusations about him regarding 9-11, such as calling her a "unhinged lunatic" who suffers from some sort of mental illness. Yet her constituents keep re-electing her. You may "think" you know her well but eveidently her supporters dont think so. I will withold judgement on this particular case until all of the evidence comes out.
#57
I would love to see you brave souls tell her that to her face or tell her supporters what youre posting in here anonymously.
At any rate, from reading the comments in here
EVERYONE that opposes President Bush, particularly Democrats, their leaders, anti-war activists and liberals are all "unhinged lunatics" suffering from some type of mental illness. I think that says a lot more about YOU than THEM.
Ten Iraqis were killed tonight and 30 others wounded when a booby-trapped car exploded near Al-Sharoufi religious mourning house (known locally as Hussainiya) in Al-Shaab area north of the capital. A security source told KUNA that the blast caused damage to the mourning house and that rescue teams are continuing their rescue operations. The mourning house is located in heavily-populated area near Al-Sadr city.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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no link was e-mailed from a friend in the UK
The decision by the Blackburn mosque to cancel the planned visit by Condoleezza Rice is utterly unacceptable and deeply troubling. A mosque spokesman has said that it was cancelled not through dislike of Dr Rice but because of the threat by Muslim anti-war protesters to invade the mosque, thus compromising the safety of the visiting dignitaries.
What an appalling state of affairs where the safety of the Foreign Secretary and a distinguished overseas visitor cannot be guaranteed against the threat of violent disorder. Aren't we all supposed to be engaged in a war against this kind of menace to life and liberty?
If there are disagreements, however profound, the British way is to voice them in a civilised manner and never to resort to violence. It is essential that fanatics should not be allowed to disrupt our British way of life like this -- which, let it not be overlooked, is also pitching Muslim against Muslim -- and that we should not cave into this kind of inntimidation.
But the response of both the mosque and the authorities has been worse than pusillanimous. If neither mainstream Muslims nor the British state has the courage nor the means to face down such a threat within the Foreign Secretary's very own constituency, how can either the Muslim community or the British government purport to be fighting to defeat the violent extremism that threatens us all?
Even worse, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain has suggested that it was right for the visit to be cancelled because of the widespread opposition in the Muslim community to U.S. foreign policy. What insolent presumption. America is Britain's most crucial and important ally. It has played an essential part in our defence against tyranny in the past, and continues to do so.
However strongly feelings may be running against the Iraq war, the fact is that British Muslims are British and should afford Dr Rice — a principal member of the government of our major ally — an elementary degree of courtesy. After all, if the US government is to be treated in this way over the Iraq war, logic dictates that these British Muslims would regard the British government with identical hostility over its own part in that war. And that is a very troubling thought indeed. It implies that some of them do not identify themselves as British but adhere to a hostile set of values.
It is, however, richly ironic that this should have happened in the Foreign Secretary's constituency. For our man of straw has led the field in grovelling before religious intimidation. Only this week, in a speech at the Muslim News awards, he effectively blamed the west for Islamist violence around the world. Now the chickens of of appeasement have come home to roost in Blackburn -- their home town.
A REAL embed deployed with a local unit. I find these are the only reliable reporters in Iraq. What I really like is the amount and type of information the "local" news guy was able to get. I am sure they would be very leery of sharing anything with the MSM. HUNTING FOR INSURGENTS IN SHADOWS By TOM ROEDER - THE GAZETTE
A firefight in Baghdad this week thrust Fort Carsons most shadowy unit briefly into the spotlight. The Green Berets of the 10th Special Forces Group advised Iraqi troops who opened fire on suspected insurgents in what some Iraqis are calling a mosque complex.
The attack, which left 34 suspected insurgents killed or captured, ... Booyah!
... sparked controversy in Baghdad, with Shiite religious leaders boycotting meetings with Americans amid claims that the raid targeted civilians at a religious service. Soldiers with 10th Group said that no mosque was entered and that the raid was a success, netting insurgents and a stockpile of weapons.
The raid was not a first for 10th Group soldiers. Even before they returned to Iraq this winter, they had killed or captured 3,800 suspected insurgents in clandestine efforts, many aimed at leaders of terrorist groups, the unit has confirmed. They just dont usually make headlines. Booyah!
The unit of highly trained soldiers selected for their intelligence, physical abilities and language skills has never publicly revealed what its doing in Iraq. Instead of deploying with fanfare for one-year stints, the soldiers simply disappear for a while. Often, they dont even tell their wives where theyre headed.
In interviews days before their most-recent departure, some soldiers from 10th Group discussed past missions in Iraq in general terms. The unit is credited with helping make the 2003 invasion of Iraq successful and helping Iraqi units root out insurgents and secure polling places for elections.
Continued on Page 49
#14
Why doesn't the link buttone work?
Because the Colorado Springs Gazette doesn't archive their pages in a way that outsiders can retrieve them. That's one reason I don't post much from their newspaper (my local paper). It's part of the "Freedom" newspaper chain, so it's not quite as leftist as most - which is good, since about half of Colorado Springs is either military, military retirees, former military, or contractors WITH and TO the military.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 23:48
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What part of Pakistan is not in the 'restive tribal belt'?
The Al-Q training camp run by the ISI in Rawalpindi, of course.
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan - Five people were killed in a landmine blast and two pro-Taleban militants died in a clash with security forces in Pakistans restive tribal region on Monday, officials said. The incidents occurred in the North Wazoo Waziristan tribal region, where around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with security forces last month. They were answering a call to arms by militant Muslim clerics following a special forces assault on an Al Qaeda camp.
"Come to prayer! Come to armed prayer! Come to fight infidels in armed prayer!"
The landmine victims were travelling in a vehicle in Dattakhel area near North Waziristans main town of Miranshah when it struck a landmine. Five people were killed on the spot, while the sixth is in critical condition, said an intelligence official.
In the second incident, two pro-Taleban terrorists militants were killed after militants attacked a paramilitary patrol in the town of Mir Ali. The terrorists militants had hurled hand grenades on the troops, wounding three of them, another intelligence official said.
Troops shot back, did they?
The incidents took place a day after one soldier was killed and 10 people wounded in clashes in the region, which is heavily infested with roaches Al Qaeda and rats Taleban terrorists fighters and their local rubesfoolsstoogessyncophants sympathisers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006
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#1
A restive tribal belt is needed to contrast with your doilly hat.
#5
That "restive tribal belt" needs greasing. I suggest tactical nukes from 40,000 feet. That should be enough grease to remove the "restive" for a looooonnng time - not to mention the "tribal belt" itself.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 15:05
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#6
Is there something opposite of Pakistan's "restive tribal belt?" Like a calm, serene, and peaceful spot of pure bliss?
Charles Taylor, Liberia's former president, has pleaded not guilty to charges of crimes against humanity during years of atrocities in Sierra Leone. He was remanded in custody to a date yet to be fixed. He did not apply for bail during the landmark hearing on Monday, but said he preferred to be tried in Sierra Leone. "Most definitely, I'm not guilty," Taylor told Judge Richard Lussick at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
"I didn't dunnit, and besides, I won't do it no more. Now back off!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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Security forces in Morocco are holding nine suspected al-Qaeda activists who were part of a ring that plotted bomb attacks in France, Italy and Morocco, the state news agency MAP has said quoting local newspapers. Newspapers in Rabat said the nine suspects planned to participate in a larger plot to blow up a church in Bologna and a commuter train station in Milan, the headquarters of French intelligence services in Paris and the US consulate in Rabat. "The nine suspects, arrested and brought before Rabat appeals court recently, are accused of setting up a criminal gang in view of preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks within the framework of collective plot," MAP said on Monday, quoting an unnamed judiciary source.
MAP did not give more details. Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Police sources said the nine were arrested early last week and that they were being held after appearing for questioning before an investigating judge at Rabat appeals court. Pro-government daily Al Alam, one of the dailies that had reported extensively on the case, said a Tunisian, named as Mohamed Benhedi Msahel, travelled from Italy, where he lived, to Algeria and Morocco to recruit bombers for the plots.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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A Hamas spokesman said on Monday Hamas members held talks two months ago with French officials and more recently with an Indian diplomat despite U.S. and Israeli efforts to isolate the Islamic militant group. "Meetings were held here (in Gaza) two months ago with French officials," said Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri, without identifying them or providing any details about the talks.
France's ambassador to Israel, Gerard Araud, denied French officials have any contact with Hamas, which won elections in January and formally took control of the Palestinian Authority last week. Araud said France, like the European Union, expected Hamas to first renounce violence, recognize Israel and abide by interim peace deals. "We don't have any contact with the Hamas ... We won't have any contact with the Hamas whatsoever, as long as they don't satisfy the three well-known conditions," the ambassador, speaking in English, told Army Radio.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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that would not be helpful. I call Bullshit
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 0:15
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A dozen heavily armed pirates have hijacked a UAE-registered oil tanker along with 19 Filipino crew members off the coast of Somalia, an international piracy watchdog said. "Twelve pirates armed with machine guns, AK47 rifles and sidearms boarded the tanker off Mogadishu during daylight," Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the London-based International Maritime Bureau, told AFP.
Choong said the United Arab Emirates oil tanker had earlier discharged its cargo at Mogadishu port and was hit on March 29 after leaving port. Maritime officials identified the ship as "Lin 1." Choong said the pirates are holding the ship off the coast of Somalia and are demanding "a huge sum of money" from the owners for its release.
The international coalition forces consisting of US, British and Dutch warships that are helping to police the area have been informed of the latest hijack, he said. Choong said the pirates were holding the ship inside Somalia's territorial waters and this could pose a problem should the foreign ships want to intervene.
Since March 15, 2005, pirates have hit 40 ships off Somalia but many more attacks have gone unreported, he said. Choong urged ship captains to keep their vessels at least 200 kilometres (125 miles) away from Somalia's coast to avoid pirate attacks. "The pirates are armed and they will not hesitate to fire to stop ships," he warned.
In a recent incident, pirates fired at a UN food aid ship in an attempt to hijack it. Pirates had hijacked an Indian ship, the Bhakti Saga, on February 26. Its 25-member crew was only freed on March 29. The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world, with heavily armed gangs prepared to venture far offshore to attack vessels.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Choong said the pirates were holding the ship inside Somalia's territorial waters and this could pose a problem should the foreign ships want to intervene
because we all respect Somalia's central gov't sooooo much. Kill them. String them up on Mog's docks as a warning
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 0:09
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Blackwater has announced an openly mercenary division of their company recently. I'm pretty sure it includes ex-SEALs. Perhaps the UAE would like to hire them.
DEH ZABZ, Afghanistan -Millions of mines and unexploded pieces of ordnance still kill or maim around 100 people a month in war-ravaged Afghanistan, a demining group said on Monday.
Afghanistan remains one of the worlds most mined countries despite the internationally backed efforts involving 10,000 people employed to destroy the devices, a representative of the Halo Trust told reporters. Millions of landmines were laid by the Russian military during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and during the subsequent civil wars between resistance commanders.
The devices still threaten the lives of more than 4.2 million Afghans, or about a quarter of the population, said Farid Homayoun, country director of the British-founded Halo Trust. There are at least 100 mine accidents per month, which is an unacceptably high figure, Homayoun said at a ceremony to mark the United Nations Mine Action Awareness Day to be observed on Tuesday.
Since the 2001 toppling of the Taleban in a US-led invasion, the number of mine accidents had dropped by 50 percent due to extensive demining, he said, predicting the country would be free of mines by 2013. Homayoun said most of the mines were laid along highways, around former military bases and other government installations, as well as in villages and on farmland.
Afghanistan, which has endured decades of ruinous conflict, has signed the Ottawa Convention banning the use, trade and production of landmines. Based on the document, it must destroy its mine stockpiles before March 2007. Serious action would be needed to meet this deadline because Afghanistan had so many stockpiles, said Shohab Hakimi, head of the countrys anti-mine campaign.
Despite the toppling of the Islamist Taleban government more than four years ago, Afghanistan is still plagued by violence with a Taleban-led insurgency killing scores of people every month. Ten deminers have been killed or wounded by improvised explosives laid by the Taleban in their attacks on US and Afghan targets, Homayoun said.
The Taliban are helpful on so many fronts, aren't they.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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United Nations Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari said it will be hard to fully implement Security Council Resolution 1559 as long as Hizbullah considers itself a "resistance." "The UN is trying to fully implement Resolution 1559 which calls for the disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias but the problem is that Hizbullah considers itself a resistance," Gambari told the Egypt-based Middle East News Agency over the weekend.
Resolution 1559 is among the topics Lebanon's top political leaders have been discussing during their ongoing national dialogue. "The United Nations praised Lebanon's national dialogue and all participants in these talks welcomed the organization's support," Gambari told the agency.
During the dialogue, the March 14 Forces have been aggressively lobbying for the ousting of President Emile Lahoud and the decommissioning of Hizbullah's weapons, while pro-Syrian parties relentlessly reject such demands. But leaders will not start discussing Hizbullah's arms before the presidential issue, so far deadlocked, has been solved. However, top politicians have succeeded in reaching a decision to establish diplomatic relations with Damascus, which Gambari deemed as crucial to solve all pending issues between the two neighboring countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Great slap on the head for Gambi. Now, what to do about it?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 11:07
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This is Spain, I'm waiting for Zappie to pardon him.
MADRID - A Spanish court Monday jailed an Algerian man for 10 years for creating a website where he published messages from Al Qaeda inciting jihad and justifying terrorist attacks.
Madrids National Court found Ahmed Ibrahim guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation, in this case Al Qaeda. He was arrested in Spain in April 2002 while creating a website to publish radical and extremist Islamic principles, notably fatwas from Al Qaeda calling for jihad, or holy war, the judgement said.
The court said Ibrahim had several times met senior members of Al Qaeda in Palma de Majorca in Spains Balearic islands where he lived, and that he had proven contact with Islamist extremists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday registered a case against a seminary cleric for allegedly keeping a student in illegal confinement and forcing him to go abroad for jihad training.
Musaddiq Malik, 14, suffered multiple injuries in an abortive attempt to escape. However, his parents succeeded to get him freed on Monday after searching for him for two days. The cleric, Qari Fazal, is still on the run.
Malik was admitted to Madrassa Taleemul Quran, located in Sector G-7/3, two years ago. Fazal was his teacher but the madrassas management sacked him because of his dubious activities. Fazal later opened his own seminary named Madrassa Khalid bin Waleed in Sector I-8/3. Police sources said Fazal developed relations with Malik and hypnotised him to go abroad for jihad training. They said that Malik took Rs 200,000 from his parents and gave to Fazal for the holy cause.
On Monday, Malik managed to escape and Fazal chased him. While running on a road in Sector I-8/3, Malik was hit by a car and was caught. Fazal took him to a hospital and again confined him. Later, his parents freed him. Malik told police that he had given Fazal Rs 200,000 to send him to Afghanistan for jihad training. He said that Fazal tortured him when he asked for his money back.
Industrial Area Police Station House Officer Liaqat Ali Langah told Daily Times that several complaints had already been lodged against Fazal. He said Madrassa Khalid bin Walid was formed without approval from the authorities. He said police had registered a case against Fazal and was searching for him.
Posted by: john ||
04/04/2006
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1) The cleric, Qari Fazal, is still on the run.
2) Police sources said Fazal developed relations with Malik
3) ...several complaints had already been lodged against Fazal.
BTW- I was wondering what did the army ever do with those wood chippers that Saddahm used to grind up his political opponents? Just curious.
Back on topic. This guy Qari Fazal needs to meet the 72 succubi a little early...
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair launched on Monday a national crime-fighting unit modelled on the United States' FBI, with the aim of tackling the major gangs behind crimes such as people trafficking and drug smuggling. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which will have a staff of around 5,000, will tackle drug traffickers, people-smugglers, global paedophile networks and sophisticated fraudsters.
Launching the unit at Downing Street, the prime minister said that the time had come to end the "tyranny" brought by organised crime. "We know this organised criminal activity takes place. The level of sophistication, the level, frankly, of brutality, with which many of these gangs operate today, means that we have to (operate) differently. There is absolutely nothing in my view that should come before the basic liberties of people in this country to be freed from the tyranny . . . of this type of organised crime. We will do everything we possibly can to achieve that."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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Should have no trouble finding resources to fight organized crime now that Britain's decriminalized burglary, assault, etc.
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer ruled out Monday sending Nato forces to the Sudanese province of Darfur if the UN sends a peacekeeping mission to the troubled region. Addressing a joint news conference with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, de Hoop Scheffer said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was considering all options to helping the UN mission in Darfur. But these options, he added, excluded sending personnel to Darfur.
De Hoop Scheffer, answering a KUNA question, said the military alliance would not hesitate to offering assistance to UN, but this help would be within a certain limit. He added that the UN and the African Union (AU) would determine the kind of assistance. He said Nato agreed to offer logistic support and training for the AU forces but in accordance with request of the Sudanese government.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"We'll be delighted to help in any way, short of actually, you know, doing anything." My translation of Jaap. The only way anything will be done is if the US does it, and I am leary of sending in troops to keep muslims of one skin color from killing mulsims of another skin color. It most certainly will not affect, in any positive way, how we are viewed in the muslim world. That said, I wouldn't mind killing a bunch of those sadistic, barbaric bastards.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/04/2006 9:31
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#2
I'm with mike: I'd go as an independent agent and just kill evil-doers.
#4
I am leary of sending in troops to keep muslims of one skin color from killing mulsims of another skin color
I am think it could be a golden opportunity for making Blacks see Islam as a tool of enslavement. Ie sendiong troops is not enough: an effort of propaganda/PR is needed.
#5
'Twould be the same bedtime story on the Nightly News with Katie Couric:
"Today a neevil NATO gaoler let his shadow fall across the pages of the Holy Koran being used by a simple Janjaweed shepherd, brutally and unfairly sold into captivity by duplicitous African tribesmen who are probably in the pay of the Zionists."
#6
And along with those charming human interest stories Seafarious mentioned, let's not forget: Quagmire! Exit Strategy! Death Toll! Bush Hitler! Illegal War! Peace Now! No Blood for, um, whatever Sudan produces when they aren't hosting civil wars!
#7
No Blood for, um, whatever Sudan produces when they aren't hosting civil wars!
Sudan is supposed to have large oil and gas reserves, most of which is in the Darfur region. China is 'aiding' them in developing these resources, which probably includes 'aiding' them in eliminatig the tribal locals, so they don't have to share with them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 15:47
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Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, has claimed victory but acknowledged a strong protest vote in an election boycotted by the opposition. The opposition held weeks of protest rallies to demand his resignation for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, who denies any wrongdoing, offered on Monday to set up a reconciliation committee to judge whether he should step down despite receiving what he said were more than half the votes cast on Sunday - his previously announced threshold for staying in power.
The Election Commission was expected to release complete election returns on Tuesday, but Thaksin said preliminary results showed his party won 57% of the votes. Critics rejected his idea of a reconciliation committee as insincere and called for new anti-government protests this week. Ong-Art Klampaiboon, the opposition Democrat Party spokesman, said: "The prime minister just wants to find ways to stay in power by finding new marketing strategies and new products."
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04/04/2006
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Leaders of Lebanon's rival factions have postponed a national dialogue conference until the end of the month and even hinted that a decision might not be reached. Nabih Berri, parliament speaker, said the leaders agreed in four hours of closed talks on Monday to postpone the next session until April 28 "in order to decide the presidency issue". He said: "Either (we reach) agreement on this (presidency) issue or we don't."
That kinda covers all the bases, I'd guess...
If not, he said, the leaders would move on to the last remaining - but tougher - issue of the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah's weapons. A UN resolution calls for Hezbollah to disarm but the group, backed by Iran and Syria, has refused to do so. Lebanon's 14 leaders - pro- and anti-Syrian, Christian and Muslim - have been trying through their unprecedented dialogue to resolve some of the most contentious issues since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Monday's meeting was the fifth round of talks since the national dialogue began March 2. The talks have focused on Emile Lahoud, the Lebanese president's, fate and on a 2004 UN Security Council resolution that calls on Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters in Lebanon to disarm.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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Irans announcement that it had tested a new torpedo in war-games in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday pushed international oil prices to their highest levels since Hurricane Katrina. The news from Tehran, prompting concerns of a possible disruption to supplies, propelled benchmark Brent crude oil futures nearly $2 higher to trade at $67.79 a barrel.
Irans armed forces frequently carry out extensive military manoeuvres that are given wide coverage on domestic television, but the sensitivity of current naval exercises comes from the 30-day deadline issued last week by the United Nations Security Council for Iran to suspend its atomic programme.
Blocking the straits of Hormuz would be one military option for Iran if the dispute over its nuclear programme were to escalate. But the use of the oil weapon is double-edged, as Iran is heavily dependent on its own exports, which account for around 60 per cent of government revenue and 80 per cent of export earnings.
Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, Irans deputy oil minister, on Monday foreshadowed Irans ability to influence the oil price, when he said: Owing to the current situation, any fall in oil prices this year is unlikely...A sum of factors show that prices will not fall in the next two or three years unless there is a conspiracy against oil.
In the US, oil futures prices rose more than $1 to $67.80 a barrel, inching towards the $70.85 record they reached in early September when Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast, the heart of the countrys oil and natural gas production and its oil refining centre.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006
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#1
Iff America and the world does NOT give the Mullahs the recognition or concessions they want, e.g. Radical-controlled Iran is a "great nation/power" and entitled to nukes, the Mullahs will opt for war. THE MULLAHS WILL GO ON "PUSHING IT" UNTIL THE WORLD GIVES IN OR AMERICA INVADES, which in the latter's case will be countered by the usual anti-US aymmetric war, aka "People's/
Guerilla War", vv "the BASIJ" People's Militias; and of course international "brinkmanship" btwn the US-West vs Russia-China. Becuz of the location of both Iran's major oil fields + ENERGY = WMD complexes, Iran will prob try to initially limit any US-Allied milaction to the beaches or littorals, wid a main defense line alongst Iran's natural mountain ranges - with the USA in Afghanistan, Iran's MLR/Logisitics will likely run thru Central Asia and Russia-China. Iff the Iranians continue to "go for broke", i.e. push and antagonize Dubya, the Euros, and the UNO, WAR WID IRAN MAY TAKE PLACE THIS SUMMER OR YEAR. Dubya has an ace in that Russia-China both know Iran's regional and geopol ambitions work against their interests, not just America's. STAY ARMED.
OSLO, Norway (AP) Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefully negotiate a settlement. Blix, attending an energy conference in western Norway, said he doubted the U.S. would resort to invading Iran. "But there is a chance that the U.S. will use bombs or missiles against several sites in Iran," he was quoted by Norwegian news agency NTB as saying. "Then, the reactions would be strong, and would contribute to increased terrorism."
Everything leads to increased terrorism according to Blixie, except surrender.
Blix said there is still time for dialogue over Iran's nuclear enrichment program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but the West fears is part of a secret nuclear weapons program. "We have time on our side in this case. Iran can't have a bomb ready in the next five years," Blix was quoted as saying.
And he knows this how?
Blix, also a former ineffectual head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged the United States to take its time, as it is doing in a similar nuclear standoff with North Korea. "The U.S. has given itself time and is negotiating with North Korea, while Iran got a very short deadline," he was quoted as saying.
He said, not understanding the difference between Iran and North Korea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006
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#3
"Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb..."
...and he wants us to bet our lives on it.
Stick it, Blixie; all of your negotiating the last couple of years has accomplished precisely nothing. And that's all it will ever accomplish.
Showtime's a-comin'. Soon.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/04/2006 6:33
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#4
The real question is whether they've bought working nuclear weapons and whether they also have the engineering ability to fit them onto delivery mechanisms.
Whether they are 5 years away from MAKING one isn't the real question - it's their intent to have and to use one however they get their hands on it that is the problem.
#6
Blix is a hoot and in these troubled times wonderful comic relief. In Blix's alternate reality a muslim would be in charge of the IAEA. Oh...wait...
Posted by: Mark Z ||
04/04/2006 9:25
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#7
Thank you Blix for confirming it will be ready in weeks.
Ahmad Jibril, the head of the pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command said Saturday that he "will have another round of meetings with Lebanese officials in 15 days so that we can implement several pending issues."
Jibril, who resides in Syria, paid a surprising visit to Beirut and met with top Lebanese leaders including the head of the Future Movement MP Saad Hariri late Friday, Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Fouad Siniora and Hizbullah's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, on Saturday. Jibril said after his meetings that what "is most important at the moment is that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are given guarantees that they will be equal to their Lebanese brothers ... and given their basic human rights as the Palestinian refugees in Syria and outside it are given."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Unknown gunmen on Monday assassinated the imam of the Al-Quds Mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk. A police source told KUNA the gunmen opened fire at the imam Omar Abdulrazzaq Mohammad in central Kirkuk, killing him instantly.
Meanwhile, the Multi-National Forces (MNF) said an insurgent was killed and eight others were detained near Kirkuk. An MNF source told KUNA that MNF soldiers saw a number of gunmen unloading vehicles filled with weapons, and started shooting killing one of them and detaining eight. Mortar shells and some light weapons were also seized during the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Lahore High Courts Rawalpindi bench on Monday allowed four convicts to appeal their death penalty awarded for their involvement in the murder attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003. A military court had awarded death to six people for their involvement in the murder attack on December 25, 2003, which killed 14 people. The court has also awarded life imprisonment to two other men and freed one in the same case.
The military court had dismissed the appeals of Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Quraishi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and a Russian national Ahmed Ikhlas against their death penalty last month. The Lahore High Court in its earlier hearing dismissed their appeals on the ground that appeals against the death sentence awarded by the military court was beyond their jurisdiction. However the convicts lawyers, Col (r) Muhammad Akram and Hashmat Habib, argues that LHC judge Justice Akhtar Shabir had dismissed the High Court registrars objection and accepted their appeals for regular hearing.
Posted by: Fred ||
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When I left my hometown of Hilliard, Ohio eleven years ago, it was still a small suburban city outside of Columbus. By the time I returned a few months ago to help care for my aging parents, little did I realize that during the time I was gone that my hometown about as whitebread, conservative red-state America as you can get had become one of the many battlegrounds in the Global War on Terror.
The Hilliard I grew up in was sleepy cowtown. As the son of one the local police officers (and my older brother would later follow him on the force), it was impossible to do anything serious without word quickly making its way back to my home, so I didnt even try. No one else did for that matter. The city was safe and relatively crime-free, except for the obligatory fight at the local bar every Friday night and the annual confiscation of the slot machines at the Moose Lodge. Back then, virtually every area of town was within a half-an-hour walk. While I was in high school, after classes I would walk across the street to the local library at the entrance to the City Park to study and to pass the time.
Today, that former library building is now a full-time Islamic school (K-8), Sunrise Academy, funded and operated by the local-area branch of the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC) MAS has been identified by researchers and many media outlets (such as these recent articles in the Chicago Tribune and The Weekly Standard) as one of the U.S. front groups for the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood and funded by the extremist Saudi Wahhabi lobby. Hasan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, stated this as the organizations credo: Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.
But the local Islamic schools connection to the international Muslim Brotherhood terror network is far from the only manifestation of the hometown jihad. Among the regular speakers at the school is Hilliard resident, Dr. Salah Sultan, who gives monthly lectures on a number of Islam-related topics. Sultan was the founding president of the Islamic American University in Dearborn, Michigan, and still serves on the European Council for Fatwa and Research . He has self-published a number of Islamic titles available through his own publishing company. On his online resume, Sultan lists as his personal vision: To live happily. To die as a martyr. To meet the beloved ones in the Paradise of the Lord of Heaven and the earth.
But Sultans desire for martyrdom isnt just a personal ambition; in a speech he delivered to the annual conference of the Islamic Association for Palestine (the primary U.S.-based front group for the Palestinian terrorist organization, HAMAS) in 1999, he expressed his hope that all Muslim children would dream of martyrdom for the Palestinian cause: I want every child to sleep on the wound of Palestine and the actions of martyrdom, just like that mother in the country whose son wrote to her that they are to meet in Paradise.
In that same speech, Sultan clearly identifies who he thinks is perpetrating the martyrdom of Palestinians in a tirade that could be taken straight from the pages of the anti-Semitic book, Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
What does "the Cause" mean to you? And what does it mean to your children?... How much do they know about these tragedies? Did we mention to them that the Children of Zion over there cut open the wombs of mothers. As Khalid M. Khalid mentioned in 1992 when he visited Shamir and saw on his desk a strange ashtray. He asked him, "What strange ashtray is this?" Shamir told him that this was the skull of an embryo. The skull of an embryo? An Israeli soldier opened the womb of a Palestinian mother, took out the embryo, cut off his head, and gave it to him as a present. He gave it to him as a present! This is the method of the Jews. Killing a Muslim or any other non-Jew does not matter to them. Because their motto is, "The gentiles mean nothing to us." This is what the text of the Talmud says: "If you come across a non-Jew kill him!" Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/04/2006
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Police arrested Mohammed Junaid, allegedly the operations chief of Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Almi, on Monday after a gun battle here, said a senior police official Raja Omar Khitab. Police launched a raid as Junaid and an accomplice were shifting weapons from a hideout in the city. The two militant suspects traded fire with police, before Junaid was captured while the other man got away. Police confiscated one AK-47 assault rifle, two grenades and a pistol.
Khitab said Junaid was wanted in connection with several attacks on police and a 2003 bombing at a private club in Karachi that injured nine people. The government had offered a reward of Rs 500,000 for information leading to his arrest. Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Almi emerged as an offshoot of Harkatul Mujahideen, a banned militant group that fights against Indian security forces in Kashmir and is suspected of ties with the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2006
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The March 14 Forces "have not backed down from their call to oust President Emile Lahoud ... and (Lebanon) should hold a diplomatic and media campaign to pressure Syria to comply with Lebanese demands," former MP Fares Soueid said Monday.
"We have asked Premier Fouad Siniora to rush the demand of asking Syria to demarcate the borders, starting with the disputed Shebaa Farms," he told Lebanese satellite television station LBCI. "If the Syrians refuse our demands, then I call upon March 14 members and their supporters and the Lebanese government to start an international campaign to say that the side which is hindering the building of the Lebanese state is Syria."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Must See TV taken to whole new level.
A few clips:
Clip No. 1096: Iraqi Cleric Ahmad Al-Kubeisi: Democracy, Human Rights... It's All Nonsense Truth is clear, and falsehood is clear. From now on, no one can lie to people - human rights, democracies, and whatever... It's all nonsense... The truth lies with us, and so do human rights, mercy, and justice.
Clip No. 1091: Egyptian Cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar: Israel Must Be Destroyed. America Will Be Dissipated to Nothing The 20th century crime is the creation of this false state amidst the Arab world and amidst the Muslim world, with no justification whatsoever - historical, ethnic, religious, you name it. They have no justification to be in that region at all. And that's why Muslims have to struggle hard to destroy this state, regardless of the blind support of the Americans and of many European nations to it, stemming from wrong misconceptions and wrong beliefs that have been mainly infiltrated by the Jewish hand.
...
And I declare here, that this false state has to be demolished, sooner or later. America will not remain the sole world power forever. Time will come when this superpower will be dissipated to nothing. And the signs for this dissipation is quite obvious, I can see it quite clearly. And at that time the oppressors in Palestine would not find these tens of presidents of the United States to stand at their back, supporting them illegally, supporting them unethically, supporting them immorally, to do more killing, more raping, more destruction in the land of peace.
Clip No. 1090: Egyptian Experts on Islamic Religious Law Debate Female Circumcision Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: I will tell you which girls. A girl phoned me once - A woman called me - there is no shame in asking questions about religion... A girl called me and said: When I take the Metro, wearing tight jeans... The Metro in Egypt jolts about like this... She said: I get really aroused. What should I do?
Dr. Malika Zarrar: God help her....
Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: I asked a doctor, I'm telling you what happened... I asked a doctor, who told me this girl's clitoris was very high, and that a small part of it must be cut off. Up next, drilling holes into skulls to let out lascivious thoughts.
Much more at the link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/04/2006
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#1
Dr. Malika Zarrar, you go burka girl!
.............
Iraqi nurse throws her shoe at the bundled remains of a suicide bomber outside a Baghdad hospital. The killer rammed a police convoy in the city's Yarmouk neighborhood and detonated his charges, killing a police commando and wounding three other officers. Two civilians also were hurt.
#2
She said: I get really aroused. What should I do?
Send her to the infidels! Metra here in Chicago really rolls around, too. I'll take care of that naughty bit;)
#3
No possibility of getting a new pair of pants, I suppose. Actually, it sounds like one of those Penthouse letters, all wishful thinking and creative writing.
The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday stopped the confiscation of the assets of Asif Ali Zardari, husband of former premier Benazir Bhutto, and directed the accountability courts not to issue any further orders regarding the forfeiture process.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A paramilitary mine clearance soldier was killed and two others injured Monday in separate blasts in Balochistan, officials said. The soldier was critically wounded when he stepped on the landmine in Taraman village near Kohlu district and later died of injuries, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps said. Separately a water tanker belonging to paramilitary forces hit a landmine near a gas field in Loti area and two soldiers were injured, the spokesman said. Ten people including five tribal police were killed in landmine and bomb blasts at the weekend in the region and the officials have blamed the attacks on tribal militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I'm not generally fond of the soldiers of Pakistan's army, but this one dedicated his life for Good. May he be pleasantly surprised to be met by a full set a houris and a seat at God's right hand when he arrives in Paradise. And may the wounds of his comrades be those from which full recovery is rapid and painless (Yes, I'm stretching here, but one can hope.)
A Syrian court has issued subpoenas for Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade and journalist Fares Khashan, Hamade said Monday. "There were warrants for questioning ordered by a Syrian penal tribunal ... against Walid Jumblatt, myself and journalist Fares Khashan," Hamade said, adding that he considered the warrants "a threat against our security, after everything that has happened."
"We will present these warrants to the international probe [investigating the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri] as new threats against Lebanese personalities are already being made," Hamade said. Syria's military judiciary had filed a lawsuit against Jumblatt and "others revealed by the investigation" accusing the defendants of "inciting the U.S. administration to occupy Syria" and of "defaming" Damascus by blaming it for the series of bombings and assassinations in Lebanon last year.
Hamade also linked the subpoenas to the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, hinting they came shortly before an expected meeting between Syrian president Bashar Assad and the head of the probe team Serge Brammertz. "It is worth noting that we received this a few days maybe before the international probe questions top Syrian officials in Damascus," Hamade said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The head of the Democratic Gathering, MP Walid Jumblatt, said Friday the "Syrians entered the country with the blood of [Druze leader] Kamal Jumblatt, and left the country with the blood of [former Prime Minister] Rafik Hariri." In an interview with LBC late Thursday, Jumblatt strongly attacked the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon and described Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a "tool in the hands of the Syrian regime
................
Syria subpoenas Jumblatt, Hamade and Khashan 2006-04-04
Guaranteed, If I were Walid, that's one subpoena I'd shine on fo sure.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Progressive Socialist Party Leader Walid Jumblatt have seemingly decided to forget the brawls of the past and turn a new page. Ever since the former army general's return to Lebanon from exile in Paris, and since the parliamentary elections, Aoun and Jumblatt have had a relationship haunted by tension and bickering.
Now, however, the relationship between them is starting to thaw as both sides decided to start a new phase of cooperation. A Source close to the FPM confirmed that relations between the FPM and the PSP are improving, saying: "A mutual friend between Aoun and Jumblatt is bridging the gap between the two parties, where delegations from the FPM parliamentary bloc and the Democratic Gathering are exchanging visits to Aoun and Jumblatt."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"We don't want to turn Lebanon into another Iraq."
#3
they can agree that the festering sores of Hezbollah and the Paleo camps are no. 1 problems, then fight for power between themselves later. Lebanon's civil war was too bloody, still too fresh perhaps
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006 18:17
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Eight people including two foreign militants were killed Monday in a bomb explosion and clashes with security forces in North Waziristan tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, according to military sources.
Sources told KUNA that a passenger van was coming to Miramshah, the main headquarters of North Waziristan agency, when it hit a landmine near Dattakhel area. The sources indicated that the explosion killed five people, including two women and wounded four others. They added that the van was completely damaged.
Meanwhile, sources noted that three militants, including two foreigners were killed and three Frontier Core (FC) personnel were wounded during clashes between suspected militants and FC forces. The sources indicated that an FC force raided a suspected arms and ammunition depot in Mir Ali village of North Waziristan agency during which armed militants opened fire against them, wounding three FC personnel. The Sources said that three militants were killed during an exchange of fire, two of them of foreign origin. The sources noted that a search operation was carried out during which two foreign militants were arrested. These incidents come a day after one soldier was killed and 10 people were wounded in clashes that occurred in the agency.
Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a tribesman after kidnapping him for spying for the US military.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Baghdad, Apr. 03 Five Iranian agents attempting to cross into Iraq illegally have been arrested, according to a television report.
Iraqi border security forces arrested the group in the town of Halabja close to the Iranian border, the television station al-Sharqiya reported on Sunday. The United States and Iraqi officials have accused Irans radical Islamic government of sending agents and arms into Iraq to assist the insurgency.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/04/2006
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#1
tourists
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/04/2006 0:38
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#9
Consider it an act of war and take out Iran's air force.
Iran leads with a pawn move....USA counters with a massive air strike on Irans rooks.
Faster please.
#10
"...Irans radical Islamic government of sending agents and arms into Iraq to assist the insurgency."
Using the catch-all phrase of "insurgency" to describe any and all groups that are resistant of an Iraqi representative government or want to drive out the occupying coalition forces confuses the understanding of the conflict. Such broad defintions make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine a precise composition. Which makes reports like this equally difficult to determine capabilities, funding, and goals. It seems to me, for purposes of discussion, there needs to be a distinction made between insurgents and common crimminals or opportunists. Furthermore, it would be helpful to avoid lumping in the militant Shia militias as part of the insurgency. Its hard enough trying to figure out the alliances and degree of cooperation between Saddam loyalists, Baathists, and Iraqi nationalists with the foreign Jihadists.
Posted by: house of salads ||
04/04/2006 19:30
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#14
They wuz trying to smuggle HGH to Barry Bonds
Isn HGH the Klear or the Cream? Opppps never mind. HGH.... different stuff. Barry got loads of human grow harmine. Luckily there's a huge suppy of HGN so kidz wont be affected. Itz cool.
Two people have drowned and 30 others are missing after a boat carrying illegal immigrants from Mauritania to Spain's Canary Islands disappeared off the West African coast. Mauritanian navy officials were searching for the missing boat after fishermen found the bodies of two men floating at sea.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Australia needs to cautiously rebuild communications with Indonesia without rushing, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says. Mr Downer said he was not surprised by comments on Monday from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who said the relationship was full of challenges.
Australia's decision to grant protection visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers was obviously going to cause sensitivity in Indonesia and had clearly done so, Mr Downer said. "We just let things plod along for a little while and gradually rebuild our communications," he told ABC radio. "It is just best to take things cautiously and calmly and not rush into anything too much at this stage."
Translation: we're bigger, smarter, with a better economy and better prospects, so we'll take our time. Y'all let us know when you want to talk, 'k?
President Yudhoyono did, on the other hand, renew his commitment to the bilateral relationship with Australia, Mr Downer said. "So we have to work through this period and from our point of view here in Australia we just have to be cautious and sensitive about this," he said. "We can understand why they are upset but of course what we are trying to explain to them is that this has no implication for our recognition of Papua as a full part of the republic of Indonesia."
"We'll do that next week."
Mr Downer said he was not surprised Indonesia had declined to attend the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise to be held around Darwin this week as Indonesia had never supported PSI. PSI aims to limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction and materials through developing procedures for intercepting illicit shipments. Mr Downer said unless there was a sudden change of policy in Indonesia, they wouldn't be expected to attend. "I am not sure about a specific invitation. They may or may not have. But they certainly have not supported the Proliferation Security Initiative so if we gave them an invitation we would not have expected a very positive reply unless they changed their policy. We have lobbied them on PSI but they have felt up until now a bit uncomfortable."
Mr Downer said it would be helpful if Indonesia participated in PSI and Australia had urged them to join the 40-50 nations currently involved.
#1
Australia has never accepted Indonesia's military conquest of West Papua (formerly Dutch New Guinea), nor its attempt to forcefully convert the local peoples to Islam - which isn't going very well. The locals have many ties to tribes in Papua New Guinea, under the protection of Australia, and have, until the late 1970's, freely migrated back and forth between the two parts of the island of New Guinea. The locals are beginning to fight back, and Indonesia is blaming Australia for arming and helping them. If they are, it's very, very clandestine - I would suspect more aid is coming from the Philippines, who don't want another border with majority-muslim groups. It's a "low-intensity conflict", but it's been going on since 1960, and shows no sign of changing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/04/2006 16:06
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Two Kassam rockets were launched out of the ruins of Dugit, the northern Gaza Strip settlement that was evacuated in last year's disengagement.
The IDF revealed that one of the rockets landed at sea and the other fell near the southern coastal beach Zikim. None were reported wounded, nor was there any damage, according to Army Radio. "Runnnn Aawwwwaaaayyyyyy"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2006
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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.
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it was not worried about Iran's Persian Gulf military exercise, saying Tehran does not pose any threat to its neighbors.
SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) -- At first, piles of skinned animals, mostly foxes and coyotes, turned up on the edges of dirt roads in this semi-rural community outside Ann Arbor.
The bizarre scuffle Wednesday between Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and an unnamed U.S. Capitol Police officer is winning the 
Pirates captured a South Korean-flagged fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday and efforts by a U.S. Navy ship and a Dutch vessel to intervene were abandoned when members of the South Korean crew were threatened with guns and the ship slipped into Somali territorial waters, the Navy said. Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said he did not know the number of crew aboard the South Korean vessel, the Dong Won.
A former senior official of Sinn Fein recently exposed as a British spy was found fatally shot in northwest Ireland, police said Tuesday. Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein's former legislative chief in the failed power-sharing government of Northern Ireland, admitted in December he had been on the payroll of the British secret service and the province's anti-terrorist police for the previous two decades. He then went into hiding because the traditional Irish Republican Army punishment for informing is death. 
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States Turki al-Faisal expressed support for Israel's strike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear facility in 1981. 
Conservative politicians are beginning to take this religion seriously. President Bush has spoken about our addiction to oil and British Conservative Party leader David Cameron has installed a wind turbine on his London home.
Tehran, 4 April (AKI) - The Iranian government is reported to have withdrawn its financial deposits from Swiss banks after the decision by the UN atomic watchdog to refer Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council over Western fears that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Anonymous sources say that in the past few weeks, Iran has withdrawn 700 tonnes in gold reserves and 26 billion euros. The gold reserves were transferred to the Markazi bank, the central bank of the Islamic Republic, while the cash was deposited in banks in the United Arab Emirates. 
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he will step down as premier after his declared victory in a weekend election failed to resolve a political standoff that crippled his government. Thaksin, 56, speaking in a live television broadcast at a press conference in Bangkok tonight, said he will stay on as interim prime minister until a new leader is chosen. He met with the country's King Bhumibol Adulyadej this afternoon. 
The two bloodied, wincing Iraqi soldiers - bandages wrapped around their legs - hobbled onto the waiting ambulance, wounded during a house-to-house search near this farming town. The culprit was a common one: Not insurgents, but gunfire from fellow soldiers. U.S. trainers who mentor Iraqi troops say a lack of gun safety, or what they call ''muzzle discipline,'' has led to many injuries and deaths across the country. And while the Americans say it is slowly getting better, it remains a major problem for a U.S. military trying to train more than 200,000 Iraqis to defeat the insurgency. 
Egyptian security forces have detained eight more members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in the southern city of Al-Minya, the Islamist movement's spokesman told AFP. "Eight members of the Brotherhood were arrested in Al-Minya, one of whom is the son of a Brotherhood member of parliament," said Issam al-Aryan. "It is clear that this is a reaction to the Brotherhood's activities in parliament which cause embarrassment to the goverment," said Aryan.
British and American citizens have been detained in the Far Eastern Russian province of Chukotka, governed by Roman Abramovich, for illegally crossing the Russian state border, RIA Novosti reported. Presumably, the two foreigners are tourists. The detainees have passports, commercial visas, tents and arctic equipment with them. A .44 Magnum-Colt pistol and cartridges have been also found among their belongings, a local security services spokesman said. 
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is to be charged with genocide over a 1980s campaign against the Kurds, an Iraqi tribunal has announced. Saddam Hussein and six others face new charges over a crackdown known as the Anfal campaign, which included the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja. Human rights groups say 180,000 civilians died in the Anfal campaign. Saddam and seven others are already on trial for the deaths of 148 people in Dujail after an assassination attempt. 
Theres nothing like roaring into Baghdad aboard a Rhino. A Rhino is a giant, heavily-armored bus that can withstand IEDs (small ones), and it is now the favored means of keeping Western visitors from getting blown to bits by these homemade bombs on the dangerous road between Baghdad International Airport and the secure Green Zone at the citys center. Rhino is an appropriately Disney-ish name for these wheeled monstrosities, adding to the surreal feeling one gets in moving from the howling chaos outside the Green Zone into the theme park-like confines within. You drive through several checkpoints, leaving behind tracts of litter and rubble and the desperate, dark faces of ordinary Iraqis trying to earn a few dinars. There, behind high concrete blast walls and razor wire, you find quiet streets and the heart of the American occupation: a double-sized Olympic pool with a palm-fretted patio restaurant, food courts and a giant coffee lounge where lessons in belly dancing and martial arts are offered. All these are huge improvements from the last time I was in Baghdad, two years ago. And all are intended for the Westerners who dwell in increasing comfort here.
An Ethiopian prisoner is scheduled to appear before a US military tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base this week on charges that include conspiring with US citizen 
Ten Iraqis were killed tonight and 30 others wounded when a booby-trapped car exploded near Al-Sharoufi religious mourning house (known locally as Hussainiya) in Al-Shaab area north of the capital. A security source told KUNA that the blast caused damage to the mourning house and that rescue teams are continuing their rescue operations. The mourning house is located in heavily-populated area near Al-Sadr city.
Charles Taylor, Liberia's former president, has pleaded not guilty to charges of crimes against humanity during years of atrocities in Sierra Leone. He was remanded in custody to a date yet to be fixed. He did not apply for bail during the landmark hearing on Monday, but said he preferred to be tried in Sierra Leone. "Most definitely, I'm not guilty," Taylor told Judge Richard Lussick at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Security forces in Morocco are holding nine suspected al-Qaeda activists who were part of a ring that plotted bomb attacks in France, Italy and Morocco, the state news agency MAP has said quoting local newspapers. Newspapers in Rabat said the nine suspects planned to participate in a larger plot to blow up a church in Bologna and a commuter train station in Milan, the headquarters of French intelligence services in Paris and the US consulate in Rabat. "The nine suspects, arrested and brought before Rabat appeals court recently, are accused of setting up a criminal gang in view of preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks within the framework of collective plot," MAP said on Monday, quoting an unnamed judiciary source.
A Hamas spokesman said on Monday Hamas members held talks two months ago with French officials and more recently with an Indian diplomat despite U.S. and Israeli efforts to isolate the Islamic militant group. "Meetings were held here (in Gaza) two months ago with French officials," said Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri, without identifying them or providing any details about the talks.
DEH ZABZ, Afghanistan -Millions of mines and unexploded pieces of ordnance still kill or maim around 100 people a month in war-ravaged Afghanistan, a demining group said on Monday.
United Nations Under Secretary General 
ISLAMABAD: Police on Monday registered a case against a seminary cleric for allegedly keeping a student in illegal confinement and forcing him to go abroad for jihad training.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair launched on Monday a national crime-fighting unit modelled on the United States' FBI, with the aim of tackling the major gangs behind crimes such as people trafficking and drug smuggling. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which will have a staff of around 5,000, will tackle drug traffickers, people-smugglers, global paedophile networks and sophisticated fraudsters. 
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer ruled out Monday sending Nato forces to the Sudanese province of Darfur if the UN sends a peacekeeping mission to the troubled region. Addressing a joint news conference with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, de Hoop Scheffer said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was considering all options to helping the UN mission in Darfur. But these options, he added, excluded sending personnel to Darfur.
Leaders of Lebanon's rival factions have postponed a national dialogue conference until the end of the month and even hinted that a decision might not be reached. 
Irans announcement that it had tested a new torpedo in war-games in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday pushed international oil prices to their highest levels since Hurricane Katrina. The news from Tehran, prompting concerns of a possible disruption to supplies, propelled benchmark Brent crude oil futures nearly $2 higher to trade at $67.79 a barrel. 
OSLO, Norway (AP) Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefully negotiate a settlement. Blix, attending an energy conference in western Norway, said he doubted the U.S. would resort to invading Iran. "But there is a chance that the U.S. will use bombs or missiles against several sites in Iran," he was quoted by Norwegian news agency NTB as saying. "Then, the reactions would be strong, and would contribute to increased terrorism."
The Lahore High Courts Rawalpindi bench on Monday allowed four convicts to appeal their death penalty awarded for their involvement in the murder attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003. A military court had awarded death to six people for their involvement in the murder attack on December 25, 2003, which killed 14 people. The court has also awarded life imprisonment to two other men and freed one in the same case. 
Police arrested Mohammed Junaid, allegedly the operations chief of Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Almi, on Monday after a gun battle here, said a senior police official Raja Omar Khitab. Police launched a raid as Junaid and an accomplice were shifting weapons from a hideout in the city. The two militant suspects traded fire with police, before Junaid was captured while the other man got away. Police confiscated one AK-47 assault rifle, two grenades and a pistol.
The March 14 Forces "have not backed down from their call to oust President 
A Syrian court has issued subpoenas for Druze leader MP 
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Progressive Socialist Party Leader Walid Jumblatt have seemingly decided to forget the brawls of the past and turn a new page. Ever since the former army general's return to Lebanon from exile in Paris, and since the parliamentary elections, Aoun and Jumblatt have had a relationship haunted by tension and bickering.
Eight people including two foreign militants were killed Monday in a bomb explosion and clashes with security forces in 
