Two Egyptians were detained at an airport in the Caribbean resort of Cancun after one appeared on a U.S. travel-restriction list, the Federal Preventive Police announced Sunday in a written statement.
The Egyptians were detained on Friday as they attempted to board a flight to Mexico City and were being held Sunday at a migration center in Mexico City, police said.
The Dogan Media Group (rivals of the Uzan group who ripped off Motorola and Nokia for multi-billions) are publishing a news weekly, Kaide ("Al-Qaeda" in Turkish) which openly praises its namesake and idolizes Osama bin Laden. Kaide, which looks like an Al-Qaeda bulletin and includes all Al-Qaeda announcements, is published legally in Istanbul and sold at newsstands across Turkey.
#3
Ever heard of the word Counterterrorism?
It can be very demoralizing to extremists to come to the realization that they are no longer able to hide behind the system. I think Mossad has a branch named LAP that does stuff like that, maybe it is time turkey had a similar service.
By Amihai Zippor Did I mention that I was against the pullout? Why, I believe I did.
At a rally in Gaza commemorating the birthday of former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat last week, PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told the crowd that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria was just the first step. The gathering marked the beginning of celebrations for the Israeli withdrawal from territory that is part of the ancient Jewish homeland and was recaptured by Israel in 1967. Just on it's face value, this statement should taken serious but when the PA PM states it, look out.
âWe will proceed from one victory to another until we achieve the big victory - when one of our roses or juveniles will hoist the Palestinian flag on the walls of the Old City [of Jerusalem] and its minarets and churches,â Qurei told thousands at the rally. Yea, when pigs fly. Arafish also gave the victory sign before leaving for France. Boy did he come back victorious. Also, just a guess, but I am assuming he is not talking about Christian churches.
âThe process that started in 1965 is now making its way, through the strong determination and will of our people, toward Jerusalem, the West Bank and the rest of the homeland,â he said. This time it's different. This time your determination is being strongly met with settler determination. Homeland? You're homeland is east not south.
Queriâs additional use of the word âhomelandâ as another stage in the fight against Israel is a frightening return to the incitement against not only removing Jews from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, but also from the rest of the land of Israel. Frightening return to incitement? The twisted mentality never left the animals.
Furthermore, he called for implementation of U.N. resolution 194 regarding the return of refugees to their original homes, adding further proof that he was referring to overwhelming Israel with Arabs and taking it over from within. That would be Jordan, Egypt, Syria, etc., not Israel. If you want the Israeli land, all you have to do is OPENLY declare war on Israel. Stop hiding behind the U.N.
The incitement is part of a build up of threats emanating from the Palestinian government and terror groups as the Israeli withdrawal nears.
In recent weeks, terror organizations have openly claimed their attacks have caused Israel to leave Gaza and are planning to move their operations to Judea and Samaria after the withdrawal is complete.
âWe will transfer all our fighting methods and capabilities to the West Bank,â said Jamal Abu Samhadaneh, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees. Come on. Don't be stupid. How are you going to defeat Israel if you show all your fighting methods?
âThe withdrawal will not be complete without the West Bank and Jerusalem, which is even more precious to us than the West Bank,â he said.
Together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the group has been behind many of the attacks on IDF soldiers and Jews in the Gaza Strip over the past four and a half years. Israeli security officials have been saying for months that after Israel leaves Gaza and northern Samaria, a wave of terror will ensue.
Still, the government of the State of Israel continues to move ahead with the Disengagement Plan at all costs, relinquishing its security to the Palestinians, to the Egyptians and the many terror groups who claim to hold by a cease-fire but continue to perpetrate attacks daily. Being in a hurry to reward terrorism is not the solution, people.
#1
Any reason why Poison Reverse is not showing up on the "Posted by:" When I preview, it shows up and then it magically disappears when it is posted. No big deal. Carry on.
#3
And just think, these animals are walking around with a few billion dollars of US money in their pockets now. They should be more careful in their dealings with Israel, they did not run them out of Gaza, they left as a peace bid. If they mount an offensive, I think IDF can obliterate them in a huge ball of fire. Question is will they?
Hat tip - LGF
Looks like the veil CAIR hides behind in beginning to thin...
War On Terror: An American Muslim pressure group has come out strongly against police profiling of young Muslim men behaving suspiciously at train stations. But the group doesn't have our best interests at heart.
The terror-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, says two New York officials' push for such targeted profiling on city subways is offensive and ignorant.
"Terror comes in all shapes and sizes," insists Wissam Nasr, director of CAIR's New York branch.
Never mind that eight young Muslim men bombed London's tube. Or that 19 young Muslim men attacked New York in 2001. Or that every suspect on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists is a Muslim man, with nearly half going by the name Mohammed.
CAIR's national spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, says police should ignore such obvious terror traits and search riders at random, while paying close attention only to people "sweating." Never mind that during New York's balmy summer months, that would include folks who don't remotely fit the terrorist profile.
CAIR should know better than anyone who does fit the terrorist profile. Three of its own officials were recently convicted of terror-related crimes. One even worked for Hooper. He's now in prison for conspiring to kill Americans.
#4
Fortunately, Americans are wising up to CAIR's tactics despite the efforts of the MSM to hide everything. I would like to see CAIR, the ACLU and the NAACP all outed for what they really are.
Terrorist, socialist and communist organizations.
TOKYO ââ¬â Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi immediately called a snap election Monday after losing a key vote on postal-system reform in the nation's upper house, setting the stage for a possible political realignment and a chance for the opposition to make a grab for power.
Mr. Koizumi pushed hard for privatization, but conservatives in his own party, who garner both funding for public-works projects from the postal-savings system and support at the polls from postal workers, crossed the floor to defeat the bills.
Dissolving the lower house to hold a poll, slated for Sept. 11, may backfire on the maverick Japanese leader. Trends in the past few elections have moved Japan toward a more balanced two-party system, and this vote could finally see the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) booted from office for only the second time in 50 years, say analysts and lawmakers.
"The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will most likely win due to the internal conflict among LDP factions," says Kazuhiko Ozawa, a professor of politics at Obirin University.
Opposition parties are rubbing their hands in delight. DPJ leader Katsuya Okada recently set out his plans for a new, more accommodating direction in Japanese foreign policy as a response to ongoing tensions with China and other nearby Asian countries. On the domestic front, he has indicated he aims to root out graft and end the cozy ties between politics and such industries as construction and road building. He also wants more pro-active child-support policies in a bid to stem Japan's declining birth rate.
The last time the LDP was pushed briefly into opposition in 1993, senior bureaucrats in various ministries stymied the reformist policy goals of an inexperienced coalition government. To avert this kind of resistance, Mr. Okada has said he will replace those in public posts above a certain rank with political appointments.
But any DPJ government would face more problems than a simple lack of experience. Because a snap election can only be called for the lower house, the LDP will continue to hold its slim majority in the upper house, leaving the bicameral system hung between the two major parties. The DPJ must win two-thirds of the lower house seats to be able to pass any legislation rejected by the upper house. If the DPJ falls short, they may have to seek an awkward alliance with other parties.
The DPJ comprise an implausible grouping of liberals and right-wing politicians with sometimes extreme views. Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ vice-president, unleashed a political storm in 2003 when local media reported he said that to deter any Chinese threats, Japan could produce "thousands of nuclear warheads" from plutonium created by its commercial nuclear reactors. Analysts say internal frictions in the DPJ would be likely to undermine its ability to govern effectively.
Indeed, a change of government could spark a period of broad political reorganization as parties adjust alliances and lawmakers seek likeminded policy partners.
Posted by: Kofi Annan ||
08/08/2005
18:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained by thousands of young Muslim men with military training now resident in this country.
The grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in Whitehall. Fears of a third strike remain high this weekend, based on concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, say US reports.
As police and the security services work to prevent another cell murdering civilians, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia. MI5 is working to an estimate that more than 10,000 young men from these regions have had at least basic training in light weapons and military explosives.
A well-connected source said there were more than 100,000 people in Britain from "completely militarised" regions, including Somalia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa, and Afghanistan and territories bordering the country. "Every one of them knows how to use an AK-47," said the source. "About 10 per cent can strip and reassemble such a weapon blindfolded, and probably a similar proportion have some knowledge of how to use military explosives. That adds up to tens of thousands of men."
Even though the vast majority had come to Britain to escape the lawlessness of their homelands, the source added, there remained an alarmingly large pool of trained men who could be lured into violent action here.
This threat had been largely neglected while attention focused on British-born militants who had been through training camps run by al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005
18:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ya think? I guess all those clerics were just joshin' ya. It's just a little adolescent fun - like cherry bombs in mailboxes. Boys will be boys.
#3
rkb, can you teach us how to make our comments disappear?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 19:15
Comments ||
Top||
#4
No.
I've been mulling on this story since yesterday. We know that some of the Islamacists have made it clear they'd like to turn the UK into an Islamic state. While we tend to snicker at such ravings, it gives me pause ...
Britain isn't like France or the Scandanavian countries, where moslem immigrants are mostly ghettoed (by whosever choice). You've already got Galloway and other ethnically-British converts, plus a fair number of university trained Islamacists in the country.
And, it's part of the EU. If the UK were, under some wild scenario, to go Islamicist quickly, all of the EU protocols for trans-border travel etc. would be in effect, no?
And it's a country where the populace by and large has chosen not to allow gun ownership or violence in self-defense. A bit of a worrisome mix ...
#5
And, it's part of the EU. If the UK were, under some wild scenario, to go Islamicist quickly, all of the EU protocols for trans-border travel etc. would be in effect, no?
I believe France already excercised the "national security option" and declared those null and void. At least, in so far as France is concerned.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2005 19:47
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Darn. That was so clever. I wanted to teach AK and .com.
I think the chances of every Muslim in Britain failing to see the next sunrise are much, much higher than that the UK would ever turn into an Islamist state. I should not be surprised to see gun restirctions loosened, with or without Parliamentary action.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 19:48
Comments ||
Top||
#7
I believe France already excercised the "national security option" and declared those null and void. At least, in so far as France is concerned.7
That's my understanding as well. But if there were no signs of *imminent* violence elsewhere and an apparently stable Islamacist government emerged in Britain, I'm not at all sure that things wouldn't revert to the EU norm pretty quickly.
All of which is wildly speculative, of course. But it does suggest one reason that an insuregency and attempted Islamacist state might emerge in Britain -- or at least be attempted there -- before countries like France. There are leaders, there are sympathizers and there are those who would dress up nicely and present a "civilized" face on such a "resistance / independence / human rights" movement.
#8
One other point that I think Americans don't necessarily think about often:
It was Britain, more than any other colonial power, that established the national boundaries and ruling families in much of the middle east. Geraldine Bell and all that ....
The muslim world may not have much education, industry or democracy -- but it DOES have a long memory for that sort of thing. Another reason to target Britain in the minds of some.
#9
Well what the hell did they think would happen when they invited all the radical nutjobs the Islamic world had to live in their country? Did they think they would hold hands and sing kumbia?
#10
Is Britain not ready for a fight? Yes, the terrorists have bombing capabilities. But how do these bombing capabilities compare to the bombings of the Hitler regime? Are they more powerful?
Cause... those bombings, like the terrorists of today, killed people. Destroyed parts of London And the Germany of that time, had a far superior army than the Islam terrorists of today. Planes, tanks an boots on the ground.
Help me here... I'm still having some problems... that the Muslim community can overthrown the British government. Is there not some consolation in the fact that Britain has a far superior army than the Muslim front? Realizing there are military coups throughout the third-world counties all the time, I'm such a novice to believe that this 10% of militant Muslims can defeat the British armed forces.
Am I missing something here? What is the strategy and the tactics the Muslim community can invoke to overpower the British and flag the Muslim flag over 10 Downing Street? Sure, there are the Galloway's of the community of the British.... but I just have to believe, there are far more British against his beliefs, and more than willing to stand for those beliefs.
They have done it before, and I do believe, they will do it again. We, here in the States, have often voiced how this generation of our children and grandchildren would stand in the face of danger. Since 9-11, I think they can stand tall... it is their generation and they are doing quiet well, thank you.. and I want to believe that the British would never stand for a different flag over 10 Downing Street. And I know, we, their "country cousins" would stand with them in that fight.
#11
A Brit sent me this (I don't know which publication he got it from) :
Special forces turn sights from Iraq to hunt terrorists in Britain
Michael Smith
BRITAINâS special forces commanders have temporarily switched the main thrust of their attention from Iraq and Afghanistan to hunting down suspected terrorists at home.
A number of special forces teams are on an hourâs notice to move anywhere in the UK to support police operations against the terrorist threat.
The teams have a number of aircraft, including civilian helicopters and two small executive jets, assigned to them to ensure they can get anywhere in Britain as swiftly as possible.
âThe UK is now at the top of our agenda and the two (terrorist) incidents will result in significant changes to our workload for the near future,â a senior defence source said.
Each of the rapid reaction teams includes a mix of SAS and Special Boat Service counter-terrorist experts, specialist human surveillance operatives and special forces bomb disposal officers.
They also include technical surveillance experts from a fifth special forces unit, 18th (UKSF) Signal Regiment, which was secretly created this year. The regiment is the third new special forces unit set up to support 22 SAS Regiment and the navyâs SBS in an expansion of Britainâs special forces to cope with the war on terror.
The new regiment includes soldiers who can monitor mobile and satellite phones and has a number of high-tech methods of listening in to conversations from up to half a mile away.
The Sunday Times revealed last week that special forces intelligence personnel were part of the surveillance operation that resulted in the shooting of an innocent Brazilian.
SAS troops also played a role in the capture nine days ago of three men suspected of taking part in the failed July 21 bomb attacks. The soldiers provided expertise in explosive entry techniques to back up raids by police firearms officers.
The extent of the involvement by special forces and the scope of their capabilities have remained secret until now. âOur people are carrying out what I can only describe as a vital role within the current operation,â one source said. âIt is complex and spread across a large part of the UK. The team includes aspects of the new units assigned to UKSF (UK special forces) within the past year.â
Part of this role is understood to involve special forces merging into the background in London and other British cities. Plainclothes SAS teams have also monitored airports and main railway stations to identify any security weaknesses.
Members of the SBS have worked alongside Home Office officials on exercises at key ports to try to spot security problems. One exercise scenario involved suicide bombers hijacking an oil tanker which they aimed to blow up in a port.
However, defence sources said that although the elite military teams are under the overall control of the director of special forces, any counter-terror operations will remain under the authority of the police.
The Mooselimbs shouldn't have ever stirred up the hornets nest. Now they are going to be sorry. After the SF is through with these animals, the words "civil rights" won't even be in the UK dictionary.
"any counter-terror operations will remain under the authority of the police"
This is so ludicrous that I am going to LMAO and then I am going to ROFL. SF under the authority of Barney Fife. Riiiight!!
#13
I do remember that day TV was carrying live, a take down of some of the 7/21 guys, before they cut the live broadcast off.... a van pulled up and guys got out, and began to prepare to go inside.
One of the commentators Fox had on (from Scotland Yard)... remarked, these guys aren't police.... he watched them, remarked on their professionalism... and you just knew, from him, they were military. He hinted then, that the British military had been extremely involved in much that had been happening.
Kinda comforted me... and I'm deep in the heart of Texas!
One of the targets of the Oil-for-Food investigation, Alexander Yakovlev, on Monday pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering charges for taking bribes during his work at the United Nations.
Yakovlev was stripped of his diplomatic immunity earlier Monday by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (search) and taken into custody by federal authorities.
David N. Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said that a judge accepted Yakovlev's guilty plea for his part in taking at least several hundred thousand dollars from foreign companies in connection with his job as a procurement officer at the United Nations from 1993 to 2005. The former U.N. official handled tens of millions of dollars worth of U.N. supply contracts annually when he worked there.
Yakovlev was taken into custody hours after Paul Volcker (search), the man in charge of the independent investigation into Oil-for-Food (search), fingered the Russian native as one of two main U.N. officials involved in the program's corruption.
Volcker's U.N.-approved panel, the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), released its latest report highlighting mismanagement of Oil-for-Food on Monday. It accused Yakovlev of of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the Oil-for-Food (search) program.
Yakovlev resigned from his job earlier this summer after a FOX News investigation.
The Volcker report also accuses Benon Sevan, the one-time head of the Oil-for-Food program who severed his ties with the United Nations on Sunday, of taking kickbacks under the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation aimed at easing the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians.
Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, also said in releasing the report that Sevan should also lose his diplomatic immunity so he can be prosecuted for alleged crimes.
"All I can fairly say is that given the kind of evidence that we have presented, I would think there may well be interest in doing so," Volcker said, referring to Sevan and Yakovlev losing their immunity.
The report, which Volcker said was intended to tie up some "loose ends" in his panel's investigation, touched on topics other than Sevan. It dealt briefly with Annan and his son, Kojo (search), and said more would be discussed in the committee's final report, expected in September.
For the first time, the report gave a motive for Sevan's actions, saying his finances were "precarious" shortly before his alleged misdeeds.
EFL Lot's of links at link to reports, etc. This is happening so quickly that the MSM may not even report it. At least that's what Kofi and Volker seem to be hoping.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005
18:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He may have coped a plea to protect undiscovered ill gotten gains. He also may be falling on his sword to protect others, with promises of money when he gets out.
It's such a quick plea it is suspicious.
#2
It's gettin real PC these days for the enlightened to get rich off the poor and suffering these days. Can Al Franken please comment on the UN er I mean AA, errr I mean Bush is Hitler.... Hey, Franken and Kofi stop stealin from kids. Leave some for Chirac.
Should the Sheik jump out of the bat cave, the weather is fine in Iraq.
Coded electronic signals bandied in recent days among al Qaeda Middle Eastern elements across secret Internet sites all carry the same message: the supreme leader, Osama bin Laden, has come out of hiding in Afghanistan and set out, or is about to set out, for Iraq. This is the sense gained from this correspondence by DEBKAfileâs exclusive counter-terror sources.
Some of the signals schedule his date of arrival as the second half of September when Ramadan is estimated to begin. His arrival in Iraq is planned to signal the launching of the biggest offensive his organization has ever launched against the US army. If these signals are a true representation of bin Ladenâs plans and not a red herring, what is planned is a dramatic landmark battle in the global war on terror and the Iraqi conflict.
The signals cap a secret exchange of messages in recent weeks in which al Qaedaâs Iraq commander Abu Musab al âZarqawi attempted to persuade bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and take command of the Ramadan offensive in Iraq. Zarqawi argued the importance of his transferring from Afghanistan to Iraq on two grounds: to boost al Qaedaâs standing as it embarks on an âoffensive whose scale and importance rival the September 2001 operation.â and in the interests of his own personal safety.
Zarqawi stressed, according to our sources, that bin Laden will be safer in Iraq than in Afghanistan â an indication of Jordanian terroristâs inflated self-confidence.
DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs experts have authenticated the messages as emanating from Zarqawi. Their secret contents have begun to leak out and set up a huge flap in al Qaeda networks, cells and affiliates in many countries and talk of âa new jihad to honor the leader.â
If bin Laden was indeed swayed by Zarqawi and aims to reach Iraq by mid-September, he has little time to lose and must already have set out on his winding secret journey, or be about to depart. One of his options would be the long way round through Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan and across the border into Iraq.
But there is an alternative route from Pakistan which he might find easier. DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources revealed last May that al Qaeda had established a new marine base in the remote Gawatar Bay, a Persian Gulf inlet down the middle of which runs the Pakistani-Iranian border. Al Qaeda operatives are known to be active on both shores â on the Pakistani side, they use as sanctuaries the Baluchi villages strung along the River Dasht which empties into the divided bay; on the Iranian side, the move around the Baluchi port of Chah-Bahar (Bandar Beheshti).
From both these places, al Qaeda has for months been running a sea corridor of smugglersâ vessels into the southern Iraqi port of Basra. There, they clandestinely drop arms and fighters and collect injured men on the return trip for treatment in Pakistan.
Al Qaedaâs marine traffic from Baluchistan was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 211 on June 24. The al Qaeda leader may choose to enter Iraq by sea rather than take the long, overland route, in which case his people will have arrived at Gawatar Bay and making preparations for his journey. He would have reason to believe it is safer. Intelligence of al Qaedaâs Baluchi sea smugglers has reached the American and British naval forces operating in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, the Shatt al Arb, Basra and the southern Iraqi oil terminals. Yet neither has been able to put a stop to the traffic.
Bin Laden has proved himself an undercover escape artist par excellence. In the five years since he escaped the Bora Bora siege, he and his party, including his close tribe, have managed to flit from place to place undetected - even when his pursuers were close and watching out for him.
If he does indeed make it to Iraq, the public airing of his presence in the Land of the Two Rivers, would have a radical impact on the nature of the Iraq conflict. No longer a mere guerrilla campaign, it would escalate to a full-scale fight to the finish against al Qaeda in Iraq, analogous to the all-out hostilities in Afghanistan.
Bin Ladenâs organization has begun referring to the Iraq conflict in these ultimate terms.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2005
17:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
In the five years since he escaped the Bora Bora siege, he and his party, including his close tribe, have managed to flit from place to place undetected - even when his pursuers were close and watching out for him.
Jeeze Louise! No wonder we could not find Binny. He was recouperating on the beach at Bora Bora. Now the story can be told. Ima thinkn tht ths stry iz ovah duh top, ifn ya no watta Imeen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2005 17:16
Comments ||
Top||
#2
So the king is moving behind his screen of knights on the chess board?
#3
Coded electronic signals bandied in recent days among al Qaeda Middle Eastern elements across secret Internet sites all carry the same message: the supreme leader, Osama bin Laden, has come out of hiding in Afghanistan and set out, or is about to set out, for Iraq. This is the sense gained from this correspondence by DEBKAfileâs exclusive counter-terror sources.
Man, I think the author's tinfoil hat slipped off when he wrote that.
#4
We should be so lucky as to have Binny and all his merry men go to western Iraq and spell out "Warthogs Suck!" in mass formation.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/08/2005 17:29
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Yeah, let's see. They haven't been able to find him for 4 years in the place he's at, so let's head down to Iraq where half the US military is and, if they even think he's in one particular place, they can flatten it with everything short of nukes.
No sale...
#6
The signals cap a secret exchange of messages in recent weeks in which al Qaedaâs Iraq commander Abu Musab al âZarqawi attempted to persuade bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and take command of the Ramadan offensive in Iraq.
OBL: WTF are you doing in Iraq? My grandmother could kill more infidels than you.
Zarq: Yeah? Why don't you come out here and try it yourself if you think it's so easy.
OBL: Okay then, maybe I will. I got skills.
Zarq: Alright then do it.
OBL: Okay, I will.
Zarq: Okay then.
*pause*
OBL: 'cause I would, y'know, if you losers had a dialysis machine.
#7
"DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs experts have authenticated the messages as emanating from Zarqawi."
Damn,those guys are good! I bet they've been using their trusty ole Crackerjack de-coder rings. Perhaps the Pentagon should immediately notify Captain America and Wonder Woman to be on high alert.
Posted by: Marine Dad ||
08/08/2005 17:41
Comments ||
Top||
#8
If he does go to Iraq for a final battle...
Binny always does a decapitation attack before his main attack so that disarray is the highest.
(Think Massod before 9-11 and other attacks)
Watch should not be dropped.
#9
Actually it is a good meme to push even if it is false. Goad the man to come out and mention if he doesn't he is a coward... To the muslim masses the message would be "Do you want a coward for your Caliph? That's what he is if he doesn't help Zarkboy in person."
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 19:31
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Maybe he's in bad health, and can't make the trip to America, to martyr himself "in the belly of the beast". Or perhaps, Iraq is the beast. Who knows, It's whatever these guys feel at the time.
#17
"Some of the signals schedule his date of arrival as the second half of September when Ramadan is estimated to begin."
Is Debka suggesting that the start of Ramadan is not known at this time? I don't know if that's the case, but if true, it's just another example of how f*cked up a religion Islam is.
"In the five years since he escaped the Bora Bora siege, he and his party, including his close tribe, have managed to flit from place to place undetected - even when his pursuers were close and watching out for him."
So Binny fled Tora Bora a year before 9/11/01, returned after 9/11/01, and fled again in December 2001? Can these guys even construct a timeline?
Debka has some of the most creative writers out there, but I don't trust their "intelligence sources."
Posted by: Tibor ||
08/08/2005 21:22
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Is Debka suggesting that the start of Ramadan is not known at this time?
As I recall, the official start of Ramadan depends not on calendar calculations, but the actual spotting of the moonrise.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2005 21:37
Comments ||
Top||
#19
If that secret Presidential Directive is to be taken seriously, OBL will be brought to justice "Dead or Alive" in any attempt to affect his status quo! The moment proof of life is given by the CIA, their duty will be to neutralize this menace to our society whether it takes out 10 of his troops or 10,000 people shielding him. In any event, save his body or teeth for presentation to "W", on that silver platter!!
FALLOUJA, Iraq â Nine months after U.S. and Iraqi troops killed an estimated 1,000 insurgents here in a battle that also cost more than 70 American lives, intelligence suggests that rebels are trying to filter back into the former capital of Iraq's guerrilla movement.
American commanders in Baghdad and Fallouja say they control the city so completely that the guerrillas cannot regain a foothold. But they acknowledge that Fallouja remains a powerful icon to an insurgency that is keen to stop Sunni Muslim Arabs in western Al Anbar province from participating in an October referendum on Iraq's proposed constitution. "In their minds, I think it's got significance because a lot of insurgents were killed there," Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said in Baghdad.
"This was a resounding defeat for them," added Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel, who oversees analysis of operations, "and they want it back." GOOD LUCK!
The prospect of insurgents infiltrating the city presents a daunting problem for military officials. For the embryonic Iraqi government as well as the U.S.-led coalition, commanders say, what happens in Fallouja will symbolize the success or failure of the war. If insurgents succeed in returning, it would amount to rolling back the coalition's largest military victory since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.
The Marines' allowing former Fallouja residents to return has added to the concern. So far, 140,000 of the city's 250,000 residents have come back to a landscape littered with rubble, its skyline broken by tilting minarets.
The air is filled with the screams of construction equipment, the ground is broken with the trenches for the new water mains, yeah, we get the picture.
As the Marines continue to relax restrictions on the city's entry points, intelligence leads suggest that insurgents who have already entered Fallouja and others who may soon return have continued to plan attacks on Americans.
Fallouja Mayor Dari Ersan reflected that concern as he prepared to leave the barricaded fortress that serves as City Hall after a recent meeting. As a Marine officer explained the procedure for arming the city's new squadron of personal security guards, Ersan cut him off. He was worried about getting home that night. "Just give me a pistol," he said. "I'm talking about my own security."
Practical fellow, I can see why he's mayor.
Marine Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of coalition forces in western Iraq, said it was not surprising that insurgents would want to return to Fallouja. As he spoke, eight U.S. artillery blasts, apparent retaliation for a guerrilla mortar or rocket strike, rattled the windows behind him. Johnson didn't flinch. "Every time a bomb goes off in Fallouja, people say, 'Here they come. Here it comes again.' We expect that there will be insurgent activity in town. And if he tries, we will continue to defeat him as we have in the past," he said.
So far, there is little evidence in the street of the insurgents' return. U.S. troops who took the city center door by door late last year now roll through in the beds of open-backed Humvees. One group stopped to walk the streets as a Western reporter talked to Iraqis, a liberty unavailable in other major cities in Iraq's perilous Sunni Triangle.
When an 11-year-old boy brandished a realistic toy gun, a potentially fatal move, the Marines offered him a deal: his "gun" for a handful of bubble gum. "Good trade," the boy said in Arabic. "Yeah, good trade," a Marine agreed. "Your life for gum."
Still, beneath the seeming placidity lies a hostile city, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Powell, a Marine reservist who in his civilian life is an LAPD officer who patrols one of Los Angeles' most volatile neighborhoods. "It's a lot like South-Central," Powell said with a shrug. "Nobody wants to talk to you. They say, 'If I talk to you, I'll be a target.' But in L.A., you don't have to worry about someone driving a car and turning into you at the last minute to blow you up."
Residents here have never been very interested in talking to strangers. During Saddam Hussein's reign, "for 35 years the way they survived was by not seeing things," a U.S. officer said.
The current insurgency has deep roots here, and before the U.S. push to drive them out, "they were everywhere, like rats," fruit vendor Fareed Hamad Khalaf said as his melons baked in a 120-degree swelter. "Some are killers. Some are like me, wearing civilian clothes. We don't know who they are. Some of them will sneak back into the city. Some already have."
Marine Sgt. Kent Padmore vividly recalled the July day when a suicide bomber wheeled his car into Padmore's convoy, exploding it into a truck carrying Marines back to their base. In the blast and the shootout that followed, five Marines â three of them women â and one sailor were killed.
Padmore, now recovered from burns he suffered in the attack, rushed to the overturned truck in front of him to find the gunner cut in half and a female Marine crushed beneath the vehicle. Some Marines were tired that night, he recalled. Now, he added in the accent of his native Trinidad, they hardly blink. "Their tiredness goes away," he said. "Everyone is alert."
So is Padmore. When a dozen town leaders lined up to enter the makeshift town hall, Padmore committed what he knew was an affront in Muslim societies. He stood well past the 20-foot "kill zone" of a suicide vest and asked the men to lift their dishdasha robes over their heads to show they weren't wearing one. "You got a dozen guys with man-dresses over their heads," Padmore, a "U.S.M.C." tattoo on his left arm, said apologetically. "I told them, 'I don't mean to disrespect you. But I'd rather offend you than get blown up.' "
Insurgents in the area have made special targets of those who participate in government. Some members of the City Council stopped attending meetings after receiving threats and, in one case, being targeted by a roadside bombing. One sheik continues to attend meetings despite the fact that a suicide car bomber crashed into his house a month ago, killing his son.
In May, Marines found the body of Raja Nawaf Fahan, governor-elect of Al Anbar province, blindfolded and handcuffed to a propane tank after an intense gunfight in the Euphrates River Valley town of Rawah.
Mamoun Sami Rasheed was understandably hesitant to become governor after that, agreeing only after he was unanimously nominated by the Al Anbar provincial council. No one else wanted the job. In Rasheed's first week, a Marine quick-reaction force ran off three carloads of masked men who were circling his house as his frantic wife paced inside, a Marine officer recounted. Officials won't say exactly what they're doing to protect him now, but "he's secure," one said.
Marines will soon get assistance from two Iraqi army brigades that are just starting to operate in the province, including Fallouja. But the country's precarious security situation and bare-bones government infrastructure have left the U.S. diplomatic mission largely unengaged in Al Anbar at large.
As American diplomats mill around their embassy offices in Hussein's former Republican Palace in Baghdad's cloistered Green Zone, 33-year-old John Kael Weston is the lone State Department representative paired with the 28,000 U.S. troops in the massive swath of desert stretching from Fallouja to the borders with Jordan and Syria. Because business in Fallouja takes so much time, he has made few visits to the region outside the city. But in Fallouja, Weston sees progress.
When he asked during a meeting of Sunni sheiks whether Falloujans would vote, all said yes, and coalition officials say internal polls concur. The city's 48 imams have agreed on a religious edict urging Muslims to vote, although it also demands that the Americans leave Iraq, Sheik Younis Subhy Hussein said. Another sheik said, straight-faced, that the Sunnis opted out of January's election only to show that the Shiite Muslim majority was too inept to rule Iraq.
Still, the threat of returning insurgents remains. "With the normal citizens coming back, you're going to have some insurgents too. They ran this city. I don't think they're going to forget what a safe haven they had," Weston said. "If Fallouja turns into a green zone for bad guys again, then what will all this mean?"
Addressing that risk requires delicate planning. In the bullet-scarred fortress where most of the city's business is conducted, Marine Lt. Col. Jim "Hondo" Haveman explains to Ersan that the deputy mayor must be elected. The mayor insists that he can pick his own "assistant" and has one in mind. Haveman leans in, moving closer to the real reason: The deputy needs to be elected, he says, "in case you get sick."
He doesn't need to go further. The mayor agrees to accept an elected No. 2. He understands that the diplomatic reference to his fragile mortality means that his deputy is not merely an assistant. He's a potential successor.
#1
Nine months after U.S. and Iraqi troops killed an estimated 1,000 insurgents here in a battle that also cost more than 70 American lives, intelligence suggests that rebels are trying to filter back into the former capital of Iraq's guerrilla movement.
Next time, kill 10,000. Maybe they'll get the message.
#3
"You got a dozen guys with man-dresses over their heads," Padmore, a "U.S.M.C." tattoo on his left arm, said apologetically. "I told them, 'I don't mean to disrespect you. But I'd rather offend you than get blown up.' "
Put Padmore in charge. He has the gift of commen sense and isn't afraid to use it."Man-dresses", now that is definately appropriate wear for these cowards.
Posted by: Marine Dad ||
08/08/2005 17:56
Comments ||
Top||
#4
In Rasheed's first week, a Marine quick-reaction force ran off three carloads of masked men who were circling his house as his frantic wife paced inside, a Marine officer recounted.
By which, I hope that officer meant "blown all over hell's half acre". It strikes me that wearing a mask and holding a gun ought to be an execute-on-the-spot offense in the Triangle.
Pretty much anywhere else, for that matter. Deeply antisocial behavior, wearing a mask and waving a gun.
Well, on any day that isn't a sand-storm, I suppose. But somehow I doubt Anbar's finest are out and about pestering officials during sandstorms.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/08/2005 18:00
Comments ||
Top||
#5
After they recapture Falluja, the insurgents plan to retake their ancient holy city of Quantico, Virginia.
U.S. Marines discovered a car bomb factory Monday in a western Iraqi town near where 20 members of the American unit were killed last week, the U.S. military said. Six vehicles rigged with explosives were found in the hideout in the northern part of Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of towns in western Anbar province long believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters. "All of the rigged vehicles were destroyed and secondary explosions were observed by the Marines," a Marine statement said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also found five roadside bombs Monday on a road in Haqlaniyah, the statement said. All were detonated in place, it said. Marines have been pressing a sweep of Haqlaniyah and other communities in the area despite the deaths of 20 of their comrades last week. Six members of a Marine sniper team died in a firefight Aug. 1, and 14 Marines and a civilian translator were killed by a huge bomb two days later. There have been no small-arms attacks on Iraqi soldiers or Marines in the area in the last two days, the U.S. statement said. On Sunday, U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers discovered a bomb in a building in Haqlaniyah. Three 155 mm artillery rounds, weighing more than 100 pounds apiece, were wired to a desk inside the building, the U.S. statement said. Marines destroyed the bomb where it was found after determining it was too dangerous to remove it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
15:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
My guess is that the building no longer exhists.
#2
My son's Marine unit is engaged in this operation (Operation Quick Strike). If those boys have their way there will soon be many more buildings that will cease to exhist !
Posted by: Marine Dad ||
08/08/2005 16:10
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I have a funny feeling that they will get their way.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 16:35
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Marines have been pressing a sweep...despite the deaths of 20 of their comrades...
Despite? I would be surprised if the Marines did anything but press on. Apparently the reporter had a different hope. Anyway, buckle for your dust, Marines.
#7
Marine Dad - Thanks for the post and please make sure your son and his friends know how proud we all are of them.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/08/2005 17:07
Comments ||
Top||
#8
MD,
thanks for your son, looks like his unit is doing a fabulous job. I'll be pulling for your son and his unit to stay safe.
Zpaz, I too thought the wording of "despite" was out of character here. It'll be added incentive to get the job done.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 22:58
Comments ||
Top||
President Robert Mugabe on Monday rejected calls for talks with Zimbabwe's opposition leader on resolving the country's political and economic crisis. In a clear reference to neighboring South Africa, Mugabe said he is getting pressure to hold talks with opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai from "quarters that should know better." "Today we tell all those calling for such ill-conceived talks to please stop their misdirected efforts," Mugabe told thousands of cheering supporters at the annual commemoration of the war to end white rule in this former breakaway British colony.
Zimbabwe has asked South Africa for a $1 billion loan to pay arrears on its loan from the International Monetary Fund and to buy critically short supplies like food and fuel. South Africa reportedly is pressuring Zimbabwe to make economic policy changes and to take steps to resolve its political crisis as conditions for an emergency loan. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi accused Mugabe of failing to lead the country in a positive direction and said that naturally concerned neighbors like South Africa. "Only someone with his head firmly buried in the sand would not understand why there are calls for dialogue," Themba-Nyathi said. In his speech, Mugabe scoffed at critics of his human rights and governance record, including the United States and Britain. He also said his "Look East" policy toward China and other Asian countries was having "quantifiable results."
I guess you could call a precipitous slide into starvation and anarchy "quantifiable results"...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
15:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Run-er till she drops Bob. But I hope your health insurance is paid up and the chopper has a full tank of gas.
#5
If that happens, it'll come from someone outside of Zimbabwe.
Bob's got most of the populace where he wants them: cowed, starving, and displaced. What non-Zanu PF elite there are oppose any action that would change the government, as the MDC wanted to do originally.
A top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, indicted by a U.N. tribunal for some of the worst atrocities in the Bosnian war, was arrested Monday in Argentina. Milan Lukic was being held at a police station in Buenos Aires and was to be questioned by a judge after being arrested in the city on an "international request," according to Argentine Federal Police. Lukic was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2000 for crimes against humanity. He also has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Serbia for war crimes but has been on the run since late 1990s.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
15:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
A small building contractor is planning to take one of the world's largest petrochemicals companies to court in France, in a move that is likely to raise questions about the true extent of reform to Saudi Arabia's legal system.
Thinet International, a small construction company originally spun out of Vinci construction group of France, will next month launch legal action against Saudi Arabia's Sabic. Thinet is suing for damages of $100m (â¬81m, £56m) in a dispute over the construction of the petrochemicals group's headquarters in Riyadh.
Thinet has turned to the French legal system after its victory in the kingdom's relatively new commercial courts was overturned on appeal. Under the French Civil Code, any French citizen or company can appeal against an unfavourable foreign court ruling if it feels unfairly judged.
Sabic, 70 per cent owned by the Saudi government, awarded the $120m contract to Thinet in 1998. However it withheld final payment, claiming delays meant the building was not completed on time, although it moved into the headquarters.
Thinet took its case to the commercial section of the kingdom's grievance board, the Saudi equivalent of the arbitration and claims tribunal, as set out by the Sabic contract. The judges found in Thinet's favour and Sabic was ordered to pay about $35m. However this was overturned after Sabic appealed against the judgment. The judicial review panel ruled that Thinet's complaint should have been judged under civil and not commercial law.
This means that Thinet's case in Saudi Arabia will now be tried according to Sharia law, which the French company argues will take far longer and is not equipped to deal adequately with contractual disputes. Sharia law does not recognise the payment of interest or penalties, for example.
Thinet's experience is likely to exacerbate the concerns of foreign businesses operating in the kingdom.
The World Bank estimates that commercial disputes in Saudi Arabia take 44 procedures and 360 days to resolve, at a cost totalling some 20 per cent of the contract value. US commercial disputes require fewer than 10 procedures and 250 days, costing an estimated 7.5 per cent of the contract value.
Sabic said it would not comment on the dispute while it was before the courts.
The group is the world's seventh largest petrochemicals company, operating in more than 100 countries. Its chairman is a member of the royal family, Prince Saud bin Thunayan al-Saud. Last year it generated operating income of SR23.6bn (£3.5bn, $6.3bn, â¬5bn) and sales of SR68.7bn.
Thinet, which operates mainly in the Middle East, generated sales last year of nearly $100m and made a modest profit after several years of losses. The company attributes the losses to the dispute.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/08/2005
15:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
No link yet, source is the BBC Omar Bakri Mohammed was one of three expected to face scrutiny
And he's the type you expect to bravely run away...
A controversial Islamic cleric has left the UK for the Middle East amid speculation he would be investigated for treason, said his spokesman. Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed - former head of radical group Al Muhajiroun - left on Saturday for Lebanon, his colleague Anjem Choudary told the BBC. Tony Blair had warned Mr Mohammed's organisations faced a potential ban under new anti-terrorism measures. Mr Choudary said the cleric believed "Britain had declared war on Muslims".
More like they're fighting back, which is why the "sheikh" ran away. Wotta putz.
Posted by: I P Daley ||
08/08/2005
14:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#7
I wonder why he didn't go to Iraq or Afghanistan, isn't he concerned about all the suffering there? Oh yeah, forgot, a little too dangerous there right now.
#9
You think the threat of treason charges might have been what done it? Kinda of rich to say the UK has declared wars on Muslims...seeing as it was his lot that tried to blow the hell out of Londons not once but twice.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge ||
08/08/2005 15:58
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Bravely Sheikh Mohammed rode forth from Camelot
He was not afraid to die, O brave Sheikh Mohammed
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways
Brave, brave, brave, Sheikh Mohammed
He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp
Or to have his eyes gouged out and his elbows broken
To have his kneecaps split and his body burned away
And all his limbs hacked and mangled, brave Sheikh Mohammed
His head smashed in and his heart cut out
And his liver removed and his bowels unplugged
And his nostrils raped and his bottom burnt off and his penis...
He is brave Sheikh Mohammed,
Brave Sheikh Mohammed who...
...............
Sheikh Mohammed ran away
Bravely, ran away...away...
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes, brave Sheikh Mohammed turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravely talking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat
Bravest of the brave, Sheikh Mohammed
#2
Here's what Fox has to say:
Alexander Yakovlev was stripped of his diplomatic immunity Monday and taken into custody by federal authorities, a U.N. spokesman announced Monday.
Yakovlev, a longtime U.N. procurement official who handled tens of millions of dollars worth of U.N. supply contracts annually, was accused in a report Monday of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the Oil-for-Food (search) program.
Yakovlev resigned from his job earlier this summer after a FOX News investigation.
The news came after Volcker's U.N.-approved panel, the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), released its latest report highlighting mismanagement of Oil-for-Food.
The report also accuses Benon Sevan (search), the one-time head of the Oil-for-Food program who severed his ties with the United Nations on Sunday, of taking kickbacks under the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation aimed at easing the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians.
Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, also said in releasing the report that Sevan should also lose his diplomatic immunity so he can be prosecuted for alleged crimes.
"All I can fairly say is that given the kind of evidence that we have presented, I would think there may well be interest in doing so," Volcker said, referring to Sevan and Yakovlev losing their immunity.
Investigators found that Yakovlev secretly tried to bribe a company called Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), which was seeking an oil inspection contract under Oil-for-Food.
They said Yakovlev passed secret bidding information along to a friend in France, Yves Pintore, who then approached SGS to check if it would "work with" him and "influential people in the U.N. in New York."
Volcker's team found no evidence that the company agreed to the bribe. However, it noted that Pintore essentially agreed to its characterization of his involvement.
The committee found "persuasive evidence" that Yakovlev took some $950,000 from other U.N. contractors outside Oil-for-Food.
It said it had found that some $1.3 million had been wired to a bank account in Antigua, West Indies in the name of Moxyco Ltd. Of that, more than $950,000 had been traced to those companies so far.
Yakovlev was the U.N. officer in charge of awarding contacts to both Saybolt (search) and Cotecn (search)a big contracts for Iraq, and the Volcker committee relied on his claims that in both cases, but particularly that of Saybolt, he had fought against the violation of U.N. rules.
But Yakovlev, a Russian native, abruptly resigned from the United Nations in late June, after a FOX News investigation revealed that he was involved in an apparent conflict of interest with a regular U.N. supplier, IHC Services Inc., which had hired Yakovlevâs son Dmitry between 2000 and 2003, according to Dmitryâs own resume.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 15:51
Comments ||
Top||
#9
The big deal here is that the bribes were from contracts outside the Oil for Food program. Suggests the corruption is deep and widespread at the UN.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/08/2005 15:57
Comments ||
Top||
#10
lotp - suggests the corruption is widespread at the UN?
It would be front-page news if somebody managed to find a UN employee above clerk level who wasn't mired in corruption.
How can you tell if an UN official is corrupt? He's breathing.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2005 16:04
Comments ||
Top||
#11
okay: suggests to people who don't actually keep up with the news much ....
which is a lot of people who don't read RB and similar sites.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/08/2005 16:09
Comments ||
Top||
#12
PR: Without your heads-up, I wouldn't have gone looking for the article. That's the neat thing about RB (well, besides the rants): the interaction between the people here. E Pluribus Rantum.
HT Drudge - He spoke about this last night on his show. Today he posted the info.
The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch -- has dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander-in-chief last summer! Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who last year praised Bush for bringing her family the "gift of happiness," took to the nation's TV outlets this weekend to declare how Bush "killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity."
THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan's visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004: "'I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.'
"The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.
"The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.
"For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.
For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.
"'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said."
Sheehan's current comments are a striking departure. She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son?"
In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush "acted like it was party" when she met him last year. "It was -- you know, there was a lot of things said. We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity. And we wanted him to look at the pictures of Casey.
"He wouldn't look at the pictures of Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.'
Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party.
BLITZER: Like a party? I mean...
SHEEHAN: Yes, he came in very jovial, and like we should be happy that he, our son, died for his misguided policies. He didn't even pretend like somebody...
On her current media tour, Sheehan has not been asked to explain her twist on Bush; from praise to damnation!
#5
I don't blame Ms. Sheehan so much as I do the scumbags that put rants like hers on the airwaves; they know these items only serve up red meat to those who would prefer to see American resolve dissolve.
#8
It's really very pathetic - and I don't mean that in the sarcastic, nasty sense. It's just truly pathetic. No winners here. She's someone who hit rock bottom and can't find her way up. She's desperately seeking attention in ways that ironically degrade her sons death and thus only cause her to sink further. I hope she can find peace. It's too bad that there are so many who happily encourage her to degrade herself and her son for political gain. It's just sad all the way around.
#9
Her son was not a child - but a man who made a decision about deciding to protect his country. He made a commitment to carry out the foreign policy of this President and this administration when he raised his hand and volunteered for duty. He knew that he might die, but he made a commitment and kept it to the penultimate conclusion of his life.
His mother, though she misses him, should be praised for having raised a warrior... and pitied for not being able to respect her son's commitment, patriotism, and dedication.
It's sad. She's not respecting his sacrifice and she's listening to LLL wormtounges. I hope she wises up.
#10
I truly feel sorry for her. She's stuck in the anger phase and there are people with political agendas intent on keeping her there.
Somebody get that woman to a church where she can get some love and support and tap into the power that transcends earthly cares so that she can find a meanigful way accept the mortality that faces all of us.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan - U.S. commanders are stepping up the hunt for the obscure warlord whose thugs gunned down a team of Navy SEALs and downed their rescuers' Chinook helicopter, killing all aboard.
Military officials vowed they will be relentless in settling the score for 19 SEALs and Army aviators who were killed on one of this war's most tragic days.
"We are not going to stop until we get those bastards," said one U.S. commander still seething over the loss of American lives on a secret operation in the forgotten war to secure Afghanistan.
The Daily News has learned new details about how the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment CH-47 was shot down on June 28.
The tragedy began that Tuesday when a four-man SEAL special operations team was ambushed as it was on a covert mission targeting Ahmad Shah, a warlord loyal to deposed Taliban figurehead Mullah Omar
Some news reports speculated the SEALs' target was Omar or Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, but military sources said the objective was tracking Shah, who has influence over the northeastern border town of Asadabad.
Three of the SEALs - including Lt. Michael Murphy of Long Island - were killed in a running gun battle against large numbers of fighters believed to be Shah's men. A fourth survived and was later saved by a Pashtun shepherd and his village.
A quick reaction force of two SEAL teams was immediately dispatched in the CH-47 Chinook to help the SEAL team in trouble north of Asadabad.
As the Chinook and several AH-64 Apache attack helicopters reached the landing zone just above a steep ravine, the two SEAL teams began rappelling down from the helicopter on ropes, sources said.
Just then, an enemy fighter on a nearby slope fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the open back door of the huge Chinook, which caught fire and staggered about a mile before crashing on top of the rescue teams hanging from the ropes.
The giant aircraft sheared off tree tops as it rolled down the ravine, killing 16 in all. Sources said body parts and pieces of the SEALs' M4 rifles were found scattered over much of the ravine's rocky slope amid blackened tree stumps.
Unmanned Predator spy drones flew over the crash site until troops arrived, but no survivors were found.
The Taliban immediately tipped reporters that they had shot down a chopper and released a video showing the Chinook allegedly hit not by an RPG but a more sophisticated Russian SA-7 surface-to-air missile.
An analysis by journalist and Taliban expert Khalid Mafton in Kabul determined that the men firing the SA-7 were dressed like "Arab Afghan" foreign fighters and not Taliban. A voice on the tape shouting "Allah Akhbar!" ("God is Great!") did not have an Arabic or Afghan accent, Mafton noted.
Military officials said no coalition aircraft have ever been hit by surface-to-air missiles in Afghanistan, and suspect the video includes footage from guerrilla fighting in Chechnya or elsewhere. Multiple witnesses in the other choppers insist they saw an RPG fired.
Enemy fighters are believed to have first reached the crash site in the 36 hours before U.S. forces could get there. Several suspects were later captured carrying pilfered U.S. military binoculars, one Army source said.
Army photos obtained by The News show a team from the 82nd Airborne Division recovering personal items from the scorched crash site such as cracked pilots' helmets, charred ammunition magazines, a flashlight, SEAL team knife and broken goggles amid the wreckage of broken rotors and bent metal.
In one image, a gloved trooper holds a dog tag scorched by fire, which quotes the Warrior Ethos: "I will always put the mission first/I will never accept defeat/I will never quit/I will never leave a fallen comrade."
#1
From a statement of the SEAL philosophy handed out at a memorial service for one of the SEALs in the helicopter:
I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.
So Mr. Shah, sir, kiss your butt goodbye.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/08/2005 14:38
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I sincerely hope it's a painful end for Shah, his fighters, and all who provide support for them, including any villagers or family members.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 15:32
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hey Mahmoud, I heard that the wedding party was literally da-bomb.
#4
"...secret operation in the forgotten war to secure Afghanistan."
If it has been forgotten, it's because so many ass-lints in the media prefer to cover and glorify scumbag leftists with BusHitler T's, and the treasonous likes of Kennedy/Kerry/Pelosi/Dean/eat al who call for the defeat of America and apologies for our enemies.
Last week U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour sentenced a defendant to prison for plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport. In the course of the sentencing, the judge criticized the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 policies, such as the use of military tribunals and the detention of enemy combatants. He said that "the message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart." Some people, the judge said, believe that the terrorist threat "renders our Constitution obsolete. . . . If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."
That's a little hard to follow. That courts can handle terrorists who are caught with explosives in their possession doesn't mean they are capable of handling the terrorists who manage to evade detection until the moment they immolate themselves with their victims. But worse than the judge's logic is the underlying sentiment that yesterday's law enforcement procedures are adequate for today's security threats -- and that any deviation from them is a betrayal of the Constitution.
It recalls the now notorious statement by Lord Hoffman, a British law lord who said, "The real threat to the life of the nation . . . comes not from terrorism but from laws," such as a statute authorizing detention of foreign-born suspected terrorists, which the law lords invalidated under the European human rights charter in December 2004. It also echoes Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's quotation, in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, of a precedent stating that it "would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties . . . which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile."
All of these have become judicial cliches to be invoked in arguments about how the global struggle against terrorism is to be prosecuted. Many cliches are, of course, true, but these are absurdities.
For example, consider the statement that the terrorists will "win" if legal rules and policies are changed in ways that restrict the package of civil liberties in place before the terrorist threat emerged. Whether such restrictions count as a victory for terrorists depends on what terrorists are trying to achieve. Although al Qaeda's ultimate goals are to drive American troops from the Middle East and, more broadly, to establish a Muslim caliphate in the region, its proximate goal is to kill ordinary people to bring pressure to bear on democratic governments. A change in policy that reduces the chance that more people will be killed does not hand the terrorists a victory; it frustrates their plans. A failure to alter any policies in response to a successful terrorist attack is, by contrast, a sign of weakness and paralysis; that would be a victory for the terrorists. Osama bin Laden was right to say that people will back the strong horse. But he was wrong about which horse will prove stronger.
Some theorize that terrorists hope to provoke the target government into cracking down on civil liberties, in the further hope that the crackdown will, in the long run, increase disaffection among the population from which terrorists recruit. This is a remote and uncertain effect that has to be balanced against the immediate security benefits of adjusting civil liberties. A policy of static defense might increase terrorist recruitment as well, by suggesting that the target government lacks the will or capacity to take the fight to the enemy. The best course is to ignore such speculative long-term considerations in favor of choosing policies that make sense in the short run.
A second cliche is this: that a nation that permits incremental reductions in its civil liberties in response to threats to its citizens is not worth defending. The truth is that few people have accepted Patrick Henry's call to "give me liberty or give me death" -- this was a rallying cry, not a policy paper -- and in any event nations are rarely faced with such a stark choice. An incremental reduction in civil liberties is not equivalent to their elimination.
British and American traditions are two-sided: They acknowledge that governments have an obligation to protect people's lives as well as their liberties. No nation preserves liberty atop a stack of its own citizens' corpses, but if one did, it would not be worth defending.
The spurious assumption behind both cliches is that whatever package of civil liberties happens to exist at the time a terrorist threat arises must be maintained at all costs; adjustments that reduce liberty are bad even if they produce greater gains in security, potentially saving people's lives. This is a virulent form of the fallacy of the status quo -- that whatever exists must be good. In fact, the balance between security and liberty is constantly readjusted as circumstances change. A well-functioning government will contract civil liberties as threats increase. A government that refuses to adjust its policies has simply frozen in the face of the threat. It is pathologically rigid, not enlightened.
The two cliches about terrorism are familiar from debates among commentators and politicians. What is new and surprising is their citation by judges as self-evident truths. Judges do badly when they appeal to speculative causal theories about terrorism or to the romantic ideals of civil libertarianism. Both are incompatible with the kind of balancing that is so much a part of the judicial function. That ideals have a tendency to explode on the rock of fact was spectacularly demonstrated in Britain, where terrorist carnage occurred just a few months after the detainees in Lord Hoffman's case were released under legal compulsion. It is too soon to tell whether there was a causal connection between the two events, but Lord Hoffman's casual dismissal of the threat to citizens' lives now appears grotesque.
The day before Coughenour's soliloquy, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he doubted whether statements such as Lord Hoffman's "would be uttered now." Perhaps that's true in England, but it seems that American judges have yet to learn the lesson.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005
13:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Having suffered through many of these little judicial speeches, Methinks our esteemed judges and justices would do well to just stick the doing the damn job without indulging the urge to editorialize in a general and generally inarticulate manner about matters of which they are not fully informed.
BEIJING, Aug. 8 -- Four officials have been sacked for deception and failing to do their jobs properly during the fight against the spread of streptococcus suis from pigs to people.
I am shocked, shocked to find deception going on here!
The workers lost their jobs in Zizhong County in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, where 39 people had been killed by the epidemic by noon yesterday.
Only 3 provinces away from Zhejiang this time. Scary.
At least 200 people have contracted the disease. Last night there were still 101 people in hospital, 10 in a serious condition.
Yikes. In Chinese hospitals, no less. I have an M.D. friend who tells tales that will curdle your phlegm.
Between July 15-24, 78 pigs died in Zizhong near Ziyang, the city which reported the first case of the pig-to-human streptococcus suis on June 24. Li Mingzhong, chief of the county's animal husbandry and food bureau, and his colleagues are said to have fabricated a report that the pigs were either deeply buried or slaughtered, or their whereabouts were unknown.
On July 27, State officials inspecting the epidemic asked Li's office to verify the whereabouts of six of the 78 pigs. But Li and his colleagues did not do so. Three days later, reporters from China Central Television, who were reporting the epidemic in the county, looked more deeply into the matter.
China's answer to Woodward & Bernstein?
Li, Liu Wei, chief of the county animal epidemic prevention and supervision station, Jiang Xiaogang, deputy chief of the same station and Chen Bin, chief of the Taiping Town animal husbandry and veterinary station, took the reporters to the homes of six farmers whose pigs had died of the illness. The apparent aim was to see how the pigs were "properly disposed off." But the reporters discovered the truth did not fit with what the officials claimed.
Careful what you investigate, Sam Spade. Someone might get the idea that investigating corrupt officialdom is OK.
After this was exposed, the four officials still tried to cheat a county investigation team. But their deception backfired and resulted in their dismissal, said Wang Minghui, the mayor of Neijiang which has Zizhong under its jurisdiction.
From the Register:We're sure that most Reg readers don't object to gay marriage as long as it doesn't frighten the horses, but we wonder if that liberal sentiment extends to heterosexual same-sex union? We'll find out soon enough, because Canadians Bill Dalrymple, 56, and chum Bryan Pinn, 65 have decided to tie the knot, the Ottawa Sun reports.
Although Pinn is reported as calling the impending nuptials a "hoot", there is good business sense behind the proposal. Pinn adds: "There are significant tax implications that we don't think the government has thought through." Indeed, the pair want to "shed light on the widespread financial implications of the new [gay marriage] legislation and are willing to take it all the way". Well, not quite all the way, because there will be no consummation of this particular union. The two have, though, checked that there are "no laws in marriage that define sexual preference".
Dalrymple and Pinn conclude by saying their upcoming wedding is not intended as a slight to gays and lesbians. However, gay and lesbian rights activist Bruce Walker warned: "Generally speaking, marriage should be for love. People who don't marry for love will find themselves in trouble," although he gamely conceded: "If someone wants to do something foolish, let them do it." ® I may be wrong, but I think if you get married to another man, you're gay, whether you've ever smoked pole in your life or not. Judges?
It sounds to me like these two are practical jokers who believe the "gay marrige" debate is more about getting government benefits and less about being in love.
#2
I told my wife a couple years ago that if they passed same-sex marriages, straight guys would hook up for the tax benefits. She didn't believe me. Excuse me while I go perform the "I was right, you were wrong" happy dance.
#7
hmmm, I thought a marriage had to be consumated to be considered legal.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 17:35
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Jan--They can just splatter some BBQ sauce on the sheets and hang them on the line for the neighbors tomorrow. Everything will be fine.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/08/2005 21:06
Comments ||
Top||
#9
"The couple are registered at Canadian Tire."
I had been sitting on a blog post for awhile called "What's Love Got to Do with it?" The thrust of it (if you'll pardon the expression in this context) was "what's the officiant going to do? Make you make out in front of everyone?" A few minutes in front of the judge and presto: employer health insurance benefits for your roommate, close friend or whatever.
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Three Irish Republican Army-linked men who have resurfaced in Ireland after fleeing convictions for training rebels in Colombia are unlikely to face extradition back to the South American nation, Irish officials and experts said Monday. Breaking his silence on the matter, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he expected the three -- Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan -- to be shipped back to serve their 17-year prison terms imposed eight months ago. Uribe said Colombia "cannot close its eyes to this."
But legal authorities say Ireland's lack of an extradition treaty with Colombia, combined with international concerns about poor human rights standards and prison security there, should prove too high a barrier to clear. They agree that a local, minor prosecution for the men's passport violations -- they traveled abroad using forged passports and evidently sneaked back into Ireland without passing through immigration and customs checks -- appears more likely.
"It is the case that this country does not have an extradition treaty with Colombia," Prime Minister Bertie Ahern wrote in Monday's edition of The Irish Times. "If we receive a request for assistance from the Colombian government, it will be considered in accordance with our legal obligations. That will be subject to scrutiny in the courts, as is right and proper in a democracy." Remy Farrell, a Dublin lawyer who is an expert in extradition law, said Ahern's government faced a daunting series of legal hurdles, making the possibility of an extradition years from now "at best slight." "So long as there is no bilateral extradition treaty between Ireland and Colombia, there can be no extradition," Farrell said. "This then begs the question as to whether the (Irish) government would enter into such an agreement."
The biggest obstacle to establishing a treaty, Farrell said, was Colombia's human rights record, which he noted has been criticized by the United Nations. The risk that the men could be killed in prison could also be cited as a reason to refuse extradition, he said.
The three men, using false identities, were arrested in August 2001 while trying to leave Colombia after spending five weeks in jungles controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the major rebel group trying to topple the country's U.S.-backed government. British anti-terrorist police have identified Monaghan as the IRA's senior weapons engineer and McCauley as one of his deputies. Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, initially denied any knowledge of Connolly, but two months after the arrest announced he was Sinn Fein's Cuba-based representative for Latin America, a previously unknown post.
The men at various times have claimed either to have been nature-lovers on vacation or researchers into Colombia's peace process.
State prosecutors accused the trio of training the FARC rebels how to make IRA-style car bombs and heavy mortars. The rural-based FARC has begun using such weaponry in cities, most prominently in August 2002, when a mortar barrage during Uribe's inauguration killed 27 civilians outside the presidential palace. The three were initially acquitted of training rebels in June 2004, but the judge ordered them to remain in Colombia pending the government's appeal. The appellate court in December ruled 2-1 to convict the men on all charges -- but police couldn't find them.
Uribe downplayed the lack of an extradition treaty. "Extradition these days is something I consider only natural in international relations," Uribe told a Bogota broadcaster, Radio Melodia. "It should be applied whether or not there is a treaty because in a world so globalized, countries should not hold back from carrying out extraditions." Earlier, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said the government's own legal officers hadn't drafted any formal extradition request yet. "The least we expect from the Irish government is they either pay their sentence in Irish jails or that they be extradited," Santos told RTE radio. "How? We do not know exactly at this precise moment."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
12:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
TRANZI bullshit to keep these terrorists from facing justice. No wonder Ireland is a gross exporter of humans, the residents can't take the asshatery.
Hizbullah officials have voiced their opposition to pardoning Lebanese citizens who collaborated with Israel during its occupation of Lebanon. Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Qassem Hashem, a member of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc, announced that several MPs are preparing a bill to deny Lebanese nationality for all "agents" who obtained Israeli citizenship "after they became Israelis through loyalty to their Zionist masters."
In a statement in Marjayoun, Hashem said the agents "are not part of national reconciliation and cannot be encompassed by any amnesty law because they were Israel's tools ... and chose willingly to betray their country." Christian politicians, including Kesrouan MP Michel Aoun's Reform and Change parliamentary bloc, want to propose an amnesty law that will enable members of the now-defunct South Lebanon Army (SLA) to return home with their families. The Maronite Patriarch has suggested that amnesty be offered in the spirit of national reconciliation. Hizbullah commander in the South Sheikh Nabil Qaouk said the trial of agents was the minimal action required, adding that "pardoning them is a betrayal of the Lebanese people's sacrifices and the sacrifices of prisoners, detainees, martyrs and the wounded."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
12:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is that the [Tania] group.
Posted by: hey mo ||
08/08/2005 15:47
Comments ||
Top||
US and Iraqi forces have killed 11 foreign fighters and arrested 805 others throughout Iraq last week, a statement by the Multinational Force said Monday.
805 in jug is good...
The statement said joint US-Iraqi forces launched 182 operations in the week ending August 5th in different parts of Iraq. Some 109 explosive charge devices and 22 arms caches were seized. According to the statement, the joint force demolished a house laden with explosives in the town of Haklaniya west of Baghdad. In the city of Sadr near Baghdad, security forces arrested a 10-member terrorist cell. No further details were available.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
11:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
11 killed, 805 arrested is good. 805 killed, 11 arrested is better.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 13:06
Comments ||
Top||
#4
why have we never heard what happens to terrorists who are captured?Do they go on trial in Iraq?If so what are the outcomes of these trials?It seems to me that being a terrorist for an Iraqi is a nearly no-lose proposition.You walk over to three or four MNF soldiers.pepper them with bullets,put up your hands and get free lodging.Why are there no public executions of captured,proven killers?Until there is a highly visible price paid for shooting or blowing up their ememies,the marginal terrorists don t have a lot to lose when caught. As distasteful as it seems to all of us,me included,a non-uniformed killer is not a prisoner of war ,he is a murdering thug,and deserves prompt public justice.
Posted by: john e morrissey ||
08/08/2005 13:21
Comments ||
Top||
#5
need to install Saudi fire protection systems in the Iraqi jails
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 13:28
Comments ||
Top||
#6
From NYT:
Two days ago, about 1,000 American and Iraqi soldiers started an offensive to root out insurgents in the area, but with meager results. As with previous offensives in the area, the Marines have met little resistance, with the guerrillas mostly fading into the landscape. On Saturday, the Marines reported few gains, and on Sunday sent out no report at all.
First Rantburg makes me question my Democratic party upbringing, now it points out flawed coverage by my favorite paper. It has been a painful but eye opening experience. I hope this site is having similar effects on people like me everywhere. I recently caught myself checking this site first, it was always NYT first. A subtle shift, but I am hooked now.
Welcome. Spread the word. Have you been watching the Air Scamerica coverage in the Grey Lady? Didn't think so. Another story that never happened from the paper of Walter Duranty.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 13:48
Comments ||
Top||
#8
A good way to picture the raw numbers is to compare them with an army unit. 30 enemy out of action is a platoon. 100 is a company. 750 is a battallion. 5000 is a brigade. Using this perspective, our divisions in Iraq have literally annihilated at least two enemy divisions from around the world, just in Iraq, and with tiny losses. Two to three or more brigades of enemy have been lost in Afghanistan. Another few brigades elsewhere. All told, we have wiped out a corps of enemy fighters. How few modern nations of the world could suffer the loss of a corps and still have a viable army? For example, the US Army has (I believe) four field Corps. Very large, comparable only to the Russians and the Chinese. Most of the nations of the world would be utterly defeated with such losses. This is a good indicator of how little the Islamists have left.
#13
impalement every 100 meters on the road from Baghdad to the Syrian border myself...
The M5 could use some decoration as well.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005 16:36
Comments ||
Top||
#14
First Rantburg makes me question my Democratic party upbringing, now it points out flawed coverage by my favorite paper. It has been a painful but eye opening experience. I hope this site is having similar effects on people like me everywhere. I recently caught myself checking this site first, it was always NYT first. A subtle shift, but I am hooked now.
My experience as well, almost word for word. Straight Dem ticket until 2002 (to counteract the ascendance of the "evil" repubs, dontchaknow) and considering the NYTimes the "paper of record".
Like Mrs. Davis said, the best thing we can do is spread the word. Most of my friends still think the way I used to, and social events sure were easier when we were all on the same page. But I keep trying to chip away at their monolithic belief system (it's really like a religion to most of them) with the occasional success. The single best thing you can do, IMNSHO, is tell them about Rantburg.
#16
NTer4wot, you're correct about big Apple corruption, but taking money from a Boy's and Girl's club to finance a political network does seem to be a recent low.
Posted by: Kofi Annan ||
08/08/2005 19:00
Comments ||
Top||
#17
but don't worry - we would be happy to have our diplomats feed them in exchange for sex.
Yeah, funny about those social occasions, I used to feel ganged up on, now I am armed with all the info I need (thanks again, 'burg). Wonder if the invites will start to disappear on me.
I've started working on my foreign 'friends' at work, reminding them not to bite the hand that feeds them, but it is an uphill struggle. Funny how they get pissed at the facts. Screw 'em.
Kofi - I agree, pretty low, but it will be eclipsed in no time - maybe even on the evening news tonight.
"com" you had some comments about this awhile ago. What's your current view?
But now, from an unexpected source, comes a devastating challenge to this powerful dogma: in a newly released book, investment banker Matthew R Simmons convincingly demonstrates that, far from being capable of increasing its output,
Saudi Arabia is about to face the exhaustion of its giant fields and, in the relatively near future, will probably experience a sharp decline in output. "There is only a small probability that Saudi Arabia will ever deliver the quantities of petroleum that are assigned to it in all the major forecasts of world oil production and consumption," Simmons writes in Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. "Saudi Arabian production," he adds, italicizing his claims to drive home his point, "is at or very near its peak sustainable volume ... and it is likely to go into decline in the very foreseeable future."
...
#1
Well, the last time this came up I emailed some Aramco engineers. They all said that production costs will rise, because, yes, injection rates are up and the newer, more effective, recovery tech costs more -- but there is still lots of oil there. Two suggested that those who keep harping on the Saudi oil bust, which has been predicted for the last 40 yrs, BTW, are actually in the business of selling books and giving economic seminars - not Saudi oil production.
Who do I believe? Ooooh, toughie. Between no-shit engineers working on the production facilities in Saudi -- or somebody else. Anybody else. I'll go with the Engineers, Alex. The oil prod rate upticks take time, the major fields have been producing for quite awhile and ambient pressures have dropped, but they can do it. One Engr even tossed a prediction out there - 50 more yrs at current levels. So I'd wager 20-25 is safe, given sizable increases in prod rates coming online in about ~3 yrs, per Bush's request of CP Abdullah.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 12:58
Comments ||
Top||
#3
These folks crack me up. They either have a professional interests in selling "we are running out of oil" or a TYRANZI political one. WTF does a rich banker know about oil? Not a damn thing, he spouts the crap "analysts" feed him, another bunch that knows very little about petroleum production and recovery. They know even less about the oil fields in Saudi Arabia. Yes some day we will run out of easily recoverable oil but that day is sometime in the unknown but not near future.
The cost of oil will rise. The cost of everything rises I submit that oil has been artificially low for years. There are loads of stuff that we could do to reduce demand. Many are simple. But most we as a nation will not do out of apperent laziness or lack of understanding. We can deal with the issue like adults or run around in circles screaming and shouting and do nothing. Doing nothing is stupid and expensive and against our national interest. We could start by building a few more refineries to handle heavy sour which we here in the US have quite a bit of. We could smack down the TRANZI enviros with facts and get them out of the way of securing energy security. Talk is cheap. Lets do something.
#4
At $60 per barrel tar sands are quite profitable (Canada, Venezuela for instance have LOTS). Oil shale is probably profitable, if you are willing to absorb the environmental problems (US has lots.) Various secondary and tertiary production enhancement processes are profitable. SOME of these things are happening, but I suspect a lot are not. Why not? Because they involve a lot of cash up front, and take a long time to pay out, and investors are not convinced the elevated prices are 'for real'. Contractions in economies (e.g. China) and even oil conservation efforts act a lot faster and can destroy the economics of high cost megaprojects.
Increasing (or long-term maintainance) of Saudi production would probably be one of these expensive projects. With the additional complication of religious politics.
New fields are actually cheaper and simpler, as long as you have new places to look.
#5
"Doing nothing is stupid and expensive and against our national interest. We could start by building a few more refineries to handle heavy sour which we here in the US have quite a bit of. "
Canada has a larger reserve than Saudi Arabia, but it requires different technology to extract it. I think it is processed through heated water or steam, but that is an avenue Americans should put on the fast-track. We could use the added jobs that would include adding a distribution system. The ME supply is too easily disrupted.
#6
This spike is a bit different than in the past as long-term (viz., for delivery in 2011) futures have followed the spike and are trading over $60/bbl. In the past the longest-term contracts had typically hovered around pre-spike prices or shown only modest increases. Thus, for risk averse holders of secondary sources like the Alberta tar sands, there presently exists a way to stabilize prices and guarantee profitability for a number of years should they so choose.
Personally I think the price spike isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's going to move some serious money and serious technical talent into alternative energy, a field absolutely overrun with moonbats. If it becomes painful enough it could engender some federal regulatory reforms which would almost certainly spread beyond the oilfield. Both of those would clearly be positive outcomes.
#7
The price increase is not bad, but government intervention is. The government doesn't know what it is doing any more than any of the other players. But it takes it a lot longer to stop doing stupid things because it can take money from the taxpayers at gunpoint to continue to finance stupidity long after it is apparent to everyone else.
Posted by: Kofi Annan ||
08/08/2005 18:57
Comments ||
Top||
#8
The only government intervention that's necessary is abolishing federal excise taxes on energy and clearly the regulatory underbrush that's been preventing new development.
#9
Personally I think the price spike isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's going to move some serious money and serious technical talent into alternative energy, a field absolutely overrun with moonbats.
Not only alternative energy, but in proofing new fields and improving extraction technologies. The third world's biggest benefit over the US is its lack of laws -- no environmental or safety laws, so compliance costs are a lot lower. Higher costs from the third world make US fields and sources more attractive.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2005 19:51
Comments ||
Top||
#10
University prof friends of mine are arguing its more like 100-120 years more before the Saudi fields head downward - 40 or 120, its a'close enuff fer a'Govmint work, as we or most of us will be dead by then to care.
A confidential report by France's intelligence service that was finalised days before the 7 July London bombings pointed to the threat of an Al-Qaeda attack on Britain, the French daily Le Figaro said Monday. The conservative daily said the report by the DCRG intelligence agency also highlighted the need to closely observe France's Pakistani community with a view to preventing an attack on French soil. An official at the interior ministry confirmed the existence of the report, but cautioned it was "a very technical study on the Pakistani community in France". He said it was not aimed at lecturing Britain on what might happen on its own soil.
So you didn't really warn Britian, like the title suggests
Le Figaro said the report, which focused on France's Pakistani community, was completed just before the July 7 attacks on London in which 56 people were killed, including the four suicide bombers. According to the report quoted by Le Figaro, "the United Kingdom remains under the threat of plans decided at the highest level of al-Qaeda. These (plans) would be put into practice by operatives, with support of Jihadists within the large Pakistani community in Britain. France is not immune from this kind of violent group... observation of the Pakistani community" was essential to prevent any acts of violence on French territory.
The report pointed to "the multiplication of passages through France by Pakistani activists from south Asia or London and the setting up of underground or official representations of the main extremist groups". In particular it named the Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organisation which is linked to Al-Qaeda, adding that several hundred Pakistanis living in France "have chosen the path of terrorism and salafism to express their hatred of the West." Salafism is one of the most radical expressions of Islam.
Le Figaro said that in April 2005 France had refused entry to a Pakistani Islamic senator who was a member of a Pakistani parliamentary delegation in Europe "because of his membership of an Islamist group linked to the Taliban". The hardline Islamic Taliban, which had ties with al-Qaeda, ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in a US-led campaign in late 2001. Another Islamist senator managed to stay in France in November 2004, even though he had been banned from French soil, the report said. After he left, police arrested the people who had helped him stay in France, Le Figaro said. The report said that the refusal to deliver visas had unleashed strong criticisms against France from "Pakistani extremists".
That would have been Fazl in France in November, and Sami in April...
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
11:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The hardline Islamic Taliban, which had ties with al-Qaeda, ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in a US-led campaign in late 2001.
What? The Taliban was ousted? And they had ties to Al-Qaeda? Why didn't someone tell me this before? Why didn't you guys catch this news? Once again, the MSM scoops Rantburg.
Another Islamist senator managed to stay in France in November 2004, even though he had been banned from French soil...
Technically speaking, when you are walking on dead bodies, you are not actually on French soil, however blood-soaked it may be.
Pakistani intelligence agencies and security forces have netted down another local alleged Al-Qaeda operative in an eastern city, said sources on Monday. Osama bin Yusuf, 33, was arrested on Sunday in Sargodha Road area of eastern Faisalabad city, about 350 kilometers from Islamabad, where he had been operating a Public Call Office (PCO), security sources told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Public Call Office, does this mean he's the guy in the neighborhood with a phone, which he lets people use for a fee?
The sources said that Osama was traced down through a telephone call, which he made to another Al-Qaeda suspect. They added that several Al-Qaeda suspects have reportedly stayed at his house and left after getting instructions in code words through Osamas PCO from their leaders. Sources said further that he is a resident of north-western Abbottabad city, around 200 kilometers from Islamabad, and member of an outlawed militant group, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ). They said that forces recovered 12 wireless telephone sets, a diary, and a notebook from his possession. The source also said that Osama has contacts with Hashim Qadeer Khan, another Al-Qaeda suspect involved in Daniel Pearl murder case, arrested in Gujranwala last week. Authorities said that they have shifted Osama at some unknown location and are interrogating him.
The Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao confirming the arrest said that he was wanted in several terrorist activities. The minister said that authorities are determining his links with Al-Qaeda terror group and some militant group.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
10:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
ISTANBUL -- Two persons died and six others suffered injuries in a blast that rocked the district of Zeytinburun in this city on Monday, security sources said. The sources said the explosion occured while two persons were trying to set up a bomb, adding that the two men were suspected of being members of the outlawed rebel Kurdish organization, the Labor Party of Kurdistan (the PKK). Authorities have begun investigations into circumstances of the explosion.
In the southern city of Gaziantep, 15 people died and many others were wounded in a blast of a vehicle boarding gas, the Anatolian news agency reported. "The blast was so powerful that it shook the ground under my feet," said a pedestrian who witnessed the fiery explosion.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
10:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
wonder if this has anything to do with the cruise ships that Israel refused to allow into Turkey?
August 8, 2005: Whoâs winning in Iraq? The government is getting stronger. Each month, more areas of the country become âsafe.â But âsafeâ is a relative term in Iraq. The northern Kurdish areas, and most of the Shia Arab south have been free of constant violence for over a year. The areas being made âsafeâ now are towns and neighborhoods in central and western Iraq. Iraqâs neighbors, who are all hostile for different reasons, have come to accept the prospect of an Iraqi democracy controlled by the Shia Arab majority.
Each of the neighbors is hostile for a different reason. The Turks are afraid that the Iraq government will give the Iraqi Kurds too much autonomy, and tolerate Iraqi Kurds supporting Kurdish separatism in Turkey. As far as the Turks are concerned, this is already happening. While most Iranians want the Iraqi democracy to succeed, the Islamic conservatives who run Iran do not. The Iranian hard liners are encouraging and supporting the Iraqi Arab Shia radicals to try and take control of the government. This is a long shot, and troublesome even as it fails.
To the south, Kuwait wants Iraq to settle down, but cannot forget that even a democratic Iraq will probably still believe Kuwait should be part of Iraq. Some Kuwaitis believe that Iraq should be kept weak, lest there be another invasion of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia would rather have the Iraqi Sunni Arabs running Iraq, preferably as a dictatorship. The Saudis will always want that, but in the meantime, they have to work with the current Iraqi government because Islamic radicals are fighting democrats in Iraq as well as royalists in Saudi Arabia. Jordan is in a situation similar to Saudi Arabia, made worse by the fact that Jordan was always, for economic reasons, been an ally of Saddam Hussein. Syria is another dictatorship that does not feel comfortable with a democracy next door. Syriaâs situation is further complicated by the fact that Syria is run by non-Sunni Arabs, who belong to the Alawite sect. Moreover, the Syrian leadership share a common political philosophy with the deposed Saddam Hussein government. There have long been feuding Iraqi and Syrian factions of the Baath party. While Syria was a long time foe of Saddam because of this, they would prefer to have an Arab dictator (preferably Shia) running Iraq. But for the moment, Syria will be nice to whatever government runs Iraq.
Most of Iraqâs neighbors would like coalition forces out of Iraq, now, so that they can interfere on the side of their favorite faction, in an Iraqi civil war. That could get very ugly, but one thing most of Iraqâs neighbors agree on, anything is preferable to an Iraqi democracy.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is considered a "goddess" in Democratic Party circles, CNN's Candy Crowley reported Saturday.
"I honestly hear the word 'goddess' attached to her," Crowley told fellow CNN'er Joe Johns, who asked her to survey the 2008 political landscape.
Kali, goddess of destruction, worshipped by the thuggee.
"She's kind of this â she doesn't have to show up in New Hampshire for another three-and-a-half years, because she's such a presence there," Crowley continued to gush.
"Like a dark brooding shadow, draining their life forces, till all that's left is an empty shell"
In the next breath Crowley seemed at a loss for words to explain the awe-inspiring power of Sen. Clinton's charisma. "I mean, she is, you know, again, she, like McCain on the Republican side, they already have â look, they already have names, they already have networks. They don't need to be [in New Hampshire] right now. It's the insurgents that need to be in there now."
#2
Bias? What Bias? Move along, it's all in the figment of your imagination.
"In the next breath Crowley seemed at a loss..like McCain"
If McCain thought he had snowball's chance in hell before, to run, I ate toooo much Candy Crowley pretty much obliterated any future for the McCain presidency. Being compared to Hillary, all in one weazing breath is definitely not the ticket.
#7
I assume from the designation of "CNN" that MS Crowley is some sort of TV news talking head, but I am only too happy to state that I have no other idea of who this woman is, what she looks like, or why anyone should be hanging on her word.
#8
No, no, no.... This is a piece of good reporting. Does anyone doubt that this is correct; that she is regarded as the "goddess" of the dems right now? Or that some dems are so profoundly sophomoric that they would actually think and say something like that?
It just goes to show how little they have going for them... Their most popular candidate for the white house is with a one term carpetbagging senatorial wife of an ex-president, whose only executive branch assignment (health care) was widely and profoundly rejected, and whose record in the senate is largely at odds with her previous thinking on many issues.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
08/08/2005 11:15
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Candy Crowley, my god, all she lacks is a pig nose.
You can believe what she says because her looks always give her away.
Mark my words. We will regret Hillary and the patriot act. Hillary's dirty tricks gang makes Nixon look like a choir boys. There is no law they will not break.
#20
DICK MORRIS on FOX was arguing that since he believes Hillary isn't dedicated to her official task/office as Senator by and for the people of New York, that she should just refrain from running for Senator in '06, where she presently stands a either good chance of losing or else to win only by minutae points, and focus wholly instead on winning the Presidency, which is what she wants to be to begin with.
August 8, 2005: A rather strange, to Western sensibilities, war is being fought in the Islamic media. The battle is being fought with ideas, myths and spin by terrorists, Islamic monarchs and dictators, and opportunists of all kinds. Playing defense are the United States counter-terrorism forces. Playing both sides is most of the Western media. Before the Internet, and web sites for the Islamic media came along over the last decade, most Westerners were pretty oblivious of what was being said, discussed and debated in the Islamic media. Perhaps thatâs just as well, because in the Islamic world, some pretty strange ideas (to Westerners) are constantly in play.
First, let us consider the Israel issue. There has been an Israel issue in the Islamic media since World War II, and before. But the unique Islamic view of Israel became a major issue once Israel declared itâs independence in 1948. From the beginning, the Israelis were seen as a plot by the Europeans to steal Arab land, and to take control of the holy places (mostly Christian and Jewish, but including some important Moslem ones as well.) This attitude came from several centuries of Arabs being on the losing side of history. Moslems, especially Arabs, felt persecuted and put upon. While Islam had started, with much promise, in the 7th century, after about five hundred years, things began to go downhill. There were military defeats at the hands of the Christians, and the pagan Mongols. Then the Turks moved in, and displaced the Arabs as the leaders of the Moslem world. After a few centuries of being a major world power (and the head of the Islamic world as the âCaliphâ), the Turks began to decline as well.
Itâs well to remember that memories are long in the Middle East, and Arab hatred of Europeans predates the founding of Islam in the 7th century. A thousand years before that, Greeks, and then Romans, came a-conquering. Every time the Arabs turned around, there seemed to be another bunch of bad-ass Europeans telling them what to do. The Turks werenât really appreciated either, even though the Turks were Moslems. The Turks were another bunch of aliens. And when the Turks left after World War I, they did so because they wanted to become more European, because they were on the losing side of the war, and because the Arabs really wanted them to go. After World War II, the Europeans finally departed, but left many, many bitter memories behind. OK, you can see why the Arabs, in particular, and Moslems in general, donât like Europeans. But it's worse than that.
Left to their own devices, and in possession of vast (and newly discovered) oil wealth, the Arabs had some reason for optimism after World War II. But it was not to be. The hated Israelis, despite being outnumbered over a hundred to one by their Arab neighbors, fought the Arab armies to a standstill and created this new country. At the urging of other Arab nations, about 600,000 Arabs (later called Palestinians) fled the newly established Israel. In retaliation, an equal number of Jews were expelled from Arab nations. Most of these Jews, many of whom had lived among Arabs for thousands of years, went to Israel and became Israelis. But the Arabs expelled from Israel were not allowed to settle in any of the Arab nations they ended up in as refugees. No, the Arab countries insisted that Israel would be crushed by the vastly more numerous Arab armies soon. The Arab refugees would remain refugees, not because of Israel, but because their Arab neighbors insisted.
Over half a century later, and many lost wars later, the Arabs have still not destroyed Israel. And they wonât quit trying. Despite the fact that during that time over a hundred million other refugees were resettled, many national boundaries were redrawn, and numerous wars were ended and left in the past. But the Arabs fixated on Israel. Almost, it would appear, to the exclusion of everything else. While most of the world made substantial economic and social progress in the last half century, the Arab world slid to the back of the list. Most other nations educated more of their people, provided more medical care and achieved more economically and in terms of new technology. But not the Arabs. To make matters worse, the Arab media, when it noticed these shortcomings, blamed it on Israel, and, of course, the West. It had to be someone elseâs fault. It always had to be someone elseâs fault that the Arab world was run by a motley collection of monarchs and dictators. While the rest of the world prospered because of the rule of law, democracy and clean government, the Arab world wallowed in corruption and tyranny. It was all Israelâs fault. Go ahead, visit Arab media web sites. There are many of them in English. The only difference between those sites, and the ones in Arabic, is that they tone down the anti-Semitism and some of the more extreme conspiracy theories for the English speaking audience. The English speaking Arabs who maintain the English language sites are, so to speak, âbi-cultural.â They know that there is a different cultural sensibility in the English speaking world, and realize that some of the stuff that flies in the Arab media, would leave Westerners (and English speakers from other parts of the world, like India and East Asia) perplexed.
Al Qaeda, and other Islamic conservatives, not only believe a lot of the conspiracy theories, but try to manipulate them to their advantage. This creates, to Western eyes, some strange changes in attitude. For example, right after September 11, 2001, the Arab media denied any Arab involvement in the attacks. It was widely claimed that the attacks were carried out by the Israelis. This is still widely believed in the Moslem world, even though al Qaeda as since taken credit for the attacks. Thus Arab media will simultaneously repeat the âIsraelis did itâ story, while also discussing how al Qaeda is going to carry out, âanother 911â any day now.
So how do you fight an information war in an environment like this? Not using the normal rules of logic, thatâs for sure. The United States has provided support for the growing number of Moslem journalists that report reality as it is, not how traditional Moslem journalists would like it to be. This can be dangerous. One reason that the fantastical and illogical stories keep running is the most Arab media operate in police states. Say they wrong thing and you can die. But transnational, satellite based, media has made it easier to get an untraditional (and often unpopular) message to Arabs without threatening the lives of the reporters.
The truth is getting through. More and more Arabs are becoming aware of what is happening in Iraq, and what happened in Israel over the last half century. Long held beliefs will not be abandoned quickly. But attitudes are changing. But to understand that, you have to know where the strange ideas came from in the first place.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It is overly optimistic: it doesn't account for two factors.
First: satellites and other technologies work both ways. Arab countries hold a high number of satellite channels (surprising, reative to their GDP) in order to send the "message" to their communities in Western countries. This is an important factor of non-assimilation contrarily to previous generations of immigrants they are not cut-off of their countries of origin. And most of these channels are sources of islamism/pan-arabism (two faces of the same coin)
Second: The betrayal by the MSM is a heavy burden in a war where the battle of ideas is crucial. Whenever an Islamo-nut goes on TV with rants about Iraki or Afghan deaths we should have the reporter ask him "Did you care about Saddam's massacres", "Did you care about the children blown by Al Quaida in Irak" or "I don't remember hearing you when the Taliban masscred the Hazaras at Herat" instead what we have is multiculti dhimmitude.
We should be churning revised versions of the Cold War movies where our valiant heroes (eventually assisted by a ring of non-islamo-nut pakistanis or afghans) unravel the sinister plot of some mad mullah, we should have discussions on TV about how Islam empoverished nations and about its blood-thirstiness. We should be doing our best for Muislims rejecting fundamentalism (and in a second phase Islam itself). Instead we get that modern version of the Protocols of th Sages of Sion called Fahrenheit 911 or abject material for high schoolers telling kids "Show how Jihad was a reaction to the Crusades". In opther words we are producing material aimed at making them hate us.
August 8, 2005: The new American strategy in the war on terror is arguably the most comprehensive since the attacks of September 11, 2001. This strategy had its start when U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld sent a memo to his staff in October 2003, wanting to know whether the war on terrorism was being won, and if they were killing more terrorists than were being recruited. This is not to say there had not been serious progress made since 9/11 â in those two years, two state sponsors of terrorism had already been taken out (the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq).
The planners started by looking at what each agency thought on how best to fight the war. What the planners found was that the various services, commands, and even agencies in the Pentagon each had different ideas as to how to deal with terrorism. That had to change. So, the planners went to work identifying what terrorists needed. There were eight items in the list: Ideological support, funds, safe havens, communications and movement, foot soldiers, leadership, weapons, and access to targets. Each of these are needed to sustain a terrorist organization over the long haul. Foot soldiers are required to carry out attacks, for instance. Funds are needed to support the organization. Safe havens are required for training and planning. Leadership handles the planning. Communications and movement are needed for coordinating operations and to evade pursuit. Weapons and access to targets are needed to carry out actual attacks.
The Pentagon still plans to go for big fish like Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and others. However, the enemy has been broadened to include extreme Islamist groups of all stripes. This is due to an enhanced understanding of how groups have worked together. Three areas will get more emphasis. First, assisting countries dealing with terrorism, then going after supporters of terrorism, and working with the State Department in its effort to reduce the appeal of terrorism. Often this involves humanitarian work â like the relief efforts of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2003. The military is also carrying out more information operations â which have been controversial in the past.
Part of this change has come about because of the success in taking out the terrorist-sponsoring regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. A number of terrorist groups, like Abu Sayyaf (Philippines) and Jemaat Islamiya (Indonesia), operate in countries that are not hostile to the United States. In those cases, the best alternative is to assist those countries in the efforts against the groups.
Finally, the task of coordinating these efforts, and for getting a global perspective has been given to Special Operations Command. This flexible command not only has been carrying out assistance and training since the 1960s, but also has gathered intelligence (often in preparing the battlefield), and can carry out quick operations (like the raid against Mullah Omarâs compound in October, 2001). These efforts will now expand.
Ultimately, the Pentagon is shifting gears â getting ready for a long, generation conflict more akin to the Cold War as opposed to World War II. The Pentagon will be using every tool in its toolbox, from training the forces of friendly nations (as is being done in Iraq and Afghanistan), to public diplomacy, to military force in fighting the war on terror.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I guess the MSM and LLL fit in under 'Ideological Support'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2005 12:02
Comments ||
Top||
Btw, I've read some time ago a fringe, but very interesting, book about the non-existence of Mahomet and the falsehood of the early history of islam. While I was not convinced, the theory exposed was sufficiently backed by actual finds and others books to be very thought-provoking (I've never read Ibn Warraq, my bad, will have to remedy that, but it is my understanding that he posits a similar theory about the early days of islam, minus the "Mahomet mythical patriarch" bit).
The interdiction of archaeological searches by infidels in Medina and Mecca would be so very convenient for the tenants of official islamic history... and so would be the actual erasure of their past.
Regardless of that, this article a good thing to remember next time someone complains about the lack of western respect for islam... look at who is doing the desacration.
#2
I must confess that the prospect of that site (of mohhamed's epileptic hallucinations and the room where he lay his head on the lap of his menstrating wife and recited nonsense) being demolished causes no sadness. I don't give a damn.
The Saudis don't give a damn idea. That should tell us something.
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 11:05
Comments ||
Top||
A tiny bit of background...
There is a small museum in a restaurant (or maybe it's a restaurant in a museum, heh) in Al Dammam where they've preserved some Qu'uran (of course), some swords, tools, camel saddles and blankets, rugs (of course), colored window glass, and other assorted things of nominal historical value. It's something like a Saudi TGI Friday's (TAI Friday?) - heh - though I can't quite remember the name - something like The Heritage (Anyone there reading this to verify / correct?). You can request dining in a private room - with each room decked out in the style of some part of the Kingdom. Rugs and pillows, no chairs in the rooms. Different art patterns in the wall paint scheme and such differentiate the region each room represents. For example, what is now the Eastern Province was wealthier than Riyadh and other interior regions because of Gulf trade - so rooms depicting art and style from that area have shiny things like hammered brass door decorations. The expensive stuff, doncha know. The Riyadh goat herders room is pretty stark, comparatively speaking.
What I'm saying is that they do have some sense of history, but it doesn't enjoy the Western variety's official standing and Govt support. They're not old enough, yet, to think about it that way, I guess, assuming they ever would. You have to admit the Western version can sometimes go overboard and declare everything from dead trees to cracks in the sidewalk as "historical" - and gain control over it.
I know folks who have taken what we would call object d'art out of the Kingdom without much (any?) hassle - just packed it up with the rest of their household goods and shipped it out without being contested by Customs - that may change if SA survives another 20 years.
#5
This depressing pattern of excavation and demolition has led Dr Angawi and his colleagues to keep secret a number of locations in the holy cities that could date back as far as the time of Abraham.
#6
"the nomad-mentality factors in a lot as well."
I'd agree - they would leave any cumbersome things they had acquired when they moved on - fully expecting them to be there when they passed through, again - and I'm sure they were. But when the Bedu mostly stopped their cyclical travels, well... These are the goodies the people I know keep running across, and collecting, when they do their 4WD excursions into the Empty Quarter and areas between population centers.
I saw them come through Al Khobar in '92 and '93 - pitching huge tents on empty lots in the city. Generated some double-takes, actually, cuz they'd be out there in front of the tent drinking tea when I'd come out to get in my truck to go to work - every day for maybe a week (?). Then the lot would be empty one day when I came home. But I didn't see any evidence of their passing through AlK '00 -'03.
#8
It's not history if you're trying to go back to the 7th century. It's actually the future. Go figure
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 13:39
Comments ||
Top||
#9
I suppose if your culture and society
-lacks any music worth a damn
-has not produced art worth a damn
-has zero scientific and technical accomplishments
-has little redeeeming value
You might not give a hoot if bulldozers destroy your history
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 14:50
Comments ||
Top||
#10
"I suppose if your culture and society
-lacks any music worth a damn
-has not produced art worth a damn
-has zero scientific and technical accomplishments
-has little redeeeming value"
that would certainly be true of the wahabis. No wonder many of the other muslims look down on them.
Two senior al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia made money transfers and used coded text messages to communicate with suspected terrorists in Britain before last month's attacks in London, according to officials in the kingdom.
The two men, of Moroccan descent, have since been shot dead. Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari, allegedly al-Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, was killed in Riyadh three weeks ago and Abdel Karim al-Mejati died in a shoot-out in the central al-Qassim region in April.
Saudi security officials suspect both men of involvement in the attacks in London on July 7 and 21 and say that al-Qaeda is definitely operating in Britain. "It's beyond doubt they're active in your country," said one.
Huge amounts of chemicals and other bomb-making materials were found at al-Hayari's hideout. Al-Mejati is said to have planned the train bombings in Madrid in March last year.
The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that Scotland Yard was investigating evidence that the two waves of terrorist attacks in London were also planned in Saudi Arabia.
In an exclusive interview, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London, said this week that his country had warned Britain less than four months ago that such an attack was pending. Scotland Yard is investigating who received the coded messages and money - transferred from Saudi to Britain via businesses at both ends before July this year.
A Saudi security adviser said: "We are trying to establish whether the money was directly linked to the individuals who carried out either the first or the second sets of bombings in London.
"The messages and the money transfers were highly professional. They were using SIM cards for six hours and then throwing them away."
Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed that Hussain Osman, 27, the suspected failed Shepherd's Bush bomber, had called a mobile phone in Saudi Arabia shortly before his arrest. Saudi security officials said Osman was phoning his parents, of Ethiopian extraction, while travelling by Eurostar from London to Rome. They are believed to have been living in the Jeddah area, near the Red Sea, for several years.
The call was monitored by a British intelligence agency as Osman spoke first to his mother and then to his father. His parents are not suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Scotland Yard is to train up to 500 extra firearms officers because of the increased threat of attacks. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said: "It's not so much about how many we can put on the street tomorrow, but it is the issue of sustaining the [anti-terror] campaign."
#1
Golly gee, I just broke my suprise meter. Anyone know where I can get a new one that pegs out at "Ho-Hum"!
Posted by: Joey B. Brown ||
08/08/2005 10:59
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You can get a very nice handmade knockoff in Quetta made by traditional tribal child labor. I wouldn't go local to pick it up in person though. They don't play well with others but they'd be happy to take your cash and whatever else they can get.
#3
In an exclusive interview, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London, said this week that his country had warned Britain less than four months ago that such an attack was pending.
What kind of protections are ambassadors afforded that Prince Turki al-Faisal can warn THREATEN of an attack without being prosecuted? Not that I want to stop the information flowing, but come on here, it sounds like a threat to me. Did he follow it with what countermeasure he was enacting? Of course not.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 13:30
Comments ||
Top||
#4
my usual comment:
get rid of one or two of their preachers as well as one or two of their bankers..........then pause and see..........
#5
I've no doubt the warning was of the useless, general type. Something along the lines of, "We're hearing increased chatter about something happening in England this summer. Look out for men wearing blue." Had the Saudis passed on actionable information, someone would have publically thanked them by now.
August 8, 2005: The August 3rd coup that ousted Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Tayas was a consequence of very complex Mauritanian tribal politics. There are two major ethnic groups in the country, Arabo-Mauritanians (sometimes termed âWhiteâ Mauritanians), in the north, and Afro-Mauritanians, in the south. Afro-Mauritanians are generally animist or Christian, while Arabo-Mauritanians are almost entirely Moslem, ranging from secular to conservative. Afro-Mauritanians have very little influence in the country.
Although the coup was initially reported as a possible Islamist response to Tayasâ pro-Western policies, both Tayas and Col. Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, who replaced him, are more or less secular Arabo-Mauritanians. The two men had formerly been close collaborators, and Vall had played a key role in the 1984 coup that brought Tayas to power. In return, in 1987, Tayas made Vall Director of National Security. Vall still held this post when the 17-member Council for Justice and Democracy ousted Tayas and named Vall president.
The roots of the coup seem to be tied up in tribal politics. There are 36 âWhiteâ Arabo-Mauritanian tribes. About a dozen of these are traditionally warrior peoples, and have high status in the informal caste system among the tribes. Tayas came from the relatively small Samossad tribe, traditionally merchants and traders rather than warriors. Vall is tied to one of the principal warrior clans, who, not incidentally, tend to be very over-represented in the countryâs armed forces. Apparently in recent years there has been rising resentment among the warrior tribes over the distribution of booty in the country, as Tayas was seen as increasingly favoring his own clan.
Tayas, who was attending the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia at the time, has been offered asylum in Niger, from which he had declared that he remains President and intends to return to his country. In a surprising development, the coup has been widely condemned in the Arab press (except by the Palestinians, because of Tayasâ pro-Israel policies), and by the African Union collectively, and many African national leaders, despite the fact that several of the latter owe their positions to precisely the same process.
Meanwhile, France has placed its forces in Senegal, Chad, and Gabon (in each of which there is a small brigade-type task force) on alert for possible NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Operation), and action in which the French are likely to be supported by the U.S.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
On a similar note, the "Valeurs actuelles" conservative french mag has recently revealed how openly sold islamic literature for young children in France emphasizes calls for jihad and rejection of the judeo-christians.
By Shiv Malik Children as young as 11 are being targeted by radical Muslims who appear to have infiltrated a mainstream Muslim website, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. Literature aimed at children between 11 and 18 on the youth section of the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) website calls on them to "boycott those who openly wage war against Allah". The article containing that quote, entitled "Imam Hassan al-Banna on jihad", goes on to say: "Jihad is a powerful invigorating yearning for Islam's might and glory ... which makes you cry when looking at the weakness of Muslims today and the humiliating tragedies crushing him to death everywhere. Jihad is to be a soldier for Allah. When the bugle calls ... you should be the first to answer the call to join the ranks for jihad." Other articles on atheism and secularism appear to be against integration. One article is entitled "Zionism, a black historical record", and another, "Israel simply has no right to exist".
The ISB immediately disowned this content after being informed of it by the IoS, and promised to remove it. In a statement, a spokesman said: "We were not aware of the material being on the website and it is not in agreement and consistency with the ethos and message of the organisation. We will immediately look at this and remove anything that is disagreeable and apologise for any offence that has been caused."
Nadeem Malik, a vice-president of the ISB, added that the literature was the responsibility of the organisation's youth wing, Young Muslims, which has a degree of autonomy. "Anything that is there is within the remit of the ISB," he said. "I'm not going to justify what is on there. But if it is on there it is a very small part of a much bigger structure that is very much against those views." He added that the ISB and Young Muslims UK were merged in 1994, and internal debate has created a contradiction of views in the organisation. At the heart of that debate is whether Muslims interpret the Koran literally or within its historical context. This has led to a situation where the mainstream of Muslims in the UK believe in integration, while a small, vocal minority is opposed to Muslims living within a non-Muslim structure of law and education. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is non-violent, is one example of the radical groups.
Hizb loudly claims to be non-violent, but devotes itself into recruiting young cannon fodder for groups that are violent. They also claim not to be an al-Qaeda front.
It is made up of professionals - managers, academics and doctors - and has a membership of between 2,000 and 3,000. But its strict interpretation of the Koran leads it to instruct its members not to vote in a political system dominated by Kaffirs, or unbelievers. During this year's election, its members were told that to vote was forbidden by God.
#5
That is the typical stuff. That someone found it in a form readable by English speakers is the exception, not the rule. You should read the garbage about the "Zionist Empire" and how jooos can make the government of the US do anything. Oh yes and the "fact" that the US and Israel kill thousands of Muslims every day right here on the wonderful "interweb". I am seeing statements like this on all kinds of websites posted in the comments sections. That means that the propaganda has had it's desired effect, plenty of young muslims believe it.
These bastards just got caught propagating it and claim to know nothing about it. Knowing what I do about the doctrine of this sect I don't believe it.
#6
I guess it was just words last week about clearing out the country of folks with any connections to extreme terrorists, or getting out of the country if you didn't agree with it's way of life. Sigh. To be brain washing the youth, OMG. What's that about ignorance of the law....
SPoD, scary to think that we're only seeing what's been translated. America not being fluent with their language is definately hurting us.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 13:21
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Jan, if you want to see what isn't written in English, go to the MEMRI website. They've got Friday sermons, tv interviews, magazine and newspaper articles, textbooks, etc, from across the Muslim world. You can even pick the language you want to read in: English, French, German and Hebrew for a start, although they may have added more by now. It was started as the dissertation project of a German student, but has proven so much in demand that it just blossomed. He is still working there now, from what I understand. I would wish you happy reading, but you will come out informed and unhappy.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 16:53
Comments ||
Top||
#11
The poster attached to the article depicting the 'Hitler Youth' is really appropriate.The ISB is calling to the Muslim youth to join their Jihad as a soldier of Allah. Hitler called upon Germany's youth to become soldiers of the Third Reich. Like the Nazis, the ISB will then begin to teach the children to distrust their parents and instruct them that displaying affection for their parents is a sign of weakness. BRAINWASHING. Wonder what section of the Koran teaches that ?...oh yeah, the Nazis were losers to.
Posted by: Marine Dad ||
08/08/2005 17:09
Comments ||
Top||
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), created in May 1979 as an ideological force to defend Iran's fledgling Islamic regime, now stands poised to strengthen its political and military clout. In a recent meeting with IRGC high commanders, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei discussed important changes in the IRGC's role, the most significant being the creation of a center tasked with formulating the corps' strategic policies. The center will also prepare a long-term program for increasing the IRGC's autonomy vis-a-vis the traditional military establishment. The IRGC is thus on the verge of being transformed from a junior player in the country's military defense, to a key factor in the country's military and security doctrine -- a rise that could come at the army's expense.
The Birth Of The Corps
Article 150 of the Iranian Constitution defines the primary role of the IRGC as protector of the revolution and its achievements. Among the tasks carried out by the corps were the monitoring of citizens' activities, enforcement of the dress code, and the seizure of material not favored by the regime. However, President Mohammad Khatami provided insight into the corps' actual functions during a meeting with IRGC commanders in March 2000 in which he praised the IRGC's defense of Iran during the 1980-88 war with Iraq, its protection of Iran's reconstruction plan, and efforts to ensure the country's security. The IRGC's core domestic mission, in practice, can thus be described as being ideological, political, and partly economic in nature, while carrying out both military and security duties.
Article 154 indirectly expands the IRGC's political and military relevance beyond Iran's borders, wherein it defines the Islamic Republic's mission as one that seeks the happiness of mankind in human society and recognizes independence, freedom, and justice as universal human rights. While eschewing interference in other countries' internal affairs, furthermore, the article stipulates Iran's support for the rightful struggles of oppressed peoples against their oppressors anywhere in the world. Thus, the IRGC's interest in aiding the Lebanese, Bosnians, Palestinians, and others against their "oppressors" is effectively prescribed in the constitution.
Expanding Horizons
Another constitutional article affords the IRGC a great opportunity to strengthen its political and military presence. Article 151 says the government is obligated to provide military-training facilities for everyone in the country, in accordance with the precepts of Islam under which all individuals should have the ability to take up arms in defense of their country, and thus the system of the Islamic Republic.
This constitutional green light resulted in the creation in 1979-80 of the Basij Resistance Force, a volunteer paramilitary force that is subject to the IRGC. General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, the commander of the IRGC, predicted that in the Third Five-Year Development Plan (2000-04) the number of Basijis will expand to 15 million (9 million men, 6 million women) to better counter potential domestic and foreign threats. While apparently falling short of the goal outlined in the plan, Basij commander Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi estimated the number of Basij personnel at 10.3 million in March 2004 and 11 million in March 2005.
Rahim-Safavi described the Basijis as a means to protect internal security and to serve as a powerful deterrent force against foreign incursion. To facilitate these efforts, members of the Basij have received standard military training and have also been taught asymmetrical warfare techniques by the IRGC. There are Basij units in all government agencies, universities, factories, and municipal localities. The "Velayat Project," under which thousands of pupils are exposed to Islamic principles and studies, is part of the effort to create a 20-million-strong army in Iran and constitutes another opportunity for the IRGC to expand its role. The IRGC-governed Basij Resistance Force took responsibility for the military training of the project forces. Of the 10,000 volunteers who enrolled in the project, only 3,200 were accepted to participate in this summer's training.
The Palestinian issue is also a source of attraction for Iranian youth to enroll in paramilitary organizations. Believers in a "clash of civilizations" who prepare for total war with the enemies of Islam and Iran can fill out recruitment applications published in the weekly "Parto Sokhan." The headquarters of the Tribute to the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, which is affiliated with the IRGC, is behind the recruitment drive. The effort has reportedly culled 40,000 volunteers to undergo special training to become suicide bombers for serving the Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.
The Reformation Of The IRGC
The IRGC's active involvement in domestic politics began following Ayatollah Khomeini's death in 1989. In the 1990s some IRGC commanders denounced then-President Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani's political, social, and economic reforms as damaging to the values of the revolution. Under Khatami's presidency (1997-2005) the reform movement accelerated -- a development that had the additional effect of helping the IRGC gain prominence.
Following the 1999 student riots, some hard-line elements of the IRGC warned Khatami that his reforms were endangering the revolutionary order and that the IRGC could not stand by and watch as the fruits of the revolution were destroyed. As a result, these IRGC officers said, they essentially had no alternative than to intervene to uphold the interests of the Islamic regime.Iran's parliament contains about 80 former IRGC members, while other former members command the regular army and the national police. In a letter to Khatami, 24 IRGC commanders stated that they would take the law into their own hands unless the president cracked down on demonstrators. It became clearly evident that the IRGC's opposition to the reform movement was such that it would take action to counter it when deemed necessary.
In 2003, Rahim-Safavi wrote in a letter to the Majlis speaker: "The IRGC considers itself responsible for the defense of the Islamic Revolution, its achievements, and the ideology and values of Imam Khomeini. We insist upon avoiding political games and infighting among different parties and groups. [Parliamentarians] should also refrain from extremist actions and respect the dignity of the Majlis. Our main mission is to stop those who wish to destroy and overthrow the Islamic Revolution."
The Future
It is clear that the IRGC stands on solid ground at the onset of the new political era in Iran. Using the experience it gained in carrying out large projects during the war with Iraq, the corps has become a force in Iran's economy by launching numerous companies. Many of these enterprises receive lucrative government contracts and are active in the agriculture and oil sectors, on road and dam construction, and in automobile manufacturing. In addition, former IRGC commanders run the Oppressed and Disabled Foundation, an extremely powerful and wealthy organization that takes care of underprivileged Iranians.
The IRGC's long reach into political affairs is also increasingly apparent. Iran's parliament contains about 80 former IRGC members, while other former members command the regular army and the national police. Still more occupy important civilian and government positions, such as municipal councilors, mayors, provincial governors, university professors, and businessmen. And possibly most significant, none other than the country's new president -- Mahmud Ahmadinejad -- served with the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War.
However, Ahmadinejad's August 3 inauguration leaves the IRGC's future far from clear, and begs a number of questions. Are the new president's ties to the IRGC strong enough to lead to a significant increase in its involvement in foreign affairs, domestic politics, and the economy? Will the IRGC, which already receives the lion's share of the defense budget, play an even more dominant role in military affairs and security decision making? As always, Iranian affairs are very dynamic and unpredictable, but history teaches us that for every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction. And there is little doubt that attempts to establish the militarization of power will be met with resistance from within.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A Love Letter from EurAsiaNet to the IRGC. Gee, how pointless.
LONDON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Bill Clinton has offered to campaign for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, should she decide to run for Parliament. The Blairs, both lawyers, each ran in 1983. While Blair won his seat, his wife lost to the Conservatives. She is said to be eyeing the solid Labor seat of Liverpool Riverside, currently occupied by another woman, the Daily Mail said Monday.
Clinton, meanwhile, told a newspaper he hoped Cherie Blair would be inspired by his own wife, now a New York senator who is expected to run for the White House in 2008. "If she ever campaigned for office and wanted me to go ringing doorbells for her, I'd be happy to do it," Clinton said.
Just look at what a great job he's done helping other people get elected. There's.........,er,...?
He also conceded Mrs. Blair could be entirely sick of politics by the time her husband steps down.
Blair has said he will step down as prime minister before the next election and last week his election agent confirmed he was also likely to step down as a member of Parliament.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Surely, Tony Blair can't be this stupid. First, he lets terrs Imam's into his country. Now, he is going to let Bill "Shlong Willie" Clinton into his house, to show his wife "under the table" manners.
Slick Willie doesn't give support to women, he gets it.
At least for a tiny portion of his anatomy.
Cherie - if you completely lose your mind and decide to hook up with this clown, may I suggest knee pads? At your age, your knees ain't what they used to be. Might as well be comfortable while you're "supporting" Willie.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2005 15:16
Comments ||
Top||
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Saudi police discovered an arms cache in an artesian well on a deserted farm near Medina in western Saudi Arabia, the Interior Ministry said Monday. Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Turki was quoted in the daily al-Riyadh as saying police were still retrieving arms from the well, which was 200 meters (656 feet) deep and only 30 centimeters (12 inches) in diameter.
"Police extracted information about the arms cache after interrogating a terror suspect arrested recently," Turki said.
"Talk, or we'll go Bangladeshi on your ass!"
Elsewhere, police arrested an Asian man of undisclosed nationality and seized explosives from his car in the province of Yunbu' in western Saudi Arabia.
Is that real Asian or are they using the British version of the word?
The provincial police chief, Brig. Hamad Oufi, said police had received a tip concerning a car carrying explosives coming from Jeddah on the Red Sea. "The car was spotted and after a thorough search police discovered 155 dynamite sticks with equipment needed to detonate them," Oufi said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
09:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Brit version - AOA = "Arab and Other Asian", one of Aramco's standard employee designations, makes the point, I think.
#2
....discovered an arms cache in an artesian well on a deserted farm.... Now that they know what had the water stopped maybe they'll start farming again.
#6
Maybe the water flow had diminished and they were trying to 'frac' the well, to bring in more water. Hey, it works for a lot of oil wells. I wonder what they'll pay me to be their defense attorney?
(end sarcasm.)
Ouch.
BRENTWOOD - The "family jewels" of one Brentwood man recently were locked up for two weeks - literally. On Saturday, July 30, at about 3:40 a.m., Brentwood police assisted ambulance and rescue personnel with a 39-year-old man with a padlock on his testicles. Ummmmmm...say again, Unit 1?
According to police, the man, who police are not identifying, was intoxicated when they arrived on scene. You would hope so...
The man reported that the padlock had been on his testicles for two weeks. Cpl. H.D. Wood IV said the man reported that a friend put the lock on his testicles. He was allegedly severely intoxicated and passed out. He told police that when he woke up the padlock was placed around top his scrotum and his friend was gone. Hello? Yes. I'm drunk and my friend padlocked my balls two weeks ago. Think you can help me out?
"Never in my 13 years have I seen anything like this," Wood said. That doesn't surprise me...
The man reported to police that he allegedly attempted to remove the padlock with a hacksaw after the key broke off inside the lock. He was taken to Exeter Hospital, where a locksmith was called to remove the lock. There's a story that'll keep the free beers coming to that locksmith for the rest of his life.
The hospital reported that the man was treated and released without sustaining lasting injury. Hey, ya want the lock? You know, for a souvenier?
The Brentwood Fire Department would not comment on the incident, citing patient confidentiality. But we'll remember the guy, believe you me...
The motive for the incident is still undetermined, police said. But from now on, remember boys and girls... BOOZE AND PADLOCKS ARE A BAD COMBINATION!
"At this point we are not sure if it was a prank, or if it was an intentional act, or something done during a sexual act," Wood said. Stick with the gerbils, boys...
The incident is under investigation. ...because we don't have a choice.
#11
Blue steel. Blue Balls.
Sawzall or hack saw,
It still doesn't feel
very good at all.
I broke the key,
Now all shall see.
Oh, if only he had used a combination.
Atlanta (CNSNews.com) - Celebrity activist Harry Belafonte referred to prominent African-American officials in the Bush administration as "black tyrants" at a weekend march, and he also compared the administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Belafonte, a featured speaker at Saturday's march in Atlanta commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, previously ignited a political controversy in 2002 when he likened then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to a "house slave."
At Saturday's civil rights march, Belafonte said the Bush administration has been "rather dismal" for the lives of black Americans. The march, which featured prominent civil rights groups and labor union representatives, was intended to drum up support for extending and strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Belafonte used a Hitler analogy when asked about what impact prominent blacks such as former Secretary of State Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had on the Bush administration's relations with minorities.
"Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value," Belafonte said in an exclusive interview with Cybercast News Service. "[If] a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated," he added. When asked specifically who was a "black tyrant" in the Bush administration, Belafonte responded to this reporter, "You." When this reporter noted that he was a Caucasian and attempted to ask another question, Belafonte abruptly ended the interview by saying, "That's it."
Another prominent celebrity marcher at Saturday's civil rights march also employed Nazi analogies to the GOP and conservatives. Civil rights activist Dick Gregory mocked the existence of African-American conservatives in America. "They (black conservatives) have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it (the swastika symbol) up?" Gregory said in an interview with Cybercast News Service. (The swastika was an ancient symbol generally regarded an emblem of strength and luck before the Nazi Party adopted it in 1920.) "So why would I want to call myself a conservative after the way them white racists thugs have used that word to hide behind? They call themselves new Republicans," Gregory said.
Gregory trashed the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs," Gregory said.
Gregory also accused President Bush of stealing the 2004 presidential election. "They didn't win, and I got that from the white press. At four o'clock [on Election Day 2004], that evening, the white press said from the exit polls that [Democratic presidential nominee John] Kerry had won by a landslide and then three hours later something funny happened," Gregory said of Bush's eventual election victory.
Asked why approximately ten percent of African-Americans typically vote for Republican presidential candidates, Gregory responded, "I have no idea. You have to ask them. That's like asking me about a woman having a baby. Go ask her, I don't know."
And even more goodness, EFL: "They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show." Mathis made his remarks to an enthusiastic crowd assembled in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants are launching a two-year campaign to extend and strengthen key aspects of the act when it expires in 2007. "It is indeed criminal to steal an election and within two years run up a federal deficit of half-a-trillion dollars, send our young people over to Iraq to die for an unjust war. What they are doing is criminal," Mathis said to loud cheers.
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California appeared at the march and noted that minorities may not have had full voting rights in the last two presidential elections. "Some changes have to be made so we don't have a repeat of 2000 and 2004 where there was intimidation and discrepancies at the polls," Pelosi told Cybercast News Service during the voting rights march. "In the state of Ohio, where they had fewer voting booths and long lines in minority neighborhoods and no lines and many voting booths in white neighborhoods, that the balance is not what it should have been," she added.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) echoed the accusation of many at the march that Bush was an illegitimate president. "The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about," Lee told the crowd gathered. Lee also called the war in Iraq "unnecessary, immoral and illegal" and added "our nation was lied to in order to justify this invasion and occupation."
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made it clear who the marchers were directing their anger at on Saturday. "We are here to take on President Bush, [Vice President] Dick Cheney. We are here to take on [House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay. We are here to take on the new appointee to the Supreme Court, John Roberts," Waters said from the podium to cheers from the crowd.
Musician Stevie Wonder addressed the marchers demanding that the Voting Rights Act be extended and strengthened. "Having to demand that we have a bill that will guarantee the voting rights of all American citizens forever is ridiculous," Wonder said. He also read the lyrics of an upcoming song to be released in September. "At this time we have a choice to make. Father God is watching while we cause Mother Earth so much pain. It's such a shame. Not enough money for the young, the old, the poor, but for war there is always more," Wonder said.
The Bush administration was also targeted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who declared that the president's "record against human rights, civil rights, economic rights, is absolutely terrible."
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said America was being ruled by the "Bush mentality," where "crony capitalism" was supreme.
Jesse Jackson said the Voting Rights Act extension is critical because "the same old enemies of civil rights and voting rights will always keep up their ugly activities. "Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town," Jackson said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
08:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
To quote somebody:
"Shut up and sing, already!"
Posted by: N guard ||
08/08/2005 9:01
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The old black leadership is only concerned with maintaining their position and petty power by delivering up their own people's future. There's a name for that. The three greatest contributors to poverty in America are substance abuse, single female head of household, and blowing off education. Name me those in the leadership who have publically hammered those problems within the community rather than shift the blame elsewhere. They sell the souls of their own people to the one party which literally protect those delivering substandard education because the union buys the party with gold. Before there was an America, blacks sold other blacks to islamic slavers for the Cairo-Damascus trade. The practice may have changed in form, but the substance remains the same.
#5
That is quite the cast of characters, all right. Harrangers, race baters, demagogues, inflammatory speakers, and NOT ONE PROBLEM-SOLVER among them. Heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/08/2005 9:32
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Harry and Dick Gregory! Wow! There must've been a special on round trip flights out of Bolivian.
I swear, I thought Dick Gregory was dead.
#8
Gregory trashed the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs," Gregory said.
Um, so you're saying that we should share our hard drugs more? Tell Belafonte to quit bogarting the joint.
#12
Musician Stevie Wonder addressed the marchers demanding that the Voting Rights Act be extended and strengthened. "Having to demand that we have a bill that will guarantee the voting rights of all American citizens forever is ridiculous," Wonder said.
riiggghhtt. Didn't make an ass of himself? We all know that the eeeeeevil Reps are trying to keep blacks from voting over and over , and asking ridiculous requirements like ID's and no dead voters...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 11:13
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Harry Belafonte's New
"Banana Boat Song"
"I'm So Los'"
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Go all day on a cup-a jo'
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
It's a-gettin noon, There's a Burga King!
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Walkin' a-rounâ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Walkin' a-rounâ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Come to dis park spoutin' foolishness
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Lotsa people cheer ma' foolishness
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Come Mr. Taxi-man take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
I got so'money you can take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
#14
"Race baiters and discriminators may go underground, but they never move out of town," Jackson said.
If anybody knows about that it would be Jesse.
#15
I'm withholding judgment until Mel Torme weighs in.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/08/2005 11:33
Comments ||
Top||
#16
Harry B. is continuing to live large on the Democratic Plantation. Somebody needs to explain to Harry it's okay to leave the plantation and think for yourself. Harry should be reminded that most slave owners were the original Democrats. Oh, never mind...
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
08/08/2005 13:10
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Mark Z: 'fraid not. In the antebellum period, the slave-owners were mostly Whigs, and before that, National Republicans. They were only Democrats for the brief period between the collapse of the Whig Party in 1854 and the collapse of the Democratic Party in 1860. For most of the slave-owning period, the Democratic Party in the South was the "popular" party, of those who both hated the slaves, and the slave-owners. Poor white trash, in other words. Like Andrew Johnson, frex.
Which is all utterly irrelevant to the main point, which is that Harry Belafonte is batshit insane. And Dick Gregory? Walking proof that bullshit and bile aren't carcinogenic.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/08/2005 15:34
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Semi OT, but RantBurg needs a Ogeretla songbook.
#21
The Clintons and US DemoLefties are still playing everybody against the other - America > a Communist-controlled Fascist nation like Russia-China while pretending they are against Dubya's "imperialist" or "warmoner" policies in the WOT, i.e are the alternates to Dubya and the GOP-Right. The DemoLeft alternate to [national] Unitarian, GOP-Dem or GOP= Dem "Fascism", is COMMUNISM except by indirect route, where alleged "Fascism" is merely relabeled as DE-REGULATED COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM. Commie Fascist Russia-China = Commie Fascist/Fascist Commie America. Can a Commie-controlled "Fascist" government still be "Fascist"??? Leftism stands for nothing except politics, and all the amount of relabeling isn't gonna hide an insincere patriot or PC treason - ITS NOT "SOCIALISM",
"COMMUNISM", OR "REGULATION", BUT "NATIONWIDE" and "PERSONAL" "SAFETY" AND "SECURITY", ETC. FEEL-GOOD SURNAMES!?
Iran says it has resumed work at its uranium conversion facility near the city of Isfahan. Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, made the announcement at the Isfahan plant. He said work at the plant where uranium conversion has taken place in the past had resumed under the supervision of the UN's nuclear watchdog.
The US and EU have warned that such a move will lead to Iran being referred to the UN Security Council. This could lead to the imposition of Security Council sanctions. Iran maintains its right to carry out nuclear activity for peaceful purposes, and has rejected recent European proposals for its nuclear programme, designed to give guarantees that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Nuclear work at the Isfahan plant had been suspended since November 2004.
A reporter for the Reuters news agency witnessed what she says was the resumption of uranium conversion. The reporter describes two workers at the Isfahan plant lifting a barrel full of uranium yellow cake, opening its lid and feeding it into the processing line. The reporter says that the plant had earlier been surrounded by dozens of anti-aircraft batteries.
Earlier on Monday inspectors from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived at the Isfahan plant to install surveillance equipment and oversee removal of seals. The IAEA board is due to hold an emergency meeting of the IAEA board on Tuesday. It was called by European Union states following deadlock in the talks they have been conducting with Tehran. The Iranian government on Monday replaced its chief negotiator, Hassan Rohani, with Ali Larijani, a conservative former head of state broadcasting who is known to have close ties with Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The appointment was made by the conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, two days after he was sworn in. It is being seen as a hardening of Iran's position.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
08:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
had resumed under the supervision of the UN's nuclear watchdog??
Bomb's awayyyy
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/08/2005 8:47
Comments ||
Top||
#2
It disgusts me, but I've concluded that we'd best accept the fact that the mad mullahs are going nuclear, regardless of ceaseless nattering of the euro's.
There appears no stomach for stopping them militarily, and referral to the SC is certain to get hung up by either China or Russia. Not that a resolution or sanctions would deter them in any way.
It should be made perfectly clear to them that if a mushroom cloud goes up anywhere in the western hemisphere - they fry first and completely, a'la Kennedy to the Soviets.
#4
I think they need understand now the west is presented with limited options Iran should not to under estimate the risks they just increased to themselves. The UN workers should be told to leave and a international warning given that being in a Iranian Nuclear facility puts you at risk of death and dismembering.
#5
It's no longer about deals and debates. It's about survival. As in Jew survival. If the world is going to stand around and point at each other, then Israel will be forced to say, we have no choice but to take action. When it comes to survival, world opinion doesn't take precedence.
Iran, worlds #1 sponser of terrorism, on it's way to building a nuke, no matter what they claim, if pushed, I see no problem with them giving it to Hezbollah or AlQaida. I say we need to go in before it's too late.
A Russian stand-up comedian who was elected governor of his home region, Altai in Siberia, last year has been killed in a car crash.
Mikhail Yevdokimov's Mercedes hit a tree while reportedly trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle.
You could also say another vehicle reportedly ran him off the road into a tree.
Two other people died in the accident on Sunday - the driver and a bodyguard. Yevdokimov's wife was injured. His transition from show business to politics led to him being dubbed Russia's Arnold Schwarzenegger by some.
Yevdokimov's press secretary said the couple were heading to events to mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of cosmonaut German Titov when the accident happened between Biysk and the Altai regional capital, Barnaul. Yevdokimov, 47, was a first time candidate in the 2004 election. He won 49.79% of the run-off vote, beating incumbent Alexander Surikov.
I suppose it could really have been a "accident".
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005
08:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Mikhail Yevdokimov. Inventor of the longest running Soviet joke (outside of Leonid Brezhnev's eyebrows) : "We'll keep pretending to work as long as they keep pretending to pay us."
A SUICIDE bomber died and 31 people were injured when a home-made device was detonated on a bus in south-eastern China, state media reported today. The blast occurred near the downtown area of Fujian's provincial capital, Fuzhou, around 1730 (AEST), Xinhua news agency reported. The explosion on the single-decker bus was powerful enough to shatter the windows of shops nearby, the agency reported.
Pictures from the scene showed the side of the bus ripped apart and debris strewn across the floor of the vehicle. The injured were shown being stretchered out of windows. The suspect, a 42-year-old farmer, was believed to be from Putian city in the province. He had terminal lung cancer, Xinhua reported. Such attacks are common in China, often carried out by angry residents who feel wronged by society or the communist party government.
In January, a bomb killed 11 people on a bus in north-western Xinjiang region. That attack was blamed on a worker who held a grudge against his former employer, a coal mining company near the scene of the explosion. There were 1130 bombings around China last year, according to state press reports.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
08/08/2005
07:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There were 1130 bombings around China last year, according to state press reports.
All by disgruntled husbands, pissed off business partners, angry loners, and road ragers I'm sure. Ain't no terrorists in China, right?
#2
I would say that this is China's equivalent of Columbine. Nothing political about it, given that it was targeted against ordinary civilians. Why bombs? Because explosives are easier to come by than guns or bullets - they are used in both mines and road construction. And that's not counting the homemade bombs that can be rigged using ordinary chemicals (fertilizer, fuel oil, etc).
#3
tu3031: All by disgruntled husbands, pissed off business partners, angry loners, and road ragers I'm sure. Ain't no terrorists in China, right?
Hard to say. Guns are hard to come by in China.* Explosives are readily available, either in homemade form, or lifted from industrial facilities.
* Both guns and ammunition are rationed out, even to China's policemen. Not every cop has a gun. And the ones who do get very few bullets. This may, in part, have to do with coup insurance.
Every revolt in China's past started out with the local authorities initially declaring allegiance to the central government, and then later on, as the situation deteriorated for the central authority, going into business for themselves. In other words, as the central government collapsed, governors of individual provinces would declare themselves independent of the central power.** Not handing out ammo may be an attempt to curb the potential for the accelerated collapse of central authority and a devolution into armed fiefs if an armed power struggle happens in the capital.
** If the center could not hold, the winner among these contenders would become the founder of the next dynasty, after his competitors and their households were massacred. In many cases, individuals who started out in petty offices managed to seize hold of the reins of power, since armed conflict favors the able rather than those of privileged birth. Throughout history, Chinese rebels have tended to be relatively meritocratic - they have tended to favor ability over lineage in choosing (or switching over to) their leaders - an understandable pragmatism, since they are literally gambling, not only with their lives, but the lives of their families and friends.
#4
Hmmmm???? Sounds fishy to me. News from China is so filtered its hard to tell. I do know that they have their own problem with peace loving Mooselimbs. Southeastern region would be the area for our friends with head scarves.
#5
IP: Hmmmm???? Sounds fishy to me. News from China is so filtered its hard to tell. I do know that they have their own problem with peace loving Mooselimbs. Southeastern region would be the area for our friends with head scarves.
Muslims tend to be concentrated in the northwest and southwest. If the government is disguising the fact that the attacker is Muslim, it may be for the protection of scattered Muslim communities more than anything else. I doubt they want to see heaps of Muslim corpses in the manner of the Indian massacres. The ferocity of Chinese mobs was demonstrated during the mini-civil war that was the Cultural Revolution. (Going further back, there were massacres of tens of thousands of Christians during the Boxer Rebellion and of Manchurians right after the Manchurian Qing dynasty was overthrown).
#6
ZF: If the government is disguising the fact that the attacker is Muslim
That should have read "If the attacker is in fact Muslim and government is disguising that fact". I have no knowledge of the attacker's religion. Suicidal attacks aren't unknown to the Chinese. During the Korean War, Chinese units routinely charged in the face of machine gun and artillery fire. Unlike the Japanese, however, the Chinese did not see death as an end in itself - they were perfectly content to be taken prisoner if they were overwhelmed.
#7
I wouldn't really call those "suicide" attacks, ZF, though it no doubt turned out that way for most. They didn't want to die, and there was a very small chance they would actually survive the assault. I would call the Chinese and Nork troops "brave," unlike the real suicide types. Our troops did some of the same thing at times, like climbing the cliffs at Normandy, or wading ashore at Tarawa.
#8
Jackal: I wouldn't really call those "suicide" attacks, ZF, though it no doubt turned out that way for most. They didn't want to die, and there was a very small chance they would actually survive the assault. I would call the Chinese and Nork troops "brave," unlike the real suicide types. Our troops did some of the same thing at times, like climbing the cliffs at Normandy, or wading ashore at Tarawa.
Chinese troops advanced in the face of American air, artillery and tank superiority. It was a massacre, reflected in Chinese KIA that approached 1 million. American forces assaulting beaches typically had air and arty superiority.
I think you have forgotten a lot about how comminist armies work. For instance it is not unusual they keep a line of NKVD-KGB people in the trenches who fire in the back of everyone who slackens (eg the assault on Konstadt), then there is the extensive use of punitive batallions: people drawn from Gulag or punished for having forgotten one of the 500 praises to Dear Leader and who are sent to detonate minefields or in non-white uniforms during winter in order to attract fire (extensive use by the Russians during WWII, allegedly after every attack the 20% of survivors were reverted to normal units), people of the NVA who were chained to their trenches and the ever popular method of letting the soldier know that his family will be shot if he flees.
You should never forget Stalin's sentence: "You need to be very brave in order to not/b> be a hero in the Red Army"
#12
He had terminal lung cancer, Xinhua reported. Such attacks are common in China, often carried out by angry residents who feel wronged by society or the communist party government.
Cancer kills Splody Voter and 31 riders on Chinese bus, second hand smoke.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/08/2005 11:53
Comments ||
Top||
#13
I'll agree that most of the Chinese/NorK attackers died very quickly. I'll also agree that the leadership deliberately used them in a way that increased the chance of their dying.
But, I'll still maintain they didn't want to die. Unlike the splodydopes or the 9/11 pilots who were deliberately killing themselves.
#15
Hopefully, China will adopt the eradication solution - re Islamofascists - that the West and Russia refuse to implement. Application of freedom on conscience to the beliefs of terrorists, degrades that noble term. Kill them all!
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/08/2005 21:04
Comments ||
Top||
Afghan and coalition forces stopped several terrorist attacks on Aug. 5 and 6 when they destroyed three improvised explosive devices in southern and eastern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials said today. The first IED was found near Mehtar Lam, in Laghman province, and transferred to a nearby company of Marines. The Marines rendered the device safe before transporting it to a U.S. military base, where it will be destroyed, officials said.
The second IED was discovered in southern Afghanistan. Afghan police forces disabled the device, made from an anti-tank mine, before turning it over to U.S. paratroopers assigned to Task Force Bayonet. Engineers safely destroyed that IED a short time later, officials said.
The third IED was discovered south of the city of Ghazni, in Ghazni province, by a coalition patrol. The patrol rendered the device safe and transferred it to a nearby base for destruction, officials said.
Iin southern Afghanistan Aug. 6, the ANP disrupted an enemy ambush in the city of Qalat, in Zabul province. Afghan police forces reportedly killed one enemy combatant in the brief resultant firefight. One ANP officer was wounded in the attack; he was transported to Kandahar Airfield for treatment, officials said.
According to U.S. military officials, the incident occurred when enemy forces ambushed an Afghan police patrol with small-arms fire. The enemy forces immediately fled the area, but were pursued by Afghan National Police, who were assisted by U.S. military force. These enemy forces remain at large, officials said.
U.S. military units in Afghanistan are conducting operations designed to deny sanctuary and freedom of movement to enemy forces, officials said. "The forces that attack those charged with protecting Afghans from crime and terror are trying to prevent Afghanistan from having a bright future," U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force 76, said.
"Afghan forces -- be they army, police or security -- are striving to ensure this nation is free of terror and violence so that Afghans might know peace and prosperity," he added.
In other news from Afghanistan, a suicide bomber was detained as he attempted to detonate a series of explosives attached to his body at a U.S. base south of Salerno, near the Pakistani border, Aug. 6, officials said.
The potential bomber attempted to enter a U.S. facility in the region under the guise of needing medical attention. At the gate he produced a grenade, which he attempted to detonate, officials said. But the grenade failed to detonate, and security forces apprehended the man. The suicide bomber also had two anti-personnel mines and a second grenade attached to his body. He is now in the custody of Afghan forces, officials said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2005
07:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Afghan police forces disabled the device
Well done, gentlemen! Always a pleasure to hear about more skillsets successfully mastered -- the more the Afghans can do for themselves, the more freedom NATO forces have to extend their activities outward.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5, 2005 â Each week the cast of "CSI: NY" uses scientific skill to solve mysteries. But the reason Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited the show's set in Studio City here Aug. 4 was no mystery: actor Gary Sinise is a solid supporter of U.S. servicemembers, and Rumsfeld's a big fan of Sinise and his efforts.
Rumsfeld visited the CSI set to thank Sinise personally for his support of the "America Supports You" program through his "Operation Iraqi Children" effort. Sinise, who stars in "CSI: NY" as Detective Mac Taylor, co-founded Operation Iraqi Children with Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand in March 2004. The organization collects and ships school supplies and toys to Iraq for distribution by U.S. troops, providing much-needed materials for Iraqi children while boosting the morale of the servicemembers who pass them out, Sinise said.
In addition, Sinise has made two visits to Iraq as part of USO shows and uses his rock group, "The Lt. Dan Band," named after the character Sinise played in the movie, "Forest Gump," to entertain the troops.
Rumsfeld praised Sinise's efforts to the cast and crew of "CSI: NY," who took a short break from shooting an episode during his visit.
The tides were temporarily turned on the set, as the show's cast and crew gathered around Rumsfeld, shaking hands, snapping photos and asking for autographs, as they watched Rumsfeld and Sinise step into Sinise's trailer for a private chat. "I've never seen Gary so excited," said Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the CSI franchise and executive producer of "CSI: NY." "This man is such a patriot and loves his country so much," Zuiker said. You don't have to protest to love your country?
So much so, Zuiker said, that he always knows the perfect gift to give Sinise for his birthday or any other special occasion: a check for his Operation Iraqi Children effort.
Rumsfeld, who joked with Sinise about going to rival high schools in Chicago, told the cast about "all the wonderful things this man has done for the men and women in uniform across the country." He thanked Sinise for his personal involvement in supporting the troops and presented him with a commemorative Pentagon paperweight and official secretary of defense coin to add to Sinise's extensive coin collection gathered during troop visits.
The secretary also shared Sinise's hopes of expanding the program into Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Sinise told the American Forces Press Service he feels honored to be doing his part of help the troops. "They need us out there," he said. "We're blessed in this country to have an all-volunteer service, not a mandatory service. And I feel obligated to support them as they keep very, very busy on several fronts."
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2005
07:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Its nice to read about non-asshat celebrities, considering there seems to be so few of them. I wonder if Rummy's visit just killed off Sinises' movie career though.
Coalition forces in Iraq captured seven terror suspects, seized a car bomb being prepared for an attack, and foiled five roadside-bomb attacks during a series of combat operations conducted in Baghdad over the past two days. Just before 6 a.m. today, coalition forces seized a car bomb and three terrorists who admitted they were planning to use the car bomb in an attack later in the day. An explosive ordnance disposal team safely detonated the bomb, and the terrorists were taken into custody.
At 3:30 a.m. Aug. 5, Task Force Baghdad soldiers approached a man out after curfew in the Thawra district of northeast Baghdad. As the patrol neared, the individual ran away. The soldiers pursued the suspect to his home to question him. That's where *I'd* run if being pursued by soldiers - right straight home to Mama!
As they were asking the man why he was out after curfew, the soldiers noticed hundreds of fake identification cards in the house. The patrol searched the house and found four computers and numerous documents thought to be used to create the false IDs. I wonder if they had a search warrant? Where's the ACLU when a terrorist needs them? The unit detained the man and another suspect in the house and took them into custody for additional questioning.
Later in the day, just after 1:30 p.m., Iraqi army and Task Force Baghdad soldiers working together in Abu Ghraib caught two men red-handed as they were preparing a site for a roadside bomb. When the combined patrol approached the men, they ran to a nearby house. The soldiers chased and caught both men, searched the house, and found an AK-47 assault rifle with ammunition. This might not have been 'their' house, since every home has its own AK-47. Both men were taken into custody for questioning.
Task Force Baghdad soldiers also found and safely disabled two roadside bombs in different Baghdad neighborhoods before terrorists could detonate them.
In other news from Iraq, Task Force Baghdad soldiers conducted Operation Able Warrior to defeat terror cells operating west of the Baghdad International Airport in the early-morning hours of Aug. 4. In less than three hours, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducted a series of simultaneous attacks and captured 41 suspected terrorists, including three foreign fighters.
"We went out and did what we set out to do. This was a picture-perfect mission," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve McCorkle, commander of 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment. The mission of Operation Able Warrior was to disrupt car-bombing cells and those that place roadside bomb, and prevent them from planning, preparing and carrying out terrorist attacks in the area.
"We want to set the Iraq army up for success. This operation will help the Iraqi security forces take more control of the day-to-day operations," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Thomas Carden, a spokesman for the 48th BCT.
(Compiled from Task Force Baghdad and Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2005
07:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder if they had a search warrant? Where's the ACLU when a terrorist needs them?
I bet the guys didn't say, "I have rights." Isn't that like claiming sanctuary in a church?
#3
can somebody follow up and tell us what happens to the three guys they picked up? I am in favor of sending them off to their 72 virgins within the hour,preferably at the end of a rope right outside their homes,in full view of the neighbors.perhaps the next bunch might be more inclined to something useful,such as filling the potholes or planting a garden.
Posted by: john e morrissey ||
08/08/2005 17:54
Comments ||
Top||
Saddam Hussein's family said Monday it has dissolved his Jordan-based legal team, canceling the power of attorney it had given to international lawyers in a move seen as reorganizing Saddam's legal counsel ahead of his upcoming trial. In an "urgent" statement, Saddam's family said it has appointed Iraqi lawyer Khalil Duleimi as Saddam's "one and sole legal counsel." Duleimi was part of the Jordan-based legal team for the past year and attended some of Saddam's initial court hearings in Baghdad. I was so looking forward to Ramsey Clark's brilliant defense strategy.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2005
06:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
this is gonna be another milosevic trial. He will die oold age before he ever gets tried
#2
Actually, TH, you just perfectly described why this case was never going to be allowed anywhere near the ICT and will be tried in Iraq by Iraqis. He'll be convicted before year-end, is my guess.
#3
All the defense team has to do is read the full text in court of Saddam's latest masterpiece Get Out, Damned One. They will immediately either declare him insane and send him on his merry way or shoot themselves from boredom in which case he escapes.
Mauritania's new army rulers ordered the release on Sunday of around 20 Islamist activists who had been jailed by ousted President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya for their alleged links with a group allied to al Qaeda.
That's the bad sign I've been expecting...
In a move designed to reassure political parties, the junta also appointed a civilian prime minister, Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, to head a caretaker government. The detainees freed on Sunday were part of a group of some 60 people arrested by security forces since April in a clampdown on Islamist activists and politicians which critics say was an excuse to stifle dissent. ``This is a new era, a page has been turned,'' said Moctar Ould Mohamed Moussa, one of the released prisoners, as he walked out of the main civilian prison in the capital Nouakchott to be met by cheering relatives.
So now, back to work, setting up his private Islamic army. Next step will be for a few people to be killed for insulting Islam...
The detained activists had been accused by Taya's government of colluding with the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a movement allied to al Qaeda. But many Mauritanian Arabs say Taya overstated the Islamist threat to justify a crackdown on opponents and curry favor with the United States -- whose military trained his army to fight radical militants thought to be active in the Sahara desert. ``The Islamists are the majority in Mauritania. They do not preach violence. The former president rounded them as extremists so as to win support from the West,'' said Yacoub Ould Moine, a university maths professor who was standing outside the prison.
We'll wait and see. I imagine a state as close to being failed as Mauritania is going to attract Qaeda like flies.
A source close to the military junta told Reuters half a dozen prisoners would stay in jail after they admitted ties to the GSPC. The cases of other detainees were being reviewed. Opposition leaders said the new prime minister had once been one of Taya's men, but should be given the benefit of the doubt. ``He is someone from the old regime but he is someone who wants change,'' Mohamed Ould Maouloud, leader of a moderate opposition party, told Reuters. ``We will judge him by his work,'' he said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/08/2005
05:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Unfortunately, we're a little busy right now. Is this a former British colony? If so, perhaps they could do something. If it's a former French colony, then oh, well.
I suppose it doesn't matter all that much, as I don't believe Mali or Senegal is all that important. Maybe just interdict them. Prohibit flights to and from, and shoot any Mauritanian found outside the country.
A high-profile rebel fighter, Abubakar Khasuyev, has been detained by police in Chechnya, the republican Interior Ministry reported Sunday. Khasuyev was caught this morning in a surprise police raid launched in the Chechen capital, Grozny, ministry spokespeople said. The man is now being interrogated, they added. Another rebel, Alvia Basayev, has been reportedly detained in the southern Chechen region of Urus Martan.
THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) today warned Australians to defer any non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia, citing credible reports of imminent terrorists attacks.
In an updated travel advisory, DFAT said terrorists had targeted both Saudi citizens and foreigners within residential compounds, their workplaces and at government installations and had caused significant loss of life including Australians.
It said the terrorist attacks could occur at any time and anywhere in the kingdom including the capital Riyadh.
"We have received credible reports that terrorists are planning attacks in Saudi Arabia in the near future," DFAT said in its advisory.
"This follows other recent reporting suggesting that terrorists may be planning to attack residential housing compounds in Saudi Arabia."
DFAT said Australians in Saudi Arabia concerned for their safety should consider departure.
Those choosing to remain in Saudi Arabia should exercise extreme caution, including in places known to be frequented by foreigners and monitor developments that might affect their safety, it said.
Australians in Saudi Arabia were strongly encouraged to register with the Australian Embassy in Riyadh by way of the DFAT on-line registration service.
DFAT said the terrorist tactics could range from bombings through to smaller-scale attacks, such as drive-by shootings, kidnapping and opportunistic targeting of foreigners.
There have also been frequent gun-battles between terrorists and security forces and a number of vehicle bombs and arms caches have been captured.
DFAT said Australians should thoroughly check their vehicles before driving, especially after leaving them unattended.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
08/08/2005
02:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Mirroring the US alert for today and tomorrow. They definitely have something specific, for a change...
THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) today warned Saudi Arabians to avoid all non-essential travel to Australia, citing credible reports of extreme danger to life and limb.
Edited for a taste of what the article is about.
al Qaeda and allied groups are using the Internet to recruit more fighters, spread their message and train their followers to commit acts of terror. Samples of terrorist manuals and screenshots of jihadist Web sites are also available.
Al Qaeda suicide bombers and ambush units in Iraq routinely depend on the Web for training and tactical support, relying on the Internet's anonymity and flexibility to operate with near impunity in cyberspace. In Qatar, Egypt and Europe, cells affiliated with al Qaeda that have recently carried out or seriously planned bombings have relied heavily on the Internet.
Such cases have led Western intelligence agencies and outside terrorism specialists to conclude that the "global jihad movement," sometimes led by al Qaeda fugitives but increasingly made up of diverse "groups and ad hoc cells," has become a "Web-directed" phenomenon, as a presentation for U.S. government terrorism analysts by longtime State Department expert Dennis Pluchinsky put it. Hampered by the nature of the Internet itself, the government has proven ineffective at blocking or even hindering significantly this vast online presence.
Among other things, al Qaeda and its offshoots are building a massive and dynamic online library of training materials -- some supported by experts who answer questions on message boards or in chat rooms -- covering such varied subjects as how to mix ricin poison, how to make a bomb from commercial chemicals, how to pose as a fisherman and sneak through Syria into Iraq, how to shoot at a U.S. soldier, and how to navigate by the stars while running through a night-shrouded desert. These materials are cascading across the Web in Arabic, Urdu, Pashto and other first languages of jihadist volunteers.
There's nothing stopping us from setting up our own websites, full of bomb making instructions guaranteed to be more hazardous to the the maker than the target.
And why not set up our own cells while we're at it? Jihadis check in, but they don't check out.
Do this often enough and no jihadi will trust a damn thing he sees on the net.
LONDON: Five hundred radical Muslim extremists are to be deported by the British government, reports the News of the World newspaper. The paper claims that the immigration officials have already been given a list of names â compiled by MI5 â and told to begin proceedings. The first could be sent back to their homeland over the next two weeks. Among the first to be deported will be a dozen radical clerics. But hundreds of other foreign extremists, including some Islamic bookshop owners, writers, teachers and website operators will also go.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke will begin the process when he returns from holiday this week. He will issue deportation orders and the people will be forcibly sent back. They will then be able to appeal â from abroad. All 500 have been taken from a "watch list" of extremists compiled over the past five years by the Intelligence Service. Their identities are being kept secret so that they will not be able to go into hiding or mount a legal challenge.
Officials at both the Home Office and the Foreign Office revealed an "initial wave" of up to 100 people will be booted out in the next month. Another 100 foreign nationals will then be sent home by the end of the year. And 300 more will be sent home next year once the government has new laws in place to strip them of their British citizenship and force them back to the countries of their birth.
Over the next week agreements will be completed with 10 African and Middle Eastern countries to make sure they will accept the extremists. The government has already signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Jordan. Similar agreements will be made with nine other countries including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya and Lebanon. The government is also trying to do a deal with Saudi Arabia.
News of the massive crackdown follows Prime Minister Tony Blairâs announcement on Friday of a purge on terrorists and extremists. A senior Home Office official said: "Just as the police operation over the past four weeks has been dynamic and fast-paced, so will our response." The News of the World also claimed parliament will be recalled. MPs will be ordered to cut their holidays and be back in Westminster in five weeks. On September 12 the new Anti-Terrorism Bill will be presented to parliament.
One prominent Muslim cleric on Saturday caused outrage by comparing the crackdown on extremists to Adolf Hitlerâs demonisation of the Jews in pre-war Germany. Dr Mohammed Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Mosque, said: "He (Hitler) started a process of elimination of Jewish people. I see the similarities." Anti-terror cops are continuing to probe a haul of fake passports handed to them by the News of the World last week.
#1
Oh purr-lease, Dr Mohammed Naseem. Blame everyone else apart from the moonbats in your midst. We'll be lucky if we kick out 5, let alone 500. I
However, if we don't start work on removing the nasties I fear we will sadly see someting akin to Krystalnacht occurring here in the future.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/08/2005 7:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Heh.
D'ya think Mr. Clarke just mighta considered this important enough to return early from holiday??
Too little too late, but at least it is some progress.
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/08/2005 8:26
Comments ||
Top||
#3
A journey of a thousand li starts with one step.
#4
If they can't reach aggreement with their native land to take them back, then this may be an opportunity to populate Hans Island. .... the people will be forcibly sent back. They will then be able to appeal â from abroad. Now there's a 'due process' I can agree with.
If it doesn't do anything else, this action by the British government should mute a bunch of loud mouths spewing sedition and treachery.
#5
"He (Hitler) started a process of elimination of Jewish people. I see the similarities."
That's because you've been taught the Jews were rabble-rousers, instigators, and terrorists and got what they deserved. Therefore, the process is exactly the same, as far as you're concerned!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/08/2005 9:51
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Dr Mohammed Naseem...If Blair was Hitler he would torch your sorry a** and the rest of your islam-cockroach brethern.
#10
I'm doubtful for two reasons. The first is that it is from News of the World, not known for its accuracy. Second is that there is a huge welfare state establishment that exists to a considerable extent to help people like this avoid government oversight and control. Hook Hand, for one, has played on this establishment like a trumpet, getting more than a million pounds of government money while delaying his departure by years.
#11
I will believe it when I see it. The England is more badly infested with TRANZIs as it is with "radical" muslims. The first case will be filed to stop the deportations in the law courts before those civil servants who will half hearted enforce this straighten their ties.
Good Luck Tony, Clarke should be home today doing this not screwing around on vacation. That is the first indication that this will not happen.
#12
I think the main difference was that the Jews weren't actually doing anything to deserve being targeted for abuse by the Nazis, wasn't it? I mean, there weren't any evil hook-nosed jews blowing up on streetcars in Berlin in the early 30's, were there?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 14:32
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Mojo, exactly there is no need to demonise the moose limbs as they do a great job of doing it for themselves. To compare the two situations is a joke and shows that they have lost the ability to even think rationally....
#16
Especially ironic considering some of those being eject have commented on the fact that Hitler had the right idea towards the Jews. Never mind the fact the Nazis had a lot to do with the Islamist movement in the early 20th century.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge ||
08/08/2005 16:08
Comments ||
Top||
#17
"Some problems are best disposed of from a great height - over water..."
-- James Mason (in character)
"North by Northwest"
From ABC News - Condolences to his family.
Aug. 7 â ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23, and his sister, Sarah Jennings.
In announcing Jennings' death to his ABC colleagues, News President David Westin wrote:
"For four decades, Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him.
"As you all know, Peter learned only this spring that the health problem he'd been struggling with was lung cancer. With Kayce, he moved straight into an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not.
"We will have many opportunities in the coming hours and days to remember Peter for all that he meant to us all. It cannot be overstated or captured in words alone. But for the moment, the finest tribute we can give is to continue to do the work he loved so much and inspired us to do."
#3
In the 15 min ABC evening news in 67 Arab Israeli war and maybe 74 I seem to remember him stepping out of press copter in the middle of a huge tank battle in the Sinai. TOWs and the like were running everywhere. Very brave and maybe stupid too but very brave...
Cancer is nothing I woudl wish even on my worst enemy.
Even Osama should die from a clean shot to the head, or lethal injection - or a hanging. Show him up even in death that we are far more human (yes Human, not humane) than him and his fellow Islamo-fascists.
#9
The old adage that "if you can't say something good, then don't say anything" applies here.
Posted by: mac ||
08/08/2005 5:39
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Whatever we feel about his politics, by all accounts he was a loving father and husband who had a profound effect on his profession.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/08/2005 7:01
Comments ||
Top||
#11
LHR- Few if any of us here agreed with his politics, but we have some class. We're not like DU or Koszies who seem to wish death on anyone who disagrees with them.
#13
He might have been a liberal but he was willing to debate conservatives without "bomb throwing.," which is all I ask.
FYI..Research shows that if you stop smoking in a reasonable amount of time, your lung can regenerate, to a point. If any RB's out there is smoking, stop NOW!! Better yet, NEVER start!!! It shouldn't take someone dying to make you think twice about your life. Remember you are not just killing yourself, you are also killing your wife/husband & kids, when you die.
#14
In all fairness, it is not the manner nor the means of his death we criticize--it is the life he lead. For like a dishonest, but popular politician, his smiling face is what most people remember, never having seen the harm he promulgated on others, and his intent to do so. By manipulating the news as he did, he sewed much anguish among those he disdained. And though he was uneducated, never having completed high school, he pretended to intellectualism and moral superiority, while embracing the lowest order of decay and corruption in his political allies. Perhaps his most annoying feature was that he often implied that in being a Canadian he was somehow superior to Americans. That in being a Canadian, in itself, made him better than the hoi-polloi, the rednecks and crackers, the untermensch that dwell below the border of his native country. So, what is there to mourn with his passing? That he courted the unjust, that he oppressed the honorable, that he used his position to deride the audience he held in contempt, that he attempted to manipulate the political sphere in favor of such as Bill Clinton? I will not mourn for Peter Jennings, I will forget him. For what he wanted in life was in itself his punishment, and seeing his faction brought low surely distressed him more than the opinions of the red state Americans he disliked.
#15
Did you feel sorry when Goebbels died? He is part of the cancer of my country. I can give a big stinky poo weather people agree with me or not with my politics.
Debate a conservative without throwing bomb shells..WTF!! Short memories. We are all gonna die sometime and why should this pinko from the north get any props at all!! He poisoned thousands of American minds. You people make this clown sound like he was somebody. I will grieve when Fred dies, now that will be a tragedy (God forbid any time with in the next 100 years). I identify my enemy and they stay that way until they change or die!
#16
Peter Jennings was part of the problem, but he was not the problem itself. His death is not a cause to celebrate or an opportunity to further criticize him.
Pete definitely had his moments and he was never a complete idiotarian, keeping in mind that the scale includes the likes of the BBC and Noam Chomsky.
Does anyone remember how he bitch-slapped Wesley Clark for accepting support from Michael Moore last year?
Jennings: Now, that's a reckless charge not supported by the facts. And I was curious to know why you didn't contradict him . . .
Clark: Well, I think Michael Moore has the right to say whatever he feels about this.I don't know whether this is supported by the facts or not. I've never looked at it. I've seen this charge bandied about a lot. But to me it wasn't material . . .
Jennings: Since this question and answer in which you and Mr. Moore was involved in, you've had a chance to look at the facts. Do you still feel comfortable with the fact that someone should be standing up in your presence and calling the president of the United States a deserter?
Clark: To be honest with you, I did not look at the facts, Peter. You know, that's Michael Moore's opinion. He's entitled to say that. I've seen -- he's not the only person who's said that. I've not followed up on those facts. And frankly, it's not relevant to me and why I'm in this campaign.
Clark âs reluctance to contradict Moore was criticized the next day by the newspaper that started it all, the Boston Globe, which said in an editorial:
"News reports, including some in the Globe , have questioned Bush's constancy as a National Guard airman at the time, but he has not been credibly accused of desertion, a serious charge. Clark should have distanced himself from the remark."
#17
he pretended to intellectualism and moral superiority, while embracing the lowest order of decay and corruption in his political allies.
Death moose...well said, his 'work' wasn't harmless.
No pretense in death, the final equalizer...and follows as many of us believe, Judgement day.
Spot:
We're not like DU or Koszies who seem to wish death on anyone who disagrees with them.
agreed.
I wish his family well, God bless.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/08/2005 11:34
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Long Hair Rep.,
Take your meds, man! I agree with you and Moose. I have had a strong dislike for Pete for many years. But, today is not the day to grind him into a pulp. Wait about 1 or 2 days, and then do it.
#20
Go look up the tapes. He said "oat" for the word "out," but had no trouble correctly pronouncing the word "thousand."
Posturing phony...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/08/2005 13:37
Comments ||
Top||
#21
How do they say thousand?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/08/2005 13:40
Comments ||
Top||
#22
LHR: We are all gonna die sometime and why should this pinko from the north get any props at all!!
Jennings was a pinko liberal. But the current crop of young journalists is flat-out red (or green, or whatever the enemy's colors are). We are going to miss his relative moderation.
#25
LHR, others - I didn't watch Jennings and didn't like what I knew of him, but THIS WEEK is not the time to say anything but condolences to his family.
They loved him, and had to watch him die an agonizing death. (The fact that he brought it on himself doesn't lessen their suffering one bit.)
I don't expect you to say anything nice about him - I certainly won't - but for THIS WEEK show some class and STFU.
My condolences to his family. The last few months have been a horrible time for them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2005 15:58
Comments ||
Top||
#27
As a professional, Jennings outlived his era. An era where the three propagandists (Jennings, Rather/Conkite, and Broka) could tell us shit that we were ill-equipped to refute.
As a person, I hope Jennings rests in peace and that his loved ones grieve and then find happiness.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/08/2005 18:14
Comments ||
Top||
#28
Shipman, I still miss cigarettes too after stopping over 22 years ago for good.
Getting pregnant was the only way I was able to quit.
I'm sorry to know that smoking is so glorious to most folks.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 18:50
Comments ||
Top||
#29
Gentlemen: A three-day moratorium, please, on griping about Jennings.
I have been taking care of my mother, who has bone cancer, now terminal, for three years now. I know what the family is going through. They need your prayers.
Captain America (#27) said it best. End it here, please.
Gunmen stormed two buildings in Gaza on Sunday to protest against the arrest of a top official from the leading Fatah group by a Palestinian security officer. The gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, said they were protesting because men from the Preventive Security Service took away senior official Suleiman al-Fara. The Palestinian Interior Ministry confirmed Fara had been arrested but refused to say why.
"We can say no more!"
The gunmen took over a building owned by the Palestinian Red Crescent Thingy Society in the town of Khan Younis and then seized a municipal building nearby. Neither building was occupied and the Red Crescent did not comment.
They can say no more neither.
Both incidents seemed to be the latest examples of factional rivalry in the West Bank and Gaza, part of a violent political culture that Abbas has vowed to combat. "We will continue to carry out our protest activities and we are prepared to carry out things beyond imagination," said one of the gunmen. Fara is the director of the office of Farouq al-Qadoumi, the chairman of Fatah and a Palestine Liberation Organisation leader who is currently living in exile. Qadoumi said in a statement Fatah would "take the roughest measures of conduct" against those who detained him if Fara was not released in 24 hours". Tension between various forces in the Gaza Strip grew last week after Fatah activists began training what they called a "Popular Army" that they said would help to keep law and order. Officials close to Abbas, under pressure at home and abroad to slim down security services and disarm burgeoning militia, said the Fatah force was not approved.
#2
... men from the Preventive Security Service....
That's positively Orwellian. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
Time to send the IDF a a couple more pizzas on the general principle of their having neutered these asshats to the point where their first reaction is against their own.
#4
You are right on BAR. These folks wouldn't know the rule of law and justice if you beat them in the head with it for 6 more decades. They behave like violent nutters and keep wondering why people see them and treat them as violent nutters. There's a big knowledge deficit in paleo society and it sure looks like a growing sinkhole. Their future ain't so nice to contemplate.
#8
Okay, got your peanuts, your salt, your corn your molasses..... uh oh molasses... humm... got your chemical industrial mixermachine. Yeah. Gotta be kosher. Don't touch the prize tho, it' t**** and should be send to me.
#9
Just another example of why the U.S. needs to stay involved in the situation over there. Has anyone seen www.mideastcalm.org ? A ton of U.S. leaders (right-wing, left-wing, religious, business--Former Sec. of Defense William Cohen, Former Sec. of State Madeline Albright !!) have signed on to this campaign promoting sustained leadership in the Middle East. Sign it yourselves, and tell other people, because its in our national interest.
#12
Don't take this the wrong way, CS, but signing a petition won't accomplish a damned thing.
The paleos don't care. Period.
They don't care what anyone anywhere in the world thinks about them. The only thing they care about is murdering all the Jews and taking their land (which the paleos would promptly run into the ground just like the land they have now).
And it's no secret, either. Their goal is written down for all the world to see. And they've NEVER renounced it.
So I think I'll pass on the petition. Particularly since HalfBright thinks it's a good idea.
Nothing personal, you understand.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/08/2005 20:46
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Former Sec. of State Madeline Albright !!
Known 'round here by her Indian name -- Dances with Murderers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/08/2005 20:54
Comments ||
Top||
#14
throw in some dots with that popcorn, that's always a good mix.
Although I don't like horror episodes,
the paleos won't stop, they'll keep wanting more
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 21:35
Comments ||
Top||
LUSAKA - Zambia extradited suspected British militant Haroon Rashid Aswad to Britain on Sunday, a senior Zambian government official said. âAswad has been deported to Britain. He was put on the plane at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) this morning,â Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Peter Mumba told Reuters. After arrival in Britain, he will probably be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted over an alleged attempt to set up a militant training camp in Oregon, the source said. Interpol said last week it had issued an arrest warrant for Aswad on behalf of the United States, which led to his detention.
Get out an orange jumpsuit and some SPF30 for this one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I will believe this guy will be extradited when I see him on US soil.
The TRANZI defenders of the Downtrodden already have the briefs ready to file in the law courts. It will be years if ever before he sees the inside of a US Jail.
Prince Muhammad ibn Nawaf will be the new Saudi ambassador to Britain, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced here yesterday during a wide-ranging press conference that touched on Saudi-British intelligence-sharing, Saudi-US relations as well as the Kingdom's interests in preserving global oil-market stability and supporting the new government of Iraq. The nomination of Prince Muhammad, son of former intelligence chief Prince Nawaf, is the first major appointment made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah after taking over as the Kingdom's new sovereign on Aug. 1. Prince Muhammad is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Studies and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Coming to a Soho brothel near me soon.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/08/2005 7:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hmmmph! No beard and a wimpy moustache. What kind of Soddy prince are you anyway? I recommend looking here for a few tips.
British police charged two additional suspects in the failed July 21 attacks. Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, who is accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a bus in east London, and Ramzi Mohammed, suspected of attempting the Oval underground train bombing, were arrested in raids in west London on July 29, police said.
All three July 21 bombing suspects in British police custody have now been charged. A fourth, known both as Osman Hussain and Hamdi Issac, was arrested in Rome and is being held there on international terrorism charges. The three face charges of conspiracy to commit murder; attempted murder; making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury; and conspiracy to use explosives.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A suspected Islamic militant deported to Britain was arrested Sunday on a U.S. warrant accusing him of conspiring to organize a training camp in Oregon to prepare jihad fighters in Afghanistan, police said. The arrest of Haroon Rashid al-Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent, comes as British prosecutors said they would consider treason charges against any Islamic extremists who express support for terrorism. The U.S. warrant accuses Aswat of conspiring with others between October 1999 and April 2000 to set up a camp in Bly, Ore., aimed at training and equipping individuals to "fight jihad in Afghanistan," police said in a statement. Aswat, 30, had been detained in Zambia since July 20, where he was questioned about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cell phone with some of the bombers responsible for the July 7 transit attacks in London that killed 52 people and the four bombers. British newspaper reports quoting intelligence sources there have in recent days played down the possibility Aswat masterminded the London bombings. He was deported Sunday to Britain, said Zambian Home Affairs Secretary Peter Mumba.
Aswat is one of two associates of the Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri who are referred to but not named or charged in a 2002 indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Seattle against a Muslim convert from the area, officials have said. The other is Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, who was convicted of weapons violations in Sweden in 2003. Aswat and Kassir "inspected the proposed jihad training camp at the Bly property ... and they and others participated in firearms training and viewed a video recording on the subject of improvised poisons" in November and December 1999, the indictment said. Under U.S. law, the United States has 60 days to secure an indictment against Aswat, now that he has been arrested on provisional warrant.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Militant Wanted in U.S. Appears in British Court LONDON (AP) - A suspected Islamic militant accused of organizing a terror training camp in Oregon appeared in a British court Monday after the U.S. requested his extradition. A judge ordered that Haroon Rashid Aswat, a 30-year-old British citizen, be held until Thursday, when the case will resume at a central London court.
Aswat appeared at the Bow Street Magistrates Court in a special sitting near southeast London's high-security Belmarsh prison a day after he was deported from Zambia, where he was detained in connection with the London bombings.
He faces questions about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cell phone to some of the bombers responsible for the July 7 suicide attacks that killed 56 people, including the four bombers. But the extradition hearing was based on accusations he tried to set up a camp in Bly, Ore., in 1999-2000 to provide training in weapons, hand-to-hand combat and martial arts for people aiming to fight in Afghanistan.
Aswat's lawyer, Hossein Zahir, indicated his client would challenge the extradition. "He wishes to stress that he has nothing to hide," Zahir told the court. "He denies any suggestion that he's a terrorist or engaged in any terrorist activity." Zahir said his client was surprised the allegations were being made five years since the alleged incidents.
Aswat, who appeared in court wearing a black robe over a light brown shirt, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and to say he would contest the extradition. Prosecutor Hugo Keith, representing the U.S. authorities, said Aswat flew to New York on Nov. 26, 1999, before taking a bus to Seattle in order to help set up the camp in nearby Oregon.
Keith told the court that Aswat had been sent to the United States by a prominent British-based Islamic cleric also wanted by the American authorities. Senior District Judge Timothy Workman barred journalists from identifying the cleric to avoid prejudicing a separate trial the cleric faces in Britain.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005 9:11
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Senior District Judge Timothy Workman barred journalists from identifying the cleric to avoid prejudicing a separate trial the cleric faces in Britain. That'll be hook boy then. There's been much downplaying of purdymouth's involvement in the 7/7 & 21/7 attacks - wonder why. Hope we gets him first.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/08/2005 9:20
Comments ||
Top||
RIYADH - The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday its premises in Riyadh as well as two consulates will be shut for two days in response to an unspecified threat, an embassy statement said. âIn response to a threat against US government buildings in the kingdom the US embassy in Riyadh and the US consulates general in Jeddah and Dhahran will be closed on August 8 and 9,â it said, without providing further details.
âAmerican citizens are advised to exercise caution and maintain good situational awareness when visiting commercial establishments frequented by Westerners or in primarily Western environments,â it added.
The US embassy warned on July 20 that terrorists could strike again in Saudi Arabia, which has been rocked by a spate of bloody attacks attributed to Al-Qaeda militants in the past two years. âThe American embassy in Riyadh advises all American citizens living in Saudi Arabia that it has received indications of operational planning for a terrorist attack or attacks in the kingdom,â the July warning said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Just two days, huh? Interesting that whatever the threat is they consider it confined to those 2 days. That's far more specific than usual. We used to get very generic warnings in our Warden emails - along with the notice that the consulate had already been closed... It would reopen when State decided and ordered them to return to The Magik Kingdom from Bahrain and the UAE, where they invariably went for these impromptu holidays.
DHAKA â One hundred and four children, who were trafficked from Bangladesh and employed as camel jockeys, will be repatriated from the United Arab Emirates soon.
A three-member delegation left for the UAE to bring the children back, said Shadullah Khan, an assistant superintendent of the police and head of the monitoring cell for combating trafficking in women and children in Dhaka yesterday. The United Nations Childrenâs Fund is supporting the repatriation process.
About 500 children, who had long been used as camel jockeys, have recently been rescued and taken to the governmentâs shelter home under the UAE interior ministry, said an official of the home ministry.
Sources in the foreign ministry said the Bangladesh delegation would identify Bangladeshis among the rescued children. The number of Bangladeshi children may increase as there is no exact figure, said the official. He also said children, who had grown up, might choose to stay back, but minors would be repatriated with the assistance of Unicef in phases.
Great, they can stay in the UAE or return home to ... Bangladesh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If you were in the UAE would you really want to go back to bangladeath? UAE must be like Disneyland compared to bangledesh.
#2
When the choice is between Bangladesh and a UAE orphanage?
How many of these children were taken from their families at such a young age that they don't know their true name or where they came from? Will their choice then be between a UAE orphanage and a Bangladeshi one?
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's office said the Crown Prosecution Service's head of anti-terrorism would meet with senior Metropolitan Police officers to discuss possible charges against three prominent clerics as part of a crackdown on those the government believes are inciting terrorism.
Clerics Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Izzaden and Abu Uzair, have appeared on British television in recent days and a spokeswoman for Lord Goldsmith's office said prosecutors and police would look at remarks made by the three and consider whether they could face charges of treason, incitement to treason, solicitation of murder, or incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police. Mohammed has reportedly said since the July 7 attacks that he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning another attack and he supports insurgents who attack troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"No decision on charges has been made yet," the attorney general's office spokeswoman said, speaking anonymously because British civil servants are rarely allowed to be quoted by name. The spokeswoman said prosecutors may also seek access to taped recordings made by an undercover Sunday Times reporter who reportedly recorded members of a radical group praising the suicide bombers as "The Fantastic Four." The newspaper's story said its reporter spent two months as a "recruit" of the group, the Savior Sect, and described the organization as inciting young British Muslims to become terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Compare and Contrast
Clerics Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Izzaden and Abu Uzair
What would they look like if they shaved their beards and wore wwestern clothing????
#2
Heh.. after a good dose of Ludovico's Technique. Nice work, Ed.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
08/08/2005 6:29
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Anyone who was living in the UK between say 2000 to 2005 knew this would come about sooner or later (unfortunately later after 57 boomer deaths). All you had to do was tune in BBC and that asswipe, idiot in funky ties, Jon Snow, and watch the Islamifascist idiots rhethoric about Jihad, the Joooos, Amerika, and then the nodding assent from the guilty white guys in the newsroom. Too bad it took so long but they aren't gone yet.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/08/2005 11:06
Comments ||
Top||
#4
flash: bakri has flown the coop!
BBC reports Bakri, fearing arrest for treason, has left Britain for the ME, possibly Lebanon.
NOUAKCHOTT - Mauritanian Prime Minister Sghair Ould MâBareck, who had remained in post after a military coup in the northwest African state, on Sunday handed in his ceremonial sash, parking pass, executive washroom keys and resignation as well as that of his government, sources close to the presidency said.
Seeing as he wasn't needed any more ...
Ould MâBareck announced his resignation following a meeting with Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, the head of the ruling Military Council for Justice and Democracy that was set up after last Wednesdayâs coup.
"I'll go quietly. Don't shoot!"
The new regime has promised to hold a referendum on a revised constitution within a year, followed by presidential and parliamentary elections that should take place within two years at the most. Following the announcement, Vall immediately summoned Sidy Mohamed Ould Boubacar, a leader of the former ruling Social Democratic Republican Party (PRDS), the sources said. Boubacar, who served as prime minister under ousted President Maaouiya Ould Taya, and later as ambassador to France, is widely tipped to head the transitional government that is to be set up to see the country through to new elections. Under a constitutional charter adopted by the Military Council on Saturday, the Council head exercises executive power and nominates the prime minister and members of the transitional government.
"We'll nominate you to be PM, but we're keeping the parking card for ourselves."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What about bicycle gears? Did he have any of those?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of using its agents to spy on the south American country. Mr Chavez said his country would sever its ties with the DEA and no longer collaborate with the US.
Mr Chavez said the country would continue to work with other international groups. "The DEA was using the fight against drug trafficking as a mask, to support drug trafficking, to carry out intelligence in Venezuela against the government," Mr Chavez said. "Under those circumstances we have decided to make a clean break with those accord," he added.
Sounds like the DEA was getting some dirt on the Cuban connection ...
President Chavez also criticised the US policy on drugs for concentrating on the supply rather than the demand of drugs.
Last week US Ambassador William Brownfield had said the US hoped to continue collaborative anti-drug efforts in the country. He warned that, without them, "there is only one group that wins, and that group is the drug traffickers."
And Hugo just declared which side he's on ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hugo re-sets the bar for paranoia every week. Wotta machine, heh.
Members of Muslim communities in the city where two of the 7 July bombers lived have visited London to pay their respects at each of the bomb sites. The delegation from Leeds laid wreaths and said prayers at the four sites in which 52 people were killed. Bus bomber Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, lived in Holbeck and Aldgate bomber Shehzad Tanweer, 22, came from Beeston. Edgware Road bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, lived in Dewsbury, West Yorks, but worked at a Beeston school.
The visit followed further talks between Muslim communities in Leeds and a delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The delegation, which has been organised by the Leeds Islamic Centre, includes members from various sections of the local community in the city and will be joined by MCB representatives. The groups paid it resepcts first at King's Cross station. They then went to Tavistock Square, Aldgate Tube station and Edgware Road London Underground station.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Who exactly are they paying respect to? prayers for what?
#2
But they ain't gonna pray and worship with none of us stinking kafir. Probably praying that allan don't po all the UK to the point where they are forced to go back to "muslim lands" and live in real "muslim" style.
#7
Depends on what sect. I am willing to give Ahmadists or Ismailis the benefit of doubt. If they were even remotely related to Salafists/Wahabists then it was all takiya to avoid backslash and their prayers if any were about a bloodier result for next bombing.
Benon Sevan resigned from the United Nations on Sunday, hours before he is expected to be accused of getting kickbacks from the $67 billion operation.
Claudia Rossett, call your office.
A U.N.-established Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, plans to release on Monday its third interim report on allegations of corruption in the humanitarian program for Iraq, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003. Sevan is to be accused of getting cash for steering Iraqi oil contracts to an Egyptian trader and of refusing to cooperate with the Volcker panel, his attorney Eric Lewis said. Sevan has denied the allegations. On Sunday, Lewis distributed a letter from Sevan, 67, to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan resigning from his current job, which he was given after he retired. The $1-a-year post carries immunity and was meant to ensure he would cooperate with the probe. But Sevan may have preempted a dismissal from this arrangement as the United Nations in the past has taken action against staff fingered in the Volcker report.
Sevan blamed the secretary-general and his staff for not defending the program and making him a scapegoat. "I fully understand the pressure that you are under, and that there are those who are trying to destroy your reputation as well as my own, but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our critics or help you or the Organization," Sevan wrote. He said that the program, which supplied food and other goods to 27 million Iraqis, was often caught between conflicting mandates given by the U.N. Security Council, which supervised it, and national interests of those trying to do business with Iraq.
"National interests"? Is that a way of saying that the French and Russians were subverting the program?
The panel, in a February 3 interim report, expressed suspicion about four payments, amounting to $160,000, that Sevan had declared to the United Nations as funds from his now-deceased aunt. But Sevan noted on Sunday it was not credible he that would have compromised his career for $160,000 after handling billions of dollars in the program.
Dan Rostenkowski went to prison over postage stamps.
"The charges are false and you, who have known me all these years, should know that they are," Sevan wrote to Annan, recalling the 40 years he had worked at the world body. Lewis on Thursday began releasing Sevan's side of the story after receiving a letter from the Volcker panel outlining "adverse findings" that the report would contain. Sevan, a Cypriot, is alleged to have taken bribes "in concert with" the brother-in-law of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Lewis said. "The IIC claims that Mr. Sevan received money from African Middle East Petroleum in concert with Fred Nadler, a friend, and a relative by marriage of Mr. (Fakhry) Abdelnour, the principal of AMEP," Lewis said. Nadler is the brother of Leia Boutros-Ghali, wife of the former secretary-general. Abdelnour, the owner of AMEP, is a cousin of Boutros-Ghali, U.N. chief from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali himself has been questioned by the panel but is not linked to the bribe allegations. AMEP earned some $1.5 million from oil allocations that the panel says Sevan steered to the Egyptian trading firm.
#2
If he's no longer a UN employee, he no longer has diplomatic imumnity. More importantly, the UN can't keep him from testifying to the Senate comittee. Wonder if he'd like to make a deal, if he really feels Kofi is hanging him out to dry.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005 8:34
Comments ||
Top||
#3
But Sevan noted on Sunday it was not credible he that would have compromised his career for $160,000 after handling billions of dollars in the program.
That's why the actual dollar amount is higher. Much higher...
#2
Lol - I've described how it was in Saudi, at least in Al Khobar, before -- little pieces of paper with phone numbers of the males falling like snow from the 2nd & 3rd floors down through the atrium to the females on the ground floor - young brothers or sisters scampering around picking them up for their older sisters. Bluetooth is a new wrinkle, heh.
Mauritania's self-declared head of state on Sunday named a new prime minister to replace the former premier who resigned along with his Cabinet after last week's coup. A judge freed 21 people who had been detained for plotting against the ousted regime, a U.S. ally. Junta leader Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall named Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar as prime minister, the government said in a statement. The 49-year-old Boubacar returned to Mauritania on Saturday from France, where he had been serving as ambassador since 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received his Syrian counterpart Sunday, the first head of state to pay an official visit to the newly-inaugurated Iranian leader, and reiterated that the two countries should unite against their opponents. Syrian President Bashar Assad emphasized terrorism in his comments after arriving in Tehran for a two-day visit. "Iran and Syria should pay attention to terrorism, which is spreading in the Middle East," Assad said.
"And who would know about this more than our two countries?" he added.
Spreading, if I'm not mistaken, from Iran and Syria, in fact...
"Common threats deserve the formation of a united front by Iran and Syria more than ever," Ahmadinejad said at a joint news conference with Assad. "Boosting relations could protect the region from the threats." The Iranian leader did not identify the source of the threats but, in a commentary on the visit, Iranian state television said: "Cooperation between the two countries is important because the United States and Israel have invaded the region."
Think they're worried?
In a February visit to Tehran by Syria's prime minister, Iranian and Syrian officials spoke of forming a "united front" to counter external pressure, but nothing concrete about an alliance has emerged. The Iranian TV commentary said "Syria considers boosting relations (with Iran) as a way of reducing U.S. pressure on Damascus."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
The Pakistani government is deceiving the US and the West by helping militants freely enter Afghanistan from Waziristan, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday. Earlier, Fazl had said that if pressured he would reveal facts that would open a Pandoraâs box.
"Plots. Wheels within wheels. Enemies as far as the eye can see. Further, even. Open your hearts and your wallets, brethren and sistren."
The government would have to decide whether it wanted to support jihadis or close down their camps, he said, adding, âWe will have to openly tell the world whether we want to support jihadis or crack down on them. We canât afford to be hypocritical anymore...â
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Mullah Diesel: If you could please... GPS coords.. for all involved.
#3
He does raise a good point, for all the blame levied against the Mullah's for involvement in terrorism, it's not the holy men who run the training camps and arm the Jihadis.
I guess Mullah Diesel doesn't like it when he isn't allowed to go on a shopping spree diplomatic visit to Dubai.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/08/2005 0:28
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Me thinks that it is just another power play. His statements may contain factual data, but he's probably just trying to blackmail some concessions out of the Army, the ISI, the Saudi financers or the Feudals -- most likely the Army and/or ISI given the nature of his comments. Truth, lies... they're just two different types of ammunition.
#6
I guess Mullah Diesel doesn't like it when he isn't allowed to go on a shopping spree diplomatic visit to Dubai.
I think this really hurt him.
Beneath his "islamic" identity, he is like any Pak feudal and loves the high life. Being banned from the UAE while those in the army and ISI are free must rankle.
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 10:46
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Perhaps he is right. Were they to stay in Pakland, there is little the divided government could do about it. But helped out, or kicked out, to go to Afghanistan, the Pak government can only shrug and say that "It is the will of Allan that they walzed right in to a major ambush. Allan did not smile on them. They are martyrs. Not our problem."
SANAA - Yemen began the trial on Sunday of four Iraqis charged with plotting to bomb the US and British embassies in the capital Sanaa in 2003. The four defendants, one being tried in absentia, were also charged with spying for the government of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Security sources said three of the defendants were arrested in 2003 with bags of explosives in their possession. The men had worked as teachers in Yemen since 2002. The three Iraqis who were present at court, all in their 40s, pleaded innocent and said they had been coerced into confessing to the charges.
"Lies! All lies!"
The session was adjourned for the men to hire lawyers. The defendants have not been linked to Al Qaeda.
Like most Arab countries, Yemen was opposed to the 2003 US-led war on Iraq but it has cooperated closely with the United States in its war on terror.
Since they learned the lesson we were offering ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
The recent military operations have led to arresting 57 suspected terrorists in different areas of Baghdad, said Sunday the Multi-National Force (MNF). In a press statement, high-ranking MNF officers said the current actions have led to capturing suspected terrorists and discovering a number of weapon caches in different sectors of Baghdad. They added that the MNF was successful at deactivating a booby-trapped car and five bombs, as well as seizing hundreds of fake identification cards and four personal computers used in forging the identifications.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I guess they have to fire up another grill at Gitmo for some more glazed chicken...
MULTAN: Cases have been registered against 77 clerics, including Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, for violating the loudspeaker law in various cities of Punjab. Three prayer leaders were arrested in Mailsi and four in Bahawalpur. "We are implementing the Interior Ministry's orders regarding loudspeakers, provocative speeches and audio, video cassettes. We have registered cases against more than 200 violators in Multan division and arrested some of them who were later bailed out," said Malik Iqbal, Multan Police DIG.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
The new law forbids loudspeaker use except for the Friday call to prayer, as I recall. No more shrieked sermons whenever a mullah feels the urge, especially in response to someone else's shrieked sermon.
ISLAMABAD - A candidate in Pakistanâs Northwestern Frontier Province gave away his 11-year-old daughter to his opponent in exchange for latterâs withdrawal from next weekâ local elections, a news report said on Sunday.
But she had the body of an eight year old ...
Daily Times quoted an unnamed election official as saying that Ajoon, a resident of Kohistan district, more than 120 kilometres northwest of Islamabad, made the offer considering his opponent Vilayat Noor politically stronger. The two men were the only candidates for the post of nazim, or chief administrator. âHe wished to get elected unopposed ... thatâs why he also paid him (Noor) Rs. 200,000 (about 3,358 U.S. dollars),â the official told the newspaper.
In Pakistanâs semi-autonomous tribal regions and rural Punjab province, girls are also given away in marriage in the settlement of disputes though the custom called Swara or vani, already been declared illegal by a higher court.
Human rights groups and religious scholars also oppose the practice, describing it as un-Islamic.
Un-islamic? Pshaw! The great Profit (PTUI) sez it's okay, why he married a nine-year old hisself. How can that be wrong, riddle me that!"
Meanwhile, tribal elders and politicians have barred women from contesting the elections in some conservative districts of NWFP. âIt doesnât suit our traditions and culture,â Ayaz Khan, a provincial cabinet minister, said after signing an agreement banning womenâs participation in elections as candidate.
"It ain't Islamic. Never saw the Profit (PTUI) sponsor a woman for an election, didya? Didya?"
Such agreements have been signed among local elders and political partiesâ leaders in Dir, Batgram and Malakand districts. Human rights activists demanded the election commission postpone polls in those areas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What animals. This sickens me to no end.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/08/2005 0:17
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Carpet bomb the bastards unless they give us Osama and Omar's heads on silver platters...
#4
Even though, intellectually, the depths Shari'a and Islam plumb are apparent, it still surprises me at times in practice. This is one of those times. The "scholars" are no more than a quilting club - only they don't produce quilts. In practice, it is tribal / village based and interpreted on the whims of the insane self-serving cretins running the show. Even if there is a law against buying and selling elections, Shari'a will trump it. That's the only thing I am certain of in their bizarro world.
Voters across Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials Sunday in elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez said the elections marked "one more step in the strengthening of the electoral system" to prevent irregularities. Casting his ballot in a poor neighborhood of Caracas, he said "there is security, there is calm throughout the country."
The elections were to decide thousands of city council and parish board posts, plus two provincial mayors and one governor, in the sparsely populated state of Amazonas. More than 38,700 candidates were contesting the elections. In recent votes, opposition leaders called for boycotts, saying the country's electoral council is stacked in Chavez's favor. But this time only small opposition parties urged a boycott, while the major opposition parties called for participation to demonstrate unity. Some voters complained of administrative problems in the capital of Caracas, where some poll workers failed to show up on time. "There was a great lack of organization," said 71-year-old Teresa Mendoza, waiting in a line that had formed due to a lack of poll workers. Other polling stations had workers in place but few voters.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jimmuh Carter will endorse Chavez's landslide win in 3... 2...
(If he doesn't, Chavez will sic that killer rabbit on him again).
BEIJING - China will veto a plan to enlarge the United Nations Security Council if the reform measure goes to a vote, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. âTo uphold the interests of most developing nations, and to preserve the long-term interests of the United Nations, China will resolutely vote no if the G-4 proposal is put up for a vote,â the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.
The proposal calls for adding six permanent seats without veto powers -- four for the G-4 nations themselves and two for Africa -- and four seats on rotating two-year terms. âThe G-4 resolution fails to consider the interests of the majority of nations, including African countries, and has been opposed and questioned by many nations and cannot gain support,â the ministry said.
Chinaâs Foreign Ministry suggested the G-4 nations withdraw their resolution for further consultation among countries and warned against attempts to push through a vote. âAny forceful vote would only sharpen contradictions, affect the unity of (U.N.) member states and undermine the course of the progress of reform,â it said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well when you bully your way on to the security council in the first place you have to be expected to throw your weight around
#2
Maybe I missed something, how would expanding the council be bad? Doesn't china always stymie anything we want to do? Doesn't India have a population aproaching china's? Is brazil not considered a formidable first-world economy now? Someone help me out here, I must not be getting it.
#3
Other than South Africa and Egypt, every other nation in Africa in incapable of exerting military power abroad in the name of peace or a diversified coalition - There's a reason why its called the Security Council. A helluva lot of pragmatic considerations/presumptions are going to have to be made and SACRIFICED iff this current proposal is going to work - at best, the current proposal is asking for trouble and its not even accepted or implemented yet.
#4
The guys who want on the Sec Council include Brazil (notably anti-american in just about ALL their UN dealings), Germany (I can see the heebee jeebees being raised by Europeans in general here), the Japanese (as much as they're our allies, just about every asian/southeast asian country is gonna have heebee jeebees of the sort the europeans are having about germany on a permanent security council), and finally india which tends to be liberal socialists in there government workings.
Of the G-4 nations we can pretty much be sure of only Japan often siding with us but this also adds an element of a veto cropping up more often, not because of them having the power to veto which they wont have but rather because of the possible proposals or negatory views they might issue via resolutions, thereby negating any binding resolutions effectively. The Permanent seats for Africa is also another no go for the same reasons.
#7
Sounds pre-emptive, to me. India and Japan, as mentioned, are obvious candidates - neither of which would be acceptable to the ChiComs. This way they haven't named names aloud ("face" is such an interesting game), yet everyone knows who they would object to.
The UN is D.E.A.D. Assuming it ever really did, it long ago it ceased to function in the manner envisioned. Given the way things shape up today, I no longer believe it's better to try to kill it and work to get anyone to go along. No, now, we should just withdraw our excessive funding, keep our UNSC seat, and veto everything that comes down the pike that isn't in our absolute best interests.
I think I almost have enough fingers to count all of the nations that would go along with formally killing it. And the same is true of how many nations I would believe should be involved as founders of a replacement. Those two lists would likely be the same, anyway.
Seems to me that we should reduce US funding to 191th of the budget and stick to bilateral agreements for dealing with the real world... and let this disaster suffocate, scream its bloody head off, go fishing, whatever.
IMHO, about 180 of the 191 (still accurate?) "member states" should have little or no say in the running of a global forum. And I count China in that group, of course.
#8
India deserves this veto from China. Stupidity deserves insults like this.
It is Karma.
The USA consulted with the USSR in 1955 and offered a permanent seat with veto to India.
India's then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru responded with
"The first step to be taken is for China to take her rightful place, and then the question of India might be discussed separately,"
He was full of love for his commie chinese brethern. He wanted them on the UNSC.
When the Chinese attakced India in 1962 and delivered a serious butt whipping (they still occupy a huge chunk of Kashmir), it sped Nehru to an early grave. He was heartbroken over the end of Hindi-Chini-bhai-bhai ("indians and chinese are brothers").
In another bit of stupidity, Nehru handed over the cocos islands to Burma, as a token of brotherly love.
The Chinese have leased the island from Burma and built a surveilance station and military base there.
Nehru signed the Indus waters treaty with Pakistan, handing over the output of three Indian rivers to Pakistan and giving it more water, even though it was a smaller country. He hoped it would lead to brotherly love with pakistan.
The paks attacked in 1965 and launched a Jihadi terror campaign in 1988 that continues unabated.
Karma.
Vajpayee in 2000, signed an agreement with China where India recognized Chinese control of Tibet.
In response China simply changed a map where it showed Sikkim as non-Indian.
China did not officially acknowledge Sikkim as Indian. It also claims an entire Indian state as Chinese territory.
Karma
It is building all weather roads on its borders with India that can carry heavy armor.
It has stationed SRBMs in Tibet.
Karma.
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 11:29
Comments ||
Top||
#9
The icing on the cake was of course the Chinese arming of Pakistan with both nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
Compared to that the chinese veto is nothing..
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 15:37
Comments ||
Top||
"We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs." - Jawaharlal Nehru - 1947
"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 21:20
Comments ||
Top||
Interesting background info on the Pak army Going back to Pak army's economic superpower...What percentage of the GDP and GNP is it?
asidd66: This is difficult to calculate but their own estimates are about 4 % of GDP. I would say that their share in private sector assets is about 7-10 percent of private sector assets. This is a large number for any single group.
How much land does the forces own in each province?
asidd66: Difficult to bifurcate but to give you a taste - they own about 7-9 million acres in Punjab alone.
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Let's kidnap a few Paki generals and establish a market price for them. Start with Hamid Gul.
Posted by: ed ||
08/08/2005 6:13
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Might be quite a lucrative racket.
Posted by: john ||
08/08/2005 10:48
Comments ||
Top||
QUETTA, Pakistan - A homemade bomb exploded in a remote town in Pakistanâs southwestern Baluchistan province, shattering windows at a bakery and two other explosions elsewhere in the province damaged two power pylons early Sunday, officials said. No one was reported hurt.
Flour and custard were everywhere ...
"My pies! You boomed my friggin' pies! You bastards!"
The explosion that damaged the bakery occurred in the main bazaar in Turbat, a town about 650 kilometers southeast of Baluchistanâs capital of Quetta, local police official Abdul Sattar said. The bomb was planted in a drain near the bakery in Turbat, shattering the shopâs shutter and windows, he said.
Who the hell booms a pie shop? Are they running out of targets? Are there no rival holy men? Those Bugtis are a vicious lot!
Two other explosions damaged two huge electricity pylons, disrupting power to thousands of homes and businesses, said Jibrael Khan, a spokesman for the state-run utility company, Water and Power Development Authority. No one claimed responsibility for either attack, the latest in a series of small-scale bombings that have hit Baluchistan in recent years. Authorities suspect ethnic-Baluch nationalist groups for attacks against government installations in the province.
A Bugti spokesbeard was unavailable for comment: "Pies, all pies."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Those pies turn good muslims into raving apostates, so they had to go.
Hmmm... Usually they kill people they don't like...
LAHORE: A man died of his injuries in Mayo Hospital on Sunday. Imran Mughal (20), a resident of Shamasabad in Gujjarpura police precincts, owed Nadeem and Saleem Rs 5,000, which he borrowed around two months ago. On Saturday, Nadeem and Saleem had a fight with Mughal because they demanded their money. After an hour, both went to Mughalâs house and stabbed him and fled.
"Imran, we want our money back!"
"I ain't got it! I pissed it away on holy men and hookers!"
"Imran, you're a friend of mine. I can't kill you. Saleem, you do it!"
"Howzat gonna get us our money back, Nadeem?"
"Hmmm... Yer right. Don't â "
"Aaaaiiiiieeee! Rosebud!"
"... kill him."
Neighbours admitted him to hospital where he died early on Sunday. The body was sent for an autopsy.
"Another one, Dr. Quincy!"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Thanks for the tip. Now I have a answer when one of my friends asks for a loan: "Sorry man, can't do it. I loan you money, I'd most likely end up having to kill ya. And we don't want that."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/08/2005 8:23
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Knife? Obviously there was no padlock handy. Sand in the tumblers or on the inside of the shackle would have been an unpleasant expereince to contemplate.....
My guess is that they were rioting because they think Garang was assassinated. What's the committee think?
Sudanese President Omar Bashir yesterday decreed the formation of a ministerial committee to probe deadly rioting that erupted following the death of former southern rebel John Garang, official media said.
Good move. Form a committee. That always works.
The panel will investigate âcircumstances that led to the eruption of riot, murder, arson and damage against the citizens in Khartoum and other states in the wake of announcing the death of First Vice President John Garang.â The riots, which mainly pitted Christian or animist southerners against Muslim northerners earlier this week, left 111 people dead in Khartoum and 19 in two southern towns, according to the Red Cross. The committee, which is chaired by Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Bekri Hassan Salih, is to probe âthe reasons, motives and parties that contributed to the incidents,â state media said, quoting the text of the decree. It will also investigate any âsecurity shortcomings and negligence in dealing with the incidents.â The committee has two weeks from the date of commencing its task to submit its report to the president.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - US-led coalition and Afghan forces attacked a suspected Taleban hideout in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight militants and arresting three others, an official said on Sunday. One Afghan soldier was wounded in the operation, which triggered a firefight early Saturday in Zabul provinceâs Shahr-e-safa district, said the districtâs chief, Haji Ghulam Rasol.
The troops also seized an unspecified number of weapons from the militants, including AK-47 assault rifles, rockets and ammunition, he said. With the support of coalition forces, Afghan soldiers were searching the area for more fighters, Rasol said.
A US military spokeswoman said she had no information about the incident.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Suspected Taliban?!??
If you are in southeastern Afghanistan with a bunch of rockets and machine guns you are not a goat herder, you are Taliban. What the hell else would you be?
#8
What was the place in the old Caine & Connery movie of the Kipling story 'The Man Who Would Be King'? Kafiristan? (if I recall it correctly, it makes for a rather interesting translation - Infidel-Land?) I think I need to watch that movie again.
One of two main challengers to President Hosni Mubarak in next month's elections said Sunday that if elected, he would abolish Egypt's emergency laws and release all political prisoners. But Noaman Gomaa, a law professor who leads the New Wafd Party, told reporters he would not let the Muslim Brotherhood stand as a party in elections. "We reject any party founded on a religious basis," Gomaa said, referring to Egypt's biggest Islamic group. "They should be left as a religious social group, one that spreads the principles of Islam."
The Brotherhood's political role has long been problematic. Although tolerated, the Brotherhood is outlawed and cannot contest elections. Many Egyptians who favor greater democracy fear that if the Brotherhood were allowed to run, it win overwhelmingly. Echoing current government policy, Gomaa said that if the Brotherhood wanted to take part in politics, it should support independent candidates or ally itself with an existing party. By endorsing nominally independent candidates, the Brotherhood has 15 seats in the 454-member parliament and is the largest opposition bloc. In the 1984 elections, Gomaa's New Wafd allied itself with the Brotherhood and won 58 seats in parliament. Today the Wafd has four seats.
Gomaa, 70, and Ayman Nour, 40, a former Wafd member who leads the Al-Ghad party, are the biggest names standing against Mubarak, 77, in elections scheduled for Sept. 7.
Lemme see, here. Hosni, at 77, is getting to the point where he's going to fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Antiquities. He and Gomaa, assuming they get along, can share Grecian Formula. An actuary would expect one or both to be pushing up daisies five years from now. It doesn't look like Nour's got much of a chance, which means the Land of Denial won't be bubbling over for another year or two.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/08/2005
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One of two main challengers to President Hosni Mubarak in next month's elections said Sunday that if elected
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.
U.S. Marines discovered a car bomb factory Monday in a western Iraqi town near where 20 members of the American unit were killed last week, the U.S. military said. Six vehicles rigged with explosives were found in the hideout in the northern part of Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of towns in western Anbar province long believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters. "All of the rigged vehicles were destroyed and secondary explosions were observed by the Marines," a Marine statement said.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday rejected calls for talks with Zimbabwe's opposition leader on resolving the country's political and economic crisis. In a clear reference to neighboring South Africa, Mugabe said he is getting pressure to hold talks with opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai from "quarters that should know better." "Today we tell all those calling for such ill-conceived talks to please stop their misdirected efforts," Mugabe told thousands of cheering supporters at the annual commemoration of the war to end white rule in this former breakaway British colony.
A top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect, indicted by a U.N. tribunal for some of the worst atrocities in the Bosnian war, was arrested Monday in Argentina. Milan Lukic was being held at a police station in Buenos Aires and was to be questioned by a judge after being arrested in the city on an "international request," according to Argentine Federal Police. Lukic was indicted by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2000 for crimes against humanity. He also has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Serbia for war crimes but has been on the run since late 1990s.
Hizbullah officials have voiced their opposition to pardoning Lebanese citizens who collaborated with Israel during its occupation of Lebanon. Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Qassem Hashem, a member of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc, announced that several MPs are preparing a bill to deny Lebanese nationality for all "agents" who obtained Israeli citizenship "after they became Israelis through loyalty to their Zionist masters."
US and Iraqi forces have killed 11 foreign fighters and arrested 805 others throughout Iraq last week, a statement by the Multinational Force said Monday.
Pakistani intelligence agencies and security forces have netted down another local alleged Al-Qaeda operative in an eastern city, said sources on Monday. 
ISTANBUL -- Two persons died and six others suffered injuries in a blast that rocked the district of Zeytinburun in this city on Monday, security sources said. The sources said the explosion occured while two persons were trying to set up a bomb, adding that the two men were suspected of being members of the outlawed rebel Kurdish organization, the Labor Party of Kurdistan (the PKK). Authorities have begun investigations into circumstances of the explosion.
Children as young as 11 are being targeted by radical Muslims who appear to have infiltrated a mainstream Muslim website, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. Literature aimed at children between 11 and 18 on the youth section of the 
Gunmen stormed two buildings in Gaza on Sunday to protest against the arrest of a top official from the leading Fatah group by a Palestinian security officer. The gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, said they were protesting because men from the Preventive Security Service took away senior official Suleiman al-Fara. The Palestinian Interior Ministry confirmed Fara had been arrested but refused to say why. 
LUSAKA - Zambia extradited suspected British militant 
Prince Muhammad ibn Nawaf will be the new Saudi ambassador to Britain, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced here yesterday during a wide-ranging press conference that touched on Saudi-British intelligence-sharing, Saudi-US relations as well as the Kingdom's interests in preserving global oil-market stability and supporting the new government of Iraq. The nomination of Prince Muhammad, son of former intelligence chief Prince Nawaf, is the first major appointment made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah after taking over as the Kingdom's new sovereign on Aug. 1. Prince Muhammad is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Studies and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
British police charged two additional suspects in the failed July 21 attacks. 
A suspected Islamic militant deported to Britain was arrested Sunday on a U.S. warrant accusing him of conspiring to organize a training camp in Oregon to prepare jihad fighters in Afghanistan, police said. The arrest of 
RIYADH - The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday its premises in Riyadh as well as two consulates will be shut for two days in response to an unspecified threat, an embassy statement said. âIn response to a threat against US government buildings in the kingdom the US embassy in Riyadh and the US consulates general in Jeddah and Dhahran will be closed on August 8 and 9,â it said, without providing further details.
Benon Sevan resigned from the United Nations on Sunday, hours before he is expected to be accused of getting kickbacks from the $67 billion operation. 
The Pakistani government is deceiving the US and the West by helping militants freely enter Afghanistan from Waziristan, 
SANAA - Yemen began the trial on Sunday of four Iraqis charged with plotting to bomb the US and British embassies in the capital Sanaa in 2003. The four defendants, one being tried in absentia, were also charged with spying for the government of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
MULTAN: Cases have been registered against 77 clerics, including 
ISLAMABAD - A candidate in Pakistanâs Northwestern Frontier Province gave away his 11-year-old daughter to his opponent in exchange for latterâs withdrawal from next weekâ local elections, a news report said on Sunday.
Voters across Venezuela cast ballots to select thousands of local officials Sunday in elections that could predict how well President Hugo Chavez's political allies will fare in key congressional elections in December. Chavez said the elections marked "one more step in the strengthening of the electoral system" to prevent irregularities. Casting his ballot in a poor neighborhood of Caracas, he said "there is security, there is calm throughout the country."
BEIJING - China will veto a plan to enlarge the United Nations Security Council if the reform measure goes to a vote, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. âTo uphold the interests of most developing nations, and to preserve the long-term interests of the United Nations, China will resolutely vote no if the G-4 proposal is put up for a vote,â the Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.
QUETTA, Pakistan - A homemade bomb exploded in a remote town in Pakistanâs southwestern Baluchistan province, shattering windows at a bakery and two other explosions elsewhere in the province damaged two power pylons early Sunday, officials said. No one was reported hurt.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - US-led coalition and Afghan forces attacked a suspected Taleban hideout in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight militants and arresting three others, an official said on Sunday. One Afghan soldier was wounded in the operation, which triggered a firefight early Saturday in Zabul provinceâs Shahr-e-safa district, said the districtâs chief, Haji Ghulam Rasol.
One of two main challengers to President Hosni Mubarak in next month's elections said Sunday that if elected, he would abolish Egypt's emergency laws and release all political prisoners. But Noaman Gomaa, a law professor who leads the New Wafd Party, told reporters he would not let the Muslim Brotherhood stand as a party in elections. "We reject any party founded on a religious basis," Gomaa said, referring to Egypt's biggest Islamic group. "They should be left as a religious social group, one that spreads the principles of Islam."
