If you eat breakfast in the car, gobble lunch while working at your computer, and watch TV while cooking or eating dinner, you've got a lot of multitasking company.
About 62% of people in a nationally representative online survey say they are sometimes or often too busy to sit down to eat, and about nine out of 10 say they do other things while preparing meals. On top of that: 31% do not consistently wash their hands when switching tasks during meal preparation.
The survey of 1,521 men and women was commissioned by the American Dietetic Association and ConAgra Foods Foundation Home Food Safety program. (Margin of error: 2.5 percentage points.)
Other findings:
⢠91% typically watch TV while eating meals at home.
⢠35% say they eat lunch at their desk. While they're eating, they typically work on the computer, read, make and receive phone calls, write, do calculations or clean their desk or work space.
⢠26% say they often eat while driving, and 3% say they eat most of the time while driving.
Nutritionists say multitasking during meals has become common among time-crunched, harried Americans.
"People really don't stop and smell the aromas," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. One of the reasons so many people are overweight is they are not taking the time to taste the food they eat, she says.
Of desktop dining at work, she says: "I don't know why they call it the lunch hour. It should be the lunch minute."
Many women who shuttle kids around all day are doing a lot of dashboard dining, she says. "You need to sit down and look at your food and think about whether it's hot or cold, crunchy or soft, sweet or salty, so what you're eating registers with you. Otherwise, you could sit and have Styrofoam and you wouldn't know the difference."
Robyn Flipse, a registered dietitian in Bradley Beach, N.J., agrees. She believes people who eat quickly while doing other chores don't realize how much they're consuming, nor do they enjoy the meal as much as they could.
"It may be beautifully prepared food and adequate amounts, but if you gobble it, you don't feel satisfied because you haven't registered the sensory aspects — the smells, the texture, the taste."
She tells weight-loss clients to block out time at least once a day to sit and enjoy a meal in a pleasant setting and get in touch with the "act of eating." For instance, they might have their lunch on a park bench where there are no phones, faxes or computers.
Even if you're just just heating up frozen dinners or bringing in a pizza, "it's worth getting to a table or other flat surface and eating with utensils while doing nothing else," she says.
"People value leisurely meals and treasure them when they have them on holidays like Thanksgiving or special occasions like birthdays, but they don't seem to know how to make that happen on a regular basis, let alone a daily basis.
"People are spending all their time working, commuting and running errands, but they are not living," Flipse says. "It will take a master changing of our universe to get people to respect eating, resting and just living."
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 9:14:06 PM ||
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Hey, I sit down to eat!
I sit at my computer while I eat lunch, I sit at my computer and/or read the paper while I eat dinner.
OK, I do stand up eating breakfast most days - while I fix my lunch. :-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2004 21:30 Comments ||
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Tony Blair denied again today that he took Britain to war with Iraq on a false prospectus. In his speech to the Labour Party conference yesterday, the Prime Minister sought to draw a line under the continuing controversy over the war, saying that while he could apologise for faulty intelligence, he would not apologise for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme today, he again insisted that military action had been necessary because Saddam refused to co-operate with United Nations weapons inspectors. "We took action as a result of Saddam's failure to comply with UN resolutions and that non-compliance still stands," he said. He rejected a claim by UN secretary general Kofi Annan that the war was illegal because Britain and the US had failed to secure a second UN resolution specifically authorising military action. "That is his view. It is not our view," Mr Blair said.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 9:58:11 PM ||
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Al-Qaida is using the recent deadly hostage crisis at a Russian school as a recruiting tool, even though there's no direct evidence linking Osama bin Laden's terror network to the attack carried out by Chechen rebels, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Citing a posting on the Internet, NBC News said an al-Qaida statement celebrates the deadly attack in the southern Russian city of Beslan. The posting claims the attack changed the course of the war between Chechen insurgents and Russia and urges Muslims to send money and fighters to Chechnya.
Russian officials have claimed al-Qaida had a direct hand in the school attack, although no direct evidence has surfaced. Chechen warlord Shamil Besayev has claimed direct responsibility for the attacks and militants who seized the school included two Arabs, but he has also sought to downplay connections to al-Qaida.
According to NBC, the current relationship between al-Qaida and Chechen rebels remains murky, although the terror network has in the past helped the Chechens with training and financing. Recent videos have turned up showing Arabs congregating with Besayev's fighters and meeting with the warlord, the network reported.
The report cited fears among intelligence officials that al-Qaida and Chechen rebels may team up to attack targets in Europe, most likely Russian interests.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 8:20:12 PM ||
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The passengers and crew of a Russian airliner has once again refused to fly with persons who appeared suspicious. This incident occurred Thursday night at Domodedovo airport during boarding of the Moscow to Khurgada flight, and it is far from being the only such occurrence. Earlier, "suspicious" passengers were removed from aircraft from Egypt to Moscow on September 1st, and from Cyprus to Moscow on September 20th. Lawyers say this is a clear violaton of passengers rights by the airlines.
On Thursday night during the boarding of a Krasnoyarskie airlines chartered Tu-154, on a flight from Moscow to Khurgada, some persons who appeared to be residents of the caucasus caught the other passengers' attention. There were two men, a woman and a small boy, who entered the aircraft late, since they had been delayed by security carefully checking their baggage and documents.
That these "strange" passengers entered the aircraft after all the rest increased the suspicion of the main mass of vacationers on their way to Khurgada. They began to insist in unison that the "suspicious" passengers be removed from the flight.
Taking into account the recent series of terror acts, the aircraft commander called security and all passengers were sent back to the terminal for additional screening. The "suspicious" persons were examined with special care, and a personal search was even conducted in front of the other passengers. Nonetheless, many continued to insist that the "Caucasians" be removed from the flight. As a result, after more than 4 hours of unsuccessful negotiations, the "strange" passengers were asked to leave. They had to wait for a flight which was leaving for Khurgada at 14.35 the next day. This time, security did all possible to ensure that no problems arose for the rejected passengers.
Krasnoyaskie airlines were reluctant to discuss the incident.
"All this was arranged by the passengers, this uproar," airline spokesman Ol'ga Trapeznikova told Izvestiya.
"In principle, there should be administrative sanctions against the instigators of this event," continued Ol'ga Trapeznikova. "The four persons who were removed from the flight were residents of Dagestan. They purchased their tickets in advance from the Mostrehvel tourist agency. They went through registration. Some of the media report that the woman was wearing a scarf, so someone may have assumed she was a terrorist because of that, but my coworkers tell me that all four were dressed normally, and they conducted themselves adequately, but when they showed up onboard the plane, the other passengers went into a panic and demanded that they be removed. Negotiations lasted more than four hours, and in the end the tourist agency agreed to pull them from the flight."
Big snip here
IZVESTIYA READERS ANSWER ON THE SITE WWW. IZVESTIA.RU
"Do you support the actions of the passengers who refused to fly on the same airplane as the "suspicious woman in black scarves"?
"Yes" - 84.25%
"No" - 15.75%
1321 persons responded
I think we need a poll:
Will the Muslim people of Russia:
Whine and complain that their rights are being trampled
Demand that the airline be fined for 'racial' profiling
Threaten to bomb the airline
Promise Dire Revenge(tm)
Denounce the muslims who comitted the rape, murder, etc.. in the school
#2
That was probably a charter flight filled with families and headed to the Russians' equivalent of Cancun. No parent in his right mind would get on a tourist charter plane that allowed a few Dagestani non-tourists to board at the last second.
#3
sadly, I think that Muslims should see this event as a snapshot of their future.
We can't share the planet with the type of people who condone blowing up children, think it's ok to rape girls in miniskirts, rejoice over 911, spread CD's of beheading westerners and rejoice over photos of Ken Bigly sobbing in a cage. They are freaking sick.
The MSM and political correctness can't save them from the fact that, if they don't help rid the ghouls in their midst, eventually - they are all going to find themselves on the short end of our survival instincts.
#4
The late folks have the Chechen terrorists to thank for this one. There could be a dozen reasons why people are late, but they fit the MO of the Boomer Babes, esp the ones that tried to get on at Sharm-el-Shiek. If the Muslims want to not be profiled, they are going to have to be very active in cleaning out the rats in their midst. This will require a great deal of courage, as they too can be targeted by terrorists and thugs. If the Muslims do not help clean up the mess in their neighborhoods, then this kind of logical fear profiling will be the norm and they will be s**t out of luck in having a normal life. Time to choose, folks. Sitting on the fence means a "no" answer in helping in the WoT.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/30/2004 17:43 Comments ||
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#6
If muslims blow up airliners and hold the 7th century as the height of civilization, then they can ride donkey carts or walk, just like in the 7th century.
Posted by: ed ||
09/30/2004 22:49 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2004 10:08:58 AM ||
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"Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang said the group who scaled a fence at the Canadian Embassy on Wednesday would be handled in line with international law and "the spirit of humanitarianism" if they were handed over to China. However, he didn't give any indication of their fate."
Is this the portion of international law which condones Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, etc? It sounds
like the Chinese are ready to sacrifice a few
more on the altar of that dead "spirit"
SHANGHAI AMERICAN SCHOOL TURNS OVER NK REFUGEES
On Monday, September 27, eight North Korean women and children went inside the Elementary school of the Shanghai American School and were subsequently handed over to the Chinese Police. According to one eyewitness account, "We just had a horrible incident at school. It happened yesterday afternoon... They were traumatized and in shock. No staff or students were hurt but they had to stand by helplessly and watch the police physically remove these women and their children from the school. When our Korean translator explained to the women that they were not on embassy grounds the look of terror that crossed their faces stunned everyone present. That was when everyone realized that as soon as they were returned to North Korea by the Chinese government they would most likely be put to death or worse, wish they were dead. There was lots of yelling and screaming and crying as they were dragged away and put into police vans. You will probably never hear about this in the news but I wanted to share their plight with the outside world. Perhaps your prayers will help them."
Posted by: Michael Sheehan ||
09/30/2004 9:45:48 PM ||
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#1
Man this is sad. Death is certain for them. Very, very bad. NORKS and Chicoms must "save face" Apperance is more important than life or honor. Tragic waste.
Forty-four North Korean men, women and children scaled the walls of the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Wednesday in a likely bid for political asylum, an embassy spokesman said. It was one of the largest groups ever to burst into a diplomatic compound in the Chinese capital in an attempt to escape their Stalinist home country. "It's a group of 44," said embassy spokesman Ian Burchett. "There are women, men and children among them. But we still don't know if the group is solely comprised of North Koreans." He said the people in the group had not yet made clear what they wanted, and that the embassy was in the process of communicating with them. Other embassy staff told AFP that they had been told they were North Koreans who had scaled the fence around the embassy early Wednesday afternoon. According to a Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman in Montreal, one person was injured during the action.
#2
Storm? Makes it sound like they may have been armed with unmarked, single-shot, bolt-action (jeez), pre-revolution, Russian, bayonet holder optional assault rifles.
The Prime Minister has confirmed the two Israelis convicted and sentenced earlier this year for passport fraud, have been deported. Eli Cara and Uri Kelman were put on a plane at Auckland Airport early this afternoon. Cara and Kelman were released from Mt Eden Prison in Auckland early today after serving the required one-third of their six-month sentence for trying to fraudulently obtain a New Zealand passport.
Israel's Embassy serving New Zealand is saying very little about the men. The acting Israeli Ambassador in Canberra, Orna Sagiv has declined to discuss the pair's movements. She says any statement Israel makes to the New Zealand Government will be through diplomatic channels and not the news media.
The Government has demanded an apology from Israel as it suspects the men were intelligence agents, but has not received one. Official visits to New Zealand by high-level Israeli officials have been suspended. Former director of Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies, Terence O'Brien, says an apology may have been given had the men been charged with espionage, but not for something such as passport fraud.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2004 12:09:50 AM ||
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Boy, I hope the Nzealers didn't double 'em. 2 months locked up in sheepland with all that methane... ya never know till it's too late.
The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France. The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, Signore X "Giacomo". His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq. Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.
Wheels within wheel, within bedpans. My head hurts already. Is France really this dumb smart?
Italian judicial officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Martino had previously been sought for questioning by Rome. Investigating magistrates in the city have opened an inquiry into claims he made previously in the international press that Italy's secret services had been behind the dissemination of false documents, to bolster the US case for war. According to Ansa, the Italian news agency, which said privately that it had obtained its information from "judicial and other sources", Mr Martino was questioned by an investigating magistrate, Franco Ionta, for two hours. Ansa said Mr Martino told the magistrate that Italy's military intelligence, Sismi, had no role in the procuring or dissemination of the Niger documents. He was also said to have claimed that he had obtained the documents from an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome, before passing these to French intelligence, on whose payroll he had been since at least 2000.
However, he reportedly also added that he had believed that the documents in question were genuine, and to have never suspected that they had been forged. "Martino has clarified his position and offered to deliver to the magistrates the documents which confirm his declarations," his lawyer, Giuseppe Placidi, told Ansa. It was not possible to contact Mr Martino through his lawyer yesterday. Contacted by The Telegraph, Mr Ionta politely declined to comment, but did not deny that the questioning had taken place. The Interior Ministry in Rome, which had also expressed keen interest in the Telegraph article, refused to comment on the matter.
"We can say nothing."
Mr Martino is said by diplomats to have come forward of his own accord and contacted authorities in the Italian capital following the earlier article in the Telegraph. They said he had written a letter of resignation to the French DGSE intelligence service last week.
Well, now.
According to an Italian newspaper report yesterday, members of the Digos, Italy's anti-terrorist police, removed documents from Mr Martino's home in a northern suburb of Rome on Friday afternoon. "After being exposed in the international press, French intelligence can hardly be amused or happy with him," one western diplomat said. "Martino may have thought the safest thing was to hand himself over to the Italians." Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumours of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger. He is thought to have then been retained the following year to collect more information. It was then that he is suspected of having assembled a dossier containing both real and bogus documents from Niger, the latter apparently forged by a diplomat.
#2
I don't know...this whole thing sounds a bit fishy to me. Hey...I know the docs are forgeries and I'm happy to pin it on France - but this is all just a bit too convenient to be true.
"Perv, John Paul. Pope John Paul, Perv."
"How ya doin', Pope?"
"Pleased to meetcha, President-General!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2004 10:03:51 AM ||
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"Pope, here's a green carpet. You can pray to allan on it five times a day."
"Thanks, Perv, here are some fine medals to remind others how you collaborate with infidels."
Posted by: Tom ||
09/30/2004 11:45 Comments ||
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Safely home in Italy, two women aid workers have spoken of returning to Iraq despite a three-week hostage ordeal as their overjoyed nation shrugged off reports that a ransom was paid to free them. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, said they were taught about Islam and not harmed. After a hero's welcome in Italy late on Tuesday, they looked to put the kidnap behind them. "I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Pari said on Wednesday. "We were always treated with a lot of respect."
"I have to have my head examined first, but then I'm sure I'll be on my way!"
Torretta was quoted as saying she would "do it all over again, with all of the consequences". "We never understood. But they apologised for kidnapping us and they even asked us for forgiveness," she told reporters.
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
09/30/2004 0:12 Comments ||
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#3
This was criminal kidnapping for ransom not a terrorist kidnapping. The MO is not that of a terrorist one. The persons who claimed to have been the perps likely didn't have a thing to do with it. There are lots of criminals in Iraq and these were just some of the smarter ones. They likely are on their way out of Iraq with most of their cash for Sryia or Iran as I write this.
#4
These two women...are idiots and if I were their benefactor (another idiot), I'd demand my money back from the women before they set foot outside Italy, or the insane asylum where they should be kept a long time.
#12
These two girls just like the "safe" attention of their male captors and the international celebrity aspect of all this, and I'll bet they have no idea they were being used by the Iraqi guys as political fodder. Or maybe they do and they "believe" in a better world run under Sharia. Naw . . . I think they just like pretending to be "saviors" of the world.
You know, there is so much poverty, and no lack of social problems in Italy--why in the heck aren't they working there to better the lives and educational opportunities of Italian children, or helping the indigent elderly, etc.? Whay are they going into a war zone? One wonders.
#14
This stinks indeed. No surviving victim of a kidnapping by "jihadis for beheadings" would willingly return. They may have been complicit. The part about being blindfolded and well-treated sounds too convenient.
#15
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini tried to quash talk about a ransom cash payment, saying Italy just capitalised on years of good deeds in the Arab world to secure their release.
Pretty words don't conceal what happened-you find the sale of humans a legimitate business deal.
#16
This stinks indeed. No surviving victim of a kidnapping by "jihadis for beheadings" would willingly return. They may have been complicit.
Especially given that they're going back to the heart of Terror Central. How, unless they were working there under the protection of the jihadis or a powerful gang, could these girls be assured that a different gang or group of jihadists would not capture and slaughter them this time around?
#17
Can't find where I read it, but I seem to recall that these two were said to have been in Iraq as aid workers since 1993. If so, then perhaps their employer has made clear its willingness to pay "protection" money.
Two men have been charged with setting separate fires at sites where the names of ecoterrorist groups were spray painted. Prosecutors had expected both men to enter guilty pleas Tuesday to destruction of property by fire, but their appearances were continued, U.S. Attorney Paul Warner said. Each faces five to 20 years in prison if convicted. "The threat of domestic terrorism, specifically ecoterrorsm, has been extinguished," FBI agent Chip Burrus said a news conference announcing the charges.
Justus A. Ireland, 23, was charged in a June 14 arson at a suburban lumber company that sustained an estimated $1.5 million in damage. The letters ELF, for Earth Liberation Front, were spraypainted at the scene. Separately, Joshua Demmitt, 18, was charged in a July 8 arson at a Brigham Young University farm building that caused about $30,000 damage. The letters ALF, thought to stand for a sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front, were spraypainted there. Another man has pleaded guilty in the BYU fire and awaits sentencing.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/30/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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Hmmm... Either Utah has changed a LOT since I was last there or these twits are utterly clueless morons from somewhere else, heh. Your avg Utahn is just to the right of John Birch on the pol scale. Great place if you're anti-idiotarian, lol!
#6
Didn't the ALF merge with the NLF??? And you have to love that idiotic FBI comment. "The threat of domestic terrorism, specifically ecoterrorsm, has been extinguished," FBI agent Chip Burrus said a news conference announcing the charges. Sure pal. What color is the sky in your FBI world.
Posted by: remote man ||
09/30/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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#7
Liberation? Get out of here. That's too damn much work!
Afghanistan's Taliban was one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and doubly so when it came to women's rights. For years, various activists expressed concern about the situation of Afghan women and supported the efforts of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan [1], to try and affect reform. So when the opportunity arose to overthrow that brutal regime, it was expected that RAWA activists would naturally back the insurrection.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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In the great tradition of "_______, why do they hate us?" this one demands:
She's not just anti-war, she's on the other side.
This jackass, Miriam Cooke, Professor of Asian and African Languages and Literature and President of the Association for Middle East Womenâs Studies is the pluperfect moron her lengthy oh-so-grand-sounding pile of steaming horseshit title implies.
"Beyond teaching her own courses, Cooke is very active in Dukeâs Islamic Studies Department. [wotta surprise!] She is co-director of the universityâs Center for the Study of Muslim Networks (CSMN), as well as being involved in the 2003-2004 Carolina Seminar on Comparative Islamic Studies. [ooooh, another surprise] She accompanied a group of students on a trip to Lebanon in 2002 and has taken part in various local film festivals in the past few years. As such, Cooke has a lot of influence over the way Duke students experience Islamic culture and particularly its relationship to women."
And there we have it. She's a fucking Islamopologist and the students in her "classes" undoubtedly get served a big steaming heaping helping of her twisted shitclusters regularly. Oh goody.
Deport her ass to Afghanistan or Warziristan or to the PakiWaki Territories, no Beirut Hotels there Prof, where she can truly compare her cloistered navel-studied drivel and hatred for America with reality. Real reality. One way, please.
Islamic feminism holds that Muslim women should enact social change from within the confines of their own culture and religion.
And within the confines of their houses, too, since they can't go out alone or without permission.
Here's an idea, bitch. Haul your worthless Islamic-loving ass over to ARABIA and practice what you preach.
Or STFU.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2004 10:45 Comments ||
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#10
How would you like your kid who is attending Duke on your $30k tuition plus (what) another $15k for room and board to have her as one of their profs? Why do people put up with these idiots hiding behind academic freedom? It is becoming to easy to cover your ignorance and inferior credentials by becoming totally stupid and controversial. Very weak faculty member for such a school as Duke. Makes you wonder about all those USN&WR college rankings.
Posted by: Jack is Back ||
09/30/2004 11:15 Comments ||
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#11
This from IslamonLine. In its âAsk the Scholarâ section. Question:
As-Salamu `Alaykum! I was recently the president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at our local university. My term just ended last week because of our new elections. When I was president, our MSA brothers all dropped out. Though they never mentioned anything to me directly, I received repeated hints that they dropped out because I am a sister and not a brother.
Answer (Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi):
"Woman's invaluable work, in fact, is to look after her children and husband. As for employment, which is meant for earning a living, she is permitted to do it provided that the following conditions are met:
First, it should be legal. The Muslim woman is not permitted to work in a place where she will be in privacy with non-Mahram (marriageable) man, or in clubs where she is supposed to offer alcohol to people.
Second, she should abide by the Islamic morals in dress, talk, etc.
Third, woman's employment should not be at the expense of her principal work, namely caring about her children and husband.
Admittedly, the Muslim society is in need of working women in certain fields such as education and medicine in order to educate and treat women (no treating men allowed).
A woman is not allowed to be a governor, a ruler, or a Caliph of a Muslim state because often she cannot bear the burdens of that tremendous job. We say 'often' to refer to the fact that there may be some women who are more powerful and forbearing than some men. Yet, this is unusual and the Islamic rulings, therefore, cannot be founded upon the exceptions.
So ladiesâ¦donât forget to sign up to be â¦well, anything thatâs not really importantâ¦other than to womenâ¦cause neither da men, nor da Koran think much of your ability to be other than a brood mare and servant to men.
#12
I think that this is the same dumb bitch that invited a convicted terrorist (blew up a room at the Capital Building in the '70s) to lecture at Duke. As a graduate of that once fine institution, it pains me to read this. It pains me even more that my nephew is a freshman there this year. I've told him to be on the lookout for asshats like this woman and to read Rantburg regularly for quick and easy rebuttals to the "arguments". Arrrrrrrgh!!!!
Posted by: remote man ||
09/30/2004 12:30 Comments ||
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#13
Duke professor, Miriam Cooke, is a prime example of an academic deconstructionist. I'm sure her lectures and "logic" seem reasonable to her students . . . just like the deconstructionists' arguments, which appear here on Rantburg (under the guise of "militaristic" conservatism) seem. Just a little FYI.
She's normal looking. This is dangerous.
If they had a fuming Lesbian-looking angry-faced nitwit, replete with boy's hairdo, she could be easily ignored. This person is just taking her self too seriously (look at how many books published), and needs to get some fresh air off of the campus, and away from politics.
There was some "feminist" issue discussed on (p)MSNBC where the spokes-something was a college "professor" who fit the above description. No one takes that (what ever it is) serious, except "her" own sycophants...
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 22:18 ||
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#1
This should decide the election. A bigger blunder than Jerry Ford's remark about Poland.
What on earth is the rationale for unilaterally halting production of bunker-busting bombs? Who gave Kerry this bright idea--Helen Caldicott?
If you believe in non-proliferation, then bunker-busting weapons are essential. They can destroy nukes hidden deep underground by rogue states. We alone have them. Destroying them is a patently stupid idea that not even the most deluded 1980s nuclear freeze advocate could have dreamed up.
I can't believe Bush did not rip it to shreds, or that Rove will not in coming days rip Kerry to shreds on this issue. How can anyone who takes WMD seriously vote for Kerry after watching him passionately argue for unilateral disarmament?
#3
The Fy1997 budget request contained $18.4 million to procure 161 GBU-28 hard target penetrator bombs for the military. At about $115,000 each, I'm sure Kerry is using his 'comparable worth' theory to justify the shutdown! One bomb would feed 5 Walmart families a year!
#4
Rove and Co. should be all over this one, especially since it was the Clinton administration that already threatened use of the nuclear bunker-buster, the B61-11, against Libya in 1996.
Background, from CDI:
Little noted in this debate is the fact that the United States has been at work on similar weapons since the mid-nineties and already has a bunker-busting nuclear weapon, the B61-11, a nuclear gravity bomb.4
The Pentagon began developing the B61-11 in 1993 and deployed it in 1997. Treading lightly around its obligations under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States observes but has never ratified, American nuclear scientists billed B61-11 as a spin-off of an existing weapon. By putting an iron casing around the nuclear warhead, the design theoretically allowed the weapon, released from an aircraft, to burrow through earth or concrete to destroy its target - the same mission officials at the Department of Energy envision for weapons currently being studied.
Funny that Kerry didn't have a problem with the Clinton administration's explicit threats to destroy Libya's underground nuclear weapons facilities by means of bunker-busting bombs.
In 1996, the United States even threatened to use the B61-11 against Libya. When American intelligence learned that the Libyans were building a large underground plant to develop chemical weapons, Defense Secretary William Perry stated publicly that the United States would consider its whole range of weapons to stop construction - an implicit reference to nuclear weapons.
Kerry is arguing for disarmament. And going against a policy already put in action by a Democratic administration that was actually faced with a rogue state determined to push ahead with its underground nuclear program.
We're back to 1983 again, and the same silliness that we heard from the freeze crowd. Bush/Rove will make mincemeat of Kerry just as Reagan did of Mondale in 1984.
President George W. Bush defended his policies in Iraq and in the war on terrorism against challenges by Democrat John Kerry early in the first presidential debate in Florida. ``This president has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment'' in the war in Iraq, said Kerry, 60, a four-term Massachusetts senator. He said Bush, 58, focused too much on Iraq and diverted attention ``from the real war on terror.'' Bush countered that the world is safer now that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is in prison. ``We're pursuing a strategy of freedom around the world,'' Bush said. ``I'm going to win because the American people know I know how to lead.''
The debate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, may give each candidate his best opportunity to sway voters 33 days before the Nov. 2 election. In 2000, 46.6 million people watched the first debate between Bush and Vice President Al Gore, about 10 million more than the second and third match ups. The 90-minute debate, the first of three scheduled over the next three weeks, began at 9 p.m. local time in Florida.
Bush, in speeches leading up to the debate, said the war in Iraq is part of the fight against terrorism, which 51 percent of voters say he is better equipped to handle than Kerry, according to a Sept. 25-28 Los Angeles Times poll. Kerry is trying to split the two and focus on Iraq, a situation that 52 percent say Bush is mishandling. In the poll, 51 percent supported Bush for president; 46 percent backed Kerry.
Undecided Voters
``A lot of people do perceive that foreign policy and Iraq and homeland security are the No. 1 deciding factors for a good number of undecided voters,'' said David Steinberg, director of debate at the University of Miami. There have been 1,052 American deaths in Iraq since the start of the war March 19, 2003, including 911 who died since Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 2003, according to the Pentagon. Another 7,532 troops have been wounded as of today, the Pentagon said. At least 46 people were killed, including 35 children, by three explosions in Baghdad today, ABC News reported. Kerry trails Bush by 8 percentage points in national polls conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and by the Gallup Organization. Kerry is in a statistical tie with Bush according to surveys by Harris Interactive and Investor's Business Daily.
First Impression
``The first debate is by far and away the most important,'' said Chris Lehane, who advised Democrat Al Gore in his 2000 presidential race. ``It is the first impression that will last five or six weeks of the campaign.'' About 28 million watched Bush's nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Sept. 2 and 24 million tuned in to see Kerry's in July, Nielsen Media Research said. About twice as many watched the first presidential debate in 2000. In the last two weeks, Kerry ramped up his rhetoric on Iraq, accusing Bush of living in a ``fantasy world of spin.''
``We started to reframe the issue of Iraq and America's role in the world last week,'' Kerry adviser Mike McCurry said on a conference call with reporters yesterday. ``It's fair for us to point out that President Bush has been consistently wrong.'' Bush adviser Karen Hughes said the president would compare his record with what Bush advisers call Kerry's ``flip flops'' on issues including Iraq. Kerry voted to authorize Bush to use force in Iraq and against an $87 billion funding bill for the war because he wanted to roll back tax cuts to pay for it. ``We've spent the weekend trying to keep up with Senator Kerry's rapidly shifting positions,'' Hughes told reporters yesterday. At the end of the debate, Americans ``will know where George Bush stands and that may not be the case with Senator Kerry,'' she said.
Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount 36 days after the 2000 election, giving Bush a 537-vote victory and the electoral votes he needed to win the presidency.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 10:35:51 PM ||
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Everyone should truck on over to DU and go to each of the polls they are advising. They are freeping three polls at this time and I advise us all to participate.
U.S. law enforcement agencies warned authorities in Miami that the al-Qaeda terrorist organization might try to attack during the first presidential debate tomorrow, a government spokeswoman said. The advisory by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security cited no specific intelligence that al-Qaeda was preparing to attack Miami, where President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry are scheduled to debate, said Katy Mynster, deputy press secretary for Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "Although we continue to remain concerned about al-Qaeda's desire to disrupt our democratic process, there is no information that terrorists are planning to attack this debate," Mynster said. The debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. Miami time.
Local law enforcement agencies in Florida were advised about securing airports, harbors and other locations based on information about past al-Qaeda attacks and techniques, she said. "The information bulletins and advisories are simply to provide information that could be helpful to law enforcement if they are developing their security plans," Mynster said. "There is nothing specific," she said. "We know that al-Qaeda has been interested in soft targets."
The Wall Street Journal reported that the advisory warned of the need to safeguard a chemical plant in the port of Miami, the Miami branch of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, the Four Seasons Hotel and Tower, the Kennedy Space Center and Disney World near Orlando.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 7:40:52 PM ||
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The Islamo-nuts are too scared of being caught in another hurricane.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 20:11 Comments ||
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Once again, I suggest paying Mexicans a bounty on these guys. Anything from $1,000 to $100,000 depending on the value of the non-Mexican target. All they have to do is let us know where and when, and if we get them, then they get the money. Cash. No questions asked. That border would be as impenetrable as if it were foot-thick steel 500 feet high.
Last week, the president was in New York to again beat on the United Nations and member nations to do more in the war on terrorism. While admirable, it was probably a waste of his time. Despite the antiterrorism rhetoric of the U.N. and the major world powers, and with the very significant exception of Great Britain and a few others, we are in a world war against radical Islam by ourselves. And we will continue to be in it by ourselves no matter who wins the election in November.
Why? Because France, Germany, Russia and China have concluded this war could be our undoing. Hoping for that result and a corresponding reduction of our power and influence, they want no constructive part of it until there is persuasive evidence we are winning. Only then will they help us celebrate the "collective victory over world terrorism." We should get used to it — and understand this war will go on until at least this and probably the next two generations of radical Muslim male leaders, their supporters and "fighters" are killed or otherwise eliminated. Many of us are troubled by this stark reality, yet most know it is true. And we don't understand how any version of a great religion could today incite rational followers to kill themselves and thousands of innocents in the name of "God." But this war is nothing about religion or religious freedoms — it is about the absolute power to rule, total corruption and elimination of the obstacles to that — especially to responsible government, the enlightenment of the ignorant and the empowerment of women — this is what we represent, what the radicals fear the most, and why they hate us.
Against this set of stark realities we have our presidential debates: It is both amusing and outrageous that a central campaign issue asserts we should, could or can have the substantive support of the U.N. and our major power "friends" (like France and Germany) in the war on terror. Buying this goofy "international" theory will put us to sleep for the next four years, during which two things will most certainly happen: We will be immediately taken up on our desire for international discussions — and they will go on endlessly, but with no substantive support from the other major powers. In fact, a traditional diplomatic initiative like this would be spun by the French and Germans as a major contribution (by them) in the war on terror. Remember, this is a war against us, and the major powers have already determined we may lose it. They will do nothing to change this result unless they determine that, despite their collective hopes, we will win.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
09/30/2004 10:23:54 AM ||
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The U.N. and the war on terror
Oh, good. A quick read and I already know the conclusion.
#2
France, Germany, Russia and China have concluded this war could be our undoing. Hoping for that result and a corresponding reduction of our power and influence, they want no constructive part of it until there is persuasive evidence we are winning.
Bingo. Finally, some sanity injected into this debate. The only nations that we can expect to take our side are those who wish more, not less, use of American power in the world (UK, Australia, Israel) and those frontline non-muslim nations states that are directly menaced by the jihadists (India, Russia).
NATO is dead. "The West" is a meaningless phrase that ignores the fact that increasingly muslim European nations will increasingly hew to the French policy of siding with anti-US jihadists, pan-arabists, mullahs etc in the middle east.
By Emile El-Hokayem
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, October 01, 2004
(Right after Bush wins, Iran is going to become the issue.)
Despite intense negotiations recently at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, the Iranian nuclear challenge has remained very much unresolved. Delegates struggled to come up with a unified stance, but even their apparent unity was insufficient to get the Iranians to agree to minimal compliance with IAEA demands.
While some approaches to the problem might buy time, the Iranians seem set on their course. Their most recent announcement that they would convert uranium into gas needed for enrichment was yet another threshold crossed by Tehran in its defiance of the IAEA. The assurances of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a weakened leader who is set to leave office next year, that Iran would refrain from building nuclear weapons, had little if any credibility. Barring a dramatic shift on Iran's part, the stage is set for a showdown at the UN Security Council in November, after the American presidential election.
Yet, the Security Council is unlikely to be the venue for reaching a viable solution. What the U.S. will seek in New York depends on whether President George W. Bush gets reelected. A second Bush administration will push for international sanctions, but wide-ranging agreement is needed for the sanctions to become effective. Without this consensus, the U.S. will be unable to achieve much. Indeed, if the use of force is taken off the table, Washington has little leverage over Tehran: the U.S. Congress and different American administrations have imposed all possible political and economic sanctions. Washington, therefore, needs unanimous European, Russian and Chinese endorsement of its views. The Europeans might be frustrated by Iranian tactics and deception, feel embarrassed by their own lack of success, and side with the U.S. But even with some European Union countries on board, new sanctions will require arduous negotiations and more American frustration with the UN process.
Whether Bush can succeed in garnering international support for his plan is doubtful. Many countries remain distrustful of the U.S. and remember the strenuous negotiations over Resolution 1441 and subsequent debates over Iraq. And making the case for sanctions against Iran will be tough: With Iraq fresh in mind, questions as to the quality of intelligence and the wisdom of a coercive approach would come to dominate the debate.
Moreover, Russia and China, who publicly, if quietly, opposed the Iraq war, are likely to actively resist the efforts of the U.S. and its allies. Both countries have massive economic and political interests in Iran and helped it develop its nuclear industry. With Iran now surrounded by American allies, both worry about U.S. designs for the region. Finally, the two countries do not share Washington's Middle East vision or its anxiousness over the direction being taken by Tehran. The Bush administration has not prepared the ground for a successful diplomatic outcome, and the trade-offs required to get Beijing and Moscow on board might come at too high a cost for Washington.
The Democratic candidate John Kerry has articulated a daring strategy that would put Tehran to the test by guaranteeing fuel supply to Iranian nuclear plants, but also see to it that the fuel is reprocessed outside the country. The pluses of this approach are evident - Iran's intentions would be exposed, while it would also be given the benefit of the doubt. However, it could also precipitate a showdown should Iran hesitate or rebuff the offer. This plan evokes - without replicating - the 1994 Agreed Framework that the Clinton administration offered to North Korea, which delayed rather than stopped its nuclear program. However, the Kerry plan is even bolder because it seeks an end to the crisis.
Bush, in turn, would impose sanctions because his basic policy assumption is that Iran is on its way to building nuclear weapons. Kerry would expose Iranian intentions first, and, if a nuclear weapons program is confirmed, proceed to enroll the international community in a vast effort to roll it back.
The problem with both strategies is that they divorce the nuclear question from the larger issues at stake, thus ignoring the reasoning behind Tehran's security policy. By treating the Iranian nuclear issue as solely a security concern (albeit one that is crucial), the U.S. is avoiding the difficult task of defining a comprehensive and consistent policy toward Iran. It also ignores the matter of Iran's role in the region. However, Iran's now-evidenced interference in American efforts in Iraq, as well as its continued support for radical groups, makes it difficult for U.S. policymakers to reason in grand strategic terms.
That said, the Washington policy debate is abuzz with new ideas on how to deal with Iran. The hawks might be counting the troops and equipment needed to deal a blow to Iran, but from "selective engagement" to a "grand bargain" an array of more pragmatic ideas is available. Their proponents include former high-level officials and regional experts who understand the danger of reducing the discussion to the nuclear issue. This inflates the value of Iran's nuclear program while obscuring other areas where progress can be made.
Iran has several valid rationales, at least in its own eyes, for pursuing a military nuclear capability. For many Iranian decision-makers, the Iraq war suggests that a strong, credible deterrent is the best shield against American aggressiveness. Similarly, the North Korean negotiations suggest that the U.S. will come to the negotiation table and even explore deals that include security concessions when it is faced with complex challenges from nuclear states.
If Iran's wager that the international community will be unable to formulate a common approach proves right, and if the Europeans refrain from imposing sanctions, the Iranians could reap substantial benefits. But if the U.S. pursues a policy of engagement, Tehran will be hard-pressed to respond positively to American overtures. Iran might prefer a grand bargain, but it should also accept incremental steps aimed at diffusing tensions. If it wavers, it will send a damaging message to the world and confirm the worst fears about its aims.
A showdown with Iran will have grave repercussions on global affairs. From arms control and terrorism to stability in the Gulf and democracy, Iran is at the nexus of several major issues dominating the international agenda. If the U.S. can move beyond domestic considerations and its structural limitations in comprehending Iran, it could at least convince the world of its good intentions.
Emile El-Hokayem is a researcher in Middle East security issues at the Henry L. Stimson
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 8:43:56 PM ||
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Well, there is always the possibility that the US will just have to say "sorry" to protecting western Europe from Iranian nuclear missiles. The eastern European nations still would have anti-missile protection, but unless western Europe agrees to defend itself against the Iranian threat, then the US must sorrowfully let it accept the consequences of its actions. I wonder how the people of western Europe would feel having the threat of nuclear annihilation over their heads once again?
#2
Europe has the most to lose, besides Israel, if the BTs get a nuke. As long as the BTs threaten Israel alone, EU doesn't give a rats ass. That is the bitter truth. #1 post has it right as far as Europe goes. The US does the heavy lifting with respect to defense and keeping the seal lanes open in the ME.
The danger is if the BTs get a nuke, they can give it to proxies. The BTs know that we are divided and so they are moving ahead full steam. They think that they got us, and so far they have. We will either have to tip them over by a popular uprising with some help from SOF, decapitate the leadership, or take out the nuke sites. Or maybe a combination of all three. This is one of the nastiest problems we will face in the WoT. If we can get Iran taken care of, the Saudis will be isolated and they will change or cave. This is big time stuff, and most people do not know it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/30/2004 21:31 Comments ||
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Just days after Italian intelligence services informed the Lebanese police that they possessed information about an imminent car-bomb attack on the Italian Embassy located in the center of Beirut, Lebanese Interior Minister Elias Murr announced on 17 September the arrests of 10 members of a suspected Al-Qaeda network in Lebanon. By 23 September, the number of arrested suspects had risen to 20, according to Beirut's "The Daily Star." The operation against the group -- which the interior minister said was composed of Lebanese "in addition to some Palestinians that included a woman" --
There's always a woman involved...
Hmmmph. No comment.
constituted the first arrests of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in Lebanon, and resulted from cooperation between Italian and Syrian security services.
I'm not sure what they considered the Dinnieh bunch, or the loons who hang out in Ein el-Hellhole...
Murr has said investigations have revealed that the network had developed plans to attack Lebanese government buildings and police stations. "They were also planning to assassinate officials working in Western embassies," dpa quoted him as saying.
The usual Qaedish activities...
Murr went on to say that "Lebanon has never seen such a well-organized and dangerous network," adding that the network's role had been to "enroll fundamentalists to carry out attacks against the coalition forces in Iraq." He named Italy, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, and Sudan as countries to which the group had connections, and security sources reportedly said some of the group's members were based in Germany.
That makes the little alarm in my head whisper "Tawhid!"
A week after being arrested in the predominantly Sunni Muslim area of Bekaa valley, Al-Khateeb was rushed from prison to a hospital complaining of chest pains, and Lebanese officials announced shortly afterward that he had died of a heart attack, the BBC reported on 28 September. With Al-Khateeb gone, the investigation into the alleged terrorist network lost a major potential source of information.
So maybe it wasn't the pliers. Maybe it was the Little Black Pill...
While none of those arrested was reported to have any ties with the Hizballah organization in Lebanon, the possibility of a connection between such organizations and Al-Qaeda has long been considered.
Interlocking directorates, sharing management and resources, that sort of thing. But only considered, mind you...
Much like genocide in Sudan, if you play games with the semantics, it doesn't "officially" exist, and therefore one is not required to actually deal with the situation and get one's hands dirty, let alone bloody. Here, let's have another study.
Hizballah, a large political movement that is closely identified with Iranian hard-liners and has 12 representatives in Lebanon's parliament, has been involved in fighting during the Lebanese civil war and in terrorist attacks against Israel. Its Shi'ite fundamentalist stance and pro-Iranian role in regional politics have led some to suspect that it might have contacts with Al-Qaeda, while other observers have discounted such a possibility on the basis that Hizballah would not support Al-Qaeda's strong Wahhabi philosophy.
American charges of Al-Qaeda-Hizballah cooperation go back to 1998, after the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. In its indictment against Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden regarding those attacks, according to the Congressional Research Service report on Foreign Terrorist Organizations from February 2004, the U.S. government stated that "Al-Qaeda also forged alliances with...Hezbollah, for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States."
Well, yeah. There is that. But they can't prove it. All the witnesses are dead...
The resurfacing in a 2004 Congressional report of testimony made in May 1996 that Iran was providing "up to $100 million a year" to Hizballah, taken in combination with U.S. accusations that Iran has sheltered Al-Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion, has further raised eyebrows regarding possible Al-Qaeda-Hizballah links via Iran.
Yeah. I've got a charlie horse in my forehead from my eyebrows being raised like that...
In early February 2002, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, on a visit to the United States with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was reported by CNN as saying that Al-Qaeda members fleeing recently invaded Afghanistan were seeking haven in Lebanon. This charge was promptly rejected by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizballah leader.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened..."
On 30 June 2002, "The Washington Post" reported that Al-Qaeda and Hizballah had joined forces in Lebanon to train terrorists. In this report, the paper claimed that U.S. officials believe that after Al-Qaeda was driven from Afghanistan, bin Laden told his members to ally themselves with sympathetic Islamic groups. An unidentified senior administration official told the newspaper that there is "no doubt at all" that Hizballah and Al-Qaeda have communicated on logistical matters. This report was denied by the press spokesman of Hizballah, Sheikh Hassan Izzeddine, who was quoted by China's "People's Daily" on 1 July 2002 as saying that "there is no cooperation between Hizballah and Al-Qaeda in any form, neither on a logistical level nor in field training."
"Lies! All lies!"
Prior to the arrests in Lebanon, "The Daily Star" published an analytical piece on 20 August titled "Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda: Friends or Foes?" The author, Haytham Mouzahem, a Lebanese analyst and researcher specializing in Middle East and Islamic affairs, concluded his article by stating that Al-Qaeda and Hizballah are "foes rather than friends" due to "very different political priorities, strategies, and agendas."
"Therefore they'll never cooperate to attain common short-term goals..."
The presence of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon would have profound regional implications, and could lead to a destabilization of Lebanon.
Which is none too stable below the surface anyway...
It could also possibly provide Syria with an excuse not to remove its forces that have been in Lebanon since 1976 -- troops it has recently agreed to reposition from their posts southeast of Beirut toward the Syrian border. That repositioning was seen as a response by the Syrian government to increased pressure by the United States and the United Nations to remove its forces from Lebanon. The United States has also asked that Syria stop supporting Islamic militant groups in Lebanon and to prevent foreign fighters from entering Iraq via Syria.
If they weren't in the terror supporting business themselves, we probably wouldn't care if they kept troops in Lebanon, since without them the Lebanese spent most of their time killing each other and breaking ceasefires...
In the wake of the troop redeployment and the recent arrests, some in the Lebanese press have speculated that the arrest of the "Al-Qaeda" cell could have been a Syrian-staged event meant to pacify the United States, while at the same time showing the Lebanese that they could become the target of terrorist attacks if Syria were to lessen its influence in Lebanon.
That would imply that they also roped in the Italians and that they're smart enough to not only think up such a Byzantine plot, but also to bring it off.
Whether or not such theories pan out, it is clear that as more information emerges about the accuracy of allegations being made about the identity and role of the alleged Al-Qaeda cell in Lebanon, Western intelligence organizations will surely be watching very carefully. For if Al-Qaeda has, in fact, established an organizational structure in Lebanon -- with or without the help of Hizballah, it would have both a strong regional as well as an international impact on the war on terrorism.
With Syria there or not, I'd say it's a given that there is an al-Qaeda structure present in Lebanon.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 12:24:09 AM ||
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Stop me if this sounds familiar: Iran's main hardline mouthpiece has published an editorial accusing Iran's lively blogger community of being controlled by the CIA. It even pronounces fatwas against specific sites.
The article is called "Spider's Web", referring to verse 41 of a chapter [sura 29 in the Koran] called Spider which says "The parable of those who take guardians besides Allah is as the parable of the spider that makes for itself a house; and most surely the frailest of the houses is the spider's house did they but know."
Posted by: The Caucasus Nerd ||
09/30/2004 3:52:56 AM ||
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crackdown in 5....4.....3...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2004 9:42 Comments ||
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Not obviously WOT-related, hence page 2, but interesting in light of the recent "Iranian uprising" chatter. A policeman and three members of an obscure Shiite Muslim cult have been killed and 12 other people injured in fresh clashes in northwestern Iran, AFP reported Wednesday. ... Last week news reports said two senior local police officials died in clashes in the same area with a "heretical" group called the Ali-Allahi (roughly meaning "Ali is God"). The group is made up of worshippers of Imam Ali, the figure Shiite Muslims consider the successor of the Prophet Mohammed and their first imam, or spiritual leader. The cult sees Imam Ali as an incarnation of God. A "brief" on Radio Free Europe's Southwest Asia report for Sept. 29 (sorry, no permalink) describes them as "a Kurdish sect," quoting the regional governor as acknowledging the violence but denying the religious angle.
Posted by: The Caucasus Nerd ||
09/30/2004 3:35:20 AM ||
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But John Kerry just reminded us that we need to unilaterally disarm. After all, it was the nuclear freeze that brought about Gorbachev's rise and caused him to peacefully disband the Soviet Empire in 1985.
Al-Qaida receives most of its money from funds diverted from Islamic charities, two Sept. 11 commission members said.
"Al-Qaida relied on well-placed financial facilitators who gathered money from both witting and unwitting donors, primarily in the Gulf region," Slade Gorton and Lee Hamilton said in a statement prepared for joint testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
Although the commissioners said it would be impossible to cut off all funding, "tracking al-Qaida financing is an effective way to locate terrorist operatives and supporters, and to disrupt terrorist plots."
The commissioners rejected charges that American businesses and organizations have aided terrorism funding.
"The U.S. is not and has not been a substantial force of al-Qaida funding," Gorton said.
the commissioners said al-Qaida's resources have decreased dramatically in the past few years because of the U.S. war on terrorism, "but, as long as al-Qaida retains access to a viable financial network, it remains a lethal threat to the U.S.," Gorton said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 7:51:53 PM ||
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I have been beating this same drum for years. Why are Islamic terrorist fronts allowed to continue hidding behind the IRS' 501C tax free (non-profit) status, to raise millions for the sole purpose of killing Americans, Israelis and other so-called 'infidel enemies' of Muslim fanatics connected to the al-Qa'ida jihad terrorist world-wide network?
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 19:58 Comments ||
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Say... there's a GWOT angle to getting rid of the IRS, too! (May not be what you meant, ME, but perhaps it'll help...)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 20:28 Comments ||
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Lucky wishes that I inform his pals at Rantburg that he is in the hospital due to a brain tumor. He will be out of contact for another week or two. He'll be starting chemo/radiation therepy next week. I'm an old buddy who has shared more than a few beers with him over the years.
#5
Thanks jgrider. Give him all our best and hope to hear from him soon.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/30/2004 20:31 Comments ||
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Ditto, jgrider - thanx. And give him an RB salute (a raspberry, heh) cuz it will not really be RB until he gets back online! General Lucky's a pillar of the 'burg!
#7
Thanks, jgrider; tell Lucky I'll say a prayer for him **AND** hoist a pint (or two) to his speedy recovery.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/30/2004 20:40 Comments ||
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Dave - I just brought home a 6-pack of Guinness Draft beer and I've put 2 in the freezer (it sez serve extra-cold) and I'll break my no-alcohol run at approx 2 years tonight watching the debate. I figure 2 per debate. Unless the taste sucks!
#9
I'll read your replies to Lucky tomorrow. He's feeling real out of touch with no computer or talk radio and I know he'll appreciate hearing from you all. Don't worry, he'll be back. He's a fighter.
#12
2b - You're a scream! You remind me of me in the waiting room before they finally let me in to do the LaMaze thingy with my (now ex) wife delivering my awesome daughter, lol!
Side note: I can still remember hearing her screaming at the nurses to let me in... First thing out of her mouth when they did was:
"You did this to me you fucker! You're gonna work your ass off for the next 20 yrs paying us both back!"
She was dead right.
True story - and the nurses howled out loud. I was their favorite new "Daddy" that day, lol!
CAIRO: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has accused the United States of backing rebels "to the hilt" in the country's war-torn Darfur region and said the crisis there has been blown out of all proportion.
His remarks in an interview Thursday in Egypt's government daily Al-Ahram, came as violence in the region continued and as one of his minister's slammed the chief of the UN refugee agency for meddling in Sudanese politics.
"I must again point out that the United States is supporting the rebels in Darfur to the hilt and (highlight) its pressure on the (UN) Security Council" to impose solutions on Sudan, Bashir was quoted as saying.
He added the crisis in Darfur, where about 1.4 million people have been displaced and an estimated 50,000 killed in a conflict that erupted in February last year, "has taken on dimensions much larger than it really represents."
Claiming that Sudan was "behaving itself," Bashir said there would be "no turning back on peace, democracy and political pluralism" in the country.
The United States has declared that genocide is under way in Sudan and is has been pushing the Security Council for tough action against Khartoum.
Sudan denies the genocide charges, but has grudgingly accepted the demands of the council, which called for Khartoum in a resolution this month to rein in militias and provide security and aid distribution to allow displaced people to return to their homes.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has again denied it will grant autonomy to any state in northern Sudan, a press report said.
And government troops repulsed a rebel attack in South Darfur state after killing three rebels and seizing numerous weapons, the police said.
Agriculture Minister Majzub al-Khalifa Ahmed, who is political secretary of the ruling National Congress, was quoted by independent Akhbar Al-Youm daily as saying the government had no plan to grant self-rule to Darfur and "does not speak at the moment about autonomy to any region in the north."
The government previously rejected a proposal to give autonomy to the Nuba Mountains in south Kordofan and southern Blue Nile states, saying existing agreements give the two territories "greater jurisdiction with regards to disposing of financial resources and to development arrangements."
"These jurisdictions can now be enjoyed by all states of the Sudan," Ahmed said.
Ahmed also hit out at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, recently in Sudan, branding him as "unqualified for handling political issues."
Lubbers "has overstepped his limits in Sudan," he said, adding that the UNHCR is limited to meeting the needs of Sudanese refugees in Chad and to their voluntary repatriation "rather than talking about domestic political issues."
Ahmed said a recent statement by Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail was "misinterpreted" to appear as a government intention of granting self-rule to Darfur and other states. Instead, Ismail was talking about "strengthening the federal rule."
He did not elaborate on what he meant.
Meanwhile, a Darfur rebel force attacked Menwachi village in South Darfur on Monday, the police said.
"Our forces stood up to the attackers and drove them back after killing three of them and seizing numerous weapons of different kinds, while our forces have not sustained any losses," a statement said.
This makes 167 rebel violations of an April 8 cease-fire, the statement said.
The bloodshed began in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the alleged marginalization of their region - mainly peopled by blacks and one of the poorest in Sudan.
The government's was to give Arab militias known as the Janjaweed a free rein to crack down on the rebels and their supporters. The Janjaweed are accused of murder, rape and torture.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 8:46:19 PM ||
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I certainly hope we're supporting them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2004 21:25 Comments ||
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By Roula Khalaf in London
Published: September 29th 2004
Iraq's oil-rich southern provinces are considering plans to set up an autonomous region - a move that reflects their growing frustration with the central government in Baghdad. Members of the municipal council of Basra, Iraq's second largest city, have been holding talks with officials from councils in two neighbouring provinces on establishing a federal region in the south, following the example of the Kurdish north. The three provinces - Basra, Missan and Dhiqar - account for more than 80 per cent of the proved oil reserves of the country's 18 provinces and provide a large share of the national income.
The talks are a political challenge to the embattled interim Iraqi government which is fighting a fierce insurgency in Sunni Arab areas, continued unrest in an impoverished Shia suburb of Baghdad and militant gangs bent on disrupting the country's reconstruction. Diplomats familiar with the talks say the three provinces have felt marginalised in new government institutions, including the consultative assembly, and believe they are not receiving a fair share of economic resources. The cabinet led by Iyad Allawi, the prime minister, includes only one representative from the three provinces. "The south has been desperately disappointed and they see Baghdad as continuing to leave them without representation," said a western diplomat. "So they are working on ways to organise themselves to have more clout with the centre."
Walid Khadduri, editor of the Cyprus-based Middle East Economic Survey, and an expert on Iraq, said the talks on self-rule were alarming. "It could weaken the state and lead to the eventual fragmentation of the country." Part of the problem stems from the powers given to local governments by the US occupation authorities before the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq this summer. In order to regain some of these powers, Mr Allawi's government is said to be giving military commanders in the south more civilian authority.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 7:51:54 PM ||
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Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Thursday that "free and fair" elections in Iraq planned for January would take place on time, despite ongoing unrest in his country.
"We will have those elections on time, next year," the interim Iraqi leader told a gathering at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think talk.
US officials have already voiced concern that the election might have to bypass trouble spots made too perilous by ongoing insurgencies.
Allawi renewed his pledge Thursday to deliver a "full, free and fair" election and called that mission "the most important task entrusted to us".
Meanwhile, Allawi denounced as "repugnant" the ordeal of British hostage Kenneth Bigley at the hands of Islamic extremists, and criticised the way the media has covered the story.
"It is repugnant to take an innocent man such as Kenneth Bigley and to use him as a political pawn in this way," he said in a speech at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.
But the interim Iraqi premier added that journalists who have put the 62-year-old engineer, seized September 16 in Baghdad, in the global spotlight also need to think "long and hard" about how they may have helped fuel more hostage crises.
"Can we justify showing videos of hostages or groups of armed and hooded men? Is this not exactly the publicity that the terrorists seek? Should we play their game?" he asked
"We should all be asking if, by doing this, we not only make it not only harder to resolve the cases we deal with today, but invite more cases for tomorrow," Allawi said.
In his speech, the Iraqi leader urged Western states to help financially and militarily in the reconstruction of his devastated country.
Bigley appeared in a video Wednesday on Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite television channel, bound and huddled inside a cage, pleading with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save him.
His ordeal has received substantial media coverage in Britain and abroad, with his family - including his elderly mother in Liverpool and his wife in Thailand - making emotional appeals for his release.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 7:49:48 PM ||
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In a telecast to the Arab world, Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Wednesday for an end to the intifada, the five-year violent Palestinian uprising against Israel. "What has it accomplished for the Palestinian people?" Powell asked. "Has it produced progress toward a Palestinian state? Has it defeated Israel on the battlefield? So it is time to end this process. It is time to end the intifada." At he same time, Powell said President Bush desperately wants to help create a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people to live side-by-side in peace with Israel. "This will only come about when terror is ended," he said. "And the intifada has spawned terrorism and it has not achieved anything in these years." In the meantime, Powell said, the economy of the Palestinian people has deteriorated as well as life in general for the Palestinians, while Israel has built a fence to screen out attackers. "It has stopped us from being able to move forward with the many peace plans that we have put forward," he said.
Powell again criticized Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, for not yielding authority to Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia so Qureia can organize Palestinian security forces to end terror. And Powell criticized Israel, saying Bush has concerns about its settlement activity and not destroying all outposts on the West Bank. But when the interviewer suggested Powell was blaming the Palestinians and supporting "the occupier," Israel, he bristled. "Who are the victims?" he replied. "The victims are those who are being blown up by bombs." Israel has had to protect itself by going after individuals they believe are responsible for terror attacks, Powell said. "And so, there are victims on all sides of this question," he said.
#2
I think the Palestinians are victims as well. Economically, they have certainly been harmed by Arafat and his thugs.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/30/2004 17:02 Comments ||
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#3
"What has it accomplished for the Palestinian people?" Powell asked. "Has it produced progress toward a Palestinian state? Has it defeated Israel on the battlefield? So it is time to end this process. It is time to end the intifada." At he same time, Powell said President Bush desperately wants to help create a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people to live side-by-side in peace with Israel.
I have my own question: How has the Palestinians' waging of the intifada demonstrated that they still deserve to have their own state???
Powell shouldn't even be singing this old song anymore. Way too many lives have been needlessly lost up to this point, and until a new generation comes along that isn't been tainted by the likes of Arafart and his terrorist brethren, they shouldn't get squat.
Chad denied that it supported a rebellion against Sudan, saying it had "spared no effort" to aid the government of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
"spared no effort" is a technically correct statement.
Rather, Chad has played a major role in brokering several peace agreements in neighboring Sudan, Nagoum Yamassoum, Chad's minister of state for foreign affairs and African integration, told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly's ministerial meeting on Wednesday. He said Chad took on that role "because it is our duty, more than any other country's, to help our Sudanese brothers to reconcile. We have spared no effort to help President Omar el-Bashir and his government, with respect for the sovereignty of their country, to resolve the Darfur conflict."
"It's not like we want a bunch of crazy jihadis maurading on our border!"
Yamassoum added that this help has exposed Chad to accusations of favoritism. Yamassoum did not specify which allegations he was rebutting, but critics have said that the Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist organization opposed tot he government, has received support from Chad and some captured rebels have been found with Chadian identification and arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2004 11:47:26 AM ||
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The French military has been conducting combined operations with the Chadian military along the common border with Sudan since early August.
While much of it has been humanitarian aid, there's unconfirmed reports that minor clashes have taken place when Sudanese supported troops conducted operations in Darfur against the "rebels".
Libya on Wednesday offered some colourful ideas for reforming the United Nations, including moving the General Assembly to Geneva and letting Bill Clinton resolve the world's conflicts and wars.
Bwahahaha!!!!
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, never shy about putting forward visionary proposals, also wants his nation to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalghem said. "The past 59 years have proven that the General Assembly is merely a decorative body without a soul," Shalghem said as Libya took the podium at the annual United Nations debate of world leaders which concludes this week.
He noticed
He said key powers invested in the 15-nation Security Council, such as the legal authority for military action, should be transferred to the assembly, which groups all 191 UN member states. "If this cannot be accomplished, we have no choice but to abandon the General Assembly and stop infusing money into this dead body," Shalghem said. He also said Kadhafi wanted to see next year's session, on the 60th anniversary of the UN's founding, held in Geneva instead of at the UN headquarters in New York so that "all world leaders" can attend. The implication was that Kadhafi would not want to visit the United States, a frequent sparring partner of his regime in Tripoli.
We have a standing offer to help them move.
Kadhafi also wants the establishment of a "committee of wise men" to settle the world's conflicts and called on the United Nations to pass a resolution in support of his idea, Shalghem said. The committee would be comprised of three former presidents -- Clinton of the United States, Mikhail Gorbachev of the now-defunct Soviet Union and Nelson Mandela from South Africa.
He left out Jimmey Carter.....that's right, he did say "wise men".
All world leaders approve of the proposal, Shalghem said.
Must be those same world leaders Kerry keeps talking to.
He added that Kadhafi's future ideas would be posted on the Libyan leader's website, www.algathafi.org. The site offers suggestions for solving some of the world's thorniest conflicts, including the creation of a unified state of Israel and Palestine to be called "Isratine."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/30/2004 9:09:05 AM ||
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"Isratine" Hmmm. Sounds to me like a kosher version of ovaltine.
You gotta give Goofy credit where it's due: he's still the nuttiest guy out there (and boy, is he out there:)
#4
I always rub on Isratine when my lumbago's acting up...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2004 9:37 Comments ||
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#5
I could see these morons nominating Bill C for Kofi's job when his term is up. He'd take it in a second to try and get that Nobel he wants so bad - legacy time....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2004 9:44 Comments ||
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#6
Rantburg Archives, dateline 1/30/2003 -- Speaking at the International Women's Forum, Mandela said "if there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America."
The idea of shipping the U.N. and Clinton to Geneva appeals to me. Let's throw in Hillary, the Carters, the Gores, and the sKerry's as a going away present.
Posted by: Tom ||
09/30/2004 9:47 Comments ||
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#7
I still think we should stick the U.N. in the center of the biggest mass grave in Iraq.
With Bill as Sec. General we will have get a intern-for-food program.
#12
Ah, he's still got the touch. His name is not G'Daffy for nothing. Let Slick Willie and Co take over the UN and have our funding drop linearly to zero in, say a 5 year span. That gives the UN time to move to location of their choice---far from US shores.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/30/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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#13
Ah lahk ya plan, Dar. Matter of fact, ah got a gusher ah can show you raht now.
Posted by: Former President William Jefferson Clinton ||
09/30/2004 12:22 Comments ||
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#14
how would bill do it ? By paying everyone in the world off.
#47
So it turns out that "R-Burg" is at a regional institution of higher learning. A call to Betsy Oswald would probably reveal that the perpetrator is named something like Rilly Dumschitz, a freshman, taking remedial COMP-101 (Our Friend the Internet).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2004 15:23 Comments ||
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#48
Ever wonder why "Colonel" Kha-det-fly is still a Colonel after all these years??? Why don't he promote himself? I guess it depends on what is am.
#50
I've joked in the past about how he's waiting for someone else to come along and promote him, but I've heard the real reason he sticks with it is that it's the rank Nasser had when he took power.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/30/2004 15:52 Comments ||
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#51
HACC, locally pronounced HACK, has produced a low grade wannabe hacker. Congrats toSilicon Floodplain.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/30/2004 16:54 Comments ||
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#52
Rilly Dumschitz, a freshman, taking remedial COMP-101 (Our Friend the Internet).
You know our Fred has a little vicious streak, thank goodness for modern chemistry.
#56
What do you expect from a Harrisburg Area Community College ? Deep in the woods of PA, the students are either already in the job market and seeking to improve themselves or, like dear little ctfuller, not smart enough to go to a real college. A member of the first category wouldn't have wasted his/her time on little ct's tactics, and anyway would have known enough to cover his tracks. I wonder if ct's mommy knows what it does when its supposed to be studying?
THE top Pakistani militant killed in a weekend raid had taken direct orders from the feared Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj Farj, a senior police commander said today. "Amjad Farooqi was the main link between Pakistani militants and al-Qaeda's Abu Farj," Syed Kamal Shah, the police chief of southern Sindh province, told AFP. Farooqi was shot dead during a raid by paramilitary forces in a rural Sindh town on Sunday morning, ending a nationwide manhunt for the man accused of masterminding plots under al-Qaeda's direction to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Farj is described by Pakistani intelligence agencies as al-Qaeda's new operations chief and he has been linked to the two assassination attempts against Musharraf last December. "Farooqi has been taking orders from Farj and was operating as per directives from him," Shah said.
Investigators also say Farooqi, 30, took part in the kidnap of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and recruited the trio of Arab men who beheaded him in January 2002. Farooqi was indicted over Pearl's death but had eluded capture. Pakistani security forces are hoping that 13 militants arrested since the raid will lead them to Farj. "It's difficult to say at this stage that we would be able to get Farj, but interrogators are questioning Farooqi's two accomplices in order to break the network," Mr Shah said.
"Sgt, I think I'll use the number seven truncheon today."
"Personally, sir, I like the number six, balances nicely in the hand, it does, sir."
"Ah, but the fine Moroccan leather of the number seven is such a delight to the hand!"
Two militants who had been hiding with Farooqi were captured in the Sunday raid and another 11 have been arrested since the weekend. "Those arrested as a result of the interrogation of the two accomplices may also help the security agencies to avert further acts of terrorism," the police chief said. "It's one of the biggest breakthroughs in the ongoing war on terror." The 13 detainees, all Pakistanis, include a suspect in the May 2002 suicide car bomb attack which killed 11 French naval technicians outside Karachi's Sheraton hotel. Mr Shah said further arrests were likely. Farooqi was considered al-Qaeda's key recruiter and operator in Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/30/2004 12:21:38 AM ||
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Captured the two underlings but kiled the top dog? Guess he had too many ISI names in his mental rolodex.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/30/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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#2
heart attack wasn't in the cards for poor Farooooooq
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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The families of six army officers arrested last year for having links with Al Qaeda contacted the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) to help them get the officers released, a source in the religious parties alliance told Daily Times on Wednesday. The army officers were also accused of involvement in plots to kill General Pervez Musharraf last year. Major Adil Qadoos was arrested on March 1, Col Abdul Ghaffar and Major Roheel Faraz on March 4, Col Khalid Mahmood on March 30, Major Ataullah Watoo on May 26, and Captain Dr Usman Zafar was arrested in August 2003. According to the MMA source, the families of these officers are not allowed to meet them and officials have been pressurising them not to protest their arrests. The families told the MMA that the officers were suffering from serious ailments. "Col Khalid has kidney problems and Major Adil is a heart patient.
My heart bleeds. They should have thought about that before they became involved in an assassination plot...
Mighty convenient time to fall ill, eh?
No allegation and charge sheet has been presented so far. The MMA must play an active role to release the detainees."
Of course they should. It was an Islamist assassination plot, after all. Who better to put a fix in than MMA?
According to the source, MMA leaders told the families that they should wait patiently while the case is in court, but that the matter would be taken up at their next supreme council meeting. It remains to be seen whether the MMA is in a position to help these families or is willing open a new front against the government.
#1
The saying "bite me" comes to mind. The "familes" should have thought of this before they let their members try and kill Musharraf. The MMF are abunch of piss bags.
.asp posting problem got you down? You should try the back up Rantburg Fred told you about yesterday, if you bothered to pay attention that is. It works and I am posting from it right now.
A militia leader based in Nigeria's main oil-producing region says he has agreed a ceasefire with President Olusegun Obasanjo. Mujahid Dokubo Asari had said he would attack foreign workers and the threat was seen as one reason why world oil prices hit record highs of $50 a barrel this week. He says he is fighting for the rights of the Ijaw people but the authorities dismiss him as an oil thief. The issue of self determination was not discussed at the meeting, he says.
"Just bank account numbers."
Mr. Asari says he and five other colleagues met the president and other government officials at the state house on Wednesday. "The president has given a firm assurance that no attacks will be will be carried out against our positions and we too have undertaken not to attack the military," Mr Asari told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. Earlier, Mr Obasanjo's spokeswoman had said the president was not planning to meet Mr Asari. But Mr Asari said he flew to Abuja on a presidential jet and that the meeting was at the request of a presidential envoy who travelled to the creeks in the Niger Delta to see him.
"Please don't hurt us!"
On Tuesday, Nigeria's military warned Mr Asari's Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force that it would take off the "kid gloves" unless the militia stops threatening oil workers. The militia said foreign oil companies must cease production or face "all-out war" in the Niger Delta from Friday. The Anglo-Dutch firm Shell, the biggest oil company in Nigeria, boosted security following the threats. Nigeria is the world's seventh largest exporter of oil, but 70% of its population live in poverty because the policies of its kleptocrats. A statement from Shell described the region as still tense and said that the movement of employees and supplies had been curtailed. Oil production has also been affected.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
09/30/2004 3:21:36 PM ||
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#1
Oil production has also been affected. Shell isn't going to put it's workers at risk. No company in it's right mind will.
All this uncertaincy in international production is going to have impacts in the price everything. It will also effect the US food supply. Cheap and plentful food is a side effect of cheap and plentful oil. Plan accordingly.
I saw stripper wells pumping units today on my way to Bakersfiled I have never seen running in at least 8 years. They may be sucking mostly sand but they are running. It's not light sweet crude either. All kinds of small oil operations are going to be starting up that have been setting literally for years. Again plan accordingly.
The US can't refine all the oil it needs to run everything we need running, it doesn't have any excess refining capasity.
#2
Not to be too Pollyanna-ish about this but there is a silver lining. As the price of oil goes up, so do efforts to find alternative sources. As soon as it becomes in Shell's interest to develop oil from trash or to invest in fuel-cells, the better. Only then will we win this war on terror.
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) has invited President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to participate in its annual congregation. Liaquat Baloch, JI's Punjab ameer, told a press conference that he had extended the invitation to the president through his Chief of Staff Lt Gen Hamid Javed.
"We shall have mint tea and dancing girls and speak of old times."
Does al-Qaeda tea come in mint flavor?
He said that the meeting would urge the religious and political parties to work together to "defeat anti-Islam forces". The theme for the JI's 23rd convention is 'wage jihad in every field for Allah'. The JI leader said the congregation would discuss religious and political issues including the protection to the 1973 Constitution.
#1
Note that JI "Jamat Islami" is a Wahabi organization with branches all over the world. Like indonesia's JI and Bangladesh's JI. It is financed by Saudi King Faisal.
#3
after reading yesterdays post about Amjad Farooqi, I'm not so sure that Perv won't be agreeable. Probably the only thing that keeps Perv on our side is his lust of power and his realization that the US offers him the best chance of maintaining it right now.
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.
Italian judicial officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Martino had previously been sought for questioning by Rome. Investigating magistrates in the city have opened an inquiry into claims he made previously in the international press that Italy's secret services had been behind the dissemination of false documents, to bolster the US case for war. According to Ansa, the Italian news agency, which said privately that it had obtained its information from "judicial and other sources", Mr Martino was questioned by an investigating magistrate, Franco Ionta, for two hours. Ansa said Mr Martino told the magistrate that Italy's military intelligence, Sismi, had no role in the procuring or dissemination of the Niger documents. He was also said to have claimed that he had obtained the documents from an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome, before passing these to French intelligence, on whose payroll he had been since at least 2000.
A policeman and three members of an obscure Shiite Muslim cult have been killed and 12 other people injured in fresh clashes in northwestern Iran, AFP reported Wednesday. ... Last week news reports said two senior local police officials died in clashes in the same area with a "heretical" group called the Ali-Allahi (roughly meaning "Ali is God"). The group is made up of worshippers of Imam Ali, the figure Shiite Muslims consider the successor of the Prophet Mohammed and their first imam, or spiritual leader. The cult sees Imam Ali as an incarnation of God.
