Pak missile development cycle
(1) Buy Chinese DH-10 cruise missile
(2) Stencil the word 'Babur' on it.
(3) Read the user's manual (written in Chinese but with Urdu translations in margins written in pencil)
(4) Press the launch button
(5) Shout Allah-u-Akbar and jump up and down
(6) Buy more Chinese missiles
The indigenously developed first cruise missile of Pakistan Hataf-VII Babur will be in serial production by next month and the batteries of the same would be handed over to the armed forces accordingly.
Babur, the founder of the mughal empire invaded India and razed the cities of Lahore and Pehawar to the ground, raping and killing thousands, many of them ancestors of current day Pakistanis
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005
20:04 ||
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#1
Serial production after one test flight.
Only in Pakiwaki land
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005 20:42
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#2
Indian 'Chinese-Paki' translations of instruction books provided gratis....go figure
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 22:21
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FORMER army private Mathew Stewart has emerged as the chief suspect in the hunt for the masked terrorist with an Australian accent.
Stewart left home four years ago to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and has not been seen since.
Australian Federal Police officers immediately identified Stewart as the probable hooded figure who appeared in a terror video aired on Arab TV this week.
They questioned his distraught mother Vicki Stewart who - after looking at a still image from the video - denied the heavily armed man was her missing son.
But one of Stewart's close friends, Adam Miechel, said he believed the self-declared terrorist on the video was the man he grew up with in Mooloolaba, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
"My first thought was, 'Yeah, it even sounds like him'," Mr Miechel told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "It looks like him. It sounds like him as well."
Stewart made headlines when he allegedly fled Australia to fulfil his dream of living in Afghanistan and fighting alongside the Taliban.
US forces reportedly found documents identifying Stewart as an al-Qaeda recruit during a raid on a terrorist training camp in late 2002.
Intelligence agencies believe he made the decision to fight against US and Australian forces after returning from a tour of duty in East Timor, which caused him to have a mental breakdown and led to him being discharged from the army on psychological grounds.
Vicki Stewart was too distressed to speak yesterday and took the day off work to deal with the authorities.
A family spokesman released a statement confirming that police were treating her missing son as a suspect.
"She [Mrs Stewart] has been contacted by the federal police and has been shown photographs by officers and advised them that the person in the photograph was definitely not Mathew Stewart," the spokesman said.
"The family is still grieving for Mathew, who disappeared four years ago without a trace.
"The family supports the work that the federal police are doing in this matter."
Mr Miechel said he felt uncomfortable talking about the matter because he was concerned fresh talk Stewart was alive would upset his family.
In a tragic twist, it is understood Stewart's parents held a small funeral service - without a body - for their son.
"His mum has buried him," Mr Miechel said.
While Stewart's family denied the man seen brandishing an automatic rifle on the video was Stewart, police are treating him as their main suspect.
Stewart is one of a handful of Australians believed to have travelled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban in the lead-up to al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001.
Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were picked up on terrorism charges and held by the US, but Stewart and another unidentified man, from Melbourne, were never found.
In a revealing interview last year, Mrs Stewart spoke of her son's depression and her belief that he was dead.
"I couldn't have loved him any more than I loved him," she said.
Intelligence agents were last night still analysing the video, anonymously sent to Arab TV network Al-Arabiya.
In a two-minute diatribe against Western values, the masked gunman called on the US and Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq or face the consequences.
"As you kill us, you'll be killed. As you bomb us, you will be bombed," the militant said.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/11/2005
19:13 ||
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Gamblers get more choices. Smokers inhale cheaper cigarettes. And tipplers can hoist a round to Oregon lawmakers who kept state alcohol taxes among the lowest in the nation.
Even gluttons came out OK in the just-ended legislative session, which rejected efforts to require more nutritious school lunches and more time in PE classes.
"Sin had a fabulous session," summed up Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland.
In the past, Oregon legislators have come under muttered criticism for their "nanny" approach to state government, frequently looking for ways to curb residents' baser appetites.
Not this time.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski took an expansionist approach to gambling, calling for and getting video slot machines as part of the state-run lottery program, and approving a new tribal casino at Cascade Locks.
Kulongoski justified the growth into slot machines as a way to raise money to pay for additional state police patrols. Instead, lawmakers spent the money on other state programs, while cutting the number of troopers.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties made runs at notching up taxes on beer, wine and tobacco, but ran into a brick wall of tax opposition in the House.
"Nothing could get any traction," Burdick said. "It was very, very frustrating."
Early in the session, a number of lawmakers from both parties backed a proposal to reinstate a 10-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes that had been eliminated in 2004 as part of a statewide vote against a temporary income tax increase.
Their logic: Voters earlier approved much higher increases in tobacco taxes, other states were raising their taxes, and Oregon didn't need the distinction as the only state in the country that reduced cigarette taxes. At the beginning of the year, Oregon ranked 13th in the amount it taxes cigarettes.
Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, introduced a bill to restore the 10-cent tobacco tax. It died in committee without so much as a hearing. Rep. Billy Dalto, another Salem Republican, offered a plan to put a 60-cent tax on cigarettes to voters in the next general election to pay for health care. It met a similar fate.
Democrats who controlled the Senate decided it was a waste of time to try to force the issue.
"There was no way in hell the House Republican leadership was going to increase taxes of any kind this session," said Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland.
That would be accurate, said Chuck Deister, spokesman for House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village.
"We said at the beginning, if you brought a tax idea forward, it was dead," Deister said. "The House followed through on that."
Taxes weren't the only issue. Tobacco and convenience store lobbyists also helped stop a drive by some retired firefighters to require sales of "fire safe" cigarettes in Oregon, meaning they go out if they're not being puffed on. The idea, approved in New York and Vermont, is to stop house and forest fires caused by discarded or neglected cigarettes.
Lobbyists argued for a national standard, a stance Minnis adopted as well.
Lawmakers also pilfered from a state fund that pays for anti-smoking programs. Under the terms of a 30-cent tax on cigarettes voters approved in 1996, $15 million was to be earmarked for such programs in the 2005-07 budget. Lawmakers siphoned off about half of that for other programs.
"From a tobacco perspective, we didn't fare well at all," said John Valley, Oregon government affairs director for the American Heart Association. His group also pushed for anti-obesity bills, such as ones requiring healthier school lunches and more PE classes.
But a full-court blitz by restaurant lobbyists kept the lid on any attempts to legislate against excessive or unhealthy eating
"Nothing happened," Valley said. "You can give the governor and the Legislature an F." ...or an A, for letting people live their lives, unmolested by those who just can't stand it when other people have fun.
Former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe is reportedly predicting that presumed 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will drop out of her 2006 Senate re-election race if a challenger like Jeanine Pirro forces her to spend campaign cash earmarked for her presidential race.
"I had a conversation with Terry McAuliffe during the Republican convention," former top Clinton campaign adviser Dick Morris told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night.
"And I said, 'Do you think Hillary runs for re-election to the Senate if she has a tough race?'"
According to Morris, McAuliffe replied, "No, why should she squander $30 million getting re-elected to a job she doesn't want?"
Morris was reacting to the first statewide poll taken since Mrs. Pirro announced her candidacy, which shows support for Mrs. Clinton plummeting by 14 percent.
A Marist College survey released Wednesday showed 50 percent of New Yorkers backing Mrs. Clinton over Pirro - a 14-point drop since Marist polled the two candidates in April.
The poll also shows that most New Yorkers do not want Hillary to run for president. Morris says Pirro will make that a central issue of her campaign.
Already Pirro has asked Hillary to take a pledge to New York voters that she won't use her re-election to the Senate as a steppingstone for a presidential run.
Morris said the key to defeating Hillary is for the telegenic Republican to raise early money.
"If [Pirro] can raise $3 million or $4 million or $5 million this month and next month and have a strong media buy in upstate New York and close that gap," he told "Hannity & Colmes" - "and Bill and Hillary are looking at polls that show [they're only] 7 or 8 points ahead of Jeanine - and they really are looking at Hillary being under 50 [percent], I bet you that Hillary withdraws from this race." Hillary is already on a tight timetable. Almost as soon as she is re-elected, she will have to announce for president to get her organization together and start raising the big bucks.
#1
Sounds like a good investment to me. Wonder if Pirro has a donation web site yet?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 17:12
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#2
Personally I think she'd be making a mistake to run for Senate again. She's got nothing to gain and everything to lose. She should start her Presidential run in 2006 instead of muddying the waters with the Senate run.
The only reason to go for Senate is if she doesn't have confidence she'll win the big show.
#3
she doesn't have the confidence, and her "hiding her real lib self" program won't stick if she can't keep faking it further towards 2008. She's a known (and disliked) quantity
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 18:52
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#4
One muckraker to another signifying nothing.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 19:30
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Posted by: Dick Lynes ||
08/11/2005 20:09
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#6
IMO she has to run for Senate in 2006. It seems to me electing someone for President who won one previous election is too thin an experience package when running for the office of Big Kahuna. I believe one four year turn in the office of Governor's preferable, but not as a Senator.
/that's also why I think Romney's got 0 chance, but that's another thread...
#7
The Hildebeast has to run, I think (hell, I'm no political prognosticator), for the reason Raj noted -- getting re-elected is the essential way you show people that you did a good job in office. Do a good job, get re-elected, do a bad job, lose or fold.
And let's be clear, Hildebeast's job performance is modestly okay for a freshman Senator. She has no major sponsored legislation, no memorable speech on the Senate floor, nothing to point to to say, "I did that; if it wasn't for me that wouldn't have happened." Part of the problem was that for 4 of her 6 years in office she's in the minority party, but she really didn't jump out to the first rank of opposition senators.
She has to run and she has to beat Pirro like a drum, or it's over.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005 22:41
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#8
agreed - 70% or more, and she won't do that.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 22:48
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Back in the 1980s, David Szady was among the premier Soviet spy catchers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, studying every aspect of the Kremlin's mole network. Today, he is mobilizing agents across the U.S. to sniff out spies from a new rival: Beijing.
"China is the biggest (espionage) threat to the U.S. today," says Mr. Szady, now 61 years old and the FBI's top counterintelligence official.
In one of their biggest initiatives after the fight against terrorism, the FBI and Justice Department have sent hundreds of new counterintelligence agents into the bureau's 56 field offices, many with a specific focus on China. The FBI's biggest counter-Chinese effort -- focusing on economic espionage -- occupies an unmarked floor in a Silicon Valley office park near a popular Chinese restaurant.
But this is an altogether different battle from the one with the Soviets. Even as concerns mount in Washington about China's increasing economic and military might, the government faces charges of racial profiling from Asian-American advocacy groups, ambivalence from some business groups and sometimes vague laws on technology exports. And it is having trouble making some of its cases stick.
The nature of the threat is different, too. Thousands of Chinese nationals regularly come to the U.S. as students and businessmen, some working for major U.S. defense contractors -- something the Russians could only have dreamed of during the Cold War. They are welcomed with open arms by universities and companies who prize their technical acumen and links to capital and low-cost labor back home.
The vast majority of them are in the U.S. innocently working or studying. Counterespionage experts say the trouble often starts when they are contacted by Chinese government officials or one of the more than 3,000 Chinese "front companies" the FBI alleges have been set up in the U.S. specifically to acquire military or industrial technologies illegally.
"They can work on so many levels that China may prove more difficult to contain than the Russian threat," Mr. Szady says.
The U.S. government is prosecuting about a dozen cases against individuals alleged to have sent technology to China illegally. FBI officials say at least three more will likely go ahead in the coming months. Over the past five years, the total number of such charges has grown by around 15 percent annually, according to some FBI agents.
Most of the cases involve small, lesser-known tech firms. But Sun Microsystems Inc. and Transmeta Corp. were the targets in one alleged plot, where two Chinese nationals who had worked at the software and semiconductor giants were arrested at the San Francisco airport allegedly holding proprietary data from the companies. The pair were charged with economic espionage and the case is pending. The FBI's Business Alliance, established a year ago, has been meeting regularly with leading defense contractors to understand what technologies they are developing and what potential threats are posed by company employees. The participants include Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Raytheon Co.
The FBI campaign is part of a broader shift in Washington, where more and more policy makers see China's rapid economic rise as a threat to the U.S. both militarily and economically. That rising sentiment is seen in the heated debate over the recent failed bid by China's state-owned oil company Cnooc Ltd. for California's Unocal Corp. The Pentagon has caused a stir in recent months by raising the prospect that China's secretive military buildup could pose a significant long-term threat to the Asian region and the U.S.
Chu Maoming, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, calls the FBI's assertion that Beijing is coordinating spying activities inside the U.S. "totally groundless."
Many people in Silicon Valley are concerned that the FBI is overreaching. Asian-Americans worry about a new wave of racial profiling and say the crackdown is reminiscent of the 2000 case of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born American scientist who was fired from his job at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was prosecuted for allegedly giving away nuclear secrets to Beijing. After months in solitary confinement, all the espionage charges eventually were dropped, though Mr. Lee pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of mishandling top-secret information.
Business executives, meanwhile, fear a chill in commerce. "There's a bit of a disconnect between how the law-enforcement agencies see" the risk of espionage and how the business community does, says Harris Miller, the Washington-based president of the Information Technology Association of America, one of the high-tech industry's principal lobbying groups. He says many U.S. companies are dependent upon manufacturing and conducting research in places such as China -- and on the talents of Chinese employees.
"There's a real advantage to work with foreign nationals, as they're very talented," Mr. Miller says. "You don't want to turn them away just because they are not born in the U.S."
Even some of the victims of alleged Chinese espionage have mixed feelings about the FBI's campaign.
Executives at 3DGeo Development Inc., which makes software applications for geophysical imaging for the oil and gas industry, suspected it had a spy problem when it brought in Yan Ming Shan at the request of his Chinese employer, the state-owned oil company PetroChina Co., for software training. The Chinese oil giant earlier had sent an employee to train at 3DGeo's Santa Clara, California, campus, but he was ejected from the facility after trying to gain access to the software company's secured systems. Mr. Shan then appeared and was expelled after doing the same thing. Mr. Shan later was arrested at San Francisco international airport and accused of seeking to pass on some of 3DGeo's proprietary software programs to PetroChina.
Mr. Shan, a Chinese national, was sentenced last December to two years in prison for illegally accessing 3DGeo's computers.
Dimitri Bevc, 3DGeo's president, says the episode highlights a dilemma for the company, which is seeking to secure its intellectual property but also expand its business in Asia. "There's incredible demand from Chinese firms that are hungry for technology," says Mr. Bevc. "But we are built on our own intellectual property."
Now Mr. Bevc is afraid that his company is being punished in the Chinese marketplace. The company still is seeking payments from PetroChina for work already completed, says Mr. Bevc, and 3DGeo's sales representative said his Chinese sales prospects had been drying up. "What we heard back was ... that 3DGeo did something wrong" by taking action against Mr. Shan, who served most of his sentence while awaiting trial and has since returned to China, Mr. Bevc says.
PetroChina declined to comment on the case. Nicholas Humy, an attorney for Mr. Shan, said his client pleaded guilty only to illegally accessing 3DGeo's computer system and not to stealing the company's software or seeking to pass it on to a foreign entity. "The government never proved to a jury ... that Mr. Shan was trying to commit industrial espionage," Mr. Humy said.
On the military side, prosecutors at the San Jose, California, offices of the Department of Justice are preparing for an October trial of two Silicon Valley residents. The pair were indicted in June 2004 for allegedly signing contracts with Chinese military-related entities for the mass production of components to produce thermal imaging cameras. Technology industry officials say the case highlights the murkiness of export laws.
The case involves Night Vision Technology Corp., a San Jose-based firm that procures infrared technology and other high-tech equipment for overseas buyers, particularly in Taiwan. The company is headed by Martin Shih, 62, a Taiwanese-Canadian executive with experience as an electrical engineer, working both in Canada and in California with Loral Space & Communications Ltd., a satellite-communications company. Mr. Shih's Taiwanese-American consultant, Philip Cheng, also was charged.
Pretrial motions filed by the two men's attorneys speak to the belief of many in the technology industry that U.S. laws guarding technology exports are difficult to interpret because so often the technologies have legitimate commercial applications. They also say products such as infrared cameras can't be blocked for export because they have numerous commercial applications, such as use in consumer electronics items. The lawyers also point out that the equipment can be purchased on the open market in countries such as France.
"The indictment does not allege -- and the government cannot plausibly argue" that the infrared products "were 'specifically designed, modified, or configured for military use,' " according to one of the motions by the lawyers, quoting from the indictment.
An attorney for Mr. Shih, K.C. Maxwell, said her client would plead not guilty in the October trial. An attorney for Mr. Cheng, Matt Pavone, declined to comment.
The FBI has had a difficult time making similar charges stick against other alleged Chinese spies. In May, Chinese businessman Qing Chang Jiang was acquitted in a California court on charges of illegally exporting microwave amplifiers, which can be used in radar and missile systems, to the Beijing government.
The technology is involved in so many nonmilitary commercial applications -- such as consumer electronics -- that many companies aren't aware they need a license to export it, say attorneys who have worked on these cases. Mr. Jiang's lawyer says the U.S. company from which he got the technology, L-3 Communications Corp.'s Narda Microwave-West, told him he didn't need a license and so he went ahead with the sale.
A spokeswoman for L-3 Communications declined to comment. But the U.S. Department of Commerce said L-3 Communications was aware that an export license was required and that the company worked closely with the government on the case.
Mr. Jiang was convicted on a lesser charge of making false statements to federal investigators and is awaiting sentencing in California. His attorney, Tom Nolan, believes the U.S. government is systematically targeting Asian businessmen. "They're trying to prevent Chinese industry from doing business in the U.S.," he says.
Community leaders note that the number of Asian-Americans applying for government research jobs plummeted after the Wen Ho Lee case, and warn of a similar mutually destructive chill now. "At a time when the U.S. government is so dependent on the scientific skills of our community, it seems crazy that they've taken steps that dampen our desire to serve," says Cecilia Chang, a Fremont, California-based Asian-American activist who led many protests and donation drives for Mr. Lee.
That could have a big impact on American academia and commerce. About 150,000 Chinese students are studying in the U.S., according to the FBI, and the number of new admissions has been rising. Nearly 64,000 Chinese students entered the U.S. last year, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, up from 55,000 in 1998. All told, about 700,000 Chinese tourists and business executives visit the U.S. each year.
The swirl of suspicions and tensions between the FBI, China, and the Chinese-American community has surfaced even among the bureau's own agents. Mr. Szady has made a point of hiring more Asian-Americans into his counterespionage network. Yet twice in the past two years, the FBI has turned on its own Chinese-American employees in Los Angeles, accusing them of having aided Beijing.
Mr. Szady acknowledges the inherent complexity of monitoring the Chinese community in the U.S., and says he is trying to find a balance: "How do you protect without being overbearing?" But he argues that it is the Chinese government, not the FBI, that is blurring the lines between legitimate transborder commerce and national rivalry. He says Beijing doesn't recognize the concept of Chinese-Americans. In the government's eyes, "they are all overseas Chinese," says Mr. Szady, a lanky former chemistry student who his agents call the "Z Man."
Mr. Szady and other FBI experts believe China began intensifying its spying operations in the late 1970s, when warming relations between Washington and Beijing opened the way for hundreds of thousands of Chinese to begin visiting the U.S. annually. These analysts say units of the People's Liberation Army and China's Ministry of State Security oversee intelligence operations, and that the state-run Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics has targeted U.S. weapons labs.
In addition, the Beijing government runs an extensive, informal, decentralized spy network, counterespionage experts allege. In most cases, Beijing's spy agencies don't send trained agents to the U.S. to penetrate companies and government agencies, but rather simply seek to glean information from the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who visit and study in the U.S. every year. They also try to get Chinese-Americans to provide information, appealing to their desire to help uplift China's economy.
"In almost all of its collections operations, China is not so much looking at opportunities for stealing things ... as devising all sorts of opportunities for you to come to the conclusion that you would be willing to give at least some of these things," says Paul Moore, who was the FBI's top China analyst from 1978 through 1998. "It's the mundane, day-to-day contacts that are killing us, not the exotic spy operations."
#1
Watch, if we start looking closely at Americans of Asian decent the ACLU will cry that they are being profiled and their civil rights violated.
I say we violate the ACLU.
Erotic and Violent Images Cloud Vision, Study Finds
When people see violent or erotic images, they fail to process whatever they see next, according to new research.
Scientists are calling the effect "attentional rubbernecking."
âWe observed that people fail to detect visual images that appeared one-fifth of a second after emotional images, whereas they can detect those images with little problem after viewing neutral images,â said Vanderbilt University psychologist David Zald.
The effect is akin to rubbernecking on the highway, Zald and his colleagues say. Your brain might suggest you watch the road ahead, but your emotions force you to look at the accident on the side of the road.
Research subjects were handed a stack of pictures that included pleasant landscapes and architectural photos. They were told to search for a particular image. Negative images were placed anywhere from two to eight spots before the search target.
The closer the negative image was to the target picture, the more frequently people failed to spot the target.
In a follow-up study, negative images were replaced by erotic shots. The effect was the same.
"This suggests that emotionally arousing images impact attention in similar ways whether they are perceived as positive or negative," said colleague Steven Most of Yale University.
The researchers suspect we can't control the effect.
"We think that there is essentially a bottleneck for information processing and if a certain type of stimulus captures attention, it can basically jam up that bottleneck so subsequent information can't get through," Zald said.
As for rubbernecking on the road, Zald has a caution:
"If you are simply driving down the road and you see something that is sexually explicit on a billboard, the odds are that it is going to capture your attention and â for a fraction of a second afterwards â you will be less able to pay attention to other information in your environment," he said.
The initial study is detailed in the August issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. The follow-up research has not been published.
Detroit is the most liberal U.S. city while Provo, Utah, is the most conservative, a study of voting patterns indicates.
Remember the Metro/Retro ads and all the claims about how the blue states are the more creative, intelligent areas? Well, here's your deepest blue, almost indigo. Just go along Fort street or Grand River. There's your "Metro," all right.
The list was compiled by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research in California through an examination of voting in 237 U.S. cities with populations of more than 100,000.
"Detroit and Provo epitomize America's political, economic and racial polarization," BACVR Director Jason Alderman said in a release Thursday. "As the most conservative city in America, Provo is overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class. This is in stark contrast to Detroit, which is impoverished, black and the most liberal."
Gary, Ind., was found to be the second-most liberal followed by Berkeley, Calif. You're slipping, comrades; Washington Would have been higher if Kerry had won; and Oakland, Calif.
Texas, home to President George Bush, has three of the five most conservative cities, as determined by BACVR, including Lubbock and Abilene in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots and Plano in the fifth spot. Hialeah, Fla., was ranked fourth.
BACVR offered no detailed breakdown of its methodology. We just pulled the numbers out of a hole in the ground. Or maybe somewhere else. We don't know one from the other, anyway.
#4
Detroit is the #1 metro area in population loss.
I lived there for a few years, then moved home to Cincinnati to discover the *EXACT SAME* process being run here. Now Cincinnati is the #2 area in population loss.
The pattern is so clear, it's almost freaky.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 22:48
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#5
gee...how can that be? They seem high in racial diversity?
/not so naiveity
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 22:50
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#2
I was listening to the radio this afternoon - NPR? one of those kinds of shows and they made no mention of this - only a audio clip of Bush saying he respects her right to speak her mind.
Guess they want to get as much mileage out of it as possible before it goes away. On the way home, there was another story about the same thing - no mention - but I got home before it was over so I suppose there was a one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance that they mentioned this.
#3
Family is split. Some are against, others support her. What we have here is a consequence of that old Sixites New Left mantra: The Personal is the Political.
Imagine its 1942 and Americans, during a time of war, speaking in public about their Commander in Chief and their country in the manner this woman speaks daily.
Would not have happened in part because there were certain things, like calling your President a liar, a warmonger, and blaming him for killing your child, that were beyond the pale. Public and media would have resoundingly rejected such an individual as unhinged and un-American.
Mrs. Sheehan's pain should be personal and not the basis to dictate to a sitting President during wartime (or anytime) what policies must be adopted. However, with the advent of "the Personal is the Political", this is what we get.
#4
Imagine its 1942 and Americans, during a time of war, speaking in public about their Commander in Chief and their country in the manner this woman speaks daily.
Maybe not that late, but in the late '30s, her type were around. I've been reading a book titled "Under Cover", about a guy who spent four years posing as a member of various fascist groups before WWII. There's a passage in it that *screams* Cindy Sheehan.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 22:50
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Wonder what the "O" stands for?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. â Ever wonder if that spouse, friend or co-worker on the other end of the phone is really paying attention? The "Jerk-O-Meter" may hold the answer.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people â on a scale of 0 to 100% â on how engaged they are in a conversation. Well, I'm screwed.
Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts. Great. Can't give them enough help.
"Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," he said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored." Thanks, MIT. Got anything you can shove up my ass so you can keep track of me 24 hours a day? Forget I said that...
The program, which Madan said is nearing completion, uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person's voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking. "It's an academically proven thing," Madan said of the math behind those measurements. "There are a bunch of academic papers published about this." Oh, well...it's gotta be a good thing then, right?
For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100% would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker." Yes. This definitely sounds like a candidate to add to the "Bullshit Stuff Nobody Really Needs" list.
However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?" Sorry, boys, but I usually don't need a "report" to know that.
To test the program, Madan and his MIT colleagues recruited 10 men and 10 women â all strangers to each other â and brought them into the lab. The researchers paired off the test subjects, with men only talking to men and women only talking to women, and monitored 200 three-minute conversations about randomly selected topics. After each conversation, the subjects were asked to rate their level of interest on a scale of one to 10. By measuring the speaking style each person had used in the conversation, Madan was able to predict what score they would give roughly 80% of the time. Wow! He's like... Nostradamus!
The study indicated that men and women are interested in conversations for different reasons. The subject of the chat was more important to men than women, Madan said. "For the women, it was more dependent on who they were talking to and what the mood was like," he added. "It wasn't just about the topic itself." The researchers also tested the technology at a bar in Cambridge where a group of singles were "speed-dating," rotating through a series of five-minute conversations. Dating at Cambridge bars. That brings back some ugly memories. Where was "speed dating" then, when I coulda used it?
"Mathematically modeling" each person's speaking style let the research team predict whether a speed-dater would agree to a real date. It was a good sign, Madan said, if the speed-daters engaged in "back and forth exchanges," punctuated by "ahas" and "yups." Frank Guenther, a professor of cognitive and neural systems at Boston University, said there are a host of "non-linguistic" cues, such as pregnant pauses, flat pitch levels and slow speech rates, that indicate boredom or disinterest. Ah, yes. The..............................pregnant pause.
"To me, it sounds like it's great for the entertainment factor," he said of the Jerk-O-Meter. "But I don't think you'll be able to get definitive measurements. There is just too much variability across individuals." The prototype version of the program runs in Linux on a phone plugged into Voice over Internet service. Once the Jerk-O-Meter is completed, in six months or so, Madan envisions selling it as software that could be downloaded off the Internet â a potentially useful tool for focus groups, telemarketers and salesmen. You know, the PROFESSIONAL assholes...
"It sounds pretty cool," said Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. "But if someone was using it against me, I'd say, 'How dare they!'" he added with a laugh. The Jerk-O-Meter is one of many projects at MIT that aim to make cell phones and other communication devices more "socially aware," said Alex Pentland, director of the Media Lab's human dynamics research group. Yeah, I insist my cellphone be "socially aware".
Madan and Pentland have formed a company, iMetrico, to commercialize some of these technologies for sales and marketing efforts. But it's too early to say whether the Jerk-O-Meter would be one of them."Almost everybody has a cell phone," Pentland said. "They're as powerful as regular computers. There are all sorts of things that can be done with them, but haven't yet. ... They just don't support humans the way they live." I see this as being a big seller to, like, 15 year old girls...
#1
..."there are a host of "non-linguistic" cues, such as pregnant pauses, flat pitch levels and slow speech rates, that indicate boredom or disinterest"
Some of us call this "thinking."
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
08/11/2005 16:22
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I think this post could be subtitled "Too Stupid to Live...."
From Michelle Malkin's blog - EFL for the relevant parts:
Speaking of slow-wittedness, the Cindy Sheehan juggernaut has resulted in an uptick in profanity-laced moonbat hate mail from Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers incapable of rational debate. Here's just a sample. Excuse the language. *snip*
And Patrick Mitchell, who works at the Los Angeles office of Ogletree and Deakins, writes from work:
X-Originating-IP: [216.105.154.202]
From: "Mitchell, Patrick" Patrick.Mitchell@ogletreedeakins.com
To: "'malkin@comcast.net'"
Subject:
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:41:22 -0400
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72)
YOU STINK you nasty CUNT! Eat Shit and DIE bitch!!
You tell me who the hate-mongers are.
*snip* Later:
Update, 1:50 pm eastern time: I have just received an e-mail and phone call from Gray L. Geddie of the L.A. office of Ogletree Deakins. Here's the e-mail...
"Dear Ms. Malkin,
I am the Managing Shareholder of the law firm of Ogletree Deakins with offices located across the country. I was very disturbed to learn today that a legal secretary in our Los Angeles office sent you the vile e-mail referenced on your home page. Such remarks are clearly inappropriate in any context and an e-mail such as this certainly should not have been sent during working time using our firm's equipment. The comments of this employee are not reflective of the views or opinions of the firm and are directly in violation of our e-mail policy. As Managing Shareholder, I wanted to extend to you our apologies and let you know that this serious violation of our firm's work rules has resulted in the discharge of this employee.
Once again, let me offer you our deepest apologies for any discomfort that the referenced e-mail has caused. It will not happen again. (at least, not from our computer)
Sincerely,
Gray Geddie"
(emphasis added)
What was that guy thinking? Good luck in your next job interview, Patrick.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005
15:20 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 16:55
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#5
Every time anyone signs on to a computer where I work, a popup appears that you have to agree in order to access your computer. It's basically acknowledging that you're aware of and agree to the firm's computer policies. Everybody has to do this, every time they sign on - including the biggest wigs of all.
And everybody hits "enter" without reading it (again) and keeps on going, but if someone were to be as stupid as the idiot in question, there'd be no way of saying he/she didn't know about the policy.
When the tech people have to work on my computer - particularly if it's something they have to do while I'm gone - they always ask very politely if they can have my password, and if they root around in my computer. I remind them every time it's not my computer, it's the firm's, and as the firm techies they can do whatever they want (within the firm's guidelines) without my permission whatsoever.
Same with people coming into my office to get communal books stored there. Everybody is very polite about not "invading your space" and protecting your "privacy," but it's not my computer and not my office space either. I don't keep anything there (or write anything from there) that I'd be ashamed of. (I don't do that from my home computer either, but at least it's paid for by ME.)
I can guarantee you this clown's firm has stringent e-mail/net use policies, too. Guess he should have read - and believed - them.
"Do you want fries with that?" Good one, MAC. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 17:05
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That's cold, Frank. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 17:05
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Patrick:
Can you give me an example of your strengths? I will make valuable employee because I improve as I go from job to job.
good...and now example of your weakness? I tend to get angry fast and I am improving as I go from job to job. Since this is my 20th job in 2yrs, my value is priceless.
Okay. Nanny state got my smokes and now they want my french fries.
NEW YORK - New York City wants restaurants to narrow their list of ingredients â and maybe some waistlines â by cutting out trans fats. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the voluntary change could also help fight the city's biggest killer, heart disease.
To comply, chefs would have to dump many margarines and frying oils, and possibly reworking long-held recipes for baked goods.
The New York State Restaurant Association supports the effort, Executive Vice President E. Charles Hunt said in a health department release Wednesday. Have they asked some of the restaurants they supposedly represent their opinions?
The fats, found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, raise diners' chance of developing heart disease in much the same way that saturated meat and dairy fats do, raising overall and bad cholesterol while lowering good cholesterol, American Heart Association President Robert Eckel said in the release. Saturated meat and dairy fats. I guess we know what they're gunning for next.
The Food and Drug Administration has already targeted trans fats. Nationwide, all foods containing the chemically modified oils must be labeled beginning next January.
Some workers and diners were skeptical of the city plan.
"Labeling is as far as you want to go. You don't want to be telling people what to eat," Brooklyn waitress Karen Quam told The New York Times. The city's request came two years after it outlawed smoking in bars, restaurants and offices, citing concerns about the ill effects of secondhand smoke. We'll call that Step One.
#1
Ah yes, the glorious nanny state looking out for the peons who don't know better.
Tell 'em they can have your trans fats after they pry the fries from your cold, dead hands.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 16:46
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"Labeling is as far as you want to go. You don't want to be telling people what to eat."
Oh, yes they do: they want very, VERY much to not only tell people what to eat, but to direct every other aspect of their lives as well-- not just in public places, but within the walls of their own homes, too. They want to control EVERYTHING.
You didn't really think it would stop at prohibiting smoking in restaurants, did you???
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/11/2005 17:10
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OK. Any progress being made getting Tranzis out our lives? We'd all be a lot healthier.
#6
Yep, the Tranzies and their blood kin the lefties are going to do something stupid, like fire on a federal fort. Bloody Kansas:Part Deux. It may take a while, but in the end large numbers WILL migrate to friendlier shores.
#9
In Europe they've just passed the Codex Alimentarius, a massive food regulation law. One of its effects will be that most vitamins, minerals & suppliments will be either completely banned or the placed in the 'by doctor's prescription only' category. There are fears that because of trade agreements between Europe & the US that such bans & regulations will be coming here soon.
Longish article about it: The Fate of Vitamins - "A low-profile organization created by the United Nations is about to ban global trade of many essential nutrientsâand there may be nothing you can do to stop it"
#10
Ya know... most of the oils and foods thoses Eurocrats love I am deathly allergic to. Can any of those terrorists be redirected to that meeting?
(I do like eating and given a chance those food idiots would kill me.)
An Iraqi air force pilot will be buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. It will be the first interment there of an Iraqi citizen. The late Capt. Ali Abass is the first Iraqi to be honored with burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
The remains of Capt. Ali Abass will be buried with some of the remains of four members of a U.S. Air Force team who died beside him when their plane crashed near the Iranian border. Abass will be one of about 60 foreign nationals buried at the national cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington. More than 260,000 Americans have been laid to rest there since the Civil War.
The event, with a 21-gun salute and a flyover by Air Force jets, will be witnessed by senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials, symbolizing the cooperation between the military services of the two nations. "Things like this tend to draw us closer together," says Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command. Even after the United States withdraws from Iraq, "there will be long-term personal relationships" between the pilots and air crews of the two nations, he says.
Abass was popular with the Americans. He bonded with them because of an earlier incident, according to an Air Force statement. After he and a U.S. officer were forced to make an emergency landing on an Iraqi road, some vehicles approached and Abass had the American hide behind a nearby sand berm. He then convinced the visitors that he worked for the Iraqi agriculture department.
The Americans who died with Abass were part of an Air Force special operations team based at Hurlburt Field, Fla., that is helping train the Iraqi air force. Wooley says the crew was scouting for emergency landing sites for future use, including an unused airstrip in the area near Iran, when the accident occurred May 30. The cause of the crash, near Jalula, Iraq, remains under investigation, but Wooley says there was no indication of hostile fire.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005
14:53 ||
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#1
His sacrifice for his country and for freedom will be remembered.
#2
No disrespect to Capt. Abass, but I get an image of him convincing the "visitors" (terrs ?) that he was from the Ag Dept, with a US Air Force plane standing behind him on the highway.
#4
How right and honourable that we do such a thing for such a man. But then, I expect nothing less from our military. Enjoy your Paradise, Captain Abass, you've earnt it.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency's board adopted a resolution Thursday aimed at defusing its standoff with Iran, which alarmed the West this week by resuming uranium conversion.
The text of the statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency wasn't immediately released, but a Western diplomat said the message was similar to a draft debated earlier in the day that expressed "serious concern" over Tehran's resumption of nuclear activities.
That'll show 'em we mean business
The draft didn't mention reporting the regime to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
The resolution, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press, said the agency cannot confirm that Tehran has declared all its nuclear materials and activities.
Could it be that they won't give you access?
The text, which was to be reviewed later Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors, noted that "outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear program have yet to be resolved and that the agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."
It also expressed "serious concern" over Iran's resumption of uranium conversion this week at its nuclear facility at Isfahan, saying the move "underlines the importance of rectifying the situation ... and of allowing for the possibility of further discussions in relation to that situation."
The measure requested IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to provide the board with a comprehensive report on Iran's compliance with an agency safeguards agreement by Sept. 3.
Negotiations on how to rebuke Iran started Tuesday when the board met for an emergency session. A meeting tentatively planned for Wednesday was postponed to give delegates more time for informal talks.
(...) Although the IAEA board has the power to report Tehran to the Security Council, which can impose economic and political sanctions on the regime, diplomats made clear they were not considering that step -- widely seen as a last resort -- and instead were holding out hope for a negotiated end to the standoff.
WSJ (subscription required)
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005
14:25 ||
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#1
Were they afraid that Israel or the US or both would attack if they report Tehran to the Security Council?
Does a single one of them have an ounce of backbone?
#3
"IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei" you expect a muslim to go after an Islamic Repubilc? LOL really?
The facts are is Iran has a right to a complete fuel cycle. No one is going to be able to stop it. They will divert some of that fuel stock to their weapon program. No one is going to do a thing until a bomb goes off.
Every excuse on the planet is being made for Iran. The Left and Muslim world is all for what is going on in Iran. The themes are: The evil "The US is the only country to have dropped A-Bombs on civilians." Muslims have a right to A-Bombs because Israel has them. Israel has illegal A-Bombs and the US and Europe gave them the technology. The evil Jooos!! Jooos! Blah balh blagh.
Get used to the UN dancing around the issue and particulary the IAEA. Nothing will happen but people rubbing their hands in "serious concern."
#4
I don't see that this leaves us any choices given the Iranian mullah's penchants for hating us and martyrdom. They get martyrdom. The only question is how big a loss we take before we have the guts to give it to them. I'm glad I don't live in a city.
The family of American soldier Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has broken its silence and spoken out against his mother Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil against George Bush held outside the president's Crawford, Texas ranch. The following email was received by the DRUDGE REPORT from Cherie Quarterolo, Casey's aunt and godmother:
Our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy we are breaking our silence and we have collectively written a statement for release. Feel free to distribute it as you wish. Thanks à Cherie
In response to questions regarding the Cindy Sheehan/Crawford Texas issue: Sheehan Family Statement:
The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
Sincerely,
Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.
Developing...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005
13:47 ||
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#2
Geez, would somebody really forge that sort of thing? When it came out otherwise, it would go off like a bomb. That'd be rotten even by Drudge standards.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/11/2005 14:05
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#3
Cindy Sheehan has been posting on Michael Moore's website as well. The comentor on NPR this morning had it about right. She is enjoying all the media attention. She might not realize her addiction for attention is being used by the left as a weapon to bash Bush. Then again, she might not be that dumb and knows very well how she is being used.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/11/2005 15:13
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I was listening to Dennis Prager a little while ago. He evidently thinks it is authentic. He believes she has "snapped". He won't criticize her, but he laid into the MSM, and the people who are "using her". He was quite pissed..
"I don't know why (Bush) won't spend AN HOUR talking (with me)."
Wow ... what an inflated sense of self importance. There are foreign leaders of major countries who are lucky if they're pencilled in for a full hour on any President's schedule.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/11/2005 16:23
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Federal troops in Chechnya clashed with militants in the southeast of the Russian republic Wednesday night, Chechen law enforcement bodies said Thursday.
Five militants entered the village of Dyshne-Vedeno on the border with Daghestan. The federal troops opened fire and pursued the militants. There are no reports about losses.
Unidentified assailants set fire to three houses of local policemen in Dyshne-Vedeno Wednesday night, which left one woman dead.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:22 ||
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#1
Ol nasty peg leg's own home district I believe. They have not been able to mount the actual combat operations they once could and it seems they no longer have their jihadi combat camera men on staff and working to get the propaganda footage. No spring/summer offensives to speak of and no replacement "moderate" Maskhadov finger puppet to pursue negotiations. Things are looking grim and pathetic for the the pride of Chechen Jihadi thuggery (future is brighter for their pro-russian counterparts despite the low level weekly bloodletting).
To Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge as well known for his attempts to extradite General Pinochet as his prosecution of terrorism suspects, he was "Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe".
Today, Abu Qatada, 44, is facing deportation from Britain. Since October 2002 he has been confined without trial, firstly in Belmarsh prison and, for the last few months, in his own home, under Charles Clarke's control orders.
He was held under the emergency anti-terrorism legislation enacted after the September 2001 attacks in the United States. Qatada was considered too dangerous to live at liberty, too difficult to prosecute and too much at risk of torture or execution to be extradited to Jordan, which had convicted him in absentia on terrorism charges.
Yesterday Britain finalised an agreement with Jordan that could see Qatada deported. The agreement amounts to a guarantee Qatada would be safe from torture and the death penalty, but human rights groups are sceptical Jordan will stick to its side of the deal. Amnesty said the agreement was "not worth the paper it is printed on".
Qatada entered Britain on a forged United Arab Emirates passport and was granted asylum for himself and his family in 1994. From the introduction of the anti-terrorism legislation in November 2001 to his arrest the following October he was on the run in Britain. Over 6ft tall and weighing more than 20 stone, he is a conspicuous figure, though, and there was persistent speculation he was supplying information to MI5 in return for his freedom. Senior police sources denied the allegations.
The cleric himself denied he was Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, or spiritual ambassador to the continent. He denied he had ever met the al-Qaida leader. Speaking to CNN in November 2001, he said he would have been "proud" to but such a meeting never happened.
Investigators have, however, linked Qatada to terrorist cells in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium. Videos made by the cleric were found in the Hamburg flat used by Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the 9/11 attacks. He also has links to would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in a US court in April to training for a "broader conspiracy" than 9/11 to use aircraft as weapons.
Judge Garzon claimed that money raised in Spain was sent to Qatada so he could send it on to Mohamed al-Maqdasi, a Jordanian imprisoned for planning bomb attacks in his own country.
Justice Collins, chairman of the special immigration appeal tribunal that heard an appeal against Qatada's detention in March 2004 said he was at the centre of terrorist activity in Britain associated with al-Qaida.
"He is a truly dangerous individual," he said. "We have no doubt that his beliefs are extreme and are indeed a perversion of Islam for the purposes of encouraging violence against non-Muslims and Muslims who are or have been supportive of Americans."
In 1999, Qatada reportedly made a speech advocating the killing of Jews and the attacking of Americans in which he also stated there was no difference between English people, Jews and Americans.
In the CNN interview, he said he belonged to no organisation but there was nothing to stop "anyone who belongs to al-Qaida or any other organisation to listen to me, ask my opinion or learn from me".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:21 ||
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Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida have plotted attacks on U.S. and British consulates, hotels, a mall and other targets across the country, according to a confidential Philippines government report reviewed Thursday by The Associated Press.
The report, which was prepared in March, contains sketchy details of bombing, kidnapping and assassination plots that Philippine intelligence agencies say are linked to the Abu Sayyaf extremist group and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Some of the attacks were intended to be staged by Filipino militants trained by al-Qaida's regional ally, Jemmah Islamiyah, the report said.
Abu Sayyaf members have been battling government troops in the southern Philippines, and the group has been blamed for bombings and other terror attacks in recent years, including two explosions in the southern port of Zamboanga that wounded 26 people late Wednesday.
Two other southern cities mentioned as targets in the report, Cotabato and Koronadal, were hit by bombings that wounded four people July 30. Abu Sayyaf also was blamed for those blasts.
The MILF's leaders have been engaged in peace talks with the government since 1997 and spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the group was planning any attacks.
"That's an invention," Kabalu told AP. "The peace talks have not been cut and there is a cease-fire in place."
The report said the terror attacks being plotted by Abu Sayyaf were intended to project strength after setbacks in battles with government troops.
Among attacks blamed on Abu Sayyaf were three almost-simultaneous Feb. 14 bombings that killed eight people and wounded more than 120 in Manila and the southern cities of General Santos and Davao. The report said those bombings bolstered concerns that Jemaah Islamiyah is operating in the Philippines and co-ordinating with local militants.
"The JI fund support for terrorist operations remains unhampered despite the neutralization of key financiers in previous years," the report said.
Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sulaiman planned car bombings in Manila's business district, military and police camps in the capital and sites in Davao, the report said. Two Abu Sayyaf would-be suicide bombers were waiting to acquire "luxury cars" to use in the attacks, it said.
Ferries serving the southern Mindanao region and Manila also are Abu Sayyaf targets, the report said.
The report said the MILF's special operations group, whose members have been linked in the past to Jemaah Islamiyah, plotted to bomb U.S. and British consulates, a commuter train, hotels and a mall in the capital on unspecified dates.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's national security adviser, Norberto Gonzales, said terror plots may have been delayed or thwarted by U.S.-backed military offensives that have kept Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the run, tighter immigration watches and the strengthening of security at potential targets.
Gonzales also said government offensives against local militants may have prompted Jemaah Islamiyah to plan to send about 10 Indonesians for possible suicide bombing missions in the Philippines. Previously, foreign militants have relied on local insurgents to carry out attacks, he said.
At least two of the 10 Indonesian militants may have already reached here, he told reporters.
"We are beginning to see a new development," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:18 ||
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A Jordanian Islamist legislator has volunteered to defend 17 people arrested on charges of raising funds for the al-Qaida network.
Zuheir Abul Ragheb told United Press International Thursday that his Islamic Action Front Party is checking the cases of the 17 suspects to determine whether they are victims of injustice or whether they committed acts that undermined state security and stability.
"I am ready to defend the members of the groups on condition that they were not involved in acts that jeopardize public security or political stability and did not plan to attack Jordanian employees, be they civilian or military," Abul Ragheb said.
He denounced authorities for arresting the suspects in night raids on their homes, charging that such methods violate the law.
Jordanian authorities said they arrested the suspects, whose ages range between 20 and 25, in two Amman suburbs known to be hotbeds for Muslim fundamentalist groups.
They were referred to the state security court for trial on charges of raising funds for al-Qaida, undermining public security and planning to carry out terrorist attacks against Jordanian intelligence agents and American nationals residing in Jordan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:17 ||
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PESHAWAR: A lookalike of Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar is leading a miserable life in his native Kandahar due to constant fear of being caught or harassed. "Yep, poverty, famine and war woulda been swell 'cept I'm the spittin' image. It was great fer meetin' the ladies in the old days though. Sigh."
Syed Gul Agha, who belongs to Kandahar's Dhand district, has demanded action against two men who took his pictures in Kandahar around two years ago and later publicized them as true photographs of Mulla Omar. He alleged that Khalid Ahmad and Naqibullah photographed him by saying that they wanted to keep his pictures as momentoes. "There's somethin' about you. I can't quite place it. Mind if I shutterbug?"
In an interview with the Pajhwok Afghan News Service, Agha claimed Khalid Ahmad got asylum in the US by handing the mock pictures of Mulla Omar to the American authorities. It all comes clear. We've been chasing the wrong guy. "Calling all cars: Look for the fella missin' the right eyeball, not left."
He said Naqibullah was son-in-law of Mulla Shahzada, who was arrested by the US military sometimes back and freed recently after keeping him in custody for 26 months in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay. Agha, who closely resembles Mulla Omar, Still? I woulda poked out my other eyeball by this point in the story.
described Khalid Ahmad and Naqibullah as 'fraudsters.' We call 'em gansta fraudstas to be exact.
He complained that his pictures were later published by an Afghan journal, Nawasht, and by some Pakistani newspapers and captioned as that of Mulla Omar. He said he had to leave his farmland and suffer economic losses when life became difficult for him in Kandahar. "Those pesky Americans and their helicopters. And the poppy crop was going so well, too. Alas..."
He also said he was unable to accompany his son to the hospital when he was injured in a bomb blast in Kandahar. "Don't laugh, infidel. You try buildin' a bomb with both eyes poked out."
Pajhwok Afghan News Service reported that Agha accompanied Kandahar Ulema Council's member Mulla Mohammad Salim to Kabul recently for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai to seek his help in tackling problems arising from his resemblance with Mulla Omar. President Karzai reportedly assured him to tackle the issue. El Presidente: Mohammad, fetch the presidential patch. There you go. Try that on. Voila, you're a new man. No one will mistake you for Omar again. The gold glitter and ruffles really suit you.
Agha: Peace be upon your soul, your excellency. I am cured.
El Presidente: It was nothing, really. Mohammad, don't forget to order a new case of eye patches from Disney. I don't care, get the funds from the widow's and orphan's fund. What do you mean you spent it on ketchup packets? What is this country coming to.
A Syrian believed linked to al Qaeda was taken before a Turkish court Thursday on suspicion he was plotting to slam a speedboat packed with a ton of explosives into cruise ships carrying Israeli tourists.
Turkish police were frantically searching for other suspects linked to the man, who had undergone plastic surgery apparently to help conceal his identity. Authorities were also hunting for two squads of possible suicide bombers, reports said.
Israel, meanwhile, refused to cancel its travel warning to the Turkish Mediterranean coast, saying that the threat of an attack still exists.
Defense lawyer Osman Karahan said his client, who was identified in the Turkish press as Lu'ai Sakra, was found with 1,650 pounds of explosives.
"He was planning to hit Israeli ships in international waters with these explosives," CNN-Turk quoted Karahan as saying.
Sakra shouted that he had no regrets after he was led handcuffed by police into the courthouse.
"I was going to attack Israeli ships," he said. And then in an ominous threat, he added: "If they come, my friends will attack them."
"I had prepared a ton of explosives," he also said in a barely audible voice. He spoke Turkish with an Arabic accent.
A statement from police headquarters said the suspect had an important position within al Qaeda and had undergone plastic surgery. The Hurriyet newspaper said Sakra had had plastic surgery several times, to change his appearance.
A Turkish police official said security forces were looking for other suspects linked to Sakra. Private NTV television said police were searching for two teams of possible suicide bombers.
Five cruise ships carrying some 5,000 Israeli tourists have been diverted from Turkish ports to Cyprus in recent days following intelligence reports that a terror attack was imminent.
Israel on Monday urged its citizens not to visit beach resorts on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Turkey is a top vacation spot for Israelis, and more than 300,000 visit each year.
In Israel, a security official said the Israeli travel warning will remain in effect due to a continued threat of attack.
The Istanbul court charged Sakra Thursday with membership in an illegal organization, defense lawyer Ilhami Sayan said. He refused to give any details, citing court regulations.
Karahan told reporters that his client rejected accusations of membership in any organization and insisted that he was acting alone.
A police official said Sakra was planning to attack Israeli cruise ships with Zodiac speedboats packed with explosives. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because only top-level officials are allowed to speak on the record without prior authorization.
As Sakra left the courthouse, he shouted: "I was planning an attack in open seas. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar."
Sakra faces up to five years in prison if convicted of membership in an illegal organization.
Another Syrian, identified by the semiofficial Anatolia news agency as Hamed Obysi, whom Turkish reports said was an al Qaeda courier, was also charged Wednesday with membership in a terrorist organization.
Police said Sakra is believed to have acted as a contact between al Qaeda and Turkish extremists responsible for the 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul. The bombings killed some 60 people.
Sakra also is accused of helping the masterminds of those attacks flee the country. They reportedly fled to Iraq and joined the insurgency there.
Police believe Sakra was still in contact with al Qaeda operatives planning future attacks.
Suspects tried in Turkey for the 2003 Istanbul bombings said they originally were planning to attack an Israeli cruise ship in the Mediterranean, according to a court indictment.
Police said in a statement that the two Syrians were detained following an investigation into a fire that broke out in the early hours of Aug. 4 in a house in Antalya.
Bomb squad members and police intelligence officers were brought to the area after people noticed strong chemical smells coming from the house, the statement said.
Police apparently had been watching the two Syrians before the fire and later tied them to the house and the Istanbul bombings.
Last Saturday, police stopped Obysi after he tried to bribe border police to allow him to cross into Syria, the statement said.
Sakra was detained at an airport in the southern city of Diyarbakir carrying a false identity card, it added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:14 ||
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I'm glad they busted this up before it happened.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 12:54
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"In Israel, a security official said the Israeli travel warning will remain in effect due to a continued threat of attack."
The Israeli security official also said that all options are on the table, to remove the travel warning. One option is to schedule an appointment with a certain, eye doctor in Syria. The calendar is always clear for an Israeli visit.
PRIVATE Mathew Stewart was patrolling the streets of Dili, East Timor, in 2002 when he was confronted with the full horror of live combat.
The quiet soldier and keen surfer from Queensland's Sunshine Coast stumbled upon the almost unrecognisable body of a Dutch journalist killed by militia. Financial Times reporter Sander Thoenes, 30, had been shot in the chest and badly beaten. According to his comrades, Stewart was deeply traumatised by the discovery, his first encounter with death on the front line. He was discharged from the army's 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment for psychological reasons a short time later, sending him into a spiral of depression and self-doubt.
That's got to be one of the most difficult situations for a soldier anywhere, anytime.
While other East Timor veterans looked for a change of lifestyle back home, Stewart began fixing his sights on the war unravelling in Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on New York the previous year. Furious at his perceived mistreatment in the Australian army, Stewart began making plans to fight for the other side.
Stewart left for Iran around August 8, 2002 and moved into Afghanistan. Authorities believe he joined Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and resolved to fight against the way of life he once served to protect.
When news of Stewart's defection to Afghanistan was made public three years ago, friends and family came forward to describe an easily-led young man who showed no tendencies towards Islamic extremism. "I don't think he's a terrorist. I don't believe that for a second," said Anna Degotardi, who was Stewart's classmate at Immanuel Lutheran College in Mooloolaba in 1992. "He wasn't a leader, he was a bit of a follower but not through anything malicious. I feel really sorry for him. He's a nice guy who had some problems."
Australian Federal Police officers came to Vicki Stewart's home on Wednesday night with a series of still photographs they believed showed her long-missing son brandishing an automatic rifle. Mrs Stewart flatly denied the balaclava-clad man was her son, but this was not enough to convince authorities their interest was misplaced.
One of Stewart's oldest friends, Adam Miechel, told The Daily Telegraph he instantly recognised the heavily-armed man when his image flashed up on the television news this week.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:12 ||
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"I don't think he's a terrorist. I don't believe that for a second," said Anna Degotardi, who was Stewart's classmate at Immanuel Lutheran College in Mooloolaba in 1992.
This kind of radical indoctrination is truly frightening. If Lutherans can be brainwashed to this extent, profiling is absolutely useless.
FORMER army private Mathew Stewart has emerged as the chief suspect in the hunt for the masked terrorist with an Australian accent.
Stewart left home four years ago to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and has not been seen since.
The Australian Federal Police wasted no time investigating Stewart as the likely hooded figure in the video aired on Arab television.
Officers interviewed his mother Vicki Stewart, who denied the heavily armed man was the missing son she had long believed dead.
But one of Stewart's friends, Adam Miechel, said he believed the self-declared terrorist on the video was the man he had known in Mooloolaba, on the Sunshine Coast.
"My first thought was, 'yeah, it even sounds like him'," Mr Miechel said yesterday. "It looks like him, it sounds like him as well."
Stewart made headlines when he allegedly fled Australia to fulfil his dream of living in Afghanistan and fighting alongside the Taliban.
US forces reportedly found documents identifying Stewart as an Al-Qaeda recruit during a raid on a terrorist training camp in late 2002.
Intelligence agencies believe he made the decision to fight against US and Australian forces after returning from a tour of duty in East Timor, which caused him to have a mental breakdown and led to him being discharged from the army on psychological grounds.
Vicki Stewart was too distressed to speak yesterday and took the day off work to deal with authorities.
A family spokesman released a statement confirming that police were treating her missing son as a suspect.
"She (Mrs Stewart) has been contacted by the federal police and has been shown photographs by officers and advised them that the person in the photograph was definitely not Mathew Stewart," the spokesman said.
"The family is still grieving for Mathew, who disappeared four years ago without a trace.
"The family supports the work that the federal police are doing in this matter."
Mr Miechel said he felt uncomfortable talking about the matter because he was concerned that fresh talk that Stewart was alive would upset his family.
In a tragic twist, it is understood Stewart's parents held a small funeral service for their son without a body in Queensland.
Stewart is one of a handful of Australians believed to have travelled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
12:11 ||
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It may like to call itself proudly the "birthplace of human rights", but when it comes to dealing with Islamist clerics, France is rarely reluctant to set such scruples aside. The country waited only days after the London bombings before summarily expelling its first two radical preachers. It has since sent two more packing and plans to deport a total of some two dozen by the end of this month.
Underlining a longstanding difference in approach between London and Paris, an interior ministry official said France had "no problem whatsoever" in deporting anyone accused of inflaming anti-western feeling - even if they had French citizenship and were formally recognised as preachers by the Muslim community. The planned arrests and expulsions follow repeated statements by the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, since the July 7 London attacks that France "must and will act against radical preachers capable of influencing the youngest and most weak-minded". Fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, that in Britain have, until very recently, protected the controversial clerics, count for precious little in France when the speech concerned is considered an incitement to hatred or violence.
French commentators have long looked with disbelief at what Islamist preachers were allowed to say publicly in Britain in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks on the US. London rapidly became known as "Londonistan". France's strongly contrasting approach has been conditioned by the fact that it is, in many respects, a very different country from Britain. Central to these differences are the importance of the egalitarian Republican tradition and its rejection of multiculturalism; the ingrained expectation of French politicians that the justice system is at their command; the sheer size of France's Muslim community, put at between 5m and 8m out of a total population of 60m; the fact that France had its first taste of Islamist terror several years before 9/11.
Between July and October 1995, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group or GIA carried out a string of bomb attacks, mainly on public transport targets and mainly in Paris, which killed eight people and injured more than 200. The attacks were aimed at punishing France for its support of Algeria's military-backed government in its long war on Islamic insurgents. Since that campaign, French intelligence has devoted substantial resources to monitoring closely and even infiltrating the more radical elements in the Muslim community. By and large, police know who pose a threat and where to find them: ahead of the 1998 World Cup in France, dozens of Islamists considered a potential threat were quietly rounded up and placed in preventive detention for the duration of the tournament. Similarly, in the wake of 9/11, French arrests of militants with a possible al-Qaida link were all but instantaneous.
The latest undesirable to be deported since the London bombings was Amar Heraz, described by police as an "Algerian Islamist linked to terrorist networks", who was put on a ferry in Marseille earlier this week. Heraz, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1999 and barred from France for a year, was expelled on the grounds that he had re-entered France illegally. He was preceded by Reda Ameuroud, a 35-year-old Algerian who was also staying in France illegally and whose speeches at a radical mosque in Paris's 11th arrondissement - described by police as "violent and hate-filled" - prompted the French intelligence services to classify him as an "ideological reference point". Ameuroud's brother, Abderahmane, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from French territory in May after being convicted of giving "logistical support" to two Tunisians who assassinated the Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massood in 2001.
Another "part-time" imam, Abdelhamid Aissaoui, 41, was expelled from France earlier this month for urging youths to join the jihad or holy war. He had already served a four-year jail term for his role in an attempted 1995 bomb attack on a high-speed TGV train near Lyon by the GIA.
According to the interior ministry, about 1,100 imams have been identified in France and "the vast majority pose no problem at all". Some 50% are regular speakers, 150 preach only occasionally, and the remainder officiate only at Friday prayers. About 30% are Moroccan, 20% Algerian and 15% Turkish. Those now being targeted are radical imams and ideologists of mainly North African and Turkish origin, based in or around major cities with large Muslim populations like Lyon, Marseille and Paris. French intelligence services consider that about 40 of the country's 1,500 mosques and prayer centres are under the influence of radical ideologies ranging from "classic fundamentalism to violent and hate-filled rhetoric".
Police and ministry officials acknowledge that the greatest threat comes from occasional speakers who often have no formal training and little knowledge of the Qur'an but can exercise great influence over the impressionable youth of France's deprived big-city suburbs. At least seven French nationals are known to have been killed fighting with anti-coalition insurgents in Iraq, and a further 10 are believed to still be there. Several other young French jihadists also died in Afghanistan and fought in Bosnia.
The latest rash of arrests and deportations, however, has prompted the first stirrings of alarm in the moderate Muslim community. "Is it a crime to be a Muslim? If these people haven't killed, I don't know why they're being kicked out," one Algerian in Lyon told French radio. "Muslims are not cockroaches."
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
11:38 ||
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Snakes?
Spiders?
Scorpions?
But peace-lovin' vermin!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:36
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Cockroaches will still be around in 100 years...
So they want to wait until they kill someone to deport them? Brilliant Holmes. Stap a nuke to his back and watch him blow up Paris. Then deport his remains. Kick them out if they so much as condone the horrific actions of the zelots. Don't wait until your countrymen are lined up in a gutter, blood flowing from their shattered remains before you do anything, you asswipe.
#7
Reminds of the old Star Trek joke: An Arab asked Gene Roddenberry why although the crew of the Enterprise was so ethnically diverse with blacks, Russians, Scots, Chinese, etc, there were no Arab characters. The response, "Well, that's because it is set in the future."
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
08/11/2005 13:57
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nothing in what france has one is anti-muslim. They have identified SPECIFIC mosques, SPECIFIC preachers, who are problems - implicitly recognizing that the remainder are moderate.
The Algerian who complained is probably a radical, and so identifies France's justified campaign against radicals with a campaign against all muslims.
#11
Of course they're not. One of them is an unwanted pest that infests apartment buildings, breeds like crazy, and makes the neighbors move away. The other is an insect.
#13
As much as I dislike the French, I must admit that here is a case in which the French are on the right side more than the Brits.
In fact, the French position is also better, in many ways, than the policy of the U.S. We have not been able to use our hate crime laws effectively because it requires showing that hate motivated a tangible crime (e.g., raising funds for Islamic terror groups) and the penalty for the 'hate' part is so minor compared to the crime itself, it is usually not worth prosecuting.
#14
As a member of PETA, I protest comparing muslims to cockroches. I mean, I ask you - which would you rather have more of in your house, your country? I'll take the cockroches.
#15
So they want to wait until they kill someone to deport them?
This is better known as the law-enforcement approach, where they wait 'til someone commits a crime before taking action. Unfortunately, the end result of this is that victims are created, the worst cases being people who have needlessly lost their lives.
We're often told that Islamic terrorism has an exact mirror in Christian-inspired extremism.
Sure, there are thousands of jihadis killing and maiming people of all creeds and colors, but look at Timothy McVeigh! Can't -- he's compost now. But when he was alive he wasn't shouldering aside old ladies to make morning Mass; McVeigh was one of those pathetic Aryan pagans who would have beat up Jesus for his dusky hue.
What about that abortion bomber guy, Eric Rudolph? Sorry; he calls himself a disciple of Nietzsche.
Well, what about the Crusades? And Dresden? Fine. Drop us a line when someone drives a 737 into the Sears Tower on behalf of a bygone pope and Gen. Eisenhower.
It turns out, however, that there are similarities. There is something the Islamic extremists and some Christian groups share: They agree that Israel is the problem.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) -- not the members, but the learned elders -- has announced it will use its stock holdings to target Israel for being mean to the Palestinians.
But they're not anti-Semites. Heavens, nay. Don't you dare question their philosemitism! No, they looked at the entire world, including countries that lop off your skull if you convert to Presbyterianism, and what did they choose as the object of their ire? A country the size of a potato chip hanging on the edge of a region noted for despotism and barbarity. By some peculiar coincidence, it happens to be full of Jews.
The right and the left seem to take turns deciding who's going to be anti-Semitic. But for some time now, the hard left in the West has led the charge against the Jews -- or, as the sleight-of-hand term has it, the Zionists.
These adolescent spirits love nothing more than a revolution, a story of a scrappy underdog rising up against a colonizing power, and the Palestinians, with their romantically masked fighters and thrilling weapon-brandishing, fit the bill. Plus, there's something so deliciously naughty and transgressive about calling Jews the new Nazis.
It doesn't matter that one side is a liberal democracy that grants rights to women and non-Jews while the other has thugs and assassins for rulers and sends its kids to summer camps where they learn the joys of good ol' fashioned Jew-killing.
According to the hard left's script, Israel was created when some Europeans (hisssss) invaded the sovereign nation of Palestine, even though we all know the Jewish homeland is somewhere outside Passaic, N.J. Then for no reason Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza -- which for some reason had not been set up as New Palestine by the Egyptians and the Jordanians, but never mind -- and made everyone stand in line and get frisked. Those who joined the line in '67 are just getting through now. Evil Zionists.
Don't tell the Presbyterians about Tibet or Sudan. It would absolutely ruin their day.
The companies the church wishes to pressure include Caterpillar, which makes bulldozers purchased by the Israelis for the sole purpose of knocking down innocent homes of gentle lamb herders, and Motorola, which among other things sells night-vision goggles that give the Israeli Defense Forces an unfair advantage over people who want to smuggle in bombs to encourage the social-justice dialogue.
The church will probably get around to boycotting Cuisinart, if the imams suggest that Jews use Cuisinart products to grind up Gentile bones for Passover pastries. Of course it's not true, literally, but in the culture of the occupation and resistance, we must understand these things as potent metaphors. False, yes, but potent!
Next they can sue the company that sells buses to Israeli cities. All those tempting targets, packed with innocent people. How could an oppressed person resist killing them all? What sort of civilized nation would tempt them so? Especially because they don't have helicopters and night-vision goggles and tanks and missiles. Not that they'd use those devices against Israelis. That would risk a Presbyterian boycott.
There are some lines even the most romantic revolutionary dare not cross.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
11:31 ||
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Another great one by Lileks! It amazes me just how infiltrated the Church has become these days. Christ's bride needs to do some housecleaning.
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 14:07
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Muslim extremist gunmen killed three municipality guards and injured four others in an attack in eastern Algeria, reports said Thursday. Daily al-Watan said gunmen attacked a convoy of municipality guards in the province of Skikda, 375 miles east of Algiers. In another incident, security forces arrested eight people who made up a gang for support of armed groups in western Algeria. The group was accused of providing logistic support, information and money to armed organizations.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
11:30 ||
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It's heartening to see a news service identify gunmen as 'Muslim extremist'
Police in Cambridgeshire, England, have been called in to investigate a small explosion at the high-security Whitemoor Prison. Until Thursday, little news was divulged about the Aug. 4 incident, but Sky News reported a Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed a small "firework-like" explosion went off in a wing at about 7:45 p.m. Officials said al-Qaida suspect and would-be shoe-bomber Saajid Badat, 25, who was jailed this year for 13 years, was placed in isolation with three other prisoners after being forensically tested for traces of explosives.
Nice to see he's keeping busy in the stir.
The prison was locked down for a search by bomb squad staff and detection dogs, the report said. "The device is being analyzed but there is nothing to indicate explosives have been smuggled into the prison," the spokeswoman said. Officials said they believe the explosive was made from ingredients available within the prison, such as sugar and weed killer.
Sounds like he may have been doing a little "Show and Tell" for his new buds.
I think he watched one too many episodes of McGyver, myself...
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
11:14 ||
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people with this kind of specialized knowledge/training should be kept alone, not out where they can collaborate with comrades or,worse yet, train others who are as yet uninitiated in the cult.
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 11:36
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What's wrong with citing rulings by judges in other countries, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer asked attendees at the American Bar Association Convention in Chicago on Tuesday.
Conservatives led by justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have criticized Breyer for backing up opinions with references to rulings from abroad, such as a 2002 Death Row case in which Breyer cited decisions by British and Canadian courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
The Supreme Court "...should not impose foreign moods, fads or fashions on Americans," Justice Thomas wrote in response.
But Breyer said Tuesday, "We're not bound by any foreign laws... but this is a world in which more and more countries have come to have democratic systems of government with documents like our constitution that protect things like free expression. And there are judges. They have a job that is somewhat similar to the jobs we have. Why not learn something if we can?"
"To tell you the truth, in some of these countries, they're just trying to create these independent judicial systems to protect human rights, contracts. If we cite them sometimes -- not as binding, I promise, not as binding -- well, that gives them a little boost sometimes... It sort of gives them a leg up for the rule of law."
Breyer admits his and other justices' citing of non-U.S. cases "has hit a political nerve."
It came to a head in March when the court voted 5-4 to outlaw the execution of juveniles, citing, amid other evidence, the fact that other countries had outlawed it.
Breyer's comments came on the last day of the ABA's convention, attended by about 10,000 lawyers. Not a political nerve, you metrosexual, a US Constitutional nerve. If our republican democracy and Common Law don't define our laws to your satisfaction, you should ask to be appointed to the World Court at The Hague.
#1
"To tell you the truth, in some of these countries, they're just trying to create these independent judicial systems to protect human rights, contracts. If we cite them sometimes -- not as binding, I promise, not as binding -- well, that gives them a little boost sometimes... It sort of gives them a leg up for the rule of law."
Ladies and gentlemen -- affirmative action in a nutshell.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 11:38
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It's nice that Justice Breyer wants to advance the rule of law in other countries. Is there any chance he could do some of that here? Only if he's got time in between legislating from the bench and running his mouth off at conferences, of course.
#3
Breyer sees all cultures as equal, except ours, which is lacking in the good sense God evolution gave all non-Americans
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 13:53
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What's wrong with citing rulings by judges in other countries, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer asked
Maybe, just maybe, because you took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States not some transnational concept. If you no longer wish to represent the United States, please step down. Direct consent of the governed, faster, faster.
#5
Breyer's comments came on the last day of the ABA's convention, attended by about 10,000 lawyers.
Boy, talk about your target rich environment!
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 14:13
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Might as well start citing sharia, while you're at it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/11/2005 16:04
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Oh dear, this is not good at all.
'documents like our constitution' - hmmm, well it depends what you mean by 'documents'. If you're talking about that abomination that is the *kof* european constitution (deliberately de-capitalised) then that's not fit to wipe a water-buffalos arse. Of course as there is 10^8 pages of it, there's enough to wipe a whole herd of buffalo arses with it.
Is this guy up for retirement anytime soon?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/11/2005 16:22
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..well, that gives them a little boost sometimes...
What was that again about the road to hell?
Someone tell Breyer that it's not his job to give other nations a boost. His job is to uphold OUR Constitution.
LONDON -- Some people bring flowers, others bring balloons. When Melvyn Reed's three wives showed up to visit him at the hospital, they brought an unexpected curtain call to his years as a double bigamist. British police confirmed that after Melvyn Reed woke from his triple bypass heart operation earlier this year, his complicated marital affairs took a turn for a worse. All three of his spouses had turned up at the same time, despite his efforts to stagger their visits.
I hate it when that happens
Media reports say that, upon realizing that something was amiss, the wives held a meeting in the parking lot, and learned that they were all married to the same man.
Whereupon much seething commenced. Lucky he was already in hospital.
The 59-year-old company director from Kettering in central England turned himself into police on May 12 saying he was married to three women at the same time, and confessed to bigamy, an illegal offense in Britain, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Reed had turned himself in to police in Wimbledon, south London in the presence of his lawyer, and admitted he was a bigamist.
"I'm guilty, your honor! Please lock me up where they can't get at me!"
He pleaded guilty to two charges of bigamy on July 19 at the Wimbledon Magistrates' court, and was given a suspended sentence of four months in prison and ordered to pay 70 pounds (US$126; euro102) in costs, police said.
I'm thinking he's going to be out a lot more money before this is over.
It wasn't immediately possible to reach Reed or his three wives. A phone call to one of the women went unanswered. Reed's lawyer Laurence Grant was not immediately available at his office for comment.
The Metropolitan Police said Reed married his first wife, Jean Grafton, in 1966, then left her without divorcing her. He went on to marry Denise Harrington in 1998, then married Lyndsey Hutchinson in 2003.
British media have widely reported that Reed recently moved back in with his first wife, Grafton. They say she is the mother of his three grown children. The Metropolitan Police said Harrington and Hutchinson had sought advice on getting their marriages annulled. But media reports say lawyers have advised the women that their marriages were never valid.
My advice to Melvyn is to change his name and move to someplace safe. Baghdad, for example.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
10:57 ||
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Lucky for him that this happened after 7/7. I think since 7/7, illegal bigamy is no longer on top of Scotland Yard's list of things to investigate.
#3
I'm thinking he's going to be out a lot more money before this is over.
I'm thinking he better not fall asleep near any one of these wives or he may be out more than just money. (Lorena Bobbitt, anyone?)
Scientists have unscrambled the genetic code of rice, a development that could help end hunger around the world, Nature magazine reports this week.
The blueprint will speed up the hunt for genes that improve productivity and guard against disease and pests.
In order to avoid shortages, rice yields must increase by 30% over the next 20 years, researchers say.
Scientists from 10 countries cooperated to work out how the 400 million "letters" of rice DNA are arranged.
"Rice is a critically important crop, and this finished sequence represents a major milestone," said Robin Buell of The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR). "We know the scientific community can use these data to develop new varieties of rice that deliver increased yields and grow in harsher conditions."
The research will also help scientists understand other vital food crops. Rice is genetically similar to maize, wheat, barley, rye, sorghum and sugarcane. So understanding the genomes of these plants is now a small step away.
"Rice is the Rosetta Stone for crop genomes," said Dr Buell. "We can use the rice genome as a base for genomic studies of cereals."
According to the United Nations, rice currently provides 20% of the world's dietary energy supply, while wheat supplies 19% and maize 5%.
Although rice represents 30% of global cereal production today, and production levels have doubled over the past 30 years, much more of the cereal will be needed in the future.
Current consumption trends suggest that about 4.6 billion people will be reliant on rice by the 2025. In addition, global warming may mean that rice is required to be more robust in the face of droughts.
Japan led the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project, which included teams from the US, the UK, China, India, Thailand, Brazil and France.
The rice variety sequenced was the temperate subspecies Oryza sativa subspecies japonica , which is cultivated mainly in Japan, Korea, and the US.
It took seven years to complete the work and the results are already accelerating discovery. Scientists have used the sequence to identify genes that control fundamental processes, such as flowering.
Rice's similarity to barley has also helped researchers identify genes responsible for resistance to barley powdery mildew and stem rust, two major crop diseases.
"Now that we know where all the genes are, we try to associate them with certain traits," said Rod Wing of the University of Arizona. "The accurate, map-based sequence has already led to the identification of genes that confer important traits such as yield and demand for light during growth."
The researchers compared rice to the only other fully sequenced plant genome, Arabidposis thaliana , or thale cress, a weed that is commonly used in laboratories.
They found that while 90% of thale cress proteins also occur in rice, only 71% of rice proteins also occur in thale cress. This suggests rice has many genes specific to itself, or cereals.
"By sequencing rice we sequenced all the other cereals to a certain extent," said Professor Wing.
"Many of the shared genes are in similar positions on the respective chromosomes, so when we assign a function to a given gene in rice, it is very likely that the corresponding gene in another cereal has the same or a similar function." Agribusiness is one of the few things that can affect humans a billion at a time. As far as agriculture goes, this is as unique, and as much of a milestone, as was the Moon landing.
#2
Actually, we already have "Golden Rice," which lets thousands of children in Asia be able to see. Of course, the usual evil greenies don't want that to expand to millions. Who cares if millions are blind because of the simple lack of a few vitamins? They're not white, anyway.
#4
To put this into perspective, in the 1970s, to prevent the US, Canada and Argentina from becoming so predominant in world food production as to create world-wide dependency, the USDA began a program to create grain cross-breeds that were far hardier, disease and insect resistant, and needing less water. Of the few hundred cross-breeds they created, they exported seed for free and re-established subsistence farming as viable production in much of the world. Planted crop food grains have thus expanded their range on the planet by many fold. And this was just with a few hundred simple cross-breeds. By knowing the grain genome, thousands of nutritionally and agriculturally tailored grains may create a second, decentralized "green revolution."
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man was taken into custody after he tried to carry a bomb on board an airplane on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, an FBI spokesman said. Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was detained on Wednesday morning after a security screener using an X-ray machine saw the device in his luggage as he tried to board a flight to Philadelphia at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.
Well, if I was going to the City of Brotherly Love I'd carry protection, but a bomb is a bit much.
I'm very impressed the security screener found it. That's one.
"Although the investigation is in its initial stages we have found no apparent connection to any type of terrorist activity or group," FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said.
Another one of your "lone white male" suspects, eh?
Who can fly airplanes, per his resume.
Johnson said the screener saw an "improvised explosive device" in Dreyling's carry-on luggage then wet himself. A woman answering the phone at Dreyling's home on Wednesday night declined to discuss the matter.
"I can say no more!"
Johnson said Dreyling would be charged in federal court on Thursday with possession of an explosive device at an airport.
They really don't like that.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
10:51 ||
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#1
Not much on Google for his name. He -- or his father -- gave some money to the Oklahoma University College of Pharmacy, but that's all.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 11:01
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Flying airplanes is an expensive hobby. Not just a bum, but one who is still being supported by Mommy and Daddy. And, since the OU page is still valid, one who realized a bit late that going to college is a good idea. Did he go because he decided to grow up, as a way to meet girls, or because that was the only way Daddy would keep paying his bills?
#13
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An explosive device was found in a passenger's carryon bag as the man passed through a checkpoint, and federal agents arrested him, the FBI said Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Troester described the device as a carbon-dioxide cartridge with a black-powder detonator.
Just a big firecracker. Enjoy your time in the slammer, Chuck.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005 12:44
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#14
You won't find too much alive and worth eating on a regular basis in the waterways in Philly. If you caught it and killed it the EPA still doesn't advise you eat too much of it. CNN has a nice pic of the badboy. Contrast it with the one BH dug up on badboy's website. In the words of a former client "his mind be swimmin ... it's all in the eyes you see."
#15
You fishheads don't understand. He was obviously afraid of flying and fearing hijacking. To mitigate his concerns he built his own bomb never intending to use it..... Because what are the odds of two unconnected bombers on a flight? It was a form of insurance.
RICHMOND, Va. - The creation of gender-segregated classes at Virginia Tech for visiting faculty from Saudi Arabia is drawing complaints from professors, who say a state-supported school shouldn't promote discrimination. King Abdulaziz University paid Virginia Tech $246,000 to design and operate the faculty development program this summer.
The courses include topics such as Web site development and online instruction, but in keeping with the preferences of the Saudi university, the university created separate classes for the approximately 30 male and 30 female faculty members.
Eloise Coupey, an associate professor of marketing at the Virginia Tech, filed a complaint with the school Tuesday alleging the single-sex classes created a hostile environment for women."The presence of these segregated classes on campus indicates to me that the university doesn't place a strong enough value on women's rights," Coupey said Wednesday. "This makes me feel that the university holds me in less regard than my male counterparts." The univerisity might not, but the Saudi's do.
A message left for university spokesman Larry Hincker seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.Provost Mark McNamee has said that the gender segregation isn't compatible with Virginia Tech's practices and called the controversy "a learning moment" that will help guide the university's future contracts with foreign universities."We regret that our internal review process did not anticipate this situation and develop a reasonable alternative in partnership with our visitors," McNamee said in a statement Tuesday to deans and department heads.
The university, in Blacksburg, has allowed the classes to continue but has made the course segregation optional. "Segregation optional"? That's a new one.
Insane Babbling Continues. Film at Eleven... In brief:
"serious concern"
left open the possibility of further negotiations
rebuke
more time for informal talks
holding out hope for a negotiated end to the standoff
Annan called on the Iranians to continue discussions
the best way to break the impasse is to continue the discussions
#1
Ha! Iran knows it has atleast another six months before it has to 'cry uncle'! I suggest the US start loading and deploying 4 Carrier Groups to the region, to raise the collective Iranian eyebrow!!
August 11, 2005: The war continues in Sudan's western Darfur province, with pro-government militia continuing to attack refugees. Nigeria said it will send another battalion of troops to serve with African Union peacekeepers in Darfur. That makes three Nigerian battalions for Darfur. One arrived in July, the second battalion is in the process of deploying via airlift from Nigeria to Darfur. The third battalion will arrive in Darfur in October. Nigeria has the largest peacekeeping contingent in Darfar. The second largest? Rwanda. A reinforced Rwandan battalion (1000 troops) arrived in mid-July. Rwanda currently has 1,750 troops in Darfur.
The big questions is, will the increase in troops have an effect? The theory is the armed peacekeepers presence will be enough to deter the "Arab" militias. The Rwandans and Nigerians are also "black Africans" -- like the farmers and herders under attack by the militias.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
09:28 ||
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EFL, I hope. Why does Preview never work for Me before about 0800? No wonder I lose out to the AoS so often.
The United Nationsâ nuclear watchdog Yeah, a little red watchdog, with a bushy tail and chicken feathers on his whiskers is set to vote on a request for a detailed report on Iranâs non-proliferation safeguards by September 3.
A new draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Authority requests that the organisationâs director general, Mohamed El-Baradei, report on Iranâs implementation of agreed non-proliferation safeguards in three weeksâ time. Request denied. Carry on, Iran.
The new draft resolution, due to be debated at the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday, held back from demanding that Iran be referred to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose minor nuisance crippling sanctions on Iran.
On Wednesday an IAEA emergency board meeting adjourned without agreement on a resolution that would call on Iran to reinstate the suspension of its nuclear work. The resolution, drafted by Western nations, ran into opposition from terrorist-supporting developing countries.
Earlier South Africa proposed a giveawaycompromise to break the diplomatic crisis over Iran's nuclear programme, after Tehran on Wednesday removed United Nations seals from a uranium conversion facility in order to resume work on producing nuclear fuel.
Diplomats said Thabo Mbeki, South African president, was involved in pushing the interim compromise. Two weeks ago he met Hassan Rowhani, who was then Iran's chief negotiator, to discuss a proposal that would involve shipping South African uranium yellowcake to Iran for conversion into uranium hexafluoride gas. This would be returned to South Africa to be enriched into nuclear fuel. SA officials will express "surprise" at the poor quality of the UF6: "There's hardly any U-235 in here at all."
The EU-3 group of France, Germany and the UK accused Iran of âflagrant disregardâ of its November 2004 agreement voluntarily to suspend its nuclear fuel cycle development. There would be no further talks until Iran resumed that suspension, a UK official said.
The EU-3 and the US intend to push ahead with another IAEA resolution in September that would try to refer Iran to the UN Security Council and Chinese veto if there were no change by then. An Iranian official said it would go to the next stage and restart uranium enrichment at its Natanz facility GPS coordinates? if it was taken to the council.
#1
We're gonna do whatever we want, unless we can suck some more concessions out of you before we do whatever we want anyway.
Got it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:32
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Nope, Comment #1 - you are wrong. What you say may be right about NKor. Not Iran. They just want nukes and will do what it takes until they have them, o r they are stopped by military means..
Watch it there, Bobby, yer gettin' pretty close to in fringement, heh. Since you also copyright all of your spiffy verbalisms, you understand, I'm sure, heh. ;-)
As part of a package of "urgent wartime support initiatives," the Defense Department has requested that Congress raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service. One week after I turn 43, er, I'm 39. That's it.
According to a report in the Army Times, the move would raise considerably the age of potential service members. Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties, the report stated.
At a hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee last month, David S.C. Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said he felt the military's recent problems with recruiting were improving, but that additional incentives would help.
The Times reported Chu did not elaborate on the request to raise the recruitment age and did not mention whether any of the services were seriously considering recruiting 42-year-olds.
Most of the initiatives in the package were previously requested by the Bush administration as part of the 2006 defense budget, which is pending before Congress, and include raises in certain pay bonuses in incentives to help bolster recruiting.
"Recruitment is a challenge right now," said Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., at the hearing. "Both the military and Congress are working on solutions, but I expect these challenges will be with us for some time. Military service is honorable and can be a real growing opportunity for a young man or woman."
Recruitment goals for most of the months this year have not been met, and military leaders have begun instituting various creative incentives to try to boost the numbers.
#1
Age limits on enlistments was pegged so as to allow an individual to retire at 55 with 20 years active duty. This raising of age limits probably doesn't effect the numbers too much. Not too many 42 year olds are in sufficient physical condition for basic. However, it does permit select individuals with unique skills [re: Iraqi/Farsi speakers] to be recruited from a population group of, say, former or current exiles.
#2
I think the government will do whatever it has to in order to recruit....yes, benefit's, pay etc should be increased.
Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson ||
08/11/2005 12:02
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A word of warning before joining the Marines at that age - the drill instructors will push you until your heart explodes. Had a 28-year-old in my boot camp platoon who got to do lots of extra drills because the drill instructors didn't like "these goddam old men joining my Corps". They seemed to take it real personal.
AFTER A STRING OF BOMBINGS in London, the British media began peppering Tony Blair and John Howard with questions about the effects of Britain's presence in Iraq on suicide-bomber recruitment. During the hastily-arranged press conference the day of the second series of attempted bombings, journalist Paul Bongiorno noted that one Australian injured in the July 7 blasts had blamed the Iraq War for the attacks, prompting a tough response from the Australian prime minister. The unnamed victim is not alone; an ICM poll for the Guardian showed that two-thirds of Brits believe that the bombings have some linkage to military action in Iraq.
Today the political situation remains unchanged for Blair and the British. George Galloway, the Scots MP who recently declared his sympathy with the Iraqi "insurgents," told Syrians on July 31 that the British, Americans, and the West needed a cure for their imperialism, not the Arabs for their radicalism and oppression. In fact, Galloway told Syrians that the Arabs appeared to be doing nothing but standing by while the West raped their "daughters":
Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners--Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.
Galloway this week referred to Iraqi terrorists conducting suicide attacks as "martyrs" and told the BBC that Tony Blair and George Bush were the real terrorists. Even though pundits consider Galloway a voice from the fringe, when he says that Islamist terror arose from the first Iraq War and the occupation of Jerusalem, he speaks for a not-insignificant number of Brits, and Yanks as well.
All of which makes the forgotten case of Mohammed Afroze all the more significant.
On the day after the failed July 21 bombings in London, an Indian court in Delhi sentenced Mohammed Afroze to seven years in prison for his participation in a wider plot which had been planned for September 11, 2001. Afroze led another al Qaeda cell which planned to use commercial airlines as missiles to destroy several international targets. The Islamist terrorists intended to send a global message through coordination with the attacks on America. Their plan failed when the terrorists lost their nerve and fled Heathrow.
Afroze and his compatriots from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan had planned on flying their Manchester-bound flights into the House of Commons and the Tower Bridge in London. Attacking Parliament would have sent a message to the British government about the continued sanctions on Iraq. Blowing up the Tower Bridge would kill a slew of British civilians, with the intent of terrorizing them into demanding a withdrawal of British troops from the Middle East and a halt to support of American actions in the region.
But Afroze had other targets as part of his plan--and these reveal something much deeper and broader than Galloway and the media wish to contemplate.
AFROZE HAS ALSO ADMITTED to targeting the Rialto Towers in Melbourne, Australia. Australia has a long history of courageous alliance with Britain and the United States, of course, but Australia never set foot in Iraq before the 2003 invasion. They had provided a naval support contingent of three ships with 600 sailors and their own air defense squad. Their mission consisted of interdiction on shipping in the Persian Gulf to ensure no arms made their way into Saddam Hussein's hands during the blockade that preceded the war.
Australia had helped free East Timor from a military occupation by Indonesian paramilitary forces two years earlier. The Portuguese pulled out of Timor in 1976, and the Indonesian military invaded the island nine days later, annexing the territory and imposing an increasingly brutal regime on the Catholic Timorese. In 1999, Indonesia president B.J. Habibie unexpectedly offered a referendum to East Timor, and an overwhelming majority backed independence. This touched off a revolting nightmare of murder and terror by Indonesian paramilitary forces which only ended when an Australian-led U.N. force took control of East Timor and effectively liberated it from the Indonesians.
Clearly the notion that an attack on Melbourne would send a message about Iraq and Jerusalem, therefore, hinges on shaky ground. It seems much more likely that al Qaeda harbored a grudge against the Aussies for their efforts to free East Timor (now Timor Leste) from primarily Muslim Indonesia. However, that doesn't square with the critics who insist that Western policies about Iraq and Jerusalem lie at the heart of Islamofascist terror, especially when some of those same critics--such as Noam Chomsky, Mother Jones, and organizations like Common Dreams--insisted on Western nations intervening in East Timor to free the Timorese from Indonesian tyranny.
In fact, Chomsky sounded themes in his essay demanding military action remarkably similar to those George W. Bush would use five years later while demanding action to free the Iraqi people from the grip of Saddam Hussein:
Not long before, the Clinton administration welcomed Suharto as "our kind of guy," following the precedent established in 1965 when the general took power, presiding over army-led massacres that wiped out the country's only mass-based political party (the PKI, a popularly supported communist party) and devastated its popular base in "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." According to a CIA report, these massacres were comparable to those of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao; hundreds of thousands were killed, most of them landless peasants. The achievement was greeted with unrestrained euphoria in the West. The "staggering mass slaughter" was "a gleam of light in Asia," according to two commentaries in the New York Times, both typical of the general western media reaction. Corporations flocked to what many called Suharto's "paradise for investors," impeded only by the rapacity of the ruling family. For more than 20 years, Suharto was hailed in the media as a "moderate" who is "at heart benign," even as he compiled a record of murder, terror, and corruption that has few counterparts in postwar history. . . .
The picture in the past few months is particularly ugly against the background of the self-righteous posturing in the "enlightened states." But it simply illustrates, once again, what should be obvious: Nothing substantial has changed, either in the actions of the powerful or the performance of their flatterers. The Timorese are "unworthy victims." No power interest is served by attending to their suffering or taking even simple steps to end it. Without a significant popular reaction, the long-familiar story will continue, in East Timor and throughout the world.
Somehow Chomsky's--and much of the left's--concern for "unworthy victims" would disappear when the Iraqis, afflicted with a similarly genocidal tyrant, received the same round--or more accurately, sixteen rounds--of indifference from the United Nations.
BUT AFROZE HAD ONE MORE TARGET in mind for his suicide attacks: the Indian Parliament. Again, anyone with a sense of history understands the long antagonism between Muslims and Hindus on the Asian subcontinent. The division of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh after the British withdrawal in 1947 touched off a religious and political conflict that persists to this day. Any aggression against India by al Qaeda would hardly seem surprising given this well-known dynamic.
What would seem surprising is the notion that an al Qaeda attack on India's Parliament would have anything to do with Iraq or Jerusalem. India followed its historical precedents in the month before the March 2003 invasion, in a letter to the United Nations. India argued that they wanted more time before the Security Council authorized military action and that they opposed the invasion of Iraq. More to the point, India had a long history of trade with Saddam's Iraq, right up to the first Gulf War. The Indian government restarted trade with Iraq in June 1991 (almost immediately after the war), working within the sanctions but clearly supportive of trade with Saddam Hussein.
Nor has India expressed any solidarity with Israel. India joined the Non-Aligned Movement, which has repeatedly and publicly sided with the Palestinians. India's U.N. voting record shows that it remains essentially sympathetic to the Palestinian claims over the occupied territories, and its rhetoric shows that it considers the plight of the Palestinians analogous to the struggle of India against the British Empire.
THE CASE OF MOHAMMED AFROZE puts all claims that Western opposition to reasonable goals of Muslims caused September 11, the London bombings, or any of al Qaeda's other attacks going back into the early 1990s. The goal all along has been for Osama bin Laden and his Islamofascist terrorists to seize control of the region that produces the world's energy in order to bring the infidels under their heel--and to be sure we stay there, regardless of our previous sympathies.
Edward Morrissey is a contributing writer to The Daily Standard and a contributor to the blog Captain's Quarters.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
09:11 ||
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It's always been questionable how serious the Mohammed Afroze story actually was, certainly the Australian government seemed to imply that he had been forced into making the confession while in Indian custody.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/11/2005 20:15
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A purported al Qaeda video aired on an Arabic-language news network appears to show the photo identification card and weapon of one of the Navy SEALs killed in late June in eastern Afghanistan, a Navy official said. The card shows the name of Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colorado, who died on or around June 28 in the Afghan mountains while part of a four-man SEAL reconnaissance team. His body was recovered July 4. "We have no reason to believe it's not his," the official said.
The two-hour video, aired on Al-Arabiya satellite news network Friday, also shows an M-4 carbine -- the type Navy SEALs use in the field, he said. The official could not verify that a laptop computer shown on the tape was a Navy computer. But he said SEALs often take computers on missions to retrieve maps and information on locations, targeting insurgent activities. The video shows an apparent body from the shoulders up, with a helmet on the head. No face is shown. Navy officials said they could not confirm anything about that part of the video, except to say the way the body was dressed is not how SEALs dress in the field.
The video segment is part a propaganda film titled "The War of the Oppressed People."
Was that a film about their victims? Or the women and children of Afghanistan under the Taliban? I'm confused.
Other parts of it feature people described as militants showing off weapons, including surface-to-air missiles and possible bomb-making materials. There are interviews and anti-Western diatribes in Arabic, French and English. Al-Arabiya would not say where or how it obtained the video.
Dietz was one of four SEALs participating in Operation Red Wing -- a counterterrorism mission in Kunar province. Two other SEALs also died, but the fourth escaped to a village, where he was hidden by villagers and was later rescued by U.S. forces. An MH-47 helicopter en route to support the four-man team crashed June 28, killing all 16 aboard -- eight special operations soldiers and eight Navy SEALs. The U.S. military believes the helicopter was shot down by insurgents.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
08:58 ||
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#1
He took an ID card with him?? I don't believe it.
#2
It doesn't matter Chuck, the US has recovered the body and the rebels have shown that they killed the man; they have sent their message loud and clear! Now the US has to respond with an equalizing message , or the propaganda war will tilt to the insurgents favor!
#4
Poison Reverse, the 'propaganda war' IS a war within a war! Don't underestimate the power of the MSM 'CNN Viewers, etc' the ebb and flow of this powerful persuasion can move mountains!
#5
Yeah, you know. The war where every incident is the worst since Aunt Mary's bake sale, where the death toll is up to nearly 60% of the deaths on 9/11, where the violence escalates or rages every day, except when it is spinning out of control, where all death counts are preceeded by "at least", suggesting somebody is hiding a few, and where the word 'quagmire' hasn't been used lately, but they're warming it up again for the upcoming constitution crisis... That war.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:23
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#6
I know Bobby, we 'CNN Viewers' are sleep at the wheel !
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 13:08
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Lets see they (the bad guys) won exactly one engagement in the past two years and somehow that show they are "winning?" I think they are desperately trying to boost their PR campaign because recruits are lacking. Yes it sad that 16 good guys died in that raid but the press acts like they operate with impunity, not even close to the truth.
âToo many people might be emotionally affected by the subject matter. ⊠Itâs too controversial to be aired at this time.â
So said a statement from CBS/Infinity Radio, declining to run a series of paid commercial announcements. What were these emotionally affecting and controversial spots advertising? Vivisection of puppies? The North American Man/Boy Love Association? The placement of religious symbols on government property?
None of the above. The rejected ads were to announce a conference, âThe Radical Islamist Threat to World Peace and National Security,â sponsored by the Peopleâs Truth Forum. I will be participating in this symposium on September 21 in Plantsville, Connecticut, along with Harvey Kushner, author of Holy War on the Home Front; Brigitte Gabriel, a former anchor for world news in the Middle East; and Laura Mansfield, an author and counter-terror analyst.
What is so frightening about this for CBS? Well, I cannot speak for the other participants, but at the conference I intend to challenge media bias head-on by exploding the common politically correct notions that American injustice and economic inequalities are the real cause of terrorism, not any imperative derived from Islamic theology. I will show how jihad violence â in the words of terrorists themselves including Osama bin Laden â gains its impetus from core elements of Islamic theology mandating warfare against unbelievers, and call upon sincere moderate Muslims to confront and repudiate these elements of Islam. From what I know of the other speakers, I seriously doubt that they intend to sugar-coat matters or toe the line of politically correct orthodoxy. And the ads, in a quiet but unmistakable way, make that clear.
Why is this too much for CBS? The rejected ads touted the conference as revealing the motivation behind the madness of the 9/11 attacks and announced the speakers. No frothing condemnations of Muslims in general, no calls to nuke Mecca or round up innocent people and throw them into internment camps. In short, nothing but a straightforward announcement of a conference designed to explore the motivations of Islamic terrorists.
The fact that CBS/Infinity Radio would find this in itself too controversial and emotion-arousing for the American people is just one sign of the abysmal state of public discourse about Islamic terrorism today. The forces of political correctness as well as prominent American Islamic advocacy groups seem to be doing all they can to make sure that the American people are not exposed to any serious investigation of the genuine root causes of Islamic terrorism â such as I have undertaken in my new book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Even speaking the truth about Islam is becoming increasingly difficult in todayâs stifling politically correct atmosphere. After successfully getting radio talk show host Michael Graham suspended for his remarks about Islam, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) directed its ire toward Geoff Metcalf, Grahamâs replacement. Metcalf annoyed CAIR by telling his listeners that the Qurâan allows Muslims to lie to unbelievers. Yet even as it complained about Metcalfâs statement, CAIRâs press release attacking Metcalf, Radio Host Claims Quran Teaches Muslims To Lie, doesnât say that what Metcalf said was false. Why not? Because itâs true.
Religious deception of unbelievers is indeed taught by the Qurâan itself: âLet not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from themâ (Qurâan 3:28). In other words, donât make friends with unbelievers except to âguard yourselves from themâ: pretend to be their friends so that you can strengthen yourself against them. The distinguished Qurâanic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that this verse teaches that if âbelievers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers,â they may âshow friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly.â The Qurâan also warns Muslims that those who forsake Islam will be consigned to Hell â except those forced to do so, but who remain true Muslims inwardly: âAny one who, after accepting faith in Allah, utters unbelief â except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in faith â but such as open their breast to unbelief, on them is wrath from Allah, and theirs will be a dreadful penaltyâ (Qurâan 16:106). Ibn Kathir explains that âthe scholars agreed that if a person is forced into disbelief, it is permissible for him toâŠgo along with them in the interests of self-preservation...â
But if CBS and CAIR get their way, the American people will be denied the ability to act in their interests of their own self-preservation â by being not allowed to investigate and discuss the roots of Islamic violence and terrorism. And that in turn will lead only to our increased vulnerability to new terror attacks, more virulent than any we have seen up to now.
#1
I fear you give the average American too much credit. Deep thought is not our long suit.
Jingoism is the rule of the day, its far easier to ignore our peril than to actually ponder on how it might be avoided
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 12:13
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Security forces have arrested Omar Bakri, the Islamic cleric being investigated in Britain on terror-related charges, officials said Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak about the case, refused to say when or where Bakri was arrested. we can say no moreâ¢
The local Future TV channel reported that Bakri was arrested Thursday afternoon as he left its building in the west Beirut district of Raouche after giving an interview. the differences in consequenses of "giving an interview" in a western country vs in a middle eastern country will soon become apparent
The station said Bakri was told that the General Security department wants to question him about "information regarding his entry into Lebanon." hopefully this "questioning" will incorporate car batteries, wet sponges and pliers"
Bakri, who earned a reputation for extremism during his 20 years in Britain, announced Tuesday that he was in Lebanon. The cleric said he was visiting relatives but planned to return to Britain within six weeks. Bakri founded the now-disbanded radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, which came under scrutiny in Britain, particularly after some of its members praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Bakri is from Syria, but his wife's family is Lebanese and he has citizenship in both Syria and Lebanon. "I have rights!!!"
#1
King Tubby Hookhand Cleric, Preacher of Hatred and Lover of the Trew Faith (ie the western welfare state DOLE) to the Lebanese - "Why don't they love me?!"
#2
I'm moving to England. I won't pose a security threat. I just want to be on the dole, so I can get 6 weeks vacation at once. I only get 4 weeks( no more than two in a row) after working here 9 years. With no hope of more.
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 11:48
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#6
Lebanese
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 11:49
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#7
The same Lebanese who kicked out the Syrians a few months ago? The same Lebanese who like what they saw in Iraq (then - when they voted)? Those guys?
I love it when a plan (seems to) come together!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:13
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Bit of an update. This appears not to be your brightest move, Omar. Enjoy it in Lebanon. Looks like you'll be there for awhile...
Last night Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said that he would refuse a request that had been received from the cleric to return to Britain for a heart operation on the NHS.
The cleric claimed to have an appointment at a London hospital for an operation to widen an artery which would cost up to £8,000 if he had to have private treatment. He said: "I have every right to come back. Britain is my home. My family are there and I have done nothing wrong."
Officials believe that Mr Bakri Mohammed is trying to test the Home Officeâs promised immigration rules. His followers said yesterday that they might challenge any ban on medical grounds.
Senior officials said that the Home Secretary could exercise leniency if it were a life-or-death matter, but a routine operation was unlikely to be grounds for lifting any ban. One said: "His heart condition was not serious enough to prevent him flying to Beirut last weekend and I am sure they have very fine hospitals in Lebanon where this procedure could be done".
Mr Bakri Mohammed, who has collected up to £300,000 in various benefits during his 19 years in Britain, had been given leave to remain indefinitely after claiming that his life would be in danger if he returned to the Middle East.
South Africa could learn about speedy land reform from its neighbour Zimbabwe, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Wednesday. "We've got lessons to learn from Zimbabwe -- how to do it fast," she told an African distance-education conference in Pretoria.
There is a general complaint in South Africa that land reform is too slow, too structured and "that we need a bit of an oomph". "So, we might want some skills exchange between us and Zimbabwe, to get some of their colleagues to help us here with that," the deputy president told delegates with a smile -- to muted laughter.
"Ummm, Mbela, must we laugh?"
"Yes, Mcecum, else he'll have your whole family killed."
Earlier this month, a conference on South Africa's land-reform programme -- designed to correct apartheid-era wrongs -- concluded that the willing-buyer-willing-seller principle is no longer appropriate. It resolved that a new mechanism be found. At the time, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the principle is slowing down land reform.
The Democratic Alliance questioned the wisdom of Mlambo-Ngcuka's pronouncement at the education conference. "Surely Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is joking," it said in a statement.
Well they were laughing.
"The lesson for our country lies in not following the same route which Zimbabwe has taken. Zimbabwe offers a textbook example of ways in which land reform should not be carried out."
The blame for the slow pace of South Africa's land-reform programme rests with the government, the party said. "The legal framework is in place and there are enough landowners and farmers who want to be part of this process. The government is trying to turn landowners into villains instead of recognising that they are victims of government slackness and failure to vote the funds."
Mlambo-Ngcuka should act in a more "balanced and responsible manner" when making public statements, the DA said.
The South African government wants all land-restitution claims settled within the next three years, and 30% of agricultural land in the hands of the previously disadvantaged by 2014. By December last year, 3% of commercial farm land had been redistributed.
#5
Don't forget to throw in the whitey for that plantin shit. Bob make a big mistake not doin that. I got lots of time to come down to SA and advise if ya want. Not like much happenin on my farm.
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard ||
08/11/2005 11:38
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#6
"Surely Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is joking," it said in a statement.
#7
I completely agree that "We've got lessons to learn from Zimbabwe," although I suspect that the lessons I've learned are appreciably different than the ones Miss Mlambo-Ngucka has taken away.
Pakistan says it has fired its first cruise missile, describing the launch as a "milestone" in its history. The Babur missile is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of 500km (310 miles), a military spokesman said. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the launch was a birthday gift to President Pervez Musharraf. Analysts say the launch is likely to cause concern to regional countries, particularly nuclear rival India.
The launch comes days after Pakistan and India agreed to give each other advance notice of future nuclear ballistic missile tests. India was not informed about Thursday's test because the agreement did not cover guided missiles, a Pakistan military spokesman said.
Uh huh. Right. Whatever.
There was no immediate reaction to the test from Delhi.
"F*&%#@ Paks!"
"Mukkarjee! Hurry up with the plans for the ABM system!"
Mr Ahmed said the "milestone" launch had been a success, adding: "The nation is proud of its team of scientists who have raised the country's prestige in the comity of nations." He said it was a gift from scientists to President Pervez Musharraf, 62 on Thursday.
Damm, I didn't get him anything.
Neither did Fazl, fortunately.
Cruise missiles are usually low-flying guided missiles. "The technology enables the missile to avoid radar detection and penetrate undetected through any hostile defensive system," the Pakistan military said in a statement. Pakistan has its own range of intermediate and short-range ballistic missiles which are test-fired for North Korea quite regularly. Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said Pakistan had now joined the few countries "that can design and make cruise missiles".
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says the test is likely to ring alarm bells in many countries. Pakistan has been under close scrutiny by the international community since its leading nuclear expert, AQ Khan, was found to have leaked nuclear secrets two years ago. India and Pakistan routinely test-fire their missiles. In March, Pakistan successfully tested a long-range nuclear-capable missile - the Shaheen II, with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles). Both countries have limited command-and-control structures, and neither has developed the technology to recall a nuclear-tipped missile fired in error.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005
08:34 ||
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#1
The Future Perfect:
Nuclear-armed Iran with advanced missile capabilities;
Islamist-controlled Pakiskankland with cruise and long-range nuclear missle capabilities;
Islamist-Baathist occupied Iraq following President Hillary Clinton's 2009 withdrawal of all U.S. forces;
An Islamicized sovereign Gaza and increasingly Hamas-dominated West Bank;
Saudi oilfields, pipelines bombed by emboldened Al-Qaeda;
$5.00 per gallon gasoline in U.S. by 2008;
Things are looking pretty good. And I didn't even include North Korea or Communist China.
What happened to the Axis of Evil? We had a chance to hammer at least Syria and possibly Iran in the days immediately after the victory that was Operation Iraqi Freedom. Instead, we allowed our awesome military to get bogged down in an inclusive war of attrition in Iraq.
Somebody dropped the ball big time! Somebody made the brilliant call that had 150,000 troops cover a country the size of California replete with unguarded borders with three hostile entities: Syria, Iran, and the KSA.
Who is in charge here? Conservative Republicans or Jimmy Carter-era Democrats? Reagan's gotta be rolling in his GRAVE!
#2
...and the Democratic Party solution: send in the FBI.
BTW, you forgot bullet points on the list and also, there shouldn't be a semicolon at the end of a sentence. Next time, try ending the sentence with a proper punctuation before adding a space.
You need to do your research. It was Bill Clinton that sold our advanced gyro-stabilization technology to the Chinese for campaign contributions. Reason number 1001 why Clinton was probably our most dangerous President.
Without advanced gyro-stabilization technology from the US, the Paki's would have never been able (or delayed to oblivion) to build a terrain hugging missile.
You're probably wondering if Clinton sold the tech. to China how did Pakistan get it. I will let you figure than one out.
#4
I agree about the bullet points. It makes a list much easier to read. However, many people use semicolons to show the end of each point on a list.
I do have a thought about that $5/gallon gasoline: hybrid vehicles are already being sold in the U.S. faster than they can be manufactured. Should petroleum prices really reach that high, the entire First World will convert to hybrid vehicles, and Americans will give up their SUVs and Hummers, effectively halving the amount of petroleum used for personal transportation. Also, such a high price for a sustained period of time will result in renewed pumping of oil from American wells, and serious investment in extraction from Canadian oil sands (where oh where is Mark E. when we need him??). And such high prices should concentrate European minds nicely on the real issues, while drastically slowing down China's economy. At which point China will have neither the funds nor the social climate to allow the kind of little adventures they now indulge in. So, while definitely uncomfortable, I don't think $5/gallon gasoline will be quite the disaster you are planning on.
Also, I am willing to put my reputation on the line here, and say that unless the Republicans field a presidential candidate as weak as Senator John F. Kerry, there is no way the Democrats are going to win the next election. Especially if Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton stands up for the Democrats. (Of course, this opinion is worth exactly what you just paid for it! ;-] )
#9
Yet another Pak missile named after a central asian muslim plunderer of India.
Since Paks have zero design capability, this must be a Chinese cruise missile.
Anyone recognize it?
The quoted range violates MTCR export guidelines
(as if China cares).
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005 13:48
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#10
Close up of the Babur
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005 14:28
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#11
Spembles are deliciously ironic. Swirbels seem to have a desperate sense of promotion.....kinda like some of Kevin Costners lesser flicks - Waterworld, The Postman, The Shipman always Rings Twice
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 15:47
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#12
Seen my new one yet?
Christ, even I don't remember the name of it...
Posted by: Kevin Costner ||
08/11/2005 16:03
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#13
Open Range - you and Duvall were awesome. Stick to westerns, pal
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 16:50
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#14
Close up of the Babur
...Al-Tomahawk...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2005 16:53
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#15
LOl. Now, that was funny. Frank Man back after a long layoff vacation.
#16
Yah, it's hard to tell from the picture where the air intake would be in flight, but it looks like it would be in the same place as on a tomahawk.
OTWH (On the worse hand) we're allegedly selling them harpoons, including the land attack version.
Posted by: Phil ||
08/11/2005 17:49
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#17
Poison Reverse on # 2 and # 3:
First, I don't know how to do bullet points here unless I cut and paste from Word. I assume that is how it is done, right?
Second, semi-colons often are used to indicate the end of each point on a bullet list.
Third, I do consider Bill Clinton one of the worst Presidents when it came to our national security, indeed also when it came to the honor of the Office of the Presidency. Clinton was a disaster on both counts. I just happen to find Carter slighty worse for two reasons: He gave us the Iran of today and he continues to be the worst, most obnoxious ex-President ever!
How Paki got China's tech? I know about that.
I'm venting about Iraq because we have been too PC, too nice, too pussy-footing around. I had hoped that by now, Syria would have been smoldering courtesy of B-2s and the Iranians would be sh*tting themselves. Instead, it appears our enemies' nads are getting larger while we're being served up the spectacle of Cindy Sheehan night after night.
God, this isn't the my father's America! He served during W W 2. We're getting hit by Iranian-made IEDs and what's the deal here? What are we going to do, use harsh language on Iran? I don't blame Bush; I blame the MSM, the professors, the universities, the Democrats, liberals, and the whole sick PC and ACLU-lawyer culture. Michael Savage is right, they are the enemy within.
Pakistanis Say They Are Studying U.S. Missile
Tomahawk Reportedly Was Recovered After Raid on Camps in Afghanistan
Officials said experts associated with Pakistan's civilian and military missile programs were inspecting the guidance system, onboard computer and propulsion system of the Tomahawk missile, which was fired Aug. 20 in the U.S. attack on camps in Afghanistan but apparently fell short of its target.
Some sources indicated that information obtained by examining the missile might be shared with China, Pakistan's ally, but officials refused to comment on that possibility.
"It is a gift from the God," the official said. "The country that had denied us all sorts of economic and military assistance has suddenly gifted us the weapon of choice from its arsenal."
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005 19:28
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#21
Poison Reverse, I would accept your apology with pleasure, but by now you'll have noticed that GF and I are indeed different people. Can I fold it up in lavender scented paper and store it away against future need? ;-) GF is a great deal more impatient than I, for one thing.
I think we all understand his frustration, but even with all the new recruits, our forces (including the Brits, the Poles, the Australians, the Mongolians, the South Koreans, the Japanese, etc, etc) and the new Iraqi forces are very busy in Iraq and Afghanistan (and wherever else the Special Forces types are wandering around -- very quietly -- these days). It feels to me -- and I haven't any source for numbers to back up my contention -- that units are being rested in rotation, so that they'll be fit for the next big push as soon as Iraq is a bit more settled. I hope I'm right, because our guys have been going full out for almost 18 months, which can take quite a mental and physical toll under any circumstances, let alone when bad guys are trying to kill you.
This is a very different war than the war GF's father and my parents were involved in. This is a finesse war, not a meat grinder. We haven't the manpower for one thing, and the toys our troops play with these days require a good deal more than just a high school education. And we're trying to build a society even as we fight, so that hopefully we won't have to garrison the region for the next generation just to maintain order. Which takes a lot more attention to detail than simply breaking things and killing people. Or so it appears to this little civilian housewife. ;-)
Anyone can understand the anger that GF is stating, but it should be articulated in a specific manner within the subject matter of the topic. He/she just essentially dropped cluster bomb full of rants concerning multiple topics. This person clearly looking for a "fire and forget" blog, RB, as you already know, is not the place for that. The topic of this thread is "Pakistan Fires New Cruise Missile," and not oil, Iraq, Hamas, or Saudia Arabia.
john,
I appreciate the link but this article is misinformation and truth deflection at its best. The article states, "officials said experts associated with Pakistan's civilian and military missile programs were inspecting the guidance system, onboard computer and propulsion system of the Tomahawk missile." Any military expert ( and we have plenty at RB) will tell you, there is no way in HELL that the Paki's picked terrain hugging missile technology from busted up Tomahawk missile. Any military expert will also tell you that its the software that counts, not the hardware. There are plenty of countries that have Tomahawk type missile's but can't make it work. There is a reason for that. Without the software, the hardware is useless. Military software is written in at least 256 bit(AES) Advanced Encryption Standard, which is usually on the chip itself. The chips are especially designed to self destruct during ANY anomly.
Bottomline, this article is a red herring. The truth is that the Clinton Adminstration sold the gyro technology, including software, to the Chinese and now inturn have turned it over to the Paki's.
#26
Of course, Poison Reverse. But we were all newbies here once upon a time. I seem to recall you annoying the oldsters early on, and I'm quite certain I did, too. I particularly remember Mr. (and later Mrs.) Davis's great kindness in explaining things to me. ;-)
GF, I don't know how to do the html thingy, but I just use small letter O as a rough substitute for real bullets. (No doubt why nobody ever invites me to play war with them.)
o So this
o Is what I do.
And nobody complains about the presentation, although plenty disagree with what I actually say.
Copy and paste this (li class="MsoNormal" style="") to the RB comment window. Don't use the parentheses. BUT add "<" right before "li" and ">" right after second quotation mark This will give you your bullet point.
For example, this how it would look like with 3 bullet points.
IIRC, right out of WWII Husseini was spirited away and sheltered in France by the Quay d'Orsay (the arabs-loving french state department), so he could undermine GB's influence in the region and counterbalance the zionists, who were seen as rivals of La Belle France. Note that Husseini's grand daughter, the lebanese-born Leila Shahid is the PLO mouthpiece in France, where she is very active, has good access to the MSM, and has excellent relations with the far left.
Readers of David Horowitzâs excellent book Unholy Alliance are well aware of the peculiar relationship between the political Left and radical Islam. It is a relationship compounded by the Leftâs incessant mongering of the myth of "Hitlerâs Pope"âa myth that, as a rabbi and historian, I am determined to expose.
Many readers of the New York Times no doubt believe that Pope Pius XII was "Hitlerâs Pope," because John Cornwellâs bestselling book told them that, and itâs been reaffirmed by Garry Wills, Daniel Goldhagen, and other Left-leaning writers since. Itâs been said so often in fact that most well-read liberals know it for a certainty. The only trouble is: it isnât true.
Not only does it contradict the words of Holocaust survivors, the founders of Israel, and the contemporary record of the New York Times, but even John Cornwell, the originator of the phrase "Hitlerâs Pope," has recanted it saying that he was wrong to have ascribed evil motives to Pius and now found it "impossible to judge" the wartime pope.
But thereâs something else that has been ignored nearly all together. Precisely at the moment when Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Rome (and throughout Europe) was saving thousands of Jewish lives, Hitler had a cleric broadcasting from Berlin who called for the extermination of the Jews.
He was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the viciously anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who resided in Berlin as a welcome guest and ally of the Nazis throughout the years of the Holocaust.
As I point out in my book, The Myth of Hitlerâs Pope, the outrageous calumny directed against Pope Pius XII has not only besmirched the reputation of a man who did more than any other religious leader to save Jewish lives, it has deflected attention from the horrible truth of Hajj Amin al-Husseiniâwho continues to be a revered figure in the Muslim world.
It is possible to trace modern Islamic anti-Semitism back along a number of different historical and intellectual threads, but, no matter which one you choose, they all seem to pass, at one point or another, through the hands of Hajj Amin al-HusseiniâHitlerâs Mufti.
In late March 1933, al-Husseini contacted the German consul general in Jerusalem and requested German help in eliminating Jewish settlements in Palestineâoffering, in exchange, a pan-Islamic jihad in alliance with Germany against Jews around the world. It was not until 1938, in the aftermath of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlainâs infamous capitulation to Hitler at Munich, that Hajj Amin al-Husseiniâs overtures to Nazi Germany were officially reciprocated. But by then the influence of Nazi ideology had already grown significantly throughout the Arab Middle East.
Several of the Arab political parties founded during the 1930s were modeled after the Nazi party, including the Syrian Popular Party and the Young Egypt Society, which were explicitly anti-Semitic in their ideology and programs. The leader of Syriaâs Socialist Nationalist Party, Anton Saâada, imagined himself an Arab Hitler and placed a swastika on his partyâs banner.
Though he was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husseini moved his base of operations (and pro-Nazi propaganda) to Lebanon in 1938, to Iraq in 1939 (where he helped establish the strongly pro-German Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as prime minister), and then to Berlin in 1941.
Adolf Eichmannâs deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified at the Nuremberg Trials that Hajj Amin al-Husseini "was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. He was one of Eichmannâs best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures." At Auschwitz, al-Husseini reportedly "admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently."
This unholy legacy continues. Hajj Amin al-Husseini has inspired two generations of radical Islamic leaders to carry on Hitlerâs war against the Jews, which is why today, as was true 60 years ago, it is not the Catholic Church that is the great threat to the survival of the Jewish people; it is Islamofascism.
Or is it Rodan? Ghidorah's necks would better explain the photography, though.
A photo of two peculiar dragon-shaped objects taken from a plane flying over Tibetâs Himalayas piqued many usersâ interest when displayed on a Chinese website. The photographer is an amateur.
On June 22, 2004, the photographer went to Tibetâs Amdo region to attend the Qinghai-to-Xizang Railroad laying ceremony, and then took a plane from Lhasa to fly back inland. When flying over the Himalayaâs, he accidentally caught these two "dragons" in a picture that he took. He called these two objects "the Tibet dragons."
Looking at the photo, these two objects appear to have the characteristics of crawling creatures: The bodies seem to be covered by scales, the backs have spine-like protuberances, and also they have gradually thinning rear ends. Although the photo caught only a portion of the entire scene, it was sufficient create the appearance of two gigantic dragons flying in the clouds.
This photo, shown on some websites such as post.baidu.com and other forums, aroused the website visitorsâ curiosity. One person commented, âNo wonder that China is the homeland of the dragon! Nature is truly mysterious and powerful, it can always produce spectacular sights beyond people's expectations.â
âIs it really true? Is it possible there is an ancient civilization that we donât know about is preserved in places that are sparsely populated?â
âIt really looks like the dragons in fables, and I really hope it is.â
Certainly, most website visitors hoped that someone could confirm the authenticity of the dragons in the photo.
Photo of dragons taken from an airplane above the Himalayas. (www.dajiyuan.com)
In Chinese fairy tales, the dragon is a kind of rare heavenly creature. Fables say that it can conceal or reveal itself. It ascends to heaven in the spring breeze and dives and hides in deep water in the autumn wind. It can promote clouds and bring about rain. It also became the symbol of imperial authority later on; all emperors of previous dynasties self-designated as dragons, utensils were also decorated with dragons.
Culturally, the dragon is the Chinese ancestors' totem. Nearly all races in China had fables and stories with dragons as the main subject, such as dragon boat races, the dragon lantern dance to celebrate holidays, sacrificial offerings to the dragons to implore timely wind and rain for good crops.
Whether this kind of creature really exists is still an unsolved riddle. In the previous dynasties in China, there had been many documents recording eyewitness accounts of magical dragons. The most amazing events are the various "falling dragons," dragons that suddenly fell to the ground under peculiar circumstances, and were witnessed by many. A relatively recent tale occurred in the puppet Manchuria regime in August, 1944. A black dragon fell to the ground at the Chen Familyâs Weizi Village, about 9.4 miles northwest of Zhaoyuan County, on the south shore of the Mudan River (the old name of a section of Songhua River) in Heilongjiang province. The black dragon was on the verge of death. The eyewitness said that this creature had a horn on its head, scales covering its body, and had a strong fishy smell that attracted numerous flies.
The records from previous dynasties also mentioned the connection between the emergence of these kinds of mysterious creatures, âdragons,â and the transition of dynasties on earth. The appearance of Tibetâs magical dragon invites our curiosity and imagination.
The same folks critizing the intelligence community for not "connecting the dots" have a few questions of their own to answer for.
The Sept. 11 commission was warned by a uniformed military officer 10 days before issuing its final report that the account would be incomplete without reference to what he described as a secret military operation that by the summer of 2000 had identified as a potential threat the member of Al Qaeda who would lead the attacks more than a year later, commission officials said on Wednesday.
What Was Known About the 9/11 Plot: An AmendmentThe officials said that the information had not been included in the report because aspects of the officer's account had sounded inconsistent with what the commission knew about that Qaeda member, Mohammed Atta, the plot's leader.
But aides to the Republican congressman who has sought to call attention to the military unit that conducted the secret operation said such a conclusion relied too much on specific dates involving Mr. Atta's travels and not nearly enough on the operation's broader determination that he was a threat.
The briefing by the military officer is the second known instance in which people on the commission's staff were told by members of the military team about the secret program, called Able Danger.
The meeting, on July 12, 2004, has not been previously disclosed. That it occurred, and that the officer identified Mr. Atta there, were acknowledged by officials of the commission after the congressman, Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, provided information about it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005
08:16 ||
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#1
The articles on this subject focus on the blame game, but what I find amazing is that someone was actually able to ID Atta as a potential threat. I hope we haven't given away too much about how we did this. One article I read gave some details that I think were a little too explicit.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
08/11/2005 8:59
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#2
Here's another interesting connection ...
Schlumberger has been linked to UNSCAM. Notice who's on the Board of Directors?
#3
Jolly: The blame game is what the 9/11 Commissionn was all about. In the end, it appears it fell victim to the same problems it accused the intelligence agencies of having: only utilizing information that supported their preconceptions.
Ironic isn't it?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 10:30
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#4
Wow, JU. So Gorelick not only put up walls between FBI and CIA/DIA, but also serves on Schlumburger's board (since 2002)? So much for the evil Cheney/Halliburton connection. Nice find!
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 11:16
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#5
the 9/11 commission report was a whitewash from the start.putting Jamie gorelick on that Commission was liking hiring a goat to be your gardener.if you watched gorelick during the hearings, you could see her physically schmoozing the chairmen at every hearing.she puts up the wall on the able danger and other reports while she was in the AG office and then on the commission deflects anything which will point to her and the other left wing lamebrains under Clinton.The Commission pointed out,correctly,that we had no Humint capabilities prior to 9/11,butdid not point to the people who actively prevented the development of that capability starting w/ Frank Church and Walter Mondale in the mid seventies,and up to the Asst Sec at State, I think,Steve Smith,who ordered the CIA not to associate with nasty people in their effort to infiltrate terorist organizations.AFTER 9/11 Smith was unrepentant and announced that he was comfortable with hisa actions "because the CIA got to associate with a better quality informant"
Posted by: john e morrissey ||
08/11/2005 11:42
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Staff members now are searching documents in the National Archives to look for notes from the meeting in Afghanistan and any other possible references to Atta and Able Danger, Felzenberg said.
And so now we come back to the National Archives -- and October 2003. One of Sandy Berger's last visits to the Archives where he took highly classified material out the door with him was in October 2003, around the time that the Commission first heard about Able Danger. Does this start to sound just a little too convenient and coincidental?
Even without the possible Berger theft as part of the story, this constant shifting of the story underscores the massive credibility deficit that the Commission has now earned. First they never heard of Able Data. Then, maybe a low-level staffer told them about the program but not the Atta identification. Next, the military met with the Commissioners but didn't specify the Atta identification. Now, we finally have confirmation that the Commission itself -- not just its low-level staff -- knew that military intelligence had identified Mohammed Atta as an al-Qaeda operative a year before 9/11. Instead of reporting it, the Commission buried it.
This points to some disturbing questions. It looks like the Commission decided early to pin blame on the intelligence community rather than the bureaucracy which stripped it of its ability to act in the interests of our security. Who benefited from that? Commissioner Jamie S. Gorelick. Who else stood to lose if the real story came out? The answer to that may well be the NSA director who conducted a clumsy raid on the National Archives in the middle of the investigation.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005 14:35
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#7
Read Gorelicks bio paragraph at Schlumberger. Notice anything missing?
No mention of the Justice Department. Her other past occupations are listed, her foundations, yadda-yadda, but the fact that she was big heat at DoJ isn't there. Isn't that usually something you want everyone to know?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005 15:40
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Posted by: DanNY ||
08/11/2005
06:38 ||
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#1
feh..Probably the single largest issue of this whole WoT, and the E3 is mucking it up.
Notice where the crisis will lie: The Europeans voiced fears the visa refusal would also complicate efforts to keep Iran at the negotiating table
Iran will play the Euro's one way or the other, its not about solving the problem, its about appearing to do something that will accomplish nothing.
Here is my question to the Euro's:
Iran will go nuclear. What can you do
about it?
nothing.
What will you do about it?
nothing.
#2
I'm not even gonna worry about this anymore. It's all about flexing their muscle, unless of course, they do use one. By that time, I trust we'll have an escalating response plan all worked out.
When rape is inevitable.... (Apologies to the ladies and weak of stomach)
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:34
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#3
When rape is inevitable... save the evidence and nail the bastard!
#4
Combine this with unmanned air to air refueling, stealthed airframes and precision weapons and they should be formidable. But I question just what the cost will be in terms of the airframes overall price
#5
"...the two unmanned vehicles entered the AOA, a 30 by 60 mile area within the test range, ready to perform a simulated Preemptive Destruction-Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses mission."
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 18:52
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#10
driving up 395 July 29th between the turn off to Edwards and Red Mountain, we saw 1 (not two, sorry) plane fly over the highway at what had to be supersonic speed - at 200' or so above ground. It was not a plane sillhouette I was familiar with...this explains much
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 19:06
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Posted by: DanNY ||
08/11/2005
06:15 ||
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"The day the passage to the island is completely dry, animals could leave the island and bring their diseases with them"
Sounds like it's time for an all-out hunt-&-destroy opertion.
"People permanently breathe in salt and chemicals," said Medetov. "Almost everyone here is anaemic. Women's milk is polluted by nitrates which make babies already weak from anaemia even more sick."
But remember, kiddies, the USA is the evil, polluting one. The enviros never hesitate to tell us so. Nothing is ever said about perfect, wonderful Mother Soviet Russia - and if anything is wrong there, it's all America's fault.
You don't even need to ask them - they'll tell you anyway. Incessently.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 9:15
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#4
Babs, I think alot of us over here in the good ol USA already knew of the incredible pollution that is endemic to all the old soviet buffer states, standing on a soap box probably wont help your cause.
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 11:00
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#5
bk - lots of informed people know a lot of things. Even though the enviros here (and abroad) try to keep it a secret by saying we're such horrible polluters while almost never attacking other non-Western countrie.
Even though our rivers, air, etc., are much cleaner than they were 30 years ago, while most of the rest of the world's (including Western Europe) is not.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 11:19
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#6
bk, my dear, her name is Barbara.
You needn't learn how to spell it correctly, just copy/paste and you'll get it right. You don't appear to be such a close friend of hers that you are entitled to use a nickname she isn't fond of, so your presumption in using it shows a certain lack of manners that must seriously disappoint you mother.
I thought about saying something to him for the condescending name use, but concentrated on my point instead. Thanks for a righteous smackdown - better than I could have done anyway. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 15:10
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#8
Hello *Barbara* :) and TW, here's some ammo - as if you need any ;) ...
It seems that for many in the environmental movement, the actual defense of Gaia has taken a back seat to a more important objective; specifically, to attack the capitalist economic system in general, and, in particular, its American exemplar. Interestingly, Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore agrees, saying: "The environmental movement has been hijacked by political activists who are using green rhetoric to cloak agendas that have more to do with anti-corporatism and class warfare than with ecology or the environment."
Of course, given the ostensible raison dâêtre of organizations like Greenpeace and the WWF, attacks upon America can't be couched in blatantly political terms, but must be presented in environmental ones - hence the oft-cited contention that "America is the world's largest polluter". It's common to see the above statement subtly modified into something like "Americans are the world's greatest polluters," a construction that conveniently facilitates the desired demonization of unconcerned, greedy, SUV-driving Americans happily despoiling the air, land and water. In light of the image thus created, it's instructive to examine some actual data.
As far as water pollution is concerned, according to World Bank data on freshwater pollution based on a standard water-treatment test for the presence of organic pollutants, water in the US is significantly less polluted than the worldwide average. In fact, levels of these pollutants in UK rivers and lakes are approximately three times those in the US, which also boasts cleaner water than countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Japan, France and the Netherlands, to name just a few. Odd, given the pernicious presence of "the world's greatest polluters".
With regard to air pollution, the US ranks 114th in the world (first being the worst) with respect to urban sulphur dioxide concentration (the UK figure is about 33% higher), 63rd in ozone-depleting CFC consumption, 45th in urban NO2 concentration, and 13th in NOx emissions per unit of populated land area (the UK value is more than twice as high).
Of course, the greatest concern at present has to do with emissions of so called greenhouse gases. Interestingly, according to recent figures from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the US is not the largest per capita offender here, either. Nor is it second. Among the industrialised nations considered, those positions go to Australia and Canada, respectively. In fact, the average Australian emits some 30% more than his American counterpart (the Canadian figure is only slightly higher than that of the US). Another report (PDF) - which places Canadian per capita emissions at a level just under those of the US, those of Australia again far and away the highest - points out that, when measured per unit of GDP, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Poland are all greater emitters.
I can only attribute the fact that one rarely encounters vituperative attacks on the Australian emissions champions, or on the Canadian runners up, to the political agenda described above.
Finally, in light of the frequently repeated accusation, it's interesting to note that, according to the OECD Working Group on Environmental Information and Outlooks, only two countries (the Netherlands and Austria) spend more than the US on pollution control and abatement (measured as a percentage of GDP).
But don't expect facts like these to be reported by the likes of Greenpeace - they're too busy pursuing anti-capitalist, anti-American agendas of the kind that so disturb their own founder.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/11/2005 16:12
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Cheers, Tony!
Barbara, never could I cut through the issues like you do, but he was unacceptably rude to a lady. Not to mention a woman upon whom his life might depend someday. Sleep well, dear, and may all your runs be successful!
Ten foreign nationals believed to be a "threat to national security" have been detained in Britain and will be deported, Charles Clarke, home secretary, announced. The individuals, who the Home Office refused to name, were held by four police forces working with the Immigration Service. Mr Clarke said: "In accordance with my powers to deport individuals whose presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security, the immigration service has today detained 10 foreign nationals who I believe pose a threat to national security. They will be held in secure prison service accommodation and I shall not disclose their names. Following months of diplomatic work we now have got reason to believe that we can get the necessary assurances from the countries to which we will return the deportees so that they will not be subject to torture or ill-treatment."
Abu Qatada, described as al-Qa'eda's spiritual ambassador in Europe, is believed to be among the ten held today. Qatada, 44, a Jordanian father of five who has lived in the UK for 12 years, is currently the subject of a control order at his London home. Control orders were imposed after the Government's policy of detaining foreign terror suspects without charge was ruled unlawful by the Law Lords. Some of the other people detained today were also subject to control orders, sources said.
Today's detentions follow the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Jordan yesterday ensuring deportees would not be mistreated on their return. Prime Minister Tony Blair also had "constructive conversations" with authorities in Algeria and Lebanon last week over guaranteeing the safety of deportees. In all, Britain is looking for assurances from 10 countries, a Home Office spokeswoman said. The police forces involved in today's detentions were the Metropolitan Police, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands, the Home Office said.
#2
Prime Minister Tony Blair also had "constructive conversations" with authorities in Algeria and Lebanon last week over guaranteeing the safety of deportees.
Yeah, that'd be my main priority too. Sure it would...
Any word on the cost savings to the British Welfare system due to these deportations? I'd be interested in that.
Despite tall claims of eliminating Al-Qaeda from the troubled Northern areas, Pakistanâs General Pervez Musharraf has, in practice, handed over the once hotbed of foreign militants, the South Waziristan Agency, to a former Taliban Commander, until recently a wanted terrorist by the Army. Ubaidullah Mahsood, who had a head money of several hundred thousand rupees is now running his own Government in the Agency, and in Taliban style.
That'd be Baitullah Mehsud, Abdullah's brother, who "surrendered" to the Pakalonians...
And to facilitate âCommanderâ Ubaidullah Mahsood, General Musharraf has withdrawn all Pakistan Army troops from the area under Mahsoodâs control. âThe Taliban militia is back in power, now inside Pakistan and is transforming the area into its fiefdom,â a tribal elder told this correspondent from Dera Ismail Khan on telephone. The elder, who wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, described the situation in the agency as âatrociousâ like it was in pre-September 2001 Afghanistan, under the Taliban rule.
That's because the Taliban originated right there, and their regime was an expression of peculiarly Pashtun values.
Ubaidullah Mahsood has banned television, satellite dishes, music and videos declaring them un-Islamic. Kids cannot play cricket as it is described as the game of infidels. Shops are forced to close during the prayer timings, and those who try to skip the prayers are forced to proceed to the mosques. Women have been asked not to dress other than the local traditional cloths. Common people are asked to contact the local Taliban commander to resolve their personal disputes. Groups of Taliban carrying AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers are being sent to remote villages with the orders of their hard line leaders. These Taliban call jirgas in village mosques and do not tolerate defiance. Warnings have also been issued to criminals. âAny one found involved in a crime including theft, robbery or drug trade will face cutting of the hand, the punishment prescribed in Sharia laws.â There are reports that some of the criminals were arrested, paraded in public and taken away to unknown place.
See what I mean? Though I think the peculiar resonance between the worst of Arab culture and the run-of-the-mill Pashtun culture probably results in something that combines the worst elements of both. The two seem to feed each other...
What has stunned the local population is the sudden transformation of fortunes of the former Taliban leaders and supporters and how those who were until recently hunted by the Pakistan Army for months, had gained legitimacy and returned to power. The Army operation in South Waziristan had claimed hundreds of lives and Pakistan Army had suffered heavy casualties as well. Thousands of inhabitants were displaced from their native villages and are still forced to live in tough conditions elsewhere, either in Tribal Areas or adjacent cities of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Life marginally started improving in Mahsood territories of South Waziristan Agency when Ubaidullah and his followers entered into a peace dialogue with the Pakistan Army, responding to a general amnesty offered by General Musharraf. A ceasefire was announced on February the 2nd this year in a crowded signing ceremony attended by Corps Commander Peshawar and Ubaidullah Mahsood. Both sides stopped attacking each other. Army started pulling back the troops as displaced locals started returning to their homes. Tribal leaders guaranteed law and order in their part of agency.
The Pak army withdrew, so Mehsud took it as an abandonment of the field, which it apparently was...
Waziri militants were also given millions of rupees that they demanded to pay back their Al-Qaeda masters, the advance they had taken to resist the Army operation. In an indirect way, Pakistan Army paid millions to Al-Qaeda which could be used at other places, at another time.
Well, no. Not indirect. I don't think I'd call it that.
But all this is now coming to naught. According to tribal sources despite the agreement with the Pakistan Army, Ubaidullah Mahsood helped the most wanted militant in Waziristan, the fugitive and defiant Abdullah Mehsud, to escape from South Waziristan Under the Administration of Ubaidullah Mahsood, targeted killings of many of those who helped the Pakistan Army during the summer operation have been reported.
I thought Abdullah was titzup? Or did they forget to drive a stake through his heart?
More than 36 such killings have been witnessed only in South Waziristan and many others have received warnings. The same trend was observed in North Waziristan where bodies of victims were found on road side or deserted places with messages that âthose who will spy for infidel Americans will meet this fate.â The killers did not even hide their identities but authorities did not arrest a single person.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/11/2005
04:06 ||
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Could this be a version of "let a thousand flowers bloom" or just a total caving of Pakistan to the Taliban elements of Pak society?
#2
Heh, SPo'D. Methinks the "hunting" was show and the current situation was The Plan from the first day after the Taliban's fall. PakiWakiLand is now, and has always been, the enemy of civilization. The Taliban are the true face of the PakiWakis.
#3
I've never trusted a place that calls itself "the land of the pure".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 7:44
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Perv plays the double game, as evidenced with the PakiWaki land relationship with the ChiComs and the obscure "apprehension" of A. Q. Khan.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 8:28
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"Despite tall claims of eliminating Al-Qaeda from the troubled Northern areas, Pakistanâs General Pervez Musharraf has, in practice, handed over the once hotbed of foreign militants, the South Waziristan Agency, to a former Taliban Commander, until recently a wanted terrorist by the Army."
Gen. Mushy: "Look Ubaidullah, I'm not too keen on the bit about banning cricket, but if your boys concentrate on crossing that Afghan border, I'm cool with it. Just stay out of my domain."
Waziri militants were also given millions of rupees that they demanded to pay back their Al-Qaeda masters, the advance they had taken to resist the Army operation.
Umm, has Gen. Mushy ever seen "The Godfather?" You know that "protection" money in the end doesn't work.
#6
go to the link, and go to the front page. Paper has a lot of overthetop headlines - some are interesting, but im not sure this can go with less salt than Debka.
#7
Al-Qaeda and its mistress the Taliban are not about Islam nor of anti-Western... The West is just an excuse and Islam is it's cover. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are about revolution and a goal of vast self-empowerment. This self-empowerment through revolution is manifested thru narcotics trafficking, slavery, deception, prostitution, murder, extortsion, arms smuggling, money laundering, theft, intimidation, rape, blackmail, assaults, bribery and many other unholy acts in defiance of God's plan for mankind. Its about power. When one achieves power then they posture themselves in a God-like way and eventually replace God in the lives of God's creations. Shame on them and their sympathizers and supporters.
#8
In an indirect way, Pakistan Army paid millions to Al-Qaeda which could be used at other places, at another time.
"Hey Abdullah...In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the 72 Virgins."
#9
But then, on the other hand, Perv might be totally fed up with the tribals in SW, and is temporarily allowing the Taliban to rule the place as "king stork". How long can the locals tolerate it before they lose their cool, and the place degenerates into a bloodbath, with Perv's enemies killing Perv's other enemies? I only suggest this because the place is so incredibly duplicitous, power there is so precarious, and Perv is still around even though everybody wants him dead, so he is not a complete idiot.
Britain yesterday described as "unacceptable" the smuggling of weapons from Iran into Iraq after revealing that a consignment was intercepted at the border between the two countries.
While complaints have been made in the past, it is relatively rare to have concrete evidence of such smuggling.
The British embassy in Tehran raised the issue at a meeting with the Iranian foreign ministry. Officials relayed the government's concern and pressed Iran to acknowledge that there was a problem that should be dealt with.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, warned Iran this week about the extent of smuggling. The US has been protesting for the past two years over alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing that the smuggling was "a problem" for the Iraqi government. "It's a problem for the coalition forces. It's a problem for the international community, and ultimately, it's a problem for Iran," he said.
Disclosure of the smuggling came hours after four American soldiers were killed and six were wounded as a patrol was attacked near Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad, late on Tuesday. A bomb wrecked two Humvees and a bigger armoured vehicle.
Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the insurgency or party politics in Iraq.
A senior British official disclosed yesterday details of the incident two weeks ago when a group crossing from Iran was intercepted near Maysan, which is in the British controlled sector of Iraq. Iraqi security forces opened fire and the smugglers fled back to Iran leaving their cache of timers, detonators and other bomb-making equipment.
The British official said he did not know the identity of the group or those behind it but said it had the "fingerprints" of either Iran's Revolutionary Guard, controlled by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the Lebanese based Hizbullah which Tehran backs. The incident came against a backdrop of tension between Iran and the west over allegations that Tehran is intent on securing a nuclear-weapons capability.
The US has had no diplomatic relationship with Iran since 1980 and has branded it part of the "axis of evil". But Britain usually opts for a less confrontational approach than the US. The British official said he thought such smuggling from Iran was infrequent and trivial compared with the weapons going into Iraq from Syria.
Bayan Jabr, Iraq's interior minister, also played down the incident, saying it "was very much exaggerated".
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's prime minister who spent years in exile in Iran, dodged questions yesterday about the alleged use of Iranian weapons by insurgents.
Iran has a vested interest in maintaining a degree of instability in Iraq to ensure the US and Britain leave but it does not want anarchy threatening its own security. Events in Iraq are going in the direction Tehran would have wished with its Shia co-religionists dominant and an increased Islamisation in the British sector.
Iran can exert influence through the many prominent Iraqis who were exiled in Tehran and via the Badr brigades, the Iraqi Shia militia that was based in Iran.
The British claim the Badr brigades have been disbanded but although they have swapped their uniforms for Iraqi police or army gear many of the men retain their original allegiances.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/11/2005
03:18 ||
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So now we've caught a shipment, and the Brits have caught another shipment...
#2
Sounds like two separate shipments, according to my math.
In all probability, these two shipments are the tip of the iceberg.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 8:38
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And despite these developments, it will be business as usual:
More talk of early withdrawal;
More idiotic statements like: "If we had more troops in Iraq, we'd offer the insurgents more targets." Huh?
I found this in my WW2 vet uncle's attic:
US ARMY Order of the Day Briefing:
Gen. Eisenhower: Gentlemen, I've decided to offer the Germans defending Normandy's coastline fewer targets. I am scaling back the initial D-Day plus-one landing force from 155,000 men to 15,000. We'll scatter them in such a way as to have each man separated from the next by 100 yards.
My uncle: Uh, General sir, wouldn't that give the Germans a counter-attack advantage?
Gen. Eisenhower: Son, you fight with the Army you've got, not the one you'd like to have.
#4
More idiotic statements like: "If we had more troops in Iraq, we'd offer the insurgents more targets." Huh?
If the 150,000+ for D-Day was good, why not 1,500,000? Or 15,000,000? The Allies used the Normandy beachheads to pour troops into Europe -- why didn't they send all those troops in at zero hour?
Once you comprehend the answer, then maybe you'll understand one of the reasons for not sending more troops to Iraq.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 10:41
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Now children,are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Repeat after me until you know this off by heart.Bush is a Chimp,Bush is a Chimp, Bush is a Chimp,Bush is a Chimp. HAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHA (Waits for Cletus and Brandine to take the bait)
The U.S. military plans to ease conditions for some detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - housing them in a renovated section with televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean, the detention center's commanding officer said in court papers.
Marvelous idea! I hope this is because somebody's been reading Rantburg...
For the past several weeks, the military has been renovating Camp Iguana for detainees who are deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Brig Gen. Jay Hood said in an affidavit filed late Tuesday in federal court in Washington. The renovations are scheduled to be finished around Aug. 15, and some of those designated "No Longer Enemy Combatants," or NLEC's, will be able to live in communal housing with air conditioning, unlimited showers and additional food, Hood said.
Lots of food. Piles of it. Cakes and pies and deep fried yummies. Ice cream. Potato chips. Gourmet meals, with rich sauces and gravies. Piles and piles of rich whipped potatoes. Baklava. Hershey bars. Twinkies and Hostess Ho Ho's for between meals...
"The living conditions for NLEC's have been evolving and will continue to do so," the general said in the affidavit. Camp Iguana, which was previously used for daytime recreation for Guantanamo detainees considered the most compliant, has been closed for six months. The reason for the closure or the cost of the upgrade was not immediately available, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
Hood's affidavit was filed by the government in the case of two Chinese Uighurs, Adel Abdu Al-Hakim and Abu Baker Qassim, who the government says were captured in Pakistan as they fled a Taliban military training camp near Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001. The military has determined that the Uighurs, a persecuted minority in their native China, are no longer enemy combatants, but under U.S. law can't be deported back to their native China because they could face persecution or torture.
That's certainly true.
U.S. officials say they are trying to find another country to accept the two men and other Uighurs who have been detained at the prison for terror suspects at the base in eastern Cuba. Sabin Willett, a lawyer for the two Uighurs, has argued that while authorities try to figure out where to send the men the government should either release them on bond in the United States, place them in a less restrictive facility for illegal migrants at Guantanamo or let them live among military personnel at the base. A federal judge held a hearing on the matter last week but has not issued a ruling. Hood's affidavit argues for placing them in the refurbished Camp Iguana, on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea, along with at least two other Uighurs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
01:31 ||
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AM News is reporting HARRY POTTER books is making it big inroads amongst the Gitmo boyz - no word yet on Britney's Spears pregnancy.
#4
For the past several weeks, the military has been renovating Camp Iguana for detainees who are deemed no longer a threat to the United States, Brig Gen. Jay Hood said in an affidavit filed late Tuesday in federal court in Washington.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Tuesday refused a request by American Lori Berenson to review its ruling that upheld her 20-year sentence in Peru for terrorism. In a decision issued in November, the Costa Rica-based court - the legal arm of the Organization of American States - rejected Berenson's arguments that Peru violated her rights in a 2001 civilian retrial. It was Berenson's last formal avenue of appeal.
The former New York City resident has denied any wrongdoing and maintains she is a political prisoner whose concern for social justice was distorted by authorities to look like a terrorist agenda.
It was a put up job, including the guns in the house in which she lived with her terrorist boyfriend. And his terrorist compatriots. And the terrorist manuals and leaflets. And the explosives.
Berenson was arrested in November 1995 and sentenced to life without parole by a secret military court, which said she was a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and masterminded a thwarted takeover of Peru's Congress to exchange hostages for imprisoned rebels.
Under intense non-governmental U.S. pressure, Peru overturned the sentence in August 2000 and sent her case to a civilian anti-terrorism court, which found her guilty of the lesser crime of terrorist collaboration. She is scheduled for release in November 2015, a few weeks after her 46th birthday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
01:27 ||
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"But it was only a hobby! I was kinda like Patty Hearst... yeah, like Patty Hearst! I just wanted to try a little strange, y'know? But they, uh, they brainwashed me 'n stuff. Brainwashed me extra clean. My real name is Barbie! I just wanna be popular!"
#4
Somebody forgot to bring the parents out for a loon parade. As I recall they can't seem to understand that their little precious went a mucking in somebody else's nation and did so with a very violent crowd. Sure the parents would see it quite different if Radar from Finland came to their backyard and joined up with white supremists who killed a few of their family members because of some murderous phsychological problems that apologists try to label as legitimate political expression. Wish we could have her citizenship revoked so she will never set foot here again. Who needs another idiot leftist terrorist in their state anyway. I for one don't.
New Year's Message From Lori
January 2005
Dear Friends,
I hope the holiday season and the start of this new year have been good for you, and I want to let you know how grateful I am to receive your interest and support, during all of the years.
A month has gone by since the Inter-American Court favored the Peruvian government in the sentence on my case, which marked a new tendency for this Court in the "post 9-11" international context. It's politics, really, the topic of "terrorism" and who is deemed a terrorist all depends on who is today's "good guy" or "bad guy." In a "hate letter" that I just received, I was "congratulated" because the international court confirmed that I was a terrorist. As ironical as it may sound, I'm not sure I mind being depicted as such by those who torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, or by those who bomb cities to the ground (or approve of it happening), or by those who, in general, act upon racist and classist feeling of "superiority" as compared to others. Since they gave me the denomination, well, who cares even.
It seems this jail stay will stretch out quite a bit more; however, the world continues to be much wider than the cement and iron that enclose prisoners, and with or without the physical presence of all of those who have been forced into this strange exile from the world, I'm convinced that many others continue working to make this world a better place.
My best to you,
Lori Berenson
#6
To make the world a better place I'd start with her. My have-a-hart racoon trap cage would have to be supersized but I'm up to the task. Large violent rodents like Lori need to be caged or dispatched. No use letting them walk among us and it is unfair to inflict her upon anybody else's country.
#10
revoke her passport too. We don't want her when she gets out.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 16:49
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She and her parents thought it was cool that she was shacked up with a terrorista. That was until the policia broke down the door and arrested the whole cell. I thin 60 minutes did a sympathetic show on her once about how she is cold and her cell is barren (sniff). Well in 10 or so years she can tell the whole story on Opra of LKL.
A 75-year-old German was so shocked he had accidentally run down his wife he started forward and drove over her again, authorities said Wednesday. Police in the western town of Bad Nauheim said the man compounded his 73-year-old wife's misery after an onlooker told him he had just run her over while backing out of a parking space. The woman was rushed to hospital and survived. It was an accident! I swear!
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/11/2005
01:17 ||
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No Nookie for you!
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/11/2005 6:08
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Should've went with the U.S. import. Those German cars are heavy.
"western town of Bad Nauheim"
LOL! You can't make this stuff up.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/11/2005 7:44
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Reminds me of an old episode of Married w/ Children, where Al Bundy & fam are out west on vacation. Their Dodge Dart breaks down and Al's sitting on the front porch of this "service station" with 2 old geezers while his car's getting fixed. One of the old men asks about his car, and then says "Dodge is a d@mn fine car! Ran over my ex-wife with a Dodge!"
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 8:30
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"Unt I vas not sure dat die virst time it vas an accident, so I had too fun over die fraulein again just to make sure. Unt it vas VANTASTIC!"
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - The three IRA-linked fugitives who fled convictions in Colombia might be required to serve their 17-year prison terms in Ireland, the country's deputy prime minister said Tuesday. Mary Harney, a stern critic of the outlawed Irish Republican Army who is also Ireland's acting justice minister, said her legal officials were already charting the best path for ensuring that the men don't escape punishment.
Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan were convicted of training the South American country's largest rebel group. They disappeared from Colombia eight months ago and resurfaced last week in Ireland, which has no extradition treaty with the war-torn South American nation.
Harney said a government bill, if passed, could allow the trio to serve their Colombian-imposed sentence in Ireland. Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, has welcomed the men's return and called on the government to leave them alone. "It is important that the three persons involved, and those who have expressed exultation at their return to this country, should not underestimate the government's determination to explore all the options open to it to ensure that Ireland continues to play its full part in the fight against international terrorism," Harney said.
Her announcement followed demands from Colombia for them to be extradited or to serve their full prison terms in Ireland.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
01:13 ||
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Colombia could also just put a bounty out on them. Terrorist are terrorists, I don't give a damn where they are from. They should learn they can expect no quarter or favor from anyone.
#2
Oh, it would be so haaaaaard for the lads in Ireland. Haaaard. All the same though, send em back to whence they fled to face the judgment of the people they chose to screw. Ireland would expect the same.
ALOR STAR, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- The Sessions Court here Wednesday fixed Sept 21 for mention of the case of 10 Indonesians charged with armed gang robbery on an oil tanker.
Judge Maznah Abdul Aziz fixed the date after allowing an application for postponement by V.M Ravindran, counsel for seven of the accused, because he is still awaiting a reply from the deputy public prosecutor's office on a review of the charges...
[The Indonesians] are charged with committing gang robbery on the Nepline Delima while armed with parang in the waters between Kota Kuala Muda and Langkawi in Kedah between 4am and 12.25pm on June 14 this year. If convicted under sections 395 and 397 of the Penal Code they can be jailed up to 20 years each and whipped.
The owner of an ostrich ranch is planning to shut down after losing a lawsuit against hot-air balloonists he says panicked his birds into a lethal stampede.
D.C. Cogburn, the owner of the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, says he owes more than $100,000 in legal fees and is preparing to close the ranch along Interstate 10 near Picacho Peak. "Rooster Cogburn"? The Duke lives!
"When you're 25 or even 40, a financial disaster can be a challenge you can overcome," said Cogburn, 66. "It's different when you're my age and know you haven't got that many years left." Starving the elderly again. Those balloonists must be Republicans.
Cogburn's troubles started on Feb. 3, 2002, when two large hot-air balloons with their propane burners roaring, loomed over the ranch and panicked the ostriches, Cogburn said. The large birds stampeded, trampling 7,000 feet of fences. Hey, if the Palestinians had ostriches and a few hot-air balloons, they wouldn't have to worry about those darn Israeli fences.
Two dozen birds from his 1,600-bird flock died from injuries within days, and the incident destroyed the ostriches' breeding patterns. Cogburn said it cost him a $3 million contract to supply chicks to a Brazilian business. "An ostrich ranch is like a vineyard; it takes years of investment before you turn a profit," Cogburn said. "The contract was our breakthrough." "And now that money is all gone, Maw! It done and run away!"
Cogburn sued balloonists Jeffrey and Elaine Anderson and their crew, led by Roy Waltz, in 2003. But Pinal County jurors sided with the balloonists, who said they maintained their distance from the ranch and were within Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Douglas Fitch, the lawyer who defended the balloonists, said he felt for the rancher. Some jurors told him after the verdict that they believed the balloonists caused the stampede but didn't think they did anything wrong.
Cogburn had hoped to use the ranch to produce ostrich meat, recommended by the American Heart Association as a red meat lower in fat, cholesterol and sodium than turkey. He also planned to sell the giant birds' skin, plumes, infertile eggs and shells. Ostrich: the other, other, other white meat.
Ostriches form tight communities, according to veterinarian Carole Price, president of the American Ostrich Association. The stampede jumbled the communities, giving him no way to tell which birds belonged in which clan, Cogburn said. More than 800 birds were hurt and had to be killed over the year after the incident. Birds split from their communities are disoriented and have difficulty beginning breeding again. I knew they liked to bury their heads in places other than sand.
"They aren't breeding during that time," said Price, who toured Cogburn's ranch last fall. She found him "an excellent rancher who takes very good care of his animals." Thank you, ma'am. Now saddle up and ride into the sunset, pilgrim.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/11/2005
01:06 ||
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#1
The stampede jumbled the communities, giving him no way to tell which birds belonged in which clan
I have that picture in my mind of cowboys ostrichboys pursuing ostrichs on horsebcak, lassoing them, holding them on the ground and marking them with a red-hot iron.
#2
Actually, it's the other red meat. Really. Not bad, either. I've been to the ranch. They have a petting zoo and lots of kiddie tourist-trap things. He'll do OK, though. It's commuting distance to Marana (though a tad far for Tucson), so I expect some developer will pick it up.
giving him no way to tell which birds belonged in which clan
New monthly recruiting figures released by the Pentagon Wednesday show the Army exceeded its recruiting goal for active duty in July, but continued to fall short of its recruitment goal for the U.S. Army Reserve. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said figures being released Wednesday show that the Army Reserves met 82 percent of its 2,585 July goal by recruiting 2,131 volunteers for the Reserve. The National Guard recruited at 80 percent, or 4,712, of its 5,920 goal. Year to date, the Army is at 89 percent of its active duty recruiting goal of 80,000, Whitman said. The rest of the branches â Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force â also either met their recruitment goals for July or were very close. Those three branches, except the Air National Guard, are on track to meet their annual goals. The Pentagon continues to attribute the shortfall in the Reserves to a challenging recruitment environment triggered by a strong economy and concerns among parents that young people will be sent to Iraq. The Army, in particular, has offered a series of bonuses, incentives and enlistment options to help boost recruitment and retention. Hardly the recruiting "crisis" we hear about constantly on the Congressional floor. Recruiting numbers are down for the Reserves because so many units have been pulled up to active duty; people don't want to sign up for a part time job only to be forced into full-time. The key is that active duty recruiting is only minimally behind their goals, so that means there is still alot of war support IMO.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/11/2005
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And the booming economy makes it harder for people who would consider the military as a career.
Via Drudge The Rolling Stones' upcoming album contains a song seemingly critical of President Bush, but Nigel Tufnel Mick Jagger denies it's directed at him, according to the syndicated TV show "Extra."
"Yeah! It's directed at... ummm... somebody else... No, wait! I got it:"
"It is not really aimed at anyone," Jagger said on the entertainment-news show's Wednesday edition. "It's not aimed, personally aimed, at President Bush. It wouldn't be called 'Smell the Glove Sweet Neo Con' if it was." Somebody must have told the stupid, drunken limey that more than half of us American ticket-buyers voted for said "Sweet Neo-Con".
The song is from the new album, "A Bigger Bang," set for release Sept. 6.
I'm waiting for the Rolling Stones to start their "Invincible" tour...
There is no mention of Bush or Iraq. But it does refer to military contractor Halliburton, which was formerly run by Vice President Cheney and has been awarded key Iraq contracts, and the rising price of gasoline. "How come you're so wrong? My sweet neo-con, where's the money gone, in the Pentagon," goes one refrain. The song also includes the line: "It's liberty for all, democracy's our style, unless you are against us, then it's prison without trial."
"Like, profound, man! Gimme a hit off that bong, wouldja?"
"It is certainly very critical of certain policies of the administration, but so what! Lots of people are critical," Jagger told "Extra." Lots of drug addicts overdose and slip into a coma too. Too bad you can't be more like them.
A representative for the Stones said the group had no further comment about the song. The Rolling Stones intend to kick off a U.S. tour in Boston Aug. 21.
"This one goes to 11!"
Boston. Figures.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/11/2005
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Of course it isn't aimed at Bush -- it's aimed at the Untermenschen who voted him into office... twice.
#2
In short, of course not; he'll be GLAD to take our money anyway, without regard to political leanings.
(Or in other words: he thinks those opposed to him are stupid.)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/11/2005 8:32
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Also... I'm beginning to dislike the term "neocon;" it's beginning to look like a term invented by the liberals and isolationists to suggest that anyone who disagrees with them isn't normal or even a conservative.
Bah; he can't get no neuron action....
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/11/2005 8:38
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#4
I care little for the idiot Jagger, his ramblings, and his whacky spawn. There was a time when he had some talent but that was over 25 years ago.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 9:00
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#6
Who?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 9:39
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PF: Also... I'm beginning to dislike the term "neocon;" it's beginning to look like a term invented by the liberals and isolationists to suggest that anyone who disagrees with them isn't normal or even a conservative.
It's a term invented by anti-American liberals and conservatives to describe pro-American liberals and conservatives. How can you tell that someone is an anti-American conservative? When he criticizes actions taken to further American interests. You can be anti-war and pro-American - the problem with a lot of anti-war conservatives is that they're anti-war and anti-American. The anti-war and pro-American conservatives don't have a problem with beating the crap out of America's enemies. The anti-war and anti-American conservatives seem to think that stomping America's enemies is some kind of exceptional practice, and line their arguments with leftist criticisms of American foreign policy.
#8
I look forward to Sir Jagger's leadership on the nuclearization of Iran.
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
08/11/2005 10:02
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Mick's just pissed that some people thought Bono should be head of the World Bank, and no one nominated him (so much for his education at the London School of Economics, eh?).
#10
I'm so sick of the damn libs saying that Bush and the republicans throw them in jail for speaking out. They repute that statement everytime they walk off stage and go home to a quiet night. If we were throwing people in jail, the libs wouldn't make it off stage and would dissappear after a group of police dragged them off.
Asshats...
Please just die already Jagger, you fuckin' old mick.
#11
In terms the senile rocker can understand, FOAD. The Rolling Stones havn't done anything creative since 1974 and since the aging babyboomers who have tried to regain their youth by watching the geriatric posturings of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are starting to die out, Jagger decided to do a Dixie Chick for publicity, thinking that there are enough of the Michael Moore crowd to boost album sales. If he had thought that through, he would have realized that he had just alienated over half the US market and that the other half, while generous with other people's money, keep their own wallets in their pockets. So, Mick, get off of my cloud.
#13
Funny thing is when I see Mick Jagger I always think of that movie FREEJACK where Jagger went around hunting down the hero. Now the movie was probably intended as a sly attack against capitalism but it seemed much more like a Socialist-communist nation to me. Masses in poverty with elites living in wealth is something far more common in Soviet style communism than any of the western nations.
#14
The thing that bugs me is not that he's a left-wing jackass. So are plenty of other people, and they have a right to be. What bothers me is that he thinks I'm stupid. "It is not really aimed at anyone," he says. Okay, Mick! If you don't have the courage to admit you're a pinko, then you're not being honest, and I don't respect that.
#17
That half that doesn't support this kind of @#$% now has to put up with these guys, compliments of the NFL. Wonder if they will be singing this song in Irving, TX before a game?
#18
Sorry, just the early onset Alzheimers kicking in. I love everybody who can pay.
Besides, Keith wrote it, and who knows what'll come out of that drug addled mind of his. Damn commie. So get off my arse, okay?
#20
just pimping their new album/tour with contrived controversy. Of course, when I want to discuss American foreign policy, I usually turn to non-college educated foreign artists. They do know best....ask Bianca
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 14:36
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#21
the worst part is that we will be forced to listen to this song on our radios - thanks to payola or however else they get it on there. Just like the Bitchy Chix. And yeah, I'll flip the channel - if I notice enough to care.
Outside of my now having negative feelings about songs I USED to like, - this controversy is just a big ol' yawn.
#22
Hey Mick,
Show us you care. Donate all profits from the new album to the starving kids.
Posted by: Stephen ||
08/11/2005 19:52
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#23
My brother, the AF Major, liked their song Highwire. What in Heck happened?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/11/2005 22:09
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#24
I completely understand why the Rolling Stones don't like Bush. The Dems keep telling them that Bush is going to cut back on their Social Security checks.
GAZA CITY - Thousands of Palestinian security officers are enduring a mad rush of physical training and weaponry drills in order to take control of areas vacated by Israel in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
Enfeebled by the five-year intifada and based out of premises partially destroyed by Israeli military action, security branches on the Palestinian Authority payroll are undergoing rigorous training for the Israeli pullout.
I suspect Charlie Johnson will soon re-use his favorite pic of Paleos leaping through rings of fire.
Security sources say 5,000 forces are being assembled and groomed to ensure that Israelâs disengagement from Gaza, due to begin in earnest on August 17, takes place free of violence after an appeal for calm by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
Some are already in position, with the bulk of national security and police to be deployed early next week in zones bordering the Israeli settlements and roads used by settlers leading to the territoryâs border with Israel.
At the ravaged navy police headquarters on the Gaza seafront under the glare of officers and Egyptian supervisors, men are instructed in the fine art of house ambush, checkpoint management and riot dispersal.
Riot dispersal? I can see why Paleo coppers wouldn't know much about that.
âMore than 5,000 from national security and the other services have been trained. This force will be called on to assume control of the evacuated zones,â said chief instructor Colonel Mohammed al-Rawagh. âOther than physical endurance and operational exercises, they are being taught weapons and ammunition handling,â said instructor Mohammed Wasshah.
With the Palestinian leadership under massive international pressure to ensure the pullout passes off without militant attacks that could precipitate a crushing Israeli military response, little is being left to chance. General Jamal Kayed, national security commander in the southern Gaza Strip, said deployment plans during and after the departure of all Israeli troops and 8,000 settlers have been religiously prepared. âUnder this plan, 7,500 members of national security and police are being deployed in and around the areas to be evacuated,â he said.
In a three-pronged operation, the special core of 5,000 will fan out inside the evacuated settlements, national security on their outer perimetre and police in adjacent Palestinian autonomous zones, said Kayed. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials said the forceâs main task would be to prevent rocket attacks from the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Success will depend largely on the attitude of both Islamist fundamentalist groups, whose armed wings are responsible for the majority of rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in Gaza and Israel proper. Islamic Jihad has announced its militants are under orders to stop firing rockets at Israeli targets in the lead-up to the pullout. Hamas has said it will observe an informal ceasefire but will respond to any Israeli âviolationâ.
"We can hear dem Jooos breathin'. It grates on our nerves, it's a violation I tells ya!"
Ordinary Palestinians would be banned from nearing settlements during the withdrawal, Kayed said, in a bid to stem much-feared looting and pillaging from angry mobs seeking to avenge Israelâs 38-year occupation of Gaza. âThis force will also be responsible for taking control of the land that the settlements were built on and to protect property and infrastructure which are going to be given to the big-shots preserved,â he said.
Security preparations are also awash in the northern West Bank around Jenin where four isolated Jewish settlements are also to be dismantled in the first week of September. A special unit of 700 security officers has been formed and a camp erected to house them, said security commander in the region, General Dhiab al-Ali. âThe camp will welcome a battalion of 700 soldiers and officers commanded by a colonel. The sole task of this force will be to guarantee law and order in the zones to be evacuated by the Israeli army and settlers,â he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
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#1
Heh, insert "Heavily Armed, Morally Bankrupt, and Mentally" at the beginning of the title, Doc, and I'll buy. ;-)
#2
How much you want to bet the Paleos step on their dorks? If they do a a masive and brutal response should come their way. I mean brutal as in wipe out all the males between 12 and 60 in the Gaza strip, throw the rest of the population out and claim the land as part of the territory Israel in perpetuity.
Let the MMs and TRANZIs choke on that. Tell them the policy of Israel is no longer to "occupy" it is to anex and take full possession of any place that is used to launch attacks on Israel or it's citizens.
Two Nepalese religious students left Pakistan yesterday, the first of more than 1,400 foreigners set to be deported in a government drive to curb extremism at the nationâs Islamic schools. Ahmad Ali, 20, and Shabnum Shagufa, 19, students at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa in the eastern city of Lahore, decided to return to Nepal after authorities warned that foreign students at madrasas could be arrested unless they left the country by September. âI feel sad that I could not complete my education,â Ali told The Associated Press before crossing by land into India. He said that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had âwrongly punished foreign students.â We are peace-loving people. We are against terrorism. What was our fault? ... Does the government have any charge against us?â
Ali had been studying at the madrasa for four years, and needed four more years to complete his studies. Shagufa, who is Aliâs aunt, had been there for three years. Musharraf is facing international pressure to curb extremism in the thousands of seminaries across Pakistan â particularly after reports emerged that two of the bombers in the attacks that killed 56 people on the London transport system on July 7 had visited Pakistan and may have gone to madrasas. Most of the madrasas in Pakistan are funded by Saudi Arabia private donations or by religious political parties. A few are believed to receive money from Muslim countries too, but the schools rarely acknowledge such foreign assistance, usually saying the money comes from individual donors living abroad.
Since the 1980s, madrasas have been a recruiting ground for militant groups fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but they also provide an education for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis poorly served by the state schooling system. Musharraf has faced criticism at home for the plan to expel foreign students, with opponents, particularly from religious-based parties, saying it is unjustified.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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Since the 1980s, madrasas have been a recruiting ground for militant groups fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but they also provide an education for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis poorly served by the state schooling system.
Mebbe Perv needs to be changing the curriculum and teachers, rather than the students.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 7:52
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changing the curriculum and teachers is hard, and Perv may not feel its the best use of his limited power now. Getting rid of the foreign students makes it more of a domestic paki prob, and less likely to lead to headlines about bombings overseas, that would bring down more pressure on his head.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian professor Abd Al-Sabour Shahin, which aired on Saudi Channel 1 on August 8, 2005. Dr. Shahin is head of the Shari'a faculty at Al-Ahzar University, [1] the most prestigious seat of learning in Sunni Islam, and is also a lecturer at Cairo University.
"Our enemies weave many lies about us, which we are not necessarily aware of. For example: One day, we awoke to the crime of 9/11, which hit the tallest buildings in New York, the Empire State Building [sic]. There is no doubt that not a single Arab or Muslim had anything to do with these events. The incident was fabricated as a pretext to attack Islam and Muslims. The plan was to take over the world's energy sources, and to achieve this control by force and not by agreement or negotiations, by interests, free trade, or anything like that. This is what they wanted.
"So this incident was fabricated - and Allah knows that the Arabs and Muslims are innocent of it - in order to serve as a pretext to attack Islam and the Muslims. All of a sudden, after we had been accustomed to considering America a rational and balanced country... All of a sudden, it violates international conventions, cancels treaties, ignores the U.N., acts on its own accord, attacks nations, kills innocent people, and claims it has the right to do so - and all this is based on lies.
"These were lies from beginning to end, and we were not used to lying - not in policy, not in our discourse, and not in the media. Imagine what crisis the Arab and Islam nation finds itself in, in the midst of these peculiar events, which we cannot explain or believe. All of a sudden, we were framed for an international crime, on the basis of lies.
"I believe a dirty Zionist hand carried out this act. Zionism has taken the opportunity to escalate the war in Palestine, killing hundreds of thousands so far, while we watch from the sidelines in astonishment and ask: What's going on?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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How do we know if the good doctor isn't really an amazingly lifelike Zionist built robot made to discredit Islam by making them look like total fuckin idiots?
#6
The small, ignorant minds that prevail in Egypt's cultural and educational elite can't ever escape the entropy of their own idiocy. They deserve themselves. Please, nobody tell these poor nutters that it is actually the Amish that pull all the strings behind the multiple facades visible.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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Under the agreement, Jordan would have to guarantee a deportee would not be tortured or otherwise mistreated at home and would not face the death penalty.
#5
BS: I had a flash of the "transplant surgery" in Face Off, lol! "Nope, he has no face, so we can execute this jihadi, sir!"
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 8:50
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PR - Don't think that's it. The name, etc., is filled in automatically by the computer. The strange thing is my e-mail address stayed the same; just the name changed (and not to one of Fred's interesting ones, either). And I'd been commenting earlier with no problems.
As I said, weird.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 9:08
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#7
I'd seek legal counsel Barb while you still have time.
#10
Cleanup on aisle 3. Com, I needed a beverage alert on that one! Not that I'm groveling, but you never cease to crack me up (which is what I need at work).
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 14:33
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Heh, BA - Great Minds, bro...
Ship, when I even remotely understand his posts, leaves a rich fertile, uh, medium behind him, heh.
#14
Styx River Legal Emporium? Sounds like a growning concern. Which side of the Styx is it on.
Its kind of important to know before investing...
I only know this...
The river of which many know its name, without knowing its origin or what it really stood for. A river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. Styx it is said winds around Hades (hell or the underworld are other names) nine times. Its name comes from the Greek word stugein which means hate, Styx, the river of hate. This river was so respected by the gods of Greek mythology that they would take life binding oaths just by mentioning its name, as referenced in the story of Bacchus-Ariadne, where Jove "confirms it with the irrevocable oath, attesting the river Styx."
There are five rivers that separate Hades from the world of the living, they are:
1. Acheron - the river of woe;
2. Cocytus - the river of lamentation;
3. Phlegethon - the river of fire;
4. Lethe - the river of forgetfulness;
5. Styx - the river of hate.
It is thought that Charon, the old ferry man who ferries the dead onto the underworld, crosses the river Styx where the dragon tailed dog Cerberus guards, allowing all souls to enter but none to leave. This is a misconception, Charon crosses the river Acheron where also Cerebus stands his eternal guard. Also while on this subject, Charon only takes the souls across that are buried properly with a coin (called an obol) that was placed in their mouths upon burial.
If a god gave his oath upon the river Styx and failed to keep his word, Zeus forced that god to drink from the river itself. The water is said to be so foul that the god would lose his/her voice for nine years. The river is not the subject of any story itself but is mentioned in several. These little pieces give a wonderful view of not only the river but the ancient Greeks view of the underworld. From its Adamantine gates to its separate levels of Tartarus and Erebus onto the Elysian fields.
WANA: Four people were killed on Wednesday in a mine blast targeting the vehicle of a pro-government tribal elder in South Waziristan Agency, officials said. The elder, Haji Khadeen, who had led a government campaign against Al Qaeda-linked insurgents, was critically wounded while three of his relatives and a passer-by died. The attack took place in Dazha Ghandi. âAccording to our information, four people died when the vehicle hit a mine planted by unidentified people,â local administration official Wasal Khan said. âHaji Khadeen is in hospital, his condition is serious.â
It was not immediately clear whether the mine blast was part of a tribal vendetta or linked to Khadeenâs role in the campaign against militants in the region, officials said. Witnesses said members of Khadeenâs clan later opened fire and threw grenades at a Wana market shopping plaza owned by rival tribesmen, but no casualties were reported. This year Khadeen had raised a tribal force that conducted house-to-house searches after the Pakistan Army launched an operation against Islamic insurgents in March. No one was arrested in the search operation but the lashkar (tribal army) destroyed several houses on suspicion their inhabitants were sheltering foreign militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I think we've had this story before, but it does point out that all the Philistines don't live in Palestine.
The Saudi embassies in Washington, Ottawa and London are likely to be soon flooded with mail from shocked Muslims urging that the birthplace of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) not be bulldozed.
CAIR statement of outrage in 10...9...8...
A report in the London newspaper The Independent, says, "Now the actual birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed is facing the bulldozers, with the connivance of Saudi religious authorities whose hardline interpretation of Islam is compelling them to wipe out their own heritage."
American Muslim Council statement of outrage in 7...6...5...
According to progressive Canadian Muslim broadcaster and activist, Toronto-based Tarek Fatah, "In January 2002, Turkey accused Saudi Arabia of a 'cultural massacre' following the demolition of an historic Ottoman castle near the holy city of Mecca.
Muslim Student Association statement of outrage in 4...3...2...
The spat between Turkey and Saudi Arabia barely caused a stir anywhere in the Muslim world, let alone international circles. The Ottoman fort's destruction is not the only massacre of culture that the Saudis have done in the name of money and Islam. In the 1980s, they demolished part of the two hills of Safaa and Marwah to build a palace for the late King Khaled.
*Crickets chirping*
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So?
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 8:51
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#2
Maybe they could just paint it? Or siding maybe?
#5
You mean it's not like the 235th most holy place in Islam? (Or something like that?)
Halliburton must be to blame somehow.
And what exactly is a "progressive Canadian Muslim broadcaster" anyway? Someone who will wait ten years for imposition of sharia? He allows his wimmin to show their faces in public?
#7
Wahabis dont like material manifestations of Islam, while lots of others do. This is like when Protestants in 16th century europe went around destroying statues and stuff in Catholic churches, out of hatred of images. Note Wahabis in Chechnya, and Bosnia, got locals upset with them for this kind of thing.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 19:29
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This is mentioned in John Bradley's great book, Saudi Arabia Exposed.
The Wahhabis have for years been destroying relics and historic ruins that are part of the history of Islam. Their reasoning? To prevent idol worship. Geeezzzz!
Also, tells me something: If the Wahhabis are willing to destroy the relics of Islamic civilization, do you think they give a rat's ass about the Pyramids of Giza, the cathedrals of Florence, Rome, Paris, Chartres, ...skyscrapers in NYC?
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription req'd. An Indian military investigation has been opened following disclosure that a soldier at a base near China had obtained strategic documents on troop deployments and high-level strategy. A corporal at the base had obtained access to computer data and had 100 pages of computer printouts of strategic value, a military officer told AFP Aug. 4. "It seems [the corporal] last year passed on copious data on missile locations, deployment of infantry battalions at China's borders, weapons technology upgrades and classified minutes of commander conferences," the officer said.
Some of the documents were stolen and passed to Pakistan, which is a close ally of China. The thefts took place during two months last year. "We are in the process of ascertaining what we have lost but from the surface it appears there has been a serious breach [of national security]," the officer said. Understatement of the year.
The documents were taken from a "war room" at the Tezpur base in northeastern India and were likely passed to Pakistan and then China. The base is designed to counter three Chinese military airfields in Tibet. The spy case follows the break-in of an Indian naval facility two weeks ago in New Delhi in which unidentified attackers penetrated a fortified defense facility and obtained several computer hard disks containing years of defense research work. India and China went to war in 1962 over a border dispute that remains unresolved.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/11/2005
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This shouldn't come as a surprise. The Chinese are well practiced in spying, stealing, etc.
The Paki-ChiCom alliance boxes in India, the US's recently upgraded ally. As Rummy says, this isn't checkers, it's chess.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 15:32
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An American journalist who was shot dead in Basra last week was executed by Shiite extremists who knew he was intending to marry his Muslim interpreter, it has emerged. Steven Vincent was shot a week before the planned wedding to Nouriya Itais and had already delivered a $2,500 dowry to her family. The disclosure casts new light on the grip of Islamic religious sects in the British-run south- east of Iraq - raising concern that they will take control once troops start to withdraw. Mr Vincent was abducted from his hotel three days after writing a piece in the New York Times accusing British officials of allowing religious parties to infiltrate the Basra police. In America, his death was taken as retribution for his article. But in London yesterday, British officials pointed out that the police in Basra believed it was retribution for his affair. "We warned him to look after his security in a more professional manner than he was doing," said the official. The couple were found by Iraqi police after being shot by their captors. Medics managed to save Ms Itais.
#10
I dunno, but sounds like a bullshit cover to me.
Iranian, I mean, Shiite militias are having their way in Basra and he was endangering that.
So they fuckin offed him.
The Iranians want badly their wonderful Shiia playground next door from whence to influence Iraq. It seems to be coming no matter what the Coalition wants, there's just too many Shiia and it's a numbers game.
But whatever. Most of us in the world could give a shit less about their assasinations. They're killing all the Sunnis and baathists thugs that we shoulda offed in the first place, but I digress less fuckers for us to kill today, more for tommorrow.
Broadcasts of a Lebanese television channel linked to the Hezbollah militia group have been stopped to Asia and Latin America, France Telecom said Wednesday. The French group said distribution of the al-Manar channel via its Globecast satellite subsidiary had ceased to Asia last week and to South America at the beginning of July.
You have chosen wisely, FT. Though I bet the loonbats and the Islamists whine and seethe...
The halt to transmissions follows a decision by French authorities last December to ban the station from broadcasting across Europe using the Paris-based Eutelsat company on the grounds that it was inciting racial hatred. Jewish groups, notably the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, hailing the Eutelsat decision but accused France Telecom of helping the Lebanese channel by continuing broadcasts to Asia, via Globecast's dealings with Asiasat, and to Latin America through the Spanish satellite provider Hispasat. The Spanish government announced in June that it was ending al-Manar broadcasts on Hispasat because "those guys are nuts" the channel's licence was not in order. Hezbollah is both a political party in Lebanon and a militia group which from time to time launches cross-border attacks against Israel. It is viewed by the United States and some European countries as a terrorist organization.
#1
Ah, yes, I recall the sudden 180° reversal on al Manar. I'm just happy they were so sophisticated and sensitive about this, not pre-emptive and cowboyish. Lesson learned, Jackie. Lead on.
#3
The plug on Al manar was pulled out in France last year, after a campaign by jewish intellectuals (that al manar was allowed to be aired in the first place was telling, quid pro quo for the first hostages?), a 180° because of the antisemite acts wave which doesn't prevent the quai d'Orsay from using the hezbollah tool in its lebanese powerplay (Chirak's France would want the hezbollah not to disarm, and even to be declassified as a terrorist mvt).
This is another affair, I was informed about by jewish and islaomophobe sites, but I didn't really see in the french MSM (correct me?)
#4
That Bastard Cowboy Jock! Personally, he would have done well to arrange the exchange of the kinder gentler deranged boomer channel with a 24/7 Bollywood dance video channel and just call it a prudent ratings decision and healthy boost to french multiculturalism.
When the first plane crashed into the Worl Trade Center, Rachel Ehrenfeld was sitting a her desk in her apartment in midtown. âI wa on the phone with my editor in Brussels finishing an op-ed about terror financing for th European edition of the Wall Street Journal,â she said the other day. âI ran up to the roof to see what was going on, then I came back downstairs and did a new lead. It ran the next day.â
An Israeli-born American citizen, Ehrenfeld has been writing about terror in its various forms for about twenty years. She developed a special expertise in tracing the money behind terrorist organizations, and after 9/11 she wrote a book called âFunding Evil,â largely about the financing of Al Qaeda. Like other authors, Ehrenfeld drew passing attention to the role of Khalid bin Mahfouz, a member of a prominent Saudi banking family, who was, she wrote, allegedly involved âin the funding of terrorism.â
Bin Mahfouz was also, it turned out, one of Londonâs most prominent âlibel tourists,â the term for those non-Britons who try to take advantage of the countryâs pro-plaintiff libel laws. Those laws not only make it easy for plaintiffs to win damage awards but also allow American publications with small circulations in the U.K. to be sued in the London courts. The best-known recent libel tourist is Roman Polanski, who last month won a judgment against Vanity Fair, which is owned by the same company as this magazine; Polanski was not even required to travel to England to bring his case.
Shortly after the publication of âFunding Evil,â Ehrenfeld began receiving demands for retractions from British lawyers for the bin Mahfouz family. She refused to give in, so in 2004 she was sued before the same London judge who decided the Polanski case. âMy book wasnât even published in England,â Ehrenfeld says. âBut they said that because someone bought twenty-three copies there online, that was enough for me to be sued there.â
Ultimately, Ehrenfeld decided not to go to England and contest the suit. âThere was no way to win,â she said. âUnder English law, it wasnât enough that I could prove that I had written what my sources told me, but I would have had to prove the underlying truth of the accusations as well. No one can meet that standard.â So last year the judge entered a default judgment against Ehrenfeld, which now amounts to at least a hundred thousand dollars.
Ehrenfeld then hit on a novel strategy. Having lost the libel case abroad, she sued bin Mahfouz in an American federal court, seeking to block the enforcement of the foreign judgment against her on the ground that it violated her First Amendment rights. âThe Saudis are using their wealth to intimidate people from writing about them,â Ehrenfeld said. âI thought it was time to fight back.â (Her legal fees already amount to approximately two hundred thousand dollars.)
The bin Mahfouz family maintains a Web site (www.binmahfouz.info) largely devoted to recounting its various lawsuits, most of them filed in England, against journalists around the world. (The site does not note that Khalid bin Mahfouz, who held a thirty-per-cent ownership share of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or BCCI, paid a settlement of almost a quarter of a billion dollars after the bankâs notorious collapse.) âKhalid bin Mahfouz has publicly condemned terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations,â Timothy Finn, one of his Washington, D.C., lawyers, said the other day. âAnd he categorically denies that he has ever provided any assistance or financial support to any terrorist organization.â Finn has asked Judge Richard C. Casey, of the federal district court in Manhattan, to throw the case out on the ground that his client has no ties to New York, and that since bin Mahfouz hasnât tried to enforce the British judgment here, there is no live controversy to decide.
Ehrenfeld earns a living by piecing together teaching stints, think-tank assignments, and book deals. âI am working on a new project about how the Saudis are using their money to penetrate the Western and U.S. economies in a strategic way,â she said. âThis is financial jihad.â But she hasnât had much time to spend on the new book this summer. âIâm not reporting,â she said last week. âIâm doing fund-raising to pay my lawyers.â
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
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#1
I hate libel chill. And let's not forget that attornies for the former Secretary of State - Colin Powell - filed an Amicus' brief on behalf of the Saudi defendents in the 9-11 lawsuit. Forget liberal-conservative politics. The State Dept was wrong in acceding to financial jihad.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/11/2005 2:00
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A former Guinea-Bissau dictator was confirmed the official winner Wednesday of this African nation's presidential runoff, according to final election results. Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira had appeared sure of victory since last month, when the West African country's national electoral commission said provisional results had given him the edge over rival Malam Bacai Sanha. The commission said that Vieira won 52 percent of the vote, compared with 48 percent for Sanha.
I'm sure the voters will get exactly the kind of government they deserve, too...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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ISLAM needs to go through a new Reformation to bring the faith into the modern era, novelist Salman Rushdie wrote in a British newspaper today. Rushdie said a broad-minded interpretation of the religion would lead to better relations with Western communities and lessen the alienation which led young British Muslims to become the alleged suicide bombers who killed 52 innocent people in London in July.
Rushdie was forced into hiding after the former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in February 1989, calling for his execution because of alleged blasphemy and apostasy in his novel The Satanic Verses. Rushdie, Indian-born into a Muslim family, had a $US2.8 million ($3.68 million) bounty placed on his head by a Tehran-based foundation.
"What is needed is a move beyond tradition - nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age," Rushdie wrote in The Times. "A Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadi ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows of the closed communities to let in much-needed fresh air."
Rushdie wrote that many Muslims in Britain lead lives apart from the rest of the community, and in such insular circles, "young men's alienations can easily deepen".
The novelist said very few Muslims had been permitted to study the Koran as an historical document and it was "high time" believers could. "The insistence within Islam that the Koranic text is the infallible, uncreated word of God renders analytical scholarly discourse all but impossible.
"Why would God be influenced by the socioeconomics of seventh-century Arabia, after all?
"If, however, the Koran were seen as a historical document, then it would be legitimate to reinterpret it to suit the new conditions of successive new ages.
"Laws made in the seventh century could finally give way to the needs of the 21st. The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities."
The novelist's forthcoming tale, Shalimar the Clown, concerns a young Muslim boy who is guided by a radical mullah to become an Islamic terrorist.
#1
Lol, F**kin' Duh, Sally. Reform or Perish has been in neon lights for almost 3 yrs, sonny. You're late.
This was interesting: "Why would God be influenced by the socioeconomics of seventh-century Arabia, after all?"
It begs several other questions, the kind that cause a nasty atheist to giggle, such as the 72 Virgins thingy, the Dome of Pearls, Streets of Gold, yadda³. None of these Earthly treasures make sense in Paradise or Heaven - unless there's an Earthly body with an Earthly nervous system to feel the sensations and a 7-11 on the corner that takes pearls in payment for Slurpees and smokes.
BTW, who in their right mind would want a virgin? Untutored and inexperienced? Pfeh. Give me a Pro who can stop time dead in its tracks. Only naive sexual novices and cowards who live in fear of ridicule would think virgins are preferable. Squirrels.
It's more like a car with a bent frame. No matter how much effort and money you put into it......when you drive it.........it is still a car with a bent frame.
Posted by: Al-aska Paul ||
08/11/2005 11:08
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#9
by taking every single word of the Bible as absolute God given truth there are those in America that can be accused of the same kind of close mindedness
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 11:58
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#10
by taking every single word of the Bible as absolute God given truth there are those in America that can be accused of the same kind of close mindedness
Yes, but bk, they aren't in power, and even if they were they wouldn't do their best to kill off all those who don't agree with them 100%.
#11
BK: I resemble that remark. Guess you mean like "Turn the other cheek", "Love your neighbor as yourself," etc? It amazes me how closely the left WANTS to be in that type kumbaya world, with bunnies and duckies, but fight so hard against Christ's true teachings. Methinks you have some very deep personal issues here. And, furthermore, the true Christian faith shows the exact opposite. Christ died at the hands of men for all of us (a TRUE martyr, as were His immediate followers), NEVER did he say (or show by example) any of the traits of the "true" believers of Islam (suicide bombings, homicides, torture, beheadings, ramming jets into buildings, blowing up trains, yadda yadda yadda). I'ma guessing you've had some personal issues with Christians, maybe the likes of "love the sinner, hate the sin", eh? Not to start a flame war, but we're on the same side (supposedly), and these NONSENSE comparisions of the Jihadis and the Christians REALLY tick me off!
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 14:22
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#12
bk-
FWIW, I believe that the KJV Bible is the inerrant, perfect word of God. I also believe in the absolute right of any other faith or branch to say that their scriptures are the right ones...as long as they don't insist on my death for not agreeing with them. When that happens, I will get every bit as intolerant and closeminded as you THINK I am. When it doesn't, it's live and let live, just like 99.99% of the rest of America.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2005 17:03
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#13
Bah, a lot of people CLAIM to believe every word in the Bible, but you'd be amazed at how many filters people have in place: I once believed the Christian Church replaced Israel, and yet read passages in Romans that explicitly denied that belief for YEARS, and didn't realize the impedance mismatch until last year. Sheesh.
The Bible is indeed God's word: telling me otherwise is being far too late, since I have benefitted and profited from following it for too many years. You may not Believe it, but I KNOW it, and the last time I looked, knowing gained from personal life experience trumped mere opinions of strangers. I'd tell you to peddle your Opinions in Waziristan, where there is a far more gullible audience, but another franchise has already moved in...
At least 16 people were injured in two bomb attacks in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga two days after a controversial election for new leaders of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The first bomb, planted under a parked mini-van in downtown Zamboanga, exploded around 7.20 p.m., injuring four people. The powerful blast destroyed the van completely and damaged two small buildings nearby, officials said. Bomb experts were sifting through the debris, searching for clues on what kind of explosives were used in the attacks, when second explosion ripped through the second floor of another building just 50 meters away from the main police headquarters in the busy business district. At least a dozen people were wounded in the blast, but independent sources said the number of casualties could be more.
The blast tore through the second floor that houses the St. Anneâs budget motel and damaged a branch of the popular fastfood chain Chowking and several smaller shops. Paramedics rescued trapped and wounded motel guests from the second floor. The facade of the building was almost destroyed. Shattered glass and twisted metals and debris littered the streets. The shock waves from the explosions destroyed display windows of several shops around the blast scenes. Fear gripped many people who were rushing home at the time of the explosions. Some 100 soldiers and policemen, backed by armored vehicles, secured downtown Zamboanga until security officials declared it was safe.
No group claimed responsibility for the blasts and investigators were trying to determine the identity and motive of the attackers, said Senior Superintendent Jose Bayani Gucela, Zamboangaâs deputy police chief. âWe are looking into the involvement of the Abu Sayyaf in the two bombings. The public should be vigilant for future attacks,â one police officer said, referring to the extremist group blamed a series of kidnappings and bomb attacks in the southern Philippines over the past years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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LAHORE: Maulana Fazlur Rehman should explain why he makes frequent trips to Libya, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Wednesday.
Gotta be a holy site in Libya somewhere.
Yeah. The 142nd holiest bank in Islam...
"He goes to the UAE and then it emerges that he has reached Tripoli. I had said that he should take the nation into confidence about it, but it seems that he got offended," Ahmed told reporters after attending an Independence Day show for television at the Alhamra.
Hmmm... Fazl canoodling with Col. Kudhuffy... Personally, I think Muammar bribes people on principle, rather than with any particular end in mind. And regardless of what he thought he was buying, I'm not at all sure Fazl's capable of staying bought.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#4
Libya's in the middle of the desert.
He was misinformed.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/11/2005 9:50
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#5
Libya does have some very fine beachfront property on the Mediteranian. allied and Axis soldiers took advantage of it during World War II. Maybe he just wanted to take a dip in the ocean.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/11/2005 11:57
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U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons recently confiscated in Iraq were "clearly, unambiguously from Iran" and admonished Tehran for allowing the explosives to cross the border. Iran's defense minister denied the claims in a report carried by the state-run news agency IRNA.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened. Wudn't us."
According to Ali Shamkhani, Iran is playing no role in Iraqi affairs, including "its alleged involvement in bomb explosions."
So I guess that settles it, huh? So you won't mind if we simply bump off anybody we see transporting them, because they'll be non-existent, too?
The shipment of sophisticated bombs was confiscated in the past two weeks by U.S. and Iraqi troops in southern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday. Although he would not comment on whether the Iranian government was directly involved, Rumsfeld said, "it's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to be crossing the border."
I'm sure there's some sort of plausible deniability being held in reserve in case a flat denial followed by face-making and eye-rolling doesn't work...
"What you do know of certain knowledge is the Iranians did not stop it from coming in," he said. Rumsfeld said the weapons create problems for the Iraqi government, coalition forces and the international community. "And ultimately, it's a problem for Iran," he added. When asked if that was a threat of possible retaliation, Rumsfeld replied, "I don't imply threats. You know that."
"They (the Iranians) live in the neighborhood. The people in that region want this situation stabilized with the exception of Iran and Syria," he said. The U.S. officials said the weapons were more lethal and more sophisticated than the bombs typically used by Iraqi insurgents. After examining the truckload of weapons, intelligence analysts said the explosive parts are similar to those used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. While there is no evidence Iran's government sanctioned the weapons shipment, the analysts said it may indicate a rogue element inside Iran is making the weapons and trying to ship them to Iraq's insurgents.
That's the plausible deniability part, of course. The old "rogue element" ruse.
Troops found the bombs inside crates seized near a border crossing on the Iraqi side, the officials said. Three senior U.S. officials told CNN the weapons were made in such a way that their blast would have been focused in a single direction, thereby increasing their lethality. One official said the shipment included "tens" of bombs.
#2
I'm withholding a rant I just completed based upon that comment, just to be nice and give you a chance to think. Tell me, what do you believe Rummy should do with it? Right this minute, what should he recommend (he's not the CinC, after all) be done. Right this minute? What?
#3
Rummy is the kindest, politest, most soft spoken accuser of Iranian shenanigans I've ever heard of! Brings me to tears! He makes me believe maybe we can all, just get along!!
#5
Poison Reverse,
don't confuse me with the idea of me being an insurgent or sympathizer; let me make myself perfectly clear on this matter (WOT)...I would rather see every man, woman and child killed in Afghanistan or Iraq if it would bring that Seal (or his buddies) back to his family! If I were King smn, I would "Herodize" the male population of those countries, If I were President smn
I would nuke the entire Axis of Evil with 1,000 H bombs and then commit suicide in office!!Understand now...Dismissed!
#6
Are you sure you mean Herodize, smn? All he was supposed to have done was to kill all the male babies born in a given year. How would that advance the war on terror?
#8
smn: "internal consistency in your comments is a good thing for credibility". Write that on the board 500 times
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 14:32
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#9
Poison Reverse> That's where you and I differ. I would have used 999 H bombs.
PR, I always thought you were a liberal.
>:>
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/11/2005 14:34
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#10
My cynical outlook at times Frank, is pressured by the body bags that return to the States! My 'internal consistency' though 'cored' can be persuaded or bent by opinions and discourse from grounded individuals such as yourself!
#11
smn - if you are so concerned with body bags, why aren't you upset about the 40,000+ annual auto accidents where families die in flaming crashes? Why aren't you concerned with the millions of drug addiction related deaths? How about women and children murdered in the US in violent crimes? So apprently it's not really violent death that bothers you but just the self-righteous feeling you get by opposing the war.
#12
Trailing Wife #6,
To reveal my inner id slightly, I don't see this as a War On Terror, but a War Of Testicles! Remove the males "Herodize", remove the problem! The only female I even remotely hold responsible for these problems is Eve! "W" is sugar coating this with his rephrasing of what I still think was an accurate statement when he said a few years ago, that this was a 'crusade' and was forced to correct himself! Islam waged a holy war on Christianity in the late 1980's!
#13
smn - you mean your inner confusion. I have an idea - why don't we round up all of the men, put them in concentration camps and then turn them into bread. Don't you think that's a brilliant way to get rid of all of the evil, war mongering men?
In fact, why don't we just kill them as soon as they are born?
#14
"#13 smn - you mean your inner confusion. I have an idea - why don't we round up all of the men, put them in concentration camps and then turn them into bread. Don't you think that's a brilliant way to get rid of all of the evil, war mongering men?"
Hey wait a minute ... wasn't there a movie called "Soylent Green" starring that dude that played Moses in which people get reduced to green crackers?
#15
I don't oppose the war 2b #11, you didn't see me anywhere near Michael Moore, or in his movie; or near Jane Fonda! If you're testing my loyalty like Poison Reverse tried to do, consider this, George Washingon is my daddy!! About the 40,000 accidents you mentioned; they don't try to take my country away from me. Iran is taking the wrong signal from Rummy, mark my words, High Noon is Coming!
#16
It's really quite interesting to hear the macho posturing coming from those who have neither to fight the battles nor make the hard decisions.
The warriors I know - real ones - don't need the swagger.
Posted by: leader of the pack ||
08/11/2005 19:30
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#17
nobody can do macho posturing? I'd say most here at RB are 'pro-bombing the f&ck out of Iran', yet realize other considerations prevent that ....so far.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 20:12
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#18
Swagger? Posturing? I'd say this is more along the lines of smn having escaped the asylum again.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 21:29
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#20
War Of Testicles?
Best be careful saying things like that around all the women wearing the American uniform over there. Sgt. Mom has some amusing (to me at least) tales from her own experience, and that of her daughter Marine Cpl. Blondie (I seem to remember her being promoted, but I'm not clear on Marine rank names.), both in peace and in war.
#21
Pack leader, please let me know when you think I am out of line. Posturing, swaggering or being a chickenhawk have never been my intention, but at times I may well need reminding where the line is. Thanks!
(This is also addressed to any of you who are/were warriors. You know who you are.)
#22
frankly I'm not a warrior, and my opinion here means little in influencing Rummy's WOT (he's doing fine without me). That does not mean I have to withhold. Nor will I
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 23:55
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Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, comments@d-corner.com
So Tony Blair is a Nazi. Or worse, he is a petty dictator who wants to scrap all the liberties and laws the Brits have accrued over the centuries. Why is the man who just won a national election being called such names? Well, he simply said, âenough is enough.â It is high time he said it and acted on it.
If I were Blair I would stop apologizing and get on with it and promise more of the same. The United Kingdom is under attack. It is not Iraq, nor is it Serbia that brought this on the Old Country. Rather, it is some stupid laws that went unchecked and unchallenged for years that allowed the demented of this earth to carry the British passport. He wants to throw out people who incite others to be violent against their fellow-citizens. Others would have chopped off their heads. He wants to stop a convicted felon from becoming a citizen after serving term in British jails. Others would have shown the man the door after they released him from prison.
What exactly is a British citizenship? Is it a piece of paper with the lion and the unicorn on it? Is it simply the boundary of officialdom with the right signature, or is it a collective sum of culture, history, and indeed a way of life? How am I, as an outsider, to believe that the infamous cleric with a hook for an arm is British? He doesnât look it, dress it, smell it, nor does he even care to speak Her Majestyâs English.
Political refugees are an essential part of human life and history. But refugees of that sort remain exactly that: Refugees until they are able to go home. One look at the Palestinians should make the point. I am not against mixing the races. Indeed, mixing gold and silver makes a better piece of jewelry. But you cannot, should not, and must not overtake the diamond that is the centerpiece of the whole. That goes for every nation.
I would not want Arabia to become India and I am sure the Indians do not want their country to become Arabia either. Even America, a nation built by refugees and still takes on most of the worldâs roaming humanity, should look twice at its makeup. If people want to come to America, they should embrace the American way and not the other way around. America should not change its ways and culture to suit every newcomer. The onus is on the newcomer to embrace the standing order. If I become Australian, for example, the first thing I would do is eating kangaroo meat and be proud of it. And I will certainly cheer the Australian soccer team and not the Saudi one. It is a matter of honor and decency if not outright duty and moral imperative.
All those in Britain talking about the social and economic factors that may have helped produce those dangerous odd thumbs in society should stop this reductive nonsense. Those people who came to Britain in the first place suffered more than social and economic hardships in their homelands. What did they do? Blow themselves up in public places? No, they packed and paid their savings to be able to come to places like Britain. If they still feel the situation has not changed, why not pack and do the same again?
Had these people been true Brits, they would have been aware of the line that Tennyson declared as his nationâs motto: âTis not too late to seek a newer world.â Indeed, it never was! The catch, however, is that this newer world is here on earth.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#1
"it is some stupid laws that went unchecked and unchallenged for years that allowed the demented of this earth to carry the British passport"
Hoo-rah!
Preach it, brother!
Oh, and watch your back.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 0:45
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#2
Whatâs Wrong With Throwing Out People Who Incite Violence?
If the inciters are not native-born individuals, nothing.
#3
And this admirable piece of common sense comes in Arab news written by a Saudi. And we are here wondering if this would have passed the censorship instaured by the lefto-fascists in TV and in the academy.
#5
If the inciters are not native-born individuals, nothing.
Personally, I have no problem with it if they ARE native born. Exile should be an option for those who are unwilling to get along with their neighbors.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 7:45
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#6
If they are native born then they are traitors and should be treated like them.
#9
At this mornings breakfast table the resident leftist as he describes him self (his world view was fomed in the '60s and he sees no need to change after all the world hasn't) was ranting on and on about how unjust it is that the UK would consider doing this. When informed that they were deporting clerics who were expousing suicide bombings he admitted that he really didn't know that's why they were being deported. Then he got into something about the new pretend enemies, the Arabs. When he had it thrown in his face that people named John Smith aren't strapping on vests full of plastique but that guys named Achmed are he went off on how the John Smiths are more dangerous than the Achmeds. Truefully the whole foaming at the mouth diatribe used to be funny. Now it is just becoming pathetic. He substitutes opinion for facts and when caught in an outright fabrication he responds that he was only being retorical. Sometimes people on the left need to be reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes comment about free speech not giving you the right to shout fire in a crowed theater
Ps the main reason I go to this eatery is the coffe and the conversation with others even the liberals is usually fairly reasoned. With this guy it is not.
SEOUL: South and North Korea on Wednesday set up a first cross-border military hotline and conducted a trial run in an effort to avoid accidental clashes between the two sides, officials said. The two sides, still on truce since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, agreed last month to run the hotline between communication liaison offices on either side of the western border. "It is the first direct communications linkage between the military authorities of the two Koreas," a South Korean defence ministry official said after a test run on the telephone and fax line.
[Span Class=Old Mel Brooks routine]
(Mel picks up phone)"Hello? You don't say."
(listens) "You don't say."
(listens) "You don't say." (hangs up phone)
(Greek chorus offstage) "Who was it?"
"He didn't say."
[/Span Class]
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#1
[Span Class=Old Mel Brooks routine]
(Mel picks up phone again)"Hello? You don't say."
(listens) "You don't say."
(listens) "You don't say." (hangs up phone)
(Greek chorus offstage) "Who was it?"
"Same guy."
[/Span Class]
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2005 7:00
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#2
Hahrooow,
Now don't send me f*****g Han Brix or I'll feed him to the fish.
A series of powerful explosions ripped through Zamboanga city in the southern Philippines today injuring at least 24 people. Power was cut in the city of 700,000 immediately after the rush-hour explosions hit a mini-bus depot and a downtown restaurant, residents said. A third explosion rang out shortly after the second one but the cause and target was not immediately determined. Police said the first explosion tore through a mini-bus and a motorcycle at a depot in the commercial section of the city, wounding at least four people. A second blast ripped through a popular fast-food restaurant on the city's downtown Climaco Avenue and the city was blacked out. Radio Mindanao Network reported from the scene that 14 people were taken to hospital following the first two blasts. No further details were immediately available. Police kept journalists away from the scene of the second and third explosions. Zamboanga in the west of Mindanao island is a mixed Muslim and Christian city which has been troubled by separatist insurgencies and Islamic militancy in the past. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts.
"Commander Robot, we miss you!"
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/11/2005
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#1
As the Phils continue to pull their forces out of Zambo and up to Cotabato, I fear this sort of thing will become much more common.
Posted by: bk ||
08/11/2005 10:56
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A video showing a "Top 10" of bloody attacks against US forces in Iraq that were claimed by al-Qaeda linked groups has appeared on an Islamist website. The 17-minute video is aimed at "those who like to see American crusader blood flowing," said the Islam Media Front which said it posted the footage. One segment shows American soldiers' bodies torn to pieces in an attack near the Syrian border that was claimed by the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq), the group of Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Another shows a US helicopter that was shot down and reduced to shreds of metal by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq. Yet another scene shows seven US soldiers whose bodies were pulverised in a landmine explosion, before other US soldiers arrived to collect their remains. The scenes are backed by an audiotrack of Koranic chants, war cries and calls of "Allahu Akhbar". The makers of the video call on their sympathisers to "spread the video on foreign forums so that Americans will be ashamed of themselves at the weakness of their army".
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/11/2005
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#1
Here's a video they missed ... link here:
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-976420.php
#2
This is no good. Terrorist/guerrilla wars are primarily political and we are losing, more exactly aren't even fighting the propaganda battle.
The waves should be full with our propaganda, from images showing Al Quaidists being mowed down, to Islamist atrocities in Irak or Sudan and of course, images from Gitmo detainees masturbating in front of their guards or cleaning their asses with Korans.
American soldiers "accidentally" fired on a civilian car that entered a shooting range in which they were training on Tuesday, injuring two adults and a child, the U.S. military said.
"Honey, why don't we take the kids for a drive in the country!"
"Oh, yes, let's! It's such a pretty day! Where do you want to go?"
"How about down to the U.S. firing range?"
In a brief statement, the military said there were three other children in the vehicle. They apparently escaped unharmed. The civilian passengers were "not related to the U.S. military," the statement said. "The child sustained minor injuries and the extent of the adults' injuries are unknown at this time," according to the statement. They were taken to a local hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#1
This was no accident, the Soddies were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/11/2005 8:45
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#2
The accident is that they were not all killed. Had it been a Marine shooting range there would have been no survivors.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
08/11/2005 14:02
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A French lawyer Drat.
who was part of a defence team for Saddam Hussein sacked by Saddam's daughter this week said the dismissal went against the former Iraqi leader's stated wishes. "The president himself expressed several times... his wish to keep a big committee around him, one that is as international as possible, to denounce the Americans' behaviour in his country," Emmanuel Ludot told RTL radio. He said Saddam made his position known during jail visits by his Iraqi lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi. Saddam's daughter Raghad on Monday issued a statement on behalf of her family saying: "From today, none of the lawyers, except Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi, will have the right to act on behalf of Saddam." She accused the other lawyers in the 20-strong team from several countries of using their position "to further interests not linked to the case."
#2
..to denounce the Americans' behaviour in his country," Emmanuel Ludot told RTL radio.
Seems to me he'd be better off planning his defense strategy instead; railing against American "behavior" in Iraq certainly isn't going to save his hide from the executioner.
QUETTA: Unidentified motorcyclists gunned down a Shia businessman on Wednesday evening. Syed Anwar Abdi, owner of a glass store, was going home after closing his store when two motorcyclists opened fire at him, killing him at the scene. Police termed the incident an act of sectarian violence and cordoned off all entry and exit routes to the city. Separetely, unidentified men shot dead a retired revenue official in Amphare Gilgit area on Wednesday. Iqbal was injured in firing on Wednesday afternoon and later he died in hospital. The victim was a Shia. The police fear that sectarianism can be the reason behind the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#3
My inner paki cries at how the world fails to properly appreciate and respect traditional paki values and practices such as the ritual sectarian killing thingy.
#4
My inner paki. LOL. That opens a new line of thinking. My inner Saudi: I think I'll go to Iraq and get killed. My inner Yemeni: I think I'll go to Iraq and get killed. My inner Syrian: I think I'll go to Iraq and get killed. You get the picture.
The following are excerpts from an interview with the presiding judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, Munir Haddad, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on August 8, 2005.
Interviewer: "Let's assume that in the Dijel case, which is the first case you have finished investigating, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death - a while ago, Iraqi President Jalal Al-Talabani declared that he would not sign Saddam Hussein's execution warrant, but would leave it to his two deputies, since the execution must be approved by the presidential office." Haddad: "If Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death â although I am not allowed to discuss this, since as a judge, I cannot rule prematurely â Jalal Al-Talabani is a democratic man who believes in democracy. He is definitely not a man who would make such a serious decision alone. I am convinced that there will be a consensus in the presidential council."
Interviewer: "If the Iraqi president does not sign the execution warrant, what is the alternative?" Haddad: "For me, such serious decisions... Jalal Al-Talabani, the president of the republic, is a lawyer, and he is aware of the importance of such decisions. He knows the danger involved in each of the decisions, and this decision is up to him."
"As for my being a Kurd, or someone else being a Shiite or a Sunni, the court... The Iraqi people consists of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, Sunnis, Sabbaites, and Shiites. I believe that all the ethnicities are represented in the court. Our purpose is not to take vengeance on Saddam Hussein. We are impartial. We always say this to the defendant, and we say this to the entire world. Our purpose is not to take vengeance on Saddam Hussein, and I personally told Judge Khalil Al-Dulaimi, who represents Saddam Hussein, that if they intend to take vengeance on me or kill me, it will be their loss because I am an impartial judge, and the same goes for all the judges."
Interviewer: "Do you expect to be assassinated or killed?" Haddad: "I do not fear my fate, but if they assassinate me, they should have a reason first. In any case, life is in the hands of Allah."
Haddad: "We are deliberating 14 main charges in the trial of Saddam Hussein and of the top officials of his regime. The first case brought before the criminal court was Dijel. The Al-Dijel incident is well known. It is an area north of Baghdad, which was the site of an attempt on Saddam Hussein's life. Consequently... at least this is what he claimed... Consequently, Saddam Hussein executed between 135 and 145 people. The case was brought before the criminal court, and, Allah willing, a court date will be set soon. With in 45 to 60 days, we will witness the first session of the special criminal court.
"The second case, which is nearly ready, is the case of Al-Anfal and the events of 1991. The case of the Al-Anfal campaign in Kurdistan is well known, as are the events of 1991, in southern and central Kurdistan. The fourth case, which is ready, or almost ready, is the annihilation of the Faili Kurds - This is a well-known incident. In 1980, between 9,000 and 12,000 young people were deported and executed in the Nuqrat Al-Salman jail. About 600,000 people were deported to Iran, according to Decree 666. They were subject to the worst kind of treatment - the girls were raped on the border, their property was confiscated, and they were made to walk on landmines."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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Interesting story. I don't know if this is because they Kurds have a head start on the Arabs, or if it's the usual combination of too much Olde Tyme Religion and not enough sense makes it impossible for the Arabs to do the same. But I do expect the hard boyz and boom artists will try to follow them.
What I'd expect in a normal, sane world would be for the Arabs working on their constitution to suggest "let's do what they're doing up in Kurdistan so we can be prosperous and peaceful, too." But that's an idea that doesn't seem to occur to them.
Each morning before dawn, hundreds of Arabs from southern Iraq gather near a mosque in this northern Kurdish city hoping to find work on one of scores of construction sites dotting the landscape. What began 18 months ago as a trickle of poor, unemployed young men moving north to find work and escape violence in predominantly Arab areas has now turned into a rapid stream. And itâs no longer just the poor and jobless fleeing. Professionals â including doctors, engineers and teachers â are following them, desperate to escape the chaos tearing cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Baquba and Hilla apart.
âI came here for safety, and for my family,â says Dr. Ali Alwan, 40, an eye specialist who moved from the southern city of Basra to Sulaimaniya in late 2003 and has since encouraged dozens of former colleagues to follow him. âHere it is a wonderful life. The children are in school, my wife is happy and there is good work. I donât think I will ever return to Basra.â Around 25 eye specialists alone have since taken the same route out of Basra, he says. At the Razgari outpatient clinic in Sulaimaniya, eight of the 13 doctors are Arabs who arrived in the past two years, according to director Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.
Young trainees, desperately needed in places like Baghdad and Basra where hospitals are understaffed and overworked, are also getting out. At Sulaimaniyaâs teaching hospital, 20 of this yearâs interns â the majority â are from Basra. âHere things are normal, we are a normal hospital,â says Karzan Sirwan, a Kurdish surgeon at the hospital. âI can understand why they come, and we need them too.â There are sometimes language barriers - most Arabs donât speak Kurdish â but since all Iraqâs doctors are trained in English, they can communicate with one another, and translators are on hand to help doctors talk to Kurdish patients.
Itâs a similar situation at Sulaimaniyaâs university, where 40 Arab professors have joined the staff in the past two years, university officials say. While the newly arrived professionals are generally well paid â most medics make around $500 a month or more â the bulk of the labor flowing to Sulaimaniya is unskilled or semi-skilled and barely scrapes a living. There are no hard figures on the total number who have migrated since the war, but an official in Sulaimaniyaâs investment office put it in the thousands in Sulaimaniya alone. Hundreds of poor Arab men gather in the center of town each morning waiting to be taken to building sites by contractors. Many are recognizable by their headdress and darker features.
Mohammed Abbas, a 28-year-old Shiite from Baghdad, came to Sulaimaniya two months ago. He works construction when he can find a job, and sells cigarettes otherwise. âThere is nothing for me to do in Baghdad,â he says. âAt least here I can make $20 a day most days.â He says hundreds from his area of Baghdad have done the same thing to escape. âI send money home to my family and when I have enough I will return to Baghdad and get married,â he says. At night, they sleep in Sulaimaniyaâs parks and squares. Those that have construction jobs sleep on site. At night, small fires can be seen burning inside half-built buildings.
Haider Salim Djuluwi, 20, came from Kut, in the southeast of Iraq, two months ago, looking for summer holiday work. Heâs now making $10 a day as an unskilled laborer for a new court house. âFriends came before me and said it was good. Twelve of us came together,â he said. âIâm not thinking about a better life, just about making some money and staying safe.â
In Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, there has also been an influx of Arabs. Yacoub, a barber in the main hotel in town, came three months ago from Baghdad. âToo many of my friends were threatened,â he said, referring to barbers who have been killed by militants for cutting hair in western styles or shaving beards. âHere I feel much safer.â The language barrier is a problem, but he has found a house in a Christian village, where most people speak Arabic. âThe money is good and the people are friendly,â he says. âI canât see myself ever going back to Baghdad.â
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
From a purely Western POV, this is not surprising. These people seek peace and sanity and a place to live and raise families without fear and the external controls of tribal Sheikhs or Islamofascist Mullahs - who cares the flavor. The negative is that they will likely do what all immigrants from Islam do: bring their stinking backward brutal barbaric baggage with them and eventually, blindly, try to replicate precisely what they fled from.
From an Arab / Muzzy POV this is quite remarkable. They are acting against both their indoctrination to serve these two external Masters and their fear of retribution, for they know better than we ever will how little is required to be branded apostates or traitors and that this is actually merely a ruse, a canard, by which the power brokers of their society wield their power.
Were all Iraqis daring enough to make the choice, it would certainly simplify things for us and the Iraqi forces - everyone who didn't flee would be either a hopeless tool or mindless jihadi - or their Masters. That defines target-rich.
Sadly, I'm coming to the conclusion that the Kurds are the only significant population group in Iraq worth our efforts, thus far. They should be our first concern and our lasting allies, supported to the hilt. They will do something, great things I'd wager, with their opportunity. It's gratifying, with the above warning kept in mind, to see the bravest non-fools amongst the Arabs grab a clue and emulate them.
#5
Yahoo has an article about the southern Shia wanting their own little oil-rich kingdom out of the constitutional convention. I guess if the Kurds can 'federalize", they can too. Leaving the Sunni boomers in the middle, with no assets.
Better get the Israelis to buid two walls....
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 12:43
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#6
Actually, I think it's because the Kurds had a head start. The history of the Kurdish enclave is quite rocky, including a civil war between differing factions, before they finally kissed and made up.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/11/2005 15:15
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#7
Here ya go, Bobby - nothin' says it all quite like a visual, eh?
PESHAWAR: The NWFP's Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Malik Zafar Azam has termed the federal government's decision to deport religious seminaries' foreign students unconstitutional and said that the provincial government reserved the right to challenge the decision in court. Talking to a three-member US State Department delegation that called on him on Wednesday, Azam said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government conformed with the decision of the apex court regarding the Hisba Bill. He said that the bill would be reexamined after receiving the detailed decision of the court and then implemented in the province. The minister informed the US delegation that the NWFP government had registered 300 madrassas so far, and 400 more were in the registration process.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2005
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#2
Who are they trying to impress? There is essentially no rule of law in pakiland. There are people with power who bless their own dictatorial edicts with a little whitewash called "the law" be it secular or sharia.
#3
Fatwas for Sale! Fatwas for Sale! Bring your agenda and your money and I will personally issue a fatwa on your behalf. It will add zip to your armed muscle.
Void where taxed, prohibited, or controlled by outranking fatwa.
Posted by: Al-aska Paul ||
08/11/2005 11:04
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Via Power Line. EFL. This is despicable. (I'd say beyond belief, but unfortunately it's not.)
(Jason Apuzzo is a filmmaker, Co-Director of The Liberty Film Festival, and Editor of the conservative film blog LIBERTAS.)
Slow to awaken after the 9/11 attacks, Hollywood has finally come around to contributing what it can in the War on Terror: namely, glossy, star-studded movies that sympathize with the enemy. This isn't quite accurate. They sympathize with America's enemies, not the people Hollywood has decided are their enemies (i.e., the Republicans who were ELECTED by the obviously stupid American people).
Hard to believe? Not really
Here's the pitch: with box-office numbers trending down, studio executives are suddenly greenlighting movies they can describe to shareholders as 'controversial' or 'timely.' Whether the films are anti-American or otherwise demoralizing to the war effort is apparently immaterial. Not true - in Hollyweird's case I think it's a plus.
Its appetite whetted by "Fahrenheit 9/11"'s $222 million worldwide gross, Hollywood thinks it's found a formula for both financial security and critical plaudits: noxious anti-American storylines, bathed in the warm glow of star power. Here are just a few films already in the pipeline:
- "V For Vendetta." From Warner Brothers and the creators of "The Matrix" comes this film about a futuristic Great Britain that's become a 'fascist state.' A masked 'freedom fighter' named V uses terror tactics (including bombing the London Underground) to undermine the government - leading to a climax in which the British Parliament is blown up. Natalie Portman stars as a skinhead who turns to 'the revolution' after doing time as a Guantanamo-style prisoner.
"Syriana." Starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, this Warner Brothers film - set during the first Bush administration - features a plot by American oil companies and the U.S. government to redraw Middle East borders for greater oil profiteering. The film even depicts a handsome, 'tragic' suicide bomber driven to jihad after being fired by an American oil company! The film's climax comes with the jihadist launching an explosive device into an oil tanker as American oil barons and Saudi officials look on.
"The Chancellor Manuscript." Paramount reworks Robert Ludlum¹s 1977 thriller into an anti-Patriot Act star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. Here's the film's screenwriter, Michael Seitzman: "We live in this crazy post-Patriot Act environment where Benjamin Franklin¹s warning that 'those that give up essential liberties for temporary security don¹t deserve either one' are being ignored, so the subject matter seemed ripe."
That whirring sound you hear is Ludlum spinning in his grave. Along with Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, etc.
The above list, ... there are more
... incidentally, should not be taken as comprehensive. For example, Paramount also has projects in the works about a 'reformed' al-Qaeda operative, and about the victim of an Iraqi suicide bomber. Little about these projects has been made public. I wonder why. (No, I don't. Even they're ashamed of what they'll do to make a buck.)
One thing should be obvious from this list: left-wing agitprop filmmaking is no longer the purview of desperate, 'indie' filmmakers with shaky camcorders and maxed-out credit cards. The films listed above are being made by large, multi-national corporations - and will feature sophisticated, expensive marketing campaigns with A-list stars. Imagine Leni Riefenstahl cross-promoting "Triumph of the Will" with People Magazine covers and E! Channel specials. That's more or less what Hollywood has in mind. I'd go with the "more" and skip the "less" completely.
The proper 'response' for this sort of thing is simple, if complex in execution. At some point conservatives need to raise capital, pick up cameras and start making movies of their own - much like Mel Gibson did with "The Passion." And conservatives should do this not simply to 'rebut' the other side, but to add depth and imagination to what has become a wasteland of popular entertainment. Principle is nice, but I'd suggest they do it for the money. Make good movies - not the trash described above and what Hollyweird generally puts out - and the American people will flock to see them. Unlike now.
Most Hollywood insiders - even liberals - agree that Hollywood is in a creative depression. More conservative voices can only help what has become a bleak situation for the town, both artistically and financially. Movies are a powerful force in shaping the imagination of our culture, and in defining how history is remembered. And the traitors in Hollyweird know it - that's why they're doing this.
It will be a great shame if all we leave behind from this vital period in American history is a shoddy trail of "Syriana"s, "V For Vendetta"s or "American Dreamz" - rather than a "Casablanca" or a "Notorious." But conservatives obviously can't wait for Hollywood to do that for them - they're going to have to do it themselves. Read the whole thing. At the rate they're going, Hollyweird will never get another dime from me. And I'll probably start sending videos back to some of these "stars" *spit*.
The first two films about 9/11 will have come from Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. Sad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005
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#1
Principle is nice, but I'd suggest they do it for the money.
maybe they are doing it for the money. Their films suck and things are going south fast in Hollywierd. Anyone check to see whose funding these films?
#2
...IIRC, 'V Is For Vendetta' has actually been in turnaround/development for a very long time, I think it was a graphic novel much like Frank Miller's 'Sin City'. And fiction about a screwed-up UK of the future has been popular for years - check out a very good little work called 'Show Me A Hero' (author forgotten).
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2005 7:24
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#3
Which is why Mel Gibson had to finance The Passion himself, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Meanwhile, interactive console and personal computer games continue to claimed the much valued adult male 18-36, in which gross sales of some titles exceed movie takes. Why passively watch a story when one can participate in it? Besides the controversial GTA, war titles and first person shooters continue to represent a very strong market. Subscriptions to massive on line realtime games like WoW, have expansive participation and generate continued monthly capital flow. These are not baby ducks and puppy dog feel good themes. Wave goodbye movie land.
However, Hollyweird should still be able to sustain the ever popular 'Chick Flick' market.
#4
That whirring sound you hear is Ludlum spinning in his grave. Along with Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, etc.
Brigadier General James Stewart is running a pre-flight on his bomber...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 7:48
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#5
So now Hollywood is making films to appeal to that segment of the population which prides itself on only watching PBS on television, and only going to see art or foreign films at that lovely, old-fashioned little movie theatre in the city. Great marketing move, guys!
#6
Kinda like CNN kicking off their last conservative (Novak) after he stormed off stage (I don't blame him a bit). That'll show us, won't it! They TRULY don't get it, and are just digging themselves a deeper and deeper pit!
Posted by: BA ||
08/11/2005 8:21
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#7
V for Vendetta is a Graphic Novel written about 20 years ago, and is a piece that works on different levels.
I doubt the Wachowski brothers could do it justice though
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/11/2005 8:35
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#8
Hmmm... I keep visualizing Geoffrey Rush, in "Shakespeare in Love", in the scene where Shakespeare outlines the plot of "Romeo and Juliet" for the players' company, telling them it will be a tragedy, and not a comedy with a funny bit for a dog. Half a beat, and he comments lugubriously, "Well, that'll have 'em rolling in the aisles." (or something to that effect.)
If anything, this tends to prove Michael Medved's thesis, that Hollywood makes movies for Hollywood insiders(and maybe the foreign audience) and not the mainstream American audience. They seem to be willing to go to any lengths to keep from noticing that Mel Gibson, who made a movie that resonated with the mainstream American audience seriously cleaned up at the box office.
#9
It's a toss-up which is more offensive: the fact that Hollywood is making these, or that they are clearly intended for the lucrative overseas market (their home American audience can go hang).
That last is a twist on an infamous quote from Nixon's, eg. "F--- the Americans, they won't pay us money to watch these anyway."
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
08/11/2005 9:26
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#10
Mike, Paul - don't know anything about the novel, but now is a lousy time to be making it into a movie.
Where were they in the 1990's when it wouldn't have looked like they're making an "I love terrorists and English-speaking governments are evil" statement?
2b - the author said leftist Hollyweird is doing this crap for the money. (Which they'll mostly get from overseas audiences, a lot of whom will view all these films as documentaries, not that the leftist nutballs care.) My point is they could make good films supporting our country and the war and MAKE A BUNDLE. That they won't tells you all you need to know about the leftist Hollyweird crown. Of course, this is the same crowd that keeps making R-rated movies with lots of gratuitous violence and whining about box office receipts, even though they know G-rated movies always gross more.
They're pathetic. I hope some conservatives start making good movies and get rich doing it - much as Mel did with "The Passion." What would be very interesting is if they approched
"bankable" stars for good, America-loving movies and got turned down. Which I'm betting they would, even if said "star" doesn't have a project in the works at the time.
Can you figure out I'm disgusted beyond measure with Hollyweird? Thank goodness for HGTV and the Food Network, or I wouldn't have any entertainment at all.
RC - yes indeedy. That's why I named him first. What a man!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 9:35
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#11
I watched my third and, at least for me, my final episode of FX Channel's "OVER THERE."
Sorry, but it bites! After a long, grueling battle with insurgents terrorists, our patrol of stereotypical soldiers - tough-talking sarg, country-boy, tough Latina, high-IQ soldier with troubled soul - survives this fight.
After a long interrogation process of a insurgent terrorist portrayed in all his dignity, we have a SF dude give his solemn word not to harm the terrorist's family if he drops a dime on the location of a weapons depot. Said terrorist does so near the end. As the closing credits begin to roll and the theme song plays, we see an elderly man and his wife on a farm replete with chickens and beloved goats ... and oh by the way, a terrorist guarding a tiny shack stuffed with RPGs and other weapons. The guard looks up and we then are given a bird's eye view of an incoming GPS-guided bomb courtesy of an F-16.
The message: American servicemen's "solemn word" are not to be believed. Great! Thanks Hollywood and TV Land.
#13
The Passion of the Christ did $370M domestic, $612M worldwide. Fahrenheit 9/11 did $119M domestic and $204M worldwide. If Hollywood was just in it for the money they would just make more Passion-like movies.
However, Hollywood has an ingrained herd instinct. Sometimes it leads to everyone making movies out of old comic books. Sometimes it is a lemming-like pull to the left.
Leonardo DiCaprio as an action hero?
A George Clooney movie is a guaranteed stinker, so they can twist any plot they want.
#15
Yeah, and I thought when Peter Jackson cleaned up (and with a three-at-once gamble, with relative unkowns) I (foolishly) thought Hollywank would get on board. But it seems a Down-Under success can't be copied - or even learned from.
Dodo birds.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/11/2005 15:11
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#16
As long as they don't cast Jessica Biel, I'm good to go on the boycott thingy. Did you see Stealth? Crappy movie but the scene at the waterfall, whoa, she was tight, y'know what I mean? Sorta gave me a headache and took all the air outta my lungs at the same time. All I could think about was getting all up close, personal, 'n stuff. I just wanted to rub my face in...
#17
V For Vendetta." From Warner Brothers and the creators of "The Matrix" comes this film about a futuristic Great Britain that's become a 'fascist state.' A masked 'freedom fighter' named V uses terror tactics (including bombing the London Underground) to undermine the government - leading to a climax in which the British Parliament is blown up. Natalie Portman stars as a skinhead who turns to 'the revolution' after doing time as a Guantanamo-style prisoner.
I believe that LIBERTAS is way off on this one. V for Vendetta is Alan Mooreâs visionary 1980's graphic novel about a future England that is literally fascist. You know, with jack boots, rousing Hitler-like speeches, the gestapo, and that sort of thing. It has already exterminated its minorities, specifically gays, lesbians, and troublesome intellectuals. The main character, who is known as âV,â is a survivor of concentration camp medical experiments who has gained what amounts to super powers from the experience. She is also quite mad in a particularly British manner, quoting Shakespear, dressing like Guy Faulks, and so forth.
Natalie Portman isnât a âskinheadâ in the film. Her head gets shaved because she has been put in prison as a V collaborator. If I remember correctly V doesnât kill innocent bystanders, either. She targets specific people whom she feels are responsible for the deaths of her lover as well as the torments she has suffered while imprisoned. In the process she hopes to bring down what is, again, literally a fascist police state. Is V a terrorist? If so, are her actions justified or not? These are questions that the graphic novel asks the reader to answer for himself. It is a complex, compelling piece told partially from the perspective of the police detective who is tracking the protagonist.
The graphic novel at least has nothing to do with modern Islamic terrorism. The directors may very well warp the original book into some stupid piece of Hollywood liberal garbage but, from the looks of the preview, it seems pretty true to the original. Also the movieâs catchphrase âPeople should not be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their peopleâ seems like a sentiment expressed mainly by modern American conservatives, myself included.
#20
Barbara - I agree with you. I was just wondering out loud if they are not getting funding from sources that are more than happy to support anti-American films. It's not easy to get funding for a film. I'm thinking more along the lines of Scott Ritter's Shiftin Sands.
But that said, I think they are just true believers proselytizing their religion. Doesn't matter if it stinks - as long as the message is correct. "The Cause" is more important than anything else.
It would be hard to catch, what with Hollyweird's habit of cheating on their taxes bigtime odd accounting practices.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 18:56
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#22
we can always hope that one morning we will wake up and they will have all turned into salt :-)
But what I'm really hoping for is that with the internet and good/cheap video editing equipment readily available - we might actually get some good films produced and distributed by talented aspiring young filmmakers.
#23
BH - if you're still around, here's a link to a trailer of "V for Vendetta." How does it compare with the book (which I haven't read)?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/11/2005 19:12
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#24
$ will eventually overcome bias. Mel can start a new United Artists along with Clint
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2005 19:28
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#25
I believe that LIBERTAS is way off on this one. V for Vendetta is Alan Mooreâs visionary 1980's graphic novel about a future England that is literally fascist. You know, with jack boots, rousing Hitler-like speeches, the gestapo, and that sort of thing.
Just like the liberals think we are today, or so I gather...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/11/2005 23:02
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Salva Kiir, successor to the late southern Sudanese leader John Garang, vowed yesterday to carry on his peace legacy as he arrived in Khartoum ahead of being sworn in as the countryâs vice president. âIâm happy to be in Khartoum after 22 years (away),â Kiir told reporters after he flew in from southern Sudan with security tight in the capital. âDespite the fact that we have lost our hero, the man who brought peace, Dr. Garang, we will continue with the same vision, with the same objective and we will implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.â He was referring to the peace deal signed with the Khartoum government in January that ended 21 years of north-south war in Sudan, the longest running in Africa which cost two million lives.
Kiir urged Sudanese people not to resort to violence after deadly rioting shook Khartoum and several towns in south Sudan following Garangâs death on July 30 in a helicopter crash. âIâm appealing to all the people of Sudan, the people from southern Sudan in particular to remain calm and not to repeat all what has happened a few days ago,â he said.
Kiir was greeted by Sudanâs Second Vice President Osman Ali Taha as he stepped out of the plane after flying in from Rumbek in south Sudan. Some 200 Sudanese dignitaries, including officials from Kiirâs Sudan Peopleâs Liberation Movement and the ruling National Congress Party later shook hands with him inside the airport.
I'll bet that was one hell of a scary flight, though it would have probably too much to have it blow up so soon after Garang's "unfortunate accident."
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LONDON - Salman Rushdieâs novel âShalimar the Clownâ, about a Kashmiri boy who becomes an Islamic terrorist, has made the 2005 longlist for the prestigious Booker Prize.
I'm sure it's a real snoozer. I tried reading The Satanic Verses and thought it was one of the most boring, put-up books I've ever started. I don't think I got to page 60.
The yet-to-be-released book was named Wednesday alongside 16 others in the running for the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The prize is awarded every October for the best work of fiction by a British, Irish or Commonwealth author.
âShalimar the Clownâ details how a radical mullah transforms a teenage Muslim boy into an Islamic terrorist.
The book could cause fresh controversy for Rushdie.
He's already got one death sentence. What's another one?
Former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, on Rushdie in 1989, calling for his execution because of alleged apostasy and blasphemy in his novel âThe Satanic Versesâ.
Three debut novels are also in the running: âThis Thing of Darknessâ by Harry Thompson, âThe Harmony Silk Factoryâ by Tash Aw and âA Short History of Tractors in Ukrainianâ by Marina Lewycka.
Oh, how I love a good tractor story!
The prize winner receives 50,000 pounds (72,500 euros, 90,000 dollars) and five other shortlisted authors get 2,500 pounds plus an almost guaranteed worldwide readership and an upsurge in book sales. âThis has been an exceptional year, and in the judgesâ opinion may rank as one of the strongest ever since the prize was founded in 1969,â said judges chairman John Sutherland. âIt is also a nicely balanced longlist with four previous Booker winners, three first novels and a satisfying range of styles. The judges have enjoyed their judging experience enormously â so far.â
"And we have a tractor story this year, how exciting!" he bubbled.
The shortlist will be revealed on September 8 and the winner announced on October 10.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2005
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I never found Salman all too talented. Couldn't read another of his offerings prior to Verses. All the same he should be allowed to do his thing as it were. Considering the recent quotes from him, it seems he wants to win the Eurojihadi Van Gogh award for 2006.
I was bored to death by page 20 and puzzled (since I was then quite ignorant of islamofacism) about Khomeni's fatwa. I could not see what the fuss was about. Who would read this?
Posted by: john ||
08/11/2005 16:25
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Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri gave harsh criticism of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednsday in Gaza, saying that the latter's condemnation of the use of rockets attacks on Israel did a disservice to the Palestinian resistance movement. Zuhri stated that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was a direct result of such attacks, and said that occupation could only be ended by resistance rather than through negotiations. He used the fact that Israeli forces were not withdrawing within the framework of bilateral negotiations as proof. In a speech before the Palestinian parliament in Tuesday, Palestinian president Abbas stated, "I don't want to talk about whether firing these rockets is important or not, but I wanted to talk about the destructive consequences. No one of us could forget last week's tragedy when a father and his son were killed by a rocket." In response to the comment, Zuhri was quoted as saying that the Palestinian President "didn't refer at all to the fact that the armed resistance is a major reason for ending the occupation", according to Xinhua. He also added that this was the first time in Palestinian history that armed resistance had successfully ended Israeli occupation, and referenced Hizbullah's success in ousting Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will not support Maulana Samiul Haq, chief of a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam faction, in elections for senator in the NWFP if he has to retire from the Senate after the upcoming draw. âThe MMA leadership is very clear: Samiul Haq will not be given an MMA ticket,â sources in the religious parties alliance told Daily Times. They said the draw to determine which senators would get a three-year tenure and which would get a six-year tenure would most likely be in October.
The sources said that Haq had angered alliance leaders with his repeated violations of discipline since becoming senator. Haq had made public statements criticising the central leadership of the MMA and the allianceâs policies, and been absent from MMA meetings for several months. Haq and his son Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani had also accepted positions as chairmen of standing committees of parliament, despite MMA objections. Another reason was that Haq, along with Senator Prof Sajid Mir, had refused to support the nomination of Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the MMA for the slot of leader of the opposition in the Senate. Haqâs JUI faction only has two seats in the NWFP Assembly, meaning it will be difficult for him to be elected senator again without the support of the MMA. The division of the JUI-S has made Haqâs task even more difficult, as the splinter group led by Qari Gul Rehman will certainly oppose his re-election.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Basque country's regional government has banned a march planned by the illegal political party Batasuna for Sunday. The leader of Batasuna â the political wing of the armed separatist group ETA â had called for a demonstration in San Sebastian for peace. At a press conference, Arnaldo Otegi said the demonstration should take place on Sunday, the day the fiesta Semana Grande starts. The slogan would be: "Now the people, now the peace. Or else", said Otegi. He called on people to "give their support to this effort which the nationalist left is making to build a different scenario."
On Wednesday, though, the government in Vitoria decided to outlaw the Sunday demonstration. In a statement, the interior department said its decision had been based on a ruling by the Audiencia Nacional which concluded Batasuna has no right to call gatherings as an illegal body. The Basque government also said it feared the public order would be disturbed by the demonstration.
Someone noticed the peace loving Basques also tend to randomly explode...
Earlier in the day, both socialist and conservative parties criticised Batasuna over the march. The conservative PP called for the march to be banned while PSOE's general secretary Diego López Garrido said Batasuna had no credibility calling for peace or democracy since it still refused to condemn violence or demand ETA disarms. "Whatever party incites or supports violence is illegal," he said. "In this country, you can defend all ideas, ideas which have nothing to do with the Spanish Constitution, but there is a limit: violence."
The US Department of State announced today a timeframe for issuing electronic passports that supporters say will improve the government's ability to protect its borders and critics say are a dangerous step towards a Big Brother-like surveillance society.
Sigh. Can we have a simple description of the passport specifics *before* we get to the (unnamed) critics?
The (unnamed) critics are the point of the whole story, not the passports...
The state department has publicized its plans to issue 'biometric' passports for some time; today the department solidified the calendar for issuing such passports, which will combine facial recognition technology, a radio-frequency chip that contains all the information written on the inside cover of the passport, and a digital signature intended to prevent unauthorized alterations.
They must be taking the gas pipe in Quetta. They'll probably riot when they discover there's no religion column...
The department confirmed that it will issue the first such passports this December, as anticipated. The current plan calls for all domestic passport agencies to issue them by October 2006. In anticipation of this changeover, the National Passport Center tacked on a $12 surcharge in March 2005 for all passport renewals; renewal by mail now costs $67 or $97 if you have to show up in person.
And now the cavalcade of critics:
Critics are wary of the biometric passports for two reasons. First, they say the technology doesn't actually work very well and will cause even longer delays at security checkpoints, for example, when the facial reader doesn't recognize the carrier or when signals from multiple chips interfere with each other. To address the specific complaint that chips may be susceptible to unauthorized reading, referred to 'skimming', the Department today said it would incorporate anti-skimming technology in the front cover. It provided no technical details as to how that would work.
As if the Expatica reporter has any idea of the technical details of anti-skimming technology.
"Mahmoud! How're we going to fool the face scanner?"
"I got a generic picture of a Bugti. It'll crash the INS server and we just walk through!"
The Department also said it is "seriously considering" using a technology called Basic Access Control intended to prevent the chip from being accessed until the passport is opened.
*BUT*
But an even more pressing worry, say civil liberties activists, is the potential use of such passports as what will amount to "global identity cards''; opponents also fear they will help the government track citizen's movements too closely.
That's one of the purposes of a passport. That's why they put all those stamps in them...
"What we are witnessing amounts to an effort by the U.S. government and others (whether conscious or not) to leapfrog over the politically untenable idea of adopting a national identity card, and set a course directly toward the creation of a global identity document," said a white paper from the ACLU issued last November.
You don't need to get a passport if you don't want one. You just can't go to Kashmir without it.
The European Union likewise has comparable plans to create biometric passports, plans that have met with comparable opposition. "These proposals are yet another result of the 'war on terrorism' which show that the EU is just as keen as the USA to introduce systems of mass surveillance which have much more to do with political and social control than fighting terrorism," wrote editor Tony Bunyan on his civil liberties online newsletter Statewatch.
It sounds to me like Tony's found the Secret Plan⢠behind it all. He must be a highly trained observer, since it's invisible to the rest of us.
Just go ahead and implant the chip. It'll make us all so safe.
Don't you want to feel safe?
We need to montior everyone to stop the terrorists.
If you aren't a terrorist why should you mind right? You're not a terrorist are you?
It'll make everything so convenient too, and so safe. Safe from terrorists.
Don't you want your kiddies safe from terrorists?
Sometimes we need to give a little so we can all be safer.
Big Brother loves you.
Thanks Big Brother
Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither.
Posted by: Big Brother Loves You ||
08/11/2005 13:25
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To the fuckwit who posted #3: Heavy meds - or Drano.
The truth is, there is no perfect answer to security, so it's very easy to snipe, cry foul, play off paranoia, post incredibly infantile fear-mongering stupidity, etc. for any measure proposed. Too easy. There needs to be a minimum IQ req'd.
It's your fucking passport, asshole. If you don't need one, then that's that, isn't it? You're done here, fuck the fuck off. Take that room temperature IQ with you.
If you do, then you likely aren't as naive, paranoid, and simply stupid as this fuckwit, and have seen that the world is a dangerous place and this is a realistic measure. It is only applicable at the times of exiting and entering the country - though this moron implies your passport will be sending secret snaps of you in the shower. Wotta bogeyman.
Everybody's bitching about border control, immigration, yadda³. But it's equally important that the identification used at the border be verifiable - or all other border control measures are a joke. Sure, build walls, etc, but let anyone in if the passport "looks" okay. Shit, you can buy stolen / phoney passports in lots of 100 - because they're not secure. This has to be done.
Sheesh. This is the obvious next step and you knew it had to come. Deal with it, paranoia freaks. The rest of us, who aren't afraid of the law because we're not asshats or crooks or Kool Aid swilling toolfools or mental institution escapees, welcome it. Get a fucking grip. Big Brother - kiss my hairy ass you fucking zero.
#5
Being both a total gov't skeptic and very much wary of Big Brother I've got two things to add...
1) If the passport is only needed for international travel this is not a scary thing, BUT if someone starts touting this as a "generic" ID for all purposes, it's getting close to lock & load time.
2) How do YOU all feel about having a GPS chip in your cell phones that is on by default? Supposedly you can switch it to only transmit when you call 911, but.......
#6
Focus, AlanC. You're off-topic - and this an important one: fighting the memes of the LLL Moonbats. Are you one, too? Drink your favorite Kool Aid in private or post an opinion piece, if you can make coherent arguments, don't muddy the water here.
#7
when signals from multiple chips interfere with each other
As the (brainless) reporter referred to the chip earlier as a "radio-frequency chip", I'm going to assume they're talking about an RFID.
Walmart is requiring suppliers to put RFIDs on cases, so that the warehouses can better track what comes in and goes out. Would they be considering this if there were problems with RFIDs interfering with each other?
Last I heard, this wasn't a pilot project. It was implementation phase.
The Department also said it is "seriously considering" using a technology called Basic Access Control intended to prevent the chip from being accessed until the passport is opened.
I believe it's called a "wire mesh" and it's woven into the cover material. When closed, the mesh provides a nifty little Faraday cage to prevent the RFID chip from hearing the query signal, and -- if the signal DOES get in -- to prevent anything from coming back out.
Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither.
What liberty is lost from having a machine-readable passport?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/11/2005 14:29
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I have heard all this blathering I can take. Some one needs to read up on RFID. Put it in a foil pouch and don your tin foil hat if you are paranoid. The range at which RFID works is measured in inches. If you have ever been through passport control you know no one is going to be in range of your passport and your but the people supposed to be checking it. Take this luddite crap to Slashdot.
The only thing I am pissed about is I will have to replace my almost brand new Passport that contains none of this biometric info at some point sooner than I normally would have to.
#9
So, they want to start using something that would make it incredibly hard to lie about who you are on a passport. WHY THE HELL NOT. What special need is there for one to have a better ability to lie about who they are on a passport? In the first instance, why worry about the technology because it will progress regardless of what moonbats might want or fear. Most of us will probably live to see the day when the issue is moot. The focus should be on understanding it as well as the implications on society in order to put it to work for our common good.
#10
Serious subject here, but I've had several beers and some wine so I'll take a chance - Herb Al-Kaboomi! brilliant name ;) and an ugly MoFo to boot.
There was a post yesterday or the day before where some arrested paki had *hundreds* of blank UK passports. If this stops crap like that, then I'm ok with it. RFID is not some skin implant with unlimited range so the BB analogies are waaay off.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/11/2005 16:06
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#11
Umm, .com, I think you need to take a chill dude.
The topic is about "big brother" in the form of biometric passports.
My first comment is that there is no particular problem with them IF they are true passports, totally voluntary, only used for international travel etc. (Totally on topic)
But, from a big brother perspective, anything that enables the gov't to keep tabs on anyone at any time (see GPS chips mandated in cell phones by the FCC) my libertarian antenna twitch.
(Big Brotherism, also on topic)
Calling me a left-winger is about as appropos as calling Atilla the Hun a pacifist.
The lips are saying that they're not going to allow the NWFP primitives to indulge their traditional impulses toward violence. I guess we'll see what the hands eventually do.
Insh'allah.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar warned on Wednesday he would take stern action against anyone barring women from local polls next week, including cancelling results in affected areas. He spoke out after police and rights groups said candidates in parts of the NWFP were ganging up to stop women casting their votes. âThis is an electoral offence, legal action will be taken against anyone involved and such a poll will be void,â Justice Dogar told a news conference. He said he had ordered district officials in the province to investigate complaints about stopping women from filing nomination papers or casting their votes. âI also facilitated 506 women in filing their nomination papers in four districts of the NWFP by extending time by one day,â Dogar said, referring to the hardline Battagram, Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Kohistan districts.
He also said the Election Commission (EC) had started proceedings against 103 cases of political interference in the local council election process, had cancelled 63 transfers and postings of officers and had issued notice to many violators including Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal. âI have called for explanations from the authorities for violating the ban on transfers and postings besides starting disciplinary action against cases of political interference,â he added. Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad also provided a detailed report of the actions taken against complaints so far taken by the commission.
Posted by: Fred ||
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This is the *real* anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Voting Act.
NB: I'm posting this to the Opinion Page, although it's not really an Op-Ed. The author discussed in this article makes some interesting correlations between the *actions* of the Nazis and the *actions* of Germany's new Left Party. Rantburg has hosted some of this debate previously, and it's a meme I've seen argued elsewhere in the center-right blogosphere. If you add the current Wahhab pathologies and Hitler's pal the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to the mix, it starts to congeal into a mighty unappetizing pudding...
Germany's new Left Party, which polls show will win 12 per cent next month's general election, draws on a concept of 'National Socialism' from the Nazi era, a prominent German historian alleged on Wednesday. "This is not an accident - it's intentional," said Goetz Aly who recently published a book arguing that Hitler's Nazis won allegiance by creating a huge social welfare state funded by property stolen from the Jews and people in Third Reich-occupied Europe.
A leader of the Left Party, a rebel former Social Democratic (SPD) chairman Oscar Lafontaine, said in a speech last month that German workers had to be protected to prevent foreigners stealing their jobs. "The state is obligated to prevent family fathers and women from becoming unemployed because 'Fremdarbeiter' (foreign workers) are taking away their jobs by working for low wages," said Lafontaine at a rally in the eastern German city of Chemnitz near the Czech border. Germany's Brockhaus dictionary says the term 'Fremdarbeiter' is a Nazi expression used to describe foreign and often slave labour brought to Germany during World War II.
Does it translate into 'dhimmi' in Arabic?
"In Lafontaine's propaganda of the past weeks, elements of the National Socialist concept can very clearly be recognised," said Aly in a Handelsblatt newspaper interview. He added that angry reactions of the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) showed the far-right now viewed the Left Party as serious competiton.
The newly-founded Left Party is a merger of former East Germany's neo-communists and a smaller western German movement, the WASG. Aly noted that many of Germany's tax loopholes and social welfare policies originated under the Nazis. For example, the fiercely defended tax-free status of bonus pay for work on Sundays, holidays and night shifts dates back to 1940 - and was imposed after the Nazi invasion of France, he said. "Because National Socialism under Hitler was a continuation of German social welfare policy, big chunks of it were taken over by the successor states (West Germany and East Germany), cleansed of racist elements and then further developed," said Aly. Aly said that Germans for the past century had repeatedly demanded social and financial equality. "In our national history one can unfortunately see again and again that Germans - in case of doubt - always give up freedom in favour of equality," he said.
Polls show the Left Party at around 12 per cent, meaning it is almost certain to win parliamentary seats in Germany's September 18 election. Under German election law a party must get at least 5 per cent of the vote to enter the Bundestag. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose SPD badly trails conservative opposition challenger Angela Merkel, has ruled out any coalition with the Left Party.
Stick to your guns on this, Gerhard.
Schroeder is said to detest Lafontaine who quit as SPD leader and as German finance minister in 1999 amid complaints that the Chancellor was not a team player and refused to listen to his views. Earlier this year Lafontaine quit the SPD and joined the WASG.
#1
Even the Germans have Commie-controlled Fascists, i.e. Clintonian FASCISTAS, also, ehh!? The Lefties and Commies are hiding behind the vestiges of GLOBAL FASCISM, aka in Leftspeak as DE-REGULATED/
COMPETITIVE COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM - errrrrr. I meant Clintonian Centrism. And what is the antithesis or alternate to Fascism - Communism! WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO IS THAT THE LEFTIES ARE WAITING FOR NEW 9-11's TO OCCUR, in order to justify Left-based Commie Super-regulatory Totalitariansm as opposed to defective "Fascist" Authoritarianism, for that kinder, gentler despotism and gulag/death camp.
#4
The Trasantlatic intelligencer blog by John Rosenthal (http://www.trans-int.blogspot.com/) has had several very interesting entries about the linkage between some modern german conceptions (nationhood, welfare state, war crimes, ethnicity-based minorities,...) and the nazi or pre-nazi era ones.
Note that in general this excellent blog, which is soon going to evolve, is an good ressource on political issues for Europe, especially France and Germany, written by a true scholar with a background in political sciences.
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.
Muslim extremist gunmen killed three municipality guards and injured four others in an attack in eastern Algeria, reports said Thursday. Daily al-Watan said gunmen attacked a convoy of municipality guards in the province of Skikda, 375 miles east of Algiers. In another incident, security forces arrested eight people who made up a gang for support of armed groups in western Algeria. The group was accused of providing logistic support, information and money to armed organizations.
Police in Cambridgeshire, England, have been called in to investigate a small explosion at the high-security Whitemoor Prison. Until Thursday, little news was divulged about the Aug. 4 incident, but Sky News reported a Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed a small "firework-like" explosion went off in a wing at about 7:45 p.m. Officials said al-Qaida suspect and would-be shoe-bomber 
Security forces have arrested 
Despite tall claims of eliminating Al-Qaeda from the troubled Northern areas, Pakistanâs General Pervez Musharraf has, in practice, handed over the once hotbed of foreign militants, the 
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Tuesday refused a request by American Lori Berenson to review its ruling that upheld her 20-year sentence in Peru for terrorism. In a decision issued in November, the Costa Rica-based court - the legal arm of the Organization of American States - rejected Berenson's arguments that Peru violated her rights in a 2001 civilian retrial. It was Berenson's last formal avenue of appeal.
The Rolling Stones' upcoming album contains a song seemingly critical of President Bush, but 
Two Nepalese religious students left Pakistan yesterday, the first of more than 1,400 foreigners set to be deported in a government drive to curb extremism at the nationâs Islamic schools. Ahmad Ali, 20, and Shabnum Shagufa, 19, students at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa in the eastern city of Lahore, decided to return to Nepal after authorities warned that foreign students at madrasas could be arrested unless they left the country by September. âI feel sad that I could not complete my education,â Ali told The Associated Press before crossing by land into India. He said that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had âwrongly punished foreign students.â We are peace-loving people. We are against terrorism. What was our fault? ... Does the government have any charge against us?â
"Our enemies weave many lies about us, which we are not necessarily aware of. For example: One day, we awoke to the crime of 9/11, which hit the tallest buildings in New York, the Empire State Building [sic]. There is no doubt that not a single Arab or Muslim had anything to do with these events. The incident was fabricated as a pretext to attack Islam and Muslims. The plan was to take over the world's energy sources, and to achieve this control by force and not by agreement or negotiations, by interests, free trade, or anything like that. This is what they wanted. 
WANA: Four people were killed on Wednesday in a mine blast targeting the vehicle of a pro-government tribal elder in South Waziristan Agency, officials said. The elder, Haji Khadeen, who had led a government campaign against Al Qaeda-linked insurgents, was critically wounded while three of his relatives and a passer-by died. The attack took place in Dazha Ghandi. âAccording to our information, four people died when the vehicle hit a mine planted by unidentified people,â local administration official Wasal Khan said. âHaji Khadeen is in hospital, his condition is serious.â
An Indian military investigation has been opened following disclosure that a soldier at a base near China had obtained strategic documents on troop deployments and high-level strategy. A corporal at the base had obtained access to computer data and had 100 pages of computer printouts of strategic value, a military officer told AFP Aug. 4. "It seems [the corporal] last year passed on copious data on missile locations, deployment of infantry battalions at China's borders, weapons technology upgrades and classified minutes of commander conferences," the officer said. 
Broadcasts of a Lebanese television channel linked to the Hezbollah militia group have been stopped to Asia and Latin America, France Telecom said Wednesday. The French group said distribution of the al-Manar channel via its Globecast satellite subsidiary had ceased to Asia last week and to South America at the beginning of July. 
t least 16 people were injured in two bomb attacks in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga two days after a controversial election for new leaders of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The first bomb, planted under a parked mini-van in downtown Zamboanga, exploded around 7.20 p.m., injuring four people. The powerful blast destroyed the van completely and damaged two small buildings nearby, officials said. Bomb experts were sifting through the debris, searching for clues on what kind of explosives were used in the attacks, when second explosion ripped through the second floor of another building just 50 meters away from the main police headquarters in the busy business district. At least a dozen people were wounded in the blast, but independent sources said the number of casualties could be more.
LAHORE: Maulana Fazlur Rehman should explain why he makes frequent trips to Libya, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Wednesday. 
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons recently confiscated in Iraq were "clearly, unambiguously from Iran" and admonished Tehran for allowing the explosives to cross the border. Iran's defense minister denied the claims in a report carried by the state-run news agency IRNA.
A series of powerful explosions ripped through Zamboanga city in the southern Philippines today injuring at least 24 people. Power was cut in the city of 700,000 immediately after the rush-hour explosions hit a mini-bus depot and a downtown restaurant, residents said. A third explosion rang out shortly after the second one but the cause and target was not immediately determined. Police said the first explosion tore through a mini-bus and a motorcycle at a depot in the commercial section of the city, wounding at least four people. A second blast ripped through a popular fast-food restaurant on the city's downtown Climaco Avenue and the city was blacked out. Radio Mindanao Network reported from the scene that 14 people were taken to hospital following the first two blasts. No further details were immediately available. Police kept journalists away from the scene of the second and third explosions. Zamboanga in the west of Mindanao island is a mixed Muslim and Christian city which has been troubled by separatist insurgencies and Islamic militancy in the past. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. 
American soldiers "accidentally" fired on a civilian car that entered a shooting range in which they were training on Tuesday, injuring two adults and a child, the U.S. military said.
QUETTA: Unidentified motorcyclists gunned down a Shia businessman on Wednesday evening. Syed Anwar Abdi, owner of a glass store, was going home after closing his store when two motorcyclists opened fire at him, killing him at the scene. Police termed the incident an act of sectarian violence and cordoned off all entry and exit routes to the city. Separetely, unidentified men shot dead a retired revenue official in Amphare Gilgit area on Wednesday. Iqbal was injured in firing on Wednesday afternoon and later he died in hospital. The victim was a Shia. The police fear that sectarianism can be the reason behind the incident.
Interviewer: "Let's assume that in the Dijel case, which is the first case you have finished investigating, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death - a while ago, Iraqi President Jalal Al-Talabani declared that he would not sign Saddam Hussein's execution warrant, but would leave it to his two deputies, since the execution must be approved by the presidential office." 
Malik Zafar Azam has termed the federal government's decision to deport religious seminaries' foreign students unconstitutional and said that the provincial government reserved the right to challenge the decision in court. Talking to a three-member US State Department delegation that called on him on Wednesday, Azam said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government conformed with the decision of the apex court regarding the Hisba Bill. He said that the bill would be reexamined after receiving the detailed decision of the court and then implemented in the province. The minister informed the US delegation that the NWFP government had registered 300 madrassas so far, and 400 more were in the registration process.
vowed yesterday to carry on his peace legacy as he arrived in Khartoum ahead of being sworn in as the countryâs vice president. âIâm happy to be in Khartoum after 22 years (away),â Kiir told reporters after he flew in from southern Sudan with security tight in the capital. âDespite the fact that we have lost our hero, the man who brought peace, Dr. Garang, we will continue with the same vision, with the same objective and we will implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.â He was referring to the peace deal signed with the Khartoum government in January that ended 21 years of north-south war in Sudan, the longest running in Africa which cost two million lives.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri gave harsh criticism of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednsday in Gaza, saying that the latter's condemnation of the use of rockets attacks on Israel did a disservice to the Palestinian resistance movement. Zuhri stated that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was a direct result of such attacks, and said that occupation could only be ended by resistance rather than through negotiations. He used the fact that Israeli forces were not withdrawing within the framework of bilateral negotiations as proof. In a speech before the Palestinian parliament in Tuesday, Palestinian president Abbas stated, "I don't want to talk about whether firing these rockets is important or not, but I wanted to talk about the destructive consequences. No one of us could forget last week's tragedy when a father and his son were killed by a rocket." In response to the comment, Zuhri was quoted as saying that the Palestinian President "didn't refer at all to the fact that the armed resistance is a major reason for ending the occupation", according to Xinhua. He also added that this was the first time in Palestinian history that armed resistance had successfully ended Israeli occupation, and referenced Hizbullah's success in ousting Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will not support Maulana Samiul Haq, chief of a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam faction, in elections for senator in the NWFP if he has to retire from the Senate after the upcoming draw. âThe MMA leadership is very clear: Samiul Haq will not be given an MMA ticket,â sources in the religious parties alliance told Daily Times. They said the draw to determine which senators would get a three-year tenure and which would get a six-year tenure would most likely be in October. 
The US Department of State announced today a timeframe for issuing electronic passports that supporters say will improve the government's ability to protect its borders and critics say are a dangerous step towards a Big Brother-like surveillance society. 
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar warned on Wednesday he would take stern action against anyone barring women from local polls next week, including cancelling results in affected areas. He spoke out after police and rights groups said candidates in parts of the NWFP were ganging up to stop women casting their votes. âThis is an electoral offence, legal action will be taken against anyone involved and such a poll will be void,â Justice Dogar told a news conference. He said he had ordered district officials in the province to investigate complaints about stopping women from filing nomination papers or casting their votes. âI also facilitated 506 women in filing their nomination papers in four districts of the NWFP by extending time by one day,â Dogar said, referring to the hardline Battagram, Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Kohistan districts.
