The beat-up video camera was delivered to Afghanistan in a box, and picked up by two clean-shaven Arabs posing as journalists. They met with Osama bin Laden before leaving on their mission to kill the mujahedeen hero Ahmad Shah Massood. Five years after the Taliban opponent was slain by a bomb hidden in the camera, a former Taliban official on Saturday described how Al Qaeda staged the killing two days before the Sept. 11 attack on America hoping to strike a fatal blow to the pro-US Northern Alliance.
Waheed Mozhdah, director of the then-Taliban Foreign Ministrys Middle East and Africa department, also showed The Associated Press a copy of what he said was a signed letter dated Sept 13, 2001, from bin Laden to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, urging him to launch an offensive against the alliance. In the letter, written in Arabic, bin Laden said that if America failed to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks, it would decline as a superpower. But if the US started fighting, he added, its economy would suffer a major blow and it would face the same destiny as the Soviet Union whose ill-fated 1980s occupation of Afghanistan heralded its disintegration.
Few details have emerged previously about how Al Qaeda plotted to murder Massood, the Lion of Panjshir who fought Soviet troops and led resistance to the Taliban regime. At the time, his Northern Alliance was under siege, barely clinging to a mountainous northern corner of the country. But the US military campaign after Sept. 11 to punish the Taliban for giving refuge to bin Laden propelled Massoods supporters to power and the bearded commander has achieved iconic status. Giant portraits of him adorn government offices and public spaces in Kabul, and the Sept. 9 anniversary of his death is marked in grand style. The attackers apparently were North African Arabs traveling on forged Belgian passports who managed to pass through the front line between the warring Taliban and Northern Alliance carrying their bomb. One of the Arabs died in the bombing. The other, who survived the blast, was shot dead by enraged bodyguards.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
My hands are tied behind my back and my mouth is taped shut, an annoyed bin Laden reportedly said.
"But if the US started fighting, he added, its economy would suffer a major blow and it would face the same destiny as the Soviet Union whose ill-fated 1980s occupation of Afghanistan heralded its disintegration."
He clearly believes his own press. He should have read "Charlie Wilson's War", and he would have realized just how much help they had.
"The other, who survived the blast, was shot dead by enraged bodyguards."
No virgins for him, huh? I believe all technicalities count.
"The death wasnt reported for six days, in fear of undermining the Northern Alliance."
I clearly remember hearing of his death(?) on Sept 10, 2001 and thinking it was a bit of a loss for Afghanistan. Who knew it was a precursor of sept 11.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/12/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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#3
IFF America does NOT respond or retaliate, IT IS WEAK AND NO LONGER A WORTHY WORLD POWER, i.e. is GEOPOL and DOMESTICALLY VULNERABLE TO ATTACKS AND ANARCHIES; iff America does mil respond or retaliate IT WILL DETRIMENTALLY EXPAND AND EXPAND, USING UP SCARCE RESOURCE AFTER SCARCE RESOURCE, UNTIL IT IMPLODES UPON ITSELF. IOW, Radical Islam's agenda is to succeed and achieve under both or any other tertiary premises.
SOME OF Americas closest Nato allies have abandoned Washington on the key battleground of the War on Terror, the bloody struggle against Islamic militants for control of southern Afghanistan. Five years after the world stood shoulder to shoulder with America in the aftermath of 9/11, The Times has learnt that many of the countries that pledged support then have now ignored an urgent request for more help in fighting a resurgent Taleban and its al-Qaeda allies.
Turkey, Germany, Spain and Italy have all effectively ruled out sending more troops. France has not committed itself either way, but the military sources in Kabul said that there were no expectations that the French would contribute to a new battlegroup, especially now that they were providing a substantial force in Lebanon.
500 troops is 'substantial'?
They have rejected an appeal from General James Jones, the American Supreme Allied Commander Europe, for 2,500 more troops to fight alongside American, British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers. The 26-nation alliance has not volunteered a single extra combat soldier.
I'm surprised the Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians aren't chipping in.
Britain, which has 5,500 troops in Afghanistan, most of them in the south, has told its Nato partners that they must do more if the line is to be held against the resurgent Taleban. The conflict has cost the lives of 33 British troops since June.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe they'd send help if things threateded to get less PC due to the lack of manpower . . . .
#2
...You know, if one condiders this from another viewpoint, it's positively scary.
Remember 'tooth-to-tail' - the ratio of warfighters to support troops. In the modern-day US Army it's about 50/50; that is, there's one support guy for every guy carrying a rifle, driving a tank, or flying a helicopter. My understanding is that in the European services it's not anywhere near that good - I keep hearing numbers in the 70/30 range, 7 support guys for every combat troop - and that's for the best of them. I suspect in armies like Belgium's and Holland's, it's closer to 80/20. With that in mind, and taking a look at the current strengths of the continental NATO armies, I think you could make a good argument that those calls are being ignored because there really may not be anybody else left to send.
After the Soviet collapse, a lot of the NATO armies became armies in name only - they do not even come close to approaching the capabilities (in terms of mechanization, firepower, air support and communications) of the most basic Army National Guard infantry platoon. We forgot that as soon as the Soviets were'nt there to menace them any more, some of our Allies found reasons to all but disband their armies while we still paid for their defense. Well, we're paying a little bit more now.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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#3
Not a comfortable thought, Mike Koslowski. Obvious, now that you've said it, but not at all comforting.
Question for any of you who might know: are we getting many volunteers from foreign countries who understand the need to fight, but can't do it properly in their home armies? Along the line of Yanks who signed up with the British or Canadian armies early in WWII, or my mother's first husband, who joined the American Navy as soon as his family was settled in Australia after escaping Nazi Germany, and who ending up polishing brasswork all the way to Japan?
#4
Well,Mike, I don't know if your info is correct. But, I do know that if it is, and these socialist bastards have basically disarmned themselves, we, the US, is NOT going to come to their defense again. We've done enough. If these fools are determined to commit suicide, so be it.
#5
Interesting comment Mike. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't do the same in Europe: leave some support stuff there (hospitals, air transport, etc) and get the rest of our fighting troops out of Western and Central Europe. If Romania or Poland want to host us, fine, we'll put something there, but in return they have to be serious in their 'tooth-to-tail' ratios or forget it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2006 15:01 Comments ||
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#6
In the modern-day US Army it's about 50/50;
?
Are you sure Mike? That sounds way optimistic. The Divisional Slice was at about 50,000 15 years ago, I can't imagine that it's improved that much?
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, on Monday criticised the Sudanese government for its attacks on rebels in Darfur and its refusal to accept a UN takeover of peacekeeping in the country. Annan briefed the 15-member UN Security Council on the "deeply dismaying reports of renewed fighting, particularly in North Darfur".
He said: "Thousands of Sudan armed forces have been deployed to the area, in clear violation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. Even worse, the area has been subjected to renewed aerial bombing. I strongly condemn this escalation. The government should stop its offensive immediately." The Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in Nigeria last May by Khartoum and the main Darfur rebel movement. Two other rebel groups have refused to sign the deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
Just another nail in Koffing Anus's - and the UN's - coffin. The UN is less than useless - it's actually in the way most of the time. If debate's the only weapon the UN will allow itself to use, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that any "resolution" the UN passes can be safely ignored, and any treaty violated. Words, unless backed by armed might, mean nothing to tyrants and dictators.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/12/2006 17:29 Comments ||
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Britain will face have to deal with up to two million Islamic terrorists unless there is an end to 'demonising' of Muslims, the leader of the most influential Muslim organisation has said.
Nice country you've got here. Be a pity if anything happened to it, say what ol' chap?
Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said.
The warning from the chief of the Muslim Council of Britain - the grouping that Tony Blair's Government has considered the leading voice for Muslims - came amid rising tensions over the increasingly suspicious attitude to Muslims in the rest of society.
Dr Bari declared: "Some police officers and sections of the media are demonising Muslims, treating them as if they are all terrorists, and that encourages other people to do the same. If that demonisation continues, then Britain will have to deal with two million Muslim terrorists, 700,000 of them in London. If you attack a whole community, it becomes despondent and aggressive," he added.
The message from Dr Bari appeared to be aimed at muting criticism from police officers and broadcasters and newspapers who have questioned widely-held Muslim attitudes and at police officers who have called for greater surveillance of Muslims. It appeared to contain a measure of exaggeration - according to the last national census, there are fewer than 1.6 million Muslims in the country.
But by suggesting that a majority of British Muslims may be prepared to support or engage in terrorism the Muslim Council chief may undermine figures who have tried to ward off attacks on Muslims.
His view appears to mock Scotland Yard (officials) who declared after the 7 July bombings last year that "Islamic and terrorist are two words that do not go together
His view appears in particular to mock Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick, who declared after the 7 July bombings last year that "Islamic and terrorist are two words that do not go together".
In recent weeks a number of senior police officers have called for 'profiling' measures that would pick out Muslims for greater attention in security checks. Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist chief Peter Clarke said last week that thousands of Britism Muslims are now being watched, and last month Met superintendents' spokesman Chief Superintendent Simon Humphrey said it was "wholly unacceptable to portray the Asian community as victims".
At the same time a series of highly-publicised surveys have shown that a high proportion of people are reluctant to sit next to a Muslim on public transport or would feel unhappy to have a Muslim neighbour.
Dr Bari said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that he did not understand why "the whole of our diverse community" is being criticised. "We want to isolate that bad people and put them in the dock," he said. "But we all have to work together to do that: police, politicians, the media and the Muslim community."
Security profiling at airports "reinforces a negative stereotype", he added.
And it keeps messing up operations, dammit!
"When the IRA was blowing people up, the entire Catholic population of Britain was not demonised, so why is it happening to the Muslim community?" he asked.
Another prominent Islamic figure also said that extremists had been falsely represented as typical of Muslims. But Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui of the Muslim Parliament said the responsibility lay on Muslim communities to expose and end the threat.
Dr Siddiqui said: "Muslim failure to act robustly against extremist ideology provides ammunition to those who wish to pursue the Neo-con agenda by demonising Muslims and creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred within society." It is up to moderate Muslims to reclaim Islam and for a new generation of young Muslim activists and leaders to emerge who love both their country and their religion."
Most mosques have remained immune to change and faith schools need to become more open to the wider society, he added.
#1
Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said.
Well then, we'd best take this expert's advice, shan't we? If some two million British Muslims represent a substantial risk of becoming terrorists, then we'd best deport the entire lot of them.
Isn't it time for governments to listen rather closely when Muslim leaders make threats of civil unrest and potential terrorist activity? Who would know better than these well-connected individuals? Take them at their word. Believe what they say and tell these rotters to sod off at the earliest opportunity.
Oh wait. Is the Muslim community at large protesting this improper characterization of their intentions by one of their putative leaders? Let's listen:
[crickets]
F&ck them and the horse they rode in on. Next flight out it is.
#3
Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said.
Pulling a pin of a grenade will cause it to explode, if it's the leverless type as these "moderate" bullies. So lob it back into Paki and other utopias.
#6
"Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said."
Well then, that would suggest that people are absolutely right to consider the lot of you potential or even likely terrorists, wouldn't it? Hard to see how it could get any clearer than that.
One option Westerners have, is to expel the Muslims who are living amongst them-- every last one-- and quarantine the Islamic world. Wall it off. No contact. You live in your world and we'll live in ours. You leave us alone, and we'll reciprocate.
That option sounds extreme right now; but if we really come face to face with millions of fanatical, hateful, destructive internal enemies who start acting on threats like this, that option is going to start looking very attractive, especially if the only alternative is annihilating the Islamic world.
Adopt our ways and make up your minds that you're going to get along with us on OUR terms, or you Muslims had best prepare to go home.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/12/2006 7:30 Comments ||
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#7
Dig a 2 million foot long burial trench.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2006 7:36 Comments ||
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Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said.
It's a rather easy transition actually, here are the words which can be uttered in either English, Standard Arabic, or Persian: "Great Britain, I divorce thee, I devorce thee, I devorce thee." There, done.
#10
"Britain will face have to deal with up to two million Islamic terrorists unless there is an end to 'demonising' forced deportation of all Muslims, the leader of the most influential Muslim organisation has said."
#15
The vast majority of terrorists are muslim. That's a hard, cold fact. If the majority were Swedes or Botswanans, we would look very closely at all Swedes or Botswanans. Until islam admits the problem is internal to the islamic "faith", and does something to change, we'll watch muslims VERY closely. If that ends up with the rest of the world killing 2M British muslims, so be it. Islam is like lawyers - if they won't police themselves, others will police them, and won't be nice about it.
Time for Blair to rescind the rights of British citizens to own private arsenals, up to and including RPGs. That way, the average citizen MAY be as well armed as the islamofascist thugs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/12/2006 17:52 Comments ||
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#16
Oops - next to last sentence should read "Time for Blair to rescind the restrictions on British citizens owning private arsenals"
PIMF
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/12/2006 17:53 Comments ||
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#17
"Time for Blair to rescind the rights of British citizens to own private arsenals, up to and including RPGs."
He might as well, OP - the mosques already have them. :-(
(And yes, I saw your correction.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 18:56 Comments ||
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#18
Treating all Muslims as if they were terrorists will encourage large numbers to become terrorists
Why? Does treating you well makes you treat others the same?
#4
Theories that Chavez is a three-peckered billy goat, plausible
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/12/2006 23:06 Comments ||
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He has to be taken out!
Don't listen to these guys, TMH. Hugo needs a nice long dirt nap, pronto! This maggot is talking about establishing Hezbollah camps in Venezuela. We need terrorist hotels in our backyard like we need more lawyers.
Non-Arab peoples in the vicinity of Iran could care less either about Ahmadinejad's threats against the US and Israel, or US led UN anti-proliferation efforts. In fact, they are aiding Iran in creating a regional power base. First, Central Asia, then the world. The destabilization effect of indulging Shiite power, would be catastrophic. Reliance on worthless UN sanctions, would license a future Homeland ICBM threat. We have the pretext; we have the means; but do we have the will?
...After an absence of many centuries, Iran is going back to Central Asia, or at least trying to regain a foothold in the region, which is politically, economically and strategically important for it and with which it has common cultural and historical roots.
In the early 1990s, immediately after the Soviet Union's breakup, Tehran launched a massive attack on the newly sovereign states in Central Asia, primarily Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, following its official foreign policy concept - export of Islamic revolution. It failed.
Still, it deserves some credit for being able to assess the situation impartially and abandon its attempts to export Islamic ideas to Central Asia. It also understood that the new states were interested first of all in developing economic cooperation with leading regional and Asian powers, especially if it meant attracting investment. But they were not willing to jeopardize their relations with the western countries, especially with Russia and the United States.
Iran's Central Asian policy under the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is based on these considerations...
#1
Will say again that iff and when the USA-West ever goes down for the count, the day after the marriage between Secular Socialist + God/Faith-based Islamist/Theo-Socialist will end. Incidents of nonconsensual emptying of bank(s) accounts + adulteries, etal. will likely occur before then.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/12/2006 8:12 Comments ||
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#5
Global Hawk Complete set £180.00
Now that's a deal, Mike. I'll order a bunch up and resell them to the SKors. Hellfire, I will sell 'em to the Norks through a straw man. I'll make a fortune.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/12/2006 11:23 Comments ||
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Article: Washington apparently fears a possible transfer of technology, analysts say.
My feeling is that the Koreans probably want to build it as well, which means technology transfers. That was what happened with the F-15K. I doubt we're going to go for that with respect to the Global Hawk. I think we have to assume that anything Korea gets, China may eventually get. Even the F-15's may have been overdoing it.
Muslims should be more critical of terrorism and nobody should pussyfoot around the link to extremism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. In a series of media interviews to mark the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Howard also urged Muslims to fully accept Israels right to exist and defended the invasion of Iraq. We shouldnt pussyfoot around. No decent, genuine Muslim would support terrorism, Howard told The Australian newspaper. We are not attacking Muslims generally but you have to call terrorism for what it is it is a movement that invokes in a totally blasphemous and illegitimate way the sanction of Islam to justify what it does.
Howard, who sparked an angry reaction in the Muslim community earlier this month when he urged them to adopt Australian values, said it would help if moderates on occasions... come out and be more critical of terrorism.
In a later interview with Sky television, Howard said an acceptance by Muslims of the right of Israel to exist and the establishment of a Palestinian state would remove one of the arguments used to justify terrorism. It wouldnt stop terrorism, but it would remove one of the arguments that is constantly used to recruit the young, in particular, to the terrorist cause, he said.
However, Muslim leaders said Howards comments fuelled intolerance, and warned attacks on Muslims had happened in recent weeks after the prime minister called for immigrants to do more to integrate into Australian society. Instead of constantly singling out Muslim people, he should be trying to promote cohesion, Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad told Reuters. Australia has about 280,000 Muslims, making up about 1.5 percent of the population.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Muslims would rather give up jihad and the death penalty for insulting Mo than recognize Israel...
#2
You know, for each country that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, or denies it like Iran, should cease to exist. Erase them from maps, recall any diplomats, kick out their diplomats, ensure they get no money and one hopes, erase them from reality. After all, turnabout is fair play right?
#3
Any land occupied by Muslims is dar-Islam. Once they have it, no Muslim can recognize any other sovereignty. Hence the claims on Israel, Kashmir-etc and Spain (Andalusia). Transient secular states like Egypt and Jordan might formally recognize Israel, but that can't last.
#4
Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the Cult to give up wallowing in hatred of Israel and Infidels. Apocalyptic Muslim Jew-hatred
#7
Once they have it, no Muslim can recognize any other sovereignty. Hence the claims on Israel, Kashmir-etc and Spain (Andalusia).
And the Americas. And Australia. And Antarctica.
Not the Moon, though. Ain't nobody every set foot on the Moon, according to Islam.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/12/2006 7:29 Comments ||
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#8
Not the Moon, though. Ain't nobody every set foot on the Moon, according to Islam.
Yet when astronaut Armstrong was wrongly(and long) rumoured to have converted to i-slam just because of hearing the sound of Azzan while on the Moon, they were almost dancing in the streets. The canard was propagated by 'em for over a decade. You cannot underestimate their deep rooted hypocrisy and duplicitious nature - anything that sounds glorious and praises them is simply acceptable. But you absolutely may not criticize!
#9
True. Allan hates those who ask too many questions. Like these:
Does the Quran define the word "Allah"? No.
Was the name "Allah" revealed for the first time in the Quran? No
Does the Quran assume that its readers have already heard of "Allah"? Yes
Should we look into pre-Islamic Arabian history to see who "Allah" was before Muhammad? Yes.
According to Muslim tradition, was Muhammad born into a Christian family and tribe? No
Was he born into a Jewish family or tribe? No
What religion was his family and tribe? Pagans
What was the name of his pagan father? Abdullah (Abd + Allah)
Did Muhammad participate in the pagan ceremonies of Mecca? Yes
Did the Arabs in pre-Islamic times worship 360 gods? Yes
Did the pagans Arabs worship the sun, moon and the stars? Yes
Did the Arabs built temples to the Moon-god? Yes
Did different Arab tribes give the Moon-god different names/titles? Yes
What were some of the names/titles? Sin, Hubul, Ilumquh, Al-ilah.
Was the title "al-ilah" (the god) used of the Moon-god? Yes
Was the word "Allah" derived from "al-ilah?" Yes
Was the pagan "Allah" a high god in a pantheon of deities? Yes.
Was he worshipped at the Kabah? Yes.
Was Allah only one of many Meccan gods? Yes
Did they place a statue of Hubul on top of the Kabah? Yes.
At that time was Hubul considered the Moon-god? Yes.
Was the Kabah thus the "house of the Moon-god"? Yes.
Did the name "Allah" eventually replace that of Hubul as the name of the Moon god? Yes.
Did they call the Kabah the "house of Allah"? Yes
Did the pagans develop religious rites in connection with the worship of their gods? Yes.
Did the pagans practice the Pilgrimage, the Fast of Ramadan, running around the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the head, animal sacrifices, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil, snorting water in and out the nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca, giving alms, Friday prayers, etc.? Yes.
Did Muhammad command his followers to participate in these pagan ceremonies while the pagans were still in control of Mecca? Yes (Yusuf Ali, fn. 214, pg. 78).
Did Islam go on to adopt these pagan religious rites? Yes. (Yusuf Ali: fn. 223 pg. 80).
Were al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat called "the daughters of Allah"? Yes.
Did the Quran at one point tell Muslims to worship al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat? Yes. In Surah 53:19-20.
Have those verses been "abrogated" out of the present Quran? Yes.
What were they called? "The Satanic Verses." Yes.
Was the crescent moon an ancient pagan symbol of the Moon-god throughout the ancient world? Yes.
Was it the religious symbol of the Moon-god in Arabia? Yes
Were stars also used as pagan symbols of the daughers of Allah? Yes
Did the Jews or the Christians of Arabia use the crescent moon with several stars next to it as symbols of their faith? No
Did Islam adopt the pagan crescent moon and stars as it religious symbol? Yes.
As Islam developed over the centuries, did it adopt pagan names, pagan ceremonies, pagan temples and pagan symbols? Yes
Is it possible that most Muslims do not know the pagan sources of the symbols and rites of their own religion? Yes.
Are they shocked to find out the true sources of their ceremonies and stories? Yes
Can Islam be the religion of Abraham if it is derived from paganism? No
What then is Islam? A modern version of one of the ancient fertility cults.
Is the "Allah" of the Quran, the Christian God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? No
Do the Jews say that the Muslim "Allah" is their God too? No
Then whose god is Allah? Paganism
#16
Oh, and Byzantine Orthodoxy holds that Mohammed was excommunicated and forced to leave an Orthodox monastery because of his evil views and anti-Christian behavior. That's when he went on his killing/conversion spree, and invented (i.e. co-opted) Islam from paganism and set up a cult to himself. That's also when he indulged his pedophilic bent.
#17
I certainly like the way Mr. Howard keeps prodding these shitbags. Telling them straight out...conform to the Australian culture or get the f**k out. Mcsegeek1, great post. These moonbats are truly the followers of a camp follower. A camel f**king, water pipe smoker of camel droppings, bedoin thug. Just desert rats. Stealing, back stabbing scum. Still the same today.
#19
Besoeker, surely that would be a Fosters, or do they have Castle in Oz??
Back to food and drink again (heh): perhaps the option for the fools would be wart-hog boerewors/biltong and six *Castles/Lions,
or they're out of here/everywherehere, (see Brit Islamic threat of today, 2 million pissed off mossies, that in my book is one in three here. Tool up, guys).
They pay their own tickets, take the whole family/tribe, one way, no return, back to uganda, south africa, tanzania, zimbabwe, pakistan or where-ever tf they came from, and they're not invited to the feast of freedom again.
Like, "Go get a halal-burger in mecca that your Brother jumped/enjoyed the night with last night,
just after the candle went out in his cave. Enjoy".
The moon god = taqiya = : bullshit.
*Castles/Lions, refreshing Southern African fishing beverages, usually cooled in the shallows, or trailed over the back of the boat.
The Augean stables is the blog of Mr. Richard Landes, and is an excellent read for its various take on several subjects, the types of societies opposed, France, the demopaths (a systematized notion of which the cultural marxists are only one latest avatar, cf my link to the AS yesterday), millenarism,... he's a froggie IIUC, though I've seldom seen his writing in french, except for that article (in english here).
As for the Al Durah fraud, he works with the Second draft website, and follows this major lie, the single most important propaganda coup of the paleos, a true 21st Century blood libel, which was made possible by the french msm establishment (the France 2 public channel GAVE away the rights to the footage to others teevees, something most unusual for an event which had so much media importance, and it is now covering up the fact everything that was said about the "missing footages" and all is totally bogus.... IE, the msm brass is covering the liars, paleos and french).
President Bush is invoking the memory of Sept. 11 to defend the war in Iraq, drawing protests from Democrats who say he politicized a national day of mourning.
In a prime-time speech broadcast on Monday's anniversary of the terror attacks, the president described a brutal enemy still determined to kill Americans, perhaps with weapons of mass destruction if they get the chance. "If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons," Bush said. "We are in a war that will set the course for this new century and determine the destiny of millions across the world."
His address came at the end of a day in which he visited New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon to honor victims of the attacks that rocked his presidency and thrust the United States into a costly and unfinished war against terror.
Bush began with a two-minute tribute to the "nearly 3,000" victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, but most of his 17-minute speech was devoted to justifying his foreign policy since that day. With his party's control of Congress at stake in elections less than two months away, Bush suggested that political opponents who are calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would be giving victory to the terrorists. And who 'suggests' otherwise? He didn't 'suggest' it; he stated it, as if it were a fact.
"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone," Bush said from the Oval Office, with a photo of his twin daughters and the American flag behind him. "They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad." But the WoT and Iraq are not linked?
While Democrats have been using public opposition to the Iraq war to argue for a change of leadership in Congress, Bush's prime-time address showed how he has been able to use the power of incumbency to command public attention and make his points. Democrats objected to the tone.
"The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had nothing to do with 9/11," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement. I swore there was a picture of Teddy in the photo archives.... "
There will be time to debate this president's policies in Iraq. September 11th is not that time."
Earlier Monday, dozens of lawmakers from both parties put aside the campaigning and joined on the steps of the Capitol to remember the attacks. Together they sang "God Bless America" as they had five years ago. "Partisanship would have been the one casualty the American people would have accepted following 9/11, but it remains the one thing the president refuses to give up," Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic effort to win control of the House, said after the president's speech.
Bush said Iraq is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush said. At least 2,670 U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq.
"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks," Bush said. "The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat.
"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I," Bush said. "But the war is not over, and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."
Although his administration has been criticized for trying to link Osama bin Laden to Baghdad, Bush made further comparisons between the al-Qaida leader and Iraq. The president quoted bin Laden as saying the battle in Iraq is the "Third World War" that could bring America's "defeat and disgrace forever."
"If we yield Iraq to men like bin Laden," Bush said, "our enemies will be emboldened, they will gain a new safe haven, and they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement. We will not allow this to happen."
Bush delivered a message to bin Laden and other terrorists who are still on the run. "No matter how long it takes, America will find you, and we will bring you to justice," Bush said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2006 08:59 ||
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Link ||
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#1
"Partisanship would have been the one casualty the American people would have accepted following 9/11, but it remains the one thing the president refuses to give up," Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic effort to win control of the House, said after the president's speech.
Honestly . . . is there anything I could say that could put it better than the way the author did? No matter what witty remark I make on the topic of irony, or stupidity, or doublethink, it won't top what was said there.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
09/12/2006 13:00 Comments ||
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#2
I'm all for partisanship. Lib Moonbats are an enemy, that if given the chance, would destroy my very way of life. I'm about as partisan about that as you can get.
#4
#3 tu: "So wht did Teddy do last night in memoriam, have a drink for every one of the victims?"
Isn't that what he does every night?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 18:58 Comments ||
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#5
"I'm all for partisanship. Lib Moonbats are an enemy, that if given the chance, would destroy my very way of life. I'm about as partisan about that as you can get."
Exactly.
I have a now ex-friend leftist who in a heated discussion asked me why those of us from the center to the right are so obstinate and fight so hard for our principles, and are so fearful of him and his fellow travellers. I explained to him that we had nowhere to go if we couldn't live our life here in America, and his crowd were literally trying to legislate or litigate everyone like me out of existence.
He replied that he just wanted to live in a society that matched his ideals. I pointed out to him that a) nearly all of what he wanted to do he could right here, if in a private rather than government fashion and b) there already was an entire continent - Europe - where he could live EXACTLY the way he wanted to, and it would be an easy task to simply move there and let me live like a real American here. I would have no objections and I don't mind having lots of countries with systems which allow people to vote with their feet, moving to a place that suits them. I'm not threatened by this, as long as said countries do not pose a threat to my life. And I certainly recognize that societies like Europe's - which is identical to what our nation would be if the Dems got their way on most issues - are no threat to a society like ours in the economic realm.
Then I pointed out that folks like me do NOT have a similar option, and that victory of his crowd would result in a sort of philosophical genocide of true-thread American culture.
I told him that he did NOT in fact simply want to live "his way." What his crowd wants is for there to be NO place on the planet where the descendant memes of the American Revolution hold sway, and wipe my 'evil' way of life out, permanently. They want to FORCE everyone on the planet to live in a society like France or Scandinavia, and make things like firearm freedom and free market capitalism outlaw activities.
He spluttered an angry reply which was largely an accusation that neanderthals like myself are the cause of all the problems in the world, which would be perfect if we'd only see and do things his way, and like, racism and sexism and poverty, 'n' stuff.
Like I said, ex-friend.
So yeah, those of us in the center and on the right are tolerant, in the truest sense, with you if you want to be a vegan, or an evangelical atheist who continuously spouts contempt for Christians, or piss all YOUR money (not mine taken in the form of taxes) away giving it to people who don't deserve it, or have sex with someone of whichever gender, or write articles about how much you hate capitalism and distrust business, or be a ridiculous pacifist in your day to day living, or decide you'll never own a gun. Not always agreeing, perhaps, but tolerant.
The left, on the otherhand, treats anyone who deviates even slightly from their big government/collectivist/celebrate moral entropy/extreme pacifism agenda as having committed mortal sin. (See Joe Lieberman.) They would grin as they outlawed then utterly wiped out much of what is traditionally American and then go home and maturbate to the thought what they had done that evening. "Live and let live" hasn't been part of their way for decades. They figure they have an absolute right to demonize and tax and regulate us, and we have no rights other than to always be polite, roll over and let them take our guns and tax us to death.
If the Repubs were simply to point out the FACT that the LLL's largely want everyone in the America to live just like the extinction-bound EUros do now, they'll croak the Dems forever. It can't be that hard to get that point across.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/12/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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Rule 1 in politics: test presumed facts, before you plead them as such.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller sent out a press release Friday as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on pre-war Iraqi intelligence. According to the press statement, the intelligence committee found "that the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq was fundamentally misleading."
As senators never use a one-syllable word when they can use a three- or four-syllable word, that's Senate-ese for: Bush lied.
The thing is, if you read the "Accuracy Report" -- as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., calls it -- then you see that, if the Bushies were wrong to read too much into intelligence reports that suggested Saddam Hussein had WMD and links with al-Qaida, Bush haters are wrong to argue that there was no reason to think those links existed.
News stories dutifully reported that the intelligence committee found that Hussein did not harbor al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and that Hussein had no known organizational ties to al-Qaida. It also found that some intelligence sources were complete frauds.
But the committee also noted that before the war in Iraq began, the CIA reported learning from credible sources of "at least eight direct meetings between senior Iraqi representatives and top al-Qaida operatives." In 2004, the Iraq Survey Group -- the group that reported that there were no WMD in Iraq -- found a document that showed, in 1992, Iraqi intelligence wanted to establish ties with bin Laden.
A top Iraqi intelligence official met with bin Laden in Sudan in 1995, although the report found that Hussein later directed the official not to give bin Laden the office, land mines and military training bin Laden sought -- which the West Virginian Democrat noted.
The press release did not report on a document on the bin Laden meeting found by the Iraq Survey Group that stated that Hussein wanted to "leave the door open to further develop the relationship and cooperation between both sides."
#1
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Saddam's quisling, sent out a press release Friday as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on pre-war Iraqi intelligence. According to the press statement, the intelligence committee found "that the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq was fundamentally misleading." What WMD? No WMD in Iraq! They've all been moved to Syria. Ask the eye doctor.
Five years after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, President Bush said Monday night the war against terrorism is the calling of our generation and urged Americans to put aside differences and fight to victory despite what he called a difficult road ahead.
America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over, Bush said. The war is not over and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious.
Bush, in a prime-time address from the Oval Office, staunchly defended the war in Iraq even though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
He said Saddams regime, while lacking weapons of mass destruction, was a clear threat that posed a risk the world could not afford to take. At least 2,666 U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq.
Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone, the president said. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us.
The address came at the end of a day in which Bush honored the memory of the attacks that rocked his presidency and thrust the United States into a costly and unfinished war against terror.
Visits to three locations
It was a day of mourning, remembrance and resolve. Before his address, Bush visited New York, Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon to place wreaths and console relatives of the victims.
Five years ago, this date Sept. 11 was seared into Americas memory, the president said. Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history.
Bush said that Osama bin Laden, the reputed mastermind of the attack, and other terrorists are still in hiding. Our message to them is clear: No matter how long it takes, America will find you and we will bring you to justice.
Bush said the war on terrorism was nothing less than a struggle for civilization and must be fought to the end. He said defeat would surrender the Middle East to radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.
We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations, the president said. Two months before the November elections, he attempted to spell out in graphic terms the stakes he sees in the unpopular war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.
Calling of our generation
He said Islamic radicals are trying to build an empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations.
The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict, the president said. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation.
Five years ago, the attacks transformed Bushs presidency and awakened the world to bin Laden and his band of al-Qaida terrorists. While the public has soured on the war in Iraq, which Bush calls the central front in the war on terrorism, the president still gets high marks for his handling of Sept. 11.
Terrorism has been a potent political issue for Republicans, and they hope to capitalize on it in the elections. GOP lawmakers are anxious about holding control of both houses of Congress.
Congress has approved $432 billion for Iraq and the war on terrorism.
The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad, the president said. He quoted bin Laden as calling Iraq the Third World War.
President admits difficult road ahead
Our nation has endured trials, and we face a difficult road ahead, the president said. Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country. So we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us.
While Bush urged resolve, the two co-chairs of the 9/11 commission accused the Bush administration and Congress of a lack of urgency in protecting the country. About half of their 41 recommendations to better secure Americans, offered in July 2004, have become law.
Where in the world have we been for five years? said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., who was joined by his Republican counterpart, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean. Hamilton spoke of failures to put first responders on the same radio spectrum so they can talk to each other during an emergency as firefighters and police officers who died in the World Trade Center could not in 2001.
The 9/11 attacks changed the political tone in Washington and abroad but only briefly.
Bush began the day in New York with firefighters and police officers at a Lower East Side firehouse. He stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck destroyed on Sept. 11. It was a cloudless morning reminiscent of the sunny day when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The mourners silently bowed their heads, at 8:46 a.m. and again at 9:03 a.m., marking the moments when the planes slammed into the towers. The attacks killed 2,749 people.
Bush spent time talking with the first responders about what they had been through the last five years, spokesman Tony Snow said.
The next stop was in Shanksville, Pa., where Bush and his wife stood without umbrellas in a chilly rain to lay a wreath honoring the 40 passengers and crew killed when United Airlines Flight 93 plowed into a Pennsylvania field. The terrorists apparently had been planning on crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol until passengers stormed the cockpit to take control.
Bush had an emotional meeting with relatives of the Shanksville victims. There were some people who were still clearly grieving about what happened five years ago, Snow said.
#1
The war is not over and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious.
Okay, he's got that part right. Why then, did he make Israel call off their dogs in the fight against Nasrallah?
Hamilton spoke of failures to put first responders on the same radio spectrum so they can talk to each other during an emergency as firefighters and police officers who died in the World Trade Center could not in 2001.
WTF?!? Yoo hoo! Is anyone in Washington DC and the FCC firing on more than one neuron? These brave people risk their lives for us on a daily basis and yet they cannot coordinate properly due to a fragmented communications spectrum? Heads should roll until this incredibly easy to solve problem is fixed.
He said Islamic radicals are trying to build an empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations.
Sorry pal. Wrong effing message. This is already the case in numerous Muslim majority countries. Why not name them? Why not begin getting the American people used to the fact that we are at war with Islam, not Islamofascism.
I know, I know. That is asking too much, but to pretend that places where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations. don't already exist is soft pedaling terrorism and that does no one any favors except our enemies.
#3
At the risk of attracting your considerable ire, Zenster, I believe W was not suggesting such places did not exist, but that the bad guys want to bring it to a 'theatre near you'. They already have several countries; that's not an "empire".
I don't care about bad things happening in third-world toilets; I do worry about those that want to bring their third-world toilet act to my country.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2006 9:24 Comments ||
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#4
Bobby, Muslims constitute nearly one quarter of this world's population. Here is a list from Wikipedia showing Muslim majority countries.
This is a list of countries which have a majority of Muslim people using data from the CIA World Factbook. Please note that sources differ on the state of Ethiopia. Arguably Ethiopia has about 50% Muslim citizens. At 45% Muslim, Guinea-Bissau nearly makes the list.
These nations total 11,883,889 square miles (20.6% of the world's land area), 1.4 billion people (22% of the world's population), and US$ 4.3 trillion of GDP on a purchasing power parity basis (8.7% of the world's GDP). Total world trade with these nations adds to over US$ 800 billion. Military spending totals over US$ 60 billion. Nations that are around half Muslim have an asterisk (*)
· Afghanistan
· Albania
· Algeria
· Azerbaijan
· Bahrain
· Bangladesh
· Bosnia and Herzegovina *
· Burkina Faso *
· Brunei
· Chad *
· Comoros
· Côte d'Ivoire *
· Djibouti
· Eritrea *
· Egypt
· Gambia
· Guinea
· Indonesia
· Iran
· Iraq
· Jordan
· Kuwait
· Kazakhstan *
· Kyrgyzstan
· Lebanon
· Libya
· Maldives
· Malaysia
· Mali
· Mauritania
· Morocco
· Niger
· Nigeria
· Oman
· Pakistan
· Palestine
· Qatar
· Saudi Arabia
· Senegal
· Sierra Leone
· Somalia
· Sudan
· Syria
· Tajikistan
· Turkey
· Tunisia
· Turkmenistan
· Uzbekistan
· United Arab Emirates
· Yemen
Do you care to speculate as to just how many countries on that list are places, "where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations."
Muslims already have an empire. Thank goodness it happens to consist of nearly all shitholes and societal cesspits. What they do have is sufficient land mass to conceal just about as many terrorist camps, training centers and hide-outs as they damn well please. Add in all of the petro-dollars we throw at these maggots and it assumes the proportions of a substantial threat. Especially when you consider how we continue to allow nearly free migration from the majority of these Islamic pissholes.
I'm not trying to lambaste you personally, Bobby. To the contrary, I enjoy your contributions here at Rantburg. All the same, Bush has been soft-pedaling Islam and terrorism for far too long. His adoption of "Islamofascism" is a good thing, however late in the game it may be. His restraint of Israel's thumping of Hezbollah was simply intolerable and utter hypocrisy to boot.
Bush has allowed his policy on terrorism to wander a bit much for my tastes. No, I am no sort of expert or adviser and, therefore, have zero say. I do not expect the man to be perfect, but I would like him to be consistent. While he may be, in comparison to his worthless democratic alternatives, his inconsistencies can still result in getting a lot of Americans killed. That is what I want to avoid.
Five years after the 9/11 attacks, New York's top counterterrorism official said the United States is facing the threat of home-grown terror.
The NYPD's counter-terrorism chief (said) the home-grown threat of attack was a serious problem and that while there had not been any successful strikes there had been thwarted local attempts.
The New York Police Department's counter-terrorism chief, Richard Falkenrath, told Reuters the home-grown threat of attack was a serious problem and that while there had not been any successful strikes there had been thwarted local attempts.
"We're very worried about the home-grown threat, it's very difficult to counter, it has very little signature, it's very hard to detect. And it's the most prevalent form of terrorism we have seen since 9/11," he said in a phone interview. He said a thwarted 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan had been "genuinely home-grown."
R.P. Eddy, director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Policing Terrorism, said the threat was widening from militant jihadists bent on large-scale hits like the September 11 attacks on the United States five years ago, which killed 2,992 people.
"I think the more likely terrorist in this country -- or as likely -- in the next five to 10 years, is a 17-year-old kid who self-radicalizes on the Internet and decides he is going to make a suicide bomb, which he reads about on the Internet, and goes up and blows up his school," he said.
"It's still terrorism and it's still a major threat," Eddy, whose center was created at the request of the New York police to provide counter-terrorism insights, told a Council of Foreign Relations security symposium in New York.
Eddy said extremists did not need foreign links to plan an attack because everything needed was available online. But Falkenrath said that while the Internet can help a person radicalize, there normally needs to be some sort of outside influence or event to trigger their path to extremism.
"I wouldn't characterize what happens as self-radicalization," he said. "There's usually a small group of people involved. It's not just one guy in a room, it's not like a pedophile. It's more like a group phenomenon."
"Some switch has to be thrown in the person before they start going to the Internet and using it as a radicalization system," he said, but added that once someone starts to radicalize it can happen very quickly.
"It can go from being just a disaffected, alienated member of the community, non-Muslim, to converting in a matter of months, starting to conceptualize a terrorist plot," he said.
Jack Riley, a homeland security analyst with RAND Corp., said that while the United States faced a home-grown threat, he cautioned it was not as severe as the local risk posed in Britain and Europe. The U.S. Muslim community is better integrated into society, Riley said. "It's not to say it can't happen, but I think it's a much tougher row to hoe in this country than it is in other parts of the world," Riley said.
But Columbia University and Council on Foreign Relations security expert Richard Betts told the council's security symposium the United States was likely to suffer some sort of domestic attack during the next five years.
"We should do all we can to prevent them, but we shouldn't be shocked if they happen," he said.
My word, a voice of common sense at Columbia Univ?? Must have been tenured a long time.
#1
ACLU > How dare Fascist Dubya + GOP try to stop the natural and legal right under the US Constitution to [violent/anarchic/terrorist]]freedom of expression being exercised by the home-grown domestic terrorists Dubya and only Dubya, the GOP-Right and only GOP-Right, caused or is responsible for. D *** DESPICABLE FASCISTS WHOM ARE NOT ALSO WELL-MEANING BUT ERROR-PRONE BELOVED LIMITED COMMUNISTS! The Left can't stop the violence becuz, laura dern it, its Dubya's fault as usual. Terrorists are freedom fighters, D***rn it, ergo is why the Ultra-Left USSR + Chicoms tolerated and accepted them as much as they do.
Ya mean like Oklahoma City? Atlanta Olympics? The Oklahoma college 'work accident'?
There's plenty of hate out there.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2006 6:08 Comments ||
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#3
and that would be a criminal matter.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2006 6:09 Comments ||
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It's going to happen sometime in the future unless we take an active role in stopping it. Here in California a young man admitted he attended a terrorists training camp AFTER 9/11 and with the financial support of his father. The ONLY reason we found out about Jr's training and ambition was that we were listening to phone calls from overseas to the U.S. BTW they both plead guilty.
PATTAN, Pakistan - Mohammad Sagheer says the year he spent in prison in Guantanamo Bay has ruined his life. He has lost his saw-mill business, his family has sunk into debt and his children have had to quit school.
Sagheer, 54, said he was with a Muslim missionary group, preaching in northern Afghanistan, when the Taleban were ousted weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Picked up by troops of an Afghan warlord allied with the United States, Sagheer soon found himself in US custody in Cuba. His family had no idea where he was.
A year later he was home but things have never been the same, said Sagheer in an interview in his mountain village in Pakistans rugged North West Frontier Province. In the first two or three months after my release, I was unaware of anything but later I realised my sons had borrowed a lot of money to track me down, said Sagheer, sitting on the floor of a small hut with his sons and other male relatives.
Sagheers family borrowed more than 1,500,000 rupees ($25,000) to pay people to search for him in Afghanistan.
Found a real good detective in Nigeria, they did ...
Struggling to pay back the debt, Sagheer was forced to sell a small piece of land and a house to cover some of it. But the people he owes money want the rest. The situation is worse because the lenders are demanding their money. I have nothing left except this house. If I sell it Ill have no shelter, said the black-beared man, sitting with his 7-year-old mentally retarded son, Shamsul Haq, on his lap.
If things werent bad enough, a huge earthquake struck parts of northern Pakistan last October, including Sagheers village. His main four-room concrete house was destroyed as well as a workshop where he kept a large mechanical saw with that he used to cut wood, his sole source of income. Now Im doing nothing. Im jobless.
Sagheer said he might have to join the ranks of the landless, hunting for work in the cities. If I cant find a way out, Ill sell my daughters house, repay my debts and move to a city to find work. It will be very hard for my children. Theyre so depressed but I have no option.
Thousands of Pakistanis from Sagheers home district of Kohistan and other parts of North West Frontier Province rallied to calls from clerics and went to help the Taleban fight US-led forces after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Just doing missionary work, they were, collecting for the old widows and distributing Qu'rans and rifles.
Sagheer was the first Pakistani detainee to be released from the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in late 2002. He said had had nothing to do with Al Qaeda but he supported the Taleban. They are good because they fight for religion, he said.
"They're pious men. Pious men with automatic weapons. How could I resist such pious men?"
But I cant say anything about Osama bin Laden ... hes an Arab. What can I say?
The less the better, doncha think?
He said he was beaten and tortured during detention in both Afghan and US centres. When I returned my health was good but now it has weakened because of all the tension. What happens to me next only Allah knows.
Which is why he gained weight in custody.
Hes hoping he can win some compensation and has filed a $10.4 million suit in a Pakistani court against the US and Pakistani governments for unlawful detention.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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He could make a lot more than that if he'd turn Osama over to US.
#3
Mentally retarded son, Sham Haq (ANOTHER HAQ in the news!) is the smart one in the family..good luck with the lawsuit (unless the environuts find out you cut down trees for a living...)
#7
What do ya dooooooooooo after you ruin your life?
Where do you goooooooooo?
Who do you knooooooooooow?
What do you dooooooooo after you've.blown.the.game?
/Mose Allison channeling
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/12/2006 11:13 Comments ||
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#8
"Thousands of Pakistanis from Sagheers home district of Kohistan and other parts of North West Frontier Province rallied to calls from clerics and went to help the Taleban fight US-led forces"
He's a missionary alright. Missionaries one and all. Missionaries from the death cult. Next time, kill them all.
#12
The difference between him and me is stunning.
he: waiting for government assistance.
Me, get out there and dismantle that shed, recover and repair the saw, build a new shed using the saw to cut wooden planks, get back in Business and earn a living.
He: a huge earthquake struck parts of northern Pakistan last October,
He" Sagheer was the first Pakistani detainee to be released from the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in late 2002.
Me, so you've been home four years now and what have you done for a living in the Past year? (Besides blame the Americans)
Get off your butt and get the saw working again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/12/2006 20:25 Comments ||
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Pakistan on Monday slammed descriptions of the Waziristan peace deal signed last week as a pact between the government and the Taliban. In her weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam stressed that the accord had been secured between the NWFP authorities and local tribesmen and not between the government and the Taliban, adding that any country, including the United States, could see the agreement, if they so wished.
The pact, she stressed, underlined Pakistans long-term commitment to ensuring that peace prevailed in the area. She also slammed as baseless weekend reports appearing in the American media that a US special unit has the authority to enter Pakistani territory without Islamabads permission to go after Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, while also dismissing US media reports that Mullah Omar was in Quetta. The reports published by a section of the US press are baseless Pakistan is responsible for any operation on its side of the border against terrorists, she said, adding that Bin Laden was not on Pakistani soil.
She said that a comprehensive strategy was urgently needed to counter terrorism since military action alone had proved ineffective. We need a long-term strategy to address political disputes, sense of alienation, removal of grievances, depravation of socio-economic issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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...stressed that the accord had been secured between the NWFP authorities and local tribesmen and not between the government and the Taliban...
Perfect example of a distinction without a difference.
(KUNA) -- Pakistan Monday said that it was sending army de-mining contingents to Lebanon, not as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission rather at the request of the Lebanese government. Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, at her weekly press briefing here said that the Lebanese government had sought Pakistan's assistance during Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's recent visit to the country in de-mining and clearing the of area of the cluster bombs and to help its people return to their homes.
To a question about recently concluded peace deal with the local pro-Taliban militants, the spokesperson defended the deal and said that military option alone was not the solution. "We need a long term strategy to address political disputes, sense of alienation, removal of grievances, depravation of socio-economic issues", she said. She also rejected the reports that Osama Bin Laden was present in Pakistan and said "there is no evidence to suggest that."
That's not the same thing as a "no," is it?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Blah blah, PM Maliki asks for help to reduce cross-border infiltration, blah blah Iran pledges brotherly solidarity, blah blah, but then these interesting bits:
Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has strong ties with mainly Shiite Iran, and they are growing even closer, with Baghdad sealing deals last month for Tehran to provide it with gasoline, kerosene and cooking fuel amid a shortage in Iraq. Al-Maliki spent years in Iran and Syria in exile.
An Iraqi economic delegation visited Iran just before al-Maliki to discuss further petroleum deals, including the possibility of Iranian investment in Iraq's fuel sector, said Haidar al-Obadi, another Dawa party parliamentarian.
#8
Seriously, both this vehicle and the Stryker have proven to be wonderful against terrorists and their nasty toys.
Posted by DarthVader
Darth: I believe Tatar's boyz call the Stryker the "Ghost" because it makes less noise than say the M-113 or Bradley. The Stryker bascially rolls up on the Jihadis and before they can say "Allah Akbar" they're on their way to the heavenly hothouse.
A 56-year-old Kurdish-American woman told of seeing people sickened and dying during an alleged chemical attack carried out by Saddam Husseins forces, as the genocide trial of the ex-president resumed yesterday. The lunatic feisty former leader told his countrymen they should not feel guilty for crushing the Kurdish insurgency in the late 1980s. My message to the Iraqi people is that they should not suffer from the guilt that they killed Kurds, Saddam said shortly before the trial was adjourned for the day. It had just resumed after a three-week break.
The ousted president accused Kurdish witnesses against him of stirring sectarianism and racism. All the witnesses said in the courtroom that they were oppressed because they were Kurds, Saddam shouted. Theyre trying to create strife between the people of Iraq. Theyre trying to create division between Kurds and Arabs and this is what I want the people of Iraq to know.
The prosecution alleges that about 180,000 people were killed during the Anfal campaign in 1987-88 to crush a Kurdish insurgency during the later stages of a war with Iran. Addressing Iraqis, Saddam said passionately that the Kurds enjoyed rights under his regime and that he clamped down on insurgents among them.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
a true humanitarian. Senator Rockefeller (D- liketherest) should be sooo proud
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2006 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
Three week recess? Is it just me or is Saddam's circus making the O.J. trial look positively speedy by comparison?
#3
During the intervals the feisty Mr. Hussein goes back to his little cell, where he sees nobody but his captors, washes his own underthings, and goes outside perhaps one hour per day -- or perhaps not, I don't really know. The big excitement of his life is to go back to the courtroom where, despite his feisty bravado, he is reminded at every moment that others rule what used to tremble at his whim. A quick death would have been ever so much less humiliating to him... but this is instructive to the rest of the Arab world (I'm sure the Persians see no reason to apply such a lesson to themselves, being so much more ancient of history and civilization, after all.)
#4
My message to the Iraqi people is that they should not suffer from the guilt that they killed Kurds
Duh! Because they didn't kill them, you did, a**hole!
Bailiff - gag the prisoner!
A US State Department spokesperson said Monday that if the new Palestinian Authority government wants its international aid restored, it must renounce violence and recognize Israel. The spokesman praised PA President Mahmoud Abbas' willingness to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Don't bother. They want the violence more than they want the aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
send em our regards, and double the cluster bomb shipments to Israel
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2006 0:19 Comments ||
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#2
Yet another oppressive condition that the Palestinians could not possibly hope to fulfill.
#6
I love Bush. He makes the Paleos an offer they can't afford to ignore (financially) and have to ignore (politically). Karl Rove's fingerprints are all over this.
#7
They will never stop the violence. Why TF do we even go down this road with them. They have proven time and time agian their desire to be a waring state.
You don't pet or feed an animal with Rabies. You can't give it any aid or cure it, you have to put it down before it infects the rest of the animals. This is just how life is.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/12/2006 11:40 Comments ||
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GAZA: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas on Monday reached a deal to form a unity government that the Palestinians hope will end their international isolation and revive aid. "We have finalised the elements of the political agenda of the national unity government ... Hopefully, in the coming few days we will begin forming the government of national unity," Abbas said on Palestine TV with Haniya sitting next to him.
Palestinians hope the creation of a unity coalition will lead to the lifting of a Western aid embargo imposed on the six-month-old Hamas government for refusing to recognise Israel.
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, has so far resisted international pressure and calls by the moderate Abbas to soften its policy towards the Jewish state. It was unclear if the militant Islamist movement had explicitly changed its position. Israel said the new government could create momentum for peacemaking if it recognised Israel, renounced violence and ensured the release of a soldier abducted by militants in June.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If Abbas is smart, a "Night of the Long Knives" is in the planning. NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The two Israeli soldiers whose abduction led to Israel's 34-day war in Lebanon are probably being held in one of Hizbullah's bunkers and are unlikely to have been moved around for fear of discovery by Israeli monitoring systems, according to Alistair Crooke, a former MI6 officer and trained negotiator who has worked extensively with Hizbullah.
"The location must be very discreet and somewhere where the guarding logistics have been well prepared," said Mr Crooke, a 30-year veteran of British intelligence. "Almost certainly they are in an extremely well-sealed location as the operation would have been planned months earlier." Mr Crooke believes Israel's monitoring apparatus in operation over Lebanon would make it difficult to move the soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, without being detected. "There is infrared and satellite imaging and the Israeli drones can pick up a huge amount of information," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Since when did they start calling the Iranian embassy in Syria a bunker?
And if Israeli imagery is so great, how did Hezb'Allah sneak their fixed rocket launcher sites past them?
#1
Send Kuntar back in a box. Also make sure to cave in his head with a rifle butt, like he did to four year-old Einat Haran.
My heart goes out to Danny Haran's wife, Smadar. Danny died after being drowned with a bullet in his back from Kuntar, as his young daughter, Einat, looked on. Kuntar then smashed Einat's brains out against some beach rocks using his rifle butt.
All the while, to avoid the grenades being lobbed into every building along the way, Smadar Haran was hiding in a crawl space trying to stifle the whimpering of her two year-old daughter, Yael, only to find that the poor child had suffocated from being restrained.
#3
So far, Israel hasn't, SteveS. As you can see, Hezbollah is putting enormous pressure upon the Israelis to reunite this cretin with his fellow thugs.
This is why I recommend that Israel simply begin snuffing the Hamas officials they already have in custody, so it might "incentivize" those who hold any Israeli soldiers to free them immediately. It's certainly worth trying.
#4
I'm not against riflebutting his head til he's a drooling idiot, THEN sending him back. What a wonderful poster child for islamic terror. Perhaps they can have Nasrallah wipe his ass for him too. Feh
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2006 21:11 Comments ||
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#6
I'd implant a bugged, remote-controlled explosive artificial kidney in him (during emergency surgery for an induced kidney stone), then release him. Listen, then when Nastyrallah gives him a hug, hit the 'detonate' button. Yeah, it violates the Hippocratic oath and is no doubt a war crime, but I'd do it anyway.
#7
Glenmore, it's not a war crime brother. That can only be committed against those who have signed and actually follow the geneva convention.
I'd personally kill one terrorist prisoner a day until I got my soldiers back alive. If that didn't work then one "suspected" terrorist neighborhood would be flattened a day until I got my men back safe. If that didn't work then I hope the muzzies remember what my hero Vlade "the impaler" Dracula did to them for years. That would be next.
Iran must suspend uranium enrichment before there will any talks with President Bush, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday. During her remarks, Rice also hinted that the US might agree to a temporary suspension of enrichment. These comments came after Iranian negotiator, Ali Larijani suggested on Sunday night a compromise whereby Iran would temporarily suspend their enrichment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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IIRC, before the US nuked Japan, they insisted that the emperor submit to war crimes trials, knowing that the Japanese would not go for it. Then they nuked them. Then they agreed that the emperor wouldn't have to stand trial.
I wonder if this is some kind of similar ploy. Any ideas?
HELSINKI - China plans to send a contingent of peacekeeping troops to Lebanon and is consulting the United Nations on the details, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. We have a plan to send peacekeeping troops. Were consulting with the United Nations on the specific arrangements and will duly announce the outcome, spokesman Liu Jianchao told Reuters. He was speaking in Helsinki after an Asia-Europe summit attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The spokesman gave no details but French President Jacques Chirac, whose country is a key player in the UN deployment, suggested that Chinas contribution may number around 1,000.
Around 200 Chinese engineers already work for the United Nations in Lebanon clearing mines and unexploded ordnance. The UN peacekeeping force is being expanded to uphold a shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Chirac, who was also at the meeting, said Wen had mentioned the plan for more troops in Helsinki. Indeed the premier announced yesterday that beyond the 240 Chinese soldiers that are already there in Lebanon clearing mines, they would send a not inconsiderable contribution, because 1,000 men have been mentioned, he told a news conference.
The Chinese announcement came two days after Wen pressed European Union leaders to lift an arms embargo in force since Beijing used troops to crush pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989.
A-ha.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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They call them "peacekeepers". We call them "advisers".
1954-1959: In 1954 China shells Quemoy and Matsu, two small islands near mainland China but held by Taiwan. Both sides prepare for war. The United States and Taiwan sign a Mutual Defense Treaty, in which America commits itself to the defense of Taiwan. Matador missiles are delivered in 1957. Intelligence agreements make Taiwan a major base for U.S. information-gathering on mainland China.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that negotiation remains the best option to settle the Iranian nuclear crisis, amid reports of Tehran offering a short-term suspension of uranium enrichment. "I still believe that negotiation is the best option to find a durable solution," ElBaradei told reporters as a meeting began in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors.
He was speaking a day after top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said they would hold another meeting this week after reporting progress in talks at the weekend to avert UN sanctions over Tehran's enrichment activities.
A diplomat told AFP that Larijani had, in his meeting with Solana, offered a two-month suspension based on a set of conditions. "He had a long list including (a) complete and total halt in activity at the UN Security Council, an absolute stepping down from going for sanctions and that Iran would have the right to nuclear fuel technology on its soil," the diplomat said. "In return for this, Larijani said the Iranians would consider, consider not actually carry out, a two-month halt in enrichment. It was all very conditional," the diplomat said. "There was not any new offer on the table from the Iranians."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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No, the best option is based on Derbyshire's maxim: "Rubble don't make trouble".
Stop all activity *first* and give us the right to process fuel and we might possibly consider your proposal for a halt in enrichment - if you say 'pretty please' and 'mother may I' while bending over. On and a pony too....
Negotiation is the best policy? Its obvious that ElBaradei is working on the other side.
#4
Wiping them off the face of the earth works and does wonders for "pour encourager les autres". The next time you knock on someone's door, they may actually pay attention.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators waving Lebanese flags and chanting "down with Blair" gathered to protest at Tony Blair's meeting with Fouad Siniora at the prime minister's office in the heart of Beirut today. Held back by a line of Lebanese troops and security personnel enforcing a 1km buffer zone around the office, some protesters carried posters reading "Blair, you killer, go to hell" and "The blood of Qana is splashed across your ugly face" in reference to an Israeli attack on a village in south Lebanon during the war that killed 34 children.
He is a dog and if we see him we will kill him," said a group of young boys wrapped in the flags of Hizbullah and Amal...
National music blared from nearby speakers. "We must take revenge on Blair," one of the organisers roared into the microphone, mirroring an earlier call by the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to take revenge on the Syrian president, Bashar Assad. "He is a dog and if we see him we will kill him," said a group of young boys wrapped in the flags of Hizbullah and Amal, Lebanon's two main Shia parties. "We want to kill him, really we do," one of them insisted.
The gathering was largely of leftwing groups and Shia parties but there was also a showing from two of Lebanon's largest Christian groups. Most demonstrators viewed Mr Blair's visit as an attempt to score points at home. "They hate him in his country and we hate him here - he only came to make himself look good," said Hussein, 29.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Step up to the plate, Lions of Islam!! Throw a grenade! Whip out the AK! Rush the security zone with a 9MM in hand!
Or is it just easier to beat your wife, and throw acid in your sister's face?
#4
Except that the Klingon would have more honor, dignity, and beauty in his life; and would treat his women better. Muslim societies are so far beyond even the fictional enemies of Star Trek, that they boggle the mind : the misogyny, the primitive tribalism, the blood and gore mentality that puts the Romans to shame, the twisted sense of honor that makes the Imperial Japanese look positively gentle.
#8
Also, does anyone notice the nice, neat, Kinko-like printed posters these people have--and it English too. Those have to be made ahead of time. Way ahead of time. This is more propaganda jihad, because the higher-ups/organizers know it makes Americans, and especially, Brits, feel bad. The demoralization and capitulation of Western civilization is what they're after. It's just that simple. It's about money and usurping the mechanisms and economies, along with the infrastructures, of more developed societies. Think monkeys or other animals (no insult to monkeys or animals intended), and it all makes sense. They wants what we gots.
They feel "oppressed" but cannot fathom that it's their own religion, society, and government that is making them feel that way. They look to America and the West, and see that we have it better, and instead of analyzing and working for change in their own situation, they simply want to KILL & TAKE.
I'm very discouraged today, and would appreciate other points of view. I don't see this ending in my generation, or the next, or the next . . . and it will most likely be a cold day in hell before the needed majority of Americans wake up. And if they ever do, it will most likely be way too late.
#10
ex-lib. Tipping points are often difficult to spot until right before they tip. Often things look worse as desperate people do desperate things hoping to avoid the disaster they see coming.
This war hinges primarily on when the tipping point of the arab world. I think it will happen suddenly within the next administrations term if we don't retreat and give them a second wind.
#4
"I do not think that I ever lived moments of joy, happiness and great feelings of pride and honor like I felt when I saw the divine planes hitting the twin buildings," he said. "It was one of those moments that Allah appears and tells the believers, 'See I do not forget to punish the non-believers. Those who keep killing the Muslims and stealing their lands and their oil.'
Coulda been Ward Churchill.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/12/2006 6:12 Comments ||
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#5
"9/11" style destruction is on it's way for every mosque.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2006 7:34 Comments ||
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#7
Previous comment for another thread.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2006 7:36 Comments ||
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#8
"This will be Islams last century."
We dreamt, sang songs about the Age of Aquarius in decades past. No where will we ever be able to work (no matter how slowly)towards that worthy goal with anti humanity islam around.
#12
"Still Abu Muhammad conceded that since the 9/11 attacks, the position of Islamists has been damaged.
There is no doubt that for the moment it seems the attacks harmed the situation of the Arab and the Islamic world.
The democratization campaigns that they are leading are for the moment bringing opposite results. We are sure that Allah will help us defeat the Americans and collapse this empire."
Reality check on aisle 9!
Will we win? Yes. Will we wait "too long" before truly recognizing the threat? No, but we may wait so long that our countermeasures must be extreme. Will Islam finally undertake a "Reformation" to find true moderation in the wake of this struggle? Doubtful.
They'll be beaten but continue waiting for Allah to "help defeat America and this empire."
#13
Mistitled article. The person 'interviewed' is not a moderate, but is described in the article as a 'terror leader'.
The Moderate, with an "M", was purely ironic, as in "moderate muslim" (of which this guy is a perfect representative), I should have put square quotes or italics, but figured it would show reading the article.
#20
stealing Muslim oil is one that always gets me.
Without western dollars flooding the arab oilfields for exploration, drilling, pumping, and transportation there wouldn't be an arab country or an Islamic country (with the possible exception of Turkey) anywhere in the world that had anything other than gillions of acres of sand, nomadic tribesmen, and poverty heaped upon misery.
Without western dollars flooding arab countries there wouldn;t be grand mosques, paved roads, high-rise office towers, or educated people.
Without western dollars flooding arab markets there wouldn;t be most arab countries.
The west paid for the oil and it continues to pay for the oil and there continues to be arab after arab holding out his greedy fist to eagerly accept those western dollars.
The west explored for the oil, drilled for the oil, built the refineries and transportation networks, and figured out new technologies to make these filthy bastards filthy rich.
But we steal their oil, right?
Fine. Let them drink it. Let them eat it. The west needs to get off the arab oil tit and develop non-oil-based technologies so we can quit stealing their precious oil.
What are they going to do with that oil if that ever happens? How much would that oil be worth then?
"Oh, how quaint - they're still using internal combustion. Hey, George! Get over there so I can get a picture of you standing beside that thing!"
See latest edition of New Scientist magazine for an idea that might just get us past oil.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The beat-up video camera was delivered to Afghanistan in a box, and picked up by two clean-shaven Arabs posing as journalists. They met with Osama bin Laden before leaving on their mission to kill the mujahedeen hero Ahmad Shah Massood. Five years after the Taliban opponent was slain by a bomb hidden in the camera, a former Taliban official on Saturday described how Al Qaeda staged the killing two days before the Sept. 11 attack on America hoping to strike a fatal blow to the pro-US Northern Alliance.
SOME OF Americas closest Nato allies have abandoned Washington on the key battleground of the War on Terror, the bloody struggle against Islamic militants for control of southern Afghanistan. Five years after the world stood shoulder to shoulder with America in the aftermath of 9/11, The Times has learnt that many of the countries that pledged support then have now ignored an urgent request for more help in fighting a resurgent Taleban and its al-Qaeda allies. 
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, on Monday criticised the Sudanese government for its attacks on rebels in Darfur and its refusal to accept a UN takeover of peacekeeping in the country. Annan briefed the 15-member UN Security Council on the "deeply dismaying reports of renewed fighting, particularly in North Darfur".
Muslims should be more critical of terrorism and nobody should pussyfoot around the link to extremism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. In a series of media interviews to mark the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Howard also urged Muslims to fully accept Israels right to exist and defended the invasion of Iraq. We shouldnt pussyfoot around. No decent, genuine Muslim would support terrorism, Howard told The Australian newspaper. We are not attacking Muslims generally but you have to call terrorism for what it is it is a movement that invokes in a totally blasphemous and illegitimate way the sanction of Islam to justify what it does.
"The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had nothing to do with 9/11," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement. 
Five years after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, President Bush said Monday night the war against terrorism is the calling of our generation and urged Americans to put aside differences and fight to victory despite what he called a difficult road ahead.
If things werent bad enough, a huge earthquake struck parts of northern Pakistan last October, including Sagheers village. His main four-room concrete house was destroyed as well as a workshop where he kept a large mechanical saw with that he used to cut wood, his sole source of income. Now Im doing nothing. Im jobless.
Pakistan on Monday slammed descriptions of the Waziristan peace deal signed last week as a pact between the government and the Taliban. In her weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam stressed that the accord had been secured between the NWFP authorities and local tribesmen and not between the government and the Taliban, adding that any country, including the United States, could see the agreement, if they so wished. 
(KUNA) -- Pakistan Monday said that it was sending army de-mining contingents to Lebanon, not as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission rather at the request of the Lebanese government. Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, at her weekly press briefing here said that the Lebanese government had sought Pakistan's assistance during Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's recent visit to the country in de-mining and clearing the of area of the cluster bombs and to help its people return to their homes.
A 56-year-old Kurdish-American woman told of seeing people sickened and dying during an alleged chemical attack carried out by Saddam Husseins forces, as the genocide trial of the ex-president resumed yesterday. The 
GAZA: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas on Monday reached a deal to form a unity government that the Palestinians hope will end their international isolation and revive aid. "We have finalised the elements of the political agenda of the national unity government ... Hopefully, in the coming few days we will begin forming the government of national unity," Abbas said on Palestine TV with Haniya sitting next to him. 
The two Israeli soldiers whose abduction led to Israel's 34-day war in Lebanon are probably being held in one of Hizbullah's bunkers and are unlikely to have been moved around for fear of discovery by Israeli monitoring systems, according to Alistair Crooke, a former MI6 officer and trained negotiator who has worked extensively with Hizbullah.
HELSINKI - China plans to send a contingent of peacekeeping troops to Lebanon and is consulting the United Nations on the details, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. We have a plan to send peacekeeping troops. Were consulting with the United Nations on the specific arrangements and will duly announce the outcome, spokesman Liu Jianchao told Reuters. He was speaking in Helsinki after an Asia-Europe summit attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that negotiation remains the best option to settle the Iranian nuclear crisis, amid reports of Tehran offering a short-term suspension of uranium enrichment. "I still believe that negotiation is the best option to find a durable solution," ElBaradei told reporters as a meeting began in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators waving Lebanese flags and chanting "down with Blair" gathered to protest at Tony Blair's meeting with Fouad Siniora at the prime minister's office in the heart of Beirut today. Held back by a line of Lebanese troops and security personnel enforcing a 1km buffer zone around the office, some protesters carried posters reading "Blair, you killer, go to hell" and "The blood of Qana is splashed across your ugly face" in reference to an Israeli attack on a village in south Lebanon during the war that killed 34 children.
