Christopher Johnson has stuck his shootin' arn into the barrel of USA Today and splattered fish all over the place in his deconstruction of a cover story on Why They Hate Us â the Yurpeens, not the crazed killer set. Dangit! I told him not to use the 10-guage! Now who's gonna scrub those walls?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 12:38 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Armed men broke into the compound of the United Nations refugee agency in the Afghan town of Ghazni and looted communications equipment and cash, a UNCHR spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Maki Shinohara of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said three armed men locked one foreign and seven Afghan employees in a toilet on Tuesday night before stealing the agency's communications equipment and cash from a safe. None of the UNHCR staff was hurt in the incident at their office in the centre of Ghazni, about 120 km southwest of Kabul. "We don't know the reason and motive behind it. Nor do we know who did it, but our staff from Ghazni said that the three men were organised," Shinohara said. "Duh, Mahmoud! Let's knock over the UN guys that take care of refugees."
"Huh huh. Yeah. Bet they got lotsa money they ain't usin'."
"Yeah. Huh huh. And then we can beat up our Moms..."
"Nah. We did that yesterday..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A U.S.-backed Iraqi opposition group said its militants had shot and wounded the influential younger son of President Saddam Hussein during an ambush earlier this month. The Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat quoted the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC) as saying in a statement that Qusay, who controls the elite Republican Guard, was wounded in the arm when a gunman shot at his motorcade in one of Baghdad's plush neighborhoods on August 1. It said Iraqi security forces clashed with the fleeing attackers and destroyed their car. I'd guess they destroyed the attackers with it, too. Damn. Shoulda aimed just a little bit higher...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
North and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to hold economic talks and briefly reunite families but failed to bridge the biggest gap — when to hold military talks to help build a railway across the world's most fortified border. The United States and Japan, preparing for their own talks with Pyongyang soon, will closely scrutinize the outcome of the three-day talks at a hotel in Seoul for clues about Pyongyang's latest diplomatic outreach and tentative economic reforms. "North Korea seems to want to improve relations with South Korea, Japan and the United States to tide over economic difficulties," South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik told foreign reporters. "It looks like they realized they can't get any financial aid from the international society as long as military tension persists on the Korean peninsula." They tried not to notice when that changed...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A prominent Iraqi Kurdish opposition leader said Tuesday U.S. military forces would be "welcomed" at areas in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq to stage attacks against Saddam Hussein's regime. Jalal Talabani, founder and secretary-general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that after weekend meetings with top Bush administration officials, he and other Iraqi opposition leaders are convinced the United States is now serious about ousting Hussein. "I explained to the United States officials here that the Iraqi opposition, Kurds included, ... have tens of thousands of armed people," Talabani said. "We have more than 100,000 (Kurdish resistance fighters), and Syria also has tens of thousands. These forces can liberate Iraq with the support of the United States, with cooperation and coordination with American forces. This is all second, of course, with allowing the United States and facilitating any work that the United States wants to use our area until we stay there." Looks like what we offered for them to come in was a better deal than what the Soddies offered them to stay out...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm not surprised that it's only a Kurdish opposition leader who's extending a hand to the US. After the number of times that US administrations have sold out the Kurds, it's a hard case to make that they ought to take another run at that football, and hope we don't yank it away.
Operation This Time We Mean It is the historically right moment to broker a deal on Kurdistan -- the Turks won't like it in the short run, but in the long run, it could be a big win for them, too, although an obvious loss for both Iraq and Iran.
Posted by: Joel Rosenberg ||
08/15/2002 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
From August last year till today nearly 2,000 media of more than 180 countries have given wide publicity to the visit paid by General Secretary Kim Jong Il to the Russian Federation in the first year of the new century. Itar-Tass, Xinhua, Reuters, Kyodo, AP, AFP and other big news agencies of the world widely reported his Russian visit and televisions of at least 150 countries arranged special programs everyday at the times of highest audience rating. Leading newspapers of Laos, Iran, Tanzania, Egypt, Portugal, Germany, Peru and many other countries highlighted reports about his Russian visit and Russian media reported about it more than 1,200 times. Meanwhile, functions were held in at least 60 countries to congratulate him on his energetic external activities and his successful Russian visit. Their participants said that his Russian visit brought about a turning phase in the global cause of independence, adding that this success was ascribable to his high international prestige. Yeah. Who has higher international prestige than Kim Jong Il?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 04:57 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Barney the Dinosaur?
Yes, I know the question was rhetorical, but I just couldn't help myself :-)
An Iranian government spokesman ruled out a US attack on his country Wednesday saying officials in Washington were "too intelligent to attack Iran". Yep. That's us all over...
"Of course, we would take all imaginable measures for our security, and to push back an eventual attack. But American leaders are too intelligent to attack Iran," Abdullah Ramezanzadeh told reporters. "Iran does not want to engage in a war. But, as we have proved, we will respond to any aggression, we will protect our national interests and defend our territorial integrity". See, if we weren't as intelligent as we are, we'd attack Iran head-on and fight the First World War all over again. But we're as intelligent as we are. They haven't figured how we're going to swat them yet...
I wonder if we have?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 05:03 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Are they trying to flatter us with that "too intelligent" remark? Awww shucks Mr. Ayatollah. We're not that clever. Just a little lucky I guess, ahem. One day we hope to be as smart as you learned holy men I guess (blushing deep red).
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
08/14/2002 23:50 Comments ||
Top||
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei compared US President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler Wednesday, Iranian radio reported. "The US president uses the same language as Hitler," Khamenei said during talks here with Iranian cultural diplomats. Really? Bush speaks German?
Khamenei said Bush "addressed the world with a language of force that evokes Hitler." Last month, Bush angered Iran's ruling conservative clerics when he accused them of ignoring their citizens' demands for greater freedom and urged Tehran to abandon its "uncompromising" and "destructive policies." The speech sparked demonstrations across Iran and denunciations from the powerful Khamenei. I guess Hitler used to say things like that. I can't recall every reading about it, but I guess that could be. I mean, if Khamenei said it, it must be so, 'cause he's a cleric and clerics never lie to people, do they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 05:06 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
An Iranian official urged Iraq Wednesday to hand over prisoners still remaining from the neighbouring countries' 1980-1988 war, the official IRNA news agency reported. "We are advising Iraqi officials to show goodwill which has increased recently towards Iran and set free the remaining prisoners of war held in that country," the head of Iranian Prisoners of War Organization (PWO), Abbasali Vakili, told reporters. He added that Tehran "can prove that Iraq still holds some Iranian soldiers in its prisons". Iraq, not being as intelligent as the U.S., fought World War I with Iran, complete with gas attacks, trench lines, and "over the top."
Iran says Iraq still holds some 2,500 of its soldiers prisoners while Baghdad countercharges that Iran is still detaining about 29,000 Iraqis. Baghdad says another 60,000 of its soldiers are still missing from the war. In the Gulf War the United States suffered 148 killed in action, 458 wounded, 121 killed in nonhostile actions...
In January, Iran handed over 682 Iraqis to Baghdad taken prisoner during the war and the two sides also agreed to exchange the remains of soldiers killed during the conflict. The two neighbors have yet to sign a formal peace treaty 14 years after the end of their devastating conflict which cost around one million lives. Sammy figures, y'never know, the U.S. might collapse, so he could start the festivities all over again...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 05:14 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
From the SMCCDI â Iranian students' â site...
The Islamic republic regime is intending to organize several sham trials in order to undermine its armed opponents and to discredit them, in the common public eyes, as "Bandits". The Islamic Judiciary power has condemned several of its armed opponents to Death and Amputation sentences. According to the "Afarinesh Daily", published in Iran, the Islamic court of Shiraz condemned today the members of an armed group which were attacking the regime's banking institution. According to the official sentence, the right hand and left foot of some of these regime's victims will be amputated before being executed. As any post-modernist will tell you, there's really no difference between "civilization" and "barbarism". One approach is just as valid as another. 'Course, people seldom amputate parts of post-modernists before killing them, do they?
More and more, young Iranians are forming armed groups in order to fight against the regime as they feel that the situation has reached a dead end and the ruling theocracy is repressing any peaceful action in bloodshed. Looks like they're being proven right...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 05:19 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Gotta crack some eggs to make omelettes, as Uncle Joe formerly quipped. Can't be too kindly to the enemies of the proletariat, er... Islam.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
08/15/2002 11:24 Comments ||
Top||
Radical Islamic leaders in London issued a thinly-veiled threat yesterday that the United States and Britain could face a terrorist onslaught akin to the September 11 attacks if they go to war on Iraq. Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, a preacher from north London, said he and other radicals would issue a fatwa, or religious edict, telling Muslims how to respond to the "evil" of an attack. I still haven't figured out why this orifice isn't in jug, almost a year later. Even better, in jug in Syria."
Islamic hardliners have little love for Saddam Hussein, but they see any US-British military action against Iraq as the greater evil, part of a "Satanic alliance" against Muslims around the world. To each his own, I guess. Some people's own is kinda disconnected from reality...
"I believe September 11 was a direct response to the evil American policy in the Muslim world," said Sheikh Omar Bakri. "We do not want another event like this in the West. ... he said, piously...
"If there is an attack by the British Government against Muslims abroad, then Muslims abroad have the right to retaliate and defend themselves. Muslims in Britain are not allowed to do anything. But I believe the Government must expect a lot of resistance from Muslims outside the UK. We are giving sincere advice to the British Government and the British public so they understand the consequences of playing with fire." Muslims, and especially Muslim preachers, never play with fire, do they? I guess once they achieve Al-Muhajiroun's goal of establishing an Islamic state in Britain it won't be considered playing with fire...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder what the Chief Druid, cum Archbishop of Canterbury in waiting, has said concerning this ecumenical statement on the part of his Moslem brethren.
Posted by: Tom Roberts ||
08/15/2002 11:28 Comments ||
Top||
Crazed killers Suspected separatist militants triggered a land mine, killing two soldiers and injuring 14 others in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday. The explosion occurred as an army convoy was passing through a village in the district of Shopian, 35 miles south of Srinagar, said Tirath Acharya, spokesman of the Border Security Force. The two soldiers, whose identities were not immediately released, were killed instantly. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital. Security forces are on a high alert in Jammu-Kashmir province this week as India marks the 55th anniversary of its independence from British colonial rule. That's because any kind of festival, celebration, or ceremony is nothing more than a target to be attacked. And don't let them catch you laughing at something, either...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan is winning the fight against terrorism according to President Pervez Musharraf, who has vowed to crush Islamic military in the country in an Independence Day address to the nation. Hasn't he vowed that before? Thought so...
At least 16 Islamic militants were arrested by Pakistani police in a series of raids in the Punjab province ahead of the country's Independence Day celebrations Wednesday. "There are no quick-fix solutions to sectarianism and extremism," President Pervez Musharraf said in his annual address marking the 55th anniversary of Pakistan's independence from Britain, The Associated Press news agency reported. He promised to increase security and stated that all Islamic militants involved in recent attacks on Christian institutions "have been killed or arrested." What's next on the agenda? Shall we sit back and wait for the next round of atrocities that make Pakland look even more Third-Worldish and uncivilized than it is? Or shall we try and kill or capture the perpetrators of old atrocities, on the assumption they'll be involved in any subsequent acts?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It's a good day whenever a dictator threatens to crush rebels...
An associate of the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan was arrested by law enforcement agencies in Karachiâs Gulistan-i-Jauhar area in the early hours of Saturday. Mullah Asghar had been a close associate of the Mullah Omar and his band of brothers. After the collapse of the theocratic rule in Afghanistan, Asghar shifted to Karachi from Kandahar. The man reached Karachi along with a woman whose name and other details could not be learnt. He had also a bagged huge quantity of US dollars and half-a-million of Pakistani rupees before fleeing to Pakistan. Took off his turban, shaved his beard, grabbed the dough, and lit out with a bleached blonde floozy named Flo...
Sources said the Pakistani authorities received information from Washington identifying his flat in a residential complex in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. The law enforcement agencies conducted a raid on that flat only to learn that he had moved from there two days earlier. "Yes, oh, colleague at the FBI! I shall pass the information on to my superiors immediately! My name? I am Mahmoud al-Weesil... Spell it? W-e-a-s-e-l..."
Acting on a tip-offearly Saturday morning, law enforcement agencies personnel cordoned of Rabia City residential complex and raided a flat owned by one Uns Abbasi. The name was later discovered to be one of many aliases of the mullah. Officials took him to an undisclosed destination. Three fake ID cards with the names of Ahmed Zia, Zeeshan and Siddiq were recovered. Sources said âsensitiveâ documents and other related items were also found. You could tell he was a Muslim by the number of fake IDs he had...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 09:16 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The health of Saudi Arabiaâs King Fahd is deteriorating despite his recent recovery from eye surgery. The 79-year-old officially heads the worldâs largest oil-exporting country, but his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been de facto ruler since King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995. Surgery to remove a cataract at a Geneva hospital last month heightened speculation about the frail health of the king, who is diabetic. Officials said he was in good health, but some sources have said the monarchâs state of health is not as stable as before. The London-based opposition Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said he no longer recognised some of his children. So probably it's too late to can Prince Abdullah without using an auto accident...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 09:19 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As if this joker recognized all his children when he was healthy -- how many wives did'ja say he had?
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/14/2002 10:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Does his eye surgery mean that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king?
#3
To those that say the Saudis haven't contributed anything positive to Science, I reply that in King Fahd they've perfected a vegetable with high fat content.
Posted by: Laurence Simon ||
08/14/2002 13:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Fahd actually has a manageable set of kids by a mere three wives. Bro Saud had more than 100; but it's abd al-Aziz's kids who really count, since it's his sons presently in the line of succession. About 60 kids, including 40 sons, not all of them alive today.
Posted by: Dan Hartung ||
08/14/2002 21:53 Comments ||
Top||
Israel indicted a defiant Palestinian political leader Wednesday on charges of orchestrating attacks that killed dozens of Israelis and wounded hundreds more. Before entering court in Tel Aviv, Marwan Barghouti said in Arabic, Hebrew and English that he was a man of peace and that "the intifada will win." What'd you expect him to say? "I dunnit and I'm glad"?
"All the world knows that Marwan Barghouti is fighting for peace, and I believe in the solution of two states for two peoples," Barghouti said, raising his handcuffed hands above his head. "The conflict is being fought for peace, and only peace will bring security for Israelis. ... You are paying a heavy price for your government's actions." The grave is the most peaceful of places. No one bothers you, unless you're a Sufi cleric...
Barghouti, 43, the West Bank chief of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement, was formally charged during Wednesday's brief court proceedings with murder, attempted murder and involvement in a terrorist organization. Barghouti, who has been in Israeli custody since he was arrested April 15, is charged on 52 counts. Marwan was also the reputed head of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the head of Tanzim...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 07:50 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Even in a camp notorious for its lawlessness, yesterdayâs violence at Ain el-Hilweh was rated the worst in ten years. Security sources said the Lebanese attackers, belonging to the Dunniyeh Muslim militant group, sprayed automatic fire and threw grenades at positions held by the Fatah movement, killing one Fatah fighter. Fatah guerrillas fired back, killing one Islamist. Well, that sounds fair: one for one...
The exchange of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades lasted an hour, damaged several houses, wrecked cars and blasted down water pipes in the shanty town, home to some 75,000 Palestinians. We should have more of this...
Islamist groups in the camp, where the Lebanese army confines its presence to checkpoints outside entrances, have threatened to attack any group that hands other suspected militants over to Lebanese authorities. Many wanted Lebanese and Palestinian gunmen are believed to be hiding inside the shanty town. Note that these festivities are taking place in someone else's country. There is no obligation on any Paleostinian to obey any law, anywhere, if it interferes with him having his way...
Khaled Aref, a Fatah official, said the various Palestinian and Islamist groups had decided to issue an ultimatum to the Dunniyeh militants. "We agreed to issue a warning to the members of this group to hand themselves over. If they surrender, they would avoid bloodshed and if they donât we are determined to arrest them by force and hand them over to the Lebanese state," Mr Aref said. There was a "general consensus" that the Dunniyeh militants should be arrested and handed over to the Lebanese "today rather than tomorrow". That means there's going to be more of this. I'm so happy. If they're shooting each other up, they're not shooting anyone else up...
But one militant, Abu Ramiz Sahmarani, said that he and his colleagues would not surrender to the authorities under any circumstances. He added that his group would avenge the killing of one of its members in yesterdayâs clash. "That's cuz revenge is, y'know, like, important..."
"We will not hand over ourselves to those infidels [Fatah] and we will not leave the camp even if there is a bloodbath. We are on Islamic territory and among Muslims," said Mr Sahmarani, who refused to allow photographers to take pictures of him. Especially if there's a bloodbath, 'cause bloodbaths are what Islamists do best...
Some of the suspects are wanted in connection with a militant Islamist uprising in the town of Dunniyeh in northern Lebanon in 2000, which was put down by the army only after 40 people had been killed in some of the bloodiest clashes that Lebanon has seen since the countryâs brutal, 15-year civil war ended in 1990. In the streets of Ain el-Hilweh, tension remained high. Few people left their homes while Palestinian fighters roamed the streets of the camp, some apparently surrounding the area where the Islamist militants were thought to be hiding. Note that they have nothing better to do than roam the streets, totin' shootin' arns. Wotta life...
"I wish they would finish them [the Islamists] off because I am sitting in the middle of all this and it is getting worse," said one Palestinian man, Abu Ibrahim, in his sixties. Think head shots...
A little more detail on this, via the Times of London...
Tensions reached a climax early yesterday when several rebels of the Dinnieh group and members of an allied Islamist group called Jamaat al-Nour attacked a checkpoint manned by Fatah fighters. The 45-minute gunbattle, the worst bout of violence in the camp for several years, left at least two people dead and seven wounded.
âWe have no choice but to get rid of these people,â Khaled Aref, the head of Fatah in Ain al-Hilweh, said. âThe nationalist and Islamic forces in the camp are united in condemning this attack and in wanting these people turned over to Lebanese authorities.â But Jamaat al-Nour remained defiant, vowing to transform ânot only the camp but the whole of Lebanon into a pool of bloodâ if they are forced to turn over the Dinnieh insurgents.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 12:25 pm ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Mindoro-based activists allied with Bayan Muna [Party] Rep. Satur Ocampo have been recruiting and training guerrillas for the communist guerrilla army. Col. Jovito Palparan said over 60 percent of the 295 New Peopleâs Army (NPA) guerrillas who surrendered since last year claimed they were introduced into the armed struggle through membership with legitimate non-governmental organizations. Palparan said among those fronting for NPA recruitment include the human rights group Karapatan, the farmersâ organization Samaka and the fishermenâs organization Pamalakaya. â(Bayan Muna is) the strongest organization of managing or running the militant organizations in the province of Mindoro,â said Palparan, head of the Mindoro Oriental-based 204th Infantry Brigade. âBayan Muna is strongly supporting the armed organization in Mindoro Oriental.â Not surprising. In fact, it just makes me tired...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/14/2002 09:02 am ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
