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Islamist group claims Riyadh bomb attack
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Sick passenger had many doctors
My last post of the year folks!
A flight in the United States proved lucky for a British woman who suffered a heart attack. Fifteen heart specialists, all bound for a medical conference in Florida, stood up to offer help when a cabin attendant asked: "Is there a doctor on board?" Dorothy Fletcher, 67, who had been on her way from Britain to her daughter’s wedding, said Wednesday that she owed her life to the doctors. "I was in a very bad way and they all rushed to help," said Fletcher, who was stricken on a flight from Philadelphia to Florida. "I wish I could thank them but I have no idea who they were, other than that they were going to a conference in Orlando." Fletcher, who lives in Liverpool, northwestern England, spent two days in intensive care in a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina following the heart attack on November 7. She spent three more days in the hospital, but still made it to Florida for her daughter Caroline’s wedding.
Talk about horseshoes!
Happy New Year Rantburgers!
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/31/2003 7:44:08 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Woman was John Roush lucky.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/31/2003 20:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Nascar fan?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/31/2003 20:28 Comments || Top||


New Year’s flying fridges warning
South African police will crack down hard on anybody throwing old fridges from high-rise buildings during the New Year’s holiday, they say. Police and soldiers are on patrol in Johannesburg’s notorious Hillbrow suburb, famous for the practice. Throwing heavy objects from balconies and firing guns have become something of a bad "New Year’s institution," said police Inspector Kriben Naidoo. Revellers have been killed in the past after being hit by stray bullets. It is not clear why Hillbrow residents have taken to seeing in the New Year by throwing objects such as fridges, microwave ovens, beds, rubbish bins and condoms out of their windows.
Watching way too much Wiley Coyote?
Some also aim their New Year fireworks horizontally, so they go from one high-rise apartment into another.
"Incoming!"
Police wear helmets and bullet-proof vests when on duty on New Year’s Eve, reports AFP news agency.
Not that they’ll be much use stopping a refridgerator.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 3:21:43 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I feel like doing that with my washer & dryer, actually. Too bad I'm only 2 floors up...
Posted by: Raj || 12/31/2003 15:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Since when do they have fridges?
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 15:35 Comments || Top||

#3  We tossed a 25" TV off a seventh floor balcony at UMASS-Amherst in '75 when the Red Sox lost the Series. Very impressive...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 15:45 Comments || Top||

#4  I have a bunch of old computers I cant get rid of because noone accepts them anymore.

Unfortunately I live in a house. Perhaps I can rig-up a Catapult. Slingshot?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/31/2003 15:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Another Bradley story: The last week of my freshman year, someone (NOT ME!) pushed a burning easy chair out their dorm room window. They were only on the third floor, but the 20' deep construction pit on that side of the building added to the spectacle. I'm pretty sure they were expressing their frustration at being woken up during finals by a Bobcat ramming the dorm.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 16:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Raj, we got an extremely satisfying crash with a huge old TV from only 2 stories. Wish I could have seen tu's test from 5 stories.

Don't know why this story is so newsworthy. Aside from the condoms, drop-testing large consumer appliances is an entertaining thing to do when you're young, male, and drunk.

Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/31/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#7  #3 We tossed a 25" TV off a seventh floor balcony at UMASS-Amherst in '75 when the Red Sox lost the Series. Very impressive...

I can't help but wonder what the current students did when the Red Sox lost to the Yankees. Must have been digital TV's flying everywhere!
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 16:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Btw, fridges-throwning is not unknown in french suburbs projects; police are used to get all kinds of objects falling on them, petanque balls (steel ball the size of baseball), broken applainces, sinks, manhole covers, tires, etc, etc... and, yes, fridges. This is as common as stone throwning.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 17:29 Comments || Top||

#9  OK, folks, here is what we used to do for amusement at the Univ of Alaska Dorms in Fairbanks during 60 below weather. We would get a pot of boiling hot water and sling it outward out of the top floor window opening. It would make a burbling woosh sound and leave a big ice fog vapor trail along its trajectory. Nothing hit the ground, only a vapor trail left, and would stay suspended in the air for many minutes afterward.

Other amusements that I can mention. Soaking tires in gas-diesel mix at night. Rolling them off tall cliffs in the desert. Very impressive when they hit a rock and bounced high in the black, clear, desert night sky.....*sigh*....those were the days!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/31/2003 17:30 Comments || Top||

#10  Well at Oklahoma State, we had a more interesting tradition... we would wrap a freshman up in a matress, tie it together around him and then throw him off the third floor balcony....unfortunately we had to discontinue this one year when one of them broke his leg.
Posted by: Okiebert || 12/31/2003 20:35 Comments || Top||

#11  At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the early 1990s, an unnamed member of the class of '92 inaugurated Drop S*** Night, a weekly celebration of glorious destruction. It involved a semi-unused ladder (a "stairwell" to you landlubbers) featuring a lovely drop from the 4th Deck of the barracks in Chase Hall directly to the bilges' linoleum-covered concrete, 5 stories down the cheering cadet-crowded ladder. Items sacrificed to Isaac Newton included irreparably-worn prison-built office chairs, various glass bottles, pop cans (unopened of course), and one suicidally uncooperative Apple Macintosh SE.

F = ma, baby. Long live Drop S*** Night!
Posted by: Puddle Pirate || 12/31/2003 21:37 Comments || Top||

#12  See "Cops to take cover from Jan. 1 gunfire"
Posted by: Tresho || 12/31/2003 22:48 Comments || Top||


New Year’s Resolutions for Rantburgians
I’ll kick it off with a few from the middle east:

PLO chairman, Yassir Arafat, resolved: To continue being the Fidel Castro of the Middle East.
That should be an easy one!

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, resolved: To continue talking up democracy and development to my western patrons while winking at my country’s anti-Semitic media and suppressing freedom of expression at home.

Turkish Justice and Development Party leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, resolved: To finally be prime minister of Turkey, dammit.

Afghani President Harmid Karzai, resolved: To stay alive.

Osama bin Laden, resolved: To be true the the real spirit of Islam the Religion of Peace (TM), by listening more to competing viewpoints, to take others’ feelings and beliefs into account more and to really understand the people I disagree with. To kill more Americans. Allahu akbar!
Posted by: An old friend of the board || 12/31/2003 2:16:08 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.

Well, short of that, I'd settle for spending more time with my family now that I can, and being grateful to God that I managed to stay alive to do so.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||

#2  "Crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women."

Nice to see someone else still appreciatess the old Conan movies.


Posted by: Slumming || 12/31/2003 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, I am an OldSpook.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 14:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Quote originally attributed to Ghengis Khan.
Posted by: mojo || 12/31/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||

#5  James Lileks has some resolutions for Bush haters:

I resolve to examine at least one of the president's statements, acts, gestures or facial expressions without first insisting it proves that the man is a stupid chimp evil liar plastic-turkey-holding DRAFT DODGER MY GOD CAN'T YOU PEOPLE SEE HIM FOR WHAT HE IS?

I resolve to grasp the absurdity of appearing on national talk shows to insist that our freedom of speech has disappeared.

I resolve to be more precise in my language. When I am tempted to criticize the administration for being ''pre-emptive,'' I will recall that arresting all the hijackers on Sept. 10, 2001, would have been, well, pre-emptive, and that I might well have protested this indefensible act of ''profiling.''


There's more at the link.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 14:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Using my Wesley Clark approved timeship,I have scoured the globe for these New Years resolutions.

New York Times editorial board:we resolve to be fair and balanced in our coverage of the 2004 Election-once Bush,overcome by guilt,refuses to run and the Republican party does the right thing and nominates Al Gore as their candidate.

Pervez Musharraf:I resolve to put those unemployed Saddam decoys to good use.

Howard Dean:I will not froth at the mouth.I will not froth at the mouth.I will not fr...BUUUUUUUUUUSH!!!

Democratic Underground:We resolve not to allow any post that does not use Nazi,evil,war monger,fraud,war for oil,greed,stupid,illegitimate,hate or contempt when referring to Bush and his cronies.

George Bush:I will not gloat.I will not gloat.In public.

Jaques Chirac:I will remain strong.I know the cowboy will come to his senses,realize the logic of my superior mind and admit he was wrong.He will put my friend Saddam back in power,withdraw all his troops and agree to be guided by me in all matters of state.

French senior citizen:I will be so nice to my children and grandchildren that they will take me with them this summer.

Kyoto Treaty:I resolve to...oh f*** it,even I know I'm dead.

European Union:(speaking French w/German accent)We res...shut up !shut up! we know what's good...hey,where are you going!Merde.

Yassir Arafat:I make same resolution each year.Stay alive and watch my bank accounts grow.

Marvin the Martian:I resolve to practice my shooting,I still get only 2 out of 3 probes.

Fox News:We resolve to continue driving our competitors nuts by watching our ratings rise,while theirs fall.

The Anti-War Left:We resolve to protest the unilateral declaration of war against Germany and Japan in 1941 because Bush's father fought in that war.

Rantburgers:We resolve to give Islamic terrorists,extremists of every type and the French all the respect they deserve.
Posted by: Stephen || 12/31/2003 16:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Howard Dean:I will not froth at the mouth.I will not froth at the mouth.I will not fr...BUUUUUUUUUUSH!!!

Dean must have been taking lessons from William Shattner.
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#8  I posted this at http://www.right-thinking.com as well...

My predictions:


1) Bush will win a 50 state landslide in November.
2) Al Qaeda will attempt a coup on some Asian nation (Pakiland mebbe?).
3) Bush will start to get conservative nominees on the federal bench and will nominate Estrada for SCOTUS following an even tighter grip on the senate in November 2004.
4) Congress will begin to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private companies to ease the cost of the war on terrorism. Jane Fonda will be the first to be captured; Then Jim McDermott and 'Al Qaeda' Patty Murray.
5) Yassar Arafat will bite the Big One: Sharon turns red trying to keep from laughing his ass off and to look dignified when he expresses his condolences.
6) There will be a major terrorist attack but in Europe.
Posted by: badanov || 12/31/2003 18:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Whaddayamean, Wesley Clark Approved Timeship? Doesn't that run the risk of getting you stuck in a parallel universe?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/31/2003 18:02 Comments || Top||

#10  More horseriding.
More salsa-dancing.
And i think i will go photographing Venice again this year.

Posted by: chinditz || 12/31/2003 19:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Seething. I want more seething. And fatwas.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 21:37 Comments || Top||

#12 
#2:
"Nothing hurts you, does it?"
"Only pain!"
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2004 13:23 Comments || Top||


Last Bear Attack Story For 2003
RIA Novosti was told in the Kamchtka search-rescue detachment that a bear tore a man to pieces in the Kronotsky wildlife refuge. One of the oldest workers of the Kronotsky wildlife refuge and well-known Kamchatka photographer and hunting specialist Vitaly Nikolayenko fell victim to a big bear 1.5 kilometres from the station on the territory of the wildlife refuge.
Another bear "expert", seems to be a trend.
Nikolayenko was taking a photograph of the beast and failed to use the weapon he was carrying when the bear attacked him.
"Damm, I can’t seem to keep him in focus, it’s almost like he’s coming closer.........Shit!"
The rescue workers brought the body to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
"Ivan, what’s in the baggie?"
"Vitaly, what’s left of him, anyway."

A total of about 600 Kamchatka bears live on the territory of the Kronotsky wildlife refuge but cases of attacks on man by beasts of prey are extremely rare.
And extremely fatal.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 9:17:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And for my Piled Higher and Deeper I'm going to write my thesis on the workings of the digestive system of Bears from the inside.
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 12/31/2003 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes you drink too much bØdka and the bear eats you.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 12:10 Comments || Top||

#3  but cases of attacks on man by beasts of prey are extremely rare.

Probably because most humans are smart enough to stay away.
Posted by: OminousWhatever || 12/31/2003 14:27 Comments || Top||

#4  I had a good friend of mine, Michio Hoshino, of Fairbanks killed at his camp in Kamchatka some years ago. Michio knew bears as well as any expert. He kept his distance (unlike our recently departed Malibu friend) and did some amazing photography.

If I am camping in the wilds up here, I carry a shotgun and have a good bear dog around. Bear attacks do not happen real often, but when they do, they are serious. They are like lightning or mushrooms, even the experts get done in if they let their guard down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/31/2003 14:40 Comments || Top||

#5  lightning? Oh I get it, bears never strike twice. First time is generally fatal. but mushrooms?
Posted by: john || 12/31/2003 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  There are few mushroom experts that live to old age, heh heh.

The more you learn about about lightning, the worse off you are...knowledge is fear. LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/31/2003 16:55 Comments || Top||


pope’s ambassador in Burundi, Carryed over from yesterday
Lu Baihu Ask me to elaborate:

#2 Wonder what the vactican is going to do about it?
Now we are hearing(rumors)threats directly aginst Vatican City itself is this justification for declareing a Holy War. Anybody remember the Mary Knoll Nuns,killed in Sth.America.
Posted by: raptor 2003-12-30 3:05:23 PM

As most here at Rantburg already know the Islamist base this war on religious ideals. That makes this a religious war. It would seem to me that killing an Archbishop (remember this is a high member of the church hierarchy, not some lowly Preist or Nuns) plus direct threats to the Vatican would silence those that claim this is not a Holy War(even Pries. Bush says it is not a religious war). The question is what is the Catholic Church going to do about it? The Pope is too sick and feeble to do much, that leaves it up to the Councel of Cardinals. After the Maryknoll Nuns were raped, murdered, and the bodies desecrated and burned in El Salvadore, The Vatican’s respose amounted to "Shame on you".

I agree with the President — and the Pope, not that I pay much attention to him most of the time — that for us to play the holy war game descends to their level. As people living in the 21st century, we've put such stupidity in our past. They haven't.

Additionally, casting it in crusade-jihad terms is a propaganda move on their part, designed to suck the rubes into flocking to the Banner of Islam™ to defend the faith. We don't have to do that.

Those who want to can defend their faith, but I'm a lot more worried about our children and our culture. I don't want to see my grandchildren in turbans and burkas. I want to read Mark Twain and O. Henry and Henry Fielding and Burke and Hemingway and hundreds of other authors Islamists wouldn't approve of. I read the Koran once, when I was 19 or 20, and I've never looked at it since; I don't want to be required to read it over and over, nor do I want my children to be required to do so. I like drinking an occasional whisky, a cold beer, or a bottle of underpriced champagne. I like looking at pretty girls, the more comely and scantily clad the better. I enjoy my pipe. I like to tell jokes, often strangely colored. I enjoy the liberty to do all those things I like, and I would die — quickly — living in a society that banned them and replaced them with the requirement to bow down toward Mecca five times a day. Ptui!

We don't have to put things in holy war terms. We have enough to defend and cherish without adding in religion. Freedom of religion is one of the things we're defending, but only one.
Posted by: raptor || 12/31/2003 8:49:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know if I want to go along with your analysis.
I view religion and culture as the same thing.
And I view culture as "civilisation"
So, yes I go along with the "Clash Of Civilisation" paradigm.
So it's irrevelant what you call it , culture or religion, both are admissable.
We are in a war, which has been going on for 1400 years.
What is happening at present is just the latest manifistation of that "War To The Death"".
The first rule is "know your enemy"
The information at
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/RealIslam.htm
should be made compulsory in all schools, so as to align the West, as to who the common enemy and destroyer of "civilisation" is.
Posted by: tipper || 12/31/2003 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  The problem is, Raptor, it only takes one side to declare a "religious" or "holy" war. I've been in war - there's not much religious or holy about war - war is hell, pure and simple. Even when there's no actual fighting, it's hell. Just as it takes two to make a peace, but only one to make a war, it takes two to agree on the type of war, but only one to wage it. We need to put the pressure on the turbantops to understand that if they persist in trying to make this a holy war, there will only be one winner, and it won't be Islam.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/31/2003 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  tipper's right! If make your religion a compulsory and inseparable part of your culture, then a war against your culture is a war against your religion.

Perhaps this war is about destroying governments that claim their authority based on religion and not popular choice. If so it will take a couple of generations, and BTW Iraq was a very smart place to start.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/31/2003 16:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Sheesh. Tipper, et al, what a foolish and hypocritical position.

It's about freedom vs slavery.

If you're a Christian, great! Be a good Christian, knock yourself out, be happy, go to heaven, pass GO!, Collect $200. But, if you bring your religion (and it makes NO difference which it may be: Cosmic Muffin or Hairy Thunderer) into it as a justification for the fight against the Islamists, then OBL is/was right: you're Crusaders. And then, children, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THEM. I'm just as opposed to Crusaders of any stripe as I am to the imposition of the Islamist Caliphate on the world. No religion has any fucking business in government or law or to be imposed on anyone and your pro-religion arguments are not only specious, but they justify the jihadi mentality of the Islamists. What you "believe" is no more true than what they "believe" - it's all based on "faith" and neither of you can prove dick. Keep a firm grip of the difference between what you believe and what you know -- they are NOT the same thing, folks. It should be entirely unnecessary to have to point this out.

Pure hypocrisy. BTW, THIS mindset is what George Carlin meant and was ridiculing when he said "your stuff is shit and my shit is stuff."

When you boil it down, it's about freedom vs. faith-based oogabooga. Believe whatever you want - but keep it to yourself, where it belongs. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 18:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Your ignorance is showing, .com. The Crusaders fought to free their bretheren from Dhimmini status, while we fight to keep ourselves out of Dhimmini status.

And, like it or not, ONE side of this war thinks its a religious war. For the other side to refuse to see that reality is to look for the keys under the lamppost of your limited understanding. You'll be looking at the enemy through the same colored glasses and warped perspectives that Dimocrats see Bush, and will get the same results.

Tipper is right: this is a Civilization war, and it's going to take ALL the facets of our civilization working together to win it. Cut Christianity out of it, demanding our bodies but not our understanding, is for you to take the other extreme.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/31/2003 23:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Ptah - Ah, ignorance is bliss. You pick a nit (which I already happened to know) and think it significant. Crusaderwarcollege - I guess I should've expected the nitpick from you - but I certainly didn't expect your blindness. And I take exception to the tone of your response, since you provide zip for reasoning that stands outside of your limited perceptions. You see, I understand your Christian stuff very well. Do you have the capacity to step outside of it and percieve a non-ideological perspective?

Your comments make no rational sense. I know what we're fighting, probably better than you: Islamic slavery, stupidity, and barabarism. How, pray tell, does one side being stupid (ruled by blind faith in religion, not rational thought) mean that the other must be equally proud of its blind dogmatism, as well? That's crap - there is no such need.

I agree 100% with Fred - I'll fight these fuckers because I love my freedom - and yours, too. I am not against them because I've been indoctrinated to believe in some Hairy Thunderer Santa Clause thumbsuck in the sky whose Earthly representative is the Pope or some moron on cable TV with perfect hair.

Yes, it IS a war of civilization: freedom vs. blind robotic ideological totalitarianism. If any facet of civilization fails to see the value of fighting this war, i.e. to protect their freedoms as well as the freedoms of others, then they are as equally handicapped as the Islamists.

Christianity is not IT. No religion is. They are patterned behavior models that give you some peace of mind and help you sleep at night. FREEDOM is it. You are being intentionally obtuse. Your response does not, in any particular other than your tiny little historical reference, negate anything I said.

"Our bodies but not our understanding" - WTF? How specious. Why do you oppose the Islamists? Because you're a Christian? Or, I hope, because you love freedom? I would rather you were an ally because of your intellect and the recognition that freedom is man's best state than your dogma. What is in your heart and what you believe regards a creator or an afterlife or any other unprovable oogabooga are your personal choices. Period. "Your stuff is shit, my shit is stuff", indeed. George was making fun of YOU.

"We all do no end of feeling - and mistake it for thinking." Twain nailed it - and you're guilty. Believe anything you want - it matters not. Your motives are your own - I care only for your actions / inactions. How disappointing you either can't follow and accept such obvious truth - or won't, for whatever reasons. I did not think you so limited prior to this.
Posted by: .com || 01/01/2004 0:31 Comments || Top||


Russia deploys new missile batch
It’s old, it’s not WOT, but just to keep us informed, what the heck:
Russia has deployed a fresh batch [six missiles] of its top-of-the-line strategic nuclear missiles after a break caused by a funding shortage... Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov inaugurated the new set of Topol-M missiles at the Tatishchevo missile base in the central Saratov region Sunday, describing them as a "21st-century weapon" unrivaled in the world. "This is the most advanced state-of-the-art missile in the world," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in remarks broadcast by Russian television stations Monday. "Only such weapons can ensure and guarantee our sovereignty and security and make any attempts to put military pressure on Russia absolutely senseless."
"unless, of course, you’re from Chechnya"
U.S. military analysts equate the missile, known as the SS-27 in the West, with the American Minuteman III, the older of the two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in the U.S. inventory...The Topol-M missiles, capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles (9,650 km) away, have so far been deployed in silos... The daily Izvestia said that the Topol-M lifts off faster than its predecessors and maneuvers in a way that makes it more difficult to spot and intercept. It is also capable of blasting off even after a nuclear explosion close to its silo, the newspaper reported. In Washington, a State Department official said the latest Topol-M deployment is regarded a continuation of the Russian program that started in 1998 and doesn’t violate strategic weapons treaties. The new deployment is consistent with what the Russian government had told the U.S. government to expect, the official said... Next year, design work will start on a next-generation heavy nuclear missile, which will enter service after 2009, the officer said. The new missile will be capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads with a total weight of up to 4.4 tons, compared to Topol-M’s combat payload of 1.32 tons, he added.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/31/2003 1:51:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is actually good news in a way. The newer models likely have better (read: much more tamperproof) payload "brains" for detonation and targeting, and the crypto built into the ignition interlocks is a likely a great deal more secure, especially against hijacks and "accidental" launches. Good US and Japanese digital cryptographic and electronics, and solid Russian engineering.

Don't bother asking me how...

Interesting nuance in the press release if you know how/where to look for such things.

Think about the verbiage referring to "lifts off faster" "more difficult to spot and intercept". Think about how ineffective that is against US tracking satellites with things like thermal detectors, and realtime synthetic aperture radar, and a lot of classified processing and comm stuff that cant be talked about here. Also think why a quick flight time is needed - certainly not for an over-the-pole trajectory. Now think of who might have a hard time tracking a fast-launched missle on a lower trajectory that would need to be "harder to detect".

Somone that might be nearby, perhaps a ways to the east of them? Wonder if they wanted to remind the dragon that this old bear still has teeth?

Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Good analysis Old Spook.
Posted by: chinditz || 12/31/2003 8:33 Comments || Top||

#3  OldSpook Didn't the US share the early versions of the passive action lock thingy with the Russians back in the early '60s?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/31/2003 9:36 Comments || Top||

#4  U.S. military analysts equate the missile, known as the SS-27 in the West, with the American Minuteman III, the older of the two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in the U.S. inventory.

...They deploy a missile that's the equivalent of forty year-old technology, and I should shake in my boots? I think OPs right - this ain't for us, it's for the PRC.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/31/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm just interested in whether they actually got the guidance for the CEP down to under several kilometers.
Posted by: Val || 12/31/2003 14:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Back in the days, the Soviet Union had roughly 7000 military radars dispersed throughout their territory, including the 3000-mile range Hen House radars that protected Moscow from threats coming from France, Britain, and China. I wonder if they still have them and if they are operational.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/31/2003 14:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe Ivan's been reading Tom Clancy's "The Bear & The Dragon"...

Ed
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/31/2003 19:14 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
10 Talibs iced, 100 captured so far in Operation Avalanche
The U.S. military said Tuesday it killed 10 suspected rebels and captured more than 100 other people in a four-week old operation it has billed as the largest since the fall of the Taliban two years ago. The operation involved more than 2,000 U.S. troops in an area of southern and eastern Afghanistan the size of California, though there were no major skirmishes. U.S. troops and soldiers from allied nations such as Romania carried out hundreds of patrols and searches, uncovering weapons caches and making arrests. "Most important is what didn’t happen," Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said at a news conference, citing the reopening of a key highway to the south that has been plagued by militant attacks and an apparent slowdown in attacks on aid workers.

Still, the start of the operation was overshadowed by the deaths of 15 children in raids on suspected militants. In both cases, the chief suspect escaped. Avalanche was also supposed to keep militants on the defensive during a historic constitutional convention, or loya jirga, which began in the capital, Kabul, more than two weeks ago. So far, the gathering has gone ahead without any serious disruption. At least five rockets have been fired into the city, and on Sunday, four Afghan intelligence agents died in a blast as they attempted to arrest a suspected terrorist carrying explosives. None of those incidents occurred near the convention, which is guarded mainly by members of the new Afghan National Army, a U.S.-trained force which currently numbers about 7,000 men. The new army took possession Tuesday of 24 new trucks donated by India, the first of 300 vehicles including jeeps and ambulances pledged by Delhi last year. Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, whose National Guard unit is leading the training, said the vehicles would fill shortfalls in equipment hampering the Afghan army from getting more involved in combat operations.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:29:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
killed 10 suspected rebels and captured more than 100
Guy, guys - get it right! It should be the other way around!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/31/2003 17:06 Comments || Top||


Afghan constitution vote suspended
Afghan leaders suspended voting on the country’s first post-Taliban constitution Tuesday after failing to close an ethnic split over issues from power-sharing to recognition for minorities. Delegates to the grand council, or loya jirga, were dismissed and told to return Wednesday, leaving a core of powerful leaders to join U.N. and U.S. officials to seek a compromise among the country’s fractious ethnic groups. Before disappearing into the crisis talks, the council’s embattled chairman, Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, appealed for calm — and suggested a deal could be reached in overnight talks. "Sometimes our loya jirga gets so hot that the people catch fire, and sometimes it’s so cold you need warmer clothes," he told the council gathered in a huge tent on a city college campus. "God willing, tomorrow we will gather again and won’t even need to vote or debate any more."

The 502-member council has spent more than two weeks debating and revising a 160-article draft supported by U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. Karzai appears to have rallied a clear majority for the strongly centralized presidential system laid out in the draft, mostly among his ethnic Pashtun kinsmen from the south of the country. But representatives of the Northern Alliance faction, which helped U.S. forces throw out the Pashtun-dominated Taliban in late 2001, have put up stubborn resistance. Critics including hardline Islamists who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the civil war that followed, want a parliament strong enough to keep the president in check. They are also pressing for the recognition of minority languages and stronger regional councils, as well as a state with a stronger Islamic flavor.

Officials exasperated at snail-paced discussions and the $50,000-a-day cost handed out voting slips Tuesday morning so that the council could decide on a dozen of 18 last-minute amendments. But delegates close to Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik leader and former president, called for a halt, claiming their demands were being ignored amid heavy-handed government lobbying. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, a regular presence at the jirga, later met with Mujaddedi, U.N. Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi and other Afghan officials.

Many Pashtuns are confident they have a majority to turn the constitution back in Karzai’s favor and impatient for a vote. "They just want to disrupt the whole process," said Omar Zakhilwal, a delegate from Kandahar, said of the opposition. "They think they are losing." Others appealed for moderation to heal the wounds left by years of war. "After 24 years of war, different people can have different ideas," said Mahmoud Shah Suleyman Khel, a Pashtun delegate from Paktia who said he decided to attend the loya jirga despite threats in his region by Taliban militants. "Everybody wants security and peace and stability. This is what is important to the people of Afghanistan."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:23:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I really wish someone would point out to them that their previous Islamic republic - FAILURE

Islamic Republic of Iran - FAILURE

And the grandaddy of them all, SA - FAILURE.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 12/31/2003 3:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I really wish someone would point out to them that their previous Islamic republic - FAILURE

Why? If these guys can't learn from the mistakes of others, then the only way they're going to learn is to make their own mistakes. At least that's how it works in theory.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 14:58 Comments || Top||

#3  "...a state with a stronger Islamic flavor."

Yumm. Chocolat.
Posted by: Attaboid || 12/31/2003 19:34 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Islamist group claims Riyadh bomb attack
A radical Islamist group called the Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques claimed responsibility Wednesday for blowing up a Saudi security officer’s car outside his home in Riyadh and threatened more attacks. The claim appeared in a statement posted on several Islamist websites including www.qal3ah.org and www.alpalsam.com, which warned "the officer and those like him against pursuing their war against Islamists," in the kingdom. "In the framework of our plan to assassinate the infidel imams and the soldiers of tyranny, we announce that we are responsible for the explosion which targeted intelligence service lieutenant-colonel Ibrahim Al-Dhaleh... after we verified the crimes committed by this apostate against the mujahedeen" guerrillas, said the statement.
"Yeah, we dun it! We’d have been really proud if he had been in the damm car but you take what you can get."
The officer escaped unharmed on Monday night when civil defence chief General Saad bin Abdullah al-Tuijri announced that only the vehicle had been damaged.
Pretty lame attack.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday Saudi Arabia’s top counterterrorism official was moderately wounded in an assassination attempt earlier this month. The newspaper, citing unidentified senior US officials, said Major General Abdelaziz al-Huweirini, the No. 3 official in the Saudi interior ministry, was shot on December 4. The shooting has not been acknowledged by Saudi officials, but the Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques claimed earlier this month that it had carried out the attack.
Or at least took credit for it.
The Times said the general’s brother was seriously wounded in the shooting. The paper did not say where the attack took place.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 10:49:12 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques?

Let me guess: Sarumon is Imam at one and Sauron at the other?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/31/2003 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  "Sarumon is Imam at one and Sauron at the other?"

(tips hat) Sweet.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 12:53 Comments || Top||

#3  So I'm sure there must be a Brigade of the Three Holy Mosques, right? And the Four Holy Mosques, and the Five...well, I think you get it.

Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 13:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Does Rantburg have a football stadium? Why don't we start the Armed Forces of the Sacred Stadium? Brigade? Pfeh, Army + Navy + AF + Marines. Steve can be the General of the Army - which Steve is intentionally unspecified, OP could handle the AF, Shipman the Navy, Jarhead the Marines, OldSpook the CIA, etc. Fred would the JCS Chief or SecDef or Prez, whatever he fancied.

BTW, where IS Jarhead? Maneuvering someonewhere?
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 20:36 Comments || Top||


3 Linked to Saudi Blast Arrested
EFL:
Saudi security authorities have arrested three men in connection with an explosion that targeted a senior security official. The Okaz daily, quoting an unnamed security official, said three men were picked up shortly after Monday’s attack. The car was empty when it exploded in Riyadh’s eastern Al-Salaam district and nobody was hurt by the blast.
We heard about this, a pretty lame attack.
Police stopped a white Toyota Tercel after a witness described a similar car leaving the site of the explosion soon after it took place. The car is believed to be rented, security sources told Okaz. The sources could not confirm whether the men were involved in the incident.
But they’ll do for now.
A Western diplomat said the attack was against a senior member of the Interior Ministry’s Mabahith branch, the Saudi equivalent of the FBI. Okaz quoted the official as saying the targeting of police officers "will not stop security from working to root out terror cells." He said the incident "carried the fingerprints of extremist thought," the newspaper said.
Or maybe it’s just you they don’t like.
Has there ever been an exploding car that didn't carry the fingerprints of extremist thought?
Interior Ministry officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but police have told The Associated Press that a car sped by the official’s parked vehicle and a passenger tossed something toward it, causing an explosion.
Tossed a small bomb at a empty car? Doesn’t sound like a al-Qaeda operation, no bodies.
A Western diplomat suggested Monday’s attack — and a similar strike on a top security officer earlier this month — appeared to be a change of tactic by Islamic militants, who usually target foreigners in Saudi Arabia. The new target appears to be senior members of the Saudi security services.
The target this time was a empty car. Either something went wrong, or it was just harassment. Piss off your neighbor? Oh well, in other news:
On Tuesday, terror suspect Mansour Mohammed Ahmed Faqih turned himself in to Saudi authorities. Faqih was 14th on an official list of 26 wanted terror suspects. Faqih, 22, went into hiding shortly after his 18-year-old brother Hassan Faqih was arrested in connection with suicide attacks on May 12, according to biographical details published in the government-guided newspapers.
Another family affair.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 9:45:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saudi terror suspect surrenders
One of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted militant suspects has surrendered to police, Saudi officials have said. Mansour bin Mohammad Ahmad Faqih gave himself up on Tuesday, according to an interior ministry statement carried by state media. He was 14th on a wanted list of 26 men with suspected al-Qaeda links. In early December, Saudi Arabia named 26 suspects it suspected of involvement in terror attacks within the country. It offered rewards of up to $1.9 million to anyone who helped police arrest them or thwart an attack. Pictures and biographical details of the suspects were printed in Saudi newspapers. The reports said Faqih, 22, had gone into hiding soon after his younger brother was arrested in connection with suicide attacks in May.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/31/2003 12:00:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Saudi dissident turns himself in
One of Saudi Arabia's most wanted dissidents sought in connection with deadly bombings this year, surrendered to police on Tuesday. An Interior Ministry statement carried by state media said Mansour bin Mohammad Ahmad Faqih, who was on a list of 26 wanted armed dissidents, surrendered to authorities and was later visited by his family. Saudi Arabia has promised to strike with an "iron fist" against those behind bombings that killed more than 50 people, including nine Americans, in May and November. But Riyadh has pledged that fighters who surrender could expect better treatment in court. In recent weeks the Saudi monarchy has made great play with showing dissident leaders recanting their deviant religious views on television and encouraging their followers to do likewise. Saudi Arabia named 26 suspects earlier this month it said were wanted in connection with "terrorism" in the kingdom and offered rewards of up to $1.9 million to anyone who helped police arrest them or thwart an attack. State television has repeatedly shown pictures of the suspects who included 23 Saudis, two Moroccans and a Yemeni. Security forces killed one of the 26 in a shootout this month. Police said a tip-off had been received for which a reward was paid.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Dissident?" This sounds like the guy was sticking flowers in the army's gun barrells. One of these days Al-Jizz is going to really tick off some "dissident" and when they finish clearing out the rubble and bodies MAYBE then they'll get it...

But I doubt it.
Posted by: RMcLeod || 12/31/2003 3:05 Comments || Top||


Kuwaiti MPs Oppose ‘Americanizing Textbooks’
Kuwaiti lawmakers warned the government yesterday against bowing to US and Western pressure to change school textbooks to omit references seen as promoting terror and extremism, and insisted they would not accept the “Americanization” of education.
Okay by me. Why not contract with the Japanese? They seem to write textbooks, retain their culture, and still manage not to go back to the wonderful world of jihad...
Islamist MPs in particular cautioned the government against changing “Islamic fundamentals” in text books, insisting the curricula do not encourage extremism or breed terrorists. “We warn the (education) minister and other officials against amending textbooks, especially (on) Islamic education” to remove subjects important to Muslims, Islamist MP Abdullah Okash told Parliament. “Do you have a new religion you want to teach students? Is it the Western religion? Is it the new American religion?” he asked.
I think it'd be a great idea if they learned something about other religions. It'd be even better if they were exposed to some solid agnostic philosophy.
The warning came during a debate on Kuwait’s education policy, which was opened Monday by the government when it informed Parliament it was modifying textbooks to promote tolerance and fight violence and extremism. “Our curricula will remain influenced by Islam and Arab nationalism. Those who don’t like this should leave the country,” Islamist MP Khaled Al-Adwah said. “We will not accept Americanization and Westernization of our school books. After all, Americans respect the people who respect themselves.”
That we do. We don't respect those who engage in mindless violence, though...
“I hope the government will not bow to external blackmail and threats... and be forced to delete important sections of Islamic education,” said Shiite MP Hassan Jowhar. Other MPs insisted that there should be no link between Islam and terrorism because terror is present worldwide.
It only wears a turban in most cases, not all...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I recommend Derrida, Foucault, Husserl. Especially Husserl.

(mutters) As if it's not bad enough we are 600 years behind decadant Western powers...
Posted by: Mahmoud, the Weasel || 12/31/2003 3:06 Comments || Top||

#2  But no Mickey Spillane. They're not advanced enough for that.
Posted by: Fred || 12/31/2003 10:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Kuwaiti lawmakers warned the government yesterday against bowing to US and Western pressure to change school textbooks to omit references seen as promoting terror and extremism, and insisted they would not accept the “Americanization” of education.

Lemme get this straight - pruning textbooks of incitements to terrorism and extremism is "Americanization"? So can this be taken to mean that promoting terrorism and extremism is "Islamicization"?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  So can this be taken to mean that promoting terrorism and extremism is "Islamicization"?

[cue music] We have a win-ner!
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  "Hello Dick" said Jane.

"Cover your face Jane or you may be stoned" answered Dick.

"My bad" said Jane meekly. "Oh look Dick!" Jane shouted encourgingly. "See Spot!"

"Filthy vile thing," said Dick seething.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/31/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Lucky, let me know when you get to the honor killing part.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 13:20 Comments || Top||


Bahrain joins global anti-crime battle
Bahrain is to help fight international crime under a United Nations treaty. MPs yesterday voted in favour of joining the treaty, which has already been appr-oved by the Shura Council. Some MPs abstained from voting, at the weekly Parliament session, saying that the treaty was tailored to help the US in its so-called war on terrorism, which they believe is unjust.
Guess we know which side they're on...
The treaty targets organised criminal and terrorist groups, the MPs heard. It deals with fighting terrorist activities, freezing illegal finances and combating money laundering and the pursuit of criminals across borders. It also focuses on human trafficking, especially children and women. The agreement will now be taken to the Cabinet by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar for final approval. Joining the treaty will make clear to the world that Bahrain is against terrorism and does not accept any criminal group within its lands, he said. But legislative and legal affairs committee chairman Dr Abdullatif Al Shaikh said that there should be a more specific definition of terrorism in the treaty.
Still trying to make that subtle distinction between terrorists and freedumb fighters...
He also said it should be clear whether any Bahraini suspected of terrorism would be handed over to foreign authorities.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Body found in wheel well of plane
An investigation has started after a body was found in a plane from London to New York. The man, thought to be in his 30s, was found after the British Airways flight landed at JFK airport. BA said it was examining how the stowaway got on board the flight from Heathrow Airport.
Why don’t you do that. Until then, quit bitching about us wanting security on the damm planes!
There have been a number of incidents in recent years where immigrants have been found dead after attempting to hide in plane wheel wells.
Wheel wells being unpressurized and unheated are a great place to hitch a ride.
The BA flight - BA 177 - left Heathrow at around 1330 GMT on Tuesday and landed in New York at about 1615 local time. A BA spokesman said: "The body was discovered during refuelling and this led to the return flight - BA 174 - being delayed for a couple of hours.
Would have been a much longer delay if he had been wearing a bomb belt with a timer.
"We are investigating just how the person got on board."
How about your ground security sucks? Was that too hard?
Last week, a man in his 20s was found dead in the wheel well of a plane to JFK from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
I think I’ll go lay down.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 11:28:15 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There have been a number of incidents in recent years where immigrants have been found dead after attempting to hide in plane wheel wells. And all of them are Darwin Award candidates.

However, Steve is right. The boomer potential is scary.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 12/31/2003 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  There have been a number of incidents in recent years where immigrants have been found dead after attempting to hide in plane wheel wells.

What's fun is when the bodies fall out after the landing gear is extended. I say paint bullseyes along the flight path, and depending on where the corpse hits, award points accordingly.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  When it is -60F or so, and you are flying at FL330 and higher (above 33,000 ft) hypoxia gets you to the white light. I am amazed that in this age of the terrorist that simple, effective, proceedures are not followed for inspecting and securing wheel wells before flight and during pushback.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/31/2003 13:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I too hate paying full-fare but this is ridiculous. CNN has it that the first officer discovered the body while doing a walk-around.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/31/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||

#5  CNN has it that the first officer discovered the body while doing a walk-around.

Strange. The walk-around is usually done before departure.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 20:12 Comments || Top||

#6  He was wondering what caused all the thumping and muffled screams he heard coming from the wheel-well.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 20:24 Comments || Top||

#7  I say we blame the French.It was a French director who had a priest stowaway on a starship's wheelwell in THE FIFTH ELEMENT,my favorite Bruce Willis flic.(Now remove tongue from cheek).
Posted by: Stephen || 12/31/2003 22:24 Comments || Top||


Europe
Killer was hired as Air France guard
EFL:
The company put in charge of security for Air France flights employed a convicted murderer and a number of others with serious criminal records, it emerged yesterday. The background of the guards was disclosed in a Paris court during a hearing to wind up the company, Pretory, which had been operating security on the French airline for more than two years but went into bankruptcy after tax fraud allegations. The revelation of its lax recruiting methods coincided with the disclosure that armed French police have been flying with Air France to the US since December 23.
And you did backround checks on them, right? Hello?
The government ordered the use of the gendarmerie after the US said that flights without armed escorts would be banned from overflying or landing, because of the fear of terrorism. Last week Air France cancelled six transatlantic crossings at short notice after Washington said terrorists might be on board. The airline refused to make any comment on a possible link with the use of a dodgy private company.
"Je peux ne dire pas plus"
Four days after the terror attacks in the US on September 11 2001 Air France was one of the first networks to announce that passengers would be accompanied by "specially trained agents". But the tribunal which ordered the company’s liquidation heard that, in a rush to recruit guards, it had taken on disco bouncers, dog handlers, nightwatchmen, apache dancers, guys named Moe and other staff with little or no experience of arms or safety procedures.
How very French
An investigation was eventually started last April, when the police looked into the background of 140 agents, the most qualified of whom were former soldiers. As a result of a search of criminal records more than 30 agents were grounded as a potential security risk.
Well, to be fair, they’ve found a lot of crooks working as airport screeners in the US.
The police also looked into the record of Pretory’s sub-contractors. This led to unconfirmed reports that some guards had been sent for arms training courses in Middle Eastern countries suspected of harbouring terrorists.
OK, forget fair. Just keep Air France out of our airspace.
A few weeks before yesterday’s liquidation hearing Air France announced that it was ending the contract with Pretory from today. But by then the company had run into legal trouble because of its non-payment of social security charges and alleged tax frauds amounting to about €4.5m (£3m).
No wonder they were hiring people off the street.
French diplomats gave assurances that the Pretory recruits had been replaced by police from the SAS-style intervention group, GIGN.
Those guys are supposed to be good.
According to police sources two to six gendarmes accompany every flight to and from the US, depending on the number of passengers. One guard is assigned to the cockpit. The men’s main weapons are electric stun guns and other non-lethal arms. "These men have received special training," a member of the force said. "In fact, we have been testing this sort of airline security for years."
So quit your bitching and guard.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 12:05:23 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Disco bouncers? I might pay to see them try to stop a hijacking.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 16:12 Comments || Top||


Cardinal: Christians Second-Class in Muslim Lands
Too many Islamic countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens and bar them from building churches while Western states let their Muslims build mosques freely, according to a senior Vatican official.
Oh, did you notice that?
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently retired as the Vatican’s foreign minister, told the French Catholic daily La Croix Wednesday that Christianity and Islam faced "an enormous task" of learning to live together in mutual tolerance.
We've got one-sided tolerance now, so you'd think we were half-way there. But it doesn't really work that way, does it?
Tauran was the latest and highest-ranking Catholic official to voice concern about Vatican relations with Muslims, an issue seen as central for whoever succeeds the ailing Pope John Paul. "There are too many majority Muslim countries where non-Muslims are second-class citizens," said Tauran, the church’s top diplomat for 13 years before he had to step aside on being made a cardinal by Pope John Paul in October. Stressing the need for respect for minorities, he singled out "the extreme case of Saudi Arabia, where freedom of religion is violated absolutely — no Christian churches and a ban on celebrating Mass, even in a private home."
They're afraid Christianity will escape, I guess, and gobble up all the mosques and the donations that flow in...
"Just like Muslims can build their houses of prayer anywhere in the world, the faithful of other religions should be able to do so as well," the French-born cardinal said. Leading church figures have increasingly expressed concern about Islam in view of friction between Muslims and Christians in Africa and the Middle East and the difficult integration of Muslim minorities in traditionally Christian Europe.
Posted by: TS || 12/31/2003 11:21:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They just now acknowledge this? Is this their response to the Archbishop being killed?
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#2  File this one under "Duh"!
Posted by: Spot || 12/31/2003 11:28 Comments || Top||

#3  They just now acknowledge this?

Maybe they just barely noticed.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  recently retired as the Vatican’s foreign minister

Worst part is, he had to retire before he was able to speak up about this elephant in the room.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 12:22 Comments || Top||

#5  In another shocking development, gasoline can harm you if you drink it.
Posted by: BH || 12/31/2003 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Al-Q doesn't need explosives to destroy the vatican. All they need to do is tell them the sky is blue and they will all have a collective aneurism....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/31/2003 12:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, this guy probably did have to retire form the Vatican before he coudl speak freely.

A soft-headed "Ecuminism" has been the one weak spot in the current Pope's way of doing things.

He has been so concerned with ecuminism that he sometimes appears to have lost contact with the evangelical core of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. Namely, that you tolerate the other religions while you try also to communicate to them and teach them the central truths of Christianity, and how to make those beliefes a daily part of thier lives and their society.

He got the first part right (tolerate), but seems to have completely lost the second.

Really - a pagan ceremony by an African animist, a Shinto ceremony, and a Native American "prayer" to the "Great SpiritS" were all allowed to be offered up in Catholic Cathedrals by JP-II. Could you imagine asking and being allowed to say the Our Father in one of the local Mosques? (Without subsequently being beaten to death by an angy mob of "seething" Moslems).

Time to make Tolerance a 2 way street in the Moslim world.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  WTF did this guy think the Islamic world was all about before he had this amazing revelation? Did he think it was all like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or something????

Memo to Cardinal Tauran: Muslims don't think your religious beliefs are merely wrong; they think you should die for being a Christian. Wake up!!
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/31/2003 15:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Did he think it was all like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or something????

Don't insult his dream for the Vatican!
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 16:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Even Mr Roger's Neighborhood wasnt that easy.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 22:33 Comments || Top||


Italian anarchists behind EU letter booms
European police forces hunted on Tuesday for Italian anarchists suspected of waging a letter bomb campaign against top EU targets, as Germany sealed off a military hospital over a bomb threat by Islamic militants. The latest letter bomb was sent on Tuesday to Eurojust, a European Union body based in The Hague that is made up of prosecutors and judges who help member states investigate and prosecute serious cross-border crime cases. It did not explode. An Italian group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation had threatened a campaign against the "new European order" just days before the first device targeted EU President Romano Prodi on Saturday. No one has been injured by the four devices in four days that have also been sent to European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet and Juergen Storbeck, head of the EU’s police agency Europol. An Italian judicial source said all the letter bombs had been posted from the country’s northern city of Bologna.
At least they know where to start looking...
Before the letter bombs, the Informal Anarchist Federation sent a statement to Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper claiming responsibility for planting small devices that exploded near Prodi’s home on December 22. Authorities said they were taking the group’s threat seriously. "We are looking at members of an Italian group that are close to the anarchist spectrum," said a spokesman for the German federal prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt. The letter bomb to Prodi exploded in his hands, but he was unhurt. The letters to Trichet and Storbeck were intercepted.
The EU’s headquarters in Brussels said it had tightened some security measures.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:31:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An Italian group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation had threatened a campaign against the "new European order" just days before the first device targeted EU President Romano Prodi on Saturday.

I would imagine that any organization of anarchists would be informal...
Posted by: Ptah || 12/31/2003 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Naw, some of 'em wear really spiffy coats and tails.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 18:16 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Ford Has a Better Idea: One Nation Under Allah
Too long to post, too important to edit for length.
Lots of links and references.
So, as usual, grab a coffee first
Posted by: tipper || 12/31/2003 1:45:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It makes me sick whenever I see religious qwackery, that is (unreformed?) Islam, shown any respect while it smugly acts as if it has any value. I Hate!

And that these fakes like CAIR using our freedoms and liberial values as a weapon against us. It's no religious war. It's a real war of hate and lets hope we write the history of the conflict. I'll say this, I hope it doesn't take a hundred years.

We need to ramp up this conflict. Name names, call a spade a spade.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/31/2003 14:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Back in '96 Heather MacDonald had the big foundations and Ford in particular well pegged. Go to http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_4_sndgs08.html and http://www.city-journal.org/html/6_4_a1.html
Posted by: TPF || 12/31/2003 19:34 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Mad Cow - Canadian Born - Canadian Fed
Canadian food safety investigators have established a tentative link between an Edmonton rendering plant and the U.S. cow found to be infected with mad cow disease, the Edmonton Journal reported Wednesday. The plant may have provided contaminated materials to mills that mixed feed for the Alberta farm where the infected cow was born - as well as to another farm in the province where Canada’s first and only case of mad cow disease was discovered in May.
Let’s put a cattle guard on that "Friendship Fence".
"Right now, it’s possible that the feed both for this cow and the one found in May contained materials from one rendering plant in the Edmonton area," Tom Spiller of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said, according to the paper. Spiller is heading the investigation into the feed sources of both animals. The Edmonton plant’s rendering materials came entirely from northern Alberta, the paper said.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 11:49:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  oooo, bad karma coming back to Canada...

I wonder how big their beef export industry is ? It will be interesting to see if the current embargo on US beef exports by various nations is dropped and switched to Canada and how soon.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/31/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Feed body parts to an animal that normally eats only plant matter and it's no surprise that problems (to put it mildly) eventually crop up.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Glad I only ate fish & chips when I was in Edmonton.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  i think the east asians already have an embargo on Canadian beef. That plus embargo of US beef, means high beef prices in Japan, etc, and boon for Argentina and Australia.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/31/2003 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Argentina already has BSE problems, they aren't going to benefit too much.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 12:20 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
16 hardcore militants surrender
Sixteen hardcore militants, 15 from the ULFA and one from the MULTA, surrendered before the Indian Army here today. The militants surrendered before the Commander of 41 Sub-area Brigadier S N Sethia, and handed over their arms and ammunition, officials said. A pistol, two revolvers, one IED, three detonators, four grenades, two rounds of AK-47 ammunition and several documents were among the objects surrendered.
No sword? Can’t have a formal surrender without a sword.
Brigadier Sethia said the surrender will be a big blow to the banned outfits operating in Upper Assam. He urged the militants languishing in jungles to contact their nearest army post and surrender. He assured that they will be treated with respect and their safety ensured.
"Those who don’t will be hunted down and killed"
Bhaskar Bordoloi, one among the ULFA militants who surrendered today, said he had come down from Bhutan last June. He said the strength of the outfit was decreasing. He said several hundreds of cadres had sneaked into Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland after the first quit notice was served by the Royal Bhutan Government.
Their fearless leaders are no doubt safe at their condos in Bangladesh planning their next move.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 10:37:57 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Deputy Chief of Jaish missing after attacks on Musharraf
Some activists of the banned militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, have been arrested in connection with the December 25 attack on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, and police were looking for its deputy chief who has been missing. Jaish deputy chief Mufti Abdul Rauf came from Bahawalpur town in Punjab to Islamabad before the attack and has been missing, media reports today said, adding some members of the outfit have been arrested. Police began looking for Rauf after identifying one of the suicide bombers Mohammad Jamil, a resident of PoK, from his severed head recovered at the attack site, The Nation said quoting officials of the Interior Ministry.
"Is this Jamil?"
"Hold it up a little higher, yeah, that’s his head."

Jaish Chief Maulana Masood Azhar, has been hiding ever since his new organisation Khudamul Islam, was banned. Jaish was already banned by Musharraf last year.
Holed up some where thinking of new names?
The paper also quoted Maulana Omair Naqshabandi, a Jaish leader, as denying the involvement of the outfit in the attack on Musharraf. He also denied reports that Azhar was in the custody of Pakistani security agencies.
If you know the government doesn’t have him, I guess that means you know where he is, doesn’t it?
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 10:23:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  from his severed head recovered at the attack site

Even the bomb thought this guy deserved to a beheading.
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 11:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, when I come across a severed head, I start thinking...hmmmmm, something's wrong here.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 16:02 Comments || Top||


IJT baton squad poised to smite New Year revelry
The Shabab-i-Milli and the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), youth groups of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, warned on Tuesday that they would punish revellers who are drunk on New Year eve. IJT Divisional Chief Hasnain Gondal said both the groups had formed a force of baton-wielding supporters who would punish those who cause trouble after consuming alcohol. Officials from both fundamentalist groups met with District Police Officer Hamid Nawaz Gondal and informed him that a huge quantity of liquor had been moved into the district and the administration had not taken proper steps to stop it. He added that no one was permitted to consume liquor in or outside hotels and homes.
Why we fight, ladies and gentlemen. Islamists feel free to form bands of roving baton-wielding fascisti who beat people up for doing things they don't approve of. Being of staid and sober mein, I'll probably greet the new year with a clear head tonight — but I'll defend to the death my right to do so puke-in-the-gutter drunk.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/31/2003 1:16:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They keep this up, it won't be long before they set up sobriety checkpoints.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Send in the crack Beastie Boys regiment...or maybe distribute baseball bats to any drunks.

Hey, it works in Brooklyn.
Posted by: mojo || 12/31/2003 1:49 Comments || Top||


Vajpayee to meet one-on-one with Musharraf and Jamali
Wouldn't that be one-on-two?
Pakistan and India have scheduled one-on-one meetings of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the SAARC summit. While officials sources from the two countries including the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank said that no decision has been made about Mr Vajpayee meeting the president and the prime minister, western diplomats in Islamabad said they had been told that Mr Vajpayee would indeed call on President Musharraf. They said an announcement to the effect would be made by India immediately before the summit.
Could be why they didn't announce it when asked...
Mr Shashank, who crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday, said Prime Minister Vajpayee would meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on different occasions during the SAARC summit but no one-on-one meeting between them has been decided. Mr Shashank said South Asia was facing various problems, which would be discussed at the summit. To a query about the solution of the Kashmir dispute, he said Pakistan should verify whether infiltration from across the Line of Control into India had ceased or not “after which talks about Kashmir might start. If we can become part of an international coalition for the war against terror, we can also do that at a regional level.”
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Govt might try nuclear scientists
The government might put engineers Muhammad Farooq and Saeed Ahmed of the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) on trial for alleged wrongdoing regarding Pakistan’s nuclear know-how. “Some sections of the government would like to put the two engineers on trial after investigations into their conduct are completed,” sources told Daily Times. The two nuclear engineers are being questioned for allegedly aiding Iran’s nuclear programme for money. “Mr Farooq’s job is intact, but at the very least he will be dismissed once the debriefing is finished,” the sources said.
So his job's not really intact, it's in the chute on its way to the toilet. But while he's in the chute, he can still make notes for when he sets up in business for himself.
Mr Farooq was earlier demoted to director when Dr AQ Khan was asked to leave the KRL. He was the director general of KRL foreign procurement before that. The sources said the government had questioned about 30 people regarding the allegations against the nuclear scientists, but these people had not been detained. It is learnt that Mr Farooq fell ill during investigations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Feud kills two and injures 9
Two people were killed and nine injured when a group of armed men started shooting people in Alipur Chatta on Tuesday. Sources told Daily Times that Imran, Heera and their two accomplices barged into the house of Rana Samundar Khan in Mohallah Pakki Daohri of Alipur Chatta. Mr Rana was sitting with his guests when the men started firing at them. Mr Khan and Irshad were killed instantly and nine guests including Muhammad Yaqoob, Muhammad Nazir, and Iqbal were injured. The killing spread panic in the area. Residents allege that the killing was due to enmity between Mr Khan and the assailants.
Normally it's not friendship that engenders such things, is it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


4 Paks killed at Rajasthan border
Indian paramilitary soldiers on Tuesday shot dead four Pakistanis along their desert border, a spokesman for the Border Security Force (BSF) said. The men were trying to enter India when they ran into a BSF patrol at the border village of Karanpore, in the western Indian desert state of Rajasthan, said Mohan Lal Lathar, deputy inspector general of the BSF.
"You, there! With the turbans! Stick 'em up!"
"You'll never take us alive, coppers!"
"Hokay."
“There have been at least two other infiltration attempts from the Pakistani side this week. Today (Tuesday) the BSF challenged the infiltrators and killed four of them at Karanpore,” Lathar said. The BSF fought back another infiltration attempt along the outpost of Khajuwala in Rajasthan, he said but declined to say whether the four men killed on Tuesday were anti-India militants or smugglers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out
Too funny to pass up.
Commissar in musical mood these days. Maybe is so-called bourgeois "holiday spirit." Here is song for glorious Fedayeen comrades (apologies to Joan Baez):

The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out

Muammar Q. is the name,
and I served with the Fedayeen,
’Til Rummie’s Air Force came
and bombed ole Iraq again.

In the winter of double-oh-three,
We were worried, especially me.
By April the ninth, Baghdad had fell,
It’s a time I remember, oh so well,

The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out,
and AK’s were ringing,
The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out,
and the people were singin’.

They went
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,
Ha, Ha,

Back with my wife in Tripoli,
When one day she called to me,
"Muammar, quick, come see TV,
The 4ID pulled out old Soddie!"
Now I don’t mind makin’ nukes,
and I don’t care if the weapon’s no use.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.

The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out,
and AK’s were ringing,
The Night They Pulled Old Soddie Out,
and the people were singin’.

Like the Colonel before me,
I will rule my land,
Like my brother above me,
who took a rebel stand.
He was just sixty-six, proud and bold,
But a Yankee pulled him outta his hole,
I swear by the sand below my feet,
You won’t pull Muammar back up
when he’s in defeat.

The Night Muammar Made Nice,
and the Dems were cryin’,
The Night Muammar Made Nice,
and the Lefties were screamin’.

They went
No, No, No, No, No, No,
No, No, No, No, No, No,
No, No,
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 5:27:14 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  (apologies to Joan Baez)

She was probably against the war, so I wouldn't worry about it. ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 22:07 Comments || Top||


Faces of Valor - a tribute to the Men and Women of Operation Iraqi Freedom
A photo tribute to the Men and Women of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

See link.

I for one would like to say Well done and thanks. to the Men and Women who are over there defending our freedom.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/31/2003 3:12:31 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These images are very moving. It is a great honor simply to be a citizen of the country defended by men and women such as these.
Posted by: Matt || 12/31/2003 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Thx - great post! And I echo Matt's exceptional comment. Perfect summation!
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 19:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Superb images. Once again nice to see respect given to the men and women that guard our country, freedom, and children. Quite a contrast to those long ago days in the 1960's and the early 1970's when the boys coming home from overseas were spat upon.

Just for the record and by way of reminder: the folks spiting on our troops in the 60's and 70's voted for Gore in 2000 and will vote for Dean in 2004. Other than that, what else does one need to know?
Posted by: Mark || 12/31/2003 20:33 Comments || Top||


101st Airborne Division discovers weapons caches
In the 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) area of operations a source led soldiers to a group of freshly dug holes, one of which contained two bags full of 82-millimeter mortar rounds. Also a local civilian guided forces to a cache consisting of 185 60-millimeter mortar rounds and 160 82-millimeter mortars.

In both instances explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams destroyed all rounds in place. During a cordon and search operation at the house belonging to a person suspected of anti-Coalition activities, eight 60-millimeter mortar rounds were discovered.

A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and 16 RPG rounds were discovered in eastern Mosul and reported to soldiers from 2nd BCT by the local Muktar, the neighborhood religious and community leader. The explosive ordnance detachment (EOD) destroyed the cache in place.

A former high-level Ba’ath Party member turned in seven AK-47s and 14 magazines to the 3rd BCT. A group of local citizens turned over 50 hand grenades, eight RPG launchers, 34 RPG rounds, three surface-to-air missiles, two night-vision rifle scopes, one 120-millimeter mortar tube and mortar round and one 86-millimeter rocket.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/31/2003 11:51:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  lots of help from locals.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 12/31/2003 12:18 Comments || Top||


4th ID 12-31-2003
TIKRIT, Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment raided a building in Shahab Almab before daybreak on Dec. 29. In addition to weapons and ammunition the soldiers captured 20 people suspected of involvement in anti-Coalition activities, 10 of whom were specifically targeted.

The weapons and ammunition confiscated include two 57-millimeter rocket launchers, one Surface-to-Surface-30 rocket, three 57-millimeter rocket pods, two 82-millimeter rockets, one SPG-90 missile, five Spigot missiles, 14 125-millimeter tank rounds, 23 blocks of TNT, two 155-millimeter propellant charges, and one 155-millimeter artillery round.

A patrol from A Company, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment discovered nine surface-to-air missiles and five additional missiles in Rashidiyah. The missiles’ warheads were intact. An explosive ordinance disposal team is scheduled to destroy the missiles.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment cordoned off an area east of Lake Thar Thar in the morning of Dec. 29 looking for targeted individuals with suspected involvement in anti-Coalition activities. The unit raided three locations and detained 68 people for questioning – two remain in custody. The soldiers also located and confiscated 14 AK-47 assault rifles, two shotguns and full AK-47 ammunition magazines.

A raid in the evening of Dec. 28, conducted by soldiers from 173rd Airborne Brigade, netted two suspected weapons dealers, weapons and ammunition. Soldiers captured ten people, and located and confiscated four AK-47 assault rifles, two cases of artillery propellant, 14 grenade fuses, a block of C4 explosives and five AK-47 ammunition magazines.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/31/2003 8:48:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Task Force “All American” 12-31-2003
During the last 24 hours, Task Force “All American” conducted 205 patrols, 17 of which were joint patrols with Iraqi forces, and carried out 14 offensive operations. One enemy was killed and 39 were captured during these operations. Entry was denied to 170 people at the border crossing at Trebil – all due to insufficient documentation. No one was turned away at Tanif, Husaybh, or Ar Ar.

Early Dec. 30, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade conducted six cordon and searches to kill or capture Wahabbi extremists operating in Fallujah and anti-Coalition Forces operating near Al Karmah. The operations resulted in the capture of eight enemy personnel, including one targeted individual and the confiscation of 18 small arms weapons, 36 artillery rounds, other miscellaneous demolitions, and a prepared improvised explosive device (IED).

During the evening of Dec. 29, 1st Brigade soldiers conducted a cordon and search to capture anti-Coalition terrorists operating in the Tamim section of Ar Ramadi. The operation resulted in the capture of six enemy personnel, including three primary targets.

Last night in 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment’s area, soldiers were engaged with direct fire by three enemy personnel northeast of Husaybah. The soldiers returned fire immediately, killing one enemy attacker while the other two attackers fled the area.

This morning, 3rd ACR soldiers conducted three raids to kill or capture the people responsible for the attack on the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps headquarters in Ubaydi. The operation resulted in the capture of nine enemy and the confiscation of small arms weapons, grenades, and IED making materials.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/31/2003 8:34:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Strykers In The Hunt
Then, about 10 o’clock the next morning, Saturday, another three or four rounds struck, this time at least one of them inside the perimeter. There were no injuries in any of the attacks on Eagle, where roughly 250 of the 5,000 Stryker soldiers are based. The closest rounds landed within 250 yards of the nearest occupied structure in the camp.

"I was standing up there on top of my Stryker, and then bwoosh!" said Spc. David Stine, who said he saw three explosions Saturday, two of them not far from the camp’s fuel point. Within about five minutes, there were more explosions, but these were a couple miles or so to the north. It was fire from the good guys at Camp Pacesetter, the main Stryker brigade base camp about 15 miles away - 155 mm Howitzers raining steel on the spot where the mortars were likely fired.

Pacesetter is home to two gun battalions - the Stryker brigade’s 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment and another from the 4th Infantry Division - as well as counterbattery radars that are meant to detect enemy fire. For some reason, the radars failed to pick up the first two nights’ attacks at Eagle. But they worked correctly on the third, and within about five minutes, an artillery battery fired 15 rounds.

The radars are precise, plotting the point of origin to within about 10 meters. Operators say they can track almost any kind of gunfire.

A platoon of soldiers from Eagle hurried to the scene after the shooting stopped.

They found a couple of rocket-propelled grenade launchers, some empty AK-47 magazines and bayonets - and three donkeys and a couple of donkey carts.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/31/2003 8:31:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  5 minutes response?

Somone was sleeping. Goood gunbunnies can get a turn around full section TOT in 3 minutes. We saw that back when the first integrated firefinders with the targeting systems.

Its a shame these bastards are shooting from back yards. IF they were out in the countryside, MLRS woudl saturate them withing 2 minutes. Lots of dead Jihadis when that happens (also tis why the MLRS were originally put into service).

Of Course you need the gun crews full-up and ready to rock. My bet is they were on standby. And they had to go up the chain of command to Division for permission to fire, which threw more time in the loop.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/31/2003 14:41 Comments || Top||


IGC member sez Sammy’s stash is $40 billion
Saddam Hussein withdrew $2 billion from Iraqi banks last spring, including a sizable withdrawal a week after the fall of Baghdad, according to a member of the Iraq Governing Council. Dr. Iyad Allawi -- in an interview with CNN Tuesday -- elaborated on reports published Monday in two Arabic newspapers on what he says interrogators are learning from Saddam since his capture earlier this month. Allawi said the governing council has possession of documents signed by the former Iraqi dictator two weeks before the war began authorizing the bank withdrawal. It was unclear how the money was taken from the bank after coalition troops took Baghdad.

Allawi said Saddam admitted he invested stolen Iraqi money -- which the Iraq Governing Council estimates at $40 billion -- in Switzerland, Japan and Germany, among others, under fictitious company names. Saddam’s confession also included the names of people involved in terrorist attacks against coalition forces, Allawi said. He said hundreds of Iraqis have surrendered in the days since Saddam’s capture because they knew he had given interrogators their names. The council member earlier told Arabic dailies Asharq Al-Awsat and Al-Hayat that Saddam had revealed the names of those who knew the locations of weapon arsenals that were being used to attack coalition troops.

Allawi, who is heading security issues at the Iraqi council, estimated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq at more than 5,000, including some al Qaeda members. He said coalition officials keep governing council members updated on the revelations from their interrogation of Saddam. Allawi said although Saddam’s confessions have covered a number of important issues, he can’t yet discuss what has been said about weapons of mass destruction. Allawi was quoted by the Arabic papers saying, "Saddam Hussein’s trial would not be public since he could name countries and persons whom he gave money."

In Baghdad Tuesday, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor would not comment on Allawi’s claims, referring reporters’ questions to the governing council. Saddam surrendered to U.S. troops December 13 from the bottom of an outdoor toilet a narrow, dark hole beneath a two-room mud shack on a sheep farm in Adwar, about 15 kilometers from Tikrit. Soldiers also recovered two AK 47 rifles, $750,000 in $100 denominations and a white and orange taxi in the raid. U.S. officials said they focused on the farm based on a collection of intelligence gathered from the hostile questioning of Saddam’s former bodyguards and family members. The documents captured with Saddam have shed more light on the resistance, according to U.S. officials.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:26:11 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Saddam Hussein’s trial would not be public since he could name countries and persons whom he gave money."

Damn,I want to know who,where,when,what,and how much.Especially who.
Posted by: raptor || 12/31/2003 7:20 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda videos found in Samarra
U.S. forces operating in the so-called Sunni Triangle — the region of Iraq most loyal to captured former dictator Saddam Hussein — found a significant weapons cache that included al Qaeda literature and videotapes. Members of Task Force Ironhorse 2nd Infantry’s Arrowhead Brigade discovered the material Monday morning at a site in Samarra, about 65 miles north-northwest of Baghdad. Some of the items were found hidden in a false wall. The troops also found a British-made body armor plate with a bullet hole. U.S. Central Command said it was an indication that insurgents were testing the ceramic plate’s ability to withstand expended anti-personnel ammunition.
This rehashes yesterday's post, but adds the part about the reading material...
In addition to the al Qaeda literature and videos, the troops found nearly 8,000 rounds of ammunition; 160 mortar rounds and six mortar tubes; 43 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 79 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs); and 19 AK-47 assault rifles, as well as dozens of other weapons. The military also said a significant amount of C4 and TNT explosives material was found, as was material to make improvised explosive devices — the crudely made bombs that have killed or maimed dozens of coalition troops. That was just one of several large weapons caches uncovered in Iraq in the last two days. The military did not say how it found out about the weapons, but a member of the Iraq Governing Council has said in recent days that Saddam has begun giving interrogators information about weapons arsenals used by insurgents to attack coalition forces.
So Saddam fesses out the Islamist guerrillas, who turn out to be al-Qaeda. The fact that he knows where their Secret Hideout(TM) is kind of implies that he was working with them, does it not?
Dr. Iyad Allawi, who is heading security issues at the Iraqi council, told two Arabic newspapers Monday that Saddam is giving the "names of people who know the location of hidden arsenals used in terrorist attacks." About 60 miles west of Baghdad, near the city of Ramadi, soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division on Tuesday found bomb-making materials along with 46 mortar charges, 22 blasting caps, three RPG launchers, three RPGs and two AK-47s.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:19:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


In Fedayeen's path, long term plans, unlikley organization
When Saddam Hussein was finally captured in December, Fathel, a onetime leader of the Fedayeen and now a resistance leader, got a special message. The game has changed, he was told, and they had to change as well. "Our leaders ordered that we should meet and adapt ourselves to this new situation and to remove Iraqi people who were agents of the US," Fathel said. "They also told us that our work must be more organized and more secret because there are spies among us." Three weeks after Saddam Hussein was caught, the Iraqi resistance has remained as intractable as ever, even as the coalition stepped up an aggressive campaign to wipe out insurgents in Baghdad.
Only Polyanna would have thought the activity would drop off precipitately. There should be — and has been — a surge, followed by a gradual diminution of activity as the Bad Guys' resources are expended. It'll level out at a much lower plateau as the financing shifts from Sammy's millions to the emigrees they talk about below...
Threats of a "Christmas Surprise" came true this week as a barrage of rockets, mortars and suicide bombings throughout the country left more than 10 US soldiers dead, countless Iraqis dead or injured and the general security situation still in jeopardy. The skies over Baghdad rumbled with explosions and artillery fire, most of it aimed at Coalition targets and several civilian targets. Rebels launched a series of synchronized rocket, mortar, gunfire and bomb attacks in Baghdad — the most serious insurgent action since Saddam's capture, hitting the Sheraton Palace hotel in Baghdad on two occasions and the CPA's "Green Zone". Nobody was killed and the military dismissed the insurgent offensive as a "random and irresponsible" terrorist act.
The Baathists have lost a lot of their controllers in the past week or two. There was a lot of value in Sammy's briefcase, but they had to be hit quickly, before they could evaporate...
In the meantime, the coalition went on the offensive with operation Iron Grip, launching a barrage on successive nights against suspected resistance targets in the south of Baghdad. Heavy machine gun fire, artillery and missile fire underscored a sense of a city still at war. But as the barrage continued overhead, Fathel was undeterred as he sat comfortably at home. In a rare look into the Fedayeen command, the former commander underscored a level of organization and planning that continues to drive the resistance. "The resistance will never end," he warned confidently.
Perhaps. But it will never win, either.
A day before Baghdad fell last April, Fathel received clear unexpected orders from his superiors. "Send your family away and rent a house in the outskirts of Baghdad," he was told. A new stage in the war was to begin. The Fedayeen leadership was told to lay low and quiet; their commanders would know where to find them, and messengers would travel back and forth relaying orders, advice and news. Two weeks after the fall of the regime, Fathel was ordered to head to Ramadi to meet Saddam Hussein, he thought. As it turned out, Saddam never showed. But the ragtag gang of onetime military leaders were told that Saddam was well and that he encouraged all to lead the resistance against the US troops. A week later, "They divided us into groups and told us that together these groups would make up what was called Mohammad's Second Army," Fathel said. "After that we carried out many plans and operations."
We've seen lots of them here, ignored even more of them. That was a background noise of guerrilla warfare, important only in the aggregate, except to the unfortunates involved in them.
In June, Fathel received the next major order: he was to sell everything and in particular the cars, houses and lands that the government had given him and await new orders. With cash in hand, he waited for further word. Then one day it came — Fathel was ordered to head to Amman for yet another meeting. "When I went to Amman I was shocked by the numbers of my colleagues and friends from the Baath socialist party there, as well as the presence of many of the ex-security men," he admitted.
Hmmm... This section is pretty interesting. I've redacted the article pretty heavily, but there's some nice meat in this section if you feel like reading the whole thing...
"They told me that they had gone to Jordan after the fall of Baghdad and continued to prepare operations from there and had stayed in touch with Saddam's family, many of whom were now in Jordan." Numerous former Baathis flooded Jordan's capital during the summer months, many of them with cash in hand ready to buy real estate and more.
Settling in to set up their control center free from interference by the Merkins...
In ritzy Amman neighborhoods like Deir Ghbar new buildings have risen in recent months fetching some of the highest prices in Amman. The buildings are full of members of Saddam Hussein's former regime and their compatriots, including high ranking former Baathis either unknown to or not wanted by the Coalition. The most famous Iraqis in town, Saddam Hussein's daughters Raghad and Rana, are also getting on with life in a three-storey white stone guesthouse in the Royal Palace that used to belong to the late King Hussein.
Somebody should be interested in this bit. Sammy's daughters receiving refuge can be viewed as professional courtesy. The emigree community is another matter. They're too close to the action to be harmless, like San Francisco's Russians were, or Los Angeles' Persians...
Fathel describes an intricate resistance network that is more a series of bee colonies than a centrally controlled army.
That means it's tough to break up, but also impossible to coordinate — unless you travel to Jordan regularly for "business meetings."
Messages are transferred by trusted messengers who know how to reach individual members. The cells operate relatively independently and freely, so that the arrest or killing of one will not affect the others. But there are even far more secretive procedures that Fathel would not discuss. Ultimately, those secrets lie at the heart of the continued intractable resistance, for which military might still appears a losing strategy.
Military might is only a part of the strategy. Intelligence has to be the driver, and whether the military or the police or the local librarian is the tool to shut them down is a matter or circumstance. Rising prosperity will be what eventually causes these ghosts of the past to vanish.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps we should close the Iraq-Jordan border. At the very least, strip-search everyone who arrives at the border, have dogs sniff their stuff, open every suitcase, briefcase and car trunk, and photocopy every scrap of paper.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 1:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Very interesting. Maybe we should offer the girls and their kids asylum in the US. Some of the cell leaders will have long-range plans and fantasies of being "the new Saddam", and the kids will always be a threat to that.

As for the cells, well...accidents happen.
Posted by: mojo || 12/31/2003 2:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Fundamentally, this guy is part of the 'resistance' because he and his family benefitted materially from Sammy's regime. Not many Iraqis have property they can sell or Daddy's money to rent another place. I question whether pure individual selfishness is a sustainable motivation for an insurgency.

The Iraqis will eventually get organized and start systematically going after people whose wealth came from privileged statues in the old regime. At this point, the emigre community in Jordan might begin to prefer a lower profile. Hopefully Junior here will get cut off.
Posted by: JAB || 12/31/2003 10:19 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Ex-Khmer Rouge supremo admits genocide after watching film
[snipped, dupe from yesterday]
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:33:51 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then he is far more honest and honorable than Hanoi Fonda and the leftist marchers who helped the communists to win so they could perpetrate genocide at leisure.

When there will be a Nuremberg of them?
Posted by: JFM || 12/31/2003 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Did this yesterday -- Army of Steve strikes again!
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 2:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn, I meant to check the 30 but I guess I must've clicked on the 29.

Sorry, folks.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 7:00 Comments || Top||


Thailand designated non-NATO ally
US President George W. Bush officially designated war-on-terrorism partner Thailand a major US non-NATO ally, a move that will boost security cooperation between the two countries.
I thought they were that all along...
"I hereby designate the Kingdom of Thailand as a Major Non-NATO Ally of the United States," Bush, who was vacationing at his Texas ranch, said in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Thailand is joining an exclusive club of countries that enjoy a privileged security relationship with the United States. Its members, which include Japan, Australia, Israel, Egypt, South Korea, Argentina, New Zealand and the Philippines, are granted significant benefits in the area of foreign aid and defense cooperation. Major non-NATO allies are eligible for priority delivery of defense material and the purchase, for instance, of depleted uranium anti-tank rounds. They can stockpile US military hardware, participate in defense research and development programs, and benefit from a US government loan guarantee program, which backs up loans issued by private banks to finance arms exports.

However, the designation does not afford them the same mutual defense guarantees enjoyed by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Thailand has steadily strengthened its ties to Washington since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and this year after prolonged domestic debate committed to sending troops to Iraq. The US president had announced his intention to make the designation during a state visit to Thailand in mid-October. During a speech to members of the Thai military, Bush said he was "confident in the strength of our alliance and I have acted to designate Thailand a major non-NATO ally of the United States."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:21:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Have a carrot...
Posted by: mojo || 12/31/2003 2:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget the free monthly newsletter, and a personalized doormat.
Posted by: Rick || 12/31/2003 6:06 Comments || Top||

#3  I hope they send food aid to the U.S.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  We'll give you weapons and ammo, you give us Kaeng Dang Curry and Spring Rolls. Sounds like a fair deal to me. I love Thai food! Yum.
Posted by: Swiggles || 12/31/2003 9:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Forget the food, send us more Thai women!
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 10:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Why can't we have both?
Posted by: Sgt.DT || 12/31/2003 12:01 Comments || Top||

#7  #5 Forget the food, send us more Thai women!

The trouble with that, Steve, is that half the time, you can't tell the Thai women from the Thai boys. You might get a shipment, and receive a rather rude shock. ^_^

Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/31/2003 14:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Too true, Ed.
You guys can have the girls, I'll take the food! Though I wouldn't mind a couple of khatoeys for bodyguards. Those 'girls' are tough.
Posted by: Kathy K || 12/31/2003 15:12 Comments || Top||

#9  When buying or renting a car, always check under the hood!
Posted by: Raj || 12/31/2003 15:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Kathy - I walked in just in time to see a katoey fight 3 girls in a Nana Plaza bar (Hollywood Bar - the Mamasan was a friend of mine) one night - it was a pretty bloody affair, too. Usually, no Thai actually points out who is katoey and who isn't (even if you are crass enough to ask, Thai social imperative is non-confrontation / non-criticism), but for some reason there was a flareup and two of the girl's friends came to her defense - probably because of the size difference. Anyway, the weapon du jour was stiletto high heels. Hard to say who won - everybody was bloody, clothes torn, hair askew, etc. Funny thing was how the big grown men scattered out of harm's way! I guess if you don't have a dog in the fight, well...
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 20:17 Comments || Top||


Suspected Gambling Queen Kidnapped in Maguindanao
A wealthy woman allegedly behind illegal gamblings in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao was kidnapped by the gunmen after she failed to pay extortion money, officials said yesterday. Dozens of gunmen, believed to be members of the Pentagon kidnap gang, seized the 47-year old Roxas Dacil inside her house in Poblacion village in Sultan Kudarat Pendatun town late Saturday, said Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, commander of the military 4th Civil Relations Group (CRG). “The Pentagon kidnap gang is believed to be behind this and troops are tracking down the kidnappers,” Covarrubias, said.
They've been tracking down the kidnappers for how long now?
Covarrubias said the gunmen seized the woman after she refused to pay extortion money to the Pentagon Gang, listed last year by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Sheikh Abu Omar al-Saif weighs in on the global jihad
The www.qoqaz.com site, operated by Al-Qa’ida members in Chechnya, posted a audio recording directed to the Mujahideen in Saudi Arabia by Sheikh Abu Omar Al-Seif, a Saudi considered the deputy of Abu Al-Walid, who is regarded as the commander of the Jihad in Chechnya, and who is also a Saudi. Al-Seif’s previous recording was a video, also distributed over the Internet, that documented the wills of some of the perpetrators of suicide bombings in Riyadh.
Yet another dot connection in the portrait of jihad...
In the new recording, Sheikh Al-Seif states that the aim of the Mujahideen in Chechnya is to bring about Vladimir Putin’s defeat in the upcoming March 2004 elections, and calls on his supporters to refrain from carrying out attacks against the Saudi government and instead to go to Iraq to fight the Americans. The following is a transcript of the recording:
"In the Name of Allah the All-Merciful and Compassionate,

"Praise to the Master of the World and prayers for our Master Muhammad.

"I hope that this tape reaches you when you are in a good situation. In this tape, I want to advise that it is no secret that there will be a presidential election in Russia in the coming months, and those months will be of the most significant ones.

"The Mujahideen are trying to escalate the operations in order to topple Putin, Allah willing. Putin is trying by any and all means to present himself during these months as a victor, in order to win the elections. These months will be difficult and important to this issue. Disregarding the matter at this stage is most dangerous to the Mujahideen operations. Every Amir(2) who will receive less aid finds it hard to act, since every operation requires cars, ammunition, intelligence, weapons, food, medical care, and mobility; therefore, if aid to that Amir shrinks, he will find it hard to move and act. Allah willing, in the future the situation will improve, and this is one of the most important reasons for sending this tape.

"Regarding the situation in Iraq and the guerilla war - There must be there [in Iraq] a political element, an information element, and a preaching element alongside the military front. The lessons of the past in fighting the colonialists is that those who receive the state are the secularists and the apostates. We must not repeat this mistake.

"Therefore, it is essential that the Jihad groups there [in Iraq] unite and not separate, and that they have the political dimension to assemble the Sunnis, including the Kurds, the Arabs, and the Turkmenis. All must be united under the same political power. Similarly, there must be an information and a religious preaching arm.

"My recommendation is that a Fatwa be issued, to be signed by a large number of clerics, and to be directed at the Jihad groups, advising them to unite and to learn the lesson from the cases in the past when the secularists took the regime.

"Similarly, I recommend to the Mujahideen that instead of engaging in clashes and warfare against the Saudi government,(3) it is better to go to Iraq. There, there are weapons aplenty and there they can fight the Americans. It is no secret that great damage will be caused the Americans if the Mujahideen turn to Iraq to fight them.

"As for the clashes in Saudi Arabia, there is no doubt that they gladden the Americans. It gladdens them that the Mujahideen are killed by the Saudi government. I recommend to the youth to act according to their interests and to turn to Iraq instead of dealing with confronting the Saudi government.

"May Allah protect you. Peace be upon you, and Allah’s mercy and blessings."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:10:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Minefields. Big ones.
Posted by: mojo || 12/31/2003 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Every Amir(2) who will receive less aid finds it hard to act, since every operation requires cars, ammunition, intelligence, weapons, food, medical care, and mobility; therefore, if aid to that Amir shrinks, he will find it hard to move and act. Allah willing, in the future the situation will improve, and this is one of the most important reasons for sending this tape.

Sounds to me like they are running out of money.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/31/2003 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  So, Pledge Time at Al-Q, huh ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/31/2003 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  looks like its drawing near...Allahu Akbar to you all!
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/08/2004 2:16 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
U.S. Blocked Thousands of Centrifuge Parts Bound for Tripoli
Here’s the stick we showed Kadaffi. EFL:
The U.S. government on Wednesday confirmed that an illegal shipment of uranium-enrichment equipment was intercepted en route to Libya’s nuclear weapons program nearly three months ago. Some officials said they believe the intercept of thousands of centrifuge parts at an Italian port may have helped persuade Libya to give up its unconventional weapons programs and to open its weapons sites to British and American inspectors, a step announced Dec. 19.
Ya think?
A State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said that may be so but "let’s not jump to conclusions" about what triggered Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s decision.
Oh, let’s.
I think it was Sammy's dental exam, myself...
The interception of centrifuge parts bound for Libya in early October was reported in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. The Bush administration then confirmed the story with few details and no explanation of why it was not disclosed earlier. The seizure followed the opening of talks with Britain and the United States about Libya submitting its programs to international inspection. It wasn’t clear why Libya sought to import the parts necessary for enriching uranium well after those discussions had begun. Mid-level Libyan officials may not have received or understood signals from the country’s top leaders that the country was moving to end its weapons program, two senior American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday.
Or they were being two-faced all along.
I dunno. If you read JANA regularly, you can understand how they didn't understand...
The officials also made clear Wednesday that American and British authorities plan to play a prominent role in weapons inspections inside Libya, cooperating with the chief U.N. weapons inspector. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that he does not want American or British help on the ground in Libya. "As far as I’m concerned, we have the mandate, and we intend to do it alone," ElBaradei said.
"We don't need anybody else to keep us honest! Honest, we don't!"
But one of the senior American officials snurfed coffee through his nose insisted American and British authorities would participate, hinting at possible tensions with the U.N. chief on the issue. "The IAEA is in there because of what we uncovered," the U.S. official said. "The Libyans came to us and the British."
"So there!"
"Yeah! Piss off!"
Libya opened talks with the United States and Britain about its weapons programs in March, when its leaders said they wanted to "clear the field" on the matter, the American officials said. The American and British officials interpreted this language as something short of an admission of weapons programs. For months, the American and British officials could not pin Libya’s leadership down on a date when the Westerners could first visit the country to begin their work. But soon after the British and American officials confronted Tripoli with information about the centrifuge parts intercept, the Libyans agreed on a date in mid-October, one American official said.
Funny how that "Cause / Effects" stuff works.
It took years, but Muammar finally caught on...
The shipment bound for Libya originated in a Persian Gulf port, but the officials declined to identify the country Wednesday.
Yemen?
Nor would they say which country or countries may have supplied the centrifuge parts, citing ongoing investigations.
Somebody is going to be up late working on their denial.
In September, British and American intelligence authorities learned a German freighter was to depart the Gulf port bearing centrifuge equipment. The intelligence agencies alerted their German counterparts, who contacted the ship’s owner.
"Heave to or be sunk!"
"Häven Sie tö oder bie gezunken!"
The German shipper, BBC Chartering and Logistic GmbH, ordered the ship to divert to the Italian port. There, British and American authorities discovered the centrifuge parts, which can be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. While uranium-enrichment is also a step in the process of producing nuclear energy, Libya has no such energy program. Libya admitted the equipment was for its nuclear weapons program, a senior U.S. official said. The seizure came as part of a U.S.-led international effort to halt commerce in weapons of mass destruction. President Bush announced the creation of the Proliferation Security Initiative in May, when 11 countries including Germany and Italy agreed to strengthen their capabilities to interdict suspect weapons by land, sea or air. Dozens of other countries have since said they want to participate in the program. U.S. officials went out of their way to praise the Germans and Italians for their work in seizing the cargo. But the seizure of weapons at a time when Libya was talking about abandoning just such programs could also raise questions about whether the Libyans can be trusted.
Nearly as far as we could toss him...
Gadhafi has agreed to halt his nation’s drive to develop nuclear and chemical weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them. A senior administration official said it was "a classic trust-but-verify issue," and said Libya appeared to be acting in good faith to dismantle its illicit weapons programs. Its government has provided an "enormous" amount of information about its programs and has taken steps toward transparency, the American official said.
We’ll see.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 3:36:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The shipment bound for Libya originated in a Persian Gulf port, but the officials declined to identify the country Wednesday. Nor would they say which country or countries may have supplied the centrifuge parts, citing ongoing investigations.

Ain't that many countries with Gulf ports.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 15:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Ain't that many countries with Gulf ports.

I dunno, let's see. Iraq, nope, we control those ports. Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Qatar, nope, nope, nope and nope, they don't have centrifuges. Saudi-controlled Arabia, hmmm, they couldn't be that stupid.

Iran. Iran, hmmmm, Gulf port, check, working on nukes, check, links to Libya, check, run by crazed mullahs, check, got Kaddafi's check, check.

I think I can guess who.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 17:02 Comments || Top||

#3  To be honest, though, my surprise meter would barely twitch if the centrifuges came from Soddy Land. The only reason for the twitch would be the surprise that they didn't just farm out the work (to Pakistan, or Libya, or, hell, even Iraq or Iran).

Any bets on the next Muslim nation to (shockingly!) turn out to have a nuclear weapon program? France doesn't count.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 18:13 Comments || Top||

#4  BBC Chartering and Logistic GmbH?

and who said irony is dead?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/31/2003 20:45 Comments || Top||


Africa: West
Riot Police Deployed Against Islamic Grp In NE Nigeria
Riot police deployed in a northeast Nigeria state Wednesday against a radical Islamic group accused of attacking two police stations and taking over a public school building. One policeman died in last week’s attacks at the districts of Geidam and Kanamma in Yobe state, residents said. Sect members took arms and ammunition in the raids on the police stations. Some sect members have retreated to a primary school in Geidam, raising flags bearing the word "Afghanistan," residents said. Police spokesman Femi Oyeleye confirmed Wednesday that the government had sent about 70 riot police to Yobe state to help end the group’s takeover. "There has been a directive that action be taken to dislodge them," Oyeleye said. Police declined comment on the reported death in last week’s raids, and refused to give other details.
"We can say no more!"
Residents said more than 200 people attacked the police stations. Most or all of the group’s members are Nigerians. Little is known of the sect, including its name. Zubeiru Tanko, a resident of Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, told The Associated Press that the group moved into Yobe from neighboring Borno State about four months ago. Tanko said the sect included university graduates as well as unemployed yoots youths. Members in recent weeks had distributed leaflets accusing state Gov. Abba Ibrahim of failing to adhere to Shariah, or Islamic law, he said.
"Yeah! He ain't cut nobody's head off!"
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has a largely Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south. A dozen northern states, including Yobe, began formally adopting Shariah three years ago.
Things have gone downhill ever since...
Tensions over implementation of the Islamic code are blamed for helping to fuel Muslim-Christian violence that has killed thousands since.
Posted by: TS || 12/31/2003 3:00:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shouldn't that last sentence read "Muslim on Christian violence."?
Posted by: Parabellum || 12/31/2003 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Another beauty contest in town?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 15:13 Comments || Top||


Africa: Southern
Mugabe takes farms back from cronies
The Zimbabwe government says it has repossessed some 400 farms covering at least 200,000 hectares from blacks who had taken up more than one farm under the country’s controversial land reform programme. President Robert Mugabe in July ordered top officials in his ruling party to relinquish excess farms if they had acquired more than one under the land reforms, under which land was taken from whites and given to blacks. The recovered land will be distributed to people on the waiting list for land, Minister of Special Affairs John Nkomo told the official Herald newspaper.
...which is about the only one left in Zim.
"We have made significant progress and the land recovered from people out of favor with Bob would now be available for distribution to people better at sucking up to Bob deserving people." Mugabe’s government, which launched a fast-track programme of acquiring white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks in 2000, had been widely criticised for allowing the ruling party’s top hierarchy to grab prime farms. Mugabe appointed a Land Review Committee earlier this year to probe, among other issues (such as who is loyal only to Bob and who is just looking to score some free land), multiple farm ownership. The land "reforms" have been partly blamed for a massive slump in the country’s agricultural production over the past two years.
"What part?"
"98 percent."
The government had initially indicated that it wanted to acquire 11 million hectares or 30% of Zimbabwe’s land, from about 4,500 white farmers, but now says that was just for starters the minimum hectarage it had targeted. A recent audit by a government-appointed team said the amount of land owned by white farmers was down to roughly 1.2 million hectares on 1,377 farms. Whites used to own a third of the land - about 70% of the prime farmland. Some dispossessed white farmers have settled in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana.
Which the Gods have avoided afflicting with draught lately...
Meanwhile Zambia’s agriculture minister has hailed white farmers who crossed the border into Zambia to restart farming operations after being evicted in Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwean farmers who have settled in Zambia are experts, they have only benefited our country," said Zambia’s agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana.
"Mmmm! This barbecue sure is good! Too bad they don't have barbecue like this in Zim anymore! Yep. Sure do like livin' in Zam now!"
Posted by: || 12/31/2003 1:39:23 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  President Robert Mugabe in July ordered top officials in his ruling party to relinquish excess farms if they had acquired more than one under the land reforms, under which land was taken from whites and given to blacks.

Officials in Mugabe's party "acquired" farms under "land reforms"? Talk about spin.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Florida Dems ready for another ‘stolen election’
Critics warned Monday that computer error or outright fraud easily could alter the outcome of elections conducted on Palm Beach County’s electronic voting machines. Vincent J. Lipsio, a software design engineer from Gainesville, said he was not a "conspiracy theorist," but expressed concern about the voting equipment put in use in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election. For example, he said, it would be easy for a beginning computer science student to rig the devices so that 57 percent of all votes next fall go to President Bush — regardless of who the voters actually select.
So if the margin of victory is close to 57% then he is vindicated?
But it would be impossible for a beginning computer science student to rig the devices so the votes would go to a Dem?
There’s a lot of history in American politics of ballot box stuffing," he said. "A few deft keystrokes and all the ballot boxes in a county get stuffed at once."
'ballot box stuffing’ usually occurs in Democrat strongholds, Chicago: Vote early, Vote often.
Lipsio, who volunteers to work on voting issues for the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, said there are so many potential problems with the computer voting equipment "we will have no way of knowing how the election really went."
Unless our guy wins.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, appeared with Lipsio before 200 people at a Democratic event, the Committee to Defeat Bush gathering at Florida Atlantic University.
No Bias to this group!
"I’m not a paranoid person," Wexler said. "I don’t operate from a paranoid point of view." But, he said, the potential for problems is great. Both a purposeful attack on the computer system or just a computer malfunction will put our whole democratic process in chaos."
"So we've started bitching before it happens..."
County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore said their analysis was deeply flawed. "It’s just a bunch of lies," she said.
What she really meant to say is: “Damn they found out about our plan.”
LePore said it would be impossible to rig the machines. Someone would have to break into a secure warehouse and tamper individually with 5,000 machines because they aren’t connected. They have no modems, so a hacker could not meddle with them remotely.
Kind of puts a damper on the theory.
Yeah, but those beginning computer science students are smart. They can't really be trusted. We should probably lock them up...
LePore said there are extensive safeguards to ensure the accuracy of votes cast on the electronic machines. They are recorded in three places, and a diagnostic test is performed after each voter uses the machine. What’s more, she added, there is so much testing of the machines and software, starting before the state certifies them through public tests before each election, that any problems would be detected.
That sounds like over-confidence, but as long as they're not on-line h@ackerb0y can't get into them.
Wexler said a simple solution would eliminate doubt. He wants all voting machines retrofitted so that a paper printout spits out each time an electronic vote is cast. That would allow voters to check the accuracy of the machines and provide a backup that could be used if a recount is necessary.
"...which we're determined it's gonna be!"
LePore said that’s not a simple fix. "It’s not as easy as they think where you go to Office Depot and buy a printer off the shelf." Equipment and software compatible with the voting machines has to be developed, go through testing and get state certification. If that ultimately happens, she said, it might cost $600 to $1,000 for each of Palm Beach County’s 5,000 voting machines. That’s $3 million to $5 million.
And, she said, paper printouts would create all sorts of problems. If they had to be counted, it would be a messy process with 500,000 pieces of paper. "You’re injecting humans in the process again, just like they did with the punch cards," she said.
All together now: ‘Hanging Chad!’
The decision is up to the state. No one from the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, could be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Ruth Pleva, chairwoman of The Committee to Defeat Bush, is among the Democrats who think Bush and the Republicans stole the 2000 election.
And also believes aliens landed in her backyard.
"They would like to steal it once more using the corruptible electronic voting machines," said Pleva, who lives west of Delray Beach.
"We much prefer hanging chads, that we can argue about..."
LePore has become a lightning rod for Democrats since the recount that followed the 2000 presidential elections. Some party members think her strict interpretation of election law helped Bush over Democrat Al Gore in the recount process. Pleva didn’t invite LePore. "I don’t have enemies at my parties," she said.
Man I can’t wait until after the election night! I give it until the morning before we hear from Florida charges of voter fraud and stolen elections. Can you imagine ‘Howling’ Howard after the election night? “Foul! Haliburton, Enron, Disney, and Fox news all colluded to steal my rightful Presidency!” We might have to find a straight jacket for Dr. Dean next November. Well now that they know about our secret plan, how can we rig the election next year?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/31/2003 1:32:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These whining idiots amaze me. They keep claiming that bush 'stole' the election even after each and every recount - even the media recount (hardly a unbised source itself) went bush'es way.

Here they are already claiming that Bush stole the election 10 months before the first ballot is cast!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/31/2003 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  The dems have to face up to the music - Bush did not steal the election in Florida. He won it the American way , with electorial votes.

Also there are some basic facts that are totally ignored by the left media.

All Gore had to do was when his home state of Tenn and he would of been president and not GW.
The electorial vote counts were:
Bush - 271
Gore - 266

And this is with GW winning Florida and Tenn.

If Gore had won Tenn and lost Florida the electorial vote count would of been:
Bush - 260
Gore - 277

And Gore would be president. Now if the people of Gore's home state do not want him what does that tell you? They have had experiance with him, before being Clinton's lackey he was a senator from Tenn.. Obviously he did not live up to expectations.

Of historical note Gore's father (Gore Sr.) lost the Democratic Tenn primaries for the 1948 presidential elections. Seems to a track record here of the people of Tenn not wanting a Gore.
Posted by: Dan || 12/31/2003 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  You gotta love it. And Terry Mcuallife just lets these whackjobs hang around, making the dems look more and more ridiculous. The longer he lets these dunces spout, the better off the the Res Publica. Best thing to ever happen to the GOP, hope they don't blow it.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 14:18 Comments || Top||

#4  So what's their excuse going to be if there's a McGovern style blowout nationwide (which is quite possible if Doctor Dimbo's their man)? Is it possible for The Evil Karl Rove to rig every voting machine in the country?

Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 14:25 Comments || Top||

#5  I really wish the Donks would stop beating this equine corpse. It's not good for the country, it's corrosive to the very concept of voting and laws. If, every damned time they lose, they start whining about stolen elections, pretty soon they'll be pushing the idea that voting doesn't matter, and that they have to take "more direct action".

Can anyone compare how the Republicans acted after 1960? I know you can occasionally hear a Republican complaining about the "irregularities" in some of the voting in that election, but it's never to the degree we're seeing from the Donks. Is that just because of the time, or did Nixon's decision to not contest the results contribute that much to American civility?

God help us if this election's close: there will be blood in the streets.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I spent the first twenty-six years of my life in this hellhole of a state. Never have I been happier not to be there!
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 15:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmmm.... Election fraud charges from the Democrats....Can you say "projection"?
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 12/31/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#8  County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore said their analysis was deeply flawed.

LePore is a Democrat, folks, as are ALL the Palm Beach County Election Board Commissioners. THEY are the ones that designed and approved the "confusing" butterfly ballot in 2000 (same type we used here in Chicago without complaint). THEY are the ones who counted the ballots first time, second time, third time. THEY are the ones responsible for the whole mess. Not a single Republican touched the ballot design or voting procedure. Ditto for Miami-Dade County.

Here in Chicago, a bunch of whiners like these folks would be drummed outta the Regular Democrat (Daley) organization and dumped in the south branch of the Chicago River.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 17:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Well, of course they would, Steve. Can't have people drawing attention to voting irregularities like that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 18:17 Comments || Top||

#10  Hell Rush Limbuagh is the only known Republican in Palm Beach County. If you want houmor tho check into Broward County and it's Donk supevisor of elections.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/31/2003 18:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Shipman, don't forget Marta. She doubles the Republican base in Palm Beach.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 20:25 Comments || Top||

#12  The far-left fruitbats who stole the Democratic Party some years ago have now set their sights on de-legitimizing the democratic process in its entirety.

This will begin during the primaries if Dean's lead falters (as I predict it will). After that, the Left will forget their claims that the nomination was stolen and shift gears to the general election.

Once a Democratic candidate has been selected (assuming that it is not Dean or one of the serious loons like Kucinich), the focus will shift to de-legitimizing the general election. The Lefties will champion the Democratic nominee, and the media will forget that these same Lefties had recently called that nominee a thief.

As I said on another string, the conspiracy theory du jour among poli-sci and anthropology drones is an absurd rumor that Halliburton "owns the computers that will count the votes."
Of course, there are no such computers and Halliburton is not in the computer business anyway.

This idea of large-scale, unified, centralized manipulation by large corporations is the underlying theme of most fruitbat activism these days.

The objective is to remove the democratic process as an impediment to far Left goals, and legitimize the Left's own presumption of authority.

This is why conspiracy theories are such an integral part of present-day Left-think. As a strategy, conspiracy theories exploit the well-documented factual ignorance of even highly-educated Lefties.

For example, I know lefty professors, people with PhDs, who could not tell you within a hundred years when the American Civil War happened, or to what party Harry Truman belonged.

A couple of years ago, I met a newly minted assistant professor who was completely convinced of the accuracy of Fox TV's notorious Moon Hoax program.
(this claimed the US had faked the Apollo Moon landings of 1969-72)
During the resulting conversation, it emerged that she had no idea of the distance to the Moon, did not know that the Earth goes around the Sun, and was unaware that the US military is not the only military force in the world. I swear that this is true. Her field: Education. She was also "chair" of the county Green Party.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 22:25 Comments || Top||


Kucinich says Muslims unfairly targeted by U.S.
Keep digging, Dennis. EFL:
Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio U.S. Rep.who led a fight in the U.S. House against war in Iraq, visited a mosque Tuesday and told the congregation that he thought American Muslims were unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.
How come he didn’t visit the concentration camps in Montana, Oh right...
"At this time of rolling back of civil liberties, all Americans need to be worried about any American deprived of his or her rights," Kucinich said at the Islamic Society of Tampa. "All Americans should be very concerned about a government trying to get more and more into peoples’ private lives." Kucinich said his opposition to the war in Iraq will take him to the White House.
"OK, so most likely I’ll be out front, yelling through the fence, but I’ll be at the White House."
"The war was wrong. It was wrong," he said. "We went to war under false pretenses. Americans were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to be true. Just because they caught Saddam Hussein doesn’t mean going into Iraq was right."
No, that’s just a bonus. We were right to go in just because Sammy’s not shoving people into mass graves any more if nothing else.
Kucinich also opposed the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to give the government more access to private records and to make it easier to prosecute accused terrorists.
Wonder why an Islamic Society would worry about that?
The Islamic Society of Tampa was the planned target of Tampa podiatrist Robert Goldstein, who assembled an arsenal of weapons before he was arrested and in June was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the board of the Florida Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that if the Patriot Act were truly intended to be fair, Goldstein would have been prosecuted under its provisions. "Goldstein could have been used to give the Muslim community more of a sense of comfort," Ahmed said.
Hey, Ahmed, Robert was stopped before the attack and he’s doing time. What more do you want, his throat slit on video?
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 12:49:26 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I see Dennis in about 20 years on an infomercial selling The Greatest Hits of the 00's. "Do you remember me? I ran for President back in 2004! No, really! I did!"
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||

#2  You've heard to useful idiots; Dennis is a useless idiot.
Posted by: Spot || 12/31/2003 13:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm reminded of a line from the Steve Guttenberg/Peter O'Toole flop, "High Spirits":

"All I wanted to be was happily useless, you made me miserably useless." - Peter Plunkett

Perfect description of Dennis the (non)Menace.

Ed
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/31/2003 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  I would be LMAO but for the fact that about $18mm in tax money is being used to fund this guy's campaign. Maybe the entertainment value is worth it.
Posted by: Matt || 12/31/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||

#5  I would be LMAO but for the fact that about $18mm in tax money is being used to fund this guy's campaign. Maybe the entertainment value is worth it.

Naaah, for the cost of a monthly fee (via dialup, or via broadband), one can peek at the DU site and see very similar crap. $18M for second-rate entertainment is waaaay too much.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 14:48 Comments || Top||


Iran
Khatami denies Bam disaster caused by nuclear test
A new earthquake, measuring 4,3 on the Richter scale, shook southwestern Iran on Wednesday morning, RIA Novosti reported. No damages or casualties have been reported.
Aftershock, those will keep coming for awhile.
Meanwhile in the quake-hit city of Bam, the Iranian government upped the death toll to 30,000 with fears the final number could approach 50,000. The official in charge of burying Friday’s quake victims, Mahmoud Rezaian, was quoted by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying the number buried was now above 30,000.
Still pulling bodies out of the rubble.
Meanwhile, the Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami on Tuesady brushed aside rumors that a nuclear test in Bam area was the trigger for the killer quake, saying "although these assertions have swirled around they are totally useless."
It’s a great rumor to keep spreading.
"There is no place for nuclear weapons in our religious tents or defense and security doctrine," the Iranian president underlined.
"We keep the weapons in a bunker, not a tent"
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 11:01:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iran sits on a major suture zone where two crustal plates are smashing together. They have had, and will continue to have, large earthquakes for millions of years. Why they haven't managed to realize this and build accordingly is a mystery to me.
Posted by: Spot || 12/31/2003 11:25 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a tricky cost-benefit trade-off Spot. Consider the "world largest mud structure" which collapsed due to the quake. It seems stupid to build something like that in a fault zone... but then again it was cheap and how old was it?
Posted by: Shipman || 12/31/2003 13:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I can understand the old buildings being destroyed (how they mangaged to say up for so long is the mystery), but new building such as the hospitals were destroyed too. No excuse!
Posted by: Spot || 12/31/2003 13:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Wonder what they're building their nuke plants out of? And are those building inspectors on the take?
Don't worry, boys. Allah's got you covered.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 13:28 Comments || Top||

#5  And are those building inspectors on the take?

I'm sure those german engineers they hired will make sure the plants are earthquake proof.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 14:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Inspectors? What inspectors? The inspectors belong to the wrong tribe, so letting them on the work sites would be an insult to the honor of the tribe that won the building contract.

Besides, why spend money on things like rebar and sane engineering when you can blow it on the Hajj and temporary marriages? Oh, and let's not forget the bribes -- never forget the bribes.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 15:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Assclown Alert: Zogby trashes U.S. in Saudi Arabia
EFL & Buttloads of Fun
A prominent Arab-American leader is trashing the United States government for managing the news in the Saudi Arabian media – where criticism of the royal family is strictly forbidden.
Note: He did so freely without U.S. government censorship.
The broadside by James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute and a frequent commentator on Arab and Muslim issues in the U.S media, appears in the current issue of Arab News, which describes itself as the first English-language daily in Saudi Arabia.
We hang by our thumbs awaiting his next insight.
In a piece of crap titled, "How U.S. Manipulates News to Suit Its Interests," Zogby charged the American press has deceived the public into believing Iraq was a threat and linked with international terrorism.
Well that makes sense. We know how supportive our media is of the WoT.
"In the American public’s mind Sept. 11, Afghanistan and Iraq have all been morphed into a vague but clearly threatening reality – a ’reality’ that has been cultivated by carefully managed news," he wrote.
Washington Post, New York Times, et al. They are just puppets of the Bush administration, no?
Zogby fantasizes claims the news coverage of the war is "managed and ’spun’ and, when needed, shifted to new topics – positive stories of victories. For a while, for example, as daily attacks against U.S. forces were taking their toll, public support for the war was declining. This required management. To a degree, the effort has been successful. Americans and Al-Q Iraqis continue to die, on a daily basis, but the stories of these deaths no longer generate front-page news coverage. For example, a series of attacks on U.S. forces on Christmas Day resulted in four American deaths. A review of a number of major U.S. daily newspapers found the story on page 39 in one, page 18 in another and not even appearing in another two."
Bush has his foot right on the neck of all major media outles, no?
"In a similar vein, Iraqi terrorist civilian deaths, resulting from actions by coalition forces, have all but disappeared from the U.S. press," he wrote, saying the Pentagon refuses to release such information to reporters.
Blah, blah, blah...funny he knows about these deaths. Guess the Pentagon is not doing a good job covering up all these deaths.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 12/31/2003 10:50:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dragon fly you beat me to the post! But here are my comments:
Zogby and apologists like him continue to amaze me. Despite that facts and evidence that Saddam had WMDs and was connected to Terrorism, they still think removing him was a bad thing. I think Mr. Zogby, nay the entire CAIR, PHRC, and AAADC needs to visit Iraq and gaze onto the mass grave sites, torture/rape rooms, and the kinder prison. Then tell us what a bad thing it was to remove this animal and his gang of thugs. I wonder how many denunciations the ‘Palestine Human Rights Campaign’ has issued with respect to homicide bombers blowing up pizza places, grocery stores, and malls? And how much cooperation has the Department of Homeland Security received from the ‘American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’? Mr. Zogby and his ilk have some really demented views of right and wrong too bad they would rather be Arab than Americans.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/31/2003 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  actually, if the US were really spinning the news, this gem in the arab news would be a big item in the US news and he would face hardball questions about it.

does anyone seriously think this will happen
Posted by: mhw || 12/31/2003 12:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Jeez -- I must have missed what he had to say about "fair and balanced" Al-Jizz.

hey -- isn't this guy supposed to at least appear impartial, being a pollster and all? Even if he felt, in his heart of hearts that US media spins, shouldn't he keep his views to himself?
Posted by: PlanetDan || 12/31/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  PlanetDan...you are thinking of his brother. This moonbat is on a planet all his own along with millions of other asshat arabs and extremists.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 15:30 Comments || Top||


Slate liberal:Howard Dean Too Imature to Be President
EFL
Expensive Fun -Howard Dean needs to grow up.
By William Saletan
This is from Slate which gets a zillion hits per day which is even more than Rantburg’s jillion hits per day.
Dean’s sharp tongue could hurt him

"We’re going to have a little fun at the president’s expense."

That’s what Howard Dean often says with a smile as he tears into President Bush... Now Dean is having fun again, this time at the expense of his own party.

The latest fun started on Dec. 18. In a speech that day, Dean said, "While Bill Clinton said that the era of big government is over, I believe we must enter a new era for the Democratic Party—not one where we join Republicans and aim simply to limit the damage they inflict on working families." Was Dean belittling Clinton? Dean’s aides said no.
[but duh they didn’t mean it]
But on Dec. 22, Dean was at it again...."even the Democratic Leadership Council, which is sort of the Republican part of the Democratic Party 
 the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. We’re going to need them too."...

He recognizes malice and pettiness only when he’s the target. Last week, he complained that the Democratic primary campaign needed a "character transplant" because his rivals were lying about him. He told the New York Times that their attacks made them "look smaller."

Clinton had a larger view of smallness [Saletan occasionally blasted Clinton but more ofter blasted Republicans]. To him, smallness wasn’t just something to decry in your opponent. It was something to beware of in yourself....

That’s what Dean needs to learn. Being big means rising above the mischievous glee of mocking your adversary. It means not hitting back when you don’t need to. It means focusing on those you can help, not those you can punish. It means representing the whole party and eventually the whole country. If Dean can’t absorb that lesson, his party will indeed need a character transplant. And the character that will have to come out is his.
nice ending-
Posted by: mhw || 12/31/2003 10:19:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This sounds more like a Clinton suck-up to me. I can't believe the Dumocrats haven't caught on to him yet. At least Dean realizes that they need to move away from Slick Willie.
Posted by: Spot || 12/31/2003 11:20 Comments || Top||

#2  This is hardly sucking up to Clinton. He was an a-hole, but a smart one. He knew how to play politics. Dean doesn't, and it's really starting to show.
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 11:24 Comments || Top||

#3  "Clinton had a larger view of smallness."

Boy oh boy, does THAT ever sum up the Clinton Era! ROFL!
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/31/2003 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Burn, baby burn.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/31/2003 12:07 Comments || Top||

#5  from today's Dean4Prez website

-----------
Dec. 31, 2003 - Today you will make history. Together, with your action, we will exceed $15 million by midnight tonight-- the most any Democratic campaign has ever raised in a single quarter... [I tried to find out how much they raise from the Dec 30 event but couldn't]

What's the definition of the establishment? They're people who've come to do things in the established way. Too many Democrats have lost the spirit to fight what's wrong. They voted for the war, and too many voted to give the President a second blank check in Iraq. They voted for his reckless tax cuts. And they've hidden behind faceless committees that use images of Osama bin Laden to attack our campaign.

But you can send them a message that their vacant attacks are just that - vacant attacks. Those who rely on special interests to fund their campaigns or on committees to launch their attacks are doing things the old establishment way. But we are going to shatter that forever...
------------------
I guess they don't think much of Will Saletan's theory.
Posted by: mhw || 12/31/2003 12:27 Comments || Top||


Woman Allegedly Tries to Choke Marshal
A woman allegedly tried to choke a federal air marshal after she became disruptive on a flight from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis, authorities said. The air marshal approached the woman, who was allegedly intoxicated, vocal and obnoxious aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 1057 on Tuesday, TSA spokeswoman Jennifer Marty said. After the woman continued to be disruptive, she tried to choke the marshal in a later exchange, Marty said. She also kicked the marshal in the groin and bit a law enforcement officer after she was escorted off the plane, Marty said.
Bet the passengers were cheering.
The flight landed at 8:30 p.m. at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with the woman in handcuffs. She was led off the plane by police and placed in federal custody.
Happy New Year, enjoy your new friends.
The extent of the marshal’s injuries was unknown. The woman could face federal charges of assault or interfering with a flight crew, he said.
Most likely both.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 9:29:10 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope a good quality "cup" is standard gear for the marshalls.
Happy New Year to all.
Posted by: Craig || 12/31/2003 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Groin and bit

Interesting turn of phrase.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/31/2003 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  When I guarded prisoners I ALWAYS had some protection. Tons of stories about guards getting whacked in the do-dads by bad guys. It's like they have a target painted on them. Not sure about your everyday Sky Marshall or cops?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/31/2003 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  She's lucky. If I were employed as an air marshal, I would've popped her one, gender be damned. I'm not keen with the idea of hitting females, but once they make the first move, then they're fair game as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 11:28 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Russian students held in Egypt
Egypt, closer to Middle East than N. Africa, I guess:
I put it under North Africa when it's just Egypt, under Muddle East when it has to do with Paleostine/Israel. Except on Thursdays...
Five Russians studying in Egypt have been arrested, officials in Moscow have confirmed. The five, studying at Cairo’s al-Azhar Islamic university, were detained on Sunday. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the five were suspected of breaking Egyptian laws, but did not give further details.
"I can say no more"
Russian television said the five, all from the Russian republic of Dagestan, were suspected of extremist links.
Besides attending a Islamic University, what gives you that idea? Well, ok, I guess that’s enough.
The Egyptian authorities would provide Russia with full information once their inquiry was complete, Mr Yakovenko said.
What’s the Egyptian word for "truncheon"?
Dagestan, which has a majority Muslim population, borders Chechnya, where Russian forces have been engaged in a long and bloody campaign to defeat separatists. Moscow says Chechen militants have links to the al-Qaeda terror network, and receive other international help.
Like higher education, it seems. Wonder where the checks came from?
The Russian embassy in Cairo named the five detained men as Amir-Khamzat Batsilov, Pakhrodin Gazimagomedov, Ahmed Gamzatov, Magomed Nabiyev and Magomed Magomedov.
Good bye.
Posted by: Steve || 12/31/2003 9:02:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What’s the Egyptian word for "truncheon"?

"Truncheon" is a universal word in the Language of Terrorism.
Posted by: Charles || 12/31/2003 11:20 Comments || Top||

#2  All night Kegger - bad idea.
Posted by: flash91 || 12/31/2003 12:05 Comments || Top||

#3  what? no Ivans or Yuris? what a surprise....
Posted by: Frank G || 12/31/2003 20:49 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Israeli Troops Battle Giant Rats (no, for real)
Israeli soldiers stationed in the tense West Bank city of Hebron have recently been battling an enemy they define as more scary then Palestinian militants: enormous rats.
I repeat, not "(demo)’Rats)
The rats, lured by ISM activists piles of garbage in Hebron’s streets, have become so daring they have even infiltrated military barracks and bitten at least two heavily armed combat soldiers - one in the ear and the other on the lip, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.
In Vietnam, the rats were so big we took potshots at them with our .45s. They just gave us their evil, taunting rat-laugh and threw the bullets back at us, so we got out the M-79s and LAWS. That way, we could shut them up with just a few solid hits, usually no more than 3 or 4. The powers that be frowned on this sort of thing, but it helped pass the time.
The rodents have grown so large that soldiers are calling them the Hebrew equivalent of "crats" due to their increasing similarity to the female peace protestors stray cats, Maariv reported. The army declined to comment on the reported injuries to soldiers. It released a statement saying it is dealing with the problem with pesticides and traps, and that it is trying to coordinate garbage collection with the Palestinian Authority. "In the past few weeks the rats have been more frightening then the terrorists," one unidentified soldier quoted by Maariv said.
Only if you’re a strong young guy with a rifle, rather than a kid or an old lady on a bus.
Hebron is divided into Palestinian and Israeli-controlled zones. Israeli soldiers guard the Jewish enclaves, where about 450 settlers live, surrounded by 130,000 Palestinians. Friction between the two communities is frequent. Hebron Mayor Mustafa Natche said garbage sometimes piles up in the Israeli-controlled area of the city for several days before Palestinian garbage collectors receive permission from the army to enter and clear it away. "This is, of course, affecting the health of Israelis and Palestinians living in the area," Natche said.
"So does bombing and sniping, but that is a religious obligation," he continued.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 2:17:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In Chicago, we call them "superates." Had a big problem w/them in the 70s and 80s.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 12/31/2003 3:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The public sanitation in the town must be breaking down for such a problem to occur. No a good sign.
Posted by: Bernardz || 12/31/2003 11:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I've got a nice tomcat I'll let them borrow. Leo is a mixed breed, looks like a Russian Blue, and weighs in at about 25 pounds. He killed and dragged home a possum the week before Christmas. What a possum was doing in the center of Colorado Springs is beyond me. The next-door neighbor had a real problem with raccoons until recently. Leo came home with a gashed ear and the tail of a raccoon back in September, and the raccoon problem seems to have disappeared. I don't know of any rat that would stand up to him. The only problem is, rats tend to pack up, while cats hunt individually.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/31/2003 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  "No, Willard, no! Noooooo!"
Posted by: Mike || 12/31/2003 12:31 Comments || Top||

#5  We've seen "Willard", now if we could just upgrade to "Ben".. Giant rats _serving_ the US forces in the Middle East, spying upon and attacking the Islamoloonies for us.

Hey, OP.. I see you live in the Springs. I used to call that home, and live only 200 miles away these days. Perhaps we might schedule a get-together sometime?

Ed.
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/31/2003 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  OP -- while driving home from the parents' on Christmas Eve, I saw a raccoon poking his head out of a storm drain. He turned to follow me as I passed, so he was definitely alive. They don't exactly live in the middle of the city, but I think it gives a clue as to where possums and raccoons are hanging out in a city.

(Next, of course, come the infamous sewer coyotes...)
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 15:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Little Green Footballs Report of Air France Flight Diversion
LGF reader Shiplord Kirel relays some interesting info from his scanner:
If you’re in California and have a scanner, tune to 271.0 Mhz. NORAD and FAA radio traffic indicates that NORAD intercepted Air France flight 68 over the US earlier this evening and has escorted it across the country.

No media coverage that I can find.

This is the same Paris to LA Air France flight that was grounded last week as an anti-terrorist precaution.
AF 68 on final to LAX right now, F-16s sticking close.

I don’t know if it’s true, has anyone heard anything else about this?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/31/2003 1:45:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It wasn't diverted, apparently just escorted all the way from the Canadian border to LAX.
Free Republic had an enormous (800+posts) live string as the story unfolded.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 1:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course Free Republic would--they are the paranoid crazies--I bet they saw a few black helicopters too
Posted by: NotMikeMoore || 12/31/2003 2:37 Comments || Top||

#3  You're on.
Produce a link to a black helicopter claim on Free Republic, one with wide support from the posters. OK, make that 10% support.

Freepers are paranoid crazies, but Bushitler invaded Iraq to boost his Halliburton stock and every terror alert and celebrity fluff story is a diversion from the war and the collapsing economy, all masterminded by the evil corporate Republicrooks and Zionazis who run the media; and, don't forget, Diebold makes a lot of voting machines, so its Republicrook CEO can obviously throw the election with his invisible implants and we need to have a law against those mind-control satellites, says Kucinich (not a Freeper, btw) and every contrary post at Indymedia is a plant by nefarious COINTELPRO types; no doubt about it, because we, the enlightened Progressive intelligetsia, speak for the PEOPLE, and who are these freepers kooks and mad-dogs to dispute the word of Allah Ramsey Clark the PEOPLE!!!!(selah)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 2:56 Comments || Top||

#4  A.C. Didn't you mean to say "(inshallah)", rather than "(selah)"?
Posted by: Ptah || 12/31/2003 8:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Aha! Found it!
Lowest jobless claims in 3 years last week. I wondered what the good news was.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/31/2003 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Yep, COINTELPRO, no doubt.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/31/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Atomic Conspiracy - Man you are way out there in left field.

Bushitler - now exactly how is this comparison to someone who killed millions? You just hate Bush nothing more nothing less and you are too ignorant to express your views intelligently.

How is Iraq a diversion from the war (I am going to assume you mean the war on terror)? If you have even the slightest idea of what has been going on in the middle east for the last 30 years you could probably see a little clearer.
Once we took Iraq out of the equation binny's guys all want to go there (putting the talibs in an even more precarious situation). Syria and Iran have both mellowed (although I believe this is more tactical than strategic) and Libya said enough. Bush took care of a problem that Clinton ignored instead he concentrated on his own legal problems (from before and during his prez) and interims.

The enlightened Progressive intelligentsia, please, where are you from? San Francisco? New You? I ask because you do not speak for the people, at least not the American people. The American people are nowhere near your positions, hell even a good 70% of the Democratic Party is more centralist than where you are. And that is why the dems will lose again, at least with Dean who panders to the 30% of the dem party that is more left than center.

As for your statements on tampering of voting machines it is so outlandish that I cannot comment.

I would say you have watched just a few too many re-runs of X-Files on the Sci-Fi channel.

Posted by: Dan || 12/31/2003 14:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Dan, A.C. was being sarcastic as a shot at NMM...

Fred, you ever thought about making some Rantburg Guides so we can keep up with all the players ?

Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/31/2003 14:48 Comments || Top||

#9  my apologies - i honestly did not read it that way (should of read it twice or thrice) before posting.....it just makes my blood boil when i read such outlandish statements. once agiain my apologies if i was out in right field.
Posted by: Dan || 12/31/2003 15:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Yeah, Dan. AC got you.
But he speaks good asshat, doesn't he?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 15:41 Comments || Top||

#11  he speaks good asshat, doesn't he?

Maybe he took the Indymedia Immersion Program.

If so, it's a credit to A.C that he kept his sanity.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 12/31/2003 16:15 Comments || Top||

#12  No sweat, Dan. Besides, it's good practice for when the real thing comes along, as it probably will any minute now.

Actually, it's become very difficult to mock lefty asshelmets in recent years, since it is almost impossible to think of anything weirder or more outrageous than some of the things they actually say.

The Diebold voting machines are a case in point. Anyone who knows anything about elections is aware that the companies who make these machines do not own them, and have nothing to do with their operation, other than to provide scheduled maintenance under some agreements.

I am a university professor, which gives me a ringside seat for the shenanigans of the far Left, as well as a very useful degree of early warning about trends and newly invented propaganda tropes.
It is probably the reason that I speak asshat so well, since total immersion is the ideal method for learning any language.

Right now, the hot item in the student-lefty rumor mill is that "Halliburton owns the machines that will count the votes next year." This is plainly a garbled version of the Diebold conspiracy theory; which is, itself, idiotic.

I recently addressed this voting machine non-issue on a closed message board and, with your indulgence, I would like to share those thoughts:
"The Left would apparently prefer that only Democrats and Greens have any involvement in preparing election materials. No chance of corruption in that, is there?"

"Imagine a Green-built voting machine: Pull the wrong lever and it confiscates your car.
Pull two wrong levers, and it reduces your tofu rations. It will be powered by 12 volt organic solar cells hung from the roof of the Unabomber's outhouse, so lines could be long.*"

"The Dem built version will have built-in provision for installation at cemetaries, along with instructions in 2739 separate languages, including Ebonics, Redneck, Klingon, and Valleygirlish."

"There will also be pictograph instructions for illiterates, and similar special instructions, (derived from Muscatel labels) for the homeless."

*this hilariously evocative description of lefty power source was originated by a fellow Rantburger, Rubysue
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 16:37 Comments || Top||

#13  This is NMM's (NaziMediaMike's) way of saying "Howdy Rantburg!" - with a sharp stick and a blunt wit.

AC - your shot was brilliantly executed! Dan's outrage is proof of how accurately you mimiced NaziMedia. *cheers* ;-)
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 18:51 Comments || Top||

#14  Speaking of paranoid crazies, check out this insane rant by a lefty conspiraloon speculating on the Paul Wellstone plane crash:
"My first hunch upon hearing about the tragedy was that the Beech King Air A-100 was tampered with by right wingers, possibly the CIA, either directly or through electromagnetic rays or some psychic mind games."

Then take a look at the veritable avalanche of both rebuttal and gleeful scoffing in Free Republic's string about this self-same rant.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/31/2003 20:03 Comments || Top||


Nation Ramps Up New Year’s Eve Security
Security will be extra tight at this year’s New Year’s celebrations around the country, with military helicopters patrolling over the Rose Parade, Times Square and the Las Vegas Strip. "I think the level of security this time around within the United States is absolutely unprecedented," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on CBS’s "The Early Show."

As revelers prepare for New Year’s Eve, the nation’s terrorism alert is at its second-highest level, though officials said there were no specific threats against the holiday gatherings and urged people to go ahead with their plans. In Las Vegas, where 300,000 revelers are expected on the Strip, officials announced that armed military helicopters will fly overhead. Jerry Bussell, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn’sadviser on homeland security, said military helicopters will also be used in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington and other cities with big outdoor gatherings. "These aircraft are equipped to dismantle or disrupt any kind of ground attack, and also other aircraft that would attempt to fly into our airspace," said Bill Young, the sheriff in Las Vegas.
I suggest we paint them black, just for fun!
Sharpshooters will be posted on hotel-casino roofs, and streets will be blocked off with concrete barricades, Young said. Sightseeing helicopters will be prevented from flying over the Las Vegas Strip from 8 p.m. New Year’s Eve to 3 a.m. In Pasadena, where thousands gather along the 5 1/2-mile Rose Parade route and attend the Rose Bowl football game on New Year’s Day, video surveillance cameras will watch the spectators lining the streets. Flights over the Rose Bowl will be limited to police and military aircraft, and everyone working in the stadium, from hot-dog vendors to TV camera crews, will be required to wear photo IDs.
You mean they don’t now?
"We decided not to live our lives in fear, and do what we want to do," said Janet Powles, 60, of Rapid City, S.D., as she watched volunteers apply flower petals to Rose Parade floats. In Las Vegas, however, terror concerns apparently affected hotel bookings. Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Falcone said New Year’s Eve cancellations jumped in the past week and were running twice as high as last year. In New York City, the New Year’s Eve preparations included flight restrictions and military helicopter patrols over Times Square. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that there will be more officers on duty this year than last, and that they will focus more heavily on hotels, landmarks and ferry terminals. He would not disclose numbers. Organizers said they expect this year’s crowd to be larger than last year’s gathering of 750,000.
That's a really inviting target...
Manhole covers are being sealed shut in Times Square, and mailboxes, trash cans and newspaper boxes are being removed. Plainclothes officers will mingle with the crowds, and elite counterterror teams will have equipment to detect chemical, biological or radiological contamination. New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey warned revelers headed to New York City to expect long delays at bridges and tunnels - and to prepare for random stops and searches. "We understand this may infringe on civil liberties but most of all we have a responsibility to keep our families safe," he told CNN. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city was well-protected. "Sadly, terrorism is something that we have to live with," he said. "Leave the worrying to the professionals."
And remember, we’re a pack, not a herd.
Republican Rep. Christopher Shays, however, said people ought to avoid places like Times Square, calling it irresponsible for officials to make people think they don’t need to take precautions. "Secretary Ridge says just do what you normally do," Shays said. "If normally you go to Times Square, I wouldn’t do what you normally do. I wouldn’t go into places when you’re packed and where if there was panic, a lot of injuries would take place."
Idiot. Sit down and shut up.
In New Orleans, security officials implemented a new game plan for the Sugar Bowl, where Oklahoma and Louisiana State University will play for college football’s Bowl Championship Series title game on Sunday. Superdome parking garages will be closed and a fence will be put up around the dome. Some streets will be closed.
The wife and I will still celebrate as we have the last few years. Since we’re pushing 50, however, that means we’ll be in bed by 10.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 1:32:15 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We understand this may infringe on civil liberties but most of all we have a responsibility to keep our families safe,"

McGreevey is normally clueless and has a penchant for saying and doing exceptionally stupid things. But since he brought it up - I sit in a traffic jam EVERY day (both ways) at the Lincoln tunnel - does that mean my civil rights are being infringed upon twice a day Monday thorugh Friday?. I think I'll try to sue the Port Authority for pain and suffering for making me sit in my car and subjecting me to awful local radio.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/31/2003 2:23 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Nuclear Agency Rejects U.S. Help in Libya
The U.N. nuclear agency does not need American help in dismantling Libya’s nascent weapons program, the agency chief told The Associated Press on Tuesday, echoing differences with Washington over Iraq and Iran.
"We don't need you! We don't need anybody!"
The International Atomic Energy Agency is happy to receive U.S. and British intelligence that will assist its inspectors in Libya, said Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. But the IAEA doesn’t want help on the ground. ``I am not familiar with anything they plan to do on a bilateral basis,’’ ElBaradei said in an interview when asked about U.S. plans to police and scrap Libya’s covert nuclear program. ``As far as I’m concerned, we have the mandate, and we intend to do it alone.’’
"After all, look at our record in Iraq!"
The Bush administration is convinced Libya’s nuclear program was far more extensive than assumed by the Vienna-based IAEA. In response, Washington has decided to send its own inspectors and British technical experts to Libya to help survey and dismantle its weapons programs.
Seems like we don’t have a lot of confidence in the IAEA. Wonder why?
ElBaradei spoke to AP a day after returning from a visit to Libya, where he and an IAEA team visited four once-secret nuclear sites in the capital, Tripoli. They said that, from what they saw, Libya was still years away from developing nuclear weapons.
They thought the NKors were years away, too.
During the trip, ElBaradei met with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, who assured the IAEA chief that Libya would cooperate fully with inspections and eliminate its long-secret nuclear program, saying he wanted to turn Libya into a ``mainstream’’ nation, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with ElBaradei before and after his visit to Libya. ``It’s going to take time before we can draw final conclusions about the Libyan program,’’ Ereli said, adding that the Bush administration is planning to work with the IAEA to determine the nature of Libya’s weapons activities.
We’ll point, they’ll dig. If they don’t we will.
Another official said U.S. weapons experts are expected to consult with Libyan experts about the program either in Libya or a third country in early 2004. Justifying the joint U.S.-British plans in Libya, a senior Bush administration official pointed to ElBaradei’s visiting of only four nuclear sites. CIA and British intelligence have concluded there are 11 such sites, said the official. But ElBaradei said Tuesday he made no suggestion that Libya had only four nuclear-related sites. ``I think I made it very clear that our assessment was based and what we have been told and what we have seen,’’ he said. ``We’re not saying, ’This is it, guys.’’’
Nor will you while we’re watching!
Indirectly contradicting U.S. assertions of an extensive program, ElBaradei said that what he has seen suggests Libya did not go beyond ``low-level, small-scale’’ testing of enrichment equipment. ElBaradei described the equipment he saw as, ``nothing really special,’’ calling them, ``components which had not been assembled .... mothballed and in containers.’’
Ready for assembly.
``It was much more modest in comparison with the Iranian program, which is much more ambitious, large-scale industrial production’’ of enriching uranium, he said. [A] diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Libya seemed to posses far fewer centrifuges than Iran. While a few dozen were assembled, most were still in their original shipping crates and lined up along warehouse walls, as were crated uranium conversion units that were opened only for the visiting IAEA team, he said. Libyan nuclear scientists interviewed by the IAEA team ``swore up and down they never had any weapons activities,’’ said the diplomat. ``They said they were never told to develop a weapon, they were only told to develop enrichment capability.’’
"We know nothing!"
Gadhafi’s recently acknowledgment that Libya had been seeking nuclear weapons and his decision to renounce them - made after months of secret negotiations with the United States and Britain - came as a surprise to the IAEA, the U.N. body charged with keeping watch on nuclear programs.
Everything is a surprise to the IAEA.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 1:26:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have exactly ZERO trust in the IAEA so long as it's headed by someone named "Mohamed". I don't give a fat rat's ass what his qualifications are.

Put someone named "Jim" or "John" in charge, and then I might have some confidence in that organization.

Or "Steve"...
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/31/2003 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  There's always Herr Blix, why don't they put a real inspector like him on the job? He could clear up the entire mess in a couple of days.
Posted by: Ed P. || 12/31/2003 16:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Or "Steve"...

they may be an army, Dave, but don't encourage them....damn
Posted by: Frank G || 12/31/2003 20:50 Comments || Top||


Iran
Iran Says U.S. Aid Won’t Help Relations
BAM, Iran (AP) - As survivors of Iran’s earthquake scavenged for clothes and jostled for handouts Tuesday, President Mohammad Khatami thanked the United States for aid but played down talk that Washington’s contribution would thaw frosty relations. ``Humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and chronic political problems,’’ Khatami said. ``If we see change both in tone and behavior of the U.S. administration, then a new situation will develop in our relations.’’
Is it some requirement that Muslim leaders have to be ungrateful?
Khatami’s remarks came after Secretary of State Colin Powell said he sees a ``new attitude’’ in Iran that could lead to a restoration of ties between the United States and the Islamic republic that President Bush has called part of an ``axis of evil.’’ ``There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future,’’ Powell was quoted as saying in Tuesday’s Washington Post.
It’d be nice to re-open the embassy. We can help the dissidents and opponents of the regime much better with our people on the ground in Tehran -- tusk, tusk, did I just say that?
Iranian leaders have agreed to permit unannounced sham inspections of the country’s nuclear energy program and made overtures to less-extremist moderate Arab governments. They also accepted an offer of U.S. humanitarian aid after last week’s devastating magnitude-6.6 earthquake. ``All of those things taken together show, it seems to me, a new attitude in Iran in dealing with these issues - not one of total, open generosity, Powell said. ``But they realize that the world is watching and the world is prepared to take action.’’
Apparently they noticed the big stick, just like Q-duck noticed.
In the latest U.S. shipment, an American military plane carrying 80 personnel and medical supplies landed early Tuesday in the provincial capital of Kerman. The team reached Bam, 120 miles to the southeast, by midday. Seven U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes have already delivered 150,000 pounds of relief supplies - including blankets, medical supplies and water - making the United States one of the largest international donors.
The Iranian people seem to be figuring this out much better than the black turbans.
Powell tempered his comments about the possibility of restored ties, adding that ``we still have concerns about terrorist activities, of course, and there are other issues with respect to al-Qaida and other matters that we’ll have to keep in mind.’’
Giving us real-time GPS coordinates on the Hezbollah leadership would help.
Still, Russia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to welcome Powell’s remarks, saying it ``may become a positive impulse for the movement toward the normalization of relations between these countries. ``In our view, this in turn could promote the strengthening of international security,’’ ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
Who cares what you think?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/31/2003 1:17:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey Iran F#@K YOU.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 12/31/2003 11:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it some requirement that Muslim leaders have to be ungrateful?

Not a problem. Should another natural disaster occur in Iran, the mullahs would be wise not to ask for, nor to expect, U.S. assistance. And U.S. government officials would do well to remember Khatami's words.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 12/31/2003 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  fine, 90% of our aid workers will be cia then (nyah nyah nyah!)
Posted by: flash91 || 12/31/2003 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Actually, the Koran says that the lowest rung of hell is reserved for the ungrateful. The Mullahs are being unislamic!
Posted by: Ptah || 12/31/2003 19:01 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm sure Iranians take note of the fact that the world's largest supply of emergency material and the world's best airlift system just happen to be sitting around on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Wot a coincidence!

Kuwait City is closer to Bam than Teheran.
Posted by: john || 12/31/2003 19:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Hmmmm. I wonder if the Black Hats would use some of their immense stolen fortunes to help any other country where such a catastrophe occurred...

Nawww, they'd just spout some pontification about Allah's will... which makes you wonder when ol' Allah's gonna make a stage call. I keep hearing about the exhortations of various Marvelous Muftis and Grand Doodahs calling on Allah to "shake the ground under the feet of the infidels..." Mebbe he did. But he missed Tehran by quite a bit. Prolly got his geography education in some Merkin school...
Posted by: .com || 12/31/2003 20:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Peoria is part of an al-Qaeda sleeper circuit
Former West Peorian Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up as an enemy combatant, but his terrorist comrades continue to work in central Illinois.
Al-Marri was identified by Khalid as al-Qaeda’s point man in the US. Him being jugged in December 2001 probably severely damaged their network here in the US and has likely helped to prevent al-Qaeda from reconstituting its infrastructure enough to launch additional attacks.
Peoria and Champaign are part of a seven-city "circuit" that moves and disperses terrorists to specific sites across the nation, says Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. McCoy got that information at a recent FBI conference in Springfield. He shares that snippet of intelligence not to panic central Illinois, but to stress what the FBI told police at the conference: America, including much of its law-enforcement community, has not taken seriously enough the threat of al-Qaida in this country. "Police and Americans don’t understand," McCoy says. "... They hate you. ... They are so focused on what they’re doing, time is no object. They’re patient."

The speaker at the police seminar was an FBI interrogator who served in the Lebanese military and speaks several dialects of Arabic. Those qualifications helped him to question 150 terrorism-related detainees at Guantanamo Bay. During his seminar, the FBI agent mentioned Peoria a handful of times in reference to al-Marri, the Bradley University graduate student arrested by the FBI in late 2001 at the West Peoria apartment he shared with his family. Federal authorities allege the Qatari national had direct ties to Osama bin Laden, Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and alleged Sept. 11 money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawawi. Al-Marri was charged in federal court with running a credit-card scam to fund al-Qaida. But last June, President Bush named al-Marri an enemy combatant, one of just three nationwide, a designation that pulled him out of the civilian court system, put him under military control and stripped him of most Constitutional rights.
That caused the ACLU to turn inside out...
After the FBI seminar, Sheriff McCoy introduced himself to the speaker/agent who then told McCoy about a "circuit" that runs from the West to East coasts. The terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver. From there, some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City. McCoy says he and the agent did not get a chance to talk much more about the circuit. The agent did not specify the numbers of terrorists who may be working in central Illinois, nor did he say how the FBI is monitoring them. "One of the hard things is, you can’t infiltrate these groups," McCoy says. "They know all these guys. It’s not like you can go and say, ’I want to join your group.’ "
Thereby recruiting within known family or social circles, just like November 17 did. It keeps them from being infiltrated and helps to secure loyalty to the organization. We’ve seen that terrorism is a family affair again and again and again.
McCoy says Peoria and Champaign serve as ideal hosts for terrorists. Each city is home to a university with numerous Middle Easterners among the student body, thus enabling al-Qaida operatives to blend into each community. McCoy says al-Qaida ops in central Illinois have been performing work similar to al-Marri: raising money and working computers. That information dovetails with a June report in Newsweek magazine, which cited FBI sources in pegging the Midwest (specifically Peoria) as the brains of terrorist activity in America. McCoy says, "I’m not saying Peoria is condemned to die by terrorists. But we need to be vigilant."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:16:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As they say, How will this play in Peoria?
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler || 12/31/2003 2:50 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't believe they cannot be infiltrated. Johnny Jihad got in; so did Jose Padilla. US law enforcement just hasn't focused on this until the operational equivalent of about five minutes ago. With time and resources, these guys can be broken. Nobody was more insular than the mafia, and between the agents and the turncoats they're a shadow of their former selves. A lot of these jihadis are itching to open their mouths and tell us how big and scary they are, how much righteous destruction they're planning to bring down on us. We'll get inside these guys. They only think they're invulnerable. That's part of why they'll lose.
Posted by: GKarp || 12/31/2003 3:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, Governor Blowdry, what are you going to do?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 12/31/2003 3:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Gkarp

Johnny Jihad Walker got in but was a basically cannon fodder. He knew very little. Padilla may know more or may not evidently we worked on him for two years.

Yes they can be infiltrated but probably only at the lower levels. Getting to the upper levels takes years.

Also, as I recall, central Illinois was the place where former pro Arab US representative Paul Findley (a republican, btw) persuaded the US arab organizations to hold annual conventions (they would use the tax subsidized and money losing convention centers in Springfield, Decatur, Peoria, etc).

Posted by: mhw || 12/31/2003 8:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Ah. The fellow I attended college with. Al'Marri was an undergrad at Bradley while I was there; I think he was two years behind me.

'Round about the Gulf War, a friend of mine had a talk with one of Bradley's "international" students. This fine fellow had a map of the Middle East that differed from reality in an important way: Israel was not on it. Just a blob labeled "Palestine".
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/31/2003 15:44 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
Sudanese peace deadline in doubt
A peace deal to end the latest 20 year round of war in Sudan may not be signed this week as previously announced, a senior Sudan dictatorship official has said. The United States is pressing both sides to reach a deal by 31 December and President Bush had requested this be signed in Washington.
"We'll get around to it. Don't rush us..."
The Sudan military dictatorship of Arab and Islamist background based in Khartoum is in peace negotiations with the largest non-Arab rebel group in the south of Sudan. The negotiations however do not involve the myriad of other rebel groups in the south, nor any of the groups in Darfur, Sudan’s largest state making up roughly one third of the country to the west. Darfur is in meltdown with the Khartoum regime facing widespread opposition, and threatened by the fact that most of its internal repressive security aparatus is staffed by the Darfur ethnic group, which are black African Muslims.

A delegate at the talks in Kenya, told reporters that resolving issues on the three disputed regions is "proving to be a nightmare". The war in Sudan against the Arab dictatorship is Africa’s longest running war and has left some six million people dead. Sudan’s arab-islamist dictator military General Omar al-Bashir has also suggested the 31 December deadline may be missed, but said a deal will be reached "within a week". The government and the main southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) last week reached an agreement to share oil resources, which had been one of the key issues. They have also agreed to set up a joint army.
To use against each other?
Civil society is concerned that both parties which have had no record of concern for human rights and democracy will simply share the spoils of national wealth while continuing to oppress the Sudanese people.
That's the usual recipe, isn't it? Has it occurred to anyone else that Omar has to go?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:06:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus
Operation against rebels in Dagestan completed
The military operation to wipe out a rebel group in Dagestan's Tsunti district has been completed. "The operation of liquidating a 36-member rebel group encircled by federal forces in the Tsunti district has been completed with over 30 rebels being killed and three detained by federal troops," Col. Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the commander of the North Caucasian military district, reported on Tuesday.
33 out of 36 isn't bad...
"On Monday, army commandos eliminated the last rebels trying to break out of the encircled area destroying 15 of them," he said. Konashenkov said that the documents found on those killed and the testimony of the detainees indicated that the group had been moving from Chechnya to the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia for the winter. "The detainees said that their group had felt strong pressure from federal troops in Chechnya and following its leader's plans, they intended to cross over to the territory of Georgia to rest," he said. He added that Arab mercenaries had been leading the group. "Early reports say several of the killed rebels were Arab mercenaries who are now being identified," Konashenkov said.
It'd be nice if al-Walid was among them, but I greatly doubt it. Too important to the movement, y'know.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabs leave rebels to air strikes and the elements
Chechen rebels hunted in the southern Dagestani highlands suffered more from their own Arab command than from the Russian military. The mercenaries have apparently taken their healthiest fighters and headed to Georgia leaving the wounded to die in Russian air attacks and landslides without food or warm clothes. The rebels left to die in Dagestan are in a critical condition. Ten Chechen rebels eliminated on Monday by Russian troops were doomed to certain death. Had they not been killed by Russian forces, they would have died anyway from cold and hunger.
Tough noogies, huh?
Such was the fate ordained for them by the Arabs in command of the unit that two weeks ago attacked the Mokokh frontier post and seized the mountain village of Shauri. According to the FSB press-service, a captive Chechen said that the Arab mercenaries – members of their unit – shot dead two rebels who wanted to surrender. He was the only one who managed to deceive the leaders and flee the gang safely. The ‘deserter’ recounted that the Arabs had selected the ten most battle-worthy fighters and, taking warm coats and foodstuffs from the rest, headed in the direction of Georgia. Their hungry and freezing comrades were left behind to cover their retreat.
"You guys hold 'em off while we go get help..."
''On 28 December a clash between a subdivision of the special purpose unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and a group of rebels took place. After an intensive exchange of gunfire ten rebels were eliminated,'' the Defence Ministry reported on Monday. Gazeta.Ru wrote earlier that the part of the rebel gang that was encircled in the mountains on the border between the Tsunti and Tsumandinsky districts of Dagestan was, in all probability, completely wiped out. Two days ago the military said they had blocked 10-12 bandits in the highlands and later said that ten more were eliminated. Apparently, the unit encircled by Russian troops was none other than the unit left behind by the Arabs, while about a dozen of the stronger fighters are still heading towards the Georgian border.
That would be the group led by the Arabs...
The captured Chechen also shed light on the other details of the encircled unit. Apart from the ten shot dead by the Russians on Sunday, another eight members of the gang were killed in a landslide triggered by artillery bombardments of the mountain slopes. The FSB said on Monday evening that there are ''well-known Arab field commanders'' among the mercenaries in charge of the unit. That information was also communicated to the FSB by their talkative captive. It remains somewhat unclear what the FSB press service means by calling the Arab mercenaries ''well-known''. Other than Arabs well known to the FSB only, probably the most notorious Arab mercenary is Abu al-Walid, who has become somewhat renowned through reports from Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin’s spokesman for Chechnya, and Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the Russian command in the Northern Caucasus. The other Arab warlord mentioned in military reports is Abu Omar as-Sayaf, who in his time allegedly tried to oust al-Walid. Other Arabs in Chechnya are less well known to the general public.
They shouldn't be, though. They should be trumpeting the names and countries of origin of all of them they know about...
Perhaps the main thing that neither the FSB nor the military seem to doubt is that the rebels terrorizing Dagestan were heading to Georgia and are still trying to cross the border. Commander of the joint federal troops grouping in the Northern Caucasus General-Colonel Valery Baranov also has information about the rebels. On Monday evening Baranov told ITAR-TASS that those rebels were from Ruslan Gelayev’s gang, heading to Georgia, where they planned a series of terror attacks in the run up to the presidential polls in that country (scheduled for January 4).
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just keep in mind that dead Chechen jihadis have a nasty way of bouncing back, a la Barayev. So while it'll be great if the FSB says that al-Walid or a-Sayyaf is toe tag, it'd be nice to have some more than a hunk of flesh blown apart by artillery to prove it. Basayev has been dead a couple of times too, if memory serves ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 12/31/2003 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  My bet is that they don't mention this in the recruiting brochure.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/31/2003 8:34 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Algerian Court Freezes FLN Activities in Power Struggle
A political tug of war between Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his former head of government Ali Benflis intensified yesterday with a court order freezing the activities and funds of the National Liberation Front (FLN), the divided ruling party. The order, in response to a complaint lodged by the party’s pro-Bouteflika “reform faction,” also declared an FLN party congress held in March “null and void” because it failed to respect the party statutes, the state news agency APS reported. The party congress had re-elected Benflis secretary-general of the FLN, the North African country’s former sole ruling party, and broadened his powers while dropping its backing of Bouteflika, whom the party had propelled to power in April 1999. Benflis, whom Bouteflika fired as head of government in May, has announced his candidacy in an April presidential election, while the president has not yet said whether he will vie for a second term. The reform faction had won a legal injunction against an extraordinary congress of the FLN, which went ahead regardless on Oct. 3, confirming Benflis’ candidacy. The freeze implies that Benflis, a former human rights lawyer, will be unable to run as the FLN’s candidate in April, forcing him to revamp his electoral strategy, observers here said. Bouteflika’s former right-hand man reacted immediately to the move, telling AFP it “shows once again that the president ... will stop at nothing to slake his unquenchable thirst for power.”
Pretty typical, huh? I think it has something to do with the way Algeria came into being, myself. What do you think, JFM?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: East
Turabi denies stirring Darfur conflict
Sudan's prominent Islamist opposition leader, Hassan al-Turabi, denied allegations on Tuesday that his party was aggravating the conflict between government forces and rebels in the western region of Darfur.
"Who? Us? Oh, pshaw!"
"The Popular Congress Party (PCP) is not at all involved in Darfur developments," Turabi told reporters at his party headquarters in Khartoum. "Members of the (PCP) party who have registered with armed men in Darfur have done so without the consent of the party."
Gosh. That's a really plausible denial.
"All parties, including the ruling party, have members who have joined the armed groups there," he added. "It is the government that is responsible for aggravating the situation in Darfur, by resorting to military action instead of talks, by encouraging tribal militias and inciting tribes against each other."
"Yeah. It ain't us. It's them!"
Sudanese authorities have arrested 27 PCP members of the party since last week, according to party official Bashir Adam Rahma. According to diplomatic sources, one of the Darfur rebel groups, the Movement for Justice and Equality, has been expanding with support from Turabi.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/31/2003 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2003-12-31
  Islamist group claims Riyadh bomb attack
Tue 2003-12-30
  Bush to visit Libya
Mon 2003-12-29
  Five Afghans held in Perv attack
Sun 2003-12-28
  Saudis Foil Attack on British Air Jet
Sat 2003-12-27
  Berlusconi Reports Vatican Terror Threat
Fri 2003-12-26
  Up to 20,000 dead in Iran quake
Thu 2003-12-25
  Another boom attack on Perv
Wed 2003-12-24
  Air France cancels U.S. bound flights
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back
Mon 2003-12-22
  Egyptian FM attacked by Paleos in Jerusalem
Sun 2003-12-21
  Syria seizes six AQ couriers, $23 million
Sat 2003-12-20
  Train boom masterminds identified
Fri 2003-12-19
  Libya to dump WMDs
Thu 2003-12-18
  Malvo guilty!
Wed 2003-12-17
  Big-time raids in Samarra

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