KABUL: A Taliban leader in southern Afghanistan was killed on Tuesday in a gunfight. Mullah Ghausuddin and a comrade, Mullah Muhammad, were killed in Zabul provinceâs Mizan district. A government soldier was wounded. Ghausuddin was the leading Taliban commander in Zabul, a bastion of the Taliban until they were ousted and a hotbed of guerrilla violence in recent months. Ghausuddin led many recent Taliban strikes against pro-government forces in the province. United Nations-funded mine clearance agencies suspended operations in the region after an attack three weeks ago in Zabul, in which two Afghan de-miners were wounded. On Monday Afghan authorities said they had arrested Mullah Janan, a suspected Taliban commander accused of plotting attacks on Afghan government buildings.
Mizan district's as far as you can get from the Pak border and still be in Zabul. Sometimes life's a bitch, ain't it?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 07:47 pm ||
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LAHORE: Sixty-six Pakistani prisoners were released by Kabul on Monday and that brings the total number of released Pakistanis to 722. It is believed that about 2,000 Pakistanis are still in the custody of Afghan tribes and the Interior Ministry has yet to secure their release. Interior Ministry sources on Tuesday told Daily Times that the Pakistani and Afghan governments were working together for the release of Pakistanis in Afghan jails, but the whereabouts and conditions of Pakistanis being held by tribes was not known. Sources said most of the Pakistanis belonged to militant organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkatul Mujahideen who were supporting the Taliban. Sources also said very limited facilities were being offered to Pakistanis in Afghan jails, but those being held by the tribes were living in miserable conditions. Sources further said these tribes had sent pictures of their captives to their families in Pakistan and were asking for ransom ranging from Rs 50,000 and Rs 200,000.
Nope. The old sympathy meter hasn't budged. Maybe it's busted?
Sources said besides the Pakistanis being held by Afghan authorities, 54 prisoners were shifted to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Only one prisoner, Fateh Muhammad, 60, was released. Talking here to Daily Times, 19-year-old Abdul Rashid who was just released from Afghanistan said he belonged to Faisalabad and was called by the Lashkar-e-Taibaâs regional chief to join him and a group of volunteers to fight the Americans in Afghanistan.
Don't forget to thank him, next time you see him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 07:37 pm ||
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Attackers set off a remote-controlled bomb near a vehicle carrying U.S. special forces along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, but no casualties were reported. The device went off as the troops were conducting a reconnaissance patrol at a border checkpoint near the eastern town of Khost, Col. Rodney Davis, the U.S. military spokesman, said in a statement from Bagram Air Base. "The device was detonated by remote control. There were no injuries and only a cracked windshield and headlamp to the vehicle," Davis said. Bet the boomer was across the border when he pushed the button. Misjudged the distance or the speed of the vehicle.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 11:33 am ||
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This could be a growing problem across the area US troops occupy. The remote control bomb has been used to good affect against the Israeli Army. The big ones have even knocked out Merkavas, which are a rough equivalent to an Abrams M1A1. These and ATGMs were used by Hizbollah (sic?) to attrite the IDF in South Lebanon, and in their eyes was the cause of Israel pulling out. Thus I am a bit surprized this has not been attempted before and expect more of these tactics to start being tried out on US forces. One guy who has some skill who kills a bunch of our SF or gets an American armored vehicle will spawn a legion of imitators, and the "attrition war" will have begun.
Iran, Syria, and their terrorist allies do not want a US friendly democracy in Iraq. A low level terror/guerilla campaign would try to keep us busy in Iraq or wear us out so we leave a partially stable country that can be turned into a Lebanon or Yemen in a short time.
In the meantime Iran works to get a nuclear bomb and/or Islamists work to destablize Pakistan and get their hands on atomic weapons that way. Heck, the Islamists may try to provoke a war with India just to create chaos in Pakistan and seize power. There are a lot of potential turn-abouts against the US's Mid-East successes out there. Why are we wasteing attention, time, effort, and political capital on another Israeli/Palestinian road-map to no where? Political payoff to Tony Blair? A time buying exercise of some kind for the US? Is it another "last chance" for the Palestinians?
We are at war and the State Dept. can't see that the Paleos are on the other side! Sigh. Did not mean for this to turn into a rant. Rifle
RIYADH: Saudi investigators are using Muslim clerics to âverbally beatâ suspects into yielding intelligence information on the deadly suicide bombings in Riyadh earlier this month.
[Sniff!] That hurt! I just laughed my ass off, and now I can't find it!
The unorthodox technique employed by Saudi security personnel and witnessed by US FBI agents comes amid a continuing climate of fear and uncertainty in the kingdom in expectation of further attacks against Western targets by Islamic militants. The diplomat said that the Saudis were using âunorthodoxâ interrogation methods, âbut nothing that would contravene the Geneva Conventions.â
No, no! Certainly not! [Sniff!]
âThey are using religious scholars to beat the suspects verbally,â he said. âThe clerics are telling the suspects that they have misinterpreted Islam and that if they want to get right with God they have got to come clean. Itâs very effective.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 08:12 pm ||
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An old fashioned "Come to Jesus Allah" meeting!
I knew a couple of nuns and an old monseigneur once...
Saudi Arabian authorities fired the editor in chief of a leading reformist newspaper Tuesday allegedly after an influential cleric issued a religious edict calling for a mass boycott of the daily. Saudi editors at Al-Watan daily, which is owned by a member of the royal Al-Saud family, said editor in chief Jamal Khashoggi had been sacked on Monday evening, hours after Sheikh Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman al-Jibrin issued an edict saying the paper had ridiculed âvirtuousâ people.
Betcha one of them was him...
This followed a campaign launched by the Arabic-language Al-Watan against the powerful religious leaders of the ultra-conservative kingdom, and was seen by many journalists as an indication of a power struggle between the strict Muslim establishment and reform-minded officials. Al-Watan has recently published a series of damning articles against the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the so-called religious police in Saudi Arabia which enforces the kingdomâs austere brand of Islam.
Tugged the beards of the religious coppers, did he? I like him even more — and I liked him before...
Khashoggi, who was recently appointed to Al-Watan, is seen as a leading reformist voice in Saudi Arabia. He wrote several editorials condemning religious extremism after the suicide bombings that killed 34 people in Riyadh this month. Like other media in Saudi Arabia, Al-Watan follows strict government guidelines on its editorial content. It is owned by the son of Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. Last year, Saudi authorities fired three editors of local newspapers, including one from Al-Watan, for allegedly printing articles deemed as harmful to the kingdom. This week, Interior Minister Prince Nayef met senior editors of several Saudi newspapers and urged them to avoid publishing news that he said was âdamaging and misleading.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 07:49 pm ||
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"damaging and misleading."
(Translation: true)
Posted by: Kathy K ||
05/28/2003 20:51 Comments ||
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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has fired 44 "incompetent" Friday preachers, 160 imams (prayer leaders) and 149 muezzin (prayer callers) in the past six months. Authorities also suspended 1,357 religious officials from their duties and ordered them to undergo training, the pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily said. The dismissals took place in accordance with a programme introduced by the ministry of Islamic affairs to boost performance of mosque employees, Al-Hayat said.
I find it very encouraging that this happened. Nearly as encouraging as the fact that they killed a couple in a shootout...
Those suspended from duties include 517 imams, 90 Friday preachers and 750 muezzin. They have been asked to undergo "theological training" to be able to work more efficiently at mosques. The paper quoted head of the ministry programme Sheikh Salman al-Amri as saying the actions were not linked to the recent suicide bombings in Riyadh or the result of external pressure.
"No, no! Certainly not! We were just letting all that incompetence accumulate so we could dump them all at once. It's more efficient that way..."
Saudi Arabia employs some 80,000 people, including part-time preachers, at tens of thousands of mosques run by the government.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 04:43 pm ||
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If you remember the dogma of the Soviet Union this would make sense. What they are doing is sacking some of the 'radical' or suspected radical islamist. Then they will stand back and say 'See! We are stopping the islamists! All is well in the Kingdom.' FYI, MOST if not all mosques are run by the government.
#2
They may be starting to realize that these guys are sowing the seeds of the Royal Family's⢠destruction and they are starting to weed out the bad ones. They may also be doing this to dress the windows, per Cyber Sarge's comments. If these guys are reeducated, I bet that it won't stick. Once a Jihadi, always a jihadi.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 18:18 Comments ||
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Let's check those sermons on Friday. See if everybody's gotten the message. If you can't put holes in the holy men, put holes in their pockets. Maybe it'll sink in. We'll see.
Wow, you coulda fooled me...
The director-general of the controversial Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera had been sacked, Qatari sources said last night, amid allegations he worked with Saddam Hussein's intelligence services. Ya don't say! Mohammed Jassem al-Ali had held the top job at the Doha-based station since it launched the Arabic-language channel in 1996. Al-Jazeera and Mr Ali have been accused by Western media of collaborating with the former regime in Baghdad. Mr Ali visited Iraq before the US-led war and met Hussein during an hour-long interview. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the American-backed Iraqi National Congress, has accused several Al-Jazeera journalists of working for Iraqi agencies, based on documents found in state archives in Baghdad. Mr Ali, who has denied the charges, could not be contacted last night. This isn't a huge shock. Hey, you gotta root-root-root for the home team. Wonder what they've got in the state archives on CNN? Inquiring minds want to know.
Al-Jazeera enjoyed a special status in pre-war Iraq, being allowed to work independently of the Information Ministry, which controlled foreign media. Hey, why not, when one of their boys is already in charge...
The US and Britain criticised Al-Jazeera after it carried footage from Iraqi television of dead coalition soldiers and prisoners of war. The 24-hour network has emerged as a rival to international media giants, notably after its groundbreaking coverage of the Afghan conflict, but its no-holds-barred coverage has also sparked rows between Qatar and several Arab governments. If this is true, it should just do wonders for the independent media in the Arab world.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/28/2003 10:51 am ||
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Now, I fully expect the New York Times Op-Ed section to be all over this, right? Paul, Howell, Chris?
#2
Does anyone seriously think that M J al Ali was the only Al-Jaz employee on Saddam's payroll? Does anyone seriously think no other Al Jaz staffers are taking bribes?
AL JAZEERA'S CORRUPTION: So now we know that the head of al Jazeera was also in Saddam's pay. Yes, I know the Arab press hardly has the standards of, er, say, the New York Times, but people should stop treating al Jazeera as if it is a credible journalistic source. It's an adjunct to Islamo-fascism.
#6
Being conservative doesn't mean being a kneejerk anti-gay , just ask Sullivan
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 14:12 Comments ||
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The point to take home boyz and girlz is that whatever Al-Jeerza said, the Arabs lapped it up like a starving dogs. They only reported what their fans wanted.
#8
sullivans not just gay, hes willing to criticize Bush on foreign policy, and to see good in Dems when they deserve it (by his lights)
Some of the criticisms of Bush I have made here on certain issues are parallel to some of Andy's concerns (particularly on commitment to nation-building)
While i certainly disagree with Sullivan on many things, he remains one of the most interesting voices out there (no pun intended)
#9
I didn't get LH's pun. Yes, Sullivan represents the new wave of the GOP (even if he isn't a Republican himself) which casts off the homophobic trappings of the party of Buchanan and Duke.
EFL
In a series of police raids in and around the holy city of Medina, Saudi law enforcement officials have arrested at least five men linked to the recent suicide attacks in Riyadh, including the accused mastermind and perhaps two of the clerics who backed the attacks with religious sanction. Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz confirmed that a number of arrests had been made. Western diplomats and Saudi newspaper reports said that at least five men had been arrested linked to the May 12 bomb attacks. A Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan, reported that at least three alleged Al Qaeda members were arrested in an Internet cafe in the holy city of Medina, including Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who is believed to have planned the bombing. Nabbed them in a internet cafe? Did ya happen to check and see who they were e-mailing?
They were probably sending e-mails to the editors of al-Majalla, telling them what great jihadis they are. Al-Ghamdi is said to be Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, alias Mullah Seif el Din. Prince Nayef said what I thought was the same guy surrendered on May 15th, too. I dunno if he was on work release or what. Just by coincidence, one of the Soddies jugged in Morocco last June for the Great Exploding Rubber Raft Plot was Abdullah Mesfer Ali al-Ghamdi. Wonder if they're related? The fact that Morocco exploded a few days after Riyadh makes me think so...
Al-Watan quoted witnesses as saying Mr. al-Ghamdi was at the cafe with two other men. The three are said to have performed noon prayers with workers at the cafe and were arrested just as they left. They put up no resistance, Al-Watan quoted the witnesses as saying. The leaders never do
Mr. al-Ghamdi's name was included among 19 men sought in connection with a huge arms cache discovered on May 6 near the site of the Riyadh bombings. Saudi law enforcement officers have taken about 100 people into custody since the attacks, but the arrest's Tuesday were the first of anyone believed directly linked to the plot. Web sites popular with militants also said today that at least two clerics wanted in connection with issuing fatwas supporting the attack were also killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers. But a Western diplomat said that appeared to be incorrect and that the two were probably arrested. Shootings to be held at a later date.
I'm kinda hoping the diplomat's wrong...
Saudi officials had said previously that those behind the bombings were believed to have fled to Iraq. They also previously said there were no terrorists in Saudi.
FOLLOWUP: From Debka... You know the drill...
Al Qaeda local operatives notified superiors by telephone that Saudi security killed two of four terrorists cornered in Medina - Ali Bin Khudeir, rated by counter-terror experts as leader of Riyadh suicide attacks who entered Saudi Arabia from northern Iraq, and Ali Khalidi. Two others escaped. Bin Laden discovered in e-mail traffic Wednesday afternoon to have convened hasty leadership meeting and issued immediate threat of revenge against Saudi rulers.
That would be the obligatory Dire Revengeâ¢... Oh, dear! I hope the Soddies don't get caught up in a Cycle of Violenceâ¢! When I was a little kid, I fell off my cycle of violence and skinned the hell out of both my knees...
More, from Middle East On-Line (the original story)...
Two Saudi clerics at large in the kingdom have been killed in a raid by Saudi special forces on a villa in the western city of Medina, a Saudi Islamist opposition group said Wednesday. "Ali Khudhair al-Khudair and Ahmed bin Hmud al-Khaldi were killed during a raid on Monday undertaken by Saudi special forces on a villa where they had hidden out with their disciples, one of whom was also killed," Saad al-Faqih of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said.
They're the Qaeda sympathizers, so I guess it was their holy men who were waxed...
Several Islamist websites also reported the raid to net the two clerics, accused by the Saudi government of issuing religious decrees, or fatwas, calling for jihad against the "Crusaders." A third cleric, Nasser bin Hamad al-Fahd, is still sought by authorities after going into hiding with his two colleagues on March 20, just before the US-led war on Iraq.
I think this is the first incident I can recall where holy men were intentionally bumped off. I think it's a wonderful sign...
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 09:05 am ||
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Demonstration they're serious? A public beheading of these clerics
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 11:00 Comments ||
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Some clerics getting popped for issuing fatwas supporting terrorist activity is a good thing. We need a few more and the fatwas will start drying up and there will be less Hoo-Hah Jihadis running or walking amuk in the middle east.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 13:31 Comments ||
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Putting some holes in the holy men? Think "our friends the Saudis" are catching on?
Former Cabinet minister Robin Cook has called on Tony Blair to admit he was wrong to go to war over the threat posed by Iraq.
Oh, hang it up, Robin. You can't have your old job back. You're out.
The Prime Minister repeatedly warned of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the conflict. Faced with mounting scepticism about their existence, Mr Blair and senior ministers have repeatedly insisted they will be found. But US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed last night they may have been destroyed by the Iraqis before war broke out. The "breathtaking" claim was rejected by Mr Cook, who said it proved he was right to quit as Commons Leader in protest at the war. He said: "That does not add up. If Donald Rumsfeld is now admitting the weapons are not there, the truth is the weapons probably haven't been there for quite a long time."
Guess Sammy shouldn't have implied they were. Guess he should have let the inspectors in. Guess he shoulda let the scientists talk to them without keepers in tow. Guess he should have permitted verification instead of acting like he was hiding them. And, of course, they might still turn up...
UN weapons inspector Hans Blix should have been allowed to continue with his work, Mr Cook told the BBC.
I shoulda been allowed to spend twenty intense minutes alone with Jane Seymour when she was in her prime, too. Make that thirty intense minutes. But I wasn't, and he wasn't, and Jane missed out, so life's tough all around, ain't it?
Mr Cook said: "We were told Saddam had weapons ready for use within 45 minutes. It's now 45 days since the war has finished and we have still not found anything. What, of course, is important about this is that the war was sold on the basis of what was described as a pre-emptive strike. Hit Saddam before he hits us. It is now quite clear that Saddam did not have anything with which to hit us in the first place."
Seems like the lesson here should be "never wave a weapon you don't have."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 02:16 pm ||
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CIA confirms today that 2 captured trucks are mobile weapons labs - no traces found, but no other logical use, and matches with defector descriptions.
#2
LH, that doesn't help the "hawks". The only way they'll get the "Saddam didn't have WMD" monkey off their backs is if they find a warehouse full of WMD.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/28/2003 14:35 Comments ||
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Okay, Robin. We'll all get in the Time Tunnel and send it back to Sept 10, 2001. Then everything will be fine, right? Idiot!
#4
"Jane Seymour when she was in her prime"
Sigh, I have a clear vision of her in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger". She was running around in a little harem girl outfit, and then there was the bath in the stream was all she had on was her long wet hair
....................Sorry, where were we?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 15:24 Comments ||
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Ten minutes, tops. And then only if I concentrate on differential equations. Or geography...
EFL
An alleged Islamic militant has told a Belgian court how he plotted to bomb a military base on an al-Qaeda mission. Nizar Trabelsi, a former Tunisian professional footballer, told how Osama Bin Laden's network sent him two years ago to Belgium to bomb the Kleine Brogel base, which houses nuclear missiles. He is one of 23 alleged Islamic militants on trial. Only eight of them are in custody, while five are still on the run and the others face lesser charges.
Since it's Brussels, probably much lesser charges...
The plot was foiled after Mr Trabelsi's arrest in Brussels just two days after the 11 September attacks. A list of chemicals to make a bomb was found in his possession. Mr Trabelsi, 32, and another Tunisian, Tarek Maaroufi, face the most serious charges in the trial. On Tuesday, Mr Trabelsi told how he was instructed by al-Qaeda to plant a bomb into the canteen of the Kleine Brogel base, where American troops are deployed.
He said he was helped in organising the attack by a US soldier, who allegedly sold pictures of the base to an al-Qaeda operative. "It was an American working at the base. I think he was a smoker of dope. He was given $50,000," said Mr Trabelsi, who was questioned for three hours. However, he offered no proof and did not produce the pictures. The sale of the pictures would have been before the September 11th attack. We were fat, dumb, and happy then, and I don't doubt that you could have bought pictures of the base from someone who needed money. Bet they had a good cover story.
If they were offering $50,000, they didn't need a cover story. The guy had to know there was something illegitimate up. I do hope Nizar's given the guys name, and preferably his address and phone number. There are some FBI guys who want to take him on a little trip. To Morocco.
Mr Trabelsi said he had decided to become a martyr for Bin Laden and carry out the attack after seeing pictures of a Palestinian baby girl who was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2001. "It (the bomb) was 850 kilograms of nitrates and 100 kilograms of sulphur," he said. "I intended to go in with the picture of the little Palestinian girl and press the detonator." Mr Trabelsi said he had met Bin Laden personally during a visit to Afghanistan in 2001. After his arrest, Mr Trabelsi renounced all violence, saying that the 11 September attack "was not the solution". Most everyone renounces violence after they are arrested.
Belgium has no specific anti-terrorism laws. If found guilty Trabelsi and Maaroufi face up to 10 years in prison.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 07:58 am ||
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By the way, U.S. News and World Report's June 2 issue has a very good cover story on the success that America, Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and others have had in rooting out al-Qaeda. This is a must read and the strong (but generally unpublicized until now) support of Jordan is quite interesting. Guess who lags in cooperation? Yep, our "friends" the Saudis.
Look who's back. Susan, just shutup. Oooooops, sorry. Don't want to infringe on your free speech.
Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon has accused organisers of the Academy Awards of being obsessed with control. The star, who won best actress in 1996, said she resented the way they tried to regulate what actors said and did. "The organisers have gone over the top trying to control it and make sure nothing happens," she told the BBC's TV and radio listings magazine, Radio Times. "I resent they make you sign a piece of paper saying you'll never sell the statuette, except back to them for $1 (60p). I changed that to 'market value'. It's only an Oscar, not sperm." Thinking of selling yours? You career keeps heading where it's heading, you may have to. Thank God for Ebay.
Sarandon, 56, was a presenter at this year's Oscars, where she and partner Tim Robbins were seen flashing peace signs at cameras. But despite being one of Hollywood's most outspoken anti-war stars, she refrained from making a political statement from the podium. Mikey Moore must've drawn short straw to be idiot spokesman for the lefties.
She also tried to sell dove-shaped peace brooches to other stars in aid of land-mine victims. "You'd be surprised who wouldn't even wear one," she said. "I guess they're nervous of me." That's good. Looks like she's planning a second career in Jewelery Sales. Smart move. Good planning to have something to fall back on.
Sarandon won her Oscar for Dead Man Walking and has four other nominations dating back to 1982. Anti-death penalty, Susie, Sean Penn...it had everything!
Explaining her anti-war stance, she told the Radio Times that the world had belonged to her generation, but they "screwed up. Now we have to unscrew it. Maybe things have to get so bad before we wake up." Like if my career goes so far down the tubes, I'll be the answer to a trivia question.
"I lost a very dear friend in the Twin Towers on 11 September and thought the shock was so huge that American arrogance would be diminished. I think Bin-Laden thought the same thing.He was wrong too.
"Instead, our president has turned it into one of the most divisive times since the Civil War." Really? You should get out more Susan. Hang out with some real people instead of your Hollywood friends. Because methinks you're full of shit.
Her views led to her being the subject of a "witch-hunt", she said. Yes, the magic word. Well it looks like they found one, doesn't it?
#2
"I lost a very dear friend in the Twin Towers on 11 September and thought the shock was so huge that American arrogance would be diminished."
Typical drivel from the self-loathing set. Gosh, Sept. 11 was awful but maybe something really GREAT could have come out of it. We could have responded by ignoring the threat. Yet another reason why the face and the voice of the liberal wing of the Democratic party will drag Kerry/Edwards or whomever to an ignominious and resounding defeat in 2004.
#7
b4 sept 11 we allowed small two-bit countries to kill our people, destroy our interest around the world and did didly. Now just how is that American arrogance????
Posted by: Dan ||
05/28/2003 17:41 Comments ||
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The world belonged to her generation? ...talk about arrogance. Still, it is fun to watch the moonbats continue to make complete @$$e$ of themselves every time they open their cake holes. Life is good.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/28/2003 18:16 Comments ||
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#9
tu3031: eeewww! - nope, shan't pay for that flick.
Posted by: Tony ||
05/28/2003 18:49 Comments ||
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#10
OK - I'll say it: Spunky little gal!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 22:11 Comments ||
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#11
We could have responded by ignoring the threat.
We did ignore threats. Sept 11, 2001 was the result.
#12
Mike N. : I think it's a reference to that old Monty Python bit, you know: "Every sperm is sacred," etc etc. What is that, the "Meaning of Life?" After all, she was talking to the Beeb.
Hey, it's all our fault. But we already knew that, right?
Washington's "war on terror" has made the world more dangerous by curbing human rights, undermining international law and shielding governments from scrutiny, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Releasing its annual report into global human rights abuses in 2002, the London-based watchdog made one of its fiercest attacks yet on the policies pursued by the United States and Britain in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. I believe this year's report is titled: "America Still Sucks... and the British Do Too."
If the war on terror was supposed to make the world safer, it has failed, and has given governments an excuse to abuse human rights in the name of state security, it said. "What would have been unacceptable on September 10, 2001, is now becoming almost the norm," Amnesty's Secretary-General Irene Khan told a news conference, accusing Washington of adopting "a new doctrine of human rights a la carte. The United States continues to pick and choose which bits of its obligations under international law it will use, and when it will use them," she said, highlighting the detention without charge or trial of hundreds of prisoners in Afghanistan and in a U.S. military camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Oh, the humanity!!!
"By putting these detainees into a legal black hole, the U.S. administration appeared to continue to support a world where arbitrary unchallengeable detention becomes acceptable." Maybe if these assholes weren't trying to kill us they wouldn't be in a legal black hole. I'd prefer they were just in a hole...with 6 feet of dirt on top.
Arbitrary, unchallengeable killings aren't so bad...
Amnesty urged the world to do more to sort out Iraq's problems now the Gulf War is over. "There is a very real risk that Iraq will go the way of Afghanistan if no genuine effort is made to heed the call of the Iraqi people for law and order and full respect of human rights," Khan said."Afghanistan does not present a record of which the international community can be proud." This is in this month's issue of "Duh", the official publication of Amnesia International.
Amnesty's 311-page report was not concerned solely with the crises triggered by the attacks of September 11. It said the intense media focus on Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 meant human rights abuses in Ivory Coast, Colombia, Burundi, Chechnya and Nepal had gone largely unnoticed. Oh, don't worry, the UN's handling all that. Any mention on the wonders they're doing for human rights in your little screed?
Amnesty said the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo remained "bleak, with continuing fighting and attacks on civilians." The UN's on that too. Don't worry, they got it covered.
"In Burundi, government forces carried out extrajudicial killings, 'disappearances', torture and other serious violations," it said. Amnesty said the Colombian government had "exacerbated the spiraling cycle of political violence" by introducing new security measures. It accused Israel of committing war crimes in the occupied territories and the Palestinians of committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians in suicide bombings." At least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army (in 2002), most of them unlawfully," it said. "Palestinian armed groups killed more than 420 Israelis, at least 265 of them civilians..." Those Palestinan killings? Lawful or unlawful? They don't say. I'm shocked that they actually mentioned them.
Khan said it was vital that the world "resist the manipulation of fear and challenge the narrow focus of the security agenda. The definition of security must be broadened to encompass the security of people, as well as states," she said. Irene, isn't that the same thing? What a ditz!
#2
"The United States continues to pick and choose which bits of its obligations under international law it will use, and when it will use them" Nope. See, there is no such thing as "International Law", albeit there are the Maritime Laws and the Geneva Conventions, to which we adhere - but they are "gentlemen's agreements", not actual laws.
"Afghanistan does not present a record of which the international community can be proud." Well, not since the UN and EU said they'd handle it. First the EU's German cops threatened to leave when they found out they might actually be shot at, and then in respect to the Northern Warlords taking control of large areas the UN declined to send troops because "it is a problem of the central government, not ours." Good thing we still have troops there...
Posted by: John Anderson ||
05/28/2003 18:32 Comments ||
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Edited for length, snarky comments and illogic. In today's column, Ms Dowd corrects a misquote of George Bush without ever admitting that she had misquoted him in the first place, thereby setting a new journalistec low for the NYT!
The tactical efficacy and moral delicacy of American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq solidified a trend: the children of Vietnam-scarred boomers trust the government, and especially the military, far more than did their parents, whose generational mantra was "Don't trust anyone over 30." In other words, I and my fellow travellers have failed to destroy the military's image like we did during Vietnam. But damn it, we're trying!
As Ms. Toner noted, a Harvard poll found that 75 percent of college kids trusted the military "to do the right thing" either "all of the time" or "most of the time." Two-thirds of the students supported the Iraqi war, with hawks beating doves 2 to 1. This proves my contention that most liberals (sorry, Liberalhawk) don't understand math beyond simple addition and subtraction. Umm, Maureen two-thirds and a 2 to 1 ratio are exactly the same thing, just expressed differently.
The president and his posse diverted anger over 9/11 to Iraq, and now they are diverting it to Iran. The Bushies are playing up Al Qaeda terrorists they say are hunkered down in Iran, even as they overlook all the Al Qaeda terrorists crouching in countries the administration doesn't want to demonize, like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. And the hawks have turned to grooming Iranian exiles, who are pumping out reports of secret nuclear labs. Sound familiar? Maureen, you should really stick to things you understand, like fashion and gossip because you really don't understand strategy like "defeat you enemies in detail" (one at a time) and "destroy the biggest threat first." If Dowd had been writing during WWII, she would have criticized Roosevelt for defeating Germany first when, afterall, Japan had attacked us first.
"Al Qaeda is on the run," the president said in Little Rock, Ark. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely, being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore." This is the money quote. In a prior column, she had left out the "Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead," sentence without an elipsis to indicate the deletion. In college, my profs would have dropped you a grade for something like that.
The public should take its cue from Mr. Bush's beau ideal, Ronald Reagan. As the Gipper advised, "Trust, but verify." Can you trust anyone without the moral courage to admit a mistake?
Posted by: 11A5S ||
05/28/2003 11:39 am ||
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Can you trust anyone without the moral courage to admit a mistake?
What makes you think it was a mistake? Magpie Dowdy knew exactly what she was doing - she's just trying to cover her face ass now that she's gotten caught.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/28/2003 12:23 Comments ||
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#2
Can you trust anyone without the moral courage to admit a mistake?
But make sure you verify...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2003 14:07 Comments ||
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#3
Mo still hasn't caught on that her catty style just begs non-enthralled readers to fact-check her ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 14:10 Comments ||
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#4
MoDo probably thinks she's so high on the pedestal that she'll never get checked out. Mike Barnicle thought that up here in Boston when he worked for the Globe before he got his clock cleaned. Careful, MoDo. What better way for the Times to convince the public that they're serious about cleaning up their act then by taking down one of their supposed big guns?
#5
How cowardly on her part to now slip in the whole quote without any acknowledgement on her part. First Blair, then Bragg. Could Mo be next? Anyway, I don't read the Times anymore and won't until there's regime change there. It sure has come down in the last decade.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/28/2003 16:13 Comments ||
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Beyond the Jayson Blair scandal, the Times has a credibility crisis that will only escalate given their roster of liberal hack journalists - Dowd, Krugman, Apple et. al. Thank God for the blogosphere who have exposed the blatant liberal biases at both Times - New York and Los Angeles.
#7
Maureen, can't you even learn that the country's name is two words (Viet Nam), not one? It even has a literal meaning ("Peaple from the South," or "South People"). Vietnamese are the people, Viet Nam the country.
That's about all that's worth saying to Maureen here.
#8
Barbara: I meant that she made an ethical mistake. Misquoting due to a faulty transcript requires a correction. Purposely distorting a quote like Dowd or Moore do, demands an apology. Dowd is so full of moral relativism that she imagines she can fix the problem by simply putting the correct quote in a later column with no admission of error. Last time I checked, bearing false witness was still in the Ten Commandments. tu3031 is absolutely right. The Internet is rapidly eroding the ability of the dishonest and corrupt to play their twisted games. The printing press brought down princes and popes. The Internet (and blogs in particular) will bring down the likes of Dowd.
#10
Hey tu: She's made a lot of enemies, but The Times loves her because she "connects" with female readers. My personal experience with real or perceived rainmakers like Dowd is that they have more lives than cats. Blair went down because ultimately, he wasn't associated with any revenue. From comments I've read on Bragg, he is there solely because he's Raines' (sp?) buddy. If he is no longer a rainmaker, he will probably be next to go. My prediction is that Dowd will get a slap on the wrist, which she will parlay into a snarky column. Regardless of whatever airs they put on, all mass-market media outlets exist to sell advertising, period. Unless you are paying through the nose for it or it is subsidized by a foundation, it's probably not worth a damn. I'll be the happiest guy in the world if I'm wrong, but I think that Dowd will be around for a while.
#11
The Globe tried the same thing with Barnicle up here. They slapped him on the wrists the so many times he got bagged for being lazy that he didn't feel it anymore. And, since he was that elitist, liberal rags blue collar draw, they really didn't care. He brought in the readership and he figured he could run his scam forever. Then other media people REALLY started checking over his columns and it was like an avalanche.
Mikey had a lot of lives too. But when people started sniffing around his catbox, he went down faster then the Iraqi army. The Globe's been a joke ever since,
Hope Mo kept good notes.
P.S.:Bragg is gone by the way.
WASHINGTON -- Pakistan is believed to have helped Al Qaida in efforts to develop nuclear weapons. A report by the Institute for Science and International Security asserted that two Pakistani nuclear scientists provided expertise to Al Qaida to develop radiological dispersal devices. The scientists were also said to have provided Al Qaida with guidelines on developing nuclear weapons. "Al Qaida wanted the Pakistani scientists' help in making radiological dispersal devices," the institute report, authored by president David Albright, said. "It has been known for long that Afghanistan has uranium resources. But that Pakistani nuclear scientists were planning to extract uranium, increases suspicions about their intentions." The report names Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Chaudhry Abdul Majid as those who worked with Al Qaida on its nuclear program. The two Pakistani nationals were said to have established a relief agency as a cover for contacts with Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaida leaders.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 08:34 pm ||
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Sounds to me like the CIA needs to assemble a few hit squads to take out some of these guys. Them Paki nuclear scientists don't seem to realize (or care) what the implications are of assisting terrorist organizations.
PESHAWAR: Security agencies on Tuesday arrested a suspected Afghan Al Qaeda member in a raid in northwestern tribal territory bordering Afghanistan, officials said. The suspect, identified only as Abdullah, was apprehended in a pre-dawn raid in Shahkas village near the border town of Jamrud, 25 km west of here, an administration official said. âWe had received information from law enforcing agencies that Abdullah, who belongs to the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, was hiding in a house in the tribal town,â the official said, requesting anonymity.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 07:30 pm ||
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PESHAWAR: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Tuesday tabled the Sharia Act 2003 in the NWFP Assembly aimed at âIslamisingâ the province. Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Malik Zafar Azam presented the bill and Speaker of the provincial assembly Bakht Jehan Khan accepted it. Mr Azam later addressed a news briefing and said, âThe MMA has honoured its promise, the introduction of an Islamic system in the province.â He said it was âa historic dayâ for the NWFP.
A historic day sometime in the 7th century...
Mr Azam said punishments would be handed down as per Islamic teachings. When asked, he affirmed that the authorities would not hesitate to cut off thievesâ arms for stealing. âIf it come under the provincial subject, this will happen.â He defended the right to appeal under the Hisbah Act and denied that it constitutionally guaranteed human rights violations.
"Cuttin' off somebody's arm is a human rights violation? When did that start?"
According to the draft Sharia Act, this law would not apply to individual beliefs of non-Muslims, religious freedom, traditions and code of life. However, the new law promises stricter punishments for ânon-compliantâ Muslims.
Shia, Ahmandi, and other "heretic" heads and arms are going to be flying all over the place. And I don't think I see any room at all for "religious freedom." I'll bet the definition of that is interesting to read...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 07:28 pm ||
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PESHAWAR: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government on Tuesday condemned the incident of billboardsâ destruction at the hands of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists on May 23 (Friday) and announced that a legal action would be taken against the guilty ones.
Pick up my jaw, wouldja? I just dropped it...
âI admit they (the JI activists) did wrong,â MMA Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Malik Zafar Azam responded to criticism from the opposition parties during the 6th session of the provincial assembly since the October elections. He said: âWe have decided to lodge an FIR (First Information Report) by name.â The MMA government would uphold the rule of law and law-breakers should expect no concession, even if they were from a component party of the ruling coalition, he added.
This we gotta see...
MMA MNA Shabir Hussain Awan, the JIâs district ameer in Peshawar, led the âvandalism campaignâ in which all the billboards, mostly of multinational companies, showing womenâs images were destroyed across the province. Mr Awan claimed responsibility for the destruction at a press conference and vowed to continue the campaign if Akram Khan Durraniâs government did not respond positively to the JIâs calls for Islamisation.
"I dunnit and I'm glad! An' I'll do it again, an' you can't stop me!"
Sources close to the MMA government told Daily Times that no FIR had been lodged against any JI man as yet.
Ahah! In that case, I can put my jaw back where it was...
JI MPA Pir Muhammad Khan took a strong exception to the remarks of Mr Azam, who comes from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and dubbed his announcement of legal action against his partyâs activists as âillegalâ and âunconstitutional.â
"Yeah. Bringin' vandals and bands of fascisti up on charges is illegal and unconstitutional in Pakistan. Everybody knows that!"
When the assembly speaker ordered him to stop speaking out of turn, he staged a walkout.
"Yeah, dammit! I'm walkin' out! This is what my back looks like!"
No MPA from the MMA went outside to bring him back.
"I'm out in the hallway now, an' don't none of you bastards come and get me!"
Later a woman MPA, on her turn, reminded the treasury benches that it was a tradition of the house that when a member walked out in protest, other members tried to bring him back.
"Yep. I'm out here in the hall. And don't nobody come for me..."
NEW YORK -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested publicly for the first time Tuesday that Iraq might have destroyed chemical and biological weapons before the war there, a possibility that senior U.S. officers in Iraq have raised in recent weeks.
Rumsfeld has expressed optimism that it is just a matter of time, and interviewing enough senior Iraqi scientists and former government officials, before military teams uncover the illicit arms that President George W. Bush cited as a major reason for attacking Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein's government.
While Rumsfeld repeated that assertion Tuesday, he added, "It is also possible that they decided that they would destroy them prior to a conflict." Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, now in northern Iraq, mentioned the same possibility two weeks ago.
Senior defense aides insisted that Rumsfeld's response to a question after his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Tuesday broke no new ground, and was consistent with his past explanations.
He said military investigators have been searching in earnest for only seven weeks, that Iraqi weapons might be buried in one of several hundred uninspected sites and that investigators' best leads could come from Iraqi officials who have only recently surrendered or been captured. "I don't know the answer," Rumsfeld said. "I suspect we'll learn a lot more as we go along and keep interrogating people."
But the fact that Rumsfeld even raised the possibility that Iraq might have destroyed unconventional weapons before the war prompts new questions about the intelligence Bush and his senior advisers relied on to go to war, and on the credibility of the United States, defense analysts said Tuesday.
"They don't have a good explanation, and therefore are trying to come up with as long a list as possible," said Joseph Cirincione, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "But it's impossible to destroy or hide the quantities the administration said they had without our noticing it." Come now, Inspector Clouseau, er, Blix, was an acknowledged master at not finding anything!
Bush, in an interview last month with NBC News, acknowledged, "there's going to be skepticism until people find out there was, in fact, a weapons of mass destruction program." Whereupon the radical left will simply claim that it was all planted, fake, etc.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2003 01:51 pm ||
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Didn't the military find definite traces of Something Awful in the Euphrates? I remember a bit of that, but nothing since other than on Sean Hannity's show once in awhile.
Even al-Bawaba puts quote marks around "Saddam". Guess they have doubts about it as well.
Ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein has claimed to be "fighting the Americans" and appealed for resistance against the US and British troops, according to a letter attributed to him, obtained by the Middle East Online website. The same website on Tuesday published a statement in which the so-called "General Command of the Iraqi Armed, Resistance and Liberation Forces" claimed responsibility for an ambush which killed two American troops and injured nine others in Fallujah. The statement said the attack was carried out by "special forces, al-Faruk Brigades, and members of the Baath Party." That's my guess.
The claim of responsibility posted on the website spoke of "downing a US aircraft and killing its four crew". The statement added that the al-Faruk Brigades, "the armed wing of the Islamic resistance in Iraq", killed a US soldier in Baghdad. In the letter attributed to Saddam and dubbed his "fourth handwritten letter" since he was removed from power, he called for more attacks against Americans. "As we fight and ensnare the cowardly American and British enemy, we urge you to ... boycott anyone installed by the criminal invading forces to run any area of government," said Saddam's message to "mujahedeen everywhere, the courageous sons of the Arab nation, and members of the Arab Baath Socialist Party." "Brethren in jihad, we call on you to expel all traitors who supported the occupation or came in its trail and who call themselves Iraqis," it said. Another letter, guess it's hard to get video equipment in hell.
Sammy's not dead. He's with his troops in the field, living his fantasy.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 09:48 am ||
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Was the tape recorder broken? Couldn't he borrow Binny's?
US occupation forces in Iraq arrested Wednesday a senior Palestinian diplomat outside his office in Baghdad. A witness said the Palestinian Charge D'affaires, Najah Abdul Rahman, and four other Iraqis were handcuffed by American troops. The troops, who prevented anyone from entering the Palestinian mission, said the arrested people were apprehended for carrying three unlicensed weapons. Only three weapons? Frisk'em again.
Abdul Rahman has been serving for several years at the PLO office in Baghdad. In a recent press interview, he said that outside of Iraq everyone was certain Saddam Hussein was good to the Palestinians because it sent financial support to the families of suicide bombers and helped rebuild schools the Israeli army damaged and destroyed. The Palestinians in Iraq, on the other hand, never got any such support from the Baghdad regime. Abdul Rahman said all the support for families in the territories was meant to win sympathy in the Arab masses for the Iraqi regime.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 09:43 am ||
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Figgered that out all by your lonesome, didja? Any word yet on whether fire is hot?
#2
In a recent press interview, he said that outside of Iraq everyone was certain Saddam Hussein was good to the Palestinians because it sent financial support to the families of suicide bombers and helped rebuild schools the Israeli army damaged and destroyed.
Of course, nobody even bothered to bring up the question of whether he was good to Iraqis......
#4
He's trying to win some sympathy for Palestinians from ordinary Iraqis, who are justifiably resentful at Palestinian support for Saddam. He is also lying about the extent of Saddam's special favors for Palestinians in Iraq. When the full extent of these favors is revealed, Palestinians will probably be evicted from Iraq by ordinary Iraqis, just as they were from Kuwait after the first Gulf War.
#5
Paleostianians have consistantly backed losers, had good relationships with losers (e.g., Babywipes Arafat and Sammy). No wonder other Arabs give them lip service support, but do not want them around. The Paleos have a leadership problem and the only support they have is from some EU-niks and people like 'Dozer Corrie and friends. The smart Palistinians get the hell out of their ratholes and go somewhere else to make a living and try to live an honest existance.
Related to previous story, more details:
Authorities in Cambodia said Wednesday that they closed a Saudi-funded religious school and arrested three foreigners with links to the terror group suspected in deadly bombings on the resort island of Bali. The arrests, prompted by a tip from U.S. officials, came about two weeks before Secretary of State Colin Powell is to attend a meeting of Asian-Pacific Cabinet ministers in Cambodia. There's your target.
Police arrested a man from Egypt and two others from Thailand on terrorism charges Sunday. It was a rare sign of militancy among Cambodia's small Muslim minority. Officials said the men have links to Jemaah Islamiyah. "This operation has foiled any attempts of terrorist activity" in Cambodia, said Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Investigators established that the suspects had links "with terrorism activities overseas," he said, without giving details.
Don't even think that's all of them, Om...
The authorities closed the Islamic school, 15 miles north of Phnom Penh, and ordered the deportation within 72 hours of its 28 teachers and their 22 dependents, who are from Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Thailand, Yemen and Egypt. As we say, "The usual suspects".
The school was run by a local Muslim group, Om Al Qura, that allegedly included the three terrorism suspects as members. The arrested men were identified as Abdul Azi Haji Thiming and Muhammad Jalaludin Mading of Thailand, and Esam Mohammed Khidr Ali of Egypt. Police Gen. Sok Phal said the arrests were carried out "with cooperation and a tip from the United States."
You're welcome.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher praised the Cambodian government's actions. "The United States has sought to work with the government of Cambodia on counterterrorism issues, including in financial law enforcement and information-sharing areas, as we have with other governments around the world," Boucher said. In an interview with the state television network TVK, Sok Phal said several associates of the suspects fled Cambodia. The "successful destruction of this organization" helped ensure security in Phnom Penh for June meetings of Cabinet ministers and other officials from 23 countries, including the United States, in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Yup, a nice juicy target for the turban set.
Most Cambodian Muslims belong to the Cham ethnic minority, who make up less than 5 percent of the country's 12.5 million people in the mostly Buddhist country. Cambodia's government had said in the past that local Muslims have no active links to militant groups. Sure they don't. It's never your muslims, it's somebody else's.
I think he's referring to the guys they imported to fire them up...
Oun Bunna, an investigating judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court who interrogated the three men arrested Sunday, said they were charged with international terrorism and links to Jemaah Islamiyah. If convicted, they face 20 years to life in jail. I think 20 years in a Cambodian prison is a life sentence.
The men were being held pending pretrial investigations that could take six months, Bunna said. He refused to disclose details about their arrests and alleged activities. Being picked up in a European country looks better and better all the time, doesn't it?
Sok Phal said authorities began watching the school about a year ago, but recently received indications of an operation so that "prevention was required." "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of C4."
He said police have been tracking money transfers between Saudi Arabia and the school. Tap, tap, nope. Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islam, said it would not be surprising if Jemaah Islamiyah was operating in Cambodia. "There's been a lot of speculation for some time that Cambodia was one of the possible places of refuge for JI members from Indonesia and Malaysia," she said. But Jones, Indonesia project director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said it was unlikely there were direct links between the school and terrorists. Islamic school + Saudi money = terrorists
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 02:33 pm ||
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We need to get Iraq producing oil for export so we can put the real heat on Saudis to stop financing terrorists. If they do not, then their oil production needs to come to a temporary halt while the furniture is rearranged. Without a steady flow of petro-cash, the terrorists will run out of money in the not too distant future.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 18:51 Comments ||
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Two of the suspects in the Bali bombing testified yesterday that the Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is the head of the organisation blamed for the attack. Ali Imron and Mubarok said he had replaced Abdullah Sungkar as the leader of Jemaah Islamiah in 1999, but denied they sought his blessing for the October 12 atrocity. But the man believed to be the overall organiser of the bombing, Ali Ghufron, made no such claim, even though he detailed meetings with Bashir. He also said he knew Osama bin Laden well but that bin Laden had no role in the Bali attack. Questioned by the bench, Bashir rejected most of the claims made by the three men and also denied he was the head of JI. "Lies, all lies".
For weeks prosecutors have been pursuing Bashir on treason charges, alleging he planned a wave of Christmas bombings in 2000 and also that he conspired to assassinate the then vice-president of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri. But it is proving Bashir's leadership of JI - and implicating him in the Bali bombings - that is the ultimate goal of prosecutors. While hundreds of heavily armed police stood guard outside the court, hundreds of supporters inside cheered each new witness with roaring calls of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). Witnesses were led through two lines of police to a chair in the middle of the court where a Koran was held over their head, while they swore to tell the truth. I could be wrong, but I believe that the Koran says it's OK to lie to an infidel.
Bashir sat impassively with his defence team as the alleged bombers recounted their relationships with him and explained their version of what JI is. Ali Ghufron said he knew him in Malaysia when they used to pray together in a mosque, but Bashir denied they had ever met. "I don't know him," he said. "His story about Malaysia is also not true." "More lies!"
He had the same response to Ali Ghufron's claim that Faiz Bafana, a suspected JI member now detained in Singapore, had told him of a meeting he held with Bashir at his boarding school in Central Java. "Ditto"
Ali Imron, who first showed police how the suicide bomb jacket was put together for the attack on Paddy's Irish Pub, said he had first met Bashir at his Islamic boarding school in Ngruki when he visited him there in the 1980s, while one of his brothers was studying there. He said he had met Bashir again in Malaysia in 1996 after returning from Afghanistan, where he had fought against the Russians. Pressed on whether he knew as fact that Bashir was head of JI, or whether it was simply his belief, Ali Imron said: "In my opinion there's no distinction. Since they were always together Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir, based on my belief he replaced him." "I think they were also lovers"
If the elderly cleric was upset with Ali Imron's testimony, he did not show it. He allowed the younger man to kiss him once on each cheek as he bid thanks to those who questioned him - shaking hands with prosecution, defence and judges alike. Mubarok, a teacher at the Al Islam boarding school in East Java, said he had first met Bashir at his school in Central Java in 1983 and again in 1989-90. He said JI was about fighting jihad in Indonesia, especially in areas where Muslims were under threat. Ali Guffron said Bashir "would not agree with the bombings. I have never heard his sermons suggesting violence". He'd be the only one then.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 09:25 am ||
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INDONESIA authorities said today they were preparing camps for thousands of civilians displaced by war and would replace four million identity cards - signs the assault on separatist rebels is being stepped up. Sixteen tented camps in nine districts - including Bireuen, Pidie and North Aceh - had been erected, said martial law administrator Major General Endang Suwarya.
Refugees will be provided with sanitation facilities and temporary classrooms, he said. Behind the barbed wire and guard towers.
Suwarya did not say how many people would be housed in the camps but said there are currently 18,000 refugees in the province. The social affairs ministry said last week it would provide enough tents for 60,000 people. The ministry said civilians would not be forced to leave combat zones but would be strongly advised to do so. "OK, OK, I'll move. Point that someplace else."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 08:31 am ||
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Three men arrested in Cambodia have been charged with being members of the Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiah. The men - an Egyptian and two Thai nationals - were arrested on Tuesday evening at a mosque just north of the capital Phnom Penh, and have been charged under the International Terrorism Act, court officials said. "This is an example of a concerted effort by the Cambodia government to crack down and end terrorism," said Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen. The three men - 40-year-old Esam Mohamid Khidr Ali, 36-year-old Hajichiming Abdul Azi and 41-year-old Muhammadyalludin Mading - were plotting to carry out attacks in Cambodia, according to government officials. A senior police official said the group had received funds from al-Qaeda through Cambodian Islamic schools via a Pakistani middleman.
That fits the pattern, right down to the Pakistani middleman, taking his little rakeoff as the funds are transferred via hundi. It's probably significant that they nabbed an Egyptian cleric in the Philippines the other day, travelling with MILF's bomb maestro. Cambodia would seem an unlikely candidate for a caliphate, since the only Muslims I'm aware of are a tiny Cham (non-Khmer) minority. Virtually all the rest of the country's Buddhist.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/28/2003 03:04 am ||
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Cambodians have been there, done that, didn't like it. I suspect that they'll have very little patience with anyone trying to drag them back to Year Zero again.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 7:48 Comments ||
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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered intensified military attacks against Moro front units on May 17 in response to bombings and raids that have killed more than 210 people this year. The government says MILF, which has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland for more than three decades, risks being declared a terrorist organization unless it turns over those responsible for recent attacks. The Moro front statement declaring a unilateral cease-fire appeared on the rebel Web site Wednesday. Right next to the Osama T-shirt offer and the "Death to America" bumper stickers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2003 12:48 am ||
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Okay, it's too late for me to be posting. That's desparation, and I forgot the hilite on my comment in the middle. A little help, Fred? Thanks,
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2003 1:01 Comments ||
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#2
"We jihadis always do what the Bishop demands"
Wouldn't that make them Apostates and(Under Sharia)subject to a sentence of death.
#3
Responding to demands of an infidel religion's leaders? They must be hurting bad to use that as an excuse for a cease fire. But it probably beats "we're getting our asses kicked".
#4
Muslim rebels on Wednesday declared a cease-fire in the southern Philippines and gave the government 10 days to meet their demands or face renewed fighting.
Now would be a good time to go in and finish the job of deep-sixing them all.
KHARTOUM -- The Sudanese army and security forces raided an area in western Sudan, arresting a number of Sudanese and foreigners on charges of "suspicious activities," the interior ministery said early Wednesday. The ministry said in a statement that the army and security forces raided a location in the state of West Kordofan after receiving information "about a group of people involved in suspicious activities." The statement said that the authorities arrested "several suspects, including foreigners" during the raid and they will be brought to Khartoum to face legal action, following their interrogation. The Arabic newspaper al-Hayat, published in London, reported that Sudanese security forces attacked a training camp in western Sudan and arrested four Saudis and nine Sudanese.
Hmmm... SPLA wouldn't be involved with Soddies, and Lord's Resistance Army's even more unlikely. Wonder how the Sudanese like having Qaeda back?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 08:50 pm ||
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CAIRO - Arab tourism ministers meeting in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday lamented a drop in tourism in a region they said has trouble shedding a worldwide image of terrorism.
Golly. I can't imagine why that happened...
"Our meeting is held in difficult circumstances for the tourism industry in the world and in the Arab region in particular," Jordan's Tourism Minister Nader al-Dahabi told the meeting. "Troubles in the Arab region and the twisted image given by the media about our region" has harmed tourism."
See? It's the media, not the Krazed Killers...
Egypt's Tourism Minister Mamduh el-Beltagui said Arab countries "are faced with a big danger which weighs particularly on the tourism industry" as a result of people associating terrorism with Arabs and Muslims. "We must work to correct this image and tourism is the best way to do it because it's an industry of peace," Beltagui said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 04:14 pm ||
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" ... the twisted image given by the media about our region" has harmed tourism."
Is this guy:
(a) in denial (I will avoid the oft-used pun even if they are meeting in Egypt);
(b) so detached from reality as that term is used in countries where killing, maiming and bombing in the name of Allah are NOT the norm;
(c) related somehow to the former Iraqi Minister of Disinformation (who's name I've already forgotten - Andy Warhol where are you);
(d) shooting for the "Chutzpah of the Year" award?
#2
Egypt's Tourism Minister Mamduh el-Beltagui said Arab countries "are faced with a big danger which weighs particularly on the tourism industry" as a result of people associating terrorism with Arabs and Muslims. "We must work to correct this image and tourism is the best way to do it because it's an industry of peace," Beltagui said.
From the land of the Religion of Peace, now comes the Industry of Peace. Arabs? Muslims? Terrorism?
No way?!
Damn media!
#4
Surely you should visit Sudan and Mauritania, where -- if you convert to Islam -- you could buy a black slave or two. No stops in Nigeria? -- lots of fun there, especially in the north. In the Philippines, a trip to the eco-resorts on Palawan is certainly worthwhile -- if lucky you might end up with a free trip on a fast boat to Jolo or Basilan.
Bahrain's Tourism Minister Yaaqub al-Hamr said that the September 11 attacks had influenced Western public opinion "which considers our region to be a terrorism zone that must be avoided at all costs."The obviousness of this is so ... so ... obvious, that this quote floors me.
"Terrorism and extremism have seriously affected tourism and the economy of our region, and our losses will continue to increase if we don't try to save what can still be saved," he said.And what do you propose? Do you think it is finally hitting these guys that murdering tourists (remember the mass slaughter near the Pyramids a couple of years ago) is bad for tourism? These people are simply stunning in their apparent stupidity or maybe it is obstinance in facing up to reality.
#8
CC---The problem is the same as that of some of the dinosaurs: The stimulus in the tail takes along time to arrive at the brain (if the neural pathway is developed). By the time they process the disaster, all hell has broken loose and they are just THINKING about responding. I wonder how many of them learn Karate.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 18:28 Comments ||
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No kidding the non-oil Arab Countries really depend on tourism. So much so I would think they would clean up terrorism just to save their economies.
This should be of interest to Frank and Paul, who have money on it...
DEBKAfileâs US and Israeli security sources report increasing signs that Yasser Arafat is now seriously gunning for the new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.
That's gunning for him with firearms...
He will do anything to abort the summit expected to take place in early June with President George W. Bush and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Arafat cannot abide the notion of any top-level conference going forward without him. The plot he is thought to be preparing would inculpate Israel for any harm befalling Abu Mazen or his associates. He would thus show the Palestinians and the Muslim world that his arm is still long and that if anyone is bent on sabotaging the prospects of peace it is Israel.
Comes as a surprise, huh? I was really floored, myself...
Conscious of the hot winds of menace blowing in from Ramallah,
Something wrong here. I'm starting to like DEBKAprose...
American officials are striving to be vague and non-committal about the summit and its timeline â âin two or three weeksâ. According to a DEBKAfile security sources, organizing security for Bush, Sharon and Abbas at the most likely venue, Jordanâs Red Sea port of Aqaba, will be a nightmare, given the townâs proximity to the Iraqi border and the presence of al Qaeda elements in the vicinity. But the most acute headache of all will be keeping Abu Mazen safe up until the summit, because he is unlikely to acquiesce in any special security operation the Americans â and certainly the Israelis - may set up.
Kinda builds the scenario where "Iraqi mujaheddin" pop over the border and shoot the place up, so Yasser couldn't possibly be involved, could he?
Hoping to blunt the threat, our sources reveal the Americans are trying to go through Europeans with access to Arafat. US secretary of state Colin Powell asked French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin to take with him on his visit to Arafat in Ramallah Monday, May 26, a last warning from Washington: Stop trying to disempower or eliminate Abu Mazen. If you continue to obstruct Washingtonâs plans for the region you risk a direct American reprisal.
Don't look up. It's easier that way...
Villepin will find Arafat busy with a complicated scheme that may start with an attack on someone close to Abbas or a Washington-backed appointee as a warning to the Palestinian prime minister to remove himself while he still has time. Aware of the threat, Palestinian interior minister Mohamed Dahlan is ducking his duties in terror prevention saying he needs much more time to get a handle on the job.
"Big Boy: Will he stay or go?"
Abu Mazen, for his part, looks more frightened of high-powered summitry than eager to be part of it. He may even come up with delaying tactics, such as demands for more Israeli gestures to prove it is in earnest about peacemaking.
Thereby delaying what he knows will come eventually...
Arafat is reported going to the lengths of waking up or importing secret sleeper terror cells kept till now in reserve. Not all their members are Palestinian. They include bearers of Canadian and European passports, genuine or forged, like the two British terrorists who carried out the April 30 Mikeâs Place bombing. The attack, which was meant to hit the US embassy, was set up and prepared in Damascus by Hamas and Hezbollah planners and comprehensively supported by Fatah and Hamas teams in the Gaza Strip as well as Fatah, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas accomplices on the West Bank. Each segment of the terror chain spent months preparing for its particular role. There are few doubts among counter-terror authorities that Syrian military intelligence in Damascus was in on the terror conspiracy, that Syrian president Bashar Assad was briefed and that he knew that the last command to activate the Tel Aviv bomb team was issued by Arafat in Ramallah. This chain linking terror command centers in Damascus, the Hizballah in Beirut, the Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Yasser Arafat at his Ramallah headquarters, is still jumping with unusual signs of activity. One sign was the dispatch of the Hizballah bomb expert aboard the Abu Hassan that the Israeli navy intercepted last Wednesday, May 20, as Syria and the Hizballah invest enormous efforts to upgrade the force and scale of anti-Israel terrorist operations, pressing every terrorist body available into action.
That implies we're coming to the blow-off on this particular corner of the terror world. If they're planning a make-or-break operation, we'll have to make sure we break them.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 03:03 pm ||
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#1
I think it's time to give Yasshole the Don Corleone speech about Michael's safety after he comes back from Italy...."and that I do not forgive." Oh, yeah. Also mention that he's all done.
#2
Palestinian interior minister Mohamed Dahlan is ducking his duties in terror prevention saying he needs much more time to get a handle on the job
now that's surprising - not! Guess I'll have to pony up the cash if he's gonna be a big nancy boy and try to avoid getting snuffed. Damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 15:33 Comments ||
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#3
It's not over till it's over, Frank. 2221 GMT 7 June 2003.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 20:45 Comments ||
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Palestinian interior minister Mohamed Dahlan is ducking his duties in terror prevention saying he needs much more time to get a handle on the job
Ain't that just odd? Dahlan needs "much more time" to do his job in curbing terrorism by the Paleosimian terror groups. Blix needed more time - as in many months or longer - to certify that Iraq was WMD-free. But the war in Iraq only concluded a little over a month ago, and some are asking why no WMDs have been found yet.
Edited for brevity Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown ... say they are there [Israel] on a private visit to see a sect called the Black Hebrews. Some believe the Black Hebrews are not really Jewish. And they are not particularly welcome by Israel, which has tried at various times to expel them or limit their legal status. Some even consider them a dangerous cult, run since 1967 by a former Baptist from Chicago named Ben Ami, aka Ben Israel or Ben Carter, whose real name is Gerson Parker, a 62-year-old former metallurgist and self-appointed savior. We'll call him Carter for the purposes of this column.
The connection began at Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in 1995. At that rally, Farrakhan cited Carter, who was in the audience, as his "brother." O.K. Stop the presses. Farrakhan calling a Hebrew "my brother". My incredulity is tempered by the previous passage which states that the Black Hebrews aren't really Jews. Read on, it gets better.
The Black Hebrews, ... have been trying to enlist her and Brown in their cause for some time. Whitney has since been pressured to make the trip. Adding to the pressure is the fact Brown's sister, known as Lele, is a Farrakhan supporter, who has also been lobbying the couple. Great career move Whitney - you're on a roll now. Next you can take out ads in Farrakhan's execrable "The Call".
Carter's group, The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, or Black Hebrews, operates in the U.S. in several cities including Atlanta (where Houston and Brown live), Cleveland, (of course, Farrakhan's homebase)
Charleston, Tallahassee, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington (where they operate the Prince Asiel Center), Houston and the island of St. Croix. Hmmmm.
They are said to have millions of dollars in real estate assets. In most of these locations they function out of a restaurant chain called the Soul Vegetarian. At the Atlanta restaurant last night, I was told on the phone that I should speak to one of the "saints" who run the place. The person who answered the phone said she was a member of "the Kingdom." In fact, Gerson Parker, aka Ben Carter, managed to take 350 African Americans from Chicago in 1967 and bring them to Liberia. Two years later they emigrated to Israel, believing they were the "lost tribe" of Israel. But the Black Hebrews are well known in Israel and elsewhere as black supremacists. They also believe in polygamy -- marriage to many women at once -- and are vegetarians. That does it! Black supremacists and polygamy I can tolerate, but vegetarians!
Members who do not follow their practices are punished. Some in the group are also criminals. I am shocked.
In 1986, a group of Black Hebrews — led by Carter's American disciple Warren Brown, aka Prince Asiel ("angel of healing") — was found guilty by a federal jury in Washington, D.C., of operating an international crime ring that trafficked in millions of dollars worth of stolen airline tickets and used bogus credit cards and worthless checks to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. The convictions were overturned, and when prosecutors sought a retrial, Prince Asiel pleaded to a lesser charge. In 1990, a U.S.-affiliated offshoot sect of Black Hebrews in Miami — led by Yahweh Ben Yahweh, aka Hulon Mitchell Jr. — was indicted for conspiring to commit murder and racketeering. Prosecutors said Yahweh directed followers to commit 14 murders, two attempted murders and the firebombing of a Delray Beach neighborhood. Several of the victims were decapitated with a machete and others had their ears cut off as proof of the slayings. Must have been trained by Uday.
Friends are worried Carter's group will use a vulnerable Houston for their own purposes. That idea seems to have validity since Houston and Brown were photographed with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon upon their arrival. Sharon, like most Israelis, shuns the Black Hebrews, considers them a cult and would never have agreed to be associated with the group. The salient question. Why then did Sharon even agree to an appearance with these two? This had to have been a mistake on Sharon's handlers part.
#1
The only reason they probably went over there is that they heard that they had some good crack. Meeting him was the worst thing that ever happened to her.
#2
I suspect there is so much heat on Houston and Brown in the states, that none of the Atlanta area crack dealers will touch them. So... where do you go when you need crack, can't get it yourself, and have star-power to offer Farrakhan? To Farrakhan, of course. He's got brothers that can help, and will happily lead you to them. And I'll bet that the Black Supremists, Polygamist, Scam artist, Serial Killers, Cult donate to Farrakhan.
I'm shocked! Shocked! that someone would say that Farrakhan deals with the likes of Black Supremists.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/28/2003 15:45 Comments ||
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If Sharon shuns the Black Hebrews, why in the hell did he meet with these two crackheads? I wonder about his thinking process.
#5
I saw Sharon with Houston and Brown this morning on TV. He looked as uncomfortable as Hillary at the 9/11 tribute special. He must have wondered "What in the hell am I doing with these two lunatics."
The usual grain of salt, but it fits...
DEBKAfileâs intelligence sources totally refute the reports broadcast last week claiming Syria had shut down the Damascus offices of Palestinian terror groups in response to a sharp American ultimatum. They discovered that Islamic Jihad and Hamas operational leaders supposedly expelled to Beirut, Cairo and Qatar to throw the Americans off the scent have all gone to ground in Syria. The Islamic Jihad's Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, Zeid Nahla and Ibrahim Shehada, as well as the Hamasâs Musa Abu Marzouq, Khaled Meshaal and operations chief Imad el-Alami are all in hiding under the protection of Syrian military intelligence. A senior Israeli security source commented: âHaving this collection of top terror operatives under cover and working overtime is not good news for anyone.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/28/2003 02:35 pm ||
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It is if we can figure out where they are. All the cracked eggs in one basket...
RABAT - Morocco said Wednesday it had captured the alleged mastermind of suicide bombers who killed dozens of people in Casablanca this month but said he had died from chronic heart and liver disease. and truncheons,..oh, and moustachios, can't forget those...
Ultimately, all forms of death can be ascribed to heart failure. For instance, if someone pounds your liver to a pulp with a truncheon...
State prosecutor Moulay Abdellah Alaoui Belghiti told state television that Abdelhaq Moulsabbat had been arrested Monday in the central city of Fez, whose poor districts are reputed to be strongholds of radical Islamists.
That's where they make those hats...
Moulsabbat died while being taken to hospital, he said. "He (Moulsabbat) suffered chronic heart and liver diseases. His liver weighed 2.1 kilograms (4.6 pounds) against the average 1.4 to 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds)," Belghiti said. "His health condition did not allow investigators unfortunately to complete all the elements of the investigation," he told state television. Just the initial beatings and some names, aoh, and safe house locations...
He described Moulsabbat as the "general coordinator of the attacks" and "emir" behind the attacks on five central Casablanca locations on May 16 that killed 31 members of the public in addition to 12 suicide bombers. Forensics traced Moulsabbat's woes to some medicines he used to take, Belghiti added.
"It'sh jush fer medishinal purposhes..."
Another would-be bomber was caught trying to flee, and a second surviving bomber was arrested the following day. The judicial police in their investigation have been focusing on a small ultra-conservative Islamist group known as al-Assirat al-Moustaquim (The Righteous Path), based in Casablanca's low-income Sidi Moumen neighborhood and reputed to have followers in other cities including Fez.
I used to have one of those hats. My wife really hated it. I used to wear it, and talk like Major Hoople. Drove her nuts...
Belghiti added that another group of suspects would appear later Wednesday before the public prosecutor. Three men charged with direct or indirect involvement in the suicide bombings appeared before the public prosecutor on Monday. Charges against the three include premeditated murder and formation of a criminal band. Their professions were nightwatchman, welder and street vendor, and their ages ranged from 22 to 28. Security forces raided mainly poor areas of several cities in the hunt for suspects or leads that could shed the light on the attacks, which authorities say were linked to international terrorism. Most of the areas are shantytowns, sheltering mainly poorly educated and jobless Moroccans, most of them from rural areas. Sounds like the Soddys could use some lessons from the Morrocans
When the cannon fodder leads them to the controllers and recruiters, living in the richer neighborhoods, they could well run into some Soddies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 11:26 am ||
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Hmmmm? Another "mastermind". The media just loves to use that word.
Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said on Wednesday Israel's acceptance of the U.S.-backed road map to peace was ''a trick'' and warned that Washington could not be an honest peace broker. Now that doesn't seem real helpful, does it?
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has called on militants to end the armed struggle against Israel, has accepted the road map, which calls for an end to 32 months of violence and the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet approved the staged peace plan on Sunday, but with reservations, primarily on security issues. ''Sharon is a liar...(the road map) is a trick,'' said Yassin, whose group has spearheaded a bombing campaign that has killed scores of Israelis since the start of a Palestinian uprising for independence in September 2000.
''They want to throw the ball into our court,'' he added, voicing concern that Israel could try and provoke Hamas by targeting leading militants. Nice - wrong metaphor, dumbass
Sheikh Yassin (and the rest of Hamas) sounds pretty panicked. Maybe he should have said "They want to throw the grenade into our livingroom."
Asked if Hamas might consider taking a wait-and-see attitude, the 65-year-old Yassin said: ''Maybe, everything is under discussion.'' Wait and see if a IDF helicopter is following your car, jerk
Yassin said that Hamas stood behind its offer to suspend attacks inside Israel in exchange for an end to an Israeli military crackdown on the Palestinians and the release of some 7,000 prisoners, a proposal Israel has dismissed. Not gonna happen
Israel says its military measures are necessary to stop militants from carrying out attacks against Israelis. Sharon and Abbas are due to hold their second meeting to discuss the road map ahead of a planned summit next week with U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan. Yassin said Washington's traditional backing of the Jewish state did not bode well for any talks. ''I have no hopes. America works for the interest of Israel, it cares about Israeli security and Israel's existence at our expense,'' he said. Uh, and the reasons we should care about you are....? This pinhead needs a hellfire in the rearview mirror
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 10:44 am ||
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And the United States should not side with a people whose CIVILIANS are being targeted by SUICIDE BOMBERS because...
#2
Okay, let's say for the moment that Sharon accepted the roadmap with the "trick" in mind that he knew that groups like Hamas would never disarm, therefore nullifying Israel's obligation to said roadmap.
The bottom line is that the ball IS in the paleo's court, whether they like it or not. Now the burden of proof is upon the paleos to show that they are willing to take at least an equal step. Are they willing to show that they can be civilized, or are they now forced to reveal that they are nothing more than the vicious, rabid dogs that they are. If the answer is the latter, then Israel is justified in putting them to sleep and not dealing with them. If the answer is the former, then sure, sharon's bluff will have been called, but his people will stop finding themselves in hospitals, having nails and shrapnel removed on a daily basis.
as far as ''Maybe, everything is under discussion.'' I'm betting that the only discussions are to the effect of, "uh, oh... Sharon just put us in Check, let's find a slimy way out so the heat will be off of us to put up or shut up. "
Via Washington Times AP link
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is sending a message that he - not Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas - is in charge of peace talks with Israel, countering moves to sideline him and throwing a second Palestinian-Israeli summit into confusion. Yasshole won't go willingly into the void - I'd suggest a 9mm migraine
The dispute Tuesday underlined the internal Palestinian power struggle between Arafat and Abbas as efforts to move forward on a new peace plan intensified. Arafat used the date of the second meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as his vehicle. First, Palestinians called off the Wednesday meeting until Arafat had a chance to discuss Israeli proposals with the PLO executive, which he chairs. After the PLO executive meeting Tuesday evening, Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Abbas-Sharon meeting would take place Wednesday as planned.
Then it was Israel's turn to say no. "There will be no meeting Wednesday," Sharon aide Raanan Gissin told The Associated Press. Abbas announced Wednesday that the meeting would "most likely" take place on Thursday. "But at this point in time it has not been confirmed," Abbas told reporters following a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. Israel Radio reported that the summit would take place Thursday, but officials in Sharon's office said no date had been set and made no further comment. A member of the PLO executive explained that the jockeying for position was Arafat's way of telling the United States, Israel and Abbas that Arafat makes the decisions over negotiations with Israel, using the PLO executive to make the point. George W. will not accept this and has now positioned Arafat as the "roadblock" to the "roadmap" over personal power and jealousy of Abbas - nice move, which can only further sideline the Arafish
Abbas took office April 30 under a new law that gives the PLO executive the right of approval over negotiating steps with Israel. Arafat controls the PLO body, where Abbas is his deputy. Arafat has been fighting a rear-guard action to limit Abbas' powers, objecting to the makeup of his Cabinet and inserting many of his stalwarts. He retains control of most of the Palestinian security forces and has kept for himself the final word over peace moves. This counters the Israeli and U.S. intentions to sideline Arafat, charging that he is tainted with terrorism and had led his Palestinian Authority into corruption and inefficiency. tainted? He is terrorism
In an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, Abbas spoke out in favor of Arafat. "Arafat is the elected president of the Palestinian Authority and should not be isolated," he said, calling on Israel to release Arafat from a virtual house arrest in his West Bank headquarters. Lip service
Meanwhile, officials are arranging a three-way summit with President George Bush, Sharon and Abbas early next month, possibly in Jordan. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Tuesday that concrete results could be expected from the summit. "The President would not bother coming all the way out here to leave without a decision of some kind," Shalom told Israel TV. As Clinton learned the hard way, Presidents don't make trips without agreements already reached, and only awaiting a photo-op, handshakes, and a signature
Count the number of pieces of flying meat that greet that meeting...
Abed Rabbo said he hoped the trilateral summit would result in implementation of the peace plan, called the "roadmap." The plan is sponsored by the so-called "Quartet" — the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia. It calls for a halt to nearly 32 months of bloody Palestinian-Israeli violence and leads to a full Palestinian state in 2005.
If you'll notice, when things go bad with it, it's George Bush's "roadmap." If it looks like things might work, it was worked out by the Quartett...
On Tuesday, Sharon clarified a comment that caused a stir a day before — referring to Israeli "occupation" in the West Bank for the first time, a term often used by Palestinians and their dovish Israeli backers. In a speech, Sharon said he was referring to Palestinians in "disputed" territories — an attempt to differentiate between the people and the territory, a way of underlining his policy that Israel must retain strategic parts of the West Bank. "We are not occupiers," he said. "This is the homeland of the Jewish people."
In interview excerpts published late Tuesday on the newspaper's Web site, Abbas said he would not judge Sharon by his statements. "I know Sharon inside and out," said Abbas, who has met Sharon several times. "I'll believe him only when he implements the road map." Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza for a state and demand a total Israeli pullout.
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday called Israel's acceptance of the road map "a very encouraging development." Israel has raised 14 reservations about the plan, including a demand that the United States manage the monitoring of the sides' compliance — but UN sources noted the reservations do not explicitly exclude a role for the other members of the quartet: Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. "It is something we will tackle as we move forward," Annan said of the demand.
In West Bank violence Tuesday, Israeli troops killed a 16-year-old they said was throwing a firebomb. Two children, ages 7 and 9, were critically wounded in clashes with the military, Palestinian hospital officials said. In Gaza, Palestinians fired salvos of rockets and mortar shells at Jewish settlements and an Israeli town on Tuesday, residents and the military said. No one was hurt. Two rockets fell in the Israeli town of Sderot, less than half a mile from the Gaza-Israeli fence, and four mortar shells exploded in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in southern Gaza.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 09:36 am ||
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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is sending a message that he - not Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas - is in charge of peace talks with Israel, countering moves to sideline him and throwing a second Palestinian-Israeli summit into confusion.
I suggest that GWB shelve any plans go to to Jordan to get this thing going. All these games on the part of the Paleosimians needs to stop, and until that happens, any moves to put peace talks into action should wait. Preferably until Arafart is DEAD.
#2
Yasshole. Call Sura in Paris. Tell her to find the bank books. Go hang out with her in that million dollar apartment for the rest of your despicable life (oh,lucky her). What's the use of skimming all that aid money if you can't enjoy the fruits of your labor? In France you'd be treated like a god. It worked for Khomeini. Trust me on this.
#3
Suha (Sooooeeeeee!) was just a breeder to continue the Arafat bloodline. I think her agreement with him was that she didn't have to let him touch her again once she had a child. No way she's gonna let him and his ever-present cronies live at her lush Paris digs
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 11:03 Comments ||
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A Muslim woman suing to keep her veil on for her driver's license photo took the stand Tuesday, saying Florida's insistence on photographing her face violates her religious rights."I don't unveil ... because it would be disobeying my Lord," said Sultaana Freeman, 35. The Saudis seem to believe that the Prophet wouldn't allow women to drive. So they don't allow it. Since they seem to be the experts of all things Islam, why should this woman even need a drivers license if she's so concerned with "disobeying my lord"? If fear of disobeying her lord is her main concern, then she should not be driving. Ladies and gentleman, I rest my case...
Both sides planned to call experts in Islamic law at the nonjury trial, which was to continue Wednesday. A copy of the Quran was entered into evidence. Experts in Islamic law. That should be good for a few laughs. A nonjury trial is a smart move. A jury would broom her in about five minutes. Best to go judge shopping for a good liberal who'll buy a sob story.
Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, wore her veil for the photo on the Florida driver's license she obtained after moving to the state in 2001. Nine months later, she received a letter from the state warning that it would revoke her license unless she returned for a photo with her face uncovered. Freeman claims her religious beliefs require her to keep her head and face covered out of modesty and that her faith prohibits her face from being photographed. There's a picture of her at the link. If she drives with that thing on she might be dangerous because it looks like she'd have zero peripheral vision.
Her attorneys argued that state officials didn't care that she wore a veil in the photo until after the Sept. 11 attacks, an allegation the state denies. "This is about religious liberty. It's about whether this country is going to have religious diversity," said Howard Marks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!
Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail argued that having an easily identifiable photo on a driver's license is a matter of public safety. "It's the primary method of identification in Florida and the nation," Vail said. "I don't think there can be any doubt there is a public safety interest." If she wins this, the floodgates are open.
The state might also want to have a look at a few passport photos from Islamic countries, to include Soddy Arabia. This gal's a publicity hound (a former evangelist who suddenly decided she was a Muslimette), and this thing has been going on for two years — either that, or she's revived the thing so she can get some more time in the papers.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/28/2003 08:35 am ||
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#1
Too much, too much. Let's nip it in the bud, right now. You wear the iqbal and the rest of the gear, you can't see well and are a hazard on the road. You get no license. This is not a religious issue.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/28/2003 9:45 Comments ||
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The judge had better use his head. She should be fined for all the court costs and be tossed out within hours.
I'm Rastafarian, I demand the right to drive and toke! Help me ACLU.
#3
Judge: Ok, look. The idea of the photo is identification. Kind of hard to ID a woman wearing a veil. So here's the deal - no picture, no license. Driving is a priviledge, not a right.
#4
Both sides planned to call experts in Islamic law at the nonjury trial, which was to continue Wednesday. A copy of the Quran was entered into evidence.
Why in hell is this even in court??? Driving is a privilege, not a right. If someone wants to drive, they have to meet the requirements set forth by the law, and that means a PHOTO with which the licensee can be I-D-E-N-T-I-F-I-E-D.
Religion and freedom to exercise such is NOT a consideration here, PERIOD.
#5
This woman ever hear of separation of church and state? If the state had to abide by the customs of all the religions out there... then there would be no standards, no rules, no laws, but utter pandemonium.
BTW, I think her Lord would be completely forgiving if she unveiled just once for the sake of the photo. Just a hunch.
#6
I agree with tu3031:
' If she wins this, the floodgates are open'.
What these people are doing is using the laws that protect freedom to conduct a guerrilla at every level of the society, guerrilla directed to create problems, mountains of problems.
We must learn from the example that we have in Europe: the Muslim immigrants there arrived as poor people looking for help, today they dictate what the European States can do or not do.
They have no intention to integrate, they just want to disintegrate (freedom).
That judge can be the hole in the dam: millions of other cases will be presented in the courts if this goes through.
We don't understand enough the risk: they actually are racist, they don't want to get mixed with anyone else, they do hate us and freedom.
The next step will be something that the paleostinians have done: they were 400.000, now they are more than five millions.
An Arab Muslim community of sixty or seventy million people in the USA. You will see it. They repeat the same steps in every Country in the world. Technically speaking, they invade other Countries.
The left will do anything to help the growth of this big trouble.
#8
Mojo and BAR are correct that driving is a privilege extended by a governmental entity - in this case the state of Florida. Clearly, if Allah ordains through the Quran that this woman can not remove her veil for a driver's photo, or - as was reported on the radio this morning - she is not even permitted to be photographed (!), then clearly her religion must take precedence over her wish to obtain a driver's license. I agree with others that court costs and attorney fees should be sought on the grounds of a frivolous lawsuit - i.e., one not grounded in basic law.
#10
If I were the judge i'd look the silly girl in the eye and tell her that Islam is a lie, Muhammed (may his bones sting in hell) wasn't a prophet, the Koran was written for illiterate people to be fooled by clever men and then I'd fine here for driving without a proper picture on her goddamn license.
#12
Poiters summed it up. This is a probing of the institutions of our country to find and exploit every weakness, just like it is happening in France and other European countries. Battles start over seemingly insignificant issues, but like any war, they can erupt into major confrontations. The enemy picks and chooses his battles based upon his perceptions of our weaknesses. They are not going to go after pilot's privelages, for instance.
The thing that is interesting about this case is the plaintiff's going into all the details of islamic law. This has nothing to do with details of the driver's licence, which are related to the safety of the general public. The intent is to drive a wedge into State institutions with Sharia law.
#13
I agree with Portiers and Anonymous. IIRC, Bernard Lewis had developed a whole list of tactics that the Islamists would use to compromise Western governments and this was one of them. Isn't it the magpie that lays its eggs in others birds' nests? The magpie young then force the real chicks' out of the nest, killing them. The real parents don't notice the difference, feeding the magpie chicks until maturity. I propose that we call the Islamist strategy wrt the Western democracies the magpie strategy.
#15
The Supremes have already visited this: The Supreme Court said in Oregon v. Smith that âIt is a permissible reading of the [free exercise clause]...to say that if prohibiting the exercise of religion is not the object of the [law] but merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid provision, the First Amendment has not been offended....To make an individualâs obligation to obey such a law contingent upon the lawâs coincidence with his religious beliefs, except where the Stateâs interest is âcompellingâ-permitting him, by virtue of his beliefs, âto become a law unto himself,â contradicts both constitutional tradition and common sense.â
You lose, sister.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 14:00 Comments ||
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#16
Dunno about Magpies, but thet's the Cuckoo's trick...
#17
People who flip/flop like this, one day extreme christian and the next extreme muslim. They have some underlying problems. Might want to check her Zoloff dosage. I would bet she probably has a web cam in her room. "Muslim Wench Uncovered"
#19
Hey, folks. Let's not forget one small item.
This woman would not be here without support from the ACLU - and the ACLU also supported that (in)famous group, NAMBLA.
Philanthropic dollars at work, costing us tax dollars in kind (or should that be "in spades?").
#20
As others have noted, a driver's license is the grant of privilege. You can drive without one, just not on any government property.
And under strict Muslim law, any "realistic" depiction is forbidden as an attempt to copy Allah's handiwork - photos, movies, TV, etc. are all forbidden. Related: ask a rug merchant - the rugs are supposed to have at least one deliberate "mistake" so as not to mock Allah by attempting perfection.
Posted by: John Anderson ||
05/28/2003 18:52 Comments ||
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#21
Update: My wife mentioned that she heard on CNN (yup) that the prosecution hit paydirt when they asked about prior convictions; now that they mentioned it, she recalled a felony conviction for falsifying 6 drivers licenses for her husband...
"Freeman, a convert to Islam previously known as Sandra Kellar, wore her veil for the photo on the Florida driver's license she obtained after moving to the state in 2001."
Further: "Freeman conceded that she has had her face photographed without a veil since she started wearing one in 1997. She had a mug shot taken after her arrest in 1998 on a domestic battery charge involving one of twin 3-year-old sisters who were in her foster care. The children were removed from her home, according to records from the Decatur (Ill.) Police Services.
Child welfare workers told investigators in Decatur that Freeman and her husband had used their concerns about religious modesty to hinder them from looking for bruises on the girls, according to the Decatur Police records."
al-Sandra is no more Islamic than we are, arguably less, just another honey workin' the System.
And the System is doing its impression of Eddie Murphy doing his impression of Jackie Gleason... "Now Norton, I'm gonna bend over, and when I do..."
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/28/2003 22:31 Comments ||
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#24
"a driver's license is the grant of privilege"
Right on the money!I have been told that since I was 16.I would think the judge would issue a ruling saying"No un-obstructed photo,no driver's license".
"A copy of the Quran was entered into evidence."
This has a direct bearing on the murder trial,where(in the sentenceing faze)the judge through-out the juries decision because the jurer's had access to the Gideion Bible.
Seems to me if this ditz can use the Quran to defy the law,then the Bible can be used to enforce the law.
I have an idea:If she gets away with this,all of us should go down to DMV,wearing veils(Freedom of Religion).After all a precedent was set.I can see law enfocment officials haveing heart palpitations now.
But I suppose ACLU,and other enablers will say that is intolerant!
EFL Bob Geldof astonished the aid community yesterday by using a return visit to Ethiopia to praise the Bush administration as one of Africa's best friends in its fight against hunger and Aids. The musician-turned activist said Washington was providing major assistance, in contrast to the European Union's "pathetic and appalling" response to the continent's humanitarian crises. "You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical — in a positive sense — in its approach to Africa since Kennedy," Geldof told the Guardian. The neo-conservatives and religious rightwingers who surrounded President George Bush were proving unexpectedly receptive to appeals for help, he said. "You can get the weirdest politicians on your side." Former president Bill Clinton had not helped Africa much, despite his high-profile visits and apparent empathy with the downtrodden, the organiser of Live Aid, claimed. "Clinton was a good guy, but he did fuck all." Well, I'd disagree with the good guy part.
But Bill said he was. He wouldn't lie to us, would he?
Lord Alli, the aid activist who is accompanying Geldof on the trip organised by the UN children's aid agency Unicef, echoed his praise of the Bush administration. "Clinton talked the talk and did diddly squat, whereas Bush doesn't talk, but does deliver," Lord Alli said.
Better start polishing your resume, Lord. They're gonna toss you out of the NGO club for those remarks...
This is the Irish musician's first visit to Ethiopia since the 1985 Live Aid concert that raised $60m for famine victims. With his compatriot Bono, of the rock group U2, Geldof has become a leading figure in the campaigns for debt relief and trade reform. He and Bono met Tony Blair in Downing Street last week to ask the prime minister to put Africa's Aids pandemic on the agenda of the G8 summit. The non-governmental organisation, ActionAid, expressed surprise at Geldof's comments. "Bush's increased aid comes with harmful loan conditions," its USA policy officer, Rick Rowden, said. Justin Forsyth, Oxfam's director of campaigns and policy, said Geldof's remarks "shouldn't be taken out of context ... Bob Geldof rightly highlighted that the Bush administration deserve credit for dramatically increasing US aid for HIV programmes in Africa. Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based NGO, said Mr Clinton's Africa rhetoric was often hollow, but that he deserved credit for pushing through an African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is supposed to give certain countries access to US markets.
It's worked wonders. You can buy all sorts of things now, from, ummm...
But Geldof was adamant that the EU was the greater villain for delivering just a small fraction of Ethiopia's staple needs and refusing, unlike the US and Britain, to supply any supplementary foods, such as oil, which give a balanced diet. "The EU have been pathetic and appalling, and I thought we had dealt with that 20 years ago when the electorate of our countries said never again," he said. Warning that the "horror of the 80s" could return, he added: "The last time I spoke to the EU's aid people, they didn't even know where their own ships were. The food is there, get it here." Bob Geldof is one celebrity who puts his money where his mouth is.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 08:43 am ||
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#1
The EU screwed something up? Clinton was full of shit? Say it ain't so!
#3
His comments about Bob Mugabe were also right on the money - guy's gotta go - now!
I think a lot more of Geldof now
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 9:47 Comments ||
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#4
You people have Clinton all wrong. He's a man of peace. He loves African people and if the persons responsible for fixing the situation, over there, would have tried even half as hard as Bill the whole enchilada would have been fixed. Clinton parties with Bono. Bono and Bon Jovi and those cool dudes like to hang out with Clinton.
#5
The neo-conservatives and religious rightwingers who surrounded President George Bush were proving unexpectedly receptive to appeals for help, he said. "You can get the weirdest politicians on your side." Finding out that some people actually have a religiously based tradition of charity can be shocking. The press laughed when Reagan claimed to give 10% of his income to charitable causes, then shut their traps and said nothing when the Gipper's 1040s proved them wrong.
"Clinton talked the talk and did diddly squat, whereas Bush doesn't talk, but does deliver," Lord Alli said.
Yea, 'tis not what proceedeth out of the mouth of a blowhard that feedeh a man, but what goeth in through the mouth to the belly that counteth...
#6
A report in next week's Sunday New York Times reveals that Geldoff's voice coach was a fellow who had pool party with a neighbor of Leo Strauss's. Explains everything.
Posted by: af ||
05/28/2003 16:06 Comments ||
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The U.S. Senate recently decided to repeal the "law banning smaller nukes" that was adopted and took effect in l993, according to a news report. In accordance with this decision, the U.S. Department of Defense was tasked to work out a plan to develop, manufacture and use smaller nukes such as underground-penetrating smaller nukes and start full-scale research into them. "Underground" is, I believe, Kimmie's new address.
This decision discloses a dastardly move of the bush administration to carry out the reckless war strategy to dominate the world by force of arms. Operation Engulf and Devour continues, led by the Evil Bush and his lackeys.
The issue of developing smaller nukes is nothing new as it has long been clamoured for by the hawkish hardliners of pentagon.
But the recent decision of the senate arouses profound concern of the world public as it lifted the legal ban on such nukes so that they may be developed in real earnest. The Senate? They must've thought they had some friends there. They sound disappointed.
It is said that the destructive power of an underground-penetrating smaller nuke which the U.S. plans to develop is equivalent to one third of that of the a bomb dropped over Hiroshima late in World War II as its trotyl equivalent is less than 5kt and it is capable of destroying any underground structure 300m deep. So we can assume Kimmie is less then 300m down and that's why they're pissed. "Ding-dong... Nuclear JDAM calling!" Dig 'em deeper, Dear Leader.
It is as clear as noonday that the U.S. production of such type of weapon is aimed to maintain an unchallenged edge over other nuclear weapons states and dominate the world. This will only escalate the worldwide nuclear arms race and prompt various countries to pull out of the NPT. ...like they're doing.
What arouses the caution of the DPRK is the U.S. assertion that the development of smaller nukes is necessary for striking "rogue states" and terrorist organizations. ...and they're on that list. Right near the top.
What is more serious is that the development of such type of nuke is resumed at a time when the U.S. is increasing its pressure on the DPRK over such non-existent issues as drug trafficking and counterfeit money while blustering that "further steps would be considered in case the danger increases" and "all options are not taken off the table". Let's nuke one of the white slag express boats. Maybe they'll get the message.
The U.S. nuclear threat compels the DPRK to heighten its revolutionary vigilance and build a deterrent force to counter the use of nukes. The DPRK has its own effective method to retaliate against it.
The People's Army and the people of the DPRK remain unfazed in face of the U.S. undisguised threat of nuclear attack as they have consolidated the country's defences as an impregnable fortress with the might of the Songun policy. They are fully determined to increase the might of singlehearted unity. Unfortunately, most of our good stuff is less then 300m down. It's in the Songun policy book under "Impregnable Fortresses: Digging".
The U.S. is well advised to stop acting rashly, well aware that the DPRK has its own effective method to cope with Washington's nuclear threat. Yessssss. Ve have our vays of dealing vith the evil Amelicans...ahahahahahahahahaha.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/28/2003 07:49 am ||
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#1
Maybe we can finally get that nuclear hand grenade I've heard so much about. You know, the one that will destroy everything within a 100 foot radius.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 9:20 Comments ||
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#2
Steve, Unless the tosser had one helluvan arm, I'm afraid that might include the person that threw it also.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/28/2003 9:52 Comments ||
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#3
Increasing the pressure and resulting "voices" in Kimmy's little head...heh heh. Even if you didn't destroy the little bastard's "lair", how long to dig him out (and would anyone? "hey! the dirt's glowing!") and how long would the air, food, water last? A stone coffin
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2003 10:07 Comments ||
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#4
The heat alone would vitrify the soil (turn it into glass). They'd have a hell of a time digging him out...
#6
Actually, Mike, you wouldn't need a strong throwing arm. All you would need is the M-203 (or the older M-79) 40mm grenade launcher. They have a launch range of just over 400 yards. So a nuclear grenade would work, you just wouldn't want to throw it by hand. ^_^
Ed.
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
05/28/2003 12:15 Comments ||
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#7
That makes much more sense to me now. Thanks for the clarification.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/28/2003 12:29 Comments ||
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#8
OK, we have the delivery system problem solved, now all we have to do is to creat a small weapon system that will fissle and not fizzle, and we've got it!
#9
Snicker, the nuke hand grenade joke is almost as old as sending a new airmen to supply for a roll of flight line.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 14:05 Comments ||
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#10
Snicker, the nuke hand grenade joke is almost as old as sending a new airmen to supply for a roll of flight line.
To the contrary, Steve. I'm ex-service, and a former professional gunsmith, with my hobby being weapons research. To the best of my personal knowledge, the smallest nuclear weapon the Western nations are able to build is the so-called "Tennis-ball" bomb.
It's called that because the original design was intended to be roughly the size of a standard can of tennis balls.
It's very inefficient, in terms of the bang you get for the ammount of fissile material, but it IS a nuke, and it DOES give you a rather impressive bang for its size and weight.
Going for a slightly larger size, there's the (currently out of service) "Davey Crockett" bomb.
President Kennedy once witnessed a demonstration of this system, a description of which can be found here.
Morocco's parliament has overwhelmingly passed a controversial anti-terrorism law in the wake the Casablanca suicide bombings 11 days ago. All 89 legislators present in the upper house on Tuesday voted in favour of the bill, which broadens the definition of terrorism and increases the number of offences punishable by death. The measures were withdrawn for amendment in April, following strong criticism from human rights groups. The bill was passed by the lower house a week ago but will not take effect until it is gazetted. It defines a terrorist act as "any premeditated act, by an individual or a group, that aims to breach public order through terror and violence". Those C-4 alarm clocks are one hell of a wake up call.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/28/2003 07:50 am ||
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#1
The bastards in al-Qaeda are having "trouble" striking at the non-Muslim infidels who live in America and Britain. Thus, their targets shift to those countries that are helping in our worldwide war on al-Qaeda.
What a perversion of Islam these evildoers represent.
#2
I don't think its any perversion of Islam. Since it's all made up it's whatever some fool thinks it is. And make no mistake, those mosques going up all around the world are teaching a lie. To listen to a muslim teacher is to be lied to. You will know them by their deeds. I reject anything about any holiness of Islam, pure lies. Be good Rantburg rocks.
#3
"To listen to a muslim teacher is to be lied to."
Non-religious folks like me believe the same about teachers of Christianity. Except that "lied" implies intentional misinformation, and I rarely think that's the case.
#4
The problem with the Imams, Mullahs, Muftis et. al. is that the believe their own s--t. At least until they face the business end of a round. Then they die a fanatic, or they try to talk their way out of it, or they run away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/28/2003 14:28 Comments ||
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#5
Actually, the difference between Christianity and Islam is that you can find verses in the Koran and in supporting commentary authorizing lying, hate, hypocrisy, and virgins in paradise. Christianity was the religion that MADE hypocrisy the sin that it is,and sets the bar so high, people complain it can't be kept.
#6
The two most notable killers of mankind throughout history are religion and politics - and politics is often religion in disguise.
If you look at Islam and basic Christian and Jewish teachings, there's one heck of a lot of overlap.
What seems to differentiate Islam most from the others (in my opinion) is the relative degree of intolerance and unwillingness to adapt to the "real world" as it evolves. Note that I said "relative degree," since they are all intolerant at some level.
#7
As for commentary supporting lying, hatred, hypocricy, etc, you can find some in the Bible as well. Like the genocidal extermination of the Midianites in the Old Testament. Or, in Revelations, white-clothed saints asking God to take revenge on their behalf.
Once upon a time Islamic countries used to be more tolerant than Christian ones; allowing the free existence of Christian and Jews within their borders, even as Christian countries rarely tolerated people of other religions... The difference since then is, I think, that Christianity has had a Reformation, which offered new ideas about the relationship between church and believer. But Islam has not had any such Reformation...
#8
Aris: You are missing the point. The founder of Christianity was persecuted and meekly went to his death rather than compromise his beliefs. The founder of Islam was persecuted, changed his beliefs, and killed his persecutors. So Christian martyrs go to their death wrapped only in their faith. Muslim "martyrs" go to their death clad in C-4 and nails.
As to your specific charges, Jesus and his interpreter Paul both state that the Way overturns the old Jewish law and that seeking revenge is no longer acceptable. The saints in Revelations are asking God to avenge them in the afterlife. Some scholars consider the author of Revelations to be a survivor of either Nero's or Domitian's persecution of the Christians. Given that, surely you can cut the guy some slack for being a little pissed off?
Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the U.N. Security Council Tuesday to support a peace plan for Western Sahara that would give the disputed territory immediate self-government followed by a referendum on its future within five years. Let's see, first we'll be allowed to govern ourselves, then we'll hae a vote on how to govern ourselves. Makes as much sense as the UN always does.
In a report to the council, Annan called on the council to ask Morocco and the Polisariocommunist rebel movement, which both claim the mineral-rich desert region on Africa's Atlantic coast, to agree to the peace plan and to work with the United Nations to implement the final version without changes. Annan said he was making a recommendation because after more than 11 years and a cost of nearly $500 million to U.N. member states, both sides ``still lack the genuine will required to achieve a political solution to the conflict.'' I think Kofi needs an application of the ClueBat.
The dispute over the Western Sahara dates to 1975 when Spain abandoned the territory and Morocco annexed it, moving settlers in. Some 200,000 local Saharawi people fled into exile and still live in refugee camps in Algeria. Fighting ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on whether the territory would become independent or part of Morocco. Morocco has supported autonomy, but the Polisario Front and Algeria will not consider it and demand a referendum. "And we demand that the Morrocans stand on their heads and spit out dinars!"
U.N. efforts to arrange the referendum have been frustrated by disputes over who would be eligible to vote. The U.N. mission charged with trying to carry out the referendum has about 240 uniformed personnel and Annan asked that its mandate be extended for two months until July 31 to give the Security Council sufficient time to reflect on its decision. Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Annan's personal envoy, in February 2002 proposed four options to settle the dispute- try again to conduct a referendum, revise an autonomy proposal, consider dividing the territory or run away walk away.
I'd be reaching for my shoes, if it was up to me...
The Security Council couldn't agree on any of the options which wasn't surprising, and last July expressed its readiness to consider any approach that would get them off the hook provide for self-determination. Baker and a Florida state supreme court justice constitutional expert then drafted a peace plan that was presented to the parties and neighboring countries in January and to the council in early March. The plan envisages at least four years of self-government followed by a referendum within five years. Annan urged the council to support the peace plan with a few amendments. ``The peace plan provides a fair and balanced approach towards a political solution to the question of Western Sahara, providing each side some, but perhaps not all, of what it wants,'' Annan said in the report. Since neither side wants to settle, there's no point, Kofi. Oh Rachel Lucas, another application of the ClueBat, please!
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2003 12:34 am ||
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This is the major terrorist problem for Morocco and the rationale for the law cited above.
The notion that 200,000 people are refugees is absurd. Yet another statistic to use against Morocco.
Is Morocco perfect? No, but Western Sahara was the armpit of the world in 1975, and the Moroccans are making attempts to develope it. Polisario is merely a front for Algeria's expansionist aims, and would be a lot more dangerous if Algeria weren't so distracted by its own Islamofascist insurgency (brought on, in part, by its support of Polisario).
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.
