Egypts prominent newspapers and magazines had a somewhat tepid response to recent statements made by al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Media commentary did not support statements made by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, but was critical of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. Al-Qaedas statements were duly reported, but did not receive wide coverage. Reporting focused on the efforts and response of the U.S. to those statements, rather than the statements themselves. Some reports speculated on a possible rift between al-Qaedas top leaders.
Many commentators argued that the surfacing of al-Zawahiris tape so soon after the U.S. airstrike in Pakistan aiming to kill him demonstrated the ineffectiveness of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. Bin Ladens recent declaration clearly indicated that he was still alive, and many reports noted that bin Laden was still able to communicate to the outside world and incite radicals to violent action despite the five-year effort by the U.S. to decapitate al-Qaeda.
Prominent Egyptian columnist Salama Salama, in an opinion piece entitled Bin Laden is Back, written for Egypts leading daily al-Ahram, used the opportunity presented by bin Ladens call for a truce to criticize the U.S. war on terrorism. His commentary accuses the U.S. of actually supporting terrorism through its counter-terrorism policies. By using torture and rendition, killing innocents in air raids and supporting Israel, Salama concludes that The U.S. Middle East policy is spreading the kind of hatred terrorists need to advance their careers (al-Ahram, January 26).
Referencing his recent official visit to Egypt, Salama accuses Vice President Dick Cheney of being contemptuous of everything the people of the region cherish. He proceeds to say that the U.S. has no right to accuse others of terrorism in light of the recent attack on a Pakistani village that allegedly killed 13 innocents.
Salama concludes that U.S. policy in the Middle East, including the undermining of Palestinian factions, its attempts to deprive Iran of nuclear technology, and pressuring the Syrian government, were really carried out so that Israel can dominate the region.
A commentary in another major Egyptian newspaper, al-Akhbar, echoes these sentiments but puts the onus more on al-Qaeda. Referring to al-Zawahiris tape, the commentary states that the continued threats by al-Qaeda leaders provided the justification for U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas in the region (BBC News, January 19).
Hard reporting was equally as focused on the U.S. response, rather than the content of the tapes themselvesalthough the Egyptian press did speculate on a possible rift between bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. Al-Wafd, for instance, ran an article entitled, Disputes Between bin Laden and al Zawahiri. Stating that It seems that bin Laden is no longer the sole leader for the organization as he was before, al-Wafd reported that there was a divergence between bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, but did not exactly elaborate on what they disagreed (al-Wafd, January 20-21).
The article also focused on statements by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Turki al-Faisal. Covering his statements after the tapes surfaced, the article underscored that the failure of U.S. officials to kill or capture bin Laden has increased the impression that al-Qaeda is unbeatable. Unlike other articles that dismissed the notion that bin Ladens capture would seriously disrupt al-Qaeda, this article reported that there needed to be increased efforts to kill or capture not only bin Laden, but al-Zawahiri as well.
Another al-Wafd piece focused on the U.S. airstrikes in Pakistan targeting al-Zawahiri and focused on his subsequent videotape. Despite its title, DNA: Will It Help the United States to Capture al-Zawahiri? the article was the only one to focus on al-Zawahiris statement and its radical, assertive tone, in contrast to bin Ladens more measured statements.
Citing a former U.S. counter-terrorism official, the article stated that al-Qaedas Egyptian wing, led by al-Zawahiri, is the most radical and capable of al-Qaedas affiliates. The article also judged that al-Zawahiri, despite his prominent position in the al-Qaeda organization, was not qualified to lead al-Qaeda in place of bin Laden. Referencing the comments of U.S. counter-terrorism officials, the article reckoned that although al-Zawahiri is a competent strategist and an intelligent, fiery spokesperson for al-Qaeda, his irascibility isolated many al-Qaeda members. Al-Wafds report concluded that, like bin Laden, al-Zawahiris killing or capture would not stop al-Qaeda inspired terrorism (al-Wafd, January 20-21).
An article that ran in al-Gomhuriya, Responding to bin Ladens Tape, deduced otherwise. The article emphasized the U.S. response to the tapes, quoting U.S. officials as categorically stating that there is no negotiation with al-Qaeda. This article concluded that killing bin Laden, let alone negotiating with him, would not stop al-Qaedas terrorist activities (al-Gomhuriya, January 21).
Although there was no clear consensus in the reporting about the consequence or significance that the death or capture of the two top al-Qaeda officials would have on the terrorist organization, the reporting emphasized the U.S. response and largely quoted from U.S. sources.
The Egyptian medias response to the tapes can be gauged not only from what was reported but also from what was not covered. It was noticeable that there was only cursory analysis of bin Ladens offer of a long-term truce if the U.S. were to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Egyptian press, unlike the Western media, did not delve into possible motivations for his truce offer. Most Egyptian media reports did not include analysis on the differences in tone and message between bin Laden and al-Zawahiris statements.
Analysts who have considered the Arab medias response to the latest al-Qaeda statements conclude that al-Qaedas recent proclamations received short shrift in the Arab press. Noting that bin Ladens statements received little air time or newspaper coverage in the Arab world, including Egypt, reports speculated that the regions press is increasingly unwilling to be used as a vehicle for bin Laden (BBC News, January 19).
In Egypt, however, the press seems to be more critical of U.S. counter-terrorism policy while remaining mostly silent on al-Qaedas actions and message. The focus in the Egyptian press regarding the statements by al-Qaedas top officials was very much on the U.S. and how its officials responded to the statements.
The Egyptian press also studiously avoided mention of bin Laden and al-Zawahiris criticism of Egypt. Al-Zawahiris and bin Ladens past statements emphasized the responsibility of Arab governments, often mentioning Egypt directly. Yet the Egyptian press made no mention of the role of their own government in spurring terrorism. There was only one article, run in al-Wafd, which acknowledged al-Zawahiris radicalization and hatred of the U.S. as stemming from his time in Egyptian jails.
What can Egyptian press reporting tell us about the state of al-Qaedas public relations? On the one hand, reporting was cursory and focused on the U.S. response more than on al-Qaedas message. On the other, it may not have received wide coverage due to the competing news of Hamas political victory. The statements also spurred commentators to reiterate their criticism of U.S. counter-terrorism policies. Egypts news coverage showed that, while it may be tiring of al-Qaedas press statements, it remains critical of the U.S. and its policy in the Middle East.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in Algeria continues to encounter difficulties. On January 28, a declaration from its re-vamped site (http://www.jihad-algerie.net) carried the news of the death of Sheikh Ahmed Abu al-Baraa, one of the groups founders and the head of its Sharia committee. The 43-year-old Abu al-Baraa (his true name is Ahmed Zarabib), according to the declaration, was killed on January 17 in the hills overlooking Toudja in the province of Bejaïa (260 km east of Algiers), as a result of the violent confrontation between the mujahideen and the Algerian army.
In addition to his position as the groups ideological authority (mufti, teacher and guide to the brothers), the loss to the GSPC is even more serious in that Abu al-Baraa, unlike the militant groups present leader Abou Mossaab Abdelouadoud, was one of the 19 core founders of the GSPC. He has a long and distinguished radical pedigree. According to the Algerian Arabic daily El-Khabar, Abu al-Baraa was appointed back in 1994 as head of the Sharia board of the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) by its leader at the time, Cherif Gousmi. This was four years before a faction, including Abu al-Baraa, seceded to form the GSPC (http://www.elkhabar.com).
The death of a scholar-member can cause serious damage to a jihad group since an important part of their work is to maintain morale against constant doctrinal challenges from non-jihadi scholars. Ideological doubt, in such a millenarian struggle, has a direct effect on operational resilience. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demonstrated his distress at the loss in September 2004 of his Jordanian mentor Abu Anas al-Shami (Terrorism Focus, October 1, 2004). Indeed, the name al-Shami appears among the gallery of ideological heroes that al-Baraa will be joining, according to the January 28 declaration. Also included are Abdullah al-Rashoud (of the Saudi operational arena) and Abu Omar Muhammad al-Sayf (of the Chechen arena).
Faced with the erosion of jihadist ideologues, the tone of the declaration accordingly makes a pointed stab at collaborationist scholars, highlighting Abu al-Baraas death as a lesson for the ulema of evil, those who wallow in the depths while you [Abu al-Baraa] remain sublime in life and in death. This is a reference to the prominent sheikhs, such as Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdallah Ibn Baz, Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani and Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Uthaymin, who have issued fatwas outlawing the jihad in Algeria, notably in a recent work entitled Fatawa al-Ulama al-Akabir fima Uhdira min Dima fi al-Jazair (Fatwas of Prominent Sheikhs concerning Proscription of Individuals in Algeria).
The jihadist groups are having to fight their war on two frontsmilitary and ideologicaland as the declaration discloses, the loss of Abu al-Baraa comes at a time when people are in greatest need of mujahid scholars, those who match their words with actions and who man the long forgotten outposts of jihad (http://www.jihad-algerie.net, Section: Bayanat).
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Yemens U.S.-sponsored fight against al-Qaeda suffered a severe blow last week with the escape of 23 convicts from a high security prison in the capital of Sanaa. Among the escapees were 13 al-Qaeda suspects imprisoned for their roles in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg. On February 5, Interpol issued a global alert that described the fugitives as a danger to all countries. The prison break came only one day before the trial date of Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal and 14 other al-Qaeda suspects. Al-Ahdal is accused of directing the Cole bombers, but was to be tried on charges of financing terrorism. That trial has now been postponed indefinitely.
The escape took place February 3 from the Sanaa national headquarters of the Political Security Organization (PSO), Yemens leading intelligence agency. The possibility of inside help for the mass escape from Yemens most tightly guarded prison has raised the question of whether the state security services harbor agents sympathetic to al-Qaeda. The prisons previous commander and deputy were dismissed just two weeks ago after two Zaydi militants escaped. Government sources initially claimed that the al-Qaeda fugitives escaped through a 70-meter tunnel that emerged in a nearby mosque (http://www.26sep.net, February 4). Later reports suggested that the tunnel was 140 meters long and was dug from the mosque into the prison.
Unlike Yemens three other major security agencies, the PSO leadership is recruited solely from military officers and reports directly to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Like the army, the PSO is believed to include many Salafists and Baathist sympathizers, a legacy of Yemens broad support for the 1980s anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and a long alliance with Saddam Husseins Iraq (Gulf States Newsletter, December 9, 2005). The U.S. war in Iraq is widely opposed in the officer corps, many of whom were trained in Iraq. The PSO has been accused within Yemen of mass extra-judicial arrests made in an effort to flush out al-Qaeda members. In July 2002, the home of PSO Vice Chairman Ali Mansur Rashid was attacked by armed men seeking the release of 173 Mujahidin (al-Ahram Weekly, August 15-21, 2002).
The escapees included two notable figures. Jamal al-Badawi was charged as one of the main plotters in the strike on the Cole. President Saleh commuted the sentence of death that followed al-Badawis conviction to a prison term of 15 years. In politically volatile Yemen, prosecutions are often dependent upon the political consequences of a conviction, and occasional commutations and amnesties are part of maintaining Salehs presidency. Al-Badawi was one of 10 al-Qaeda members who escaped from an Aden prison in April 2003. Like the prison in Sanaa, this facility was also run by the PSO.
The other fugitive of note is Fawaz al-Rabihi, another leading al-Qaeda figure in Yemen. Al-Rabihi came to the attention of the FBI in early 2002, when the agency issued a warning that al-Rabihi had left Afghanistan with the intent of striking U.S. interests in Yemen or the U.S. homeland. Al-Rabihi struck in October 2002, attacking the Limburg with a primitive bomb-boat under the alleged direction of al-Ahdal. The explosion killed one sailor, and the consequent three-fold increase in maritime insurance for the area severely damaged Yemens economy. In an outburst after receiving the death sentence from a Sanaa court, the Saudi-born al-Rabihi claimed he had given his pledge to Osama bin Laden to kill Americans. The escapees may be heading to Salafist strongholds in Shabwah, Marib or al-Jawf provinces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
The Church of England decided Monday to suspend all its investments in companies it described as "profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land," British newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday. According to the report, heads of the Anglican Church voted in favor of removing funds from such firms, particularly a 2.2 million pound investment in Caterpillar, which manufactures tractors used to demolish Palestinian homes as well as in the construction of the security fence. The vote, which was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, stands in contradiction to the stance of former Archbishop Lord Carey, who said the Church should support Israel.
During the debate that preceded the vote, members of the General Synod said they believe the Church must be seen to be investing its money for the common good, and not merely for the best financial return. One of the participants in the meeting, Keith Malcouronne from Guildford, said he had received a letter of support for the initiative from the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Riah Hanna Abu El-Assal.
The Bishop of Chelmsford John Gladwin said Christians in Palestine were in despair and held Israel accountable. "Caterpillar may be a company being used for dreadful purposes across the world, but the problem is not Caterpillar. The problem is the situation in the Middle East and the government of Israel," he said. Another member of the Synod, Simon Butler, warned Caterpillar that "in our understanding of sin, acts have consequences".
The only participant to voice opposition to the proposal was Bishop of St. Albans Christopher Herbert, who is chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews and said the debate was unbalanced. He said there was a "belief and hope" in the Jewish community that Christians would understand their perspective in such debates, but the Synod had not reflected the complexity of the situation.
The vote is expected to rekindle the row that followed the decision last summer of the Anglican Consultative Council, representing the worldwide Church, to back a report urging it to end investment in companies that "support the occupation". Jewish organizations in Britain have yet to comment on the decision. Last summer, following the publication of the report, the spokesman for Britain's chief rabbi said the policy of removing investments is not only an erroneous step, but also one that will have serious implications on the relations between Jewish and Anglican communities across the world. Spokeswoman of the Israeli embassy in London Shuli Davidovich said in response that "assuming the newspaper report is accurate, this is a decision that seriously hampers the dialogue we believed was taking place between us and the Anglican Church."
"It's unnecessary to point out the miserable timing of this decision. It's regrettable we did not hear the Church speak out against the terrible statements by Iran's president, the Holocaust denier, who called for the destruction of Israel," she added.
#2
The Anglican church has a 2.2 million pound investment in Caterpillar??? Who da thunk it? Probably took it out just so they could dump it. Why do I suspect that that the effect on Caterpillar's stock was close to nil.
#3
That is OK. I will divest from Anglican owned and controled companies. I am talking about the rank and file Anglicans not the Church. Stupidity has consequences this is one of them.
The 11-volume Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad, found in Abu Hamzas west London home, is a rare work which relates the history of the mujahidins victory over the Red Army and the guerilla techniques used in that fight.
Abu Hamza claimed he kept the book in his west London home as a "piece of history". It was on his bookshelves along with other encyclopaedias, scores of religious works and a DIY manual.
The encyclopaedia, written in Arabic, is crammed with information of immense value to terrorists.
Much of the material in it is drawn originally from American sources and details in words and diagrams how to make, store and plant bombs, conduct ambushes and carry out a terror campaign.
The books were given to Abu Hamza in the mid-1990s after he returned to Britain from Afghanistan where he said he had been working as an engineer on a range of reconstruction projects in Nengarhar province.
Abu Hamza told the Old Bailey that the work was a gift from an Afghan mujahidin veteran who heard he was rebuilding his library.
He said that the paperback books, each the size of a telephone directory with a picture of a machine gun and a Koran on the cover, had sat unread on his shelves.
The encyclopaedia was the work of many hands in an organisation called Makhtab al Khidemat (Mak) - the Services Office - which was one of the seven major mujahidin factions that defeated the Russian Army.
The Mak was founded in 1979 by Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian theologian, and his protegee Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire, and based in the Pakistani town of Peshawar on the Afghan border.
The opening pages of the encyclopaedia contain dedications to both men and also a message of thanks to the Pakistani government for its help in the fight against communism.
There is, however, no acknowledgement of the American CIA which is believed to have funded and trained many of the Maks fighters.
After Azzam died in a car bomb in Peshawar in 1989, bin Laden went on to create al-Qaeda and the encyclopaedia became its operational textbook.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
As Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is convicted of race hate crimes, police have revealed the details of a raid on north London's Finsbury Park Mosque in 2003.
The Metropolitan Police faced criticism from some Muslim leaders when they took the controversial step of raiding the mosque in the early hours of 20 January 2003.
But, after uncovering equipment which detectives believe may have been used in UK-based terror camps, senior officers believe their action was justified.
Dozens of officers in body armour used battering rams to enter the building to start three days of searches.
The full details of equipment, weapons and terrorism paraphernalia can only now be revealed as Abu Hamza's trial is over.
Among the haul - some of which was found close to Abu Hamza's office - were chemical warfare protection suits, pistols, CS spray and a stun gun.
A gas mask, handcuffs, hunting knives and a walkie-talkie were also found.
Aside from military-style equipment, police also found more then 100 stolen or forged passports and identity documents, credit cards, laminating equipment and chequebooks hidden under rugs. More than £3,000 in cash was also recovered.
But it was the discovery of what was thought to be ricin at a flat in nearby Wood Green earlier that month that had led to the raid.
Evidence found at that raid linked al-Qaeda suspect Kamel Bourgass to Finsbury Park.
A week after the raid in Wood Green, Bourgass was arrested at a flat in Manchester on suspicion of making poison.
As he tried to escape, he stabbed Det Con Stephen Oake to death and seriously injured three other officers.
He was jailed for life in 2004.
Like other illegal immigrants, Bourgass had used the mosque as a place to stay, even using it as his postal address for correspondence with the immigration service.
He had stayed there in the weeks before his attempts to make ricin were discovered.
A week after the arrest of Bourgass, the decision was taken to launch Operation Mermant - the raid on the mosque.
Guided by the light of a helicopter beam, the officers battered their way into the building.
Muslim officers accompanied police on the raid with officers wearing overshoes as a sign of respect.
The nature of the raid has not been made public until now, for fear of prejudicing Abu Hamza's trial.
It was condemned by the cleric as "provocative", "silly" and "illogical".
Following an investigation by the Charity Commission, Abu Hamza was suspended from his post at Finsbury Park mosque in April 2002.
The commission concluded that he had used his position for "personal and political, rather than charitable, purposes".
But he was not formally dismissed until February 2003 - weeks after the raid.
The mosque was closed and boarded up for months after the raid before officially reopening in February 2005 with a new board of trustees, who have heralded a fresh start for the mosque.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Aside from military-style equipment, police also found more then 100 stolen or forged passports and identity documents, credit cards, laminating equipment and chequebooks hidden under rugs. More than £3,000 in cash was also recovered.
In the US, wouldn't this be enough to invoke RICO and start shutting down everything connected to the mosque?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2006 13:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
This is what you'd expect from a blood cult, not a major religion. Just another sign that the entire "islam" scam is a perpetration of Arab tribes upon the world, for personal (Arab) gain. Flush 'em all.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2006 15:12 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Finsbury Park mosque should never have been allowed to reopen. It's occupation should have been suspended until those arrested in it were tried. Upon their conviction, the mosque should have been demolished down to the foundations as a message to those who would plot atrocities against the crown.
Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: It is time the police acted, but in a way so as not to make them martyrs of the Prophets cause, which is what they want, but as criminals. Ordinary Muslims are fed up with them.
#7
It's what he says when he's not speaking English that you have to pay attention to.
Yup. What's the guy's mosque-speak version of this?
As per .com, when Islam starts cleaning its own house, that's when I'll sit up and take notice. So long as we have to do all the heavy lifting, the baby can be thrown out with the bathwater for all I care.
#8
Gee, I believe that he's really on our side. Just like the Muslim community in Leeds who knew damn well what those people were up to at the "gymn", but never quite got round to telling us Infidels about it.
Posted by: Ban Islam ||
02/07/2006 16:55 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The Song of the Moderate Muslim Manima steal the tune from Mall Fair Laddie.
Well after all, Fred, I'm an ordinary Muslim,
Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance,
to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants...
An average Muslim am I, of no eccentric whim,
Who likes to live his life, free of strife,
doing whatever he thinks is best, for him,
Well... just an ordinary moderate Muslim...
BUT, Let a wahabbi in your life and your serenity is through,
it'll redecorate your moskk, from the cellar to the dome,
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...
Let a whabbi in your life, and you're up against a wall,
make a plan and you will find,
that it has something else in mind,
and so rather than do either you do something else
that neither likes at all You want to talk of Keats and Milton,
it only wants to talk of jinns,
You go to see a play or ballet, and spend it searching
for it's gun, Let it in your life
and you invite eternal strife,
Let them buy their bombs and cut off those anxious little hands...
I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling
than to ever let a whabbi in my life, I'm a very gentle muslim man,
even tempered and good natured
who you never hear complain,
Who has the milk of human kindness
by the quart in every vein,
A patient moderate mulsim am I, down to my fingertips,
the sort who never could, ever would,
let an insulting remark escape his lips
Very gentle muslim man...
But, Let a whabbi in your life,
and patience hasn't got a chance,
she will beg you for advice, your reply will be concise,
and it will listen very nicely, and then go out
and kill exactly what it wants!!!
You are a muslim of grace and polish,
who never spoke above a hush,
all at once you're using language that would make
a sailor blush, Let a whabbi in your life,
and you're plunging in a knife,
Let the others of my sex, tie the knot around their necks,
I prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition
than to ever let a whabbi in my life I'm a quiet living muslim,
who prefers to spend the evening in the silence of his room,
who likes an atmosphere as restful as
an undiscovered tomb,
A pensive muslim am I, of philosophical joys,
who likes to moderate, contemplate,
far for humanities mad inhuman noise,
Quiet living moderate muslim man....
But, let a whabbi in your life, and your sabbatical is through,
in a line that never ends comes an army of its' friends,
come to jabber and to chatter
and to tell it what the matter is with YOU!,
she'll have a booming boisterous family,
who will descend on you en mass,
it'll have a large hitlarian father,
with a face that shatters glass,
Let a whabbi in your life,
Let a whabbi in your life,
Let a whabbi in your life I shall never let a whabbi in my life.
The first presidential election since the ousting of President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004 is taking place on 7 February 2006. Local reports indicate that there are long lines in voting centers nationwide, particularly in Port-au-Prince's industrial area and near Port-au-Prince International Airport.
The elections were suspended four times in 2005 due to concerns regarding security as well as organizational issues. To ensure security while the polls are open, U.N. peacekeepers have increased patrols nationwide, and rapid-deployment groups have been prepared to counter any violence. There are 32 presidential candidates running in the election and 1,300 legislative candidates for the 130-seat Parliament. According to recent polls, former president and Aristide ally, Rene Preval, is the presidential frontrunner.
Heavily armed gunmen blasted their way into the offices of a newspaper on Mexico's drug-plagued border with the United States on Monday [6 Feb 2006], tossing a grenade at journalists and gravely wounding a reporter...Night shift reporter Jaime Orozco was fighting for his life with five bullet wounds and others were injured by flying glass and debris..Journalists covering drug-related violence on Mexico's northern border are constantly threatened and attacked. Asked whether his newspaper had received death threats prior to the attack, Rosas said: "Not recently."
#2
1 - Let the narco-terrorist continue to hammer the local community.
2 - Await the right incident justifying the need to deploy troops across the border being welcomed by the locals who understand that Mexico City doesn't give a rat's a$$ about their lives.
3 - Fully employ combat experience troops, who know how to hammer such an insurgency [on the job trading now ongoing] and win the hearts and minds of the locals. I think we have a lot more 'linguists' to handle the local dialect.
4 - Tell Mexico City that if they won't or can't get the border under control, we will, under our jurisdiction. Remember the Apache. When MC failed to address the situation, we did, in Mexico.
We'll have something they'll want then. Thats when you negotiate. "Pretty Please" doesn't work.
Posted by: Jan ||
02/07/2006 14:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Two things MUST be done before we can ever even think of doing what you suggest, CU1758: we have to defang the ACLU, and we have to beat the crap out of a lot of jerks in Washington, DC (either through the ballot box, or through axehandles - either works, but the axehandles work faster). The reason the border isn't more secure is that a bunch of fat cats and drug lords believe it's better to keep it open, and have bought enough US congresscritters and "public servants" to keep true immigration reform from happening. Until those are removed or rendered harmless, nothing is going to be accomplished. When the American people get up on their hind legs and start demanding something be done, and start really HURTING those that keep things from being done, either economically or physically, nothing is going to change. A boycott of everything Massachusetts-related would be an excellent start.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2006 15:34 Comments ||
Top||
MORE than half of Victorian schoolchildren view Muslims as terrorists, and two out of five agree that Muslims "are unclean", a survey has revealed. Just over 50 per cent believe Muslims "behave strangely", while 45 per cent say Australians do not have positive feelings about Muslims.
I'm surprised the numbers are that high after Bali.
These are the preliminary findings of the survey, which aims to measure student attitudes towards the Muslim community. The research was conducted in the second half of 2005 and is based on responses from 551 year 10 and 11 students in Victoria.
Almost half said they had learned "a little" about Muslims and Islam at school, but more than a third said they had learned nothing on these subjects. When asked if schools should teach more about Muslims, 29 per cent of the teenagers said no, and 34 per cent said they did not care.
One of the researchers, Abe Ata, of the Australian Catholic University, said the findings showed a need for educators to develop new ways of promoting multiculturalism among children. "There are very strong signals that there is a chasm between mainstream students and Muslim students," said Dr Ata, a senior fellow at the university's Institute for the Advancement of Research.
Then again, the kids could be educating you about a few things: like multiculturalism, which doesn't work when you force-feed it people.
"Educationalists and policymakers in education should take proactive steps to help create more racial harmony in the classroom and outside it."
Waleed Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said the results were troubling. "What it demonstrates is that Muslims are being viewed in a way that is really subhuman," he said. "The only way you can combat this kind of prejudice is on a personal level. It's much harder to hate people when you know someone in that social group."
Perhaps teaching a little self-control would help, eh?
Phong Nguyen, the chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, described the survey's findings as "a wake-up call". "We cannot assume that our children who grow up in a multicultural setting will automatically be accepting of each other," he said.
People need to earn respect, whether as kids or as adults. You can teach kids to start off treating a person they encounter with decency, but the only they'll continue to treat that person with respect is if that person earns it. Somehow that isn't on the multi-cultural agenda.
"Adults need to do things to make sure that our impressionable young children have a growing, mature understanding of the world and other people."
Learning about other faiths and cultures was just as important to a child's education as studying subjects such as maths or physics, Mr Nguyen said.
The Victorian Government's draft new education laws explicitly permits the teaching of comparative religion in public schools, and enshrines values of "openness and tolerance". However, according to the Australian Education Union, while some schools discussed issues involving Muslims within the curriculum, others are more hesitant to do so. "Sometimes schools do shy away from such controversial issues because of the sensitivities," said the union's branch president, Mary Bluett. "There's always the thought that you might fall foul of politicians or parents."
But Andrew Blair, the president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, said schools had a social responsibility to discuss such sensitive issues with students. "Just because it's tough, you shouldn't turn your back on it," he said, adding that the task of helping young people learn about other cultures lay not only with schools, but also with parents. "The lack of understanding and generosity out of these (survey) results is incredibly disappointing," Mr Blair said.
Celebrate the differences then change to our way or hit the hiway.
Acceptance of the ummah's pain or else.
Posted by: Madrasa Oz ||
02/07/2006 1:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The kids are smart and gonna be alright. Please Australians, keep the multiculti Stalinists away from your children.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 2:37 Comments ||
Top||
#4
50 per cent believe Muslims "behave strangely"...
LOL! They sure phreakin do!!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/07/2006 7:11 Comments ||
Top||
#5
a need for educators to develop new ways of promoting multiculturalism among children.
This is sickening!
This translates as "we need to brainwash the kiddies so they don't think by themselves, but follow the Party line".
School systems have been failing *everywhere* in the western world, because it has morphed from a teaching system designated to promote learning and education into a mind-formating machine designated to enforce a certain set of neo-marxist values.
I only know of the *totally bankrupt* french school system, but IIUC, this is the same in the USA, Canada, Germany, and I'd guess elsewhere : achievements have been falling miserably compared to early 20th century students, in reading, mathemathics, and others fundation subjects.
Western schools are ridden with gramscists, bent on enforcing the Frankfurt school's program of countervalues.
We're wasting away our collective future. We don't need pedagogues nor educators, we need teachers.
#8
The good news (relatively speaking) is close to 40% of Australian kids are enrolled in private schools of various types (and strongly promoted by the Howard government), and the public school system is in serious crisis.
Otherwise, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings"
#11
Muslims "are unclean"? WTF? Unclean is a term Muslims use for others, I've never heard it used by any Westerner to describe anyone. Filthy perhaps but not unclean.
551 is a pathetic sample size as well.
So who wrote/pushed this survey and why? Was it the Australian Catholic University? Is Mr. Ata a Catholic or simply an employee with an unfortunate last name? Enquiring minds want to know.
#13
A 500 sample size gives an error margin of +-4.4% at a 95% confidence level.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 10:37 Comments ||
Top||
#14
95% confidence that they may be 8.8% off isn't as bad as I thought. Normally they shoot for over a thousand sample size. Why go lower? Lazy, Cheap?
#15
and this despite the best efforts of SBS world news to de-islamicise any muslim violence (by calling rioters "believers" instead of Islamists for example) and by including pro-Muslim editorial content designed to contextualise WHY muslims might be offended and to justify their position.
God bless the rationality of youth.
Now I wonder if SBS will stop broadcasting the news at all? I mean every night it features muslims killing someone.
just think if there were no muslims there'd be almost no world news of riots/violence.
#16
Other questions not published: 89% of the kids do not like the smell of camel manure muslims use as colone, 7% think muslims are humans from this planet, 100% of the girls did not want to be child raped by old men like Muhammad's 9 year old wife Ayesha, 11% think Islam is the religion of peace, 89% think Islam is the religion of piss.
#17
Every non-mohamedan should be required to read the Koran, preferably one that has not been sanitized for Western consumption, and still retains all of its Islamic goodness.
Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish Muslim writer based in Istanbul, Turkey. (His website is located at www.thewhitepath.com)":
"This rage, then, is not a theologically driven response, but an emotional uproar by people who think that their faith and identity are being insulted. It is in a sense a nationalist reaction the nation being the Muslim umma. (If this reaction were not nationalist, but purely religious in nature, then it would also follow on the mocking of Jesus Christ and Moses. After all, the Koran regards these holy men as God's chosen messengers.)"
...
"Thus, if what we see is a clash of civilizations, the responsibility lies in the hands of the extremists on both sides: those who insist, "Yes, we have a right to ridicule God" and those who threaten, "We are going to kill you for it." The rest could get along."
Zeyno Baran is director of international-security and energy programs at the Nixon Center:
"...the most important step now is to cease tolerating intolerance. No Western (or Muslim) government should tolerate appeals to kill others in the name of religion. The longer such radicals who claim to speak for Muslims are allowed to do so freely, and the longer they are legitimized by Western governments that want to "develop open channels" to the Muslim community, the more demonstrations, riots, and killings we will see. After all, these protests and attacks were not committed "spontaneously" by Muslims, but were encouraged by radical groups groups that can, with the right approach, be defeated."
A dozen interesting interviews, including a number of moderate Muslims. Way too much to excerpt, RTWT.
#3
"Thus, if what we see is a clash of civilizations, the responsibility lies in the hands of the extremists on both sides: those who insist, "Yes, we have a right to ridicule God" and those who threaten, "We are going to kill you for it."
A tidy bit of moral equivalence there ... equating ridiculing God through free speech with murdering someone in cold blood. Sort of highlights the whole problem, doesn't it?
I'm obliged to quote Bertrand Russell:
"... I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
#4
"A large portion of the human race" - no, most people either believe in God, a God or gods, andor in the importance of morality and spirituality. Will agree is a "clash of civilizations" as the Radics are essen saying "SURENDER/CONCEDE OR DIE" to both America and the free world. America and the West must accept Socialism and OWG, or be destroyed - ditto for accepting Radical Islam and the Global Caliphate. WE FIGHT AND WIN, OR WE DIE.
PRAGUE- The Justice Ministry has received an official U.S. application for the extradition of Oussama Kassir, a Swede of Lebanese origin, who was detained in Prague on suspicion of terrorism, ministry spokesman Petr Dimun said.
Kassir allegedly participated in building a training camp for Jihad in Oregon, USA. The trained Muslims were to move to Afghanistan.
Turins Muslim community is feeling the pressure of tighter security for the Winter Olympics, with locals saying clerics are facing empty mosques as illegal immigrants are hiding from police until the end of the Games.
Italys Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu has named militant Islamists as a chief threat to the Games, and last September the government expelled Moroccan-born imam Bouriki Bouriqi Bouchta who was accused of praising Al Qaeda in his sermons in Turin.
There are more controls than usual because of the Olympics. I see it in a positive light as long as our rights are respected, said imam Abdelaziz Khounati, who preaches at the Peace Mosque where Bouchta used to work.
Many people dont come here anymore because the police stop them and ask for their residence permit, so they feel uncomfortable.
He added: Presence (in mosques) has fallen because the illegal immigrants have disappeared -- many of them have gone to other cities and are waiting until the Games are over.
The Olympics open on Friday and end on Feb. 26.
Hidden away in a small courtyard amid washing lines and childrens toys, marked only by a small sign next to an unassuming metal door, the Peace Mosque has an underground feel to it.
But Khounati, who works as a religious representative for the Turin Games, was keen to show that his community is part of the mainstream, and said there were no extremist preachers in the city.
Over the past few days, violent protests by Muslims outraged over a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper have added to security concerns at the Games.
Some Muslims working in the halal butcheries and kebab shops around the Peace Mosque said they felt offended by the caricatures, which were reprinted by several European papers, but that they did not plan to protest in Turin, preferring to keep a low profile during the Olympics.
Attendance at another mosque in the neighbourhood in northern Turin, home to many Muslims, has also fallen as more and more police are patrolling the streets, residents said.
On Tuesday morning, several police vans were slowly driving around the neighbourhood and a member of the tax police was going from shop to shop, checking accounts and receipts.
In a way we are used to it. They are always controlling us. Now there are even more controls. They talk about terrorism, but we are the ones being terrorised, said a local shop keeper who did not want to be named.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fer gawd's sake. You are illegals. Not supposed to be their. If the mosques are empty, that means most of the muslims are there illegally.
And they feel "uncomfortable" and "terrorised" by increased police presence? You're criminals - the only right you have is to be booted back to the hellpit you came from posthaste. "Rights"? Oh, bugger off.
Italy should clean out this rat's nest of illegals. Basta.
A Moscow museum has announced it will exhibit the entire series of cartoons of Mohammed that have caused riots throughout the Islamic world.
Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum and Public Center, said on Russian television that the center was ready to organize a public exhibition of the cartoons satirizing the founder of Islam that originally were published in a Danish newspaper, Pravda.ru reported Monday.
"We must show the whole world that Russia goes along with Europe, that the freedom of expression is much more important for us than the dogmas of religious fanatics," Samodurov said.
The exhibition reportedly will open in March. Lawyer Yury Shmidt has said he will invite French philosopher Andre Glucksmann and French novelist Michel Houellebecq to the opening ceremony to read lectures about the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.
In 2003 the Sakharov Museum outraged many Russian Orthodox believers with the art exhibit "Be Careful -- Religion," which many felt was insulting to their beliefs.
A Belgian town has banned the public showing of an artwork representing a handcuffed
Saddam Hussein inside a liquid-filled tank, because it could shock tourists and Muslims, an official said.
The piece, "Saddam Hussein Shark" by anti-conformist Czech artist David Cerny, was initially put on show in the seaside town of Middelkerke last month.
But mayor Michel Landuyt said he immediately ordered a ban on it.
"This work could shock people, not only from around here but tourists and potentially people of another faith, in particular Muslims," he told AFP.
He underlined that his decision was taken well before the eruption of a row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first published in Denmark, which has escalated into violent demonstrations in a number of countries.
The Saddam piece -- whose name apparently referred to "Shark," a controversial work by British contemporary artist Damien Hirst -- was first shown at an international exhibition in Prague last September.
It did not provoke any official action then. But it was deemed a little too much for a small Belgian community.
"In my view it was too shocking," said the local official.
From our friends at Time Magazine
The Pentagon, which is calling for the largest defense budget since the cold war, has been floating scary threats lately. TIME has obtained a copy of a PowerPoint presentation that senior officers have been showing to groups around the U.S. warning that failure to stop Osama bin Laden and his ilk would have the same "consequences" as Europe's appeasement of the Nazis before World War II. Bullet points describe possible U.S. economic depression and Washington being forced into an "accommodation" with terrorists. Skeptics question the timing of such predictions. Says security analyst John Pike: "The Pentagon has a long tradition of dialing up the threat to get more dollars at budget time." It's simultaneously saddening and heartening to see that while neither our government nor our "elites" seem capable of grasping the scope of this war and fighting the informational battles, guys like Fred, Wretchard, Zombie (whose latest photo-essay on Mohammed iconography is being widely plagarized by MSM reporters), and Charles Johnson are winning the battles largely on their own dime and on their own time. To the idiots who wrote this piece, it's still all about triangulation and manipulation. "Wag the Dog, right? Those silly officers can't fool us Columbia J-school grads." I don't say this out of flattery, but when this is over, Fred, and the others I named deserve a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I don't believe in karma, so I don't know what will happen to the Time writers, but I hope it isn't pleasant.
#2
Slowly going out of business is Time's reward for such insightful reporting. They have become largely irrelevant except to the other media. I can't recall the last time I saw or heard of anyone reading a news weekly like Time, Newsweek, or US News anywhere other than in a doctor's office. It is better to just ignore them and let them fade into obscurity.
#3
I've spent a bit more time than I like in doctors' offices over the last few years, RWV, and I don't remember seeing anyone reading Time and its ilk... just the car mags, Sports Illustrated and the women's mags.
#5
would have the same "consequences" as Europe's appeasement of the Nazis before World War II.
Hmmm, let's think about this for just a second. OK times up, the boys at the Pentagon are right, Time mag is ate TF up with the dumbass, and all you have to do is listen to that jerk from Iran to understand the Pentagon is really understating the threat.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2006 8:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"The Pentagon has a long tradition of dialing up the threat to get more dollars at budget time."
Yeah, that's the ticket. Now that the Hildabeast has called for increasing the Army by 80,000. Remember that TIME? When she and her SO were blowing off the Army during the 90s and downsizing it from 750,000 to under 500,000, I'm sure they and TIME thought it was just another budget 'thingy'.
Again, and again, the military men have seen themselves hurled into war by ambitions, passions, and blunders of civilian governments, almost wholly uninformed as to the limits of their military potentials and almost recklessly indifferent to the military requirements of the wars they let loose. Aware that they may again be thrown by civilians into an unforeseen conflict, perhaps with a foe they have not envisaged, these realistic military men find themselves unable to do anything save demand all the men, guns, and supplies they can possibly wring from the civilians, in the hope that they may be prepared or half prepared for whatever may befall them.
Vagts, Alfred, History of Militarism, rev. 1959, Free Press, NY, pp 33-34.
#7
The conformity of the blather coming from the MSM, such as the NYT, the LA Times, etc. suggests a single entity is calling the shots. Who really owns all these rags? Investment in only a few key businesses can exert lots of powerful influence on global affairs without ever exposing themselves to the public sunshine, in "trickle down treason". Big banks, big business, and the MSM all have some common denom-efellers.
The world is rapidly moving towards a major war. Events will continue to spiral out of control before the next election. The democrats decision to pretend that the war is just a figment of the Karl Rove's imagination will put them in a position that will make it impossible for them to recover.
#9
1. of course inside the Pentagon you emphasize threats to get bucks. But thats true of ANY bureaucracy. If youre at CDC infectious you hype bird flue, etc while if youre in mental health, you hype suicide, etc, etc. Same way if youre Navy you hype China, if youre Spec Ops you hype the terrs.
2. I know of no real opposition to the growth of the Pentagon budget at this time. Can Time point to any mainstream pols who oppose that?
3. In fact if the admin were really taking the threat seriously theyd be acting far differently. They wouldnt be cutting taxes, for ex.
4. Its hard to assess this powerpoint without having seen it. OBL is probably hidden away in cave in Waziristan, and is hardly a conventional threat like Hitler. OTOH a big terr hit in CONUS COULD have very substantial economic consequences.
5. Lots of folks at the Pentagon make LOTS of PPT presentations. My suspicion is that the "senior officers" here are from some minor outreach office, and their showing it to some friendly audiences. Hardly the big propaganda push Time is making it out to be.
#10
"Now that the Hildabeast has called for increasing the Army by 80,000. Remember that TIME? When she and her SO were blowing off the Army during the 90s and downsizing it from 750,000 to under 500,000, I'm sure they and TIME thought it was just another budget 'thingy'"
Please show me a source documenting GOP opposition to downsizing the army in the 90's. The GOP DID aggressively attack Clinton on military spending - mainly for not funding ballistic missile defense, and not maintaining adequate readiness, and for overstretch of the AIR FORCE. I dont recall any particular opposition to the downsizing of the ground forces. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
#13
When in the course of a business cycle do you think tax increases ARENT a mistake?
NEVER!
Tax policy is not about making social policy or getting home folk on board. It's about how to pay for what the government needs to buy and stealing money at gunpoint from some of the people to give it to other people as a bribe for votes. The primary reason we have a deficit is because of the recession that the tax cut ameliorated. This has reduced the deficit as the country has grown.
How about in order to get the home folk on board and sharing the sacrifice we cut down on the spending and bribes for votes?
#14
'Tax policy is not about making social policy or getting home folk on board. It's about how to pay for what the government needs to buy and stealing money at gunpoint from some of the people to give it to other people as a bribe for votes."
During a war we need to buy more.
"The primary reason we have a deficit is because of the recession that the tax cut ameliorated. "
And what point in the business cycle does this deficit end? You cant blame the recession for the deficit when youre at the peak of the cycle. At some point you have to have the budget in balance.
"How about in order to get the home folk on board and sharing the sacrifice we cut down on the spending" yes, together with ending the tax cuts, that we be a good compromise.
#15
Liberalhawk, there is a train of thought, backed by a lot of data, that when you lower taxes the government revenues actually increase. If you believe than tax cuts are always a good thing because it means more money for the people, and the government as the economy expands.
Most of the people against the tax cuts are against it not because it robs government revenues but because they want to redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest and that is harder to do with tax cuts.
#16
#9 LH - And it's Time's job to hype the "news" = whatever you say it is.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/07/2006 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Sorry, LH - I mean't whatever THEY say it is....
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/07/2006 19:56 Comments ||
Top||
#18
TIME has obtained a copy of a PowerPoint presentation that senior officers have been showing to groups around the U.S. warning that failure to stop Osama bin Laden and his ilk would have the same "consequences" as Europe's appeasement of the Nazis before World War II.
What part of IslamoNazi do these idiots not understand? I hope the blogsphere puts Time out of business.
Checking on toronto's muslims. Our beloved "students"
A week-long conference on radical Islam organized by Jewish student groups at the University of Toronto has stirred up controversy and resentment among Muslims at a time of heightened sensitivities due to world events.
The "Know Radical Islam Week," which includes presentations on terrorism and civil rights violations in Islamic regimes, began yesterday at Sidney Smith Hall just as violent protests swept the globe over published caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.
The coincidence was not lost on U of T student Jonathan Jaffit, director of campus affairs for Betar-Tagar, the Zionist student activist group that helped organize the conference.
"The issue of the cartoons in the European media just goes to showcase even further how radical Islam is suppressing freedom of speech through violence," he said.
"This is about a political ideology that's hijacked a religion," he said of the conference topic. "It will definitely stir up controversy, but we cannot shy away from these events."
Student Mubdi Rahman, academic affairs co-ordinator with the university's Muslim Student Association, said the conference "seeks to divide, as opposed to bridge any sort of dialogue on these issues." There is no dialogue possible with you, Rahman. Never a passing thought that dialogue has 2 sides.
Rahman said he has heard from many Muslim students who feel threatened they'll be viewed as "radicals" due to their beliefs, some of which will be criticized at the conference. yaas, if you hold radicals beliefs, you are a radical. You might like to think youre a moderate muslim, but youre not. Hold radical beliefs .. They just dont get this logic thinking thing, do they. Or the whole cause and effect thing just thoroughly escapes them, unto the 3rd and 4th generation as these students are. The MSA issued an e-mail to its 2,000 members urging them to "exercise restraint and dignity" over the next few weeks. Relax boys, its only a few weeks. Mayhem as usual at Spring Break though.
Note that the Muslim student body has to be told to behave themselves. Unable to do so without the instructions. And, hey, its only temporary. There is no reciprocal call for the Jewish students to behave, yall will note. Thats a given
#2
Just because you want to see the jewish state annihilated , and a worldwide islamic caliphate dispense sharia law with an iron fist doesnt mean you are a radical, does it?
Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday resisted bipartisan appeals for changes in a hotly disputed warrantless eavesdropping program, saying he believed "we have all the legal authority we need."
Democrats and some Republicans have urged the Bush administration to work with Congress to revise a law already on the books in order to end questions about whether the spy program, initiated after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, was constitutional.
And, Congress, being the deliberative body that it is, will give immediate and complete latitude to the Commander-in-Chief to get the job done (what shit)
In an interview to air on Tuesday night on PBS' "Newshour," Cheney was asked whether President George W. Bush was willing to work with Congress to settle some of the legal questions about the spy program.
"We believe... that we have all the legal authority we need," Cheney said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/07/2006 16:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
No -- not Jack Bauer
Registration required - here's the article
The head of the CIA's counter-terrorism center was forced to step down Monday over concerns that he was not aggressive enough in leading the agency's pursuit of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, current and former intelligence officials said.
The sudden departure of Robert Grenier, who had held the position for about a year, was described by intelligence officials as part of an effort to reinvigorate counter-terrorism operations that have had mixed results during his tenure.
In the latest example of the difficulties the agency has encountered, the CIA carried out a missile strike that killed suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan last month but missed its main target. The terrorist network's No. 2 leader, Ayman Zawahiri, and Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden have taunted the United States with messages promising future attacks.
Grenier, who held a series of high-level assignments overseas during his career in the CIA's clandestine service, acknowledged in an e-mail to colleagues and subordinates Monday that he had been asked to leave his post, officials said.
"He basically said, 'I've been asked to move on,' " said one intelligence source who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly address the issue. "This is a good officer. But it was felt by the head of the clandestine service that there were better choices at this time."
The head of the clandestine service, who remains undercover and thus publicly unidentified at the CIA, had preceded Grenier in the job and had become increasingly frustrated with his successor's cautious approach, the officials said. The clandestine service chief holds one of the top posts in the CIA and oversees the counter-terrorism center.
The CIA's counter-terrorism center, known as the CTC, has surrendered much of its authority and prestige over the last year to a new multi-agency counter-terrorism center created as part of an overhaul of the U.S. intelligence community.
But the CIA's center is still one of the largest and most crucial programs in the nation's counter-terrorism arsenal. The CTC mushroomed in size from a few hundred employees to more than 1,000 after the Sept. 11 attacks, and remains in charge of coordinating covert operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist targets.
Current and former intelligence officials cited "cumulative" dissatisfaction with the way Grenier approached the job, but insisted that his departure was not connected to any specific failure, including the missile attack that missed Zawahiri.
Nor did Grenier step down over friction with CIA Director Porter J. Goss and his staff a factor that contributed to a series of high-level departures from the CIA in late 2004 and early last year, the officials said.
A CIA spokesman said the agency would not discuss internal personnel matters. It was not clear whether Grenier would leave the agency or accept another assignment. No replacement had been selected as of late Monday, the officials said.
One former senior U.S. intelligence official involved in counter-terrorism operations said there had been frustration with the pace of operations launched by the CTC, as well as with coordination with other agencies.
"How far had they come in the past 12 to 18 months in terms of sources of information or individuals who had been captured?" asked the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I think part of it also reflects the bureaucratic squabbling that goes on across departments and agencies and whether the CIA's efforts were as aggressive as some other departments, notably the Department of Defense."
Grenier spent much of his career overseas as a case officer in the CIA's directorate of operations. Former colleagues said he was the CIA's station chief in Islamabad when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and that he had previously spent extensive tours in the Middle East.
One former senior CIA official said that it might have been difficult for Grenier to escape his predecessor's shadow.
"There's a saying we have," the former official said. "The two worst officers are always your successor and your predecessor."
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales warned the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday about the sensitive nature of President Bush's warrantless surveillance program aimed at capturing communications between terrorist plotters.
"Our enemy is listening," he said during testimony before the committee. "I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a sensitive program by leaking its existence in the first place, and smiling at the prospect that we might now disclose even more or perhaps even unilaterally disarm ourselves of a key tool in the war on terror."
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/07/2006 00:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Define "enemy".
/channeling moonbat Dhimmicrat
Only one problem with this appeal--It assumes that the listener is sane and loyal.
Posted by: N guard ||
02/07/2006 7:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It should go without saying, but sadly it had to be said. Who knows what will come of it.
Still wondering if anything will come out of the leak investigation. Even if it was a US Senator, he should be hauled in front of a GJ. And if it was Rockefeller as the intel community currently believes, he should be kicked off the Intelligence Committee.
#3
And the information leaked for publication in W. Va. It would be interesting to know where W. Va. ranks in the proportion of population that is veteran. I doubt he'd be re-elected and that's the best thing that could happen to him and the rest of the donks who toy in traitorism.
#4
And if it was Rockefeller as the intel community currently believes, he should be kicked off the Intelligence Committee.
ITYM, "he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/07/2006 9:15 Comments ||
Top||
#5
These senators think that they are immune from consequences of leaking, or they get their lackeys cads staffers to do it. A couple of examples made of these traitors and the problem will solve itself. Robert Crawford is right: prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Only the trial will be a circus, if the senator had any say in it. A pox upon their houses for being such traitors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2006 10:00 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Sen. Kennedy, could you step outside for a few minutes?"
#9
Heh. I don't care about political capital - I want to see the assholes in friggin' pinstriped jumpsuits and chains doin' the perp-walk on the evening news.
#10
"Our enemy is listening," he said during testimony before the committee. "I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a sensitive program by leaking its existence in the first place, and smiling at the prospect that we might now disclose even more or perhaps even unilaterally disarm ourselves of a key tool in the war on terror."
This could not be any more clear. Unfortunately, the majority of critics of the surveillance program still don't seem to get this.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 00:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Dimwitocrats are stuck in the Cold War. Doing more with fewer troops equates to greater end strength....make it so.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/07/2006 0:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
When it comes to comventional equipment and force structure we need to pair down the force. SOCOM is a bit different in that they are net equipment centric, meaning units are not built around a Tank or Artillery piece. SOF units are built around a small team and the equipment bought is to support the team, not the tank. This is good restructuring for our future wars.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2006 7:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Remember that 'retirees', pay and medical, are carried in the Defense budget. And the personnel portion of the budget is the one big consumer of that budget. Rummey and boys have to show the consequences years out from even this budget on the impact that all has. They need to disconnect a lot of the retirement portion out of the operating budget and carry it as a separate obligation. One it shows what Congress owes without the Hollyweird bookkeeping and, two, it provides a more clear picture of what DoD has to actually operate with.
The Pakistan Medical Association has vowed not to prescribe medicines from firms based in some European countries where controversial cartoons portraying the Prophet Mohammed were published, said Shahid Rao, the body's general secretary for Punjab province.
The association will boycott drugs from Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and France to protest the 'blasphemous' drawings, Rao said.
'We have taken a unanimous decision and it will be immediately implemented in Pakistan,' Rao told AFP.
'Doctors in the country are very motivated on this issue,' he said. 'We would use alternate medicines in future till a public apology comes from these countries.'
Pharmacists have also vowed not to sell such medicines, Rao said.
The association is advising patients against using medicines from the offending countries if they are mistakenly prescribed by doctors, he added.
The recent republication of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, has sparked angry protests and attacks against Western interests in parts of the Muslim world.
Many Muslim countries, institutions and organizations have called for a boycott of products from countries where the media have carried the caricatures.
Rallies condemning the cartoons have been held almost daily in Pakistan. Hundreds of traders in the central city of Multan burned the Danish, French and German flags on Sunday.
On Saturday, Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned the ambassadors of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, Norway and the Czech Republic to lodge protests.
It is not immediately clear whether the Pakistan Medical Association is planning to boycott medicines from any of the other European nations that published the cartoons.
With sports fans counting down to the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy on Friday, the president of the UN General Assembly has appealed to all countries to revive the ancient Greek tradition of a two-week period of peace surrounding the global athletic competition.
Last time I looked, the ancient Greeks were dead.
Security at the event in northern Italy is tight.
It better be
President Jan Eliasson of Sweden, who is also a member of the Board of the International Truce Foundation, issued a statement calling for measures to ensure a peaceful global environment for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Winter Olympics are mostly Nordic style events, aren't they? The Followers of Alan are a bit miffed at the Nordic countries right now. What's the over/under on the body count?
The General Assembly has urged member states to observe the Olympic Truce from the seventh day before the opening to the seventh day after the closing of each Olympic Games. That observance should come during the XX Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Turin from 10 to 26 February, and the Paralympic Winter Games, also in Turin, from 10 to 19 March, the Assembly said. Last month UN secretary general Kofi Annan urged all warring factions to lay down their arms during the Games, saying the Olympics offer a long enough period for the protagonists and people who are destroying their own countries and killing each other to pause for a moment, look around them and see what damage they are doing.
Ah, Kofi? What if they look around and like what they see? Hello?
#1
It was only an internal thing among the Greeks. It would be more like the Bloods and the Chrips calling a truce to watch the Super Bowl. Had nothing to do with external conflict, like a break at halftime to gas up the car, get a six pack and rob the local convenience store [who says one stop shopping is dead].
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), has denounced the attacks on and burning of the embassies of Denmark and Norway in the Syrian capital Damascus and the Lebanese one Beirut by demonstrators protesting the publication by a Danish newspaper and a Norwegian one of cartoons offensive to Prophet Muhammad, PTUI may the best blessings and peace of God be upon him.
Talking about the OIC's assessment of the developments of events in Damascus and Beirut, Professor Ihsanoglu told "Asharq al-Awsat": "What happened in Syria and in Lebanon is a mistake that cannot be accepted. Muslims everywhere should continue their peaceful stand without infringing on the rights of the others." He disclosed that he talked to Syrian Foreign Minister Farooq al-Sharaa yesterday morning following what happened to the Danish and Norwegian Embassies and that he informed him that the Syrian authorities had launched a security investigation into the two incidents.
Ihsanoglu talked about telephone contacts with the Saudi Foreign Ministry, Yemen, and Libya during the past two days to discuss the developments and exchange views in order for the council of the Islamic countries' foreign ministers to take a specific stand and measure soon. He added that he had in the past few days telephone contacts with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and EU Representative Javier Solana to exchange views on the current situation resulting from the cartoons. He said: "I exchanged views with Kofi Annan about what the international organization can do to draw up principles of respect for the freedom of religions. I also had a meeting with the European countries' ambassadors and representatives at the OIC secretariat general to discuss the ways out of the present crisis."
The OIC secretary general welcomed the Vatican statement denouncing the cartoons that were published on 31 September 2005 but said this statement came somewhat late. He stressed that the OIC secretariat escalated the stand toward the Danish Government four months after the Islamic countries' ambassadors in the capital Copenhagen contacted it and their media and informed them of the dangerous situation but all these efforts to solve the crisis from the beginning were ignored and the Danish Government ignored them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
More background from the New York Sun, on a story they ran a couple days ago ... EFL.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The committee has already confirmed through the intelligence community that the recordings of Saddam's voice are authentic, according to its chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, who would not go into detail about the nature of the conversations or their context. They were provided to his committee by a former federal prosecutor, John Loftus, who says he received them from a former American military intelligence analyst.
Mr. Loftus will make the recordings available to the public on February 17 at the annual meeting of the Intelligence Summit, of which he is president. On the organization's Web site, Mr. Loftus is quoted as promising that the recordings "will be able to provide a few definitive answers to some very important - and controversial - weapons of mass destruction questions." Contacted yesterday by The New York Sun, Mr. Loftus would only say that he delivered a CD of the recordings to a representative of the committee, and the following week the committee announced that it was reopening the investigation into weapons of mass destruction.
The audio recordings are part of new evidence the House intelligence committee is piecing together that has spurred Mr. Hoekstra to reopen the question of whether Iraq had the biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons American inspectors could not turn up. President Bush called off the hunt for those weapons last year and has conceded that America has yet to find evidence of the stockpiles.
Mr. Hoekstra has already met with a former Iraqi air force general, Georges Sada, who claims that Saddam used civilian airplanes to ferry chemical weapons to Syria in 2002. Mr. Hoekstra is now talking to Iraqis who Mr. Sada claims took part in the mission, and the congressman said the former air force general "should not just be discounted." Mr. Hoekstra also said he is in touch with other people who have come forward to the committee - Iraqis and Americans - who claim that the weapons inspectors may have overlooked other key sites and evidence. He has also asked the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, to declassify some 35,000 boxes of Iraqi documents obtained in the war that have yet to be translated.
"I still believe there are key individuals who have not been debriefed and there are key sites that have never been investigated. I know there are 35,000 boxes of documents that have never been translated. I am frustrated," Mr. Hoekstra said.
He added, "Right now, it's not my job to investigate the specific claims. We are doing this a little with Sada. But we still don't fully understand what happened in Iraq three years after the invasion, three years after we control the country. There are enough people coming to the committee, Sada is not the only one, saying, 'you really ought to look under this rock.' This gives me cause to take up the issue again." ...
Personally, at this point, I need ocular proof -- get your hopes up at your own risk. But I admit, I've got Feb. 17th circled on the calendar now ...
#1
I'm also sceptical there will be any definitive answers, but Saddam giving the order to send WMDs to Syria is going make for some very interesting times.
#2
*snicker* I find this all very amusing. The dems were cautious at first with the "now WMD's" "Bush lied" meme. Remember how they didn't take the bait for quite awhile. So the Bush administration gave them more rope. And when they got bolder - the Bush admin built them a platform with carefully worded statements saying that "much of the information they knew about WMD's was wrong". And then the election came along and Bush gave them a horse to ride, encouraging them to boldly put the noose around their necks. Apparently on Feb 17th - someone is going to spook the horse.
#3
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, bush is still a poopey head! Poopey head, Poopey head! And the democrats are going to lose the next election as protest against this outrage.
In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.
"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.
Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.
He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."
He recognizes that this violent overreaction makes Islam look bad. He may is also taking a poke at Sadr, who seems to be working directly with Syria and Iran to stir the pot.
"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.
The government said Monday it will send another contingent of 380 soldiers to Iraq, making it the country's sixth group to serve six-month rotations in the war-torn nation. "There are still projects that must be carried out in Iraq," said Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Jose Alas."We have to finish the work. The mission is to continue with the humanitarian work."
The Salvadorans are helping build water systems, rebuild schools and provide medical care in the Iraqi provincial city of Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. El Salvador is the only Latin American nation with a military presence in Iraq. Two of its soldiers have been killed there, one by Iraqi insurgents and one in an accident.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2006 00:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nice to know who your friends are...
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/07/2006 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I had the good fortune to work with El Salvadorian troops in the early 80's. Great troops, combat hardened, and mission focused. I'm glad they are on our side.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2006 7:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
What 49 Pan said: IIRC El Salvador has also sent some Spec Ops guys - not to be messed with.
BAGHDAD -Iraq on Monday said it was closing the southern Basra airport after stringent security measures imposed by British forces led to a strike by airport employees. We are closing the airport because the excessive security measures of the British who do not care even for Iraqi people working in the airport, Iraqi Transport Minister Salam Al Maliki told reporters.
The Basra airport was paralysed since Sunday after the local employees went on strike leading to cancellation of flights on Monday. The employees of Iraqi Airways, who are responsible for handling passenger luggage, did not report to work since Sunday following which two scheduled international flights and one flight from Baghdad to Basra were cancelled Monday. There were no flights scheduled on Sunday.
The British forces are responsible for the overall security of the airport, a crucial commercial link for Iraqs southern region with passenger flights coming from Amman and Dubai to Basra.
British military spokesman Major Peter Cripps confirmed that the workers were on strike since Sunday. He said the employees held a peaceful demonstration on Sunday morning and since then have been absent from work. But he said the airport was open. The airport is open as military flights are arriving. It is the commercial civil flights that have been affected, he said.
Cripps, however, maintained that the security measures are just to make Basra a truly international airport like Heathrow.
The minister is hearing the voice of the southern people but he does not realise that the strike affects the economy of those very people of the south.
The order to close the airport is the latest example of confrontation between Iraqi and British authorities. Relations between the British forces and the southern Iraqi police have deteriorated in the past few months after the troops detained a group of policemen for alleged corruption.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Bring our troops home. Let's not waste any more of our precious resources on these nasty ingrates. Leave them to their miserable religion, and let them all slaughter each other. We don't need the constant car-bombings in the news to wake up Westerners about Islam because we have the Danish cartoon jihad now, which is doing a much better job.
#3
Glains is right. Time to start ruck'n up and turning it over to them....as is. I'll give them 6 months however, and Saddam will be back in power flipping us the bird.
As Israelis assess the implications of Hamass victory in January elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, a new threat may be developing in Lebanon. Al-Qaedalinked terrorists have been present in Lebanon for a decade, but recent statements by Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi suggest that the dual objectives of destabilizing Arab regimes and targeting Israel proper are becoming top al-Qaeda priorities. Al-Zarqawilinked terrorists in Lebanon have already engaged in low-level targeting of Israeli and Lebanese interests, yet several obstacles may hinder their ability to launch significant attacks in or from Lebanon. The Lebanese government, although weak, has a clear interest in preventing both internally and externally directed al-Qaeda activity. The dynamic among Hizballah, the Palestinians, and al-Qaeda remains more ambiguous, but early signs suggest potential antagonism among the groups. Together, Israel and the United States may be able to help Lebanon contain this emerging threat.
One of al-Qaedas entrees into Lebanon is Asbat al-Ansar, an al-Qaeda affiliate that has been responsible for numerous attacks in Lebanon since the mid-1990s. The groups members number several hundred, some of whom trained in Afghanistan with the first generation of al-Qaeda operatives. In November 2005, Abu Sharif, the leader of Asbat al-Ansar, told Beiruts Daily Star newspaper that four of the groups members had died fighting the United States in Iraq and that others had also traveled there to join the jihad.
Events since the autumn of 2005 further illuminate al-Qaedas connection to Lebanon. In September French police disrupted a Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) cell allied to the Zarqawi network in the suburbs of Paris. Two of the detainees told authorities they had received explosives training at a camp near Tripoli in northern Lebanon. Then, on December 27, nine Katyusha rockets were fired into northern Israel, hitting Kiryat Shmona, and Shlomi. Hizballah and the Palestinian factions denied culpability. On December 29, al-Zarqawi released a claim of responsibility, stating that the attack was the beginning of an in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy. On January 13, 2006, Lebanese police announced the detention of thirteen al-Qaeda suspects with connections to al-Zarqawi who were in the process of planning suicide attacks in Iraq and possibly Lebanon. The detainees included seven Syrians, three Lebanese, a Saudi, a Jordanian, and a Palestinian.
Within days of the arrests, the Lebanese army intercepted a boat loaded with weapons, including long-range missiles, off the coast of Tripoli, en route to Gaza. Lebanese authorities believe the shipment was organized by the same cell responsible for the December rocket attacks on Israel. Then on January 24, a group calling itself The Black Tigersal-Qaedas military wing in Lebanon posted an internet statement voicing support for the terrorist campaign in Iraq and threatening to attack UN personnel, Palestinian leaders, and Lebanese security forces. On February 2, an alleged al-Qaeda operative made a bomb threat to the Sada al-Balad newspaper; an explosion several hours later injured one soldier at Fakhreddine military barracks in Beirut. The caller claimed the attack was in retaliation for the January arrests of al-Qaeda suspects in Lebanon.
Support for al-Qaeda is most prevalent in Sunni strongholds in northern and southern Lebanon, particularly the Naher al-Bard Palestinian refugee camp and the area around Tripoli, the Ein el-Hilweh camp, and Sunni villages along the border between Lebanon and Israel, such as Al-Abbasiyah, Dahira, Yarin, and Urjub. The Lebanese government has tried to prevent al-Qaeda attacks and to disrupt cells through aggressive police work. On January 30, Lebanese security forces announced the creation of a Special Agency to Combat Terrorism, which will have branches throughout the country and whose staff will receive international counterterrorism training. While police are best able to preempt terrorist activity in northern and central Lebanon, they are notoriously reluctant to intervene in the Palestinian refugee camps in the south, where Asbat al-Ansar elements have enjoyed a safe haven.
Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq have alienated some of their most natural supporters through their unusually brutal tactics. Although it is too early to predict whether they will repeat this pattern in Lebanon, the Palestinians have shown a preliminary willingness to act against al-Qaeda operatives. In April 2004, Fatah forces in Lebanon arrested a Saudi al-Qaeda affiliate who had come to Ein el-Hilweh from Syria. Fatah has also skirmished with members of Asbat al-Ansar and Jund al-Sham (a splinter of Asbat) in Ein el-Hilweh, most recently at the beginning of January 2006. The January al-Qaeda warning for Palestinians to return to Islam and threats to eliminate Palestinian leaders will only escalate hostilities.
A more complex political calculus governs relations between Hizballah and al-Qaeda operatives in Lebanon. Although they have cooperated logistically in the past, Hizballah has historically sought to monopolize the jihad against Israel in southern Lebanon. There also appears to be a nascent ideological conflict between Hizballah and al-Zarqawis wing of al-Qaeda. In an August 2005 interview with Kuwaiti newspaper al-Ray al-Amm, Hizballah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah criticized the anti-Shiite sentiments of some parties with Salafi inclinations in Iraq. Al-Zarqawis protracted campaign against Muslim civilians there, and his 2005 suicide attack in Amman, deepened the rift between the groups.
Counterintuitively, al-Qaedalinked operatives in Lebanon have antagonized rather than appeased Hizballah. In July 2005, Jund al-Sham faxed a threat to assassinate several prominent Hizballah allies and leaders, including former spiritual leader Sayyed Hussein Fadlallah, to the Shiite Fatwa Center in Tyre. In the interview with al-Ray al-Amm, Nasrallah alluded to a similar threat that was posted on the internet in the summer of 2005. Although at the time Nasrallah did not take it seriously, Hizballah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassemone of the leaders named in the July 2005 threatpublicly warned not to make Lebanon an arena for settling scores.
Despite these apparent disputes, Hizballah may have an interest in allowing al-Qaeda elements to operate in its territory. If Hizballah can control the al-Qaeda operatives, their activities could prove useful by creating an ambiguity that complicates Israels retaliation efforts. Ultimately, future interaction between the two groups will depend partially on the Iranian and Syrian stances on al-Qaeda operations in the Lebanese context. Iran in particular presents a danger if, emboldened by Hamass electoral victory, it seeks to tighten the threat circle around Israel by supporting al-Qaedas entrenchment in Lebanon.
Al-Qaedas ability to operate effectively in Lebanon will depend partially on the capability of Lebanese police and the attitudes of terrorist groups already in the country.
Events suggest Palestinians and Hizballah are hostile toward al-Qaeda in Lebanon, yet the dynamic is still evolving. Though in the best case scenario tension among the groups could act as a de facto constraint on al-Qaedas operations in Lebanon, the United States should focus primarily on strengthening the Lebanese government and security forces. Assistance could flow through Lebanons new counterterrorism agency, or funds and training could be directed outside that framework. The United States might also encourage the Lebanese government to assert itself in the Palestinian camps, under the calculus that the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri and the prospect of al-Qaeda attacks may galvanize the governments will to extend its reach. Excessive pressure on this issue could destabilize the political environment in Lebanon, but if the effort takes place in the context of meaningful capacity building it could be an opportunity to strengthen the Lebanese government.
The United States should also consider ways to help the Lebanese and Israeli governments realize their mutual interest in disrupting terrorism in Lebanon. Though there are many political sensitivities on the Lebanese side, the United States might be able to serve as a go-between for intelligence sharing about terrorist activities directed against Lebanese targets.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/07/2006 12:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Hamas leader mouths off from the security of Syria. We say to this West, which does not act reasonably, and does not learn its lessons: By Allah, you will be defeated. You will be defeated in Palestine, and your defeat there has already begun. True, it is Israel that is being defeated there, but when Israel is defeated, its path is defeated, those who call to support it are defeated, and the cowards who hide behind it and support it are defeated. Israel will be defeated, and so will whoever supported or supports it.
I say to the [European countries]: Hurry up and apologize to our nation, because if you do not, you will regret it. This is because our nation is progressing and is victorious. Do not leave a black mark in the collective memory of the nation, because our nation will not forgive you.
Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day. America will be of no avail to them. Their generals will be of no avail to them. The last of their generals has been forgotten. Allah has made him disappear. He's over. Gone is that Sharon behind whose back they would hide and find shelter, and with whom they would feel relatively secure. Today they have frail leaders, who don't even know where our Lord placed them. Lot's more at the link. I know that this isn't the first time that the level of rhetoric has risen to this level in the Middle East. 1948 and 1967 in particular were both full of this sort of crap. I'm no "Arabologist," but my gut tells me that along with remarks coming from Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah that these clowns seem to think that they'll be operating under a nuclear umbrella soon. At that point thay'll try to "grab them by the belt" (to use Giap's one line description of his post-Ia Drang tactics) and go on the tactical offensive.
Meshaal's mask is off, in the same manner Ahmadinejad's came off, and they're saying about the same things. This is apocalyptic stuff, equal parts venom and bile. I'm including the rest of the article so it doesn't get lost.
"Allah willing, we will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains...
"Their weapons will be of no avail to them. Their nuclear weapons will be of no use to them. They thought that they had hegemony over the region with their nuclear weapons, but suddenly Pakistan popped up with Islamic nuclear weapons, and they are afraid of Iran and several Arab countries have some chemical weapons.
"Israel has begun to sense that its superiority has come to an end. Its army, which has superior conventional weapons - the air force, the armored corps, and the missiles - there are no longer wars in which these are used.
"The Arabs have said: We don't want [conventional] wars, thank you very much. Leave the war to the peoples. Today, the Israeli weapons are of no use against the peoples. We have imposed a new equation in the war. In this equation, our tools are stronger. That is why we will defeat them, Allah willing...
"If you fight them, they will turn their backs on you, and will not be victorious." But the problem is that we need to fight them first. If we sleep at home, how are we to beat them?! 'If you fight them...' - that is a divine promise... 'If' - It is conditional: 'If you fight them, they will turn their backs on you and will not be victorious.' And indeed, when we began to fight, and we armed ourselves with a will to fight, we defeated them. ...
"That is why Allah akbar [Allah is greater]. We say that every day - Allah akbar. Yes, Allah is greater than America. Allah is greater than the oppressors. Allah is greater than the superpowers. Allah is greater than the tyranny of the oppressing world, and Allah is greater than Israel. Since Allah is greater, and He supports us, we will be victorious."
Mash'al:"By Allah, I know that all Arab leaders - and I have met many of them - deep inside want the resistance in Palestine to be victorious, and want Palestine to be liberated. Perhaps the need for flattery and for diplomacy, and the American hegemony, force other things on them, but in their hearts they are happy when we are victorious. ...
"If, prior to the Hamas victory, there were several military wings, each with a few hundred or a few thousand fighters, under the rule of Hamas - if you continue to besiege us, to starve our people, to ignore our rights, and if you continue your occupation, your aggression, and your assassinations - we, the Hamas, will declare a general call to arms. We will place the entire Palestinian people at the disposal of the resistance and its weapons."
Crowd: "Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised."
Mash'al: "Be careful not to drive our people into a corner - Occupation, aggression, assassinations, 9,000 male and female prisoners, preventing aid, imposing a siege, causing starvation - and on top of all this, you don't want to recognize democracy and its results."
"Hamas has a Vision Hamas Can Manage the Political Battle, Just Like it Managed the Military Battle"
Mash'al: "The German [Chancellor Angela] Merkel pops up and says: Democracy and success in the elections are not sufficient for Hamas to gain legitimacy. To hell with you all. How are we supposed to gain legitimacy? When you said we had the legitimacy of resistance, you called it terrorism. Now, we say we have the legitimacy of democracy, but you deny it. In that case, you yourself are not legitimate, because you emerged through democracy. This is the logic of a frail and defeatist person.
"Brothers and sister, there is confusion in the Western world, and in the American administration. Allah has come to them from where they did not expect him. That is the grace of Allah. That is why we do not fear them. We do not fear their threats.
"Today they give us an ultimatum: Recognize Israel. Wonderful! The murderer is not required by anyone to recognize the rights of his victim, but the victim is required to recognize the rights of his murderer, and to sing his praises...
"Hamas has a vision. Hamas has a plan. Hamas can manage the political battle, just like it managed the military battle, but in a different language, with different tools, and recognizing Israel is not one of them. Nor is giving up the rights, giving up the right to resistance, and nor is giving up the weapons of the resistance.
"Nevertheless, we want to deal with politics, but there is a difference between the politics of the weak and defeatists, which we will constantly repeat - the kind of politics that does not impress the enemy and so it does nothing - because, like in the marketplace, products praised too much become cheap. If we continue to praise our products, constantly saying: 'We love peace,' 'We have given up the option of war,' 'Peace is our strategic option,' 'For God's sake, Israel, give us a few scraps of land' - By Allah, we will be degraded in the eyes of our enemies."
Mash'al: "We will conduct our politics in the language of victory. We will conduct our policy in a confident language. We will conduct our politics in the language of those who are steadfast and sure of themselves. Besides, by Allah, after the people has elected us, and has bestowed upon us all this power, we will disrespect its rights?
"The people has given us a deposit, and has empowered us to liberate its land, to restore Jerusalem and its holy places. It has empowered us to release 9,000 male and female prisoners. It has empowered us to stop the aggression, to liberate the land, and to restore its rights. The people has empowered us to bring back 5.5 million Palestinian refugees and displaced people to their homeland. After all this, Hamas - in order to please America and the European Union, and in order for the pressure on us to stop, and in order for their highnesses to allow us to establish a government... We are not trying to please them."
Mash'al: "I say to America, Europe, and the West: It is in your interests to change your relations and policies regarding the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian cause. Because we are winning, it is in your interests to deal with the victors, not the losers.
"Israel will be defeated and will be of no use to you. The Arabs will be victorious. The Muslims will be victorious. Palestine will be victorious. Change your policy soon, if you want to protect your interests, and maintain healthy relations with the East."
#2
I agree. Full on Allah-daemerung. Spengler is right: they'd rather die than embrace modernity.
I think that Wretchard's "golden moment" is long past. No amount of money or sacrifice is going to convince them to embrace freedom. I don't think that the lastest iteration of positive feedback will bring full scale conflict. But each cycle peaks a little higher and at some point the system is saturated.
#3
These turbans are clearly overplaying their hands. Take their threats seriously but do not overestimate their powers. They are losing their grip on their people already and their attempts to mobilize them have a whiff of desperation.
#5
Arabs talk. Jews do. That is why Israel is strong and prosperous while the Arab nations surrounding it are midieval slums able only to suppress their own people. That is why Israel has soundly defeated the entire Muslim world in 1948, 1953, 1967. 1973, and has scared them into sputtering for the last 30 years. The time to start worrying is if these histrionic, inbred blatherers ever go silent.
They beleive that following 'slam will make heaven on earth (a bit like socialists think they can rob everyone into wealth), however the facts of life are conservative and it just creates shitholes.
They are merely trying to destroy the evidence of their own eyes. The west is a threat to 'slammer faith as it shows that MoHAMed really was a crap talking , mentally-ill paedo and 'slammers have wasted their lives following his teachings.
#7
Big talk coming from a guy that has to hide in his own country for fear of being zapped any minute. Maybe he and binny can do an album of greatest rants and threats?
#8
"We say to this West, which does not act reasonably, and does not learn its lessons: By Allah, you will be defeated."
No, if you continue to annoy us we will give you an ass-kicking of truly seismic proportions, and then we will build a monument to our victory in Mecca: a three-hundred metre high statue of the prophet Mohammed getting jiggy with a camel.
#12
No, if you continue to annoy us we will give you an ass-kicking of truly seismic proportions, and then we will build a monument to our victory in Mecca: a three-hundred metre high statue of the prophet Mohammed getting jiggy with a camel.
Not bad in my vision victory would be a Hooters, Victoria's Secret, Famous Dave's, and a combination church/synagogue across the street from the Mosque in Mecca. Oh and don't forget the adult book store.
Sometimes in my daydreams I think about a squadron of KC-135s making a low slow pass over Mecca spraying the place with liquifidied lard
#13
By Allah we may be defeated, but not by the ragheads of the eighth century. This statement is telling. He threatens the west. Like he and his father before him have beaten the Koran into their children, he would beat it into the west.
There is never another opinion to be considered. There is never a debate ro a compromise. Debate is delay. Compromise is victory one step at a time. When will the world's bystanders see the truth of Islam ? We of the great grey tribe are ready. A world without the 'religion of piss' is a world of peace and prosperity.
#16
Rereading this in the light of day, I see that this braying ass acknowledges that in any conventional fight they would lose. That is why "The Arabs have said: We don't want [conventional] wars, thank you very much. Leave the war to the peoples. Today, the Israeli weapons are of no use against the peoples. We have imposed a new equation in the war. In this equation, our tools are stronger. That is why we will defeat them, Allah willing...
What they don't realize is that the world is growing tired of their endless seething and the Western gravy train is about to end. No more dollars for the pathetic Palestinians. There will be a wall built and they will be left to starve behind it. If they push too hard, they will be expelled from Jerusalem and left to seethe in the desert. If they push harder, the Israelis will go Old Testament on them and kill all but the virgins (and God knows, in Islam the reason you get your virgins in Paradise is that there aren't any left in this world over the age of 6)
#17
"Sometimes in my daydreams I think about a squadron of KC-135s making a low slow pass over Mecca spraying the place with liquifidied lard."
LOL! Cheap and effective. Though whenever I see the crowds of seething cartoon protesters, the two words that immediately spring to mind are "Storm" and "Metal".
#19
Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum speech comes to mind:
This task gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.
How then shall we perform it?--At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
With each passing day the horrific vision of an Arab world incinerated in nuclear fire becomes more and more acceptable to me. There will be no compromise, nor shall there be any defeat at the hands of these barbarians. They will forsake their ambitions of global domination or perish in the heat of a thousand suns. Upon that, I vow my life.
#24
Nuclear fire? To be honest I don't feel any revulsion about using that option anymore.
Sadly, neither do I, whitecollar redneck. Even a short while ago I was repelled by such a notion. Such compunctions have faded almost entirely from my conscience.
Islam's vision for our world is nothing short of Global Cultural Genocide. This desire upon their part has utterly defeated my revulsion at exterminating such a huge portion of this planet's population.
A simple thought just occurred to me. Should the caliphate be installed, the deaths due to pogroms, devolved technology and medicine, abuse of women plus political or religious persecution could easily equal the 1.2 billion practicing Muslims in number.
I will cheerfully preserve all of those innocent lives at the cost of obliterating the less innocent supporters of jihad and sharia. This is a simple equation. Which would you rather have living when the day is done? Islamists or its victims?
#26
I'm afraid the Muslims will have to be taught the true submission the Germans and Japanese learned when they saw the death and utter ruin that they brought upon themselves. We are past the point where a compromise or accomodation can be made. (If that time ever existed)
...The prime ministers of Turkey and Spain made a joint plea for respect and calm. But Muslims in the Gulf Arab region intensified their boycott of Danish goods. Iran said it was cutting all trade ties with Denmark.
Danish flags, however, remain in demand. An enterprising shopkeeper in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Dayya, said he had ordered 100 Danish and Norwegian flags when he heard that the cartoons were being reprinted. "I knew there would be a demand for the flags because of the angry reaction of people over the offence to the Prophet Muhammad," he said. Angry Muslims have been setting the flags ablaze or tearing them to pieces.
I sure hope he isn't riding in one of those unreliable Iranian aircraft. It sure would be a shame if he crashed in the middle of the Atlantic.
How much is cab fare from Tehran to Havana?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted an invitation to visit Cuba from President Fidel Castro, in gratitude for Cuba's support of Iran's nuclear program, the official Granma newspaper said on Tuesday. Ahmadinejad accepted the invitation in Tehran from Cuban Ambassador Felipe Perez Roque. During his visit, the Iranian leader will attend the September 11-16 Non-Aligned Summit in Havana, the daily said.
On Saturday in Vienna, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria voted against a resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over a nuclear program the West suspects is weapons-oriented.
The Axis of Almost as Weasel.
The Iranian President recently publicly thanked Cuba for its "dignified and principled" position during the IAEA's special meeting, which ended in a 27-3 vote in favour of reporting Iran to the UN council. Separately, Granma announced that Iranian Parliament President Ghulam Ali Haddad Adel has accepted an invitation to visit Cuba from Cuba's National Assembly.
Ahmadinejab (enemy terrorist supporter) +(friends with Castro) (known enemy of US) + Chavez (enemy of America friend of Castro) + Sheenan (friend of Chavez) + LLL Dems (allies of Sheenan)
Ohhh now I see why the LLLs are so freaked out about spying on foreign phone calls from enemies of the US into citizens here in the states. They are all on the list to be tapped because they consort with our enemies.
But hmmm is that really a bad thing to tap those calls? When the cops raid the dope mans house and you are there dont complain about spending a couple of nights in jail. Its called guilt by association. Same with phone taps associative with our enemies dont be pissed when we tap your conversation. Why worry if its innocent?
The sad part is many of those LLL dems Jessie Jackson, Sharpton, Pelosi, Dean, Kos, ect who associate with Sheenan who hangs with self proclaimed enemies of the US dont see anything wrong with such. The sadder part is the leadership on the Right wont call them out.
I think the day is fast approaching when some of this fringe radical LLLs are going to actually get balls for a second and get caught openly participating in terrorism with our enemies violently. I believe this more and more because the LLL leadership continues to not reign in and shame their fringe like Sheenan all the while punishing those who are reasonable like Lieberman.
#6
I sure hope he isn't riding in one of those unreliable Iranian aircraft. It sure would be a shame if he crashed in the middle of the Atlantic.
It would be even more terrible if the flight deck was flooded with poison gas just as the wing tank wiring arced during structural failure of the fuselage and catastrophic cabin depressurization. Throw in a complement of torn chutes and I'm a happy man. Nudge, nudge.
#8
It would be even more terrible if the flight deck was flooded with poison gas just as the wing tank wiring arced during structural failure of the fuselage and catastrophic cabin depressurization. Throw in a complement of torn chutes and I'm a happy man. Nudge, nudge.
Be even better if the asteroid impact managed to destroy all evidence of the above.
Posted by: Halliburton "When Bad Things Happen To Worse People" Division ||
02/07/2006 21:48 Comments ||
Top||
#9
At last, Ah-mad-man can be a believer and in Fidel at the same time.
An Islamist crowd, composed mainly by Bassij Para-military force's members, smashed windows and threw several petrol bombs and pieces of rocks at the Austrian and Danish embassies in Tehran.
The organized rallies were intending to show, what was supposed to be, the massive indignation of Iranians over the publication of cartoons depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. But despite all supports from governmental circles and advertisements made by Mosques related to the theocratic regime, which had called for a massive participation, the demonstrators stayed under 400 individuals while the Iranian Capital has over 12 millions of inhabitants.
The regime's regular Law Enforcement Forces made a show of resistance in facing the Islamists. The scenario was to fill the lack of Iranians "collective indignation" while showing, as well, some aspect of challenges for foreign journalists reporting from Iran.
This lack of popular support, for fanatical ways of expression and some of the political goals of the Islamic regime, is much more significant, as; it's coinciding with the Shia ritual of Moharam month and the Ashura mourning. By Islamists believe, Iranians should have been more sensible to any parameter which might affect their religion, but the today's event showed that this is not the case, contrary to many other majoritary Muslim nations.
The today's fiasco, for the clerics, marks the unpopularity of the ideological pillars of the Islamic republic regime and shows better the increasing secular aspiration of Iranians. It also proves Iranians sense of respect for the freedom of expression, while many of them might have their objection to the published cartoons.
It also underlines how Iranians are rejecting any call to attack any diplomatic mission, contrary to a terrorist regime which its leaders saw, in the seizure of the US Embassy and the hostage taking of American diplomats, a "second revolution".
#1
Has anyone seen these cartoons? Many bloggers have taken them off of their site. And in order to view them on Jyllands-Posten you have to be a member.
#2
...FWIW, Fox News showed a couple of them on Chris Wallace's show on Sunday - was amazed by that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2006 12:29 Comments ||
Top||
#3
wikipedia has good up-to-date info on the saga here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons
the best thing is they give a commentary on the cartoons as some have writing in Danish/domestic in-jokes that aren't clear to someone outside Denmark.
Those explanations are about halfway down.
But they don't show the cartoons. For that, you can go here:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698
and scroll halfway down the page.
Little Green Footballs had a slideshow of the images, too, but you'll have to search the site:
That Wikipedia entry does have the cartoons, apparently as presented on the original Jyllands-Posten page. But they're awfully small and hard to read.
It does have a good description of the in-jokes. I have often heard these cartoons described as "crude", "obnoxious", or "unfunny". They are nothing of the sort. Some of them require cultural background to understand. Others are apparently more subtle than people give them credit for.
For example, my least favorite is the weird crescent-star-ice cream cone (or whatever) line drawing. This cartoon mocks Islam's treatment of women, and yet does not actually depict Mohammed, or indeed any human figure. Is it still blasphemous if there is no discernable human figure? [Trick question: The answer is, "Everything is blasphemy, unless we say it's not."] I think there's a similar point made in the one with the censored eyes.
Iran's biggest-selling newspaper has chosen to tackle the West's ideals of "freedom of expression" by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust, the Associated French Press reported on Monday.
Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept freedom of expression.
"The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," he said.
Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark and has said it plans to review trade ties with all countries where the cartoons were published.
Protests, some violent, swirled through the Muslim world Monday while politicians sought diplomatic solutions to the growing and increasingly violent crisis surrounding published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Four protesters were killed in Afghanistan.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made comments about the Holocaust over the past few months, including suggestions that European countries give Jews some of their land in order to solve the Palestinian problem.
"If your newspapers are free why do not they publish anything about the innocence of the Palestinians and protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists?" the Mehr news agency recently quoted him as saying.
#1
I can't draw, but a few suggestions to those who can.
Kurds in baggy pants drive ethnic persians out of their homes
Caption; "We just need lebensraum"
Arabs look over a ring of American tanks around Khuzestan, oil wells in the background
Caption; "This is our promised land"
Azeris, in newly independant South Azerbaijan, grovelling Persians beg for some access to the Caspian Sea, with a map behind that shows South Azerbaijan now controls the entire southern shore (with requisite oil wells in the background).
Caption; "We needed a final solution to the Persian problem"
#4
This should be enlightening for them. Are they expecting crowds of angry Iranian Jews to riot in their streets, others to burn down their embassy in Syria, and a demand from Israel to curb free speech in Iran?
#7
I must say, I don't see that there could possibly be any equivalence between "published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad", and the caricature of the slaughter of 6 million Jews.
#8
The more we learn about them, the more crude, barbaric, and expendible they become to civilization.
When I first arrived here at Rantburg, I felt obliged to dispute this point, at least in some degree. As with Islam's thundering silence I, too, find myself increasingly silent in the face of such observations.
If the spectre of a nuclear armed Iran did not loom over all of these proceedings, this Holocaust cartoon would be superbly appropriate as a demonstration of just how sick the mullahs are. Instead, this is one of the last unlit red warning lights finally coming on upon the launch board.
#12
I thing Mahomoud really does thing the west is going to rise up in protest and react in kind; firebombing embassies, kicking oout ambassadors, boycotts and - well my, whatever shall we do without fatwas to kill the authors. do we have those?
He's nuts! The thundering silence and lack of interest of concern is going to drive him bananas. What a hoot this is going to be. Mind you, more foaming at the mouth would just him closer to the button on his nuke. This could both implode and explode. Coool.
"Interesting article I read a while back, now with added resonance - rest at link"
Evidence Points to a New Class of Global Warfare
A closer look at the calendar of events immediately preceding terrorist acts and Muslim unrest in Western countries over the past seven months offers provocative clues about Iran's cunning in defining this new class of warfare on a global scale. The London transport bombings, the New Delhi terrorist attacks, and Muslim civil unrest that brought France to a halt for 20 nights were all executed at a time soon after each country had exerted significant pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Consider the following calendar data:
London Bombings, July 7, 2005
May 16, 2005: British Prime Minister Tony Blair argues that Iran should be hauled before the United Nations and sanctioned for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
June 17 & 24, 2005: Dark-horse Iranian presidential candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, becomes the sixth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
June 23, 2005: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, chairing the Foreign Minister's meeting of G-8 nations two weeks before the full G-8 summit in London, dramatically ratchets up the pressure on Iran, chiding its quest for nuclear weapons and urging Tehran not to restart uranium enrichment at its Natanz and Isfahan facilities.
June 26, 2005: Ahmadinejad threatens openly to restart uranium enrichment, and soon thereafter threatens to "wipe Israel from the map," among other declarations of hostile Iranian intent.
July 7, 2005: Multiple bombs are set off on London's subways and buses at morning rush hour, killing 52 and injuring over 700. The perpetrators appear to be British Muslim citizens, organized in local cells loyal to al Qaeda. MI5 and MI6 intelligence analysis suggests there may have been foreign support for the terrorist attacks.
July 21, 2005: A repeat performance of the bombings takes place, this time with dud bombs that gave the impression of copycat crimes. A month after the first London transport bombings, Iran restarts its nuclear-enrichment facilities at Isfahan on 8 and 10 August 2005.
Coincidence? Or purposeful warning shots? Perhaps there was no correlation between Britain's harsh reaction to Iran's nuclear intent in the months leading up to and just after Ahmadinejad's election, and perhaps the British Muslims charged with killing their fellow citizens three weeks after Ahmadinejad was elected had no foreign influences over their actions. But in a country known for its extreme tolerance of the wildest hate-spewing Islamist personalities, the timing of the July 7 attacks, predicted and rationalized for years because of Britain's unwavering support for U.S. policies in Afghanistan and then Iraq, doesn't seem like a coincidence.
The pattern of a foreign power either pressuring Tehran, or even reversing a previously friendly stance to pressure the mullahcracy on its nuclear plans, repeated itself again when, just months after taking a hard line against the Iranian nuclear program, France and India also suffered Muslim violence and terrorist attacks.
Indian Terrorist Attacks, October 29, 2005
July 18, 2005: Washington and New Delhi sign a Global Partnership pact allowing India access to U.S. nuclear technology that had previously been banned because New Delhi had refused to sign onto conditions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The move, which requires U.S. congressional approval, is widely seen as an effort to show how the U.S. can help to responsibly develop a civilian nuclear program in a developing country, a message squarely aimed at Tehran's mullahs.
August 8 & 10, 2005: Iran resumes uranium enrichment at its Isfahan nuclear plant, in direct contravention of its international commitments under the NPT.
September 15, 2005: Ahmadinejad, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, makes Iran's nuclear intent clear the Islamic republic has a right to develop its civilian nuclear capabilities and will not answer to those who confront him with evidence of an intent to weaponize highly enriched uranium and plutonium stocks.
September 24, 2005: Framing its resolution as a matter of international peace and security, the IAEA's board of governors votes by 22 to 1 with 12 abstentions to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for failing to comply with NPT terms. The significance of the resolution's passage is that for the first time, two previously staunch defenders of Iran's right to develop its civilian nuclear facilities, France and India, side with the United States to vote against Iran, and two client-states, Russia and China, abstain from the vote, having vetoed any efforts to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council a year earlier.
October 29, 2005: With eerily similar timing to the London bombings nearly a month after intense pressure is applied to Tehran to comply three bombs go off in residential districts of New Delhi that kill 61 and injure 188 as the Hindu Diwali festival is about to begin. The meticulously planned and executed attacks are blamed on Kashmiri separatists from Lashkar-e-Taiba (whose links to al Qaeda are well known). With senior al Qaeda leaders residing comfortably in the confines of the Pasdaran's safe houses, very little imagination is required to connect dots that Tehran would rather not see connected about its potential complicity in such acts of fingerprint-less terror.
The reasoning behind such an attack, however, was crystal clear. New Delhi's decision to vote against Iran at the IAEA meeting politically shocked Iran. It was perceived as the ultimate betrayal: Tehran had offered a $5 billion Iran-India pipeline deal and $22 billion natural gas deal that would bring long-term stability to India's energy needs. India, instead, chose to side with the Great Satan in the loftily named "U.S.-India Global Partnership" that would send U.S. nuclear technology to India to help it develop its civilian nuclear reactors.
Muslim youth riots throughout France, October 27, 2005, to November 17, 2005
October 27, 2005: Two days before New Delhi is attacked, a seemingly innocuous incident in a Parisian suburb involving north African Muslim youth and French police turns into Jacques Chirac's worst nightmare when riots erupt and spread like wildfire throughout 274 different municipalities in France over the next 20 nights. One hundred and twenty-six police officers are injured, over 8,900 vehicles are torched, and nearly 2,900 arrests are made during a three week period that essentially brings the French nation to a grinding halt politically, economically, and socially perhaps not terrorism in the defined sense, but the effect on France's national government and political identity is devastating.
France, too, sided with the U.S. in the September IAEA vote. The riots that besieged it for 20 days and nights were by all accounts meticulously planned, coordinated, and provisioned logistically through a countryside warehouse supplying gasoline and kerosene pipe bombs as if it were churning out Peugeot automobiles. The work of a ragtag group of youthful Muslim zealots acting on their own? Or a state that had outsourcing infrastructure at the ready to take advantage of an incident rooted in the culture clash brewing in France's Arab and Muslim communities for decades?
Judging by Jacques Chirac's comments last week, it would seem he doesn't consider what happened to his country was not a coincidence. He warned Tehran that France would not hesitate to use its own nuclear arsenal against any nation that sought to destabilize it, whether with nuclear weapons or by any other means.
If the pattern that emerges from the calendar analysis above is accurate, an attack against Germany, the only member of the EU-3 negotiating with Iran for an amicable settlement that has not suffered Islamist violence, cannot be far off. On January 13, 2006, newly elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited President George W. Bush at the White House and emerged with a unanimous declaration condemning Tehran for its nuclear ambitions. Germany, under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, had previously been opposed to Washington's heavy hand in dealings with Iran.
On Saturday, Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, validated the concern expressed herein about the nexus between state sponsors of terror and their execution squads when he said, "The question is probably no longer whether there'll be an attack with a dirty [radiological] bomb; the question is when and where it's going to happen." He went on to cite the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections with support from Iran's nuclear-toting clerics as the type of nexus the West would have to deal with in the future to insure its security.
Can we now add to this list Denmark's events following the Jan 17th announcement to refer to UNSC?
This would suggest that Brussels could expect a wee bit of "diversity" fairly soon...Or would that be shitting in yer own nest, even by koranimal standards?
I had to wonder when the boycotts / violence spread to Norway, which had absolutely bugger all to do with the whole thing. As for China, I guess we'll never know if frogface is giving them grief, they tend to keep stuff like that under their hats, although the recent reports of internal security beefing up of Tiananamen proportions could have a sunni side to it.
Has occurred to me for a while that Ahmadinejads "Dont refer us to UNSC for making nuclear weapons, or we'll make nuclear weapons" is more than just MuzzyLogicTM - more of a thinly veiled threat of nuclear terrorism.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar ||
02/07/2006 05:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"The question is probably no longer whether there'll be an attack with a dirty [radiological] bomb; the question is when and where it's going to happen."
This is one of the motivators for the Presidents increased emphasis on homeland defense.
#3
IRAN is just but one cog in the chain of the mostly politicized International Terror network - unfortunately for Americans, the anti-US Socialists are using terror as a PC/PDeniable catalyst and diversion for carrying out their agendums. BETWEEN NOW AND 2008, POTUS DUBYA AND ADMIN MUST WATCH THEIR SIX, as the reactionist-opportunist-anarchist DemoLefties are waiting for the Spetzlamies to initiate Amer Hirsohima/new 9-11's which will PC turn Fascist = Limited Socialist-Commie Washington NPE into full-fledged Commie Totalitarian-Centralist, anti-American American, pro-anti-sovereignty Washington NPE.
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), MP Michel Aoun and the head of Hezbollah on Monday met in a church located in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood and hammered a landmark political accord. The accord, which was concluded at the Mar Mikhail Church in the Shiah neighborhood, covered the make-up of the country in the future and a new draft election law as well as the issue of the resistance weapons, the Palestinian refugees, UN Resolution 1559, relations with Syria and the issue of detainees in Israel. The accord was concluded in the first such meeting between the two leaders, who achieved a political rapprochement in the past few weeks.
#1
As California residents, my wife and I went to great efforts with considerable sacrifice to send our children to private lower schools and out of state graduate schools. California schools have been more concerned with social engineering than education since the hippy era of the 60's. The Dept of Education has a $52 BILLION budget that is used to buy/re-elect a majority of Donks to state office who oppose any changes, meaningful reforms or investigation into the rampant corruption.
Arnold tried to do something about the mess, but was overwhelmed and out spent by the Calif Teacher's Association, the Dept of Education and the majority Democraps in Sacramento.
I would like to see a federal investigation into the misuse of public funds. The local newspapers frequently carry stories of millions of dollars missing from school construction money, but no one is ever indicted or sent to jail.
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.
According to the report, heads of the Anglican Church voted in favor of removing funds from such firms, particularly a 2.2 million pound investment in Caterpillar, which manufactures tractors used to demolish Palestinian homes as well as in the construction of the security fence. The vote, which was supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury 
MORE than half of Victorian schoolchildren view Muslims as terrorists, and two out of five agree that Muslims "are unclean", a survey has revealed. Just over 50 per cent believe Muslims "behave strangely", while 45 per cent say Australians do not have positive feelings about Muslims.
Talking about the OIC's assessment of the developments of events in Damascus and Beirut, Professor Ihsanoglu told "Asharq al-Awsat": "What happened in Syria and in Lebanon is a mistake that cannot be accepted. Muslims everywhere should continue their peaceful stand without infringing on the rights of the others." He disclosed that he talked to Syrian Foreign Minister 
BAGHDAD -Iraq on Monday said it was closing the southern Basra airport after stringent security measures imposed by British forces led to a strike by airport employees. We are closing the airport because the excessive security measures of the British who do not care even for Iraqi people working in the airport, Iraqi Transport Minister Salam Al Maliki told reporters.
We say to this West, which does not act reasonably, and does not learn its lessons: By Allah, you will be defeated. You will be defeated in Palestine, and your defeat there has already begun. True, it is Israel that is being defeated there, but when Israel is defeated, its path is defeated, those who call to support it are defeated, and the cowards who hide behind it and support it are defeated. Israel will be defeated, and so will whoever supported or supports it.
...The prime ministers of Turkey and Spain made a joint plea for respect and calm. But Muslims in the Gulf Arab region intensified their boycott of Danish goods. Iran said it was cutting all trade ties with Denmark. 
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), MP Michel Aoun and the head of Hezbollah on Monday met in a church located in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood and hammered a landmark political accord. The accord, which was concluded at the Mar Mikhail Church in the Shiah neighborhood, covered the make-up of the country in the future and a new draft election law as well as the issue of the resistance weapons, the Palestinian refugees, UN Resolution 1559, relations with Syria and the issue of detainees in Israel. The accord was concluded in the first such meeting between the two leaders, who achieved a political rapprochement in the past few weeks.
