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Rantburg
531692 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 82 articles and 502 comments as of 12:32.
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Area: WoT Background                   
Assassination of German president foiled
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Plan B...
I finally gave the redesign a trial run last night — very briefly. Apologies to those who were inconvenienced by my code typos. I set up the front page to hold only the headlines and the most recent six posts. My inclination as a casual surfer would have been to perhaps read the six articles, leave a comment or two, and then move on to the next site, rather than reading Page 1 or Page 2.

That still leaves us with the problem of a front page that can lug around 100 articles and 500-600 comments. That's a lot of HTML for somebody's dial-up machine to draw. I've also discovered it's a pain to decide whether some articles are page 1 or page 2.

My tentative solution: "AM and PM" editions. When the article count hits, say, 40 or 50, have the site split into Page 1 and Page 2, with the most recent half on Page 1 and the previous half on Page 2. Both pages would carry the day's entire set of headlines. That would halve the page size to be drawn, and though it'd continue to grow, it'd grow at half the rate. Or, which'd be simpler, just start it out like that in the morning...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 11:21:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I like the AM/PM idea. When we have a hot event going on, there are always multiple posts on same event, each with newer info. This would seperate them out a little.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 12:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I like it too. While there will be reposts with little added, from the comments you can tell that most read the newer articles, rarely comenting on older articles
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Uhuh... Now I've just gotta write it...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  On the bright side, the comments won't hide as early. They went under at a little after 12 today.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Regarding Plan B -- as they might say around the Oscar Mayer R&D department, "Looks like a wiener!"
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 12:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Ya, but when do I get my cool shiney, special color to make my brilliant commentary?
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 03/24/2004 13:00 Comments || Top||

#7  And animated smileys, yumm!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#8  I like Rantburg fine just the way it is, Fred.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#9  .com ...I am not sure why that is so funny but IALMAO!
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 03/24/2004 13:04 Comments || Top||

#10  DF - :-)
And this is fun, too!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#11  backatcha .com
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 03/24/2004 13:19 Comments || Top||

#12  I want a different little smiley each time I past the 100 comment mark. And we should be able to look up and see whos cool. And we should be able to plagerize Janes and go on daytyme teevee.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 13:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Sheesh... get a room, guys! :-)
Posted by: snellenr || 03/24/2004 13:23 Comments || Top||

#14  DF - Oooooooooooo! Hot Smileys! Makes me all, uh, excited!!! Yeah, that's the ticket! LOL - what a collection! And here's where we can go to regain our center...

Ship - The Big Question: Who gets to decide how many Coolio Points you get for each post. That's what I wanna know!

snellenr - Can't - here in Sin City the Plumbers Elbow-Joint Pain Convention is in town - the plan is doomed! Doomed!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#15  's a good idea Fred, tho one thing, do the comments have to hide? The main page could be modem friendly, and have a secondary page for people who have the bandwidth/time to load all the comments
Posted by: Dcreeper || 03/24/2004 14:03 Comments || Top||

#16  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#17  Troll - the countless complaints were about you!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 14:26 Comments || Top||

#18  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 14:36 Comments || Top||

#19  Oooooooooooooh... The Enforcer.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 15:05 Comments || Top||

#20  It ain't censorship; it's editorial control.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 15:12 Comments || Top||

#21  THE ENFORCER! THE ENFORCER! He's coming to get me! Oh! Hide me, Ethel!
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 15:25 Comments || Top||

#22  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: || 03/24/2004 15:33 Comments || Top||

#23  He's Back!....The Enforcer!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 15:36 Comments || Top||

#24  "Dang it, Fred, what kinda man runs away and hides from a Serbian Lop-Eared Troll? Now take this delete key, get out on the front porch, and show 'em who's boss!"

--Ethel
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||

#25  good stuff, brains, .com!

New look is good, too. I like advance warning of trolls, and it looks pretty. Go for it.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 03/24/2004 17:10 Comments || Top||

#26  how come asshole get to have smiley face.
Posted by: muck4doo || 03/24/2004 17:13 Comments || Top||

#27  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||

#28  Y'know, having to put up with people like "TROLL" and "ASSHOLE" make me wanna pick up the phone and call some "friends" in Chicago - people with funny, Italian-sounding surnames and LONG rap-sheets.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/24/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#29  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Sam Weisman || 03/24/2004 20:17 Comments || Top||

#30  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Sam Weisman || 03/24/2004 20:17 Comments || Top||

#31  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Sam Weisman || 03/24/2004 20:18 Comments || Top||

#32  Hi Sam. Would you like your own special icon?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 20:20 Comments || Top||

#33  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Thomas Goldbladt || 03/24/2004 20:20 Comments || Top||

#34  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Thomas Goldbladt || 03/24/2004 20:23 Comments || Top||

#35  LMAO - delete delete delete.

Funny you dont realize that its easier for them to delete than it is for you to cut and paste. LMAO at the lamer.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/24/2004 20:28 Comments || Top||

#36  LMAO - delete delete delete.
Dittos on LMAO! Especially because I’m sure a lot of the deletion is automated. Now poor Boris has to use more and more terminals, and use (I guess he thinks) “Jewish sounding” names to even make any noise. What an IslamoSlav loser. LMAO, indeed!
Posted by: cingold || 03/24/2004 20:35 Comments || Top||

#37  What is UP with all these Jews-who-hate-fellow-Jews and their multiple troll posts?
Are they all having epileptic seizures as well as attacks of self-loathing?
Posted by: Jen || 03/24/2004 20:36 Comments || Top||

#38  Jen, it's all one brainless, spineless piece of crap. For some reason his hindbrain has locked onto Rantburg and he won't go away, despite frequent forceful requests that he do so.

Ya know, multiple cut-and-paste posts could be interpreted as a bot attack. That would definitely be theft of service or one of those other activities that's been a federal crime for the last five years.

And I wouldn't be surprised if California doesn't have its own laws against that kind of thing. Not to mention a bunch of prosecutors who would love to nail some antisemite against the wall.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 21:08 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Ah, those Wacky Japanese!
Kaba Kick is a Russian roulette for kids. The player points the gun at his or her own head and pulls the trigger. Instead of bullets, a pair of feet kick out from the barrel (which is shaped like a pink hippo). If the gun doesn't fire, the player earns points.
You must go look at the picture. Wonder how fast this would get banned in the US, what, 30 seconds?
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 4:45:42 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  im going buy one for boris. did you see the eel dog! jerks looking for them endagered to put in zoo and commit genocide for a buck.
Posted by: muck4doo || 03/24/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Kant argue with that logic. M4D the con...

Hey wait a second M4D are you a Sheltie?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:07 Comments || Top||


Germany cutting to the bone...
Germany can no longer afford state aid to help its yodellers buy Lederhosen, the Bavarian government said Tuesday in a sign of how drastically public finances have deteriorated in Europe's largest economy.
Schroeder is töast now.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 3:30:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe Aris can get Greece to give 'em some money.
Posted by: Denny || 03/24/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||

#2  And thus began the yodeller terrorist network that would plague Germany for centuries. The YUSUK ("yodelterrorist underground socialists united kirche") trademark was leaving a pair of bloody lederhosen at the scene of each attack.
Posted by: sludj || 03/24/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Denny, I was hungry until... until... that.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Do what you must with the yodellers, but give the mimes what they want!
Posted by: BH || 03/24/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#5  ok peacenicks, Lets all sing :

"all we are saying, is give us our pants........"
Posted by: Frank Martin || 03/24/2004 16:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Half of Europe is riding on the back of the Bavarian economy. There is no way they could keep going forever pulling that kind of load.
Posted by: Ruprecht || 03/24/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||

#7  They should buy crotchless lederhosen and get the French to pay for it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 20:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Somehow the idea of lederhosen-less yodelers just doesn't have visual appeal.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/24/2004 21:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Intereting thought Ruprecht! Having worked for Bavarian companies in NYC for 10 years--it's interesting how quickly the Germans adapted to the US economy--anyone here on a German card got 4-5 weeks vacation--the Americans got 2, were treated like second class citizens and could be fired at will unlike their German counterparts--I'd sure as hell work under the German model
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 21:29 Comments || Top||


New Anti-Auto Theft/Car Protection System!
Oooo, I love new products!
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 12:59:59 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they take credit cards?
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Episode 4 was my favorite!
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#3  puting monkey in car trunk is not funy. many animal every year die from overheat in the car. someone should take that guy that own car and throw him off the bridge. that would be funy.
Posted by: muck4doo || 03/24/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#4  M4D falling from a bridge is always funny.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#5  C'mon, Mucky. That would... well, yeah, that would be kinda funny...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 20:28 Comments || Top||


The sad fate of the once-proud Imperial Japanese Navy
The shade of Admiral Yamamoto looks on from the Yakasuni Shrine. . . and weeps bitter tears of shame . . . .

(The link takes you to the current recruiting video for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. It takes a while to load, even with a broadband connection.)

Hat tip: Jonah Goldberg at National Review’s "The Corner"


Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 12:47:56 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thats just pathetic. For Peace, For Love!?!?
Just when you think you've seen it all......
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/24/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Yamamoto is turning over in his grave shifting uncomfortably under rusty chunks of metal in the jungle.
Posted by: Carl in N.H || 03/24/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Remember when we used to REALLY kick an enemy nation's ass? To the point where they still can't rebuild their military almost 60 years later?

Ahhh, the good ol' days.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Once upon a time, these guys were better suicide fanatics than the arabs could ever hope to be. Just a note on how effective a couple of nukes can be to permanently change national inclinations. LOL
Posted by: Dave || 03/24/2004 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Village People training videos, huh?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Ready.... for Radio City Music hall.
Posted by: GK || 03/24/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Holy f-ing shit, I think I'm gonna puke.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/24/2004 13:10 Comments || Top||

#8  For Peace, For Love!?!?

You have to wonder what kind of love.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 13:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Yeah, our Army of One ad campaign was way better.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 13:28 Comments || Top||

#10  our Army of One ad campaign was way better

I like that one too. The current AF "We're waiting for you" is only fair. We spent all our budget on the previous one, which was quickly and quietly dropped after 9-11. It had the rather unfortunate slogan, "The United States Air Force, No One Comes Close".
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 13:50 Comments || Top||

#11  I just visited Yasukuni Shrine last week, you can see my snapshots here. Sorry about the lack of captions, it's lousy picture showing software, you'll just have to guess what is what.
Posted by: gromky || 03/24/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Do not underestimate the japanese navy. Yeah, compared to the US they stink but I'd put money on them to take out their entire neighborhood without breaking a sweat if they had to, pathetic video or not.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/24/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#13  You have to wonder what kind of love.

Considering their reputation for pederasty and yaoi mangas, I can guess =P

P.S. I saw this long ago, courtesy of Realpolitik.us
Posted by: Edward Yee || 03/24/2004 15:24 Comments || Top||

#14  They got "don't ask, don't tell" over there?
"Tora, Tora, Tora: The Musical".
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 15:29 Comments || Top||

#15  The ghosts on the YAMATO writhe in their watery graves...
_________borgboy sez they went from "Climb Mt. Fuji" to THIS in 60 years?
Posted by: borgboy || 03/24/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||

#16  My, don't they look light in their loafers...and get a load of the Ministerette of Defense at the end. You know the Norks are thinkin' "We suck if we can't take these creme puffs."
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 03/24/2004 16:32 Comments || Top||

#17  They are Japan's Navy, the Japaneese navy, they'll fight like wolverines if necessary. Are there any fun German Army recruiting videos?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:13 Comments || Top||

#18  You know the Norks are thinkin' "We suck if we can't take these creme puffs."

And the French are thinking "They 'ave stolen our campaign!"
Posted by: Pappy || 03/24/2004 21:22 Comments || Top||

#19  "they'll fight like wolverines if necessary"

Meaning they'll hiss and scratch a lot ?



Posted by: Carl in NH || 03/24/2004 22:41 Comments || Top||

#20  Glad to see you're back up and running.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2004 7:08 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Qatar expels Russian diplomat
DOHA: Qatar has declared the first secretary at the Russian embassy "persona non grata" and given him 24 hours to leave, a foreign ministry spokesman here announced Wednesday, amid a spat over the murder of a former Chechen president.
'First secretary Alexander Vitisov has been declared persona non grata, ... and asked to leave the country within 24 hours,' the spokesman told the official Qatar News Agency. Moscow had been notified Tuesday, he added. 'I was expecting something like this, but I've not received anything official yet," Moscow's ambassador Victor Koudryavtsev said. 'This person will leave if it is Qatar's decision.'
Next, Russia will expel a Qatar diplomat of equal rank, they will exchange turse notes for a while, and sooner or later a deal will be struck behind the scenes.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 9:27:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooooooh. Pretty green. A little late for Paddy's Day.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  This diverse new multicolored Rantburg is quite delightful! It's like Benetton or something.
Posted by: BH || 03/24/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Steve, ain't no way that's Air Force blue.
Posted by: GK || 03/24/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Benetton? Yes! It does have that flavor. Another F1 fans rears it's ugly head. :)

We got Jordan yelo already.
Now we have Benetton green.
I suggest changing the bizzare salmon color to Renault lite blue.

Thoughts Lucky?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#5  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 10:15 Comments || Top||

#6  GK, yeah I know, but AF blue was too dark. This was a easy change and shows up nicely I think.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Can I get a cool color? Maybe something shiney!
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 03/24/2004 10:57 Comments || Top||

#8  LOL, Steve! Now everybody's gonna be jealous.

Star-bellied Sneeches, beware!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 11:00 Comments || Top||

#9  I'll just say it. It damned horrific. In the name of all that is right dial in a litter cyan.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:37 Comments || Top||


US embassy suspends UAE operations
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 07:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wish the Visa dispensing machine Embassy in Saudi would suspend operations
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Crime Boss Nabbed by Navy Cruiser
MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- The guided-missile cruiser USS Thomas S. Gates (CG 51) assisted its embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 101 March 21 in the capture of Jose Miguel Battle, the suspected leader of an organized crime outfit, while he was aboard a cruise ship in the central Caribbean.

The U.S. Department of Justice requested the Coast Guard’s assistance in capturing Battle after 21 members of the violent crime family, including Battle’s father, were rounded up March 18 by federal and local agencies in an operation coordinated by the Miami-Dade Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida after federal indictments were issued for them. Four of those indicted remained at large, including Battle. Authorities feared that he would be able to flee and avoid prosecution if he were not taken into custody before the ship’s next port call in Costa Rica.

With the close cooperation of the Celebrity Summit’s captain, parent company Royal Caribbean International Cruise Lines, and approval of the ship’s state of registry, the Bahamas, an operation was quickly put together to allow for the safe detention and removal of Battle.

Shortly after midnight, TSG was directed to rendezvous with the cruise ship Celebrity Summit to serve the arrest warrant. When in proximity, Gates established bridge-to-bridge contact with the cruise ship and coordinated LEDET embarkation of Summit.

At approximately 3:30 a.m., the LEDET team went aboard Celebrity Summit and briefly met with the ship’s captain and security force. After confirming the location of the suspect, the Coast Guard boarding team was able to safely and silently secure Battle and transported him by small boat back to Thomas S. Gates at about 5:15 a.m.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 8:55:02 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, will the TSG put into Norfolk with Battle swinging from the yardarm?
I have heard that this picturesque practice was common and reputedly effective in the 18th century, a token of one's determination.
Does this vessel even have a suitable yardarm? I know they still have serviceable rope on board.
One of its numerous radar/ESM masts would to in a pinch I guess.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2004 9:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't think Royal Caribbean mentions this in the brochure.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  "Drop yer guns, Battle! We got ya covered!"

with...

1 MK 7 MOD 3 AEGIS Weapons System
2 MK26 missile launcher
2 Harpoon Missile Quad-Canister Launchers
2 MK 32 MOD 14 Torpedo Tubes - 6 MK-46 torpedoes
2 MK 45 5"/54-Caliber Lightweight Gun Mounts
1 MK 15 MOD 2 Close-in-Weapons Systems (CIWS) (2 Mounts)
2 50-Caliber Machine Guns
Posted by: snellenr || 03/24/2004 9:22 Comments || Top||

#4  "Cap'n Stubing! Cap'n Stubing!"
"What is it, Gopher?"
"I was just returning to my cabin from a night of futile carousing for nubile guest stars on the Lido Deck, when I looked out the porthole and -- damn!"
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 9:24 Comments || Top||

#5  The Love Boat, making another run... Come on board for adventure...
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Does this vessel even have a suitable yardarm? I know they still have serviceable rope on board.

The gentleman Machinists mates would just need the necessary measurements and or length of life requirements.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  ...If the skipper of the Gates has any style at all, he'll come back into Norfolk with the Jolly Roger flying.
Noticing I've seen ZERO mention of this on any of the news sites - would have thought something as throughly cool as this would have been front page, top-of-the-site.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/24/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#8  So, will the TSG put into Norfolk with Battle swinging from the yardarm?

The Iranians did this some years back. The Gates should at least stencil an 'Al Capone' on the bridge wing.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/24/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||

#9  "Mr. Battle? It's your 3:30 wake up call for limbo lessons."
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 03/24/2004 13:26 Comments || Top||

#10  If the Japanese had handled this, they would've infiltrated the snatch team aboard in the guise of a musical comedy troupe.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#11  With the close cooperation of the Celebrity Summit’s captain, parent company Royal Caribbean International Cruise Lines, and approval of the ship’s state of registry, the Bahamas, an operation was quickly put together to allow for the safe detention and removal of Battle.

The little weasel didn't put up one? (a Battle, get it? Har har har)

Frack.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:12 Comments || Top||

#12  NAVY: "We'd like your cooperation"
Captain: "I'm nut sure I can do this"
NAVY: "We'd hate to see you run aground"
Captain: "Run argound? In 6000 feet of water?"
NAVY: "Exactly."
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/24/2004 18:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Damn! Nothing this exciting happened on my cruise. I wuz robbed!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/25/2004 0:05 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Senkaku Islands clearly Japanese territory
Seven Chinese activists unlawfully landed on the disputed Senkaku Islands in the waters off Okinawa Prefecture on Wednesday. Their action was apparently aimed at reinforcing China’s territorial claim on the unihabited islands, which the country calls Daioyu. However, they had no reason to claim Chinese sovereignty over the islands. The eight Senkaku Islands inherently belong to Japan. This is obvious from a historical point of view and an examination of international law.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has expressed strong displeasure over the incident, saying, "They (the islands) are part of Japanese territory, and so I want China to take appropriate actions."

On Wednesday, Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi summoned Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei to the Foreign Ministry. During a meeting with the envoy, Takeuchi strongly protested the Chinese group’s action, saying, "The Japanese government will sternly deal with the incident under the relevant laws."

Wu responded that, "China has its own stance on Daioyu. I’ll promptly report (the incident) to my government."

Japan has every reason to arrest the Chinese activists and send them back to their own country. The government should strongly demand China take measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future. In October 2002, the government registered its right of lease on Uotsurijima and two other islets in the Senkaku group of islands. This was intended to demonstrate that the Senkaku Islands belong to Japan.

The government should reiterate its position on the territorial row to the international community. In January 1895, Japan incorporated the Senkaku Islands into Okinawa Prefecture after conducting extended research to determine that the islands did not belong to any other nation. However, China and Taiwan started pushing their territorial claims on the islands during the 1970s, when it was suggested that an abundance of oil and other natural resources lay under the seabed in the region.

In 1895, Taiwan and Penghu Liedao, a group of islands in the Taiwan Strait, were ceded to Japan under the Shimonoseki Treaty, an accord signed between Japan and the Qing dynasty after the Sino-Japanese War. However, the ceded territories did not include the Senkaku Islands. The group of islands were was not included in the territory Japan relinquished under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951. The United States had kept the islands under its rule until Okinawa Prefecture reverted to Japanese rule in 1972.

China never protested these developments surrounding the islands. Today, Beijing insists the Senkaku Islands were unlawfully kept under U.S. rule. There is no doubt that China’s claim on the islands is groundless. For years, the Senkaku Islands have been the subject of unfounded territorial claims, with activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan illegally landing on the islands in October 1996. In October 2003 and January this year, Chinese ships violated Japanese waters but were turned back by Japan Coast Guard patrol boats that prevented the intruders from approaching the Senkaku Islands.

Wednesday’s incident was the first case in which Chinese unlawfully landed on the Senkaku Islands. It is extremely deplorable that the JCG failed to prevent the seven activists from landing on the islands, despite its close watch on an approaching ship carrying the Chinese.

Relations between Japan and China have been strained in recent years, largely because the latter country has raised objections to Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine, suspending visits by the two countries top leaders. The blame must fall on China if unlawful acts by some activists from that country serve to worsen the bilateral relationship. China claims all the islands off its coast, including the Philippines and Japan.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 2:57:07 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  expect to see more of this. the chicoms, especially where there are proven reserves of nat gas and oil, are moving aggressively. from the spartly's to taiwan. we will need to be vigilant, especially when we go into iran/sryia/lebannon.
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 15:21 Comments || Top||

#2  a direct effect caused by that pussy Japanese Navy recruitment video: "Seamanship, for love, for peace". Chicoms obviously read RB, lol
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||

#3  The JMSDF plans to send its crack Broadway dance team to occupy the islands.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 18:02 Comments || Top||

#4  The Japanese Navy won't be involved at all, except perhaps to transport the crack team of elite Japanese Train-Packers down to the islands. Those guys, maybe a dozen taken from various cities around Japan, help ensure Japanese trains run on time. They see that the last passengers are shoved inside, so the doors can close. They will deal with the Chinese "most effectively", as they help the Chinese become 'one with nature' - one with rocks, one with trees, one with other various hard things. Of course, it will be very hard on the Chinese, who are 'soft' - at least, softer than the rocks and trees, the "packers" will shove them into, but that's the way God designed it, didn't He? 8^)
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/24/2004 18:57 Comments || Top||

#5  ...the chicoms, especially where there are proven reserves of nat gas and oil, are moving aggressively. from the spartly's to taiwan.

Perhaps, but they, like the Spratlys, are presently more useful as choke-points.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/24/2004 21:35 Comments || Top||


Europe
Powell Fuming After Being Dissed by Zapazero
This weenie seems to be trying to unseat Chirac as Most Contemptible European Leader

MADRID, Spain - Colin Powell was fuming. The U.S. Secretary of State had been kept waiting for more than 30 minutes for his turn to meet José Luis Rodrguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister elect.

Across the hallway in the Spanish Cortes, or parliament, Mr. Zapatero was having an intimate tête-à-tête with Jacques Chirac, the president of France. French diplomats accompanying the president were beaming. The two leaders, they said, were discussing how to work together "to forge an ambitious vision of the construction of Europe".

Earlier in the day, Mr. Zapatero and Tony Blair, the U.K. prime minister, had failed to find common ground on the permanence of Spanish troops in Iraq.
. . .
For a nation obsessed with protocol and symbolic manifestations of power, Mr. Zapatero’s decision to meet the French president before the US secretary of state was accorded great significance.

In the event, Mr. Zapatero’s meeting with Mr. Chirac was cut short as Mr.Powell threatened to cancel his appointment. The meeting between Mr. Zapatero and the US envoy lasted less than 15 minutes. According to US officials traveling with Mr. Powell, both sides stated their positions on Iraq and "agreed to keep the dialogue open".

Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, was the next in line to greet Mr. Zapatero. They know each other well from Mr. Schröder’s summer sojourns in Mallorca. They may soon have a lot more in common.
Posted by: sludj || 03/24/2004 6:06:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like France is teaching the Spaniards how to surrender. Don't bother, Chirac, they already know how.

Guess we can tell whose side Zapatero wants to be on.
Posted by: The Doctor || 03/24/2004 23:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Ewwwww. Could the Spanish possibly be more craven?
And Zappo is so clearly evil, that I truly wonder if he didn't work with the bombers to get himself elected (tin foil sombrero not required).
Posted by: Jen || 03/24/2004 23:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Technically, strictly on protocol grounds, a French President outranks a US Cabinet Officer. He goes in first. Deal with it.

That said - screw them jerks, Colin. Threaten to invade or somethin', see how white they turn...
Posted by: mojo || 03/25/2004 0:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds to me like the guy is a real unprofessional yahoo. Pride cometh before a fall, as they say.

I doubt Zappy cares that he's going to lose the base at Rota. He's all about bluster and being Mr. Big Man.

I think Bush is handling this well. Making the appropriate gestures and allowing the world to see that Zappy is just a small man trying to look big.
Posted by: B || 03/25/2004 8:39 Comments || Top||

#5  A tin-foil sombrero? Jen, that's a wonderful image! Mountain Dew Alert!
Posted by: The Doctor || 03/25/2004 8:50 Comments || Top||


Bomb Found on Rail Line in Northeastern France
A bomb was discovered on a rail line in northeastern France today, the second explosive device found since an obscure terrorist entity began threatening in December to attack France’s railroads unless it was paid millions of dollars. The bomb, which was neutralized by a French bomb squad, was half buried between the tracks near the town of Montieramey on the rail line linking Paris with the Swiss city of Basel, France’s Interior Ministry said in a statement. France’s prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, on a campaign visit near where the bomb was found, urged the public to remain calm, saying it was not yet clear what danger the device posed. The Interior Ministry said in its statement that an employee with the state rail company, SNCF, found the bomb around noon roughly 120 miles southeast of Paris between the Troyes and Vendeuvre train stations. The bomb contained nitrate fuel in a plastic container with seven detonators attached to a timing device. The statement said one wire on the device was disconnected.
Sounds amueturish!
AZF began threatening to attack the railways in mid-December with a series of letters to Mr. Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The letters demanded more than $5 million to prevent an attack. Investigators do not yet know whether AZF is an individual or a group. To back up its claim, AZF directed authorities last month to a bomb hidden on the tracks that also contained nitrate fuel in a plastic container attached to detonators. The Interior Ministry’s statement, however, said the circumstances of the latest bomb’s discovery "did not correspond to what was in the letters signed by AZF." It did not elaborate and Interior Ministry officials declined to comment. It was not clear whether the authorities received a tip about the presence of the bomb discovered today.

Last month, AZF demanded that a helicopter drop more than $5 million in ransom money on a plastic tarpaulin on a field near the town of Montargis, 65 miles south of Paris. But visibility was poor and the agents were unable to locate the spot. Authorities do not believe the AZF threat is related to other terrorist threats against the country from Islamic extremists. Earlier this month, French officials said a previously unknown Islamic group calling itself Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise had threatened French interests in France and abroad in copies of a letter addressed to Prime Minister Raffarin. Similar letters have also been received by French embassies in several African and Muslim countries.
There is a Hokkien word widely used in here (in Singapore) which is ’kaisu’. It translates to ’me too’ in a derivative copycat sense of following a trend to get noticed. I think we are and will see a spate of ’me too’ bombs from fringe left groups and various nutcases (often not distinguishable)
Posted by: phil_b || 03/24/2004 5:05:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whoops! I did check to see if this was already posted and I missed seeing the earlier post. Go ahead and delete it.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/24/2004 18:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Could these railroad bombs really be planted by the French government? After Madrid, it seems like a good way to let your people know you're successfully tracking the "bad guys."
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 21:24 Comments || Top||


"Ni Putes Ni Soumises"
A year after it launched a campaign to denounce violence against women in France's high-immigration, high-rise city suburbs, called banlieues, the group "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" has become a nationwide force - but still finds itself held at arm's length by the mainstream feminist movement. The organisation - whose name means "Neither Whores Nor Slaves" - was born out of the appalling tragedy that befell a 19-year-old girl, Sohane Benziane, who was set on fire and killed by a boy she knew in a run-down apartment estate in the Paris outskirts in October 2002. Led by 38 year-old activist Fadéla Amara, "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" conducted a much-publicised series of demonstrations around France in early 2003, culminating this year in a Women's Day march through Paris after which a petition signed by 15,000 people was handed to President Jacques Chirac.
The movement directs its anger at the violence and stigmatisation suffered by young women of North African origin who it says are increasingly the victims of a culture of abuse justified in the name of Islamic tradition in the neglected French banlieues.
"When I was growing up it was perfectly normal for girls to wear short skirts, or tight jeans, or low tops. No man would have dared make a remark. Today - and for the last ten years - femininity is seen by boys as a provocation, as something to be condemned," Amara said in a recent book.
The group's message is a frightening one: that social breakdown in the country's high-immigration neighbourhoods has led to a generation of young Arab men crippled by self-loathing and alienation, who take out their frustrations in aggression against their increasingly assertive female counterparts. The most symbolic illustration of the phenomenon is the practice of "tournantes" - the gang-rape of young women handed over by their boyfriends for group enjoyment - though of more general significance is the day-to-day abuse and humiliation encountered among the tenements, the group says.
What has exacerbated tensions has been the debate over the Islamic headscarf in schools, which will be banned from September under a highly-contentious law that has just passed through the French parliament. "Ni Putes Ni Soumises", which sees resurgent Islamic traditionalism as the major threat to young women, has come out unequivocally in favour of the law and believes the focus of feminist pressure should be "the defence of secularism, the Republic and the fight against fundamentalism."
But mainstream feminists grouped in the left-wing National Collective for the Rights of Women disagree.
tap...nope

While naturally supporting "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" in its general aims, the Collective argues that the priority should be to attack the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which they say has presided over a policy of "social regression" - notably in women's employment rights.
Sounds like they have the same agenda as the womens groups that say Iraqi women had more rights under Saddam.

From the start "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" put France's feminist movement in a quandary, because it explicitly accused mainstream activists of abandoning the "banlieues" in their pursuit of elusive political goals. It also made clear it made no distinction between left and right in apportioning blame for the crisis.
And that, of course, will never do.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 2:49:11 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  just how far can you get with french arrogance..if you are not going to have imigrant populations assimilated then you have a very dangerous situation that will take years to correct.

it is really disturbing to hear this. no western nation who's traditions are based on equality need this 7th century bullshit.

but i am sure the headlines wills sceam ITS ALL BUSH'S FAULT
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  ...believes the focus of feminist pressure should be "the defence of secularism, the Republic and the fight against fundamentalism."
But mainstream feminists grouped in the left-wing National Collective for the Rights of Women disagree.


Of course they do. It's politically incorrect to criticize the behavior of a minority group even when that minority group is doing things that are the exact opposite of what the feminists groups should stand for.

This is yet another example of why the Left, in the end, supports people who are diametrically opposed to the Left's so-called core values. The Left has become completely entangled and confused by it's own confused ideologies.
Posted by: RMcLeod || 03/24/2004 17:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I've always held that the women's movement is mostly about promoting the advancement of left-wing, college-educated, upper-middle class women and has very little to do with improving the lot of poor, uneducated women. Everything that I read or hear, from the recent article in The Atlantic on the "Nanny Wars" to this article to conversations I have with female friends and colleagues reinforces my belief.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/24/2004 17:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I will agree that it's all Bush's fault, if only in the name of gosh, make the GREEN stop. Help! It gives me the jittery teeth.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 20:09 Comments || Top||


Bomb found on French railway line
A bomb containing several detonators has been found on a French rail line linking Paris to Basel, in Switzerland, according to police. The device "strongly resembled" a previous bomb planted by a shadowy group calling itself AZF which has threatened to blow up parts of France’s rail network unless it is paid millions of euros, police said.
Posted by: Lux || 03/24/2004 11:31:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Tu veux millions d'euros? Voici l'argent."
Posted by: Cheese-eating surrender monkey || 03/24/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and how will the French combat this?
Railroad Strike!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#3  CESM - I can't read French - but I think that's funny. Besides, I think these blackmail threats are just Jacques latest way of sending the terrorist cash.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#4  CESM was saying "Thou wantest millions of euros? Here's the money."
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 03/24/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Update from al-Guardian: French train employee found an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line heading from France to Switzerland on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
Bomb disposal experts neutralized the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, on a train line heading from Paris to Basel, Switzerland, the ministry said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a mysterious and previously unknown group calling itself AZF. The group claimed to have planted nine bombs along the country's rail network and has threatened to explode them unless it is paid millions of euros (dollars).


So, did it or did it not resemble a AZF bomb?

Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#6  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#7  You can sign me up. I'm a Rantburger too. I agree with the premise of this site. Your intimidations don't mean squat to me pal. So don't forget to add mine to your hate mail list.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 03/24/2004 12:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Me too! Make sure you spell the name right. It's B, and then an H.
Posted by: BH || 03/24/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#9  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#10  As an Ex in country NAM vet I take exception to that. However, thast's not important. I'm part of a larger patriotic group called an American
Veteran, that would also include my brothers in Iraq, Afgahnistan and elsewhere. I've a lot more friends than enemies like your kind. Out of curiosity would you be an anti war protester. You know the kind that burns American Flags? If so, some of my buddies would like to meet you sometime.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 03/24/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#11  "There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a mysterious and previously unknown group calling itself AZF."

I almost hate to say this but, has anyone checked out the guy who "found" the IED?
Posted by: Dave || 03/24/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#12  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#13  Oooh! This is allllll right! Every time Boris posts, my code gets tighter...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||

#14  I'd say the Frogs are next in Al Qaeda's sweepstakes game: Who Wants to be a Dhimmi?

Spain won last time.
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#15  It shouldn't be hard to get Boris to respond. He is basically a coward. Trying to pose as a man.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 03/24/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#16  Bill, Boris is too low to warrant being called a coward.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 13:17 Comments || Top||

#17  True, I need to get back to my real Rantburg Skills including satire.
Posted by: Bill Nelson || 03/24/2004 13:20 Comments || Top||

#18  It was ETA.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 13:44 Comments || Top||


Firebomb burns Jewish center in southern France
EFL
A petrol bomb tossed into a Jewish community center in the French Mediterranean port of Toulon overnight, caused some material damage but no injuries, Jewish leaders said Tuesday.
Snip
France is struggling against a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence, much of it known believed to be by Muslim youths "angry" about the "situation" in the Middle East, and has set up special task forces that hand out firebombs with short fuses to react quickly to such attacks.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 03/24/2004 8:11:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, for the day when Europeons finally wake up and get "angry" about their Muslim "situation".
Posted by: Hyper || 03/24/2004 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  ah yes, it's America's fault.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  No, B, it's always Bush's fault...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like an ETA job.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  France is struggling against a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence, much of it believed to be by Muslim youths "angry" about the "situation" in the Middle East, and has set up special task forces to react quickly to such attacks.

WTF do these "Muslim youths" in France care about the "situation" in the ME? Firebombing an undefended building in France doesn't require a lot of guts. If they really wanna make a difference, they should go to the West Bank and Gaza and try attacking IDF troops.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||


UN and Kosovo policemen killed in attack
A United Nations policeman and a Kosovo police officer were killed in an attack on a UN car near Pristina late on Tuesday, the chief of Kosovo police said. The attack, in the village of Luzane some 20 kilometres north of the Kosovo capital, followed two days of relative quiet in a region that was shaken by Albanian-Serb ethnic violence this month. Twenty-eight people were killed in fighting. "In an attack against a police patrol, two policemen were killed - one international and one local," Kosovo police chief Sheremet Ahmetli said. "This is very sad for Kosovo."

A Kosovo police source said a saloon car pulled up alongside a marked United Nations car and launched the attack before speeding off. Details were still unclear and it was not immediately known who had carried out the attack. In the worst flare-up of violence since NATO and the United Nations established control of the province in 1999, Albanian crowds attacked and torched Serb villages and churches last week, forcing 3,200 to flee. UN police estimate a total of 51,000 people were involved in 33 riots across the province of two million people. Serbia says the attacks aimed to "ethnically cleanse" Kosovo of remaining Serbs, estimated to number less than 100,000. NATO rushed in 2,000 more troops to help quell the violence. Its peacekeeping force, now over 20,000-strong, appeared to have reasserted control of Kosovo over the weekend.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 7:29:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


David Beckham signed ’bomber’s’ card
Footballer David Beckham reportedly signed a birthday card for one of the suspected Madrid train bombers when he met him just weeks before the terror attack. Mohammed Bekkali is reported to have met the England captain and asked for an autograph at the Real Madrid training ground two weeks before 190 people were killed in the bombing. Police allegedly found the card when they raided the home of the 31-year-old Moroccan, who is said to be a Real Madrid fan. In it, Beckham wished Bekkali a "happy birthday", according to the reports. Friends reportedly said Bekkali wanted to be nicknamed "Bekks" like the footballer, whose nickname is Becks. His father, also Mohammed, also said his son bought him a number 23 Beckham Real Madrid shirt as a present. Speaking at his home in Tangier, Bekkali’s father told the Spanish newspaper El Pais: "How could anyone who loved the city and its football team seriously be guilty of the crime he is accused of?"
The banality of evil?
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 03/24/2004 6:32:15 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The banality of evil?"
LOL! Beautiful!

I was going to say, "Because he's insane?" - but yours, Paul, is much more elegant! Bravo!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe the bombers knew the team was out of town.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/24/2004 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  I knew we had a problem with soccer violence,but this is getting ridiculous.Seriously,folks,the real Jihadi problem is not with uneducated tribesmen from Waziristan,but with educated,"born-again",Muslims familiar with the West.Islam in the spirit of Baader & Meinhof.
Posted by: El Id || 03/24/2004 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4 
Bekkali’s father : "How could anyone who loved the city and its football team seriously be guilty of the crime he is accused of?"

Bad parenting.
Posted by: Sigmund Freud || 03/24/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||


Assassination of German president foiled
Via Lucianne:
German President Johannes Rau has cancelled a planned visit to Djibouti after German security services warned him of an assassination plot, his office says. The statement said the security services had received information that an Islamist group planned to kill him during a visit to the Horn of Africa state to meet German troops stationed there. The decision to cancel the visit comes amid heightened security fears following the recent train bombings in Madrid by a group suspected to be linked to al Qaeda. "In the judgement of the services responsible, there was a considerable and concrete personal risk to the President," the president’s office said.
What was Fisk saying yesterday about not bumping off heads of state and leaders of movements?
But Djibouti’s Communications Minister Rifki Abdoulkader Bamakhrama told Reuters he was not aware of any plot against Rau, who had also been due to meet his Djibouti counterpart. "There is no plot against any president from any country... There is no risk signalled by our security service," he said, insisting that his country was stable.
So's Spain, isn't it?
"I have just heard that the president’s trip was cancelled. The Germans are afraid of an attack and of course are free to decide whatever they want." Although it opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Germany has cracked down hard on militant Islamists since it emerged that several of the plotters behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had lived in the country as students. German navy personnel are serving in Djibouti as part of the U.S.-led "Enduring Freedom" operation against al Qaeda militants. Dozens of suspected militants have been arrested in the Horn of Africa over the past 15 months. Rau, who has held the largely ceremonial office of German head of state since 1999, steps down this year and is expected to be succeeded by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Horst Koehler.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 03/24/2004 12:19:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wait one. Why would the jihadis want to kill the President of Germany? I thought Germany was on their side.
Posted by: Ben || 03/24/2004 5:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't think the jihadis give a shit who they kill, as long as it generates fear. Why not knock off Shroeder? He's certainly a BIG fish and success would make them big fish, too - at least by their logic.

Whether or not this plot was real, nobody should want asshats to succeed against any Western leader. The fallout from a successful hit would be serious -- to stock markets, to future leader meetings, etc. I'm glad Shroeder's people were cautious.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 6:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Jihad(TM) has been reduced to hitting what they can get away with, not what they'd like to strike at.
Posted by: Hiryu || 03/24/2004 6:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Go read about the IRA. They had nearly thirty years to perfect terrorism. They also gravitated towards the softest and most newsworthy targets.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/24/2004 6:47 Comments || Top||

#5  they can say that Germany didn't allow enough mosque building permits or that they felt humiliated by the requirements of German foreign aid which has a brochure on human rights or that Germany allowed publication of a Rushdie novel or that Germany has given funds to Israel or that Germany didn't do enough to stop the US invasion of Iraq or...
Posted by: mhw || 03/24/2004 7:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Agree - they just like to blow up stuff and kill people. The more newsworthy the target the better. This is just about hate, like the KKK on steroids. They claim to want to be rid of Jews or blacks, but in the end, it's just about hate.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 7:59 Comments || Top||

#7  The President's post in Germany is mostly symbolic anyway.But,you know,it's the headlines if they succeed,so there.
Posted by: El Id || 03/24/2004 9:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Will Europe get it? The Islamists are not going to leave your country alone simply because you try to "counterbalance" the U.S. and refuse to cooperate with the U.S. These nuts don't do compromise. You go along with the program all-the-way, i.e., women covered, no alcohol, etc., etc., or you are Allan's enemy, and you are worthy of death. So, Germany, are you going to see the light, and line up against islamist fascism, or are you going to continue to delude yourselves into thinking that you can avoid the wrath of the terrorists by sitting on the fence rather than actively joining the fight on the U.S.' side? I think it is going to take some time before Germany/France/Belgium, et al. learn that there is no long-term peace with religiously crazed zealots who demand Taliban-like rule: unless of course you are willing to adopt Taliban-like rule.
Posted by: sludj || 03/24/2004 11:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Yea so now i see the light - it's all Bush's fault..

TGA - How is this playing out in German media? A wake up call or is it being brushed off?
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Wait one. Why would the jihadis want to kill the President of Germany? I thought Germany was on their side.

Yes, Schroeder opposed the US's plan for forcibly removing Saddam Hussein. It probably had everything to do with German national (mercantile) interest. But that wouldn't help.

The radical islamist views the world as "Islamic" (that is "Us") or non-Islamic Satan ("Not Us"). I suppose they are like an amoeba or other low lifeform that sees the world as "food" or "a not-food".

Schroeder is still in the "Not Us" camp no matter what his sympathies may be. All the nuance in the world couldn't possibly help someone who the Islamist sees as a "Not Us".
Posted by: eLarson || 03/24/2004 17:29 Comments || Top||


Madrid Bombings Death Toll Lowered to 190
Minor update, no big news, but the total number of deaths is mercifully revised downward.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2004 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Jewish Center in France Set on Fire
Attackers set fire to a Jewish community center in southeast France overnight, causing slight damage to the entry hall. The assailants broke a window at the center in the southwestern city of Toulon and doused the interior with a flammable liquid that was then set on fire, police said. Several walls were blackened by flames, but there were no injuries.
Just another example of the lack of anti-Semitism in modern-day France.
It was not clear who carried out the attack, but officials note that such violence tends to coincide with rising Mideast tensions. A day earlier, Israel assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Yves Haddad, who leads the local Jewish community, expressed "disgust and sadness" at the attack, saying it might be "an importation of what's happening in the Middle East. If they wanted to scare us, they made a mistake."
Good. Can your congregation invoke your Second Amendment rights in France?
France has been battling anti-Semitic violence for more than two years, often involving attacks against Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers. In March 2002, a synagogue in the nearby city of Marseille was burned to the ground. President Jacques Chirac has put in motion an action plan to fight anti-Semitism that includes extra security at Jewish schools and places of worship, and establishing tough new penalties for those found guilty of anti-Semitic acts.
Charge anyone yet?
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2004 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Attackers set fire to a Jewish community center

The choice was either to do that or to go get jobs.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/24/2004 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Notice in the article they blame this on Yassins death. Another example of AP bias.
Posted by: Charles || 03/24/2004 6:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Heh, you're both right, guys. These clowns have no skills or intelligent thought processes - just stupid cannon fodder. Point them at the target and push their "Jooos!" button.

Backtrack to whomever sent them for the motive, AP - stop being speculation fools and spin-masters for the asshats. And demand some baksheesh, you morons. You devalue both your purported profession and mercenaries everywhere.

Geez AP sucks.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 6:17 Comments || Top||

#4  "carried out the attack, but officials note that such violence tends to coincide with rising Mideast tensions."

Funny how that happens,it is alost like they 2 events are related.
Posted by: Raptor || 03/24/2004 6:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Didn't Hitler used to say this back in the 30's when those Polish tension's used to rise? Makes it sound like it made it okay.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  "Yves Haddad"

Based on the name, probably a Jew of North African origin. Tough as nails, those guys, in Israel and elsewhere. Reason why the French Jewish community is as tough as it is.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 10:09 Comments || Top||

#7  "But the song is actually named Haddad's eyes..."
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 11:19 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Liar, Liar, pants on fire
Via Lucianne:

A Vietnam veteran who said he remembers John Kerry participating in a 1971 Kansas City meeting at which an assassination plot was discussed says an official with the Kerry presidential campaign called him this month and pressured him to change his story.

The veteran, John Musgrave, says he was called twice by the head of Veterans for Kerry, John Hurley, while a reporter for the Kansas City Star worked on a follow-up piece to a New York Sun article about the November 1971 meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plot to kill U.S. senators was voted down. Asked by The New York Sun if he felt pressured, Mr. Musgrave said, “In the second call I did.” Mr. Musgrave said Mr. Hurley said Mr. Kerry had told him “he was definitely not in Kansas City.”

According to Mr. Musgrave, Mr. Hurley said, “Why don’t you refresh your memory and call that reporter back?”

A spokesman for Mr. Kerry’s presidential campaign, David Wade, last week issued a statement to the Sun, following a week of denials, that said “we accept” Mr. Kerry’s presence in Kansas City as a “historical footnote.”

By then, the recollections of six witnesses, along with minutes and FBI records, placed Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting.

But the news of the calls from the campaign to Mr. Musgrave may move the episode from what the campaign is describing as a “historical footnote” to a matter that involves the contemporary behavior of Mr. Kerry and his campaign....
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 03/24/2004 11:24:40 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's always the denials and damage control that look the worst - Rove must be licking his chops....I'm pleased
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 23:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Just a link.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 23:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Boris the Spider

You need help. Psychiatric help, to be precise.
Posted by: Korora || 03/24/2004 23:56 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think there is any way for the libs to manage this one effectively. This is truly shocking. Bill Clinton's exploits seem like spit wads in comparison.

If I were Rove, I'd get a Veteran's group to run a negative ad (sans the "I'm PGW and I approved this message") with voice overs the 1960 photos of Jane and John, shots of terror in Saigon and the killing fields and then pictures of him throwing his medals over the wall with a cut to them hanging his office wall. And I'd play it day in and day out.

This incident has it all - a plot to kill US Senators!!! Wow- that will shock even the most jaded Kerry critics. And even if Kerry voted against the killings - he didn't report them. This one will be hard to handwave away.
Posted by: B || 03/25/2004 8:55 Comments || Top||


"We love the Evil Murderer™!"
Hat tip LGF. al-Rooters. Watch for spin.
More than a hundred people carrying Palestinian flags and protest signs marched outside the Israeli consulate in New York on Tuesday to condemn Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush after the richly deserved assassination of Evil wizard Saruman Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin.
And good riddance.
"I’m here to demonstrate as an American that I’m so tired of Jews breathing Israel and their crimes and I’m disgusted in our government," said Rajee Mustafa, a 51-year-old electrical engineer from Jersey City, New Jersey.
"Heil Haman!"
Yassin, a wheelchair-bound murderous Bad Guy™ cleric whose militant group has carried out dozens of suicide bombings, was killed in a missile attack on Monday that Israeli security sources said was ordered by Sharon. "We stand alone in the globe in not condemning this act," said Mustafa, a Palestinian-American. "This is a terrorist act and I’m ashamed of the double standard. This double standard is bringing us hate from all the Arab world, the Muslim world."
???
At the evening rush-hour protest across from the consulate, demonstrators carried signs such as "Sharon and Bush -- War Criminals," and raised chants including, "Oh shit, there goes another harp string, oh shit, there go our lips" and "Sheikh Yassin, rest in peace, Israel will never sleep."
Rest in torment, more like.
Later at a memorial gathering in Brooklyn, speakers praised Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, as a freedom fighter who had dedicated his life to the extemination of the Jews Palestinian struggle. Among those addressing a hall crammed with several hundred people was anti-Zionist Rabbi David Weiss. Blaming Arab-Israeli tensions on Zionism, Weiss said that "before Zionism, Jews and Palestinians lived as neighbors and brothers. ... True Jewish people throughout the world have been thrown into turmoil" by Yassin’s death, he said.
Then his legs shrank.
Others, speaking in Arabic and English and representing groups including the Committee to Defend Palestine and Students for Solidarity, warned that Sharon would bear responsibility for whatever actions were taken by Palestinians in response to the killing.
"It’s not the Turbans’ fault if they kill more Israelis in cold blood!"
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 03/24/2004 10:30:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is wrong with these people? I know I initially questioned whether our glee was appropriate (I since decided that it was), but this is just insane!

And since when have "Jews and Palestinians lived as neighbors and brothers", huh?
Posted by: The Doctor || 03/24/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if Rabbi Weiss joined in when they started chanting "Hamas! Hamas! All Jews to the gas!"
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  before Zionism, Jews and Palestinians lived as neighbors and brothers

Well, excepting the occasional pogrom and massacre, sure. Oh, and ignoring that little period of Muslim support for Hitler, which seems to have started in the 1930s and ended sometime...

Oh, it never ended.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Wolfowitz vs. Clarke
Very EFL but here are the good bits...

WOLFOWITZ: By September, we said the goal is to eliminate Afghanistan as a sanctuary for Al Qaida, much more ambitious thing.

With respect to Mr. Clark and let me say, I haven’t read the book yet. I was called by a reporter on the weekend with a quote from the book attributed to me. I tried to get the book. It wasn’t available in book stores. It was only available to selected reporters. And I got it yesterday, but I did not have time to read it in the last 24 hours. I’ll get to it at some point.

But with respect to the quote that the reporter presented as having been put in my mouth, which was an objection to Mr. Clark suggesting that ignoring the rhetoric of Al Qaida would be like ignoring Hitler’s rhetoric in "Mein Kampf," I can’t recall ever saying anything remotely like that. I don’t believe I could have.

In fact, I frequently have said something more nearly the opposite of what Clark attributes to me. I’ve often used that precise analogy of Hitler and "Mein Kampf" as a reason why we should take threatening rhetoric seriously, particularly in the case of terrorism and Saddam Hussein.

So I am generally critical of the tendency to dismiss threats as simply rhetoric. And I know that the quote Clark attributed to me does not represent my views then or now. And that meeting was a long meeting about seven different subjects, all of them basically related to Al Qaida and Afghanistan.

By the way, I know of at least one other instance of Mr. Clark’s creative memory. Shortly after September 11th, as part of his assertion that he had vigorously pursued the possibility of Iraqi involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he wrote in a memo that, and I am quoting here, "When the bombing happened, he focused on Iraq as the possible culprit because of Iraqi involvement in the attempted assassination of President Bush in Kuwait the same month," unquote.

WOLFOWITZ: In fact, the attempted assassination of President Bush happened two months later.

It just seems to be another instance where Mr. Clarke’s memory is playing tricks...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 7:36:20 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Imus rips 'lying' Stahl
March 24, 2004 -- DON Imus called CBS's Lesley Stahl a "gutless, lying weasel" yesterday for abruptly canceling an interview during which Imus planned to hammer her about conflict-of-interest allegations. "I realize it's a little late in your life, honey, to start gettin' honest, but just say 'I don't want to appear on the program . . . because I heard what he said earlier this morning,' " Imus railed.

Imus had promised listeners he'd ask Stahl why she and "60 Minutes" didn't disclose that the new book by Sunday night's controversial guest - former terrorism official Richard Clarke - was released by Simon & Schuster. Both the publisher and CBS - as well as Imus's station, WFAN - are owned by media giant Viacom. "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt said the program should have disclosed the corporate connection but that leaving it out was merely an "oversight."
"Hey, this happens all the time, how am I supposed to keep it all straight?"
Imus yesterday accused Stahl of being "one of the more dishonest members of the media" for allegedly going too easy on Clarke, who's been characterized as a disgruntled former employee by Bush administration officials. "She did everything but slip her tongue in his ear," said sidekick Bernard McGuirk.
Thanks for that mental image, Don.
"No wonder Fox [News Channel] is killing people - because people hate these people," said Imus.

A CBS News spokesperson told The Post that Stahl had to cancel Imus to shoot extra footage at Grand Central Terminal for upcoming segments of her primetime magazine "48 Hours Investigates."
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2004 1:45:18 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I watched that and Imus tore her a new one for what was obviously a lie to not appear. Today they went after Don Hewitt and said he should retire. Even though Viacom owns Imus's show. Guts
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#2  "She did everything but slip her tongue in his ear" LOL! Sounds like any liberal media chick interviewing the latest 'I Hate Bush' person. To read his book, makes him out to be some all-knowing, all-connected guru. In fact he was lower level functionary in successive administrations (ie a Bureaucrat). Now the bureaucrat wants to cash in all his chits for the most money and he knows where that is. If this had been a tell all Clinton book (ie the truth) Mr. Clarke would not be taking limos to 60 minutes interviews. Most likely he would be on a couple Talk radio shows and maybe a spot on FNC.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 03/24/2004 15:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "Stahl had to cancel Imus because she was busy washing her hair to shoot extra footage at Grand Central Terminal..."

Sure...
Posted by: Old Grouch || 03/24/2004 19:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm sick I missed this! I love it when they eat their own!
Imus (just by being on NBC=DNC) has been guilty of being a whore for the Left, too, doncha know?
When he's bashing Bush, he's a genius and a prophet.
When he's bashing the Left, he's a drunk and a druggie.
And then there's the cost factor--which has to be next to zero--of televising a radio program.
Posted by: Jen || 03/24/2004 19:54 Comments || Top||


Kerry’s Top Ten Surprizes in his FBI file
The list is available at other URLs

“Top Ten Surprises in John Kerry’s FBI File”

From the March 23 Late Show with David Letterman, the “Top Ten Surprises in John Kerry’s FBI File.” Late Show home page: www.cbs.com

10. Once when he was 30, he smiled.

9. Has experimented with drugs, alcohol and Botox.

8. Had he decided not to go into politics, it would have been the Captain, Tennille and Kerry.

7. Belonged to an exclusive secret society called the Columbia Record and Tape Club.

6. He used to be Joan Kerry.

5. Favorite Jackson: Tito.

4. There’s a separate FBI file for his hair.

3. Never missed an episode of "Sanford and Son."

2. Even as a young man he looked like a horse.

1. In spring of 1972, killed a hitchhiker.


Posted by: mhw || 03/24/2004 1:31:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  so he and Kennedy have more in common than previously known!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#2  This is a good start by the media to reduce this explosive information to the dust bin of importance. But I don't see how it's going to work.

I don't usually send letters - but I think I might make an exception in this case. Making light of killing US Senators??? I don't think that's very funny at all.

Besides - even though this is effective in minimalizing the seriousness of this information, it calls attention to it....which, considering the nature of the issue ...just hurts Kerry overall.

I'm sorry - I think this is a Dukakis moment for Kerry.
Posted by: B || 03/25/2004 9:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
PETA To Step Up Anti-KFC Campaign
EFL - From your local Terrorist group
NORFOLK - The animal-rights activists who once suggested Ronald McDonald was a bloody butcher are going after Colonel Sanders, contending cruelty is the "secret recipe" for KFC’s fried chicken.
Starting next month, Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans to hand out "Buckets of Blood" to children outside KFC restaurants and at middle and high schools near the restaurants. The buckets are part of PETA’s international campaign against what it says are farming and slaughter abuses by KFC’s suppliers.
The 5-inch-tall, red-and-white striped containers mimic KFC’s buckets. But instead of fried chicken, each is filled with items including a bag of fake blood and bones, a bloodied plastic chicken and a cardboard caricature of a blood-spattered Colonel Sanders holding a butcher knife toward a terrified-looking chicken.
Middle schoolers around here will think this is pretty cool....
Labels on the bucket proclaim, "Shhh! The ’secret recipe’ in this bucket of body parts is ... cruelty" and "The Colonel’s secret recipe: live scalding, painful debeaking, crippled chickens."
KFC Corp. spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer initially said, "We don’t comment on the corporate terrorist activities of PETA. They are corporate terrorists and just like the United States government, we will not negotiate with corporate terrorists."
Warschauer added that "PETA has totally crossed the line of free speech and acceptable behavior" and "all they want is a vegetarian world."
True Enough.
"They misrepresent the truth about our responsible, industry-leading animal welfare standards," Warschauer said. "We’re committed to the humane treatment of chickens."
KFC has an animal welfare advisory council made up of highly regarded experts and while the company does not own chicken farms, it monitors suppliers to determine whether they are using humane procedures, she said.
A label on the bucket says "Just for you, KFC’s suppliers cram thousands of chickens into filthy sheds, sear baby chicks’ beaks off with a hot wire, slam the birds into crates (breaking their wings and legs), slice their throats open and scald them to death while they’re still conscious. Enjoy."
The buckets are reminiscent of the "Unhappy Meals" PETA began distributing in 2000 as part of a public relations assault against McDonald’s. The boxes, similar to the Happy Meals that McDonald’s serves to children, contained a stuffed doll that looked like Ronald McDonald holding a bloody butcher’s knife.
PETA suspended its campaign against McDonald’s in response to an announcement by the fast-food chain that it would improve living conditions for its chickens. McDonald’s officials said PETA had nothing to do with its initiative.

I dont know about you but I am planning on eating at KFC in PETA’s honor. And then sent the grease and oil covered recept to PETA’s national HQ. (Perhaps the chicken bones too...). Anyone have their address?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 10:15:25 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's an easy one - take the "bucket", open the bag of fake blood, and throw it on the PETAphile.
Posted by: mojo || 03/25/2004 0:30 Comments || Top||


He served in Iraq, loses job back home
EFL (but not by much) edit as approprate. Not sure how to classify this.
Dana Beaudine was wounded in a mortar attack near the town of Basra in Iraq. But after he came home a decorated war veteran, he found himself facing a fight of another kind.

For the past six months, Beaudine has been trying to get his job back with Securitas Security Services USA, the nation’s largest private security firm, which counts among its clients the federal government.

Beaudine, 34, worked as a guard at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle before he was called up, serving in Iraq as a corporal in an Oregon National Guard infantry unit.

Wounded in action, Beaudine also was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, an ailment that alarmed Securitas but which Army psychiatrists said does not prevent him from returning to work.

Today, Beaudine finds himself in the company of thousands of other citizen soldiers who — despite federal law — are struggling to get back or keep the jobs they left behind.

Nearly 3,200 job-related complaints have been filed with the U.S. Labor Department by returning Guard and Reserve soldiers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Soldiers who come back with disabilities can face an added level of difficulty in returning to their jobs. Under the American with Disabilities Act, however, employers are required to find a job that can be performed by a veteran with a disability.

Beaudine, who says he will sue Securitas in federal court to get his job back, worked at the Jackson building for about 10 months before he was deployed in December 2002.

Three months later, he was caught in a firefight and slammed to the ground by an enemy mortar. Beaudine said the blast left permanent nerve damage in a leg. He was sent home to recover at Fort Lewis, where his wife works as an Army finance specialist.

Initially, Beaudine said, he had difficulty readjusting to normal life. Friends and family felt distant. "I wasn’t suicidal or homicidal or anything like that," he said. "I just found it difficult interacting with my kids and friends."

He saw an Army psychiatrist, who told him he had post-traumatic stress disorder, which afflicts up to 30 percent of combat veterans, according to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Beaudine said his symptoms were mild and he was never prescribed medication. In October, the Army cleared him to work on weekends while he awaited his honorable discharge.

At the time of his deployment, his employer was Argus Services, a Spokane-based company that held the security contract for all federal buildings in the Pacific Northwest. His record with the company was unblemished, he said.

When he came back, Securitas had taken over the $12 million contract.

Securitas initially returned him to his post at the federal building. His duties consisted mainly of screening people as they entered the building. In fact, he said, neither the nerve damage nor the post-traumatic stress disorder kept him from doing anything in his job description.

But he was back on the job only a few days. The company, after learning secondhand about his injuries, asked him not to return to work until he supplied more information about his health, he said. In particular, Securitas wanted to know more about his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The company asked him for a list of all his medications, a signed release so it could review his medical records and a letter from Army psychiatrists saying he was fit to work.

Beaudine said it took time working through Army channels, but he met the company’s requests. In a November document to Securitas, the chief of psychiatry at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis and a second Army psychiatrist found Beaudine "mentally competent" to do his job.

Securitas then requested he undergo a "fitness-for-duty exam" with a psychiatrist of its choosing. At that point, Beaudine balked, saying the Labor Department had advised him such a screening was unnecessary.

"They just kept raising the bar on me," said Beaudine, a father of three from Spanaway.

Securitas declined to be interviewed for this story. A spokesman said the company did not want to talk about employment practices nor its dealings with Beaudine, describing that as a pending personnel dispute.

In a Jan. 26 letter to the company, the Labor Department stated that after reviewing information from Securitas and Beaudine, it concluded the company was in violation of the Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a 1994 law that stiffened job-protection guarantees for returning soldiers. Securitas also got a warning letter from the human-resources director of the Oregon National Guard, who recommended Beaudine be allowed to return to work.

The company, however, resisted. In a Jan. 27 letter, the company’s regional human-resources director, Felecia Clarke, informed Beaudine that unless he consented to the company’s psychiatric exam, "we have no choice but to determine that you have chosen to quit."

Beaudine said he also sought help from the Federal Protective Service, the agency that oversees Securitas’ contract, but to no avail. Contacted by The Seattle Times, the agency’s regional director, Ken Spitzer, said he would look into the complaint. "I’ve asked for a brief on that this week, and I’ll see what Securitas has to say also."

Securitas, a subsidiary of Swedish security conglomerate Securitas AB, employs some 93,000 people in the United States. In its literature, it states that hundreds of its employees are Guard and Reserve members and that their service to this country is appreciated.

Which is what makes Beaudine’s case so perplexing, said his lawyer, Charles Meyer.

Beaudine, who received several war medals, including a Purple Heart that soon will be awarded, said at this point all he wants is back pay and legal fees.

He said his family has been scraping by on his unemployment checks and his wife’s income. Meanwhile, he spends his days taking care of his three children — a 7-month-old son, a 3-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter — and looking for another job.

"You pull a National Guard guy out of his life and ask him to risk his life over there," said Meyer, "and this is how you treat him."
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 3:25:59 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the e-mail address for this company is securitasgroup.com no e-mail to company as such but the investors group link has e-mail.
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Not sure how to classify this.

Personally, I'd classify it as un-American. ;)

And I hope the Labor Dept. and Mr. Beaudine stick to these jerks good.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Not sure how to classify this.

Personally, I'd classify it as un-American. ;)

And I hope the Labor Dept. and Mr. Beaudine stick to these jerks good.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 16:19 Comments || Top||

#4  This was one of the featured stories on ABC News tonight. That should stir some things up.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 20:33 Comments || Top||


Injured veterans say the war was worth it
WASHINGTON—When they arrive at the private banquet room at the back of Hal Kastor’s downtown restaurant, the co-owner stands behind the bar offering a personal, gregarious welcome to each one.

There’s a big hello for Larry Gill, a muscular 43-year-old Alabaman with close-cropped hair, a greeting for Chuck Bartles, 26, a hulk of a man with a shaved head from a little town in South Dakota, kind words for Susan Sonnheim, a wisp of a woman from Franklin, Wisc.

But an interloper at the weekly private gathering at Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steakhouse treads more cautiously.

In greeting Staff-Sgt. Gill, you ask him to sit, so as to relieve the strain on his left leg, the back of which was blown away, arteries, nerves and all, in a Baghdad grenade attack last October.

To shake Sgt. Bartles’ hand, the only one he has left, one must reach awkwardly beyond the prosthesis where his right arm used to be.

An explosive device cost Bartles that limb in Baquba last fall.

And in your chat with 45-year-old Sgt. Sonnheim, you must remember the bomb that tossed her frail body five metres through the air in Baghdad — a month to the day when Bartles watched his arm dangling by a shred of muscle — and left her without normal hearing and blind in her left eye.

These are the men and women of Walter Reed Army Hospital, some of the most badly wounded of the more than 3,200 American casualties during a year of war in Iraq.

One night last week — the anniversary of the Iraq invasion — no one among the 50 or so gathered at Kastor’s restaurant was marking the milestone.

As they clasped beers in hooks where once there were hands and ambled about on artificial limbs, prosthetics supplanted politics as the topic of conversation.

These men and women know they fought in a war that has split this country, but they’d go back in a second. They believe they were there for the right reasons, and they believe those opposed to the war can distinguish between obvious valour and anti-war values.

They harbour no bitterness.

"It wasn’t the United States government or President Bush who set off that bomb," says Bartles, a civil affairs specialist with degrees in Eastern European studies and Russian and a future as a lawyer.

Before that, however, he’ll have to deal with troubling cysts on his face and the rebuilding of a crushed cheekbone, the result of bomb blasts.

Kastor, a helicopter door-gunman in the Vietnam war, throws his restaurant open to these vets every Friday, in a show of solidarity.

"Walter Reed is their assigned post now," Kastor said.

"Right now a lot of these guys are feeling bad.

"I hate it when I see this war get politicized. They begin to think they lost an arm or a leg for nothing when they hear that kind of talk." .......

"Their eyes were just blood red with hate," Gill says, remembering the Iraqi protesters he’d been assigned to control the night an unseen grenade changed his life.

He says he should have died that night, but his thoughts were with his wife Leah and three sons. "I refused to leave my children fatherless," he said.

Sonnheim, the first Wisconsin woman to receive the Purple Heart, saved four Iraqi policeman the night her life was shattered. "I’d love to go back," she said. "My company is there."
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 2:30:46 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I can't thank these soldiers enough for what they have done. They exemplefy what is best about this country. I will do all that I can to support them in the years ahead. God bless them.
Posted by: remote man || 03/24/2004 16:23 Comments || Top||

#2  God bless them and God bless Kastor for taking care of our own.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 03/24/2004 18:20 Comments || Top||


Rumsfeld has plan to prevent past acts of terror.
ScrappleFace, natch.
(2004-03-23) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that he has a plan to prevent past acts of terror.

"As I have listened to people speculate on what might have been done to prevent 9/11," said Mr. Rumsfeld, "I realized that we’ve been doing all the post-mortem analysis after the fact."

Mr. Rumsfeld proposed that the CIA, FBI and the Pentagon immediately begin "studying the facts about the next major terror attack, which will never happen because we will prevent it in hindsight."

"All we have to do is figure out who attacked us, where and when," he said. "It’s a simple matter of stepping out of the time-space continuum to ward off future incidents after they have already happened."
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 03/24/2004 10:35:47 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There will still be an investigation, also in advance of the event, of course - and in taking the lead, Rummy will be the prime target. I'd bet that Clark would be willing to testify against Rummy, too, for a comfy position on Skeery's future NSA team. I hear he has experience - much like Skeery in Vietnam. I know that might come as a surprise to many, but he was there. Lotsa people saw him coming and going at Tan Son Nhut. No, really!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||


Ansar al-Islam a terror group: US
Guess the work's not done til the paperwork's outta the way...
The United States on Monday designated Ansar al-Islam as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act. A statement from State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher read, “As part of the ongoing US efforts against terrorism, the Secretary of State had designated the Ansar al-Islam as an FTO. Under US law, this designation makes it illegal for people in the US or subject to US jurisdiction to provide material support to Ansar al-Islam; the law requires US financial institutions to block assets of Ansar al-Islam and denies visas to members of Ansar al-Islam. The secretary took the action in consultation with the attorney general and the secretary of the Treasury.”
Hope they included all its aliases...
“In addition, effective today the Secretary of State re-designated three groups as FTOs: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Asbat al-Ansar and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The initial designations of these groups in 2002 are due to expire on March 26, 2004,” said the statement. The Ansar al-Islam, which operates in Iraq, has close links to and support from Qaeda. Osama participated in the formation and funding of the group, which has provided safe havens to Qaeda.
We knew that...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 8:30:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Declaring the obvious, congratulations.

All I can say is, it's about damned time!
Posted by: The Doctor || 03/24/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#2  That's it, Doctor. A terrorist group with the word 'Combat' in its name and we're just getting around to making the official declaration?
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:23 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Allan Divinely Intervened for the Election of 65 Non-Fundamentalists in Iran
Expediency Council member Habibullah Asgaroladi-Mosalman said on 11 March of the previous month’s parliamentary elections, "God guided the hearts of the pious throughout this land in such a way that of the 225 elected representatives, 160 were fundamentalists," Aftab-i Yazd reported. Asgaroladi, who is the secretary-general of the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, added, "We witnessed divine intervention in the seventh parliamentary elections, and you must thank God for this blessing with your work."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/24/2004 11:12:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Leader Warns That Enemies Are Trying to Destabilize Iran
Mehr News Agency
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the enemies should know that any act against Iran would be thwarted because Iranians are awake and vigilant. Addressing large groups of pilgrims at the holy shrine of Hazrat Musa al-Reza (AS), the eighth Shiite Imam in Mashad, Ayatollah Khamenei said that Americans and Zionists have faced an impasse in Iran as well as in Iraq and Palestine. Contrary to their expectation, the U.S. has encountered numerous difficulties in Iraq and is bogged down in a quagmire, said the Supreme Leader said.
Quagmire to the left o' me! Quagmire to the right o' me! Oh! What shall I do?
Urging the people to maintain their vigilance and awareness, Ayatollah Khamenei said enemies and the arrogant powers have today realized that Iranian nation would show their national strength whenever needed. He warned the audience that enemies are striving to destabilize Iran because instability would inhibit scientific, economic, and cultural progress.
Gotta watch out for those deep-laid plots, y'know...
The most important duty of people and officials is to be vigilant and responsible and make the most of the stability in the country obtained through high public turn out in rallies and elections. The Supreme Leader instructed the officials to be accountable to the public, report details of their performance to them and avoid considering themselves immune to any criticism. He further urged the officials to abide by their faith, strive for social justice, avoid discrimination, squandering public wealth, violation of public rights and abusing their positions. The Supreme Leader also urged the judiciary to provide the public with the first hand account of its performance for restoration of the oppressed`s rights and turn the judiciary branch as real sanctuary of the oppressed. The Supreme Leader said the MPs-elect for the seventh Majlis should know that the public expect them to work and act in line with the Islamic ethics.
Yasss... We saw Islamic ethics in action in the run-up to the elections...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 7:50:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamic ethics

Is that like jumbo shrimp?
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Watsonsuri: "Holmesemani, How do you do it?"
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 03/24/2004 8:04 Comments || Top||

#3  duh you fucking dumbasses! mess with countiers larger long enough (and I think 25 years is way too long) and eventually that country wakes up and is pissed!
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Urging the people to maintain their vigilance and awareness, Ayatollah Khamenei said enemies and the arrogant powers have today realized that Iranian nation would show their national strength whenever needed. He warned the audience that enemies are striving to destabilize Iran because instability would inhibit scientific, economic, and cultural progress.

Sounds like the Ayatollah has taken North Korean 101.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||

#5  He warned the audience that enemies are striving to destabilize Iran because instability would inhibit scientific, economic, and cultural progress.
Scientific progress? Wonder what he's refering to exactly..
I was led to believe that the clergy were taught public speaking & basic/intermediate level rhetoric at Qom, obviously Khamene'i was asleep most of the time. No metaphors, not even the lamest attempts at humour, no rhetorical questions, not even any blood curdling threats or evocations of past glories & even the dullest backwood Mullah should be able to manage that! Instead it's just: blah blah, need for vigilence, blah drone world arrogance, blah mumble, waffle people should work hard & be patriotic waffle-drone, drone zionist entity...plans..blah blah plots waffle waffle enemies not being too succesful, drone drone (continues for several hours.) I think he's just got one non-specific speach he delivers on all occasions, maybe some members of the Iranian press corps remembered seeing Brezhnev in action & decided that was the safest approach to take?
Posted by: Dave || 03/24/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||


U.S. Is an Accomplice in Assassination
Mehr News Agency
Iran's Armed Forces General Headquarters said in a statement on Tuesday that the U.S. should be considered as an accomplice in the killing of Palestinian spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Monday. The Zionist state terrorism, which is the worst kind of terrorism in the world, is not possible without the U.S. backing, the statement said. Undoubtedly, Yassin’s martyrdom will give more power to the Palestinian people’s resistance against occupation, added the statement. Zionist sources said Monday prime minister Ariel Sharon personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack on the paralyzed cleric.
Bush will no doubt be taking this warning seriously, too...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 7:46:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We will happily take our share of the credit for the elimination of this monster.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2004 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  The Zionist state terrorism, which is the worst kind of terrorism in the world, is not possible without the U.S. backing

Unlike that inconvenient Moslem state terrorism in Iran, Syria, Shoddy Arabia, etc.

Hamas has had it coming for a long time. ( And it's still coming ) That their little program for their suicide bomber supply isn't recognized as a government, doesn't mean Hamas isn't involved with state terrorism. They are, like Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa, et al, all recipients of funds from terrorist states and those states' enablers (think Eurostan): They are ALL targets of Israeli air strikes
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 8:08 Comments || Top||

#3  badnov - well said. It's a war of East v/s West, and they are self- proclaimed soldiers. At least the US recognizes the difference between the soldiers and the innocent.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  We expect the controlled mullah-media in Iran to ignore relevant facts (on pain of death), but one must wonder just how stupid, venal and debased their tools in their country are when they voluntarily repeat the same line. These, just like the mullahs, continue to harp on the late monster's age, handicap, and use of a wheelchair, while neglecting to mention that the old bastard was the effective leader of a baby-killing suicide cult.
How willingly they have abandoned their power of reason, as well as their humanity, in the pursuit of media-implanted power fantasies.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2004 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Heh, talk about never missing an opportunity to STFU, we have the Black Hat Mad Mullahs. *snicker*

Keep talking, boys. Wave your arms. Give us a decent radar return so it gets logged. When your total accumulated points merit an upgrade in your status, you'll be notified by mail. Prolly air mail.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 9:03 Comments || Top||

#6  These, just like the mullahs, continue to harp on the late monster's age, handicap, and use of a wheelchair, while neglecting to mention that the old bastard was the effective leader of a baby-killing suicide cult.

They said he was a Palestinian spiritual leader; isn't that the same thing?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 10:32 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Israelis Stop Teen Wearing Bomb Vest
HAWARA CHECKPOINT, West Bank (AP) - A 16-year-old Palestinian with a homicidesuicide bomb vest strapped to his body was caught at a crowded West Bank checkpoint Wednesday, setting off a tense encounter with Israeli soldiers whom the army said he was sent to kill.

Actually the boy was on his way to school for Paleo show and tell.

The soldiers, taking cover behind concrete barriers, sent a yellow army robot to bring scissors to the teenager so he could cut off the vest. They then made him strip to his underwear to ensure he was unarmed before detaining him.

He’s really lucky they did not make him a sniper target given the level of tensions.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest in a series of foiled murder attempts attacks on babies, women and children Israel by Palestinian youths who are sent by rich Paleos sitting in safety somewhere else.

The family of the teenager, identified as Hussam Abdo, said he was gullible (sniff, sniff) and easily manipulated (boo hoo).
Officer Krupke, I’m depraved becasue I am deprived!!

"He doesn’t know anything except how to takes orders to murder innocents , and he has the intelligence of a 12 year old," said his brother, Hosni , "but what Paleo-murderer does?.

Since the Israeli assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin on Monday, Israel has been on high alert. Hamas has killed executed hundreds of Israelis in homicide suicide bombings and other attacks in recent years.

Wednesday’s confrontation began about 4 p.m. when soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus received intelligence a bomber was there. They shut down the crossing and began searching hundreds of people there, the military said.

Suddenly Abdo, wearing an oversized red jersey, approached them.

Yo Ibrahim! I can’t get this switch thingy to work. Can you help me?

"We saw that he had something under his shirt," said Lt. Tamir Milrad. The soldiers took cover behind concrete barricades, pointed their guns at the teenager and ordered him to stop.

On their orders, he took off his jersey, revealing a bulky gray bomb vest.

"He told us he didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to blow up,I want to blow you up, not me!" Milrad said.

The soldiers sent a small robot to hand Abdo scissors to cut off the vest, an incident captured in exclusive Associated Press Television News footage.

The teenager cut off part of the vest and struggled with the rest. "I don’t how to get this off," he said in frustration before successfully removing it.

No Mujadara for you tonight, son. Bad bomber! Bad bomber!

Soldiers ordered him to take off his undershirt and pull down his jeans to make sure he had no other weapons. Then they arrested him.

Sappers blew up the vest, which the army said was an 18-pound bomb.

The military said Abdo’s mission was to kill soldiers at the crowded checkpoint.

"In addition to the fact that he would have harmed my soldiers, he would have also harmed the Palestinians waiting at the checkpoint, and there were 200 to 300 innocent Palestinians there," said the commander of the checkpoint, who identified himself only as Lt. Col. Guy.

Several teenagers have carried out suicide bombings over the past 3 1/2 years, and there has been recent concern that militant groups were turning to younger attackers to elude Israeli security checks.

Wheel-chaired wusses and billionaire murderers are running out of warm bodies.

Abdo, though 16, looked far younger, and the Israeli military initially said it believed he was 10 years old.

Cudda sent him to his Maker, but they didn’t.

On March 16, Israeli troops stopped an 11-year-old boy allegedly trying to smuggle explosives through the same checkpoint. Israel said militants had given the boy the explosives without his knowledge, either to ferry across the checkpoint or to be blown up by remote control when he got near soldiers.

Palestinians and the boy disputed this, claiming the bag he was carrying - which was blown up by army sappers - contained auto parts.

The Paleo car bomb. Don’t leave home without it.

Last month, Israeli police arrested three boys, aged 12, 13 and 15, who said they were on their way to carry out a shooting attack in Israel.

No honest, officer. No Paleo-adult would ever send a child to do a man’s job!!

"No matter how many times Israel learns of the use of children for suicide bombings, it is shocking on each occasion," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israelis do not understand how Palestinians are willing to sacrifice their own children in order to kill ours."

If there was ever a justification for RU486, this is it.

Physicians for Human Rights also condemned the militants’ use of children, calling it "illegal and immoral."

How about mentally diseased and insane?

After the incident Wednesday, the army brought out Abdo, who appeared shaken but alive cuz they didn’t blow his stupid head offdefiant, to be photographed by the media. Reporters were allowed only to ask his name, age and grade.

Geraldo, where’s Geraldo?

Maj. Sharon Feingold, an army spokeswoman, said reporters were not allowed to question the youth "for lack of intelligence reasons." An inquiry was under way, she said, "to find out who sent this boy and why they did it.Who?? Why?? Naturally this a monstrous doing of evil people, sending young children and turning them into human bombs. It’s horrid and terribly worrisome."

Abdo’s family said the teenager was not affiliated with any militant group, going to rallies for all of them and identifying with whichever one carried out the latest attack on Israelis.

"My son Abdo is a Boy Scout!! It’s all a Jewish Plot!!"

They said he acted strangely Tuesday, giving candy to his family and neighbors and refusing to explain why.

Contemplating Murder and suicide has a strange effect on people.

He got his hair cut in the style his mother, Tamam, likes and told her he would do anything she wants, she said.

Hokay, mama. I go make big dinero for you and papa.

"You never are like this," she said "What happened?"

"I just want you to be happy with me," he responded.

Ya little twit. Are you still here?

Abdo left his house Wednesday morning saying he was going to school, but never arrived there.

Yeah mama. I have a delivery to make before school, hokay?

Hosni Abdo said he was furious with whoever persuaded his brother to strap on the bomb vest.

"The ones who sent him are stupid, because the army will give him two slaps and he will tell them who sent him," Hosni Abdo said.

And are they gonna be pised at the family.


Posted by: AKScott || 03/24/2004 6:22:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


UK freezes Hamas leader’s funds
JPost - Reg req’d - At least not all of Europe has been emasculated
Britain’s treasury chief on Wednesday ordered the Bank of England to freeze any assets of five senior Hamas members, including Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the group’s new leader in Gaza.

Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, said the government had reasonable grounds to suspect that Rantisi and four others - Musa Abu Marzouk, Imad Khalil Al-Alami, Usama Hamdan and Khalid Mishaal - may be involved in terrorism.
as in: historic acts in the past?
Rantisi said Wednesday that the group had no intention of attacking US interests and said its militant activities were aimed solely at Israel, which it has pledged to destroy and replace with an Islamic state.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 9:48:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too late, Rantisi. As others noted yesterday, you're on the world's #1 shitlist.
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 23:42 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
American "Warlords" in Afghanistan
From Strategy Page. EFL.

. . . Using techniques developed and used with great success as far back as World War II, Special Forces A Teams are operating in remote Afghan valleys, and forming their own small armies by hiring local Afghans to help catch any Taliban or al Qaeda who might come through. U.S. troops have hired armed Afghans in the past, but from local warlords. This did not work too well. The warlord who supplied the troops had their own agendas. This included not getting any of their lads killed, and being open to bribery from the opposition. All of this is considered traditional in the Afghan scheme of things. A warlord becomes a warlord by having enough money to pay troops, some way to raise more money to keep paying them, and enough battlefield sense to keep down friendly casualties. Any warlord who misses too many payrolls, or gets too many of his guys killed, finds that no one wants to follow him anymore. A warlord without gunmen is no longer a warlord.

The Special Forces understand all this, and now they are, well, behaving like warlords. Special Forces troops have been establishing contacts throughout the southeastern Afghan border area over the last two years. So when a dozen Special Forces troops show up with guns and money, they are not treated as enemies. The Special Forces already have a well earned reputation throughout Afghanistan as being formidable fighters. Often the Special Forces can speak the Afghan languages, which impresses Afghans a lot (because it is so rare for outsiders to do this). And most importantly, the Special Forces have the power to call down from above "the bombs that never miss" (JDAM dropped from B-52s overhead).

John Derbyshire: "When a US Special Forces scout in the Hindu Kush gets down from his mule, unpacks his laptop, takes a GPS reading and calls in an air strike . . . he is the Angel of Death."

When the Special Forces troops arrive, they sit down with the village elders and heads of the local families and arrange to hire the proper number of armed men from each clan, so no one is offended. And all the families now have another source of income. Along with the Special Forces comes access to American army civil affairs troops and more money for public works (repairing roads and bridges, digging wells, building schools). Locals are hired to help build the Special Forces compound, and work in it. The Special Forces often also bring along a detachment of soldiers or marines to help with security.

The word quickly gets around that the Special Forces are operating in a particular valley. This attracts the local Taliban supporters. Attacks will be attempted on the compound the Special Forces are living in. The Special Forces expect this.
Indeed, they’re counting on it.
Like any competent warlord, they deploy their troops to watch for intruders. The hired gunmen get more training, being taught how to "fight like a Special Forces warrior." This builds relationships with the younger locals, who are also being courted by the Taliban recruiters.

This process is helped along by the fact that the Taliban recruiters soon find themselves on the recieving end of "the bombs that never miss."

But more importantly, the Special Forces spend a lot of time sitting around drinking tea. Chatting with their gunmen and other locals creates a familiarity that eventually leads to what they are really here for; information. The Afghans know they are being played, but they admire how the Special Forces do it by Afghan rules. Professionals are always admired, and in Afghanistan, professionals with guns, money and patience are particularly admired.

And it’s not like the Afghans don’t benefit--from the income and infrastructure, if nothing else. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

The Afghans know the Americans are there to find the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, and kill them. The Afghans understand that the Americans are the enemies of the Taliban and al Qaeda. You kill your enemies if you can, and Afghans have long played by that rule. Afghans also understand that it’s important to be on the winning side if there’s going to be a dispute. The Special Forces went to valleys where the locals were not particularly pro-Taliban. The Special Forces quietly made a deal with the locals, "let us defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda together, and then we will leave." By working for the Special Forces warlords, the Afghans agreed to the deal. Of course, if the Special Forces run into a lot of problems, and appear in danger of defeat, all that could change. But that’s how you survive in the remote valleys of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 6:49:54 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  By working for the Special Forces warlords, the Afghans agreed to the deal. Of course, if the Special Forces run into a lot of problems, and appear in danger of defeat, all that could change. But that’s how you survive in the remote valleys of Afghanistan.

Not with a BUFF circling overhead. The only way our guys will lose is if the American people lose their nerve and vote for Senor Kerry...
Posted by: Ptah || 03/24/2004 19:17 Comments || Top||

#2  . . . Using techniques developed and used with great success as far back as World War II, Special Forces A Teams are operating in remote Afghan valleys, and forming their own small armies by hiring local Afghans to help catch any Taliban or al Qaeda who might come through. U.S. troops have hired armed Afghans in the past, but from local warlords. This did not work too well. The warlord who supplied the troops had their own agendas.

Cutting out the middle man.... I love it!

Posted by: wuzzalib || 03/24/2004 19:54 Comments || Top||

#3  "We eliminate the middleman . . . and the Taliban . . . and pass the savings on to you!"
Posted by: Anonymous || 03/24/2004 20:35 Comments || Top||

#4  The hired gunmen get more training, being taught how to "fight like a Special Forces warrior."

Be careful this doesn't come back later on and bite us in the ass.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/24/2004 20:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Rafael - I doubt they ever show the locals their 'full hand'...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 20:46 Comments || Top||

#6  The training they get MIGHT be a shortened version of our basic, but it's NOTHING compared to our Special Forces. Remember, folks, our average soldier is trained to a level that makes them elites in most of the other armies in the world.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 03/24/2004 21:00 Comments || Top||

#7  It would be interesting to see what the fully loaded cost is to a) develop and b) maintain an SF soldier. Somehow, I don't think the Afghans can afford that even if they could procure all the gadgets and BUFFs.

And once the WoT is over if they revert to what they have always done. but keep it to themselves and are simply more eficient, I can live with it. If not, the WoT will just take a little bit longer.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/24/2004 21:19 Comments || Top||

#8  When the instructor stands up in front of the recruits, does he then say? "listen to me primates. This is my boom stick..."
Posted by: Super Hose || 03/24/2004 23:19 Comments || Top||

#9  "Shop smart. Shop S-MART. YOU GOT THAT?!!"
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 03/24/2004 23:33 Comments || Top||

#10  I think this is so F****** cool:

"The warlord who supplied the troops had their own agendas. This included not getting any of their lads killed, and being open to bribery from the opposition. All of this is considered traditional in the Afghan scheme of things."
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 03/25/2004 3:27 Comments || Top||


Hunting Binny and Co.: Who What Where and Why Not
The report of a major operation against Al Qaida’s No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri was another bad bill of goods sold by Pakistan President Musharraf to the United States or, more specifically, to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Despite numerous appeals, the United States continues to make do with Pakistan’s promises while being denied access to the tribal areas where Bin Laden and Zawahiri are located. Simply put, only a few score U.S. intelligence agents are on the Pakistani side of the border. Their role is limited to observing the operations by Pakistani troops in the tribal areas along the Afghan frontier. When a Pakistani unit commander pulls his troops out of one village, saying nobody was found, CIA liaisons can do nothing but nod.

Here’s the basic force structure of the attempted pincer operation against Bin Laden and Zawahiri: There are about 2,000 U.S. Special Forces and 500 British commandos and Afghan troops, the latter serving as liaisons and interpreters. About 7,000 army and paramilitary troops are on the Pak side. But Western forces cannot cross the Pakistani border. The Pak force and the U.S.-led forces are not linked by a command and control facility. Information from the CIA and the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency flows to Musharraf. This means the Pakistanis know everything the U.S. knows about Bin Laden, but Washington doesn’t know exactly what the Pakistani forces are doing. The Pakistani Army operation appears impressive in its scope and efficiency. But the army has little intelligence in the South Waziristan, where Al Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding. Local police and paramilitary forces have a lot more intelligence, but they are regarded as corrupt and thoroughly aligned with tribes that benefit from Al Qaida’s presence. The Pakistani Army can’t even understand the Pashto dialects without plenty of local help.

But the biggest problem is that the Pakistani military hasn’t even found the considerable foreign security force protecting Bin Laden and Zawahiri. Nobody has yet seen evidence of the 055 Brigade, the large and mostly Arab force composed of Egyptians, Saudis and Yemenis that guards the leadership. The only foreigners being uncovered are Chechens and they are so integrated into the local community that any attack on them would be an assault on the entire tribal infrastructure. Pakistani troops, which sustained heavy casualties in attacks by tribal fighters, aren’t ready to pick another fight. The bottom line on the search for Bin Laden: Don’t hold your breath.
Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever || 03/24/2004 2:27:15 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beeb report Pakis getting nervous about keeping open the convoy route that has recently been attacked. Sounds to me like theyre smelling Dien Bein Phu. They have 7,000 troops up there. If the tribals were to cut them off, do they have the lift to get them out???
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 17:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe that there is a compatriot of Little Jackie Paper that would remove the need to airlift any friendly Paki's out of the area. There might be a need for the assistance of the Man-From-Glad to shag and bag the larger chunks after the completing the Puff-Ex. - note Mr. Clean could employee a mop bucket, sponge and squeegee to restore the area to pre-lead Cuisinart conditions.
Posted by: Super Hose || 03/25/2004 0:40 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Qaddafi's Son: 'Libya Must Be A Democratic And Open Country'
From MEMRI, EFL:
On a visit to Paris during which he met with French President Jacques Chirac, the son of Libyan ruler Muammar Al-Qaddafi, Sayf Al-Islam Al-Qaddafi, gave an interview to the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Question: "We read that the change [in the makeup of the] government in Libya is considered a victory for Sayf Al-Islam. What is your interpretation of it?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "I want to correct the headline of the article that appeared in [the paper] Al-Hayat that said that the change [in the makeup of the government] is a victory for Sayf Al-Islam's [stream]. This is inaccurate, because there is no such stream. What does exist is the Libyan people as a whole, with its desires and its aspirations. The Al-Qaddafi Foundation, which functions in [Libyan] civil society, reflects these desires.
"The Libyan people is interested in progress, development, democracy, human rights, and freedoms, and all these constitute the agenda of our institutions which mirror the thoughts and aspirations of the [Libyan] society. Soon Libya will witness [development] that will be a precedent with regard to the Arab world, and it will be manifested by freedom of the press and freedom of printing."


Question: "How can you realize this in light [of the existence of] the stream opposing openness that claims that [openness] threatens the regime?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "We in the Al-Qaddafi Foundation are continuing with our plan regarding the press and publication. In every civil society, there are disagreements among people on the left, extremists, and conservatives. In Libyan society, there are such disagreements, but 70% of Libyan society under the age of 40 aspires to the same values to which the younger generation aspires. "Accordingly, the streams opposing reform are a small number of people, like [ordnance] that remains after a war. For example, we have a number of mines from the days of World War II, but they are not usable; they are left over from a period belonging to history."


Question: "But don't freedom of the press and openness disrupt and threaten the regime in Libya?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "I think that in Libya there is no real opposition to reform and openness. Five or 10 people will not change the path and desires of five million Libyans. Libya must be a democratic and open country. If it isn't, it will become a reactionary, dictatorial, and fascist Arab country."


Question: "What caused President Al-Qaddafi to hand over all the material the Americans demanded [regarding WMDs]? Was it international sanctions or fear of an American attack [on Libya]? Were these the main topics in the talks with the U.S. State Department?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "To be precise – It was already nine months ago that most [of the agreement] among American intelligence, British intelligence, and Libyan military intelligence was reached with regard to WMDs, in the framework of secret negotiations prior to the war in Iraq."


Question: "Did you know about this?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "[laughs] I welcomed it from afar. Libya's decision [to disarm] stems from three reasons that I present in public for the first time:

"The first reason is the political, economic, cultural, and military gains [offered to us]

"The second reason is that we were on a dangerous path, and had problems with the West. When the West came and told us that it didn't want to fight us, but to be partners with us – why persist in being hostile to it?
"The third and main reason is that we developed weapons for the purpose of war with the enemy. We have seen that the armed struggle of the Palestinians, which lasted 50 years, did not produce results such as those obtained by means of negotiations that lasted five years. They told the commander [that is, Muammar Al-Qaddafi] that they had given up the rifle and taken the path of negotiations, and obtained what they had not obtained in 50 years, from Beirut through Tunisia and Amman. "In addition, the commander [Al-Qaddafi] is hurt by some Arab stances that made him feel like the Arabs are exploiting him, laughing at him, and threatening him with the American card.
"The commander is convinced that as long as there is no essential change in the Arab countries and reorganization of the Arab system, this nation will not be able to grow. The commander thinks that if this problem is solved, Libya will emerge from international isolation, will conduct dialogue with the superpowers, and will act with them to change the Arab situation. And when the West and the U.S. make a treaty with you, which did not happen in the past 50 years, this can [now] come about within a few years."


Question: "What level have Libya-U.S. relations reached? And when will diplomatic relations between the two countries be renewed?"

Sayf Al-Islam: "According to what the Americans tell us, it can be assumed that this will take place during the coming months, and before the U.S. presidential election campaign. We are expecting a visit to Libya soon by William Burns, the assistant to the U.S. secretary of state, and [a visit by] the U.S. energy secretary during the next few months. A week ago, American oil companies returned to Libya. The Marathon, Conoco, and Occidental [4] companies have returned [to Libya], and the presidents of these companies will visit Libya next week and meet with President Al-Qaddafi. They will resume operations immediately where they used to be. We have preserved and frozen all their rights for 20 years. Now we are demanding that with their return they pay the fees, because we preserved their rights [for them]."

Because, it's all about the oil money.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 2:12:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and iraq is not part of the war on terrorism! if we would followed the fremch/german/clinton/gore and fucking skerry model libya would not of thrown in the towel. Bush has drastically changed US policy and thus the policy of friends/enemies in a very short time. if would of negiotated before the iraq war we would still be negioting with no results.
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 15:14 Comments || Top||

#2  First thing to do: change your name. "Sword of Islam" makes normal people nervous, for good reason.
Posted by: mojo || 03/24/2004 15:45 Comments || Top||

#3  O My Pa Pa he is so Wonderful!/

Hush!
BOOM!
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:30 Comments || Top||

#4  No "Supreme Leaders" in a democracy. He is aware of that, right?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 21:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Libya must be a democratic and open country. If it isn't, it will become a reactionary, dictatorial, and fascist Arab country."

Like, ummmm, all the other Arab countries?
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 22:32 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
CPA Briefing 3-22-2004
  • An unidentified civilian was killed and eight Iraqi Civil Defense Corps personnel were injured this morning by a car bomb at one of the gates to LSA Anaconda. The dead civilian is believed to have been the driver of the car that exploded, and six of the wounded were taken by ground ambulance to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Balad. Two ICDC members were treated at a local hospital, and coalition quick reaction forces responded to the attack and have cordoned off the area.
  • Two days ago, coalition forces observed rockets landing in the coalition sector. They observed a vehicle flee the scene with his lights off and followed it to a nearby house. The unit searched the house and discovered artillery aiming stakes and weapons. The unit captured two Iraqi citizens, who tested positive with a vapor tracer.
  • More than 130 Iraqi police service officers are undergoing advanced forensic training. The officers departed over the past two days for the United Arab Emirates for a three-week training course provided by trainers sent by the government of Germany, which also donated forensics kits for each of the Iraqi trainees to use in the investigation of crimes here in Iraq.
  • Finally, in the south-eastern zone of operations, on Saturday a position manned by coalition forces at the Shatt al-Arab Hotel was attacked by Iraqi males who fired approximately 50 rounds in their direction. A quick-reaction force was deployed and captured two personnel currently being held for questioning.
  • On the first question, we were asked the other day whether we had any Iraqi generals in Jordan for training. We did have eight Iraqi future generals -- candidates for general officers who transited through Jordan on the way back from a course in the United States. Many of you are familiar with the Marshall Center that we have in Germany. At that place it’s an opportunity to bring generals from different countries together for the purpose of discussing how militaries that work in countries with civilian control of the military -- how they operate, how they set up their budgets, how they work the civil-military cooperation between the defense department and the military departments.
    We have started a new course -- the vicinity in the area of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. We had these future generals go back to the United States for some intensive training in the United States for that very same reason. At this location, at the National Defense University, they became exposed to the notion of how does the military operate with civilian control. What are the budgeting processes? What are the civilian- military relations, as I mentioned earlier? At that location, they saw it all happening. They were exposed to officers from other countries that live in that environment. They were able to use that opportunity while in Washington, D.C. to visit some of the different organizations such as the Pentagon, such as Office of the Secretary of Defense, office of the chairman joint staff.
  • Q Someone asked about an increase of targeting of Western hotels in Baghdad. And following that, there was a raid on a hotel in the Karrada district last night which houses many Western journalists. Someone, apparently, was arrested. I wondered if you could tell me anything about it and what might have been recovered. GEN. KIMMITT: I think at this point what we’d like to do is let that investigation carry itself out for a few days before we comment on it.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 2:23:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
More B.S. From Arafat
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Wednesday that he opposed attacks on Israeli civilians, amid calls by militants to avenge the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. "I am against any attacks on civilians, on Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. We want peace and we seek peace in the land of peace, the holy land," Arafat told reporters at his battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Arafat has frequently denounced Palestinian bombings inside Israel but has avoided condemning attacks on Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whom many Palestinians consider part of Israel’s military occupation. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, within Arafat’s Fatah Movement, have joined other Palestinian militant groups in calling for bloody revenge over the assassination of Yassin in Gaza Monday. Arafat has declared three days of mourning for Yassin.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi || 03/24/2004 12:29:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hard to hear him over the gurgling of the filter and aeration bubbles...he said something about wanting a piece of the holy land
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Rooters... I hear they're gonna open a merchandising site. They anticipate their new catch-phrase will be a big seller:

Rooters: We suck harder.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 12:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Whattsa matter, Yasshole? Being dead bad for business?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Mebbe we should chip in for one of these and send it to Ramallah... attached to a JDAM.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Wednesday that he opposed attacks on Israeli civilians, amid calls by militants to avenge the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. "I am against any attacks on civilians, on Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. We want peace and we seek peace in the land of peace, the holy land," Arafat told reporters at his battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

What I'm actually hearing is: "I, Arafart, am afraid for my life."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  LOL .com. I'm gonna order several gross.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm gonna order several gross.

Disaffected college student, eh? ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Survey Finds Iraq Doctors Abused Patients
Iraqi doctors were forced to cut off ears, falsify reports on torture and participate in other human rights abuses during Saddam Hussein's regime, a survey of physicians there found.
Yes, but it was free health care.

Fewer than 10 percent of the 98 doctors surveyed said they had performed such abuses, but their responses indicated they believed human rights abuses by other physicians were not uncommon. The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
And be widely ignored by the "mainstream" media.

About half the respondents said they believed other Iraqi physicians were frequently forced to amputate ears as punishment and falsify medical reports.
"Wasn't me, it was them other doctors!"

Seventeen percent said they believed doctors were frequently forced to remove organs from dead and living patients without consent. A current Iraqi official agreed with them. Dr. Amer al-Khuzaie, deputy health minister in Baghdad, said Saddam Hussein ``tried everything to terrorize the Iraqi people and he used mean and brutal methods to oppress the people. One of these methods was the use of doctors to cut ears and tongues of opponents and army deserters, and other illegal and unethical practices.'' ``The aim of doctors is to end the suffering, but in Saddam's time, the opposite happened,'' al-Khuzaie said. ``Most of the doctors conducted such practices under threat and they feared for their personal safety. Doctors who refused to do such things were imprisoned or tortured.''
The survey was conducted in June and July by the Boston-based research and advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights. The results are based on questionnaires and interviews with doctors in two cities in southern Iraq. The abuses the doctors discussed occurred from about 1991 to last year.
Stopped last year, huh? I wonder why that happened?

``This happens in totalitarian regimes, and it wasn't surprising that doctors were forced to do this,'' said Dr. Lynn Amowitz, who helped conduct the surveys. Earlier this year, some 1,778 survivors of medical experiments in Nazi Germany received checks from the proceeds of Holocaust lawsuits. New surveys of the victims showed the extent of torture-like experiments, some involving sterilization, injection of infections diseases and unnecessary amputations, were more widely practiced than previously known.
Baath Party = Nazi Party Lite. A little more time and Sammy could have been a contender.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 12:08:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So what does Amnisty International have to say about this?

Hello? Hello?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Well at least the work was done by professionals
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Baath Party = Nazi Party, without the warmth and humanity
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#4  and snappy sidecar motorcycles of Doom™
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  There's one more live patient whose testicles kidneys organs need removing. Unfortunately Saddm's in U.S. custody.
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 14:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Iraqi doctors were forced to cut off ears, falsify reports on torture and participate in other human rights abuses during Saddam Hussein's regime, a survey of physicians there found.

Human rights abuses. Well. Will Jimmy Carter still say that removing Saddam was a Bad Thing? Or is it only bad because GWB did the deed?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Who's next? Israel's Most Wanted
From Haaretz, edited for the hit list:

The order of priorities on Israel's shadowy list of most-wanted militants can be altered in an instant, shifting in response to major terror attacks, anxiety or ire from Washington, the emotional winds of the Israeli public, and chance opportunities to strike at certain figures. This week the list changed shape again, with the assassination of the man at its top, Hamas founder and overall leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Checked him off.

In one stroke, another crucial element of the Middle East equation was shaken.
Yassin's standing as the founder and overall leader of a powerful, well-armed, and violent movement has sparked fears that the spiral of military escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will now apply to assassinations as well, with Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah all potential targets.
In frank imitation - and contempt - of the U.S. campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, Hamas on Tuesday began handing out playing cards showing Israeli officials whom it said would be targeted. Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have been prominently mentioned. Moreover, in an effort to stress that all Jewish Israeli politicians are fair game, the image of leading Israeli dove Yossi Sarid - arguably Sharon's most consistently vociferous critic - also appeared on the cards. "This shows how little Hamas differentiates between Israeli figures," says Haaretz Arab affairs commentator Danny Rubinstein. "From the standpoint of Hamas, they're all in the same boat."
To Hamas, the only good jew is a dead jew.

At this point, after well over 100 Palestinians have been killed in targeted assassinations since the beginning of the intifada, who heads the list of Israel's most-wanted? Given the fluidity of the myriad of considerations that go into its composition, the list is difficult to pinpoint, but among the likely candidates are the following, according to Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel.

-- Hamas co-founder and current Gaza leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, 56. A pediatrician by profession and until the Yassin killing, the movement's chief spokesman, Rantisi was the leader of the more than 400 Islamic militants exiled to Lebanon in late 1992 by then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Missile-firing IAF helicopters struck his car last June, but he survived with a leg wound.

-- Hamas Gaza military wing commander Mohammed Deif, about 40, suicide bombing mastermind and heir to pioneer Hamas bomb maker Yihya Ayyash, who was assassinated by Israel in 1996 with a bomb-rigged mobile phone. Until the current wave of attacks against the leaders of Hamas's higher-ranking political and religious echelons, Deif had been Israel's most-wanted fugitive for years. The survivor of at least five IDF assassination attempts, was seriously wounded and may have lost an eye in a September 2002 air strike in which two militants riding in his car were killed.

-- Senior Islamic Jihad leader Abdullah Shami , target of an air strike last October, two weeks after the Jihad sent a woman suicide bomber to attack the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, killing 21 people. In the IAF attack, a missile fired at Shami's house missed its target, destroying the neighboring structure and wounding a number of its residents.

-- Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar, in his 50s, a surgeon by profession, a senior official of the political echelon and second only to Rantisi as spokesman for the movement. In September last year, IAF warplanes dropped a bomb on Zahar's home, killing his son and a bodyguard, lightly wounding Zahar in the leg as he stood at the front door. Some 25 others were injured in the strike, including Zahar's wife and daughter.

-- Ismail Haniyeh, about 40, former head of Yassin's office. A leader of Hamas's political echelon, he was injured in an air strike last year that had Yassin as its target. In the past, Israel jailed Haniyeh for three years for running Hamas's security wing.

-- Hamas politburo head Khaled Mashaal. Currently based in Syria and viewed as beyond Israel's reach for the moment. The botched 1997 attempt on Mashaal's life threatened Israel's diplomatic relations with Jordan. The incident forced the Netanyahu government to release its highest-ranking security prisoner, Sheikh Yassin, in negotiations brokered by the then-infrastructure minister, Ariel Sharon.

-- Deputy political bureau head Moussa Abu Marzouk, also based in Syria. U.S. authorities detained Abu Marzouk in 1995 on suspicion of having set up and used ostensible charities in the United States in order to mobilize financial and political support for Hamas. U.S. authorities deported him to Jordan in 1997. Last year, the U.S. government designated Abu Marzouk as a Special Designated Global Terrorist Entity, along with Yassin, Rantisi, and Mashaal, freezing their assets and barring financial transactions with them.

-- Hamas weapons explosives and manufacturing director Adnan al-Roul

-- Sheikh Ibrahim Hamed , head of the Hamas military wing in Ramallah.

-- Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, based in Damascus. Heir to Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shkaki, who was gunned down by Mossad agents in Malta in 1995. In 2002, a British report said that Sharon had ordered the Mossad to move Shalah to the top of its hit list.
Place your bets.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 10:07:46 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Israeli's, of all people, should not be discriminating like this. Hit 'em all.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/24/2004 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Moreover, in an effort to stress that all Jewish Israeli politicians are fair game, the image of leading Israeli dove Yossi Sarid - arguably Sharon's most consistently vociferous critic - also appeared on the cards.

The probable apologist-for-terrorists reply would be rather Spain-like: "No, Sarid is a target now only because of the killing of Yassin."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  What? Where's Saab Erakat? Boy, given my druthers, he'd be on the list! Okay, okay, I know he's just a spokesidjit, but he really really pisses me off.

I hope we get him in a two-fer when he's gathering the thoughts of one of the real killers so he can spew on CNNBBCABCCBSNBC.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  has sparked fears that the spiral of military escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will now apply to assassinations as well

whata maroon! As I read the list, they've already tried to hit almost everyone on the list. They are just getting better at it now.

I suppose the "downward sprial" meme allows them to avoid having to acknowledge the obvious.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#5  On my planet Oxygen theft is a capital crime.
Posted by: Marvin || 03/24/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#6  My pick. Rantisi. Number one with a bullet (or a missile)
Posted by: Denny || 03/24/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Man, the IDF sure misses a lot. They've already tried multiple times for almost every target on this list.
Posted by: gromky || 03/25/2004 1:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Georgian President Issues Sensational Warning
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made a sensational statement today. According to him, there is information that Ajarian leader, Aslan Abashidze, is planning to invite mercenaries to Ajaria. The president told Aslan Abashidze not to dare to bring even a single Chechen to Ajaria.
"There has also been information about some attempt to hire mercenaries abroad and bring them to Ajaria. My advice to Aslan Abashidze would be not even to think about it. Even if one person gets in from anywhere, for example a Chechen - they have also been looking for people in Ukraine - or any other mercenary who will act against the authorities of Georgia, it will spell a very tragic end for everyone, even if just one person gets in. Even if just one person gets in, I will find out about it. Therefore, I would strongly advise everyone against doing it," the president said in a televised statement.
Posted by: TS || 03/24/2004 9:47:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For the rest of you who have never heard of Ajaria before this moment:

Georgia
Government: Two autonomous republics, Abkhazian Autonomous Republic and Ajarian Autonomous Republic; one autonomous region, South Ossetian Autonomous Region. Strong executive (head of state, who is also chairman of parliament) with extensive emergency powers in civil war period of 1992-93. Cabinet of Ministers selected by head of state; power of prime minister secondary to that of head of state. Unicameral parliament (Supreme Soviet, 225 deputies) elects head of state and has legislative power, but is plagued by disorder and fragmentation. Judicial branch, weak in communist era, under reform in early 1990s.

Politics: Twenty-six parties represented in parliament in 1993, of which most seats held by Peace Bloc, October 11 Bloc, Unity Bloc, Green Party, and National Democratic Party. Shifting coalitions back individual programs. Reform slowed by influence of former communists, gradually dispersing. Union of Citizens of Georgia formed in November 1993 to support Eduard Shevardnadze government programs. Shevardnadze remained most popular politician in late 1994.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 11:21 Comments || Top||

#2  B - I didn't see what office George Soros holds... did I just miss it? After his hefty financial input into their last election process to instigate phony imported street demonstrations in order to remove Shevardnadze, I figured surely they'd make him Honorary People's Republic of Georgia Deity or something. Geez, wotta buncha cheepskates! My sympathies, Georgie!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 11:26 Comments || Top||

#3  You'd think a guy with Soros' kind of money could afford to buy a country that's in a little better shape.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Soros is buying Hessians?
Posted by: Speed Reader || 03/24/2004 13:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Early B(l)oomers
Israeli forces stopped a young Palestinian boy wearing a suicide bomb belt from crossing into Israel from the West Bank, police said Wednesday. Troops were talking to the boy at a checkpoint south of the town of Nablus, trying to persuade him to take off the belt, witnesses said. The military sent sappers to the scene to prepare to defuse it, police said.
They got the belt off him safely and EOD is taking care of it. Now saying he's about 12, don't know if he was to be a bomber or just trying to smuggle it to someone else. Bastards.

Witnesses said the boy appeared to be between 10 and 12 years old. Israel radio said he could be as young as eight.

This is a particularly despicable trend, given that another kid was found with a live bomb in his bag just the other week...
Posted by: Lux || 03/24/2004 9:27:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey Kofi, Jacques, etc. anybody think sending pre teens to do suicide booms is worth condemning? I didn't think so.
Posted by: mhw || 03/24/2004 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Gives a whole new meaning to Baby Boomer.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/24/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  How brave of the Paleos to have their children do their fighting for them.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi || 03/24/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  I read somewhere that the bomb was rigged and ready to explode via a mobile phone, it looks like they were planneing to use the kid as a payload-deliveryvehicle.
The subhuman cruel and godforsaken pieces of s***.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 03/24/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Not to say that I would be receptive to doing this, but what would really be a twist would be to send the kid back to the handler with a bomb belt with a hidden remote control trigger and a small listening device. Once the belt was removed and the kid was out of harm's way, the device is sent a signal, and BAROOM!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Now we know why they call you Bomb-a rama.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/24/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Lil, That is their operation. Run and hide behind women and children.

I wonder if his parents had 'sold' him to his handlers in exchange for E.U. 'funds'......
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Point of order! Did the UN/EU/NATO/CAIR/DNC/ABC/XYZ/EIEIO condem the use of children as human bombers? I though not. Friggin losers!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 03/24/2004 12:35 Comments || Top||

#9  so much for arab machoism...sending little boys to do a soldiers work..how pathetic the paleos are these days..
Posted by: Dan || 03/24/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Curse on Paleos, but why isn't this repeated use of children reported in main media?
Posted by: marek || 03/24/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||

#11  You Freeper bastards, it's a different socio-economic culture. We have 16 year olds working at McDonalds selling deathburgers, what's the difference?
Posted by: AntiGum || 03/24/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#12  The difference is you can choose not to buy a deathburger.
Posted by: Rafael || 03/24/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#13  AntiGum:

How dare you call us "Freeper bastards?" We may be bastards, but by gum, we're Rantburger bastards, and you best get that straight! I suppose you're the sort of person who goes around the Ohio State campus in blue and gold, or yells "Go Yankees!" at Fenway Park.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 14:55 Comments || Top||

#14  AntiGum, you might have noticed the folks that eat the deathburgers do so by choice, in fact they pay to eat the deathburgers, billions of folks pay to eat the deathburgers.

I know its a difficult concept, some people want to think for themselves, might want to do things you disapprove of, but that's life so climb down off your high horse and grow up.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/24/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||

#15  Mmmmmm! Deathburgers! My favorite! Extra onion on mine, okay?
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#16  MAKE MINE ANIMAL/PROTEIN STYLE PLEASE!!!
Posted by: THEO || 03/24/2004 18:56 Comments || Top||

#17  Antigum, I invite you to take the taste test between a Happy meal and a bomb belt. First, take a bite of this burger. Good. Now put on this bomb belt, stand on the other side of that 3 foot thick concrete barrier and get ready to appreciate the DIFFERENCE!

You assholes once laughed when the Reagan administration wanted to classify Ketsup as a vegetable, but you can't tell the moral difference between french fries and a french financed bomb belt? You've friggin' LOST IT.
Posted by: Ptah || 03/24/2004 19:44 Comments || Top||

#18  You Freeper bastards, it's a different socio-economic culture. We have 16 year olds working at McDonalds selling deathburgers, what's the difference?

What's the difference? You're, like, serious?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 21:17 Comments || Top||

#19  You might want to vist this forum where I post regularly :

Some comments from this site :

(Quote:)
Ahmed Yasin spent half his life persuading innocents to die and kill other innocents. I will shed no tears...but his violent death is as regrettable as his violent life.

Targetted assassinations are illegal, and will not help find peace.
---
There is something you cannot into that brain of yours,

There is NO INNOCENT ISREALI each and everyone of those people are terrorists for taking the Land of Palestine, the Land of Muslims.
-----------------
Then there was this gem from the moderator :

Notice: Any post showing disregards/disrespect to Shahid Sheik Ahmed Yassin will be deleted without second thought. It is not necessary that each and every one will agree with his political concept, philosophy and religious zeal. Academic and logical discussion will be welcome.
-----
well there are INNOCENT isrealis because i came to know that most of the isrealis who are in palestine , they used to live in europe, but they were forced by their government( the first people who wanted to start isreali country) to leave europe and they were promised to be given everything in ARDH AL ME3AAD( Palestine) some of them didnt want to leave europe but their leaders forced them by killing their kids, kicking them out of work and burning their houses....... well i watched this series in Ramadhan on Al Manar called ( A shattat) this series shows how the isreali started getting in palestine and how jews use nasty ways to reach their goals........
---
No its not Shiekh Ahmed Yassin who taught us. It is our Quran. Its our religion and add to that its our Duty to Die for our land. Go read history, did any occupation succeed ? If it did, then this only means that the people werent ready to pay blood for land.
That is why we have full confidence Palestine will be for Palestinians and we have full confidence the isrealies will not stay on that land (they have two options, either go out alive or stay under the ground dead)
------
may i answer instead of Him ,

If ther consider palestine as their Land , And they are Living in Palestine , YES they deserve to be Killed , ANd they WIll ,

One Of Two , they must chose one ,

leave palestine or DIe,

ANd now If they do not Want to , What Shall we DO , WE have NO options , except death
--

and lots more lunacy here. You guys might want to join and kick some scrawny Arab butt. The interesting ones are the Religion and Politics.

http://www.englishsabla.com/forum/index.php?s=



Posted by: sanwin || 03/24/2004 21:52 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
British army dog survives ’contract killing’
An English springer spaniel with a talent for sniffing out guns, ammunition and explosives in Iraq has survived a suspected contract killing, a British newspaper reported. Blaze, who is serving with British forces in southern Iraq, escaped with only cuts and bruises after the would-be killer roared up in a car, "deliberately swerved" and hit him, The Sun said, quoting military sources. "There is no doubt that this was a deliberate assassination attempt," a senior army officer was quoted as saying. "We are convinced that there was a price on Blaze’s head." The incident took place on a road in Al-Zubayr, south-west of Basra city, the headquarters for 8800 British troops who occupy oil-rich southern Iraq, the newspaper said. Blaze is among several sniffer dogs brought to Iraq by the British army to help find weapons and explosives. Each costs £25,000 ($A61,600) to train. His handler, Lance Corporal Steve Dineley, 24, said: "I was gutted when he got run over and so were all the guys. We were very angry but he has made a great recovery."
Posted by: TS || 03/24/2004 9:09:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Arrrggghhh! It doesn't say WTF the DID about this! Hunt this weasel down and flay it alive. Then get really pissed off and...

Mucky's gonna be devastated.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  FILTHY INFIDEL BEAST!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Muslims hate pigs, jews, and DOGS!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 03/24/2004 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  ...Actually, I'm told that the Izzoids truly hate our working dogs - supposedly the dog is considered an unclean animal in Islam (though that may be one of those 'interpretation' issues they seem to keep having so much trouble with) and the fact that they are so widely used and so successful puts their turbans in a windsor knot..

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/24/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Even though they bred salukis for hunting (weird animals, actually, but faster than anything I've ever seen, including greyhounds!), you are dead-right that Islam considers dogs unclean. In SA I never met a single Saudi who owned one or cared for them at all. Half the expats living in Dhahran Camp ("Little America") had dogs, however. Must've really chapped their Saoodi neighbors when they let 'em take a dump on the Saoodi's lawn, heh.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 10:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Too bad the Zoroastrians didn't win out over Islam:

The world as created by Ahura Mazda was perfect, with no evil. The first man Gayo Maretan had no disease, suffered no hunger and thirst. The cattle, dogs, horse and birds were the existence of the good creation of God. Then Ahriman the evil one attacked the world and caused evil to appear, along with diseases and old age and finally death. Night began to fall (before the sun was at the noon position - fixed, so there was no time).

Ahriman Awk Bar, y'all.
Posted by: James A || 03/24/2004 12:30 Comments || Top||

#7  they hate everything.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 12:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Nothin' wrong with a little 'fertilizer', .com...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#9  They're just angry cause Shelties are so good at math.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 14:14 Comments || Top||

#10  "It's a message . . . Luca Brazzi sleeps with the puppies."
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#11  I had to look up 'salukis'. Some cheetah/dog cross? Nope, looks like a dog. But I found this site; http://plaidworks.com/obi-wan/ You've got to see this.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/24/2004 17:29 Comments || Top||

#12  that lady look like terrist.
im glad the dog is recovery and that iraqi should be lock up. by the way im shock you guys surprised that a contract killing is put on an animal. that happen million of time every year in the meat industry.
Posted by: muck4doo || 03/24/2004 17:44 Comments || Top||


Paratroopers remember the jump into Iraq
Great story that I’ve psoted about before. Here are some quotes:

The March 26, 2003 jump was recently classified as a combat jump and the paratroopers who participated in it will now be able to stick their chests out with pride showing off the gold star, or “mustard stain,” that crowns their parachutist wings.

“The mood in the plane was really serious. It looked like everybody had their head in the game,” Allen said. “I was concentrating on what I was supposed to do once I got on the ground.”

Sixty seconds later, the Globemasters, empty of their cargo, were climbing out of the valley and the Iraqi army had a thousand more American Soldiers to deal with.

“When light came and I saw the country, it was nothing like I thought Iraq was going to be; it was beautiful,” Allen said.

“The Peshmerga guys brought us firewood, rice in an old oil pan, bread and cheese, and some mystery meat,” Holbrook said. “We didn’t care what it was; we were hungry.”

“I was impressed by their generosity,” Deaconson added. “They had nothing to give, but what little they did have, they would always share. I mean, here they are bringing us bags of bread and tea when we started running low on water and MRE’s.”

“Every time I see pictures of it or hear someone talking about it, I just keep thinking, ‘what a day!’” exclaimed Allen.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 8:51:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great read.

When I read that the Peshmergas were next to the paras in the dark & they didn't know it, I wondered what the Peshmergas must have thought when they woke up & saw those guys on the scene.
Posted by: Rawsnacks || 03/24/2004 10:10 Comments || Top||

#2  From time to time I watch Kurdish TV. One day there was a kind of mini-documentary with no speech, only songs who was broadcast in a loop. In it there were images of partisans marching in the mountains, of demonstrators apparently confronting the police and of a sky full of jumping paratroopers.

It seems the Kurds remind you.
Posted by: JFM || 03/24/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Women’s Rights? Afghan Women Go to School
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Weapons caches were found on Monday near Bagram and Shkin. Tuesday, near Gardez, an Afghan citizen turned in a cache with more than 400 recoilless rifle rounds and 100 mortar rounds.

The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, announced on Sunday that the US will fund construction of 152 new schools and refurbishment of 255 more within the next six months. He made the announcement at a ceremony opening the new school year, the third since the collapse of the Taliban regime.

An estimated 5.5 million students are expected to return to the classroom this year, 1.5 million more than last year. And the percentage of girls attending school grew to 36 percent last year and that number is expected to further increase this year.

Since 2002 the United States has constructed and rehabilitated over 200 schools, reached 16,000 students through accelerated learning programs, trained 2,100 teachers, and distributed 10.3 million textbooks.

Today is the grand opening of the Afghan National Army Recruiting Station in Ghazni City. Tomorrow we will celebrate the grand opening of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khowst. This is the 12th PRT grand opening and four more PRTs are scheduled to open in the next several months.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/24/2004 8:40:49 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US will fund construction of 152 new schools and refurbishment of 255 more within the next six months

And that's in addition to the daycares that Osama bin Laden has built...

You know, the one's Al Qaeda Patty Muraay sez he built...

Wait...

He didn't build any did he?
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  And this is what the explosives which blew up on the train in Iran were prolly for: destroying progress in Afghanistan.

I am no fan of the Afghans, whether Karzai or the warlords or the sycophantic and mercenary nature of its "fighters", but this makes me swallow very hard and feel ashamed that I haven't ackowledged how much the troops have accomplished outside of Kabul. Awesome. There are insufficient stories on this progress (of course!) and I've been remiss in seeking out such info. Simply Awesome!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 9:14 Comments || Top||

#3  and im sure Karzai is no fan of you, dot com.

Im no fan of the NY Yankees, myself.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Okay... another reason Karzai wouldn't care for me is cuz I don't share his sartorial splendor.

Geez, make an open honest comment and whaddya get? Snickering derision, it seems. Don't worry, I don't make the same mistake twice. And I hate Steinbrenner - he's in the same special "Mysterious Physics" category as Trump: People who are so vacuous they should've already imploded, by now.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 10:54 Comments || Top||

#5  oh, cmon, ya think i dont get snickering derision for my open and honest comments? Hell this sites full of snickering derision. You can take it, I know you can.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, we reserve snickering derision for people we like. People we don't like get mocking derision.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#7  "oh, cmon, ya think i dont get snickering derision for my open and honest comments? Hell this sites full of snickering derision. You can take it, I know you can."
Yeah, but at least ya made us scroll back a few posts before we got what you meant. Nice work!
Posted by: War46 || 03/24/2004 22:46 Comments || Top||


Troops killed in Wana not martyrs: JI
"No virgins for you!"
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) seconded on Tuesday the decree that Pakistani troops killed in the Wana operation were not martyrs, while the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) demanded the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government resign because it failed to stop the operation.
They're referring to the operation against the foreigners near Wana, who were maintaining a terrorist organization on sovreign Pakistani soil...
The JI and the Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JD) arranged conventions in connection with the Pakistan Day at Ichhra and the Minar-e-Pakistan respectively. Addressing the JI convention, Jamaat Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad said, “The tribesmen and the mujahideen are the martyrs, while Pakistani troops are not because they are operating on US commands.” He said hatred against the Pakistan Army is growing among people because of the Wana operation and President Musharraf, who is acting on the American agenda, was responsible for that. “There is need of an honest leadership in Islamabad, who can lead the Ummah and make decisions in the national interest”, said Qazi.
Either that, or Pakland needs to suppress foreign infiltration and rebellion within its borders...
Qazi, who is also the acting president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said the MMA would launch a mass movement to remove the US-backed rulers.
I thought they were a mass movement to remove the US-backed rulers?
He also said secularism was spreading in Pakistan on an American agenda to eliminate jihad from society. “Quranic verses (about jihad) are being excluded from the syllabi, the education sector is being handed over to the Aga Khan Foundation and Hindu customs like Basant are taking root in Pakistan,” he said. NWFP Senior Minister Siraj-ul-Haq blamed the governor for the Wana operation. “The governor is bypassing the elected government and the Wana operation is continuing under his supervision”, he said. Mr Haq said that only the MMA government could stop the destruction in the Tribal Areas.
Infiltration and rebellion would seem to be a national problem, wouldn't it?
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 8:17:06 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is Basant? Pakistan, by the way, is full of "Hindu" customs, such as caste division -- despite the fact that caste is supposedly anathema to Islam.
Posted by: closet neo-con || 03/24/2004 9:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "Quranic verses (about jihad) are being excluded from the syllabi"

Very good.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Pakistan, by the way, is full of "Hindu" customs, such as caste division

Geeebus, the best of both worlds.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 10:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Pakistan Army is an instutition to Protect Pakistan from invaders/terrorism---not to terrorise its own population. But on the contrary its deeply engaged in pleasing by Bush what ever means, resulting in loss of lives on both sides. My sympathise though lies with those tribals, who are putting their lives at stake in order to prove their point i.e. when the attrocity crosses a limit then resistance begins.....I wish the tribals the best of luck, and a victory (Amen)
Posted by: Allah Rakha || 03/24/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Mee to. Thoos tribles are resesting very guud. Kiling Pasistam Army maks mee fell hott whenn ovurr limet. Wheen artrasitis com tribles poimt figth guud. Alahn Ackbr.
Posted by: Abu Trible || 03/24/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||

#6  i two am bother by the corns. Allan helped me thru my irritashuns.
Posted by: Abu geritol || 03/24/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#7  #4 - You also have an obligation to the rest of the world not to export war, rebellion, sabotage, and terrorism. If you don't carry out those obligations, your country eventually ends up at war, your country occupied, with an outside party guiding you into new ways -- whether you want to go or not.

All other nations -- at least in theory -- make laws that apply to all their citizens, not only to certain geographical areas. What justification can there be for the Waziris being exempt from the laws that apply to the rest of the country? The fact that they disagree with them? The purpose of laws is to establish a civil society. Just because your traditions condone murder and pillage doesn't mean you can continue practicing them, even if you disagree with the laws agains them. Eventually, your neighbors will become tired of being murdered and pillaged and kill you.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 13:52 Comments || Top||

#8  I comment there fro I am

Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Sorry about the last, (naw) I was wrestling with a Deo.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:24 Comments || Top||


4 die in police post attack as rockets hit Peshawar
Four people, including two policemen, were killed in an attack on a security post in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday while four rockets were fired into Peshawar, officials said. According to a senior security official, unidentified attackers sprayed bullets at a police post in Bannu. In a separate attack on Tuesday, one person was injured when four rockets were fired into Peshawar, one striking a police headquarters and another landing near the provincial governor’s house. “Four rockets hit Peshawar and once civilian was slightly wounded. There are no other casualties,” Peshawar city police chief Tanveerul Haq said.
Do you get the impression Perv's Talibs are getting out of control?
It was not known if the attacks were a backlash to an offensive mounted by Pakistani forces against up to 500 Al Qaeda-linked militants in semi-autonomous tribal zones along the country’s northwest border with Afghanistan.
Just like the MMA said there would be? I wonder how they knew...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 8:06:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Protesting the price of AK's?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/24/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  beginning to look like full fledged civil war in NWFP, no?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  tu3031
Peshwar! Peshwar!
Citzens Arrest! Citzens Arrest!

Posted by: G. Pyle || 03/24/2004 10:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Had Perv's Talibs been under control, I hadn't noticed.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 03/24/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||


Three Pakistani soldiers killed in Kurram attack
Unidentified attackers killed three soldiers and injured four in a Tuesday morning rocket attack on a military camp to Kurram Agency as fighting eased in encircled areas near Wana.
All the Bad Guys beat it, did they?
Hek's boys finally hit something with a rocket?
Must have been aiming at something else.
I dunno. If they hit something, they were probably Bugtis...
Military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed the attack in Kurram Agency but declined to give details of the casualties. The attack took place at 4:30am on Tuesday at Taritang area, 40 kilometres north of Parachinar in Kurram Agency. Local journalist Ali Afzal told Daily Times from Parachinar that a jirga of the Masozai tribe had vowed to track down the attackers and award them “exemplary” punishment. “The tribe promised to destroy the attackers’ houses and kill them with rockets if the attackers were found,” the journalist quoted jirga elders.
Oh, yasss... I'm sure they'll be found and punished. I have great confidence in the tribals...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 8:03:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooooh! We can't comment like that too often! It looks like the San Francisco flag or something...
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL! vErrY DIscoNcERtiNg! But funny!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#3  LMAO!!!
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi || 03/24/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#4  And there shall be but one Editor per article.
Posted by: God || 03/24/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  My eyes! Arrrrrrrhh!
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 13:53 Comments || Top||

#6  LOL - But the San Francisco Flag would have Pink.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/24/2004 13:56 Comments || Top||

#7  there's a green now? who is green ??
Posted by: Dcreeper || 03/24/2004 14:07 Comments || Top||

#8  That would be me.
Posted by: Steve || 03/24/2004 15:07 Comments || Top||


Musharraf urges people to fight terrorism
President Pervez Musharraf called on Pakistani people to continue to root out terrorism as the country observed its national day and an operation to hunt down Al Qaeda loyalists continued on Tuesday.
Kinda late in the game for that, isn't it?
For the second year in a row, a traditional military parade displaying the country’s military might, including heavy weaponry and nuclear-tipped missiles, was cancelled for reasons of cost.
That military might doesn't come cheap, does it? And if you actually try to use it, it costs more.
However, Musharraf did perform an investiture ceremony to decorate military officers and personnel, some posthumously. The current chief of the country’s nuclear programme, Samar Mubarakmand, was among the prominent personalities recognised for services to the nation. One of his predecessors, Abdul Qadeer Khan, recently admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad. Pakistan Day commemorates a declaration made on March 23, 1940, which led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947. “I ... urge all Pakistanis to remain steadfast and united to achieve the ideals and aspirations for which our country was created,” Musharraf said in a statement to the nation. “As we commemorate this day we have to remember that the struggle must go on, particularly against those forces that aim to deflect us from our cherished goal of making Pakistan a modern and progressive Islamic welfare state.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 7:57:22 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya wanna fight terrorism? First things first: shut down those madrassas and replace them with something less poisonous.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:09 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Hamas Chief Backs Off Threats Against U.S.
Hamas has no plans to attack American targets, the group's new leader in Gaza said Wednesday, hastily backing off earlier threats against Washington following Israel's assassination of its founder. Abdel Aziz Rantissi told reporters in Gaza that his group's militant activities are aimed solely at Israel. "We are inside Palestinian land and acting only inside Palestinian land. We are resisting the occupation, nothing else," Rantisi said. "Our resistance will continue just inside our border here inside our country."
"So you don't have to send any B52's to flatten me, okay?"
Hamas had issued veiled threats against the United States — something it occasionally rarely does — after the death of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in an Israeli air strike on Monday. It issued a statement saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
We'll be equally honored to kill all who do.
President Bush said after the statement that the United States takes the threat seriously.
Rantissi's toast.
Rantisi was named the new leader of Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold on Tuesday. The group's overall leader, Khaled Mashal, heads its political bureau in Damascus, Syria.
... where he gets his orders.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 7:38:13 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It issued a statement saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible."

Sounds like someone gave him a clue: if he wants to find out first-hand what real American backing of an assassination looks like, just keep threatening us.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2004 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Hamas musta shit their collective pants when Dubya said he would take all terrorism seriously.

Dave D: Fuck 'em. They issued a threat. Doesn't matter to me if they stop threatening or not.

Hamas is in the crosshairs.

If Islamists' past history is any indicator, there are already plans in the works for attacks from these folks. It is time to hit Hamas and put these folks out of our misery.
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Buck-buck-braaawwwk!
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 8:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Yup - youse guys are right - too late, RantSissy. You're a deader and oh sooo deserving! Eat a Mav, mofo.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 8:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Believe me, Badanov, it don't matter to me, either. Hamas is dead meat, and I suspect at this point the only reason we don't go in there ourselves and clear them out is that Israel, having decided the job needs doing, is more than capable of doing it itself.

Looks to me like the Israelis have decided, en masse, to give up any hope that there will be any "negotiated settlement" that's worth a crap, and to act accordingly.

And so, it appears, have we. It's about time.
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/24/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Rantsissy (lol) has no plans to attack American targets. Oh.. that's nice. Does your 2nd in command feel the same way? Could you tell us who that would be, please??

Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Bwahahahahahaha:
"17:02 U.K. orders Bank of England to freeze assets of five senior Hamas members, including new leader Rantisi"
From Haaretz-flash
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 03/24/2004 10:16 Comments || Top||

#8  "UK Chancellor of Exchequer Brown announces assets frozen for five senior Hamas members, calls on rest of Europe to follow suit. Brown heads international task force on terror financing."

And the Debka-Files
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 03/24/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Woot! Woot! That's both welcome and extraordinary news, EV! Very cool... Thx, UK! wish they would do this to every known terrorist asshole in the world. Yesterday. RantSissy's beyond obvious, so even the timid can follow suit.

Thx for the post, EV! All this good news is, uh, unusual!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#10  i read this to say that they will let the other groups attack the US - but indications are that they are encouraging those groups to do so.
Posted by: rkb || 03/24/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#11  It really doesn't matter what they say. Does anyone believe them? They'll hit any target they can. Reasons? We don't need not stinking reasons!
Posted by: Spot || 03/24/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#12  I wonder: would Rantisi like to see a Tomahawk up close? As in sailing through his front door?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/24/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#13  the 'no American assissination' policy may have came from Damascus where the 'political' leader of Hamas has his 'office'
Posted by: mhw || 03/24/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#14  Debka speculates theyre divided on this. In fact Debka implies that creating divisions within Hamas was largely the reason for offing Yassin in the first place. Sounds reasonable to me.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 03/24/2004 17:03 Comments || Top||

#15  LH, I can follow that lin of reasoning.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL || 03/24/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||


"They deserve death, and we deserve life"
by Claudia Winkler, The Weekly Standard. EFL.
IN BETWEEN ERUPTIONS of exceptional violence that propel the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back to the front pages, life goes on in the Palestinian Authority. Friday sermons, in particular, go on, and every Friday at noon, one of them is broadcast live on the radio and shown on the PA’s single TV channel. It’s worth tuning in from time to time. Non-Arabic speakers can do this thanks to the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute, which posts its translations of items from the Arabic media on its website. Because of MEMRI’s work, we can sample the hate speech characteristic of extremist Islam.

Thus, Friday before last, on March 12, the Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris used an example from the life of the Prophet Mohammed to explain why the Jews must be destroyed. When it came to eliminating the Jewish "cancer" from the city of Medina, the prophet got his orders direct from God. . . . History repeats itself, explained the imam. Once again, the Jews, characterized by "miserliness and cowardice," are the terrorists. "They deserve death, and we deserve life, because we are the people of Truth." Sheikh Mudeiris, MEMRI notes, is paid by the Religious Affairs Ministry of the Palestinian Authority, as are his fellow Friday preachers. For a sampler of PA TV sermons from 2000 to 2003, see the special report by Steven Stalinsky. Read up on the education of children for martyrdom ("blessings for whoever has saved a bullet in order to stick it in a Jew’s head . . ."), the reconquest of Palestine for the purpose of establishing the Muslim caliphate with Jerusalem as its capital, the rewards that await the martyr ("he is saved from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in Paradise; he is saved from the Great Horror [of the day of judgment]; he is given 72 black-eyed women; he vouches for 70 of his family to be accepted to Paradise; he is crowned with the Crown of glory, whose precious stone is better than all of this world and what is in it"), the religious war against Crusader America, and more. Whatever the headlines on any given day, these are themes that are going to be with us for a long time.
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 6:42:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Palestine has perfected the Hate Machine. Nobody has ever been, nor prolly will ever be, more intensely and blindly and utterly saturated with hate. A singular success for human evil.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: TROLL || 03/24/2004 7:36 Comments || Top||

#3  You tell lies, troll. Of course, that is what your masters, Chomsky, Zinn, and Goebbels, have taught you to do. It's amazing what slaves and tools you pompous authoritarians are. You've debased yourselves so far you're not even human.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2004 7:44 Comments || Top||

#4  The more compu-slob posts, the weirder he gets.
Posted by: badanov || 03/24/2004 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Juuuuust a little outside.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 03/24/2004 8:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Anyone knows if it is legal to use the Second Amendment on trolls?
Posted by: JFM || 03/24/2004 8:59 Comments || Top||

#7  It soon will be JFM.
The lefty/bolshevik alliance has been whipping itself into a frenzy for years, with a constant escalation of its rhetoric into outright calls for violence and assassination. Sooner or later, this escalation must reach a critical point and take effect, probably quite suddenly.

This can end only way (badly for them) but their belief system is a fantasy ideology and the script must play itself out to a conclusion regardless of the consequences.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/24/2004 9:17 Comments || Top||

#8  AC - I believe your analogy is a very astute observation. Rings true. Funny how people won't make that leap over the obvious - that they must trudge through every single step, hit every pothole, and bounce off every obstacle enroute to a conclusion that was self-apparent long before. Sigh.
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 9:26 Comments || Top||

#9  By this point, he's just making me tired. I spend too much time dealing with him and not enough time posting or doing other things I should be doing.
Posted by: Fred || 03/24/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Just a thought...how about everytime Boris posts a link to his shit-site, just simply change the link to go to the real ADL? It looks like he is trying to gather hits to his place for Google purposes.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi || 03/24/2004 9:41 Comments || Top||

#11  ...just simply change the link to go to the real ADL?

Heh! Lil Dhimmi knows judo!
Posted by: snellenr || 03/24/2004 9:44 Comments || Top||

#12  #5 Juuuuust a little outside.

Hey! Obscure movie dialog is MY schtick!
Posted by: mojo || 03/24/2004 11:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Religion of peace my ass.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 03/24/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#14  Sorry, I should have told you that I'm crosstraining.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 03/24/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#15  "They can't do that to our trolls. Only WE can do that to out trolls!"
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Qazi to continue as Jamaat Ameer
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad is likely to continue as the JI Ameer according to the initial election party results, sources inside the JI told Daily Times in Lahore on Tuesday.
Comes as a surprise, doesn't it?
According to the sources, the initial election results show that Mr Ahmad is wining with a “heavy margin”, and other candidates, Liaqat Baloch and Syed Munawar Hassan have got some votes from Punjab and Sindh. More than 5,000 JI members cast their votes. The counting of votes will be completed on March 31 and the result will be announced on April 5, while the new Ameer would take oath on April 10 for the next term, said the sources.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 03/24/2004 6:48:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
"I say f*** him"
Heh. From "Healing Iraq", Zeyad surveys the varied reactions to the Yassin hit, from hysterics to disinterest to actual logic:

Our cook had the most interesting reaction. "How many young men did this @#%$ send to death by brainwashing and fooling them into carrying out suicide attacks? How many innocent people had he killed?" he shouted to the doctor, "And how many thousands of dollars did he get in his Swiss bank accounts by pimping on the Palestinian cause?". "If he was truly such a hero and a believer in Jihad how come he didn’t rig his wheelchair with explosives and blow himself up at some Israeli checkpoint? I say f* him".
We advised the cook to stay out of politics, at least for the moment, and stick to his task of scrambling eggs for us.


That says something about the Iraqi class structure, but I’m not sure what.
Posted by: mojo || 03/24/2004 3:04:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not sure about class structure - I'm not up on the current Iraqis' view on manual labor, etc... but I do think the cook is a bright spot in the dark! He sure hit several nails squarely on the head! "Pimping" - Lol! "Al Cook" for GC, heh!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 7:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe that people are people, with cultural (and yes, some biological differences) but for the most part, people act similarly and predictably, as human nature dictates.

However, but, - is it just me, or do Arab's, in general, seem incapable of empathy? They just seem 100% unable to understand to grasp the concepts of quid pro quo. Yassin killed. Yassin therefore got killed. It was justified when they did it to the Jews - but they seem truly shocked, befuddled, and clueless that if you dish it out, you should expect to be asked to eat it.

I know I'm not verbalising this well, but I see a real inability on the part of the Middle Easterners for introspection. Maybe its a Christianity-like, Western thing, rather than a trait of human nature.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  B - I'd say it's deeply cultural:
blame vs shame

The Islamic societies play the blame card - at all times and in every event. There is zero introspection required when one is never at fault - and it certainly has not been taught to them from childhood onward.

The "shame" societies, such as Christians and Jews and Buddhists (though it's not exactly shame, it's, it's, something inscrutably different, heh!) (BTW, anyone want to try Hinduism's inclinations for or against introspection?), all heavily depend upon instrospection to generate guilt or self-evaluation - and have taught a methodology from birth onward regards how to do it and why.

The differences, of course, are as stark as black 'n white. One grows. One is DOA at Day One.

That's my observation, anyway. I hope it actually applies to your query!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 8:33 Comments || Top||

#4  To paraphrase Faramir:

"Iraq must truly be a great realm, Master Zeyad, where breakfast cooks are such astute observers."
Posted by: Mike || 03/24/2004 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  well put! While I believe that all humans would flourish under democracy, I have to wonder if democracy, which relies on respect for the beliefs of others, can flourish under a culture of blame.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually, I think we'd all agree that the name of the game is that they must embrace democracy - especially the part of it that requires respect for all points of view - in place of their culture. A democratic system which enshrines the individual as the SOLE holder of power and rights, rights and power which are NOT transferred to any org to which the individual might belong on any given day, is the culture they must adopt. When they understand and address true individualism, the rest come easily. This is the real sticking point we have with the EeeeWwww o'philes. They never quite "got it" and wandered off into collectives. Probably a cultural fear thingy. Who gives a shit? They're fuckin' wrong, heh! And they will never catch up until they get it. Sorry - too windy this AM!
Posted by: .com || 03/24/2004 8:53 Comments || Top||

#7  funny- I was just thinking about this and I agree with both .com and Mike.

Mike makes a fair point about the cooks. But it still doesn't change the underlying basis for the problem: a significant cultural difference that makes them incompatable...ie: Why do they hate us/what can we do to improve the situation?? v/s Blame the Jews!!

But then I thought about it and decided that our own "new" left isn't really much different either. They have spent the last 20-30+ years blaming the white male establishment for every kid that decides to steal a car. There is no real introspection or call for personal responsibility there either. Just a quick blame of the boogeyman.

Sorry to go off on a thought bubble..Ultimately .com nailed it on the head re: the concept of those who never quite got it - and none of them will ever catch up until they do.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 9:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Until the Arabs throw out the literal & extremist interpretations of the Koran they will never embrace democracry as we know it. Their religion is based on 'submission to god' as framed by Mohammad's writings. I only hope that the Iraqis become some sort of beacon for democratic change in the ME. If some sort of moderation can be brought to Iraq culturaly w/real economic progress, over the next decade that influence will start to spread in the region. Either way I think this will be a long, long road.
Posted by: Jarhead || 03/24/2004 9:28 Comments || Top||

#9  It has a lot to do with a religion that preaches that not only should those who are non-believers (in the one true faith) not be perceived as equal, but that they should be enslaved and/or killed. Drama queens and dishonorable society that they have, it's all hysteria
Posted by: Frank G || 03/24/2004 9:32 Comments || Top||

#10  sadly, other Iraqi bloggers who are typically pro American took the 'he was just a cripple' tack or the 'it was the wrong time' tack
Posted by: mhw || 03/24/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Pals supported Saddam so naturally the Iraqi's don't have a lot of use for the Pals now that they are free. Just as Kuwait had no use for the Pals after the first Gulf War. Hopefully it won't be long before the Iranians also have no use for the Pals.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/24/2004 11:14 Comments || Top||

#12  B - you're right. By western standards, failure to learn from painful experience is one of the symptoms of mental illness. But they live by a different set of standards where what they wnat it to be is more real than what it is.
Posted by: Mercutio || 03/24/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#13  but I see a real inability on the part of the Middle Easterners for introspection.

I've thought a lot about this recently. Its tied up maturity as both individuals and societies and the concept of responsibility. When western societies went through change from it is god's will to it is my/our responsibility. You see a similar evolution in individuals. Kids and adolesecents love to blame others - 'Its not my fault!'. Most people grow out of this and figure out that they are responsible for their lives and there is also a collective responsibility across community, country, etc. Those who don't remain commited socialists. Churchill summed it up when he said 'Every reasonable man is a socialist at 20 and a conservative at 40.' Muslims and socialists suffer from the same problem - arrested personal/cultural development.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/24/2004 18:54 Comments || Top||

#14  phil

well said!
Posted by: B || 03/25/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||


U.S. Military Frees 272 Detainees in Iraq
The U.S. military released 272 security detainees Tuesday from Abu Ghraib prison, once Saddam Hussein's most notorious lockup. Many smiled or flashed V-for-victory signs, while others shouted angry complaints.
Oh! You want back in?
In a carefully choreographed event, the prisoners were brought out in groups from inside the prison. Given $10 each toward the cost of their journeys home, they left in buses chartered by the U.S. military for Baghdad or the center of Abu Ghraib. Reporters taken by the military to witness the event were not allowed to interview the men being released. To the dismay of U.S. troops, some detainees, who mostly wore Arab robes or tracksuits, shouted a few words to the waiting reporters. Most refused to give their names or say which part of Iraq they came from or why they were detained. "I just came out of hell," screamed one. All those who spoke claimed innocence. "I never knew what I was accused of," said Yasser al-Badri.
"Wudn't me! I wuz framed!"
Tuesday's event followed the release of 168 prisoners on Sunday without any publicity. The issue of security detainees held in coalition custody has been a sensitive one since the fall of Baghdad on April 9. Many detainees were captured in security sweeps by coalition forces searching for suspected insurgents, their financiers or arms traders. Iraqis say many arrests were arbitrary and based on tips from informers with ulterior motives, like settling old scores. Many Iraqis complain they are unable to locate detained relatives and friends. Recently, the coalition has posted the names of detainees on the Internet, but most Iraqis have no access to the World Wide Web.
... and there are no kind souls in Iraq who do have access to the internet with access to printers.
Those who succeed in tracking down detainees often complain they cannot visit them. Essick told reporters Tuesday that a visitation center at Abu Ghraib was being set up, but acknowledged some inmates could go for long periods without a visitor. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, said last week that many former detainees claim to have been tortured and ill-treated by coalition troops during interrogation.
Which AI bought immediately.
Methods often reported, it said, included prolonged sleep deprivation, beatings, exposure to loud music and prolonged hooding. "Relatives of those held inside still wait outside (Abu Ghraib prison) for news of their loved ones, and lawyers are still turned away," the rights group said. Detainees are supposed to be told within 72 hours of their arrest the reason for their detention. Additionally, a review board has met daily since Feb. 17 with a view to releasing the innocent. Two U.S. Army officers helped detainees get off Army trucks Tuesday that brought them from inside the high-walled prison complex to a secure area outside. Some detainees shook the officers' hands and at least one embraced them. Some detainees were elderly. Some looked bitter, even angry, others were silent. One detainee with a silver beard claimed to have been beaten, but refused to give his name. "Thank you! thank you!" some younger detainees told the officers and soldiers in English. Many carried copies of the Quran supplied by prison authorities. Some waved pink and green prison-issue towels, while others used them as turban-like protection against the sun.
"See ya soon, boys!"
Kind of a confused set of reactions from a group of people who were uniformly mistreated, isn't it?
Posted by: Steve White || 03/24/2004 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  -- but most Iraqis have no access to the World Wide Web.--

No internet cafes???? No one would help???
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 03/24/2004 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  What does this "World Wide Web" thingie have to do with the Intenet?
Posted by: joe || 03/24/2004 3:23 Comments || Top||

#3 
It looks like our guys forgot to issue each released detainee a chill pill.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/24/2004 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  "Many Iraqis complain they are unable to locate detained relatives and friends. Recently, the coalition has posted the names of detainees on the Internet, but most Iraqis have no access to the World Wide Web."

… and the detainees walked away (in tact I might add). Not like the good old days of Saddam, when the response to questions about a detained family member’s legal status was, “Oh, he was guilty, all right… third mass grave on the left… visiting hours were over two hours ago…”
Posted by: Hyper || 03/24/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  ah...quit whining - if Sadaam had gotten you, he'd have just shot you. At least we let you go.
Posted by: B || 03/24/2004 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  exposure to loud music

Examples of torture include Human League's 'Fascination' and Spandau Ballet's 'This Much Is True' played on continuous loopback...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Damn. I just seriously dated myself...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 13:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Raj I thought the Spandau Ballet was leveled in '44? Did they rebuild it?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 14:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Shipman - Well, yes, sort of...
Posted by: Raj || 03/24/2004 14:29 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
US Helicopters Helping to Battle Wazibillies and Foreign Pests
From Jihad Unspun, so you know it's true...
... up to five Cobra attack helicopters were used, along with 15 Pakistani gunship helicopters in the operation. They were being dispatched from the Wana and Jandwa airbases. It should be noted that American helicopters have flown many times from across the border during the last five days. .... A senior Pakistan army officer has said that an American helicopter fired on a car and wounded the three passengers in it. .... an American helicopter fired 12.7 bore machine gun on the vehicle which wounded the three men who were from the tribe of Mdakhel tribe. .... One of the most gruesome incidents involved the deaths of thirteen people from the same family. These people were traveling in a van to a safe place away from where the battle was raging. The passengers included children of 2, 3 and 5 years of age. The helicopter gunship killed all thirteen of them while the rest of the passengers of the van were seriously wounded. More than a dozen other cars in the vicinity were also damaged. .... Pakistan called in F-16 fighters for the first time Saturday, after using F-7’s for the past 5 days and heavy artillery was also used again. ....

Unknown attackers blew up the bridge connecting Wana to Meran Shah. All traffic on the Wana Meran Shah road has come to a halt. The Pakistan army has put the Meanwali airbase on red alert for possible use of that base for operations against the Mujahideen. According to Pakistani Propaganda minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, .... American helicopters were indeed being used in the operation but there no American servicemen in them, contrary to information we have received for other sources. .....
The new Apache Mk. 2 helicopter drones make their appearance ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/24/2004 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL. In other news the US cruiser Belgrano was recently lost off the cost of Argentina.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I saw on MSNBC's news crawl this morning that US helicopters have been attacking targets on the Pakistan side of the border. I saw something similar on Fox over the weekend. The line there involved a Pak general saying that an Apache attacked targets on the Pak side of the border due to a "navigational error." He then offered to sell Brit Hume a bridge . . .
Posted by: Tibor || 03/24/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#3  If the Fox newperson didn't say "Poketa, poketa, poketa, " then it wasn't true
Posted by: Shipman || 03/24/2004 19:28 Comments || Top||



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