CHATEAUROUX, France - A French couple who celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary Friday offered this advice on love and longevity: Keep arguments to a minimum, eat well and wash it down with a glass of wine. Andre and Marguerite Debray met shortly after the end of World War I, in which he served, and got married on Aug. 12, 1924. Mr. Debray is now 107 years old and his wife is a few years younger at 101. Retired for several decades, the Debrays spent their careers as teachers.
To celebrate the anniversary, the couple planned a family lunch with a champagne toast at their home in the village of Chateauroux, in central France, Mrs. Debray said in a telephone interview. The couple has two children, four grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Asked for the secret to staying together so long, Mrs. Debray replied: "Love and respect for the other person."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
21:16 ||
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Releasing photos and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken governments in Iraq and Afghanistan and incite riots against U.S. troops, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warned in court papers.
The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of a lawsuit it filed in October 2003.
Gen. Richard B. Myers wrote in recently unsealed court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that it was ''probable that al-Qaida and other groups will seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda mill.''
The ACLU complaint seeks information on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. It also contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.
The government submitted an additional request to the court Friday arguing that some information in its court papers that remains blacked out should not be made public.
In a response to the arguments by Myers, the ACLU submitted a declaration by retired U.S. Army Col. Michael E. Pheneger, who said Myers ''mistakes propaganda for motivation.''
Pheneger, a military intelligence officer from 1963 to 1993, said that Iraqi insurgents average 70 attacks a day and that they ''will continue regardless of whether the photos and tapes are released.''
Pheneger said he believed that releasing the photos would lead to a thorough public examination of the administration's decision to approve interrogation techniques that the Army had long prohibited.
''The first step to abandoning practices that are repugnant to our laws and national ideals is to bring them into the sunshine and assign accountability,'' he wrote.
Myers said his views about the pictures were supported by Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the United States Central Command, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commander of the American forces in Iraq.
An investigation into the abuse depicted on the pictures continues, Myers said.
''I condemn in the strongest terms the misconduct and abuse depicted in these images,'' he said. ''It was illegal, immoral and contrary to American values and character.''
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who will decide whether to release blacked-out versions of the pictures and videotapes, has said photographs ''are the best evidence the public can have of what occurred'' at the prison.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005
20:49 ||
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#1
Hellerstein, Alvin K.
Born 1933 in New York, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York Nominated by William J. Clinton on May 15, 1998, to a seat vacated by Louis L. Stanton; Confirmed by the Senate on October 21, 1998, and received commission on October 22, 1998.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 20:54
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#2
another Clinton contribution to the WOT.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 21:20
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#3
Lawyer wonder why they get no respect? There should be a season for TRANZI lawyers. No bag limit. To bad there is not. Might be different if I could think of one right of mine they had protected, but I can't. Might be different if they made my country a safer place to live but they haven't and will not. I would rather spend tome with a rattle snake or mountain lion than a lawyer.
#6
Pheneger, a military intelligence officer from 1963 to 1993, said that Iraqi insurgents average 70 attacks a day and that they ''will continue regardless of whether the photos and tapes are released.''
Despite being in military intelligence for thirty years, this Pheneger's not too bright. The issue isn't whether the -- improper -- release of these photos will inspire more attacks in Iraq. It's whether they'll inspire attacks in New York, DC, Chicago, Detroit, LA, San Francisco, London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 22:30
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Another thing -- the abuses at Abu Ghraib had nothing to do with approved interrogation techniques. That the ACLU keeps banging that drum is just proof that they're a tool of our enemies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 22:32
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#8
I think General Myers is being over-sensitive. If photos of terrorists with their heads blown off from sniper fire or of dismembered terrorists from American artillery fire don't inspire the Muslim faithful to anger, the sight of terrorists merely being humiliated certainly won't. I think the Abu Ghraib pictures are amusing - such are the sissified methods of American prison guards play-acting at torture in the very prison where real torture, with beheadings and genuine torture implements were carried out by Saddam's minions.
#9
I could go on about Military Intelligence officers but lets just say that most are at least twice removed from the actual intelligence operations. Now if Pheneger were a a MI officer attached to an Embassy doing overt intell then maybe he would have a feel about how these photos would affect people in Iraq and Afghanistan. But given that those very same intell types have yet to be right on even ONE aspect on the WOT I would be leary from taking his advise (see "Slam Dunk" and WMDs). There is nothing to be gained from releasing these phtos and I think it's time for the ACLU to understand that thier first name is AMERICAN and act in the bes interest of America and not terrorists.
#10
Let us assume for a second that Gen Myers is wrong. If so, what possible purpose would it serve to release the photos. We would not learn anything we don't know.
The ONLY thing that could be achieved is what Myers is concerned about - that via Al Jihad TV and the MSM these pictures will become a recruiting tool for the Jihadis.
The fact that the ACLU doesn't care - tells you all you need to know about the ACLU.
#11
DMFD: Let us assume for a second that Gen Myers is wrong. If so, what possible purpose would it serve to release the photos. We would not learn anything we don't know.
I think General Myers is being too politically correct. The kind of people who would be influenced by the kind of play-acting depicted in the Abu Ghraib pictures are the same kind of people who are already terrorists because of the American invasion of Iraq. The Abu Ghraib pictures depict humiliation. The pictures coming out of Iraq every day are of terrorists getting dismembered and blown away during American military operations. I think people need to get a sense of proportion, and pick their fights. We need to fight for the right to hack a captive like Zaccarias Moussaoui to pieces in order to prevent future 9/11's, not suppress merely embarrassing photographs from circulation.
Public relations with the Muslim world are moot. Don't take Muslims for children. The ones who want to hate Americans already hate Americans. A few S&M-style pictures from Abu Ghraib aren't going to sway them more than the pictures of Muslim holy warriors with chunks of their skulls missing or with their internal organs splattered all over the tarmac.
#12
ZF, I don't agree. The terrorist recruiters prey on young, easily influenced Muslim youth. At their early age, they are swayed by photos depicting brutish treatment. Hence, a release of these items plays right into the recruiters interests.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 23:58
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COLUMBUS, N.M. (AP) -- Gov. Bill Richardson on Friday declared an emergency in four New Mexico counties along the border, an action that lets him free up money to be spent on everything from fighting drug smuggling to fencing a livestock yard.
The executive order, issued after Richardson toured the area around Columbus, Columbus is the town attacked by Pancho Villa and the base for Pershing's punistive expedition. makes $750,000 immediately available to Dona Ana, Luna, Grant and Hidalgo counties. This is all four counties that touch Mexico. He pledged an additional $1 million.
The money will aid state and area law enforcement efforts, fund a field office for the state Office of Homeland Security and help build a fence to protect a Columbus-area livestock yard where a number of cattle have been killed or stolen.
Richardson's declaration said law enforcement officials have used all available resources to help with border security. But those efforts haven't alleviated the situation, which he said "constitutes an emergency condition with potentially catastrophic consequences."
"Recent developments have convinced me this action is necessary - including violence directed at law enforcement, damage to property and livestock, increased evidence of drug smuggling and an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants," he said.
He also ordered the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to work with the state Livestock Board to assess the safety of livestock in the region.
The funds include nearly $50,000 for an 11-foot, razor wire-topped security fence around the stockyards. It will replace a shorter, barbed-wire fence that Richardson said "is so full of holes and gaps that trucks and people can cross with no control." Now if they can just connect it to the wall they're building west of Yuma...
The new fence will help prevent cattle from Mexico straying across the border, officials said.
"We don't want contagious diseases to contaminate our food supply and disrupt our agricultural economy," Richardson said in a statement before his trip.
Daniel Manzanares, executive director of the Livestock Board, said at least 100 cattle from Mexico have been found in the area. The agency hasn't traced any outbreaks of disease to Mexican cattle, but Manzanares said he suspects some have carried bovine tuberculosis into New Mexico.
The current state of the stockyard fence means people have been able to illegally enter the country as well.
"We definitely have concerns about biosecurity and agroterrorism," said Tim Manning, New Mexico's homeland security adviser.
Richardson is a Democrat and former memeber of Clinton's cabinet. Even so, he seems pretty level-headed. He pushed a cut of NM's income tax rates in half right after taking office. Might make a decent President, so of course would have no chance in the primaries.
#4
Unfortunately, Richardson also issued a directive for state agencies not to report illegals to the INS. He's playing politics. He wants it both ways.
EFL
Mansfield Street residents said Reliable Paving Company blocked the street for two days earlier this month as contractors went door-to-door asking residents whether they needed their lawns paved. Good afternoon, ma'am. Like a tree trimmed? How about paving over your lawn? No more dandelion problems.
Neighbors couldn't imagine anyone saying yes but, the next thing they knew, one of the gardens was all asphalt.
The house belongs to a Korean-American family that does not speak English. Residents fear they were unaware of the work being done.
In an urban neighborhood that is already dense and starved for green space, residents worry that contractors illegally paving their yards is another problem for which they must be on the lookout. They'll need to form a Neighborhood Lawn Watch group.
#1
not if it's an embassy - it confirms they are a distinct separate "state", no part of Jerusalem. Smart move by Sharon
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 20:46
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By international law, an embassy only exists if one country offers an ambassador to another country, and they are accepted as such, which would represent official recognition of the Palestinian state by Israel. This would be unlikely, as it would confer no benefit to the Paleos. However, the way it appears to be set up, Abbas could claim the victory that "Jerusalem is the capitol of Palestine", even though that capitol is only one building, along with any other Arab properties the PA could obtain in Jerusalem, most likely through coercion--the forced sale by Israeli Arabs to the PA. Remember that Jerusalem is historically measured in inches, quite literally, with various religions and sects jealously guarding their inches. The advantage to the Israelis is that unlike the Ramallah compound for Arafat, they would have complete and utter control over Orient House, to include who goes in and out, its communications, and that no weapons be permitted on the grounds. They could also close it in a heartbeat if they wanted to. All told, this would end up creating five Paleo enclaves: the West Bank, controlled by Fatah, with the de facto capitol; the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas; the Lebanese camps, controlled by Hizbullah; the Jordanian camps, that are still fairly independent, preferring to be ruled by someone other than Paleos; and the de jure capitol in Jerusalem, where the PA could entertain diplomats and international sympathizers while under the protection of the Israelis. All told, there are plusses and minuses for both sides, but in balance, both sides profit far more than they lose.
Well kids you beat the hell out of me pretty good for being so mean about a pinko commie. One thing tho, I will pee on this guys grave!!
It's sad when anyone dies of cancer, but we cant' let the human side of the Peter Jennings story obscure his real "achievements."
While the rest of the world is blindly singing Jennings' praises, here's a reality check: Peter Jennings did more for the cause of Islamic terrorism than any media figure today. And that's nothing to celebrate, honor, or even memorialize.
It is no coincidence that al-Jazeera's chief Washington correspondent praised ABC -- and Jennings, in particular -- for their "objectivity." Before there was al-Jazeera, there was Peter Jennings.
From the beginning of Jennings' career until his death, his biased coverage went beyond the pale, bending over backward in "understanding" the terrorists who hate us -- from seeing "their side" when he covered the seige and then murder of innocent Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics to honoring an al-Qaeda operative with a prized "commentator" spot during Jennings coverage of the 9/11 attacks.
Throughout Jennings' coverage of the attacks, he frequently featured a man named Tariq Hamdi (whose commentary urged understanding for the radical Muslim world), identifying Hamdi only as "journalist" on the chyron.
But, in fact, Jennings' friend Hamdi was no journalist at all. As I've written, Hamdi was an accused Bin Laden associate and employed by Sami al-Arian, the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the United States.
According to prosecutors and documents in the 1998 trial of the Osama bin Laden bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa (the 7th anniversary of which was yesterday), Hamdi provided Bin Laden a satellite battery instrumental in those bombings. He's also an unindicted co-conspirator with Islamic Jihad financial head Sami al-Arian, who employed him at his Islamic "charity" fronts at the University of South Florida. Hamdi was also an employee of a Saudi-funded charity raided by Customs agents for allegedly laundering billions to al-Qaeda through the Isle of Man.
Jennings mentioned absolutely nothing about Hamdi's disturbing activities, but did note that Hamdi was his friend and repeatedly featured Hamdi in post-9/11 ABC News broadcasts. This is the type of "journalist" and "commentator" Jennings frequently employed in his so-called newscast of which he was an all-controlling editor.
Now the Washington Post repeats what I've said about Hamdi, but adds more. Days ago, Hamdi was indicted for immigration and mortgage-loan fraud. While failing to mention Jennings, the Post also adds, "ABC did not respond to a request for more information about its relationship with Hamdi." The recently unsealed indictment also mentions that Hamdi was the U.S. representative for the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights in Saudi Arabia, "a London-based organization that has embraced many of bin Laden's views," according to the Post.
That's a "journalist" in what was "The World According to Peter Jennings."
(Hamdi has now fled the U.S. Don't count on him coming back to face justice. Question for ICE press flack, Dean Boyd: Why was Tariq Hamdi allowed to leave the U.S.?)
I always say, pillow talk is the most effective form of political speech. And it apparently had its effect on Jennings early on. When developing and heading up ABC's Beirut headquarters, Jennings "dated" Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi. And it colored his insidious, anti-American, anti-Israel coverage ever since.
Then there were the sneers, the sneers of a Canadian high school drop-out for anything conservative, anything mainstream, anything pro-Western, pro-America, pro-Israel, etc. Jennings' sneers and snide comments were always evident for those who did not meet his very left-of-center point of view. A great example was his sneering during the 2000 vote recount, and after, when Bush was declared President. Another was his sneering just after the 9/11 attacks when Bush delivered his speech to a joint session of Congress. Then there was his sneering reaction and say-it-ain't-so comments when conservative revolutionaries led Republicans to capture the House of Representatives in 1994. And who can forget Jennings' sneering ABC News Special in which he decried America's bombing of Heroshima and Nagasaki, which saved American lives.
Jennings' elitist sneers will NOT be missed.
During ABC's Gulf War coverage, when ABC military expert Tony Cordesman attributed much of the success of our military forces to Israeli improvements to our weapons systems and as command and control advised by the Israelis, Jennings became enraged and argued with him.
While Jenning's death is a human tragedy, it is sad that his despicable brand of advocacy journalism -- parading as "news" -- wasn't laid to rest along with him.
Unfortunately, that will not happen. His version has spawned a thousand clones. Sadly, the female, more personable, non-toupeed version of Jennings -- Elizabeth Vargas -- is set to step into Jennings' shoes. She got off to a great Jennings-esque start in her first hosting duties at ABC's "20/20," last fall. She delivered a very sympathetic profile and interview of Hamas operative and fundraiser Cat Stevens. Expect more of this to come.
It's sad when anyone dies of cancer. I won't dance on Jennings' grave, even though he managed to justify the early graves of young, innocent athletes slaughtered at the Munich Olympics -- the way he blasphemed their murders with his shallow, understand-the-Islamic-terrorists coverage. Unlike the murdered Munich athletes he dishonored, Jennings died in peace and without pain. He got to say good-bye to his loved ones. They did not.
I will remember Peter Jennings for the less than honorable person he was -- not the emperor with no clothing that is now being memorialized.
Jennings used to end his newscasts with, "And that's a look at our world." No, it wasn't a look at our world, at all. It was Peter Jennings' slanted world, and every day he acted as if he was doing us a favor giving us his warped look at it.
Jennings' legacy is helping advance the cause of Islamic terrorists on broadcast television, parading it as news. He wrote his own epitaph with it. Unfortunately, it came with a lot more tombstones and epitaphs than just Jennings' -- and most of those buried beneath are a whole lot more innocent.
They are the victims of Islamic terrorism -- the brand Peter Jennings helped build into a network news product. That cancer, unfortunately, is still here. And it has metasticized.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican ||
08/12/2005
18:40 ||
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Just as I thought...Time passed and you still don't get it. Pick your targets!!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005
18:37 ||
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Good article. My hunch is that the spectulation at the end will eventually become fact: Committee staff witheld the Able Danger revelations from key committee members, and therefore from the Committee's report, to protect that all-important Clinton Legacy-- and not screw up Hillary's chances at becoming President.
If she does, of course, you can bet the bank that each and every one of those staffers who participated in keeping Able Danger away from the Committee's eyes will get a plum assignment in her administration.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/12/2005 19:02
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Listening to Rush to day about Able Danger, it appears the no Looney Left Democrats are pretty upset that their president let them down.
911 Commission was an CYA maneuver and as one Demorat put it today on the radio someone should hang
#3
will get a plum assignment in her administration.
I'd bet a more likely gift will be a subpoena if Weldon keeps it up, and he will....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 19:23
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#4
Heh. I think you're right...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/12/2005 19:36
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#5
I want to hear from the men of Able Danger. I care not to hear from any congressmen (or women), staffers, Commission members, journalists or pundits.
Subpoena them and let them speak.
All other talking heads and usual suspects can shut their piehole.
Starting now.
Able Danger, where are you? Tell us. Don't let them do it for you.
Police in a north Toronto suburb said on Friday they had uncovered a cache of what appeared to be explosives and ammunition at a shopping mall, prompting a temporary evacuation. "There was a vacant unit, it was being cleaned by some cleaners and they found some boxes of what appears to be military ammunition, army bullets, some grenades, and dynamite," said York Region Police Constable Laurie Perks. Some of the ammunition did not appear to be live, she said, adding that experts had been sent in to detonate the explosives. Part of the mall was temporarily evacuated, but has since been reopened, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
18:03 ||
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Worship materials from the mosque that was there before?
"Our great country is in a terrible downward spiral. We're losing jobs, losing benefits, and losing lives. We need to focus on what's important-- paying attention to our children, our environment, our future. We need to think about improving our underbudget educational system, making better use of our resources, and helping to build a stable, safe, and tolerant global society. It's time to be smart about our politics. It's time to get America back on track."
Liberal spewing at its best. Environment and "for the children" and PC-multiculteralism above everything. Chris, you are a great actor. Stay there, don't step out in the light or you will be brained by reality.
Asshat....
#1
I luv ya buddy... I even tear up during the final roulette scene in the Deerhunter. (STEVEE!!!)
And if you want to be considered for the office, I will give you the benefit out the doubt and listen to what you have to say...
Are you sure you want this to be your introduction to the educated voter???
#3
California spemds almost 50% of it's budget on education. Underfunding is not a problem. The SFB has no grasp on reality. Back to your unemployed actor status for you bub.
Okay Infidels! Get Yur Game Plan Right Here, Just in Time for Football Season
Per Speigel
In the introduction, the Jordanian journalist writes, "I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future." What he then describes between pages 202 and 213 is a scenario, proof both of the terrorists' blindness as well as their brutal single-mindedness. In seven phases the terror network hopes to establish an Islamic caliphate which the West will then be too weak to fight.
1. The First Phase Known as "
the awakening
" -- this has already been carried out and was supposed to have lasted from 2000 to 2003, or more precisely from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby "awakening" Muslims. "The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaida as very successful," writes Hussein. "The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target." The terrorist network is also reported as being satisfied that its message can now be heard "everywhere."
2. The Second Phase "Opening Eyes" is, according to Hussein's definition, the period we are now in and should last until 2006. Hussein says the terrorists hope to make the western conspiracy aware of the "Islamic community." Hussein believes this is a phase in which al-Qaida wants an organization to develop into a movement. The network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an "army" set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.
3. The Third Phase This is described as "Arising and Standing Up" and should last from 2007 to 2010. "There will be a focus on Syria," prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and -- even more explosive -- in Israel are predicted. Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger.
4. The Fourth Phase Between 2010 and 2013, Hussein writes that al-Qaida will aim to bring about the collapse of the hated Arabic governments. The estimate is that "the creeping loss of the regimes' power will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaida." At the same time attacks will be carried out against oil suppliers and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.
5. The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.
6. The Sixth Phase Hussein believes that from 2016 onwards there will a period of "total confrontation." As soon as the caliphate has been declared the "Islamic army" it will instigate the "fight between the believers and the non-believers" which has so often been predicted by Osama bin Laden.
7. The Seventh Phase This final stage is described as "definitive victory." Hussein writes that in the terrorists' eyes, because the rest of the world will be so beaten down by the "one-and-a-half million Muslims," the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed. This phase should be completed by 2020, although the war shouldn't last longer than two years.
A Serious Plan?
But just how serious is this scenario? "Al-Qaida makes no compromises," says the book's author Fouad Hussein. He obviously believes that this seven-point plan could well become the guiding principle for a whole range of al-Qaida fighters. Hussein is far from an hysterical alarmist -- in fact he is seen as a serious journalist and his Zarqawi book is better than most of the reports in Arabic on the subject. Only last year, the journalist made a film which was received with great interest and was shown on the German-French TV channel arte. In it he provided deep insights into al-Qaida's internet propaganda machine.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005
16:42 ||
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barkeep, plz place in this in the correct sprocket.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 16:50
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i call BS. This seems to assume that way back in 2000 they assumed that the US response to 9/11 would be an attack on Iraq, which gives AQ far too much prescience. I think its much more likely that they thought wed get trapped in a spiral of escalation in Afghanistan, like the Russians did. If THATS the case then idea that phase 3 would focus on Syria, Jordan and Turkey makes no sense.
I think that since November 2001, when things went offtrack for them in Afghanistan, theyve largely been playing by hear, trying to take advantage of targets of opportunity. This looks like an attempt to take the current situation, and make it look like a coherent strategy, rather than anything that was planned in 2000 or earlier.
The reality is that somewhere during this process the real "awakening" will happen and the men of the West will recognize the re-animate evil of Islamism.
How many terrorist attacks will we accept and how many restrictions on our freedoms will it take before we say: "Enough yet?" Once the populace of the West says "Enough!" then it will only be a matter of a relatively short time before the Caliphate and all the Islamist dreams are crushed under our heel.
Then... back to our private pursuits. Message to Islamists: Tug on the bulls testicles and you are going to get the horns.
#6
sorry OT whatever happened to all the plame/wilson stories? I haven't heard any Rove or Novak conspiracies in a while. Is the MSM quietly trying to let the issue go. I dunno, maybe Cindy Sheehan is more credible. I mean if Michael Moore is supporting her she's gotta be pretty legit.
#7
I agree with liberalhawk. Nobody, and particularly not the jihadis, expected us to fare very well in Afghanistan. This whole fantasy was predicated on the US being caught in a quagmire like the Soviets.
#8
So, I should be preparing for worldwide Islamic rule in 15 years.
Right.
This resembles my plan to be a multimillionaire:
Phase 1: graduate and go out on my own
Phase 2: (details to be filled in later)
Phase 3: Wallow in my wealth
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
08/12/2005 18:25
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#9
"I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future."
I hope he learned that this is not just Washington's fight, but a struggle between all freedom loving people and the demons who are seeking world domination.
Also, I keep wondering about this Caliphate of one and one half million Muslims. That would mean that the Caliphate included both Shiites and Sunnis equally. But hasn't the 1300 year old animosity between the two sects been about which is the true Caliphate? Can the Shiites really expect to be included or will the 'Islamic Army' fight them as non-believers too?
#10
the Wahhabis and Sunnis will be the sultanate princelings, the Shiites the seething majority doing all the work - all is at peace in the new Caliphate
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:50
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#11
I think Phase 2 is either:
"Accept billionaire trainee position."
-or- "Receive check from John Beresford Tipton."
#12
3. The Third Phase This is described as ... Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization.
Attacks on Israel? Yeah, right... Organization recognized for causing every arab capital to glow in the dark...
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a hard-liner in dealing with the island's Tamil Tiger rebels, was assassinated late on Friday in an attack the police blamed on separatist rebels.
"The foreign minister passed away," Justice Minister John Senevirathne told reporters outside the National Hospital in Colombo. "He worked tirelessly for peace throughout his career. It is a great loss." Government officials declined to comment on who was to blame for the shooting, but Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando blamed it on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "It's the Tigers," he told reporters early on Saturday. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.
The shooting comes amid escalating tensions between the government and the rebels, who have repeatedly threatened to resume a two-decade civil war because of a rash of violence in the island's restive east that each side blames on the other.
Kadirgamar, 73, was rushed to the National Hospital in Colombo after he was shot just before midnight on Friday. The hospital was sealed off amid tight security as ministers arrived in the early hours of Saturday to visit his bedside before leaving without comment. Officials declined to comment when asked who was suspected to be behind the shooting of Kadirgamar, an Oxford-educated lawyer.
Police cordoned off the roads around the residence of Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil and a top adviser of President Chandika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka's protracted peace process with the Tigers. Heavily armed police officers fanned out into the plush central Colombo neighbourhood, searching the area. Helicopters circled overhead.
The incident came just a day after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) warned that the government's refusal to hunt down and disarm renegades fighting a silent war with their cadres in the east of the island could rekindle a war that has already killed more than 64,000 people. The Tigers accuse the military of helping a splinter faction led by a top former rebel commander called Karuna target and kill their political and military members and demands the government disarms them.
Dozens of rebel cadres, policemen and soldiers have been killed since a truce was agreed in 2002, and some diplomats and analysts fear the rash of violence could spiral back into an all-out war. The Tigers have repeatedly warned that their patience is at breaking point and the truce in danger of collapse, but cease-fire monitors, peace envoys and analysts say a return to full-blown war is unlikely.
Hat tip to Captain's Quarters; EFL: With all of these references to Germany and Hamburg, the 9/11 Commission oddly failed to include a published report from March 2001 in a Parisian Arabic newspaper, Al-Watan Al-Arabi, about the arrest of two suspected Iraqi spies -- based on a tip from the CIA (boldface mine):
Iraqi Spies Reportedly Arrested in Germany
16 March 2001
Al-Watan al-Arabi (Paris) reports that two Iraqis were arrested in Germany, charged with spying for Baghdad. The arrests came in the wake of reports that Iraq was reorganizing the external branches of its intelligence service and that it had drawn up a plan to strike at US interests around the world through a network of alliances with extremist fundamentalist parties.
The most serious report contained information that Iraq and Osama bin Ladin were working together. German authorities were surprised by the arrest of the two Iraqi agents and the discovery of Iraqi intelligence activities in several German cities. German authorities, acting on CIA recommendations, had been focused on monitoring the activities of Islamic groups linked to bin Ladin. They discovered the two Iraqi agents by chance and uncovered what they considered to be serious indications of cooperation between Iraq and bin Ladin. The matter was considered so important that a special team of CIA and FBI agents was sent to Germany to interrogate the two Iraqi spies.
But they told us there was no connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda, right?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/12/2005
15:42 ||
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and their spokesman today "clarified" that they were briefed about the milintel group identifying Mo Atta more than a year before 9/11, yet chose to not put that in the report. Stonewalling bastards protecting Clinton, Berger, Gorelick, et al. At least we know what Sandy Burglar was trying to hide
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:44
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Stonewalling bastards protecting Clinton, Berger, Gorelick, et al. At least we know what Sandy Burglar was trying to hide
Clintoon, Burglar, Gorelicks, burn em out Reno, Halfbright et al. That whole crew are disgusting, thru and thru, Stonewalling & Shitwalling POS, all.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
08/12/2005 20:58
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Don't forget Putty Put's comment before the November '04 election about Al Qaeda's plan to attack the US
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 22:04
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The CLinton admin can be summed as the Dems acknowledging the Reagan-Repub economy but of course giving credit to themselves and Leftism-Socialism, justifying the latter once, before, and forever for all mankind and -isms, and ergo providing the Left's unilateral/unconditional justification for the USA to be suborned under OWG and Socialist national and World Order. Even when Bill himself admits to being POTUS by elex fraud and that the US economy was long-expanding before he even became POTUS, the DemoLefties are upholding him as the de facto standard for Washington, Politicians, and the Nation, in everything!?
A woman who is said to be a sibling of a notorious Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, has gone missing in Russiaâs restive province of Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported citing its source in the local administration.
Natasha Khumadova, a resident of Urus-Martan, was abducted in the early hours of Friday by unknown gunmen, the republican Interior Ministry reported. Khumadova is a sister to Doku Umarov, a notorious rebel leader who is believed to have been involved in a number of heinous terrorist attacks, the police reported. The authorities suspect him of assisting Shamil Basayev in organizing a blast in Znamenskoye where 14 people were killed after a UAZ truck hit a mine earlier this summer.
A source in the Urus-Martan district administration told Interfax on Friday that several armed people broke into Khumadovaâs house and threatening her with weapons led her away. The search for the woman was launched, the source said.
Could have been a wedding party.
Russian rights activists, on their part, do not rule out that Khumadovaâs disappearance could be an act of what they describe as counter-taking of hostages aimed to exert pressure on the rebel leader. âFor the time being the circumstances of the Umarov sisterâs disappearance remain unclear but, perhaps, what we see here is the so-called counter-taking of hostages. Human rights groups have long voiced concern about that practice as being one of the most dangerous tendencies in Chechnya,â Dmitry Grushkin, spokesman for the Memorial human rights group said on Friday.
He recalled that earlier Doku Umarovâs father, too, was abducted, according to rights groupsâ reports.
To recap, 8 relatives of the former Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, went missing in late 2004. After Maskhadov was killed during a security raid in March of 2005 all of them returned home, in June of 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
14:11 ||
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Lebanon freed the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed on Friday, hours after Britain declared he would not be allowed to return to its shores. Lebanon's prosecutor general, Judge Said Mirza, told The Associated Press he ordered Bakri's release after it appeared "that he has not yet committed any crime and there are no criminal records against him." Mirza added Bakri was a free man.
As lawless as Lebanon has been, you'd think they could come up with something.
It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut.
"Feets get me outta here!"
General Security officers arrested Bakri in Beirut on Thursday, five days after he flew to Lebanon on holiday from Britain, where he has lived for the past 20 years.
Britain said Friday it had barred the Muslim cleric from returning because his presence was "not conducive to the public good."
During his detention, the General Security department said he was being questioned about the circumstances of his entry to Lebanon. Lebanese newspapers reported that Syria would like Lebanon to hand over Bakri, but this could not be confirmed with the Syrian authorities on Friday - the Muslim sabbath. Bakri, 45, holds Syrian and Lebanese citizenship.
And a British welfare card.
He caught British public attention recently when he said he would not inform the police if he knew Muslims were planning attacks such as the July 7 suicide bombings in London that killed 56 people, including four attackers. He claimed Islam prohibited him from reporting Muslims to the British police.
British prosecutors said they were studying Bakri's remarks with a view to charging him with solicitation of murder or incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police.
In an interview with Lebanon's Future TV, recorded minutes before his arrest, Bakri said he was being targeted for his political views and would not return to Britain. He denied any links to al-Qaida or any other group of terrorists.
In Britain, Bakri founded the now-disbanded radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, which came under official scrutiny, particularly after some of its members praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In an interview published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba on Friday, Bakri condemned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying he did not condone violence except in cases of resistance against foreign occupation.
He added he did not intend to get involved in political or religious activities while in Lebanon, where he plans to settle.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
14:10 ||
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Gonna send for the wife and kids, scumbag, or let them stay in England and make them send you a cut of their welfare checks, seeing how you ain't getting yours anymore?
#3
"It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut."
Bakri: "I don't know what happened, all I remember is that they shot me with an elephant dart, and now..wait a minute..wait a minute..this looks familiar..this was my other location where I used to preach "politics"..I could be wrong but, I believe I am in the Anti-Jew Division of CNN."
#4
LOL PR - but it would've been better Satire if he'd woke up in the pro-Jew section of CNN, with Christiane "Warslut" Amanpour standing by
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:50
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My guess, He will be heading for the saftey of Pakistan soon. Leabanon has a extradition with Syria. The" Powers that be" had a talk with him and he will be leaving Lebanon soon.
#6
so long as he takes his spawn and surrogate leech with him into that dark night
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:19
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Welcome to The Village asshole. You are number 19.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:52
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SPoD,
As dangerous as it is to disagree with you, "El Presidente of Paki, have enough cockroaches in the house. He doesn't need more coming in from the outside.
If he enters Pakiland, I think he is a dead man. (Wait, I think I have something in my eye, ok, its gone now)
#9
I think alot of the noise we hear out of Pakistan is for western consumption Poison Reverse. There are plenty of Pakistani that will welcome the person with open arms and phyiscal support. He isn't safe in Leabanon, he knows that now.
An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government's Foreign Ministry, US officials and a former CIA counterterror chief say.
Iraqi-born Tarik A. Hamdi was the "American contact" for one of bin Laden's front organizations and gave a satellite telephone battery to an aide to the Saudi-born al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan for a phone used by bin Laden, according to an affidavit from Customs agent David Kane.
The affidavit was unsealed this week in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, along with a federal indictment charging Hamdi with lying on immigration and mortgage loan applications.
Hamdi, who formerly lived in another Washington suburb in Virginia, is now working at Iraqi diplomatic offices in Turkey, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA official who has known Hamdi for years and remains in contact with him through e-mail.
Hamdi has been under federal investigation and surveillance for several years, stemming from his work at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in northern Virginia. The affidavit was filed in March 2002 to obtain a warrant to search Hamdi's home.
Prosecutors have contended at least since 2002 that Hamdi had "established links" to bin Laden and other members of al-Qaida, according to a court filing in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
14:04 ||
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oh cmon. The guy has been pals with Cannistraro for years, and been in email contact with him. Is it routine for ex-CIA agents to maintain contact with AQ guys. And then the guy shows up in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry?
You dont need to be Robert Novak or Judith Miller to put two and two together. Tariq Hamdi obviously has an employer whos NOT the Iraqi govt, OR AQ. But would love to have more info on either. Id have thought living in Northern Virginia is just too obvious, but I guess thats why we have Intelligence Professionals.
#5
And of COURSE they would publicize this relationship, right?
Pfeh.
Posted by: got my own spoon ||
08/12/2005 15:34
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you wouldnt think so. So is it that theyre trying to make it LOOK like Hamdis CIA, for some nefarious reason? Or is it that Cannistraro was actually turned by AQ? (that would explain a few things) Or perhaps Cannistraro and Hamdi have been in touch, but simply never reached "a meeting of the minds". Or maybe its perfectly innocent, and Cannistraro, being a pundit and all, just likes to keep in touch with Islamists with AQ ties, to chat about the state of the world, and didnt realize how deep he was getting.
Or maybe Cannistraro is playing some game of his own, that relates to internal CIA politics.
#10
Plots! Sinister plots! Deep laid, sinister plots! Wheels within wheels!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005 16:24
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lib: that's why I was sponging brains off the ceiling tile - because it's so bloody fraught that it could be any of a dozen things, none of them particularly happy-making. It could be:
1)Cannistraro outing a CIA asset (abhorrent, but possible)
2)Cannistraro outing himself as an al Queda symp (highly unlikely, but god only knows with Cannistraro)
3)Cannistraro pretending to be the friend of somebody he's trying to burn (nasty but the sort of thing I've gotten used to expecting from the VIPers)
4)Cannistraro inventing somebody out of whole cloth to kick some mud around (who knows?)
5)Everybody confusing one Hamdi with somebody else of the same name
The only option that doesn't make Cannistraro a complete and total tool is the idea that he's defending some friend of his who's in a jam. I'm afraid my cynicism meter is too pegged to let him get away with that one without a good deal of backup.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/12/2005 17:49
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the real question: does Hamdi know Joe Wilson or Valerie Plame?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:55
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I'm not Flagg so don't quote me but this has The Mossad written all over it. If you see The Mossad tell him Native Dancer in the 4th at Belmont.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:48
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What's new is the ability of these vans to "drive by" whole streets at normal speed and examine each and every vehicle it passes. The manufacturer's website describes this capability in more detail and provides a video, complete with cheerful music, showing how the equipment can turn everything it passes into the opacity of clear glass. The backscatter X-ray is tuned to organic wavelengths, enabling it to find hidden people and explosive. But this is not all it can do. For an optional extra, the Z-Backscatter Van can also find those pesky dirty bombs and nuclear weapons that every well-managed city wants to be rid of, all at a low price and in an environmentally responsible manner: getting frisked by the Z-Backscatter Van only requires an exposure equivalent to a fifteen minute flight on a commercial aircraft.
The July 23 bombings at Sharm al-Shaykh offered a harsh reminder that Egypt remains vulnerable to Islamists who see terrorism as their only viable means of affecting political change. The attacks, which left at least sixty-four dead and more than two hundred injured, were the deadliest to be carried out by Islamist extremists in the last two decades. And the participation of Sinai Bedouin youths in the attacks points to a dangerous development in terrorist activities in the region.
Three major Islamist political groups are active in Egypt:
⢠The Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The longest established of the three, the MB dissociates itself from any terrorist activity and is more or less tolerated by the regime.
⢠The Jamaa Islamiyya, or Islamic Group (IG). Starting in 1992, the IG backed a terror campaign in the Nile River Valley against Egyptian officials and tourists. The campaign was aimed at weakening the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and responding to security forces' brutal treatment of Islamist militants. Local terrorists carried out the attacks in the Nile region, sparing Sinai from any serious incidents. In 1997, a desire to follow the MB's path to mainstream political legitimacy led the IG to halt the terror campaign with an unconditional ceasefire. Since then, IG leaders have published books preaching a nonviolent discourse, and Egypt saw a lull in terrorist attacks.
⢠Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ). In the late 1990s, EIJ leadership split over the issue of renouncing violence. The group's leaders inside Egypt preferred to follow the MB and IG on a nonviolent path, but the group's current leader and al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, refused to give up violence.
The October 2004 bombings in Taba heralded the start of a new terror campaign in Egypt. The campaign has continued with apparently related attacks on tourists in Cairo in April and the bombings at Sharm al-Shaykh. The MB firmly condemned the attacks, while the IG and the EIJ did not claim responsibility for these acts. Instead, three previously unknown groups claimed responsibility for the Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh attacks: the Abdalla Azzam Brigades of al-Qaeda in the Levant and Egypt, the Holy Warriors of Egypt, and the Egyptian Tawheed Wal Jihad Movement. Little is known about these new groups, which may not even exist. Established groups often claim responsibility for attacks under different names to evade government crackdowns.
The timing of the recent bombings have symbolic significance in Egyptian politics.
July 23 is the Egyptian national holiday, the anniversary of Gamal Abdel Nasserâs 1952 coup that overthrew the monarchy; the current regime draws its legitimacy from the political order Nasser established. The Sharm al-Shaykh bombings were also timed to intrude on Mubarakâs campaign for a fifth term as president in elections scheduled for September 7. Just two days before the attacks, Mubarak delivered an address to the Military Academy touting the stability, security, democracy, and economic progress he provided Egyptians in the last two decades. And the attacks came two days before Mubarak officially declared his candidacy.
The Taba bombings took place on October 7, one day after the anniversary of the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel. Mubarak portrays himself as a hero of that war, and the Taba bombings struck a border town that is popular with Israeli tourists and a frequent site for Israeli-Arab peace talks.
The recent attacks were the first Islamist violence in the Sinai Peninsula and the first terrorist attacks in Sharm al-Shaykh, a city known as the most secure in Egypt. Indeed, Mubarak spends much of the year there, and the resort regularly hosts international conferences on the peace process and counterterrorism. Sharm al-Shaykh is also a tourist center, with about $6 billion in revenues last year, and one of Egypt's leading sources of foreign currency.
The sophistication of the attacks in Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh could point to foreign involvement. Further, the groups that claimed responsibility for the bombings linked the attacks to the larger global jihadist movement against the West and its allies.
The logistics of the attack suggest the involvement of Sinai Bedouins. This marks the first Bedouin involvement in violence against the Egyptian state. Though Sinai Bedouins are part of the Egyptian social fabric, they see themselves as a distinct ethnic group -- Arabs with nomadic roots in Arabia, Jordan, and Palestine different from Nile Valley Egyptians, whose ancestors were farmers and who mainly claim descent from ancient Egyptians. The development of tourism in southern Sinai since the 1980s brought prosperity to the southern Bedouin tribes while the northern tribes were left without any significant source of legal income. Poor economic conditions and political frustration created ideal circumstances for extremist organizations to recruit militants among northern Sinai Bedouin youths. Young men from northern Sinai took part as terrorists in both the Taba and Sharm al-Shaykh bombings.
After the Taba bombings, human rights organizations reported that Egyptian security forces arrested up to 2,400 Bedouins, including women and children, out of a population of around 100,000. The crackdown radicalized some Bedouins, who became willing to collaborate in a vengeance against the state. Similar security measures used in the Nile Valley during the 1980s and 1990s led to a spiral of violence between security forces and supporters and families of suspected terrorists. The same seems to be happening now in Sinai.
The Sinai Peninsula is at the crossroads of Gaza, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The collaboration of Sinai Bedouins with terrorist organizations could have dangerous consequences for the region.
Assuming Mubarak starts a fifth term in office in September, he will have two options for addressing the new wave of terror.
First, Mubarak could use security imperatives and the war on terror to justify a continuing denial of genuine political reform. That was his pretext for the absence of democratic reform in the 1980s and 1990s -- indeed, Mubarak justified regressive steps, such as the Emergency Law, press restrictions, and barriers to political organization and public protest, as necessary measures to protect Egypt from religious extremism. These policies radicalized the Islamists and curtailed the democratic opposition's efforts to become a viable political alternative. Notably, the official Egyptian press has not used the latest attacks to justify the lack of democratic reform. Instead, it has focused on promoting the limited reforms Mubarak has allowed and countering opposition claims that these reforms are merely symbolic.
A much more viable solution to the problem of Egyptian political violence would be to offer genuine reform. Real political opening would provide an opportunity for the discontented to express their grievances within a democratic framework. Substantive reform would reduce the temptation to use violence to achieve political change. To be sure, tough security measures are necessary, but they are insufficient. If President Mubarak adopts them without real reform, Egypt risks the perpetual resurgence of violence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:51 ||
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A much more viable solution to the problem of Egyptian political violence would be to offer genuine reform. Real political opening would provide an opportunity for the discontented to express their grievances within a democratic framework.
#2
works fine if the winning party will continue with real elections. No Islamist power elected to the head has allowed fair, free elections, and relinquished power IIRC. See "President for as long as I friggin' want" Arafat
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 20:19
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GOVERNMENT troops stormed Friday a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, Sulu province, barely two days after 26 people were injured in twin bombings here blamed to the militant group tied to al-Qaeda terror network, officials said.
Officials said a still undetermined number of militants were either killed or wounded, but a government soldier was also injured in the fierce fighting that erupted in the hinterland of Indanan town.
"One of our soldiers was injured and initial reports suggested that many terrorists were either killed or wounded. Fierce fighting is still going on," said Brigadier General Alexander Aleo, the island's military commander.
Troops stormed a suspected Abu Sayyaf hideout in Tarang village after intelligence reports said two militant leaders, Albader Parad and Umbra Gumbahali Jumdail, alias Dr Abu Pula, were spotted there.
"It was not immediately known if Parad and Jumdail were killed or wounded in the attack, but we will get all of them dead or alive," the general said.
The duo were among a dozen known Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the United States in connection with the killing of Californian tourist Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burham in 2002.
Government forces captured early this year Parad and Jumdail's jungle camp in Jolo's Karawan mountain complex after killing and wounding more than three-dozen militants in two weeks of fierce fighting.
Authorities blamed the Abu Sayyaf and its ally the Jemaah Islamiya in Wednesday bombings in Zamboanga City that destroyed several buildings in the busy business district and is notorious for kidnapping foreigners and local traders in the southern Philippines and holding them for hefty ransoms.
The government offensive came barely a day after President Gloria Arroyo condemned the bombings and ordered the police and military to get to the root of the attacks and bring their perpetrators to justice.
A police spokesman, Leopoldo Bataoil, on Friday said they would mount pre-emptive strikes against the Abu Sayyaf group and their allies. "We will hold pre-emptive strikes and hunt down terrorists in their known hideouts," he said.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales earlier said at least 10 Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya bombers are in the Philippines and were planning to mount a series of attacks and claimed the latest explosions could be part of a larger terror plot.
Security forces are on heightened alert in the southern Philippines following the two Abu Sayyaf bombings. Soldiers and policemen, backed by armored vehicles, were spotted patrolling downtown Zamboanga since the bombings.
The first bomb, planted under a parked mini-van along Campaner Street. in downtown Zamboanga, exploded around 7.20 p.m., wounding a group of civilians. The powerful blast destroyed the van completely and damaged two small buildings nearby. A second explosion 30 minutes later ripped through the second floor of a three-storey building in Climaco Street just 50 meters away from the main police headquarters.
No group claimed responsibility for the explosions, but military and police blamed the bombings to the Abu Sayyaf group, tagged in previous attacks in the south that killed and wounded hundreds of people the past decade.
Last week, security forces arrested here an Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker Alex Alvarez, who is blamed for the series of bombings since 2002 that killed dozens of people, including a US soldier participating in an anti-terror training with Filipino troops.
Authorities suspect the attacks were in retaliation for his arrest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:50 ||
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A Belgian court will decide next week whether to put 14 suspects on trial on charges of belonging to a group blamed for the Madrid and Casablanca bombings, which killed more than 200 people.
The court will base its decision on the findings of Examining Magistrate Daniel Fransen, whose investigation led to a series of arrests which began last year.
The suspects face charges of belonging to a cell of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), providing false papers and other logistical help to members elsewhere in Europe.
Fransen's investigation has already led to the arrest and extradition of Youssef Belhadj to Spain, where he was wanted on suspicion of being the al Qaeda spokesman who claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings on a videotape in 2004.
But the federal prosecutor's office said the 14 suspects who may stand trial in Brussels were not implicated in any attack.
"It does not concern Madrid or Casablanca," the office spokeswoman Lieve Pellens said on Friday.
Known by its French acronym, the GICM is listed by the United States as a terrorist group whose aim is to establish an Islamic state in Morocco and support al Qaeda's struggle against Western countries.
Some of the GICM's members are suspects in the Madrid bombings that killed 190 people.
The case of the 14 suspects would be Belgium's third prominent anti-terrorist trial since the Sept. 11 attacks led to a crackdown on Islamist militant networks in Western countries.
It would also come under tough new laws in Belgium that explicitly criminalise terrorist activities.
Belgium's last case led to the October 2004 conviction of Islamist militants for ties to groups supporting al Qaeda.
A previous trial resulted in the jailing of a former professional soccer player, Tunisian Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi, for plotting to blow up a military base.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:45 ||
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Are they going to round up the usual suspects, then?
Only peripherally related to the WoT, but it struck me as kind of interesting and more than a little bit odd.
President Arroyo could ask the House of Representatives to throw out the impeachment complaint against her for allegedly cheating in last yearâs presidential election on the grounds that the main evidence has been digitally altered, her spokesman said yesterday.
Environment Secretary Michael Defensor, Mrs. Arroyoâs acting spokesman on the impeachment case, said Malacañang will present to the House committee on justice a technical analysis of the audio recordings allegedly detailing Mrs. Arroyoâs phone conversations with an election official to prove that they had been "spliced."
But Sen. Panfilo Lacson, skeptical of Defensorâs claim, challenged the administration yesterday to have their respective copies of the audio recordings analyzed together â a challenge that Defensor accepted.
The committee will begin hearings on the impeachment complaint next week to determine whether it is "sufficient in form and substance" to be sent to the Senate for trial.
Defensor said while it was possible that the voice heard on the tapes was Mrs. Arroyoâs, bits and pieces of different telephone conversations she had with other people could have been digitally stitched together to give the impression that the voices were conspiring to rig the May 2004 presidential vote.
"The tapes they made us hear are full of lies. That was her voice but she was not the one talking. The conversations have been manipulated," Defensor said at a news conference where the Arroyo administration released a technical study of the tapes earlier provided by the opposition loyal to deposed President Joseph Estrada.
"It is an electronic and digital manipulation to link the President to cheating and rigging," he said.
Unless the opposition lawmakers that sponsored the case can prove that the tapes were not tampered with, "then the impeachment complaint should be thrown out," Defensor said. "No technical studies have been done on the recordings."
Defensor disclosed that a copy of the tape was sent to an American expert on sound analysis, Barry Dickey, to determine the recordingsâ authenticity.
Dickey is a forensic expert of Audio Evidence Lab, a Texas company that specializes on analyzing audio and video evidence.
Dickey had examined a tape of Saudi terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaeda leader exhorted Muslims around the world to declare a "holy war" on the United States.
The tape was found in a house in Afghanistan by US soldiers shortly after the 2001 invasion.
AELâs website states that the company has experience in examining evidence from over 1,000 cases in the United States and Europe.
Dickey has provided "expert testimony on issues involving both audio and video evidence. Utilizing DSP technology, analytical equipment, and microscopic resolution, Mr. Dickey employs scientifically accepted techniques to provide the critical evidence required in the courtroom," according to the company website.
Citing Dickeyâs report, Defensor said some parts of the recordings were "questionable due (to) the sudden change in male voice/verbal pattern and surrounding events" while other segments were "not consistent with the rest of the recording."
"The incriminating quotes were spliced. They spliced the sentences, doctored the conversations to make it appear that there is an intention to rig the elections," Defensor said.
He said the recordings were sent to Dickey through a local sound engineer, Jonathan Tiongco, who had met with Defensor recently.
Tiongco told the same press conference that he had presented his own initial analysis of the recordings to Defensor and told him that he doubted the recordingsâ authenticity. That prompted Defensor to seek Dickeyâs expertise.
Using an approach called "audio method of time expansion" which analyzes the pronunciation of words, Tiongco said the part of the tape in which Mrs. Arroyo was purportedly heard "rigging" the vote count had been manipulated or altered.
When slowed down and broken into syllables, Tiongco said, the now well-known phrase "yung dagdag, yung dagdag (the additional votes, the additional votes)" came out as "gal-ban-binalbag."
Two other local sound experts, Jim Sarthou and Arnold Jallores, also doubted the recordingsâ authenticity. Sarthou said clicking sounds raised the possibility that the recordings were spliced together while Jallores pointed out that the sound patterns were inconsistent.
Malacañang said Dickeyâs findings vindicated Mrs. Arroyo but acknowledged that the public in the end would have the final say.
"What we are saying is that what many believe may not have any basis in fact," Press Secretary Bunye told reporters. "Itâs very clear that the tapes were tampered with."
President adviser for political affairs Gabriel Claudio said the findings showed that "the root of all the political turmoil we are in is a sinister and utterly malicious attempt to link the President to electoral fraud where none exists."
"Itâs tragic how audiotapes that turn out to be fabricated or tampered could have brought about so much political conflict, turmoil and instability to our nation," he said.
Administration congressmen Prospero Nograles of Davao City and Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City said the impeachment complaint should be junked if the audio recordings were proven to be fake.
Lacson said while he did not question Dickeyâs expertise, he pointed out that Defensor may have sent an edited copy of the recordings and not the original, which Lacson said he possesses.
It appears that there are two versions of the recordings, according to Lacson: one that came from Alan Paguia, a former lawyer of deposed President Joseph Estrada, and another which Defensor had sent to Dickey.
"If he submitted only one set of tapes, then we have two different sets, the public may have reason to get confused," Lacson explained. "If you submit garbage, the authenticator would say that it is garbage. Garbage in, garbage out."
Lacson had commissioned his own tape analysis last June at UniQuest Pty Ltd of the University of Queensland in Australia, which concluded the tape was authentic.
The former national police chief suggested that he and Defensor send their respective tapes to Dickey and UniQuest for verification. "If we submit similar tapes both to UniQuest and Dickey, they should have the same finding," he said.
Defensor was amendable to Lacsonâs suggestion and added he was willing to shoulder the cost in the "spirit of cooperation."
On June 5, Malacañang announced there was a fresh attempt to destabilize the administration with renewed accusations that Mrs. Arroyo had fixed the results of last yearâs presidential election.
Bunye released a pair of CD recordings the following day as part of a preemptive effort to counter the expected poll fraud claims.
The opposition had widely been expected to release copies of the audio recordings, in which Mrs. Arroyo appeared to press for a million-vote margin over action film actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Poe had accused Mrs. Arroyo of robbing him of victory but his electoral protest was junked by the Supreme Court shortly after he died in December of a stroke.
In a news conference Bunye played two CDs for reporters, one which he claimed was a wiretapped cell phone call between Mrs. Arroyo and an election official known only as "Gary," and the other that he claimed used snippets of that call spliced with the voice of a fake Commission on Elections official.
In July, Mrs. Arroyo apologized to the nation for what she described as an improper telephone call to an unidentified election official before Congress could proclaim the winner of the election.
However, she insists she committed no crime and has refused to resign, urging critics to channel their complaints through the impeachment proceedings.
The opposition has also raised other issues in its impeachment complaint, including allegations that Mrs. Arroyoâs family was on the payroll of illegal gambling barons and that Mrs. Arroyo had allegedly engaged in anomalous contracts.
Malacañang, meanwhile, announced that Mrs. Arroyo had appointed three members of a Manila law office as her lead counsel in the impeachment case.
Opposition congressmen filed an impeachment complaint on July 25, the same day Mrs. Arroyo delivered her annual State of the Nation Address.
The opposition had initially shunned the impeachment route, anticipating that Arroyo allies â who outnumber them in the House and the Senate â would block it.
They had hoped to pressure Mrs. Arroyo to leave office through "people power" pressure, but decided to make an impeachment bid after anti-Arroyo protest rallies drew disappointing crowds.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:43 ||
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GMA is not the cleanest woman on earth. But measured against Ping Lacson she is the light of of an angel. Remember Ping ran the secret police under Marcos and recieves all his funding from China. He will give the region away to China if he gets her out of office. Then our problems with the ASG and JI will seem trivial. This will affect the way we fight the insurgencies/terrorists in Asia
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/12/2005 18:19
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Syrian national Louai Sakra, captured at Diyarbakir Airport, appears to be an al-Qaeda region head.
The key al-Qaeda member, who visits Turkey frequently, was hosted by Habib Akdas, the head of al-Qaeda Turkey organization. The bookkeepers of the financing provided by al-Qaeda through Sakra for November 15-20 attacks were Habip Akdas and Gurcan Bac.
Sakra is reported to have consulted Osama bin Laden himself about the plan to attack Israeli cruise ships in Antalya.
Sakra contacted bin Laden three months ago for the last time. Police determined Sakra came to Turkey many times between 1998 and 2000.
The region head, reported to be one of the few persons who can speak with al-Qaeda leader Laden, used his right to remain silent at the police headquarters and prosecutor's office. However, police sent the interrogation minutes to the prosecutor's office.
He was trained by Iraqi insurgents in bomb fabrication as he took part in bomb attacks.
An Istanbul court arrested him after the duration of legal custody expired.
The other Syrian national Hamed Obysi, captured at Antalya was arrested on Wednesday.
"I did not aim to hurt Turkish people. I was to target Israeli tourists. The attack would have taken place in the open sea. No Turk would have been hurt," Sakra reportedly said.
Officials reported he was responsible for al-Qaeda in Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Police indicated Sakra and Obysi, who aimed to attack Israeli cruiser ships at Antalya, came to Antalya to activate the sleeping cells for the purpose.
Sakra is also reported to have rented an eight-meter long boat anchored at Antalya Port.
Security units have begun to chase after the sleeping cells, which are to be commissioned to realize bombing attacks. According to a high-ranking police official, it is not possible for one to sacrifice himself who directly meets with bin Laden, finances many bloody attacks and is the region leader.
The same official claims that $120,000, which was found in Sakra's pocket, had been brought to be given to the families of militants preparing for this activity. This is the reason that the operation is kept secret from the beginning to the end.
Turkish police had first decoded the name Sakra after the suicide attacks in Istanbul. When Adnan Ersoz and Mehmet Ince, who are part of the al-Qaeda Turkey structure, had been detained, they gave the name Louai Sakra.
Sakra's best known code name among al-Qaeda members is Syrian Alaaddin.
Syrian Sakra is registered as financer and among the wanted persons list in the "Al-Qaeda's Turkey Elements" judicial document continuing at Besiktas the 10th High Criminal Court. Intelligence Office gives the following information about Sakra:
The financer of the terrorist activities is referred as having many faces in the intelligence report. His real name is Luayibi Mohammed Hac Bakr al-Saka, born in Syria in 1973 and lives in Europe. He is one of the top-ranking administrators of al-Qaeda and runs the financial work of the organization. "Lian Ben Mohammed Saka," "Abu Mohammed," "Abu Haya al-Suri," and "Ala al-Din" are some of the code names he uses.
Information about Syrian Louai Sakra can be found in the depositions made by Ersoz and Ince. Intelligence reports have that the $50,000 of $150,000 used in the activities were provided by Syrian Sakra when Aktas could not get sufficient financial support from al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:41 ||
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Pakistani security agencies have detained two associates of Osama bin Yousaf, a suspected Islamic militant who was arrested last weekend for his alleged links with Al Qaeda, a news report said on Friday.
Rana Mohammad Tariq and Mohammad Azam were picked up from the eastern Faisalabad city, the daily Times said, quoting unnamed sources. The report did not say when the two were arrested.
Yousaf, an owner of a Public Call Office (PCO) in Faisalabad, was arrested on August 7 and taken to Islamabad for questioning where officials were yet to establish if he had any links with the terrorist network.
Intelligence officials also visited a seminary on Sargodha road, the locality from where Yousaf was rounded up, the report said.
Yousafâs arrest stirred concern in the Western capitals after media reports said he had maps of Britain, Germany and Italy in his laptop.
The chief of the countryâs crisis management cell, Javed Iqbal Cheema, rejected these reports as âtotally rubbishâ, while Information Minister Shaikh Rahisd also described Yousaf as an âinsignificant, low ranking memberâ of an outlawed militant outfit called Lashkare Jhangvi.
Yousaf, whose actual name is said to be Faisal, had set up his PCO after apparently renouncing militancy two years ago and also had a computer, which he was using as an internet cafe, according to officials quizzing the suspect.
He was arrested after the American Cellular Call Tracking System (CCTS) installed at several locations countrywide traced his phone call to Peshawar.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has installed the CCTS as part of intelligence sharing efforts in the ongoing war on terror in Afghanistan. They system monitors phone calls within Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:37 ||
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Yousaf, whose actual name is said to be Faisal, had set up his PCO after apparently renouncing militancy two years ago and also had a computer,
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned that "a small number" of Australians have joined al-Qaeda.
He was speaking about a videotaped message broadcast this week in which a man with an Australian accent threatened attacks against the West.
Australian papers have identified the man, who was dressed in combat gear, as former soldier Matthew Stewart.
"We have reason to believe he is one of a number of Australians who have turned to al-Qaeda," Mr Downer said.
The video, first broadcast by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, shows a man wearing combat gear and a balaclava, and carrying a rifle.
"As you kill us, you'll be killed. As you bomb us, you will be bombed," the man warned, without saying who he represented.
He also criticised US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Following the broadcast, Australian authorities visited Mr Stewart's family, who have not seen him in four years.
A statement issued by the family denied the man in the video was Matthew Stewart, who left the Australian army in 2001 after serving in East Timor.
Mr Downer said Mr Stewart was believed to have links with terrorism.
"He is one of a small number of Australians we have had concerns about in this respect," he said, refusing to specify the exact total.
"Any Australian who thinks that joining al-Qaeda is a way for the future is an Australian who is taking up arms against the Australian people - and will find themselves, if captured, in enormous difficulty," Mr Downer said.
The video's release comes as Australian Prime Minister John Howard is pushing to tighten security laws.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:36 ||
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In the snow-clad mountains near Jalalabad in November 2001, as the Taliban collapsed and al-Qaeda lost its Afghan sanctuary, Osama bin Laden's biographer, Hamid Mir, watched "every second al-Qaeda member carrying a laptop computer along with a Kalashnikov" before they scattered into hiding and exile.
On the computer screens were photographs of the September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.
Al-Qaeda has since become the first guerilla movement in history to migrate from physical space to cyberspace.
With laptops and DVDs, in hideouts and at internet cafes, young code-writing terrorists have sought to replicate the training, communication, planning and preaching facilities they lost in Afghanistan with countless new locations on the internet.
Al-Qaeda suicide bombers and ambush units in Iraq depend on the web for training and tactical support. They rely on the anonymity and flexibility to operate with near impunity.
In Qatar, Egypt and Europe cells affiliated with al-Qaeda that have recently carried out or seriously planned bombings have relied heavily on the internet.
A US State Department expert, Dennis Pluchinsky, said such cases had led Western intelligence agencies and outside terrorism specialists to conclude that the "global jihad movement" had become a "web-directed" phenomenon.
Hampered by the nature of the internet, the government has proven ineffective at blocking or even hindering significantly this vast online presence.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and its offshoots are building a massive and dynamic online library of training materials - some supported by experts who answer questions on message boards or in chat rooms.
They cover how to mix ricin poison; how to make a bomb from commercial chemicals; how to pose as a fisherman and sneak through Syria into Iraq; and how to navigate by the stars while running through a night-shrouded desert. These materials are cascading across the web in Arabic, Urdu, Pashto and other first languages of jihadist volunteers.
The Saudi Arabian branch of al-Qaeda set up an online magazine last year that exhorted potential recruits to use the internet. "Oh mujahid brother, in order to join the great training camps you don't have to travel to other lands," read the inaugural issue of Muaskar al-Battar, or Camp of the Sword. "Alone, in your home or with a group of your brothers, you too can begin to execute the training program."
"Biological Weapons" was the stark title of a 15-page Arabic-language document posted two months ago on the website of the al-Qaeda fugitive leader Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, one of the jihadist movement's most important propagandists, often referred to by the nom de guerre Abu Musab Suri. His document described "how the pneumonic plague could be made into a biological weapon", read a translation by an analyst at the Terrorism Research Centre in the US, Rebecca Givner-Forbes.
Nasar's guide drew on US and Japanese biological weapons programs from World War II and showed "how to inject carrier animals, like rats, with the virus and how to extract microbes from infected blood ⊠and how to dry them so that they can be used with an aerosol delivery system".
Terrorists seek to overcome in cyberspace the obstacles they face from armies and police forces. In planning attacks, radical operatives are often at risk when they congregate at a mosque or cross a border with false documents. They are safer working on the web.
Al-Qaeda's innovation on the web "erodes the ability of our security services to hit them when they're most vulnerable, when they're moving", said Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA unit that tracked bin Laden.
"It used to be they had to go to Sudan, they had to go to Yemen, they had to go to Afghanistan to train." Now, even when such travel is necessary, an operative "no longer has to carry anything that's incriminating. He ⊠doesn't need his blueprints, he doesn't need formulas."
Everything is posted on the web or "can be sent ahead by encrypted internet".
The number of active terrorist-related websites has spread by dissemination since September 11, 2001. When Gabriel Weimann, a professor at the University of Haifa in Israel, began tracking terrorist-related websites eight years ago he found 12. Today he tracks more than 4500. Hundreds of them celebrate al-Qaeda or its ideas, he said. "They are all linked indirectly through association of belief, belonging to some community. "You can see the virtual community come alive."
Apart from its ideology and clandestine nature, the jihadist cyberworld is little different in structure from digital communities of eBay coin collectors or disease groups.
Through continuous online contact such communities bind dispersed individuals with intense beliefs who might never have met one another in the past.
Since the US invasion of Iraq the web's growth as a meeting and training ground has accelerated. Yet al-Qaeda's move into cyberspace is far from total. It has physical sanctuaries or unmolested spaces in Sunni Muslim-dominated areas of Iraq; in ungoverned tribal territories of Pakistan; in the southern Philippines; Africa and Europe still play important roles.
The web's independence of national boundaries and ethnic markers fits exactly with bin Laden's vision for al-Qaeda, which he founded to stimulate revolt among the worldwide Muslim ummah, or community.
In Afghanistan the Taliban banned TV and even toothbrushes as forbidden modern innovations. Yet al-Qaeda, led by educated and privileged gadget hounds, adapted early and enthusiastically to the technologies of globalisation.
Bin Laden used some of the first commercial satellite telephones while hiding in Afghanistan. He produced propaganda videos with hand-held cameras long before the genre became commonplace.
One of al-Qaeda's internet organisations, the Global Islamic Media Front, posts training materials that were used in Afghanistan, Ms Givner-Forbes said.
These sites have converted sections of the web into "an open university for jihad," said Reuven Paz, who heads the Project for the Research of Islamist Movements in Israel. "The main audience are the younger generation in the Arab world" who now can peruse at their own pace "one big madrassa on the internet".
One of the best-known forums that emerged after September 11 was Qalah, or Fortress. It shut down on July 7, hours after a posting claimed responsibility for the London bombings in the name of the Secret Organisation of al-Qaeda in Europe.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a key planner of the September 11 attacks later arrested in Pakistan, used a technique called an electronic or virtual "dead drop", using free public email, to avoid having his emails intercepted, the Israeli researchers said.
Al-Qaeda was well aware of electronic eyes, said John Arquilla, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. "The enemy encrypts everything."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:35 ||
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"The enemy encrypts everything."
Encrypt it with what? Commercially available encryption is a joke. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm not overly concerned with Al-Qaeda finding refuge in CyberSpace.
Nope. The cheapest stuff, if used improperly, is easily broken, but there are plenty of items that are well-nigh unbreakable that anyone can use. Heck, there are companies that will sell you one-time pad CDs. That's absolutely unbreakable (unless your pointy-haired boss decides to reuse the CD to save money).
Poland made an official complaint to the Russian foreign ministry yesterday about attacks on two diplomats who were beaten up outside the country's embassy in Moscow. Yesterday a Polish journalist for the leading Rzeczpospolita daily paper was also beaten, by four men near his Moscow home, the Polish Press Agency reported. The newspaper reported the attack to the Polish embassy in Moscow and the foreign ministry in Warsaw. The incidents have added to the tension that has been growing between Moscow and Warsaw in recent months over a series of issues, including Poland's support last year for the opposition in Ukraine.
I'd guess this is a Russian version of "Cause/Effect"
On Sunday a technical employee of Poland's Moscow mission was attacked by a gang of young men 60 metres from the embassy, and suffered concussion. Three days later, in another attack metres from the same building, an embassy secretary received injuries to the head and chest, as well as a torn ear and bruising.
Message being sent
The Polish protest letter was delivered to the Russian foreign ministry by the Polish ambassador, Stefan Meller, who told Interfax that the beatings were "tragic incidents staged by criminal elements" which were evolving into a "form of politics". He demanded greater security for embassy staff.
The two beatings came a week after the children of three Russian diplomats were attacked in the Polish capital, Warsaw. The three boys and a friend from Kazakhstan, who were aged 13 to 14, were reportedly concussed after being accosted in a park in the city centre and robbed of their mobile phones. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, called the July 31 incident a "crime" and demanded an "adequate" response from the Polish authorities. The Polish ambassador was also summoned to the Russian foreign ministry, yet Warsaw insisted there was no reason its government should apologise for the attack.
So Putin has his own "response".
Warsaw police said yesterday that they had arrested two people suspected of receiving goods stolen in the attack.
Lilya Shevtsova, senior associate from the Carnegie Endowment, in Moscow, said it was unclear if the beatings were directly related to government tensions, but said a recent "chilling in relations between Russia and Poland had got to lower levels of society". She said Polish and Russian media had become "more hostile to each other, with or without reason". Ms Shevtsova added that the hostility had begun after Poland's active role in November's electoral leadership crisis in Ukraine. Poland backed protesters demanding the overturning of the fraudulent victory of the candidate Viktor Yanukovich.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, Poland's president, has also made explicit calls for the overthrow of Moscow's only remaining ally in the region, Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus. Dubbed "the last dictator of Europe", Mr Lukashenko is seeking Russian support to prolong his rule into a third term. Moscow and Minsk are also toying with the idea of forming a union between the two states that would allow President Putin to remain president of the Belarus-Russian union after his second term expires in 2008.
The term "President for Life" comes to mind
Poland also remains partly reliant on Russia for its energy supplies. It was recently dismayed by a Russian deal with Germany to build a direct pipeline via the Baltic sea to Germany, cutting them out of the transit route.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/12/2005
13:35 ||
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Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Government believes former Australian soldier Mathew Stewart trained with al-Qaeda.
But he stopped short of saying that Stewart, who went missing in Afghanistan four years ago, might be the balaclava-wearing terrorist with an Australian accent who was filmed boasting that he had killed US troops in Afghanistan and warning of more attacks on the West.
"I don't want to say too much about him," Mr Downer said. "He is one of a small number of Australians we've had concerns about in this respect.
"⊠we have reason to believe that he is one of a number of Australians who have trained with al-Qaeda. But whether this is the person, that is a matter that is being still considered by the intelligence agencies."
Stewart's mother, Vicky, who lives on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, said in a statement this week that the man in the video was not her son, who she said was traumatised while serving with Australian forces in East Timor.
Prime Minister John Howard said the claims made by the man in the video were chilling. The more he listened to the tape the more like an Australian the man sounded, he said.
Mr Downer said any Australian who joined a terrorist organisation was taking up arms against Australians and their allies.
"These people are not soldiers of an army," he said. "These people are unlawful combatants ⊠they belong to a terrorist organisation.
"In those circumstances they are in a great deal of difficulty if they are detained. It's possible for a country to detain them indefinitely."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said media speculation that Stewart was the man in the video was not helpful.
He said security agencies were investigating the video and should be left to do their work.
A meeting of business leaders and ministers involved in security agreed yesterday that, in the wake of the London Underground bombings, security agencies should be given prompt access to private security videos that could help track down terrorists.
Mr Ruddock said business leaders were keen for Mr Howard to pursue the issue of better access to private closed-circuit television images with state and territory leaders at the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005
13:31 ||
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"In those circumstances they are in a great deal of difficulty if they are detained. It's possible for a country to detain them indefinitely."
Obviously never met an ACLU Lawyer.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/12/2005 13:51
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Obviously never met an ACLU Lawyer.
That's assuming we tell anyone we've picked him up.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/12/2005 15:32
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UNITED NATIONS â A California man was in custody Friday after trying to enter a parking garage near U.N. headquarters with two firearms and a five-gallon container of gasoline in his car, U.N. and police officials said. Vernon Wilker, 59, from Salton City, California, told law enforcement authorities he had a property dispute in California and was coming to the United Nations to file a lawsuit, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
That would make him a left-coast leftist loonie.
Wilker had not yet been charged and was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan criminal court, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's office said.
Wilker, driving a Ford Escort station wagon, was arrested Thursday after attempting to enter a garage under a hotel located across the street from the U.N. headquarters compound on Manhattan's East Side.
Told by a private guard at the garage entrance that his vehicle had to be searched, he asked if a permit was required to carry a .22-caliber revolver, then backed up and left the garage without being searched, Dujarric said.
"I'll be back!"
Wilker returned 10 minutes later and tried to run over the guard to force his way into the garage, Dujarric said.
He's Back!
At that point, a U.S. Secret Service agent standing nearby apprehended the man and turned him over to New York police.
"One nut, ready for pickup!"
Secret Service agents help provide security at the United Nations.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/12/2005
13:15 ||
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Weapons security at the UN has long been tight because the delegates themselves have on average tried to smuggle in guns, knives, poison, even blow-guns at a rate of over 50 confiscations a DAY.
Taiwan has begun deploying home-made cruise missiles on mobile launchers that are capable of hitting major military targets in southeast China, a newspaper here reported Friday.
The China Times said the Hsiung Feng missiles, which have a range of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), were deployed across the island by the defense ministryâs new missile command. The missiles, which each cost some 100 million Taiwan dollars (3.13 million U.S.), were developed by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the paper said. The institute was also developing cruise missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers for further deployment.
The China Times said President Chen Shui-bian had inspected the missile command and witnessed a mock launch of the cruise missiles. The defense ministry declined to comment on the report.
Taiwan reportedly successfully test-fired its first cruise missile earlier this year which flew over 500 kilometers before hitting its target.
Last month the Pentagon released a report warning that China had deployed up to 730 ballistic missiles targeting the island. It said Beijingâs defense build-up could tip the military balance against Taiwan and pose a credible threat to other countries in the region. In a bid to beef up Taiwanâs defense capabilities, the cabinet has approved a revised arms deal worth some 15.5 billion dollars to buy weapons from the United States, its largest arms supplier. The arms package over a 15-year period from 2005, pending approval by parliament, includes eight conventional submarines, a modified version of the Patriot anti-missile system and a fleet of anti-submarine aircraft. The massive budget proposal has stirred heated debate on the island as critics said the spending could further provoke China and heighten cross-strait tensions.
#2
heh heh... a nuke at the base of three gorges would make some wild downstream surfing, except Charlie Chang don't surf
Posted by: Steve Zissou ||
08/12/2005 13:30
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While cruise missiles are good, I think the Taiwanese might be missing the boat here. It is probably better to have a gazillion cheap rockets that cost $100k each as it to have a much smaller number of missiles that cost $3.3M each. By rockets I don't mean completely unguided, just partially guided with simple GPS instead of cruise evasion capability. Two sizes: 500lb bomb for inland attack and 1000lb bomb for coastal attack. A flying engine carrying an iron bomb.
#5
Way back in the '80s it was thought around intel circles that Israel, South Africa [Afrikkaner], and Taiwan were engaged in mutual support in development of nukes. Today we know about the first and the second, so it may well be one of the best kept secrets that they already have the warheads.
#6
I think you've got it.
The biggest danger to Taiwan isn't an invasion, but a blockade - ruin its trade and force it to surrender from economic hardship.
With these missiles Taiwan can retaliate and counter-blockade China. With this range Taiwan can threaten the shipping lanes to Chinas major ports.
#8
Other than China hav ICBM's, there's little in China's current modernizing arsenal that Taiwan can't counter or defeat. As a Socialist and Communist state. China must eventually expand, with military force if need be, or else risk deficit/regressions-induced implosion ala the USSR. CHINA WILL INTERPRETE THE DEPLOYMENT OF CM's AS A SYMBOLIC MOVE BY TAIWAN TOWARDS DE FACTO INDEPENDENCE REGARDLESS OF THE DIPLOMATIC RHETORIC. As the Commies are in their ideo "final struggle/conflict", do not be surprised iff they threaten global nuke war ags the USA-West over anything. EITHER THE USA DIES, OR THEY DIE, AND THEY DON'T WANNA DIE!?
Credit card-size reactors that pump out potent toxins could render international chemical weapons bans impotent, a U.S. military weapons expert said Aug. 11.
Efficient âmicro-reactorsâ make it easy for stockpiles of chemical weapons to be secretly produced, according to Tuan Nguyen of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoryâs Center for Global Security Research.
âThe inherently small physical size of the equipment and small space required make it attractive for clandestine operations,â Nguyen wrote in a paper to be published in the Aug 12 edition of the journal Science.
âThe ability to produce chemicals of interest in a safer and more feasible manner, with little signature produced, could encourage their application for malicious intent,â he explained.
Reactors ranging in size from a notebook to a credit card produce inexpensive, high-grade toxins, according to Nguyen.
Among the chemicals already produced by mini-machines are hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, and methyl isocyanate, he wrote.
Micro-reactor technology was recently put to use in China to make explosively volatile nitroglycerine as quickly as 22 pounds per hour, according to Nguyen.
âAnother danger created by the growing use of micro-reactors is that chemical weapon precursors could be synthesized rather than purchased, making it more difficult to discover the preparation of chemical weapons,â he wrote.
Micro-reactors threaten enforcement of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty banning production, stockpiling and use of toxic arsenals, according to Nguyen.
The treaty has been signed by 170 nations.
âThe key issue with these advancements in science and technology is that itâs going to make it more difficult to monitor and verify compliance of the Chemical Weapons Convention,â Nguyen said.
Nguyen urged the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to form alliances with not only with technology innovators to assess the dangers and find solutions.
He also called for implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, which would tighten controls on chemical weaponry and criminalize proliferation activities.
The lab where Nguyen works is a U.S. weapons research center. The labâs compound about 45 miles southeast of San Francisco is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed by the California university system.
#1
Scary shit. I'm sure there's scarier, but weapons labs in your pocket. Widespread use of nano technology for warmaking is going to make this shit look like child's play too.
The symmetry of our many previous canturies in warfare is out the fucking window with independent mobile manufacturing technology like this.
While South Korea was basically leveled during the Korean War, Mexico has been without a major destruction to its infrastructure for the same period of time. Mexico has vast natural resources, to include large petroleum reserves, and ariable lands when compared to South Korea. South Korea has less than half the population of Mexico. Yet when GDP is compared they are relatively close. [circa 2001: Mexico #11, S.Korea #13] The availability of a physical border to dump its large number of unemployed and disenfranchised poor means the Mexican government will never have to reform to permit its economy grow to support is own population. Those in power have no incentive to change things as the usual factors which cause social unrest and revolution are simply made their neighbor's problem. This is why immigration 'reform' will alter nothing that are the underlying causes of the state sponsored violation of America's sovereign borders.
#1
build the fence - quit the whining and excuses.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 13:42
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Those in power have no incentive to change things as the usual factors which cause social unrest and revolution are simply made their neighbor's problem.
Build a barrier and they'll have to. It won't be our problem anymore.
Video clip interview of Iranian nuke negotiator on MEMRI TV
The following are excerpts from an interview withIranian chief negotiator on nuclear affairs, and member of the Iranian Supreme Council for National Security Hosein Musavian, which aired on Iranian Channel 2 on August 4, 2005
Musavian: Those (in Iran) who criticize us and claim that we should have only worked with the IAEA do not know that at that stage â that is, in August 2003 â we needed another year to complete the Esfahan (UCF) project, so it could be operational. They say that because of that 50-day (ultimatum), we should have kept (the UCF) in Esfahan incomplete, and that we needed to comply with the IAEA's demands and shut down the facilities.
The regime adopted a twofold policy here: It worked intensively with the IAEA, and it also conducted negotiations on international and political levels. The IAEA gave us a 50-day extension to suspend the enrichment and all related activities. But thanks to the negotiations with Europe we gained another year, in which we completed (the UCF) in Esfahan.
[...]
There was a time when we said we would not work with Europe, the world, or the IAEA, and that we would not comply with any of their demands. There were very clear consequences: After 50 days, the IAEA Board of Governors would have undoubtedly handed the Iranian dossier over to the (U.N.) Security Council. There is no doubt about it. As for those who say we should have worked only with the IAEA â this would have meant depriving Iran of the opportunity to complete the Esfahan project in the one-year extension.
Esfahan's (UCF) was completed during that year. Even in Natanz, we needed six to twelve months to complete the work on the centrifuges. Within that year, the Natanz project reached a stage where the small number of centrifuges required for the preliminary stage, could operate. In Esfahan, we have reached UF4 and UF6 production stages.
[...]
We suspended the UCF in Esfahan in October 2004, although we were required to do so in October 2003. If we had suspended it then, (the UCF) in Esfahan would have never been completed. Today we are in a position of power: (The UCF) in Esfahan is complete and UF4 and UF6 gasses are being produced. We have a stockpile of products, and during this period, we have managed to convert 36 tons of Yellow Cake into gas and store it. In Natanz, much of the work has been completed.
[...]
Thanks to our dealings with Europe, even when we got a 50-day ultimatum, we managed to continue the work for two years. This way we completed (the UCF) in Esfahan. This way we carried out the work to complete Natanz, and on top of that, we even gained benefits. For 10 years, America prevented Iran from joining the WTO. This obstacle was removed, and Iran began talks in order to join the WTO. In the past, the world did not accept Iran as a member of the group of countries with a nuclear fuel cycle. In these two years, and thanks to the Paris Agreement, we entered the international game of the nuclear fuel cycle, and Iran was recognized as one of the countries with a nuclear fuel cycle. An Iranian delegate even participated in the relevant talks. We gained other benefits during these two years as well.
[...]
Host: Mr. Musavian, there is a point that our viewers might find interesting - the comparison between Iran's nuclear activity dossier and North Korea's.
[...]
There is a belief that if we adopted the North Korean model, we could have stood much stronger against the excessive demands of America and Europe.
[...]
Musavian: During these two years of negotiations, we managed to make far greater progress than North Korea. North Korea's most important achievement had to do with security guarantees. We achieved the same thing a year ago in the negotiations with the Europeans. They agreed to give us international guarantees for Iran's security, its national rule, its independence, non-intervention in its internal affairs, its national security, and not invading it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005
12:16 ||
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#1
Hey, Europe. This guy just shit all over you. But it's not like we didn't know that was gonna happen...
#2
A certain believer in Kofi's innocence has just been proven wrong again. Looks like Europe's efforts were for nothing, since they were dealing with a dishonest negotiating partner.
Odd. How many of us knew this from the beginning?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 12:55
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#3
Of course they crapped all over Europe - Iran = NOrth Korea, etal > they all but officially want the USA to attack them, pinning down prob 500K US troops EACH NATION while forcing Washington to MILITARIZE/CENTRALIZE everything back in America - read, REGULATE & SUBSIDIZE! 9-11 and the WOT is about PC forcing Failed Leftism-Socialism-Communism/SWO on America and later the world, and ideally without resort to mutually destructive global nuke war. See the Clinton-led DemoLefties -they harshly crticize Dubya, the GOP-RIGHT, and the GOP-led USA as being alleged "FASCIST" while also depending on the "Fascist" GOP-Right to dev and pay for new GLOBAL EMPIRE-MODERNIZATION while Russia-China modernize; and while promo the Dems as the alternate or counter to the "Fascist" GOP-Right. Well, what the alternate or antithesis of Fascism within the context of SOCIALISM - answer, COMMUNISM, where alleged GOP-Rightist-led "Fascist" Authoritarianism isn't enough to serve, save, and protect America vv Communist TOTALITARIANISM. In CLINTON/DEMSPEAK. "FASCISM" is merely DE-REGULATED=COMPETITIVE COMMUNISM. "LIBERALISM", and SOCIALISM, where Fascist = Communist > Limited State-centric Capitalism! WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO IS THAT THE CLINTONS AND CLINTON-LED DEMS ARE WAITING FOR SEVERE OR CATASTROPHIC NEW 9-11's TO OCCUR AGS GOP-LED AMERICA, WHERE THE LEVEL OF CASUALTIES IS HIGH AND IDEALLY DUBYA AND HIS ADMIN IS BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS! GOP AMERICA ERGO GOP-BLAMED. AND WHERE HILLARY IS CONCERNED, BOTH GOP-DEMOCRAT MALE POLITICIANS MUST FAIL LIKE AMERICA. THE LEFTIES PROB IS NOT AMERICA WAGING WAR FOR GLOBAL EMPIRE VV 9-11, THE LEFT'S PROB IS AMERICA DOMINATING OR RULING ITS NEWFOUND GLOBAL EMPIRE, AS THE LEFT DEMANDS ITS UNCONDITIONAL POWER AND UNCONDITIONAL GLOBAL TRIBUTE!?
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An FBI terrorism task force in Los Angeles earlier this week warned of possible Al-Qaeda attacks with tanker trucks in three major US cities around September 11, a media source reported.
Law enforcement officials questioned the reliability of the warning, while government officials who were briefed on it described it as credible and specific enough to warrant attention, said The New York Times. Issued Wednesday, the warning said "Al Qaeda leaders plan to employ various types of fuel trucks as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in an effort to cause mass casualties in the US prior to the 19th of September," according to law enforcement officials who have read it, the daily said.
It warned that terrorist would seek to hijack gasoline or oxygen tankers or trucks and ram them into a gasoline station to cause major explosions."Attacks are planned specifically for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles," it said, adding that it was "unclear whether the attacks will occur simultaneously or be spread out over a period of time." The attackers, the advisory said, "will be members of small Al-Qaeda cells which are spread throughout the US." Their goal, added the advisory, "is to collapse the US economy."
An unnamed law enforcement official told the Times said the advisory had information about "a generic threat ... trucks have been talked about by Al-Qaeda all the time. They used that tactic around the world..."
"The information is uncorroborated, and the source is of questionable reliability," said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse, adding, however, that the information "continues to be evaluated by the intelligence community."
Nevertheless, law enforcement officials interviewed by the daily said they were concerned about possible attacks timed with the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington."There's always that possibility and it's something we always look at very closely because it is such a symbolic day," said a senior Justice Department official who also asked not to be identified.
#1
How many of us have nightmare scenarios -- short of nuclear, and quite possible -- that we refuse to discuss out loud?
This comes quite close to mine.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 11:55
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#2
Semis would work well too. There are a lot of things the terrorists could do, but haven't. Which makes me wonder how effective the cells in the US are now and how much they have been damaged by the WOT.
#4
This is getting to be an annual tradition. Maybe they'll pop the champagne Sept. 12th like the 72 Miami Dolphins do when the last undefeated NFL team loses.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/12/2005 12:05
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#5
"Attacks are planned specifically for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles,"
Somehow, I had a feeling it would be blue areas that would be primary targets.
#6
This is laughable. Ramming a gasoline tanker into a gas station is only going to cause a huge fire, primarily at the gas station and its next-door neighbors. And an oxygen tanker is even sillier -- oxygen is not a fuel and is not explosive. Its hazard is that it will cause a more-intense fire that air will, because the oxygen in air is diluted with nitrogen. Where's the fuel to go with it? In the underground tanks at the station? Finally, many of these tankers have double walls with insulation between them -- it's not like they're going to easily rupture widely by hitting some gas pumps or the gas station building. How often do you hear about tanker fires?
If this is the best AQ can do, they're not much of a threat to western civilization.
#8
So the official terrorism task force of the FBI comes up with the possibility of terrorist attacks around the anniversary of 9-11. Frigging brilliant. My dog could come up with that one for a lot less that the gov't can.
What we need is the public involved in civil defense. We have eyes and ears all over the country. That is how we watch for terrorists. We do not have the infinite resources to have the professionals protect us agains everything imaginable.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/12/2005 15:55
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#9
They also picked up on July 4th and the whole Christmas shopping season (which now begins, I believe, on July 5th.)
What they need to do, actually, is get a big almanac called 'This Day in Islamic History' and find all the dates for battles fought centuries ago. Then they might have something less intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer.
I've been having some trouble with the blogroll. I'm working on it, and I've got a minimalist version up now. Sorry if we're missing any of your favorites -- they will be back.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
11:36 ||
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#1
Thank God.... I was already having Lipades(sp) withdrawalls
The war against the insurgency in Iraq is continuing. Violence, intimidation, killing of innocents and coalition soldiers goes on with ups and downs, but the civil war that Al Zarqawi so much desires does not seem to be on the cards. What must be worrying the al Queda leaders at the moment is the constitutional process reaching its result (however imperfect) in August and the following December elections; this will not stop the violence (in fact it might increase it), but each event will be another nail in the coffin of terrorism in general. Strangely enough, it has been the terrorists and their senseless massacres to show the whole world (more than Bush speeches) the importance of a democratic Iraq and its importance for the entire Middle East. Terrorists will now have to go for broke (a recent rumor gives Bin Laden on the march toward Iraq) and hope, at best, for a continued âresistanceâ, with the undesired side effect of keeping the coalition forces in Iraq indefinitely.
Even if the terrorists enjoy some support from disgruntled Sunnis and Saddamites, they have completely alienated the population and must realize that this is no way to lead a successful insurgency. Furthermore, they live under the constant threat that the foreign support they receive could cease abruptly; Syria and/or Iran might abandon them to their destiny if, because of increased pressure from the US or a perceived advantage, it would fit their agendas.
Another big mistake was letting the attacks in the London tube to be carried out; if the terroristsâ leaders thought they could bend the UK like Spain, they grossly miscalculated. In fact, the reaction of Mr. Blair was almost of relief; it was high time â and now I can do it, he seemed to be thinking â to pass legislation that would effectively protect the country and do away with misconceived multiculturalist approaches to integration. In addition, Europe seems to have been waiting for exactly this move by Blair, and France, Italy and Germany are speedily catching up.
Undoubtedly more blood will be shed and more innocent people will suffer because of these maniacs and their perverse ideology but, contrary to current opinion that equals terrorists to âevil geniusesâ, it would appear that they have an uncanny tendency to shoot themselves in the foot.
Soaring oil prices are now hitting Norwegian motorists at the gas pump, and things could easily get worse."We are at NOK 11.32 per liter. This is an all time high for Shell in Norway," Shell information chief Jacob OlsbÞ told newspaper Finansavisen.
Statoil raised its liter price on gasoline to NOK 11.28 in July and Esso followed suit this Monday, pricing its Leadfree 95 at NOK 11.33 per liter. One comfort for Norwegian motorists is that a relatively weak dollar has kept gas prices from rising even more... Suckers! SUCKERS!!! GAS IS CHEAP! IT'S YOUR GOVERNMENT THAT IS TAXING THE HELL OUT OF YOU! LISTEN UP! IT'S ALL TAXES! T-A-X-E-S! TAXES!
#1
Maybe Norway should launch a "Blood for Oil" war!
Isn't Norway one of those "socialist" paradises where children have ice cream smiles and eyes that drip sugary bubblegum droplets... oh no ... sorry, I believe that was Sean Penn's reflection on Iraq.
http://www.teamamerica.com/ Go to Film Clips, A MESSAGE FROM SEAN PENN
#2
As an American who went to Oslo earlier this year for a wedding and spoke politics with a number of Norge's, I was impressed with the depth they discussed American politics. I often will humorously bait a conversation by saying "Maybe you folks just aren't paying enough taxes" when talking to people from Jersey or Europe. My host calculated that his tax bite, after property, sales and user based taxes, was probably close to 70%.
They had to have a permit to drive with studded snow tires, ferchristsakes! A fair amount of "off the books" horse trading appears to go on.
Their Viking ancesters must be rolling in their burial mounds.
Biggest concerns? How will our kids get by...
#3
This oil situation is going to reach its breaking point soon, and the people who have been gouging the market and running the price through the roof for their own ends deserve to burn in white man's hell. This is going to drag us to the ground if we dont get it off our back, but do you hear anyone talking about real, workable, sensible alternatives to foriegn oil?
#4
Actually, several. First of all, we are not at *peak oil*, so the #1 problem is price. US contracts are long term, so the price for gas in the US is low. It could be reduced another 50% if the federal and State governments stopped taxing it which is a *very* reasonable thing to do.
Second, the high price of crude is *only* for LS (Light, Sweet (high octane/low sulfur)) oil on the "spot market", the volatile stock market for small quantities of crude oil not purchased through long term contracts. Basically the difference between wholesale and retail. People only buy in the spot market if they have to, if their demand exceeds their expectations, and they have to have the extra oil at whatever price the market says.
Because this volatility only exists in less than 1% of the entire LS market, which is only part of the entire crude market, virtually anything that a big consumer like the US does to conserve fuel or to use alternative fuel, can radically affect the spot market, driving prices much lower.
This means, for example, that every 100,000 hybrid cars produced can slash the spot market; or if next years' models are slightly more fuel efficient; or even if it is a warm winter (fuel oil).
The people who get caught in the middle of all of this are the refineries. They get whipsawed between the LS spot market and consumption, so they are as conservative as little old ladies. First, they *all* only want to refine the best LS, not heavy/sour, which is much harder to crack and has lower profit margins. Second, they are often pressured by governments, plural, to make poor economic decisions. Third, they make the most money by producing exactly what the market wants, or just slightly less. If they produce too much, then it is sold at a discount and they lose money.
All told, it is a complex and fairly efficient system, except for the taxes part.
HT : Drudge
Two teenagers performed a caesarean section on a dead cat they found along a New Brunswick road, saving two of four kittens. Monica Castonguay, 15, and Kim QuimpÚre, 13, said they found the animal on July 31 while they were on their way for a walk in the woods near St. Quentin, a town in northwestern New Brunswick.
They told a French-language newspaper, the Acadie Nouvelle, that they recognized the cat and knew it was pregnant. After discovering that the cat's body was still warm, they decided to try to save its kittens â even though neither of them knew how to do a caesarean section or had studied biology.
Kim borrowed a sweater, knife and some cotton swabs from a nearby house. They decided Monica would do the surgery. She told the newspaper she wasn't sure where to cut, but made an incision into the mother cat's belly and could see the kittens. She pulled them out and found that two of four kittens were still alive, so she cut their umbilical cords and wiped the mucus from their noses.
Kim bundled the kittens carefully in the sweater, then the teens raced home with them. They telephoned several people but were unable to reach a veterinarian.
That evening, a cat in the neighbourhood that had recently lost its brood heard the kittens mewing and adopted them. One of the kittens later died but the other was adopted by Monica.
The teens said the experience in no way swayed them toward becoming doctors or veterinarians. Kim told the newspaper that she found the experience interesting but rather nauseating. The kitten resembles "Martin Whiteshoes", my cat at that age. As a kitten he was originally 1-1/2 lbs, he is now the 14-lb bane of all lizards, mice, birds and even rats within a half block area of my house... These young women will have their hands full in about 6 months! Unlike California, residence of Martin, there are no lizzards in Canada...
#2
I knew a hard 'n' crusty fifty year old rancher whose even harder 'n' crustier father lived in a cabin on the Mogollon (Muggy-oon) Rim, in the pine forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. The son was visiting his father when he heard a hair-raising shriek, like a baby in intense pain, and into the open front door walked a bobcat. After telling his son to get off the table, the old man explained that he had adopted the bobcat ("Bob") as a kitten, and knew it was a wild animal, but for a big can of Alpo a day, the bobcat kept away the vermin and the solicitors. They were of similar temperament, so got along fine. "However," the old man added, "I'm not crazy like that S.O.B. a few miles East of here who keeps two wolverines in his front yard."
âYou will find that the Jews were behind all the civil strife in this world. The Jews are behind the suffering of the nations.â
When and where did that venom come from?
This last May â and out of the hateful mouth of a prominent Palestinian cleric, Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris. He was broadcast on a Palestinian Authority station. The televised Sheik finished with an even more frightening thought: âThe day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews â even the stones and trees which were harmed by themâŠThe stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.â
Nothing could be clearer than that promise of another holocaust â and promised explicitly on state-run Palestinian television, a public megaphone of the Palestinian Authority, itself the beneficiary of past and apparently promised future American financial aid. Still, donât hold your breath that the passive/aggressive sheik is about to lead a pan-Islamic army a few miles across the border to âfinish off every Jew,â since he might then end up like Sheik Ahmed Yassin, whose threats of death earned him instead an early paradise.
Throughout this war we have an understandable, if ethnocentric, habit of ignoring what our enemies actually say. Instead we chatter on, donât listen, and in self-absorbed fashion impart our own motives for their hatred. We live on the principles of the Enlightenment and so worship our god Reason, thus assuming that even our adversaries accept such rational protocols as their own. So they talk on and on of beheading, suicide bombing, another holocaust, and blowing thousands of us up, while we snooze, now and again waking in the midst of a war to regurgitate Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, flushed Korans, the abusive Patriot Act, and the latest quip of Donald Rumsfeld.
But again keep quiet, and listen to radical Islam. Take the August 4 declaration of al Qaedaâs second in command, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. He promises even âmore destructionâ for London, and tells us precisely why. Many in the West assume that those mass murders were payback for the United Kingdomâs presence in Iraq, even though its troops are mostly confined to non-Wahhabi areas in the south. But no, the Dr. instead lists a number of grievances beyond Iraq that justify his terrorist cadres murdering innocents. One complaint, for example, is âStopping the robbing of our oil and resources.â
Examine that gripe carefully. Oil is now at record highs. I just filled up with regular gas at $2.89 on a California interstate. It costs the Middle East about $3-4 a barrel to pump petroleum that was discovered, developed, and marketed for the Gulf autocracies through hated Western expertise â and is now selling at over $60. Despite Zawahiriâs rants, billions of poor the world over are being price gauged to enrich a Muslim world flush with petrodollars. And some of those obscene profits have ended up in coffers of Zawahiri himself. Indeed, his al Qaeda blackmailers depend on recycled petrodollars from Gulf State sheikdoms. Nothing either he or bin Laden has ever done themselves warrants the type of cash that flowed into al Qaedaâs banks â a con operation that extorted oil dollars from autocratic price gougers who in turn got their revenues largely from inventive and productive Indians, Chinese, and Westerners.
Zawahiri next went on to cite, âStopping your support for the corrupt and corrupting leaders.â Did the terrorist Dr. read the text of Condoleezza Riceâs June 20 address in Cairo? There she rightly repudiated past American realpolitik that blinked at Arab dictatorships, and then prodded Arab governments to democratize? Or maybe it was precisely that fresh support for democracy that grieves Zawahiri?
For clarification of al Qaedaâs ideas about democracy, we can turn to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the spiritual leader of the terrorists in Iraq. He recently warned that, âWe have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology.â That pathological hatred of democracy was also amplified in the latest al Qaeda video of August 10: âDemocracy, human rights, and freedom are all but hollow illusions, with which they tranquilize inhabitants.â Western critics of Americaâs attempt to introduce democratic reconstruction in Iraq should ask why al Qaeda is so furious at the effort. The answer is clear: Radical Islam can no longer blame the United States for propping up dictators, but instead is terrified that there is a third choice â the peopleâs freedom â between creepy strongmen and even creepier pre-modern theocrats...
Yet there is one and only one legitimate objection of the crackpot radical Islamists that rings true: We in the West donât listen to them when they promise us our deaths. We should. They are yelling as loud as they can to tell us something that we donât really want to hear.
â Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His website is victorhanson.com.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
10:45 ||
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A Taliban commander was shot dead and an American soldier died in a training accident as violence continued ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, officials said on Friday. A homemade bomb also exploded on Friday in a busy market in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding four people including a woman and child.
A U.S. military statement said Taliban commander Qari Amadullah was killed near Wazikhwa in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. "Amadullah was believed to have commanded up to 50 Taliban fighters in the region and was thought to be in possession of a number of weapon systems to include rockets and rocket propelled grenades," it said. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi confirmed the incident. Amadullah was killed during a clash with Afghan soldiers and U.S. paratroopers in which five other militants died and three U.S. servicemen were wounded. "Killing this individual will significantly disrupt Taliban operations in the region," said U.S. Brigadier-General James G. Champion.
Presumably this isn't the same Qari who was the Talibs' intel chief. Either that, or this is the second time he's been killed.
Seven lives to go ...
The U.S. military also said one American soldier died in a training accident involving explosives near Tarin Kot in the southern province of Kandahar. The death brought to six the number of U.S. military personnel killed this month in Afghanistan, three of whom died in combat. Forty-one U.S. servicemen have died combat in Afghanistan this year -- the bloodiest period for Washington since it sent troops to help overthrow the Taliban in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers, police and civilians have also been killed in fighting led by remnants of the Taliban in the run-up to September 18 parliamentary polls, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability. This week alone, Afghan and U.S. officials have reported the deaths of more than 40 insurgents.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
10:30 ||
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#1
41 U.S. servicemen have died tying to help those assholes, I hope history shows them to be worth it. I think the Taliban must really have nothing better to do with their time than get killed 5 or 6 at a time, is there a running total of dead taliban since the invasion?
I think "Taliban" is a misnomer, though. I've started thinking of the whole bunch just as Pashtuns, and I might refine that further to just Wazirs.
I think right now we're at war with Waziristan (north and south and possibly west) in Afghanistan. Paul Maloney and Dan D. might have different opinions, but the evidence seems to say that's the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 12:28
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#3
Just that there's also a sizeable base that the bad guys have the Baluchistan as well. Most of the attacks against Shi'ites in the NWFP and that area aren't quite as senseless as they seem - they're designed to intimidate the Shi'ite minority against working with the US.
Also, keep in mind that for all practical purposes al-Qaeda and its local offspring are basically running these areas with the MMA serving as their legitimate cover. If the Pakistanis were willing to admit that they'd lost control of their own territory (which they have by any reasonable standard) then we could forego the niceties and launch a conventional military campaign to destroy the enemy infrastructure there.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/12/2005 13:20
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#4
Qari Amadullah should have taken his cue from mullah Omar..."Stay in the deepest side of the hole"!
#5
I think the ISI is playing the same game in Waziristan that they have played in Afghanistan for the previous 20 years, and in Kashmir for the previous 15 years.
I would expect that the location of the entire Taliban leadership is known to the ISI, and the Jihadi training camps that were recently reopened in Mansehra are only a fraction of the training camps operating in other even more isolated locations.
I think Mullah Diesel probably revealed the scope of the support when he accused the Pak government of arranging trouble free infriltration of Jihadis from Waziristan into Afghanistan. Before he claimed he was 'misquoted' of course.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/12/2005 20:02
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For years, skeptics of global warming have used satellite and weather balloon data to argue that climate models were wrong and that global warming isn't really happening. Among other arguments, but who's counting?
Now, according to three new studies published in the journal Science, it turns out those conclusions based on satellite and weather balloon data were based on faulty analyses. Wait'll you get a load of their analyses (see below)!
The atmosphere is indeed warming, not cooling as the data previously showed. Opinion as fact, eh?
While surface thermometers have clearly shown that the Earth's surface is warming, ... (especially in urban, asphalted, concreted, no tree areas, but I digress)
... satellite and weather balloon data have actually suggested the opposite, that the atmosphere was cooling.
Scientists were left with two choices: either the atmosphere wasn't warming up, ... (horrors! We must study it again until we get the results I want! Jeeves, fetch me my Standard Gov't Grant Application form...we need to study this more!)
... or something was wrong with the data. "But most people had to conclude, based on the fact that there were both satellite and balloon observations, that it really wasn't warming up," said Steven Sherwood, a geologists at Yale University and lead author of one of the studies.
Oops! (Oh, you snarky, sarcastic "reporter" you!)
Sherwood examined weather balloons known as radiosondes, which are capable of making direct measurements of atmospheric temperatures. For the past 40 years, radiosonde temperature data have been collected from around the world twice each day, once during the day and once at night.
But while nighttime radiosonde measurements were consistent with climate models and theories showing a general warming trend, daytime measurements actually showed the atmosphere to be cooling since the 1970's. Which baffled my mind, as the sun's shining on us during the day. But that was before I read their analysis below. I'm enlightened now!
Sherwood explains these discrepancies by pointing out that the older radiosonde instruments used in the 1970's were not as well shielded from sunlight as more recent models. What this means as that older radiosondes showed warmer temperature readings during the day because they were warmed by sunlight. So, wouldn't this show "warming" even back during the 70's? And, yet, the trend was that it was cooling. So, to sum it up class, these radiosondes were exposed to sunlight, heated up all because of the sun, and yet, the trend was that these monitors showed cooling during the day. And, oh yeah, it's Bush's fault. Ya know, he's tied to Halliburton, who runs the sun. Why can't they look at this data (sun warming up monitors) and look into other explanations, like, oh, the increase in sun's activities/solar flairs as of late. But, I'm just a dumb, red-state engineer, whadda I know?
"It's like being outside on a hot dayâit feels hotter when you are standing in the direct sun than when you are standing in the shade," Sherwood said. Genius, pure genius!
Nowadays, radiosondes are better insulated against the effects of sunlight, but if analyzed together with the old dataâwhich showed temperatures that were actually warmer than they really wereâthe overall effect looked like the troposphere was cooling. Wha? Higher temps somehow showed cooling? I don't know. Again, here the details are important. If the measurements were 2-3 degrees higher due to the sun, wouldn't that show the troposphere is cooler than we thought? And, again, it's all in the TREND. Even if each day's reading was high, if the trend is going down, that's good news (if you assume the error was pretty much consistent each day).
The discrepancy between surface and atmospheric measurements has been used by for years by skeptics who dispute claims of global warming.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005
10:09 ||
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#1
Once again, the fallacy of trying to interpret 4.5 billion years of climate change by just looking at the last 30 years. The earth does wobble on its axis every 26,000 years, the climate changes because of sun exposure. The sun warms and cools every few thousand years and causes the earth's climate to change with it. The earth has been warming continuously since the end of the last ice age some 120,000 years ago, the earth did not have ice caps from 120 million BC to 65 million BC, and yet the climate Nazis are screaming because of an average .5 degree C climate change.
#3
Evidence from physical and biological systems indicates that the Earth is currently in a warming phase. Nothing new here. Not long ago, geologically speaking, my current residence was under a half mile or so of ice. Long before that, the arctic was rather tropical. Things change.
Where the debate ( and the chicken-little eco-hysteria ) comes in is over the causes and implications of the facts. Why is it happening and what if anything should or can we do about it. This part gets rather complicated since we are dealing with chaotic, non-linear systems and they just don't respond in ways that we consider 'common-sense'. A small change in an input can cause a huge change in an output. The straw that broke the camels back is a folksy illustration.
An example of how complicated climate can be is a theory by a geologist at Michigan State back in the '80s. He figured that global warming could cause an ice age. Sounds silly, right? How can warming cause cooling? Consider that warming means more water in the atmosphere. More water vapor means more clouds. Clouds reflect heat before it reaches the ground. Things get colder. How a scenario like this actually plays out all depends on the numbers and relationships. Remember we are talking non-linear systems.
Personally, after my first winter in the north in a decade, I'm ready for a little global warming and if I have to burn a pile of truck tires in the driveway to make it happen, so be it.
#4
Good points, Steve. What I was trying (albeit, very sarcastically) to point out. Even if it is warming, we are not 100% to blame. In fact, I personally doubt if we're 30% to blame. But you try to speak that in those circles and you'll get shouted down quicker than you can say "Just another opinion."
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 11:18
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#5
That Mars is warming provides more proof of the insidious nature of greenhouse gases.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 11:29
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#6
If everyone will just move to my Left, we can get that wobble cranked up again. The 4° tilt is a "good thing" - the wobble is a "bad thing". I hope that clarifies things.
#8
I read an interview this morning with the scientist who is famous for predicting the number and strength of hurricanes (but not their movement). It's in Discover Magazine, but not on-line yet, and I'm not about to type the whole thing!
His conclusion: Globe is NOT warming, but his NOAA funds were cut off, he suspects by Gore and the other eco-nazis when he refused to climb on the "Global Warming" bandwagon.
See, it's all GORE's fault!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 12:21
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#9
which way are you facing, PD?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 12:22
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#10
Atmospheric cooling and surface warming is easily explained. A reduction in particulates in the atmosphere due in part to clean air laws means sunshine that previously was intercepted by particles and as a result warmed the atmosphere is now reaching the earth's surface and warming it.
#11
Good point, Phil. In fact, I think that was specifically discussed here some months ago (Our cleaning up of the air is actually leading to warmer surface temps.).
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 14:51
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#12
The sun, Frank, always the sun... even at night. I'm like a morning glory, except not so pretty when opened, nor so shriveled and crinkly-looking when closed. Just like that.
#13
for years ive seen the bit about the cooling in the atmosphere shown as the basis for denying the models showing Green house gas based warmed. The guy in Huntsville has been about the most notable scientists ive seen quoted against global warming.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 18:16
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#17
In the short term if there were true global warming the British Isles would tend to get colder, theroreticaly. What would happen is the polar ice cap melts and the resultant colder water and increased iceburgs would flow into the Gulf Stream which now keeps the British Isles warmer than one would expect because of how far north they are. Ultimately, if the warming trend lasted long enough, the increased warming of the earth's surface and the increased warming of the oceans would offset thid effect. This assumes the Gulf Stream would not change. Herein lies the rub. The systems are so complex as to approach caos so any predictions are really guesses.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/12/2005 21:30
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From August 7 through August 14, I will feature stories about the men and women defending America in the War on Terror. Some will be new. Some are already found on my web site American Heroes.
I think this means they won't mail you the checks, Omar.
LONDON - Britain on Friday barred radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri from returning to the country that was his home for the past 20 years, saying his presence was no longer "conducive to the public good." Was it ever?
The decision came as the country's top legal official defended plans to deport another radical Muslim cleric and nine other foreigners suspected of posing a threat to national security.
Jordan said Friday it would ask Britain next week to extradite one of those detained, cleric Omar Mahmoud Othman Abu Omar, also known as Abu Qatada. Spanish officials have described him as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe." Jordan looks forward to...seeing him.
Bakri, 45, left Britain on Saturday, one day after Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed tough new anti-terrorism measures including the deportation of extremist Islamic clerics who preach hate. Bakri was arrested in Lebanon on Thursday. Bakri, who has dual Syrian and Lebanese citizenship, had come under increasing pressure from the British government for his hardline rhetoric after last month's transit bombings. He had insisted that he planned to return to north London, where his wife and children live. Oh, yeah? Could you get their leaching asses out of here too please?
Home Secretary Charles Clarke had written to Bakri to inform him he would not be allowed back into Britain. The cleric has 14 days to appeal."The Home Secretary has issued an order revoking Omar Bakri Mohammed's indefinite leave to remain and to exclude him from the U.K. and the grounds that his presence is not conducive to the public good," the Home Office said in a statement. 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. A spokesman for Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said Thursday prosecutors were looking at Bakri's recent remarks to assess whether he could be charged with solicitation of murder or incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police. A little incentive to make sure he doesn't even think about coming back?
Meanwhile Britain's plans to deport the 10 foreigners have sparked fears for their safety in their destination countries. Oh no!
The Home Office did not identify the detainees. But a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that Abu Qatada, a Palestinian cleric who carries a Jordanian passport, was among them. A statement from Abu Qatada's lawyer said the detainees were "primarily Algerians." Algeria welcomes you...OUCH! OW! OUCH!
Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer said it was necessary to balance the risk of a deportee being mistreated against the threat they pose to Britain. He added that the government may seek new human rights legislation to make the deportations easier. The measure would be among a raft of tough new anti-terrorism laws announced in the wake of the July bombings."The deportee has got rights, but so have the people of this country," Falconer told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "If they are threatened in terms of national security, that is something that the government has got to protect them against as much as possible." Looks like the game may be over in England? Play your little Jihadi poseur games somewhere else, holy men?
As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, Britain is not allowed to deport people to countries where they may face torture of mistreatment. The government has been trying to sign agreements guaranteeing humane treatment of deportees with 10 countries, including Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia. The first such memorandum of understanding was signed with Jordan on Wednesday. The detentions and are another indication of the dramatic impact of last month's bombings in a country until recently regarded as something of a safe haven for radicals."The circumstances of our national security have changed, it is vital that we act against those who threaten it," Home Secretary Clarke said. Muslim persecution whines in 5...4...3...
Abu Qatada was granted political asylum in Britain in 1993. He has been in jail or under close supervision here since 2002, but now faces deportation to Jordan where authorities convicted him in absentia in 1998 and again in 2000 for involvement in a series of explosions and terror plots. British authorities believe Abu Qatada inspired the lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and he is suspected of having links with radical groups across Europe. Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yirfas said his country would request Abu Qatada's extradition next week. A spokesman for Britain's Home Office had no immediate reaction. They were probably too busy writing up the paperwork.
The cleric's lawyer, Gareth Peirce, condemned the detentions. Her firm said in a statement that the detainees had not been allowed to see their lawyers. You can see them all you want in a few weeks...in Algeria and Jordan.
Like Abu Qatada, some of the foreigners detained Thursday had spent up to three years in jail without trial under sweeping anti-terror legislation until their release in March after Britain's highest court ruled the detentions unlawful. Since then, they have been supervised under so-called control orders, such as curfew or house arrest, and banned from using the telephone or Internet. The Home Office said the detainees had five working days to appeal deportation â a process that could drag on for months. A spokeswoman insisted they would not be deported until the British government gained assurances from the destination countries that they will not be treated inhumanely. Yeah, sure. No problem.
Civil rights campaigners and the U.N. special envoy on torture, Manfred Nowak, have warned, however, that such assurances carry no weight in international law and would not sufficiently protect the deportees. Like we said, yeah, sure. No problem.
"The assurances of known torturers, many of whom deny the use of torture even when it is widely documented, are not worth the paper they are written on," said Mike Blakemore, a spokesman for Amnesty International. Hey, all the British can do is take them at their word. Once they're out of the country, it's beyond their control. Sorry, Mr. AI.
#4
BAKRIâS DIELEMMA
Sung to
âFool on the Hillâ
Lennon & McCartney
Day after day, alone in Beiruit,
Imam with a crazed look is spouting violence still
Jihadis all want to know him,
Because heâs still on the loose,
And he always gives an answer.
But Imam in Beiruit, makes Jihad as the way
With his evil black heart, to make his power play.
Well on the way, distorting The Book,
The man of a thousand voices talking every which way.
But only the evil hear him,
And the venom that he spews forth,
He angry that Blair took notice.
But Imam in Beiruit, makes Jihad as the way
With his evil black heart, to make his power play.
His tickers not good, must have surgery
His third-world hideout canât provide the doctor he needs,
In London he gets a surgeon,
But he knows heâs an arrestee,
And this is his big dilemma,
But Imam in Beiruit, makes Jihad as the way
With his evil black heart, to make his power play.
Young eager minds, absorb what he says,
72 in paradise means youâre better off dead,
He easily convinces,
He knows that theyâre just some fools,
They do pay close attention,
But Imam in Beiruit, makes Jihad as the way
With his evil black heart, to make his power play.
A Home Office spokesman said the decision to bar Mr Mohammed would not affect his family. He has seven children who were born in Britain. They would continue to receive their State benefits, he said, although those paid to the cleric would cease.
And from his butt boy: The cleric's spokesman, Anjem Choudray, described the UK move as "completely outrageous" and a "failure" of the principle of free speech. "He has been a great asset for the Muslim community here.It is going to be a great loss for the British public and the Muslim community, I believe, and I think that this is indicative of the oppressive nature of the Blair regime."
#8
I know this supposed to be well reasoned, but I cant help myself,
ha fucking ha, you scrounging, hate mongering, lazy parasite, you have taken your last step on English. FUCK OFF AND TAKE YOUR MATES!
#9
I know this supposed to be well reasoned, but I cant help myself,
ha fucking ha, you scrounging, hate mongering, lazy parasite, you have taken your last step on English SOIL. FUCK OFF AND TAKE YOUR MATES! and I forgot to add self righteous!
EFL
An Iraqi pilot and four U.S. airmen were together aboard an Iraqi air force plane when it crashed in May. Their remains were buried together yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. Iraqi air force Capt. Ali Hussam Abass Alrubaeye, 34, was the first Iraqi buried at the United States' premier military cemetery. "This will signify that these warriors were training together, they went into battle together, they died together, and it's only proper that they be buried together," Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley, commander of the Air Force's Special Operations Command, said before the service. RIP
Long, needs to be p. 49-ed.
What happened to Lebanon (demographic imbalance, subversion, followed by all-out civil war) is a blueprint of what might happen to some unsuspecting euro-countries, starting by France and Belgium... or did it already start with Kosovo?
By Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview guest today is Brigitte Gabriel, a survivor of Islam's Jihad against Lebanese Christians. She is now an expert on the Middle East conflict who lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com.
FP: Brigitte Gabriel, thank you for joining us today.
Gabriel: Thank you for inviting me. I'm delighted to join you.
FP: First things first, tell us a bit about your background.
Gabriel: I was raised in the only Christian country in the Middle East, Lebanon. A lot of people think the Middle East has always been made up of Moslem countries. That is not true. There once were two non-Muslim countries in the Middle East. One is a Jewish state called Israel which is under attack for its existence today and the other was a Christian country called Lebanon now under a Moslem majority controlling influence.
The Berlin Airlift happened not long after the US was bombing Berlin. Close enough in time that some of the same pilots -- maybe some of the same planes -- were involved in both.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 11:43
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#3
Brigitte Gabriel
The Christians in Lebanon always had problems with the Moslems
Forget red tide, IMHO this is a sign Godzilla is coming, especially if you add yesterday's sighting of Ghidorah in Tibet.
ENGLEWOOD -- A bizarre freeway of fish swimming by the thousands along the shore of Englewood Beach Thursday morning left crowds of beach-goers agog and marine biologists bewildered.
"I've lived her for 10 years, and I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible," said Bob Ricci of Englewood.
Beach-goers reported that a wide variety of sea creatures came swimming south in a narrow band close to the beach at mid-morning.
Included in the swarm were clouds of shrimp, crab, grouper, snapper, red fish and flounder. They were joined by more usual species, including sea robins, needlefish and eels.
Ten-year Manasota Key resident Nick Neidlinger spotted the commotion from his condominium shortly before 9 a.m.
The fish were moving in a narrow band in about 18 inches of water, he said. They were headed south, and, so far as he could tell, the moving mass of sea life stretched a good mile long.
"We're talking thousands and thousands of them," Neidlinger said. "It was so thick we couldn't walk out."
Some fish washed ashore on the Gulf's small waves, he said. The stranded fish flipped and struggled until they flopped back into the water to rejoin the piscatorial parade south.
"There were blue crabs the size of a dinner plate," Neidlinger said. "You name the species of fish and they were there."
Neidlinger said more than 100 pelicans bombarded the fish, but he saw no sharks or other predators, nor did he detect any signs of red tide.
He said all the species "were swimming amongst each other. They weren't attacking each other."
Neidlinger added, "I have never seen anything like that in my life. This was not a fish kill."
Beach-goers were grabbing crabs and fish as they swam by, Thursday. One observer thought the fish might have been weakened by some sort of toxin -- perhaps red tide -- because they could be scooped up easily by people. The event lasted until late morning, although the parade had thinned out by 11 a.m.
A few scientists contacted Thursday were surprised to hear of the unusual fish behavior in Englewood that morning. It was not typical schooling, they said, because many varied species were involved.
Scientists -- usually by nature and always by training -- are reluctant to speculate about the causes of natural phenomena without the benefit of observation and concrete data. However, they did offer some broad possibilities for what they agreed was a highly unusual event, one they had never encountered before.
It might have been predator avoidance, said one, but that was unlikely since there were no signs of predators and the species were varied.
The Gulf waters have currents that might have swept many fish along in an unusual pattern, one speculated.
Or it could have been caused by red tide that could not be detected by beach-goers.
Dr. Richard Pierce, director of ectotoxicology at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, said he had discussed the occurrence with Dr. Cindy Heil, the director of biotoxin research at the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg, after a reporter's phone call Thursday.
"We agree this could be that they were trying to get away from red tide, maybe offshore or in the deeper parts offshore," Pierce said.
He said red tide flows in higher or lower concentrations at various levels of the Gulf. It also follows currents, which move at varying levels and speeds.
"Sometimes, we have found it in higher concentration along the bottom. This could be what you're looking at," Pierce said.
Red tide has been lingering in the Gulf for the past couple of months, but it has been detected primarily in an area stretching from northern Sarasota County north to Hernando County.
It's possible, Pierce said, that a stealth red tide could be moving south, flowing with an offshore current along the bottom, "and they're moving ahead of it."
Key to that theory is that the fish reported Thursday included many bottom feeders. "Sea robins, flounder, grouper are indications that something is moving along the bottom," Pierce said.
"Unfortunately, this might be a phenomenon of red tide creeping in, but we'll have to wait until we get some samples," he said.
Mote recently installed two red tide detectors in Boca Grande, and Pierce said there was some indication Thursday that red tide might have been moving in that direction.
But, he added, it was all simply speculation until tests could be conducted.
"We just don't know what's happening," he said. "That's a lot of maybes and what-ifs. I know the state is working on that and some other reports, so maybe by next week we'll have some answers."
#1
Aw, they were just putting on a parade. Who knows what holiday it is in Atlantis?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 10:08
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#2
Two possibilities, the more likely is that there has been a severe drop in oxygen levels, forcing them to the beach, cause by plankton blooms. The other and less likely is that there has been a marked change in water pH, in which case Floridians and other Gulf State residents should consider how lovely it is in North Dakota this time of year.
(You know, there's almost no situation -- on Rantburg, anyway -- where that's not appropriate. And yet I have to keep looking up how to spell "fthagn".)
Brave man. What's happened to him is a damn shame!
OT, I remember reading some moderate muslims(Tm) on their main french forum joking about his "new haircut", when his head was shaven, and saying how he was soon to be shaven "even closer" (ie decapitated, insh allah). Of course, the thread was killed by mods, but it's good to know what the pious followers of the Master Religion are thinking about western hostages... empathy doesn't seem to be their strong suit.
Douglas Wood, the Australian held captive in Iraq for 47 days, is now virtually blind and suffering rheumatoid arthritis. Mr Wood has no peripheral vision and no near sight partly because his kidnappers did not treat his diabetes and glaucoma, The Age has reported.
Iraqi soldiers freed the engineer, 64, on June 15 after he had been held hostage in Baghdad by a group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq. "He can barely walk up stairs," a family spokesman said.
In June, Mr Wood said his eyesight was poor due to the malnutrition he suffered while in captivity and the side-effects from heavy doses of steroids for his rheumatoid arthritis. His spokesman said he went without his medication during his time in captivity and was given only bread and water. "He has no peripheral vision at all and cannot see a hand under his nose," he said. "He needs to be guided and he is also walking extremely slowly as a result of the arthritis."
However, he stressed not all of the deterioration was the result of the kidnapping
The spokesman said Mr Wood was coping well. "He hasn't crashed and burned. He is very buoyant with a great coping mechanism and he has not wanted to bleat publicly about his health. He doesn't complain about anything.
"His wife has been terrific, she's the ultimate carer. She really looks after him."
Mr Wood and his American wife, Yvonne, are in the US but plan to return Australia shortly and set up home in Melbourne after Mr Wood's step-daughter's graduation ceremony in the US. Because of Mr Wood's ill health the couple wanted to live close to public transport and they have leased an apartment in Melbourne's inner-city.
The spokesman said Mr Wood had a strong character and a prodigious memory for detail that helped him during his time in captivity. "He's not just a beer-swilling larrikin - that's just part of his persona," he said.
Mr Wood, who has been reissued with a Medicare card, still hopes to tell his story on the speaking circuit and he has said that he is keen to open an Australian pub. He previously ran a pub while he was living in California.
SOME REMAIN skeptical of President Bush's concern for Africa, and there's no doubt that the United States could and should do more. But the latest report on Sudan from the United Nations offers a snapshot of an issue on which Mr. Bush has been a leader. So far this year the United States has given $468 million in foreign assistance to Sudan, mostly for humanitarian relief in the western region of Darfur. The U.S. contribution comes to 53 percent of all outside donations -- a proportion about twice the size of the nation's weight in the global economy.
A few other countries have been even more generous relative to the size of their economies, notably Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Britain. But the contribution from many others has been embarrassing. How can France, which prides itself on its leadership in Africa, give only $2 million to this year's U.N. appeal for Sudan -- an amount that, when rounded, comes to zero percent of total contributions to the country? Even if one generously ascribed, say, a fifth of the European Union's donation of $90 million to French taxpayers, France's share of the total contribution to Sudan comes to a paltry 2 percent. IIRC, which I don't cos I'm dumb, France has some nice interests in Sudan, including oil and arabic gum, so this meager contribution is even more shameful.
There are plenty of other culprits. Japan accounts for just 2 percent of total contributions despite the size of its economy; China has made no contribution to the U.N. effort, even though it has extensive investments in Sudan's oil sector. But perhaps the most striking absentees are the oil-rich Arab countries, which have more money than ideas on how to spend it, thanks to oil prices above $60 a barrel. Saudi Arabia has contributed a grand total of $3 million, according to the U.N. data; the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have given less than $1 million between them. No other Arab country even makes the list.
This Arab indifference is shameful. The victims of Sudan's worst crisis, in Darfur, are Muslim, and aid to non-Muslim southern Sudan is essential to shoring up the fragile north-south peace deal that would help Muslims as well. Sudan borders Libya and Egypt; only the narrow Red Sea separates it from Saudi Arabia. Arabs have every reason to care about Sudan, and yet they have done far less than remote non-Muslim countries such as Norway, which has an economy roughly the same size as Saudi Arabia's.
Writing on the opposite page last month, Joseph Britt noted, "We've heard a lot since Sept. 11, 2001, about how Arabs feel humiliated, ashamed, resentful at being regarded by the West as inferior in some way." Mr. Britt continued: "Perhaps it is time to say plainly that the way to earn respect is through deeds worthy of respect."
The lads at the mosque are watching their favorite snuff movies, duh!
I'm so confused, I thought the jihadists were a mere reaction to the wrongdoings of the West... Video (.wmv) at link, didn't watch it, my blood pressure is high enough already, and for example I've seen enough pics of thoses nice kosovars urinating in desacrated churches.
By Sherrie Gossett
(CNSNews.com) -- A violent video showing the desecration of a church and the murder of a Serbian soldier is one of many "jihad" videos currently making the rounds in Western countries to raise funds for Muslim terrorists, according to counter-terrorism experts interviewed by Cybercast News Service.
The graphic footage, stamped Sept. 16, 1995, was videotaped approximately two months before the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the civil war in Bosnia.
Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of copses.
Trifunovic, an attorney, previously served as first secretary in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Mission to the United Nations in New York City and conducted war crimes research for The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the latter capacity, Trifunovic interrogated mujahedeen who were involved in the fighting in Bosnia.
"The video was shot in western Bosnia," said Trifunovic. "It has been shown in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and North America for fund-raising purposes."
Evan F. Kohlmann, a Washington D.C.-based terrorism consultant and author, confirmed that videos of Bosnian battles and church desecrations were currently being circulated as inspiration and as a fund-raising tool for jihad-minded terrorists. Kohlmann has previously testified before Congress on terrorism issues.
The video opens with mujahedeen interrogating a Serbian soldier. The soldier was recognized by a relative as 32-year old Rade Rogic, said Trifunovic.
According to a translator consulted by Cybercast News Service, the lead captor asks Rogic, "Do you know who we are?"
"You're the mujahedeen," Rogic replies on the video.
"That's right, we're the mujahadeen." When questioned about his duties, Rogic insists he serves in the "workers' battalion" and only digs ditches. After repeatedly striking the soldier in the face, the interrogator then pressures him to say "Allah is great," before telling the videographer to turn off the camera.
Subsequent footage shows one of the mujahedeen armed with a machine gun and then preparing the weapon for what appears to be a planned execution. Rogic is then shown bloodied and lying face-down on some rocks, apparently having been killed by his captors.
In June of this year the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti identified Rogic as part of the Radnicki Battalion. The newspaper published a still photograph of his corpse and reported he was born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He apparently was captured after becoming lost in the surrounding forest.
The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.
The scene is followed by images of an elderly civilian dead by the roadside and a tractor dragging the body of what appears to be a civilian through the village.
Knowledge of the video has spread among citizens in the Balkans, said Trifunovic. "Approximately 10,000 people have now viewed it at the Sava Center in Belgrade."
The popularity of videos like the one from western Bosnia can be traced to "The Martyrs of Bosnia," which told the story of Arab mujahedeen fighting in the civil war, said Kohlmann. "That first video is considered an al-Qaeda 'classic,'" he added. "Footage of the desecration of the church in Guca Gora was featured in the video." It also includes footage of al Qaeda leaders and a cousin of Osama bin Laden.
"The Martyrs of Bosnia" was distributed by Azzam Publications, whose London-based leader, Babar Ahmad, is currently facing extradition to the U.S. related to charges that he materially supported terrorism and conspired to kill persons in a foreign country.
When that tape was released, said Kohlmann, law enforcement wiretaps recorded Islamists praising the participants in the videotape, calling for the killing of Serbs and fighting for the honor of Islam. "It inspired many terror cells," said Kohlmann.
The "Martyrs of Bosnia" was followed by two other compilations: "Operation Black Lion" and "Operation Badr." The latter featured "suicidal" waves of mujahedeen rushing Serbian soldiers. "It terrified everybody who watched it," said Kohlmann.
Earlier this year, Dragomir Adnan, police chief for the Republic of Srpska (RS), showed the video of Rade Rogic's killing and the church desecration in western Bosnia to an undisclosed group of people. Subsequently, the European Union Police Mission sought to downplay the video by issuing a statement on June 22 criticizing Adnan for his role in the civil war and stating that the video footage had been in the Republic of Srpska Office for Cooperation with the Hague for "a few years and it's nothing new."
The Mission's press release stated that the RS had been asked to forward the video material to The Hague and that "the transfer is on course."
According to a June 15 BBC report, the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti stated that its journalists were able to view the footage, which was said to be of the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Bosnian government. According to the report, the video originally featured other footage before the scene involving Rogic. That footage, the Belgrade newspaper reported, allegedly showed "heaps of mutilated bodies" and "torched villages."
The BBC reported that the Vecernje Novosti concluded the tape was not fit for broadcasting.
In the same report, the BBC noted that the publication of the Belgrade newspaper occurred a week after Serbian television showed video of Serb paramilitaries executing Muslims in Srebrenica ten years ago.
#2
Ethnic tensions go back over 500 years, each element citing some slight in 1492, or atrocity in 1066, or the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 - whatever. This is just one more slight to rememeber forever, so there will never, EVER, be peace......
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 9:35
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#3
I wouldn't say never, you just have to get rid of one side once and for all. Too bad we stopped the Serbians last time.
#5
Good Lord, people, the Serbs were practicing genocide on innocents. I'm glad they were stopped, and it's one of the few things Bill Clinton did that had me singing in his choir.
The Serbs were ruthless, genocidal bastards, and I'll never praise what they did. The Bosnian Muslims were not and are not our enemy in any way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005 11:31
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#6
Given the credibility of the MSM, I'll never believe anyone in the Balkans is any better than or different from anyone else there. They're all savages, equally capable of the same atrocities on eachother. There's a reason Bismark said the Balkans were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier. It won't stop till they're all dead. And the stakes are so low.
Getting involved was a terrible mistake. The Europeans should have been left to clean up their own mess. They certainly didn't return the favor in Iraq.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/12/2005 12:10
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#7
Good Lord, people, the Serbs were practicing genocide on innocents
Context: The president of teh Bosnian Muslims was a former member of the SS Division Hanschar (yes, there were SS units formed with non-Germans and even with non-Aryans) whose atrocities revolted the SS themselves.
The president of the Croats Franjo Tudjman was busy rehabilitating Ante Pavelic the founder of the Ustashi.
And the "international community" was telling the Bosnian and Croatian Serbs that they should accept to be ruled by such people. Don't you think they had some motives of fear and good reasons to seceed, specially when in many cases it was an arbitrary decision of Tito who had placed them out of Serbia? That was foir the causes of the war, had the recognition of Bosnia and Croatia having been given only agsisnt guarantees for the Serb minorities there would have been no war.
And for the atrocities both sides perpetrated them but the MSM silenced them when they were perpetrated against the Serbds.
BAGHDAD -- There were no reporters riding shotgun on the highway north of Baghdad when a roadside bomb sent Sgt. Elizabeth Le Bel's Humvee lurching into a concrete barrier. The Army released a three-sentence statement about the incident in which her driver, a fellow soldier, was killed. Most news stories that day noted it briefly.
But a vivid account of the attack appeared on the Internet within hours of the Dec. 4 crash. Unable to sleep after arriving at the hospital, Le Bel hobbled to a computer and typed 1,000 words of what she called "my little war story" into her Web log, or blog, titled "Life in this Girl's Army," at http://www.sgtlizzie.blogspot.com .
"I started to scream bloody murder, and one of the other females on the convoy came over, grabbed my hand and started to calm me down. She held onto me, allowing me to place my leg on her shoulder as it was hanging free," Le Bel wrote. "I thought that my face had been blown off, so I made the remark that I wouldn't be pretty again LOL. Of course the medics all rushed with reassurance which was quite amusing as I know what I look like now and I don't even want to think about what I looked like then."
Since the 1850s, when a London Times reporter was sent to chronicle the Crimean War, journalists have generally provided the most immediate first-hand depictions of major conflicts. Sorry I have to work today. I could fit a couple of pages of comments in right here! But in Iraq, service members themselves are delivering real-time dispatches -- in their own words -- often to an audience of thousands through postings to their blogs.
"I was able to jot a few lines in every day, and it just grew from there," Le Bel, 24, of Haverhill, Mass., said in an e-mail. Her Web site has received about 45,000 hits since she started it a year ago.
At least 200 active-duty soldiers currently keep blogs. Only about a dozen blogs were in existence two years ago when the U.S. invaded Iraq, according to "The Mudville Gazette" ( http://www.mudvillegazette.com ), a clearinghouse of information on military blogging administered by an Army veteran who goes by the screen name Greyhawk.
Written in the casual, sometimes profane language of the barracks, the entries give readers an unfiltered perspective ROTFLMAO on combat largely unavailable elsewhere. But they are also drawing new scrutiny and regulation from commanders concerned they could compromise security
In April, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the top tactical commander in Iraq, published the military's first policy memorandum on Web sites maintained by soldiers, requiring that all blogs maintained by service members in Iraq be registered. The policy also barred bloggers from publishing classified information, revealing the names of service members killed or wounded before their families could be notified, and providing accounts of incidents still under investigation. Limitations the MSM doesn't have to bother with, and considers a violation of the public's right-to-know.
"We don't have a problem with most of what they write, but we don't want to give away the farm," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a military spokesman in Baghdad, who said such guidelines are nearly identical to those required of news organizations that cover the military.
Enforcement of the policy was left to the discretion of unit commanders. In late July, Arizona National Guard Spec. Leonard Clark became the first soldier found to have violated the new policy. He was fined $1,640 and demoted to private first class for posting what the military said was classified material on his blog. His site has since been shut down, although much of the content has been posted elsewhere on the Internet. He did not return e-mail messages seeking comment.
His postings -- which included long entries detailing attacks against American patrols and convoys -- described his company's captain as "a glory seeker" and the battalion sergeant major as "an inhuman monster." In at least one entry, Clark, who has run for political office in Arizona several times and was widely expected to run for Senate in 2006, suggested that his fellow soldiers were becoming opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq. Which was the only kind of stuff the MSM believed. The rest was obviously 'filtered'. I filtered the rest of the anti-war tripe; read at link.
Soldiers' Web sites vary from multimedia presentations of digital photos and videos to simple text written in journal form. Many bloggers say they do it to keep friends and family up to date or to counter what they consider the biases of the mainstream media.
Many entries are deeply personal. Battered but still able to perform her duties, Le Bel returned to her unit a few days after the roadside bomb attack. She attended the memorial service for her driver, whom she never named, and shared her thoughts with the readers in a Dec. 7 posting:
"I am now deathly afraid of the nightmares I have already seen bits and pieces of. I can see them in my mind when I close my eyes, I see the truck slamming into the wall and it scares me all over again. Why did I walk away from a wreck that killed a comrade and friend?"
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005
07:44 ||
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This is and is going to continue to be a thorn in the side of the MSM. Not only do soldier blogs give a blow-by-blow that the MSM doesn't, but as a resource for historians, they are far more useful. In addition, once the histories start being produced, the glaring errors and filtration will be immediately thrown back in the face of those who would re-write history at the expense of the soldiers, and it will be done so in forums that cannot be ignored. And they will face the same face, rhetorically, as did "journalists" caught in the camp of Gen WT Sherman: to be taken around camp while riding on an ass, backwards, with a sign reading "spy" around their necks, before being kicked out, told that the pickets had orders to shoot on sight if they made effort to return.
I love William T. Sherman! Would that we only had more like him today!
"...to be taken around camp while riding on an ass, backwards, with a sign reading "spy" around their necks, before being kicked out, told that the pickets had orders to shoot on sight if they made effort to return."
The Bush administration has sent seemingly conflicting signals in recent days over the duration of the U.S. deployment to Iraq, openly discussing contingency plans I think the MSM is the one "discussing" the plan, to Bush, it was just a contingencey plan to withdraw as many as 30,000 of 138,000 troops by spring, then cautioning against expectations of any early pullout. As he has been doing every time the MSM asks "Well, when are we gonna withdraw?" Finally yesterday, President Bush dismissed talk of a drawdown as just "speculation and rumors" and warned against "withdrawing before the mission is complete." Do I sense a certain consistency here in the Bush position?
If the public was left confused, thanks to the MSM, and especially the WaPo it may be no more unsure than the administration itself, as some government officials involved in Iraq policy privately acknowledge.
The shifting scenarios reflect the uncertain nature of the mission and the ambiguity of what would constitute its successful completion. For all the clarity of Bush's vow to stay not one day longer than needed, the muddled reality is that no one can say exactly when that will be. Pretty clear to me, but you guys have to keep muddying the waters, to make it "muddled".
The events of the past week have brought home once again the difficulties confronting the president as he prosecutes what polls suggest is an increasingly unpopular war. The WaPo advances!With surging raging, escalating, bigger than any time since the day-before-yesterday violence claiming more U.S. forces on the ground in Iraq and the angry mother of a dead soldier camping out near his ranch in Texas, Bush plainly cannot count on indefinite public patience. This is NEWS?
Administration officials have all but given up any hope of militarily defeating the insurgents with U.S. forces, instead aiming only to train and equip enough Iraqi security forces to take over the fight themselves. So now we spin the original plan to make it look like a change in the plan, since unnamed "Administration Officials" have given up hope. At the same time, they believe that the mission depends on building a new political infrastructure, a project facing its most decisive test in the next three days as deeply divided Iraqis struggle to draft a constitution by a Monday deadline.
I can't take anymore. See the rest at the link. But why bother? It'll just make you ill.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005
07:44 ||
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He might be confused. Then again, he might just like fucking with the media's heads.
#2
tu, another grand, evil, Rovian plot? Personally, I think it's that the MSM (especially inside the beltway) don't understand what I call "Plain English." You know, the kind where you do what you say you're gonna do, come he!! or high-water! And, usually when the MSM asks "When are we gonna leave," they usually mean the whole kit & kaboodle, not just a 30k troop drawdown. But, who am I to question the WaPo's intentions...not like I'm a big city news editor who's already pointed out 3-4 errors in the snips above alone, eh?
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:12
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You'd think in year 5 the Big Media would start to catch on to that whole "say what you mean, mean what you say" thing.
#6
The fundamental issue is the press is stupid and ignorant.
They are stupid in that they expect there to be one hard and fast solution and date that you can nail to the floor now, and ignore any and all changes afterward.
They are ignorant in that they don't realize its the job of a good military leader to have plans for contingencies - all the possible ones, and then deveop the plans further for the probable ones, and then for the highest 1-3 probabilities (and the branches they can evolve into), you develop a plan in detail. Then you shape the battlefield, and implement the plan, with the contengencies in the back pocket.
Why doesnt the press understnad this? Its plain common sense. Businesses practice it all the time. Doctors do it with treatment of serious chronic illnesses. Investors do it if they are smart.
I guess journalists are the dregs of university graduates in terms of reasoning capability and though cpacity.
But wait, only 3 out of a zillion are completely independent! How can they do anything?American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2005 â Iraqi military units uncovered a weapons cache and roadside bombs, and detained several suspects Aug. 9 and 10, according to multinational force reports. Iraqi soldiers were led to a weapons cache in Fallujah while on a dismounted security patrol Aug. 10.
Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, located followed instructions from a local Iraqi to the cache. The cache consisted of four rocket-propelled grenade launchers, three machine guns, 22 RPG rounds, one rocket, two rifle grenades, RPG fin assemblies, one bag of ammunition, one can of .303 ball/tracer mix, one can of armor piercing/tracer mix, one timing device and one battery. They detained three suspected insurgents.
While conducting a security patrol in the Balad area, Iraqi soldiers discovered an improvised explosive device under a clothing stand Aug. 10. Soldiers with 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, noticed something unusual beneath a clothing stand that turned out to be an Iraqi claymore mine with two white wires connected to both sides. The stand's owner was detained and transported to a secure facility for questioning. An explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the claymore with a controlled blast.
Separate operations by Iraqi security forces led to the discovery of several IEDs throughout the country Aug 9. Near Raway, two 130 mm artillery rounds and three 152 mm artillery rounds were discovered daisy-chained together and placed around a building.
Also, Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal teams disarmed a 155 mm artillery shell in Baqubah and another more complex IED in Tikrit that Iraqi police said was rigged for remote detonation. Local citizens in the city of Hit gave Iraqi soldiers the location of an IED that they said three anti-Iraq force operatives had planted earlier in the day.
No injuries or damages were reported during the operations.
In other news, the Iraqi Coast Guard had a busy and successful month of operations in July, according to their monthly operational reporting to the Ministry of Interior.
According to the report, the Iraqi Coast Guard searched 183 barges and vessels in July, like six per day - doesn't sound too shabby! with 11 of these searches resulting in the discovery of illegal documentation. In addition, 60 tons of illegal fuel were confiscated along with AK-47 automatic rifles, ammunition and fuel pumps. Six people were detained during the operations. All paperwork and legal processes have been transferred to the Iraqi Customs Police for adjudication.
Did anybody check? Maybe this is in The Washington Post? Do they have a page 3,267,453?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005
07:44 ||
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sounds like some of the iraqi troops are turning out pretty good
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/12/2005
07:10 ||
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Fascinating Blog.
The death penalty case is only one aspect...
The top statement is chilling.
Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.
Brings new meaning to "Allah Akhbar" {SPIT}
What an embarassment to Islam...
Does anyone think like me that maybe the Religious Police set the fire themselves, because like the Talibani-shits in Afghanistan, they do not like the idea of women reading and writing?
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/12/2005
07:04 ||
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Godspeed, Ladies. Somewhere between a burka and Gloria Steinem there must be a middle ground!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 12:10
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The tension between the two groups increased and the policemen stopped the Islamists from approaching the liberals' tent.
I seized the chance to talk to the leader of the black cloud:
Me: You want an Islamic state?
Her: Yes I do.
Me: Okay but which version of Islam you want? For example will you accept a Sunni interpretation of Sharea to replace the civil law?
Her: No, the Islam I want is the one that most Muslims agree with.
Me: Fine but different factions have different opinions in almost everything.
Her: Then we shall put a judge from each faction in the courts.
Me: But this way we'll be empowering sectarianism!
Her: No, this way we'll be empowering freedom of religion.
Me: You are a physician as I understood and according to the 137 law your testimony in a court of law will equal half that of any man even if he was illiterate. Will you accept that?
Her: It's an honor to me to be half of a garbage collector because that's what Allah said and it's not you who can explain to me what Allah said.
The journalists and other women were shocked by her answer and they left her as they knew there was no space for a rational talk with her.
Here one of the women from the liberal camp said to her colleagues "don't pay them attention, such women get beaten if they return late to their husbands but we can stay as long as we like because our husbands trust us. They will leave in no more than an hour; such women are slaves of their homes and husbands but we are staying here to defend our rights and their rights because their minds are too weak to do that".
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/12/2005
06:57 ||
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Ethnic federalism will fail as an idea, because of the mixed-ethnic places. The obvious solution is to expand federalism to each of the provinces. That would somewhat diffuse the ethnic blocs, set the stage for democratic haggling in the divided provinces. This would also be far more conducive to demographic shifts--for example, a province that became progressively more Sunni would not be federally tied to a Shiite district, but could shift with the wind. Even the Kirkuk situation would be calmed somewhat. Instead of all of a sudden it becomes Kurdish and all outsiders would have to leave, the changeover could be more gradual--not a terrible burden to the Kurds, but more respectful to the needs of those who have to leave and go somewhere else. Last but not least, having a federalism of 18 provinces would mean an 19-way split of the oil revenues (including the central government), which would almost certainly be more equitable than a 4-way split. Definitely more responsive to local needs.
Older story dealing with local ethnic negotiations, fact or fiction? Debka... but it has nice maps.
Moose. I concur with your stastement that a 4 way ethnically split federal govt won't work for Iraq if it wishes to remain 1 nation, but I still think that's the route the constitution will take because of the path that's been laid by the kurds and Shiia to date.
Talabani and Sistani are both calling for their militia to be recognized as proxy police forces and are both making deals with local ethnic hot spots like the ones you mention on their own.
It seems apparent that the ethnic factions are already at civil war as part of this bargaining process, but that's IMHO. People in country largely confirm these assumptions and now that the Sunnis are rejecting the entire federalist process more violence will no doubt be on the menu.
Maybe you're right about a geo-ethnically divided federalist Iraq of 18 provinces being a good idea, but is it gonna happen or will the situation just deteriorate more?
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/12/2005
06:40 ||
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I'm a Government Data "Mining" skeptical IT guy.
This article does not say how many false postives, or false negatives (partly a known unknown ;) ) where generated for the Atta name to pop up.
If people ARE going to use them then these sort of expansion and correlation searches should be authorised by a judge when strong evidence of a likely suspect to pivot the data around is found.
Continuos randomised invasions of privacy are a dangerous waste of resources which could be better deployed elsewhere.
#2
In what way is searching through public domain information an "invasion of privacy"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 7:53
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"It actually does not cause us to rethink this," a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, Timothy Sparapani, said. "The American public's most sensitive personally identifiable information should not be subjected to this kind of experiment unless and until we have some kind of confidence that society is going to get some kind of tangible benefit out of it."
Once again, the ACLU shows it's on the other side. I count staying alive the biggest "tangible benefit" of all. And, RC's right...from the way I understand the computer system uses PUBLICLY available information to make linkages (e.g. a souped-up version of Google). I don't want the gov't snooping around my info, either, but if it's snooping in publicly available info for tracking terrorists, I'm all for it!
The basis for the attorneys' decision, which Mr. Weldon said he heard about from one of the "Able Danger" officers, is not clear. In general, a 1981 executive order bars intelligence agencies from disseminating information about American citizens and legal permanent residents of this country. However, Atta and the other hijackers did not fit that definition and, in any event, exceptions to the order allow sharing of some terrorism-related information.
This sums it up right here! Either we are a nation of laws (like this one, which specifically excludes non-residents and American citizens...of which, Atta fit the bill) or a nation of men (oligarchy...like the Judicial system, making up a right to "privacy," which in MHO, started w/ Roe v. Wade). Don't mean to be off-topic, but we need to either follow the rule of law, or follow the rule of man (I prefer the former). As someone noted yesterday, too, this shouldn't have been held up by the above mentioned EO, but was more than likely, held up by the famous "wall of separation" put up by Gorelick herself (on the 9/11 commission), when she served in the DOJ in the 90's. That wall supposedly keeps intel agencies from talking to each other, and this right here could be the shining example of the stupidity of that rule. Finally, I noted the NY Post's jab here ("so-called", I love it!): Mr. Weldon is currently engaged in a public tussle with the members and staff of the so-called September 11 Commission over why that body omitted all discussion of the "Able Danger" project from its report.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:01
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"In what way is searching through public domain information an "invasion of privacy"?"
Although this is a valid question, there may be better questions to ask. Like: i may have the right to do so (search), but who gave the govt the power to? what process is the govt using to single out me & not you?
If the govt were full of perfect people, 'searching through public domain info' would not bother me... who to scrutinize is ultimately a politital decision.
The article contains zero data, as it does not give the ratio of accurate hits to false hits. I could give you a list of everyone in the USA and say it picked the terrorist out.
"Publically available" is also a bit of weasely phrase. I get the feeling we are not talking about information already in the public domain. What are the controls if it is, to make sure it stays that way?
It would be far better to start with a particular suspected person and expand out from there with these types of searches. This should be authorised by a judge. The numbers of these searches should be published. The search should include financial records etc.
#6
Although this is a valid question, there may be better questions to ask. Like: i may have the right to do so (search), but who gave the govt the power to? what process is the govt using to single out me & not you?
Where is the government DENIED the power to search public information?
What process is there for the government to "single out" person A vs. person B on any matter?
The article contains zero data, as it does not give the ratio of accurate hits to false hits. I could give you a list of everyone in the USA and say it picked the terrorist out.
No, you couldn't. Not without being a bald-faced liar, at least.
It would be far better to start with a particular suspected person and expand out from there with these types of searches.
How do you know this wasn't done? In fact, it's the obvious way FOR doing it -- you look for someone connected to people you know ARE involved, then look for other commonalities -- age, gender, culture, type of residence, educational background, etc.
This should be authorised by a judge.
Why? Should police be required to get a warrant to investigate when someone calls them to report a crime? Should police be restricted from using crime pattern analysis to allocate manpower?
The numbers of these searches should be published.
Why?
The search should include financial records etc.
Huh?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 12:49
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"While the left and the feminists rail against Bush and the Bush doctrine, grave, terrible crimes against humanity go unpunished."
The demented Left have no problems at all with late term abortions muchless, care about "inhumanity" across the world. GOP is considered more cruel than OBL.
There is one bit of good news. I read an article in the WSJ that broadband users are watching less and less TV (idiot box). As prices of broadband come down, WSJ is expecting an explosion of broadband in homes. The more unfiltered news people get from WWW (especially blogs), the more aware people become, of world atrocities. Links like this is not possible without unfiltered news which is why the Demoncats want the courts, FTC, and FCC to control web content. This is a losing battle for the Demons, yet they still keep walking into traffic without looking both ways. The blogger on this link wants people to become more aware, well an explosion of broadband is a start.
You want true compassion then, MSM must be destroyed without prejudice. Broadband is a start.
Not to change topics but:
**My wife is having thorasic (rib extraction) surgery, this morning. Jews and Christians at RB, please pray for my wife. Thanks!!**
#2
Why not prayers to Allan, PR? You afraid your wife would come back in a burka? Seriously, I just sent up a prayer for her...keep us updated.
Back to topic, I think this is spot on. I've personally turned off the idiot box (at least for News, with the exception of Fox News, and I'm even getting sick of them...Aruba 24/7). As broadband (and even area wide wireless networks) come down in price, the news will get out. Just think of all the "news" the MSM has been smacked down on in the past year or two (that they would've gotten away with, just 5 years ago)...abu Gharib 24/7; Dan Rather on Bush's Air Reserve "story"/fake but true; beheadings by the jihadis being covered up; and the "good news" reports that somehow don't make it to press, but you can easily find online; etc. You'll always have your diehard MSM fans, but just look at how Fox News is kicking CNN/MSNBC's arse! I'll always favor Rantburg as my news source, though. Thanks Fred!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:56
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OT, but...I am currently in MSM "rehab" having canceled my lifelong addiction to taking a daily newspaper (Chicago Tribune most recently) 2 months ago.
My first news scan of the day is Rantburg. Fox News has to answer to advertisers to be available to us, so they are forced to at least address the next big story- however I give them credit for at least packaging up detailed coverage into predictable slots- Greta's etc.
Unfettered access to world events is the strength of this blog.
By the way, I am still mildly suprized that canceling my subcription to the Chicago Tribune after 16 consequtive years didn't generate at least a simple phone call from someone in that organization as to the reasons I wrote "cancel" on my invoice.
Thank you for the prayer. Just got back from the hospital. The surgery was successful and she is in recovery.
Thank you, Jesus, that everything went well. I prayed, "Jesus use the medical staff as your instruments, and I want you to do the surgery."
The ironic thing is that she is going to medical school next year to eventually become a cardio-thorasic surgeon. I guess she will be telling her future patients, "not only am I a surgeon, I was also a patient so trust me, I really know how you feel"
Capsu78,
"didn't generate at least a simple phone call from someone in that organization"
I know excatly how you feel. I donate to different Jewish and Christian ministries/charities around the country. But, I sent an email to the Joel Osteen "Lakewood Church" asking for a physical address so I can send some money. You wouldn't believe the response. The reply, didn't have the words "thank you", "thank you for wanting to be a partner," or even any other kind words. The ONLY thing on the email body was the address. I know that's what I asked for but, the empty response was out of line. I send my money to another ministry.
#9
Proison Reverse, I'm glad your wife came through the surgery well. Here's hoping for a rapid and relatively pain free recovery. And best of luck to you both for the progress of her medical career!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 17:53
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Good news indeed PR.
Posted by: Col Flagg ||
08/12/2005 18:55
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Thanks, everyone for the kind words.
My kids and I are going to the hospital to spend time with my wife. There are so many tempting articles I want to comment on but I will have to put fingers in sleep mode for tonight.
tw,
Did you get my instructions yesterday on html bullet points? Here you go just in case.
--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. Add a space after the second greater that sign and type your text.
For example, this how it would look like with 3 bullet points.
The Philippines said Thursday it was hunting 10 Indonesian extremists who were feared to be plotting suicide attacks, as security was stepped up following a spate of bombings in the south.
National Security Advisor Norberto Gonzales said the Indonesians, from an extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda, could be behind two bomb blasts in the southern city of Zamboanga on Wednesday which injured at least 26 people.
He said two of the militants were already believed to be in the capital Manila scouting possible targets with the help of Filipino accomplices from the Abu Sayyaf group.
Police in Zamboanga meanwhile announced they were questioning four suspects about the blasts.
The Abu Sayyaf, a gang of Islamic militants blamed for the bombing of a ferry last year in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people, were also suspected of planning the attacks in Zamboanga.
"The searches will be intensified," said Gonzales, adding that possible targets in Manila such as hotels and shopping malls had been alerted.
Gonzales said the Philippines had received a tip-off from unspecified foreign governments about the 10 Indonesians who were believed to be from the Jemaah Islamiyah group behind the 2002 bombings on the island of Bali.
He declined to elaborate on the sources, but a security official told AFP that at least two top JI lieutenants who played key roles in the Bali attacks had slipped into the southern island of Mindanao.
The two were identified as Omar Patek and Dulmatin, whose real name is Joko Pitono and who allegedly helped assemble the bombs that killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island.
Gonzales said the Indonesian suspects may be working closely with Dulmatin.
"What is important here is we are beginning to see a new development as far as terrorism is concerned in the Philippines," Gonzales said.
He said Jemaah Islamiyah was "beginning to employ non-Filipinos in the Philippines terror action, this to us is significant."
The military said Wednesday's blasts in Zamboanga, which tore through a mini-bus and an inn, could be meant as a diversionary tactic by the Abu Sayyaf to slow a military offensive against the group.
The militants, including Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, have been in a cat-and-mouse chase with the military in the jungles of central Mindanao island since July.
"The police and military are under strict orders by the president to get to the root of these attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice," President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.
Zamboanga city police director Henry Lozanes said four suspects were being questioned about the blasts.
"We picked up three suspects for questioning and another one suspect was questioned from among those wounded," he said.
Police officials said the bombs in Zamboanga appeared to have been made with ammonium nitrate, a substance also used in fertiliser.
National police chief, Director General Arturo Lomibao, visited the bombing sites and ordered tighter security in the city, describing the bombings as "a terrorist attack meant to harm civilians."
The last major bombings in Zamboanga city took place on October 17, 2002 when two bombs exploded in a shopping mall, leaving six dead and 150 wounded.
Security analysts in the region say that while the Abu Sayyaf ranks have fallen in recent years after its key leaders were captured or killed, its cells have been infiltrated by JI militants.
A military intelligence report has also said that up to 40 JI militants trained last year in a rebel camp controlled by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF is negotiating peace with Manila and has denied the report.
EFL...more good news you'll never hear on this side of the pond.....
"I have lots of experience in these mountains fighting the Russians," said Commander Rahim Khan, one of the former mujahideen fighters, who handed in his weapons earlier this year. "Now I can use this for peaceful reasons."
For centuries, Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains have served mainly to keep out would-be invaders - from the British to the Russians. The hope is the peaks could now work the other way - attracting climbers, trekkers and other visitors, amid tentative efforts to exploit the country's potential as a tourist destination.
Afghanistan has some of the highest mountains in the world. That's why the Rome-based organisation, Mountain Wilderness, has started training people as guides, "ready for when they start arriving," explains the group's energetic leader Professor Carlo Pinelli. Twenty-two would be mountain guides - including 2 women - were signed up for the first course. Nine of the trainees are former mujahideen fighters, selected by the nationwide UN-backed DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration) programme responsible for disbanding militia groups. The plan is also getting support from the Aga Khan foundation and the US Agency for International Development.
Three decades ago, Afghanistan was becoming something of a new mountaineering Mecca, as climbers sought out new, un-scaled summits. But war closed that all down. "We want to open again the door of the Afghan Hindu Kush to mountaineering," says Mr Pinelli, who first climbed here in the 1960s. He began that effort two years ago, organising an expedition to climb Nowshak, the country's highest peak at almost 7,500 metres - the first time it had been scaled in more than two decades.
They were taught essential techniques like crossing snow fields and glaciers, abseiling and the basics of rock climbing.
Rohina, one of the two female students, was enthusiastic. "Three years ago, I couldn't even leave my house," she said. "Now I have climbed a mountain."
All 22 students passed the course, but it has only given them basic guiding skills. Despite their knowledge of the mountains, making the transition may be particularly difficult for Rahim Khan and his fellow mujahideen fighters. None of them speak English, crucial for dealing with foreign visitors. "This is a first step," Mr Pinelli acknowledges. He is hoping his trainees will build on their skills by guiding trekking and walking groups. But he admits "it will be some time before there are regular clients to guide".
Next year, he plans to run a more advanced course in the Wakhan corridor, where the country's highest peaks are found. A new era of Afghan mountaineering may be about to begin.
Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out. The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labor -- and beer-brewing. A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best. But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity. "Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone." Yes, Comissioner?
And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand. "We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site. Translation: Get your hands off my heinie, baby.
Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery." *Hic!*
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/12/2005
00:46 ||
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#1
I've run out of beer, too. I've been really busy and haven't had time to make any and it takes about 4 weeks. I hope I can hold on 'till then. I think I'll make the Deacon Blues Nut Brown Ale.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/12/2005 7:56
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#2
we'll make the same amount and just charge a heck of a whole lot more for it.
#5
mmurray821, it may be a cool schtick to buy an old monastery and force all brewery workers to wear monks' robes (probably nun's to, not to be discriminatory). Wel, yea, your beer has to be decent... ;-)
#6
Some of those regional beers are magnificant. Back in the Middle Ages, the Germanic monestaries wanted to consume 'heavy' beer during the month-long Lenten fast. The sent samples to the Vatican to ask if this high calorie, high test beer was acceptable. The Italian wine-drinkers took a sip, spit it out, gagged, and approved its use, along with a commendation to the monks for drinking the horrible stuff for an entire month.
My own personal experience is that half a large bottle was able to make several of my friends forget that they had legs. Impressive.
#7
I'm gettin' images in my head of the Friar Tuck-esque, burping, beer-loving monk from Kevin Costner's flick ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES, and about how beer is a divine gift from God himself, or words to that effect.
#8
Am I the only one getting Tim Powers flashbacks?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/12/2005 21:53
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#9
Painting in the Milwaukee Art Museum, German art of the 19th C.: Two monks in the wine cellar. One, carrying a basket of bottles, has fallen down a short flight of stairs, and is looking with great regret on the smashed bottles and all the good red wine pouring out. The other, hand to his fact to keep from laughing at his comrade's awkward position and woeful expression.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/12/2005
00:39 ||
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#1
So he finds the body of a (western) journalist butchered by what I presume was a Muslim militia (as far as I can tell, the death squads in East Timor were mostly Islamic, although I certainly could be wrong in this case), and he goes home, later to emerge as a vocal supporter of Islamic death squads the world over.
This looks more like inspiration than trauma.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/12/2005 7:05
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LABOR wants the Government to take a hard line with Muslim schools to force them to teach mateship and tolerance.
And it will demand funding be cut to schools that peddle extremist or inflamatory material.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley will today push for education to be on the agenda at Prime Minister John Howard's anti-terrorism summit with Islamic leaders next month.
Labor say the nation's 29 Islamic schools must enshrine Australian values such as respect, tolerance, diversity and mateship in their teachings.
More than 12,800 students attend the 29 schools and they receive $47 million, or $1.6 million each annually, in Commonwealth funding.
They receive a similar amount from the states.
The Labor plan includes:
TEACHING students respect for democratic values;
PROFESSIONAL development for teachers; and
BUDDY programs between Islamic and other schools.
Mr Beazley will today call on the Government to ensure Muslim classrooms do not "present opportunities for extremism".
The plan demands all Muslim students are taught the responsibilities that come with being a member of the Australian community.
"I'm urging the Prime Minister to put on the table teaching values of respect and tolerance at all our schools including Muslim schools," Mr Beazley said.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/12/2005
00:36 ||
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THE three Bali bombers are facing execution within a matter of weeks, as Indonesian authorities are believed to have begun the process. Possible dates for the executions currently being touted around the streets of Bali include August 25 or September 9.
The three, all sentenced to death in 2003, are the so-called smiling assassin Amrozi, his older brother Mukhlas and the defiant field commander Imam Samudra. All three were jubilant when their death penalties were handed down and have never uttered a word of regret about their murderous deeds.
However, lawyers and prosecutors involved in the three cases, who are generally the first to be notified of any impending executions, said yesterday they had not been informed. Lawyer Wirawan Adnan, who was on the legal team representing all three condemned to death, said he was yet to receive official notification but had heard rumours that letters from Indonesian authorities in Jakarta were about to be issued. "I have heard talk out on the streets but that's all I have heard. I have yet to receive the letter of notification. At this point I still do not know which one of them will be executed. I have not been told the timeframe," Mr Adnan said yesterday.
The prosecutors who handled each of the cases have also not been told a word yet, although a representative from each of the cases is required to attend the actual execution. Putu Indriarti, who prosecuted the so-called ringleader Mukhlas, said yesterday she had not been told but she was more than ready to stand and watch the terrorist Mukhlas being shot.
Talk about the planned executions is now rife in Bali, where many of the Balinese people remain extremely angry about what the terrorists from Jemaah Islamiyah did to their island in October 2002, and from which they are still recovering. Terrorist bombs at the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Appeals by the trio to Indonesia's highest court, the Supreme Court, have been rejected and the trio refused to seek clemency from Indonesia's president. However, the Denpasar District Court, as a matter of practice, sent clemency letters on their behalf in August 2004. Yesterday Suraatmaja, the court public relations officer, said court officials had not yet received a response to the request sent one year ago.
Yesterday Indonesian prosecutors also demanded the death sentence for Iwan Darmawan, a key suspect in the 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta that killed 11 people.
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World ||
08/12/2005
00:34 ||
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#1
Take them out to a firing squad and wackem' w/ bullits dipped in PIGS BLOOD!!!!
Entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte has retracted some of the controversial comments he made at a civil rights march in Atlanta regarding Jews working for Hitler, but his retraction may have created even more controversy for the singer.
During an interview with Cybercast News Service at the Aug. 7 march, Belafonte asserted that Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany included Jews and that African Americans working in the Bush administration should be compared to Jews working for Hitler. "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich," Belafonte said on Saturday. He went on to label African Americans working in the Bush administration as "tyrants."
On Wednesday, Belafonte told the Jerusalem Post: "I do regret the sentence was not structured more accurately." He added: "I, too, agree that Jews weren't 'high up.'" Brilliant.
But Belafonte's interview with the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, which included the assertion that Jews claim "a high and pure morality," has caused more controversy and more demands for apologies. "The point was not to attack Jews," Belafonte told the Jerusalem Post. "Sometimes, the Jewish people have laid claim to such a high and pure morality" that they react defensively when attacked. But the history of Jewish people "is a DNA that sits within the entire human family," Belafonte said. Even more brilliant.
On Thursday, Wyman Institute Director Rafael Medoff responded to Belafonte's assertion that the Jewish people claim "a high and pure morality." Medoff said Belafonte's new statement "smacks of bigotry," and he called on Belafonte "to retract and apologize for his remarks." "Hitler and his regime murdered six million Jews and launched a world war that caused more than 40 million deaths. How can that be compared to current U.S. government policy?" Medoff asked.
Belafonte used a 2002 book entitled "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" to back his claim that Jews were involved in the Third Reich. "Jews did have a role, some did, in the demise and brutal treatment of the Jewish people," Belafonte told the Jerusalem Post. "Was it rampant? Absolutely not," Belafonte told the Post. "But these things happen, and people are not exempt from their behavior," he added. "Let's not be dishonest about all of us. The more we know the truth, the better we'll be [at] improving humanity," he said. So let me see if I have this straight. Jews who, in fear for their very lives, turned in other Jews in order to save themselves. In most of those cases, it mattered not since the Nazis rounded the stoolies up anyway and gassed and burned them too. Harry, come here and get slapped.
But the book's author, Bryan Mark Rigg, repudiated Belafonte's attempt to use his book as the basis for his controversial statements. "Belafonte continues to distort history. My book shows that a number of people of partial Jewish ancestry served in the German military, but they did not even consider themselves Jews," Rigg said in a statement released through the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. "Moreover, the vast majority of them were drafted - they were forced to serve Hitler just as other Jews were forced to become slave laborers in Auschwitz and elsewhere," Rigg said. "In fact, many of them were later dismissed from the German military and sent to forced labor camps, where they themselves were persecuted, and some were murdered. Belafonte should take the trouble to read the books he cites before claiming they support him. My book doesn't support him," Rigg added. Belafonte really wants to win the Fiskie this year. Too bad he's too irrelevant to warrant such an honor.
Belafonte was featured at the rally and march commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. His controversial comments came in response to a question about his criticism of blacks working in the Bush administration. The event included prominent Democrats like U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. Judge Greg Mathis of television fame called members of the Bush administration "thieves" and criminals" who needed to be "locked up" for allegedly stealing the last two presidential elections. Belafonte's original comments about Jews "high up" in the Third Reich's hierarchy prompted the Anti-Defamation League and the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies to demand an apology earlier this week.
Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Institute for Holocaust Studies, said Belafonte was wrong about his assertion. "The fact is that there were no Jews in Hitler's hierarchy. The policies of America and Israel are not similar to those of Hitler, and African-American conservatives are not comparable to Nazis," Medoff said. No practicing Jews in Hitler's army, anyway.
Comedian Dick Gregory, also interviewed by Cybercast News Service during the Atlanta civil rights march, said that African-American conservatives "have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it up?" Yuk yuk yuk. No wonder you're such a popular comedian. What was your name again?
In the Jerusalem Post interview, Belafonte stuck by his comparison of the Bush administration to Nazi Germany, calling the analogy "not inappropriate" because of the U.S. policy of "detaining suspects without charges [and] creating an atmosphere of fear." These actions, Belafonte said, are "very much similar to the things that were done when Hitler was on the rise." I find your views fascinating and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Belafonte then went on to explain why he believes Jewish groups would defend President Bush. This oughtta be good.
"I can understand why Jewish leaders would be prone to protect the image of George Bush and his administration," Belafonte told the Post, noting that the president supports Israel "even when there are questions of the humanitarian, the moral and the political [motivation] of things that are done to Palestinians." It's got a hip, modern beat and you can dance to it. I give it an 8.9
Belafonte has received numerous awards from Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith and Yeshiva University, according to the Jerusalem Post. Noting that his wife is of Russian-Jewish heritage, he has visited Israel and he does "the best version" of "Hava Nagila," Belafonte said: "I've always been supportive of the right of Israel as a state, and I've always fought against anti-Semitism, even in my own community." You're doing a great job, too.
This is not the first time Belafonte's remarks have caused a backlash. In 2002, Belafonte called then-Secretary of State Colin Powell a "house slave." Ted Rall sez she's a "house nigga". Guess Harry found that offensive.
Belafonte has also been criticized for his relationship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In 2002, Belafonte starred in the biographical documentary "Fidel." New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott described the film as "an exercise not in biography but in hero worship." Belafonte "starred" in something? Must have been a direct-to-video masterpiece.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/12/2005
00:30 ||
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#1
Please, just shut up already. What a dumbass!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/12/2005 6:57
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#2
"...Left foot, right foot, in my mouth- "Daylight come and I wan' go hooome..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/12/2005 6:58
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#3
I'm actually upset that his comments are making it to print and we should not take care to propagate them. There are two sides to this coin one is we are showing his actions are completely unacceptable but the other is that he is actually reintroducing another generation to a very potent lie.
Don't doubt for one second that someone is reading his words, right here at rantburg, and thinking, yeeeah.... now that you mention it... Jews do claim a high and pure morality. That guy that interviewed me and didn't give me that job was jewish.
That Belafonte is willing to defend his comments and hawk that book shows how far we have slipped. This is dangerous stuff and I'm really sorry to see we in this nation have stooped to this level.
And for those who may be reading and be thinking.. yeeah... don't forget that Islam claims to be the pure religion and intends to kill you if you don't conform. And since Islamists are blowing up subways and crashing planes into buildings, maybe it would be best to focus your energies there.
#4
and furthermore, I never quite understand why the left so well understands how to ignore ideas but the right just doesn't get it. Look at the NYT and WAPO and the networks with the Food for Oil scandals, the Swift Vets and any other controversy - they just completely ignore it as long as they can and then when forced to acknowledge it, quickly change the focus as to why it's Bush's fault or Cheney's fault, etc - thus limiting the exposure of the accusation.
The best way to handle this would be to note only that Belafonte apologized and quote people saying what a crackpot he is - how his record sales are slipping, what a has been he is and he has been shunned. Turn the focus onto anything else. But to repeat what he said and his defense of his comments only plays into the game. Don't play along.
#5
and furthermore, I never quite understand why the left so well understands how to ignore ideas but the right just doesn't get it.
You realize that this difference has resulted in a left run by the moonbats and a right that does a decent job of exposing and expelling its moonbats, don't you?
Which is healthier for society?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/12/2005 8:24
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#6
I realize that complete and total moonbats have been able to get elected into congress because their antics were ignored by the press - to the point that the entire Democratic party is nothing BUT moonbats.
It would be far better if the left was providing us with serious discussion about the balance of civil liberties v/s security and tax cuts than the loon parade we are witnessing now.
#7
I see you POV, 2b, but, personally I like to think that it (hopefully) is exposing a new generation to just how much of a moonbat-congregation the left is. Makes me think of a black lady I work with. She rides the bus home with me, and her husband picks her up at the bus stop. They are younger, married, black and he's always listening to Sean Hannity (oh, the horror) in the car when I walk past! I think the black community is starting to come around to the Repubs (especially as they move up the income ladder, and many of the younger generation are getting married and are more conservative than many whites I know), and moonbats like Belafonte (who?) speaking nonsense like this can only help the shift move faster, IMHO.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:34
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#8
"I, too, agree that Jews weren't 'high up.'"
Yeah, Harry. I too think they were on the lower, labor intensive side of the Reich...
#9
Another example: Black guy my age here at work (former military, so that helps) is married, has kids, etc. He stumbles in on our lively "coffee club/political discussion group" often and I never will forget a discussion we had with him. When confronted about numerous social issues (not even the WoT), he agreed with us...abortion on demand, harder sentences on criminals, gay "rights", etc. One of the other guys in the club said to him, "Congratulations, you're a Conservative Republican." His face dropped! Since then, he's showed up daily, and he's amazed at how much we in the club know about what's going on in the world that he's never even heard of (much, to the influence of Rantburg, no less...and ignoring the MSM). You'll always have the community of "my parents voted Democrat, I've always voted Democrat, and that's just the way it is." But, my personal experience (and that's here in the South in Atlanta) is telling me the younger black generation (~35 and younger) didn't grow up with REAL racism, are experiencing greater wealth, are moving up in income brackets, and, thus, are moving TOWARD the Repub. party. It'll still take years to "de-indoctrinate" many, but moonbats like Belafonte are helping push them to the VRWC!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:42
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#10
BA - I agree with the point that both you and BA are making - and you are talking about the other side of the coin.
It's all in the presentation. There is a reason why the left never spoke or acknowledged the Swift Vets accusations and instead only focused on the accusers and then ran polls showing what "most people think". The focus was always and completely on the Swift Vets. No air time was given to the accusations themselves. They kept information that was dangerous to their candidates out of focus and put 100% focus on the Vets themselves.
#12
The point I am trying to make is that we all know how dangerous and potent this particular lie is. Let's not help spread the lie and instead leave it at "Belafonte, has-been loser, shunned for anti-semetic comments". Keep the focus on Belafonte and keep the discussion away from advertising the original lie. Trust me on this one.
Look at it this way - does it help or hurt Ted Kennedy to have discussions on the reasons why his drinking and womanizing should not matter if he can get legislation done? Answer - it does both. But I'm sure Ted understands he's better off if that discussion doesn't happen in the first place.
#13
Who is most hurt by this comment in the high school paper? Betty Sue was to exposed to be a mean and hurtful gossip by her commenting that the Prom Queen has a big butt?
Gosh, up until now, I never thought the Prom Queen had a big butt - but, I guess it is a little bigger than it should be.
#15
It's more like Harry B stuck both his feet in his own butt. He should have stuck to his competent but mediocre singing rather than become an idiotic and nasty old crank.
#16
same lies Farrakhan and his ilk spread. Ignoring Belafonte as he gets more and more senile with BDS won't make him go away. Attack him for this loudly and publicly.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 10:04
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#17
"..Noting that his wife is of Russian-Jewish heritage.."SOME OF THE WORST ANTISEMITS ARE F---ING JEWS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER OR BOTH.
#18
Belafonte is an ass, no question.
However, it was rumored at the time that Heydrich (Head of SD), Robert Ley (Labor head) and Alfred Rosenberg (Nazi "philospher" if there could actually be such a thing) were partially Jewish.
Field Marshall Erich Manstein, the Wehrmachts offensive operations genius on the Eastern front was also reportedly Jewish.
Emphasis on the word rumored.
If any of this is true, it points to the flaws of the individual and not the sterotypical assumptions of that tard Belafonte.
#19
Say, I didn't read any mention of Danny Glover attending the rally. Is he on location, or has he renounced the democratic party and become a Shining Path?
#21
Harry Belafonte, Dick Gregory, Television-Judge Greg Mathis. I mean really now. Who really cares what they say? Do they have any influence at all? And if so with who? Not to mention the "Voting Rights Act" Rally had little or nothing to do with voting rights. It was just an excuse for another Anti-(Fill in the blank) protest. The ADL and Wyman Institute should quit sounding the anti-Semitism bell at every off the cuff statement. It only weakens their cause and shines the light on these turds.
Oldey but Goody for those who missed it on Monday!
Harry Belafonte's New
"Banana Boat Song"
"I'm So Los'"
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Go all day on a cup-a jo'
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
It's a-gettin noon, There's a Burga King!
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Walkin' a-rounâ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Walkin' a-rounâ mumlin' to ma self
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Six mile, seven mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Eight mile, nine mile, Where am I?
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Come to dis park spoutin' foolishness
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Lotsa people cheer ma' foolishness
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Come Mr. Taxi-man take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
I got so'money you can take me back to ma' place
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
Hey, he say hey, he say hey, he say hey,
Hey-oh, Hey-ey-ey-oh
I'm so los' and I caâ find ma home
#23
"...the Jewish people have laid claim to such a high and pure morality that they react defensively when attacked..."
And how would you have them react when attacked, Harry?
BEIJING, Aug 12 (Bernama) -- Archaeologists have recently found a well-preserved ancient warship dated back to some 600 years ago, at a relics site in the ancient Dengzhou Harbor in Penglai, east China's Shandong Province. The Xinhua news agency reported that this is the first discovery of a large ancient ship in China in over two decades.
The wooden ancient vessel, more than 20 meters long, is believed to be a warship from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), said You Shaoping, director of the Shandong Cultural Heritage Bureau, on Thursday. The value of the ancient warship is yet to be determined by experts, said You, adding that it is similar to another ancient ship excavated not far away from the site about 20 years ago, but better preserved than that one.
In 1984, a warship of Yuan Dynasty was found in Penglai, and the ancient ship was the largest and best preserved ancient ship in China at that time...28 meters long, 5.6 meters wide, and 1.2 meters high. The streamline warship was designed for fast navigation, said experts.
During the excavation of the ship some 20 years ago, a second ancient ship was found. But archaeologists buried it up again because half of the ship was covered by a local home.
Local government conducted a desilting project at the ancient harbor site this year. As residents of the site were relocated, archaeologists began to excavate the buried ship. To their surprise, the third, better preserved ship was discovered. Experts said Chinese navigation in the Yuan and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties was relatively developed.
The ancient Dengzhou harbor had been an important military harbor in north China 1,000 years ago...
#1
During the excavation of the ship some 20 years ago, a second ancient ship was found. But archaeologists buried it up again because half of the ship was covered by a local home.
It's a sad day when China has more respect for private property than the United States Supreme Court does.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/12/2005 1:41
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#2
Hopefully, the lot will be added to, in the future!
#3
This brings up an interesting and, to me, alarming facet of the Supreme Court Kelo decision. There have been several court cases over the years pitting developers against Civil War Battlefield preservationists. I gues with the Kelo decision the developers can now get the local governments to condem any property in question regardless of the historic significance purely for the purpose of increased tax revenue. I'm not a rabid preservationist but some sites that are endangered need to be preserved. It will be very interesting to see how any preservation case plays out. IMHO, it looks like the preservationists will lose.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/12/2005 7:39
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#4
DB: That's just another "sign and portent" of what I'm beginning to believe will be a 2nd Civil War here in the States. If these solutions don't come about through elections (and, thus, judicial nominees who read the Constitution as it's written, not as they would've written it), it may very well come to another war. I, for one, was born and raised here in the South, tried to deny my "Southern-ness" (i.e. redneck-ness) for a long time before I've truly come to believe there are many traits we should admire here. I've never set foot on a Civil War battlefield, and, personally, think those guys are sometimes overboard...BUT, they take this seriously. Of course, many of the developers around here are "good ole' boyz" too, so I imagine it may be a while before they try to get the local gov't to condemn the properties in question (Civil War battlefields, etc.).
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 7:56
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#5
Ba, I singled out Civil War Battlefields because they have been in some of the news lately but they are by no means the only historic sites endangered. Waaaaay back in the mid '70s when I was at Auburn University Magnolia Avenue was almost all residential on one side as the University takes up the other side. When Mcdonalds wanted to build a restaurant on Magnolia they got the city to condem two of the houses, they wanted a third but it is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. It was the home of an Auburn Physicist who was a very important part of the discoveries in physics in the 1920's and 30s. I can't remember his name, dammit, but my point is there was a big outcry about allowing a McDonalds into a residential area and that if the house had not been on the Register it would have been destroyed. The city Council ignored the public wishes and rezoned the land and condemed it anyway. In light of the Kelo decision I believe we will lose a lot more of our historical heretige.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/12/2005 9:27
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#6
Good points, DB, and I didn't assume you mean just Civil War sites. Funny story I have at that very McDonald's you talk about. One day a buddy and I were crossing Magnolia to go to class (we parked behind the McDonald's in a dirt lot to keep from paying on campus..plus it was right across the street from our Engineering building). Anyways, we were waiting for traffic to clear, when we saw these 2 girls in a car look at us, smile and then start laughing. Driver was looking so hard that she ran into the back of the car in front of her (who slowed down to turn into McD's), RIGHT in front of us. I was all worried, wanted to help these ladies out, and my buddy turned to me and said "I hate it when that happens." I just burst out laughing (especially knowing they were checking out 2 nerdy future engineers) and we just crossed to go to class.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:40
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Yuan is the Mongol Occupation. Wonder if this is one of the constructions for either of the two invasion fleets that were sent to Japan.
#2
I don't. They were a pretty nasty bunch themselves.
I don't think the Arab "volunteers" should have been allowed in, and I think the war criminals on the Bosnian side should have been killed like the vermin they were.
Maybe my attention span is too long. I can still remember the picture of the girl in the white dress, killed by a sniper in Sarajevo, and her little dog, too. Filth doesn't excuse filth.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005 12:00
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Putting down a revolution is nasty business. That area has a history of discontent even when it was run by austro-hungary.
As far as killing children, its distasteful to modern western ideas, but history weighs in favor of those who are remorseless, not in favor of those who show mercy.
(yes I thought before I typed that, and I am not happy with the conclusion)
PUTRAJAYA, Aug 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will sign soon the Mega Port Initiative (MPI) that will enable the United States to help screen cargo for nuclear or radioactive materials that can be used for weapons of mass destruction.
The MPI is a follow-up to the Container Security Initiative (CSI) which Malaysia signed with the United States in January 2004. The CSI permitted American customs officers to be placed in Tanjung Pelepas Port in Johor and Port Klang to inspect potentially high-risk containerised shipments bound for the US.
Under the MPI, the US will provide radiation equipment and training to enhance Malaysia's capability to screen cargo for radioactive materials. Malaysian Customs Director-General Tan Sri Abdul Halil Abdul Mutalib said 80 countries had joined the MPI and Malaysia expected to sign it before the end of this month.
MPI and CSI were introduced by the US after the country was attacked by terrorists on Sept 11, 2001.
#3
Yeah, and Raj, I wanna be the one to "break" the story of it being false, too! Thanks, Dan.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 7:50
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"We regret that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts' record," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Bit. Keenan should remember - I don't have to be a genius, just smart enough to know when I'm being called stoopid.
A former Border Patrol agent, accused of lying about his citizenship, also smuggled immigrants in his official vehicle while on duty and was heard talking about smuggling drugs, a prosecutor said yesterday. A federal judge ruled that Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, should remain in jail without bail to prevent him from fleeing to Mexico, where he was born.
Ortiz resigned from the Border Patrol Friday, the day after he was arrested.
Prosecutor Michelle Jennings said Ortiz helped to smuggle more than 100 people into the United States, used a firearm during a felony and abused his position of trust. She said Ortiz was caught smuggling immigrants in 2001 and admitted to Border Patrol recruiters that year that he had used cocaine and marijuana.
Jennings said Ortiz was born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and a Guatemalan mother and went to middle school and high school in the Mexican state of Sonora.
Ortiz served in the U.S. Navy honorably and received favorable job evaluations at the Border Patrol, a defense lawyer said, evidence that his client stands by his promises and would return for court appearances. But the judge said Ortiz had rendered his government service a fraud by lying about his citizenship.
Jennings said agents discovered an "obviously counterfeit birth certificate" when they searched Ortiz's home in June.
In 2001, Ortiz, then a seaman aboard the Tarawa, an amphibious assault ship, was arrested in San Ysidro with two illegal immigrants in the back of a car he was driving, the prosecutor said. The two immigrants told authorities they each paid $200 to enter the United States, but no charges were filed.
That same year, Ortiz used an Illinois birth certificate to apply for the Border Patrol, agents said in a court filing. Investigators learned this year that a birth certificate with that same number had been issued to someone else...
The El Cajon-based agent was placed on administrative leave June 6, and was told to report to his superiors every day. He didn't. [Defense attorney Stephen] White said Ortiz wasn't shirking his duty, but was making the most of a bad situation. "He took a vacation," White said outside court.
Ortiz and another Border Patrol agent were investigated after federal agents listening to wiretaps on an Encinitas-based drug ring heard them talking about immigrant smuggling, authorities said. The other agent has not been charged in the case. Outside court, prosecutors said they couldn't answer questions about that agent.
#4
In 2001, Ortiz, then a seaman aboard the Tarawa, an amphibious assault ship, was arrested in San Ysidro with two illegal immigrants in the back of a car he was driving, the prosecutor said. The two immigrants told authorities they each paid $200 to enter the United States, but no charges were filed.
Why in the world did it take 4 years to put this punk on trial? He was not an INS agent at the time, but still should've been charged! I guess 9/11 had some role to play (and the fact that he faked a birth certificate to get a Federal job at the INS), but good grief, he should've been charged then and there!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:22
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Saddam Hussein could be executed after his first trial if he is convicted and sentenced to death for his alleged role in a 1982 Shiite massacre, even though he faces other charges, an official close to the proceedings said Thursday.
Sounds good to me. He should be gone already, for that matter.
The first trial, which involves the deposed Iraqi ruler's alleged role in the 1982 massacre of an estimated 150 Shiites in Dujail, north of Baghdad, is expected to begin by the fall, said the official.
I don't think the Shiites in Dujail had quite that long, but go ahead...
Saddam's daughter, meanwhile, has threatened that the ousted leader's defense lawyer could boycott the trial — and preliminary questioning — unless the defense gets better access to Saddam.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I'm sure they'll assign him a public defender and everything'll be fine...
The defense has complained in the past that it has only been allowed to meet Sadddam with U.S. or Iraqi military officials watching. Iraqi authorities also are building about a dozen other cases against Saddam that they intend to try separately. Those cases include the killing of rival politicians over 30 years, the 1987-88 Anfal campaign that left tens of thousands of Kurds dead or displaced and the crushing of a 1991 uprising by Shiites following the Gulf War. If Saddam is sentenced to death in the Dujail case, authorities could "theoretically" carry out the sentence without waiting for the other trials to begin, the official said.
At which point he'd "theoretically" be dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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#1
I'm sure they'll assign him a public defender and everything'll be fine...
The Iraqi equivalent of Rick Moranis in "Ghostbusters 2", no doubt.
#2
If he is put to death, I sincerely hope it's not hidden to the public and sterile (lethal injection). I want it shown on Al-Jazeera, piped to the entire Arab Street. Method: lock him in a hermetically sealed glass room in full military regalia, cigar, sword, and rifle...pump in phosgene gas! My thoughts will still be on that poor doggy they experimented on!!
Congratulations! You've hit a new low. Below are the casualties and deaths from the gas in WWI. Maybe your idea of a European vacation is to piss on WWI graves. Your snide remarks are deafening. Your hatred for the West is clear. FYI, they were actual humans, not dogs.
Casualties From Gas - The Numbers
Country-- Total Casualties-- Death
Austria-Hungary-- 100,000-- 3,000
British Empire-- 188,706-- 8,109
France-- 190,000-- 8,000
Germany-- 200,000-- 9,000
Italy-- 60,000-- 4,627
Russia-- 419,340-- 56,000
USA-- 72,807-- 1,462
Others-- 10,000-- 1,000
#6
PR: I agree that smn is waaaaay over the top often, but I think the "dogs" he referred to were actual dogs they were testing different gases on (but it was actually al Qaeda-not Sammy-doing it in Afghanistan...our boys found video of it a few years ago). I don't think he was referring to WWI! Could be wrong, though, I'll let smn reply. I know he/she stated phosgene, which as you point out was used in WWI, but I think smn was referring to the testing we found video of in Afghanistan.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:17
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#7
I've always thought they should hang him from that big arch of crossed swords he built in downtown Baghdad. Make for a nice visual.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/12/2005 8:19
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BA,
I know that she is referring to the CNN video. But, I also know what she means with her feceious Leftist innuendo. As you say, I will let her explain without using discardable fillers.
#9
I hear ya, PR! And, thanks for the kudos in yesterday's post by "bk" over "close-minded Christians." Think we thwaked that troll.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:05
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#10
nothing dramatic or colorful: make him dig a hole in the desert and shoot him in the head with his own gold pistol. Capture it on video and film as you place a latrine over the hole.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 9:55
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#11
Thanks for the correction BA #6, you are right on your analysis, I guess that doggy experiment really got to me, whoever did it!! I was however correct on gassing Saddam!
When I first heard this I thought it had occured in Iraq or Afghanistan. Then my second thought was that it was some terrorist act being state side. Thankfully they're okay. I was surprised that this story wasn't more wide spread.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) â A sheriff's department helicopter that crash-landed during a burglary investigation was brought down by gunfire, authorities said. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said authorities have no suspects but were working with the FBI. Investigators concluded the bullet struck a control pedal, he said.
Both the civilian pilot and the deputy who were on board when the helicopter went down early Saturday survived with shrapnel wounds. Pilot Chris Holland suffered a leg injury and is being treated at University of New Mexico Hospital. The nine-year veteran Deputy Ward Pfefferle, suffered minor injuries.
The Holland and Pfefferle were assisting deputies on the ground who were investigating a burglary call when the helicopter lost power, White said Wednesday. The pilot told White he heard a pop before helicopter pitched and the engine shut down. "He was trying to do an emergency landing, but it was a crash landing," White said.
Investigators examining the wreckage found what appeared to be a small hole in the cockpit windshield, and a bullet fragment was found in the deputy's flight suit. Trajectory tests determined the bullet struck the helicopter's left pedal, one of two that control the aircraft's right or left motion. If it had missed the pedal, it would have struck the pilot in the chest, White said. The morning after the crash, he had said it was a miracle that the two were alive.
Authorities intend to pursue federal charges through the U.S. attorney's office for destruction of an aircraft and other appropriate crimes when the person or people responsible are identified. State charges are also possible, White said.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/12/2005
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It happened over the "Valley", which has a higher crime rate than most of the rest of the city. The shooting took place in the area where the city and county intermingle. Hard to determined if the act was related to the events unfolding on the ground, or just another AK-monkey-pumper in the area. The crime scene this year is grim as the daily news has constant reports of shooting and killings. Gangs, I hate gangs. The local ACLU convinced a state judge the local curfew law was unconstitutional by the state constitution. OMG its quagmire. Meanwhile the mayor is focused on getting a Panda for the zoo [I kid you not], while people are questioning how many police are actually on patrol at any time. Fortunately, the mayorial election is this fall. Welcome to the Wild West!
#2
More deaths in new mexico? Oh when will we pull out of new mexico, leaving the independant and peace loving students of new mexico to their studies...
Two senior members of Ethiopia's former military government have been sentenced to death after an 11-year trial.
Cheeze. And I thought the Michael Jackson trial would never end!
Former Security Minister Tesfaye Woldeselassie and ex-police chief Legesse Belayneh were found guilty of torturing thousands of dissidents. The two men had played prominent roles in setting up torture camps during the "Red Terror" under Mengistu Haile Mariam, the court said. Eight other defendants were given prison sentences from 10 years to life for their part in the abuse of political prisoners.
At one such torture facility, known as Bermuda, "victims of excessive torture were wrapped [in] plastic sheeting to protect the torturers from getting splashed with blood or pus of the victims in successive round of tortures," the court said. "Apart from the routine whiplashes and beatings, victims also used to be electrocuted." Many other trials are under way of those accused of being involved in the Red Terror. Some 150,000 people were killed before Mr Mengistu was deposed in 1991. Mr Mengistu, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since he was overthrown, ...
That figures.
... has been charged with genocide and human rights abuses.
He's probably working as a consultant...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005
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SUSPECTS LINKED TO FAILED ATTACKS OF JULY 21: Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23 and Yasin Hassan Omar, 24: Charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, possessing or making explosives and conspiracy to use explosives.
Hamdi Issac, 27, also known as Osman Hussain: Charged in Rome charged with association with the aim of international terrorism.
Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32: Charged with conspiracy to murder, reportedly over bomb found July 23 inside backpack in London park.
SUSPECTED ACCOMPLICES: Yeshiemebet Girma, 29, wife of Hamdi Issac; her sister Mulumebet Girma, 21; and her brother Asias Girma, 20: Charged with withholding information from police about Issac's whereabouts and helping him evade arrest.
JULY 7 SUICIDE BOMBERS: Hasib Hussain, 18, from suburb of Leeds in northern England: Blew himself up in double-decker bus at Tavistock Square.
Shahzad Tanweer, 22, of Leeds: Died in blast on subway train near Aldgate station.
Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Leeds resident who had moved to West Yorkshire: Died in Edgware Road subway blast.
Jermaine Lindsay, 19, Jamaican-born Briton: Died in explosion between King's Cross and Russell Square subway stations.
DETAINED PRIOR TO DEPORTATION: Abu Qatada, radical Muslim cleric described by Spanish judge as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe." Nine other detainees not immediately identified.
OTHERS: Magdy el-Nashar, 33, Egyptian chemist detained in Cairo after July 7 bombings: Freed Aug. 9 after Egyptian authorities said he was not linked to attack. On day of release, told reporters he knew two of July 7 bombers casually in Leeds.
Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, accused by U.S. of conspiring to set up jihad training camp in Oregon in 1999-200: Deported from Zambia to Britain last week and arrested by British police on U.S. warrant. Appeared in London court Thursday; ordered held until hearing in September.
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SRINAGAR, India - Indian Kashmirâs top woman politician appealed to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday to help bring peace to the revolt-hit region by persuading militants to declare a ceasefire. âEncourage them to announce a ceasefire,â Mehbooba Mufti urged Musharraf. âPlease make the youth understand people in Kashmir want peace, not violence.â
"What's she saying, Mahmoud?"
"I dunno, the lips are moving but nuttin's coming out."
She made the appeal after being unanimously re-elected chief of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which came to power in 2002 in state elections on a pledge to bring âpeace with dignityâ to Indian Kashmir.
Mufti, whose father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is chief minister of Indian Kashmir, accompanied her appeal with a charge that Islamabad is sending guns into the Indian zone of the divided Himalayan region. Mufti said Musharraf was seeking to please the West by cracking down on extremists in Pakistan after recent deadly bombings in London. âIn our land, there are people who are dying. Donât you feel pain when people die here?â she said.
"No. Now shaddup and cook me a steak."
âI appeal to President Musharraf to prevent bloodshed in Kashmir...try to treat this festering wound.â
Mufti asked Musharraf to try to get militants to announce a truce like one declared in July 2002 by the regionâs top rebel group, Hizbul Mujahadin, whose leadership is based in the Pakistani zone of Kashmir. India reciprocated by suspending military operations against the group but Hizbul abandoned the ceasefire after just two weeks.
âOur party has an agenda to get the issue of Kashmir resolved through dialogue. I will continue to strive for that,â added Mufti, whose party is in a power-sharing arrangement in Kashmir with Indiaâs national ruling Congress.
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LAHORE: The Ittehad Tanzeemaatul Madaris al-Diniya (ITMD), a grouping of seminaries and wafaqs, on Thursday described the governmentâs decision to expel foreign students from Pakistani seminaries as âfanaticismâ and a serious breach of human rights, Online reported.
"Yeah! It ain't rational to want to throw the Krazed Killers outta Pakland before they've bumped anybody off! Well, not very many people, anyway..."
The ITMD met in an emergency session here at Jamia Ashrafia with Maulana Fazlur Rahim in the chair and then issued a joint statement that was read out at a press conference. The statement said the governmentâs decision to expel foreign students had benefited India because it had offered visas to such students.
"But they're gonna teach 'em to be Hindoos! Next thing you know, they'll be bowin' down in fronta them gods with 18 arms! They'll be learnin' how to read an' write and there's no tellin' what'll happen!"
The Ittehad could not agree to the idea of launching a countrywide protest against the government.
Staff report adds: According to the statement, the top ITMD leaders will soon meet the president and prime minister to discuss the registration of seminaries, foreign students and awarding the status of boards to wafaqs. âIf the government is not flexible on the issue of registration of religious institutions, we will be bound to protect the religious institutions with the help of other religious and political forces,â said the ITMD statement.
Sounds like a threat to me...
However, it added that the Ittehad was optimistic its dialogue with the government would succeed. They said that the heads of seminaries were not against registering, but objected to the governmentâs methods.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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So it is the foreign students that bring in the money? Bwahahahahahah!
Posted by: john ||
08/12/2005 11:50
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Mauritania's military rulers named a new civilian government yesterday a week after staging a bloodless coup, although many of its members hailed from the ousted president's party. The military junta, which ended two decades of authoritarian rule by President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmad Taya, has pledged presidential elections within two years, winning widespread support at home and cautious international approval. However, opposition politicians voiced disappointment at the make up of the new 20-member Cabinet and particularly at the choice of Ahmad Ould Sid Ahmad as foreign minister. Under Taya, he had been instrumental in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel in 1999, angering many Arabs in the country. "For us a break in relations with Israel would be irrefutable proof of a break with the old regime," said Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, leader of a radical opposition party, after the decree naming the new ministers was read out on state radio. "My feeling is that there is no change from what we have known for the past 20 years," he said.
"I'm so disappointed, I could just explode!"
In the new Cabinet, which includes three women, Mohammad Ali Ould Sidi Mohammad, previously head of the state electricity company which like other public firms helped fund Taya's party, will take over as energy minister.
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GUJRANWALA: Four people were killed and 17 were injured in crossfire between two political groups in union council 113 in Ferozwala police limits on Thursday evening. The crossfire ...
Hey hey! Let's not use the 'crossfire' word carelessly!
... between Chaudhry Iqbal Group and Aslam Buttar Group resulted in the death of Chaudhry Naeem, Muhammad Mansha, Muhammad Jameel and Ali Raza. The injured were admitted to District Headquarters Hospital. It was not confirmed to which party the dead and the injured belonged. Ferozwala police had neither registered a case nor arrested the culprits till this report at 1:00am.
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Candidates in parties backing President Hugo Chavez won many more seats than opposition challengers in Venezuela's local elections this week, according to preliminary results. With nearly all votes counted from Sunday's elections, Venezuela's major newspapers calculated that pro-Chavez candidates won some 47 percent of city council posts across the country, while opposition candidates won 17 percent and other independent parties had 18 percent of posts. The National Electoral Council released preliminary results Thursday evening showing Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party won some 1.3 million votes, or about 30 percent, with other pro-Chavez parties accounted for the remainder. The local elections were to decide 5,599 posts, including thousands of city council and neighborhood board members.
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FAISALABAD: Law enforcement agencies have arrested two people believed to be aides to Osama Bin Yousaf, an alleged Al Qaeda activist who was arrested several days ago from Sargodha Road, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. The arrested were identified as Rana Mohammad Tariq and Mohammad Azam and were taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Sources said intelligence personnel also visited a seminary on Sargodha Road for information on Osama Bin Yousaf. Sources also said Osama Bin Yousaf had been taken to Islamabad where a foreign investigation team would see him.
Posted by: Fred ||
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"Yous guys got me confused with Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad" one was overheard to say.
Slowly but surely these guys get rolled up but is it helping things overall?
The controversial Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was last night held in a Beirut prison after he was arrested by Lebanon's general security department less than a week after he fled from the UK.
Even the Lebanese know better than to let this mook run around.
The preacher was detained after leaving a television station where he said he would not go back to the country that has been his home for 20 years and where his wife and six children live. "I will not return to Britain unless I want to go there as a visitor or as a tourist," he said. "After all these years of being an expatriate I want to come back. I don't want to go back to Britain unless the government announces personally that I am no longer persona non grata."
"They can mail my welfare checks to me here!"
Around midday yesterday, Mr Bakri, who had been in hiding from the British media who followed him to Beirut, was surrounded by 10 heavily armed soldiers who were waiting outside the state-sponsored Future TV. Witnesses described how the soldiers flagged down a green Nissan hire car with the cleric and a driver inside. "They stopped the car in the middle of the road," one said. "After a few minutes, Bakri left the car and they put him in an official Range Rover ... When he was arrested, he looked astonished. At first when they stopped him he kept talking on the phone."
All they needed was the perp walk.
Last night the Lebanese interior ministry denied that Mr Bakri had been arrested at the request of any other country and said he was being held at general security facilities.
"We don't need the British to know that this nut is dangerous."
In a statement, the general security department said: "Following the receipt of security information, the general security is conducting an investigation regarding the situation of the Lebanese Omar Bakri Fistok [his family name] in order to take the appropriate measure." Last night his spokesman, Anjem Choudary, said he understood the cleric had been released by Lebanese officials but that was unconfirmed. "The information I have from the family is that he has now been released," he said. "It was just an informal discussion about the fact that they don't really have a file on him in Lebanon. They wanted to know what his purpose was for coming to Lebanon, how long he was going to stay and what he was going to do. He has not been in Lebanon since he was 17 and he is not wanted there for any crimes."
"But they're going to hold him anyway -- some talk about 'general principles', whatever that is," said the perplexed lawyer.
In the Future TV interview, Mr Bakri said al-Qaida did not exist and he did not know anybody who belonged to the organisation. He said he had disbanded al-Muhajiroun because he had been persecuted by the "Zionist" media in Britain and that he had not worked as a preacher since then. "There is no doubt that the London bombings affected my decision in returning to Lebanon," he said. "It was one of the major reasons. I condemn killing of innocent people."
"But since they're all infidels ..."
UPDATE: He's Free. EFL:
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanon freed the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed on Friday, hours after Britain declared he would not be allowed to return to its shores. Lebanon's prosecutor general, Judge Said Mirza, told The Associated Press he ordered Bakri's release after it appeared "that he has not committed any crime and there are no criminal records against him." Mirza added Bakri was a free man.
It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release from the General Security building in east Beirut. Lebanese newspapers reported that Syria would like Lebanon to hand over Bakri, but this could not be confirmed with the Syrian authorities on Friday - the Muslim sabbath. Bakri, 45, holds Syrian and Lebanese citizenship.
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a nicely placed rifle butt (ironically paid for by Bakri's Euro-begging) and this is all in the past...I can dream, can't I?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:06
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**snicker and snort*** God works in mysterious ways.
#7
Extradited to Syria? And you thought your "pad" was horrible in Lebanon, lol! AR makes a good point...he may have been spoiled by a country that truly practices tolerance and forgot the wild west mayhem that occurs daily in Lebanon/Syria. Good riddance!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 9:34
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#8
He lied so often, he fell for it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 9:44
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"At first when they stopped him he kept talking on the phone."
Hey everyone - Don't get your hopes up! - It may be they only arrested him for talking on a cell phone while rifding in the car. There are laws like that here in the US, remember?
The United States and the African Union have dropped their demands that last week's coup in Mauritania be reversed. The US is now working with the military junta to ensure that multi-party elections are held as soon as possible, a State Department spokesman said.
AU officials called the junta leader "president" after meeting him. AU delegation leader Nigeria's Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji stressed that elections should be held soon, and did not call for Mr Taya to be brought back. "All the people we met with indicated they agreed with the change - we think it would be simpler to take the transitional process toward democracy," he said. He, however, said that Mauritania would remain suspended from the AU until elections are held.
The military council has pledged to hold elections within two years and to forbid any member of the military junta from standing for office in that contest. US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the US was working with the junta on that basis. "The guys running the country right now are the guys we're dealing with, because they're the ones making the decisions and we are trying to get them to make the right decision," he said.
The BBC's Pascale Harter in Mauritania says the coup has initially proved popular with Mauritanians, many of whom were exasperated by two decades of repression under Mr Taya. Thousands of people flocked into the streets when news of the coup emerged last week.
"So long, Taya! Don't forget to write!"
Within hours all the country's opposition parties backed the new rulers, with Mr Taya's own party, the Social Democratic Republican Party (PRDS), also throwing its weight behind the junta.
But Mr Taya is vowing to return and has gone to The Gambia from Niger. "As the president of the republic, I order officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the armed forces and security forces to put an end to this criminal operation in order to restore the situation to normal," he told Al-Arabiya television on Monday.
"I'm still Mr. Big! Youse guys had better listen to me!"
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ABOARD THE USS KITTY HAWK (AP) - A U.S. aircraft carrier battle group, a contingent of Marines and dozens of Air Force fighter jets have conducted one of their biggest inter-service exercises of the year off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
The maneuvers, which began Aug. 7, involved more than 100 military planes - including B-2 stealth bombers from the island of Guam, as well as the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier and its battle group. Fighters launched from the deck of this carrier in intervals of less than two minutes roared through the skies Thursday seeking out imaginary enemies and targets. ``This is the highest-level joint exercise we can have outside the United States,'' said battle group commander Rear Adm. Doug McLain. ``We're operating the entire spectrum of warfare.''
The maneuvers, called JASEX, come on the heels of statements from the Pentagon indicating an increased concern over the modernization of China's military, and amid talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Battle group commander McLain stressed that the exercises, scheduled to continue through Sunday, were mainly designed to improve cooperation and interoperability between the different branches of the U.S. military.
JASEX has been held annually since 2003.
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The maneuvers, which began Aug. 7, involved more than 100 military planes - including B-2 stealth bombers from the island of Guam,
#2
San Diego misses you, Kitty Hawk, and all my old neighbors who serve upon you. Go with God's grace!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:27
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Don't fergit dat the Chicoms ambitions for East Asian hegemony go beyond just suborning Japan, the PI, and WESTPAC - they want Hawaii as well! They'll go as far as their OTH force projection and geopolitical concessions can take them.
#4
ChiComs taking down notes, awaiting their Ruskie-ChiCom show
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/12/2005 2:27
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War games going on around Japan, Australia; Taiwan bucking up; testing, launching cruise missiles. I'm beginning to get that twitch in my eye again that I thought I got rid of after that rubble top warning "W" gave after 9/11, a few years back! However I stand ready to stand with my fellow Americans and toss out every chinese made product in my home, in what will be one of the biggest bonfires seen since the book burnings in Hitler's Germany. I can just hear the wailing of Walmart across the land!
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
08/12/2005 4:46
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Raj, we've been doing this annually since 2003, so I doubt Kimmie's gonna all the sudden "get it" now! However, keep up the good work boys, and God speed!
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:08
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However I stand ready to stand with my fellow Americans and toss out every chinese made product in my home, in what will be one of the biggest bonfires seen since the book burnings in Hitler's Germany. I can just hear the wailing of Walmart across the land!
Ummm, no.
Wally world will cheer and provide you with the lighter fluid and matches, then gleefuly chuckle as you have to replace all the Chinese household junk with more of the same, also Chinese made (Since there's no American made similar items)
A huge net gain for wally World.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/12/2005 10:00
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Of course, last week the naval exercise off the coast of Kamchatka had already demonstrated everything Kimmie needed to know.
Posted by: john ||
08/12/2005 11:57
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The brother of a militant suspected of links to the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl has asked a court to ensure his brotherâs safety.
"I'm afraid somebody's gonna bump him off, yer honor! He knows too much!"
A petition calling for the protection of suspect Mohammad Hashim Qadir had been filed with the Sindh High Court. Qadirâs lawyer Rai Bashir Ahmad said two of seven suspects wanted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter had been killed in encounters with security men. âWe fear they might also kill Qadir,â Ahmad told reporters.
"One o' these days, in the dead of night, they're gonna make him lead them to his arms cache in the old abandoned warehouse! You know what happens then!"
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on Islamist militants. He was later killed. Ahmad said Qadirâs brother, Mohammad Khalid Imran, had expressed fears that Qadir might be killed as police had no evidence to prosecute him in the Pearl case. Investigators say Qadir had admitted taking instructions from Omar Sheikh and another militant, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, who is also believed to have played a prominent role in Pearlâs murder. Police believe Qadir set up a meeting between Pearl and the militants who kidnapped and killed him. A civil court in Karachi on Tuesday allowed police to hold Qadir until August 13 for investigation of a separate murder case, but police said he would also be charged in the Pearl case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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#1
it must be rough, knowing you're just a shutter gun away from the Crossfire(tm).
Posted by: N guard ||
08/12/2005 13:29
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It's not quite that bad -- this is Pakistan. Crossfires are the province of the Bengladeshi Rapid Action Battalion.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The only Japanese-American believed to have flown over Japan during World War II is receiving the Distinguished Service Medal, the third highest of the U.S. Army's decorations. After several years of providing documentation and filling out forms, the award has been approved by the military, said W. Don Nelson, the Nebraska director for U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson.
The son of Japanese immigrants who was raised on a Nebraska farm, Kuroki became a gunner and flew on 58 bomber missions over Europe, North Africa and Japan.
Kuroki, 88, who now lives in Camarillo, Calif., said he feels humbled by the efforts of so many Nebraskans who have worked to see him awarded with the medal. ``I feel that it gives credence to the word 'democracy,' and it's Americanism at its very best,'' he said. ``I feel that more so than any personal glory it gives to me.''
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kuroki's father urged him and his brother to volunteer for service. After being turned down by recruiting officials in North Platte, the brothers were able to enlist in Grand Island, 150 miles to the east.
Kuroki earned his way onto a bomber crew and flew missions that took him all over the world, including Japan. Because of his Japanese ancestry, he was initially rejected when he asked to serve on a B-29 bomber that was to be used in the Pacific. But after repeated requests and a review of Kuroki's stellar service record, Secretary of War Harry Stimson granted an exception.
After the war, Kuroki enrolled at the University of Nebraska, where he studied journalism. In 1984, he retired as the news editor of the paper in Ventura, Calif.
Thank you for your service, Mr. Kuroki.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005
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Sad that the sneak attack caused suspicion on so many patriotic Japanese-heritage Americans (why is that phrase so hard to adopt instead of Japanese-Americans?). My hat's off to this patriot and American
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:25
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America could not take the risk, even of a minority of Japanses-Americans acting as five-columnists. Think in what would have happened at Midway if the position of the outnumbered (and with outclassed planes) American carriers had been known to the Japanese.
#3
Frank G, my feelings are mixed - or rather, I feel as both you and JFM do. (My parents are Chinese-born but I'm an American. I'd love to see the PRC go down, and I do not consider myself "overseas Chinese.")
Thank God though that Kuroki didn't lose heart, that the Secretary of War realized he was fit to serve his country and that he has finally been (does it usually take this long for everyone?) recognized for his honorable service. :)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
08/12/2005 4:38
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Towards the end of the war, some Nisei effectively saw action against the Japanese and in at least one occasion Japanese troops were lured in an ambush by Japanese-Americans.
#5
Thank you, Mr. Kuroki for your service! I was born long after the Great War was done, so I don't have much personal "insight" into the rights/wrongs of how we treated the Japanese back then who lived here. But, to me, this is America at it's finest...the difference between us and other forms of gov't. You see that in the Sec. of War's determination that as an INDIVIDUAL, Mr. Kuroki deserved to be where he wanted to be. Pretty much any other gov't (after being attacked by the Japanese), would've rounded 'em up and deported/internment camp'd 'em, and none of them would've been allowed to fight for that country's army, that's for sure.
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 7:49
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CAIRO - Egyptâs electoral commission announced on Thursday the final list of 10 candidates who are to run in the countryâs first contested presidential poll next month, including veteran President Hosni Mubarak. There are no independents, women or members of Egyptâs Christian minority among the 10.
'cause they're not Egyptian enough ...
There's nobody but Hosni who's liable to win, either...
The most prominent runners include Mubarak, the head of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) who will seek a fifth six-year mandate, and his two main rivals: Ayman Nur from Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) center-right party and Numan Gumaa of the liberal Wafd party.
Wonder what the election night map looks like? I assume Mubarek is green ...
The candidates will be the first to run against a sitting president in Egyptâs history, in line with changes to the constitution approved by a referendum in May to allow multi-candidate presidential elections. Until now Egyptians had only been able to say yes or no to a single candidate appointed by parliament, which is dominated by Mubarakâs NDP.
Convenient, the way that worked. If the public had ever said no, they'd have just had another election with the same candidate so they could reconsider...
However, opposition parties have said the reform does not go far enough because it severely restricts independent candidates and overwhelmingly favors Mubarakâs party by requiring would-be independents to obtain 250 signatures of elected national or local officials. Around 100 independent candidates who submitted application forms were rejected because they failed to meet the signature requirement. Egyptâs political institutions are completely largely dominated by Mubarakâs NDP. In addition, twenty party leaders or officials were excluded by the commission owing to irregularities or disputes over the partyâs leadership. Party leaders are exempt from the 250 signature requirement but all candidates must be over 40 years of age.
Hosni's got that covered twice...
Each candidate had to choose the symbol that will appear alongside their names on the ballots in a country where more than half the population is illiterate.
For some reason the liberal guy has to have a six-pointed star next to his name ...
Mubarak got the coveted moon crescent while Nur, who had wanted the same logo, had to settle for the palm tree. Gumaa opted for the torch. The other runners include a bunch of guys you've never heard of before and don't care about anyways. The campaign is to kick off on August 17 and end on September 4, three days before the vote. If necessary, a second round will be held on September 17.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005
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"Vote for Pedro and all your dreams will come true"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:13
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Well coordinated with the beginning of football season. This'll be my favorite Egyptian election yet!
KHAR: Afghan refugee leaders on Thursday expressed anger at the federal governmentâs move to vacate their camps in Bajaur Agency by August 31. âWe have been living here for the last 20 years and cannot leave the agency in such a short span of time,â said Hazrat Rehman, a refugee leader, after a meeting in Khar, agency headquarters of Bajaur Agency, where it was decided to involve the Afghan government in the matter.
The federal government has ordered the closure of refugee camps in both Bajaur and Kurram agencies by August 31 citing security concerns. âWe have set up businesses and have acquired property during our stay here since the early 80s. We need at least two more years to wind up the businesses and sell our properties,â said Mr Rehman, asking the government to review the decision.
It was decided at the meeting that a 60-member delegation would visit Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai to seek his help in taking up the matter with the Pakistan government.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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... and what about our rock and twig collection?
#2
Camps are breeding grounds for trouble if left to stand too long, just like the ones on the West Bank and Gaza. Now move along and reintegrate back into society.
Taliban fighters killed a US soldier and wounded another during an ambush in Afghanistan on Thursday, after the insurgents lost 10 men over the past two days in clashes elsewhere in the troubled southeast. The latest American casualties belonged to a road-working detail led by US engineers in Paktika province, where two days earlier a joint US-Afghan patrol encountered a band of Taliban fighters close to the border with Pakistan.
Conveniently close to the border with Pakland, we'd guess...
... the better to fleerun away withdraw after an encounter with the Americans ...
A US military statement said the enemy fighters took cover in caves. Six insurgents were killed and three US soldiers and an Afghan interpreter wounded in ensuing firefights. âAfghan and US forces pursued the enemy combatants toward the cave complex killing one,â it said, adding that several hours later the same forces came into contact with additional militants and killed five more. Four more Taliban fighters had been killed and seven captured in an assault by Afghan and US forces in neighbouring Zabul province since Wednesday, Bashir Ahmad, a provincial official said. There was no immediate comment on the incidents by the Taliban, but spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the guerrillas had killed two Afghans in the central province of Uruzgan for âspyingâ for the Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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NEW YORK (AP) - After years of legal battle, the Fire Department of New York is releasing thousands of documents offering a detailed and intimate look at the heroism and missteps behind its response to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack.
The department on Friday plans to make public hours of radio transmissions and hundreds of oral histories telling the story of firefighters' rush to the twin towers on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to help evacuate thousands of people. The Sept. 11 commission, which had access to the histories and recordings, described major flaws in the city's response to the attack. Emergency radios did not function properly. Police and firefighters did not work together. Discipline broke down. Vital messages went unheard.
But some of the families of the 343 firefighters killed say they hope the information will cast additional light on the problems that contributed to the death toll. Sally Regenhard, whose son, Christian Regenhard, died that morning, still does not know exactly where her son died. ``Maybe there will be something on there that gives me a clue as to what happened to my son,'' she said. ``I have not heard where he was sent, when he was sent, what he was supposed to accomplish when he went in.''
Regenhard and other victims' families joined The New York Times in suing the city in 2002 to release the more than 15 hours of radio transmissions and 12,000 pages of oral histories collected by the fire department in the days after the towers' collapse. The city argued that releasing the histories and radio recordings would violate firefighters' privacy and jeopardize the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in April to six counts of conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers.
New York's highest court ruled in March that the city had to release the materials but could excise potentially painful or embarrassing portions.
Some families and other critics of the city's response hope the new documents will help them challenge the conclusion that many firefighters in the north tower heard but heroically chose to ignore an evacuation message issued after the south tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.
Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an adviser to Regenhard's Skyscraper Safety Campaign, said he believes that outdated radios prevented many from receiving that vital message. He said he did not find it credible that perhaps hundreds of firefighters ignored a message from their commanders.
At least 450 relatives of firefighters killed in the collapse have requested copies of the oral histories and radio recordings, and they will be receiving them by express mail Friday, the fire department said. An FDNY spokesman said the department would not comment on the documents before their release.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005
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This will be painful - but useful. There are too many people who have scarfed up money and precious little progress has been made for actual programs that will correct some of the problems that still exist after 911. I could list a few - but I wont.
Politics and money grabs by the powerful and ambitious to fund the same ol' same ol'. It will eventually be responsible for the death of many - perhaps millions of us.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar said on Thursday that activists of banned religious parties and militant groups participating in the upcoming local council elections could be disqualified through election petitions after the local council elections.
"Thought you were gonna ban them from running at all?"
"We were, but we forgot."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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Pakistan ruled out sealing its border with Afghanistan has said that only strict vigilance will be maintained at the border to control infiltration of terrorists from the neighbouring country. "No decision has been taken to close our border with Afghanistan next month and we have no intentions," said military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Some newspapers quoting unnamed sources claimed that Pakistan was planning to seal the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan from next month. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
So they're keeping a vigilant eye on all those terrorists that aren't really there?
Posted by: Phil ||
08/12/2005 17:06
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President George Bush has said he "sympathised" with the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq but refused to heed her call to pull out the troops. Speaking from his Texas ranch where Cindy Sheehan has been holding a roadside protest, Mr Bush said withdrawing would be a "mistake".
Ms Sheehan is vowing to remain until she gets to speak to the president about his justification for the war. Dozens of knuckleheadsrubesfoolsStalinist tools well-wishers have turned out to join her demonstration.
"Listen, I sympathize with Mrs Sheehan," Mr Bush said. "She feels strongly about her position.
"And she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America."
He said he had thought "long and hard about her position" calling for US troops to be sent home. But he had decided against it, he said. "It would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so," he said.
Some veterans and relatives have dubbed the vigil a distraction and are keen to ensure support for those serving in Iraq does not wane.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/12/2005
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Someone keeps refreshing her Kool aid-cooler. She is taking advice from some moonbats that the even other moonbats disagree with.
Hers is nothing but a sad grandstand.
She needs to come in from the hot sun before it brains her damage.
#2
I didn't really keep up with it yesterday, but someone here mentioned that Drudge had a report that her entire family had issued a press release saying they disagree with her stand. Any followup to that?
Posted by: BA ||
08/12/2005 8:01
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#3
She is both disturbed and a tool. I read her letter to Bush and it's full of the LLL talking points.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 10:11
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She needs to come in from the hot sun before it brains her damage.
Too late.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/12/2005 10:17
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I feel sorry that she lost her son but taking that tragedy and running it like a political football is incredibly disgusting and gross. I really wonder if her son would have wanted this to be done. Having flung herself into the media/political pawn circus ring it appears to me that Cindy Sheehan seems to really get off on the attention and sense of importance it affords her. Makes one cringe in repulsion just to hear or watch.
#8
I'm sure she knows her son would've supported her, and if he didn't, he'd be in the same category as everybody else outside her little camp.
She's smarter than everybody, including her son.
Bless him for his service.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/12/2005 12:38
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Just saw the sainted mom on CNN and she says that since her meeting she has become educated on the "Rush to War" and the "wrong reasons for attack and occupation of Iraq" based on the Downing Street memos. I respect her son but she has officially gone over to the Lefty Moonbat side of the equations.
Iran has warned the US and the EU that referring it to the UN Security council over its resumption of nuclear activities would be a step towards "the path of confrontation."
Some of us have been expecting that, though the eventual casus belli will probably be interference in Iraq...
"I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the US, and particularly Europe," Sirus Nasseri told the BBC's Newsnight program.
It doesn't seem to have occurred to Sirus that Iran might be miscalculating...
An emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began in Vienna on Monday after Iran resumed uranium conversion activities - which had been suspended since November - at a plant in Isfahan. "There is no legal base whatsoever to go to the Security Council. If it is, it is by political choosing and it will be a big mistake," said Nasseri who is Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA "What we have been trying to do is see whether it would be possible to continue our enrichment activity through an agreement with Europe," Nasseri said. In Tehran on Tuesday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described an EU offer to Iran of trade and other incentives in return for guarantees it was not making nuclear weapons as "an insult".
Let's see how much longer truculence and vitriol work...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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Think the EU3, et al, will get it, now?
The music stopped a long long time ago, this dance is over.
#2
Germany and France will trod all over themselves to keep this issue from getting to the UNsC. If it gets to the UNSC it will be vetoed by France, Russia and China. That is how this will play out.
The tables is set, and the diners are taking their places. We have been down this road before.
#4
Either that or Iran will have a 'change of heart' at the last miniute, France and Germany will declare it a 'Big Breakthrough' and the dance will start again.....
All the while Iran will continue enrichment. Does anyone really think they ever really stopped.
MULTAN: Two bomb blast suspects were arrested after a shootout in Jampur in Rajanpur district on Thursday, but five of their accomplices fled, police said. "We have arrested Allah Bakhsh Khetran and Yasin Sherani of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and seized two kalashnikovs, and a car from them while their accomplices, Mir Hamdan Khetran, Sadiq Wado, Bilal Barra, Qalandar Chang and Khan Mir escaped during a shootout near Jampur," Jam Saifullah, a senior police official in Jampur, told reporters on Thursday.
He said Khetran and Sherani told the police that they were given Rs 30,000 to burn an electricity pylon in Raknee in Balochistan, adding that Lal Muhammad, Umer Din, Abdul Ghafoor and Gul Muhammad Khetran were with them when they planted the bombs. The police official said the arrested were likely to be involved in Fort Munro bomb blast case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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2 down, the rest of the ISI to go?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2005 0:03
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Nothin' says legitimate military target like an electricity pylon...
With four days left until Iraqâs leaders have promised a draft constitution, powerful Islamist leaders made a dramatic bid yesterday to have a big, autonomous Shiite region across the oil-rich south. The head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) spelled out his demands to tens of thousands of chanting supporters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. But minority Sunni and secular opponents, as well as rival Shiite Islamists in the coalition national government, swiftly poured cold water on an idea that fueled fears about sectarian battles over oil and Iranian-style religious rule in the south.
Some saw it as a negotiating tactic ahead of a self-imposed deadline on Monday to present the draft to parliament; a top Shiite negotiator, who dismissed the demand made by SCIRI chief Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, said 16 points were still in dispute. It was unclear whether the row â and continued arguments over the extent of Islamic law â would delay delivery of a text that Washington hopes can help quell the Sunni insurgency. The crucial issue is the nature of federalism and the quest for wording to satisfy Kurdish demands for continued autonomy in the north, Shiite hopes for some new autonomy in the south, and also address concerns among Sunni Arabs and others in the center that they not be left with a rump Iraqi state deprived of oil. âIf we can deal with that...we should finish in the next few days so the draft will be ready on time,â Bahaa Al-Araji, a senior Shiite on the constitution drafting panel, told Reuters. âIf there were Shiite and Sunni regions it would simply entrench sectarianism and destroy the unity of Iraq.â
US diplomats, active on the sidelines of talks on what is a vital project for American interests, have clear reservations about SCIRIâs traditional ties to Washingtonâs regional foe Iran and make plain they will not stand for clerical rule in Iraq. Hakim, a striking figure in clerical robes whose long exile in Tehran make him a figure of suspicion for many Sunnis, was backed up in his demands at the Najaf rally by the leader of the Badr movement, formed in Iran as the armed wing of SCIRI.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2005
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Seems like the Shiites have painfully thought this through and would rather take their destiny with autonomy (ie their own cutup portion of Iraq)! Amazing how their shifting loyalties are so fluid. I remember how they sided with the Sunnies when we cleared Falluja; and aided Sadr an his band of militia goons when they gave us that headache last year trying to restore order. I support any breakup of Iraq preferably into thirds (the no fly zone parallel lines sounds good to me also). Interesting to see if the US will allow an independant republic or representatve democracy for the majority!
#2
Democracy implicit assumption is that people compete on ideas so if you convert enough people, you or the guy you favour will climb to power.
It doesn't work when the differnces are innate, like being Kurd or Arab, Black or White. So there are only two ways: either it doesn't matter: people vote for candidates according to their qualities and the candidates don't favour their ethnia. If that cannot be achieved then partition is the best solution. Otherwise what we get is a Rwanda-like situation where the more numerous ethnia automatically wins elections and uses its control of the state to opress and eventually genocide the lesser side.
And frankly I don't believe that Irakis are voting for ideas instead of for ethnias or confessions.
Iran on Thursday night rejected a resolution approved by the UN nuclear watchdog on the Iranian nuclear issue as "politically motivated."
That's prob'ly why they call it "international politix," isn't it?
"This resolution is politically motivated and has been approved under the pressures of the United States and its allies and is void of any legal or rational basis, and (therefore it) is unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Okay. Not accepting it won't make it go away, though.
Earlier in the day, the 35-nation Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved a resolution on the Iranian nuclear file. The resolution voices "serious concern" over Iran's recent resumption of uranium conversion activities and urges Iran to "re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities." However, the resolution does not have any teeth mention the referral of Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council, which the European Union (EU) had previously said would be triggered by Iran's resumption.
Hence its contemptuous dismissal...
The resolution also asks the agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to "continue to monitor closely the situation and to inform the Board of any further developments and to provide a comprehensive report on the implementation of Iran's Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement and this resolution by Sept. 3."
Posted by: Fred ||
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'unacceptable'
Asefi gets the Arrogant Dickwad Award for the day.
#3
... and to inform the Board of any further developments...
Yea, like when the cameras and sensors go dead, and when the keys to doors suddenly can't be found or duplicated. Oh, and ElBaradei, watch him for those one way leaks, he's famous for!
Several independent FM radio stations in Nepal have resumed news broadcasts despite a government ban imposed six months ago.
A Supreme Court order on Wednesday suspended government moves to shut down a private radio station in Kathmandu. Responding to a petition by the radio station the court said the ban violated the public's right to information.
The ban was imposed when King Gyanendra took direct power and imposed strict censorship six months ago. FM radios reach more Nepalis than any other news media in the country. When the monarch took absolute power in February, he continued to allow newspapers and television to broadcast news. But the FM stations, apart from the official Radio Nepal, were silenced. The stations were ordered to broadcast no information at all - only entertainment.
But the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Nepal FM, a private channel that has defiantly been airing social and development issues for over a month. Last week, the ministry of information sent the station a letter threatening to close it down. But the top court ordered the ministry to suspend the closure until it reached a final verdict.
The court order has led to several regional stations resuming news programmes. A well-established community station in Kathmandu says it will resume broadcasts about the government from Thursday evening. The station, however, said it will avoid reporting political party activities for now. It used to carry the BBC Nepali service, and it hopes to start it again in a few weeks.
Even if the ban on private radio news is eventually lifted, many journalists here, particularly outside the capital, are likely to continue facing difficulties. Both government officials and the Maoist rebels will continue to apply pressure. The Nepalese authorities accuse FM stations of encouraging Maoist rebels, who are carrying out a bloody campaign to replace the monarchy with a communist republic.
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The much-publicised Election Commissionâs directions to all district returning officers (DROs) to exclude members of 18 outlawed jihadi organisations from the local bodies elections have proved to be a damp squib as DROs feel that many jihadis have slipped the net and are running for seats in the local councils.
In Pakland, if you don't agree with a law you just ignore it, unless it's a blasphemy law.
The DROs said that they only received the directions and the list of the suspect candidates well after the scrutiny process was over. âThere was little we could do (to stop members of banned organisations). They only needed to submit an affidavit to be eligible for the elections,â said a returning officer.
"Nope. Sorry. Couldn't do it in time," he said, adjusting his turban...
Judging by the number of complaints the DROs have received in this regard, there is great fear that dozens of candidates associated with outlaw jihadi organisation might have slipped the net and are running for local council seats.
"Aaaar! Vote fer me an' I'll kill the infidels! Don't vote fer me an' I'll kill youse!"
On July 19, Election Commission of Pakistan, through a confidential letter, directed all DROs that members of 18 outlawed organisations were not eligible to run for any local government seat and should be disqualified. The list was reportedly attached with the letter. The list of banned organisations provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan included Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Sipah Muhammad Pakistan, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Sharia Muhammadi, Tehrik-e-Islami (ex TJP), Millat-e-Islamia (ex SSP), Khuddamul Islam (ex JM), Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Jamiatul Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khairun Nissa International Trust, Sunni Tehrik and Jamaat ud Dawa. Apart from sending the directive to DROs, the Election Commission also launched a media campaign to inform the public that the organisations mentioned above were banned from taking part in the local council elections.
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Salva Kiir was sworn in as Sudanâs first vice president yesterday after the death of his predecessor John Garang and pledged to follow his legacy and work for unity despite past calls for independence for the mainly Christian or animist south. âWe really want our country to remain united,â Kiir said at a low-key ceremony in Khartoum where security was tight after several days of deadly rioting that greeted Garangâs death.
Kiir, 54, took office less than two weeks after Garang was killed in a helicopter crash that raised fears for the future of a January peace deal that ended 21 years of war between southern rebels and the government in Khartoum. âI shall protect the sovereignty of the country,â said Kiir, a known separatist who led the military wing of Garangâs Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement Army (SPLM A) âI shall protect the countryâs decentralized system... and preserve unity... as God is my witness,â he said. âI wish to call on all Sudanese to engage in a process of national healing.â
One of his primary challenges will be to form a national unity government with former archfoe President Omar Bashir, a process interrupted by Garangâs death just three weeks after he became vice president under the Jan. 9 accord. Kiir, who replaced Garang as SPLM A head, will also have to help solve disputes surrounding oil-rich areas on the north-south border. He is also to continue talks with several Khartoum-backed southern militia chiefs with a view to rallying them to the peace agreement that ended Africaâs longest-running conflict. âThe Comprehensive Peace Agreement is not a bed of roses, and even a bed of roses has thorns. Letâs join hands to see that full participation in the process is ensured,â he said.
Good luck, Salva. And be careful when you ride helis...
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
CHATEAUROUX, France - A French couple who celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary Friday offered this advice on love and longevity: Keep arguments to a minimum, eat well and wash it down with a glass of wine. Andre and Marguerite Debray met shortly after the end of World War I, in which he served, and got married on Aug. 12, 1924. Mr. Debray is now 107 years old and his wife is a few years younger at 101. Retired for several decades, the Debrays spent their careers as teachers.
A Taliban commander was shot dead and an American soldier died in a training accident as violence continued ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, officials said on Friday. A homemade bomb also exploded on Friday in a busy market in the southern city of Kandahar, wounding four people including a woman and child.
Two senior members of Ethiopia's former military government have been sentenced to death after an 11-year trial. 
LAHORE: The Ittehad Tanzeemaatul Madaris al-Diniya (ITMD), a grouping of seminaries and wafaqs, on Thursday described the governmentâs decision to expel foreign students from Pakistani seminaries as âfanaticismâ and a serious breach of human rights, Online reported.
GUJRANWALA: Four people were killed and 17 were injured in crossfire between two political groups in union council 113 in Ferozwala police limits on Thursday evening. The crossfire ...
Candidates in parties backing President Hugo Chavez won many more seats than opposition challengers in Venezuela's local elections this week, according to preliminary results. With nearly all votes counted from Sunday's elections, Venezuela's major newspapers calculated that pro-Chavez candidates won some 47 percent of city council posts across the country, while opposition candidates won 17 percent and other independent parties had 18 percent of posts. The National Electoral Council released preliminary results Thursday evening showing Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party won some 1.3 million votes, or about 30 percent, with other pro-Chavez parties accounted for the remainder. The local elections were to decide 5,599 posts, including thousands of city council and neighborhood board members.
FAISALABAD: Law enforcement agencies have arrested two people believed to be aides to 
The controversial Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was last night held in a Beirut prison after he was arrested by Lebanon's general security department less than a week after he fled from the UK.
The brother of a militant suspected of links to the murder of US reporter 
CAIRO - Egyptâs electoral commission announced on Thursday the final list of 10 candidates who are to run in the countryâs first contested presidential poll next month, including veteran President 
Pakistan ruled out sealing its border with Afghanistan has said that only strict vigilance will be maintained at the border to control infiltration of terrorists from the neighbouring country. "No decision has been taken to close our border with Afghanistan next month and we have no intentions," said military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan. Some newspapers quoting unnamed sources claimed that Pakistan was planning to seal the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan from next month. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Gen Sultan said they were keeping a vigilant eye on terrorists and illegal migrants, but there was no question of closing the border for common Afghans.
MULTAN: Two bomb blast suspects were arrested after a shootout in Jampur in Rajanpur district on Thursday, but five of their accomplices fled, police said. "We have arrested Allah Bakhsh Khetran and Yasin Sherani of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and seized two kalashnikovs, and a car from them while their accomplices, Mir Hamdan Khetran, Sadiq Wado, Bilal Barra, Qalandar Chang and Khan Mir escaped during a shootout near Jampur," Jam Saifullah, a senior police official in Jampur, told reporters on Thursday.
Some saw it as a negotiating tactic ahead of a self-imposed deadline on Monday to present the draft to parliament; a top Shiite negotiator, who dismissed the demand made by SCIRI chief 
Iran on Thursday night rejected a resolution approved by the UN nuclear watchdog on the Iranian nuclear issue as "politically motivated." 
Several independent FM radio stations in Nepal have resumed news broadcasts despite a government ban imposed six months ago.
