Hat tip: LGF. Some trimming because the man just won't shut up
A day after Hamas swept to an upset victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former US President Jimmy Carter on Thursday said that Wednesday's voting had been orderly and fair. "The elections were completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence," the miserable failure former president said.
Carter, who led an 85-member international observer team from around the world organized by the 'National Democratic Institute' in partnership with 'The Carter Center,' urged the international community to directly or indirectly fund the new Palestinian Government even though it will be led by an internationally-declared foreign terror organization. "The Palestinian Government is destitute, and in desperate financial straits. I hope that support for the new government will be forthcoming," Carter said at a Jerusalem press conference. We remember when you did the same to the USA.
He added that if international law barred donor countries from directly funding a Hamas-led government than the US and the EU should bypass the Palestinian Authority and provide the "much-needed" money to the Palestinians via non-governmental channels such as Kojo Annan UN agencies. "Regardless of the government, I would hope that potential donors find alternative means to be generous to the Palestinian people [even] if the donor decides to bypass the Palestinian government completely," Carter said, stressing that his main concern was to avert the "suffering" of the Palestinian people, which he said could lead to a new cycle of violence. He noted that the heavily funded Palestinian Government would run out of money at the end of next month. That's a good thing.
Hamas, the largest and most powerful of the Palestinian terror organizations, which advocates Israel's destruction, has carried out scores of bombings over the last five years of Palestinian violence, attacks which have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. Earlier Thursday, Israeli statesman Shimon Peres had opined in a radio interview that international aid to a Hamas-led government would likely be terminated. From the US, sure. From the EUSSR? Hah. From Iran and Syria. Ha ha ha ha.
The former Democratic president's and now anti-American blatherer comments came as US President Bush said that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemaking without renouncing violence, reiterating that the United States will not deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
Carter, who has long supported the participation of Hamas in the destruction of Israel Palestinian elections, voiced the hope that the Islamic terror group would act "responsibly" now that it had won the elections. "My hope is that as Hamas assumes a major role in the next government, whatever that might be, it will take a position on international standards of responsibility," he said at the news conference, held at an east Jerusalem hotel. They have: they're against it.
#1
Jimmy Carter is nothing if not consistent. His toppling the Shah of Iran worked out really well. He has never met a dictator he didn't like or a rigged election he wouldn't certify. He always seems to align himself with the enemies of the US. I have met a number of people who know him and say he is a good man. He probably is, but politically he seems to be a sanctimonious tool and just plain mean.
#2
Carter, who led an 85-member international observer team from around the world organized by the 'National Democratic Institute' in partnership with 'The Carter Center,' urged the international community to directly or indirectly fund the new Palestinian Government even though it will be led by an internationally-declared foreign terror organization.
[...]
..than the US and the EU should bypass the Palestinian Authority and provide the "much-needed" money to the Palestinians via non-governmental channels such as UN agencies.
Here's a look at what the Hamas victory could mean for Palestinian relations, Middle East peacemaking and Palestinian politics.
Q: How did Hamas pull off this shocking upset?
A: Hamas exploited public discontent with the corruption-tainted Fatah Party, which has dominated Palestinian politics for four decades.
While reiterating its commitment to "resistance" against Israel, Hamas focused its campaign on internal Palestinian issues, promising better public services, honesty in government and an end to lawlessness.
Q: Does Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas have to resign?
A: No. Abbas was elected last year for a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. However, he will now have to work with a cabinet and legislature dominated by Hamas, severely limiting his ability to manoeuvre.
Abbas has said he will resign if he cannot pursue his agenda of pursuing a peace deal with Israel. If Abbas steps down, the Palestinians would have to hold new presidential elections.
Q: Is this the end of the peace process?
A: Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings, says it remains committed to its goal of destroying Israel. But it has signalled it would allow Abbas to handle negotiations with Israel while it focuses on its domestic agenda.
A top Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, said on Thursday the group is ready to extend a year-old cease-fire with Israel if Israel reciprocates. Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack since the truce went into effect.
Q: Although Hamas will dominate the legislature, it has said it is ready to share power. What are its options?
A: Hamas could try to rule alone, agree with Fatah on installing an independent prime minister to lead the cabinet, or even allow Fatah to hold senior positions in the cabinet while it focuses on social issues.
Zahar promised broad changes on Thursday to "every aspect" of Palestinian life, including health programmes, education and economic policies. But the group was vague about its plans for dealing with Israel.
Q: Would Fatah agree to become a junior partner in a Hamas-run coalition?
A: The party has not yet made a decision. Senior members said on Thursday they would prefer to remain in the opposition. They say this would give Fatah time to rebuild, and force Hamas to see how difficult it is to lead a government.
Q: Is Israel willing to talk to Hamas?
A: Israel on Thursday ruled out negotiations with any Palestinian government that includes armed anti-Israel groups. Earlier, it said it would not deal with Hamas until it disarmed and renounced its calls for Israel's destruction.
Following Hamas victories in municipal elections in recent months, Israel has been forced to co-ordinate with Hamas-backed mayors on day-to-day issues such as providing water and electricity.
Q: Will Hamas agree to disarm, as required under the US-backed road map peace plan?
A: During the campaign, Hamas officials said they would not disarm. Hamas will have to decide whether to fold its military wing into the national Palestinian security forces or let it remain independent.
Q: What is the future of the Palestinian security forces?
A: Hamas has had tense relations with the Fatah-dominated security forces, which were involved in several crackdowns against Hamas in the past decade.
With the next prime minister likely to be backed by Hamas, the group could soon be running those same forces. Hamas officials have sought to assure members of the security forces that they have nothing to fear.
Q: The US has pushed heavily for democracy in the Middle East. How did it react to the Hamas victory?
A: George Bush, the US president, said elections sometime bring unwelcome results. He said any group with an armed wing that advocates violence against Israel "is a party with which we will not deal".
Q: Will Hamas turn the West Bank and Gaza into an Islamic state?
A: Hamas says it has no plans to create an Iranian-style theocracy or interfere in people's daily lives. Instead, it says it will lead by example, encouraging people to respect Islamic customs like avoiding alcohol and having women dress modestly.
Even if Hamas tries to impose its will, it will be difficult to change major laws. Changing Palestinian "basic laws," widely seen as the basis for a future constitution, require a two-thirds majority in parliament.
These laws are a mixture of Islamic, Egyptian and Jordanian law and local traditions. However, Palestinian secular rights activists fear Hamas will try step by step to chip away at personal freedoms.
#1
Following Hamas victories in municipal elections in recent months, Israel has been forced to co-ordinate with Hamas-backed mayors on day-to-day issues such as providing water and electricity.
Sounds to me like providing water and electricity is Ham-Ass'es job now.
Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack since the truce went into effect.
Has anyone told the dead Israeli's this? Maybe my memory is faulty but I seem to remember a number of Ham-Ass bombing (or due to a Ham-Ass renamed splinter group....).
On the other hand this is Al-jitz reporting and they don't count jews....
#4
We should give money, weapons and training to Fatah now, and help them to cause as much instability and chaos as possible to try and counteract the Hamas PR drive.
#5
Unless you think the Paleo's should be perpetual wards of an "adult" state or kept under a dictatorship, then what are you going to do with them if you don't give them the opportunity to have representation?
What I like about this is that it is honest. It is the Paleo people themselves that want the Jews washed into the sea. Hamas does represent them. So they are no longer The Poor Piteous Paleos, Pawns of the Powerful, but they are a nation that just unamimously declared their desire to go to war with Israel. And so we don't have to feel bad for the poor piteous Paleos when they get what they voted for. It's what they wanted.
#7
Looks like HAMAS has informally adopted Russia's [c. 2018], and China's [2015-2017]. and the Clintons [2015-2020] timeline for forcing Socialism and OWG on America = Israel. American, Global, and now Jewish Holocaust and Annihilation is good for the Sun, trees, and gosh darn gee whizzz everyone.
Hat tip: Volokh Conspiracy. Edited for brevity.
BB&T, the nations ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.
In a press release issued today by the bank, BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison, said, The idea that a citizens property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact its just plain wrong. One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we wont help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership. Thank God somebody who runs the occasional giant company values liberty over profit--unlike Cisco, Microsoft, and Google!
Posted by: Dar ||
01/26/2006
18:44 ||
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A Mexican government commission said Thursday it has suspended plans to distribute border maps to migrants planning to cross the border illegally, but denied the decision was a response to U.S. criticism.
Miguel Angel Paredes, the spokesman for the federal Human Rights Commission, said the plan would be "rethought" because human rights officials in border states expressed concern that the maps would show anti-immigrant groups - like the so-called Minutemen civilian patrols - where migrants were likely to gather.
The map dispute was the latest diplomatic row involving the U.S.-Mexico border, a sensitive issue between the neighboring nations. U.S. border states are fed up with illegal migration and drug trafficking and are pressuring the U.S. government to do more to protect the border - including a proposal to extend a wall along both countries' common frontier, something Mexico bitterly resents.
Mexico is angry about U.S. civilian groups that have organized patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border, accusing them of carrying out attacks on migrants. However, there is little evidence of that, and the groups seldom - if ever - target water tanks or rescue beacons. One of the most well-known groups, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, placed a link to the maps on its Web site, but did not advocate using them to find illegal migrants.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the United States opposes "in the strongest terms" plans to distribute the maps.
Asked if the Mexican decision was a response to U.S. pressure, Paredes said: "No, we are not responding to that ... we have not taken that into account."
The commission, a Mexican government-funded agency with independent powers, originally said it would print and pay for at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert. The posters were to have been distributed in border towns and through human rights offices in Mexico starting in March, when illegal border crossings are usually high.
The commission denied the maps would encourage illegal immigration, saying instead they would help guide those in trouble. Now, the group will "seek other ways" of helping migrants, Paredes said.
The posters were designed by the Tucson, Ariz.,-based rights group Humane Borders, which operates several desert water stations. The group previously distributed about 100 posters in the Mexican border town of Sasabe. Some of the posters have warnings, such as: "Don't go. There isn't enough water." However, officials conceded many migrants were unlikely to heed the advice.
#2
LOL - power of the blogs and talk-radio - the press didn't ride this into the ground. We did! Shows the power of the alt media. Mexico looks stoooopid and got caught. Expect to hear the less savvy Mexican politicians continue with the Berlin Wall analogy...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 21:50
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Canada's next prime minister used his first news conference Thursday to tell the United States to mind its own business when it comes to territorial rights in the Arctic North.
Testing the notion that he would kowtow to the Bush administration, Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party won general elections on Monday, said he would stand by a campaign pledge to increase Canada's military presence in the Arctic and put three military icebreakers in the frigid waters of the Northwest Passage.
U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins had criticized the plan Wednesday, describing the Arctic passage as "neutral waters."
"There's no reason to create a problem that doesn't exist," Wilkins said during a panel discussion at the University of Western Ontario, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters. Most other countries do not recognize their claim."
No reporter brought up the U.S. ambassador's views Thursday, but Harper said he wanted to comment on them.
"The United States defends its sovereignty; the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," Harper said. "It is the Canadian people that we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."
Harper's surprising salvo was likely intended as a message to those in the Bush administration who might be cheering the election of a Conservative government and view Harper as a pushover when it comes to prickly U.S.-Canadian relations.
Arctic sovereignty has been a sensitive subject for decades, with U.S. Navy submarines and ships entering northern waters without asking permission. Ottawa has generally turned a blind eye to the United States' sending ships through the area. Canadian media reported last month that a U.S. nuclear submarine traveled secretly through Canadian Arctic waters in November on its way to the North Pole.
The Northwest Passage runs from the Atlantic through the Arctic to the Pacific.
Global warming is melting the passage which is only navigable during a slim window in the summer and exposing unexplored fishing stocks and an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles from the trip from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.
Harper said during a campaign speech in December he would dramatically increase Canada's military presence in the Arctic North. He intends to construct and deploy three new armed icebreaking ships and construct a $1.7 billion deep-water port and an underwater network of "listening posts."
"The single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national sovereignty," Harper said in the December speech. "There are new and disturbing reports of American nuclear submarines passing though Canadian waters without obtaining the permission of, or even notifying, the Canadian government."
Harper has not said whether he would order military action if the ships or port detected an unauthorized submarine in Arctic waters.
Harper, meanwhile, said he had a friendly conversation with President Bush on Wednesday but had not fixed a date for their first meeting. He said he had also received calls from other major allies, including Mexican President Vicente Fox, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
#2
He's gotta break the US puppet look the Canadian left slammed on him. I wouldnt sweat it, we may put on a small act like its a big deal and maybe at the end of the day we have to covertly let the Canucs know we are passing through.
The good part is if he can get the left to bite on "The single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national sovereignty," part it wont be much of a leap to make that protect part include BMD and early detection radars.
Not to mention we got Alaska a third of any pass so in the end if relations go south neither will get to play without the others permition of access.
#3
Bah: this is less a shot across our bow than the first vigorous shake of the Canadian Money Tree on behalf of a virtually non-existent military. We've been wishing for a Canada that punches above its weight militarily, and that won't happen until they get a military that gives us pause.
Given the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian army outline above, what are the military options available for Tehran?
The shortcomings of the Iranian military, especially in the air and at sea, have prompted a number some of the Islamic Republic's top military brass (including Major General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the ground forces, who was killed last week with 8 of his aides in a plane crash near Oromieh) to oppose any military confrontation with the United States. hmm These officers recently wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Guide, warning of the dangers of president Ahmadinejad's actions and statements calling for a confrontation and for wiping Israel off the map. They emphasized that Iran was in no position to enter into a war with the US.
However, in spite of this, the president and some of his military advisors continue to believe that a confrontation is imminent and that it is crucial to increase military readiness and mobilize public opinion, in Iran and the Muslim world. Some of the procedures recently taken in this respect have included the creation of garrison to recruit would-be suicide bombers and train them for operations against the West, called the "Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison" Virgins her, we got your virgins here. Step right up and splode.. Volunteers from Arab and Muslim countries receive military and ideological training in camps overseen by the Revolutionary Guards.
Most Iranian sources agree that economic sanctions, such as those imposed by the Security Council on Libya, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, will not be an effective weapon against Iran because it would be the people who would suffer and a number of countries are ready to supply Iran with what it needs, even by illegal means, in order to achieve political or material gains.
Analysts believe that the only weapon that can successfully hurt Iran is oil, given that the Islamic Republic currently imports 60% of its needs of refined oil and gasoline from overseas, because of the shortage of refiners and the rise in local consumption, reaching more than 60 million liters per day.
A recent study by the Institute for International Energy Studies in Iran has revealed that the country's gasoline reserves would cover consumer needs for 45 days only. In case sanctions were imposed, after a three-month period, Iran would find itself paralyzed and popular demonstrations and street protests are likely to be held, mirroring that which took place in the former Yugoslavia, the Ukraine and Georgia. Only last month, during a US Senate meeting on the Iranian nuclear program, a lawmaker suggested a study should be commissioned to examine the effects of gasoline sanctions on Iran, indicating that Washington was considering this alternative.
For its part, the Iranian government has taken a series of steps such as withdrawing its hard currency deposits in European banks and stockpiling huge amounts of foodstuff and medicine as preliminary and preventive measures, in case its nuclear file is referred to the U.N Security Council. However, there is still the possibility for a solution to the current crisis, through the unpublicized talks between the more sensible members of the Iranian regime, the European Union and the International Atomic Agency.
#1
Shut down their domestic refining capacity (best to stop the feedstock inputs and lay off the refineries)and hit the diesel and gasoline transportation infrastructure, esp at the dock or further inland on pipeline pumping stations and electric power substations. Do that and the whole shebang comes to a fairly rapid halt---------and you have the MMs and their lackeys by the nuts.
Game could be over rather quickly. Still have to hit the military targets, though.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 18:05
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#2
Still have to hit the military targets, though.
#5
The way to get at a Mad Mullah's heart is through his refinery, so to speak.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 18:44
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#6
...it is important to note that President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad and extremist leaders in the Basij forces, the Revolutionary Guards and the security services, especially supporters of Sheikh Mohammed Taqi Mosbah Yazdi, the president's spiritual guide, support a military attack, with some even calling for pre-emptive strikes.
An officer in the Jerusalem Corps said, "We should to carry out a hundred suicide operations, simultaneously, and aim a hundred missiles against Israel and the US bases in Qatar and Iraq, as well as a number of oil and economic installations in the region, prior to being attacked. In this manner, we will paralyze the American forces and their allies. If Washington were to attack us afterwards, we can incite a hundred popular uprisings in Muslim countries."
That's right, shitbags: piss off everyone in sight, and give us an excuse to give you the full rabid-dog treatment.
Jeez, these idiots are CRAZY.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/26/2006 18:59
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#7
I love this little Jewel here::
"Volunteers from Arab and Muslim countries receive military and ideological training in camps overseen by the Revolutionary Guards"
The geniuses outright brag on what we accuse them of doing (supporting and training terrorist). And this guy is the moderate voice of reason. Those Arab volunteers being trained wouldnt be the terrorist running around all over the world naww they dont support terrorist I am sure they only train those guys for educational purposes right.
Lately I have been torn, at first I thought for sure we were just going to wake up one day either late 06' or early 07' to our air campaign on Iran. But now I am starting to think that like many on the biosphere believe this if we attack "rally around the flag" crap (I dont buy it personally no more than I thought the Iraqi's were going to fight to the death in OP Iraq Freedom for Saddam).
However this belief of the leadership mindset has got me thinking that mixed with Ahmadinejab's lunacy Bush and company are going to let the Iranians hit US first as a PR move.
That way we are forced into defense, we blame Ahmadinejab just like the Iranian's people can when they get their a*s wiped. The world cant really say too much about it and the Dem's will depend on how things go if they support or blame Bush. The LLLs well Bushitler is Bushitler no matter what happens world peace utopia whatever.
I hope I am wrong on the latter Iran can and could hit pretty damm hard if given first shot. Missile strikes possibly Chem/Bio tipped on Israel, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, ect sub and silkworm strikes on military and non-military ships in the gulf and Indian Ocean enmasse. I dont think that is worth the little PR.
#8
Major General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the ground forces, who was killed last week with 8 of his aides in a plane crash... These officers recently wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Guide, warning of the dangers of president Ahmadinejad's actions
#9
"1000 Pros in a 260K Army" - prob explains why the IRGC is planning suicide attacks and "People's War", like Kimmie and the NorKors. America and Allies hold all the mil cards, while Dubya knows the swordtip of a nuclearized Radical Iran also points at Communists-for-Fascism-for-Communism Russia-China.
He's sent this to the Times -- I could be a wealthy woman (as in a bet) that they won't publish this response
A Soldier's Response to Joel Stein
No doubt readers are aware of yesterdays LA unabashedly anti-war/anti-soldier column in the Los Angeles Times, Warriors and Wusses by Joel Stein. Reuters among others has a piece on the huge fallout, while talk host and blogger Hugh Hewitt interviewed Stein yesterday.
LTC Steve Russell sent me his reply to the Times, which it may or may not print.
LTC Russell commanded Task Force 1/22nd Infantry in Iraq (bagged Saddam) and is currently Chief of Tactics at the Infantry School.
John B. Dwyer 1 25 06
Here is what LTC Russell wrote:
Mr. Steins commentary on soldier support is remarkable because it reflects more than just his opinion. It may even express a viewpoint.
While most of Mr. Steins commentary is indicative of a man who has enjoyed our freedoms with none of the responsibility (by his own admission), he has at least one point of merit. He does not conceal his true conviction. When one considers those that say they support the troops but not the war, it is hard to distinguish which is more harmful to the soldier.
Mr. Stein alludes to this as trying to have it both ways and implies this is a moral cop out. He may be right. It can also be viewed as similar to telling the trash man, Thanks. It is seldom sincere. It is just so the trash will keep being taken away by someone willing to do it so one does not have to get his hands dirty.
Mr. Steins tragedy is not his clear conviction but rather that he steals freedom from his sacrificing countrymen. He sees no moral dilemma with thatwhich is indicative of an attitude prevalent among some self-proclaimed, high-browed, educated types that believe there is somehow a moral superiority in non-involvement. To defend his position, Mr. Stein is critical of what he calls American imperialism. To borrow what he surely intended as a denigrating analogy, we can indeed see parallels in attitude if not government and conquest.
Rome had its internal critics. So did Greece. But when the vast majority of Romans began to view the finer points of life as morally superior to the lower points of necessity, Roman youth lost their appreciation for what held Rome together in the first place. Soon, hired or conquered levies replaced Romans in the ranks. Why should Romans fight wars that they could not see any reason for fighting? After all, what impact did they have in Rome?
Eventually, the theory of a moral superiority in non-involvement met the cold steel of non-theoretically superior sword thrusts from Vandals and Huns that replaced Romans in the Roman empire.
I take exception to Mr. Steins comment about soldiers ignoring their morality. And as a soldier that has served in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, none of those experiences ever made me feel lucky. The noble wars and fights are seldom noble for the soldier. They involve pain and human suffering on a grand scale. Mr. Stein I am quite certain has never killed a man and is proud of that. I have had to kill several men in desperate, close combat while I watched my opponents facial expressions change as life ebbed out of them. I am quite certain that I am not proud of that.
But what separates him from me is certainly not education. Nor is it conviction of purpose. It is indeed morality. But of a nobler kind. No greater love has a man, than he lay down his life for his friendseven when they act and write unfriendly.
As an American, I no longer draw a distinction of who qualifies to be one or is best suited to appreciate democracy. After serving nine years overseas and on multiple continents, I do not see white or black or Hispanic or Indian or oriental or educated or simple-minded Americans. I only see Americans. Even the unfriendly kind. And when I am old, I will be able to look in the mirror and know that I acted on my convictions to preserve what others will not. Cannot. Do not. And what I will see is a man with a clear conscience and a moral sense of purpose.
I am thankful I do not have to look into Mr. Steins mirror.
#4
Penguin -- yes, this is our "Army of Steve" guy. Assumed he was in Iraq with the 4th Infantry, but seems not. "LTC Russell commanded Task Force 1/22nd Infantry in Iraq (bagged Saddam) and is currently Chief of Tactics at the Infantry School."
#5
My goodness, that's quite a response. Thank you Colonel Steve.
Penguin: the 'Amry of Steve' started here as an in-joke (two moderators and several regulars of the name). When we learned that LTC Steve was, well, a Steve, we were proud to include him in the ranks. And based on what he wrote today, along with the kind of man he's been all along, I'm proud, as well as not worthy, to share the name.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/26/2006 17:39
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#6
Hell, I may have to change my name to Steve after this response.
#7
The Colonel is right, but he is wrong in his rebuttal, in that he is not the issue.
He is an honorable man in an honorable cause, and such men need little justification--it is obvious to those who know and respect them, both who they are, and what they do and have done. Their carriage alone speaks to their personal pride, even without earned rank and decorations on display.
That is, the subject here is not the honorable men. Not in the rebuttal, and not in the original story.
The subject is the dishonorable man. The man who must explain his cowardice, who rationalizes his spite and hatred as a noble cause, and who seeks profit in agitation--in defiling that which is honorable and beloved.
Such dishonorable men learn early on that they do not have the intestinal fortitude to be great and noble. And thus they are consigned to never following the paths of glory, but only to walk in the gutter, unheralded, uncelebrated and unremembered. It fills them with spite, which they easily convert to contempt and the desire to blacken and corrupt that which is better than them.
Later, these dishonorable men, knowing they cannot truly challenge the honorable, pretend to be honorable themselves. They feign rank, commendation, and the scars of battle, so that they can brag of their imaginary achievements, and dispute the honor of others. Sometimes they even claim dishonorable acts, sacrificing their imaginary character to disabuse others; such as pretending to have committed war crimes, "which we all did."
But the sorriest comment that can be made about Joel Stein is that he is just the willing toady of his publisher. A publisher who is losing more and more money with the paradigm of the LA Times. A publisher who directed Stein to write something so offensive that it would give publicity to that failing leftist rag.
Given this assignment, at least it can be said that Stein wrote from the heart. Or at least the gall bladder, wherein resides the bile on which he chokes.
Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North reports that the Canadian studies of border issues were routinely vetted by Liberal officials and all recommendations for arming the border guards were removed.
A prominent member of Canada's incoming Conservative government said Wednesday the party will stand behind its promise to arm border guards, a day after guards fled their posts because two murder suspects were heading for the border from California. Vic Toews, who will soon be a part of the government after serving as Canada's justice critic in opposition, said he did not relish the sight of Canadian border guards leaving their posts as gunmen approached. "It's simply a practical matter of how soon these officers can be trained and the firearms issued to them," he told The Canadian Press. "That's our commitment and I trust our minister will do exactly that."
Toews suggested Canada should be embarrassed by the incident. "I think it does nothing for our national image. I find it very disturbing that our officers felt compelled to leave because of this threat to their personal safety," he said. "I understand their concerns very well and don't fault them. What surprises me is that the former government refused to properly equip our officers."
The Canadian side of the U.S.-Canada border is monitored by the 4,500-member Canada Border Services Agency, supplemented in some posts by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local police departments. Border guards are supposed to allow anyone suspected of being armed and dangerous into Canada and then call police.
A vice president of the union that represents border guards said he was pleased by Toews' statements.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/26/2006
16:00 ||
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#1
Don't blame the CBSA, they'll at least live to fight another day. I'd be a hoof'n it TOO! Violates the cardinal rule of the Yukon, "never take a torch to a gunfight."
Thanks, Bibi. We'll add Hamastan to the Rantburg stylebook.
Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu told the Likud faction in the Knesset Thursday, "Before our very eyes, Hamastan has been established, the step-child of Iran and the Taliban. It's in firing range of our airport, our highways and cities. This has to be a day of soul searching because the writing was on the wall. The policy of giving land for free gave a prize to terror and a winning card for Hamas. "How are Olmert and Peres getting ready for this challenge? They are moving the fence 500 meters closer to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway (Beit Iksa). They gave more land to the Hamas state. Any land given to Hamas will give more of a front to fire upon us. "This is a new and dangerous situation. Sharon said he wouldn't let Palestinians in Jerusalem vote. Olmert let them."
The left side of the political map was also very concerned about Hamas's probable win in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Labor Chairman Amir Peretz reiterated Thursday that his party did not consider Hamas a partner for peace negotiations.
"We have no intention of allowing negotiations to take place, or of allowing a third party to force us to recognize an organization that openly seeks to destroy Israel," Peretz said, adding that the apparent Hamas victory in the Palestinian Legislative elections undermined the stability of the Middle East.
Meretz-Yahad chairman Yossi Beilin said that the election results still provided a chance for an agreement with moderate Palestinians. He called on Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to launch peace talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Beilin also warned that if Israel and the PA failed to reach an agreement soon, Hamas would win in the next elections, as well.
National Religious Party MK Zevulen Orlev said that the Hamas victory was the result of Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip. "The Palestinian public recognized that Hamas's suicide bombers and Kassam rockets convinced the Kadima-led disengagement government to uproot Jews from Gush Katif," Orlev declared.
Kadima MK Haim Ramon said Thursday that he failed to understand the consternation that Hamas' seeming victory in the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections caused among right-wing politicians in Israel. Ramon told Israel Radio that right-wing politicians had said "over and over" that "Abbas was the same as Hamas," and had called the PA leader "even worse" because he and his Fatah party "hid their true intentions."
National Union chairman Zvi Hendel had claimed Thursday that Hamas showed the Palestinians that terror was the only way by which they could "defeat and expel Israel." MK Avigdor Leiberman (Yisrael Beitenu) said that the results were "a victory for radical Islam", while MK Effi Eitam, who attempted on Wednesday to disrupt the vote in east Jerusalem, said that Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar "should send flowers to Ehud Olmert."
Former foreign minister and Likud MK Silvan Shalom opined that Israel had made a grave mistake in allowing Hamas to participate in the elections. "The international community will find a way to justify its dealings with Hamas by saying that it was democratically elected - and this after all [Israel's] efforts to prove to the world that Hamas is terror group," Shalom declared.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz cancelled a speech he was expected to deliver Thursday to meet with other top security officials on the implications of the apparent Hamas victory. Olmert was expected to discuss the PA election results with cabinet ministers later Thursday.
Shimon Peres of Kadima told Israel Radio that if Hamas indeed won the elections, it would have to face and cope with a cessation of international aid to the PA.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
15:59 ||
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#1
The early signs are not good -- literally. Gaza City is decked out with green Hamas banners proclaiming, "Resistance wins, so let's go on." The banners from the supposedly more restrained Palestinian Authority reveal the same mind-set: "Gaza today, the West Bank and Jerusalem tomorrow." Far from being sated by Israeli concessions, the Palestinians are emboldened to demand more. Many will not be satisfied until -- in the words of a 15-year-old would-be suicide bomber quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle -- there are no more "Jews on this world."
Excerpt from link:
#2
Meretz-Yahad chairman Yossi Beilin ... called on Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to launch peace talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
So, we have a politician with no authority to negotiate anything - who, nevertheless, negotiated a paper agreement with an enemy power - wanting the current PM to negotiate with a terroristpolitician with no authority to negotiate anything? Makes sense to me.
#4
Anybody know how the Palestinians in Jerusalem voted?
And was anybody at all surprised by the result of the vote? Everything I'd been hearing said Palestinians were sick of corruption, and when their god died they had no reason left to stick with his party. That would take a large chunk out of the secular and less Islamist groups, and Hamas already had the Islamists sewed up.
Posted by: James ||
01/26/2006 22:53
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#5
I'm really surprised the Israeli vote hasn't already turned on Olmert - give it a few days and see the polls. Bibi's starting to sound like the next best "Sharon" - someone to deal with the enemy from a position of "give me a reason to kill you and I'll take it". IWith teh departure of Sharon's visible strength, resume of defending Israel, I don't think Olmert can carry the Kadima party on his resume or charisma alone. He certainly isn't a bad guy, either. Question is: is he the right man, strongest man, a LEADER, to deal with Iran/Hezbollah/Hamastan/etc. right now?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 23:29
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Authorities said they discovered more than 2 tons of marijuana in a cross-border tunnel that began near the Tijuana airport and ended inside a warehouse on the U.S. side.
The 2,400-feet long passageway is longer than most of the 21 cross- border tunnels that have been discovered since authorities began keeping track after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
"It was like being in a cavern or a cave," said Michael Unzueta, customs special agent in charge in San Diego.
The tunnel's discovery prompted the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego to open a criminal investigation, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mexican authorities found the entrance about 100 yards south of the border on Tuesday, and officers on the U.S. side found the exit Wednesday. Mexican officials allowed reporters and photographers, including an Associated Press photographer, into the tunnel late Wednesday.
The tunnel was about five feet wide and high enough for an adult to stand inside, had a cement floor, and lights mounted on one of the hard soil walls. It was equipped with a pulley system on the Mexican side.
Four tunnels have been discovered this month in the Tijuana-San Diego area, including more primitive tunnel that was also found Wednesday when a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle struck a sinkhole. The Sammy Dago & UCSD dopers are sure gonna be unhappy...
#1
Bush's call for Congress to enact a temporary-worker weed program is especially contentious within the GOP. The president's proposal would allow foreign weed workers to enter the country for a fixed period -- most likely three years .........
#2
Let's see, daily/nightly attempts to sneak across the border, drug running, incursions by what appears to be the Mexican military, lack of Mexican government cooperation in HALTING illegal immigration by its citizens, shots being fired on occasion, and tunnels.
Sounds like there's a little problem that needs addressing, and not by instituting a guest worker program either.
#9
Being a Californian who has smoked my share, this is what I think Arnold should do.
Make it that all marijuana sold to medicinal outlets in CA has to be certified as grown in Ca. That way, all that money stays in state, with the added advantage that it decouples any insinuations of interstate commerce, which Congress can legislate on.
ANKARA [MENL] -- Turkey reported a significant decrease in natural gas from
Iran. The Turkish Energy Ministry said natural gas from Iran has been reduced by 80 percent. The ministry said Turkey has been receiving between five and six million cubic meters of gas per day. Iran has been contracted to relay 26 million cubic meters of gas daily to Turkey through a pipeline. The gas reduction was the latest development in the troubled energy cooperation between Ankara and Teheran. Since 2004, Ankara has demanded a reduction in the price of Iranian energy.
Officials said Iran has attributed the gas reduction to a technical problem at its production facilities. They said the Iranian decline has affected Turkish and other consumers. Ankara also imports gas from Russia. They have bothersome "technical problems" with the gas pipeline but nuclear fusion be easy.
Besoeker post.
The US should tell the world that Iranian oil and gas will be sold at cost for a year to help pay back the loss from shortage of oil and gas to the world during the time we have to beat them down.
That threat is a two way street. China and Russia even France are greed supported play to it and we may even get a UN mandate or some UN troops.
#3
Including China, C-Low? Lol, not a chance. It's a good idea - for all the non-enablers. As for those who've helped these assholes for 2.5 years and more, let them pound sand.
#4
A little internal sobotage would not be a bad thing here. Good SF project. Get the world slowly use to no Iranian Oil/Gas as it is the sudden changes in supply that freak the market out.
#6
Iran's weakness, as described in an article I just submitted for posting, is that it has NO domestic gasoline refining capability and only a 45 day stock in reserve. I suggest we take out the tank farms first. Or just go for a gasoline import quaranteen.
#8
Whoa, NS, that's a serious weakness, lol. Sheesh, talk about having their asses hangin out in the breeze! They'd be frozen in place if the reserve was nailed. Are they this wide open? How many other data points would have similar debilitating effects on any notion of a response? Rail? Won't be any air. Power grids. Ventilation. Etc.
And, of course, if we hear about such vulnerabilities, then they've been bullet-points in several Pentagon plans for some time... Hit 'em everywhere it hurts.
If there is evidence of dispersal among the Black Hats, Rev Council, Guard leadership, etc., then the gig is up. I hope we drop the hammer well before that.
#10
These MMs have screwed their own pooch. They are vulnerable in their own refined products supply. And if Iran is similar to other places in the ME and third world, they get their home cooking fuel from propane cylinders. They have been squandering huge amounts of funds on nuclear power, Shahab-3 missiles, weapons development far beyond their needs, and other crap, while not taking care of their infrastructure, INCLUDING domestic refining capacity. And they do not have squat for environmental regs.
All they really offer now in terms of threats are thousands of boom-belt suicide bombers. They will have more punch if we wait until they get enough U235 for some critical masses. Time is of the essance in dealing with these nutjobs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 18:42
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China is preparing to "strike hard" against rising public unrest, a senior police official said according to state media on Thursday, highlighting the government's fears for stability even as the economy booms.
An unnamed top official of China's Ministry of Public Security told a Wednesday meeting that China faced a long period of dangerous social discontent, Xinhua news agency said.
"For a considerable time to come, our country will be in a period of pronounced contradictions within the people, high crime rates, and complex struggle against enemies," the official said.
"Contradictions within the people" is a Maoist term used to describe domestic social unrest.
China was suffering many "major sudden incidents" -- a term Chinese officials use to cover riots, protests and accidents -- the official added.
"Unpredictable factors affecting social stability will increase, and trends in protecting social stability don't allow for optimism," said the official.
He also said that "terrorism is a real threat against our country" and urged officers to guard against attacks.
China says that its biggest terrorist threat comes from Xinjiang, the far western region dominated by the largely Muslim Uighur people who share a language and culture similar to Central Asian countries.
Uighur groups have campaigned for independence from China, and a few have had links with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Last week, China's Ministry of Public Security put the total number of "mass incidents" -- riots, demonstrations and smaller protests -- at a total 87,000 last year, up 6.6 percent from 2004.
The latest unusually grim police diagnosis of China's social strains comes less than a week after Premier Wen Jiabao was reported as warning that corrupt land seizures in the countryside were stoking protests and riots.
"Some locales are unlawfully occupying farmers' land and not offering reasonable economic compensation and arrangements for livelihoods, and this is sparking mass incidents in the countryside," Wen said in a speech published on January 20.
Wen said the continued "reckless occupation" of farmland threatened "the stability of the countryside and whole economy and society". He promised stricter land controls and improvements to farmers' rights and income.
HARSH RESPONSE
But the police official promised a harsher and more traditional remedy.
Summoning harsh rhetoric that has languished in recent years while the government promoted "rule of law", the official promised to "strike hard against all sorts of terrorist activities and resolutely protect state security and social stability".
During the 1980s and 1990s, regular "strike hard" campaigns were used to fight crime and threats to order by mobilizing police and courts to catch and quickly try and sentence many thousands of citizens.
In recent years, legal reformers have criticized such campaigns as contrary to China's official embrace of rule of law and human rights.
But on Thursday, a meeting of law and order officials announced a new campaign against the "sabotage activities of cult organizations", Xinhua said in a separate report.
China calls the Falun Gong, a spiritual sect banned in 1999, a "cult" that threatens the government.
The meeting also called on officials to "strictly prevent destructive activities by terrorist forces and domestic and foreign hostile forces and elements," the report said.
Xinjiang authorities arrested more than 18,000 people there for crime, including national security offences, the region's official newspaper said last week. And a billion Chinese will sit on their hands - for another 6,000 years, while a coupla dozen assholes crack the whip.
16:46 Jan 26, '06 / 26 Tevet 5766
By Hillel Fendel
Hamas has set the destruction of Israel as its goal. Between September 2000 and April 2004, Hamas perpetrated 425 terrorist attacks against Israel and murdered 377 Israelis - nine every month.
Hamas was founded by Islamic militant extremists in the Gaza Strip in 1988, shortly after the first intifada broke out. The word Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic words for "Islamic Resistance Movement."
Though it is also involved in social and welfare programs, the organization is devoted chiefly to the obliteration of Israel. Its charter states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
The charter further states, "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. Hamas is responsible for 24 murders before the Oslo Accords, 156 more before the Oslo War began in September 2000, and at least another 377 since then - a total of at least 557.
The organization's first mass attack was a car bomb that blew up at a bus stop in Afula in April 1994, murdering 8 and wounding 51. Among the most horrific Hamas attacks were the following:
* 22 people killed and 56 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on the No. 5 bus on
Dizengoff St. in Tel Aviv, Oct. 1994
* 26 killed by suicide bomber on a #18 bus near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, Feb. 1996
* 16 killed in the Mahane Yehuda open market in Jerusalem in a double suicide attack, July 1997
* 23 dead and 115 wounded when a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a No. 2 bus line coming from the Western Wall in Jerusalem, August 2003
* 45 murdered within the space of five days in March 2002: a suicide Hamas terrorist blew himself up in a Haifa restaurant, killing 15, and another one did the same in the Park Hotel in in Netanya during a Passover Seder, murdering some 30 and wounding 144.
The ten worst Oslo War Hamas attacks, in which a total of 186 were murdered, also included the following:
* June 1, 2001 - Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, 21 killed - mostly new-immigrant teenagers from the former Soviet Union
* Aug. 9, 2001 - Sbarro's Pizzeria in Jerusalem, 15 killed, including the parents and three children of the Schijveschuurder family
* Dec. 2, 2001 - Haifa bus, 15 killed
* May 7, 2002 - Rishon Letzion hall, 16 killed
* June 18, 2002 - #32 bus from Gilo, Jerusalem, 19 killed
* March 5, 2003 - #37 bus in Haifa, 15 dead
* June 11, 2003 - #14 bus, Jerusalem, 17 murdered
Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli missile attack in March 2004, and less than a month later, the same fate befell his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Published: 16:27 January 26, 2006
Last Update: 16:46 January 26, 2006
Zimbabwe's inflation hits 585.8%
Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rose to 585.8 percent in December from 502.4 percent in November and economists predict that it could even surpass the 1 000 percent mark by mid-2006. The Central Statistical Office (CSO), which released the figures yesterday, said the sharp increase in the inflation rate was fuelled by higher prices for medicines and bicycles, among other things. Due to endemic fuel shortages, many Zimbabweans have resorted to walking or cycling to work, causing a sharp rise in demand for bicycles.
U.S. and European diplomats need to take seriously the rhetoric used by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding nuclear programs and the destruction of Israel. Tehran has proven itself to be an insincere diplomatic partner. Engagement has backfired. Instead of continuing failed diplomatic efforts, world leaders should work together to help the Iranian people create a truly representative government.
#2
Instead of continuing failed diplomatic efforts, world leaders should work together to help the Iranian people create a truly representative government.
Maybe, just maybe, world leaders should take a radical step of worrying less about the "Iranian People" and worrying more about their own (hint: it's not about Israel).
#3
And I say again that we must use this small window of opportunity to convey a message to the Iranian people.
We should broadcast every horrifying image, real and imagined, of what nuclear war is to them via satellite. Documentaries about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, showing the devastation of radiation on the human body. The movie "Threads". Surely there is much, much more. Not for entertainment purposes, but to both frighten and nauseate them.
Even given this limited amount of time, we could fill several channels with horror and death--to let them know both what their nation is pursuing, and the destruction it is facing.
This to break any illusions they have about nuclear weapons. To show that it is not just a "big bomb" like any other. To try and give them a strong taste of what Americans and Russians dreaded for 40 years of Cold War.
#4
There is still much that can be done between symbolic sanctions and military force. The problem in Iran is not the Iranian people, but rather the ideology and grasp on power of an elite few. Besides rhetorical outreach, the Bush administration has done little to advance freedom or liberty in Iran. As the State Department debated how to allocate $3 million to groups advancing freedom in Iran, the Congress funded a $400 million bridge in Alaska. More money is allocated to landscaping around Washington's Kennedy Center than on programs to support the Iranian people.
As wealth redistro schemes usually do.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's regime has confessed that its seizure of white-owned farms has benefited fewer than 10 percent of the black Zimbabweans who were promised new futures as commercial landowners. A land ministry audit laid bare Mugabe's destruction of agriculture, the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy. The scheme has benefited only 4,867 people, while the official target was 50,000.
Leaving 45,133 of Bob's cronies and "war veterans" to seethe, and the rest of the population to starve.
At least one third of the land given to "new farmers" is lying idle at a time when Zimbabwe is suffering food shortages so severe that some three million people need emergency help from the World Food Program. The audit found that nothing is happening on 11 percent, where "no agricultural activity" was recorded. Another 30 percent is classed as "underutilized." Before the onset of the land grab five years ago, about 300,000 black workers lived on white-owned farms. Most were forced to leave and reduced to destitution when their farms were seized. The audit has shown that very few people were resettled in their place. Even taking into account another scheme under which greater numbers of peasant farmers were given land, it seems certain that Mugabe's land grab has displaced more blacks than it has benefited. The relative handful of winners was disproportionately drawn from the regime's senior ranks, with cabinet ministers, generals and judges all helping themselves to land.
Israel's Mossad spy service and a foreign counterpart enlisted a confidante of Osama bin Laden to kill the al Qaeda leader in 1996 but the plan fell apart over a political dispute, a newspaper said on Thursday.
Mossad picked up bin Laden's trail while helping U.S. and Egyptian agents probe an attempt by Islamist militants on the life of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as he visited Ethiopia, Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth said citing security sources.
According to the report, Mossad recruited a woman close to bin Laden with the help of the intelligence service in her country. Neither the woman's name nor nationality were given.
Yedioth said the woman was meant to kill bin Laden, but the mission was aborted as a result of a breakdown of ties between Israel and her country linked to Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Contacted by Reuters, Danny Yatom, who was head of Mossad at the time, declined comment on the report.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/26/2006
12:01 ||
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Big Brother evictee George Galloway branded the widespread condemnation of his time on the reality show as "sanctimonious humbug" today. The Respect Party MP said he was amazed by the level of interest in his 21-day stay inside the celebrity house from both the media and his fellow parliamentarians. The politician became the object of ridicule after he was seen impersonating a cat lapping imaginary milk from the hands of actress Rula Lenska and dancing in a tight red leotard. "They seem to have got it all out of proportion," he told Channel 4's Big Brother's Little Brother.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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So they decide to take the precaution of bogging them down in Afghanistan. In post-Watergate Washington, you cant put down Covert Operation to destabilise the Hindu Kush as a line item on the Federal budget. So the administration has a quiet word with their chums in the region, and the House of Saud, whose expenditures are subject to less rigorous audits than the CIAs, agrees to pony up the cash and run the recruitment ads, and Pakistans ISI comes on board as the local liaison. The Democrats rage all the time about the outsourcing of American jobs to the Third World, but the outsourcing of a critical anti-Soviet operation reverberated all the way to 9/11. It dramatically enhanced both the reach and prestige of Saudi Wahabism and the ISI, and it deluded the jihadi into believing theyd overthrown the Soviet Union because the Great Satan was a big sissy who was too scared to do it himself.
Now whats left of al-Qaedas leadership sits around a semi-ruined village crossing names out of its Rolodex the A-list Saudi princes who no longer return calls and hoping that the next time one of its freelance operations kills a bunch of people, they wont be yet another bunch of Muslims, as they have been remorselessly in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh, etc. Yet every time they switch on the TV, there are the experts bleating about the Iraqi quagmire and Democrats asserting that an historically low rate of casualties is too high a price to pay and we need to skedaddle out of there. You cant blame Osama or whoever makes his audio tapes for being confused. Ive written before about the media bubble the tendency of Democrats and the press to reinforce each others illusions. But Im saddened to think you can be halfway round the globe in some of the wildest turf on earth where no states writ runs and still be trapped in the media bubble. Osama may be the most pitiful example of a man who made the mistake of confusing media conventional wisdom with reality.
In the old days he was a smarter than average nutter. He created a terror organisation whose diffused structure made it hard for its enemies to tell whether they were winning against it. But, by the same token, that structure also makes it hard for him to tell whether hes winning against us. And right now, as that whiney loser cassette tape suggests, theyre the ones who could use a victory. Osama bin Laden is, in that sense, just another symptom rather than the cause of our recent troubles. The spread of Wahabism, which Prince Turki and others persuaded the CIA to use as a strategic asset of convenience, is a bigger problem. And the Saudi-funded radicalisation of Muslim populations around the world is a bigger one still, and may yet prove terminal for parts of Europe.
But a man in Waziristan or Overtheristan watching Cindy Sheehan on CNN? Hes not what its about any more.
#1
This is just an excerpt... tipper's teasing us.
Go to BugMeNot for a Spectator (http://www.spectator.co.uk) login. This puppy's 5 pages long - and well worth the read.
"It is almost four years since I mooted that the bin man had gone to the virgins. If he hasnt, then I wonder what he makes beyond the desperate truce gambit offered as a cynical enticement to Democrats and Europeans of the way things are going. Afghanistan will never be his again. The House of Sauds double-game is a lot more one-sided these days. And, as the visit of General Musharrafs Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Washington made plain, the prospect of Talebanising Pakistan has slipped beyond Osamas grasp: the AQ Khan network has been busted up, there are said to be American observers at the nuke facilities, and the ISI, the countrys deeply duplicitous intelligence service, is on a tight leash. President Bush underlined to Shaukat Aziz this week that America intends to continue exercising its right of hot pursuit and either send choppers into Pakistan to seize suspects or cut to the chase and blow up their homes. On the whole, Musharraf is cool with that: if someone has to incinerate remote villages, hed rather it was the Great Satan. For his part, Bush is happy for the General to be as co-operative as he can without getting assassinated. Eighteen people died in the attack on Damadola, and OK, some of them were women and children, but others were men Osama can ill afford to lose, and at one of the three houses reduced to rubble his Number Two, al-Zawahiri himself, is known to have swung by for dinner from time to time. Sorry, but thats war: you have the enemy round for cocktails, your pads on the target list from then on. And yes, it means your wifes sister, whos never been terribly political and indeed didnt utter a word all night, gets incinerated with the al-Qaeda mastermind. Message: I dont care, as George Bush Sr might say."
PEOPLE who are nervous about public speaking should first have penetrative sex to ease the stress, although masturbation is unlikely to have the same effect, according to an unusual study.
Stuart Brody, a psychologist at Britain's University of Paisley, compared the impact of different sexual activities on blood pressure when a person later undergoes a stressful experience.
Mr Brody asked 24 women and 22 men to keep a diary of their sexual activities for two weeks.
The volunteers then underwent a stressful ordeal that involved making a speech in public and doing mental arithmetic out loud.
The study, to be published in next Saturday's New Scientist, revealed volunteers who had had penetrative sex during the previous week or so had the least stress, and their blood pressure returned to normal fastest after their test.
Penetrative sex was far more effective in this regard than masturbation or oral sex.
Those who had abstained completely from any sexual activity had the highest stress levels and blood pressure of all.
Mr Brody also did a psychological profile of the volunteers to see whether they had an anxious or neurotic character, and evaluated their work stress and satisfaction with their partners.
But even when such factors were taken into account, sexual behaviour was clearly the best explanation for the stress responses.
"The effects are not attributable to the short-term relief afforded by orgasm but, rather, endure for at least a week," Mr Brody told the British science weekly.
He believes that penetrative sex may release a special "pair-bonding" hormone called oxytocin, which accounts for the calming effect.
The research is reported in full in a specialist journal, Biological Psychology.
#3
GNC carries a powdered form of oxytocin in vanilla or various fruit flavours which I sprinkle on my corn flakes. The fruit variety is stimulating and you can read the paper or enjoy a cup of koffee as well.
The victory of Hamas in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council was greeted with jubilation Thursday across the Muslim world. State-run radio in Iran opened its afternoon news broadcast with the report of Hamas' victory, saying the vote showed that Palestinians support resistance against Israel. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Hamas and other terrorist militant leaders in Damascus last week, though the Islamic cleric-run regime insists it only gives the groups moral support. "Islam" and "moral" don't go together.
"This is a victory to all the region's free people plus all of us who are slaves in the tyrannical moslem states," said Ayoub Muhanna, a 29-year-old Lebanese who owns a spare parts shop in the southeast town of Rashaya. "The Palestinians gave their vote to the party that gave of its blood." If only they had given all of their blood.
"Now the true representatives of the Palestinian people have come to power," said Javad Majidi, a student at Iran's Tehran University. I agree with you there. This is the face of devil-worshipping savages.
Jihad-Daneshgai, a semi-governmental cultural body active in Iranian universities, congratulated Hamas in a statement, saying the victory "angers the arrogant leaders of the U.S. and the occupiers of Jerusalem." East Jerusalem, perhaps?
But while Hamas' victory proved the group's popularity over the ruling Fatah party, the win also could backfire on the militant group, some analysts said. "Hamas' role was greatly respected and embraced because it was a terrorist resistance movement," Sami Moubayed, a Syrian analyst, told the Associated Press. "Now, they will naturally be prone to fail like any other movement that entered the political arena, because they will have a very hard time to deliver on their promises," he said. "The Palestinian Authority is corrupt and Hamas will now share the blame," he added. "Murder of women and children Resistance is something very honorable. Politics is a dirty game." Especially in backwards hellholes, like all islamic states.
Leaders of both Hamas and Fatah said Thursday that Hamas had won an outright majority of parliamentary seats, although official results were not yet available. That gives them the right to form the next Palestinian government, although it was not clear if they would choose to do so. "What happened was tantamount to an earthquake," said Muhammad Jalbout, a Palestinian living in Syria.
He blamed the United States Of course for indirectly helping Hamas win by not exerting enough pressure on Israel to implement agreements reached with the government of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which would have reduced tensions in Palestinian areas.
Essam el-Aryan, a spokesman for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood - which recently increased the number of its seats in Egypt's parliament from 17 to 88 - said the Brotherhood was jubilant. "This is a great victory for Hamas," he said. But he added that Hamas now faces the challenge "of maintaining good relations with the Arab governments and world powers to secure support for the Palestinian cause."
Oh, and "Preview" doesn't show highlighting (but does show strikeout)
#1
You can't run a gov't from a shadowy lair somewhere in Gaza. The upshot here is that they will have to show up for work. It'll be nice to have them in one easily-targeted spot. I'm just saying.
#2
It would be veeeerrrry interesting if Hamas refuse to form a government, as the article hints they might do. What happens then? It's not as if Mr. Abbas would return to his desk, which he so gratefully fled the morning. After all, he already couldn't accomplish anything when his "party" power, so how could he accomplish anything when it lost the election?
#3
If Hamas refuses to form a government that will be tantamount to an earthquake also; with may dead Paleostinians. Let's see how they like official anarchy.
#5
As someone pointed out, a Hamas victory is a great opportunity for everybody who reluctantly gives the Paleos money to stop doing so. Hamas won't ever renounce violence, which was the key for Fatah to get the big bucks; even though they didn't mean it.
So what the situation boils down to is that the only support, almost exclusively weapons and explosives, that Hamas will get will come from the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood. Iran, however, will both fully-fund and arm Hizbullah to try and supplant Hamas.
So odds are, the two of them will be involved in some serious throat cutting, sooner rather than later.
#9
No, Uranus. Muslims will positively be giddy when the Israelis deport the whole lot.
Posted by: ed ||
01/26/2006 17:52
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#10
Good. They are about to get an object lesson in who is responsible when assholes get elected in fair elections. Nobody can talk about the poor oppressed Paleostinian people who don't have the power to throw off their dictators any more. Someone shoule remind them that's how Hitler got to power and look how that ended up for the Germans who voted him in.
Jordan has isssue an alert, warning foreign embassies that suicide bombers may have entered the country.
Jordanian sources said authorities suspected that four vehicles packed with explosives have entered the Hashemite kingdom from either Iraq or Syria. The sources said the vehicles were being prepared for a suicide strike around Western embassies in Amman.
The alert has resulted in increased security around embassies in Amman, Middle East Newsline reported. Several Western embassies have also decreased their personnel and reduced hours of some departments to avoid exposure to attack.
"We are positive that there has been an attempt to bring these cars into Jordan," a source said. "We are not sure whether all, some or any of these vehicles managed to enter."
The sources said the car bomb plot was drafted by Al Qaida in Iraq. They said Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi has planned a new series of strikes in wake of the killing of 57 people in coordinated suicide attacks in Amman in December 2005.
The sources said Al Zarqawi has designated Jordan as his key target outside of Iraq. Jordan has strengthened its military relationship with the United States and became a meeting point of Western intelligence officials who visit or operate in the Middle East.
Jordan has placed on trial about a dozen Al Qaida operatives commanded by Al Zarqawi. Al Zarqawi has vowed to attack Jordan until the kingdom releases the defendants, who include suspected fund-raisers for the insurgency movement.
Two brothers convicted of sending exports from their U.S. company to countries considered sponsors of terrorism were sentenced Wednesday to federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Hazim Elashi was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison and will be deported after serving his sentence. His brother Ihsan "Sammy" Elashi was given a six-year term, which will run consecutively to the four-year sentence he is currently serving.
Hazim and Ihsan Elashi, their three brothers and their company were convicted in 2004 on charges of making illegal technology shipments to Libya and Syria.
The Elashis ran InfoCom Corp., a Richardson firm that did up to $5 million in business a year selling computers and Internet services to mostly customers in the Middle East. Prosecutors say they shipped computer products to Libya and Syria from 1997 to 2000, violating a ban on exporting technology, goods or software to countries the U.S. government lists as state sponsors of terrorism.
Agents from the FBI investigated InfoCom for years and raided the business the week before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the original indictments against the brothers, calling it part of a campaign against "the financiers of terror."
The men also were involved in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that was closed after the Treasury Department accused it of being a front for the militant group Hamas. Bayan Elashi, Ghassan Elashi and Basman Elashi have not been sentenced on the exporting charges
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
09:05 ||
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#1
InfoCom? Fitting—they are now in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/26/2006 12:34
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Hazim Elashi was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison and will be deported after serving his sentence. His brother Ihsan "Sammy" Elashi was given a six-year term, which will run consecutively to the four-year sentence he is currently serving.
Federal prison sentences run an automatic 1/3 off for good time. That said, even *longer* prison sentences plus deportation would be a better deterrent.
These two low ranking dirtbags should have had longer prison sentences.
[halfass rant]
BUT WHEN HIGH RANKING TRAITORS LIKE
Bernard Schwartz chairman of Loral Space, Loral President J.A. Lindfelt, Johnny Chung, Ron Brown, Warren Christopher, and Sandy Burgler waived national interest along with Buffoono Clinton>>>>
THEY SHOULD GET LIFE IN PRISON OR WORSE!!!
[/rant]
January 26, 2006: Personal armor for troops in Iraq is in the headlines once more. Side armor, which adds about ten pounds to the 16 pound weight of the Interceptor Protective Vest, has been available since 2003 (when 250 sets were sent to Iraq.) About a thousand sets were delivered in 2004, and more last year. Side armor is obviously not new, as many news stories imply. While the side armor provided useful protection, the added weight (for a trooper already carrying over fifty pounds), and restricts movement. The new armor is most popular with troops guarding convoys. They spend most of their time sitting down, and the side armor provides additional protection from roadside bombs, which throw out a lot of fragments, at troops sitting facing forward. The bombs are often accompanied by an ambush force armed with machine-guns and assault rifles. Sometimes, the troops have to get out of their vehicles and battle the ambushers. This is often intense and disorganized combat, with fire coming from all directions. Again, the side armor can be very useful, and the troops wont be running around so long that the additional weight and movement restriction will become a major problem. For the same reason, combat troops that are spending most of their time in their vehicles, dont mind the disadvantages of the side armor. But infantry that are spending a lot of time running around, up stairs and battling the enemy in an urban environment, nimbleness is more important. Some of these guys have been known to leave the back plate out, just to save a few pounds.
These different attitudes towards how much armor to wear are similar to those found in police forces. That's why the police have both lightweight armor (worn by most cops, most of the time) and heavier rigs for SWAT teams or anyone out on a raid, and even heavier getup for bomb disposal personnel.
I've noticed the guy who developed the "Predator" facial armor system is getting a lot of play in the media. Is it me, or does it look an awful lot like a Star Wars Storm Trooper helmet?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
08:54 ||
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The concept isn't much different than the 7th century Sutton Hoo helmet. Just add all that modern molding material and a streamlined design. Bullets and explosive debris move with a little more umph than the old sword or axe.
#2
Looks bulky but face shots and upper neck shots are the main target for snipers lately at least the ones getting kills. Thing really looks heavy but the benefits could outweigh.
#3
The mask looks pretty restricitve and bulky. I don't know about the armor our guys are wearing because it has lots of ceramic materials but my soft body armor (thrreat level 3) was fitted and made for me. (400+ dollars at time of purchase). It's bulky but soft. I have side protection which part of the vest. Fitted body armor has to be better than off the rack stuff. It's really cheap insurance for the user.
Zimbabwe's government hopes to see Mandarin Chinese taught in universities as the school year starts in February. The plan is part of President Robert Mugabe's "Look East" policy. It is not clear whether Chinese will be a compulsory subject.
Coming soon to your school: Five-Year Plan proving that all students are learning Mandarin right on schedule...
The government is trying to build closer economic links with China amid worsening relations with the West. Education Minister Stan Mudenge said he had held talks with the Chinese authorities on the matter. He said the government wanted to offer a curriculum that would see students from all Zimbabwe's universities taking Chinese to promote tourism and trade between the two countries. "At a recent meeting I held in Paris with my counterpart, the Chinese minister of education, we agreed to intensify our programmes in the field of education, cultural exchange programmes including language training," Mr Mudenge said, quoted by the Zimbabwean newspaper The Standard.
The Zimbabwe National Association of Student Unions criticised the government's plans. "It seems they are trying every political gimmick to lure the Chinese into this country to bankroll their bankrupt regime," the association's president, Washington Katema, told the South African newspaper, The Star. "But they should not do that at the expense of students."
Observers say that offering Chinese to all university students would require many more Chinese advisors teachers to be brought into the country. Investment and tourism revenues from the west have plummeted in recent years, prompting President Robert Mugabe to look increasingly to Asia to try to help prop up his criminal regime his country's troubled economy.
The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed. The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun. "There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."
Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."
I believe we've discussed the same thing here from time to time
Democrats have made the absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a theme in their criticism of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in 2003. And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Said Mr. Bush, "We did not find those weapons."
The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war.
Yessssss, it could, couldn't it?
And even the accusations that they are there could step up international pressure on the government in Damascus. That government, led by Bashar Assad, is already facing a U.N. investigation over its alleged role in the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon. The Bush administration has criticized Syria for its support of terrorism and its failure to cooperate with the U.N. investigation. The State Department recently granted visas for self-proclaimed opponents of Mr. Assad to attend a "Syrian National Council" meeting in Washington scheduled for this weekend, even though the attendees include communists, Baathists, and members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group to the exclusion of other, more mainstream groups.
Mr. Sada, 65, told the Sun that the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria from Iraq approached him in the middle of 2004, after Saddam was captured by American troops. "I know them very well. They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots," Mr. Sada said of the two pilots. He declined to disclose their names, saying they are concerned for their safety. But he said they are now employed by other airlines outside Iraq.
The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel." The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks.
We heard about the convoy, plane flights are new info.
The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002. "Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Mr. Sada said. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians."
Mr. Sada said that the Iraqi official responsible for transferring the weapons was a cousin of Saddam Hussein named Ali Hussein al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali." The Syrian official responsible for receiving them was a cousin of Bashar Assad who is known variously as General Abu Ali, Abu Himma, or Zulhimawe. Short of discovering the weapons in Syria, those seeking to validate Mr. Sada's claim independently will face difficulty. His book contains a foreword by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, David Eberly, who was a prisoner of war in Iraq during the first Gulf War and who vouches for Mr. Sada, who once held him captive, as "an honest and honorable man."
In his visit to the Sun yesterday, Mr. Sada was accompanied by Terry Law, the president of a Tulsa, Oklahoma based Christian humanitarian organization called World Compassion. Mr. Law said he has known Mr. Sada since 2002, lived in his house in Iraq and had Mr. Sada as a guest in his home in America. "Do I believe this man? Yes," Mr. Law said. "It's been solid down the line and everything checked out." Said Mr. Law, "This is not a publicity hound. This is a man who wants peace putting his family on the line."
Mr. Sada acknowledged that the disclosures about transfers of weapons of mass destruction are "a very delicate issue." He said he was afraid for his family. "I am sure the terrorists will not like it. The Saddamists will not like it," he said. He thanked the American troops. "They liberated the country and the nation. It is a liberation force. They did a great job," he said. "We have been freed."
He said he had not shared his story until now with any American officials. "I kept everything secret in my heart," he said. But he is scheduled to meet next week in Washington with Senators Sessions and Inhofe, Republicans of, respectively, Alabama and Oklahoma. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He'll be accused of pimping his book
The book also says that on the eve of the first Gulf War, Saddam was planning to use his air force to launch a chemical weapons attack on Israel.
When, during an interview with the Sun in April 2004, Vice President Cheney was asked whether he thought that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria, Mr. Cheney replied only that he had seen such reports. An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." The allegation was denied by the Syrian government at the time as "completely untrue," and it attracted scant American press attention, coming as it did on the eve of the Christmas holiday.
DEBKA was screaming about it at the time, looks like they were correct
The Syrian ruling party and Saddam Hussein had in common the ideology of Baathism, a mixture of Nazism and Marxism.
Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that obligates nations not to stockpile or use chemical weapons. Syria's chemical warfare program, apart from any weapons that may have been received from Iraq, has long been the source of concern to America, Israel, and Lebanon. In March 2004, the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying, "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW."
The CIA's Iraq Survey Group acknowledged in its September 30, 2004, "Comprehensive Report," "we cannot express a firm view on the possibility that WMD elements were relocated out of Iraq prior to the war. Reports of such actions exist, but we have not yet been able to investigate this possibility thoroughly."
Mr. Sada is an unusual figure for an Iraqi general as he is a Christian and was not a member of the Baath Party. He now directs the Iraq operations of the Christian humanitarian organization, World Compassion.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
08:32 ||
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Mr. Sada may have seen barrels with WMD type stickers on them loaded into planes but there is a good chance they were dummies.
It seems to me that Saddam had a basically Potemkin WMD arsenel that was used to freighten enemies.
#2
He is pimping a book, and we shouldn't ignore that.
That's an interesting thought, mhw, and certainly possible.
I was going to say that it seems that looking at the quotes given in this article by "government officials" that the Bush administration is better at Clintonisms than was Clinton himself.
Example one: And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Said Mr. Bush, "We did not find those weapons."
many nations believed?
What did you believe Bush?
But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong Much, but not all, eh? No mention of which intelligence turned out to be wrong. "We did not have sex with find THOSE weapons"
The other statements in this article could be likewise parsed. My take is that the Bush administration has taken a policy of not blabbing to the press everything they know. They've figured out it's best to keep all that information close rather than allow the enemey to create a scandal "no weapons of mass destruction - Bush lied" and then the Administration feels compelled to rush to the microphone with details to prove their case - thus giving away valuable information as they try to investigate further.
It's been obvious from the get go that Saddam had the weapons. They had to repeat the lie many, many, times before the world bought into the "Bush Lied" meme. That the dem's still ran with it, knowing that the truth would eventually come out, just causes me to wonder.
#3
The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war.
It might alter the debate in that no one would discuss WMD any more, but not one person who opposes the war or is indifferent would suddenly support it. They are simply against the war for wahtever reason Kos gives them.
#4
LISTEN UP ! I listen to a radio show The John Batchlor Show on WABC in NY. Last night one John (forgot his last name) stated that millions of documents were recovered after Saddam's fall. Because of a shortage of translators, only a fraction of them have been cataloged. Among these is a tape in Saddam's own voice discussing the WMDs and his activities concealing them from Blix and others. The tape's contents will be made public on Feb 18th. Apparently, Saddam was organizing to write a book about his out foxing the UN inspectors and everyone else. The tape contains several hours of conversations between Saddam and other high ranking Saddamites covering from roughly 1992 to 2002.
I may have missed a few facts here, but that is the jist of it.
#5
Heh, wxj - now that would justify much more than popcorn, lol.
NS - I agree - the BDSers and similarly insane / gullible / rudderless people, such as those who think they want communism or socialism, are what they are completely independent of any facts.
I believe the John in question is one John Loftus of:
http://www.john-loftus.com/
He often Teams up with John Batchellor. They get a little to close to the edge for my taste. So salt to flavor. For instance, John Loftus is a life long DEM who voted for John Kerry and said on the show one night, I paraphrase, that Repub. should lighten up on the fear of John Kerry because on truth Kerry will not do anything any different the GWB in conducting the WoT. He just has talk that way to keep the left of his party in his camp.
#9
Loftus has been wrong (at least so far) on a number of things, but has been right about some others. Although he is a Dem, he has publicly supported Pres. Bush, the Iraq War and many of the things that have been done by W since 9/11. As for his conference, Ledeen, McInerny, Vallely, Hunt, Babbin, Woolsey and others have been pretty supportive of the US military specifically and many of the actions taken by W in the WoT generally (although Ledeen has been critical of our approach to Iran).
Posted by: Tibor ||
01/26/2006 13:23
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#11
This account was collaborated by aerial photographs in the lead-up to the invasion.
Collaborated by US photos, by the Israelis, and by this fellow.
Colin Powell may be right before he was wrong after he said he was right, etc.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/26/2006 13:57
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#12
I've been telling you guys this for how long?
This stuff will come out sooner or later. Its there in open sources if you know where to look.
Right now, the reasons for not using the data and analysis that shows this to be highly probable: politics.
We are already hip deep dariningthe swamp in Iraq, and have Iran ready to go nuclear. We dont have time or attention or political capital to spend on Syria right now. Syria would be a fatal distraction from Iran at the moment. It will be forced onto the back burners.
The right doenst want this just yet - timing is not right for the elections. And the military does not want this because we would be forced to act to destroy said stocks (and spread ourselves thinner, increasing risks and risking the gains we have in Iraq). Intel doesnt want this because it calls into quesiton their competence. State doesnt want this because it would make the difficult diplomacy games (ignoreing all kinds of evil) virtually impossible to play anymore with Syria and its allies. Europe doesnt want this because they are likely complicit with illegal trade with Syria. And the lefties *especially* dont want this to come to light because it shows the LEFT lied and smeared the president.
Baby Assad's turn will come, its that for now we have more important things to be working on.
#13
I know how we can settle this....ask Hans Blix
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/26/2006 13:58
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#14
This whole discussion is a no brainer anyway. Let's see, they buried the airforce, they ran away from most direct confrontations during the invasion, they buried artillary shells and RPGs all over the country, They buried nuke equipment in back yards. Key equipment has been found in junk yards in Jordan, Turkey, and The Netherlands. Doesn't it stand to reason that they buried WMDs home and abroad prior to discovery ? Just because we don't have a map of all these sites, doesn't mean there were no WMDs.
That entire Bush lied argument is nothing more than an anti-Bushitler leftists koolaid hangover. People with such hangovers are doomed to a future of irrelevance. It is believed that shock treatments alone will not help.
How will we get any support from the public (dems), Europe, and other countries to go after Iran after all the problems with not finding WMDs in Iraq?
If we're able to prove/show that the WMDs did get squirrelled away in Syria, won't we have an easier time with more partners dealing with Iran?
Plus we get to show how badly the Dems have behaved running up into the election. We can isolate Syria and let them sit and sweat and then deal with Baby doc after Iran.
#18
Decapitate the Syrian baathist tyranny, go in exclusively to capture their WMD stockpiles, and return to Iraq while the Syrian factions kill each other. 2-3 months of operations.
Probably very dirty, and many casualties on our side, but we can't afford to convert one country at a time. The coming direct confrontation with Iran should not require watching the Syrian border at the same time.
#19
A takedown of the Iranian regime would leave Syria completely naked, alone, and probably in armed chaos. Iran has to be done - and done by us, IMHO. So don't waste good people on Syria. Do Iran, seal up Syria and then deal with the remnants at a time of our choosing. Might allow the Lebs to get control over their embedded Syrian proxies, too, as the pucker factor in Syria would dry up such luxuries fast. Just my take.
#20
I went to the Intel Summit last year, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Met John Loftus, John Batchellor, Doctor Zin, and passed Walid Jumblatt in the hall. Dan Darling was supposed to present, but was told his skoolwork took precedence. Go figure.
#24
Old Spook and .com are right: Syria comes later. It is one notch down the food chain from Iran, so if Iran is out, Syria and Pencilneck fall from lack of support. Iran is the keystone to unravelling the madness of the Middle East. And they are making enemas enemies daily.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 22:22
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Durban - A man brandishing a toy gun was shot in both legs when he allegedly attempted to hijack a BMW in Isithebe, north of Durban, on Wednesday afternoon, police said. The 23-year-old allegedly approached a motorist stopped at a traffic light at about 14:00 and pulled a gun from a black plastic bag, spokesman Superintendent Jay Naicker said on Thursday. "The 51-year-old driver also drew his personal firearm and opened fire on the suspect, hitting him in both legs."
Naicker said the man was taken to Stanger hospital where he was in a stable condition. Police were investigating a case of attempted hijacking - and one of attempted murder against the motorist.
That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. Of a sort. Kinda.
The Washington Post had to suspend comments on the ombudsman's blog because flame-belching trolls overwhelmed the conversation. Apparently she made the mistake of writing something contrary to received wisdom, and was strung up and burned in virtual effigy.
Disclaimer: The ombudsman, Deborah Howell, is a former employer of yours truly; we go way back. Ms. Howell, it should be noted, could dress down the drill instructor from "Full Metal Jacket," so the fact that the blog commentors are still breathing is a testament to the anonymity and distance the Web allows.
But why the surprise when dissent took such a nasty turn? Potty-mouthed jerks have been part of Internet discourse since they hooked two UNIVACs together and the second accused the first of being a !$&(;? John Bircher. Great swaths of the blogosphere are rich and smart and civil, yes. Other areas are infested with people whose hatred for George W. Bush is so intense they keep a squeegee by the TV to wipe the spittle off the screen.
Ever since Bush imposed martial law and shot the cast of "The View" -- sorry, since Bush won the last election, hard-left nuttery seems more mainstream. Bob Dole did not post on bulletin boards that claimed Bill Clinton would soon use FEMA to herd everyone into U.N.-run camps where everyone would get Mark of the Beast bar codes on their necks. John Kerry, on the other hand, has posted at the Daily Kos, whose neck-vein-popping contributors seem to think Bush spends his nights getting hammered and ordering Halliburton to poison Iraqi water so he can get kickbacks from the Pepto-Bismol Crime Syndicate.
The good news is that you, too, can be like Kerry, and rant as you please in unmoderated comment sections. But you have to ask yourself, punk: Do you have the chops to truly make a fool of yourself to disinterested observers? Well, do you?
Here are some rules for being an idiot on the Internet. Clip 'n' save:
-- Make Up Funny Names. If a right-wing figure's name starts with K, like Kate, by all means call her KKKate. Everyone on the right probably shares the values of the Klan, anyway. Especially if they're against affirmative action and don't believe in judging people on the color of their skin. (This goes for the other side, too: Hillary Clinton is so much funnier as "Hitlery." Wanting single-payer health insurance, wishing to enslave Europe under Aryan yoke -- what's the diff?) Remember: Boil down the object of your hate to a single phrase that betrays your incomprehension of the fundamental issues, but lets others know where you stand right away.
-- Swear angrily. Not just the classics, but the ones relating to excretion and genitalia. Nothing shows you're a serious thinker like a torrent of obscenities. It's the reason Courtney Love is invited to speak to the U.N. so often. Added bonus: Lots of cursing means no one will suspect you're a Christian. If you are a Christian, you'll be one of the cool ones who listens to Howard Stern spank lesbian midget strippers. Which automatically means you're pro-choice, so whatever with the God thing.
-- Hyperbolize everything. Granted, everyone punches a little too hard sometimes; everyone throws too deep. Feisty debate is energizing. Nothing is more boring than the torpid droning you get in the Senate, where solons are duty-bound to call each other "my good friend" even if they were stabbing each other with Bic pens in the cloakroom five minutes before. But the pestilential keyboard pounders had best realize they're just screaming to the choir. Persuading the middle means acknowledging that the opposition is not composed of subhuman Moorlocks who hope global warming drowns coastal-dwelling gay stem-cell researchers. People on the right may be wrong, but it's quite possible they don't actually want a fascistic corporate state where the elite tour the country in giant hovercraft, vaporizing Wal-Mart labor organizers with microwave rays. You could treat them like fellow human beings. But where's the fun in that?
Now go out there and give Google something vile to cache for your kids to see someday!
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
08:21 ||
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"torpid droning"????
Great, now I got to go find the friggin dictionary!!
#2
No, just ask me, the walking dictionary. Torpid means sleepy, or drowsy. Droning means monotonous.
Yes, there was some use to majoring in English. Paypal donations accepted.
{and released shortly afterwards from Abu Graib?}
1/26/2006
TIKRIT, Iraq -- Iraqi security forces and Task Force Band of Brothers Soldiers detained 51 suspected terrorists during a series of unrelated actions throughout northern Iraq Jan. 24.
In the largest action of the day, Iraqi troops from the 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division planned and conducted a large early morning raid in three villages outside of Baqubah. The unit detained 19 suspects, including eight known to have strong ties to terrorists in the area.
In the Bayji area, Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Divisions 3rd Brigade Combat Team continued to make progress against terrorists that have plagued the area. Ten known or suspected terrorists were captured in and around the city.
Tips from Bayji area residents generated a series of early-morning searches south of the city which led to the capture of four men closely tied to a terrorist ring responsible for committing murders and beheadings in the area. A fifth man was killed after firing a pistol at the Soldiers searching his home.
In another positive development, a local tribal leader brought three suspected members of an IED cell from the Bayji area to a coalition base and turned them in to coalition forces.
Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment also had a good day taking terrorists off the streets in Tall Afar and the nearby city of Biaj.
Working with Iraqi troops from the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, the unit discovered two caches of weapons and stolen Iraqi Army uniforms and captured 12 suspects.
The troops began their mission working from one tip and with each turn of events, another tip surfaced that carried the Soldiers to two separate caches and 12 individuals.
The citizens of northern Iraq continue to build confidence in the security forces protecting the newly established democracy, as the Iraqi Soldiers grow into a mature, capable force, directly responsible for safeguarding the rights and lives of the people of Iraq.
#1
...And for the most part, it's just catch and release. We can't do anything other than turn them over to the Iraquis, and the Iraquis won't do anything other than hold them untill their tribe pays a bribe makes bail.
When I was over there, we had may repeat customers. I personaly caught at one village the same IED planting team 5 times.
One funny thing though, for some reason this particular team's IEDs never seemed to be functional...(I have my speculations, but I will not comment. You may discuss among yourselves.)
Posted by: N guard ||
01/26/2006 8:37
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#2
Catch-&-release is a good idea as long as they are tagged while in custody. Then they can be tracked to their dens and burrows...
#3
Spot has made a point jokingly that I think needs to be thought about seriously.
I don't think we have micro GPS transmitters yet, but when we do we should tag every suspect and also tag all our military and civilian personnel so they can be tracked down if kidnapped.
Until we have the micros, we ought to make mini GPS bracelets, false teeth and so forth for similar use.
#4
N Guard: We have left the point where it's obvious who the bad guyz are. Good for us, actually, in that it is now a cross between a gigantic 'Cops' episode and extensive counterintelligence scheme.
For example, more and more, those who are picked up are informants with hot information; we not only catch and release, but give them lots of pretty paper to take home with them.
#6
Instead of tag and release how about shave and a haircut to ensure they don't have lice. It's got to be harder for a hairless 20something to hide in the crowd in Iraq than it would be in the west.
Oh, and pick a random one once in awhile, keep him seperate, and let him keep his hair and beard so the others think he might have turned a dime on them.
If folks complain that it is unIslamic we can point out the numerous cases of non-bearded Muslims and how it would be against the Geneva conventions to not delouse them properly. We can also offer wigs and stuff to help them with their islamic issues until their hair grows in again.
#7
Observation: Most, if not all, already have a burr cut. Under that Italian tablecloth / towel is a lace doily thingy - and it don't fit if youze got any hair.
A big fricking tattoo, think of it as a Scarlet Letter, in the middle of the forehead would be a perm solution.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 10:29
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#9
RD re: #6--sorry about the fractured syntax. It is/was a stressful topic for me. Your revision expresses my thoughts.
As for the idea of tagging, I did suggest it. Even went so far as to look up the pet Id chip thing. Actualy, there were few options for implantable RFID out in the commercial sector. Everything currently assumes a working range of <100M. If DARPA has something better, they aren't talking.
Anyway, I put together a power point presentation.(Yes, I have a Power Point badge! Grin!) With various options, including a "faked" option where nothing was actualy implanted, but with an incision and stitches and evrything.
The Chain of Command was not amused. Evidently, any sort of marking or tracking system that modifies the subject being tracked is somehow a violation of the laws of war somehow.
I have come to the conclusion that one of the first real military reforms is to shoot most of the lawyers.
Posted by: N guard ||
01/26/2006 12:30
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#10
We are at war. If you catch the same phuck twicwe the second time should be terminal.
King Henry, VI part II act IV
"The first thing we do, lets kill all the lawyers." It's a joke about lawyers sure it is. There are too many lawyers.
pet Id chip, including a "faked" option where nothing was actualy implanted, but with an incision and stitches and evrything.
jeeze, never occured to me to fake them, but now that you mention it what fantistic psychological warfare potential. evil eh! LOL
muses: implant a barely audible beeper in their noggin.
Then show them several hours of Predator UAV videos tracking perps, ending of course with Hell Fire Moments®. BuWaWaWaWa
Anyway, I put together a power point presentation.(Yes, I have a Power Point badge! Grin!) With various options, including a "faked" option where nothing was actualy implanted, but with an incision and stitches and evrything.
#12
Don't shave their beards, shave half their beards, right down the middle, say full beard right side, clean shaven the other side.
Turbans cover hair, but men don't cover their faces, let them decide whether or not to shave the other side, no Rambo shit, use an electric razor.
Hummm, maybe a clear cut stripe down the center leaving a long semi-beard on either side. Get the upper lip too, about three inches wide, continue down the chest, and up the back as well.
That'd be harder to hide, it just screams "I was Caught by the Americans" and let them try to convincr their pals that they didn't talk to be released.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/26/2006 22:26
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Cuban bulldozers are digging up an area in front of the US interests section in the capital, Havana. US diplomats say the move is designed to obscure the illuminated messages, mainly on human rights themes, that are being displayed on the building.
President Fidel Castro has described the scrolling messages as a gross provocation, saying he believes the US wants to sever all relations with Cuba. The two countries have not had diplomatic links for 45 years. Surprise
What was once the car park of the US mission in Havana is rapidly turning into a major construction site. Huge cranes have been brought in and teams of builders are working there non-stop. But no-one will say what is being built, not even President Castro.
On Wednesday night, his black Mercedes drew up to the site. He emerged to give the workers a pep talk. American envoys in Havana, he said, were cockroaches. Asked what was being built, he said he did not want to ruin the surprise. As he spoke, the huge US electronic billboard scrolled out its illuminated messages across the building behind him.
One gave news that Palestinians had been voting for the first time in 10 years. Another declared that President Bush believed people had the right to choose how they lived their lives.
The propaganda war between the US and Cuba is nothing new - but this is an escalation. Already Cuba has put up scores of posters in the capital caricaturing President Bush as both a fascist and a vampire. Where this will all end is not clear.
President Castro says he believes the US is intending to break off all relations with Cuba. He also says he does not believe Cuba would lose much if that happened
Finally, some new construction in Cuba. Maybe it's a Starbucks.
#4
Back in the 80's-90's the chicoms did the same thing to the US embassy in Peking. IIRC, it was to minimise our ability to gather sigint on the chicoms, by blocking lines of sight to chicom gov't offices.
From various open sources, I infer the NSA has a habit of using US embassys rather aggressively as listening posts.
I wonder if construction is a similar idea?
Posted by: N guard ||
01/26/2006 12:48
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His defeated Fatah slapped down participation in a Hamas-led coalition. Earlier, Fatah PM and cabinet quit when early results gave Hamas a sweeping 70-75 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian legislature.
The first Hamas statement: Negotiating with Israel and recognition are not on our agenda. The armed struggle will continue. Hamas control of Palestinian government is a regional earthquake that will bring the Muslim Brotherhood into power by the ballot for the first time in Middle East history. President George W. Bush says he will not deal with Hamas unless the organization renounces its commitment to fight for Israels destruction.
In Gaza, in answer to a question on policy, Hamas operative Mohammed Rantisi, whipped out the late Yasser Arafats motto: We shall hold talks as though there is no terror and wage terror as though there are no talks. Other leaders reject negotiations, recognition of Israel or laying down arms. In view of this election upset, some Palestinian sources predict a long wait for final results amid attempts at manipulation, which the Hamas will fight tooth and nail.
The Palestinian election sets back critically the underlying objective of the US-led global war on terror: denying terrorists territorial strike bases and keeping them on the run - as manifested in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For Israel, allowing the Hamas terrorists to take part in the Palestinian election - after its takeover of the Gaza Strip was a fatal blunder. It is now condemned to dealing with the Damascus-based Khaled Mashal and Mahmoud a-Zahar in Gaza, now holding the whip hand in Ramallah. Behind them lurk sponsors and mentors such as Mahdi Aqaf, leader of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamass parent body, and Sheikh Qardawi, the Qatar-based television preacher. While speaking out against suicide bombers for Western targets, this influential radical ardently advocates Muslim martyrdom for the sacred purpose of killing Israelis.
The peace strategy acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert outlined in his policy address the day before the Palestinian election is passé; it was built around negotiations with Abu Mazen and a Fatah regime in Ramallah. He failed to consider the possibility of having to face up to a Palestinian negotiating partner that takes its orders from Cairo, Qatar, Damascus and Tehran.
On the other hand, it brings what we knew all along out into the open. Wonder if Sharon was counting on this?
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
08:07 ||
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Japanese police have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to kill a woman who refused to join his harem. Hirohito Shibuya, a 57-year-old unemployed fortune teller, already openly lives with 10 other women in his Tokyo home.
Fortune teller, huh? He should have seen this coming
Kyodo News agency quoted police as saying Mr Shibuya told the woman that she would be made into "mincemeat" if she did not live with him. Mr Shibuya is reported to have denied threatening anyone.
"Lies, all lies!"
He did admit living with a harem, telling public broadcaster NHK: "Yes, we have a polygamous setup in my house."
short pause while I think about a harem of Japanese girls....sigh....now we're back..
It was not clear whether Mr Shibuya was breaking the law in his domestic set-up. Polygamy is illegal in Japan, but Mr Shibuya reportedly married some of the women then later divorced them.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/26/2006
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The European Court of Human Rights is considering an appeal by the man known as Carlos the Jackal, who says the French authorities violated his rights. The notorious revolutionary, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, is serving a life sentence for the murder of two French agents and an informer. He claims his rights were violated by being held in solitary confinement for eight years from 1994 until 2002. He says he was kept in a small cell and only let out for a two-hour daily walk.
Boo freaking hoo. Should have been dancing on the end of a rope
A lower chamber of the court ruled last year that the treatment did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. It said special measures had been needed to detain a man once regarded as the most dangerous terrorist in the world.
Carlos, a 56-year-old Venezuelan, gained international notoriety as a mastermind of deadly bombings, assassinations and hostage-takings. He and his right-hand-man Johannes Weinrich closely identified with the Palestinian cause and were supported by the secret services of the former communist eastern bloc.
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#1
Carlos the Jackal
Any resemblance to RB's Jackal or to the name, character, or history of any person here at Rantburg living or dead is purely is coincidental and unintentional."
#4
Stars are very bad at following instructions. You have not followed my instructions. There is no room for stars in my operational teams. You can go.
RAMALLAH, West Bank : Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei announced his resignation and said the radical Islamist group Hamas must form the next government after the general election.
The announcement came as Hamas looked set for a stunning victory over Fatah in the Palestinian election, plunging the stalled Middle East peace process into further turmoil.
Senior officials from Fatah, the movement which has dominated Palestinian politics for years, privately acknowledged that they had been beaten into second place by Hamas which was contesting its first parliamentary election.
The central elections commission said the official result would not be announced until 7 pm (1700 GMT), but Hamas was confident that it would now have an absolute majority in the 132-seat parliament. 'It's all happening' as they say in the cricket.
#2
Lucky Mr. Abbas finally has a face-saving pass to get out of town without being killed first by either his enemies, his rivals or his friends, who would at some point have realized that he'd betrayed the Revolution.
FIFTEEN years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Council of Europe last night became the first international body to condemn crimes against humanity committed by the communist regimes of the Soviet Union and other states.
However, in a vote that was bitterly contested by Russia and Western Europes left-wing parties, the 46-nation council failed to raise the two-thirds majority needed to approve a tougher resolution by a Swedish MP that called on former communist states to teach the truth about their former regimes and create days of remembrance.
The council assembly, which includes MPs from all former European communist states except Belarus, voted by simple majority for a motion deploring that there had never been an international inquiry on the crimes committed in these states.
These have never been condemned by the international community as have been the horrible crimes committed in the name of (German) National Socialism, said Göran Lindblad, a Swedish conservative MP. The failure to win the broader motion underlined the misgivings among parliamentarians over the wisdom of revisiting painful history and issuing blanket condemnations. The council was founded after the Second World War to protect human rights and the rule of law. The case made by conservatives for putting Stalin on a par with Hitler has fuelled a furious dispute in recent years in France, Greece and other Western European states where Marxist doctrines and communist parties enjoy strong sympathies. A Russian opinion poll last month suggested that 42 per cent of Russians believed that Stalin had played a positive role in their country.
MPs from Hungary, Estonia, Bulgaria and other former Soviet satellite states gave emotional backing to the vote. Russian MPs relayed the anger in Moscow over what is seen as a hostile act aimed at isolating their country and opening the way to lawsuits.
Natalia Narochnitskaya, deputy chief of the Dumas foreign affairs committee, said that Europe should be denouncing the terror of the French Revolution. She added: Oliver Cromwell has never been denounced.
Sounds like someone is angling for the chairmanship of the European Commission on Cromwell Denunciation. There is a tally of all the various categories of victims of modern European ideologies at the end of the article.
#1
One of the (many) reasons I can't take the ICC and similar bodies seriously is that we have never had a "Nuremburg trial" for former Communist nations.(Milosevic didn't get in trouble until he became an atavistic Serb nationalist)
If the "international community" wants to blather about the need for "justice" they would have done well to start there.
#4
And the final end of Cromwell doesn't constitute denunciation?
Over six days in 1660, at the Restoration of Charles II, nine of those convicted of the regicide of Charles I in 1649 were hanged, drawn and quartered in London. Three more would suffer the same fate within two years. Additionally, the corpses of Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in posthumous executions for their involvement in the regicide.
BB&T, the nation's ninth-largest financial holding company, announced yesterday that it would deny loans to developers building shopping malls and other private projects on land acquired through eminent domain.
"The idea that a citizen's property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided in fact, it's just plain wrong," John A. Allison, the chairman and chief executive of the bank, said in a statement. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., BB&T has more than 1,400 branches, mainly in the Southeast.
BB&T is believed to be the first bank to have made public such a policy in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last June that set off a firestorm across the nation and led to bills in Congress and in more than two dozen states. The decision upheld the right of officials in New London, Conn., to condemn homes and businesses to increase the tax base of one of the state's poorest cities.
W. Kendall Chalk, an officer for the bank, described the move in a telephone interview as more a matter of principle than a decision with practical consequences for the bank. He said the bank recently turned down a loan for a private project that would have involved the forced sale of unoccupied land but that such loan requests had been rare.
"Historically, eminent domain has been used very judiciously in the states in which we operate," he said, adding that its use had generally been limited to roads and other public-works projects. He said the bank did not operate in Louisiana, where eminent domain is likely to be used in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
But in the bank's view, Mr. Chalk said, the Supreme Court "opened the door wider," making broader use of condemnation powers more likely. "We thought it was just timely to let people know how we feel," he said. "We are a very values-driven, principled organization."
Officials at the Institute for Justice, a property-rights group based in Arlington, Va., that has led the fight against eminent domain, welcomed the announcement but said it came as a surprise.
"It's going to set an example and encourage other banks and hopefully developers to say they will not take advantage of the government's power of eminent domain to force people out of their homes and businesses," said Dana Berliner. "It's the right thing to do, and it also makes sense as a business decision. These projects are so wildly unpopular, they're going to encounter political opposition and maybe litigation, and they often don't work anyway."
But Maureen L. McAvey, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a developers' organization based in Washington, said that it was odd that a bank would not want to judge each case on its merits to see if the forced sale of property was justified.
"It's curious that a major financial institution would choose to be both judge and jury," she said. "Many projects that use eminent domain are very important for the entire community."
The New York Times Company used eminent domain to acquire the land for its new headquarters under construction in Midtown. Why am I not surprised.
#1
Of course this means taxpayer money should be used for loaning to businesses to build on lands seized by eminent domain.
sarc
Side note: flood control and disaster recovery are generally appropriate applications for using eminent domain.
#2
But Maureen L. McAvey, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a developers' organization based in Washington, said that it was odd that a bank would not want to judge each case on its merits to see if the forced sale of property was justified.
Based in Washington eh? Kinda high priced area for your ULI effort ain't it Maureen. An "odd" place to set up camp for such a worthy organization.
#5
"It's curious that a major financial institution would choose to be both judge and jury"
Not judge and jury, kiddo - they're not connected to the Gubmint. Just business men making a business decision: That if these gubmint yahoos will steal from you via ED perversions, they'll steal from me somehow. So fuck 'em from the get-go.
#6
"They don't. Just a good marketing department."
Unless the idea spreads... and it just might. I'll happily say that I don't much care about their motivations, if their actions yield good results. More, please.
#7
It should spread. It's good marketing, but it's not ethics. Ethics is when you do something not in your self interest because it's consistent with a moral code that guides your actions. This is clearly in the bank's self interest.
It must be my choice of graphic that's bugging you. As I said, I don't actually give a rat fuck about their motivations. The effect, that which actually matters in the real world, is positive. If it's a win-win, fine.
#9
Actually its probably real strategic thinking. They know with the change in population on the SCOTUS, someone is going to challenge in court the acquisition in this manner of land again. And good betting would be that the court is going to find that it overreached itself. That means any investment would be tied up in court proceedings for years which could be bringing a better return on investment elsewhere in the market. And if they gamble and lose, the harmed party has claim to not just the costs of the case and the return of the land, but can expect to go before a jury demanding 'pain and suffering'. Yeah, big mean bankers and investors are the 'victim', that'll sell. Anyone worth his fiducial responsibility won't touch these things.
Allison, the chairman of that bank, has been requiring for many many years a focus on values (such as reason and profit) and virtues (such as honesty, integrity, and productivity) in the company.
NS you are dead-wrong in asserting that ethics is only involved when one is not acting in one's self-interest. You're following Kant and his minions, but Kant's ethics is not the only game in town.
#3
The United States and other members of the international Quartet will reassess peace prospects next week, in light of Hamas' showing in the election.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other members of the Quartet of would-be international peacemakers will meet Monday in London, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The Quartet, which also includes the European Union and Russia, is on record against allowing Palestinian Authority cabinet status for anyone who has not renounced violence or recognized Israel's right to exist. Hamas has done neither.
#5
If a more hapless breed of people inhabit this earth I am yet to hear of them. F*ckwits one and all.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
01/26/2006 4:40
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#6
In the past week it has become clear this was some sort of Great Game with the Mullahs. Iran was funding Hamas, we were funding Fatah. Now we've gone and let them win, despite being able to rig the ballot. Truly incompetent. Expect an even more belligerent Ahmadinejad.
There is a good chance the terrorism subsidies that come from the EU will decrease (and if they don't international lawyers have a better case to sue the EU after the inevitable terrorism events). There is also a good chance that HAMAS will discredit itself by being incapable of good government. The secularists on the west bank will get to taste what Islamist rules are all about and they won't like it. There is also a good chance of very substantial HAMAS vs. Islamic Jihad conflict.
#9
Good, good, the opposition chairman in Israel goes on record as saying that they "have no intention of allowing negotiations to take place, or let someone else force us to recognize an organization that declares it seeks to destroy Israel," Shimon Peres' point seems true and the leftist Meretz party's line of attack accepts the premise that Hamas is belligerent ("launch peace talks or Hamas will win again and then we'll really have no case!")...
Incidentally, because of this I mildly disagree with the Likud MK who said that Israel should have prevented the PA elections... sounds a little too much like the anti-pullout mentality.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
01/26/2006 8:12
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#10
Well as long as Jimmy Carter (yes, the old fool's there) certifies the election, I guess that it's all OK.
The Muslim ummah has spoken again and once again it's voted for Allahdaemmerung.
#11
The vote is in, the numbers tallied, and the people have spoken. They have decided to follow the path of violence and death. This is a vote to declare war on the West and Israel. Hold on as they build their Army and prepare for attacks.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/26/2006 9:16
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#12
Guess that's the end of any peace fantasy the Israelis might have had.
Not to mention the proponents of the so-called "road map".
#14
this merely makes clear to all that the Paleos will never accept a state with Israel still in existence. A pox on there entire death-cult society and all future generations! Expect a civil war as Fatah and IJ, who were recipients of most of the graft and corruption, now become common thugs in Hamas eyes and everyone with a gun becomes a martyr. Nice job, Yasser!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 10:28
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#15
Good riddance. Can we stop giving the @ssholes money now?
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
01/26/2006 10:28
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#16
Somebody at National Review Online wrote an extensive piece that more or less agrees with my earlier "this could be a good thing" post.
it is at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/ottolenghi200601261002.asp
#17
I honestly believe this is more a vote against fatah rather than for the hamas platform of destroying Israel. After all, as they say, all politics is local.
What strikes me most, though, is that if the plight of the paleos does improve under hamas rule, it clearly proves that the hardships they endured were not the fault of Israel, but of their own making. In other words, that they could have fixed their problems all along. The fact that they didn't merely shows just how despicable that reptilian, corrupt arafat was. He had the power to improve their situation, but lined his pockets instead. And so, it demonstrates that -- amidst virtual unanimous paleo backing of arafat through all those years of cronyism, corruption and ineptitude -- they absolutely don't deserve to govern themselves.
And yet, regardless of whether paleo conditions improve, the world will still blame Israel for whatever the paleos suffer.
The only way the world will be satisfied is if hamas' objectives are actually fulfilled.
#19
I will not negotiate with a government that does not meet its most basic obligations -- to fight terrorism. We are prepared to assist the Palestinians and [Palestinian President Abbas] very much but they must meet their commitments, Olmert said, according to a statement released by his office.
Ka-BAM! Beautiful.
Speaking in the Knesset, Peretz said that he would not conduct negotiations with Hamas. We will not conduct negotiations with an organization that does not recognize Israels right to exist, he said. If we have to, we will implement unilateral moves. We will not agree to a diplomatic stalemate. The changes in the Palestinian Authority will not take us hostage, he said.
Who needs caffeine this morning?
?SOPD #7-Sounds about right.
#20
There is now a clear chain of responsibility/blame for Palestinian terror. The tactic of denial and obfuscation is now unavailable, as it is for Iran now their intentions are out in the open. Matters are coming to a head.
#22
Somebody at National Review Online wrote an extensive piece that..
Well reasoned, no doubt, but the problem is that it's the Paleos, where logic and reason typically don't apply. And in the case of any further terrorist attacks against Israel, well, there's always the "it wasn't us" or the "rogue factions" excuse.
#23
If a more hapless breed of people inhabit this earth I am yet to hear of them. F*ckwits one and all.
Author! Author!
One truly good thing is that if Hamas does not renounce their use of terrorism, then any sitting of Palestinian government now becomes a terrorist conclave and represents a suitable target for IDF airstrikes.
The Palestinians have some extremely difficult lessons to learn with respect to how a state is run. Following Iran's lead in this matter is about as stupid as stupid gets. I no longer have the least sympathy for the Palestinian people. They have sealed their doom by allying themselves with Hamas. They demonstrated this long ago by their popular support for this terrorist organization, but now it is official. May they all rot in a fiery hell.
#24
I wait with batted breath to see the rationalizations that the West (including USA) will evolve to justify their continued support for the Hamas-led "Palestinian People".
Bush most certainly changed the game - and relative to those who preceeded him, grom, he proved that he gets it.
Much of what did (and does) occur is Congressional and State Dept BS, some of it enacted legislation that Bush can't just dismiss - no matter what he (or we) thinks or wants. You don't think USAid decides its own actions, do you? Regards State, well as you know, there are serious problems within the Kool Aid section at State, which is why Rice was given the job of reining them in. Our Govt was almost turned into another Tranzi outpost - the insanity rampant in Europe. Bush is the one who stopped the transition - and is reversing it. Isn't that a good thing? Not fast enough? Lol. It never is - for any of us.
If you can't acknowledge that things have changed a lot since Dubya took over, then you're among the dispeptic ankle-biter krowd who give no credit unless it matches your personal agenda. Hell, I could say I'd prefer Israel go ahead and wipe out the Paleos - but that wouldn't be any more realistic than your piss n' moan routine.
The world will always fail to measure up to your bile-ridden derangement. Tough shit. Give credit where due, if you can manage it. If you can't, well, LOL, who give a shit?
#29
.com sez: None of what has been said here will mean diddley-squat to Paleos, Arabs, or Muzzies. Just noise to them.
That is the basic tenant in dealing with the ME. So we are dealing with people that do not use Aristotlian logic and have a disconnect between cause and effect UNTIL it affects them personally.
Now Sharon did his strategic withdrawl from Gaza in order to set up a free fire zone. The only problem is that Egypt has done nothing, so Gaza will become Hamasistan, and Hamas is stockpiling supplies and ordinance in Gaza for the final push against Israel. Hamas went shopping for a sugar daddy and found a warm welcome with the Iranian MMs. So they have the funding and the supplies. The PA is discredited, so they have very little left in the sugar daddy dept. If there is a civil war, Hamas will stomp their asses and the takeover will be complete. In effect, Israel will have Iranian proxies on their northern and southwestern borders. Iran will initiate a war on many fronts: Israel, Iraq, Straits of Hormuz. They may get stomped, or not.
The key to getting out of all ME pickles seems to point to Iran, they are the big financial bad guy. Lots of countries now have a dog in this fight. Israelis for their existance, UAE, Saudi for protection of their oil fields, Turkey for their natural gas supplies, Iraq for their resources and independence, Chicoms for their oil, which fuels their economic machine, other oil consumers in Europe and Asia, bunch of Stans that do not want to get taken over by Iran for their oil and gas resources.
It all goes back to Iran, everything else is a defensive holding action. Since we are dealing with nutcases in Iran, the best defense is a good offence. Negotiation is a waste. But, we are not in this alone. The rest of the world is, too. The question is: will they be able to wake up in time? Sanctions will not work. There will always be someone who will circumvent the sanctions. And we do not have the time. The MMs and their little parrot Ahmadinejad think that the time is right for them to make their big moves.
Iran needs for some of its infrastructure supporting the money machine be interrupted at critical nodes. We have talked about how to do this pretty much completely at RB. Then we better be ready to decapitate the regime. Israel's long term health will depend upon what happens to Iran. Theirs is the most critical concern. The rest of us are affected, too. We collectively better realize it PDQ.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 16:59
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#30
AP got to the crux.
Israel now has two large, Iranian-funded, openly terrorist organizations surrounding it to the North and to the South. Both are now able to stockpile weapons pretty much without restraint. Both want to destroy Israel. I'd want to crush them asap and carefully watch the West Bank.
#31
Can't help but think that the Pals might be in for a very rude awakening - and in the very near future.
Sure it's all fire guns in air today and ululating. But what happens when Paleostine doesn't turn into a paradise with jobs and food and money for all - terrific schools and booming businesses within 2 weeks (not a patient people these)?
Will they still be so joyful within a month from now when it becomes clear that Hamas has no intention of "governing" Paleostine or "improving" anything vis a vis day to day life. Their mission is to erase Israel. That mission hasn't changed.
And now with the deep pockets of Iran funding them and the philosophies of the Taliban driving them, they see a clear path to attack.
The only "jobs" going will the house-to-house issue of suicide belts. And an order to "get on with the job".
Pals are about to experience a truly "islamic" lifestyle - just as they wanted. They're going to be mighty surprised at just how much worse things are going to get.
But for a people to embrace death as amorously as they have done, very fitting.
There is just as big a bang in imploding as exploding.
#32
Iran needs for some of its infrastructure supporting the money machine be interrupted at critical nodes.
Exactly, Alaska Paul. Hamas has no economic agenda in terms of creating a viable Palestinian industrial base for its electorate. They derive their income as proxy Iranian mercenaries and have no intention of serving the Palestinian people in anything other capacity than a military role. If Iran's economy goes @ss over teacups due to massive bombing of its petro-infrastructure, where will Hamas get their funding?
This sordid victory and self-immolation of the Palestinian people must be strangled in the cradle. Hamas wants a battle to the death and should be given nothing less than their deepest desire. We are now confronted with the gruesome spectacle of a democratically elected government sworn to terrorism. This is a people making a mass self-indictment of themselves as murderous thugs. Ignore it at your peril.
#34
. com Bush most certainly changed the game - and relative to those who preceeded him, grom, he proved that he gets it.
No he doesn't. Bush administration
(a) Provides funds that Palestinians use for terrorism and/or for the amelioration of the consequence of engaging in terrorism.
(b) Pressures Israel into moderating the retaliation --- which is the only means of controling Palestinian terrorism.
Of course, unlike his predecessors, Bush maybe perfectly sincere in believing that Paleos can change, but that doesn't make him a hero --- except to you.
#35
he's a hero to me too - Grom, your opinion doesn't count if you can't take off the blinders and see the alternatives: all worse. W has been and will be Israel's best friend, and not just because it's in our best interest. Support of Israel causes us problems, all which I consider worth it, and I believe W does as well. Does Israel do the same when they sell advanced weaponry and equipment to China??? Thanks for your continuous thankful response
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 20:58
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#36
Too long perhaps, but worth a post:
Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S., Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250
F-16s. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S. Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined .
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S. Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.
The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the U.K.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."
Israel has the world's second highest per capita production of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders .
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its workforce employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel -- the Clear Light device produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.
#37
I wait with batted breath to see the rationalizations that the West (including USA) will evolve to justify their continued support for the Hamas-led "Palestinian People".
I think you are wrong. Time will tell.
Flomotch - You may be onto something. I think Israel really needs a better PR department (as does the US). It may be unrealistic, but I think it would make a difference if they got a positive message to counteract all of the negative stereotypes.
And where, pray-tell, would Israel be were it not for the stalwart support of the US? Nowhere. Literally.
This does not, however, dissuade assholes and fools from posturing and preening. Our efforts are never enough, our aid is ignored - treated as their due... remind you of any other group?
The Israel-Paleo drama is the tiniest zit on the tip of the tail of the dog, yet they believe it should wag the whole damned dog. Bullshit. I've just about reached my fill.
Bush did not inherit Hamas running Paleoworld - for the first time the situation on the ground there is unmuddled by previous agreements or BS "road maps". This time he has a free hand in deciding how HE will deal with the new reality.
He and Rice say they will not fund any "govt" run by Hamas. The Euros are watching - and seem to be headed the same way, given the gist in other articles. Prolly waiting to let Bush do it and take whatever heat there may be first. But hey, we shall see, won't we?
If he cuts off aid, then will we see the dispeptic gromgoru change his tune? Nah, he'll just switch gripes. That's his gig. For a few years he's come to RB, posted short, terse, cryptic, gutteral fartlets - usually pointless. I don't expect that to change.
The original is a Joycian stream of consciousness - the paragraph breaks are mine.
Hillary Clinton wants to be all things to all people.
In the last couple of weeks, she has stepped to the left of the president on health care, to the right of the president on Iran and into the realm of radicalism on race. Positioning herself for the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) is simultaneously broadening and narrowing her policy positions. Mostly, she just calls repeatedly for "new leadership." Hillary's policy positions are nothing new. She has nothing particularly interesting to say.
In fact, Hillary's talking points are the same as 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's were during his failed run. Both Hillary and Kerry criticize Bush's handling of health care in eerily similar language. "Today, we're making things worse with deliberate neglect and flawed policies that are diminishing the coverage that Americans have. That is shifting costs to others and leaving consumers, businesses and local governments with the bill," Clinton said this week.
And here's Kerry, circa October 2004: "Bush has turned his back on the wellness of America. And there is no system. In fact, it's starting to fall apart because of the larger issue that we don't cover Americans."
Hillary wants to be viewed as a hawk on foreign policy, just as Kerry did. And she is simultaneously taking money from pro-Iran sources, just as Kerry did. Kerry repeatedly called Iran a bigger threat than Iraq during his 2004 campaign yet took hundreds of thousands of dollars from pro-regime groups and individuals. Hillary called for United Nations sanctions and even placed the threat of military action against Iran on the table this week; meanwhile, she accepts campaign donations from wealthy Muslim Americans connected to the pro-regime American Iranian Council.
Hillary's racial pandering is nothing new, either. With Al Sharpton looking on, Hillary remarked this week in Harlem that the House of Representatives was run "like a plantation." John Kerry's pandering was slightly more amusing; he remarked that rap "has a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully 'cause it's important."
Hillary votes like Ted Kennedy on a consistent basis. Congressional Quarterly compiles a list of "key votes" each year: In 2001, Clinton voted like Kennedy 9 out of 10 times, in 2002, 12 out of 13, and in 2003, 13 out of 14. She receives a 100 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America each year. In 2004, she received an 11 percent rating from the National Taxpayers Union; in 2003-2004, she received a 78 percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union; and in 2003-2004, she received a 100 percent rating from the NAACP.
Hillary is a doctrinaire liberal. She follows the party line. Read transcripts of her speeches, and she is indistinguishable from Harry Reid, Tom Daschle and a hundred other Democratic hopefuls. She is not a great thinker. She is not a great speaker. She has one thing going for her: novelty.
Hillary might as well wear a T-shirt reading: "Vote for Me: I'm the Woman Who Married Bill Clinton." Were Hillary not Bill's wife, she would likely be an obscure partisan hack working at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Because she is Bill's wife, she is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
There's only one problem for Hillary: Novelty campaigns do not win presidential elections. She will not win the presidency simply on the basis of her gender. She will not win simply because she can bring out Bill to rally the crowd (just ask Al Gore and John Kerry). Winning our nation's trust -- and our highest office -- requires more than a pantsuit, nicely coiffed hair and a purse.
Americans are not sexist; we are quite willing to vote a woman into office. We are not willing to vote a woman into office, however, simply because she is a woman. Just ask Geraldine Ferraro, Michael Dukakis' running mate. That novelty gambit garnered Dukakis slightly more votes than Dukakis had family members; he was defeated by a 465-to-111 margin in the Electoral College.
American politics has become identity politics, but it still takes more than identity to be elected. The novelty of a high-ranking woman in politics doesn't even last on television -- ask Geena Davis, whose "Commander in Chief" ratings have been falling steadily since the beginning of the season. It certainly won't last in the real world, where decisions actually matter.
"I just dropped in
To see what position
My position was in..."
1) "Today, we're making things worse with deliberate neglect and flawed policies that are diminishing the coverage that Americans have. That is shifting costs to others and leaving consumers, businesses and local governments with the bill," Clinton said this week.
=
TAX TAX TAX YOU...SPEND SPEND SPEND YOUR MONEY
2) "Bush has turned his back on the wellness of America. And there is no system. In fact, it's starting to fall apart
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You Will *Heart* SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, The FULL BLOWN Version.
3) The House of Representatives was run "like a plantation."
=
Make Way for Chocolate Politics
#6
JoeMendiola posted this late last night about Hillary and it still works for this thread as well so I pulled it over:
"Like many on the Net I believe Y2006 vv the Rogues/WOT will decide what Der Waffen SS Marx/StalinMaterfrau does for 2008. Save MSM-verif Bush/GOP-blamed nuke mushroom clouds over US cities and or US Milfors oversea vv "brinkmanship", Hillary's got nuthin - her "MEN BAD, WOMEN GOOD", Absolute Political Neutralism = Absolute Truth/Reality, hyper-correct MSM strategems are not getting her anywhere. Other than new casualty-intesive 9-11's events by the Spetzlamists, only Dubya himself admitting to being complicit or ordering 9-11 or Y2000 elex fraud can save her POTUS ambitions for 2008. The DemoLefties know it - anti-US War(s) and Cold War-style nuke "brinkmanship" are all they hsve left.
Heh. Just finished prepping the chicken, (kai) and got the rice going. Sesame oil in the skillet... Coconut milk, pea pods, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts ready and waiting...
I was taught how to make Thai red curry, and I prefer the Panaeng style with coconut milk, by my beloved Kuhn Mae - a mama-san I met on Patpong waaay back - I miss her. She'd prolly give me the look, not a word spoken if course, because it was a little thin this time. Taste was great, but just a tad thinner than she (lol, I) prefer.
She also taught me how to make Masaman Neu-ah (beef stew in peanut sauce), but I never quite get it right, damnit, so I go out when that craving hits. Gawd I love Thai food, lol. I have no chrome on my bumper hitch, at the moment, lol. I hit about pet 9 on the farang scale. The Thai scale is a whole 'nuther thing, lol.
We could put CCR's Run Through The Jungle on and lose several layers of skin and most of our taste-buds, lol.
EL PASO - Texas border sheriffs say heavily armed, camouflage-clad men cross the Rio Grande into Texas from Mexico and they feel helpless to stop it while the national governments of two countries ignore their warnings...Maverick County Sheriff Tomas Herrera said the problem is getting worse by the day....[Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo] Gonzalez also questioned what he sees as a hands-off approach by Mexican officials....[Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin] West said he wants more than just talk. "Get us more manpower," West said. "We are helpless and my citizens that live along that border are helpless."
#2
What that sheriff needs to do is get creative. For example, an easy trick is to take a truck with a bunch of big-ass boulders to drop on the dirt roads. Done methodically, several hundred miles of crossings could be made undriveable in as little as a year. Cost a couple hundred thousand.
Since the terrain is uneven, you can't even drive a Hummvee on most of it, so it's not as improbable as it sounds.
Small exerpt... I then joined Hays to go out toward Matamoras where we heard there was a large body of cavalry expected to be coming to Texas. We went out to near the Rio Grande there I got after a Mexican and caught him and from him learned that there was no Mexican force on this side of the river. When the poor devil found that I was not going to kill him he was the proudest Mexican I ever saw. He waited on me like I was somebody as we come back there was a party of Mexicans overtook us near the Nueces. Shap, Ross Woolfalk was riding behind Hays, Luckey
#5
I find it so hard to believe that with all the Barrett .50's sold commercially in this country that NONE of them have ended up in the border states?
#8
#2: What that sheriff needs to do is get creative. For example, an easy trick is to take a truck with a bunch of big-ass boulders to drop on the dirt roads. Done methodically, several hundred miles of crossings could be made undriveable in as little as a year. Cost a couple hundred thousand.
Good idea, but dynamite is cheap, the boulders will get blown to shards quickly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/26/2006 22:15
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#9
It wouldn't hurt to have a few "divisions" of volunteers, armed to the teeth, hanging around the border now and then, also. All it would take is one time having 80-100 former troops ambushing these jerks to make them think twice about crossing that line. We're being invaded by an enemy that hates us almost as much as the ayrabs do, and we're not even trying to take them serious. We also need to stretch the necks of a few dozen people in Washington. Our elected officials were elected to enforce and obey ALL the laws, not just the ones they like.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/26/2006 22:32
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#10
Iff memory serves, only State-specific State- and County laws prevent the formation of armed State Militias, State-supported and State-equipped and only under the the authority of State Governors, not the Fed. It is archaic law but IMHO is still legal for those States whom can afford it. The famed TEXAS RANGERS fall under this category. Whats the use of having Tech Dominance, eg electric border fences, cameras, and automated remote weapons, etc. iff NOT going to be used where its needed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
00:02 ||
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#1
The urban angle:
'O Nanny "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
.... Like isolated and primitive peoples elsewhere, they develop superstitions -- urban myths -- that account for the mysterious provision of their public services, and they worship their rainmaking urban political gods. Their lives are regulated by principles of political correctness bound in on every side by taboo.
..........
The postmodern conurbation is vast, and the person who lives in the middle of it, lives 10 or 20 or 30 miles from the nearest open space. He walks or drives past thousands on his way to work. He participates in what used to be called a rat race. He adapts quickly in neighbourhoods subject to constant inundation by strange new people -- often speaking languages he cant understand. His home is something that can be quickly exchanged, more likely rented than owned. He develops a profound sense of personal powerlessness, together with the compensating vanity --
ABOUT DAVID WARREN
Someone once told me that a curriculum vitae should contain one hundred facts....
1. I walked across the Hungerford footbridge over the Thames River in London, England, in the presence of Christ, on Thursday, April 15th, 1976.
2. I was born under a full moon, on April 29th, 1953 -- the last time a full moon would fall on that day, until April 29th, 2037.
3. My mother's mother's mother spoke Gaelic, & her mother spoke Gaelic only (in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia).
4. My father's mother....
;)
Posted by: Max Planck ||
01/26/2006 6:55
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Samawa residents are cautiously watching the situation in their city (located 270 kilometres south of Baghdad) after clashes broke out between British soldiers and al-Mahdi Army militia in al-Haideriya neighbourhood. Al-Mahdi army fighters (belonging to the young Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr) were deployed throughout the city following the clashes, and the police did not interfere. Sadr supporters clashed Saturday with the British patrol in Samawa. A taxi driver was killed and three civilians were wounded. Hazim al-Araji, who heads the Sadr office in al-Khadimiya, would not comment on the clashes. He said the Sadr office in Samawa is the only body authorized to give statements about the clashes.
#4
Here's what you do: schedule a football match between the Brits and Tater's boyz, and allow all the Brit hooligans to attend. The problem would take care of itself.
#5
The Blackwater consultants in Najaf video from yesterday (must see viewing BTW) had some very interesting dialogue:
"I got a guy waving a green flag"
"Green flags are Mahdi Army. Engage"
#6
BW ROE = we're good at engaging and killing bad guys, thank you DoD but we will always make that call. You don't like our ROE, no problem, we've got more business than we can handle. Here is your contract, we're outta here.
Somalia - NE and Eastern Coast - Thirty eight incidents have been reported since March 15 2005.
January 22 2006 in position 02:48N-048:36E, off east coast Somalia. Pirates armed with guns hijacked a general cargo ship underway. They fired warning shots and threatened the 20 crew members. They are demanding a ransom for the release of the crew and ship.
January 21 2006 at 1810 UTC in position 15:50N - 041:45E, southern Red Sea. Persons in several speedboats attempted to board a hopper dredger underway. D/O raised alarm, crew mustered and directed searchlights and speedboats moved away.
January 20 2006 at 0700 LT in position 05:25.1N - 052:34.6E, 213nm east of Somali coast. Two speedboats, operating from a mother ship chased a bulk carrier underway. One boat had three men with machine guns and the other had two men. They opened fire aiming for the bridge. Boats came close to ship and persons inside attempted to board. Ship increased speed and took evasive manoeuvres. Later boats stopped chase and returned to mother ship.
January 20 2006 at 0310 LT in position 06:09N - 003:15E, Lagos anchorage, Nigeria. Five robbers in a wooden boat attempted to board a bulk carrier using hook attacked to a long pole. Alert crew thwarted the attempt and robbers fled. Lagos port security informed.
January 17 2006 at 0245 LT at Tg. Bara anchorage, Indonesia. Three robbers boarded a bulk carrier they threatened a watchman with a knife and took him as a hostage. When watchman did not respond to calls on walkie-talkie, duty officer raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship's stores. Port authorities informed.
January 16 2005 at 0630 UTC, Kingston harbour, Jamaica. Five robbers armed with assault rifles in a 25 ft canoe with an outboard motor boarded a yacht at anchor. They took substantial equipment at gunpoint and escaped. Jamaican authorities informed. No injuries to crew.
And from the Better Late Than Never Department:
January 14 2006 at Racha Yas Island, off Phuket, Thailand. Robbers hijacked a yacht at anchor. Subsequently it was located on 19.01.2006.
#1
Persons in several speedboats attempted to board a hopper dredger underway. D/O raised alarm, crew mustered and directed searchlights and speedboats moved away.
If they could mustard a few more of the lagards, matey, the hopping dredgers would have battened down the hatches better! Aaargh!
EFL
Google will be called to task in Washington next month following a controversial decision by the internet search engine to launch a China-based version of its website that will censor results to avoid angering the countrys Communist government. "How can we make money if we don't sell them the rope?"
The decision by Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey who chairs a House subcommittee on Human Rights, to call for a February 16 hearing to examine the operating procedures of US internet companies in China, represents the first signs of what could become a serious backlash against Google and other internet companies in Washington that are perceived as capitulating to the Chinese government. Good - it won't result in anything except reminding everyone they're a communist dictatorship with human rights abuses, invasions of neighboring countries (Tibet), supporting North Koreas rabid dogs, and causing worldwide proliferation of nuke and non-nuke weapons, oh...and threatening US ally Taiwan every other week..other than that, they'll host the Olympics in 2008 "Year of the Hildabeast"
Mr Smith on Wednesday accused Google of collaborating .. with persecutors who imprison and torture Chinese citizens in the service of truth.
It is astounding that Google, whose corporate philosophy is dont be evil would enable evil by cooperating with Chinas censorship policies just to make a buck, he said.
The hearing will also include testimony from Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and senior State Department officials who advise on China.
F*&king cowards
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006
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#1
Why O' Why, would Google want to go Red than Dead! I hope the chicoms reverse engineer that search engine and feed it back to the west and put them out of business. They can then have tea with the Ford exec's!
#2
Why O' Why, would Google want to go Red than Dead!
Uhh, actually you just answered it right there.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
01/26/2006 8:05
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#3
google = scum....evil money hungry moraless scum.
Don't think I'll ever use any of their services again. Between this and them not helping with the US gov'ts child porn investigation they can go screw themselves. And you can give me all the complete and utter revolting crap about them not being under court order to work with the gov't on it that you want. They have a MORAL obligation to humanity to WANT to work with the gov't on it. Not court order should be required. Every other freakin search company including yahoo, MSN and AOL agreed as soon as they were asked... and imagine it... their corporate mottos aren't even "do no evil".
Seems to me like evil people love to hide behind a facade of righteousness.... wherever you see people in "watch groups" (UN, amnesty international for example) claiming moral superiority as their motto is where you find the scum of the world hiding.
#4
After Microsoft shut down some Chinese blogs at request of their government and now Google's unprincipled collaboration, I am truly disgusted. Clearly the technogeeks, who are generally fiercely independent and support free speech wholeheartedly, have ceded control to the suits at Google.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/26/2006 12:46
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#5
Ummm, Guys
You're forgetting that the Techno-Geeks are some of the most fiercly independent souls on the planet.
It wouldn't surprise me a nano-bit to learn that after China had spread Google's new software far and wide, that a tiny "Flaw" was discovered rendering all efforts at spying or censoring ineffective (Heh, Heh)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/26/2006 13:59
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#6
The civilized world should give the Internet death penalty to China, NorK, Saudi, Iran, Myanmar, et al.
It's actually easy to do (and there are multiple avenues to accomplish it) but doing so would require attributes such as courage and integrity among a majority of nations.
So yeah, a non-starter.
Still, regards those not-so-obvious avenues, mebbe we could bribe some Cisco guys who aren't Kool Aid MultiCulti Tranzi Phreaks into sneaking code into the routers... So I'm an incurable optimist, who'da thunk it?
#6
It's nice for Blix to come out of his little foxhole Sweden every now and then, a country where you could put all their muslims not to mention Iranians, on one school bus. Sweet Home Alabama Sweden!
#13
"It's nice for Blix to come out of his little foxhole Sweden every now and then, a country where you could put all their muslims not to mention Iranians, on one school bus."
Not any more, Malmo alone has police "Muslim no-go zones" just like Paris.
#14
I cheered when sharks in Team America ate Hans Blix. My question is how did he survive? How can Blix survive a shark attack that at least left him headless? Before you start, don't try to convince me Hans Blix is not a puppet.
#15
On second thought, Hans may be right this time. The carrot and stick is a time honored technique used for dealing with jackasses. After all, that is who we're dealing with. Personally, I prefer the little stick/ big stick/ biggest stick routine.
#17
Hans must have good eyesight (carrots) but he is as blind at a bat.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/26/2006 14:00
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#18
Blix, a Swedish diplomat ditherer, said on Wednesday inducements may be good enough to draw Iran away from an enrichment programme that he said could accelerate by about two years the weapons' production.
Oh, for cryin' out loud... Hans, shut up already. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP. This is now a job for results-oriented Americans, not process-oriented Europeans.
The Iranian apocolyptic lunatics don't give a candy-coated crap about your friggin' "inducements": THEY WANT NUKES. And you're stupid enough to let them have them.
FOAD already, you little chirptwaddle.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/26/2006 18:33
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#19
Captain America tells Hans to stick the carrot up his anal cavity.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/26/2006 19:59
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Security agencies raided the base camp of Al Rehmat Trust in Haripur on Sunday night and took 25 workers, including the director of the camp, and five truckloads of relief goods into custody, trust officials told Daily Times. The Islamic charity is believed to have links to banned militant outfit Jaish e-Mohammed. The raid comes following media reports that Western relief agencies are becoming wary of the presence of religious relief organisations working in the earthquake-hit areas.
The government has not given any reason for the raid. I dont know why they raided our base camp. Perhaps it is a message for all other Islamic charities working in the area to pack up and leave, Maulana Asmatullah Muawia, the head in Kashmir of Al Rehmat Trust, told Daily Times from Muzzafarabad. All I can say is that the raid has been conducted at the behest of the Americans and it was meant to discourage us as well as the other religious organisations working in the area, said Maulana Asmat. They havent released any of our workers and officials so far. Our management in Islamabad is in touch with the authorities and there is a hope that they will be released. On the night of the raid we didnt even know who carried out the raid as the local police was not aware of what was going on, he said.
Several Islamic groups including Jamatud Dawaa, Al Khidmat, Al Suffa and Al Rehmat Trust set up relief camps in the earthquake-hit areas soon after the October 8 tragedy. There are believed to be around 20,000 religious relief workers operating in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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"Perhaps it is a message for all other Islamic charities working in the area to pack up and leave?"
Jeebus! Is it that easy? Getthef*ckout!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:29
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#2
Oh yea. "....coming from the Americans." He said it so it's the truth. He is a allenist and would never lie. Nothing to do with being a relabled banned political/"religious" orgnization.
The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced two men to four-year prison terms after convicting them of plotting attacks against Americans and liquor stores in the Kingdom. The tribunal declared Musa Khader, 23, and Munther Mahmoud, 24, guilty of plotting subversive acts in 2005. The tribunal decided to acquit both defendants of charges of carrying out and plotting activity aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country for lack of evidence. Defence lawyer Abdul Karim Abu Kulah told The Jordan Times after the trial that he plans to appeal the verdict.
The defendants became friends while studying at a local college and talked about the need to fight Israelis and Americans, the charge sheet said. They first thought of launching military operations against the Israeli army but changed their minds and decided instead to target Americans in Aqaba and liquor stores, the charge sheet added. Later on, according to the charge sheet, the two decided to fight in Iraq and travelled to Syria where they met with a man called Abu Adam Al Tunisi who was supposed to help them infiltrate into Iraq. The two were arrested in July 2005 before being able to carry out any of their alleged plans.
In a second case on Wednesday, the SSC handed reduced sentences to two men after convicting them of charges of carrying out and plotting activity aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country. Iyad Ahmad, 34, was first sentenced to a five-year prison term for the charge, but his sentence was immediately reduced by the court to give him a second chance in life.
Ammar Mohammad, 19, was also handed a five-year prison term, which was reduced to three years for the same reason. The same court acquitted three other men standing trial on the same charges for lack of evidence. Anas Hassan, 19, Kais Nouredin, 24, and Hassan Khalid, 26, immediately knelt inside their prison cell and thanked God for their acquittal verdict.
The defendants met with a man identified by the prosecution as Khaldoun and they discussed the situation of fighters in Iraq and the virtues of jihad, the charge sheet said. Khaldoun offered to recruit them to fight in Iraq and they agreed and some of them also recruited others to fight in Iraq, the charge sheet said. The verdicts are subject to appeal by the SSC attorney general and the defendants.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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A convention organised on Wednesday by the Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris-e-Deeniya Pakistan (ITMDP), a confederacy of five education boards, said they would never succumb to government pressure to expel their foreign students and would continue to resist the authorities. The convention was also attended by the top leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), who hinted at a possible joint agitation with the ITMDP against the government. We have been resisting the governments intentions to expel international students in our seminaries and will never succumb to the governments pressure in the future, Qari Hanif Jalandhari, a central ITMDP leader, said at a press conference at the Binori Town mosque after the convention.
He said the convention condemned the removal of the mode of Namaz from the Islamiyat textbooks. The authorities scrapped it on the pretext of sectarian strife in the Northern Areas, which was not the real reason, he maintained. In fact, the government changed the Islamiyat curriculum at the behest of its Western masters, said Dr Sarfaraz Naeemi, secretary general of the ITMDP.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Afghan security forces arrested two suspected suicide bombers wearing vests packed with explosives on Wednesday, hours after a grenade was thrown at an Indian consulate, police said. Police in the southern city of Kandahar said that they had received intelligence about suicide attacks and had set up a checkpoint on a road about 25 kilometres south of the city. We stopped two men riding a motorbike, pointed guns at them and ordered them not to move, said Masood Khan, a provincial police commander. They were wearing waist-coats full of explosives. Security forces had not established their identities, he said.
My guess is Pashtuns, probably Paks, from the nearest Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Hamas looked set to win about 30 percent of the vote in a Palestinian election on Wednesday with about 40 percent for President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah, a senior source with one of the groups conducting exit polls said. The poll was roughly in line with surveys ahead of the first parliamentary election in a decade.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Dozens of Islamic students protested the Bajaur air strike in Peshawar on Wednesday. Repeating the now-familiar chant of Death to America, the protesters demanded that Islamabad expel US Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker for the January 13 assault on Damadola village, which left 13 civilians and at least four Al Qaeda operatives dead, intelligence officials had said. About 50 supporters of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) demonstrated in front of the Peshawar Press Club. This (Bajaur strike) is international terrorism, said Mohammed Ghayas, a leader of Wednesdays demonstration. It is a conspiracy against the Islamic world.
"We got millions o' enemies! Millions!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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I think I saw that guy in one of the Lord of the Rings movies.
Violence claimed the lives of 10 people in Kashmir ahead of Indias republic day, while Indian troops captured a man believed to be a militant commander who had evaded arrest for 12 years.
Five Muslim militants and an Indian soldier were killed in Jammu and Kashmir and a top militants commander arrested ahead of Indias Republic Day, the police and army said on Wednesday. Four of the militants died in two shootouts with the army in southern Udhampur district and northern Kupwara district late Tuesday, a police spokesman said in Srinagar. The fighting erupted when soldiers raided militant hideouts, he said. An Indian soldier and a militant were killed in a similar gunbattle near the town of Tral, 40 kilometres south of Srinagar, on Wednesday, army spokesman Vijay Batra said.
Security forces arrested a top militants commander during a raid Tuesday in southern Anantag district, an army statement said. It said Wasim Malik, also known as Hamza, had been active with the regions most powerful militant group Hizbul Mujahedin since 1994. The army said Malik spent five years in militant training camps in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir before being sent to Indian Kashmir in 1999.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Two defence lawyers urged the State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday to acquit their clients of charges of plotting activities that would undermine the Kingdom's relations with other countries. Defence lawyers Hussein Masri and Yousef Udwan claimed that their clients Basil M., 29, and Mohammad I., 25, were subjected to torture and duress by the authorities to confess to something they did not plot. The defendants are also charged with possessing illegal weapons (machineguns), and entering the Kingdom illegally while carrying the weapons.
No doubt they were tortured into carrying them...
The prosecution also failed to present any evidence to connect our clients with the charges, the defence lawyers told the court.
"Wudn't us."
"Nope. Wudn't us."
The lawyers said the prosecutor was unable to provide the court with the illegal weapons that allegedly were owned by our clients.
"Not our illegal weapons."
"Nope. Not ours."
Other defendants standing trial on the same charges include Faris S., 32, Majdi K., 21, Mohammad J., 22, Mohammad M., 29, Munem I., 31, Raed A., 33, Raouf M., 22, and Qassem M., 36. Five others are being tried in absentia for the same charges. They were identified as Ahmad A., Hussein F., Khaldoun F., Rami A., and Walid K. The defendants first met each other at a mosque and discussed the need to fight Americans in Iraq, according to the charge sheet.
"Hrarrr! Kill the infidels!"
In June 2005, some of the defendants decided to enter Syria illegally, then go fight in Iraq. Some of them crossed into Syria carrying machineguns and stayed at a farm there, the charge sheet added.
"Say! Is that a cow?"
[KERBLAM!] "No. It's beef."
The men had an argument and returned to Jordan, where the authorities apprehended them before they carried out any of their alleged plans.
"You hadda shoot that cow!"
"How wuz I to know it was somebody's pet?"
"Uhhh... Hello, officer. Nice weather we're having!"
"Drop the roscoes and step away witcher hands up!"
The tribunal adjourned the trial indefinitely to issue a verdict. At the end of the session, the defendants informed the press that 15 men standing trial at the SSC on charges of inciting the 2002 Maan riots, plan to stage a hunger strike on Saturday. They asked us to inform the press that they plan to start the hunger strike on Saturday in protest against the SSC's delay in issuing a verdict in their case, one of the defendant said. The tribunal adjourned the trial indefinitely on July 31, 2005 to issue a verdict.
"Who? Oh. Them. Nope. Still thinkin' about it. Call again next month."
When asked by The Jordan Times about the expected date to issue a verdict in the case, a senior judicial source said, no date has been set yet.
"We'll get around to it."
The 15 men are part of a group of 108 standing trial at the SSC on charges of possessing automatic weapons and unlicensed guns, and plotting subversive acts by using flammable substances. Other charges include illegal public assembly and importing weapons with the intention of using them illegally.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to resume peace talks with Israel, even if Hamas joins his government after Wednesdays legislative vote. We are ready to negotiate, Abbas told Israeli reporters who were in Ramallah to cover the election. We are partners with the Israelis. They dont have the right to choose their partner. But if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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#1
We are ready to negotiate, Abbas told Israeli reporters who were in Ramallah to cover the election.
Doesn't mean squat. The Paleos talk and talk and talk, but don't deliver.
#2
What they deliver is talk. For a suitable territorial withdrawel by the Israelis, they'll talk until, and through, the next x number of suicide attacks.
Fooey. A partner for peace must be able to make promises, and then deliver on them. Mr. Abbas is capable of neither.
Irans defence minister hit back on Wednesday at veiled Israeli threats of an attack, saying Iran and its allies could put the Jewish state in an eternal coma like that of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel does not have the courage to attack Iran, and if it commits such a big mistake, the defenders of Islamic Iran will put Israel in an eternal coma like Sharon, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted as saying by state television.
Najjar branded the United States and Israel as the Great and Little Satan, who are using psychological wars to intimidate Iran. The United States has been branded the Great Satan since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday that Israel, widely believed to possess nuclear arms, would not tolerate a a nuclear option for Iran, but reaffirmed his commitment to diplomacy over the escalating crisis. We are giving priority at this stage to diplomatic action but in any case we cannot tolerate a nuclear option for Iran and we must prepare ourselves, the Iranian-born Mofaz said.
But Najjar said the vigilance of the Iranian people, regional and global nations will defuse their sinister plans against humanity. Israel and Iran are archenemies, with Tehran refusing to acknowledge the Jewish states right to exist. Tension between them has grown recently over a string of outbursts by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad, including a call for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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#1
No courage? Coma? Sinister?
You know... slipping mr ahamadinejad 400 mics of LSD-25 before giving his speeches would make no visible difference in the speech.
formidable challenge, especially after Israel Transmogrifies® Iran into a two dimensional state.
Posted by: Max Planck ||
01/26/2006 1:32
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Ahamadinejad firmly believes the coming of his messiah is dependent on the state of Israel being destroyed, even if it meant the temporary wasting of the Republic of Iran (which could be resurrected [by his faith])! Two or three nuclear devices well targeted at Jerusalem and Dimona would acheive this goal. I believe he would launch the devices inside airliners, should Iran not have the time to condense their size to warhead specifications! Israel cannot be 'Wiped Out' with a single successful strike!!
I wonder who he has in his little pocket with him when he says Allies? I have not heard any of the "we" he is talking about standing up and being recognised. They better hurry, our targeting guys are setting the priorities early.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/26/2006 8:40
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Their rhetoric is sounding more and more like WWE Smackdown.
It's part of a worldwide movement of wanting you dead. They take orders from people in Damascus who want you dead, people in Tehran who want you dead, people south of Beirut who want you dead.
With Hamas, knowing where you stand is less cut and dried. With infinitely more support, personnel, sitzfleisch, than the Jihad, with more ideological independence, and a network of free medical clinics and free schools, it almost makes you wonder about the Death to Israel and Death to America and the second graders they dress up and parade around in fatigues and miniature M-16's and garlands of plastic grenades.
Now as Hamas prepares to enter the Palestinian parliament, and perhaps the cabinet, it's time to ask - Will the real Hamas please stand up?
Forget the learned punditry. It all comes down to this: Does Hamas, in fact, want you dead?
On the one hand, there's Nouvelle Hamas, Hamas Lite, the latter-day Islamic Resistance Movement of conciliatory if studiously ambiguous statements.
The poster boy for the New Hamas is Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, he of the leprechaun orange beard, who dispenses homespun medical advice as he chats amicably, disarmingly with reporters on the Palestinian campaign trail. The color of his beard and hair? Henna. It's proven itself good for dandruff, he observes. Even seems to have helped ease the migraines he once suffered.
Then there's Hamas Classic. The Hamas of Khaled Mashaal. No negotiations. No clever wording. No part of "No" to misunderstand.
"We don't have to make concessions to satisfy Israel," Mashaal said this week, "Our position now is not to negotiate with Israel. We will not kowtow."
There was a time, starting with Hamas' founding at the very outset of the first Intifada, when it was no problem to know where you stood with them. They wanted you dead and/or gone from here. They had decided that we were all either from Russia or America, and we could all go back there now, thank you very much.
At first they weren't prepared to do anything about it. They were later on, though. With a vengeance.
Either because we killed their master bombmaker with an exploding cell phone to the ear, or in order to show their continued explosive capability, or both, they decided to decide the 1996 election and put Benjamin Netanyahu in power. It took them nine days. Four bombs, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv. Sixty deaths. Hundreds and hundreds of injured.
Feeling somewhat guilty about having helped them in the early 1980s, when we thought them to be apolitical, anti-Marxist, useful, we tried everything to stop them. Exiling 400 of them to a snowy, windblown hilltop in south Lebanon, including their pediatrician/president Abdel Aziz Rantisi, did nothing to deter them. We tried assassinating them, pressing the PA to jail them, pressing the PA to stop releasing them soon thereafter, assassinating them and assassinating them and assassinating them.
Now we're at a loss. They're about to join the cabinet next door, and there's nothing we can do about it.
Can we trust them? The question is academic. We won't trust them. We'll give good reasons why not. Take Sheikh Abu Tir. Now 55, he's spent most of his adult life in Israeli administrative detention or otherwise jailed for weapons possession, membership in a terrorist organization, and/or directing activities of Hamas' armed wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam.
"Israel respects us when we are strong," Khaled Mashaal told a television interviewer. "This requires a long battle."
Any way you look at it, however, the battle has changed. The last time Hamas launched a suicide bombing was in August, 2004.
The tone has changed as well. Even the unbending Mahmoud Zahar, whose son was killed in an Israeli air strike and who narrowly escaped assassination himself, has given a measure of ground in recent statements.
"Negotiation is not a taboo," Zahar told reporters this week. "Negotiations are a means. If Israel has anything to offer on the issues of halting attacks, withdrawal, releasing prisoners... then 1,000 means can be found."
But a campaign is a campaign, and Zahar couldn't resist a dig at the rival Fatah party. "The political crime is when we sit with the Israelis and then come out with a wide smile to tell the Palestinian people that there is progress, when in fact, there is not."
Oddly, the only moderating influence that seems to have consistently worked on Hamas is Palestinian public opinion.
The group has entered politics, and even for those unafraid of a martyr's death, there is little more terrifying for a politician than his own constituents.
"You are about to enter the Authority. We welcome you," Fatah Gaza leader Mohammed Dahlan told Zahar on the eve of the elections.
"It's time for you to discover the suffering of being in government."
PESHAWAR: Authorities have frozen bank accounts of two Afghan trading firms suspected of funnelling funds to leaders of the Taliban, security officials said on Wednesday. Agents of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided offices of the firms on Tuesday in Peshawar after requests from Interpol and the Afghan government, the officials said. We seized documents during the raid which show that the firms were transferring money to the Taliban, one of the officials said. We have frozen 15 bank accounts of the firms in Peshawar and Islamabad.
Government agents raided offices of Shirkat Special and Amria Food, a government official said. Also on Wednesday, a local newspaper reported that Taliban chief Mulla Mohammad Omar had a share in both firms. Both companies were set up during Talibans rule in Afghanistan, and the paper said that they were involved in million-dollar transactions. They also had offices in Afghanistan, Dubai, Malaysia and Indonesia under different names, the paper reported.
The official said that no one from the firms had been arrested, but a customs clearing agent who dealt with the companies had been detained. Another security official said that the firms, which deal in edible oil, sugar and other food items, are owned by an Afghan family from the southern province of Kandahar, with close ties to Mulla Omar. Officials of the firms could not be reached for comment. Officials from the Interior Ministry were also not available.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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#1
cripes - you'd do more good if you took every third ISI man and shot him in the forehead. Cheaper too....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:25
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That would do more good, Frank. Even more good would be done by shooting every ISI man...
Six people were killed and five injured when a van passed over a landmine near Dera Bugti and Kohlu on Wednesday. Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said that six people were killed, including the driver, and five passengers were injured. It was not known who installed the landmine but similar incidents have previously been reported from the area.
Meanwhile, reports from Barkhan, situated on the border of Kohlu and Dera Bugti said that only two people were killed and the five injured were taken to the NLC hospital in Rakhni. The Rakhni DSP said he saw the injured in the hospital and said that only two people were killed. Mr Lasi said that a training camp of armed men was destroyed last month in the same area where a paramilitary truck also came under attack a few days ago. The area was littered with landmines, he said. Security forces and tribesmen clashed in the area late last month. Meanwhile, three children and a woman were killed in the Kahan area during clashes between security forces and Marri tribesmen, said a spokesman for the Marri Ittehad on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Armed pirates have hijacked a merchant ship off the coast of Somalia, holding 20 of its crew hostage, an ocean crime watchdog says. The attacks, one on a United Arab Emirates (UAE) general cargo ship on Sunday and another launched from a so-called "mother ship" last Friday, come only days after a US Navy warship captured a band of suspected pirates with a cache of arms.
Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), told Reuters on Wednesday: "With these attacks we now have a grand total of five ships and around 100 mariners being held hostage in Somalia, it was as many as 200, and some have been held for four months." The IMB said gunmen stormed the UAE-owned Al-Manara 150 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia, threatened the crew, and are now demanding a ransom for their release.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Hmmmm the mother ship should never reach port. Blockade the port it comes from and JDAM the f*&king warlord operating this heist scam. I've lost a decade or two patience with the Somalians AKA "The new palestinians"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:23
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Even I can't fathom, why we would give a hairy rats a** over what goes on in or around Somalia! You would think that, after that lickin we took in the Blackhawk Down Incident, it would show by now that it's either stomp the roaches or let them scurry free. I say set a hot air ballon 15,000 feet up with several 20lb rocks and chunk them over board to sink those tubs!! It's that ridiculous!
The European Parliament adopted a joint resolution Wednesday against homophobia that LGBT activists cheered as an important step of progress in Europe. And we've had it with those claustrophobes, too! Out of the closet, you!
As long as we're banning phobias, I'm calling for an end to hydrophobia as well.
The resolution, titled Homophobia in Europe, was tabled by five political parties and passed by a 469-149 vote with 41 abstentions.
Well done, unelected, unaccountable MEPs. Your day's work is done. Have the taxpayers take you out for a nice long lunch. You've certainly earned it.
The long measure defines "homophobia" as "an irrational fear and aversion of homosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people based on prejudice, similar to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism." It calls on member states to take action "in the fight against homophobia, sexual orientation discrimination and to promote and implement the principle of equality in their society and legal order." The officers of the Intergroup on Lesbian and Gay Rights praised the resolution, and called on EU Justice Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini to act on it. "I am extremely pleased that the E.P. gives such a strong and clear signal that we will not acquiesce to a climate of hatred and intolerance," said Sophie in't Veld, vice president of the Intergroup.
"Now get out there and make some white trash yobbos really really sorry."
"Even in the U.K., where enormous advances have been made, a young man was kicked to death just before Christmas for no other reason than he was homosexual. If the E.U. does nothing, it is party to every single blow that was rained upon that individual and other men like him and on gay women across the E.U.," said Michael Cashman, the Intergroup's president.
What's the over/under on the coming ban on Islamophobia?
#16
What's next? Mandatory Gay/Lesbian acts after watching episodes of the L-word and Brokeback Mountain? It will help us breeder types understand homos? When I entered the military homos were banned, after a while it was optional, and I left before it became mandatory! I am going to start the first chapter of Straight, Talkers, and Underrepresented Dudes or STUDs. We will meet in Hooters each week (with the churches blessing) and make up names for female body parts. With your help we can keep heterosexuality alive and kicking. Whos with me?
#19
We will meet in Hooters each week (with the churches blessing) and make up names for female body parts. With your help we can keep heterosexuality alive and kicking.
Sarge: Mothballed breeders invited as well? I'll need an 8 digit grid on that Hooters? I'm not keen on the anatomic renaming scheme, (too much to remember). I'll be happy to look on however, eat some wings and enjoy an adult beverage or two.
#21
The primary goal of STUDs is to promote the heterosexual lifestyle. We are not saying you have to engage in that activity, just support those that make the CHOICE. I also want to let it be known that will not discriminate against women. They are free to join that auxiliary wing as a Studette and may be pressed into service at meetings. I mean while were are at Hooters we might need them to pass the wings, fries, or get more napkins while the Hooters girls are otherwise engaged (getting us beer, wings, fries, etc). All Hooters girls get automatic membership as a Studette and need not carry a membership card of wear the Studette uniform. Follow this link for acceptable uniform standards. Also we will not discriminate against anyone based race, creed, national origin, or political party. We are a Big Tent organization were Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Hindus, etc can express openly that they are and forever will be Heterosexual without fear. The only caveat to this rule is that Ted Kennedy is not welcome at any function, this for the safety of the Hooters girls and the Studettes that may mistakenly accept a ride home with him. We just cant live with the liability.
#23
"Homophobia is illegal in Europe, do you hear me? ILLEGAL! You will embrace diversity, and you will like it! WE HAVE WAYS OF MAKING YOU TOLERANT! Now get in that theatre and sit through a full showing of Barebutt Mounting without averting your eyes, or the consequences will be most unpleasant."
Posted by: Mike ||
01/26/2006 16:40
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#24
"I demand an immediate ban on acrophobia!"
--Peter Parker
Posted by: Mike ||
01/26/2006 16:41
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#25
Phobophobia - an irrational fear of irrational fear. European Parliament, you are guilty of it. Now stop it.
#29
I think you'll find that homophobia is illegal in Europe unless it's Islamic homophobia. Hence, Iqbal Sacranie gets a free pass to say that homosexuality "is unacceptable." Don't try this if you're an Infidel though.
And I thought we had a wide open border here in the U.S.
BELLINGHAM - One of two men sought in a California homicide was ordered held on $2 million bail Wednesday, while the other was released from St. Joseph Hospital and booked into jail following a car chase that ended in gunfire at the U.S.-Canada border.
Authorities arrested Jose Antonio Barajas, 22, of Mexico, and Ishtiaq Hussain, 38, of Pakistan, on Tuesday after they allegedly sped away from a Whatcom County sheriff's deputy at 100 mph, drove through a spike strip designed to flatten their tires, failed to stop at a border checkpoint and tore through Peace Arch Park.
About 20 Canadian border guards, who are unarmed, fled for safety on Tuesday, an official of the union representing the guards said Wednesday.
A Heavily armed
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent fired his gun, hitting Hussain, and a sheriff's deputy blocked the fleeing vehicle with his squad car. The Peace Arch border crossing was closed for more than 10 hours Tuesday, although traffic was diverted to another nearby crossing.
A prominent member of Canada's incoming Conservative government said Wednesday the party will stand behind its promise to arm the country's border guards. After all... what good are unarmed border guards? Particulary guarding a border with armed civilians?
Vic Toews, who will soon be a part of the government after serving as Canada's justice critic in opposition, said he did not relish the sight of Canadian border guards leaving their posts. Kind of sends the wrong message...
Paula Shore, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, confirmed late Tuesday that an unspecified number of guards abandoned their posts at several crossings along the British Columbia border when they heard the wanted men were coming their way.
"A few officers exercised their right to refuse to work because of what they perceived as imminent danger," Shore said. Under Canada's labor code, "any worker has the right to refuse to work if they feel they are in imminent danger," she said, adding managers took over for the guards.
Steve Pellerin-Fowlie, a vice president of the Customs Excise Union, which represents Canada's border guards, told The Canadian Press on Wednesday that about 20 guards were involved.
He welcomed the suggestion that the guards be armed.
"What we've been calling for for years is the tools that will provide the maximum amount of safety possible," he said.
#5
If the Canadians are just going to let the perpetrators come on in; they should atleast provide them with flights to get back home(forced extradition)! Case closed.
The perps, Barajas and Hussain, were sought in connection with the murder of a guy named Ashok Malhorta, a taxi driver in SF, CA. Cops say all three men were "acquainted".
I think this is sad: Unarmed Canadian border guards in 2006. Time to wake up Hosers.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/26/2006 6:30
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It seems our American cousins can't see beyond the barrel of a gun.
Border posts are usually in close proximity to RCMP detachments. Once the guards left in protest, the managers called the RCMP. Problem solved.
As to the labour code, it's more precise to say that a worker can't be fired if he stops working for reasons of safety. And yes it also applies to cops, firemen, etc, but in these fields it would be kind of tough to prove that danger "does not come with the job". All cases are investigated by the labour board, and it is they who decide what is safe or nor for a particular job.
That's what happened here. The guards stopped working because they deemed it unsafe. It was done in protest, but they do have a point, and the labour board would probably not disagree.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/26/2006 7:41
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#8
It seems Rafael, that you prefer dhimmitude and letting criminals walk all over you. I prefer having the option of ending said thug's pittiful life before he ends mine and having the border guards and the police having the same option.
#10
I think what Rafaei is saying is that since the guards are unarmed it would not be prudent to stay around while two armed men who have already killed come through. However, haveing ti call on the RCMP seems a bit too late. How long does it take the RCMP to get to a crossing? Gotta be a better way.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/26/2006 11:00
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#11
Rafael represents the interests of victims everywhere who would rather have someone to blame than the ability to deal with a problem themselves. That's a key to the Red/Blue split in the David Warren column.
#12
Think about it for a minute Nimble. If you were a border guard and were denied any means to defend yourself and a couple of desparados were coming through what would you do. What I'm saying is don't blame the guards, blame the Canadian Government for a stupid policy.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/26/2006 12:12
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#13
LOL. Yeah, whatever. Arming border guards is inconsequential to the overall problem of border security between Canada and the US. It's a really, really, really small issue. You guys are screaming about guns, yet there are far greater holes in North American border security in general. And in these instances, guns wouldn't be of much help. Guns only prevent the odd case like we saw the other day...what, maybe once in 5 years. Keep in mind, we are talking about urban border crossings. Rural areas are altogether a different story.
This is a big issue for the guards, however, and as I said yesterday, these guards should be armed for their personal protection.
I think what Rafaei is saying is that since the guards are unarmed it would not be prudent to stay around while two armed men who have already killed come through.
I'm not going to second guess the guards. They know their job better than I do.
However, haveing ti call on the RCMP seems a bit too late.
The RCMP would have been called regardless of whether the guards are armed or not. There is no guarantee that armed guards would have been able to stop anyone, thereby necessitating a call to the RCMP. What we are really talking about then, is not a problem of unarmed guards, but staffing levels.
In that case they are not 'Guards' but 'Babysitters' or 'Observers'.
Come to the border, make a wisecrack like that, and then see whether they're just observers or babysitters. Come on, I triple dare you.
It seems Rafael, that you prefer dhimmitude and letting criminals walk all over you.
No, I'm not a socialist, even though I live in a socialist country. You, on the other hand, prefer to focus on the relatively tiny aspects, all the while ignoring that elephant in the room.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/26/2006 12:36
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#14
...inadequate staffing levels, that is.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/26/2006 12:46
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#15
A Mexican and a Pakistani? Despite this incident, maybe we should be focusing on our SOUTHERN border first.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/26/2006 12:52
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#16
In that case they are not 'Guards' but 'Babysitters' or 'Observers'.
Come to the border, make a wisecrack like that, and then see whether they're just observers or babysitters. Come on, I triple dare you.
I have. They just gave me a raised eyebrow.
I missed your post yesterday about giving guard protection is seems. I apologize for miss the context of the whole conversation.
However, I do not miss the elephant in the room. I have two canuks I hang around with and they both would never go back to the country of their birth because of the fuck up the socialst government has made. They love their country, just hate the socialism. Canada is a country with a proud history that seems to be trying to jump off the cliff civilization death along with western europe, much like our liberal party is trying to do to the US.
#17
Come to the border, make a wisecrack like that, and then see whether they're just observers or babysitters. Come on, I triple dare you.
Looks like Jose and Ishtiaq already did :)
Notice I said that is what the Canadian government regulates them to.
I've been to Canada twice over the past two months (but not crossing at the Peace Arch but a nearby less-busy crossing) and I respect the Canadian Border guards - but I don't respect a government who 'guards' their border with unarmed 'guards' - particulary when guns are easily (and legally) obtainable on the other side of the border (U.S.).
#20
Will there be further fallout? The capture of the criminals was made on Canadian soil albeit in an cross-border park to which the US contributes upkeep. International organizations - except where the US and Israel are involved - respect the right to violate sovereignty in hot pursuit. If the ACLU sticks its nose in, then who knows where that will go. For the record: the shots fired were directed toward the US, and fired from the US side. And one hit its target. I like the use of SUVs by Border Officers. Crown Vics and Impalas can't ram a large vehicle with any effect. Good work!
#21
Steve Janke at "Angry in the Great White North" blog is posting about the internal Canadian border secrity studies. The Liberals erased every recommendation to arm the border guards, over the objection of the BG union. The incoming Tories plan to arm the guards, let's see how that plan plays out.
#22
DB, I made no observation about the guards rather about the Canadian and Blue State proclivity to seek victim status. I doubt that any of us, unarmed, would have done differently than they. What we would do differently is accept being unarmed in such a job.
Thousands marched in Caracas on Tuesday chanting against US imperialism and the war in Iraq at start of the World Social Forum, where activists campaign for causes from fair trade to indigenous rights. US peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who held a vigil outside US President George W Bushs Texas ranch after her soldier son was killed in Iraq, led the flag-waving crowds shouting No to the war in Spanish to end of the rally. We need to stop the war in Iraq, we need to bring our troops home immediately, Sheehan said from a stage. We need to see George Bush and the rest of them tried for crimes against humanity. We need justice for our children.
Many at the rally hailed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary and critic of Washington, who has become a regional standard-bearer for left-wing and anti-US movements since allying himself with Cuba. Colombian drummers, whistles and stilt-walkers brought a festive atmosphere to an event that has become a central forum for international debate on subjects as diverse as gay rights, anti-globalisation and global arms control.
This is against conflict, against wars all over the world, said Marie Eve Rheault, from Quebec, Canada, who was helping hoist a peace dove fashioned from white sheets.
This is a process that can bring change for everyone, said Colombian Lucy Martinez, who belongs to a solidarity group with Cuba. Its great that it is here in Venezuela because Chavez, like Fidel Castro, is an example for everyone. Many traveled by road from neighboring Brazil and Colombia. At least four Brazilian students were killed and 11 injured when their bus crashed in Peru in route to Caracas.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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chuckle...this is great! This gives our own left a mirror to see what stupid little tools they are/were. Taking to the streets with righteous indignation...and a little organization by really great guys like Hugo Chavez who just want to make the world a better place.
Oh...and since you are here, be sure and buy my little red book and can you spare a little cash for "the cause".
#3
Maybe I wasn't paying attention but I don't remember people marching in the streets to protest against Saddam and his hellspawn offspring when they were nerve gassing their own citizens, filling up mass graves, shoving people into shredders, raping, torturing and generally running roughshod over the country. Maybe I missed the world-wide outrage. Did I forget to mark *Bleep* Saddam Day on my calendar?
#4
You forgot all those university forums and gatherings denouncing Stalin's actions in the former Soviet Union and eastern occupied states or Pol Pot's democide in Cambodia. Oh wait....
Law enforcement agencies have arrested five members of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who were planning to kidnap members of an influential political family, intelligence sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. Hafiz Yaseen, Tanvir, Razzaq, Naveed and Pervaiz were arrested on Tuesday in the Muridke area of Sheikhupura district, the sources said. The five men had been following and observing members of an influential family for some time. They would follow their cars from Gujrat in their own Toyota Corolla without a number plate. They had been under watch by the intelligence agencies, the sources added. They were arrested on Tuesday in possession of five AK47s. They have been taken to an undisclosed location for further interrogation, the sources said.
"Your Number 7 truncheon, sir! And your moustachio wax!"
"Thank you, Mahmoud! You may bring in the prisoners!"
SSP (Operations) Amir Zulfiqar Khan denied any knowledge of the arrests.
"Reeeeeeeeally? Nobuddy told me!"
The sources said that the arrests come amid heightened activity by members of Lashkar and other banned militant outfits in recent weeks. They said the intelligence agencies might scrutinise and revise the record of banned outfits activists. They said many of them were free as there was no solid proof against them. They added that most of them were active under fake names. According to rough estimates by law enforcement agencies, over 50 LJ activists have been arrested in the last several months from all over the Punjab.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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The Bajaur Agency administration is finding it difficult to get tribal chieftains on its side against wanted militant Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who is suspected to be sheltering Al Qaeda-linked militants in the border area with Afghanistan. Sources close to the Bajaur administration said that they had tried three times since the US air strike on Damadola village on January 13 to raise a lashkar, or tribal army, to track down Muhammad or make him leave Bajaur. They (tribal chieftains) are wary of getting on board because speaking openly against Al Qaeda can invite serious problems from the militants, the sources said.
'Nother words, it's not the gummint that's in charge, right? We knew that.
The administration was able to put together a lashkar against Muhammad last year, but it resulted in three attacks by the militants on senior tribal elders, a tribal elder told Daily Times. It is difficult to take on Al Qaeda since the organisation shows no mercy to people working against it and for the government, said the tribal elder, who wished not to be named for fear of reprisals from the administration and Al Qaeda.
"So it's best we do nothing. That's because we're ferocious Pashtun tribesmen and nobody screws with us."
Malik Shahjehan, key pro-government tribal elder from Bajaur, went underground last year after militants tried to kill him and his family. He was also part of the all-tribal jirga that negotiated peace in Wana with Waziristan elders in 2004. In 2005, suspected militants tried three unsuccessful assassination attempts on Shahjehan, his son Malik Sultan Zeb and his son-in-law Dr Muhammad Tahir after a lashkar set fire to the houses of Muhammad and his relatives. Three jirgas have been called since the Damadola incident but most tribal elders stayed away for fear that Al Qaeda-linked militants may target them as they are targeting people in Waziristan, the sources close to the administration said.
For being so ferocious, they're easily blackmailed, aren't they? How about if we offer to kill them if they don't cooperate?
Muhammad appears not to have been affected by the US missile attack in Damadola village, which killed at least 13 civilians, and is still roaming around freely in an area just 15 minutes from Bajaur chief administrator Faheem Wazirs office in Khar. I would be privileged if Osama Bin Laden or Mullah Muhammad Omar accept my invitation. They are welcome any time and I will receive them as per Pashtun tradition, he told reporters in Damadola a day after the US missile strike, though he denied Ayman al-Zahawri was in the area on the night of the attack.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't him."
Muhammad, 36, led thousands of volunteers into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against the Washington-backed Northern Alliance soon after the 9/11 attacks on the US. He (Muhammad) is young and as emotional as Nek Muhammad (the Wana militant killed in a missile attack in June 2004) and a diehard mujahid, Damadola villagers told Daily Times.
Sounds like a case of Nekrophilia to me.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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Time to make the "tribal elders" more afraid of us then. I am calling this a line of waki-paki Pashtun bull turds. "It not our fault that we supply men a arms to the talabs and shelter AQ. We are only simple tribesmen who are bound by tradtions and culture. It's out of our control."
We can start with grabbing their young women for a "fate worse than death." A education and introduction to a 21st century lifestyle. Kind of hard to continue the tribe without women folk who will put up with your "tribal" BS.
A helicopter with seven people aboard that disappeared near the Afghan-Pakistan border following a Red Cross mission to aid quake survivors is still missing after five days, an official said Wednesday. We are still waiting, said Red Cross spokeswoman LaylaBerlemont Shtewi said Wednesday. The search operations are still ongoing on both sides of the border. Shtewi had no information on whether the search area had been narrowed, or whether efforts had been scaled down.
The Russian-made Mi-8 transport chopper disappeared Saturday after taking off from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. It had been scheduled to land in the Afghan capital, Kabul, before refueling and flying on to neighboring Turkmenistan, where it is based. The International Committee of the Red Cross had chartered the helicopter for relief work in Pakistan. Its crew were employees of Turkmenistan Airlines, which operated the aircraft. No Red Cross staff member was on board.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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nothing to celebrate here - I hope all are alive/well
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:11
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My guess is that they're not. I'd also guess it was the Talibs what dunnit, unless it was poor maintenance on the part of Turkmenbashi's subjects.
And what the hell kind of a name is LaylaBerlemont Shtewi?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006 0:15
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I met her in a bar, I think,...after 20-30 cocktails, her name was ....er...something like that
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:17
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Nothing on google except the story. Layla Berlemont Shtewi, ICRC Addis Ababa, tel. +2511 518 366
That is all.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/26/2006 0:24
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musta been her sister...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:26
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Dontcha love lawyers? I'm all for reducing the herd - except MY lawyer , of course....
Defence lawyers for Saddam Hussein Wednesday distributed copies of a lawsuit against President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair for destroying Iraq. The suit accuses Bush and Blair of committing war crimes by using weapons of mass destruction and internationally-banned weapons including enriched uranium and phosphoric and cluster bombs against unarmed Iraqi civilians, notably in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, al-Kaem and Anbar. "you bastards! you shot me!"
The Amman-based legal team had said Sunday that the ousted president intended to start legal action against the two leaders of the Iraq war in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but the text of the suit was made available Wednesday. The suit also accuses the U.S. president and British prime minister of torturing Iraqi prisoners, destroying Iraq's cultural heritage with the aim of eliminating an ancient civilization, and inciting internal strife. Bush and Blair were also accused of polluting Iraq's air, waters and environment. The lawsuit demanded that Bush and Blair appear before court to answer the charges filed against them and requested the harshest punishment in line with Dutch legislation and the rules of international and humanitarian laws. ummmmmm how about Fuck off?
It also requested compensation for all material and moral damage inflicted on the Iraqi people. By Uday and Qusay? Nope..by Boooosh. Nice thing is their client will be decomposing by the tim ethis actually is heard..still, it'll help on that "snuff" list for these mooks to sign up early and often. Start with "C" as in Ramsey Clark
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006
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Damges? ...er...damages...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2006 0:18
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Army should have threw a grenade in the spiderhole.
#5
SOD, cuz quite a few of us are sick of drafting responses to this kind of horseshit for a living, enjoy H&K's product line far more than Armani's, and are wondering when, already, it'll be time to rock'n'roll. I'd recommend going to the root of the problem: judges and law professors.
Posted by: ST ||
01/26/2006 6:58
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Actually, if he can get into a US court he probably stands a good chance of winning his case.
Posted by: kelly ||
01/26/2006 11:23
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kelly - True. The ACLU can help him shop for the right judge.
#8
Based on the Keho v New Haven precedent, I say Bush & Blair defend themselves with an 'eminent domain' argument and build a tax revenue generating strip mall where the kiddies' prison used to stand.
Unidentified men blew up a section of the Quetta-Iran railway line on Wednesday. The damaged section is about three kilometres from Nushki city. Several hours later, unidentified men fired several rockets from a mountain east of the city on the newly constructed circuit house and degree college. The rockets missed their targets and hit a ground close to the college. No injuries were reported. Local administration officials reached the scene to investigate the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2006
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According to the Karen, Ain't that the shitz...
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/26/2006 19:58
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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.
A Mexican government commission said Thursday it has suspended plans to distribute border maps to migrants planning to cross the border illegally, but denied the decision was a response to U.S. criticism. 
Authorities said they discovered more than 2 tons of marijuana in a cross-border tunnel that began near the Tijuana airport and ended inside a warehouse on the U.S. side. 
China is preparing to "strike hard" against rising public unrest, a senior police official said according to state media on Thursday, highlighting the government's fears for stability even as the economy booms.
Big Brother evictee George Galloway branded the widespread condemnation of his time on the reality show as "sanctimonious humbug" today. The Respect Party MP said he was amazed by the level of interest in his 21-day stay inside the celebrity house from both the media and his fellow parliamentarians. The politician became the object of ridicule after he was seen impersonating a cat lapping imaginary milk from the hands of actress Rula Lenska and dancing in a tight red leotard. "They seem to have got it all out of proportion," he told Channel 4's Big Brother's Little Brother.
Two brothers convicted of sending exports from their U.S. company to countries considered sponsors of terrorism were sentenced Wednesday to federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Hazim Elashi was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison and will be deported after serving his sentence. His brother Ihsan "Sammy" Elashi was given a six-year term, which will run consecutively to the four-year sentence he is currently serving.
Durban - A man brandishing a toy gun was shot in both legs when he allegedly attempted to hijack a BMW in Isithebe, north of Durban, on Wednesday afternoon, police said. The 23-year-old allegedly approached a motorist stopped at a traffic light at about 14:00 and pulled a gun from a black plastic bag, spokesman Superintendent Jay Naicker said on Thursday. "The 51-year-old driver also drew his personal firearm and opened fire on the suspect, hitting him in both legs." 
Japanese police have arrested a man for allegedly threatening to kill a woman who refused to join his harem. Hirohito Shibuya, a 57-year-old unemployed fortune teller, already openly lives with 10 other women in his Tokyo home. 
BB&T, the nation's ninth-largest financial holding company, announced yesterday that it would deny loans to developers building shopping malls and other private projects on land acquired through eminent domain.
In the last couple of weeks, she has stepped to the left of the president on health care, to the right of the president on Iran and into the realm of radicalism on race. Positioning herself for the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) is simultaneously broadening and narrowing her policy positions. Mostly, she just calls repeatedly for "new leadership." Hillary's policy positions are nothing new. She has nothing particularly interesting to say.
Samawa residents are cautiously watching the situation in their city (located 270 kilometres south of Baghdad) after clashes broke out between British soldiers and al-
Somalia - NE and Eastern Coast - Thirty eight incidents have been reported since March 15 2005. 
Security agencies raided the base camp of 
The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced two men to four-year prison terms after convicting them of plotting attacks against Americans and liquor stores in the Kingdom. The tribunal declared 
A convention organised on Wednesday by the 
Afghan security forces arrested two suspected suicide bombers wearing vests packed with explosives on Wednesday, hours after a grenade was thrown at an Indian consulate, police said. Police in the southern city of Kandahar said that they had received intelligence about suicide attacks and had set up a checkpoint on a road about 25 kilometres south of the city. We stopped two men riding a motorbike, pointed guns at them and ordered them not to move, said Masood Khan, a provincial police commander. They were wearing waist-coats full of explosives. Security forces had not established their identities, he said. 
Dozens of Islamic students protested the Bajaur air strike in Peshawar on Wednesday. Repeating the now-familiar chant of Death to America, the protesters demanded that Islamabad expel US Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker for the January 13 assault on 
Violence claimed the lives of 10 people in Kashmir ahead of Indias republic day, while Indian troops captured a man believed to be a militant commander who had evaded arrest for 12 years.
Two defence lawyers urged the State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday to acquit their clients of charges of plotting activities that would undermine the Kingdom's relations with other countries. Defence lawyers Hussein Masri and Yousef Udwan claimed that their clients Basil M., 29, and Mohammad I., 25, were subjected to torture and duress by the authorities to confess to something they did not plot. The defendants are also charged with possessing illegal weapons (machineguns), and entering the Kingdom illegally while carrying the weapons. 
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he is ready to resume peace talks with Israel, even if Hamas joins his government after Wednesdays legislative vote. We are ready to negotiate, Abbas told Israeli reporters who were in Ramallah to cover the election. We are partners with the Israelis. They dont have the right to choose their partner. But if they are seeking a Palestinian partner, this partner exists, he said.
Six people were killed and five injured when a van passed over a landmine near 
Armed pirates have hijacked a merchant ship off the coast of Somalia, holding 20 of its crew hostage, an ocean crime watchdog says. The attacks, one on a United Arab Emirates (UAE) general cargo ship on Sunday and another launched from a so-called "mother ship" last Friday, come only days after a US Navy warship captured a band of suspected pirates with a cache of arms. 
Thousands marched in Caracas on Tuesday chanting against US imperialism and the war in Iraq at start of the 
Law enforcement agencies have arrested five members of banned militant outfit 
The 
A helicopter with seven people aboard that disappeared near the Afghan-Pakistan border following a Red Cross mission to aid quake survivors is still missing after five days, an official said Wednesday. We are still waiting, said Red Cross spokeswoman LaylaBerlemont Shtewi said Wednesday. The search operations are still ongoing on both sides of the border. Shtewi had no information on whether the search area had been narrowed, or whether efforts had been scaled down. 
Unidentified men blew up a section of the Quetta-Iran railway line on Wednesday. The damaged section is about three kilometres from Nushki city. Several hours later, unidentified men fired several rockets from a mountain east of the city on the newly constructed circuit house and degree college. The rockets missed their targets and hit a ground close to the college. No injuries were reported. Local administration officials reached the scene to investigate the incident.
