US war planes attacked a house in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday after a government militiaman was killed and a US soldier wounded in an ambush by suspected Taleban fighters. The ambush happened on Friday about five kilometres west of Khost where several hundred US-led troops are based, said Hayatullah, a security officer for Khost governor, Hakim Taniwal. At least one of the attackers was killed in a one-hour clash that followed the ambush. Government reinforcements surrounded a house where others suspected Taleban fighters had taken refuge. âIn the morning American planes came and badly destroyed it,â Hayatullah said. It was not clear how many of the occupants were killed or wounded, he said. It was the first time US aircraft had conducted an attack in Afghanistan in about six weeks.
It will turn out that the house was chock full of women, children, puppies, kittens, and baby ducks, all attending a wedding...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 02:41 pm ||
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A Yemeni was sentenced to death by a court in the southern city of Ibb Saturday, May 10, for the murder of three U.S. missionaries last December in the nearby town of Jibla. Abed Abdulrazzak al-Kamel, also convicted of wounding a fourth missionary, has 15 days to appeal the verdict. He was arrested immediately after the shooting of the Americans, the first major anti-U.S. attack in Yemen since the October 2000 assault on the USS Cole in the southern port of Aden that left 17 American sailors dead. Police told the trial that Kamel, 30, had confessed to being a member of an Islamic cell and that the missionaries deserved to die because they had tried to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Kamel condemned the verdict, saying he should have been tried by an Islamic court and not a civil court. His lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, which is usually enforced by firing squad. U.S. Baptists have run Jibla hospital since the 1960s. "The ruling is a political one and violates Islamic Sharia law," Kamel told the court in Ebb province, according to the BBC online news service. Kamel was a student at Yemen's al-Iman university - which was briefly closed last year after allegations that it was a hotbed of âIslamic militancyâ.
"There ain't nothin' in the Koran that says you can't kill Christians! What kinda Muslims are you guys?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:47 am ||
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A Nepalese convicted of murder and an Afghani found guilty of drug trafficking were beheaded by the sword in Saudi Arabia Friday, the interior ministry said. The Nepalese man, Kioual Man Limbou, was executed in the northwestern region of Tabuk for killing two women and a man and wounding a child, all members of the same Saudi family, "with a truncheon," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. Sultan Khan Osman Omrah, an Afghani, was convicted of drug trafficking after he was arrested for trying to smuggle "a quantity of hashish" into the kingdom and was executed in Wadi Dawasser in the Riyadh region, it said.
Though, I'll admit, they do have a low recidivism rate...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:34 am ||
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#1
Yes, but do they also paint shark faces on their warplanes? If they do, Maggie Drabble may have another nervous breakdown.
#2
Hey, one of my my uncles-in-law used to be a nepalese, a limbou specifically (and an ex-gurkha, for you military-buffs type, now owning a restaurant in Scotland)! I know these family names are actually kind of clan/cast denominators, but Kioul Man probably was a remote relative. Weird.
Suspected terrorists who had been planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeted the royal family as well as American and British interests, and received orders directly from Osama bin Laden, a senior security official said Thursday.
They take this sort of thing a lot more seriously when it's their own necks on the line, don't they? If the targets had been Abdullah and Mahmoud, down in the public housing development, betcha it would have been alk runners again...
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were directly ordered by Osama bin Laden and [were] the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef. On Wednesday, authorities said they foiled plans by at least 19 suspected terrorists to carry out strikes and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives in the capital. All escaped after a gunfight with police. In remarks published Thursday, Prince Nayef said the men could be linked to bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, which now was "weak and almost nonexistent." Nayef said the men, raised in Afghanistan, included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. "These men have only one goal in mind: Jihad (holy war) ... They have been brainwashed," he said.
Gosh. Wonder who aided and abetted that?
Their names and pictures were shown on state-run Saudi television Wednesday, and a reward of 200,000 riyals (US $53,300) has been offered to anyone turning in any of the suspects. The confiscated weapons included hand grenades, five suitcases of explosives, rifles and ammunition, as well as computers, communications equipment and cash, officials said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:32 am ||
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Think the Saudi elite will find out someday that they were funding their own assasinations? Won't that be a hoot!
This may actually be a sign that the security services are thoroughly penetrated by the terrorist groups. It's the easiest thing in the world to fake a gunfight.
The father of Muhammad Othman Al-Shahri, one of the 19 suspects, condemned the groupâs plan to undermine the Kingdom. He said his son had taken part in the Afghan war without his permission.
"Othman! You get back home right now! I'm warnin' you! Don't make me come over there!"
Shahri was born and brought up in Namas village. He joined the College of Shariah at King Khaled University in Abha in 1990 but did not complete the course. He was working at a vegetable shop in Namas with Othman Al-Amri, another suspect, and left his home in Namas two weeks before Haj with his wife to undertake the pilgrimage but did not return. His wife returned with her brother two weeks ago, Shahriâs brother Awad said. Shahriâs wife said she had been staying at a flat in Riyadh in the last three months, adding that her husband came to the flat only to eat. Shahri did not visit his mother, who was in hospital for a month at the time.
"Mom? She's just a woman. Maybe she'll live..."
Aysha Abdullah Al-Amri, Othman Al-Amriâs mother, said she could not believe that her son was among the terror suspects. âHe is well-behaved and treated me very well. Unlike others he never went abroad for jihad,â she said. Amri worked in military maintenance.
Guess he didn't have to go abroad for jihad. He stayed home for it...
Sources close to Sultan Jibran Al-Qahtani, another suspect, told Al-Watan that Qahtani had participated in the Afghan war against the US. âAfter obtaining a degree in physical education from the Teachersâ College in Abha, Qahtani left for Afghanistan to participate in the war,â the sources added.
An Islamic gym teacher. The thought boggles the mind.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:00 am ||
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Pommel horse and cartwheels in a burqa? Sounds like a stunt for "Jackass"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 9:29 Comments ||
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Shahri did not visit his mother, who was in hospital for a month at the time.
So I guess Mo won't be sending mom a card tomorrow?
The Shariah considers terrorism one of the most heinous crimes, says Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki, secretary-general of the Makkah-based Muslim World League. âIslam has nothing to do with terrorism and the two do not meet at any point,â he said. Sheikh Saleh ibn Muhammad Al-Taleb, imam and khateeb of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, also called upon Muslims to mind the noble qualities of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). âThe life of the Prophet is full of examples of noble qualities and strong morality,â the imam said while delivering his Friday sermon. âThe Shariah is benevolence in its totality, in its objectives, applications and means. Islam is the religion of mercy not only in times of peace but also during war,â he said.
"You just don't notice it when they're slaughtering the prisoners and enslaving their wives and kiddies..."
Turkiâs statement and the imamâs sermon follow the announcement by the Interior Ministry on Wednesday that its security officers foiled major terror attacks in the Kingdom by a 19-member group linked to the Al-Qaeda network. Meanwhile, Dr. Muhammad ibn Saad Al-Salim, rector of the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, rejected suggestions that his institution was one of the breeding grounds of terrorists. âOur university has no relationship with these people (the terrorists),â he told Okaz newspaper.
"Who? Us? Pshaw!"
He added that the university was revising its curriculum regularly to accommodate modern developments. More than 80,000 students have graduated from the university over the past 50 years.
Brimming with detailed knowledge of the Koran, a bit hazy on the connection between cause and effect...
Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, reported yesterday that Khaled Muhammad Al-Johani, one of the 19 Al-Qaeda suspects was believed to be the gangâs leader. The Arabic daily said Johaniâs picture had appeared on the website of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) among 17 others more than a year ago. The FBI listed Johani among Al-Qaeda suspects after its agents saw his picture in a video seized from the house of a former Al-Qaeda military commander, Muhammad Atef (Abu Hafs Al-Masri), who was killed in US bombings in Afghanistan in October 2001, the paper said. Johani, who settled in Afghanistan in 1993 along with a number of Arab Afghans, had visited the Kingdom several times using forged travel documents but did not meet his father. Informed sources told the Arabic daily that Johani might have sneaked into the Kingdom a few months ago.
Using one of his 73 false passports and wearing one of his large collection of brightly colored wigs...
In a related development, Kuwait denied that Abdul Rahman Jabara, one of the 19 suspects, was a Kuwaiti national. âJabara is of Iraqi origin and holds Canadian nationality. He was born in Kuwait and lived here for a long time before settling in Afghanistan four years ago,â a Kuwaiti source told the paper.
That clears that up, then. Damn those Canucks!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 08:53 am ||
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#1
Oh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up. We were kinda wondering about it. So I guess everything's okay now, right?
#2
Terrorism has never been foreign to Islam. Witness Assassin of "The Old Man of the Mountains" in the 11th Century. Hell, the word assassin are derived from the cult ASHISHIN that supported al-Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah. al-Sabbah pioneered the use of suicided assasin that's currently in vogue with the islamist terrorists.
IRNA -- Norway is expected to send a token force of between 100-200 men to join a "stabilization force" in Iraq despite Prime Minister Kjell Mange Bondevik's insistence on the need for UN authorization. A final decision is likely to be made at a cabinet meeting on Monday and the Storting (parliament) will also have to be consulted, according to NRK radio Saturday. Norway's participation follows the latest meeting between officials and military from several allied countries on Thursday, which discussed the composition of a "stabilization force". But, unlike Poland, which is being sought to command a security zone, the Norwegian troops are likely to come under a British-controlled contingent. Aftenposten daily suggested that the most likely task for Norway would be much like its participation in Kosovo on mine clearance, engineering and medical aid, rather than its role of using special troops in Afghanistan to hunt terrorists. The decision comes ahead of Bondevik's visit to Washington next week for talks with US President George W. Bush. He is also due to make a stopover in London en route to meet his UK counterpart, Tony Blair, and see French Prime Minister Jean Raffarin on his return. Like most European leaders, the Norwegian prime minister has had to tread a fine balance over the war against Iraq, with public opposition reaching 70 percent during the conflict according to opinion polls. During his visit to the US, UK and France, Bondevik is also expected to lobby support for the candidature of his defense minister, Kristin Krohn Devold, who is among the front-runners to replace Lord Robertson and become the first woman secretary general of NATO.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:16 am ||
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... the most likely task for Norway would be much like its participation in Kosovo on mine clearance, engineering and medical aid, rather than its role of using special troops in Afghanistan to hunt terrorists.
Fine with me. We need mine clearance, etc., done in Iraq anyway, so bring them in. Get the Danes, Poles, Dutch, Spanish, etc. in there as well. One of these days even Lady Dribble will figure out that it's a "multinational" effort.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 14:20 Comments ||
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I refuse to concern myself whether her ilk is EVER satisfied they don't deserve the concern or effort - it'll be wasted
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 22:05 Comments ||
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German federal prosecutors yesterday charged a Moroccan student with accessory to murder in more than 3,000 cases for alleged involvement in the plot behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 30, is believed to have been a member of the so-called Al Qaeda cell in the northern port city of Hamburg that produced three of the 19 suicide hijackers, including presumed ringleader Mohammed Atta. Mzoudi, who is the third person in the world to be charged over the suicide plane attacks, is also charged with membership in a terrorist organisation. Arrested on October 10, 2002 in Hamburg, he had previously only been charged with supporting a terrorist organisation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:16 am ||
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Wow, do you think he'll get a whole 15 years like his buddy Mossadeq got in the German courts?
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/11/2003 3:42 Comments ||
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Too little too late Schroeder. Now let's remove our troops from Germany and deploy them in eastern Europe.
Citing a "vital friendship" between Germany and the United States, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder tried today to rebuild relations that fell to post-World War II lows in bitter exchanges of rhetoric over the invasion of Iraq. In a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany, Schroeder stressed common values of the two societies and said that any debate over a unipolar or a multipolar world — terms of art in European misgivings about the exercise of American power — were counterproductive.
(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/10/2003 08:57 am ||
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kinda busy - we'll deal with your successor, and thanks for calling
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 9:57 Comments ||
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âSchroeder recently said he regretted his "exaggerated remarks" during last year's reelection campaign, although they tapped into widespread pacifist sentiment and helped secure his victory.â Now that Iâve reaped the benefits from employing anti-Americanism as a campaign tool, I regret having to face the consequences.
âSchroeder said today that Germany should never be forced to make "the foolish choice" between the United States and France, which led the opposition to the war.â It was those darn German voters -- they forced me to choose France, really!
#4
Sure, he remembers the "vital friendship" now. I'll recognize "common values" with TGA, but not with Schroeder or his ilk. Sneakin, conivin', back-stabbin' jerks! TGA, you guys are going to have to elect a new team -- Schroeder's never going to visit the ranch.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/10/2003 15:06 Comments ||
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The European Union should be abolished and replaced with a "Europe of Democracies" based on free trade rather than shared sovereignty, say opponents of the European constitution being drawn up in Brussels. A group of members of the Convention on the Future of Europe, the body writing the constitution, plans to publish a minority report opposing most of the main proposals. The rebels include around a dozen politicians from eight countries including Britain, France, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland. Although the minority report stands virtually no chance of being adopted, it is a clear sign of growing concern across the EU about the planned constitution, to be published next month. The draft constitution proposed that countries should lose their veto on foreign policy, that taxes be harmonised and that the EU should be renamed the United States of Europe. There were also plans to set up a European army and a common criminal justice system. It would be funny if it wasn't true.
In an interview with The Telegraph, David Heathcoat-Amory, the Tory MP who is one of the British members of the convention, said he would vote for the minority report. "We've got Left and Right united in this noble cause of creating a democratic Europe answerable to its people," he said. The minority report proposes that the Europe of Democracies would be "a treaty association of free and self-governing European states and an open economic area".
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 05:21 am ||
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"We've got Left and Right united in this noble cause of creating a democratic Europe answerable to its people," he said.
No taxation without REAL representation.
The rebels include around a dozen politicians from eight countries including Britain, France, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.
The inclusion of France makes the report questionable. Nevertheless, one cannot announce the obvious lack of "representative Government" clothes that the EU king is wearing too much.
#2
The European Union should be abolished and replaced with a "Europe of Democracies" based on free trade rather than shared sovereignty, say opponents of the European constitution being drawn up in Brussels.
Why abolish it? Interested parties only need set the appropriate federation, and get OUT of the EU while they still can without incurring substantial pain/problems. Leave the worthless EU to the French and their lackeys.
#3
Oh, but you *need* to abolish it, and not only abolish this union but prevent any other nations from forming any similar union as well. Allow other countries to prosper on their own without you? Allow the free and peaceful union of nations, stop with "divide and conquer" tactics? Never!
Oh, them lackeys of the French so eager to join the EU -- countries like Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia...
What? What do you say? These countries actually supported the US during the war on Iraq?
Oh, well, don't let facts get in the way of your fanaticism.
#4
Hey Aris, we'll here how great this all is when Polish taxpayers have to pay to prop up the French welfare state...That's what this is about, friend, having other countries with better demographics and growing economies pick up the costs that the French, with there massive welfare state and terrible economy, can't hope to pay...but you'll get it...in your wallet.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/11/2003 3:47 Comments ||
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AprÚs le row, le rapprochement. In a unique joint interview, Britain's Europe minister Denis MacShane and his French counterpart Noëlle Lenoir promised to heal the Anglo-French rift opened by the divisions on Iraq. "We did not share views on one subject, the Iraqi crisis, but and it should have consequences has not and must not interrupt our wider relations," Ms Lenoir insisted after talks on the constitution of Europe. Oh Noelle, you kidder you!
Ms Lenoir, a lawyer and former civil servant, was appointed by President Jacques Chirac last summer. She insisted her boss has never stopped talking to Tony Blair. The question is whether Tony stopped talking to him. And what Tony stopped saying.
She denied that France was bent on setting itself up as a rival to the US since it isn't possible. The French believed "Europe has to be a superpower — as strong as the United States because that is good for Europeans and good for the world, including the Americans". Noelle, honey, wake up from the dream.
Mr MacShane said: "Europe is falling behind economically, militarily and morally. We have become so engrossed by socialism politics in Europe that we are not noticing that we are becoming poorer and poorer relative to the US. This is not a huge diplomatic game. If France and Britain fall out, no one in Europe will benefit". Except for the Brits, the Spanish, the Poles, the Italians, the Czechs, ...
Mr MacShane, the government's leading polyanna europhile, is working tirelessly to patch up relations. He travelled with Ms Lenoir to Latvia last week to discuss EU enlargement, held talks in London this week and next week will share a platform in the Dordogne on the future of Europe with the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. But the diplomatic task is mountainous. The two politicians were speaking on Thursday — the day, elsewhere in London, the defence secretary Geoff Hoon had assembled military chiefs from 15 countries to create a stabilisation force in Iraq outside the umbrella of the UN or Nato. France, along with Germany, did not join the discussions and weren't invited anyway, a sign that reverberations of the row will continue at the UN. Ms Lenoir preferred to concentrate on areas where France and the UK could work together. "We have never stopped discussing defence... We are both preoccupied by the fact that EU nations' defence budgets are falling." Unlike the US and the Brits, the French aren't willing to do anything about it.
She asserted that France was not interested in any kind of European defence role that duplicated or usurped Nato. One that could replace NATO, however, would be of interest to them.
There had been misunderstandings about the defence summit France held with Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. "If you look closely at the declaration it is perfectly compatible with what was agreed between ourselves and the British at the St Malo summit where we also accomplished nothing of importance." Mr MacShane also appeared relaxed about the Belgian summit. "In the wake of the Iraq crisis, more attention was paid to that meeting than it warranted since it meant nothing." Ms Lenoir also argued that the French and British were now at the helm of the economic reform programme. "We have never stopped working hard on the economic strategy agreed by the EU at Lisbon. "Our market culture in the past has been different to Britain, but we are now determined to reform drastically the market in France through liberalisation, in every area — gas, electricity, post office, financial services, ports." "Unless it causes us pain, or our unions strike, or it means forsaking any of our six weeks vacation. Then it's back to business as usual!"
Mr MacShane argued that on the convention on the future of Europe, there was a near identical view between the countries. "On the issues that are of the highest importance, France and the UK are speaking as one." How did he manage to say that with a straight face? Man, diplomacy is tougher than it looks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 12:19 am ||
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Would you right wing nutz please flash back to the Battle of Yorktown? Without Admiral Rochambeau's fleet there would be no U.S. Talk about French ingratitude!? This anti French crap is really getting tired--I went out and bought CASES of French wine--since it is the best--California wines are second rate--but for the right wing nutz in this site--I'm shocked and amazed they support CA wineries--since we know they are all run bby radical liberals like me
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
05/10/2003 1:34 Comments ||
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Sorry Not Mike, it wasn't the US that forgot that France was a friend of ours, it was France that forgot they were a friend.
And it isn't just "right wing nutz" (do extremist liberals make up words to convince themselves they really are bleeding edge cool?)who have gotten the message, loudly, that the French actively tried to sabotage our efforts in Iraq and have gone out of there way to behave like enemies of the United States.
Only 28% of Americans feel France is an ally of the US. 50% felt that way three years ago.
It's interesting that French products, including wine, have taken a beating in the US market...particularly when the "boycott" has been principally "grassroots" in origin. Reminds me a lot of the grape boycott against growers in the 60s and 70s. There was some organized effort to promote that, but it worked because ordinary people just didn't want to support something that was wrong.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/10/2003 1:55 Comments ||
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#3
While I think that some French bashing in the U.S. is over the top I try to see the reason.
It's a fact that Russia and France had the highest stakes in Iraq: France was about to secure extensive drilling rights and made nice profits with the oil for food (or whatever Saddam spent the money on) program. Russia's interest in avoiding a war were even higher: Not only would Russia lose its lucrative contracts, falling oil prices would put Russia's own oil economy in jeopardy.
I think the U.S. government (at least secretly) acknowledges that nations are reluctant to act against their own economic interest (even if it is for a common good cause).
But France did more: France used the Iraq conflict to screw the U.S. politically (dragging Germany into it doesn't make me feel more sympathetic either). De Villepin went travelling in Africa to convince African states to vote against the U.S. in the UNSC. And he did it to shove it into America's face literally, making America (and the U.K.) act own their own (with all the image problems coming with it). This is more that an ally can possibly do. Russia didn't even do this and it's not an U.S. ally.
If France went around lobbying other nations to oppose Germany in something Germany sees as its vital interest (and fighting states that sponsor terrorism and develop WMD is a vital interest of the U.S.) I think Germans wouldn't buy too many cases of Mouton Rothschild either.
#4
Left wing nuts like Not Mike Moore always forget that without our interventions in WWI and WWII, there would be no France. And the French intervention during the Revolutionary War occurred only after the French had figured out that we were going to win. In their naivete (or just plain Francophilia?), the founders slobbered all over France in the way that we rewarded even the most minor allied contribution during the recent war in Iraq. American generosity and a willingness to think the best of our allies remains unchanged over two centuries.
#5
Individual Frenchmen such as the Marquis de Lafayette fought in the revolution out of admiration of the cause, but the French Monarchy (which, you will note, no longer exists) was mainly interested in giving the English Monarchy a hard time.
#7
I'm a beer drinker myself, but I had some good austrailian wine the other day that was out of this world. I'd take a tall glass of German or English brew anyday over wine.
Posted by: George ||
05/10/2003 5:20 Comments ||
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Rochambeau was a General (of French troops at Yorktown). The Admiral in the story was de Grasse, who sailed up from the Indies with a fleet to bottle up the Brits, and some additional troops. Both were key to the victory at Yorktown, and good on 'em.
Then we negotiated the peace with Britain, with some help from the Comte de Vergennes, until we realized that the French had used us as a stick to beat Britain with, and then wanted us to be less than sovereign. As John Adams said, Vergennes "means to keep his hand under our chin to keep us from drowning, but not to lift our head out of the water."
SS,DD.
So France was doing a little Realpolitik of its own, and while we appreciate it and all, it was over 200 years ago and has been more than amply repaid since. Watching Europe commit cultural suicide is one thing, but tolerating active French complicity with our enemies is another.
Thanks for the history lesson and please help support Scotland's distilleries.
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/10/2003 8:05 Comments ||
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Wow, what a selectively poor memory NMM has! Crystal clear when it comes to events over 200 years ago, but totally missing it when it comes to WWII, some of whom fought it are still alive.
And you don't wonder why we despise such stupid idiots?
#10
"the founders slobbered all over France in the way that we rewarded even the most minor allied contribution during the recent war in Iraq"
But then some of the same founders practically had to toss a coin to decide if we were going to fight the Brits or the Frenchies in the War of 1812. Tensions were high with both.
Lafayette was chased out of France, one step ahead of the guillotine.
It is not true that General Pershing said "Lafayette, we are here, and you aren't." But he could have.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2003 8:31 Comments ||
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#11
Not Mike Moore: Here's some numbers for you:
Epinal:5255
Aisne-Marne:2289
Brittany:4410
Lorraine:10489
Normandy:9386
Oise-Ainse:6012
Rhone:861
Somme:1844
St. Mihiel:4153
Surenes:1541
The total is 46238. That's the number of Americans still buried in American Military Cemetaries in France from World Wars I and II.
I think the debt to Admiral Rochambeau was paid with interest along time ago.
But maybe they were all right wing nuts, too.
Think about that when you're enjoying your wine.
#12
May they should bring Rummy in to moderate the discussions.
Mark IV: Really nice catch on Rochambeau/deGrasse.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/10/2003 10:12 Comments ||
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Not Mike Moore (and other non-history buffs).
The Gov of France has never been a friend of the US. From the beginning of ALL dealings between the US and them, they have used whatever was available to interfere with the major power(for the first few years they were interfering with GB and could care lessabout the rebel upstarts).
#14
To Not Mike: you've already been educated here as to the French. No one here would have a problem with the French if France had simply said, "we disagree with what you're doing in Iraq and won't support you." But they did far more: they shared intel, sold weapons, provided advice to Saddam, and worked actively around the world to stop us. They did this for the crassest of reasons: economic gain.
Now a leftie like you should understand how crass that is, since you're always railing about it when Americans do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 14:27 Comments ||
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#15
"This anti French crap is really getting tired..."
Actually, Not Mike Moore, I'm really getting into it. This morning I bought a small appliance that is American-made instead of the French one that first caught my eye. I don't think it's going to hurt our interests to "Buy American", do you? Or do you just not care about the well-being of your country?
Posted by: Tom ||
05/10/2003 14:55 Comments ||
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#16
People keep on forgetting it seems, that USA didn't militarily intervene in WW2 until Japan had "intervened" in Pearl Harbour.
The support European nations gave you over Afghanistan has obviously been forgotten. Who's the ungrateful one here?
And if France had decided to launch an attack on a dictatorship such as Saudi Arabia which you've been defending nail and tooth, I wonder how would you have reacted?
France followed its interests. America has been following its. That's all.
And now EU aid has been flowing into Iraq, and will keep on flowing, and I somehow doubt we'll hear anything in this site about *that*, any more than we hear about European soldiers stationed in Afghanistan or the US usage of bases in Germany or Greece or other such places.
#18
And if France had decided to launch an attack on a dictatorship such as Saudi Arabia which you've been defending nail and tooth, I wonder how would you have reacted?
With WHAT, pray tell? Or does Chirac have imperialistic plans for the new EU force to make up for the loss of preferential oil prices from Saddam's Iraqi oil wells (now Iraq's Iraqi Oil wells.)
Really, if you wanted to beat us over the head with something really juicy, you should have mentioned how the United States kept the imperialist England and France from attacking Saudi Arabia when the latter nationalized the Oil Wells. Biggest damn mistake WE ever made, letting the Saudis get all that money in the supid name of letting a nation control its own natural resources, so that they could finance Wahabbism and terrorism world-wide.
If you really want to be serious, demand full open books on the proposed US/Britain co-mandate over the Iraqi Oil fields, including sales, purchases, and proofs of disbursement.
Provided, of course, you'd open the Oil for Palaces, er food, program books, AS WELL AS demand an accounting of EU donations to Yassir Arafat and the PA.
No? Oh, don't tell me. Let me guess. BOTH used Arthur Andersen, right?
#19
Aris: we haven't forgotten the help the Germans and other Eurpoean nations gave us in Afghanistan. We also haven't forgotten how the French refused to complete strike missions we asked them for.
And if the French attacked Saudi Arabia (how? with planes from the Charles de Gaulle? If it ever gets out of port, maybe). Most Americans would say Hoo-ah! Do it Jacque. Let's see if you got it.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/11/2003 4:02 Comments ||
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Hindu extremist organization and a member of ruling coalition Shiv Sena has opposed any peace talks with Pakistan, an Indian newspaper reported on Friday. A Shiv Sina MP Chandre Kant Khere taking part in discussion on Indo-Pak talks in the lower house of the Indian parliament leveling terrorism charges against Pakistan opposed talks between the two countries.
Hafiz Saeed's probably saying the very same things on the Pak side. Maybe Lashkar and Shiv Sena should get together?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:34 am ||
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I don't think moral equivalencies work too well in the long-run, Fred.
It wasn't Shiv Sena's derivatives that were responsible for aiding and abetting al-Qaeda; there is no RSS faction that is plotting to destroy the Pentagon.
We should, therefore, tilt heavily to the Shiv Sena side of the argument. India gives us a key strategic location, a Democratic nation and a rising IT center.
Posted by: Brian ||
05/10/2003 14:44 Comments ||
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Gotta disagree with that one. A brownshirt's a brownshirt, whether he wears a turban or carries a trident. I don't see any difference between enforcing shariah and Hinduvta. I think we should tilt heavily toward the Indian side of the argument, but I'd have nothing to do with Shiv Sena and RSS.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2003 18:21 Comments ||
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IRNA -- At least 11 passengers were injured when a bomb exploded in a passenger bus in the southern city of Hyderabad, in Sindh province, on Saturday. Police say five of the injured are in critical condition. The device was planted under a seat in the front portion of a bus which was moving toward Kandiaro district in Naushero Feroze. All the injured were rushed to hospital, where five of them were discharged after providing first aid. No one has claimed responsibility and the police has so far not arrested any suspect. A provincial minister and local officials rushed to the site of the blast and supervized the rescue operation. Talking to newsmen, Sindh Minister Dr. Irfan Gul Magsi and Regional Police Officer Ghulam Muhammed Malkani termed the incident an act of terrorism and vowed to book the culprits at the earliest.
"Hey, Mahmoud! Whattya wanna do tonight?"
"Maybe go to the movies?"
"I ain't got no money. You got any?"
"Nope."
"Let's bomb a bus."
"Hokay."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:25 am ||
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Hyderabad, in Sindh province of India, is a long way from Pakistan. There's nothing in the report to suggest it meant any other "Hyderabad". For Pakistan to have that kind of reach into India is disturbing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/10/2003 13:11 Comments ||
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#2
I think they're referring to Hyderabad in Pakistan, where Omar Saeed Sheikh's trial took place.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2003 14:17 Comments ||
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IRNA -- Kashmiri armed organizations are considering a proposal to announce ceasefire to facilitate expected Pakistan-India talks, reported a Pakistani newspaper said Friday. "The Muttahida Jihad Council (UJC) is considering an idea to observe ceasefire with a view to facilitating dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi," Daily Times quoted a Kashmiri source as saying. The UJC is a conglomerate of over a dozen armed Kashmiri groups, fighting against Indian forces in Indian-administered Kashmir. The Lahore-based newspaper said that the UJC could announce ceasefire after conclusion of second round of possible parleys betweenthe two sides. Foreign Minister of Pakistan Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said a few days back that Islamabad will ask the armed Kashmiri organizations to observe truce. Both the rival countries have expressed their resolve in recent weeks to resume dialogue process on all issues including the core problem of Kashmir.
I doubt that any truce will be uniformly adhered to, especially by the jihadis. Hizbul is sufficiently split that the cannon fodder faction might, but Salahuddi's air-conditioned office faction will only as long as the ISI keeps them on a short leash. I'm not sure what Lashkar e-Taiba's going to do â ISI will be tugging one way, but I don't think Hafez Saeed knows how to do anything but jihad.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:08 am ||
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IRNA -- Pakistani and Indian parliamentarians on Friday agreed to "isolate" fundamentalist forces in both countries in a bid to remove obstacles in the way of normalization of bilateral relations, Senior Indian Parliamentarian said here on Friday.
Somehow I can't imagine that happening in Pakland. It's a fundo country...
Both sides agreed that fundamentalist forces existed in the two countries and were hampering the process of establishment of peace. These forces should be isolated, CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee said after he hosted breakfast for the visiting 13-member Pakistani parliamentarian delegation which arrived in the Capital Thursday evening. "We got a warm welcome here and we will appraise our leadership about this visit. We all hope this visit will help Indo-Pak talks in some way", said Member of Pakistan's National Assembly, Ishaq Khan Khakwani. The two sides felt there was no reason why peace, friendship and mutual cooperation between India and Pakistan could not be re-established, Chatterjee said, adding they also sought increased people-to-people contacts.
No reason, except for the turban and automatic weapons guys, anyway.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 10:00 am ||
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How exactly do you isolate the Pak President, the Military, the speaker of the house, the members of parliament, the Jihadi Workers Union, etc. Are they expecting at the end of it all Vajpayee will have to negotiate with a group of Riksha drivers from Lahore.
Surrounded by American tanks, an Iranian opposition group under orders to surrender agreed Saturday to turn over its weapons and submit to the demands of U.S. forces. The United States used the occasion to warn other forces not to assert power. Representatives of the Mujahedeen Khalq operating near Baqubah, 45 miles northeast of the capital, struck the agreement after two days of negotiations with U.S. forces. "V Corps has accepted the voluntary consolidation of the Mujahedeen Khalq forces and subsequent control over these forces," V Corps said in a statement Saturday night. It said the process would take "several days" to complete. It added: "When this process is completed, it will significantly contribute to the coalition's mission to set the conditions that will establish a safe and secure environment for the people of Iraq."
Military officials at V Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group had agreed to "voluntarily hand over all their weapons" including sidearms. They will be permitted to retain their uniforms. The Mujahedeen Khalq's weaponry will be consolidated into one area, its members in another. They will be "protected by American forces," one military official said. A rival armed group backed by the Iranian regime is active in the area, and there have been fears the two would clash. Any travel by members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, including into Baqubah to purchase food, will be "under escort," the United States said.
The V Corps statement did not use the word surrender, and the military officials said they would not describe the capitulation in those terms. The officials said members of the organization would not be classified as prisoners of war but under a status "yet to be determined." Saturday's capitulation, which appeared nonetheless to be a surrender in everything but terminology, underscores the U.S. desire to be the unquestioned and unchallenged armed force in Iraq a month after the fall of Saddam's regime.
Its announcement of the Mujahedeen Khalq developments was accompanied by a warning to any groups that might assert authority in postwar Iraq. "Groups who display hostile intent or refuse to cooperate with the authority of the coalition will be subjected to the full weight of coalition military power," V Corps said. "These groups are urged to submit to the authority of the coalition immediately."
On Saturday afternoon, Apache helicopter gunships flew low over the sandstone buildings of Camp Ashraf, the group's headquarters, as negotiations wrapped up. Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles lined the highway near the camp. Two tanks pointed their guns toward the sandbagged guardpost at the entrance. Two U.S. Air Force spotters — personnel who call in air strikes — were in the back of a Bradley in front of the gate.
The Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Warriors, is the military wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella body said to unite Iran's diverse opposition groups. Before Saddam's ouster, the group helped train his elite Republican Guard units, according to the U.S. military. The confrontation between the group and the U.S. military that escalated Friday came three weeks after a truce between the Iranians and the Army, which American officials had called a "prelude" to surrender. Under the April 15 truce, the Mujahedeen Khalq could keep its weapons to defend itself against Iranian-backed attacks but had to stop manning checkpoints it had set up. But reports of roadblock confrontations in recent days suggested it had continued playing an active role in the region.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 06:10 pm ||
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I think this a good idea. They get the story right, while it's fresh. Plus it gives these guys a chance to talk about it and maybe get it out of they're system a bit.
Pfc. Derek Smolos looked into the video camera as calmly as he could and began telling his story.He described how his Bradley Fighting Vehicle was ambushed. He pointed to the burnt-out truck from where Iraqi troops fired a rocket-propelled grenade. He looked toward where his section leader, wounded by the blast, jumped out of the turret and ran for cover. Smolos wasn't rattled a bit by the U.S. Army combat camera team in front of him, recording a video history of the 3rd Infantry Division's campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The adrenaline was rushing through his veins for another reason â returning to the place where he had been attacked. "I was very nervous about being back in that spot," said Smolos, 20, of Ithaca, N.Y. "I was confronting what just about killed me."
Before they go home, leaving the land where they risked their lives, U.S. soldiers are returning to the battlefields where they fought just weeks ago to recount and record their impressions, their memories and their feelings.
Smolos's vivid tale of the ambush, given as he walked the camera team through the place where it happened, was just the kind of account that Col. David Perkins said he hoped to capture for military historians and to record lessons learned by troops in the field. "We're trying to do it while we still have it fresh in our minds, while we're here, before everyone goes to the four winds. And we're trying to get back on the terrain, mainly because it jogs the memory when somebody sees, `Oh yeah, we were here, the tank was there,'" said Perkins, the 2nd Brigade commander.
Capt. Steve Berry, commander of A Company, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, described how his company engaged 10 Iraqi armored personnel carriers, which were hitting his M1A1 Abrams tank with 30 mm cannon fire. "The survivability of the tank is what saved us here," Berry said, explaining that he could hear the shells hit the front of his tank but didn't feel the impact. "If these guys had more time, they could have fired Sagger missiles at us, but that takes time and it's wire-guided." I remember when the Abrams were first being built. They were too big, gas guzzlers, the guns were bad, they were deathtraps. Shows what media "defense experts" know.
Perkins said the recordings and information will be valuable for the Army, which has already begun to analyze the war in Iraq for potential changes in military doctrine regarding the use of armor units in urban areas. "It becomes a very useful resource," he said. "We just want to historically recount what happened, and try to put the pieces together."
The combat camera team carried two video cameras to film from two different angles and capture the scene while the officers and men involved in the battles described them. Some soldiers learned things about the battle that they didn't realize until they returned to the scene. When Smolos' commander, Capt. Chris Carter of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, went back to the site of the ambush, he was surprised to find nine destroyed Iraqi armored vehicles and four cargo trucks where he thought there were only a few gun trucks. Carter inspected the holes in the armor and the turrets that were tossed across the field when the vehicles exploded. "I think we've learned that the Soviet armor isn't what we thought it was," Carter said. Then he reflected about the four rocket-propelled grenades that penetrated the armor of two of his Bradleys. "But then again," he said, "ours isn't either."
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/10/2003 11:15 am ||
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Great idea, but it should be extended to include certain journalists:
"Yep, here's where the impenetrable Iraqi defenses were, right by that greasy spot... And here's where the quagmire was, but it happened so fast I really didn't get a good look at it...."
Posted by: Matt ||
05/10/2003 12:00 Comments ||
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#3
Was the Bradley designed to stop an RPG round without penetration? I understand that a 30 mm shell won't penetrate an Abrams, but the Bradley is a much lighter vehicle with a different purpose.
Also read elsewhere that the Marine LAVs took a fair beating, worse than the Bradleys. But I don't recall reading anywhere that either was supposed to stop a shaped charge warhead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 14:36 Comments ||
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#4
The services and DoD have long ago adopted a formal feedback system for lessons learned. In the Army, it aligns the Center for Army Lessons Learned, the Army Material Command, and the historians to capture and exploit the information. Shortcomings in equipment is handled by AMC. Shortcomings in doctrine, training, and actual application are handled by CALL. Problems at battalion and below level are the responsibility of the branch school. Problems at brigade and above are to be resolved across the service by applicable offices and centers coordinated by CALL. Issues are also coordinated with applicable services (i.e. USMC) and those which cross services are coordinated at the DoD level. The GWI lessons learned after action report consisted of 7 volumes. Problems are id'd, tracked, and their implementation verified by further surveys in the field, at training exercises, and at home station. Due to the volume of lessons id'd in an major operation, they usually end up having to be prioritized for resource allocation by the responsible agency. So, somethings will get immediate attention and some will be on the backburner for a while [or until it bites someone in the ass].
Posted by: Don ||
05/10/2003 14:45 Comments ||
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Via Command Post
Villagers looted a nuclear power facility during the waning days of the war and instead of treasure, may have made off with death-drums filled with radioactive uranium oxide concentrate, also called yellow cake. According to officials with the Iraq nuclear energy commission, the storage facility at Zafaraniya was guarded by Iraqi troops until April 4. However, they fled in the face of approaching U.S. Marines. With the arrival of the Marines, the Zafaraniya facility was nominally under control of U.S. forces. However no special guards were posted and residents of a neighboring village looted the facility on April 6 and 7. That'll be our fault — we were too busy trying not get killed
Most of the villagers have only an elementary school education. While they knew the facility was related to nuclear energy, they did not know that radioactive materials were stored there.
Nuclear facility -> nuclear storage. Cause -> effect. How much brainpower does it take to work that out?
By April 8, when Iraq nuclear energy commission officials got a handle on the situation, they discovered about 100 drums containing yellow cake were missing. It appears the villagers did not know what the yellow cake was nor had any interest in it. With only about 60 households, the village did not have piped-in water and the looters wanted to use the drums for water storage. In what may prove to be deadly errors, they dumped the radioactive substance on land near their village and washed the drums in a local river. D'OH!!
Officials believe the looters inevitably inhaled large quantities of the uranium. To make a bad situation worse, the villagers may have ingested radioactive material after converting the drums to water and cooking oil containers. Yellow cake is produced when refining uranium ore. Through further processing, it can be used as fuel rods for nuclear reactors or in nuclear weapons. And the Iraqis would have this...er....why?
An official with the Iraq nuclear energy commission said Iraq refined the uranium from imports from Nigeria and Portugal in 1978 for its nuclear development program. About 300 drums of refined uranium had been in storage at Zafaraniya for about 20 years. The site was visited last January and February by inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The inspectors found no safety problems at the facility. The Zafaraniya facility is located about 30 kilometers southeast of Baghdad and includes an experimental nuclear reactor and research labs. Considered one of the core components of Iraq's nuclear weapons development program, the facility was bombed by Israel in the 1980s and was hit by U.S. cruise missiles in the 1990s. The storage facility where the yellow cake was kept was surrounded by a wire fence but the storage facility itself was rusted and rapidly deteriorating. ahhh but "The inspectors found no safety problems at the facility."
One of the villagers who took part in the looting said he tasted the yellow powder in the drums because it looked pretty. Aaakkkkkkkk
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 09:48 am ||
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One of the villagers who took part in the looting said he tasted the yellow powder in the drums because it looked pretty.
Maybe this dope would be interested in a little "hot lemonade"??
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 15:01 Comments ||
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#6
Uranium Ore Concentrate (UOC) is dark green to black (depending on its moisture content). Ammonium di-Uranate is yellow (and is what gave rise to the name "yellow-cake"). The published figures on what was at Tuwaitha indicate that the UOC should have been green.
If the villagers ate something pretty and yellow it was probably sulphur (uranium processing facilities commonly have stocks of sulphur - used to manufacture sulphuric acid on site).
UOC is only about one tenth as radioactive as uranium at geologic equilibrium with its daughter products. In many cases UOC is less radioactive than the ore it is mined from (the daughter products end up in the ore residues rather than in the concentrate).
Most of what is being reported about Tuwaitha is simply not plausible or contains impossibilities/stupidities.
Posted by: Russell ||
05/11/2003 3:07 Comments ||
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US Central Command announced Friday that remains found in a mass grave in southern Iraq could be those of Kuwaiti citizens missing since Iraq's 1990 invasion of the country. "The Kuwaiti prisoner of war task force and coalition forces are exploiting a mass gravesite recently found near As-Samawah," Central Command said in a statement dated "Southern Iraq."
I think most of us figured the missing are actually dead...
"Based on evidence found at this site, this could possibly be the remains of Kuwaiti citizens missing since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the country," it said. Kuwait last month offered a one million dollar reward to anyone who provides the country with "authentic" information on the fate of more than 600 people missing since the 1990-91 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, ended by the first Gulf war. Kuwait says 605 people disappeared during the occupation and believes many were kept in Iraqi jails. Apart from Kuwaiti nationals, the 605 missing or taken prisoner included 14 Saudis, five Egyptians, five Iranians, four Syrians, three Lebanese, one Bahraini, one Omani and one Indian, according to Kuwaiti authorities. Saddam Hussein's regime said there had been prisoners, but that it lost track of them during an uprising by Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq following the rout in Kuwait.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:27 am ||
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Hmmmm no palestinians? see story below for cause/effect demonstration
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 9:38 Comments ||
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The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern that up to 90,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq could be evicted from their homes. The Palestinian refugees enjoyed protection under Saddam Hussein, and Iraqi landlords were forced to charge them very low rents. But since the fall of the regime, landlords have begun to evict their Palestinian tenants demanding higher rents.
No reason they shouldn't pay the same rents as Iraqis. And eviction is usually what happens when you don't pay your rent...
About 1,000 Palestinians have already been driven from their homes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the UNHCR said in a statement. The agency also said that dozens of Iranian refugees had been turned out of their houses by local communities in southern Iraq. The evicted Palestinians are living on waste ground or in disused buildings around Baghdad, the UNHCR said, expressing fears of a growing backlash against the Palestinian community. "I have two wounds here in my head," one of the evicted Palestinians told the BBC Arabic Service. "A group of Iraqis attacked us. They said 'You're Palestinian.' They beat me and my father up. And we were about to leave our house because we had been given notice that we were evicted." But the UNHCR said Palestinians had received much less help from the deposed regime than people imagine.
That actually doesn't surprise me. The level of inefficiency in Sammy's Baath regime was breathtaking, even by Middle East standards...
It is sending an aid convoy — including tents, blankets and cooking materials — to Baghdad to help the homeless Palestinians. Many of the estimated 90,000 Palestinians in Iraq have been living there since the foundation of Israel in 1948. Time for the Paleos to stop acting like footballs and start standing on their own feet.
Coming to a neighborhood near you: Ein el-Hilweh!
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 04:48 am ||
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When you said,"stand on your own two feet". These people have been evicted from their homeland. What would you do? What would you suggest they do? Where do you suggest they go?
I support Israel and their right to their ancestral homeland, but they were not given the right, by Balfour or modern convention to displace these people. The pals are stuck. Early last century and esp. after WWII, the Jews had a problem. The world created a solution. What? So what if we break a few eggs? Damn the palestinians? Those people should, at the very least, have been compensated and a client country (prob. Jordan) been incentivized to home them.
How much has not doing that cost Israel? How much is it gonna cost us now? Instead, we poke fun at their being displaced again? That's b.s. Bull, and you know it. They are people. Trodden down and unwanted. Americans should understand that. But even Fred and Den Beste (partly) join the dance. WTF? I guess my old prof was right.
"Make sure all your idols have clay feet."
Posted by: Scott ||
05/11/2003 17:02 Comments ||
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#2
Saddam has supported the Palestinians for quite a while. The Palestinians helped him for years politically and also in Kuwait.
Its quite clear that now he is gone many of them will pay the consequenses for their folly.
#3
A lot of them already have. I gather that quite a few of the enemy combatants we killed in the war were actually Palestinians. Especially in Baghdad, a lot of those who were doing the fighting were non-Iraqi Arabs, and a good percentage of those were Palestinians.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
05/10/2003 7:14 Comments ||
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#4
Guess that's what happens when you side with a loser.
#5
Jeez, no more boomer subsidies, no more rent subsidies, the neighbors are pissed at us. Things are tough all over. Payback sucks, don't it?
Oh well, the UN will take care of us. Why should we have to take care of ourselves?
#8
"stop acting like footballs and stand on their own two feet"
Bull, are you suggesting they become boomers?
Have you ever SEEN a refugee camp? Probably three fifths female, the majority very old or very young, those able to support are out trying to do it and those that can't are left in squalor.
Maybe they should just be incinerated, huh?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/10/2003 17:47 Comments ||
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#9
If they've been "refugees" since '48, it's long past time they faced reality, lost the stupid head-towel and started being Iraqis in stead of Palestinians.
Since they couldn't or wouldn't do that, for whatever reason, they remain strangers in a strange land.
#10
Interesting though. Iraq is evicting refugee Paleos. Now if Israel did that....
Posted by: john ||
05/10/2003 20:12 Comments ||
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#11
Scott, there's quite a difference between suggesting a people start behaving a bit more responsibly and putting them into incinerators. I've seen poverty, and I see the consequences of self-induced poverty every time Palestinians are on TV. Apologise on others' behalf all you like; it's time they started looking after themselves (and why on earth do you suppose that, by that I mean they should murder more Israeli civilians?).
#12
When you said,"stand on your own two feet". These people have been evicted from their homeland. What would you do? What would you suggest they do? Where do you suggest they go?
I support Israel and their right to their ancestral homeland, but they were not given the right, by Balfour or modern convention to displace these people. The pals are stuck. Early last century and esp. after WWII, the Jews had a problem. The world created a solution. What? So what if we break a few eggs? Damn the palestinians? Those people should, at the very least, have been compensated and a client country (prob. Jordan) been incentivized to home them.
How much has not doing that cost Israel? How much is it gonna cost us now? Instead, we poke fun at their being displaced again? That's b.s. Bull, and you know it. They are people. Trodden down and unwanted. Americans should understand that. But even Fred and Den Beste (partly) join the dance. WTF? I guess my old prof was right.
"Make sure all your idols have clay feet."
Posted by: Scott ||
05/11/2003 17:02 Comments ||
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The leader of Iraq's best-known Shia opposition group has returned home after more than 23 years of exile in Iran. Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (Sciri), crossed the border on Saturday morning to a tumultuous welcome. The BBC's Frank Gardner, who witnessed the scene, says thousands of supporters had driven out to meet the ayatollah.
"Hurrah! The ayatollah's here! Let's cut somebody's head off!"
His movements are likely to be closely watched by United States and British officials — who are concerned that he might push for an Islamic state in Iraq. During his years in exile, he headed an armed militia and called for Saddam Hussein to be replaced by an Iranian-style theocracy. However the 63-year-old cleric has recently said he favours a democratically elected coalition government in Baghdad. Ayatollah Hakim has gone to the southern city of Basra, where he is due to address a rally. Thousands of Iraqi Shias have been gathering at the city's stadium, waving green flags of Islam and posters of the ayatollah. "Hakim has had many martyrs in his family," one his supporters, Mohammad Lamrayani, told Reuters news agency. "He deserves our welcome after 23 years abroad. It is the right of every Iraqi to come back now after the fall of Saddam Hussein."
The ayatollah was accompanied by an entourage of about 100 gunnies armed men at the special welcoming ceremony. The BBC's Jane Peel says the roads to the stadium are virtually blocked as people rush to see their spiritual leader for the first time in 23 years. Our correspondent adds that, although Basra is dominated by Shias, many are uncomfortable at the idea of an Islamic state. Some are also wary because of the Ayatollah Hakim's Iranian connections. Recently there has been speculation over whether he would continue to head Sciri or hand over the leadership to his younger brother, Abdul aziz Hakim. He has already returned and, as deputy head of Sciri, is taking part in talks with US officials on an interim Iraqi authority. Ayatollah Hakim is later expected to travel from Basra to the Iraqi city of Najaf - one of the most important for holy sites Iraq's Shia majority.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 04:32 am ||
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I don't why but I always get worried when I hear news of ayatollahs returning from decades long exile. Hmm, what happenned the last time.....
#3
There's nothing to worry about. We should just sit that guy down and have a good long talk with him. Let him know that there is indeed a place for him in the government, but he won't be the one calling the shots. The new government will consider all sides, won't be structured like the theocracy in Iran and it won't be governed by sharia law.
A Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the Tigris river in northern Iraq yesterday, killing three US soldiers on board, the Pentagon confirmed. A fourth was injured. The helicopter, from the army's 4th Infantry Division, apparently crashed after hitting a power line near Samarra, a town between Baghdad and Tikrit. It was one of two sent to rescue an Iraqi child wounded in an explosion after ordnance went off outside Samarra. The helicopter carrying the child took off safely, but the other apparently snagged a wire. The three deaths bring the number of US troops killed in the Iraq war to 145. I can't think of anything more heroic than trying to save the life of a child. God bless these three men.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 12:18 am ||
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As I quoted from Pliny in my first letter home after the start of the war; "It is Godlike for Mortal to assist Mortal; and this is the way to Immortality". The Blessings of Heaven will rest upon those warriers. All continues to improve in Iraq. Peace out
#4
I may be biased. I was a soldier, ditto my brother (Air Force, but that's almost the same thing), and my father and my uncles.
But I have to say it, and I think I would anyway.
The American soldier is God's noblest creation.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/10/2003 18:40 Comments ||
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From Stephen Ambrose -
In the spring of 1945, around the world, the sight of a twelve-man squad of teenage boys, armed and in uniform, brought terror to people's hearts. Whether it was a Red Army squad in Berlin, Leipzig, or Warsaw, or a German squad in Holland, or a Japanese squad in Manila or Seoul of China, that squad meant rape, pillage, looting, wanton destruction, senseless killing. But there was an exception: a squad of GIs, a sight that brought the biggest smile you ever saw to people's lips, and joy to their hearts.
Around the world this was true, even in Germany, even - after September 1945 - in Japan. This was because GIs meant candy, cigarettes, C-rations, and freedom. America had sent the best of her young men around the world, not to conquer but to liberate, not to terrorize but to help. This was a great moment in our history.
Posted by: Don ||
05/10/2003 23:52 Comments ||
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Police named on Saturday four members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), who are representing the separatist group on the Joint Security Committee (JSC), as suspects of a terrorist attack. Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayid Husaini said the suspects, Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, Amri Abdul Wahab, Teungku Kamaruzaman and Amni Achmad Marzuki, were allegedly involved in the recent bombings in Jakarta and Medan. The four GAM members were arrested on Friday at Blang Bintang airport, Banda Aceh, when they were reportedly on their way to Penang, Malaysia. The arrests were made on a tip from a GAM member who was arrested in Medan earlier, and who was allegedly involved in the bombing in the capital of North Sumatra.
Sounds painful...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 11:03 am ||
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JPost - reg req'd - Coffee warning for last line
A bomb blast on Saturday at a crowded market in a southern Philippine city killed at least 12 people. About a dozen others were seriously injured and brought to a hospital in Koronadal city, said police chief Superintendent Danilo Posadas. Two hours later, another bomb was found near the market and taken away by a police bomb squad to be defused. Posadas said an initial investigation indicated the bomb that exploded around 3:30 p.m. was fashioned from an 81 mm mortar. Police suspect the person who planted the bomb died at the scene. "Terrorists did it," Posadas said, without elaborating. Like he needed to? Most armed robbers don't use 81 mm mortars
The market was the scene of a similar bombing last month that killed two people. Police and the military blamed that bombing on the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Saturday's blast killed two women vendors and three passersby at the market, and seven others died in the hospital. One of the five killed at the market was believed to have carried the bomb. A witness saw a man placing a bag on the sidewalk in front of a glass supply store at the market. It went off as he turned his back on it. D'OH - cheap timers!
The area was crowded because it was market day for traders in Koronadal, capital of South Cotabato province, about 980 kilometers (610 miles) southeast of Manila. About two hours after the bombing, residents reported to police a cylinder containing cooking gas abandoned in front of a fire station near the market. A police bomb squad found a bomb with a timer attached to the cylinder and took it away to defuse it. a two-fer day!
Provincial Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes condemned the bombing but appealed for calm.
Daisy Fuentes? She's a provincial governor?
"This is a tragedy. This is the work of terrorists," she said in an interview by DXOM radio in Koronadal. The government has blamed the MILF for most of the bombings on the main southern island of Mindanao, including two blasts that killed 38 people in Davao city in March and April. Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the MILF, said the rebels were not involved in the latest bombing.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Nope..."
"It is not the handiwork of the MILF because we do not attack civilians," he told DXMS radio in Cotabato city.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 10:42 am ||
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JPost - reg req'd
A key Bali bombing suspect has named his son after Osama bin Laden, one of his lawyers said Saturday. The lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said he delivered a letter from the suspect, Mukhlas, to his wife instructing her what to name their newly born son. "He said the baby should be named Osama bin Laden, after the boss of al-Qaida. Mukhlas admires him," the lawyer said. Who'da thunk it?
Police accuse Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, of supervising the Bali attacks and suspect he is a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic group which Western governments believe was responsible for the Oct. 12 bombings. Mukhlas has not been formally charged in connection with the Bali blasts and remains in police custody. Meat tenderizing with truncheons takes time
Two of Mukhlas' brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron, are among 33 suspects detained in the bombings, which killed 202 people from 21 countries. Amrozi will be the first suspect to stand trial, starting Monday, and is charged with planning and carrying out an act of terrorism that caused massive casualties. Mukhlas' wife, Farida, was four months pregnant when she fled with her husband after the attacks. Police arrested them on Dec. 3 at a friend's house in a village on Indonesia's main island of Java. She has since been released from jail and has had no contact with Mukhlas. She gave birth Wednesday to the couple's sixth son, although she remains under house arrest and still faces charges for immigration violations. She is Malaysian and lacks proper immigration documents, officials say. Six sons? What, all the daughters smothered at birth? How...Islamic
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 10:30 am ||
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A key Bali bombing suspect has named his son after Osama bin Laden, one of his lawyers said Saturday.
Nothing wrong with naming kids after DEAD people. :)
Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh is close to renewed conflict, separatists from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam) have warned, as police arrested four of their negotiators. Gam ordered its fighters to take up defensive positions and cancelled all leave, after a fragile ceasefire agreed last December appeared to be crumbling. The Indonesian government is reinforcing its military presence in the province and has issued a deadline of Monday for the rebels to accept its terms for further talks. But the BBC's Jakarta correspondent says the rebels show no sign of backing down. "The situation in the nation of Aceh today is entering the Second Colonial War," Gam spokesman Sofyan Dawood said in a statement, comparing Jakarta to Dutch colonisers who invaded Aceh in the late 19th century. His comments came as police detained four Gam members of a joint committee established to monitor the ceasefire, according to a Gam official. It was not clear why they had been arrested.
Jakarta has already sent 3,000 troops to Aceh in the event of resumed hostilities. Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday that a presidential decree, authorising a "security operation" in the province, had been prepared. There is speculation that the decree will be issued on Monday if Gam does not accept demands that it abandon its goal of independence and resume talks aimed at saving the December peace deal. The rebels did not appear ready to concede to Jakarta on Friday. They warned that strategic installations, such as the oil and gas plant run by the American company Exxon Mobil, should shut down, as they could be used by the Indonesian military as operational bases.
There was initial optimism when Gam and the government agreed to the 9 December peace deal, designed to bring an end to the 26-year conflict which has claimed at least 12,000 lives. Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels were supposed to place their weapons in special arms dumps, and the Indonesian military was meant to withdraw to defensive positions. Neither Jakarta nor Gam has so far fulfilled its side of the bargain, and both sides continue to blame each other for the breakdown in relations.
That's what usually happens when Muslims sign agreements, isn't it?
Violent incidents are on the increase, with thousands of villagers fleeing their homes and seeking refuge in local mosques and schools. The EU, US and Japan, who co-chaired a Tokyo conference last December on aid for Aceh, on Friday urged both sides to strive for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
"Everybody should just be nice!"
Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, defended a possible crackdown in the territory. "Honestly, what we are doing or will do in Aceh is much less than the American power that was deployed in Iraq. We aren't violating anyone's sovereignty," he said.
I'm hoping for lots of casualties on both sides...
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 05:05 am ||
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What's happening in Aceh is, to put it bluntly, a Rebellion. The situation is more like the American Civil war rather than Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Indiaâs National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, currently on an official visit to the United States, has proposed an anti-terror alliance between the US, Israel and India. âSuch an alliance would have the political will and moral authority to take bold decisions in extreme cases of terrorist provocation,â Mishra said in an address to the American Jewish Community in Washington on Friday. Mishra said preventive measures like blocking financial supplies, disrupting networks, sharing intelligence and simplifying intelligence procedures could only be effective through international cooperation. This is not the first time India has proposed such a triad, stressing that the three democracies were all targets of international terrorism. Mishra met Friday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, a day after talks with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice. Indian media reported Mishra had a 15-minute unscheduled meeting with US President George W. Bush when he went to the White House to meet Rice. PTI called the meeting âsubstantive.â
Hmmm... When they say a meeting was "substantive," that means they agreed on something. Maybe even something ... uhhh... substantive. To me, it makes a natural alliance, so I'm all in favor...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 02:45 pm ||
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Do you really see the US entering into an alliance that would naturally stand in opposition to Pakistan?
Remember that Pakistan is one of the *US-friendly* WMD-wielding, terrorist-supporting, expansionistic, tyrannical regimes.
As such I say that the chances for America to join an actual such coalition are about as many as France joining the coalition against Saddam Hussein...
#2
Aris,
You make a very good point. India and Israel already have pretty much anti-terror alliance although they don't publicise it very much. There are some reports that when India did their nuclear testing in 1998, one of the tests was actually an Israeli bomb (though I'm not sure how reliable this is). During the Kargil war Israel provided lots of supplies and Intelligence to India.
The US on the other hand has not been so eager. Immediately after 9-11, India provided the US with all the Intel they had on the Taliban and used their links with the Northern Alliance. US provided India with absolutely no intel on the Jihadis that they had. During operation Parakram, when a million troops were deployed after the attack on the India Parliament, there is some evidence that the US navy was actually jamming the communication system of the Indian Navy. Considering that their intention was to hit the Jihadi training camps, as far as I am concerned the US navy was defending and protecting a bunch of Jihadi terrorist (though I have to stress I have only read this an India defence Forum and not in any news media. If it is true, I doubt that the Indian Navy would be willing to admit it openly).
So as you can see, I am a bit sceptical of this alliance.
#3
Pakistan is a temporary ally of convenience, nothing more. Certainly not truly friendly, and certainly no more of an ally than India. No one in the US believes Pakistan to be a real ally.
The US has always viewed the disagreements between India and Pakistan as very nasty irritants that prevent us from truly being close to either country. We've had the same sorts of problems between Greece and Turkey, of course. Pakistan was much less in favor until the US had to make an ultimatum.
The US is unlikely to become a truly strong ally of India merely because India would require that the US completely acknowledge and agree with India's position on Kashmir, something I don't see happening.
Posted by: John Thacker ||
05/10/2003 16:30 Comments ||
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#4
In general, of course, I would very much prefer for the US to have an alliance with India. Sadly, realpolitick required a bit of Pakistan's cooperation, not that anyone trusts the bastards.
Posted by: John Thacker ||
05/10/2003 16:32 Comments ||
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EFL
Palestinians fired six crude rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Friday, lightly injuring a 10-year-old girl, while Israeli troops demolished eight Palestinian homes near an area where a car bomb exploded earlier. The violence came a day before the arrival of Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is trying to kick off the "road map" peace plan to end 31 months of fighting and create a Palestinian state. Coexisting with Israel, which differs from the Paleo's goals
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, praised his new Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, as a "partner" for peace and said he is ready to renew peace talks with Syria without conditions. One of the homemade Qassam rockets fired from Gaza struck a street in the Negev Desert town of Sderot, spraying debris that lightly injured a girl, who was taken to a hospital, police said. Three other people were treated for shock. The rockets struck just a few miles from Sharon's sheep ranch. Militants have fired dozens of the rockets into Israel in recent months. The attacks have caused little damage and few injuries, but Israel considers them a provocation. and a good reason to keep playing whack-a-mole with the "militants"
In the Gaza Strip town of Deir el-Balah, Israeli army bulldozers demolished eight homes and damaged another two, making 45 people homeless, the mayor said. The homes are close to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, where a Palestinian blew himself up in a car late Thursday as he rammed into a tank. The attacker was killed, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade claimed responsibility. Abbas, who is a senior Fatah leader, has denounced such violence. The U.S.-backed road map urges Palestinians to stop bombings and shootings, while Israel is expected to withdraw troops from Palestinian towns and cities and freeze construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The plan envisions a final peace agreement, including the creation of a Palestinian state, by 2005. It is to be launched with statements by both Israel and the Palestinians, with each saying it recognizes the other's right to exist in peace and security. The Palestinians have accepted the road map, while Israel has expressed major reservations. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekata lying sack of sh*t said Friday he hopes the declarations can be made during Powell's two-day visit, which begins Saturday. "The Americans can help both sides to produce the statements required to kick off the process," Erekat said. That's true, we can turn the Israelis loose, which would cause the Paleos to do more than statements
The Palestinians have accused Sharon of delaying implementation by posing new conditions. A key dispute is over whether the Palestinians must crack down on militants ahead of an Israeli troop pullback, or whether steps must be taken simultaneously. Since we know they lie, prevaricate, delay, kill innocents, support terrorists, ululate at American deaths and injuries, and are without a openly supportive friend in the world, now is the time to use the stick and hold the carrot back for results not statements
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 01:24 pm ||
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Powell: WHAT the HELL was THAT?
Abbas*sweating*: Fireworks to celebrate your arrival, honored partner in peace!
#2
I'm all for Israel doing more. Strict curfews. I.D. verification on every corner of the occupied territory. Summary execution of every armed arab within the borders.
What I am NOT for and consider immoral and incredibly STUPID on Israel's part is the destruction of innocent palestinian's homes in reprisal of terror attacks. The paleos claim that current Israeli policy is just 'making room' for new settlements. It sure smells like it. Most of those paleos are not combatants. But they're gonna be.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/10/2003 17:14 Comments ||
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#3
Scott - if they were innocent, I'd agree, and if the Israelis continue to expand their settlements, I'd agree. I don't believe either are true. Israel seems to finally understand (i.e.: the fence) that a defensible border excluding the Paleos, and precluding the right of return, is the ONLY answer. Should they renege, they incur our condemnation and rightfully so. The Paleos, on the other hand, don't live up to agreements, treat their own people as boomer fodder, and don't seem willing to ever accept Israel's right to exist - this is a recipe for extinction, and rightfully so
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 22:29 Comments ||
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#4
It doesn't seem like the Palestinians even want to understand. 50 + years of warfare, and what have they accomplished? Lots of dead on both sides, a number of countries trashed, and a whole lot more innocent people of all religions, ethnicity and nationalities killed, maimed and terrorized. The key here is Israel's right to exist. Unless and until the Paleos get it through their heads that Israel is going to stay there will be no peace in the middle east, and all the conferences and envoys and meetings will not do a damn bit of good.
#5
Frank - I wish I believed that. My people in Lebanon say it hasn't stopped. I'm a staunch Israeli supporter, but I'm a stauncher American. I'm tired of being played by our own allies. Bush needs to jerk the slack out of Israel (read: Ariel Sharon). He's gonna get alot of our people killed.
Just like the Iraqis, the paleos are not one block. Joe Ali Schmuck who runs the falafel stand in Hebron is just trying to get by. Hoping to dodge the wacko imams, the Israeli bulldozers and the local hard boys trying to recruit his kids.
Arafat was a player also. He played us. He played Israel. And he played his own people. He needs to take the dirt nap. Those people lived there before 1948 and even Balfour ('17?). It's hard to watch a world power half a globe removed give away your homeland. The call for organized resistance sounds pretty good. (It would to me if the UN gave Texas to Mexico - Well, maybe not Texas. Texas AND California. Hmmm. OK Texas, California AND Louisiana - then they'd really have a fight on their hands!)
Attempt at levity. This is heavy crap. I have heard (second hand) that many paleos already acknowledge Israel. Heck, there's working Arab-Israeli relationships. But there are people on BOTH sides that do not want this. The radical rabbis are no better than the radical imams. And make no mistake, their love for America is no greater either.
I believe Israel has a God-given, UN given and Balfour-declared right to it's homeland. But Joshua is dead. Displacing canaanites should be done with compensation, not force. If the world, and especially world jewry had realized this, it would have cost a lot less money and blood.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/11/2003 0:43 Comments ||
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#6
I hate to agree with it Anon T, but you're probably right. I just don't want to see my children and grandchildren get sucked into an intractable conflict between the world's most violent and yet fastest-growing religion, on one hand; and a Likud faction that dreams of a return to Solomon's borders on the other.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/11/2003 1:14 Comments ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafatâs Fatah guerrillas exchanged fire with attackers in Ein el-Hilweh early Friday, and two dynamite sticks exploded elsewhere in the area, according to Palestinian officials.
"Yee-haw! I'm a rootin', tootin', Kalashikov shootin' jihadi!"
Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the office of the mainstream Fatah group, in Lebanonâs largest refugee camp in the southern port city of Sidon. Guards returned fire, but no casualties were reported.
A dynamite stick exploded near the Association of Palestinian Women in the Teitaba neighborhood of the camp at dawn, and another explosive charge detonated near a social center. Damage was minor, said the officials. An Arafat loyalist was shot twice on Thursday, while a hand grenade exploded in an empty vegetable market inside the camp.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 11:23 am ||
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Got a little gang war going on over there? A little jockeying for position?
#2
Maybe the Syrian offers to expel the Paleo mafias weren't lies, and they showed up in the Ein, looking for new turf
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 11:37 Comments ||
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Thanks for the link to the "soldier wannabe", Fred. I read that shortly after it first came out (think DenBeste linked to it), but it was useful to see it again. Once again the IDF shows why they're soldiers and the Paleos are thugs with guns.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 15:14 Comments ||
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Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah called Friday for more wisdom, prophesying and future vision in facing current challenges. âI urge the Lebanese to be have more wisdom, rationalism, awareness, prophesying and future vision, because the present, which is busy with its trivialities, will get the future into labyrinths,â Fadlallah said during prayers. He accused the US and Israel of distracting the Lebanese from threats against them and causing confusion in Syria, which is under a lot of pressure. Fadlallah said officials here are not properly confronting such threats, adding that they are busy with their âpolitical bickering.â
When they should be girding their loins for jihad and disrupting deep-laid plots and conspiracies...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 11:18 am ||
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*blinks* The reverend seems to have gotten his hands on some really good hash before services this time..
I can't think of anything that would have been dumber to succeed at. But I guess there would have been lots of opportunities for jihad in the aftermath...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 11:14 am ||
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JPost - reg req'd - Surprise! The UN sinks even lower
The Libyan mission to the UN is urging the community of nations to revoke the Simon Wiesenthal Center's NGO status if it doesn't apologize for criticizing Muammar Qaddafi's human rights record. Quit calling us bad or we'll kill you!
At an NGO committee meeting on Friday, Libya, one of 19 nations tasked with reviewing and reaccrediting the world body's 2,234 non-governmental organizations, demanded a letter of apology from the Wiesenthal Center for denouncing the UN Human Rights Commission's choice of chairman. "The Libyan representative said he wanted an apology and a promise that the Wiesenthal Center will never use that kind of language again," said one meeting observer. A UN press release noted that Libya demanded that the committee withdraw the center's consultative status on the grounds of "interfering in the affairs of member states and violating the rules of conduct." The Libyan request was initially made three months ago after the center urged African states not to nominate Libya as their candidate to head the Human Rights Commission. "To have even considered bestowing such an honor on the godfather of terrorism is a moral outrage and a stain on African states who endorsed such an outrageous move," wrote the associate dean of the center, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, in a Jan. 15 statement. Cooper also noted Libya's responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. According to several observers at an NGO meeting, European members of the group became incensed over Libya's demands when the subject of the Pan Am bombing was broached — and Libya argued that the issue was "over and forgotten." They're dead, Mo's still here and you got your settlement, it's over — ha!
"The Libyan representative said, 'Oh, you know this is in the past and we've opened a new page,'" said an observer. Of the group's 19 members, just four France, Germany, Chile and the US defended the Wiesenthal Center against Libyan attempts to oust it. States that spoke out in favor of Libya's position included Sudan, Iran, China, Cuba and Russia. Champions of human rights all!
The center's status is slated for another discussion at an NGO committee meeting on May 20. The director of the Wiesenthal Center's task force against hate and extremism, Mark Weitzman, said the organization plans to respond to Libya later this week in Paris, where it is co-sponsoring a three-day conference on religious coexistence and anti-Semitism with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The conference, titled "Educating for Tolerance: the Case of Resurgent Anti-Semitism," is slated to include an address by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Israel's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Arye Mekel, called the Libyan complaint "outrageous," and said that the US mission has "promised to take steps to prevent any action against the Wiesenthal Center, which is a very important and praise-worthy American institution." The US mission declined to comment. Nice backbone from the striped-pants set. Arabists only need apply
Fred - didn't know whether to post this in International or North Africa - move as you see fit
Frank
I've been dumping UN stuff into International.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 10:52 am ||
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Just another chapter in that Bizarro World known as the UN...
Jpost - Reg Req'd
US authorities expelled a Saudi consular official and Muslim leader who had been living in Southern California, saying he was suspected of having terrorist links. Fahad al Thumairy, 32, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport earlier in the week after arriving from Frankfurt and was deported Thursday. He may not return to the United States for five years. From Frankfurt hmmm? Not Hamburg?
"He was placed on an international flight, destined for Riyadh," Saudi Arabia, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. Al Thumairy's diplomatic visa was revoked in March, and his name was added to a list of travelers who should not be allowed to enter the United States because of suspected links to terrorism. Officials would not immediately provide details on the alleged connection. Officials of the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles and the Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment. What can they say? He refused to stay away and got jugged and shipped out - an embarrassment
Al Thumairy had worked for the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles since 1996 and held a post in the Islamic and cultural affairs section of the consulate. He was also the imam at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California, which has one of the largest Muslim congregations in the region. The mosque, built with financing from the Saudi government, was the target of a foiled bomb plot by a member of the militant Jewish Defense League in 2001. "He never dealt with politics, in his public comments or in private gatherings," said Tajuddin Shuaib, who directs the mosque, which is run by a nonprofit group. Riiigghhttt
"Like the rest of us, he was really shocked about Sept. 11. He felt it was wrong and, in the long term, that it would harm Muslims. His impression was that it would have some bad repercussions," Shuaib said. For the Islamic revolution, it has... he was prophetic huh?
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has increased scrutiny of visa applications from Muslim nations around the world. The number of Saudi Arabians who received visas dropped nearly 70 percent in the 2002 fiscal year to about 14,100. That's about 14,100 too many for my tastes
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 10:35 am ||
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14,100! That is unbelievable! If only 1% are involved in Islamofascism we've allowed 141 more Mohammed Atta's into our country. It's time to "close the door!"
#3
14,100! That is unbelievable! If only 1% are involved in Islamofascism we've allowed 141 more Mohammed Atta's into our country. It's time to "close the door!"
Nothing to that; Frankfort is just the gateway city for most American airlines flying from here to there. You hop a Lufthansa flight or take the train from Hamburg, and then catch the big 747 to here.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2003 14:29 Comments ||
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#6
So people are being deported just on suspicion of having commited crimes. And of course every muslim is a suspect.
#7
READ the article, Aris: Saudi consular official and Muslim leader All nations have the right to expel from their native soil the diplomats of other nations. No explanations or reasons are required or necessary. We'd catch a Soviet KGB agent/"diplomat" red handed and expel them. In reply, the Soviets would hurredly pick someone from our embassy in Moscow to expel on trumped up charges in order to make it look like we were spying on them too. Everyone knew it was BS, because they knew how intolerant of spies the USSR really was, so they'd wait and allow the spy to remain until one of theirs was caught? Yeah, riiiight.
#8
Aris Katsaris seems to have a problem with our deporting Saudi clerics known to have hung around with terrorists. Meanwhile, just about a year ago, the Greek government came close to imposing jail sentences on British plane spotters. Only the potential diplomatic damage caused these paranoid xenophobic morons to back off. Now that's what I call cute...
#9
Yes Ari, we're deporting people left and right, sometimes just because we don't like their hairstyle.
Meanwhile, between January 2000 and March 2003, that's just two months ago, more than 3.3 MILLION people immigrated to this horrific police state where all who aren't Christian or Jew are treated like chattel.
Yes, it's horrible here.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/11/2003 4:28 Comments ||
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#10
Follow up on this story and you will find that a US State Department official denied that Al-Thumairy was deported because of any link to terrorist activities. The LA Times broke the story too soon. And so did you.
IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Friday statements by Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi in Luxembourg have been misquoted by some media press. According to the Press and Information Department of the Foreign Ministry, Asefi said the Iranian Foreign Ministry has in fact underlined that both camps in Iran are doubtful over whether the United States stands ready to have fair relations with Iran based on mutual respect and equality.
"Yeah. They think what we think. Or else."
The Iranian foreign Ministry has indeed clarified that Iran wants improved ties with all states based on the principle of mutual respect while adding that the Iranian peoples from all walks of life do not trust the US intentions to establish relations with Iran based on mutual respect. Kharrazi arrived in Luxembourg Wednesday on a one-day official visit for talks with government officials in Luxembourg to boost bilateral ties. Kharrazi met and conferred with Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, President of Parliament Jean Spautz and Foreign Minister Lydie Polfer and discussed bilateral ties and regional and international developments. Observers say that ties between the two countries are growing after the visit to Tehran last year by Polfer.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:55 am ||
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Luxembourg?
They must've had to move Luxembourgers into France to make room...
KCNA -- Rodong Sinmun today in an editorial calls for fully demonstrating the might of the single-hearted unity in hearty response to the calls of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. The single-hearted unity is Kim Jong Il's revolutionary philosophy and serves as a weapon more powerful than a nuclear weapon, the editorial says, and goes on:
When the whole army is rallied around the headquarters of the revolution and all the people get united and share sweets and bitters with the leader to become a community linked with the same destiny can they achieve final victory of the revolution despite any storm and the worst adversity. This is the steadfast faith of Kim Jong Il. A great era is unfolded in the DPRK where the army and people live, guided by the idea of single-hearted unity, advance in its spirit and emerge victorious with its might. The single-hearted unity in the DPRK represents a great harmonious whole with the headquarters of the revolution at its core and guided by the Songun idea and an eternal community linked with the same destiny as the whole party and army and all people share sweets and bitters with the leader, ready to devotedly protect him. We can emerge from any difficulties and trials only when we are single-heartedly united. This is the results of the review made of the history of the struggle in the last decade in which our people could bring about only victories and miracles despite severe ordeals in the period of the "arduous march," the forced march. Noting that the single-hearted unity around the headquarters of the revolution and socialism represent a community linked with the same destiny, the editorial calls on all its members to hold higher the banner of safeguarding the headquarters of the revolution no matter how desperate enemies become in their moves for aggression, bearing deep in mind that the destiny of the country and the nation and the fate and future of the people depend on how to defend the headquarters of the revolution.
A breath-taking bit of prose! It's like he took every juche clichÚ in the cupboard, dropped them into the blender and hit "puree"!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:46 am ||
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What is it about Communist dictatorships and run-on sentences?
#2
An entire nation gone stark, drooling mad. Kinda frightening.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/10/2003 10:14 Comments ||
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#3
Wonder how many are genuinely stark, drooling mad, and how many are only pretending? Mind you, given the behaviour of their brothers and sisters south of the DMZ, the signs don't look too encouraging.
#7
9.9! I don;t think there is a threat of a sea of fire...
Posted by: Brian ||
05/10/2003 15:03 Comments ||
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#8
I'll give it an 6.4. Points taken off for no mention of the "sea of fire", or Kimme's trying out syringes. Also, no mention of reckless nations running amuck.
#9
There's a school of thought that says that North Korean rhetoric gets most shrill right before they're about to give in to something. One reason is so when the crisis dies down, the Party can turn around and say to the people, "You see, the strength of the people, led by the Great Leader/Dear Leader/Fat Guy with a Bad Do, has scared the imperialists away!" They've done that on a number of occasions before.
BTW, about the run-on sentences, Korean allows for constructions that would ordinarily be termed run-ons in English, and North Korean rhetorical style seems to call for monsterously long sentences. If you're a translator in Pyongyang who has never met a native speaker, I could imagine you'd have trouble breaking up the sentences into something reasonably intelligible to most of the English-speaking world. I tried to translate one of KCNA's Korean-language posts the other day, and truth be told, even I had trouble doing it without resorting to run-ons. Gave me a friggin headache.
Posted by: The Marmot ||
05/10/2003 16:04 Comments ||
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*holds up card* 8.4. Good performance, adequate length, but somewhat lacking in descriptive prose of the fate of invading armies. good showing with regard to ass kissing.
Naturists in Britain will remain free to bare all without fear of arrest after a sex crime law that is making its way through parliament was altered by the government, the Home Office said yesterday. Ministers amended the Sexual Offences Bill by removing the word "reckless" from a clause that otherwise tightens the law on indecent exposure. With the new wording, the Home Office said, the law would apply only to those who "intentionally expose their genitals knowing or intending that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress." The word "reckless" was intended to crack down on people such as flashers, but naturists said it could also hinder their "natural way of life".
I dunno... If I was walking around with my gennies exposed, I don't think I'd want to be "reckless." That could hurt...
"We believe this change will reassure naturists about practising their entirely legitimate lifestyle," a Home Office spokeswoman said. Some 500,000 people in Britain enjoy going around naked, either at naturist venues such as beaches or in the privacy of their own homes and gardens, estimates British Naturism, a lobby group.
"Alright, buddy! You got a license for that doinker?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:22 am ||
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"Some 500,000 people in Britain enjoy going around naked [...] in the privacy of their own homes [...] estimates British Naturism."
Whoa, make that 58 million, I reckon. Maybe the French haven't adopted the full-body bathing technique yet, but all the Brits I know got the hang of it months ago.
Israeli troops operating near the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday arrested a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement who allegedly took part in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers at the start of the Palestinian uprising. Adel Rahim Hamed was arrested in Silwad village which lies some 6km northeast of Ramallah on suspicion of having planned and carried out numerous shooting attacks close to the Jewish settlement of Ofra. The army also believes Hamed was involved in the infamous mob lynching of two Israeli reservists which took place in Ramallah in October 2000, just two weeks after the start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In the months following the lynching, troops arrested over a dozen Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killings — two of whom were tried in military court in February 2001. The lynching, which was captured on television, caused widespread outrage in Israel and provoked strong statements from the Israeli government which vowed it would hunt down and capture those involved.
You'd think that a policy of relentless pursuit like this would deter similar acts, but there's that old cause -> effect blind spot to contend with...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 09:10 am ||
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they don't forget, do they? How many survivors of the Olympic Massacre are there? like 1? It's a policy to be admired and emulated. Those assholes that despoiled the Church of the Nativity should be dead soon as well, not giving press conferences demanding to come home
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 9:26 Comments ||
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#2
The Islamofascist pope - Imam Tantawi of al-Azhar University, Cairo - is pointing the finger for Arab Muslim social idiiocy, at everyone except the fanatic idiots of his own pack of social parasites. One cannot win a counter-terror war against Muslims without killing wild animals like Tantawi, who fatwahed jihad against the Coalition in GW2. Last December, he ordered Muslims to develop nuclear weapons. Last Summer, he endorsed suicide-massacre against Israeli citizens.
Tantawi has preached genocide against Americans, from the al-Azhar mosque. If Bush Junior wasn't a doormat to the Islam-is-peace mob, he would turn al-Azhar into a pile of rubble.
We must nip this in the bud.
As U.S. troops were helping to pull down a towering statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad last month, a group of fighters on a military base just across the border in Iran was assembled and given its next mission: Infiltrate Iraq and spread pro-Iranian ideas.
The men were Iraqi exiles who belong to the Badr Brigade, an Iranian-backed militia that is part of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. They were told to shave off their beards and change into civilian clothing. Their Iranian documents were taken away, and each one was given a forged Iraqi identification. Then they were put on buses and shuttled into Iraq. "They told us our task will be to teach our families Shiite teachings," said Emad Hussein Ali Safi, a member of the Badr Brigade for 11 years who gave a detailed account of his years in Iran and his final orders before returning to Baghdad. "They spoke about a Shiite state. They said Iran should be Iraq's reference, its symbol."
(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/10/2003 09:06 am ||
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I suggest a cruise missile into the front door of Khamenei's house for effect.
A sharply divided Senate Armed Services Committee voted today to repeal a 10-year-old ban on the development of small nuclear weapons, asserting that the United States must begin looking at new ways of deterring terrorist groups and so-called rogue nuclear powers like North Korea. The Bush administration, which requested the repeal, said it had no plans to develop a new low-yield nuclear weapon. But it contends that the existing prohibition has had a chilling effect on weapons research at a time when the United States is trying to reconfigure its military to address post-Soviet threats.
(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/10/2003 08:50 am ||
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This'll give some people a cow: They are counting on us being forced to rely on multi-megatonnage warheads so they could accuse us of overkill, in the same way they accused us of preparing to carpet bomb Iraqi cities. Low Yield nukes are a step away from big bombs that will be as (un)welcome as precision guided munitions as a substitute for carpet bombing.
#2
I believe this is a bad idea, and precisely for the reasons listed above. We have shown that we don't NEED tactical nukes. (too bad that MOAB didn't debut) Even the term 'nuke development' is going to cause moderates to question things just when they've been convinced. Overreaching was Newt's mistake. Don't repeat it. This is a bridge too far.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/10/2003 17:31 Comments ||
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The MDC yesterday warned that it would bring business to a halt in Harare if Elias Mudzuri, the suspended executive mayor, was not allowed to resume work. Gabriel Chaibva, the MDC shadow minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, told journalists at a Press briefing that he had instructed the mayor to report for duty as usual on Monday morning. Mudzuri has been on sick leave since Thursday. Chaibva said: âLet them bring the riot police to Town House. We will bring business in Harare to a complete halt. We are not making a mere threat. This is for real.â Chaibva said the party was not worried about the economic repercussions of disruption of business in the country as it had the capacity to resuscitate the economy in a âpost-Mugabe eraâ.
What the hell? It can't get much worse, can it?
On Thursday night the council held a special meeting and resolved to advise the police that the ban they imposed on consultative meetings with residents at Town House âis unreasonable as it is the councilâs duty to consult with residents, ratepayers and stakeholders on civic mattersâ. The police on Wednesday banned further meetings after residents at the weekly meeting advocated demonstrations in support of Mudzuri. Chaibva alleged that Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo was trying to protect the financial interests of several companies and officials the council is investigating for alleged theft and corruption. He said: âThe cow has been stopped from giving milk.â Chaibva said Chombo was sitting on a report on theft and corruption that was unravelled in the Chegutu Municipality by his own officials and was instead concentrating on Harare.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/10/2003 08:39 am ||
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They must feel ZimBobWe has reached a tipping point? When Bob's gone I can't help but feel that the hard boys, army veterans, and police thugs may have an unpleasant experience as Bob's last vestiges....civil war again?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2003 9:24 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like they're starting to realize it might be better to die fighting then to live like they are. I think I'd call that a tipping point.
EFL
A powerful bomb exploded in the Chechen capital, Grozny, yesterday, killing a policeman and wounding two Russian soldiers, the Russian media reported. Local authorities immediately cancelled the annual Victory Day parade marking the defeat of Nazism in World War II.
... in deference to the fight against the current wave of Naziism...
The bomb had been planted in a derelict building about 50 yards from the stadium where the parade was to be held. The explosion was a reminder of the bomb blast on Victory Day last year at Kaspiysk, in neighbouring Dagestan, in which 45 people, many of them Russian troops, died. Four Russian servicemen were wounded in two other bomb attacks in Chechnya over the previous 24 hours.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 05:09 am ||
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Iran's conservative-controlled Guardian Council has rejected a key reform bill aimed at giving President Mohammad Khatami greater authority over his cleric rivals. The proposed legislation — approved by the Iranian parliament last month — would have allowed Mr Khatami to challenge rulings by the country's conservative judiciary. It was widely expected that the Guardian Council — a watchdog which has the power to veto legislation it considers unconstitutional or contrary to Islamic law — would reject the bill. The development comes as conservative figures in the US Government step up efforts to press for regime change in Iran. BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says American "hawks" believe Iranian reformists under Mr Khatami have failed, and see no point in supporting them.
The rejected reform bill now goes back to parliament, which could send it to the higher ranking Expediency Council for arbitration. The bill was Mr Khatami's response to the jailing and trials of members of the reformist camp and students leaders, and the closure of more than 95 pro-reform newspapers over the past three years. But on Friday, the watchdog cited the bill as falling foul of at least 15 articles of the Iranian constitution, including proposals to give the president power to warn the judiciary on constitutional breaches and mete out punishment if the warning is not heeded. The council said asking the judiciary to probe into certain violations was "tantamount to interference in the issue of judgment and prerogatives of the judiciary". This was the second of two bills proposed by Mr Khatami to try to break the deadlock in the reform process. The president has faced declining popularity since his re-election in 2001, and the rejection on Friday will be seen as a major setback. Last month the council rejected another reform bill aimed at limiting its own powers to screen candidates for election. Since the fall of Iraq, the Bush administration has been paying increased attention to the reform issues in Iran and the role the country adopts in the Middle East region. Some US officials are said to see Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah, as their most promising ally rather than Mr Khatami.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 04:54 am ||
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*shakes head* Khatami should be given the benefit of the doubt. The man is definitely TRYING, while Pahlavi just palavers and does nothing.
Here's what Khatami should do, but we should be ready to back him up: He and the Iranian parliament should pull up stakes and run into Iraq, where our military would shield them. He would then proclaim the supremacy of the people, whom he represents, over the mullahs, and authorize the Liberation of Iran by American Troops. This gives us an excuse to bomb the nuke plant before it goes online, send SF into Iran, and support the Students. This should take place within six months of the fleeing of the Iranian President and Parliament to preserve it's legitimacy to call fresh elections under United States Army supervision.
President George W Bush has announced plans for a US Middle East free trade area within a decade as part of a drive for peace in the region. Mr Bush said the aim was to bring the Middle East into "an expanding circle of opportunity" and to reward nations that pursued broad political and economic reforms.
In a major speech to an audience at the University of South Carolina, Mr Bush once again stressed his determination to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, promising an independent Palestinian state. He was speaking as his Secretary of State Colin Powell embarked on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian-controlled areas in a bid to revive the peace process. Mr Bush said he wanted Middle East nations to be able to benefit from the sort of economic prosperity that exists in many other parts of the world. "The combined GDP of all Arab countries is smaller than that of Spain," he said. "The Arab world has a great cultural tradition but is largely missing out on the economic progress of our time," he added, announcing his initiative.
Of course, the two could be connected. The reason they have such a low GDP is tied closely to their lack of individual liberty, which is a by-product of the Religion of Peace™...
The US already has free trade agreements with Israel and Jordan and wants to conclude a trade pact with Morocco by the end of the year. Mr Bush said that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein presented a moment of tremendous promise which the United States was determined to use. But the president made it clear that before that could happen, the US wanted to see democracies, human rights and freedom around the world. He spoke of the need for major changes in the region — corruption replaced by the rule of law, better education and more rights for Arab women.
The BBC's Rob Watson says that having used the stick of military action to promote democracy in Iraq, Mr Bush is now dangling the carrot of free trade to advance greater freedoms in the rest of the Arab world. But our correspondent says the question remains as to whether Washington is really prepared to put pressure on its Arab allies to change and whether those allies would be receptive if it is. "Arab nations must fight terror in all forms and recognise and state the obvious, once and for all, Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state at peace with its neighbours," he said. The president promised that America would work, without tiring, to ensure that the states of Israel and Palestine could live side by side in security, prosperity and peace.
Secretary Powell will be calling on both sides to implement the new peace plan, known as the "road map". The BBC's Jon Leyne travelling with Mr Powell, says the secretary of state will be trying to strengthen the position of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, and to encourage the Palestinians to crack down on violence. Our correspondent says that from the Israeli side, Mr Powell will be looking for corresponding gestures of goodwill and the commitment of the government of Ariel Sharon to the whole process laid out in the "road map". The White House has already announced that Mr Sharon will have talks with Mr Bush in Washington on 20 May to discuss the main issues of the peace settlement.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/10/2003 04:41 am ||
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All this crap is a waste of time. As long as Arafart still has his tentacles attached to the West Bank and Gaza, little or no progress can be expected.
#2
All this crap is a waste of time. As long as Arafart still has his tentacles attached to the West Bank and Gaza, little or no progress can be expected.
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.
