Greta has Ozzie Osborne on for, I think, the 704th time, interviewing him about his wife's cancer. Does she have a thing for Ozzie? Or is it the same interview, over and over again? I can't tell — I can't understand a word he says, despite literally years of training in languages.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:10 pm ||
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Sharia in Denmark
Many Muslims who are not extremists tell us, "There is no freedom of religion until Muslim law -Sharia - rules in Denmark!"
Taqija
The expression taquija means to dissimulate and is used when serving the propagation of Islam or benefitting a Muslim compared to 'infidels'. Lying to 'infidels' is officially acknowledged and is religiously motivated.
Lying is okay
In essence taqija means that a Muslim is allowed to hide his or her intentions in a difficult situation. For instance in regard to Koran interpretations, the more mellow verses are emphasized towards people with no thorough knowledge of the matter, and threatening, harsh verses are hidden.
Kill
Fadi Abdullatif says, "He who changes his religion (renounces his former belief, Islam) him you shall kill". Fadi Abdullatif works in a computer company and is one of the leaders of the Islamic movement, Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark. He believes that there should exist no freedom of faith for Muslims in Denmark. As a consequence he thinks that Muslims have to see to it that those who cease to be Muslims are killed.
I think the Danes are right. I think they can get along just fine without a Grand Mosque. Bet it gets built, though...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:43 pm ||
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad urged Arab and Muslim countries on Sunday to unite in the face of U.S. threats and "foreign conspiracies" as Washington prepares for a possible attack on Iraq. Those poor Arabs, surrounded on all sides by foreign conspiracies...
Iran's official IRNA news agency said Assad reiterated Syria's objection to any U.S. military attack on Baghdad and called for "deeper unity and solidarity among Arab and Muslim countries in the face of American threats against the region." Assad was speaking after a meeting in Damascus with Mohammed Sader, a top Iranian foreign ministry official. Gave him his marching orders, did he?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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A member of the Saudi royal family is expected to visit Baghdad Monday on the first such visit since the 1991 Gulf war. "A Saudi prince will fly into Saddam International Airport tomorrow aboard a jet of the United Arab Emirates-based company Gulf Falcon," the information ministry's press center said in a statement, however did not identify the Saudi royal. I'll bet the U.S. intel guys know who he is. Sure is a coincidence that the Soddies are in love with Sammy and his regime again, just at this time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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"Iraq is going to send emissaries to several European countries, including France and Germany, to explain the scale of American threats against the Iraqi people and the dangers they pose to world peace and security," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told the official Iraq News Agency (INA) Sunday. He added French and German opposition to US schemes to strike Iraq without seeking a new UN mandate "mean that European countries are aware of the dangers of the US policy of hegemony which targets the whole word without exception. The European position hostile to the arrogant and aggressive policy of the US administration against Iraq is growing noticeably," Ramadan added. We've noticed it, too, and not just with regard to Iraq. It means that the U.S. can't operate on an assumption of European support based on shared values, since Europe no longer seems to share some of our values. The fact that we consider the Euros wrong doesn't mean we consider them inimical to American interests in most cases; Iraq, on the other hand, we do consider inimical.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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Al-Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, the official spokesman for the Iraqi opposition National Congress stressed that the aim of the US is toppling the Iraqi regime, rather than occupying Iraq and colonizing it. In a statement to the London- based weekly al-Majallah magazine issued on Sunday, al-Sharif Ali did not rule out that monarchy will come back to Iraq after the US invades it. He explained that the Iraqi people had experience the republican form of government for 40 years and today according to our contacts with the Iraqis, the majority of the Iraqi people prefer to return back to the monarchy rule due to the failure of the republican rule in all its forms. It's interesting, the way a liking for monarchy seems to run in royal families. I wonder why that is?
Al-Sharif Ali who is considered the heir of monarchy in Iraq added "we do not want to impose ourselves on the Iraqi people who will not, as from today, accept instructions to be imposed on them." Replying to a question on whether the Iraqi opposition accepts to take the American train to Baghdad, al-Sharif said "we are not riding an American plane and will not land by an American parachute. We had been resisting this regime when the American were supporting it and when Saddam Hussein was serving the American interests in the region. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Americans became in our trench. Throughout 30 years our position has not been changed, rather the position of the Americans has changed. The Americans are coming to Iraq in an Iraqi train. They (the Americans) are in need of the Iraqis in the process of changing the regime and they will not go to occupy Iraq, rather to liberate Iraq from this regime." I think the problem we've had has been one of terminology. We're concentrating way too much on toppling Sammy, rather than on rooting out the Ba'ath Party and liberating the Iraqis from what even the nay-sayers agree is oppression and brutality. It would be a good idea — not that anyone listens to me — to concentrate more on the liberation angle. Otherwise, the Iraqis can play it the way they have been, as George W. Bush wanting to get some sort of Revenge™ against Sammy for surviving Gulf War I.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 08:39 am ||
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Chinese police have detained a group of North Koreans planning to seek refugee status in Beijing, along with a South Korean man who was helping them. Eleven people picked up at the train station in the northeastern city of Changchun on Saturday evening. The South Korean man, Kim Hee-tae, is a longtime advocate for North Koreans fleeing hunger and repression at home. The North Koreans - five men, five women, and a 15-year-old boy - had been preparing to board a train to Beijing to submit requests for refugee status. What if they gave a bloody-handed dictatorship and everybody left?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 08:45 am ||
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Kuwait became the first Arab state to signal support for a US-led military coalition against Iraq, in marked contrast to the caution shown by other countries in the region. Probably because they were Iraq's 19th province for awhile...
The Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Salem al-Sabah, told The Telegraph: "While Saddam Hussein continues to keep Kuwaiti prisoners of war, and continues to televise threats against Kuwait, we consider the war against Iraq to have never ended." Shucks, it's only been twelve years...
A Kuwaiti government official said: "If America asks for support Kuwait will give it. I expect the same response from all Gulf states. There may be the need publicly to be anti-war, but under-the-table deals are being struck." Sounds good to me. I knew there was some reason I like the al-Sabahs...
A spokesman for the deputy prime minister's office said: "The Kuwaiti people are tired of living under the constant threat of aggression from Iraq. Those people who say that sending weapons inspectors into Iraq may be a solution to the current crisis are not those who are living within reach of his missiles and his chemical weapons. How can we feel safe with Saddam Hussein next door?" No way I can think of...
Dr Masaad Shlash, of the department of sociology at Kuwait University, a prisoner in Iraq after the invasion, said: "Look at Saddam's treatment of his own people. He's the closest thing the Middle East has to Hitler." Only without Hitler's warmth and good humor...
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09/02/2002 04:38 pm ||
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Iran's reformist government has thrown down the gauntlet to its conservative opponents with a direct assault on their powers to vet candidates for parliament and other public bodies. A government bill lodged with parliamentary business managers this week would sharply reduce the powers of a conservative-controlled constitutional watchdog body to pronounce on the fitness of candidates for election, the sources said. The bill, which has yet to be formally put on the parliamentary agenda, would limit the Guardians Council to a "supervisory role" in elections and give significant oversight powers to moderate President Mohammad Khatami. That's one that'll never fly...
It would severely restrict the conservatives' ability to eliminate reformist candidates in municipal, parliamentary and presidential polls due over the next three years as they have done in previous elections. And that's why.
The reformers' parliamentary majority means that the bill is likely to be passed by MPs if it is put to the vote. But it will then have to go before the very consitutional watchdog body whose powers it is intended to undermine. Iranian law gives the Guardians the right to rule on the constitutionality of all legislation approved by MPs, powers they have repeatedly used to stymie government reform measures since Khatami's election in 1997. So they're gonna File 13 it...
In the event of a dispute between the Guardians and MPs, the final say goes to the Expediency Council, another watchdog body on which representatives of the pro-reform government and parliament are outnumbered by conservative jurists. But they might stand a remote chance of getting it through, if they can bribe a few here and there.
The move against the Guardians' powers came as their chairman, arch-conservative Ayatollah Ahmed Janati, was out of Iran leading a delegation to Yemen. Even if it passes before he comes back, he'll probably ignore it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 05:34 pm ||
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An Mi-24 helicopter was shot from the sky Saturday while on a supply mission to troops in the mountains, killing two soldiers. Another one? Cheeze.
In all, 10 Russian servicemen were killed in attacks throughout Chechnya since Saturday - including the latest two helicopter deaths. Four servicemen were killed in an attack on an armored personnel carrier, and two died when their jeep ran over a land mine near Novogrozny. A policeman was killed by a land mine and a member of the Interior Ministry troops was killed in a clash near Gansul-chu. This is what war of attrition looks like...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 09:34 am ||
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The Sudanese government suspended peace talks with southern rebels Monday because of the rebel takeover of a town. The Sudanese army sent reinforcements Monday for a new offensive to recapture the southern town of Torit, which it withdrew from a day earlier under heavy rebel shelling, state-run Sudanese radio reported. "We will no longer be bound by the self-restraint policy," army spokesman General Mohamed Basher Suliman said, according to the radio. Doesn't seem like either side is really good at self-restraint, does it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 08:58 am ||
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Stolen passports and videotapes of Osama bin Laden are among prosecution evidence against four men summoned to appear in court Monday for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks against U.S. targets in France and Belgium. Two Algerians, a Frenchman and a Dutchman are accused of running a terrorist support network out of a Rotterdam apartment to assist in strikes against the American Embassy in Paris and a U.S. munitions depot in Belgium. The "Dutchman" isn't Hans Brinker. He has a turban...
Algerian Mohammed Berkous and Frenchman Jerome Courtailler were detained with Saaid Ibrahim, a Dutchman of Ethiopian origin, two days after the Sept. 11 attacks in a European-wide sweep of groups suspected of links to al-Qaida. They have been in detention for nearly a year. That's okay by me. The people who worked in the World Trade Center have coincidentally been dead for nearly a year.
A fourth man, Algerian Amine Mezbar, was extradited to the Netherlands on July 19 from Canada to face similar charges. Authorities have had trouble building their case against the men and were forced to release Ibrahim in February because of insufficient evidence. He is however still a suspect. Too bad about that...
Prosecutors claim to have new evidence linking the men to terrorist activities, including their own dispositions in which they apparently revealed plans to strike at the military base in Belgium. The Dutch cell allegedly worked in concert with Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian soccer player believed to have been the designated suicide bomber for the Paris attack, who was arrested on the same day in Belgium. Prosecutors say that in addition to the Paris embassy, the group targeted the Kleine-Brogel base in northeast Belgium, where around 100 U.S. Air Force personnel are stationed. Environmental groups claim the munitions dump also stores 26 B61 free-fall nuclear bombs. Finally picked up on that, did they?
In a raid of the Dutch house in the port city of Rotterdam, police found about 60 stolen documents, including 26 foreign passports, as well as video speeches by Osama bin Laden. Mezbar's fingerprints were found at four sites where passports were stolen in the Netherlands in 1997 and 1999. Wire taps cited in Mezbar's warrant linked Courtailler and Berkous to Trabelsi's plans to attack the U.S. Embassy in Paris this summer. All the usual elements seem to be there. They just can't seem to stop themselves from stealing passports, drivers' licenses, birth certificates, cents off coupons...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 08:55 am ||
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A Yemeni appeals court reduced the sentence Sunday of a man who threw a grenade into the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in March. Amid tight security, the court cut Samir Yahya Awadh's 10-year sentence to seven. No explanation for the ruling was given. A handcuffed Awadh, speaking from behind bars surrounding the court dock, told reporters the verdict was "totally unjust." "Unjust"? You threw a grenade...!
"I was in an abnormal state when I did that. I was zealous about the Palestinian cause," he said. Perhaps he can spend the next seven years in jug meditating on the virtues of self-control...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 09:37 am ||
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Meanwhile, an Israeli daily reported Monday that Damascus has allowed 150-200 al Qaeda fighters to settle in the Palestinian refugee camp Ein al Hilwe near Sidon in Lebanon. The group, including senior commanders, arrived from Afghanistan through Damascus, Iran and directly to Lebanon. Haaretz reported that these operatives are responsible, among other things, for the latest outbreak of fighting inside the refugee camp, as part of their attempt to take over the camp. I'm not sure how credible this report is. It's certainly possible, but the mini-groups there are nutty enough with just a bit of inspiration from the Osamanauts...
The newspaper also wrote that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the al Qaeda group that conducted the Sept. 11 airplane attacks in New York visited Syria twice or three times. The Syrians did not give that information to the Americans on their own volition, the report said. That was one well-travelled terrorist...
Osama bin Laden's son, Omar, left Syria together with his mother Nagwa, three weeks before the attack on Sept. 11, after receiving anonymous instructions to do so. The son returned to Syria after 9-11, and has since visited twice more, the Israeli report said. Perhaps we should have a talk with Omar? Is he in the family business?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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Hana Siniora, a Palestinian newspaper publisher and advocate of non-violent protest against Israeli occupation, said Monday he was named the Palestinian Authority's new representative in Washington. A senior member of Arafat's Fatah movement said he had heard of plans to appoint Siniora, 65, and said there was strong opposition to the choice in Fatah. "Non-violence? We'd sooner go without food for our people! Oh. We already are... But still..."
Siniora, editor and publisher of The Jerusalem Times, a Palestinian English-language newspaper, said he would take his post in October. "My plans, first and foremost, are to rebuild Palestinian-American relations with the Bush administration," Siniora told The Associated Press. The ties have been troubled, with President Bush calling for a new Palestinian leadership, and Arafat's advisers accusing Bush of meddling in Palestinian affairs. Guess it gets him out of Paleostine. Now opinion can be unanimous again.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 09:01 am ||
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Israel will not allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to return to the West Bank if he leaves the area. Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the Palestinians have approached Israeli authorities about the possibility of Arafat attending international conferences. "He's free to leave, but he's not free to come back," Gissin said the Palestinians were told. "We have considered Arafat irrelevant for some time, and many in the world are realizing that, too. If he were not here, perhaps the Palestinians could choose a new way and a new leadership." Probably not, but there's always hope until you're dead...
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat called Sharon's stand "despicable" and accused him of sabotaging peace efforts. The success of which has been simply overwhelming for year after year...
Israel charges that Arafat is responsible for nearly two years of Mideast violence by encouraging militants to attack Israel and failing to crack down on extremist groups. Palestinians counter that Israel has neutralized Arafat's security forces in the West Bank, and charge that the Israeli occupation and army operations in Palestinian areas are behind the violence. The answer to which is, if the "security forces" had been doing their job, there would have been no need to neutralize them — in fact, they'd have been valued. And if it hadn't been necessary to "neautralize" the "security forces," there wouldn't been any occupation and army operations, would there?
With few exceptions, Arafat has been confined to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah all year by Israeli forces, with tanks surrounding or entering his compound and controlling the area. He is expected to remain there until he either rots or goes somewhere else.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 04:36 pm ||
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In Algeria, security forces have discovered the bodies of five suspected Islamic fighters in the northeast of the country. The charred remains were found during part of a continuous army crackdown on armed extremists in the Kabylie province in which the authorities announced last week that they had killed at least 11 Islamic extremists. The press also reported that seven extremists, including a woman, had been captured alive during the security swoop. Newspapers said the insurgents were believed to be part of a group of some 100 fighters who were surrounded by the army near Bouira, in the foothills of the Djurdjura mountains. They reportedly belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The 11 were killed as they were allegedly preparing to hold a conference, chaired by GSPC leader Hassan Hattab, in the Haizer hills, part of the Djurdjura moutain range. "Charred remains" would seem to imply they incinerated them — burned the house down where they were? Or artillery? Damn the lack of quality news out of North Africa!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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#1
maybe they were spontaneously combustible due to the fervor of their Islamic beliefs....right
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said on Monday that security personnel had captured 15 alleged members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist group, under the leadership of Kelly Kwalik, who were responsible for the deadly ambush on a convoy of workers near Timika over the weekend, agencies reported. The OPM has fought for a separate nation in the predominantly Melanesian Papua since the former Dutch colony of Western New Guinea became part of Indonesia in 1964. Kwalik's splinter group has been accused of kidnapping foreigners in the past, but says it has never targeted them in their long struggle to win independence for Papua from Indonesia. There's a smell of fish about this...
Meanwhile, the vice director of Papuan rights group Elsham, Aloy Renwarin, said Kwalik had denied involvement in the ambush. "They told us through a courier that they have no knowledge of the attack," Renwarin told AFP by telephone from Papua, adding that "They said they don't want violence and are committed to dialog." Yeah, they always say that, don't they? Especially when they're being rounded up...
The pacifist pro-independence Papua Presidium Council accused the military of trying to discredit the separatists by blaming the attack on OPM. It said the rebel group had never targeted foreigners. "It is becoming more and more evident that the Indonesian security forces are involved in creating provocation and instigating violence," the presidium said in a statement received on Monday. "An attack on foreign nationals and on Freeport and consequently blaming the OPM is on the one hand an effort to discredit the OPM as a terrorist organization and on the other hand a warning to Freeport that it cannot operate without the protection of the Indonesian Army," it said. The presidium expressed "its grave sorrow and sincere regret" and called for an international independent team to investigate the case. That would be a good idea. If the Indonesians have something to hide they'll start bitching about their national sovreignty any time now.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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The Central Sulawesi Provincial Police insisted that they would immediately interrogate church minister Rev. Rinaldy Damanik who was declared a suspect for alleged possession of guns and ammunition without a permit. You usually don't expect ministers to be packing heat, do you?
Brig. Gen. Zainal Abidin, chief of the provincial police, said that his office would deliver a second summons to the suspect to replace the previous letter which mistyped his identity. Damanik was declared a suspect following the seizure of 14 guns and ammunition from a car in which he was a passenger, while evacuating Christian villagers who were being massacred by Muslim extremists in the bloody assault on Mayumba Village in Morowali regency on Aug. 15. Now, wait a minute...!
Damanik was not arrested when the weapons were first alleged to have been discovered because he was accompanied by hundreds of his supporters. The Christians were being massacred by Muslim extremists, and you orifices jump on the minister for having a gun in the car? How many Muslim extremists have been arrested? What about their guns, bombs, swords, axes, grenades, and other implements of destruction? What were they supposed to do?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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In a speech before the members of Yemenâs People's General Congress (PGC), President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that Yemen would not hand over any al-Qaeda suspect to foreign states and would not allow any state to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs. Seems he thinks the tide's turned against the U.S...
Speaking at the concluding session of the sixth general conference of the People's General Congress, President Saleh said he had sent emissaries to al-Qaeda suspects in the governorates believed to be harboring them, telling them to surrender themselves and give the information they have while assuring them that the would be safe. "We told them the accused is innocent until proved guilty, we would not hand them over to the Americans," the President said. I'm actually being too hard on Saleh. Yemen's another of those places that's an area, not a country. The tribes are "autonomous", meaning sufficiently ferocious that the central government can't control them, resulting in a situation kind of like the NWFP in Pakland. Yemen and NWFP are two very good arguments against anarchy as a political system.
President Saleh claimed that the members of the al-Qaeda and Jihad organization had been misguided and deceived, and the do not know anything. He said that when they are asked why they went to Afghanistan, they simply say âto declare Jihad". In order to deal with the religious misconceptions, a committee made up of Islamic scholars has been formed to conduct dialogues with those elements. Good luck to 'em. There's a lot of propaganda to counter, especially with the source of it right next door...
The Yemen authorities have launched several military operations into the semi-autonomous interior provinces where the al-Qaeda suspects were believed to be sheltering. Heavy fighting has taken a toll of government troops who met fierce resistance from local peoples sheltering the suspects. Sounds a lot like Pakland, doesn't it? Except that the Yemenis treat their women better.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 07:23 am ||
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The right-hand man of suspected September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden has been invited to take part in a Cairo conference this weekend on the future of Islamic movements -- by telephone or the Internet. Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat told Reuters he issued an invitation this week on Islamic Web sites to top bin Laden aide Ayman al-Zawahri to join in Sunday's seminar in a Cairo hotel. What a perfectly marvelous idea. I think he should go...
"We told him (Zawahri) he should speak. He should write his reasons, his view on September 11 and the way out of the crisis the Islamist movement is now in," said Zayat, who condemns violence and says militants should make peace with the state. "Do we stay with the same methods, do we only shout and curse the United States? Is that the only thing that will realize our objectives?" Zayat said, adding he had little doubt al Qaeda was behind the September 11 attacks. Shouting and cursing the United States seems to be a way of life for some people...
"We don't want just to criticize. We want an objective evaluation of the way out. I hope there will be a response (from Zawahri)," he said. I've got a way out for you: don't kill people. Really. If all you do is argue, even if you call names, then other people can argue with you, even call you names back. When you start killing people because they don't agree with you, then that makes other people want to defend themselves. So you go from the exchange of ideas to the exchange of high explosives. We have more high explosives than you do, thank God.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
09/02/2002 08:30 am ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
