Afghanistans government has revoked the licences of more than half the non-governmental aid groups in the war-shattered country after they did not respond to an order to register, a minister said on Wednesday. The groups included 127 international aid organisations, Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang told AFP. He would not name them. We asked them to come and register their organisations but they did not do so, so we revoked (the licences of) 1,620 NGOs, he said. The minister said there had been about 2,350 NGOs in the country, more than 300 of them international ones, operating in Afghanistan.
The government has repeatedly said some NGOs, most of them local, are involved in widespread corruption and are wasting the billions of dollars that have poured into the country since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001. Early last year then planning minister Ramazan Bachardoust now a member of the parliament resigned after President Hamid Karzai opposed his proposal that more than 2,000 NGOs accused of corruption should be ordered to close. Prompted by Bachardousts accusations, the government drew up a new law under which aid organisations have to register with their government and report on their activities. Afghanistan is reliant on international aid as it struggles to rebuild after decades of war and conflict while also fighting a Taliban-led insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, the dirty little secret of rampant corruption in NGOs and how no one wants to expose it, because they want to believe the myth that they are selfless people doing good.
JAILED radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri sent teams of young supporters around Britain with orders to take over other mosques. Rival clerics said they were threatened by gangs claiming to be members of Abu Hamza's Supporters of Sharia group. Some of the rival imams were beaten up inside their own mosques, and the worshippers were bullied into finding somewhere else to pray -- but police refused to intervene.
Abu Hamza wanted to acquire more places where he and his lieutenants could brainwash a generation of young men and send them off to terror training camps abroad. Followers who tired of his behaviour said he behaved like a mafia godfather in dealing with anyone who opposed him. Two rival imams in London needed hospital treatment after being attacked, but no police action was taken. In one of Abu Hamza's sermons, heard by the jury during his trial at the Old Bailey, he boasted about his heavy-handed tactics, saying: "If the people know you are firm, they will back down. They all back down."
His takeover attempts began in the late 1980s when he joined a group of Algerian-born radicals trying to take over the Central London Mosque in Regent's Park. Fazli Ali, 66, the former estates manager at the mosque, said: "Hamza and his cronies threatened me several times. I was head of security but they even threatened to kill me. Ours was a peaceful place, but he wanted to turn it into a political arena." The leadership of the mosque banned Abu Hamza from their premises, so he sought out other and more vulnerable targets around Britain.
Continued on Page 49
#9
Two rival imams in London needed hospital treatment after being attacked, but no police action was taken.
The two imams had a moral obligation to bring charges against their transgressors. They did not and thereby allowed jihadist doctrine to gain ascendance. Once again, moderate Muslims who refuse to cause any sort of rift within their church are essentially propelling the jihadi's agenda.
While it is possible that the two imams could not identify their attackers, it is this exact same motif, endlessly repeated around the world, that is submerging moderate Muslims into the pool of Islamists. When retaliation finally begins, these so-called moderates should not be surprised that no one takes the time to distinguish between them and their more violent brethern.
The former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday he was "ashamed to be an Anglican" following Monday's vote by the Church of England to disinvest from companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the territories. The February 6 divestment vote, which was backed by current Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was "a most regrettable and one-sided statement," Lord Carey said, and one that "ignores the trauma of ordinary Jewish people" in Israel subjected to terrorist attacks.
You do get the feeling that some of God's lambs are less important to the Archbishop.
Lord Carey joined Jewish leaders protesting the vote by the General Synod, the church's legislature, to adopt a "morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation, such as Caterpillar Inc., until they change their policies." The church's call to pressure Caterpillar and other multi-nationals to withdraw from the territories was a "one-eyed" response that "only rebukes one side," Lord Carey said, and displayed the church's "propensity to reduce complex issues to black and white."
That's the progressive left for you.
Jon Benjamin, the chief executive officer of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, branded the synod vote "simplistic" and "unbalanced."
He could also have said "petty" and "small-souled," but he was too polite...
"What it shows is that the thinking of people who support these resolutions is not very sophisticated," he said. There were sound reasons why the Israeli government had adopted its security policies, but these were never "aired or discussed" by the synod, Benjamin said.
That would have diverted the focus of the synod, of course.
During the one-hour debate that preceded the vote, a letter from the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, condemning the Israeli government's use of Caterpillar tractors to demolish Palestinian homes was read to the synod.
"Okay, okay, I said it! Now please don't kill me!"
Did he say anything about the Paleostinians crapping in the Church of the Holy Trinity?
The bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt. Rev. John Gladwin, said he held Israel responsible for the worsening plight of Palestinian Christians, telling the synod, "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."
Israel is responsible for the Paleo Christians? Remind us John, who trashed the Paleo churches on the West Bank?
The chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Herbert, bishop of St. Albans, disagreed and objected to the disinvestment call, telling the synod it was "unbalanced" and failed to reflect the complexity of the situation. A counter motion offered by the pro-Israel pressure group "Anglicans for Israel" was not presented to the synod, as time was called on the debate after one hour.
"Time's up! Vote! And what's for lunch?"
The synod adopted the motion by a show of hands, with Archbishop Williams voting in favor, and the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, abstaining.
Brave Sir Robin abstained.
Dr. Irene Lancaster, of the Center for Jewish Studies at Manchester University, said the vote marked "a very black day for Anglican-Jewish relations."
Just another bit of casual anti-Semitism with a veneer of holier-than-thou and the usual overlay of Social Justice claptrap. Julius Streicher was at least honest about it.
"The Jewish community will have to reconsider their attitude to interfaith work with the Anglican community," she said, adding, "The writing is on the wall for the Jews of Great Britain, 350 years after they settled here."
I don't know that I'd go that far. But I'd expect them to stand by with folded hands and pursed lips when the festivities do begin in earnest.
The symbolism of this vote was that "Israel will be criticized regardless of what happens," Benjamin said. In the mind of the Church of England, "nothing Israel ever will do will be right, while nothing the Palestinians will do will ever be wrong," he charged.
#1
Like I said any thing made by a company onwend by an Anglican is off the list of stuff I am going to purchase. I also extends to not using or renting facilities owned by the Anglican church here in the US. That is going to cost them about 400 X 2 bucks right off the bat this year.
#2
The Christian population of the Palestinian Territories has declined from 18% at the time of the British mandate and the creation of Israel to less than 2% today. In contrast the christian population of Israel has grown substantially over that period. While the Christian population of Israel includes immigrants from places like Russia. It is clear that not only has the Palestinian Christian population in Israel grown, it will soon be the only palestinian christian population left in the middle east.
Israel is in fact the protector of palestinian christians and the Anglican church has a serious case of reality inversion.
#3
I think it's less anti-Semitism, as in hatred for Jews, and more cowardice, shameless kow-towing to the alter of Progressive 3rd-Worldist pieties and a pitiful attempt to win temporary reprieve from the hostilities of the expanding Islam. These tired and toothless old men with no congregation to speak of are empty figure-heads and easily dominated by the aggressive Muslims and their old intellectual commrades increasingly dogmatic Left.
#4
Remember that both the British Anglican and American Episcopalians are minorities within Anglicanism, now officially seen as doctrinally flawed members of the communion, and no longer sanctioned for many activities. That is, they are seen as borderline schismatics.
In the US, again, the conservative Anglicans have or are becoming African missionary churches, so they are no longer under the sway of liberal American bishops.
#5
Anyone ever heard of the Church of England disenvesting from slave-taker and genocider Soudan? Or from Indonesia during the East-Timor genocide? Or from Saddam's Irak when he gassed Kurds? Or from China for its atrocities in Tibet?
Just what I thought. They only care when there are Jews around.
Nope. A number of the people who saved Jews dyuring WWII were antisemitic: they didn't like Jews but they opposed their killing. What we have here is alter-nazism: supporting people who try yo exterminate the Jews.
#7
Don't forget Prince Charles is titular head of the Church....must really have something on him to get them to apologize for slave trafficking. Also, they are reopening Princess Di's case, so maybe they will change their tune and divest from the Palestinians. A church split is really not a loss, though.
North Korea will only return to six-party talks on its nuclear programmeme if the United States drops sanctions against it, a North Korean official said on Wednesday as talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang ended in rancour. "The condition is to remove the financial sanctions," said Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador to bilateral discussions with Japan in Beijing. "If the Japanese tell the US, they will actually listen to them more carefully." Song made the comments the day talks between Japan and North Korea wrapped up with both sides as far apart as ever over abductions of Japanese citizens and no agreement on when Pyongyang might return to six-way talks on its nuclear programmeme.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
For phuechs sake! Let them starve and forget about them. If they launch a No Dongie, destroy them as a civilization immediately.
#6
North Korea will only return to six-party talks on its nuclear programmeme if the United States drops sanctions against it, a North Korean official said..
Uhhhh, NO.
..as talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang ended in rancour.
But somehow I suspect they're all greasing the insides of apparachnik stomachs & cooking-pots, along with the occasional peasant or slow-moving, very briefly surprised Japanese beachcomber.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/09/2006 13:58 Comments ||
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#9
Continue the sanctions until North Korea implodes. I pity their long suffering people but Kim is just too sick to be let off of the hook. He must be brought to face the ultimate product of his leadership ... failure.
MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors expect to launch procedures within a month that could put 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan on trial in absentia, a senior judicial source said.
The source, who asked not to be named, said prosecutors were growing tired of perceived foot-dragging by Washington and Rome over requests that would advance their investigation -- one of several European probes into suspected U.S. covert operations.
The United States has still not responded to a request in January by Italy for judicial assistance in the case, which could potentially allow Italian prosecutors to travel there to question suspects and gather evidence.
Neither has Italy's government responded to a request in November from prosecutors to seek the extradition of the agents from the United States.
If no helpful action has been taken by early March -- as appears increasingly likely -- then prosecutors will close their investigation, the well-placed source said.
"The next step will be to go to trial," he said.
The European Parliament and the Council of Europe are watching the Italian case carefully as they move ahead with their own investigations into suspected U.S. anti-terrorism operations, including running secret prisons in eastern Europe.
German and Swiss prosecutors are also looking into other accusations of U.S. covert transport of detainees, a process known as "rendition".
An Italian trial of the 22 agents could potentially open a wealth of evidence in the case to the public, showing how terrorism suspect Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was grabbed off a Milan street in 2003 in broad daylight.
Prosecutors will count on the de facto testimony of Nasr himself, who briefly recounted the ordeal in conversations picked up in an Italian phone-tap. He has said he was flown to Egypt and tortured during interrogation.
Italian investigators have accused Nasr of ties to al Qaeda and a Milan judge has issued a warrant for his arrest. He has been held by Egyptian authorities, his lawyer has said. Continued ...
#1
This is a typical example of the European approach to fighting terrorism. Insist that terrorism be fought through judicial means, and then undermine the credibility of the judiciary.
#3
I see no reason why we do not copy their legal precedent.
Try the judges making trouble, convict them in absentia, and kidnap them one dark and moonless night, wisk them off to jail in one of those supposed "Secret" Prisons, and the problem simply evaporates.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/09/2006 20:22 Comments ||
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#4
Don't forget the Italian agents involved in providing funds for the Stalinist journalist. I suspect the same 'legal' process could be done by Iraq in aiding and abetting the insurgents. Wonder if Italy would like the receive some extradition requests?
The Somali-born Dutch MP who describes herself as a "dissident of Islam" has backed the Danish newspaper that first printed the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Ayaan Hirsi Ali said it was "correct to publish the cartoons" in Jyllands Posten and "right to republish them".
Her film-maker colleague Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist in a case that shocked the Netherlands. Ms Hirsi Ali, speaking in Berlin, said that "today the open society is challenged by Islamism". She added: "Within Islam exists a hardline Islamist movement that rejects democratic freedoms and wants to destroy them."
Ms Hirsi Ali criticised European leaders for not standing by Denmark and urged politicians to stop appeasing fundamentalists. She also said that although the Prophet Muhammad did a lot of good things, his decree that homosexuals and apostates should be killed was incompatible with democracy. Ms Hirsi Ali wrote the script for Submission, a film criticising the treatment of women in Islam that prompted a radical Islamist to kill Van Gogh in an Amsterdam street in November 2004.
Papers in several European nations have reprinted the satirical Danish cartoons - most recently carried in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. A dozen people have died in violent protests in Afghanistan over the cartoons, which have also been denounced throughout the Islamic world. The drawings include an image of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet. Ms Hirsi Ali said the furore over the cartoons had exposed the fear among artists and journalists in Europe to "analyse or criticise intolerant aspects of Islam". "Islooooomism = Communism" spot on! You 'GO' Ayaan! I wish our own politicians (spit spit) had a few ounces of your courage.
Most of us in the west have been taught that anger is a bad thing, and that people who express anger are somehow out of control, or nuts. Experts say, however, that anger is no different than loneliness, boy-sex-desire, hatred of the Jewish people, lack'o nookie,hatred of cartoons, fear or any of the many emotions you experience on a daily basis.
One way to understand anger is to imagine that you are carrying a bucket holding, let's say, a gallon of anger (caution, removed explosives first). As you go through your day, events and people will pour into your bucket a pint, a quart, two quarts or perhaps even half a gallon of things that make you angry.
"Anger doesn't just come out of nowhere," says Dr. Howard Glazer, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychology at Cornell University Medical College. "When your bucket is filled, it flows over, not into a puddle, or down your pantaloon leg, but into an explosion of anger." And that explosion is what's dangerous to your health and can lead to premature reunion with your 70 virgins.
The likely result? You kick the goat dog, slam doors, chew out clerics sales clerks, yell at your mate or snap at the kids. One way to cope is to deal with small upsets as they happen. If an aggressive donkey driver in traffic makes your blood boil, work off the anger later at the mosque gym or by talking to a friend about lousy, rotten inconsiderate donkey driver motorists. Or turn up the car radio loud and sing along with your favorite muzzie tune music. Another way is suicide.
This diminutive nation with an offbeat sense of humor and a strong self-image of cultural tolerance is not accustomed to having its flag burned, embassies stormed and coat of arms pelted with eggs.
But Denmark has become a target for the Muslim world's outrage at cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad.
The scope and intensity of the violence ignited by the caricatures, first printed in September by the country's right-leaning Jyllands-Posten newspaper and reprinted more recently in other Western publications, have left this country bewildered.
"A lot of Danes have problems understanding what is going on and why people in those countries reacted this way," said Morton Rixen, a philosophy student, looking out his window at a city awhirl in angst and snow. "We're used to seeing American flags and pictures of George Bush being burned, but we've always seen ourselves as a more tolerant nation. We're in shock to now be in the center of this."
On Wednesday, four people were killed and at least 20 wounded in a fresh round of protests in southern Afghanistan, and demonstrators in the West Bank city of Hebron attacked the offices of international observers, forcing their evacuation. President Bush spoke out about the protest for the first time, saying, "We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press."
Danes suspect that the furor over the cartoons has been co-opted by the wider anti-Western agenda of Middle East extremism. Yet they believe the pictures have cracked the veneer of their nation and exacerbated a debate about immigration, freedom of expression, religious tolerance and a vaunted perception of racial harmony often disputed by immigrants.
Denmark is a small portrait of Europe's struggle to integrate a Muslim population that has doubled since the late-1980s and dotted the continent with head scarves and back-alley mosques. The cartoons were sketched in an atmosphere of rising Muslim discontent, a surge in strength for the anti-immigration Danish People's Party, a commitment to keeping Danish troops in Iraq and the arrests here of suspected militants with ties of Al Qaeda.
Some worry that anti-immigrant political parties are exploiting the burning of Danish embassies in Lebanon, Syria and Iran to promote a xenophobic agenda. "Racism is suddenly popping up in this country," said Merete Ronnow, a nurse who worked in Danish relief efforts in Lebanon and Afghanistan. "I'm stunned by this. It's like now Danes can express exactly what they feel. My colleagues are saying, 'Look, this is how a Muslim acts. This is what a Muslim does.' "
Recent polls reveal a country of torn emotions and doubt. The Danish People's Party has gained 3 percentage points, but so has its nemesis, the Radical Left Party. A newspaper headline this week blamed President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for not supporting Denmark through the ordeal. And nearly 80% of Danes believe a terrorist attack looms.
"I don't know what to do. It's amazing to see the Danish flag being burned," said Michael Hansen, an engineer. "It's not fear, it's more anxiety. There have been terror attacks in the U.S., Spain and in Britain. We are the logical fourth. If they forgot about us, they've remembered now."
Hansen's roommate, Martin Yhlen, said: "The whole cartoon thing was a ridiculous provocation. The newspaper knew before they published it that people would be extremely upset. You do have freedom of speech, but with that comes a moral obligation. It doesn't benefit integration in Europe. It widens the divide."
Even Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen seems baffled. "We're seeing ourselves characterized as intolerant people or as enemies of Islam as a religion. That picture is false," he said Tuesday during a news conference.
"We're facing a growing global crisis that has the potential to escalate beyond the control of governments and other authorities," he said. "Extremists and radicals who seek a clash of cultures are spreading it.... These are trying times for the Danish people."
Flemming Rose is not sleeping well these days. His cellphone glows with incoming calls. Cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, Rose commissioned the caricatures. In an interview one recent night, Rose said he was trying to correct what he viewed as a troubling self-censorship in the media and arts over depictions of Islam. His decision to print the caricatures came after a Danish children's book author could not find an illustrator to draw Muhammad because Muslims believe any depiction of God or the prophets is sacrilege.
The caricature Muslims apparently found most offensive in the Jyllands-Posten showed Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. Another depicted the prophet complaining that paradise had run out of the virgins who suicide bombers believe await them after death. His publication, said Rose, was rallying cry for freedom of expression and the Western values of political and religious criticism dating back to Voltaire in the 18th century.
In a like-minded show of solidarity, many European publications have run the drawings since January, when Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations began boycotting Danish goods, including dairy products that are costing Arla Foods about $2 million a day. Tehran announced Tuesday it had cut trade with Denmark, which exports more than $250 million worth of products annually to Iran.
Rose said that Islam should be treated no differently than Christianity or other religions regarding parody and political satire.
"I think it's problematic when a religion tries to impose its taboos and rules on the larger society," he said. "When they ask me not to run those cartoons, they are not asking for my respect. They're asking for my submission.... To me, those cartoons are saying that some individuals have hijacked, kidnapped and taken hostage the religion of Islam to commit terrorism."
The chief editor of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, said he hadn't realized the explosive nature of the caricatures and apologized for offending Muslims. Rose, however, has no regrets. When asked if the cartoons may have been too provocative in a time of strained relations between Muslims and Europeans, he said, "This has caused a great debate in Western Europe because it hits in the middle of the controversy. Freedom of speech. Religious respect. It's been very instructive."
Protests by European Muslims have been more muted than rallies and demonstrations held in the Middle East, where calls for bloodshed and fatwas are common. For Denmark's more than 200,000 Muslims, out of a total population of 5.4 million, democratic values and reverence for the prophet can conflict. Their struggle with a tricky cultural divide often goes unappreciated by native Danes, according to Muslim leaders.
Rightist politicians and commentators, meanwhile, often blame Muslim immigrants for burdening the welfare state while making only cursory efforts to integrate. These sentiments have grown stronger as the Danish People's Party has become the nation's third-most powerful party.
"Twenty-five percent of all children in Copenhagen and more than 10% of all children in Denmark are being born to non-Danish mothers. What is happening is a gradual scooping out of the Danish population," Mogens Camre, a member of the Danish People's Party and the European Parliament, said in 2004.
"Islam is threatening our future.... That faith belongs to a dark past, and its political aims are as destructive as Nazism was."
Ahmed Akkari is a scourge to populist politicians. A small man with an armful of disheveled papers, Akkari was part of a delegation of Danish Muslims who in December delivered the cartoons and other anti-Islamic sketches to religious leaders in Cairo and Beirut. The Danish People's Party says the trip was an opportunistic attempt to harm Denmark by triggering resentment across the Muslim world. The party recently called for deporting radical Muslims.
Akkari said he traveled to the Middle East because Denmark's institutions and right-of-center government had ignored the concerns of the Islamic community. "Nobody listened to us," said Akkari, a spokesman for 27 Muslim organizations. "We are not saying censorship of the press.... But there must limits on the freedom of speech when dealing with some things."
The son of a political refugee who fled Lebanon in the 1970s, Akkari was raised and educated in Denmark. He said the Danes think of themselves as tolerant but that minorities here encounter subtle discrimination and a "national pride" that often feels threatened by immigrants.
"There is a very unhealthy sign" today coming from the country's right-wing extremists and Muslim radicals, he said.
When asked about the Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons, Akkari said the paper should practice equality and immediately publish derogatory caricatures of the Pope and a rabbi. "Then we will be satisfied," he said.
But these days Akkari is more troubled that the violence in the Middle East will create a backlash in Europe over integration. "It's hurting our case," he said. "It's turning the picture completely."
The cultural backlash may already be underway. Martin Yhlen has tried to hide the fact that he is a Dane. Studying international development, Yhlen was working on his thesis in Yemen when the cartoon uproar swept the Middle East. Passions grew and the Danish flag went aflame. The Danish Foreign Ministry told him to leave.
"The first week there was normal," he said. "But then this thing came, and we said we were Germans and Swedes so we wouldn't have to talk about it. It's strange for us. Danes were always welcome in the Middle East, but now we're not. We've never seen this before. We've seen it with the U.S. and Israel, but not quiet little Denmark."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/09/2006 02:09 ||
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#1
The Danes seem stunned at being hit by this massive cluebat(tm).
"I can't believe it! 'Death to Israel, death to USA', sure, but us Danes?!? Those crazy violent hate-filled Muslims are crazy!
#3
Akkari is the one who insterted those "fake but true" images into mix. He should be held for deportation. Leave it to the L.A. Times to leave out important info in this story.
#5
"Nobody listened to us," said Akkari, a spokesman for 27 Muslim organizations. "We are not saying censorship of the press.... But there must limits on the freedom of speech when dealing with some things."
It seems he's saying they don't want censoship of the press except when it deals with Islam. In other words, he doesn't want the truth about Islam to become known. You can bet your last schekel he's not talking about censoring what Muslims say about non-muslims.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/09/2006 8:30 Comments ||
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#6
That's diferent, see, 'cos it's all true. You could look it up.
#7
"We're used to seeing American flags and pictures of George Bush being burned, but we've always seen ourselves as a more tolerant nation. We're in shock to now be in the center of this."
Freedom isn't free, and some things have to be defended.
The question is, are the Danes up to the task? Or are they going to apologize profusely and slink away with their collective tails between their ass cheeks?
#8
"I'm stunned by this. It's like now Danes can express exactly what they feel. My colleagues are saying, 'Look, this is how a Muslim acts. This is what a Muslim does.' "
The TRUE definition of freedom! All the sudden my commrades colleagues can say what they want! The nerve of this country. Funny how quickly the multi-culti crowd is overturned when REALITY sets in! I've always thought multi-culti feelings run deeper, but, my how thin that veneer is when your country's threatened.
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 11:08 Comments ||
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#9
"Islam is threatening our future.... That faith belongs to a dark past, and its political aims are as destructive as Nazism was."
Wonder if this guy was around to remember what the Nazis were like (or had family who directly remembers what they were like? Again, reality sets in!
When asked about the Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons, Akkari said the paper should practice equality and immediately publish derogatory caricatures of the Pope and a rabbi. "Then we will be satisfied," he said.
Somehow, methinks that's already been done before. Just search the archives, there, Akkari! Free speech for me, but not for thee! Amazing how quickly the LLL moonbats and the Jihadis are aligning!
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 11:11 Comments ||
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#10
Yes BA. The obvious media solution is to re publish the Mohammad drawings along with re publishing the anti semitic stuff in the arab press and provide just enough commentary to say which cartoons were published where and which countries control the media and which don't.
#14
The Danish People's Party has gained 3 percentage points, but so has its nemesis, the Radical Left Party.
Two comments. First I think its great that the Radical Left Party has the balls to right out and put their politics into their name. Kudos to them. I'm sure they are Marxist/anarchist idiots but still truth in advertising is a big plus. Second, The Danish People's party is the enemy of the Radical Left? Sounds like a Radical Left type party to me, bloody splitters. If they are not radical left they sure need to learn a thing or two about naming. Peoples anything means Commie. Get a clue.
#16
"publish derogatory caricatures of the Pope and a rabbi. "Then we will be satisfied," he said"
Heck, that shouldnt be too hard. get the reform to do one of an Orthodox rabbi (like one of the Ultra O rabbis in Israel who decries reform and conserv J) get some Ortho to do charictures of R and C rabbis, like Isamar Schorsch who they particulalry despise (only complication is that they wont call him a rabbi)
Heck, you could go to half the large synagogues in America and find a faction of congregants at each one ready to do a nasty charicture of their rabbi (and reasons why the previous rabbi should be rehired) :)
#17
Denmark should bluntly state that they will no longer allow any Muslim immigration. They should then inform any Muslims who reside in Denmark but are not citizens that citizenship will under no circumstances be granted and that they have 48 hours to leave the country or be forcibly expelled to country of ethnic origin. As for those Danes who are Muslim, they should be warned that any criminal offense of any type will be punished to the fullest extent of the law followed by immediate expulsion to country of ethnic origin and removal of their Danish citizenship. If the Muzzies want to bitch about the way Denmark is, they can see how well they like it back in the hellholes they came from. If any of them want to stay in Denmark, they can damned well assimilate. The only other choice is immediate departure. Try those actions on for size and watch the seething immediately stop--in Denmark.
Posted by: mac ||
02/09/2006 17:30 Comments ||
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#18
mac, at the rate things are going, soon enough this will be standard policy in all non-Islamic countries.
Rift between Germans and Muslims widens
HAMBURG, Germany -- More than half of Germans polled feel Muslims living in the country are both an addition and a threat to society, according to a new survey, a 15-point increase compared to a similar study from 1990. However, only 13 percent see Muslims as a threat only. Some 38 percent of polled people said they were afraid of Islam.
Roughly a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 54 percent of Germans believed there would be a long-term conflict between the two cultures. In the study published this month, that value has climbed to 60 percent.
Norwegians more skeptical of Islam: Nearly half of those polled say they have become more skeptical about Islam as a religion after the global uproar around the Mohammed caricatures.
"A group of Arab and Muslim youth who live in Arab nations and other places are behind the web site," Ahmad, one of the founders of the site, told Aftenposten.no. "None of us live in Denmark or Norway. We have no other direct connection to these countries other than that some of us have friends there," Ahmad said. "The response has been fantastic. Our inboxes are overflowing with email of support and thanks from Arabs and Muslims, and also from Europeans and Americans," Ahmad told Aftenposten.no. "We never thought we would get so much attention, we just wanted to ask for peace and understanding."
#1
Hmmmm...how could this be happening? How could we stop the spread of Islamophobia through negative stereotypes of muslims as violent fanatics who want to impose their religion on all? Where could these baseless fears be coming from? Must be the West's fault, for being racist and harboring ingrained, irrational suspicions and hatred of the 'others.' Can't think of any other possible explanation.
#2
You're right Monsieur. If millions of Westerners moved to Muslim countries they would be welcomed with open arms, and their cultural differences would be treated with the utmost respect in every way. The current problems are entirely the fault of the Europeans.
#3
The sorry website is meaningless if the folks behind it are unwilling to put their names/faces to their apologies. Could be one guy behind the site for all we can tell. It was pathetic when the lefties tried that about Iraq, it's pathetic now.
#4
Great satire, #1 & 2, but unfortunately, there are vast minorities in both Europe and North America that firmly believe what you said is the absolute truth. We need to fear THOSE people almost as much as we need to be suspicious of the muzzies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/09/2006 11:24 Comments ||
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#5
It would appear that the Mullahs who organized the cartoon show have succeeded.
#6
During my lunch hour today I walked over to Border's and touched all the Qurans. Then I went to Scandanavia House and bought a little wooden Viking that was made in Denmark.
#9
www.sorrynorwaydenmark.com seems to have some red flags buried within:
There is a strong tradition of friendship and cooperation between the Norwegian and Danish people and Arab people. Of most note is the continued support that these governments give to the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and liberation, and the brave stance that these governments have often taken to defend Palestinian rights.
and then in the "links" section, there is a link to a statement by the Palestinian Association in Norway, which in turn links to their website - www.safsaf.org. This site is in arabic with a smattering of either danish or norwegian - and some interesting links, such as this anti-Bush propaganda photo:
http://www.safsaf.org/2006nid/fo09_02_day.htm
I suspect that they are only sorry that the cartoon intifada interferes with European funding for Palestinian radicalism.
#10
I'm sorry, Hupomoger Clans9827. I must've messed up Fred's link thingy when posting -- I found these articles at www.lucianne.com, and the Muslim site is www.sorrynorwaydenmark.com
A new anti-terrorist law has strengthened the Government's armoury against terrorism, particularly in the light of the British experience of terrorist bombing in July last year. Measures include a provision for the installation of more closed-circuit television in public transport and airports, railway stations and ports. Penalties have been increased for terrorist offences, with maximum sentences rising from 20 to 30 years for organisers, and from ten to 20 for those who assist.
Special measures are to be taken to monitor certain travellers, particularly those visiting known terrorist havens abroad. It will be compulsory for phone and internet companies to keep records of connections for three months. Extra attention will be paid to monitoring internet cafés, known to have been used by terrorists in the past. The legal period of detention without charge has been extended to six days. At the same time, the law gives préfets powers to ban troublemakers from sports stadia. It was presented to parliament by the Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy.
The bill was supported by the majority UMP and their uncertain allies, the UDF. The Communists voted against. The Socialists voted differently in the two chambers. In the Senate they opposed the measure vigorously and voted against, whereas the Socialist députés abstained but cooperated with the Government to help the measure through. A number of Socialist amendments were accepted by the Government. In exchange for the cooperation of the députés, the Interior Minister has agreed to bring forward a proposed law that will bring the Renseignements Généraux under parliamentary scrutiny as soon as possible. They are the French equivalent of MI5, responsible for intelligence operations in metropolitan France.
Meanwhile, 22 suspected Islamist fundamentalists have been arrested in the Île de France and the Oise. They are accused of plotting terrorist acts and financing terrorism. The arrests were carried out by police from the Direction de la surveillance du territoire acting under the orders of top anti-terrorist judge Jean- Louis Bruyières.
It has also been announced that 27 suspects are to be charged with aiding and abetting terrorist acts. The original arrests took place between December 2002 and January 2005. Ten of the accused are in prison awaiting trial. The others are on bail. They are members of what is known as the Tchetchen network, la filière tchétchène. The accused include an Algerian imam, arrested with his wife and two sons. They are all suspected of involvement in a planned chemical or biological attack on Russian targets in Paris, and of having helped send recruits to Tchetchenya. The trial is to take place in Paris this summer. Security service sources have let it be known that they are currently on a heightened state of alert against terrorist attacks in France.
Major immigrant network dismantled
Twenty-two people have been arrested in France, in a cross-border crackdown on immigrant smuggling between Afghanistan and Britain. A total of 53 people were detained, of which 18 in Italy, seven in Britain, and three each in Turkey and Greece. The Paris chief prosecutor said that the network was the biggest of its kind so far uncovered in France.
The head of the network was arrested in Britain on a European arrest warrant issued in Paris. The French authorities are seeking his extradition. The prosecutor said that immigrants paid between ?6,000 and ?7,000 to cross Europe and that thousands had used the route to get to Britain. The immigrants were left to their own devices at Calais to make it difficult for the authorities to trace the organisers. This chem-bio issue may be the impetus behind President Chirac's recent retaliatory pronouncements.
With yesterday's new federal Conservative cabinet appointments, the Canadian Islamic Congress fears that police-state politics which began under the former Liberal regime will soon emerge in an accelerated and enlarged form.
Right. Canada. A police state.
Do they even have enough police officers to have a police state?
"The features of an emergent police state in Canada are many," said today's CIC statement. "They include renewal of the anti-terrorism act; the proposed Canadian no-fly list; the existing no-passport list (both giving unprecedented power to civil servants -- not the courts -- to list and de-list Canadians); security certificate detentions; racial profiling; wiretapping and spying on citizens; and a broad range of additional powers given to both the RCMP and CSIS."
The noive o' dem guyz! Taking minimal steps toward self-preservation!
All the current and proposed measures listed above have been implemented without court supervision or due process of law, the statement continued, with the result that "civil liberties of Canadians are eroding and a police state is emerging. Our government is using the fears of its citizens to rob them of their charter rights and freedoms. This is absolutely wrong."
Yasss... Canucklians live in fear of the knock on the door at 4 in the morning, the chill order to "come downtown to answer a few questions, eh?"
The CIC nevertheless still hopes to soon open up a healthy dialogue with PM Stephen Harper's new cabinet -- especially with the group it calls the "most feared five" -- Stockwell Day (Public Safety), Peter MacKay (Foreign Affairs), Lawrence Cannon (Transport), Vic Toews (Justice) and Monte Solberg (Citizenship and Immigration). Maybe he's going to turn out OK. Good quality enemies, anyway. Don't forget to wash your hands if you follow the link.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cindy Sheehan, the anti-Iraq war activist whose son was killed in the conflict there, put an end to speculation on Thursday that she would launch a long-shot bid to become a U.S. senator from California.
Sheehan, speaking in front of San Francisco City Hall, said she would not run for the office.
Now what do I do with all that popcorn?
"If I thought that running for Senate would bring our young people home more quickly I would do it in a minute, but I am not convinced that that would do so," Sheehan said.
A campaign would have pitted her against California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who is one of the state's most popular politicians.
Although experts and polls suggest Feinstein, in office since 1992, will win reelection easily, a campaign by Sheehan would have absorbed moonbat dollars provided her with a platform for her anti-war message.
I can just see the thread on DU now: "How much did Rove pay to keep Cindy out of the race?"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/09/2006 17:18 ||
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She has betrayed us! I was so hoping she would run for the nom.
Drudge Flash: Dem Chair Dean Claims President Turning Country Into Iran
Thu Feb 09 2006 10:41:10 ET
This morning on ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean attacked President Bush for turning the United States into Iran.
Dean: "All we ask is that we not turn into a country like Iran where the President can do anything he wants."
Developing...
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2006 12:09 ||
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#1
All we ask is that we not turn into a country like Iran where crazies like Dean are in charge.
#2
They're lining up all the stuff Bush has to do during the war as being their _excuse_ for when they want to have total power when they get back in office.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/09/2006 12:29 Comments ||
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#3
Dear God... is there ANY limit to this guy's insanity?????
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/09/2006 12:50 Comments ||
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#4
Preach it Brother Dean! Without you we Republicans might be looking at a tough election come Nov.
#7
Whoever it is, I'm sure they'll bitch and moan and accuse President Rice of being the Publicans' token black president. Then they'll try to impeach her.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 14:58 Comments ||
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#8
ROFL, Fred!
Ain't it the truth.
Mad Howard the Mouth - the Gift that Keeps on Giving.
How the hell much is Rove paying Howie? (Whatever it is, he's getting his money's worth.) ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/09/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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#9
Was he challanged on it on ABC's 'WE HATE AMERICA'? I doubt it.
This is the same show which nodded its head knowingly when the Hildabeast made her 'Vast Right Wing Conspircy' accusation (anyone still waiting for an apology for that one?)
Keep it up. The Donks and old media are going a good job at chipping away at what credability they have left....
#12
Democrats really aren't up on this Constitution thing, are they?
I guess the biggest clue came during the confirmation hearings, when one of the Donks asked why Alito said there was a right to bear arms in the Constitution, but wouldn't say that about the "right" to abortion.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/09/2006 17:17 Comments ||
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#13
Keep it up Howard, and your next check will be deposited in the First Bank of Burlington.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
02/09/2006 17:19 Comments ||
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The White House, under mounting political pressure in Congress, provided the full House of Representatives intelligence committee on Wednesday with new details about its domestic spying program and pledged to do the same in the Senate.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and deputy U.S. intelligence chief, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, briefed the House panel for the first time on operational details of the National Security Agency program that has raised an outcry among Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers said.
A White House spokeswoman said the same officials would also provide details to the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday.
Lawmakers said they hoped the three-hour, closed-door House briefing would lead to increased congressional oversight of the NSA program, which allows the agency to monitor international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants while in pursuit of al Qaeda operatives.
Up to now, the White House has been willing to discuss the program only with eight senior lawmakers known as the "Gang of Eight," an approach that has drawn increasing criticism from Democrats and Republicans in recent days.
But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino described the new material as "procedural information" and rejected suggestions that the White House was changing tactics.
"We gave committee members some additional information without violating the principle that we had set forth, which is to limit a briefing on the full program," Perino said.
House intelligence committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, described the briefing as a positive first step and said the classified discussion had avoided only certain technical issues.
"While the briefing did not, and could not, cover the full operational aspects of the program, it will allow for increased committee oversight going forward," Hoekstra said.
The panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman of California, also sounded a positive note. "The ice is thawing," she told reporters. "The administration sees that it's better to work with Congress on this issue."
But in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans continued to question Bush's legal authority and called for a full inquiry.
Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, wrote to Bush on Wednesday asking that Gonzales and Hayden be allowed to brief the Senate panel on the full facts about the program.
"Sen. Rockefeller has not received a response from the White House, and will continue to press for the full committee to have access to all operational and legal details of the program," said Rockefeller's spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi.
Sen. Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday that he was drafting legislation to require the White House to submit the program for a legal review by the secret federal court that grants surveillance warrants under FISA.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/09/2006 02:16 ||
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#2
"New Details" executive summary:
a. We have a way-big computer.
b. It contains the phone number of everyone living, as well as a few who claim to be dead.
c. We listen to every ***king thing and jot down vital operational traffic on the enemy.
d. If you are not the enemy, no worries.
e. What are your questions?
#3
Got a computer voice poll interview last night. These are not the exact words but it went something like this: Former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech last night on the ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING of MILLIONS OF AMERICANS this President and the Republicans have have carried out.
Press 1 if you Support this ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING. 1
Press 1 if you will be voting Democratic for Rep. to Congress in the next election.
Press 2 if you will be voting Republican.
...... hm no other options? 2
#4
This is as big of a loser as was Dan Rather's attempt to rally the lefty masses behind the National Guard "scandal".
The usual suspects think they can exite the bases over this because they live in an echo chamber. They couldn't float Air America in a single city without stealing from orphans and widows, so that tells you the actual numbers of moonbats flying around out there. Yet if you read the reports in the media the prevailing wisdom is that the NSA spying is bad, bad, very bad and we all very concerned. Of course, Fox hypes it as "Do American's think the NSA spying bad?"
But the bottom line is that no matter how hard the media hypes it, whines, spins, and masturbates on the subject, Americans don't care if the NSA spys on Americans supsected of speaking with terrorists. Period. No amount of hyping this and trying to get polls to prove Americans are "concerned" is going to change the fact that the Dems are riding a dead horse that can't make it to the next election.
Most of us are just ticked that they are allowing the terrorists to get information on the program and we are going to be even more ticked if the terrorists manage to pull off an attack.
#6
Is Rockerfeller squirming? Pretty easy to track leaks when information is shared with only eight. How about leaking some classic disinformation and seeing how long it takes before the leak shows up in the NYT?
#7
Snarling Arlan is grasping at straws if he thinks he can pass a law to restrict executive powers that he disagrees with politically. The SCOTUS will strike down the law while they are still debating.
Democratic candidate for US House of Representatives Dwight Leister wants National Guard to guard Arizona border, stop illegal immigrants. Leister, 61, has long been involved in Democratic politics but admits his stand on immigration might be a bit out of the mainstream for his party's leaders. Not that he cares. "I've been involved in civil rights issues and criminal justice issues, and what I've found is that on lot of issues, the Democrats are nuts," Leister said.
Supervisor Bill Horn delivered an attention-grabbing State of the County address last night that assailed illegal immigration, border security, medical marijuana and gangs. Lots of meat in the article -- too much to excerpt.
#4
"I've been involved in civil rights issues and criminal justice issues, and what I've found is that on lot of issues, the Democrats are nuts," Leister said.
WOW! Look for LLL to march in the streets (of Berkley) and burn down the embassy of Arizona effegies of Bush over this one!
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 10:56 Comments ||
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#5
OMG, we've got another Zell Miller! Why isn't this guy the Governor of Arizona, or at least the replacement for John "It's all about me" McCain? This is one Democrat I might even feel comfortable voting for.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/09/2006 11:31 Comments ||
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#6
A dem that says his party is nuts??!? I'm watchin' out for the four horsemen.
#8
I voted for a Democrat in 1994. I might do it again. This is My district. We'll have to see who the GOP candidate is.
I agree with his stance (at least his public stance). Crack down on criminal trespass, squatters get no anmesty, and a guest worker program (with no back-door bring-in-20-relatives-on-welfare clause).
Mark Antony in his famous funeral oration in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar says that he came not to praise Caesar, but to bury him. This week, at the funeral for the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, two of the speakers, Jimmy Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery, might have opened their remarks by saying that they came not to bury Coretta Scott King, but to bash Bush, which is exactly what they proceeded to do. They exploited a solemn occasion in order to take cheap pot shots at the President, keenly aware that their remarks would be broadcast around the world, and into many American classrooms.
Of course, both Carter and Lowery were also aware that the target of their attack, George W. Bush, was sitting right behind them. Had he not been present on the occasion, their Bush-bashing would have only been an affront to good taste. But because Bush had come there to honor the memory of Coretta Scott King, and not to engage in a debate with his political opponents, the attacks on him crossed the boundaries of mere bad taste, and became low blows. They were deliberately attacking a man who they knew could not, under the circumstances, defend himself against their assault. . . .
The following is an absolutely brilliant insight:
. . . Carter, for example, used the opportunity to insinuate that Bush's "domestic spying" was like the spying done by the FBI on Dr. King. Carter commiserated with the King family for having been subjected to such an ordeal at the hands of their government, and, by implication, he also commiserated with those Americans who had been subjected to Bush's domestic surveillance. But does this analogy honor the memory of Dr. King and his movement?
Let's make a simple thought experiment to find out.
Suppose al-Qaeda had decided to air its grievances against the United States by holding a massive peaceful "sit in" at the Twin Towers on 9/11. Suppose Islamic terrorists, instead of blowing up innocent human beings, had vowed only to use civil disobedience. Suppose Osama bin Laden, like Dr. King, had struggled with all his might to keep his organization from turning to bloodshed and violence. Would Bush have felt the need to launch a domestic surveillance program on such a pacifistic movement? Maybe; maybe not. But the fact that al-Qaeda embraces violence and celebrates terrorism -- doesn't this small detail destroy the basis of Carter's analogy? If you can equate bin Laden with Martin Luther King, and al-Qaeda to King's non-violent movement, then, by all means, go ahead and draw the same analogy that Mr. Carter drew about Bush's domestic surveillance program. If, on the other hand, you cannot equate the two, then Carter's analogy becomes at best ridiculous and at worst obscene. . . .
#3
And, while we're on political bashing, who wire tapped MLK? Um, it wasn't a Republican in office at the time, that's for sure, but we can't speak ill of the dead. Of course, now a days, JFK resembles a R more than a D!
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 13:27 Comments ||
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#4
Jimmah's always been a little short in the common sense department, and a funeral was a dumb place to trot out this agenda, but he wasn't as far off as all that.
MLK was wiretapped (yes, by J Edgar Hoover and a couple of Dems) because some of his staff/supporters knew people who knew people with Red connections. Which is exactly the kind of third hand connection the current program seems to be looking for and what kept them from doing it through the FISA process.
Claiming Carter was comparing MLK to OBL is pure sophistry, of course, but if it gets you off, enjoy.
You apparently can't tell the difference between wiretapping people living in this country and wiretapping foreign terrorists who are calling people in this country.
But you're right - we shouldn't spy on them. At least as long as the only harm they're planning is to you.
When they're planning on harming me and my friends, on the other hand....
Did you pick your own name yourself, or did Fred's name generator just get lucky?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/09/2006 15:10 Comments ||
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#6
Carter is someone who by his actions in office knows nothing at all about national security. He continues to display his ineptitude each time he opens his mouth on the subject. Worst president in my lifetime by far.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/09/2006 15:24 Comments ||
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#10
Carter, remember, is they guy who responded to an act of war by pissing his pants.
Metaphorically speaking. At least, as far as I know.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/09/2006 17:19 Comments ||
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#11
MLK was wiretapped (yes, by J Edgar Hoover and a couple of Dems) because some of his staff/supporters knew people who knew people with Red connections
J. Edger Hoover wiretapped him on orders of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, who was working for President John F. Kennedy. They were looking for information MLK was having an affair so they could smear him with it.
Ironic, the Kennedy's looking to smear someone for screwing around. And Jimmy Carter bringing that up with Teddy Kennedy sitting right behind him. Heh.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/09/2006 17:23 Comments ||
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#12
Because us Orca's need to see stuff twice at least least
J. Edger Hoover wiretapped him on orders of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, who was working for President John F. Kennedy. They were looking for information MLK was having an affair so they could smear him with it.
ISLAMABAD An explosion killed a technician at Pakistans main nuclear research facility, an army spokesman said yesterday. The man died while handling explosives on Tuesday at Khan Research Laboratories, near Islamabad, spokesman Maj-Gen. Shuakat Sultan said. There were no other injuries, and no damage to nuclear facilities at the laboratory, he said.
It was a normal conventional explosive that he was handling when the accident happened and he died, Sultan said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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Now, the first question that comes to my mind is "Why are there explosives at a nuclear research facility?".
My next thought is that red wire-blue wire problem that Hajjis have is not a good thing to to mix with anything nuclear.
Over/Under on a future Nuclear bang in paki-land, anyone?
Posted by: N guard ||
02/09/2006 0:46 Comments ||
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#2
Over/Under on a future Nuclear bang in paki-land, anyone?
#3
Not much of a difference, AzCat. If they can't get at the infidel Zionists or cross-worshippers, then a neighborhood of apostate Shia or Ahmadis will do....
#5
Why are there explosives at a nuclear research facility?" I can't answer why, but that is just the way it is. When I have been camping or hiking in Bandelier National Park, which is adjacent to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, I have heard large explosions coming from the grounds. There are even signs posted at the boundaries warning of hidden explosives (?mines). This doesn't happen real frequently, but the park rangers were quite familiar with the occasional interruptions to the wild scenery.
#6
NG, a real simple explanation (which is also the limit of my understanding) is, you make a nuclear weapon by using explosives to force together and compress radioactive material such that it is dense enough to reach the critical mass for a runaway nuclear reaction and hence big bang.
#8
Oh, so it was a nuclear weapons research facility. O.K.
I'm wondering if an "accident" of the nuclear variety could be arranged, then blamed on incompetent technicians. I'm fairly sure the christians in action aren't competent enough to pull it off, but maybe India?
As for los alamos, Who Knows what all goes on there.
Posted by: N guard ||
02/09/2006 9:48 Comments ||
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Nepals Maoist rebels are committed to multi-party democracy and willing to keep the monarchy if the people choose the groups leader Prachanda said in a report published on Wednesday. The interview with the Maoist leader in Indias The Hindu newspaper came as Nepal staged municipal polls denounced by the rebels and opposition parties as an attempt by King Gyanendra to legitimise his takeover of power a year ago.
Prachanda, whose Maoist movement has waged a deadly 10-year peoples war to topple the monarchy, said he was willing to hold talks with the king if Gyanendra conceded that his army-backed coup in February 2005 was wrong. Let us sit across the table, and then (if) he talks of a free and fair election to a constitutional assembly, then we will be ready to take part, said Prachanda, which loosely translates as the fierce one. Prachanda, whose group took up arms to install a communist republic, said it was now committed to multi-party democracy so long as it was under a new constitutional framework. Our decision on multi-party democracy is a strategically, theoretically developed position, he said in the wide-ranging interview laying out a roadmap for political change.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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lets hope Prachanda keeps HIS word.
Posted by: bk ||
02/09/2006 9:48 Comments ||
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I dunno. I smell hudna.
Posted by: SLO Jim ||
02/09/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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The Indo-US nuclear deal is getting more explosive with each passing day.
Top Indian nuclear scientists and engineers are upset with PM Manmohan Singh for buckling under US pressure to include more reactors in the civilian list.
"Our nuclear scientists and engineers are upset at these developments since such a thing has never happened before. On January 20, 2006, during a meeting at BARC, we had explored the possibility of dashing off a protest letter to the PM opposing the pressure tactics of the Americans," said P K Iyengar, ex-chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Supporting present AEC chief Anil Kakodkar, he recalled that the BARC meeting was attended by several retired nuclear scientists and engineers.
On Tuesday, another former AEC chief, Homi Sethna, had expressed his support to Kakodkar saying the Americans were changing their goal posts.
On Wednesday, Iyengar echoed the same concerns. "We are all very agitated that they are changing their goal posts, and we are extending our full support to Anil Kakodkar in this crucial matter, which involves the security of our country. He is absolutely right in saying that fast-breeder reactors cant be included in the civilian list because it would affect our strategic interests," Iyengar told TOI.
Iyengar, who played a key role in the Pokhran-1 nuclear test on May 18,1974, said: "We are very sorry that the issue is being dragged on to the streets, and the pro-American lobby in the government is telling us to accommodate them," he said. "Let me tell you that after the May 1998 nuclear weapon tests, we had made a mistake in declaring a moratorium and announcing a no-first use policy," he added.
Meanwhile, some BARC scientists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government adopted a plan by Raja Ramanna of separating the civilian and military nuclear facilities two decades ago and there should be no dilemma now.
But Iyenger said Ramanna had never mooted such a plan. Ramanna, he said, had told him, "BARC and the Kalpakkam nuclear plant near Chennai would be come under international safeguards only over his dead body."
Scientists recalled that years ago when Ramanna visited the US city of Los Alamos, the Americans barred his entry to all nuclear facilities. Los Alamos is the where the Americans designed and made their first atomic bomb in 1945.
"Now the Americans are dictating terms to us," one scientist said. The other key voice in the debate has been that of former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board A Gopalakrishnan.
He has been quoted as saying that the Dhruva and Cirus reactors at BARC were crucial to the Indian strategic programme.
According to him the other nuclear units with a military role include the Rare Materials Plant near Mysore, the laser enrichment programme at the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology at Indore, and the Beryllium Production facility at Vashi in Navi Mumbai which supports the weapon core making process.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! That street corner cry of yesteryear is resonating at some European publications that have enjoyed a boom in sales and Web traffic after printing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have stoked outrage across the Islamic world.
Denmark's biggest-circulation broadsheet, Jyllands-Posten, triggered the controversy in September by publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet, including one showing his turban as a bomb. Its weekday circulation of about 154,000 hasn't moved much.
But for newspapers in France and Norway that reprinted the drawings with much international ado, sometimes in defense of free speech, the caricatures have become a profile boost and tonic for lackluster sales.
If there's a lesson, it's an old one: Controversy sells.
Mohamed Bechari, a vice president at the French Council of the Muslim Faith, France's largest Islamic organization, said he thinks French readers are buying up the newspapers out of "curiosity" not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim feeling.
"Here's some advice to those newspapers today facing ruin, bankruptcy or collapse: All you need do is insult Muslims and Islam, and sales will get hot as blazes," he told The Associated Press at a Paris conference Thursday on promoting dialogue between the West and the Muslim world, convened in response to the furor over the drawings...
#1
Naked Blond Babe Insults Islam! Infidel Sweetie Knew the Secrets of the Love Koran!
Under Torture Reveals Cancer Cure and Western Weight Loss Theory!
The United States wants to hand over to Baghdad for trial a detained US citizen suspected of links to Iraq Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the mans lawyers said on Wednesday.
Shawqi Omar, a Sunni Muslim with both US and Kuwaiti nationality, allegedly served as Zarqawis personal emissary with different Iraqi insurgent groups,according to US documents released Wednesday.
Omar was detained by US forces in Iraq on October 29, 2004 and held without charge for 15 months.
In a document recently submitted to a federal court in Washington, the US government also alleged that Omar took part in staking out foreigners to be kidnapped and plotted with Zarqawi to undertake a chemical weapons attack... I suspect we wish to extradite him to Iraq because of the fine quality of Iraqi hemp.
February 9, 2006: American troops in Iraq have learned that you can't cut corners, when it comes to regaining control of a town or district, from Sunni Arab or al Qaeda terrorists. Two years ago, American troops would come in, clear out the bad guys, then turn over control to local leaders and hastily trained police. This would work in many areas where most of the population was mainly Kurd or Shia, but in any area with a substantial Sunni Arab presence, the terrorists would quickly regain control. The terrorists could do this because they had the active, or passive, support of the Sunni Arab population (who all wanted Sunni Arabs back in charge, if not someone of the caliber as Saddam Hussein). Terrorism is powerful if there is not a strong police presence to deal with it. Iraq never had much of a police force during the decades of Saddam's rule. Order was maintained via special "intelligence" units that were basically terrorist organizations whose main attributes were brutality and loyalty to Saddam. The thugs who used to staff those outfits now form the core of the Iraqi "resistance." What a coincidence.
Saddam's thugs had more than ruthlessness and brutality going for them. They also had a reputation among Iraqis. When the American and Iraqi troops departed, Saddam's former enforcers would make the local police an offer they couldn't refuse ("work with us or die.") Some cops did refuse, and most of those died, or ran for their lives. After seeing this happen again and again over several months in 2004, the emphasis was placed on increasing police training, and recruiting. Police pay was increased as well. Special (for SWAT and hunting terrorists) police battalions were organized. Plans were made to blitz towns controlled by the terrorists, and install powerful police forces.
The new police had another advantage; more months of intelligence work, to identify who the most important bad guys were. These often included local tribal chiefs. These fellows could be talked to. But the former Saddam heavies usually responded best to several bullets in the head. Many of Saddam's cronies, with a sense of self-preservation, had already fled the country. The ones who stayed behind were true believers in the restoration of Sunni Arab rule, or just out-of-it. These types also made the most effective terrorists, and the most formidable fighters when cornered. But once they were dead, they were not replaced. The Saddam era enforcers had years of experience at what they did, and no one was eager to follow them into the business. So during 2005, when American troops rolled into terrorist controlled towns, they brought Iraqi police commandos with them, the better to find and take down the key terrorists. Many of these police commandoes were Kurds or Shia Arabs. These fellows had kin who had been injured or killed by Saddam's enforcers. The police commandoes had to be constantly reminded how valuable it was to take some of the thugs alive, so more intel could be obtained.
Once the open resistance was broken, the new police force was installed. This included going from house-to-house to get to know everyone, and note who was still siding with the terrorists. An older cop could usually get a sense of where loyalties were in each family, after a short conversation with the men of the house. The remnants of the terrorist gangs would be in hiding, but ready to reform and return. The trick was to have enough police, intel and firepower to knock down the terrorists again, and again, until they were all dead, gone, or out of the terror business.
So far, the new methods are working. You can tell by the number of Sunni Arab religious and tribal leaders who are switching their allegiance from the terrorists to the government. This sort of thing is risky, and many of these Sunni Arab leaders are getting killed by the terrorists. But they can see which way the wind is blowing, and believe the government offers a better, or at least more survivable, future.
February 9, 2006: In Iraq, forensic analysis of evidence from IED (improvised explosive device) attacks has produced some interesting results. Most IEDs are locally made, in secret workshops. As a result, there are not any standard plans. So the products of different workshops can often be identified. As a result, it is possible to plot the "distribution pattern" of attacks by IEDs made in a particular shop. Reportedly this has been useful in locating some of the bomb factories. Another way that bomb factories are discovered is by chance, when one blows up accidentally. Since safety standards and working conditions are primitive, there have reportedly been a number of explosions in IED factories
#3
Never mind what Putty's up to. He should be thinking about what Hamas - and Iran - are up to.
Think Chechnya, Vlad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/09/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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#4
RasPutin is working both sides of the street like a crackwhore jonesing for her next rock. Sadly, it will take a few more Beslans before anyone over there connects the dots. How pathetic that Russia continues to epitomize a country getting the government it deserves.
#5
Russia likes controlled tension. It gives them more power through the security council that they would otherwise justify. Sticking his rather long nose into the Palestinian question is just another way of saying to the world: "We're still relevant!!!"
And so they continue to play the Great Game.
Suspending aid to the Palestinians following Hamas's electoral success would be a major error, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview which Spanish media published Wednesday. "It would be a big mistake to suspend aid to the Palestinians," said Putin, who was set to begin a two-day state visit to Spain on Wednesday. "When we talk about the causes and roots of terrorism we refer to social injustice, misery, unemployment. And if we stop helping simple Palestinian citizens, are we going to eradicate terrorism and criminality? Of course not," said Putin.
Both the United States and the European Union have warned that aid to the Palestinians may be cut unless Hamas dissolves its armed wing and recognises Israel. Putin noted that Hamas, "an organisation considered as terrorist by the whole European community, has assumed power in legitimate fashion."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
ROFL! Of course we should listen to Bloefeld Puttyputz, he's been a beacon of responsible foreign policy, a bastion of constructive domestic policy, the very epitome of the international conscience, and an all-around spiffy role model of wisdom, sagacity, and democratic authority.
Come to think of it, why hasn't he gotten a Nobel Pieces Prize, yet? I detect a whiff of scandal, here.
#3
You know, it is just possible that, if the world had not been supporting these parasites for the last 58 years, they might have learned the relationship between work and the ability to feed one's family. They should be cut off cold turkey and watch them seethe when they have to choose between paying for celebratory gunfire and food.
#5
It's seldom noted, but I belive that while under Israel control, the Palestinians have enjoyed the most benign and deferential "occupation" of any conquered people in history.
#6
OK Vlad, you pay our share of the aid, and we'll spend our share on the extra anti-terrorist measures needed to deal with the hellspawn that slither out of 'Palestine' into Europe.
#8
.com is on to something. He's vying for the NPP! Only they (or the UN) could be stupid enough to actually believe a proposal like that. Heck, the Arabs should fund the Paleos, after all they're "bretheren."
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 10:45 Comments ||
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#9
'Palestinian aid suspension will be a mistake'
Incomplete headline, it should read:
'Palestinian aid suspension will be a mistake they should have to learn from'
Of course, the Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Electing a sworn terrorist government should be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Any nation willing to fund the Hamas government should draw international censure.
Islamic Jihad ruled out on Wednesday joining a new Palestinian government following Hamas's election victory or forging any long-term truce with Israel. "Islamic Jihad will not join the coming cabinet," Khaled al-Batsh, a leader of the militant group, told a news conference, voicing a position it had been widely expected to take. "If the government will have an agenda of resistance, we will support it," he said, referring to attacks on Israelis. Batsh said any long-term ceasefire with Israel would be useless and Islamic Jihad "rejects it completely".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.
The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.
"We don't realize that, as we live our lives and make little choices, like buying groceries, buying on Amazon, Googling, we're leaving traces everywhere," says Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have an attitude that no one will connect all those dots. But these programs are about connecting those dots - analyzing and aggregating them - in a way that we haven't thought about. It's one of the underlying fundamental issues we have yet to come to grips with."
The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.
DHS officials are circumspect when talking about ADVISE. "I've heard of it," says Peter Sand, director of privacy technology. "I don't know the actual status right now. But if it's a system that's been discussed, then it's something we're involved in at some level."
Data-mining is a key technology
A major part of ADVISE involves data-mining - or "dataveillance," as some call it. It means sifting through data to look for patterns. If a supermarket finds that customers who buy cider also tend to buy fresh-baked bread, it might group the two together. To prevent fraud, credit-card issuers use data-mining to look for patterns of suspicious activity.
What sets ADVISE apart is its scope. It would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information - from financial records to CNN news stories - and cross-reference it against US intelligence and law-enforcement records. The system would then store it as "entities" - linked data about people, places, things, organizations, and events, according to a report summarizing a 2004 DHS conference in Alexandria, Va. The storage requirements alone are huge - enough to retain information about 1 quadrillion entities, the report estimated. If each entity were a penny, they would collectively form a cube a half-mile high - roughly double the height of the Empire State Building.
But ADVISE and related DHS technologies aim to do much more, according to Joseph Kielman, manager of the TVTA portfolio. The key is not merely to identify terrorists, or sift for key words, but to identify critical patterns in data that illumine their motives and intentions, he wrote in a presentation at a November conference in Richland, Wash.
For example: Is a burst of Internet traffic between a few people the plotting of terrorists, or just bloggers arguing? ADVISE algorithms would try to determine that before flagging the data pattern for a human analyst's review.
At least a few pieces of ADVISE are already operational. Consider Starlight, which along with other "visualization" software tools can give human analysts a graphical view of data. Viewing data in this way could reveal patterns not obvious in text or number form. Understanding the relationships among people, organizations, places, and things - using social-behavior analysis and other techniques - is essential to going beyond mere data-mining to comprehensive "knowledge discovery in databases," Dr. Kielman wrote in his November report. He declined to be interviewed for this article.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Oh My God! Fear me, for I am Digital Zod Colossus! I shall soon Know All and See All. I will track you down and crush you just for my own Amusement! Black helicopters are everywhere, following You on My Command! With Guardian and SkyNet, We become OWG! Eeeevil this way computes! Run away! Run away!
(It was the pepperoni special you ordered last Thursday in combination with the prescription for bleeding hemorroids and your preference for CNN that tipped 'em off, y'know.)
#8
If it searches the spam I receive, I will be linked with Nigerian criminals, but the FBI won't find me because they'll be looking for someone with a really great mortgage rate who is away on an illicit "hook-up" popping Viagras by the handful. [That's the PG-13 version.]
#10
The Lefties will of course vote to love it afore they vote to hate it afore....afore.....afore....@
Remember now, the MSM > its not Socialism, Stalinism, or Communism, its Safety, Security, Protection and Responsibility, ..... anti-Fascism-for-Fascism-for-anti-Fascism.
IN April 2002, Singaporeans first heard Mas Selamat Kastari's name. Then came the wait for the ruthless and hot-tempered Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member to be sent back from Indonesian custody.
Terrorism experts say that having him back on home ground might finally throw up new information about the JI terrorist cell in Singapore and its activities.
They pointed out that while Mas Selamat was held in Indonesia, the authorities there did not make public any information he may have given them.
'Singapore will be very interested in figuring out about what he knows about possible support or even active JI cells here,' said Dr John Harrison, manager of NTU's International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.
'Even though it's hard to say how much local knowledge he has, he would still be a significant factor if there are any future attacks being planned by remaining JI members.'
Dr Harrison, however, said that the government dragnet on JI members has resulted in the group being greatly 'fragmented'.
'Because of this fragmentation, it's not certain if there is still a common control within JI and if so, what kind of influence Mas Selamat has,' said Dr Harrison.
And even though the deportation is a coup for authorities here, Mas Selamat's arrest does not have the high-profile significance of Hambali's or suspected JI Indonesia leader and militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir's.
Mr Christian Le Miere, Asia editor for defence think-tank Jane's Information Group, believes that whatever information Mas Selamat has is 'questionable'.
'From information that has been released about his activities, he has been fairly independent and his plans do not generally involve the main group,' he said.
Mas Selamat was deported back here four days ago and has been put under Internal Security Act arrest.
Investigation into his case will now proceed, said the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Prior to his arrest, Mas Selamat had wanted to crash a plane - either Singapore, US or British - into Changi Airport.
He had also planned to attack US personnel in a shuttle-bus service between Sembawang and Yishun MRT stations.
The former head of the JI terrorist cell in Singapore fled the country in December 2001 when the Government began cracking down on JI members.
Mas Selamat wanted revenge. He wanted the US to stop its war in Afghanistan.
And he was especially angry with the Singapore Government for disrupting the JI cell here and vowed revenge for his captured comrades.
While on the run in 2002, he fled to Malaysia, where he met up with Hambali, Al-Qaeda's South-east Asia representative and JI's operational chief.
He had also amassed some intelligence material, photographs of the airport and reconnaissance of the radar station at Biggin Hill.
Mas Selamat then took four JI members with him to Thailand to hijack a plane from Bangkok.
Fortunately, at the 11th hour, the mission was cancelled.
It was aborted after an aviation alert and Singaporean authorities stormed the targetted plane.
But Mas Selamat was nowhere to be found and so began a massive manhunt for the man some considered to be the most dangerous JI member here.
Known for his cunning and calculative moves, Mas Selamat always stayed one step ahead.
When police raided his house in Singapore, he deliberately damaged a computer hard disk containing potentially-incriminating evidence.
He led the authorities on a wild goose chase all over South-east Asia, from Malaysia to Indonesia.
From Medan to Bali to Surabaya, he was careful enough not to stay more than a few months in each place, hopping from island to island discreetly by ferry or bus.
On 2 Feb 2003, the search was over.
Police nabbed him with his wife and four children - aged 5 to 14 - on a bus in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan.
When arrested, The Batam Post reported that he didn't appear nervous. He remained calm and alert even as eager photographers rushed forward to snap his picture.
He was put behind bars in Indonesia for 18 months for having false identification documents.
Then, he was released and arrested two more times by Indonesian police for having false documents.
The last arrest was on 20 Jan when he was visiting his son at a religious school in Java.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/09/2006 02:37 ||
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Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Lebanon have turned a religious ceremony into a protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. The leader of the Hezbollah militant group told the crowd demonstrations must continue until Europe passed laws banning insults to Muhammad.
Thousands took part in marches in Cape Town, South Africa, and Bangladesh. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan criticised editors who continued to print the cartoons despite the furore.
"It is insensitive, it is offensive, it is provocative, and they should see what has happened around the world," he said. Mr Annan said he supported freedom of speech but it entailed "exercising responsibility and judgement".
The satirical cartoons - which have been denounced throughout the Islamic world - include an image portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits any depiction of Allah and the Prophet.
In other developments:
* Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tells an English-language Arab newspaper that the caricatures were not intended as an attack on Muslims
* Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script of a controversial film on Islam that led to the murder of director Theo Van Gogh, says she believes journalists have been right to publish the cartoons
* Iranian Vice-President Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee rejects Ms Rice's accusation his country was guilty of inflaming the furore as "100% a lie"
* South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki appeals for tolerance and mutual respect as thousands of Muslims rally in Cape Town.
The Malaysian government shut down indefinitely a Borneo-based paper, the Sarawak Tribune, after it reprinted the cartoons on Saturday.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi described their publication as "insensitive and irresponsible". The paper had apologised for what it called an editorial oversight.
Papers in several European countries have also reprinted the images, first published in a Danish newspaper last September and most recently carried in French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
NATO defence ministers are meeting in Brussels to consider the security implications of the controversy. It follows attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan and on Danish embassies in Beirut and Damascus.
A dozen people have died in violent protests in Afghanistan over recent days, some as they tried to march on a US military base.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told Shia Muslims gathered in Beirut to mark the annual Ashura mourning ceremony that there could be "no compromise before we get an apology".
"We want European parliament to draft laws that ban newspapers from insulting the Prophet," he said.
He criticised US President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over their claim that Iran and Syria had exploited the row over the cartoons to fuel anti-Western feeling.
"The protests must be pursued everywhere. Bush and Rice must shut up and we tell them that we will not forgive those who offend our Prophet," he said.
European papers have defended their decisions to publish on free speech grounds. EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini called on media across the European Union to adopt a voluntary code of conduct to prevent such rows in the future.
DOHA (AFP) - The radical Palestinian group Hamas joined voices for calm in the international furore sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as a Taliban commander in Afghanistan said 100 suicide bombers had volunteered. Hamas is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to
attacks against the feelings of Muslims, the organisations leader Khaled Meshaal told a news conference.
Liberal Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali said the European press had been right to publish contentious cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed...Shame on those politicians who stated that publishing and re-publishing the drawings was 'unnecessary',
'insensitive', 'disrespectful' and 'wrong'," she added, echoing the words of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw..."Demanding that people who do not accept Mohammed's teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission." She listed numerous teachings of Mohammed which she rejected and said she believed there was a need to be critical of him to educate people.
An Iranian vice president said Thursday he did not believe that the United States will attack his country over its nuclear program, and compared US defense secretary to a vampire showing his teeth.
"Iran is not Iraq, Iran is not Afghanistan," Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee, one of Iran's vice presidents, said during a visit to the Indonesian capital. "They still cannot leave (those two countries), it is impossible for them to invade Iran."
Asked about this report, Mashaee said Rumsfeld was like "Dracula showing his teeth."
#1
Iran is not Iraq, Iran is not Afghanistan, Iran is not Georgia nor is it Turkmenistan. Iran is not South Africa nor Mexico. It is certainly not Japan nor Germany. Italy we're not, nor Canada.
EFL
Two German businessmen, a former Russian military officer and North Korea are among those helping Iran develop missiles that the West fears could one day carry nuclear warheads, diplomats and intelligence officials say.
Last month German federal prosecutors formally charged two German citizens with espionage for helping a foreign intelligence agency acquire dual-use "delivery system" technology. The prosecutors announced the charge of espionage last week but did not name the country involved. The two German men have been accused of "having sold a vibration testing facility in 2001 and 2002 on behalf of a foreign military intelligence procurement entity," the prosecutor's office said in a statement posted on its Web site.
A German official familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation, said the country involved was Iran. "These missile technology dealers ... appear to have been acting alone and were not part of any organized gang," he said.
Recent U.S. intelligence recovered from a stolen laptop computer suggests that Iranian missile experts are trying to develop a missile re-entry vehicle capable of carrying a relatively small nuclear warhead, EU and U.S. officials say.
To the annoyance of the United States and European Union, Russia has made it clear that it is willing to sell small-scale defensive missiles to Iran. Late last year, Moscow agreed to sell Iran tactical surface-to-air missiles that could be used to shoot down low-flying aircraft or guided missiles. However, even Russia says it will not sell medium- and long-range missile technology to the Islamic republic.
An EU diplomat, citing his country's intelligence, said Iran had purchased 18 disassembled BM-25 mobile missiles with a range of around 2,500 km from North Korea. He was confirming a German newspaper report from December that cited Germany's BND foreign intelligence service.
One of the intelligence officials said a former Russian military officer with the first name Viktor had helped Iran get Soviet-made SSN6 missile technology from Russia and North Korea, which Iran could use to improve the accuracy of its newly-bought BM-25s and increase their range to as much as 3,500 km. "The Russian authorities either don't know about him or don't care," the official said, adding that there was no evidence that Moscow approved of Viktor's activities.
In December, the United States imposed sanctions on six Chinese, two Indian and one Austrian firm for selling missile or chemical weapons-related supplies to Iran.
A commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday over her remarks on Tehran's nuclear programme, saying she "thinks she's Hitler."
"Well, she's not Hitler, dammit! We're Hitler! She can be Mussolini or Tojo if she wants!"
Apparently, *everybody* gets to be Hitler for fifteen minutes. At this point, I'm not even sure ol' Adolph was really Hitler, that accusation is getting so old and overused.
"In her childish dreams, Merkel imagines she's Hitler and thinks that now she occupies the chancellor's seat she can dictate orders to the world and to free countries," Commander Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. "We cannot expect anything else from people with a Zionist past," added Jazayeri, the head of the public relations department of the guards, one of Iran's most powerful institutions.
Merkel on Saturday charged that Iran had 'overstepped the mark' with its nuclear programme after the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to report Tehran to the UN Security Council, paving the way for possible sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Is anybody else getting sick of the Iranian broken record
#5
"In her childish dreams, Merkel imagines she's Hitler and thinks that now she occupies the chancellor's seat she can dictate orders to the world and to free countries," Commander Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. "We cannot expect anything else from people with a Zionist past," added Jazayeri, the head of the public relations department of the guards, one of Iran's most powerful institutions.
Man, trying to decipher that one hurts my head. Anyone have a spare Secret MM Decoder ring they can loan me? Germany, under Hitler, has a "Zionist" past? Man, the MM must be gettin some good poppies from Afghanistan or something!
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 10:51 Comments ||
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#6
And, I'll believe it when she invades Poland and Russia and bombs London! Not exactly gonna happen anytime soon.
Posted by: BA ||
02/09/2006 10:52 Comments ||
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#7
Apparently, *everybody* gets to be Hitler for fifteen minutes.
...But I don't want to be Hitler. I want to be either Manfred Von Richtoften or Adolf Galland. Okay, if I have to be, I'll be Rommel.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/09/2006 12:02 Comments ||
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#8
Sorry Mike, if Hitler it is, then Hitler you shall be. Try to deal with it, mein herr.
#9
Apparently, *everybody* gets to be Hitler for fifteen minutes.
Bush was recently promoted from Hitler to Nixon. This means the ever-popular position of Hitler is currently vacant. Lots of people have their resume in play. The upside is everyone in the food chain gets to move up a level.
#10
When I get to be Nixon for 15 minutes those tapes are history and we'll all live happily ever after. Except Jimmuah who in 1977 is having his peanut seed company sued by two of my cousins and win. This time his ass doen't slip away.
Iran has design drawings for building a 400-metre (more than 1,300 feet) deep shaft that is clearly for underground, possibly nuclear, weapons testing, diplomats told AFP. But the diplomats said there were no indications that Iran, which some experts believe is weeksmonths years away from being able to build an atomic bomb, has constructed or plans to build such a site.
The document was part of US intelligence which has been made available to the UN nuclear watchdog and which has been presented to Iran, said a diplomat, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
"Hokay, Mahmoud, they found the hole. Start digging another one."
Officials from the Vienna-based toothless watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency refused to comment but an IAEA report on January 31 said the UN watchdog had presented Iran with "information that had been made available to the agency" and which concerned work related to high explosives. Iran has dismissed this information as "related to baseless allegations," according to the report which did not provide details about the high explosives data.
"Lies! All lies!"
The report said the IAEA was also looking into "alleged undeclared studies" to build a secret plant for converting uranium, a step in making nuclear reactor fuel that can also be bomb material, and "the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, all of which could have a military nuclear dimension."
Oh, ya think?
A Western diplomat said the design for the underground shaft, with sensors in it to be connected "to a control center 10 kilometres (six miles) away" was "clearly designed for some underground testing," and that this could be nuclear although the design did not indicate that this was for atomic weapons testing.
Such documennts are rarely labeled with a square at the bottom of the shaft and the label, "nuclear explosive device sits here until the big moment".The diplomat said the IAEA had asked the United States for permission to show the classified document to the Iranians.
"Sure, why not, it's not like you guys will accomplish anything anyway."
The information was part of extensive Farsi-language computer files and reports which the United States has obtained and feels is the best sign yet that Iran seeks to make nuclear weapons. US officials are confident the data is genuine, diplomats said, even though some analysts have criticized it as unreliable since it is believed to come from only one source.
The data concerns a program called Project 111 under which the Iranians have also studied how to design a ballistic missile to handle a load that is not named as a possible nuclear warhead. The word "nuclear" is not mentioned in any of the Project 111 documents.
We never mentioned "nuclear" in any documents when I worked out in the Titan missile patch. "It" was refered to as the "re-entry vehicle".
But the "package" could only be for this purpose due to the height at which the missile is set to explode on re-entry, diplomats said. "The shaft design was part of Project 111," the Western diplomat said.
The IAEA report of January 31 also said that Iran had handed over a document on how to make uranium hemispheres whose only use would be in making nuclear weapons. Iran claims not to have used the information for weapons work as it says it was given the document without asking for it by an international nuclear smuggling network which offered it technology and parts in 1987.
"Nope, nope, we never looked at it, didn't even photocopy it, nope."
The IAEA has also "shared with Iran" new information it has that Iran may have taken deliveries of sophisticated P-2 centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, despite Tehran saying it has only received P-2 designs.
#1
"diplomats told AFP... But the diplomats said...experts believe...said a diplomat, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue...Officials from...looking into alleged...can also be...all of which could have...A Western diplomat said...and that this could be...The diplomat said...US officials are confident...diplomats said, even though some analysts...the Western diplomat said...may have taken..."
#2
WIsh we could have held on to the 52 Titans. There's talk about rearming some Tridents with conventional warheads, the Titans would be able to lift 10 times a much larger payload.
The George W. Bush administration's adoption of a policy of threatening to use military force against Iran disregarded a series of official intelligence estimates going back many years that consistently judged Iran's fear of a U.S. attack to be a major motivating factor in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Two former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials who were directly involved in producing CIA estimates on Iran revealed in separate interviews with IPS that the National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on Iran have consistently portrayed its concerns about the military threat posed by the United States as a central consideration in Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.
Paul Pillar, who managed the writing of all NIEs on Iran from 2000 to 2005 as the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, told IPS that all of the NIEs on Iran during that period addressed the Iranian fears of U.S. attack explicitly and related their desire for nuclear weapons to those fears. "Iranian perceptions of threat, especially from the United States and Israel, were not the only factor," Pillar said, "but were in our judgment part of what drove whatever effort they were making to build nuclear weapons."
He then conveniently fails to note the other factors: a desire for hegemony in the region, a desire to foster terrorist from behind a nuclear shield, and of course, the desire to kill all the Joooos. Thanks for all the hard work, Paul.
Pillar said the dominant view of the intelligence community in the past three years has been that Iran would seek a nuclear weapons capability, but analysts have also considered that a willingness on the part of Washington to reassure Iran on its security fears would have a significant effect on Iranian policy.
Because the Iranians are just waiting on us to make peace in the region, ya know.
Pillar said one of the things analysts have taken into account is Iran's May 2003 proposal to the Bush administration to negotiate on its nuclear option and its relationship with Hezbollah and other anti-Israel groups as well as its own security concerns. "It was seen as an indicator of Iran's willingness to engage," he said.
Or to blow smoke at folks like you, Paul.
A second theme in the NIEs, alongside the emphasis on Iranian fears of U.S. military intentions, was Iran's aspiration to be the "dominant regional superpower" in the Persian Gulf. However, the estimates suggested that the Iranian regime would not pursue that aspiration through means that would jeopardise the possibility of a relationship with the United States.
Why would that be? What would they want a relationship with the 'Great Satan'? Paul might have forgotten about the hostage crisis, but the Iranians are smarter than that: they know lots of Americans remember.
And what kind of 'relationship' would we have with Iran? Iran was and is fostering terrorism, fomenting against our interests in the region, sponsoring Paleo terrorist groups, and now is inciting trouble in the Iraqi south. Tell us all, Paul, what kind of 'relationship' we'd have with them.
Ellen Laipson, now president of the Henry L. Stimson Centre in Washington, managed three or four NIEs on Iran as national intelligence officer for the Near East from 1990 to 1993, and closely followed others as vice chair of the National Intelligence Council from 1997 to 2002. In an interview with IPS, she said the Iranian fear of an attack by the United States has long been "a standard element" in NIEs on Iran.
We didn't attack when Reagan was president. GHWB dealt with the Kuwait situation, not Iran. Billy-Boy certainly wasn't going to attack; best he could do was bomb Iraq for four days and call it a victory. That covers the time you were involved. How 'xactly is it that the Iranians feared an American attack in that time? Was it because the Mad Mullahs understood that their own policies were eventually going to provoke a confrontation, and when that day came, they wanted to be prepared with a nuke?
Laipson said she was "virtually certain the estimates linked Iran's threat perceptions to its nuclear programme". She added, however, that she was not directly involved in preparation of NIEs that focused exclusively on Iran's nuclear programme, as distinct from overall assessments of Iranian intentions and capabilities.
Laipson said the intelligence analysts had a "fairly consistent understanding" of Iranian perceptions of threat. "We could tell they were afraid of the U.S. both from their behaviour and from their public statements," Laipson recalled. The acuteness of those Iranian fears of U.S. attack fluctuated over time, she said, in response to different developments.
Again, as a big-shot analyst it was your job to explain why the Mad Mullahs were afraid of the U.S. Other than bitch-slap their navy in '88 when they attacked shipping in the Gulf, we hadn't done anything other than bake a cake (thanks, Ollie, ya stiff). We didn't have anything close to the forces needed to invade them in the region except for 1991 and 2003, and then it was obvious we were headed to Iraq, not Iran. If the MMs stay quiet and peaceful in their own country, there's less than a 0.00001% chance (but perhaps I'm exaggerating) that we'd invade them. So tell us why the Iranians were afraid? You don't, but I will: the Iranians knew their behavior put them on a collision course with us.
The 1991 Gulf War, in which U.S. forces destroyed most of the Iraqi army, caused the Iranians to become much more concerned about U.S. military intentions, according to some scholarly analyses of Iranian thinking, because of the awareness that the same thing could happen to Iran.
Why would that thought occur to them? I can understand that they'd think, 'da-amn, those Americans are good when they want to be.' But they're also smart enough to know that in 1991, what caused us to come over there was Saddam's invasion of another, sovereign country. If you don't invade a sovereign country, GHWB isn't going to form an international coalition against you. So what prompted the MMs to be concerned? I know the answer, do you Ellen?
The aggressive stance of the Bush administration toward Iran again increased Iranian fears of a U.S. attack. In early 2002, a secret Pentagon report to Congress on its "Nuclear Posture Review" named Iran as one of seven countries against which nuclear weapons might be used "in the event of surprising military developments". The report was obtained by defence analyst William Arkin, who revealed its contents in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 26, 2002. Five days later, Pres. Bush referred to Iran in his State of the Union address as being part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North Korea. "By seeking weapons of mass destruction," he said, "these regimes pose a grave and growing danger."
Although it did not refer directly to fears of the United States, a declassified letter from the CIA to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham on Apr. 8, 2002 alluded to the linkage between Iranian perceptions of threats and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The letter stated, "There appears to be broad consensus among Iranians that they live in a highly dangerous region and face serious external threats to their government, prompting us to assess that Tehran will pursue missile and WMD technologies indefinitely as critical means of national security."
The letter then suggested that the external threats were focused largely on the United States, adding that "persistent suspicion of U.S. motives will help preserve the broad consensus among Iran's political elite and public for the pursuit of missile and WMD technologies as a matter of critical national security".
The Iranians were persistently suspicious of us because they knew their persistent behavior to challenge us would eventually provoke a response.
After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the spokesman for the Iranian government stated that, in a "unipolar world", Iran had to have policy that would avoid war with the United States. That preoccupation with averting a U.S. attack cut both ways: it forced the Iranian leaders to seek a political-diplomatic accommodation with the United States, as illustrated by its cooperation with the United States in Afghanistan after 9/11, and its offer of broad negotiations on all major issues between the two countries in 2003. But when the United States failed to respond to those efforts, it also strengthened the argument for pressing ahead with a nuclear option.
Their 'broad offer' was a cats-paw. They'd offer to negotiate the terms of American limitations in the region. It was a variant on the 'what's mine is mine, now let's talk about what's yours' gambit.
Joseph Cirincione, a non-proliferation specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told IPS that an analysis that links Iran's security concerns about the United States have driven its quest for nuclear weapons would be consistent with the history of other nations' policies toward acquiring nuclear weapons. "No nation has ever been coerced into giving up a nuclear programme," he said, "but many have been convinced to do so by the disappearance of the threat."
Coincidentially, Joe, the countries that have given up nukes, all except one, were more-or-less democracies. Libya is the exception, and Q-man rightly got scared.
Cirincione cited three former Soviet republics, Argentina and Brazil, South Africa and Libya as examples of countries that decided to give up nuclear weapons only after fundamental international or internal changes eliminated the primary security threat driving their nuclear programmes.
Remind us the primary security threat that was driving Argentina to develop nukes. Had to be George Bush's fault, right?
They are already laying the groundwork for blaming the US when Iran pre-emptively launches a nuclear weapon. Sheesh.
#1
Good comments. Sad that these folks write NIEs.
They have narrow gripe that we did not talk to Iran in 2003 about us pulling out of the region in exchange for their agreeing to some limits on their nuke program?
The nuke program pre-dates the mullahs. The Iranians fancy themselves an ancient great power that is reemerging. They want regional dominance and to be the leader of worldwide radical islam. We're deluding ourselves if we think having a chat session in 2003 would have led them to drop these ambitions, of which the prestige of a nuke would be a major enabler.
The lesson of the 20th century is said to be: "when somebody tells you they want to kill you, believe them." Iran tells us daily. We need analysts who get these fundamental facts before providing their nuanced analyses of Iranian behaviour public statements. I think we do a better job of that at Rantburg anyway.
Seems that disgruntled national security types call Arkin whenever their egos are bruised. Somebody needs to go to jail. About the same time, he got a leak from Gen. Franks' staff, which proved wrong but was damaging at the time. I just read about it in Franks' autobiography. He was pissed.
#3
If these are the types who are resigning, then perhaps there is a silver lining to the cloud of turnover constantly parrotted in the MSM. It could also explain a lot of the problems we currently face.
Hamas Leader Khaled Mash'al at a Damascus Mosque: The Nation of Islam Will Sit at the Throne of the World and the West Will Be Full of Remorse When It Is Too Late More megalomaniacal threats from the Master Race of the Master Religion. See at link.
#1
Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland Mooslandia - and only the Fatherland Mooslandia!
#5
The Nation of Islam Will Sit at the Throne of the World
If by "throne" he means the proverbial "toilet", I'd say he's d@mn close to the truth. Add some swirling motion along with a wad of well used tissue and the tableau is complete.
#7
He reminds of that two-part Star Trek NG when Picard is the arbiter of succession for the Klingon Empire. During the ceremony a bastard child of Durass is brought forth and proclaims The Durass family will rule the Klingon Empire! Then Guron glares at him and responds Perhaps, but not today. So I respond: Perhaps Khaled, but not today or probably in my lifetime. I had an inner ear infection and all I could do is lay in bed and watch tv Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Muhammad cartoon on Egypt's al-Fagr newspaper cover in October 2005 (courtesy: Freedom for Egyptians)
While Muslims across the world have rioted in the past week against countries whose newspapers have published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, there was no uproar when the same caricatures were prominently displayed in an Arab newspaper four months ago.
The images originating in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September were reportedly featured on the cover and inside pages of Egypt's al-Fagr (the Dawn) in October, during the holy month of Ramadan.
According to the Freedom for Egyptians blog, al-Fagr included the cartoons on the front cover and page 17 of its edition dated Oct. 17. The headline, when translated, is said to read: "Continued Boldness. Mocking the Prophet and his wife by Caricature."
Muhammad cartoons on page 17 of Egypt's al-Fagr newspaper in October 2005 (courtesy: Egyptian Sandmonkey blog)
"The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests," notes the blog. "It would have been better that this [current] holy war against Denmark be launched during the holy month of Ramadan as many Muslims believe that Jihad during Ramadan would have been more worthy. This irrelevant outrage timing is but a sign that this violent response to the cartoons is politically motivated by Muslim extremists in Europe and the so-called secular governments of the Middle East. I want also to mention that despite the fact that all editors who tried to reprint the cartoons in the Middle East nowadays were arrested, the Egyptian editors went unharmed."
To date, at least 10 people have been killed in Afghanistan alone from Muslim riots in connection with the cartoons, though protests have been taking place in many countries throughout Europe and the Mideast. Some 4,000 angry Muslims took to the streets of the Egyptian capital of Cairo this week, though there were no protests when al-Fagr published the images during Ramadan in October.
Interestingly, an Associated Press story in the Khaleej Times of the United Arab Emirates reports al-Fagr reprinted copies of the cartoons this week, but published only "the upper half of some of the controversial cartoons, omitting any facial representations. Adel Hamoudah, editor of al-Fagr, said he took copies of the cartoons from the Internet for the Tuesday edition and published them as a means of emphasizing their 'impudence.' He did not explain, however, why he chose only to print the upper half of the caricatures."
It's not clear if the paper even mentioned it previously published the entire images on its cover and interior in October.
"This tells me one thing, at least, and that is the Egyptians who get this newspaper and who took to the streets are either incredibly stupid, hypocritical, or both," said an anonymous poster on FFE's blog. "They are stupid because they believe what they're told by the Arab press in the previous week without checking for the facts. They are hypocritical if they protested the second time they saw the cartoons and not protested when it was first printed. Here, I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'both.'"
Meanwhile in the U.S., the AP, the largest news-gathering organization in the world, is being attacked by a California newspaper editor over the wire service's refusal to distribute the cartoons of Muhammad.
"But what is incredible is that the Associated Press, which distributes news stories and photos from across the globe, has decided that you shouldn't see it," writes editor Don Holland of the Daily Press in Victorville, Calif. "What is offensive is that AP fancies itself to be the guardian of good taste for thousands of American newspapers rather than letting individual newspapers make that decision.
So, it's where they decided to blackmail Europe into submission by "jumping up and down and rolling eyes"? Hey, why not? It has worked before!
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 8 As leaders of the world's 57 Muslim nations gathered for a summit meeting in Mecca in December, issues like religious extremism dominated the official agenda. But much of the talk in the hallways was of a wholly different issue: Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad.
The closing communiqué took note of the issue when it expressed "concern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in the media of certain countries" as well as over "using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions."
The meeting in Mecca, a Saudi city from which non-Muslims are barred, drew minimal international press coverage even though such leaders as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran were in attendance. But on the road from quiet outrage in a small Muslim community in northern Europe to a set of international brush fires, the summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the role its member governments played in the outrage was something of a turning point.
After that meeting, anger at the Danish caricatures, especially at an official government level, became more public. In some countries, like Syria and Iran, that meant heavy press coverage in official news media and virtual government approval of demonstrations that ended with Danish embassies in flames.
In recent days, some governments in Muslim countries have tried to calm the rage, worried by the increasing level of violence and deaths in some cases.
But the pressure began building as early as October, when Danish Islamists were lobbying Arab ambassadors and Arab ambassadors lobbied Arab governments.
"It was no big deal until the Islamic conference when the O.I.C. took a stance against it," said Muhammad el-Sayed Said, deputy director of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Sari Hanafi, an associate professor at the American University in Beirut, said that for Arab governments resentful of the Western push for democracy, the protests presented an opportunity to undercut the appeal of the West to Arab citizens. The freedom pushed by the West, they seemed to say, brought with it disrespect for Islam.
He said the demonstrations "started as a visceral reaction of course they were offended and then you had regimes taking advantage saying, 'Look, this is the democracy they're talking about.' "
The protests also allowed governments to outflank a growing challenge from Islamic opposition movements by defending Islam.
At first, the agitation was limited to Denmark. Ahmed Akkari, 28, a Lebanese-born Dane, acts as spokesman for the European Committee for Honoring the Prophet, an umbrella group of 27 Danish Muslim organizations to press the Danish government into action over the cartoons.
Mr. Akkari said the group had worked for more than two months in Denmark without eliciting any response. "We collected 17,000 signatures and delivered them to the office of the prime minister, we saw the minister of culture, we talked to the editor of the Jyllands-Posten, we took many steps within Denmark, but could get no action," Mr. Akkari said, referring to the newspaper that published the cartoons. He added that the prime minister's office had not even responded to the petition.
Frustrated, he said, the group turned to the ambassadors of Muslim countries in Denmark and asked them to speak to the prime minister on their behalf. He refused them too.
"Then the case moved to a new stage," Mr. Akkari recalled. "We decided then that to be heard, it must come from influential people in the Muslim world."
The group put together a 43-page dossier, including the offending cartoons and three more shocking images that had been sent to Danish Muslims who had spoken out against the Jyllands-Posten cartoons.
Mr. Akkari denied that the three other offending images had contributed to the violent reaction, saying the images, received in the mail by Muslims who had complained about the cartoons, were included to show the response that Muslims got when they spoke out in Denmark.
In early December, the group's first delegation of Danish Muslims flew to Cairo, where they met with the grand mufti, Muhammad Sayid Tantawy, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League.
"After that, there was a certain response," Mr. Akkari said, adding that the Cairo government and the Arab League both summoned the Danish ambassador to Egypt for talks.
Mr. Akkari denies that the group had meant to misinform, but concedes that there were misunderstandings along the way.
In Cairo, for example, the group also met with journalists from Egypt's media. During a news conference, they spoke about a proposal from the far-right Danish People's Party to ban the Koran in Denmark because of some 200 verses that are alleged to encourage violence.
Several newspapers then ran articles claiming that Denmark planned to issue a censored version of the Koran. The delegation returned to Denmark, but the dossier continued to make waves in the Middle East. Egypt's foreign minister had taken the dossier with him to the Mecca meeting, where he showed it around. The Danish group also sent a second delegation to Lebanon to meet religious and political leaders there.
Mr. Akkari went on that trip. The delegation met with the grand mufti in Lebanon, Muhammad Rashid Kabbani, and the spiritual head of Lebanon's Shiite Muslims, Sheik Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, as well as the patriarch of the Maronite Church, Nasrallah Sfeir. The group also appeared on Hezbollah's satellite station Al Manar TV, which is seen throughout the Arab world.
Mr. Akkari also made a side trip to Damascus, Syria, to deliver a copy of the dossier to that country's grand mufti, Sheik Ahmed Badr-Eddine Hassoun.
Lebanon's foreign minister, Fawzi Salloukh, says he agreed to meet in mid-December with Egypt's ambassador to Lebanon, who presented him with a letter from his foreign minister, Aboul Gheit, urging him to get involved in the issue. Attached to the letter were copies of some of the drawings.
At the end of December, the pace picked up as talk of a boycott became more prominent. The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, comprising more than 50 states, published on its Web site a statement condemning "the aggressive campaign waged against Islam and its Prophet" by Jyllands-Posten, and officials of the organization said member nations should impose a boycott on Denmark until an apology was offered for the drawings.
"We encourage the organization's members to boycott Denmark both economically and politically until Denmark presents an official apology for the drawings that have offended the world's Muslims," said Abdulaziz Othman al-Twaijri, the organization's secretary general.
In a few weeks, the Jordanian Parliament condemned the cartoons, as had several other Arab governments.
On Jan. 10, as anti-Danish pressure built, a Norwegian newspaper republished the caricatures in an act of solidarity with the Danes, leading many Muslims to believe that a real campaign against them had begun.
On Jan. 26, in a key move, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark, and Libya followed suit. Saudi clerics began sounding the call for a boycott, and within a day, most Danish products were pulled off supermarket shelves.
"The Saudis did this because they have to score against Islamic fundamentalists," said Mr. Said, the Cairo political scientist. "Syria made an even worse miscalculation," he added, alluding to the sense that the protest had gotten out of hand. The issue of the cartoons came at a critical time in the Muslim world because of Muslim anger over the occupation of Iraq and a sense that Muslims were under siege. Strong showings by Islamists in elections in Egypt and the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections had given new momentum to Islamic movements in the region, and many economies, especially those in the Persian Gulf, realized their economic power as it pertained to Denmark.
"The cartoons were a fuse that lit a bigger fire," said Rami Khouri, editor at large at the English-language Daily Star of Beirut. "It is this deepening sense of vulnerability combines with a sense that the Islamists were on a roll that made it happen."
The wave swept many in the region. Sheik Muhammad Abu Zaid, an imam from the Lebanese town of Saida, said he began hearing of the caricatures from several Palestinian friends visiting from Denmark in December but made little of it.
"For me, honestly, this didn't seem so important," Sheik Abu Zaid said, comparing the drawings to those made of Jesus in Christian countries. "I thought, I know that this is something typical in such countries."
Then, he started to hear that ambassadors of Arab countries had tried to meet with the prime minister of Denmark and had been snubbed, and he began to feel differently.
"It started to seem that this way of thinking was an insult to us," he said. "It is fine to say, 'This is our freedom, this is our way of thinking.' But we began to believe that their freedom was something that hurts us."
Last week, Sheik Abu Zaid heard about a march being planned on the Danish Consulate in Beirut, and he decided to join. He and 600 others boarded buses bound for Beirut. Within an hour of arriving, some of the demonstrators none of his people, he insisted became violent, and began attacking the building that housed the embassy. It was just two days after a similar attack against the Danish and Norwegian Embassies in Damascus.
"In the demonstration, I believe 99 percent of the people were good and peaceful, but I could hear people saying, 'We don't want to demonstrate peacefully; we want to burn,' " the sheik said.
He tried in vain to calm people down, he said. "I was calling to the people, 'Please, please follow us and go back.' " he said. "We were hoping to calm people down, and we were hoping to help the peaceful people who were caught in the middle of the fight."
Reporting for this article was contributed by Craig S. Smith from Paris, Katherine Zoepf from Beirut, Suha Maayeh from Amman, Abeer Allam from Cairo and Massoud A. Derhally from Dubai.
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.
Afghanistans government has revoked the licences of more than half the non-governmental aid groups in the war-shattered country after they did not respond to an order to register, a minister said on Wednesday. The groups included 127 international aid organisations, Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang told AFP. He would not name them. We asked them to come and register their organisations but they did not do so, so we revoked (the licences of) 1,620 NGOs, he said. The minister said there had been about 2,350 NGOs in the country, more than 300 of them international ones, operating in Afghanistan.
The former archbishop of Canterbury, 
North Korea will only return to six-party talks on its nuclear programmeme if the United States drops sanctions against it, a North Korean official said on Wednesday as talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang ended in rancour. "The condition is to remove the financial sanctions," said Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador to bilateral discussions with Japan in Beijing. "If the Japanese tell the US, they will actually listen to them more carefully." Song made the comments the day talks between Japan and North Korea wrapped up with both sides as far apart as ever over abductions of Japanese citizens and no agreement on when Pyongyang might return to six-way talks on its nuclear programmeme.
The Somali-born Dutch MP who describes herself as a "dissident of Islam" has backed the Danish newspaper that first printed the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. 
Twenty-two people have been arrested in France, in a cross-border crackdown on immigrant smuggling between Afghanistan and Britain. A total of 53 people were detained, of which 18 in Italy, seven in Britain, and three each in Turkey and Greece. The Paris chief prosecutor said that the network was the biggest of its kind so far uncovered in France.
With yesterday's new federal Conservative cabinet appointments, the Canadian Islamic Congress fears that police-state politics which began under the former Liberal regime will soon emerge in an accelerated and enlarged form.
Drudge Flash: Dem Chair Dean Claims President Turning Country Into Iran
ISLAMABAD An explosion killed a technician at Pakistans main nuclear research facility, an army spokesman said yesterday. The man died while handling explosives on Tuesday at Khan Research Laboratories, near Islamabad, spokesman Maj-Gen. Shuakat Sultan said. There were no other injuries, and no damage to nuclear facilities at the laboratory, he said.
Nepals Maoist rebels are committed to multi-party democracy and willing to keep the monarchy if the people choose the groups leader Prachanda said in a report published on Wednesday. The interview with the Maoist leader in Indias The Hindu newspaper came as Nepal staged municipal polls denounced by the rebels and opposition parties as an attempt by King Gyanendra to legitimise his takeover of power a year ago.
Suspending aid to the Palestinians following Hamas's electoral success would be a major error, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview which Spanish media published Wednesday. "It would be a big mistake to suspend aid to the Palestinians," said Putin, who was set to begin a two-day state visit to Spain on Wednesday. "When we talk about the causes and roots of terrorism we refer to social injustice, misery, unemployment. And if we stop helping simple Palestinian citizens, are we going to eradicate terrorism and criminality? Of course not," said Putin.
The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.
The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.
A major part of ADVISE involves data-mining - or "dataveillance," as some call it. It means sifting through data to look for patterns. If a supermarket finds that customers who buy cider also tend to buy fresh-baked bread, it might group the two together. To prevent fraud, credit-card issuers use data-mining to look for patterns of suspicious activity.
A commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday over her remarks on Tehran's nuclear programme, saying she "thinks she's Hitler."
Iran has design drawings for building a 400-metre (more than 1,300 feet) deep shaft that is clearly for underground, possibly nuclear, weapons testing, diplomats told AFP. But the diplomats said there were no indications that Iran, which 
The George W. Bush administration's adoption of a policy of threatening to use military force against Iran disregarded a series of official intelligence estimates going back many years that consistently judged Iran's fear of a U.S. attack to be a major motivating factor in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
