"This perverse ideology [Wahhabi Islam] has spread all over Saudi Arabia, in the schools, the mosques ⊠[and] satellite channels⊠There's a videotape now circulating in Saudi Arabia of a boy age 10 or less [in a Saudi orphanage]. He is asked, 'who is your role model?' And he answers, 'Osama Bin Laden.'"
This damaging statement was not spoken by an opponent of the Saudi regime, but by Saudi Prince Khaled Al-Faysal on Al-Arabiyya TV on July 14th.
As part of MEMRI's TV Monitoring Project (www.memritv.org), Saudi government-controlled television channels are continually monitored. These channels include shows with leading Saudi religious figures, professors, members of the royal family, government leaders, and intellectuals. Constant themes include calls for the annihilation of Christian and Jews, rampant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, and support for jihad. With the Saudi government preparing to convene an international counter-terrorism conference February 5-8, which will include participants from leading state-sponsored terrorism regimes such as Iran as well as reports by the Saudi Foreign Ministry that the U.S. is sending a large delegation it is important to review the content of the Saudi media, particularly TV, as it relates to terrorism and hatred toward non-Muslims.
A recent example of hatred for Christians and Westerners is Saudi TV's coverage of the tsunami disaster. The Saudi embassy in D.C. boasted about the numerous telethons that were held to support victims of the natural disaster. However, these telethons included influential Saudi figures who explained that the celebration of Christmas and New Years is what led to the death of over 150,000 "infidels." Ibrahim Al-Bashar, an advisor to the Saudi Justice Minister, spoke on Al-Majd TV on January 5th, and said that the countries hit by the tsunami were being punished by Allah for lying, sinning, and being infidels. Saudi Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan, who taught at the Saudi Supreme Court of Justice, also said to Al-Majd TV on December 31 that Allah's destruction of these countries was timed to coincide with Christmas a time of rampant fornication and perversion. Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajjid, Imam of the 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz Mosque in Khobar, claimed first to Al-Majd on January 1 that Allah's took revenge on the "criminals'" celebration - the Christmas holidays - and elaborated on January 6th that "perversions" during the Christmas holidays were to blame.
Sermons from Saudi mosques frequently contain calls to fight non-Muslims. In a sermon from Medina broadcast on Saudi TV channel 2, Sheikh Saleh Bdeir said on June 25: "The enemies of Islam, the Jews, Christians, atheists, and those from among the infidel Westernized who are enslaved by them within the Muslim community, never cease attacking the Islamic nation." He called to Muslims, "Confront your enemies' efforts with greater and stronger efforts, before these enemies become stronger." In the early summer, Saudi Sheikh Dr. Ahmad bin Abd Al-Latif, a professor at Um Al-Qura University, was asked on Saudi TV if it is permitted under Islamic law to pray for the annihilation of Christians and Jews. He answered, "⊠Cursing the oppressing Jews and the oppressing and plundering Christians and the prayer that Allah will annihilate them is permitted."
Saudi cleric 'Aed Al-Qarni spoke on Saudi Iqra TV channel on December 12 about why Jews and Christians will burn in Hell: "The Jews take pride in something they lie about; the Jews and the Christians⊠They say: 'Oh people, we, the Jews and Christians, are the sons of AllahâŠ' They are lying, [may] Allah's wrath [be] upon them⊠If you are truthful, will Allah burn you in hell for your sins?⊠You will be punished for your lies." Calling for the throats of Christians and Jews to be slit and their skulls shattered, Al-Qarni told Iqra TV on December 26: "We Muslims should be rebuked. One billion two hundred million ⊠are incapable of taking action ⊠of harming the Jews⊠I pray to Allah that He will make the enemies fall ⊠and that He will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians⊠We curse them ⊠and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart, and grant us victory over them⊠Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered. This is the path to victory, to shahada..." Citing a hadith. In a lecture on January 9th that aired on Iqra TV, Al-Qarni explained that Jews, "the brothers of apes and pigs," and Christians should not be slaughtered only if they convert to Islam.
Clearly, in Saudi Arabia there exists a culture of hatred against the West and non-Muslims. This is the same culture that produced Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers. The Saudi royal family insists it is fighting hatred but anyone watching the TV stations under their absolute control will find they are not telling the truth. The examples mentioned in this article are only a few of the many which appear daily to incite their viewers to violence. In the coming weeks, this column will detail the Saudi perception of 'the Jews,' as well as look at how the country supports Jihad in Iraq.
Posted by: ed ||
01/17/2005 1:58:44 AM ||
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#1
"...The King shook a finger at them - he dared no more, for the other nine were holding on to his crown..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/17/2005 9:55 Comments ||
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Terrorism, Part III. Is this going to be like the Superbowl whereas we have Superbowl [Part]XIX?
ENGLAND'S chief government education inspector has sparked anger among Muslim groups by warning that some Islamic faith-based schools do not fully prepare their pupils for modern life in the country.
David Bell, head of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), said the traditional Islamic education offered by some schools "does not entirely fit" children for living in a diverse society.
Mr Bell, making a speech in London, raised concerns about religious-based schools in general, but singled out the rapidly-growing number of Islamic schools, calling on them to promote "tolerance and harmony".
"We must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation," he said.
"I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society."
While Britain's diversity was one of its strengths, diversity "certainly must not mean segregated or separate", he said.
He said Muslim schools in particular must reform their lessons to give children "an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony".
There are more than 100 Muslim schools in England, five of which are state run, with the rest independent. There are more than 50 Jewish schools and about 100 Evangelical Christian schools.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are dealt with separately in terms of education.
Mr Bell's comments were met with protests by Islamic groups.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that while national cohesion was important it was "highly irresponsible to suggest that the growth of Muslim faith schools poses a threat to 'our coherence as a nation'".
Dr Mohamed Mukadam, chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, who is principal of Leicester Islamic Academy in central England, slammed Mr Bell's comments as "Islamophobia".
"For a person in his position to make such a generalised comment just beggars belief," he said.
In Britain's last national census in 2001, 2.7 per cent of the population, or just under 1.6 million people, identified themselves as Muslim, mainly originating from South Asian countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.
#1
LOL! This is just precious, lol! Bell, despite his best effort to dance around all those sensitive areas obviously must've gotten within 100 miles of the famous Muslim Feelings.
Q: How does one deal with such uber-sensitive beings?
A: In PCland, you don't.
Meet the standards (assuming they haven't been lowered into the basement, already) or close up shop. Go away if you don't like it. Far away.
North Korea denied that it has a secret uranium-enrichment programme and accused Washington of double standards, a day after it indicated a willingness to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Calling the United States a "nuclear criminal," North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun accused Washington on Saturday of "conniving at, patronising and cooperating with the pro-American forces" in Israel, Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear arms "The US accusation against the (North) over its nonexistent 'uranium enrichment issue' clearly proves that the US policy of double standards assumes extremely partial and aggressive nature," the newspaper said.
"Then what we you gonna use to start that 'sea of fire' thing?"
"Matches. We got lotsa matches!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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their cut hair?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2005 10:48 Comments ||
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A MUSLIM woman who said she would rather die than show her face in public must remove her veil while giving evidence in a trial, a New Zealand court ruled today. The Auckland District Court ruled that Fouzya Salim, a witness in a fraud case, and another Muslim woman must show their faces to the judge, lawyers and female court staff but can be concealed from public view, Radio New Zealand reported. The women had been fighting since last year a defence lawyer's application to have their veils lifted in court so their demeanour could be assessed. The Afghanistan-born Ms Salim, who has lived in New Zealand for 10 years, has never left her house without wearing a traditional burqa, which covers the entire body. Today the court ruled that while it could be a fair trial even if the women wore burqas, the defendant had a legitimate expectation of trial by the normal process. The decision said screens and other measures would be used in court to protect the women from further public view.
I'm guessing that a 'two-bagger' joke would be inappropriate.
The ruling only applied to the case in question. Last October Ms Salim told the court: "I don't want to show my face in public ... I would rather kill myself than uncover my face and sit here. If I uncover my face then I would be in trouble with God." Defence lawyer Colin Amery said he was "reasonably happy" with the decision, NZPA reported. "It's a partial victory for the New Zealand way of doing things whatever the hell that is anymore and our justice system whatever the hell that's come to," he said.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/17/2005 12:05:00 AM ||
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I would rather kill myself than uncover my face and sit here.
And the downside of this would be....?
Go for it!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/17/2005 1:24 Comments ||
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The armed Basque separatist group ETA has agreed to a proposal for political dialogue with the Spanish government put forward by its political wing. The Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which has waged a bloody three-decade campaign for a Basque homeland, said it was "wholly determined" to back proposals made by its political wing Batasuna to the central government in Madrid, in a statement published by the Gara paper on Saturday. It called the proposals, which the Spanish government has also agreed to consider, "the most effective political contribution presented so far to try to settle the conflict between the Basque country and the state", the statement said. "The only way to resolve the conflict is to organise an open and concrete dialogue aimed at reaching a comprehensive agreement," said the statement, published in the Basque language.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Statement from Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence DiRita on Latest Seymour Hersh Article
The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars."
Mr. Hersh's article is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed.
Mr. Hersh's source(s) feed him with rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist, and statements by officials that were never made.
A sampling from this article alone includes:
The post-election meeting he describes between the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not happen.
The only civilians in the chain-of-command are the President and the Secretary of Defense, despite Mr. Hersh's confident assertion that the chain of command now includes two Department policy officials. His assertion is outrageous, and constitutionally specious.
Arrangements Mr. Hersh alleges between Under Secretary Douglas Feith and Israel, government or non-government, do not exist. Here, Mr. Hersh is building on links created by the soft bigotry of some conspiracy theorists. This reflects poorly on Mr. Hersh and the New Yorker.
Mr. Hersh cannot even keep track of his own wanderings. At one point in his article, he makes the outlandish assertion that the military operations he describes are so secret that the operations are being kept secret even from U.S. military Combatant Commanders. Mr. Hersh later states, though, that the locus of this super-secret activity is at the U.S. Central Command headquarters, evidently without the knowledge of the commander if Mr. Hersh is to be believed.
By his own admission, Mr. Hersh evidently is working on an "alternative history" novel. He is well along in that work, given the high quality of "alternative present" that he has developed in several recent articles.
Mr. Hersh's preference for single, anonymous, unofficial sources for his most fantastic claims makes it difficult to parse his discussion of Defense Department operations.
Finally, the views and policies Mr. Hersh ascribes to Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, Under Secretary Feith, and other Department of Defense officials do not reflect their public or private comments or administration policy.
It isn't news that the Pentagon would deny Hersh's claims. What is news is the unprecedented degree of harshness and personal confrontation in this release. It appears that DoD is finally fed up with hostile media and their Vietnam-era license for treason and is beginning to stand up to them. This could very well be a result of recent declines in media credibility, and a consequent reduction in their powers of intimidation. Their 40 year reign of terror is coming to an end.
#1
I really hope that we are conducting recon into Iran. If not whay the hell not? They are a threat to Iraq, the U.S. , and part of the axis of evil. With due respect to Mr. Hersh, we are spying on a lot more countries beside Iran...BFD. Saying that we have boots on the ground might endanger those people on covert ops. Wasn't that the big brew haha about Plame? Here is a guy giving more information than was disclosed on Plame and I don't see the LLL crying for a full investigation and criminal charges.
#2
Has Hersh produced ANYTHING worthwhile in the last thirty years, or is he still coasting on his Boomer, anti-Vietnam record?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/17/2005 14:16 Comments ||
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AC - Utterly agree - that is the most direct, unmitigated, catgorical smackdown I've ever seen issued by any US Gov't entity. In this regard, alone, Hersh has finally achieved something of note in his worthless existence.
#4
I hope this is a sign of things to come. It's about time these conspiracy theories get nipped in the bud.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/17/2005 14:41 Comments ||
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By his own admission, Mr. Hersh evidently is working on an âalternative historyâ novel. He is well along in that work, given the high quality of âalternative presentâ that he has developed in several recent articles.
#7
This has been my biggest complaints against the military that they don't deal strongly or effectively enough with the fifth column press. However in this instance it has and it is long overdue
#9
I hope this is a sign of more-- and worse-- to come for Hersh and his traitorous ilk. These people need to be spanked.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/17/2005 15:45 Comments ||
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Sy is one fantasic fiction writer. And I bet you all thought he was writing non-fiction.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 15:46 Comments ||
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I sent this to Hugh Hewitt a - I hope to hell he mentions it, has the Blogs validate. If all of this were proven BS - it would be another serious blow to the MSM.
Rantburg and blogs like them will save this country via grassroots.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/17/2005 16:11 Comments ||
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OTHER military secrets intelligence officials have recently entrusted to Seymour Hersh
1. By 2009, Syria will be âa super big Wal-Martâ with âsome really great deals on chick peas"
2. Once the US has puppet control over Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, the next move is to instigate a velvet revolution in Pakistanâculminating in a pro-Democratic Islamic country that will gratefully change its name to âMargaritaville"
3. Israelâs so-called âatomic capabilitiesâ? Nothing but lava lamps wrapped in tin foil
4. âNatural" disasters in the coastal areas of Southern California and New York will ensure Republican control of the White House and Congress for at least a generation. Trust us on this
5. Todd Beamer? A CIA plant. âLetâs Rollâ? Code for âscramble the fighter jets and shoot this puppy down. But make it look like we did it, okay?"
6. Usama bin Laden has been dead for years, his remains kept in a shoebox at Langley; his recent âappearancesâ were actually staged using an actor whose previous credits included âGoofyâ and âHillbilly Bearâ at Disney World, Orlando
7. "John Ashcroftâ is actually an animatronic unit completed in 1983 by Lockheed Martin; modeled after âThe Robot Gunslingerâ character in Michael Crichtonâs Westworld, âAshcroftâ was modified to fit then-President Reaganâs request to âmake the thing more Christiany"
8. Ayman Al Zarqawiâs birth name is actually Schlomo Edelstein, born Yonkers, NY, 1963, and up until 1991 a social studies teacher in Fairlawn, New Jersey.
9. The real reason for the breakup of Ellen Degeneres and Anne Heche? Two words: Condi Rice
Posted by Jeff Goldstein
http://www.celluloid-wisdom.com/pw/index.php?/weblog/entry/17684/
#15
jackal - Can you imagine the staff meeting where this response was drawn up? Probably much like watching an SNL production meeting, but with everyone's evil Republican twin attending, heh.
Or, ruminating further along that track, it's probably like a peek into PJ O'Rourke's mind ala Being John Malkovich, lol!
I'd like to see a whole buncha those folks in prison for their seditious/treasonous activities, along with their sources, with John F. Kerry at the head of the line.
WASHINGTON — What would happen if criminal gangsters, revolutionaries and Islamic terrorists all got together in a common goal of overthrowing governments of America's neighbors and smuggling operatives into and out of the U.S.?
Some senior police and intelligence sources tell Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the weekly, premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND, that is just what is happening in Central America today.
Senior police and intelligence officers combating violent crime gangs in Central America believe now more than ever, outside forces such as brands of left wing ideologies, national revolutionaries and militant Islam, are involved in the terror style attacks committed by crime groups, reports G2 Bulletin's Yoram East in the latest issue.
...
A Honduran officer involved in this campaign told G2B the Los Angeles-based Marasalvatrucha, originally a Salvadoran youth gang group, stands at the top of his priority list. A significant number of Honduran gang founders grew out of illegal immigrants to the U.S. Many were arrested following their involvement in crime and, before or after serving jail terms, were deported back to Honduras.
"I have met many gang members from Honduras who were accepted into the already established street gangs here in L.A.," LAPD gang specialist Jeff Norat told G2 Bulletin. "Unfortunately, when they have spent so much time in these criminal organizations, that is their way of life. Even when they are deported they take this way of life back with them, which is appealing to much of the poor youth in that country."
...
Police sources comprehend the immense national security implications of this trade — and the ability of these gangs to penetrate either side of the border with impunity.
Central American gangs, G2 Bulletin sources say, are moving toward new channels of operation and are in the process of becoming organized in a military fashion.
"By successfully creating terror through their gruesome effectiveness, gangs belonging almost exclusively to the strata of underprivileged Hondurans, are attracting the attention of groups, which, until now, were outside of the picture," says the G2 Bulletin report. "Trade unions with clear left-wing tendencies, financially supported by donations from the Cuban and Venezuelan governments, are considering a more confrontational position — including young, idealistic members of oligarch families, who like many others of similar origins in the past, are dreaming of far-reaching social changes to improve and secure the livelihood of the poor Honduran people. They are ready to unite forces with anyone who is anti-government. If these groups find a way to fight for a common goal, the government in Tegucigalpa will be facing a whole new phenomenon threatening the very fiber of its traditional ruling system."
According to the report, Honduran police recognize the potential for a Middle East terror connection in their midst. They have begun "monitoring of small immigrant communities, predominantly of Middle Eastern background, regarded as more high risk than others. One observable fact is a mujahedeen drive motivated by the silent blessings of sympathizers to convert gang members to Islam. Although the small Arab community of Honduras and other Central American countries opposes extreme moves, a hard core of mainly Lebanese Shiites and Syrian Sunnis is working systematically to gain the gangs' trust."
Given the fact that there is a virtual army of gang members operating in Central America — some 36,000 gang members in Honduras, 14,000 in Guatemala, 10,500 in El Salvador, 1,100 in Nicaragua and 2,600 in Costa Rica — the regional threat and the risk it poses to U.S. national security is high, say G2 Bulletin sources.
A Honduran diplomat told G2 Bulletin under the condition of anonymity: "This unbearable situation is the result of an unwritten agreement between Mexico and the U.S. to turn a blind eye to the porous border. You let them enter and settle in the most dangerous environments in your own country, then you deport some to Mexico, or to their native lands. Therefore we hold you responsible for the problem created by your indifference."
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/17/2005 6:58:53 PM ||
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I am glad somebody is paying attention to what is going in South and Central America between the Left-leaning governments of said areas and Muslim terrorists.
#2
GWB's approach toward illegal immigration from Mexico and points south is akin to the weatherman not paying any damn attention to the satellite images or the computer models, even though the atmospheric conditions have the potential to further develop into an organized system or something worse.
Published reports over the weekend said investigators were examining religious messages Armanious had posted in an Internet chat room, and mourners in Jersey City on Sunday said the killings may have been religiously motivated. One man ran alongside the [funeral] procession screaming, "Islam is not a religion. Islam is not a religion." Monir Dowoud, president of the American Coptic Association, told 200 people outside the family's church on Sunday that "Muslim terrorists" were responsible.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen ||
01/17/2005 11:15:15 AM ||
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#1
Islam is not a religion
Can't argue with that. More a pedophile worshipping murderous death cult. Screw Allan.
Not suprisingly, this story isn't receiving much play locally. Not in line with the RoP bullsh*t that we are fed.
#2
Actually almost everyone who has read about this believes Islamic Terrorists were behind this, including most Moslems. However, many moslems probably believe it was the fault of the Coptic fellow for not being a good dhimmi.
#3
I bet if a muslim family of four turned up dead then there'd be a media frenzy. This is insane that the media goes out of its way to not tell the truth about this cult.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/17/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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Via Roger L. Simon: ABC reports: But ABC News has learned that a cousin of the slain family has been a translator working for the prosecution in the trial of Lynne Stewart. She is the radical lawyer accused of smuggling messages from imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to terrorist cell members and associates.
Fingerprint scanners deployed on the U.S.-Mexican border to detect terrorism suspects have caught not would-be bombers but thousands of other criminals, including murderers, kidnappers and sex offenders. Border Patrol agents have snared 33,000 criminals - most of them along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico - since the digital fingerprinting system linking immigration and FBI databases went live nationwide in early September. "It has not only enhanced their ability to detect immigration offenses but also to apprehend suspects wanted for serious crimes such as homicide, kidnapping and sex offenses," spokesman Mario Villarreal of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said in a telephone interview.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began cross-referencing the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, to help secure the United States from terrorist attack. The U.S.-Mexico border was widely seen as a soft spot in U.S. security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Border policing was tightened with extra agents and new technology, but so far officials have not announced the capture of a single terror suspect.
Officials say the technology has allowed the Border Patrol to catch more than 100 homicide suspects and more than 200 sex offenders in the last four months, singled out from more than 200,000 undocumented migrants detained during the period. Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents like the technology, which is used at border crossings and by agents who pick up illegal migrants in the desert. "You have a guy who looks like a harmless grandfather, but lo and behold, when you run his prints through IAFIS it turns out that he's a three-times-convicted child molester from Fresno," said Steve McPartland, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego, Calif. "It's the best thing that's happened to us, as it's closed a loophole that in the past allowed potential criminal aliens to be released from our custody," he added.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
01/17/2005 7:17:58 AM ||
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I have no problem with 33,000 fewer criminal illegal aliens in the country. First step is to prevent arrivals; next collect and eject those already here.
#2
Our local San diego rag, teh UnionTribune had a weepy article front page yesterday about how we are exporting crime to Central America, primarily focussed on El Salvador and Honduras...what they downplayed for all its' worth, is that these are illegals, who were in criminal gangs here, and after they serve their sentences, they were shipped home....Oh, the humanity...f*&kers
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2005 12:29 Comments ||
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Oh. Well. In that case, I guess we should stop...
Not entirely out of the realm of possibility. All the Mexican government has to do is complain loudly, and this program probably would promptly drop out of sight.
... but a decreasing percentage. Where's the story here?
Although illiteracy rates are generally falling in Arab countries, rising populations mean that the total number of people unable to either read or write continues to increase, says a new report. The report by the Arab League Education, Science and Culture Organisation (ALESCO) said on Sunday that 70 million people older than 15 in Arab League member countries were illiterate. It said that almost half of all women in the countries concerned - 46.5% - were unable to read or write, as against a rate of 25.1% among men. The report noted that as a percentage of total populations, the number of illiterates had fallen over the past 35 years. The overall rate had stood at 73% in 1970, but it was now down less than half of that proportion, to 35.6%, the report said. In absolute numbers, however, there were 50 million illiterates in 1970, as against 70 million today. ALESCO, based in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, is part of the Arab League.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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I'm with Fred - where's the story?
This is what happens when the only thing you need to read is the bomb-belt instructions.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/17/2005 1:26 Comments ||
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Literacy isn't necessary if you somehow can manage to memorize the entire Koran.
#3
Can a region actually form a representative government if such a high percentage are illiterate? In addition to cultural, tribal, and religious challenges, is this the straw that breaks the camel's back?
In the late 18th Century what percentage of white males eligible to vote were illiterate in America?
If one of the goals is to spread democracy throughout the region, doesn't illiteracy make it impossible? (I know the Iraqi people are more literate than the typical arab country)
#4
forget reading--its the islogical thought processes that lead to self destuctive outcomes--if they read the kkkoran hadiths and sira--so what--they need a dose of aristotelian thought along with a pinch of john locke and adam smith--otherwise its all arabian sunglases
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/17/2005 3:02 Comments ||
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#5
"Whereâs the story here?"
Um, is it that their math skills are equally poor?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/17/2005 3:19 Comments ||
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#7
Who cares. The important question is their Self-Esteem... is it holding? Do they see themselves as part of a vibrant community? Is synergy going from top to bottom and left to east? Is a facilitator needed? I'm ready for a grant and a hardy lunch.
#9
The story is Arabs aren't terrorists because they have been indoctrinated by a**h*** Imans,oh no,the poor little guys can't read so it's not their fault,and the "world community"-ie the US-must pony up a gazillion dollars to the UN so they can be taught how to read. That's why story is on raw numbers increasing,while % is decreasing-makes it sound more like a crisis that only the UN can solve.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/17/2005 21:36 Comments ||
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Thailand is to make live internet broadcasts of prisoners' last moments before execution in a bid to deter lawbreakers. Cameras have already been installed at Bangkwang maximum security prison near Bangkok where nearly 1,000 inmates are facing death. Nathee Chitsawang, corrections chief, said: "The internet will show how we treat the convicts in their last minutes, including the preparation process. "But at the time of execution, the viewer will be allowed to see only part of the process."
The broadcasts are designed to deter people from breaking the law and reduce the number of drug dealers, who face the death penalty in Thailand. The move has been opposed by Amnesty International. A spokesman said: "The website should not show activities inside the prison and should be mindful of human rights and show respect to the prisoners." Cameras were installed in a cell in Maricopa Country, Arizona, in the US, several years ago but a court ruled last year the transmissions should be stopped. One of the appeal judges said the practice constituted "a level of humiliation that almost anyone would regard as profoundly undesirable."
SPECIAL cleansing ceremonies will start along Thailand's battered western coastline today to convince superstitious locals their beaches and homes are free from bad spirits.
About 100 monks and their followers will conduct a week-long series of ceremonies in a bid to restore confidence the spirits have moved on and Thais can return to their beaches and sea.
Ghost stories of foreigners calling out at night for lost children or standing on roadsides have thrown fear into many Phuket locals.
Health experts say the phenomenon is most likely an outpouring of delayed mass trauma. But many Thais are very superstitious.
Not far from where the ceremonies will take place, a Buddhist monk is spiritually protecting the bodies of dozens of foreigners — including Australians — awaiting repatriation home.
Suntorn Yasotharo lives alone in a Buddhist retreat north of Phuket airport, which yesterday officially opened as the transition point for the return of foreign nationals killed in the Boxing Day tsunami.
Families of lost loved ones from around the world are now gathering at his usually quiet and serene retreat to arrange the return of their relatives. Some come on their own, while others are accompanied by a priest from their country or their embassy official.
At least two Australian victims have been issued with death certificates by Thai authorities and are at the retreat before repatriation or cremation.
"Before, this was my garden," the 50-year-old monk said. "But now it is different and I'm happy to help because I like to take care of the dead.
"I normally live a quiet life but now many people visit me to talk, including Australian doctors and police."
Elsewhere along Thailand's battered coastline, the sale of tsunami souvenirs continues in earnest.
It might be tacky and in poor taste, but for some shop sellers in Phuket's Patong Beach it's now their only source of income until their businesses can be rebuilt and tourists return.
There's Tsunami: The Movie, a video CD featuring a collection of shaky home videos of the waves washing ashore. That sells for $5.
Poster-sized photographs of buildings being washed away and T-shirts featuring giant waves also are on offer.
A jeweller who lost his shop on Patong Beach now sells his damaged stock — salt-encrusted watches and a clock with the time frozen at 10.10am by the tsunami — for $2 apiece.
From The New York Times .... "What GAM wants is for the international community to stay and help and see for themselves what is happening," the rebel, Mucksalmina, told a reporter on Sunday, using the common acronym for the Free Aceh Movement, the separatist army that has been fighting the Indonesian government for most of the past 30 years. .... Agreeing to meet at a secluded clearing, just outside this city and near the jungle where the group hides, Mucksalmina, a rebel spokesman, wanted to counter what he suggested was fear-mongering by the Indonesian government: that foreign aid workers could be killed or kidnapped by the rebels.
The group has been accused of kidnapping civilians in the past, and the safety of aid workers has hung as one question mark over the huge relief operation here, along with the worry that fighting between the rebels and the government could hamper the delivery of aid supplies, especially to remote areas of Aceh. Last week, the government cited the possibility of rebel attacks as a reason for new travel restrictions for foreigners outside the two main cities, Banda Aceh and Meulaboh to the south. .... But Mucksalmina said that foreigners had nothing to fear from them and that the group's top leadership had issued orders not to harm any aid workers. He said the group was thankful for the help to Aceh from foreigners, including Americans, whose military helicopters full of aid supplies buzz nonstop to the areas most affected. "I am very grateful and thank the Americans and the rest of the world that when they saw this disaster they worked directly to help," he said, .... The real threat, he said, was the announced intention of the Indonesian government to scale back on foreign help in the coming months. ....
The rebels ... have been accused of abuses, particularly of kidnapping civilians and holding them hostage. In May 2004, according to Human Rights Watch, some 150 civilians were released in a deal brokered by the International Committee for the Red Cross and the Indonesian Red Cross. Human Rights Watch said it was unclear whether the rebels were holding any other civilians. .... Mucksalmina, the rebel spokesman, said his group was avoiding the camps and said they would not use food aid meant for refugees to feed themselves. He also said the rebels were giving their own stores of supplies to victims. He denied reports that large numbers of rebels had died in the tsunami. He said the rebels had lost about 70 male fighters and 48 women active in the group. .... He said that the rebels were observing their own cease-fire as long as the relief effort was operating and added that they would not attack government troops. "We won't use guns to take advantage of the situation," he said. But he added, "If the army fires on us, we will fire back."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/17/2005 8:51:01 AM ||
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Maybe the rebels figured out it's bad luck to shoot at Marines. Especially when they are bringing you food and water.
#4
There's an interesting strategy there... "Come see how evil Jakarta is." It's an easy one for them to find attractive.
Not saying they actually decided to go with it, but at least they're claiming to.
No wonder my new edition of New Yorker carried a repugnant odor.
The Pentagon on Monday criticized a published report that said it was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets.
"The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars," the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement.
Hersh's article, published on Sunday, was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed," DiRita said.
Hersh reported that President Bush (news - web sites) had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
DiRita did not comment on that assertion.
Instead, he said, Hersh's sources fed him "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made."
Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces."
More sighs about Sy, now Sy say, "Good Bye"
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 2:35:52 PM ||
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Does Sy have a sister named Sue?
Now to address the article posted... Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, neener neener neener, Toldyaso!
"Logic tells us that these operations are going on. There is a gap between logic and confirmation that Hersh has chosen to bridge. More precisely, if Hersh is to be believed, a former U.S. intelligence officer allowed him to bridge this gap by providing him with information so sensitive that its disclosure would put in danger the lives of the members of the reconnaissance team, as well as the lives of Pakistani scientists cooperating with the United States.
... It comes down to this: On the broadest level, Hersh's story simply restates what is known or logical. On a deeper level, it reveals details that, if true, could cripple U.S. intelligence collection in Iran. That Hersh would publish this is a given. That he could get hold of information like this from the CIA is a crisis. Or, Hersh could simply have been the victim of U. S. information operations."
I suspect that Hersch is a nutjob and a unsuspecting sop for U.S. information opns.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 19:15 Comments ||
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"Cripple US intelligence collection in Iran" - I doubt it, as so many nations, even allies or non-aligned, spie on each other as a matter of course IT WOULD BE MORE SUSPICIOUS OR SHOCKING IF NO OPS OR COLLECTION WAS GOING ON! Few iff any lives or mission objectives should be lost unless something or someone(s) significant has been seriously or severely compromised.
Sources in the intelligence community are kept secret because any truly important bits are known to a select few individuals. Once you know _what_ was passed, then you can figure out who _could_ have passed it, or how it may have been obtained. Once this is done, then you can begin isolating those sources and either turning them, or eliminating them. The fact that Hersh was able to get this info is a bad sign, if it is true. It may be, as was pointed out, an instance of Hersh being used as a fall guy, letting the Iranians think we have bad information to sooth them into a false sense of security.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
01/17/2005 20:16 Comments ||
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God, I hope someone's running a canary operation on Hersh's suspected sources. Feed each of them a slightly different story, each with a DIFFERENT absolutely juicy, must-report bit of information.
Based on what Hersh "reports", you can then close off the leak. Preferably with espionage charges all around.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/17/2005 22:41 Comments ||
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When Saddam Hussein fell from power, the world of prostitution collapsed in Iraq. Escaping war and the rise of Islamic moralism, thousands of Iraqi prostitutes packed their bags and fled to Syria. But now, Syrian prostitutes, accusing the Iraqi women of taking their jobs, are launching a counteroffensive against this "invasion," according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online, weekly, intelligence newsletter published by WND.
The Syrian women, and their pimps, accuse the Iraqi women of spreading AIDS. A rumor circulating Damascus claims several policemen have contracted AIDS from Iraqi whores. The word on the street is that the Syrian regime is so upset about the situation, it has to jail and deport every Iraqi convicted of prostitution. That may not be entirely true, but President Bashar Assad has instructed the Syrian police and security services to investigate the accusations Iraqi prostitutes are infecting troops and police with AIDS. An estimated 30,000 prostitutes were working in Iraq until the 2003 war. Many of them moved to Damascus and set up shop in night clubs, low income residential and military communities.
Among the prostitutes are also women from North Africa, Lebanon and Chechnya. The investigation into this unusual by-product of the war in Iraq, began as the president, himself an M.D., received alarming reports of growing AIDS cases among the military and the police. In one case a brigadier general in the Syrian air force, who reported to a hospital with unspecified complaints, was identified as infected with AIDS, and with at least one more venereal disease.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/17/2005 7:12:51 AM ||
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#1
Nice graphic. Always impressed with Rantburg graphics. Where can I obtain subscription information regarding Spicy Stories?
...Escaping war and the rise of Islamic moralism
Shouldn't this read: Escaping war and the rise of [phony] Islamic moralism?
#2
"[Phony] Islamic moralism" is right. I had a class with two Saudis one time here in the States, and homeboys were suited up and smelling like cheap cologne before class was out. They were headed to the strip clubs to drink, smoke, and enjoy the local scenery. They were actually good guys, so we thought it was funny. But they freely admitted they took advantage of the States, because they couldn't do it at home.
#5
Ah, the story that never dies. This is like the 10th time I've seen this or something like it, lol.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/17/2005 13:06 Comments ||
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This is the first wave of Sy Hersch's soon-to-be-announced Iraqi invasion of Syria. Send in the hookers, spread AIDS, is just the first volley. Now, just wait until they find out that these are robotic hookers.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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The graphic is worthy of dot com......
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
01/17/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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Mark - I wish, heh. No, Fred has discovered a secret stash of these killer "novel covers" somewhere, lol! Color me jealous!
Iran yesterday threatened to close the Teheran bureau of the Arabic satellite news channel Al Jazeera for screening what the ministry of culture termed a "divisive documentary" about Arabs in Iran, the news agency Irna reported.
Al-Jizz accidentally told the truth?
Al Jazeera broadcast a documentary on Arabs living in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan, exposing what is said was discrimination they faced within Iranian society. The culture ministry, which is in charge of the foreign Press, accused the news channel of "sowing discord among the different ethnic groups in Khuzestan" by depicting the negative sides of cultural life in that province. The ministry warned Al Jazeera that such "unprofessional acts" made it difficult for it to continue activities in Teheran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2005 1:05:07 AM ||
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Khuzestan (province number 15 on this map) is a running sore for Iran and Iraq. It was locals from this area who, with Saddam's sponsorship, staged the Iranian Embassy Seige in London in 1980:
"At 11.30 a.m. on 30 April 1980 a six-man terrorist team calling itself the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRMLA), sponsored by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, captured the building in Knightsbridge, central London. Initially it emerged they wanted autonomy for an oil-rich region in southern Iran known as Khuzestan; later they demanded the release of 91 of their comrades held in Ayatollah Khomeini's gaols. Only after the incident was over did it emerge that Iraq had trained and armed the gunmen to embarrass Iran, and it would become a prelude to the Iran-Iraq war."
Worth keeping an eye on. I'm not surprised the Mullahs are tetchy about al Jizzwad raising the issue.
#2
I didn't realize the London Iranian embassy seige was so long ago. The world has been living a long time with mideast terrorism. Most of the shit that happens in this world can be traced to mideast terrorists of one stripe or another.
Backgrounder from September 2004. EFL. There is serious turmoil in Balochistan, irrespective of whether the rest of the country is willing to acknowledge it. Over the last six months in particular, Baloch rebels have been hard at work 153 out of 156 working days, to be precise planting mines, firing rockets have, exploding bombs or ambushing military convoys. Their attacks have turned bloody on at least 25 occasions, killing over 40 persons including military and paramilitary personnel, levies, security agents, government officials and also some civilians. The Sui airport building has been blown up, gas pipelines and electricity grids have been repeatedly hit and bomb explosions have taken place close to the official's residence of the chief minister as well as the governor. Even military installations in Quetta have not been spared. Though many such attacks remain unclaimed to this day, a group called the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed the responsibility for quite a few, demanding and end to garrisons and Mega-projects.
For those who have seen the actors in this bloody confrontation take form, this ragtag group of rebellious nationalists may take a lot more force to dissipate then the ideologues from the mid-1970s required. The key to the events currently unfolding in BalochistanâŠperhaps lies in the early days of 2003, a year that will go down in Baloch political history as the year of mergers and coalitions between nationalist groups. By September, four Baloch parties had fallen together in an alliance called the Baloch Ithehad. Its two-point agenda, unsurprisingly, was exactly the same as the one professed by the armed rebels: opposition to military garrisons and Mega-projects in the province. Within a year, it became an active and violently articulated agenda in the province. As such, the Ittehad's significance as the de facto political front for armed struggle cannot be exaggerated.
Even more significant is the less visible face of BLA, scattered all across the province in the shape of training camps and infrastructure. Evidence of these camps first came to public light in the last week of July 2004, when a group of Sindhi and Baloch journalists visited Kahan, the native town of Balochistan's former strongman Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, in Kohlu district. The journalists found these camps manned by "mostly Marri tribesmen," equipped with wireless sets, walkie-talkies and satellite phones. Each camp had one or more electric generators as well as fleets of motorbikes and four wheel drive trucks. Their hosts claimed that there were 60 such camps in the Kohlu area alone.âŠOfficial sources in Quetta confirmed to the Herald that more than 150 camps, housing between 3000 to 5000 armed rebels, have been operating in different parts of Balochistan over the last two years. The camps are scattered wide across the province, from Kohlu and Sibi in the northeast to Kech and Gwadar in the southwest and from Khuzdar and Kalat in eastern and central Balochistan to Kharan and Chaghi in the northwest. The BLA's geographical spread is matched only by the diversity of its weapons: assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG's) mortars and even anti-aircraft guns.
Some residents of Makran's Dasht area who have relatives among the BLA camps in Makran told the Herald in Turbat that BLA members were paid monthly salaries ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 rupees. They added that a majority of BLA members in the Makran camps are educated Baloch youth having past or present links with the nationalist Baloch Students Organization. In addition, both government sources in Quetta and people from Dasht confirm that the rebels are led by the Marri and Mengal activists who had constituted the younger lot of the 1970s resistance and are now in their early or mid-fifties.
As for the source of their money, America tops the list of speculation, with a senior government official in Quetta pointing out that the US may want to put a damper on the growing Chinese presence in Balochistan. Some influential business groups in Dubai and Qatar are also said to be piqued over what they perceive as potentially adverse effects of the Gwadar port on business opportunities in the Gulf. The intelligence community in Islamabad believes Iran is another possible opponent of the Gwadar port because this project would compete with Iran's newly built Chahbahar Port on the Balochistan coast. India, of course, is an old time rival and would like to get even with Pakistan over Kashmir. But observers warn the Pakistani establishment against reading too much into this aspect of the conflict. "Much of what is happening in Balochistan today has a strong internal dimension that connects with its recent history and it will be a folly to ignore it any longer," says one analyst.
On the policy front, BLA's inception can be linked to Islamabad's attempts to explore oil and gas in Kohlu between 1999 and 2000. Armed Marri tribesmen led by Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, resisted this attempt. Islamabad retaliated by recruiting a 1000-strong levies force of the rival Bijarani tribe in Kohlu to contain Nawab Marri's influence... During this period, pressure from the so-called Bijarani Militia gradually pushed the Marri tribesmen underground, creating conditions for a militant backlash. This underground network soon proliferated to central Balochistan where Sardar Attaullah Mengal threw in his lot with Marri, his comrade-in-arms since the insurgency of the mid-1970s⊠The Bugti tribe was drawn into the conflict after a two-year lull in militant activity during 2001 and 2002 due to development in Afghanistan. The repeated bombing and rocketing of the gas pipelines in the Sui area in late 2002 and early 2003 worked as a catalystâŠ.
By mid-2003, the scattered forces of another Baloch nationalist leader from the 1970s, the late Mir Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, were also closing ranks. The non-tribal, essentially middle-class groups such as the Balochistan National Democratic Party (BNDP), headed by Hasil Bizenjo and Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, and the main faction of the Balochistan National Movement (BNM) led by Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch announced a merger in October 2003 and re-christened the new party as the National Party (NP). The merger came a month after the four main Nationalist forces, namely BNP, JWP, Nawab Khair Baksh Marri and the elements that have now formed the NP, joined the Baloch Ittehad.
So where are things headed? A more sensible way to the future could be a serious effort on the part of Islamabad to lay the foundations of a truly participatory system of government in which provincial concerns are addressed in a constitutional framework. This has only a remote chance of happening, though. "It will be overoptimistic to expect the establishment to resolve the national and democratic question", says senior NP leader Dr Abdul Malik. Another way, and one that the ISI probably cannot resist, is to infiltrate the militant ranks anew, engineer greater "collateral damage" to discredit the struggle and effect a division in their ranks as it did by infiltrating the BSO ranks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
On the political front, Islamabad has already launched efforts to draw Bugti into talks while instituting criminal cases against Marri and Mengal leaders. This strategy can ensure "friendly" government in Quetta, as it did during the past 30 years. But the fact remains that instead of the bringing the Baloch people forward of the path of progress and development, it has taken them full circle back to the dark ages of 1973. The future of this strategy cannot be any different. "The establishment can play its game as long as it likes, but it can never score a point in what is essentially a zero-sum game", concludes BNP leader Habib Jalib Baloch.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/17/2005 6:23:17 AM ||
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President Bush says the U.S. military will pull out of Iraq ``as quickly as possible,'' but he is not endorsing Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement that troops could begin returning home this year. ``The way I would put it is, American troops will be leaving as quickly as possible, but they won't be leaving until we have completed our mission,'' Bush said in a Washington Post interview published Sunday. ``And part of the mission is to train Iraqis so they can fight the terrorists. And the sooner the Iraqis are prepared - better prepared, better equipped to fight - the sooner our troops will start coming home,'' Bush said.
This is not a change in policy, though watch the MSM play it up as one.
Powell told National Public Radio last week that he believes Americans could begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqis take on a larger security role. Powell, in his final days as the government's chief diplomat, said he could not give a timeline when all the troops will be home. Bush said the U.S. military is ``constantly assessing'' if Iraqi security forces are up to the job, allowing the United States to begin pulling out. The president would not commit to significantly reduce troops by the end of his second term in 2009. In the interview, Bush said the public ratified his approach toward Iraq when they re-elected him rather than Democrat John Kerry. Bush also said there is no reason to hold any administration official accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in the planning or conduction of the war. ``We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections,'' Bush said. ``The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2005 1:22:56 AM ||
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The Pentagon plans to put at least 20 more US troops before military courts for abuse of detainees in the wake of last week's high profile trial of the ringleader in the Abu Ghraib scandal, military spokesmen said yesterday. The various prosecutions of soldiers accused of mistreating and, in some cases, murdering detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantänamo Bay have been in the works for months, but have been largely overshadowed by the trial of the man who became known as the "primary torturer" of the notorious Baghdad prison.
Although there was no official response from Iraq's interim government, reaction on the streets of Baghdad was condemnatory. Abdul-Razak Abdul-Fattah, a 65-year-old retired army officer, said he was shocked to see television footage of Graner leaving the court smiling and laughing even though his legs and hands were shackled. "It showed on his face that he did not regret the shameful acts he and his colleagues committed," he said.
Meanwhile, informal polls by newspapers on US army bases found troops believed low-ranking troops such as Graner have been singled out for exemplary punishment, while senior officers - who knew of the abuse for months - have gone free. Such misgivings are unlikely to be allayed by the coming line-up at Fort Hood base in Texas, the primary US venue for such trials. So far, only one of the accused troops is known to be an officer. The rest are enlisted personnel, fuelling criticism that the Pentagon is reluctant to pursue allegations of torture and abuse further up the chain of command.
Since the start of the war in Iraq, 26 members of the US army have been referred to trial for abuse or murder of detainees; 18 trials are still pending, said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venables. However, far more - 75 troops - have been subjected to other disciplinary measures, and have not been brought to trial. Separately, the navy is preparing to prosecute three more service personnel, and has subjected seven others to disciplinary measures.
It was unclear yesterday whether further members of the Marine Corps are to face military courts. So far, 14 marines have been convicted of abuse in military courts. Nine other marines remain under investigation for various forms of abuse, including murder.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2005 1:15:54 AM ||
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I agree with the grunts.What was the Duty Officer or NCOIC doing when all this was takeing place?Pretty typical EM get hammered Officers get shielded.
#2
Hang them first, then identify the guilty party Raptor?
News alert, back in the pile that was left over from Vietnam the American Army figured out that one of its problems was that it gutted the authority of the NCO. LTs and CPTs were doing NCO jobs and the quality of our performance dropped like a rock. In the rebuilding of the Army in the 80s, the NCO Corps in the Regular Army was revitalized. Professional development training was initiated, with schools from Primary Leadership through the Sergeants Major Academy. [The reserve and NG elements do not lend themselves to as effective application of this process.] Civilian educational requirements were raised to the extent that most senior NCOs have as much college time as 2LTs, and vastly more practical experience. A lot of responsibility and authority was placed back into the NCO ranks. The flexibility, adaptability, and effectiveness of our small units is practically dependent upon these modern NCOs. The whiny arguement that we need some heads of commissioned officers is a movement back to the days of micromanagement and degredation of the NCOs authority. Leaders will act to protect their ass. There are two sides to the coin. This event was the dark side, thankfully rare. Unfortunately, if we are to trust the process of putting power and authority into the hands of our NCOs then we must accept these types of incidents will happen. There is not perfect.
As for the chain of command, just like any disaster in a political environment where the pols are not directly responsible for the problem but who's subordinates screw up, they pay by having their careers shortened. The police chief who's men abuse arrestees or inmates, the supervisor with dirty business relations and funny accounting, the appointment of one's sexual plaything into an office as political/personal favor. Its began in the Army with the relief for cause of several of the officers about a year ago. They have no further military career. However, the military law is similar to civilian law. The rules of evidence are the same. You have to have sufficient proof to convict. That is not likely to be met regardless of your personal desire to 'hang them all'. So the Army does what it can, by terminating their careers.
Posted by: Don ||
01/17/2005 10:35 Comments ||
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In reference to the comment about devolving management to the NCO ranks from the officers. Where was the Sergent First Class, the Master Sergent, the Officer of the Day. I don't care how far you push responsibility downward, you don't put a SP/4 in charge of a prison cell block. There should have been walkarounds by several higher ranking personnel every shift. Someones, plural, was sleeping on duty. You can take that from a long ago Vietnam era NCO.
Posted by: Old Fogey ||
01/17/2005 12:27 Comments ||
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Fogey -- that's why (as far as I know) every officer between the abusers and the Brigadier General has seen the end of their careers. The original Taguba report made it clear that the officers failed to do their duty.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/17/2005 12:55 Comments ||
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...My biggest complaint is that the brigade commander, BGen Karpinski, is going to walk away after one of the most outrageous displays of dereliction of duty I've evr seen, then had the nerve to literally dare the Army to come get her.
I have said this before and I'll say it again - put just ONE general in Leavenworth and it will be amazing how quickly this sort of thing will come to a complete stop...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/17/2005 14:14 Comments ||
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I have said this before and I'll say it again - put just ONE general in Leavenworth and it will be amazing how quickly this sort of thing will come to a complete stop.
Do you have any particular general in mind, or do you just want to grab any convenient one off the street?
#9
It's certainly true that General Karpinski was derelict in her duty but seldom does that in itself warrant prison time. Maybe it should. Karpinski is finished in the Army. I personally would like to see her court marshalled but it just isn't going to happen. I'm not saying there aren't women capable of doing the job but you can put this one officer's failure at the feet of the feminist crowd to promote women regardless of their qualifications. When women were first introduced in to my unit the first ones were not able to do the same tasks as the rest of us. We had to pick up her slack and carry the extra load. Not tha big a deal in peacetime but if we had found ourselves in a combat situation our efficiency would have been seriously degraded. The first ones to be left behind in a serious situation are the ones who can't carry their own weight. It sounds cruel but combat isn't a game.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/17/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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DB-As a feminist, I am behind you. Ability and fitness for the role should be paramount.
#11
DB, Jules, me three. Set the standards high, and cut all those, male and female, who don't make it. If serving is that important to them, there are other ways.
That's "confidence building measure", not "continental ballistic missile".
Pakistan would not initiate any new confidence-building measures (CBMs) with India until the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service begins, President General Pervez Musharraf told Kashmiri leaders here. The president made clear to a Kashmiri delegation from the US and Britain that Pakistan had responded positively to Indian proposal for the bus service but the matter is hanging because of Indian insistence that passports of respective countries be accepted as travel documents. He said that Pakistan has taken a reasonable position that Kashmir remained a disputed territory and the use of passports would compromise this position. He hoped that leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) would be among the first Kashmiris who would use the bus to come to Muzaffarabad. "I would personally welcome the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders at Muzafarrabad if the Indian government would allow them to visit Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan," a member of the delegation and head of Kashmir-American Council, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, quoted Musharraf as saying.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2005 1:13:31 AM ||
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We need a Rantburg future on when the feud restarts.
I'm in for Thursday...
Bugti and Mazari tribes have temporarily suspended their 10-year feud in Balochistan, which has so far cost the lives of more than hundred people, reports say. On Saturday, Sardar Sher Ali, son of veteran Baloch politician Sherbaz Mazari, met Sardar Akbar Bugti at Bugti's house in Dera Bugti, where the two leaders announced a truce. Talking to the local media, according to reports, Bugti said that since it would take time for reaching a permanent settlement, the suspension of the feud was temporary.
Til someone curses someone's mustache.
The two tribes would open routes for each other, he announced, which they closed when the dispute began in 1994, with each of the tribe seeking royalty for a development project in an area dominated by both tribes. Reports suggested this temporary settlement would mainly benefit the Bugti tribe because the Mazaris control the routes leading to Sindh and Punjab provinces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2005 1:10:57 AM ||
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its fucking indian country--where's the cavalry on this--its the 19th century and these dudes are the lords of the atlas--are you sure the human race went to the moon of saturn?
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/17/2005 2:34 Comments ||
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This could be an indicator of impending action. Imagine this - an outside actor steps in to broker a truce, so as to secure lines of communication, turn the tribes against the common foe, whomever that may be...
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
01/17/2005 3:34 Comments ||
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#3
âMe and my brother against my cousin. Me and my cousin against the stranger.â
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/17/2005 6:08 Comments ||
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#4
Me and the stranger against the boulder.
Me and the boulder against Mr. Gravity.
Me and Mr. Gravity against the WeakForce.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given orders for troops to carry out unlimited operations against Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip. "The current situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue," Sharon said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "The Tsahal (army) and the security forces have received orders to operate without any limits on time or their modus operandi to act against the terrorist organisations.
In the first Palestinian reaction to Sharon's new policy, Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath said the new military campaign under way in Gaza will only serve to further undermine the peace process,. "This policy will not serve the peace process and I ask the Israeli people to reject this Sharon policy," Shaath said after a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura in Ram Allah.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#3
Ya know, this may actually be a good thing for Abbas. He lacks both the political spunk and the firepower to take on the craziest of the paleo-crazies. If Sharon can remove them for him, Abbas may have a chance to do what needs to be done.
#8
If Sharon can remove them for him, Abbas may have a chance to do what needs to be done.
If this is Mazen's plan, he'd best not make it knowledge among anyone, not even his inner circle. If word got out, his days would be numbered for sure.
#9
The BEST and ONLY Peace (where no-one dies) will come with the Total, Complete and PERMANENT separation of both parties. Build the wall HIGH, DEEP and THICK! Build it NOW! Let the Palestinians live on their side as they choose. We will check back in 100 years.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should not react to acts of Palestinian violence by scrapping peace talks.
That's what they always recommend, and there are always more attacks, aren't there?
"Experience says that it will never be possible that we can go on with negotiations if we say that all violence must stop," Mubarak said at a joint news conference with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. Sharon has said he will not meet new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas until he moves against militant groups behind an attack that killed six Israelis in Gaza last week. They had been expected to meet to discuss security coordination in the run-up to a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a possible revival of peace talks. Mubarak praised the approach of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose policy was to fight violence as if there were no peace talks and talk peace regardless of violence.
But... ummm... he's dead now, isn't he? I mean, bumped off by an assassin?
"That's why I call on Prime Minister Sharon that he must go on with the peace process," he said. Mubarak also said in remarks published yesterday that peace between Israel and Syria was harder to achieve under Sharon than his predecessors.
That's why his predecessors all achieved it and he didn't, you know...
Syria said in December it wanted peace talks with Israel over the occupied Golan Heights to resume without any preconditions, but Israel said it opposed peace talks while Syria hosted Palestinian militant groups in Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Honestly now, who cares what Mubarak wants or thinks? Mubarak is the Head Thug of a Thugocracy.
I respected Sadat - far more than any other Arab leader and, like Rabin, he was killed for having vision and gumption.
#2
Mubarak already has a lot of leverage on Abbas. If Israel does what Mubarak says he wants, it increases Mubarak's leverage. Assuming Mubarak really wants an end to the Palestinian terrorism, it would make sense to increase Mubarak's leverage.
#3
Abbas -- and Fatah -- are too scared of Hamas and IJ and their own al-Aqsa snuffies to try and do anything about them. They have visions of suicide boomers showing up at their own meetings.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 9:53 Comments ||
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Please don't go along with this. It is a justification of the use of terrorism for attaining statehood. The Pallies have to do something-FOR ONCE. Let them get control of themselves before the US proceeds with the Road Map.
I hope decisionmakers realize that working with the Pallies when they have satisfied nothing in their part of the Road Map-no confidence building, no crackdown on terrorists-will be considered a betrayal by those who voted for an alternative vision to that of Kerry and the Euros. That group lives by these beliefs: suicide bombers are to be negotiated with (not killed off) as legitimiate political partners. There is no act too horrific, no political party too bloodstained that they can't call them friends.
This is not the vision this administration began with (and correctly so); don't screw it up now.
#5
Love the graphic with this entry, it was one of my favorite tee-shirts. "Visualize Whirled Peas"
Any luck with "Stop the Violins"? (Maybe the international "no" circle with slash over a violin....
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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#8
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should not react to acts of Palestinian violence by scrapping peace talks.
Preliminary results of an IDF and Israel Port Authority inquiry show that the terrorists were given forged entry permits and granted entry to the Karni facility by members of the PA security force.
The question is who can one talk to? Abbas carries in true Arafat tradition of blaming Hammas while supporting them.
Palestinian militants are sharpening their swords for all-out war against new leader Mahmoud Abbas should he translate his condemnation of the armed uprising into a clampdown on anti-Israeli attacks.
Same old load of manure. Unplug the peace processor and get on with cleaning them out. Forget the idea of a state they don't want one.
Abbas is to meet with Hamas and Islamic Jihad today in hopes of winning their agreement for a ceasefire with Israel a move both groups have said they oppose. Hardened fighters who weave through life eluding Israeli assassination or capture, say they are prepared to work with Abbas after his swearing in, but not if he turns into a lapdog of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We will kill fight him if he even so much as thinks about fighting against the resistance and helping Sharon," said Abu Hafsa, a leader in the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, sheltering in a Gaza safe house. The battle lines were drawn up when long-time moderate Abbas used his election campaign to repeatedly rebuke militants for launching rocket attacks against Israel and blindly fanning the flames of violence. "This fight will continue forever," added the unemployed 30-year-old who was recruited into the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades at 14.
Mother must be so proud: "That's my son! He's 30 years old, never held a job, and he's very dangerous!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Time to fire up the popcorn popper and start watching them bump each other off.
HAMAS will never give up murdering innocent civilians -- theyr leaders are addicted to murder.
#2
Israel really needs to penalize all further delay of a permanent and lasting settlement (as it were).
For every day a peace aggreement is not reached, another acre of land is taken, never to be returned. Once all of the Palestinians are crowded onto a postage stamp, they'll be easier to hit with one bomb negotiations should become a lot more simple.
Oh, and any mention of a unilateral Arab "right of return" should be greeted with another FIVE acres taken. It's time for the Palestinians to get serious or pay a real price.
Candidates supported by Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric said Saturday they have no intention of setting up an Islamic state if they win this month's national election and instead will work to improve security, the economy and public services. National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie said the elections will be "between democratic forces in Iraq and antidemocratic forces of Iraq" rather than between different religious and ethnic communities. "That is the issue," he said. "The issue is who do you want to obey - Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden ... or the Iraqi people." Al-Rubaie said there "is no intention or plan to forming an Islamic or religious state in Iraq or a Shiite state ... or an Iranian style government."
On Jan 30, Iraqis are scheduled to vote for a 275-member National Assembly which will appoint a new government and write the country's constitution. The United Iraqi Alliance, endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to fare best among the 220 parties and political blocs. The Alliance list of candidates includes 32 Sunni Muslims. Most Shiites are expected to vote but many Sunni Arab Muslims are likely to boycott the elections. Sunni Muslim clerics have said elections should not take place under foreign military occupation, and bin Laden has warned that Iraqis who take part in the elections "will be considered infidels." Tribal leaders, Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarbi, a Sunni member of the list, insisted that many Sunnis will ignore the boycott calls.
A prominent Shiite politician, Vice-President Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Islamic Dawa Party, said the Shiite leadership "wants to build a new Iraq. Our main aims are to achieve self-sufficiency in security so that we can manage without the multinational forces, build the economy and improve people's standard of living and services." Another Shiite candidate, Ahmad Chalabi, said he hoped the election would take place so that the new government can "restore sovereignty," establish security and "give the people their rights in the economy."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie said the elections will be "between democratic forces in Iraq and antidemocratic forces of Iraq" rather than between different religious and ethnic communities.
Precisely. The next phase of this war is Iraqi democrats vs Iraqi fascists. Not an ethnic "civil war", not an "insurgency", but a contest between democracy and its enemies in a frontline state.
Why the f*** is this so hard for the anti-Bush folks around the world to understand? Why do we not shout this from the rooftops, again and again, and denounce the MSM fools who keep spinning their idiotic counter-memes?
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, yesterday reiterated his support for the Unified Iraqi Alliance list which is widely expected to dominate the Jan. 30 general elections, one of his aides said. "Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani stresses the need to hold the elections at the scheduled date and confirms his support for list 169," said Sheikh Najah Al-Abbudi.
Sistani's demeanor doesn't make me ooze confidence...
He was referring to the Unified Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of major Shiite parties which was formed with Sistani's blessing and is headed by Abdel Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "A war has been launched against this list, on the grounds that it includes all the currents and strata of Iraqi society," Abbudi said during a meeting of Sistani's representatives in Diwaniya, south of Baghdad. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party cried foul last week over the alleged use of religion in advertising by the front-running Shiite coalition. One pamphlet circulating in southern Shiite cities speaks of voting for the UIA as the will of the "Marjaya," a term used for Sistani and his group of elite clerics. The Iraqi Electoral Commission said it would look into the complaint.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
And that's Sistani on a good day.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 16:04 Comments ||
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Great Khomeini's Ghost!!!
Posted by: Perry White ||
01/17/2005 16:12 Comments ||
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#3
In the more genteel circles that look is referred to, generously IMHO, as indicative of a tenuous grasp of reality.
Supporters of Shia leader Moqtada Sadr from across Iraq demonstrated for the second-day running on Sunday to demand better living conditions.
I see he's back. Shoulda killed him in October...
Hundreds of them gathered in front of the oil ministry in Baghdad. Among them were oil workers in orange jumpsuits waving lanterns to protest against oil and electricity shortages.
Thank your Sunni brethren, Clem...
"The demonstration we are holding here today is aimed at showing what the mood of the Iraqi people is," said Shaikh Malik al-Kinani, who heads the Sadr office in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Kakh. "It is very disturbing to see politicians only interested in elections. Instead they should be focusing on meeting the basic needs of the people," he told AFP.
First y'gotta hold office, then you can do something with it. Unless you live in a state governed by a Caliph, of course.
Thousands joined similar protests in the Shia heartland south of Baghdad on Saturday. By invoking the dire economic situation and singling out the ever-worsening fuel shortages, Sadr's movement is tapping into an issue that strikes a chord with most of the population, especially among poor Shia, his power base. Nearly two years after the US invasion, many Iraqis complain that they have seen no improvement to their daily lives after 12 years of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Saddam Hussein's government. Sadr is not running in the 30 January general elections, but members of his entourage have thrown their weight behind the front-running list of Shia leader Abd al-Aziz Hakim.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Supporters of Shia leader Moqtada Sadr from across Iraq demonstrated for the second-day running on Sunday to demand better living conditions.
That's easy, dudes.
Quit supporting that little POS and your lives will improve immeasurably. It's called "cause, meet effect."
Idiots.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/17/2005 3:18 Comments ||
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#5
Nearly two years after the US invasion, many Iraqis complain that they have seen no improvement to their daily lives after 12 years of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Saddam Husseinâs government.
On the contrary, their lives have improved dramatically; now they can visibly complain about things without worrying about being imprisoned and tortured.
As for the more tangible aspects of their lives, like oil and electricity problems, those things are in their hands now, and is up to them to keep, instead of expecting some government entity to do it for them.
Dunno much about Algeria/Berber conflicts, but it seems to me they might be trying to have peace, not process it.
Algeria's government signed an agreement Sunday to end years of conflict with the restive Berber minority, pledging to accept long-standing demands including greater recognition of the Berber language. The demands accepted by the government were part of a nonnegotiable list first put forward at the height of a crisis in 2001 when the killing of a Berber teenager arrested by security forces sparked massive riots. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said the government would set up a committee to oversee the deal with Berber tribal leaders based in the northeast Kabyle region.
"We must rebuild confidence," the prime minister said. "We will take this path together to follow through and show that the commitments taken are sincere," he said.
Algeria's Berbers, who make up nearly a third of the country's 30 million people, claim to be the original inhabitants of North Africa before Arabs conquered most of the region in the 7th century. The Berbers have long had a tense relationship with central authorities, but their conflict intensified in April 2001 when a Berber high school student was shot to death while in the custody of gendarmes, the security force that governs the countryside. The death sparked massive riots that broadened to an outpouring of massive discontent over soaring unemployment, cramped housing and lack of water. Dozens of people were killed. The Berbers then asked that their language, Tamazight, be recognized as an official language that can be used on government documents like birth certificates. They also demanded the withdrawal of all gendarmes from the Kabyle region, which is east of the capital. Such measures could take months or years to implement. The committee to oversee the deal will have representatives from both the government and the Arouchs, the village committees in the Berber heartland of Kabyle, the prime minister said. Talks between the government and the Berbers fell through early last year. Dialogue restarted Friday between Ouyahia and 19 tribal leaders from the Arouchs.
The Berber conflict is not directly related to an Islamic insurgency raging in Algeria since 1992. That uprising began after the army canceled elections that a fundamentalist party appeared set to win. More than 120,000 people have been killed since then.
#2
None of them are maoists or communists. They aren't fighting western culture. Further, the Copts are Christian, the Kurds are independent-minded, and the Berbers stopped being a 'romantic' indigenous group about fifty years ago. Figure the odds.
A leader of Algeria's Berber minority said yesterday he believed a new peace plan would finally end years of unrest in the Kabylie region, but that details still needed to be ironed out. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia brokered an accord with tribal leaders late on Saturday, which includes recognizing their language and investing in the long neglected northeastern region where most of them live.
My breath is fair taken away...
"We're optimistic. Today there is an agreement which is a base for both sides to work together," said Berber negotiator Belaid Abrika. "This agreement allows us to move from a confrontation stage to a partnership one," he told a news conference. Abrika said the government and tribal leaders had agreed the El-Kseur platform, which sets out 15 conditions for peace and stability, but that a joint commission would now work out how to put it into practice. The government has already met several of the demands, including sacking officials elected in the Kabylie region in 2002 in polls Berbers largely boycotted. It has also freed Berber militants held in prisons.
Abrika said the details of how Tamazight would be made an official language alongside Arabic were not specifically addressed. "We didn't raise this question. We discussed the platform as a whole," he said. A year ago talks broke down when the government demanded the Tamazight question be put before a national referendum — a condition tribal leaders opposed. Another key part of the plan is to boost financial aid to Kabylie where years of economic neglect have led to high unemployment. Speaking late on Saturday, Ouyahia said agreement had been reached on the so-called El-Kseur platform, which includes economic demands and recognition of the language spoken by the ethnic Berbers who live mainly in the northeastern Kabylie region. "We agreed to implement together the El-Kseur platform," said Ouyahia, after a deal whose content remains kept largely under wraps by officials but has been welcomed by a wide spectrum of the North African country's private press. The Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa before the Arab invasion in the 7th century. Algeria's Berbers, who make up a fifth of the country's 32 million people, complain of discrimination by the Arab majority.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Okay, what is she snorting?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/17/2005 15:57 Comments ||
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#2
It's a flower. I like that picture. She's not wearing a burka.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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The Sudanese government and an alliance of opposition groups have reached a tentative agreement on the country's political future. Building on a peace accord already signed with southern rebels, the power-sharing deal struck by Khartoum and the SPLM rebel group to end 21 years of civil war allocates a proportion of seats in a new national government to other parties. Sunday's agreement with the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will pave the way for discussions on how to divide up those seats and how to integrate opposition armed forces into the national army. NDA spokesman Hatim al-Sirr said the two sides would set up joint committees to deal with both issues. "On the military forces, it was agreed to form a joint committee between the government and the NDA to reconcile the points of view," he said.
Good idea. Form a committee. That always works...
The committee on political representation will discuss the proportion of posts the NDA will hold in the legislative and executive bodies during a transitional period, he added. Apart from the SPLM, the other main group in the NDA is the Democratic Unionist Party, one of the big traditional parties in the Arab north. Other members include the Sudanese Communist Party, the Baath Party, the Beja Congress from the east of Sudan, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) from Darfur in the west and an alliance of southern parties independent of the SPLM. Sudan's other big northern party, the Umma Party, is not a member.
Hmmm... I'd consider that a good sign...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A team of the US-based Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will arrive in New Delhi shortly to gather more evidence against banned Jaish e-Muhammad (JM) chief Masood Azhar and his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of American tourists in held Kashmir in 1995 and his links with the hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999, reports the Press Trust of India (PTI) news service.
PTI quoted Indian government sources as saying that the team would arrive in New Delhi soon and would hold talks with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and collect more evidence against Azhar, who has been reportedly lying low. "Azhar is well respected amongst the Al Qaeda cadres and is close to its chief Osama Bin Laden and his aide Mulla Omar," sources said. The FBI team may also meet those arrested in connection with the hijacking of the IC-814 case after getting permission from court. India has also secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Azhar in connection with the 2001 Parliament House attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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I'm guessing they responded to those offers in the email for Degrees from Prestigious Unaccredited Universities with no course requirements or books...
A number of bureaucrats in Bangladesh are taking higher degrees from unauthorized campuses of foreign private universities to advance their careers, Education Ministry and University Grants Commission officials said in Dhaka yesterday. The commission in the past three months rejected certificates of master degree courses, which six bureaucrats received from the foreign university campuses and submitted them to the commission for approval. The commission earlier blacklisted all campuses of foreign universities and institutions in Bangladesh as they were set up and run without the permission of the ministry or the commission. The commission officials said certificates of a joint secretary and a deputy secretary of two ministries, a director general of a department under the Planning Ministry, an additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka and two other bureaucrats were recently rejected.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 00:00:00 ||
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CONTINUOUS violence by politically backed student organisations, which were officially banned by the Supreme Court and the federal government, are becoming an increasing challenge for the government. The government will have to do more than condemn political elements in university campuses with words. Some recent examples of student hooliganism and violence were witnessed by the public despite fresh rhetoric by President General Pervez Musharraf, Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Perviaz Elahi and Punjab governor Lt Gen (r) Khaild Maqbool during the recent 'Punjab Student Convention'. The latest violence occurred in front of the Lahore Press Club, where the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), a religious students' platform, assaulted many journalists and pelted stones inside the club injuring many other journalists. A police squad was present when the incident took place but did not intervene. The ISO blocked the road and did not allow a senior journalist to enter the club, at the start of their protest against the killing of a religious scholar in Gilgit.
In another incident, the Muttahida Talaba Mahaz (United Front of Students), an alliance of more than eight political and religious student organisations, pelted stones at a peaceful demonstration by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for People's Rights being held in front of Lahore Press Club. The JAC was peacefully protesting against the idea of adding a religion column in the new passports. The alliance, which was conducting a seminar against government policies inside the club, came out and threw stones at the protestors.
The Islami Jamiat Talaba arranged a grand reception to honour new admissions at the PU. The PU administration supported the reception and the campus student advisor was the key figure in making the whole event successful. People will lose their trust in the government if it does not stop politically motivated violence by youth disguised as 'enlightened and educated' students belonging to 'peace-loving' organisations, which are financially and logistically backed by political parties. Now is the time to save the future of such youths and the government has to make the right decisions and tackle these elements effectively.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 10:49:48 PM ||
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The demonstrations against the unjust rule of President General Pervez Musharraf will go on until he leaves one of the two offices he is assuming at present, said Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, while addressing the Jamaat-e-Islami's (JI) women wing on Sunday.
Departing for Saudi Arabia to perform Haj, Qazi pledged that the ongoing anti-government movement would gain momentum after his return to country. He said that efforts were underway to 'westernise' Pakistan and the religious alliance would resist the introduction of such an immoral culture. He said, "Moral values are on the decline in the western society and materialistic approach has paralysed their society with the absence of no mental and spiritual peace." Qazi said that Islam had given women rights while in other societies they were being exploited and reduced to be showpieces. He expressed satisfaction about the role of Jamaat-e-Islami women members in Parliament. Dr Qausoor Fardoos, the secretary general of the JI, said that in the garb of 'enlightened moderation' Musharraf had waged a war against his own people on the behest of western countries.
It being Qazi, there's really nothing I can say — the man's an institution in and of himself, which, I suppose is why his followers are committed. To him, I mean. But it's characteristic of Islamism to decry the depravity of "immoral" Western culture because of a few titties, while accepting as good and wholesome a propensity to blow other human beings into little pieces. Dare we opine that "Islam is not healthy for women and children and other living things"?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2005 10:40:09 PM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As part of MEMRI's TV Monitoring Project (www.memritv.org), Saudi government-controlled television channels are continually monitored. These channels include shows with leading Saudi religious figures, professors, members of the royal family, government leaders, and intellectuals. Constant themes include calls for the annihilation of Christian and Jews, rampant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, and support for jihad. With the Saudi government preparing to convene an international counter-terrorism conference February 5-8, which will include participants from leading state-sponsored terrorism regimes such as Iran as well as reports by the Saudi Foreign Ministry that the U.S. is sending a large delegation it is important to review the content of the Saudi media, particularly TV, as it relates to terrorism and hatred toward non-Muslims. 
North Korea denied that it has a secret uranium-enrichment programme and accused Washington of double standards, a day after it indicated a willingness to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Calling the United States a "nuclear criminal," North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun accused Washington on Saturday of "conniving at, patronising and cooperating with the pro-American forces" in Israel, Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear arms "The US accusation against the (North) over its nonexistent 'uranium enrichment issue' clearly proves that the US policy of double standards assumes extremely partial and aggressive nature," the newspaper said. 
A MUSLIM woman who said she would rather die than show her face in public must remove her veil while giving evidence in a trial, a New Zealand court ruled today. The Auckland District Court ruled that Fouzya Salim, a witness in a fraud case, and another Muslim woman must show their faces to the judge, lawyers and female court staff but can be concealed from public view, Radio New Zealand reported. The women had been fighting since last year a defence lawyer's application to have their veils lifted in court so their demeanour could be assessed. The Afghanistan-born Ms Salim, who has lived in New Zealand for 10 years, has never left her house without wearing a traditional burqa, which covers the entire body. Today the court ruled that while it could be a fair trial even if the women wore burqas, the defendant had a legitimate expectation of trial by the normal process. The decision said screens and other measures would be used in court to protect the women from further public view.
The armed Basque separatist group ETA has agreed to a proposal for political dialogue with the Spanish government put forward by its political wing. The 
Published reports over the weekend said investigators were examining religious messages Armanious had posted in an Internet chat room, and mourners in Jersey City on Sunday said the killings may have been religiously motivated. One man ran alongside the [funeral] procession screaming, "Islam is not a religion. Islam is not a religion." Monir Dowoud, president of the American Coptic Association, told 200 people outside the family's church on Sunday that "Muslim terrorists" were responsible.
Fingerprint scanners deployed on the U.S.-Mexican border to detect terrorism suspects have caught not would-be bombers but thousands of other criminals, including murderers, kidnappers and sex offenders. Border Patrol agents have snared 33,000 criminals - most of them along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico - since the digital fingerprinting system linking immigration and FBI databases went live nationwide in early September. "It has not only enhanced their ability to detect immigration offenses but also to apprehend suspects wanted for serious crimes such as homicide, kidnapping and sex offenses," spokesman Mario Villarreal of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said in a telephone interview.
.... "What GAM wants is for the international community to stay and help and see for themselves what is happening," the rebel, Mucksalmina, told a reporter on Sunday, using the common acronym for the Free Aceh Movement, the separatist army that has been fighting the Indonesian government for most of the past 30 years. .... Agreeing to meet at a secluded clearing, just outside this city and near the jungle where the group hides, Mucksalmina, a rebel spokesman, wanted to counter what he suggested was fear-mongering by the Indonesian government: that foreign aid workers could be killed or kidnapped by the rebels. 
When Saddam Hussein fell from power, the world of prostitution collapsed in Iraq. Escaping war and the rise of Islamic moralism, thousands of Iraqi prostitutes packed their bags and fled to Syria. But now, Syrian prostitutes, accusing the Iraqi women of taking their jobs, are launching a counteroffensive against this "invasion," according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online, weekly, intelligence newsletter published by WND.
There is serious turmoil in Balochistan, irrespective of whether the rest of the country is willing to acknowledge it. Over the last six months in particular, Baloch rebels have been hard at work 153 out of 156 working days, to be precise planting mines, firing rockets have, exploding bombs or ambushing military convoys. Their attacks have turned bloody on at least 25 occasions, killing over 40 persons including military and paramilitary personnel, levies, security agents, government officials and also some civilians. The Sui airport building has been blown up, gas pipelines and electricity grids have been repeatedly hit and bomb explosions have taken place close to the official's residence of the chief minister as well as the governor. Even military installations in Quetta have not been spared. Though many such attacks remain unclaimed to this day, a group called the 
Pakistan would not initiate any new confidence-building measures (CBMs) with India until the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service begins, President General Pervez Musharraf told Kashmiri leaders here. The president made clear to a Kashmiri delegation from the US and Britain that Pakistan had responded positively to Indian proposal for the bus service but the matter is hanging because of Indian insistence that passports of respective countries be accepted as travel documents. He said that Pakistan has taken a reasonable position that Kashmir remained a disputed territory and the use of passports would compromise this position. He hoped that leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) would be among the first Kashmiris who would use the bus to come to Muzaffarabad. "I would personally welcome the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders at Muzafarrabad if the Indian government would allow them to visit Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan," a member of the delegation and head of Kashmir-American Council, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, quoted Musharraf as saying.
Bugti and Mazari tribes have temporarily suspended their 10-year feud in Balochistan, which has so far cost the lives of more than hundred people, reports say. On Saturday, Sardar Sher Ali, son of veteran Baloch politician 
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given orders for troops to carry out unlimited operations against Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip. "The current situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue," Sharon said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "The Tsahal (army) and the security forces have received orders to operate without any limits on time or their modus operandi to act against the terrorist organisations.
Egyptian President 
Palestinian militants are sharpening their swords for all-out war against new leader 
Candidates supported by Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric said Saturday they have no intention of setting up an Islamic state if they win this month's national election and instead will work to improve security, the economy and public services. National Security Adviser 
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah 
Supporters of Shia leader 
A leader of Algeria's Berber minority said yesterday he believed a new peace plan would finally end years of unrest in the 
The Sudanese government and an alliance of opposition groups have reached a tentative agreement on the country's political future. Building on a peace accord already signed with southern rebels, the power-sharing deal struck by Khartoum and the SPLM rebel group to end 21 years of civil war allocates a proportion of seats in a new national government to other parties. Sunday's agreement with the opposition 
A team of the US-based Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will arrive in New Delhi shortly to gather more evidence against banned 
The demonstrations against the unjust rule of President General Pervez Musharraf will go on until he leaves one of the two offices he is assuming at present, said 
