I've checked all the AP feeds I can find, and I can't find a copy of the story on the chem weapons in Kuwait. Nothing on Arab Times â which is the English language version of Al-Siyassah â which I'd expect to splash it. Nothing in Kuwait Times. My guess is that the Hindustan Times article is bogus. Damn...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:37 ||
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Yep, you could tell as soon as it mentioned the "$60 million" worth of WMD.
How much WMD do you get for $60 million? Is that a lot or just a tad? Bigger than a breadbox?
I think if the Kuwaitis had bounced a WMD smuggling ring, we wouldn't be hearing about its street value.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2003 0:44 Comments ||
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I could come up with a more creative interpretation of an Arab "biological warhead" (a turban?)
Fred, I know that WMD evidence would silence a lot of critics. Yet I prefer this story not to be true. First of all, it could be used against the Bush administration as a "self fulfilling prophecy". Didn't America go to war to stop WMD falling into the hands of terrorists? And now, look...
The thing is, if this was true, it could be like a drug bust. There is always much more that goes through unhindered.
And really, I don't want any of this stuff heading to Europe, to the very wrong people.
It would mean that Iraq's WMD are out of control.
If there is something to this story, it sounds more like a creative scam. Worldnetdaily runs the story without mentioning AP. Hmmmmmm.
#3
Yep, you could tell as soon as it mentioned the "$60 million" worth of WMD
Right you are Steve. Not only do they say it's $60 million, but they don't say what the WMD's actually were. The varying prices of chemicals and methods of production effects the overall price. Way too many loopholes for this to be true.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:25 Comments ||
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IS THIS FOR REAL? [Jonah Goldberg]
The Hindustan Times is reporting that a pile of chemical weapons were seized in Kuwait coming from Iraq. Shouldn't that be news? The Dow Jones wire has picked up the story.
Posted at 05:26 PM
Posted by: Brian ||
10/02/2003 3:06 Comments ||
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I saw it on the English blurbs on KUNA yesterday and it apparently was an AP story per the Hindustan Times - no clue why it wouldn't be on the Arab Times.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/02/2003 6:04 Comments ||
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#6
Pretty obviously Stephen Hatfill has to be a person of interest, and should be picked up by the FBI and interrogated about this, after all, how far is it, really, from Maryland to...um...Kuwait....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 8:11 Comments ||
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#7
There was a line in the story about handing them over to the FBI at a news conference. Uh, right!
Posted by: john ||
10/02/2003 8:43 Comments ||
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Five comments (i) The FBI could have given the rough $60 million figure for the grabbed WMD. Its such a ballpark figure as to be useless. (ii) It took days to determine what anything grabbed during the war actually was, so even if this is WMD don't expect the US Gov to say anything for a week or so.(iii) If this is real, its also possible that the US didn't want it leaked until they had tested it and rolled up all of the bad guys they could connected to this. (iv) Unlike Drugs you would probably want to move WMD out in one batch, that way if you got them out nobody is the wiser. If you moved them out in bits and pieces your odds of getting a little out increases but your odds of getting some of the WMD caught increases dramatically and when one batch is found it will be far harder to get the rest out.(v) getting it out through Kuwait makes since if you have connections that can get it into a shipping container or onto an oil tanker, from there it can go nearly anywhere.
"Hunters" from South Africa are buying "licences" that allow them to strip the area of its remaining game. A South African newspaper reported one "hunter" bragged of bringing back 400 zebra skins from a single trip. Slaughtering animals on this scale would never be allowed in South Africa, but with little law -- and less enforcement -- in Zimbabwe, there is nothing to stop it. That policy doesnât strike me as ecologically sound. Didnât they learn from Lion King when the hyenas ran the country? Wanton killing is not good for the circle of life. Donât they have a Green Party there?
Much of the land in question used to be owned by white farmers, but was seized by Robert Mugabeâs government for redistribution to landless blacks. Some blacks, in turn, have been forced to give up their new stakes to cronies of Mr. Mugabe. In any case, nobody is growing much of anything, thanks to the general collapse of Zimbabweâs economy. So selling licences to kill off the countryâs irreplaceable wildlife is a welcome opportunity to turn a buck. Calling Captain Planet. Gaia is in danger.
Thanks to inflation, they have to carry almost five times as much money as they did a year ago to make the same purchases. A loaf of bread is more than Z$1,000 (about US$1), a 35-litre tank of gasoline about Z$70,000, on the rare occasions gas is available. Just yesterday the government hiked gas prices 60%, barely a month after tripling them. But what about the deficit? Is the deficit OK?
Until two years ago, the highest denomination bill was Z$100. In 2001, a Z$500 bill was introduced, but there were so few of them in circulation, a trip to the grocery store meant a mad scramble to come up with enough dirty, worn-out bills to make the purchase. Must be tough for the kids to calculate the answers to story problems without using expodentials.
Yesterday, the government introduced bills in Z$1,000 denominations, despite reports it was having trouble finding a foreign firm willing to print the notes because it couldnât afford to pay. With inflation still rising, even the new denomination wonât help much; one local commentator said Z$50,000 notes would have been more useful.
In August, the government started introducing internal "travellerâs cheques" in place of cash, but many stores rejected them and they didnât really catch on. So this week the Central Bank began issuing "bearer cheques," which are more easily printed and can be used in place of cash. The cheques are only good for six months, which authorities maintain will prevent hoarding. But they are also easily counterfeited, forcing shops to set up "cheque-checking desks" to sort out whether theyâre real.
It is not clear how people will react as the six-month deadline nears and everyone scrambles to get rid of the cheques before they become worthless.
Zimbabweâs government, which never admits anything is its fault, insists the cash shortage is the result of hoarding. The logic of this argument is hard to follow: With the currency becoming less valuable by the minute, holding on to large quantities is surely the last thing anyone would want to do. A lot of money is also said to be "externalized" -- taken out of the country to trade for foreign currency in neighbouring Zambia or Mozambique, with the foreign currency then being sold at a big mark-up back in Zimbabwe. But why anyone in Zambia or Mozambique would want useless Zimbabwean dollars is never explained.
One industry that is thriving from the crisis is the black market. Unable to meet demand, most banks refuse to hand out more than Z$2,000 or Z$3,000 at a time, forcing people to turn to freelance dealers for help. The government maintains these operations are another cause of the shortage -- illegal dealers need to keep large amounts of money on hand -- and has introduced regulations making it a crime to carry more than Z$5-million.
Police have the authority to stop and strip anyone they suspect of having that much money hidden on them, though it would require secreting 5,000 of the new Z$1,000 notes. Note to GITMO translators - customs is even tougher in Bobâs country.
It sounds like a lot of money, but at the official rate it comes to about C$7,000. On the black market it would fetch just C$1,750. Bob was right. There is a black market for his currency.
By this time next week, it will be worth even less.
Iâm not a big recall guy, but this guy needs to be stopped. Hopefully his citizens will take care of him before its too late. South Africa has no intetions of stopping this travesty.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 8:01:51 PM ||
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Bob has taken a page right out of the Communist playbook. This isn't anything new - Lenin did it in 1919 in Russia. Stalin did it in Eastern Europe in 1945. The communists tried to do it in Germany in 1923, but failed.
The idea is to destroy all "old" wealth. First confiscate the land, granting new people to live on that land, but deny them ownership. Second, cause rampant, runaway inflation, so that no one's money, from any source, is worth anything, and any savings or inheritance are totally wiped out. The next step will be to issue new money in new denominations, with one "new" Dollar/ruble/whatever worth virtually as much as anybody had previously. The government and its most trusted cronies will change all their money into gold long before the situation reaches critical mass, as it has now. Once the new money is in place, the government will sell its gold for the new money, and become instant millionaires. In the end, though, only the GOVERNMENT will have either money, or land, or possessions worth more than a few dollars.
The Democratic party here in the United States has tried to do the same thing, for the same reason - it concentrates power in the hands of a few, while wiping out the power (fortunes, etc.) of others. The "Death tax" is a good example - it's especially aimed at keeping large NEW fortunes from remaining intact. Money has always equalled power. This is the reason the Democrats have fought so hard to prevent the recinding of the estate tax.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 22:22 Comments ||
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A GI has a million reasons to remember his visit home -- or make that 150 million. Sgt. Stephen Moore is on leave from his U.S. Army unit in South Korea. He bought a lottery ticket while visiting family in Fitzgerald, Ga., this week. Turns out he has the winning ticket for the multistate Mega Millions lottery, with a $150 million jackpot. The chemical specialist is taking the cash payout -- nearly $90 million before taxes. Sgt. Moore says heâll use his fortune to build a new home for his wife, Danielle, who is also an Army sergeant, and their family. Guess the 1st shirt can cross his name off the prospective re-enlistment roster.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 12:35:38 PM ||
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Why?
$10 million buys a Bird and another $80 million buys a down payment on his own battlion. That's power you can't get in the private sector.
#5
ex-Marine roommate's comment:
The Army will probably ask him to buy out his contract. For $50-$150k, he pays the Army back for everything its given him (like training) and gets a general discharge.
#6
he Army will probably ask him to buy out his contract.
I bet he has more class than that and will serve to the end of his currrent tour.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2003 14:19 Comments ||
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Better that he win it than some sorry leech who cries about needing welfare to survive, then turns around and cashes his government check for cigarettes and lottery tickets.
#9
I like the lottery! It's a voluntary tax, and I'm more than willing to let other people pay it!
Hopefully he won't take $300,000 to a strip club and get robbed like that dolt in WV, though.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 15:22 Comments ||
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You don't know HOW many times I had this dream in the service! Alas I will have to live it through Sgt Moore. Yes I would have served out my tour, but what a tour it would have been!
For a Russian electricity company, pets are not just for Christmas -- they are for ransom. Russiaâs First Channel television reported Dalenergo, an electricity company in Russiaâs Far Eastern city Vladivostok, is so frustrated by customers who owe around $10 million that it has decided to confiscate their pets. "Let the father answer his daughterâs question as to why her favorite cat has been taken away," Dalenergo Director Nikolai Tkachyov told First Channel. "Garfield sleeps with the fishes."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 11:00:09 AM ||
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Wha...?! Can't you just...oh, I don't know...maybe turn off their POWER, since you're the POWER COMPANY?
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 11:07 Comments ||
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Individual metering may not have arrived in Vladivostok yet.
#3
Okay--so I assume that means they can't shut them off at the meter then? Could they snip the wires connecting the house/building or something similar? There has to be some physical connection to the grid that can be severed.
I just don't understand why, if you're owed money, you'd incur additional overhead kidnapping, sheltering, and feeding people's pets--not to mention the legal fees defending yourselves from the lawsuits this will surely bring!
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 11:28 Comments ||
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Feeding? And wat ist this lawsuit thing, comrade?
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 11:39 Comments ||
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Well, maybe I'm just naive, but I had hoped that even in the far-flung reaches of Vladivostok one couldn't be deprived of personal property without due process. Oh, well...
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 12:41 Comments ||
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You could cut the power to the building... but that might mean cutting power to 200 people who've paid. I'd send Comrade Reddy Kilowatt to collect in person.
#7
The crazy ex Soviet system meant that YOU couldn't even shut it off... "central heating" meant just that. So if it was hot unexpectedly you'd sweat in your (still) heated apartment.
But from what I have heard about the electricity service in Vladi, I wouldn't pay them a dime either.
Tip to WND Ever feel Gods backhand?
The 38-year-old man alleged to have had sex in a public area of New York Cityâs St. Patrickâs Cathedral has died of a heart attack while awaiting trial. Brian Florenceâs attorney announced to a surprised courtroom Tuesday that his client died last week in Alexandria, Va., the New York Daily News reported. "Weâre told that it was heart failure. It was very sudden. The family is still in a state of shock," defense attorney Maranda Fritz told reporters outside the courtroom. Florence â who along with his girlfriend, Loretta Harper, 36, had planned to plead guilty to disorderly conduct â was buried Monday, Fritz said. I think God smote him! Were they not surprised that he was having sex inside a church?
The judge adjourned the case until next month when Harper will return to court.
Are there stiffer penalties for having sex with a dead guy?
Florence and Harper were arrested inside the cathedral after being caught having sex as part of a radio stunt. Radio producer Paul Mercurio, 43, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Tuesday and was sentenced to seven days of community service, according to the Daily News. Radio shock jocks Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia of WNEW put the couple up to the stunt. Both announcers were fired after the arrest of Florence and Harper.
"Pack your shit and get out!"
An usher at the cathedral discovered the couple in a side entrance vestibule.
"What're you people doing!"
"What's it look like we're doing?"
According to the paper, their activity was visible to about 20 worshipers and tourists.
"Don't look, Ethel!"
Mercurio, who provided live on-air commentary of the stunt, later apologized. "Since the show, I realized how inappropriate these actions were. I have apologized personally to monsignors at St. Patrickâs Cathedral and apologize publicly now for the disrespect we showed the church, its parishioners and the people of the City of New York," he is quoted by the paper as saying.
"I'm really sorry I got jugged..."
This was about the sickest stunt I ever heard of! I donât remember either of the âperpsâ showing remorse for their actions. I am not saying the guy deserved what happened, but now he and God can discuss the matter in person.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) ||
10/02/2003 10:33:50 AM ||
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Karl Rove told the CIA to have him eliminated.
No, the Vatican had a Jesuit assassin kill him.
No, Mossad used a poison dart, at the request of the Spanish, who were acting for Dick Cheney.
I learned a long time ago as an EMT, when the good Lord calls you home, nobody is going to be able to stop Him. He called Mr. Florence home. The discussion was probably rather one-sided.
#3
No mention that the "radio stunt" was a contest sponsered by Sam Adams beer, and that the company's head was in the booth with the DJs while this happened. It led to cries for a boycott, and I can personally attest to having seen a hand-signed letter from Sam Adams's pres sent out in response to a nasty letter sent in.
Not that this is a big deal. Just that it was a big deal at the time, and gets no mention at all now.
#4
too bad he wasn't a priest....probably would've got off with a fine. Wait a minute, this dude shagged a female? Now, I think that's against church policy.
#7
Obviously another sick stunt by shock radio--bet Howard Stern is pissed he didn't think this up! Jarhead--your anti Catholic comments are outta line
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
10/02/2003 23:49 Comments ||
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Not Mike Moore - hahaha, anti-Catholic comments?! Lighten up. If you can't take a joke you need to go to another site. I thought this was the non-pc website? Or is that only for when we're clowning on the ME, the Pac Rim, or the frenchies? All of whom deserved to be clowned on as does the church. My supposed anti-Catholic comments are in line - as I am an Irish-Catholic, went to Catholic school and the whole 9 yards. I'm also an active duty Marine who defends the constitution 24/7 - in conus and abroad. However, my resume should not matter... I will say whatever I please about any subject I choose vice what I'm prohibited from making statements about according to the UCMJ.
Taliban fighters ambushed and killed 10 government troops and two children traveling with them in southern Afghanistan, a military official said Thursday. The soldiers killed one of the Taliban attackers and captured another in the fighting in the Dara-e-Noor area late Wednesday, said Gen. Atta Mohammed, director of Afghan special forces in Kandahar. The one they killed is the lucky one.
The troops were about 45 miles north of Kandahar when up to 16 Taliban fighters ambushed their truck, Mohammed said. The children of one soldier were riding in the vehicle. Cruising along fat, dumb and happy again. Theyâll learn.
Afghan government troops, along with nearly a dozen U.S. forces, were in the area Thursday searching for Taliban rebels, Mohammed said. Track them down and kill them.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 1:15:58 PM ||
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Track them down and kill them.
I'm a bloodthirsty SOB. If I caught any of these perps, I'd do my best to stake 'em out on the highest, most open place I could find, using something like battleship anchor cable, and strip them down to the short hairs. Keep a couple of people on guard to make sure no one rescues them. It's getting to be winter in Afghanistan. Let the wind and the cold do to them what it can. After a month, go back and recover the chain.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 22:37 Comments ||
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At least four suspected Taliban guerrillas were killed when helicopter gunships from the U.S.-led force in Afghanistan fired at their vehicle. The incident took place Wednesday in the Nish area, 37 miles north of the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, said an official from the Afghan foreign ministry in Spin Boldak. The Taliban guerrillas were returning from neighboring Uruzgan province a day after clashes with Afghan troops there, he said. "They attacked several Afghan forcesâ vehicles and looted local government commanders," the official said of the guerrillas. He did not give details. Driving along, giving each other high fives and gloating over their loot when the Hellfire came through the windshield.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 8:55:35 AM ||
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Another case of you can run, but we will find you.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/02/2003 9:16 Comments ||
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Another case of say hello to my leeeetle friend
Hat tip: Instapundit. Edited for brevity.
Kylie tunes are proving a huge hit with listeners of new music station Arman FM, and it seems locals in the Afghan capital just canât get her out of their head. "We play a lot of Kylie Minogue," DJ Zaid Mohseni told the Reuters news agency. "She is very popular." The Arman FM flash intro and somewhat improbable road cruiser are worth a look. Their picture gallery tells stories which bely the anti-liberation gloomsters. Arman FMâs polling reveals three of their five most popular DJs are women. That is not just good news. That is astonishing. The Afghan word for hope is Arman and that is exactly what the station is about. Some links and pix in the article. Worth a look!
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 8:00:39 AM ||
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any pix of Kylie are worth a look ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 8:08 Comments ||
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Who wants Kylie Minogue when there is this
girl around? http://www.shahrzadmusic.com/indexmain.html
And in addition she sings in Persian. Thinking
about it the Persian thing is not a good idea: the Tadjiks would love it, Pashtouns would hate it. Thinking about it, screw the Pashtouns.
U.S. officials believe they have identified a young former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida's new chief of terror operations in the Persian Gulf. Abu Hazim al-Shair, a 29-year-old Yemeni now believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, is one of a new crop of al-Qaida operatives who are trying to fill the roles of senior bin Laden lieutenants who have been captured or killed since Sept. 11, according to U.S. officials. "Capable replacements appear to be emerging, many of whom have demonstrated their ability to see previously planned operations through to fruition," according to one U.S. intelligence report. Abu Hazim is just one of the top al-Qaida leaders now at large, according to officials from U.S. counterterrorism agencies. Officials acknowledge there may be other emerging leaders they don't know about or leaders participating in terrorist planning they are unaware of. The CIA and FBI, for example, did not learn that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks until well after they took place.
On the other hand, they weren't following the terror machine with quite the minute degree of concentration they are now...
Abu Hazim appears to be taking the place of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a key organizer of the USS Cole bombing and the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, officials say. Al-Nashiri was detained in the United Arab Emirates in late 2002. Abu Hazim is on Saudi Arabia's list of 19 most-wanted al-Qaida operatives, listed under his real name of Khalid Ali Bin Ali Al-Hajj. He is believed to have trained in al-Qaida's Afghan camps in 1999 and later to have served in bin Laden's bodyguard. Before Sept. 11, he traveled frequently to the Arabian peninsula, to southeast Asia and to Afghanistan. U.S. counterterrorism officials also tie him to the May 12 bombings of residential complexes in Riyadh and possibly to some Saudi-based planning of operations targeting the United States directly. There isn't hard evidence tying him to ongoing attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, however.
Not that's public, anyway...
Abu Hazim's emergence as a senior figure comes as al-Qaida is struggling to deal with the losses of many of its pre-Sept. 11 operational commanders, including Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah.
And now it's Abu Hazim's turn in the barrel...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Shouldn't take too long to find him. Afterall, we perfected the process of sorting body parts thanks to 9/11, so we should put that knowledge to good use.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:29 Comments ||
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So a young capo gets promoted when the bosses get whacked. Big deal. Does he have that bin Laden "vision thing" (let's attack America! that'll work) or Khalid Shaik "hot body" Mohammed charisma? Or Ayman al-Zawahiri "people skills" ("you want money for a fax machine? FU!")
Cut off the smart heads, dumber heads sprout up...
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
10/02/2003 5:46 Comments ||
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Happy Halloween America--we have a new Boogie Man to scare you into voting Repooplican!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
10/03/2003 0:02 Comments ||
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The largest mosque complex in western Europe opens Thursday in southern England and will be able to hold up to 10,000 worshippers.
Ahhh... But there's a catch...
Ahmadiya Muslims built the mosque in Morden, funded entirely by voluntary donations from individuals.
No Soddy involvement...
Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, worldwide head of the Ahmadiyy community, will lead prayers Friday at the Baitul Futuh Mosque, which has a 50-foot dome. "It's a second historic occasion for the Ahmadi Muslims to add to the heritage of British culture and to the presence of Muslim community in Britain," said Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, president of British Ahmadis. The Ahmadiya Muslim community was founded by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian, India, in 1889. In a little over a century, the community has spread to 174 countries, with an estimated 200 million followers. Ahmadiya Muslims built London's first mosque nearly 80 years ago.
I'll bet the Paks are taking the gas pipe. Qazi's bunch made their name by rioting until the Qadianis were declared non-Muslims...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Able too hold out against the Nazi's, but falls to Islam. Sometimes ethnic diversity and understanding can be a bad thing.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:32 Comments ||
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Charles, you should read more about Ahmadiyas before comparing them to Nazis, or an anti-western Islam.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 6:19 Comments ||
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#3
The Ahmadiyas are considered as non-Muslims by
the other Muslims because they violate one of
Islam's central tenets: Muhammad's was the last
prophet (ie God has nothing more to say after
Muhammad's teachings).
The Ahamadiya have produced a Nobel Prize in Physics ie about the only Muslim (sort of) contribution to science since around 1000AD.
AFAIK they are in Wahabi's extermination list,
but who isn't?
#5
That's why the wahhabs don't consider them real Muslims...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2003 11:30 Comments ||
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#6
the nobel prize winner Abdas Salam got his prize for work on the interaction of the electromagnatic and weak atomic forces (two other people worked with him, one of whom was Jewish); As I recall he was assasinated by another Moslem.
#7
Abdas Salam. In English Abdas Peace. Now I
understand why he was assassinated. That and
the fact he was a productive member of humankind
instead of a burden.
#10
Ahh the news from Londistan--a new mess for the US to clean up after British incompetence--more American lives lost to prop up their joke of a democracy--those stupid Fuc*s have a queen for Chrissakes--on the dole--while their middle class cuts its budget
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
10/03/2003 2:27 Comments ||
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#11
NMM - the more you post the more apparent your ignorance, racism and xenophobia is. Thanks for the inadvertant compliments.
An Australian-led force has broken the reign of gangsters and warlords terrorizing the Solomon Islands, paving the way for the small South Pacific nation to start battling corruption, its foreign minister said Wednesday. The force - the biggest multinational troop deployment in the South Pacific since World War II - was brought in at the invitation of the Solomonsâ government to end lawlessness that has paralyzed and nearly bankrupted the archipelago in the aftermath of a coup in 2000. Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Laurie Chan told the U.N. General Assembly that since the regional mission was launched in July, ``security in terms of law and order has been re-established and the governmentâs finances are beginning to stabilize.ââ Amazing what a little head-thumping will do.
The Australian government, which faced opposition at home for its participation in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, was in charge of the 2,300-member force. The gratuitous slap. Al-Guardian canât quite bring itself to recognize the Aussies as a force for good.
The pro-active move was a change in regional policy for Australia, which for decades had stringently avoided any overt military action in its region, fearing it would be labeled a neocolonial power. But Australian Prime Minister John Howardâs government felt the Solomons situation posed too great a danger, and he acted at the invitation of the Solomonsâ government and with the blessing of all governments in the region. Good show, mates!
Damn quick show, too. I'd barely gotten my popcorn and found my seat, and there are the credits rolling...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2003 1:08:20 AM ||
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Just goes to show you can accomplish more with a kind word and a task force than with a kind word alone.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 11:42 Comments ||
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I hope Australia has bugetted for shoeshining the feces off the boots of all their righteous ass-kickers. Preemption rules.
#4
I think Australia's next gig should be to set up a police training academy somewhere in AUSTRALIA, and start training police for places such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Vanuatu, Kiribati, and all the other small, independent island groups in the Pacific, so they don't have to do this again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 22:52 Comments ||
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BERLIN -- Germany will reduce its military by more than 10 percent by 2010 as part of a streamlining and modernization effort announced Thursday.
The military is in the midst of a long-term overhaul aimed at cutting spending and switching focus from the Cold War task of fending off attack from the Soviet Union to new duties that include international peacekeeping.
Germany has 10,000 troops deployed abroad, including peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan and the Balkans to patrolling shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism.
The United States has long pressed Germany and other European countries to increase defense spending, even before the Sept. 11 attacks. But Chancellor Gerhard Schroederâs government is contending with near-zero growth and a budget deficit for a second straight year.
Guess they are laughing at us.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 5:37:06 PM ||
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Guess they are laughing at us.
Look on the bright side - there's even less justification for German criticism of American military action. I mean, after all, they're reducing the size of their forces, so how are they going to do what's needed on their own or even make a meaningful contribution if they're going to have even less of what little they've got now?
#2
I don't quite get your headline. The article clearly says that the focus has changed. We don't need to fend off a Soviet attack, so we don't need so many troops trained for these kind of actions.
We were actually forced to reduce our troops significantly in order to get the Allies' ok for reunification.
Germany (let's call it the soon to be Post-Schroeder-Germany) will certainly be and stay a reliable partner for peacekeeping missions and even Schroeder has not ruled out the use of military force as a last resort. More cannot be expected from Germany. Our neighbors would not appreciate a Germany getting too strong militarily.
For the new tasks (fighting terrorism, participating in international missions) the Bundeswehr needs to be modernized and this will require money. Money that will partly come from the funds we save because of the streamlining. The future of the Bundeswehr will be a rather small, well trained high tech force. For 2004 yet spendings can't be increased because of the deficit. Unlike the U.S. we can't just increase our deficit at will, we are bound by the Maastricht regulations.
When it comes to deficit spending, Maastricht regulations don't seem much of an impediment to France. Nice to see that Germany takes its obligations seriously.
Regarding Germany's attitudes to the US; I see two distinct attitudes. The first is short-sighted and purely political, dominated by the political elites. The second is the apparent and demonstrated attitude of the German Army and Navy (probably AF as well, just no observations) to the US military; one in which I see professional pride, and a true appreciation of the burden that is willingly shared.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/02/2003 18:32 Comments ||
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#4
True German Ally,
Point taken. The headline was an expression of frustration at being called upon to be the world's janitor. As you pointed out with regard to the WMD's story from Kuwait, sooner or later a rogue nation will sell WMD to a terrorist organization and it will be America's fault for not preventing the sale.
It is genuinely annoying to be tied together in NATO with countries that are shrinking their militaries while asking for more control over US military action - but that is more of a beef with France than with Germany.
Having my brothers sweat in the desert perpetually so that Sadaam will be nice to Hans Blix is unacceptable.
If the restructuring results in a more cost-effective force for Germany and results in a more deployable force, that is certainly in our mutual interest.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 18:36 Comments ||
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#5
The Germans, as usual, seem schitzophrenic in their attitude to the US. The civs lean towards the anti position buy a small amount (probably due to the Easterners) while the military seems strongly pro in attitude.
It's been years since I was there, and I confess I don't understand them even as well as I used to. Which wasn't well...
Another gem from Davids Medienkritik, rapidly becoming a valuable resource...
The terrorist organisation Al Queida had connections to the Saudi financed King Fahd Academy (König-Fahd-Akademie/Elementary School) in Bonn, Germany, as revealed by the German TV programm "Panorama". Several islamic fundamentalists with Al Qaeda connections had moved to the Bonn area in 2002 to be close to the academy. The academy has 465 students, of which 195 have a German citizenship. According to Panorama, students were taught to be prepared for jihad. Students were told: "Muslims have to subject themselves and all other humans under the will of Allah". They are taught just 1 hour German per week, but 6 hours Arabic and 8 hours religion.
Panorama: "Right here in our midst in Germany muslim teach hatred against the West and against democracy. Once the children have left the Koran-Schools, they no longer can be integrated into German society. They live in islamic ghettos and don't find a job. Easy prey for terrorists...".
There is just one interesting aspect: "Panorama" is probably THE most left-wing media outlet in Germany, frequently attacking President Bush and his Iraq policy. Now that they identify correctly the danger stemming from Islam fundamentalism in Germany, there's hope they will eventually understand Bush's war against terrorists in Iraq.
I doubt it. They keep the Islamist threat and their hatred of Bush in separate compartments, doing their best to never make a connection.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 12:59 ||
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#1
Well.. Panorama has also deflated the 9/11 conspiracy theories (Bush knew! aka the CIA did it!) so being leftist doesn't automatically mean to be a moonbat.
#2
I have just seen the tv feature. After that I doubt that the school will be in business much longer. It clearly violates German law and German constitution.
Thought this looks promising...
Belgiumâs new passports have been awarded a prize for excellence by Interpol â not one has been forged since the new passport was launched in 2001. Before the introduction of digital passports, Belgium had a reputation for fake passports, due in part to several blank passports being stolen from municipal services in the 1990s. But since 2001 the distribution of passports has come under the auspices of the federal government â municipal services being permitted only to physically had out the documents. Thanks to cutting-edge technology it has become much more difficult to forge a Belgian passport. Apart from an ordinary picture, there is also a micro-perforated version of the image complete with personal data.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
10/02/2003 11:07:12 AM ||
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Big woop, are they checking to see if the documents being presented to the Belgium Passport Service in order to get one of these are correct?
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 12:40 Comments ||
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#4
Got a Belgian wife with one of those new machine readable passports. Boy, did she have to like reprove her bona fides to get it while we were back in Antwerp. I'd say they are tightening things up - better than the US State Dept in Soddyland are.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/02/2003 18:46 Comments ||
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Severely EFL-via the Instapundit
PARIS A growing sense of Franceâs decline as a force in Europe has developed here. Invisible couture is no longer considered fashionable for French politicians. One can understand why in Chiracâs case.
The ideaâs novelty is not the issue itself. Rather it is that for the first time in a half century that the notion of a rapid descent in Franceâs influence is receiving wide acknowledgment within the French establishment. No merde, Inspector Maigret
Of all the books, the current No. 2 on the bestseller list of LâExpress, "La France Qui Tombe," by Nicolas Baverez, has been the focus of unusual attention. Baverez, a practicing attorney and economist who has a strong place in the Paris establishment, argues that Franceâs leadership hates change. Rather, it "cultivates the status quo and rigidity" because it is run through the connivance of politicians, civil servants and union officials, bringing together both the left- and right-wing elites. They are described as mainly concerned with preserving the failed statist system that protects their jobs and status. When the Establishment Boyz start sweating, France finally starts to listen. âTwas ever thus. [see Furetâs THE PASSING OF AN ILLUSION, Tony Judtâs PAST IMPERFECT, the collected works of Ferry and Renault, etc. etc. contra mundum, world without end...]
Although he has little patience with the American role in the world (it is branded unilateral, imperial and unpredictable, yet flexible and open to change) Baverez charges that the failure of French policy on Iraq and Europe - resisting the United States with nothing to offer in exchange, and attempting to force the rest of Europe to follow its lead - "crowns the process of the nationâs decline" and leaves France in growing diplomatic isolation everywhere.
Lotsa people don't like the USA, for reasons valid (some) and invalid (most). But the definition of leadership is providing somewhere to go. Any idiot can say "I'm against it" over and over, without offering an alternative. In fact, most of those who do, are...
In "Ouest contre Ouest," by Andre Glucksmann, one of the few leading French intellectuals to challenge the countryâs position on the Iraq war, France is described as a nation, with others in Europe, that fled the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the United States in panic and attempted to set up a sterile biosphere away from the worldâs realities. Do you think that Andre paid attention to simple math (2+2=4) in "ecole?" I believe so.
The book, also a bestseller, maintains that this flight from confronting trouble carried with it an attempt to create two opposing notions of the West: a serene Europe, sheltered from terrorist kamikazes, and a warlike, imperialist, autistic United States. Glucksmann wrote that the central question of the future was not hegemony or multipolarity, the key French terms illustrating the Chirac governmentâs seeming obsession about the United States and its desire to counter the Americans, but civilization versus nihilism, and whether the West together could make a fight to protect civilization.
Part of the west is, and not only the USA. But since the train's already pulled out of the station, we're not willing to let Jacques drive...
These messages converge with that of "LâArrogance Française," by Romain Gubert and Emmanuel Saint-Martin, whose chapter and section headings - How France Lost Europe or Narcissistic Blindness - well sum up a book that holds that French foreign and European policy is guided by "obsessive concern with its standing, and terror in the face of its decline." Franceâs essential arrogance, (Chirac "Arrogant, Moi?")
the authors suggest, is in continuing to act as if the world community and its European partners do not comprehend that for the French leadership, the "EU serves as the means for France to recover its influence and to reconquer its lost power." Cluetrain paging Eurocentrists
...the fact is, after Swedenâs rejection of the euro (in part because of Franceâs refusal to conform to the economic performance standards it set up itself for the currencyâs credibility), and the likely splintering of the EU into groups of several speeds without any semblance of a unified foreign or defense policy, France has come up empty. Itâs da unilateralism, I tells ya!
But for Bavarez, and most of the other writers now gaining the nationâs attention, the present reality is harsh for France. "Overtaken by the democratic vitality and technological advance of the United State," Bavarez concludes, "downgraded industrially and challenged commercially by China and Asia, the decline of France is accelerating at the same rhythm as the vast changes in the world." "Besides, Sabine Herold is hotter and hipper than Chirac, anyway"
And a lot cuter...
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/02/2003 10:00:31 AM ||
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two opposing notions of the West: a serene Europe, sheltered from terrorist kamikazes, and a warlike, imperialist, autistic United States
"autistic" ?
Jeez, you would think that being an imperialist warmonger would imply the direct opposite of autistic; I can think of no way to be more directly engaged with the world than chasing its various vicious degenerates to their lairs and shooting them.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
10/02/2003 11:36 Comments ||
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#2
"Autistic" in the sense of lashing out without taking in input from the outside world, as the severely autistic do. It's still stupid, though.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/02/2003 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
Couldn't be just have "anger management" issues or maybe Torretz Syndrome?
#4
Those aren't patronizing enough. (Autism {aside from Asperger's syndrome} also implies retardation)
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/02/2003 13:48 Comments ||
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#5
Okay, perhaps we can get the Euro innalekshuls to agree: we're autistic, you're idiot savants: you make good beer or wine or whatever, but useless for anything else.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
10/02/2003 14:15 Comments ||
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#6
Couldn't we just send them to self-esteme camp? Do you think the EU actaully performs that function for them?
#7
autism is not retardation, it's a break down of the ability to communicate and impart ideas, so it can at times appear that they are retarded because the passing on of information is a VRY difficult process for people afflicted with autism, buh make no mistake they are NOT stupid, they can be very clever and will try to control you even as you try to control them
assuming the writer knows what autism is, then what he means to say is we dont communicate well with the world and when things dont go well we result to violence/threats/pain to achieve our goals..
which I agree with, tho I dissent that the failure to communicate involves a break down on the american end, the bush administration has been very upfront with their feelings on matters...
Autism is a complex syndrome, and I understand (from this first-person account) that one element of it is sensory hyperperception--the autistic perceives the world in so much detail that she can't process all of the input.
If "autism" is a valid metaphor for the current world situation, I'd wonder if it's not the Islamofascisrs or the Euro-elite (or both) who are the autistics here.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/02/2003 16:52 Comments ||
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#9
Giving France any due as a counterweight to America is laughable. The only importance they have in this world is their UN veto. Without the UN they are marginal at best. Chirac wants a piece of the authority to make world decisions but can't find a way to back it up except with Maureen Dowd pinup boys. The best way to treat the French is to patronize them and make them feel important but in our minds impotent. Remember, the easiest way to make a million is to buy a Frenchman for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/02/2003 18:53 Comments ||
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An imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader won't meet with his lawyers or family until he is given a health exam by independent doctors and greater access to his attorney, a lawyer said Wednesday.
"I'm tellin' youse, I ain't gonna meet with my lawyer until I can meet with my lawyer. An' I want examined..."
Abdullah Ocalan, who is being held on the prison island of Imrali off Istanbul, also is demanding daily access to all newspapers and magazines published in Turkey, to be able to send and receive letters, and to make limited telephone calls.
"An' I want a pony, an' a hat like Stevey has!"
In the years since he has been captured, "he has been kept under extraordinarily heavy isolation," said Dogan Erbas, one of Ocalan's attorneys. Ocalan "will not meet with his lawyers or his family until certain conditions are improved," Erbas said in a telephone interview. Ocalan, head of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, which now calls itself KADEK, is serving a life sentence for treason and is the island's only inmate.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Now that the Frawnce & Co has stabbed Turkey in the back and will never admit her to the EU, why is Turkey messing with this guy and giving him all this free publicity?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/02/2003 10:50 Comments ||
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#2
heh heh...poor stevey - object of ridicule. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...well, maybe
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 11:12 Comments ||
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#3
At the hourly rate he charges, I don't want to meet with my lawyer either. And everytime my family comes calling, they want money as well. As for the pony, Bambi on Patpong Rd in Bangkok used to do a nice trick with one but that was years ago. Seriously, what's a Separatist Marxist like Ocalan need with a lawyer anyway???
A series of arson attacks was the work of vandals, not terrorists, despite a claim of responsibility from a group that condemned the upcoming Olympics and the jailing of radical protesters. The government said cooking gas canisters were used to set fire to two political party offices and the homes of a conservative politician and a professor on Tuesday morning. No one was injured. The people who carried out the attacks were "a few brainless fools who think they can make their presence felt this way," said government spokesman Christos Protopapas. "There is a difference between fighting terrorism and this ... case with gas canisters."
I still think you should shoot them...
In Greece, urban guerrillas have used more sophisticated weapons, including shoulder-fired rockets and explosives, to strike targets. A previously unknown group calling itself Post-Midnight Slalom said it set the fires Tuesday to protest corporate influence on next summer's Olympics and the arrest in June of seven rioters during the European Union summit in Thessaloniki. The group said it was also protesting the trial of members of the November 17 terrorist group.
"Yeah. Youse should let 'em off. All they did was kill some people..."
"For as long as you're going to be burning forests, we're going to be burning your offices," said the statement released to the Athens daily Eleftherotypia. "For as long as you're going to be burning brains, we're going to be burning your houses."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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--In Greece, urban guerrillas have used more sophisticated weapons, including shoulder-fired rockets and explosives, to strike targets.--
#2
Oh man. Even though the Greeks are probably now America's worst friends in Europe, I don't wish this on them...not even after having read Aris' posts here.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
10/02/2003 5:49 Comments ||
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Last week the religious seminary of Darul Uloom Haqqania in Pakistanâs North-West Frontier Province turned out another class of young Pakistanis and Afghans ready to wage holy war against the enemies of their religion.
Among them was 15-year-old Afghan refugee, Javed Ullah. "I wish to fight the infidels," he said as he left the seminary in Akora Khattak, 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the provincial capital, Peshawar. Javed is among 600 students who have completed studies in different fields over the past year. Wearing white turbans and dress, all the new graduates looked satisfied and seemed to brim with hope for a bright future. "I want to go back and fight the Americans," Javed said wearing a garland. "I canât wait anymore." His Pakistani classmates had a similar desire. "I will dedicate my whole life for jihad. It is compulsory for Muslims. I will kill enemies of Islam," said student Minhaj Uddin.
"I'm not going to devote it to acquiring knowledge, or helping the unfortunate, or to the greater glory of mankind. I'm not going to be an artist, a poet, a captain of industry. I'm gonna get me a gun and pot some Merkins!"
The whole convocation was full of slogans in support of Afghanistanâs ousted Taliban regime, al-Qaedaâs leader Osama Bin Laden and holy war. Some of the banners adorning the seminary were decorated with pictures of Kalashnikov rifles and tanks. In their speeches, teachers and religious scholars urged the students to put defending their faith before everything else. "Being watchmen of your religion, you are naturally the first target of your enemies," said Maulana Sami ul-Haq, the principal of the seminary. In the past, some Taliban officials, themselves graduates of the institution, have attended these convocations.
Sami's madrassah is considered the birth canal of the Taliban...
Even Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omarâs messages have been read out. The schoolâs support for the Taleban has been no secret. The principal previously sent a batch of 2,000 Afghan students back to their homeland to aid the then ruling Taleban in its fight against the warlords of the Northern Alliance. His words of advice for the Pakistani and Afghan students are now to wage holy war until the "evil force" is defeated. "In the past, only conspiracies were hatched to end Islam, but now the enemy is in the battlefield challenging us," said Mr Sami.
Ah, yes. Deep-laid plots. Dark conspiracies...
"Islam, Muslim scholars and religious students were never under such a threat as today." Such messages emanating from seminaries ring alarm bells in Western countries and among moderates in Pakistan.
I imagine both Pak moderates are alarmed...
North-West Frontier Province has many tribal areas that have historically been autonomous, governed by tribal leaders and their own laws. It is inhabited mostly by the Pashtun, the same ethnic group that dominated the Taleban, and has always been affected directly by events across the long, porous border with Afghanistan.
And vice versa...
Some observers say the bad effects of over two decades of war â religious extremism, gun-running and drugs â cannot quickly be removed. Certainly, the governmentâs efforts to change the curriculum in the religious schools have failed to make any impact so far. While such efforts go on, fresh batches of volunteers ready to confront what they see as the enemies of their faith continue to graduate. Obviously none of this is actually true. The âBBCâ has obviously fallen for the nefarious designs of the Hindooo infidels. The only course we teach are in flower arranging, knitting, and bathing puppy dogs.
Posted by: rg117 ||
10/02/2003 9:27:11 AM ||
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I wonder what courses are taught in a Taliban University....
And Rg... you forgot the course on the care and feeding of baby ducks.
These kind of 'schools' need to be labeled as terrorist training camps and shut down. Preferable by the 'peaceful' muslims themselves.
#2
I've mentioned this before, but Sami ul Haq, the fascist, fire breathing Mullah who leads one of the most radical madrassas in the world, and who is in favor of women being stoned to death, rages against Western immorality etc. Was allegedly found in a compromising position in a brothel with 2 women.
The Pakistani press still occasionally makes references to "Sami the Sandwich", and it is also a nice example of the hypocracy of these Mullahs.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 9:41 Comments ||
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CrazyFool,
Due to Pervez cracking down on extremism the 'Baby Duck' courses were banned, though it is widely believed that they have simply been renamed as 'how to wage Jihad' but in essence its the same course.
Pakistani troops are engaged in a major operation to capture suspected al-Qaeda fugitives near the border with Afghanistan. Reports say up to 12 al-Qaeda suspects have been killed in a prolonged gun battle in the district of South Waziristan. The rugged tribal area borders on the Afghan province of Paktika, which has become a centre for ousted Taliban fighters. The present security operation began hours before a senior American official, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, was expected in Pakistan. But his trip has now been rescheduled for unspecified reasons.
"We'll see if we have something to talk about in a week or two..."
Hundreds of Pakistani troops are believed to be involved in what is being described as one of the biggest ground operations against al-Qaeda remnants in more than a year. The Pakistani army began the operation "upon the receipt of credible intelligence about the presence of al-Qaeda elements", an army statement released on Thursday said. The army says troops have surrounded the entire area, making it extremely difficult for the al-Qaeda fighters to escape. A reporter at the scene for the Associated Press news agency said he saw the bodies of four suspected militants and that the army said eight more bodies were close by. Major General Ameer Faisal said: "Al-Qaeda people have taken refuge in these five big compounds. We do not know how many people are hiding there."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 7:44:25 AM ||
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think this might have anything to do with Ayman's little rant against Perv the other day?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 8:12 Comments ||
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More details from Reuters: Major General Faisal Alavi, commander of special forces in the area where the operation is taking place, told reporters that Pakistani troops had surrounded a compound late on Wednesday where they believed al Qaeda fighters were hiding out. He said around 40 militants had been seen crossing into Pakistan's semi-autonomous South Waziristan agency carrying the bodies of fighters killed in clashes inside Afghanistan. "We thought this was an opportune time to strike as they were in the process of regrouping," he told reporters, who were flown by helicopter to Bannu, a town some 280 km (175 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad.
"From the fire we are attracting, we think there are 25 guys inside," he added.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 9:21 Comments ||
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Update Islam Online: Twelve Al-Qaeda "suspects" have been killed Thursday, October 2, in a gun battle with Pakistani troops during a raid on a camp in the tribal district of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan. At least 10 people were captured, including four Al-Qaeda and six Taliban suspects, Pakistani military officials said.
Military commanders took journalists to the site of the operation to show them the bodies of four men described as "foreign" Al-Qaeda suspects, reported Agence France-Presse. Journalists were also shown the suspected Al-Qaeda detainees, who were stripped to the waist and blindfolded.
The gunfight broke out after Pakistani troops surrounded what they called an Al-Qaeda base some five kilometers from the porous border with Afghanistan in South Waziristan tribal area, Major General Faisal Alavi said.
"By first light we had surrounded the camp. We asked them to surrender. They did not surrender. They opened fire," Alavi, special forces commander in charge of operation, told AFP.
"We raided a camp identified as an Al-Qaeda camp. Until (11:00 am) they had not surrendered, we were still fighting it out." Before the shooting broke out, women and children had come out from one of the houses in the camp. Their nationalities were unclear but the Pakistani officers said they were foreigners.
"From what the women and children told us, they are foreigners," Alavi said. "They came out of one house, but from the rest of the houses came firing. We took them on," he added. The operation involved attack helicopters and ground troops.
There was "a great possibility" that Al-Qaeda suspects were the people involved in attacks that killed a U.S. soldier in Shkin on Monday, September 29, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told reporters in Angoor Adda.
He maintained he could not say for sure if they were Al-Qaeda fugitives but they were clearly "foreign elements". "There are all possibilities some of these people might have been involved in these actions. I would say there is a great possibility. When these people escaped (Shkin area) they came and took refuge in this area. They were trapped by our people. Once their presence was confirmed we launched an operation, we went in this morning," Sultan said.
U.S. warplanes have dropped bombs near Angoor Adda in recent months in pursuit of Taliban fighters fleeing back into Pakistan after attacking U.S. troops.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 12:55 Comments ||
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at a very minimum its good that pakis seem to be coordinating with Coalition to get border crossers. And that they are going after AQ and even Taliban wholesale, and that the locals dont seem to be stopping it.
Even better if there are really US troops involved, as this would cross another Paki red line.
Of course what I would really like to see, but I suspect we wont, is some high level AQ captured.
This is an old article and it wouldnât be of interest to many, but it gives a good overview of the plethora of different players in Pakistani Islamism. However, the reason for the sheer number of groups has more to do with egotism of the Mullahs and the amount of money available to ones who can attract enough followers. That most of the major political parties listen here have been able to form the MMA alliance in order to achieve power, shows how meaningless the thousands of sectarian murders by their followers for the past decade really were.
Until the 1980s Pakistan had only three mainstream Sunni parties, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Jamiat ul Ulema-i-Islam, and Jamaat-Ulema Pakistan. At this point a new set of militants entered the scene partly because of socio-economic conditions, partly through the factionalising of the existing politico-religious parties.
The JUP, a Barelvi politico-religious party split into five groups. The Sunni Tehreek in Karachi is the largest of these. It is headed by Maulana Saleem Qadri. Another big faction is the Dawat-e-Islami headed by Maulana Ilyas Qadri (former Punjab president of Anjuman Tulaba-e-Islam, the JUPs youth wing). Another smaller group is the Punjab Sunni Tehreek. In 1982, Maulana Ilyas Qadri declared himself Amir-e-Ahle-Sunnat and founded the organisation in Karachi. Until 1994 the Dawat held its annual congregation in that city but since then it has become more active in Punjab and the congregation is now held in Multan for the last three years. The DI puts its own strength of activists at over 100,000. The DI runs scores of madaris all over the country. It is planning to set up an Islamic university in Karachi. Another breakaway faction of the JUP is run by Allama Tahir-ul-Qadri. Apart from the Minhaj-ul-Quran which is a forum for teaching the Quran. the political wings of his establishment are Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat and Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat. The JUP is a Sunni group of the Brehvli school of thought, which has worship of saints and shrines that is looked down upon by more puritanical sects. The majority of Pakistanis follow the Brehvli tradition, but they have very little presence in either the Army of the government.
According to the Barelvi ulema the Deobandi sect was a minority until 1970. Subsequently, Maulana Mufti Mahmoodâs government in NWFP patronised Deobandi mullahs and appointed them to head official mosques which were looked after by the provincial Muslim Auqaf (Trust). This led to the growth of Deobandi madaris in NWFP (from where the Taliban derive their strength). General Zia also patronised Deobandis, and Saudi Arabia helps them financially. All this has led the Barelvis to come up with a response.
The JUI was split into the Sami, the Darkhwasti and the Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman groups. Later the SSP was founded. A number of other factions also emerged from the base of the JUI. Among them were the Tahaffaz-e-Khatm-e-Nabwwat under Maulana Khan Muhammad of Kundian Sharif and the Harkat-ul-Ansar under Maulana Saadat Ullah Khan. The latterâs involvement in Kashmir and Afghanistan is well known. The Harkat-ul-Ansar has since split into the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. The latter has split into 2 major factions, with up to ten smaller and more radical splinter groups also in existance. The splits were mainly over control of the Jihadi outfits large property and financial assets
The relationship between the JUI and the other factions (as in similar cases of breakaway groups) is not necessarily one of sustained antagonism. This is illustrated by Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehmanâs volunteering to negotiate with the Harkat when it was alleged that it was the organisation responsible for the kidnapping of the five foreigners in Kashmir. It may at times may be more of a division of labour arrangement wherein the primarily political is separated from the primarily militant so that each side can work effectively in its own sphere. That seems quite likely as the Deobandi groups all follow the same religious leaders. It is also worth pointing out that the Army and ISI is dominated by Deobandis, even though they make up only a fraction of Pakistanâs Muslims. They have however, been able to propagate their own puratanical sect throughout the country, due to state support. This has lead to extremism increasing in the once moderate Brehvlis.
The Jamiat Ahle-Hadith split up as well. The Jamaat Ahle Hadith was founded by Maulana Habibur Remain Yazdani and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Ahle e Hadith by Maulana Abdul Qadeer Khamosh. Another significant faction is the Al-Dawah-wal-Irshad. The Ahle-Hadith are Wahabis, and have little following in Pakistan
The Shia party, the TNFJ, also split into two groups. Now Tehreek-e-fiqh-e-Jaffaria is the main Shia politico-religious party led by Allama Sajid Naqvi. The move was not endorsed by Allama Hamid Ali Moosvi. Subsequently, the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) was created out of the TJP and adopted a more militant stance against the SSP than the TJP would allow.
The sects and sub-sects also seem to be trying harder to mobilise followers at a mass level. In 1997, within almost exactly a month there were three major gatherings of Sunni sub-sects in the Punjab. The Barelvi Dawat-e-Islami held a 4 day gathering in Multan starting 17 October. The Al-Dawah-wal-Irshad held its annual 3 day convention at Muridke in the first week of November, and the Tableeghi Jamaat held its annual moot in the second week of November. The attendance at each of these three gatherings ran into lakhs with young people, significantly, making up a sizeable number of the participants. The meetings, however, are sometimes occasions for violence. At the Dawat-i-Islami congregation six Deobandi students who had come to attend, for whatever reason, were kidnapped and tortured, and four were killed.
A key feature now of sectarian militancy is that it is not the province of a few extremists acting in isolation. Their support system extends well beyond their own organisation. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, for instance, could look to the JUI or the Taliban in time of need. The SSP itself is considered a legitimate political party, participates in the elections and has been part of the governing coalition at the provincial level. This was before the SSP was âbannedâ, but itâs leadership just renamed the party and are currently part of the Pakistani government, so the point remains the same.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 3:48:28 AM ||
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I am impressed about your knowledge of sects in Pakistan, are you a scholar in this area? What is your opinion on Musharaf?
Posted by: Murat ||
10/02/2003 6:58 Comments ||
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I'm not a scholar, but Pakistan and Afghanistan have been an interest of mine since around 1998, when I first heard about the Taliban and wanted to find out more about them and where they came from. Since then I have spent a lot of time reading the English language media from those countries and India, and became even more interested after 9/11.
As for Musharaf, I believe he is a Pakistani nationalist, who would like to see his country develop and become the leader of the Islamic world. I also believe he is firmly committed to wresting Kashmir from India, and maintaining the dominance of the Army in Pakistani politics for quite some time to come.
Having being interested in Pakistan for a while, I was suprised when Musharaf, who had been portrayed in the media as a pariah, suddenly became Pakistan's last best hope against radical Islam, in the wake of September 11. I've always believed that the Pakistani Army is the principal cause of much of the extremism that is allowed to run rampart in Pakistani society, and although Musharaf is ceratinly more pragmatic and secular than many of his colleagues, I feel that in the 4 years he has been in control of the country, he has done essentially nothing against radical Islam. He has cracked down on Al Qaeda Arabs, local sectarian terrorists, and provided the Americans with the means to defeat the Taliban (a Pakistani Army creation), but he has done nothing about the radical madrassas, the private Jihadi militias that operate openly in the country, or the regrouping Taliban operating in Pakistan's border provinces.
I think that Musharaf could still be a good leader for his country, if he worked towards genuine democracy with the main moderate political parties (Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League), instead of undermining them because of his personal dislike for their leaders.
Before 9/11, I thought Pakistan was on it's way towards becoming a failed state, and even now, i'm not sure if that fate hasn't just been pushed back 5 years, although I hope that isn't the case.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 7:41 Comments ||
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Interesting views and admitting I am a little bit disappointed too in his handling of radical Islam, but I think he deserves some support from the west in this area. Usually the army is the only well organized body with the power to fight deeply rooted sects as in Pakistan, provided that the power and influence of those sects have not the upper hand in that army (like in Iran). As a military leader and his secular personage he is the right person who could push for secular reforms in Pakistan. The question however is, are the Pakistani army top commanders like him (secular minded) and willing to support him with the needed power against the rooted power of those sects which seem to control the society.
Posted by: Murat ||
10/02/2003 8:51 Comments ||
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The Pakistani Army is probably mroe like the Iranian Army than the Turkish army. This is because, for the last 20 or so years, when General Zia ul Haq seized power in a military coup, he used Islam as a way of perpetuating his rule. So the fundamentalist bearded types in the military were given promotions, while the secular ones mostly stagnated. While this process ended someone in the early 90's, it still means that outside of the Generals, there are a large number of Islamist minded officers, who are known to support things like Pakistan's blaspehmy laws, continued support for Jihad outfits and the like.
Most of the top Generals seem somewhat secular (with the notable exception of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who is a Kashmiri with well known radical views), but most of them, including both Musharaf and the previously mentioned Kashmiri General are due to retire in the next couple years. So the new officers who take over the army will probably decide what role the Army plays in Pakistani society.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 9:36 Comments ||
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Hmmm, apart from the relations of Pakistan with India and the embargo imposed due to its nuclear development program I would say that the Pakistani army should be supported and helped a hand to follow a secular road. The only way to eradicate the deeply rooted fundamentalists can be done by a military clampdown IMO. Sometimes less democratic means are needed to enforce democracy. An overnight clampdown that imprisons the leader cadres of those jamaats and sects can be done without plunging the country into a civil war. If the Pakistani army canât bring it up to clean their country from fundamentalism soon, I am afraid your conclusion of becoming a failed state will come true.
Posted by: Murat ||
10/02/2003 10:01 Comments ||
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People get down on Musharaf, but I grade on a scale (with Saudi Arabia getting an F- of course.) I doubt that removing several deeply imbedded cancers that have spread society wide can be accomplished rapidly.
The complexity of the schisms that Paul has described makes my knees wobbly. You could generate a card deck out of all these groups but it would be obselete tomorrow. It looks like he is fighting the vilian from Terminator 2 that shattes and reconstitutes continuously.
#8
I just want to know what is the purpose of this article.In response One of the reader describe are you Alim,Why If just by showing this information person becomes an alim.
I don't think there is any purpose of the article.Yes of course it can be used for the research purposes.suppose if you want to write a Phd thesis.
Thank you
#10
how dare you blame the death of the deobandies at the dawat-e-islami ijtima...
that was all done by najdis to give dawat-e-islami a bad name.. and Thanking Allah.. the najdis that murdered them were also captured... so get your facts right you bimbo.
The alleged Ayman al-Zawahiri tape threatening President General Pervez Musharraf is said to have âseverely rattledâ Pakistani intelligence officials.
Think it might jolt them into the world of cause and effect? Me neither...
According to the Hong Kong-based online journal Asia Times, Pakistani intelligence circles read the messages as a clear signal for Al Qaeda and its allies to take up arms against the Musharraf government and to help sympathisers of radical Islamic groups in the country. âSince the release of the first tape attacking Musharraf, he has adopted a number of special security arrangements, including the erection of extra barricades around Army House in Rawalpindi, where he lives,â adds the paper
According to the paperâs Pakistan correspondent Syed Saleem Shahzad, âAnd since the first tapeâs release, Al Qaeda has become more active in Pakistan. One of its members, Hadi al-Iraqi, is known to operate in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas near North Wazirstan Agency, along with one Amjad Farooqui, a suspect named in the case of slain US journalist Daniel Pearl. Intelligence sources now tell Asia Times Online that Hadi has travelled into Pakistani cities, including Rawalpindi, and lately even as far as Karachi... They add that al-Zawahiriâs exhortation is aimed not at common Pakistanis, but those who have in the past interacted with Al Qaeda, but under the previous Bin Laden orders prohibiting any act of terror on Pakistani soil.â
Make deals with the Devil and you get burned, don't you?
The report points out that key Islamic political and jihadi groups have been quick to denounce the tapes, with one of them questioning their authenticity. Intelligence sources also point out that following the arrest or killing of several key Al Qaeda operators in Pakistan, few of its planners remain in the country, apart from Hadi al-Iraqi. The Asif Ramzi group of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been the prime force behind attacks on Western targets in Pakistan. However, it lacks the terror expertise and the finances to carry out sustained attacks. Sources suggest that those Al Qaeda members still holed up in Pakistan, if they linked with the LJ, would be able to form an effective network to answer Zawahiriâs calls.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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The alleged Ayman al-Zawahiri tape threatening President General Pervez Musharraf is said to have âseverely rattledâ Pakistani intelligence officials.
It should. What is proven by this experience is that looking the other way while the dog bites someone else is no guarantee that the dog won't turn around and bite YOU.
#2
The dog will bite. Al-Queda is a group that carefully plans reckless, stupid, backfiring operations. Like all Islamic extremists. They'll do something spectacular and dumb. Count on it.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
10/02/2003 5:52 Comments ||
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Yes, but spectacular and dumb things can still a bunch of people. Bottom line terrorism thrives on its ability to shock and inflict harm.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/02/2003 8:56 Comments ||
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Two men were killed and nine injured when a bomb exploded near Sui gas field on Tuesday. Police said nine people of the Bugti tribe were going to Risaldar Village on a carrier when a planted bomb exploded 15 kilometres away from the Sui gas field. Jehanzeb Bugti and Naurang Bugti died instantly and the injured were taken to Nishtar Hospital and Quetta Hospital. Police found no evidence. The event has Sui gas field employees who must travel between Sui and Multan feeling threatened.
Sounds like it's time for Dire Revenge™ on them Mazari varmints!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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You know, the Prime Directive has been viewed as colonialism at it worst. But this sort of thing shows what happens when you let primitive worlds obtain advanced technologies.
Pakistan is giving proof to the Indian Governmentâs allegations that it is involved in the activities of Jihadi organisations in Kashmir said Jamat-i-Islami Azad Kashmir Ameer Abdul Rashid Turabi on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference, Mr Turabi said Kashmiris were struggling for their freedom and no non-Kashmiri was martyred in the 50 years of long struggle.
Then his lips fell off...
As such, there was no reason to ban the organisations in Pakistan and this ill-conceived act by Pakistan had confirmed Indian charges on intrusion, he added.
Did that statement make any sense?... Didn't think so.
Mr Turabi said since Israeli Prime Minister Sharon visited India, bombings in occupied Kashmir had increased and almost 22 people died daily.
So obviously it's his fault...
Mr Turabi said India was not sincere in holding talks with Pakistan and resolving disputes and it had attempted to hoodwink the world by initiating the friendship move. Mr Turabi said Pakistan should have announced its stance on Kashmir two years ago, when the Afghan Policy was changed. He said the Kashmir cause was hurt because of the bargaining between Pakistan and America.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Munir Akram, Pakistanâs permanent representative to the United Nations, told the OIC Foreign Ministerâs Annual Coordination Meeting on Tuesday that the gulf between Islam and the West was widening and some states had exploited the orchestrated campaign against Islam to justify the suppression of their Muslim minorities.
"Yeah! Just look at... ummm..."
Speaking on behalf of Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri who has to travel to Washington with the prime minister of Pakistan, Mr Akram said, âLegitimate struggles for the right to self-determination, as in Palestine and Kashmir, are being projected as extremist or even terrorist movements. The need for revival and resurgence of Islam which was never greater can be achieved only through social development, political reforms and economic advancement of the Islamic world.â
Paleostine and Kashmir. Yup. That's the ticket â perfect examples of legitimate struggles, carried out through legitimate means.
Mr Akram said President Pervez Musharraf had proposed the strategy of âenlightened moderationâ, involving socio-economic and human development in the Islamic world and simultaneous action by the international community, including the UN, to promote solutions to conflicts and disputes afflicting the Islamic world on the basis of justice and international legality, to prevent discrimination against Muslims and against their religion, Islam, and to support the development efforts of the Islamic countries. He said, âWe must remain firm in defending just Islamic causes. There should be no compromise on our solidarity and support for the right of self-determination of the people of Palestine and Kashmir. We should forcefully resist efforts to de-legitimise the struggle for self-determination by depicting it as terrorism.â
"... no matter how many people are blown up or have their heads cut off!"
Pakistan, he stressed, remains deeply concerned at the precarious security situation in Iraq. The Iraqi people, through an inclusive political process, must be enabled to determine their own future, structure of governance, and to assume the responsibilities for the administration and disposal of its own resources. He called for a central role for the UN in Iraq.
That always works.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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..the orchestrated campaign against Islam..
Oh? What orchestrated campaign is this? I'd like to throw my support behind it 100%.
#4
Munir Akram, Pakistanâs permanent representative to the United Nations, told the OIC Foreign Ministerâs Annual Coordination Meeting on Tuesday that the gulf between Islam and the West was widening and some states had exploited the orchestrated campaign against Islam to justify the suppression of their Muslim minorities.
You mean preventing traitorous Muslims from organizing terrorist strikes against us represents suppression of our Muslim minorities? Suppress away... (Note that Pakistan persecutes perfectly loyal non-Muslims).
A half-dozen land mines exploded Wednesday near a motorcade carrying the leader of India's southern Andhra Pradesh state, injuring him and three other officials. State chief minister Chandrababu Naidu suffered a leg injury and a broken collar bone, said state home minister, T. Devender Goud. Naidu, a key ally of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is seen as a rising star in Indian politics.
Sounds like he was almost a cinder...
Naidu was in a motorcade of 23 vehicles traveling in a forest when the blast occurred. He was shielded by the armor of his bulletproof car, which bore the brunt of the explosion. Two lawmakers traveling with Naidu and a member of his state Cabinet were seriously hurt, police said. S.R. Sukumara, inspector general of police, said six mines were triggered by remote control. Goud said there was "no doubt" that the separatist Peoples War Group was responsible. The Maoist guerrillas are fighting for separate socialist regimes in five Indian states.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Turkey and the US have agreed on an action-plan to eradicate the Kurdish paramilitary group, the PKK.
The group is thought to have around 5,000 members living in northern Iraq.
Ever since the US occupied Iraq, Turkey has been pressing Washington to crack down on the group which both countries designate as terrorist.
Details of the plan are not clear, but a US official said any military action would be carried out by US troops.
Any large scale Turkish military presence in northern Iraq would be opposed by the Kurdish groups which currently run the area.
Bitter war
This agreement is important for Turkey, as it marks a new stage in its long battle with the PKK.
It is also a sign of improving relations with the US.
The agreement will almost certainly help the Turkish Government in its efforts to persuade parliament to send Turkish troops to help out the US-led coalition.
The parliament will probably consider a request for around 10,000 troops later this month. US kills 5,000 PKK and get 10,000 Turkish troops. Its a two-for.
Turkey and the PKK fought a bitter war for more than a decade.
More than 30,000 people were killed, and over a million displaced from their homes - largely in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern part of the country.
The PKK have long sought refuge from Turkish troops in the mountains of northern Iraq. As the anti-Sadaam Khurds got refuge in Iran and the anit-Iranian khurds got refuge in Iraq. That worked well when the groups weâre fighting each other and splintering off, extorting locals and smuggling.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 7:35:40 PM ||
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I just don't think that this is a very good idea. Eventually, I think it will only cause the U.S. more problems in a region of Iraq that has been relatively peaceful. I predict that we will regret this decision in the future.
#2
I think you're exactly right, anon. The Turks' problems with the PKK are one thing, but do we really want to stab a group that's been friendly to *us* in order to please folks that seriously screwed with our troop deployments in the runup to invasion, simply because they ask us to? Why?
What's in it for US?
Better be a damn big payoff, and not just a measley 10,000 Turkish troops. They're tough, but they're a real big pain in the ass, too.
Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday October 1, 2003
The Guardian
Former US government officials with close connections to the Bush family have set up a consultancy with the former Thatcher aide Lord Powell to advise companies how to win contracts in the $87bn (£52bn) effort to rebuild Iraq.
The emergence of New Bridge Strategies has intensified criticism that the Bush administration is putting cronyism before either Iraqi or US national interests. This smacks of totally ineffective cronyism. For effective cronyism the bid process has to be in the bag and the advisory group would be secret so that only the cronyies could get advice.
The initial reconstruction contracts in Iraq went exclusively to US corporations.
They included Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheneyâs former company, which won a $500,000 deal to put out oil fires and provide services for US troops without having to go through a competitive bidding process. zzzzzzzzzzz
The scope for western firms to do business in Iraq was widened considerably last month when the Iraqi governing council announced that companies operating in Iraq could be entirely owned by foreign companies. Shouldnât the cronyies be mad that the scope of competition is being widened?
On its website New Bridge Strategies describes itself as "a unique company that was created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the US-led war in Iraq". Sounds good.
"Its activities will seek to expedite the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq, consistent with the policies of the Bush administration," the statement declares. Iâm onboard.
"The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in the United States and on the ground in Iraq." Donât be pissing off the Guardian by including only positive info about your company on the company website. Letâs see some fair and balanced advertising. Say something nice about other advisory companies.
The website advertises the political connections of its board members, particularly its chairman and director, Joe Allbaugh. There you go again. Tooting your own horn on your website.
Mr Allbaugh was George Bushâs campaign manager in the 2000 presidential election and formerly part of the "iron triangle" of close Bush aides which included Karl Rove and Karen Hughes.
In the first two years of Mr Bushâs presidency Mr Allbaugh ran the federal emergency management agency.
The companyâs vice-chairman is Edward Rogers, who was a deputy assistant to the first President George Bush and an executive assistant to the White House chief of staff. Sounds like they got a good team. I bet this who advisor/lobbiest trend catches on. Probably should stick with the Lobbism moniker as Cronyism doesnât have the same ring.
Snip
Paul Krugman, a New York Times commentator and frequent critic of the Bush administration, described the company as forming part of a long list of examples of Bush "cronyism".
He said the former law firm of Douglas Feith, a senior Pentagon official who was instrumental in pushing the case for war, was also competing for postwar business.
He pointed to the exclusive contract for restoring Iraqâs electricity supply given to Bechtel, "whose Republican ties are almost as strong as Halliburtonâs". Nothing like winning an exclusive contract for construction under fire.
He said the decision not to let local contractors bid for some of the work was part of the reason Iraq was suffering so many blackouts. Was kind of hard to get the local Iraqi guys to return the bid packages before the war. Does Mr. Krugman understand that all construction in Iraq was accomplshed by the army? Anyway, the administration has included this in its lessons learned and is currently negotiating with contractors in Syria and Iran.
The US army have also complained that the practice of subcontracting the supply of rations and clothing has led to significant delays and hardships for the troops, because private contractors, fearful for their own safety, have failed to turn up in Iraq. Obviously, we need open bidding by companies that donât deliver or work in war zones.
Mr Krugman wrote: "The really important thing is that cronyism is warping policy: by treating contracts as prizes to be handed to their friends, administration officials are delaying Iraqâs recovery, with potentially catastrophic consequences." The contracts are currently being bid - economically that is different than cronyism. Handing out contracts to frineds and family is cronyism. For more information about cronyism you can read any biography of Saddam Huissain not written in Iraq.
New Bridge Strategies had not returned calls from the Guardian by yesterday evening
But its president, John Howland, has assured the New York Times that it is not seeking to promote its political connections to drum up business.
He added that although Mr Allbaugh had spent most of his career in politics, "thereâs a lot of cross-pollination between that world and the one that exists in Iraq today."
Hopefully, many companies will participate in the rebuilding process. I predict that these companies will end up hiring actual Iraqis and that these Iraqis will be paid wages. As the process unfolds some of this money will be spent on goods and services bought from other Iraqis....
#1
No mention that Halliburton won its position in the "express procurement" program during the Clinton administration? Why not?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/02/2003 16:30 Comments ||
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I don't see a mention that the US appears to be the one ponying up the 80 billion to rebuild Iraq and watching the others stair at the ceiling as we ask for contributions.
#3
I would like to see some local countries like Kuwait, Turkey and/or Jordan bid on and get awarded contracts. It is critical that Iraq has some type of relations with its neighbors. Jordan can use the cash flow especially.
To calculate a net cost we would need to know what were we shelling out for Operations Northern and Southern Watch. I don't think that keeping 150,000 American troops on the border of Iraq was for free either. Maybe the French were kicking in as they seemed pretty keen on us staying in that position for an extended period.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 18:07 Comments ||
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by Christian Lowe, The Weekly Standard EFL President Bush stated in a September 7 speech to the nation that Iraq has become the central front in the war on terrorism and that terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden and others like al Qaeda have crossed Iraq's borders. Paul Bremer, the chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority that oversees reconstruction in Iraq, buttressed Bush's claims, saying at a September 26 Pentagon briefing that "we do have almost 300 foreign—non-Iraqi detainees—third-country nationals in detention now, some of whom are terrorists, some of whom maybe just came as mercenaries."
I'm surprised the number is so low...
While the influence of foreign fighters has become a problem during America's occupation of Iraq, it's not a new one. One of the Bush team's arguments for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein was the presence of the Ansar al Islam group, who dominated a region in northeastern Iraq near the town of Halabja, by the Iranian border. And Ansar was a problem. During the war, teams from the 3rd Army Special Forces group fought pitched battles against Ansar, destroying their terrorist training camp after four days of fighting.
Waxing them from the air helped, too...
But this wasn't the only group of terrorists lurking in Iraq. From early April until mid-May, coalition special operations forces operated out of a compound called H-1 on the grounds of a captured Iraqi air base in western Iraq. The base was captured early in the war by Army Rangers who parachuted onto its runways and wiped out Iraqi resistance. Once secured, the commandos swept in and turned the base into an outpost . . . . They also turned H-1 into a POW camp. For one month, commando teams from the 5th Special Forces group, British and Australian Special Air Service, and CIA special tactics teams went out on raids designed to capture high-value human targets in the western desert along Highway 12, the main road between Baghdad and Syria. And they didn't come back empty handed. According to Army soldiers who administered the camp for the commandos, the prison held as many as 250 captives—nearly all of them foreign terrorists. They came from Iran, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries and hailed from groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. The soldiers even reported capturing al Qaeda members.
"Bug zapper of the Middle East"... That was a nice turn of phrase, Steve and Frank...
During their detention at H-1, these prisoners were interrogated by Defense Intelligence Agency operatives and then shipped out of the country (via Saudi Arabia) to either Kuwait or Guantanamo Bay for further questioning. The ties between Saddam and terrorist groups can be seen all over Iraq. One camp used by soldiers outside the northern city of Balad displays Iraqi and Palestinian flags side by side in the arched entrance. Inside the barracks-like buildings, Arabic writing on the walls teaches would-be terrorists how to aim rockets at tanks and implores them to kill infidels. This one-time training camp is set up just yards from one of the town's biggest Sunni mosques.
Evidence that Iraq is the central battleground in the war on terrorism is beginning to trickle out, with reports of increased infiltration along the Syrian border and a surge in activity from a reconstituted Ansar al Islam. But many of these groups were already well established in Iraq before the war.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/02/2003 6:57:24 AM ||
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The base was captured early in the war by Army Rangers who parachuted onto its runways and wiped out Iraqi resistance.
One day heâll be âseenâ by the 101st, after which heâll be âkilled.â EFL.
Saddam Hussein was reportedly seen in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk five days ago and is moving in increasingly smaller circles in order to evade capture, Jalal Talabani, a leading member of Iraqâs governing council, said yesterday. Mr Talabani, who also heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main groups controlling the Kurdish north of the country, told the Guardian that he had received unconfirmed reports that the ousted Iraqi dictator had sheltered last weekend among a Sunni Arab community on the outskirts of Kirkuk. He said: "Saddam has good relations with those Arabs whom he brought to Kirkuk to ethnically cleanse the city of Kurds and Turkomens." Iâm sure he does!
Saddam had been moving between the Hawija area and the Kirkuk plain, sheltering among Sunni Arab tribespeople and Baâath loyalists who had gone to ground there after the collapse of the regime. Time for a few random checks of some Sunni tribespeoples. Perhaps we can upset Saddamâs itinerary.
An officer with US forces stationed in Kirkuk yesterday said he was aware of the reported sighting but declined further speculation. "There have been many reports of Saddam around central Iraq. Some are plausible, others plainly not. We are conducting an ongoing operation for anyone, including the former leader, who presents a danger to stability in the country," he said.
US forces in Kirkuk - which comprises a volatile mix of Kurds (the majority), Turko-men and Arabs - have been watching the city closely after reports that Islamic extremists slipping across the border with Iran have been gathering there to join forces with Baâathists for attacks against US and foreign targets in Iraq. Time to bring down the flypaper and put up the bug-zapper.
Mr Talabani, said that since then Kurds had already assisted in the capture of several of the figures on the US 55 most-wanted list, including Taher Yassin Ramadan, the former Iraqi vice-president, Sultan Hashem, the former defence minister, and Uday and Qusay Hussein. Kurdish security officials had also been involved in the capture of many important lower ranking Baâath party officials as well as a number of suspected Islamic terrorists.
"Saddam cannot hide himself for ever," Mr Talabani said. "We are planning to get him." Time for a little âWhack-A-Moleâ!
If Saddam is captured alive, Mr Talabani wants to see him tried in an Iraqi court. "I hope to see the war criminals tried in this country. And those who committed crimes in Kurdistan must be tried in Kurdistan," he said. "It must be our Nuremberg." Okay with me.
But he said he opposed the death penalty for anyone found guilty of war crimes. "As a lawyer, I signed the global declaration against capital punishment. I remain committed to that signature."
On the broader security issue in Iraq, Mr Talabani urged the US forces to hand over internal security to Iraqis. "Itâs impossible for them to do it alone. I think itâs better for the liberation forces to cooperate and coordinate with all Iraqi opposition forces especially those forces who have roots in the society. "The best way is to deliver the responsibility of internal security to the Iraqi forces and Iraqi courts. Give the new minister of the interior authority and we will cooperate with him as will all other Iraqi parties and groups who want stability." Soon, maybe, but these security forces and courts have to prove themselves.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2003 12:59:12 AM ||
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#1
Sadaams playing Marco/Palo with our forces. Sooner or later we'll take a peak at where he is and 'tag' him.
ID# 256734.
Name: Hussien, Sadaam.
CoD: yet to be determined.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:48 Comments ||
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#2
It is very doubtful that Saddam would travel in Kurdish area. In fact, there is some chance Saddam is already dead.
A top organizer of last yearâs deadly nightclub attacks on Indonesiaâs Bali island was sentenced Thursday to death by firing squad. Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, was ``proven guilty of planning a terrorist action ... and we the judges sentence him to death,ââ Judge Cokorda Rai Suamba said. Ghufron is the third defendant in the case to be sentenced to death for the Oct. 12 attack that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Sixteen others have received prison terms ranging from seven years to life. So long, Ali, the world will continue to spin upon its axis without you.
Give our regards to Himmler!
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2003 1:04:46 AM ||
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They should make his death as painful as possible, and burn the guy at the stake.
The last of the main suspects tried in connection with last year's Bali attacks is in court to hear the verdict of the judges. Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, is possibly the most significant suspect in the nightclub bombings which killed 202 people. Prosecutors allege that he was the overall co-ordinator of the bombings - chairing the preparatory meetings, channelling funds to finance the attack, and approving the targets. They have asked that he be given the death penalty. The court in Bali is expected to announce its verdict at the end of Thursday's hearing.
Just shoot him. Get it over with...
The 43-year-old Islamic teacher has admitted involvement in the attack, but has denied that he played a direct role. He has claimed he just gave the bombers religious guidance.
"Yes. It is more holy to use C4, brothers!"
Mukhlas told an Indonesian court last month that he was only a "small fry terrorist" compared to the "big fish" of US President George Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Oh. Well. In that case, never mind...
Three other key suspects in the attack have already been found guilty. One of Mukhlas' brothers, Amrozi, has been sentenced to death, along with the bombings' "field commander", Imam Samudra. Mukhlas' other brother, Ali Imron, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Mother must be so proud...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:19 ||
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The last of the main suspects tried in connection with last year's Bali attacks has been sentenced to death. Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, was possibly the most significant suspect in the nightclub bombings which killed 202 people. The Indonesian court judges said the charges against him were "legally and convincingly proven", there were no mitigating circumstances and he deserved the maximum sentence of death by firing squad. The BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bali said Mukhlas betrayed no emotion when the verdict was announced. He said he would appeal against the ruling.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 1:04 Comments ||
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has paid great attention to establishing mosques and Islamic propaganda centers, institutes and universities in a number of non-Islamic countries all over the world. Sure that this is the most effective way to spread Islamic culture and Arabic language, the Kingdom, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, has established 210 Islamic centers in non-Islamic countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia. Among the biggest is King Fahd Islamic Center in Malaga, Spain, on an area of 3,848 sq. m., whose foundation stone was laid in 1998. The university-like Center embraces academic, educational, cultural, and propagatory activities. Like dehumanizing women and booming as many civilians as possible.
King Fahd has donated five million US dollars for the cost of the Islamic Center in Toronto, Canada, in addition to 1.5 million US dollars annually to run the facility. We fund it too!?
The Islamic Center in Brasilia; King Fahd Cultural Islamic Center in Buenos Aires; King Fahd Cultural Islamic Center in Gibraltar; King Fahd Cultural Islamic Center in Mont La Jolly, France; King Fahd Islamic Center in Edinburgh, Scotland were built at the personal expense of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz. Sings: King Fahd! Born in desert quite bare, got "culture" spots everywhere King Fahd!
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also contributed to the establishment of a number of Islamic centers e.g. The Islamic Center in Geneva; Islamic Cultural Center in Brussels; Islamic Center in Madrid; Islamic Center in New York; Islamic Center in Australia; Islamic Center in Zagreb, Croatia; Cultural Center in London; Islamic Center in Lisbon, Portugal; and Islamic Center in Vienna, Austria. In Africa, the Kingdom fully financed King Faisal Center in Nâdjamena, Chad, and contributed to the establishment of the Islamic Center in Abuja, Nigeria, and Islamic African Center in Khartoum, the Sudan.
In Asia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has fully financed King Fahd Islamic Center in the Maldives, Islamic Center in Tokyo and contributed to the establishment of the Saudi Indonesian Center for Islamic Studies in Indonesia.
Of course in the Maldives. Thatâs like 100% Sunni Muslim.
The Kingdom has established more than 1,359 mosques abroad at a cost of SR 820 million, notably King Fahd Mosque in Gibraltar; Mont La Jolly Mosque in France; King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles; King Fahd Mosque in Edinburgh, Scotland; Islamic Center Mosque in Geneva, Switzerland at a cost of SR 16 million; the 4000-worshippers-capacity Brussels Mosque at a cost of SR 20 million; and Madrid Mosque, the biggest in the West. Other mosques partially financed by the Kingdom included mosques in Zagreb, Lisbon, Vienna, New York, Washington, Chicago, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and 12 mosques in a number of countries in south America. Gulp!
In Africa, the Islamic Solidarity Mosque was established in Mogadishu, Somalia, four mosques in main cities in Gabon, two mosques in Burkina Faso, Zanzibar Mosque in Tanzania and Grand Mosque in Senegal. Among mosques which received the Kingdomâs or King Fahdâs personal financial support are Leon Mosque in France (SR 11 million); King Faisal Mosque in Chad (SR 60m); King Faisal Mosque in Ghenia (SR 58m); Grand Mosque in Senegal (SR 12m); Farooee Mosque in Cameroon (SR 15.6m); Zanzibar Mosque in Tanzania (SR 10m); Bamako Mosque in Mali (SR 23m); Yaoundi Mosque in Cameroon (SR 5m); Al Azhar Mosque in Egypt (SR 14m for rehabilitation); Bilal Mosque in Los Angeles; repairs of the Rock Tomb and Omer bin Al Khattab Mosque in Al Quds; and Central Brent Mosque in Britain. King Fahd also established a number of scholarships and academic chairs in foreign prominent universities and colleges. :jawdrop:
We can cite King Abdul Aziz Chair for Islamic Studies at the University of California, King Fahd Chair for Islamic Sharia Studies at the College of Law at Harvard University, King Fahd Chair for Studies at the Oriental and African Studies Institute at the University of London, and Prince Naif Department for Islamic Studies at the University of Moscow. Theyâre everywhere!
The Kingdom also established a number of Islamic academies abroad. Among them, are the Islamic Academy in Washington at a cost of 100 million US dollars, where multinational students are taking lessons. Now it accommodates 1,200 students, of which 549 are Saudis. The rest represent 29 nationalities; King Fahd Academy in London whose students belong to 40 nationalities; King Fahd Academy in Moscow; King Fahd Academy in Bonn, which cost 30 million German Marks. A number of institutes, designed to spread Islamic culture and the Arabic language were also opened in foreign countries to serve Islamic communities in non-Muslim countries. They include the Arab Islamic Institute in Tokyo, an affiliate of the Riyadh-based Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University. All for the purpose of spreading Wahhabism and the fascism it entails.
Moreover, there are several Islamic schools e.g. in South Korea where 20,000 Muslims have formed the Korea Islamic Federation. King Fahd has appropriated an annual donation worth 25,000 US dollars to the federation. There are also many Islamic institutes all over the world, most notably the Arab and Islamic Institutes in Washington, Indonesia, Ras Al Khaimah Emirate (UAE), Nouakchott (Mauritania), and Djibouti. The Institute of the History of Arab and Islamic Sciences in Frankfurt, Germany, receives an annual financial support from the Kingdom worth 15 million German Marks while the Arab World Institute in Paris receives considerable Saudi contribution to its annual budget. And all peaceful, right?
There has been a recent reorganization of the highest echelons of Egypt's religious establishment: Sheikh Dr. Ali Guma has been appointed to the post of Egyptian Mufti, replacing Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb,who was appointed president of Al-Azhar University. Dr. Al-Tayyeb replaced Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Omar Hashem. The following is a review of a number of the mufti's statements:
It is Forbidden for a Muslim in the U.S. Military To Fight His Brother
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the start of the war in Afghanistan, a debate arose among Muslim clerics regarding whether it was permitted for Muslims to serve in the U.S.'s armed forces and fight against Muslims in Afghanistan. Sheikh Guma objected to Muslims participating in the war as U.S. soldiers. In a Fatwa issued six days after the war began, Sheikh Gum'a wrote:
"âŠThere is news that some of the Mujahideen [who fought] recently against the Communist forces are now behind the events that took place on September 11, 2001 in Washington and New York⊠The U.S. set the columns of soldiers in motion and insisted on moving from suspicion to actual punishmentâŠ
"The Prophet said: 'Do not go back after [my death] to being infidels who strike each other's necks.' When he was asked about civil war between Muslims, he said: 'If two Muslims fight with their swords and kill each other, the place of both the killer and the killed is in Hell.'
"A consensus emerged that it was forbidden for a Muslim to [fight] his brother. Even if the [brother's] guilt was proven, a Muslim is forbidden from fighting his brother, all the more so when it occurs as a result of propaganda and lies.
"A Hadith says: 'A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim; he does not abandon him and he does not give him away.' âŠThe Muslim soldier in the American army must refrain [from participating] in this war, and if he cannot, he must serve in the [logistic] ranks, and if he cannot, he must submit his resignation. If he is forced to [fight] and is among the combating ranks, he is forbidden from killing a Muslim with his weapon; if he kills him in error he must pay reparation. If he kills him intentionally, he has committed the sin of killing a Muslim intentionally."
Sheikh Guma was also a signatory to the "Basic Announcement of the World Campaign For Resistance to Aggression," which stated: "The Islamic nation is, in the recent period, subject to cruel aggression on the part of the forces of oppression and tyranny, primarily the Zionist forces and the American administration, led by the extreme right, that acts to impose [their] hegemony on the nations and on the peoples and to change their curricula and their social systemsâŠ"
In an interview conducted in early July 2003 with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Haqiqa, Sheikh Guma discussed current political topics and offered his view on the issues of suicide bombings and the killing of foreigners:
Question: "Who has the authority to call for Jihad against the aggressors?" Sheikh Gum'a: " The one with the authority to declare Jihad is the imam who has under his [command] a regular army capable of waging a war of regular armies. When the Prophet was in Mecca, he had no army, and therefore he could not declare Jihad⊠that is, when there was a state of enmity between Muslims and the polytheists and there was harm caused to the believers by the polytheists, all the Prophet ordered his comrades to do was to say: 'You have your religion and we have our religion.'
"[But], when the army in Al-Madina was formed, there was land, there was a regime, and there was the capability to fight, the Prophet launched warâŠ
"The Prophet taught us that warfare can exist only under a flag, and that the one with the right to declare Jihad is the one with the flag. The one with the flag in our day is the president of the state, in every one of the [Muslim] countries. He, and the leaders at his side, are capable of assessing whether this war is beneficial or whether it leads to loss, whether the war will protect the Muslims or whether it will harm themâŠ"
Question: "If so, what is the rule regarding a young man who infiltrates into the land of Palestine for the sake of Jihad without the permission of the ruler, and is killed?" Sheikh Gum'a: "He is a Shahid, because Palestine is a special case and not the ordinary case existing in the world⊠This is because in Palestine there is an enemy that rules the land. This rule is considered a crime by international conventions and resolutionsâŠ
"The world has let the Jews spread corruption throughout the land and they have succeeded in obtaining international legitimacy to territories that were conquered after 1967âŠIsrael is a special case that does not exist [anywhere else] on the face of the earth. We are facing a criminal occupation that is the source of terror."
Question: "And what is the ruling regarding the martyrdom [i.e. suicide] operations? Unfortunately, there have been those who have condemned them or demanded that they be stopped [i.e. the sheikh of Al-Azhar, Tantawi]."
Sheikh Guma: "The one who carries out Fedaii [martyrdom] operations against the Zionists and blows himself up is, without a doubt, a Shahid because he is defending his homeland against the occupying enemy who is supported by superpowers such as the U.S. and Britain."
Question: "Do you distinguish between Fedaii operations against military personnel and those carried out against so-called civilians among the Zionists?" Sheikh Guma: " The Zionists themselves do not differentiate between civilian and military personnel. They have set the entire people to military service. The civilian settler who occupies land in a state of war is a Harbi [that is, a non-Muslim living in an area regarded as 'Dar Al-harb,' the 'domain of war,' in which Islam does not dominate and must therefore be fought until Islam dominates it]. Besides, everyone in Israel, civilians and military personnel, bear arms. That is, they are 'Ahl Al-Qital'[that is, those who deserve to be fought]."
Question: "Do you differentiate between operations carried out within the 1948 borders and operations carried out within the 1967 borders?"
Sheikh Guma: " Even Zionists do not differentiate. They occupied the entire territory. We differentiate when there is a difference, [but] there is no difference between Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Hebron."
Question: "Is it permitted to kill an Israeli traveling outside the borders of his land?" Sheikh Guma: "Yes, it is permitted to kill him, because he is a Harbi and the Harbi spreads corruption throughout the face of the earth."
Question: "Even if he is wearing a diplomatic uniform, for example?" Sheikh Guma: " He can wear a diplomatic uniform as much as he likes, but his blood is permitted. But permitting his blood does not mean that he must be killed; it only permits his killing."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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The Grand Mufti of Zippystan, Foobar al-Mukluk, had this to say:
#2
" Now that I'm done with this interview, I must follow Bin Ladens example. "
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:34 Comments ||
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#3
When the Prophet was in Mecca, he had no army, and therefore he could not declare Jihad
I still don't get it. Why can't he declare the need for internal struggle without an army?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/02/2003 7:07 Comments ||
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#4
"but his blood is permitted. But permitting his blood does not mean that he must be killed; it only permits his killing."
Islamofascist take on turning the other cheek I suppose.
Religon of peace my ass.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/02/2003 9:37 Comments ||
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#5
I guess a lot of Muslims are going to hell then...especially the millions that killed each other in the 80's (Iraq & Iran.) Heck, these morons waste each other everyday. Sheikh 'Gump' needs to read the whole qu'ran and not just the parts he likes......
#7
"The one who carries out Fedaii [martyrdom] operations against the Zionists and blows himself up is, without a doubt, a Shahid because he is defending his homeland against the occupying enemy who is supported by superpowers such as the U.S. and Britain"
In 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini fled to Germany and met with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders. He wanted to persuade them to extend the Nazisâ anti-Jewish program to the Arab world.
The Mufti sent Hitler 15 drafts of declarations he wanted Germany and Italy to make concerning the Middle East. One called on the two countries to declare the illegality of the Jewish home in Palestine. Furthermore, âthey accord to Palestine and to other Arab countries the right to solve the problem of the Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries, in accordance with the interest of the Arabs and, by the same method, that the question is now being settled in the Axis countries.â
A reformist Arab diplomat who writes under the pseudonym Abu Ahmad Mustafa continued his criticism of Muslim society in a September 13, 2003 article for the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. In the article he takes issue with Muslim society's view of life as a transitional stage leading to the hereafter. The following are excerpts from the article:
The Distance Between Words and Deeds
"The calls to hate and kill the other [that come] at the end of each prayer session and at every opportunity are camouflaged with the assertion that we are a tolerant nation that commands promoting virtue and preventing vice. Why then are our deeds so different from our words? In his day, the Saudi philosopher Abdallah Al-Qassimi said many times that 'the greatest distance [between two points] in the world is the distance between an Arab's words and his deeds.' We have become accustomed to not asking questions and not searching for the truth, doing so only when this suits our personal desires and motivations. We demand that others adopt the moral standards advocated by Islam, yet we do not implement them at all. We preach love, [yet] we read of a battle waged by a [political] party bearing the name of Allah [against another political party]⊠The interested parties intervene and call the ones who are killed Shahids. Is there a greater disgrace?
"When someone who murders, spills blood, and slashes the bellies of Palestinian children, women, and the elderly is himself murdered, all lament his death and decorate him with medals of honor and excellence as [a hero] of pan-Arab nationalism. Do we need any more examples?âŠ"
Our Websites Provoke Nausea
"We must examine our history, our books, and our stories with an open mind [and] without hatred of the other. [We] must not refrain from depicting [the other] positively. We have no choice than to do so if we want to create a peaceful society with peace of mind. Anyone who reads with objective eyes our websites, which we have put to such bad use, will be nauseated by the hatred for the other. [These] sites are full of invective and revilement that does not [spare] even the righteous caliphs, who are described with the ugliest of depictions. Under the catchphrase, 'Islam is the solution' [our] websites [are] full of wailing and lamentation for a man killed in a battle that has no connection to religion and whose background has no connection to Islam!"
Islam is Not the Answer
"The answer does not lie in Islam; it is hidden in sick minds brainwashed with hatred for the brethren living nearby and peoples living thousands of miles away. What was it that drove a mentally ill man to destroy buildings that housed companies employing people of different religions, among them Muslims, who have no connection whatsoever to his sick ideas and opinions â an act that caused the deaths of some 3,000 innocents? [Consider, for example] a country that calls itself Muslim violating the basic rights of its [own] citizens and taking pride in its defense of the rights of Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Chechnya! After all, what is the Chechens' story? Didn't we learn [the lesson] from our failure in Afghanistan, and [didn't we] repeat [the failure] yet again in Chechnya?"
Our Battles Are Not the World's Battles
"How can an intelligent person state or assert that we are a nation that preaches love among people [when] in our own home, [we] carry out ugly deeds and are silent about the disgrace? Imperialism is not to blame for the contempt for and squandering of our resources on imaginary projects and on compensation for foolish acts. What is to blame is the culture of submission suckled from the clerics of past and from the idols of today. We cannot rid ourselves of [this culture] because our revolutionaries continue to exploit the clerics and use their Fatwas for their own purposes. Throughout the world, people are fighting for [issues such as] improving education, increasing funding for scientific research, and improving infrastructure, while our struggles are connected to the past â not to health, not to education, not to sewage [systems], not to clean water, not to human rights, not to general freedoms, and not to political reform⊠Today's reality is that we live in a situation in which most of our thinking is directed towards what happens after death, [as we] consider [life only] a transitional stage. The importance [of life] is not, in our view, equal to the importance of what [awaits us] in the stage following death. "If that is their solution, may they go in peace..."
With those kinds of opinions, he'd better continue using a pseudonym. Somebody's going to fatwah his ass and he'll move on to the afterlife, too â leaving Arab thought even more sterile than it already is.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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Abu Ahmad Mustafa, you are one courageous dude. May God protect you.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/02/2003 7:00 Comments ||
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#2
'the greatest distance [between two points] in the world is the distance between an Arab's words and his deeds.'
he gets it
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 10:42 Comments ||
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#6
The fact that he has to write under a pseudonym speaks volumes.
also, does anyone know who he is talking about here when he says:
When someone who murders, spills blood, and slashes the bellies of Palestinian children, women, and the elderly is himself murdered, all lament his death and decorate him with medals of honor and excellence as [a hero] of pan-Arab nationalism. Do we need any more examples?â¦"
The next time you hear the Palestinians and their supporters bemoaning how Israelâs determination to defend itself against terror has "crippled" the Palestinian economy, consider a new report from the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF recently disclosed that its own audit uncovered the fact that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat between 1995 and 2000 diverted fully $591 million from the PA budget into a special bank account under his personal control.
Thatâs nearly $100 million a year!
Talking about hitting the lottery.
According to the IMFâs Karim Nashashibi, the money - which came from tax revenues collected by Israel and turned over to Arafat - was used to invest in 69 domestic and foreign commercial companies, whose actual owners were not disclosed.
Posted by: Alex ||
10/02/2003 7:09:42 PM ||
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How much US money has been diverted to this terrorist's pocket?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 22:22 Comments ||
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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators surged into Ivory Coastâs commercial center Thursday for the largest pro-government rally in months, a sign of increasing tensions over a stalled power-sharing agreement with rebels. Does anyone know of a power-sharing agreement that has worked?
Authorities closed highways leading into the skyscraper-lined downtown, allowing a crowd of apparently more than 70,000 to flow into a central square for a rally against rebels, who have divided the West African country. The crowd from ANSWER must have been addled with jet-lag. Itâs the rebels you fools; you must side with the rebel forces!!!
"We donât want the rebels. Weâre tired of rebels," said one protester, Pipo NâZagi, whose skin was smeared with traditional mud-colored paint.
Shopkeepers closed stores downtown ahead of the rally, fearing repeats of past violence by pro-government youth groups. Maybe the kids were exchange students from NK.
Security forces stood by with automatic weapons, clubs, whips and ropes to prevent violence among demonstrators draped in the orange, white and green of Ivory Coastâs flag. Canât be violent when youâre unconscious.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 6:21:11 PM ||
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"Security forces stood by with automatic weapons, clubs, whips and ropes to prevent violence among demonstrators draped in the orange, white and green of Ivory Coastâs flag."
With those colors, I'm thinking maybe they're just drunken Irish soccer fans headed to the wrong stadium.
#2
With those colors, I'm thinking maybe they're just drunken Irish soccer fans headed to the wrong stadium.
Man, that's got to be the Mother of all Wrong Turns!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 22:42 Comments ||
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JPost; reg. reqâd.
In the second incident of its kind in recent weeks, masked men belonging to the Fatah militant organization stormed a Ramallah Hospital on Wednesday night and shot dead a Palestinian patient suspected of collaboration with Israel. "Is he defenseless yet, Mahmoud?" "Yes, Achmed." "All righty then, letâs do it."
Two weeks ago, masked men from Fatahâs armed wing, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, raided the Tulkarm Hospital and shot dead 27-year-old Fida Tirawi while he was undergoing surgery. Tirawi, who belonged to the same group, was killed as part of a dispute between rival groups affiliated with the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the area. Ah, internal politics.
In the Ramallah incident, eyewitnesses said four men armed with M-16 assault rifles and pistols stormed the local hospital in search of 25-year-old Nasser Kalawleh, a resident of the village of Judaideh in the Jenin district. Theyâre used to attacking hospital patients, arenât they?
Kalawleh was brought to hospital after Fatah gunmen in Jenin tried to kill him on suspicion of collaboration with Israel. He was first taken to a hospital in Jenin, but was transferred to Ramallah for fear that the assailants would catch up with him there. They caught up with him anyway.
A doctor in the Ramallah hospital said Kalawleh had been shot in the leg outside his home in Judaideh and was admitted to hospital a few days ago. He said the armed men shot Kalawleh while he was lying in bed. Of course! They go out of their way to plug the defenseless, soâŠ
Sources in the village said the victim was suspected of passing on information to Israeli security forces about the movements of Palestinians involved in terrorism in Judaideh and other nearby villages. He was suspected of helping the Good Guysâ¢, so they killed him.
Last month Kalawleh was abducted and brutally interrogated by members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, who accused him of working with Israeli security forces. Sources close to the group claimed on Thursday that Kalawleh had confessed to being an informant and even expressed remorse. They also claimed that he was responsible for the death of senior Hamas activist Qais Odwan, who was killed by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield last year. Odwan got what he had coming.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigades issued a statement claiming responsibility for the "execution" of Kalawleh in the Ramallah hospital. The group said the man was an Israeli "spy" and therefore deserved to die. Kalawleh is the fourth Palestinian killed by the Fatah group in Ramallah over the past three months. So theyâve killed others. Assholes(to put it mildly).
#3
'four men armed with M-16 assault rifles'. Hmmm, aren't then Paleo cops armed with M-16s? Seem the run-of-the-mill hamas or ij is armed with AK47s. I wonder if this is a political struggle and not a collaborator? Looks like maybe arafart is getting rid of some rivals. BTW: Four men in masks, M-16s, and pistols against a man undergoing surgery? You see how brave the al idiot barkers brigade members are. They are no more that organized thugs, which means the fit in with fatah/arafat.
#4
In the second incident of its kind in recent weeks, masked men belonging to the Fatah militant organization stormed a Ramallah Hospital on Wednesday night and shot dead a Palestinian patient suspected of collaboration with Israel.
Hey! Where's Human Rights Watch? Where's Amnesty International? Where's.....
(AP) - A federal judge on Thursday barred the government from seeking the death penalty for terrorism accomplice suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, inflicting a major defeat on the government for refusing to let the defendant question three al-Qaida prisoners. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected a more severe option to dismiss all charges. The government had acknowledged dismissal would be appropriate, so there could be a quick appeal of her earlier ruling grantings Moussaoui access to the prisoners.
(Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a ban on "partial birth abortions," bringing anti-abortion forces within easy reach of a long-sought victory. The U.S. Senate is expected to act within weeks, sending it to President Bush, who plans to sign it. If the bill withstands legal challenges, it would be the first time a specific form of abortion has been criminalized since the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling upholding infanticide abortion rights. And about time, too.
#1
Ohhh, there'll be a lot of hootin' and hollerin' about how this somehow applies to ALL abortions. The SCOTUS will ignore the facts and details of the case law and strike it down. They're all in favor of an implied right to privacy, but itch to restrict Second Amendment rights, despite the plain text.
Fact is, although I'm pro-life and applaud this move at one level, I think this is over-reaching on the part of both the Congress, President, and the SCOTUS. Traditionally, issues of manslaughter and murder are the purview of the States, and issues of abortion should be decided at the state level, not the federal.
Another issue is that of regulation of Medical procedures. Do the feds and the states have a right to regulate what kinds of medical procedures are conducted within the state? If you consider the practice of medicine as a business, then I suppose, given the current environment, that you should. My preference would be that the state should butt out of any kind of business, providing the right to sue as a safeguard.
However, looking at the facts of the case, Abortion can be defined as malpractice: The claim is that the operation is on the Mother, but it can be demonstrated that the body parts extracted are NOT from the mother. I have no objection to a woman and a doctor agreeing that an amputation should take place, but would be highly annoyed if the doctor then cut MY leg off. The only reason why abortionists aren't sued is that the victims, being underage, dead, and sold out by their parents, can't bring suit. Exploitation? You betcha...
#5
I have a very, very long list of people well-deserving of post-partum abortions. Let's not go messing with a good thing.
That said, partial-birth abortions are nothing but a grotesque form of infanticide, and I wouldn't want any doctor that's every performed one within six city blocks of me or my family.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 23:08 Comments ||
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For the "War on Domestic Terror" file. Edited for brevity.
Itâs the stuff most citizens see only on television or film -- two cops kicking in a door, entering a dark room filled with bad guys carrying guns. Itâs what Seattle police Officers Darryl DâAmbrosia and John Davidge did early yesterday morning, and investigators believe their bravery may have ended a recent spree of home-invasion robberies. "Itâs the most frightening kind of crime that citizens can contemplate," Deputy Chief Clark Kimmerer said yesterday of the six cases believed to be connected to the four men arrested yesterday. On Sept. 4, 7 and 15, at least four families in Seattle, Burien and Skyway were robbed in their own homes. The pattern was similar -- a group of robbers would burst into the home, tie up the residents and demand cash and jewelry. In one case, the robbers entered using a garage-door opener left in the family car outside. In another case, one fired off a single shot before leaving. And in yet another robbery, the thieves tied up a 5-year-old boy, threatening to kill both him and his father. Police and King County sheriffâs detectives had been comparing notes almost from the start. Yesterday, that collaboration appeared to pay off. Not exactly WoT-related, but the savagery of these crimes and their increasing popuarity (hitting us in Western PA, too) have got me incensed. Iâd like to see all home invaders get a face full of 00 buckshot.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 2:29:58 PM ||
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Mossberg 500 8+1 is a fine tool. Because of the 20" barrel and the resultant spread I would suggest #4s
#2
Winchester Defender here with 18" barrel (holds 8 shells), pistol grip and shoulder sling - .00 shells BTW - I like to clean it in front of my 18 yr old daughter's new dates
"does that barrel look clean to you?"
;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 22:31 Comments ||
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#3
Got a nice 12-gauge bird gun with a 3/4 choke barrel. I prefer a super-x hand-load of 1/3 buckshot, 1/3 dried pork rind, 1/6 rock salt, and 1/6 small gravel. Rough on the barrel - needs an immediate cleaning. Best place to aim is the belly-button. There aren't enough sutures anywhere to completely stitch the recipient up without some major re-arrangment. At 35 feet, only a tiny portion of the load doesn't penetrate, and a few pieces make it all the way through. Reaches from just under the sternum to just below the crotch.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 23:14 Comments ||
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Two new Palestinian thought police graduates leap over colleagues during a demonstration of their skills at the graduation ceremony in Gaza City Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003. The graduates are part of the police force of the Palestinian Authority. So they have skills besides killing dissenters and Jews! I didnât know that!
#3
LGF has similarly posted ridiculous Paleo police graduation stunts, like the "jumping thru ring of fire and doing somersault" stunt which has absolutely NO use in police work....better they should show how they snuff injured gunnys in their hospital beds
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 22:33 Comments ||
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LONDON, Oct. 1 â People in Latin America, Western Europe and North America are happier than their counterparts in Eastern Europe and Russia, according to a British study. An analysis of levels of happiness in more than 65 countries by the World Values Survey shows Nigeria has the highest percentage of happy people followed by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, while Russia, Armenia and Romania have the fewest.
The survey is a worldwide investigation of sociocultural and political change conducted about every four years by an international network of social scientists. It includes questions about how happy people are and how satisfied they are with their lives.
It showed that average happiness has remained virtually the same in industrialized countries since World War Two, although incomes have risen.
The exception is Denmark, where people have become more satisfied with life over the last three decades.
Researchers believe the unchanging trend is linked to consumerism.
âSurvey after survey has shown that the desire for material goods, which has increased hand in hand with average income, is a happiness suppressant,â the magazine added. And Shariâa isnât?
#2
âSurvey after survey has shown that the desire for material goods, which has increased hand in hand with average income, is a happiness suppressant,â the magazine added.
Ah, but what happens once those desired material goods are in hand?
EFL. Hat tip LGF
Now that British rule has been brought to an end, the opponents of Ahmadiyyat have invented a new charge that the Ahmadis are the agents of Israel.
In this context it is worthy of note that the first voice raised against the establishment of Israel was the voice of the Ahmadiyya Community, yet its opponents feel no compunction in charging it with being the agents of Israel. When the question of Palestine was raised in the United Nations, Chaudhry Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, a devoted Ahmadi, was enabled by divine grace to deliver a powerful speech on 9 October 1947 in the Committee of the United Nations Assembly that was dealing with the problem, in which he put forward the case of the Palestine Arabs with great ability. The Nawai Waqt of October 12 1947 commented:
The special correspondence of Reuter has reported that after the speech of Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, the Pakistani delegate, the Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations dealing with the question has been confronted with an awkward situation. Till the delegation of the United States declares its position with reference to the problem, other delegations are not prepared to speak. The United States delegate is not ready to speak till President Truman and the Secretary of State, Mr. George Marshall, and the U.S. delegation itself agree upon a united stand. The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Herbert Evatt, of Australia, expressed his uneasiness at the debate appearing to have arrived prematurely at its end. The U.S. delegate remained sitting silent as if his lips had been sealed. Such a situation is unprecedented in the United Nations. The Pakistani delegate expressed the view of other delegations when in his annoyance he suggested that as leading delegates were reluctant to speak the general debate on the question of Palestine might be closed.
The same organ wrote:
The speech delivered by Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, leader of the Pakistan delegation, in the Committee of the UN General Assembly on the question of Palestine was most outstanding in every respect. He spoke for one hundred and fifteen minutes. When he finished his speech an Arab representative said that this was the best speech on the case of the Arabs and that he had not so far heard any such outstanding statement of their case.
Muhammad Zafrulla Khan devoted the greater part of his speech to arguing against the partition of Palestine. During the course of his speech the faces of Arab representatives shone with pleasure. At the end of the speech the delegates of Arab countnes shook him by the hand and felicitated him on his glorious speech. A British delegate sent a message to Zafrulla Khan that his speech was outstanding and that he would request to be furnished with a copy of it so that he might study it with great care.
This historic speech of Ch. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan presented the true aspects of the problem of Palestine before the United Nations and the delegations of several member countries made up their minds in pursuance of it to vote against the partition of Palestine, but thereafter some of them changed their minds under pressure from the great powers.
On 9 December 1947, Ch. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan delivered an address on the subject of Palestine in the Government College Lahore which was reported in the Nawai Waqt of 11 December in the following terms:
Ch. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, leader of the Pakistan delegation to the Assembly of the United Nations, spoke at length on all aspects of the problem of Palestine. He condemned the resolution of the UN General Assembly recommending the partition of Palestine as entirely unjust. Speaking at the Government College Lahore, he expressed great regret that the United States Government procured the recommendation of the United Nations in support of the partition of Palestine by exercising undue pressure on some of the small Powers, members of the United Nations. He said that Palestine had been made a pawn in the election politics of the United States. He pointed out that in the proposed Jewish State to be set up in Palestine, not only will a large Arab minority be subjected to Jewish domination but the economy of the country will pass under international control which would be an illegal development. Then his lips fell off
He explained that on 26 November it was certain that the resolution could not be carried and its supporters were convinced that it would be defeated) but that at the last moment the voting was unnecessarily postponed to 28 November so that pressure could be exercised on some of the member states that they should give up their opposition to the resolution and vote in support of it. He mentioned that on 28 November the representative of Haiti met him after the voting and with tears literally running down his cheeks made his apology that he had not been left free to vote in accordance with his original instructions. Several other delegates confessed that they had been compelled to vote in support of the resolution under great pressure. Sigh⊠Another Middle Eastern beauzeau with an autoimmune reaction to brain tissue.
Posted by: Katz ||
10/02/2003 11:46:05 AM ||
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Actually, this is a defence of Ahmadi Muslims against charges of apostasy.
This sect is rather rational, and is the target of some bigotry by some radical groups.
This article just establishes that they too were against Israel from the beginning (in a fairly measured way it seems to me) and therefore in the mainstream of Muslim opinion at the time.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 20:14 Comments ||
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#3
Given the past 50+ years of warfare in the region one does tend to think that refounding Israel in its historical location was probably a bad idea from the start... The Jewish state should probably have been created using a sizeable chunk of Germany instead -- which was after all the party responsible for WW2, not the Arabs.
#4
Interesting how holy Jerusalem was to the Arabs prior to Jews being repatriated there. It's more of a homeland to the Jews than any Bedouins or "Palestinians". For Paleo homeland, look east to Jordan
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 22:38 Comments ||
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Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity.
A high school student has the right to wear a T-shirt to school with the face of President Bush and the words "International Terrorist" on the front, a federal judge ruled. "There is no evidence that the T-shirt created any disturbance or disruption," U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan said in the ruling released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which sued the Dearborn school district on behalf of Bretton Barber. An assistant principal had ordered Barber in February to conceal the anti-Bush message or go home. Dearborn High said it worried about inflaming passions at the suburban Detroit school, where a majority of students are Arab-American. But, the judge said, "The record does not reveal any basis for (the assistant principalâs) fear aside from his belief that the T-shirt conveyed an unpopular political message." Iâm fine with this ruling. But will he stop claiming heâs being repressed and censored and that America is turning into Nazi Germany? Any bets?
Posted by: Dar ||
10/02/2003 11:45:21 AM ||
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Would a T shirt with a picture of Jessie Jackson with the words 'International Terrorist' under it receive the same protection?
#2
How about a picture on a t-shirt with either Jesse Jackson, Sharpe, Maxwell, or fat boy Kennedy and the caption "Race Baiter"???? Or how about Afarat "International Terrorists"
This is just the beginning of a bad trend as I see it, there's a general lack of respect throughout American society these days. I bet someone beats the S**T out of that kid sooner or later. The ACLU has done more to undermine American values than any Democrat ever did.
#5
I don't have a problem with the tee-shirt but I was hoping that we could convince the kid to get his slogan tattooed across his forehead. I want to make sure that future employers are treated to "truth in advertising type protection."
#6
How about a picture on a t-shirt with either Jesse Jackson, Sharpe, Maxwell, or fat boy Kennedy and the caption "Race Baiter"???? Or how about Afarat "International Terrorists"
Well sooner or later someone will do that. The question is, what will be the response then?
#7
If somebody came to me seeking employment wearing that shirt, I'd show them the door, if I let them in it in the first place.
Children in school should be prepared for the great wide world. That includes academics, dress, speech and deportment. Children who have brains and want to do something with their lives will have to take years to unlearn some of the garbage being stuffed into their brains at school, in the name of individual freedom.
Children are not little adults. They are adults in training.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2003 12:44 Comments ||
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Fred - you are right and this is one reason I will probably send my (yet unborn) son to a private school if I can afford it. Public schools - under the National Education Association - suck. I want my son to be able to think and not just recite what has been crammed into his brain in the name of Political Correctness or Diversity.
Bomb - The response would be 'RACIST! RACIST!'. After all look what happened to Limbaugh.
#9
Grew up near Dearborn and lived there for 2 years. Same town with the 3 Al Qaeda cell in it (not but about 3 miles from the high school) but it helps paint the picture. And the simple delights of Arab Voice of Detroit airing 24/7. Always nice to see the OBL photos touchingly airbrushed flashed up on the screen. I bet he wore the T-shirt just to avoid getting the snot knocked out of him thrice daily.
#10
this kid is clearly a douche-bag. My question is where and who are his parents? That's what it boils down to imho. A lot of parents I've seen are a bunch of mamby-pamby dish rags. They placate their children vice teaching and nurturing them. A lot do not even take charge or accountability of their kids. This is probably the case here. My kid would get a combat boot (literally) shoved up his ass for doing something this stupid. Bomb-a-rama makes a good counter point about the race baiters...now that would be funny. F^ck the aclu.
#12
I've put three kids through most of a high school education (can't say a full one - my oldest completed it, but part of that was in South Carolina, and most of what she learned there wasn't "education". My middle son has some severe mental restrictions, but got a high school diploma. My youngest is about to graduate in January.). I've been battling school systems for 35 years. I can't claim victory, even minor ones.
Education in the United States - true, public-school education in preparation for life - is dead. I got a better education in the early 1960's at a rural southern school in Louisiana than any of my three children have received. At least my youngest understands, and has learned how to educate herself. She's still flunking classes, but she knows more than half the students that pass. She's also fighting a SEVERE dyslexia problem (she didn't learn to read until she was 10), and is ADHD - medically proven by a panel of three doctors, not just by some psychologist tapping her with their magic wand. She's also allergic to just about everything she comes in contact with. That's what forced her to learn to teach herself - it's not fun learning you're allergic to a candy bar because one of the prime ingredients is high-fructose corn syrup, when the learning comes through barfing your breakfast in the middle of the high school gymnasium.
I pity the children going through school today. They are being robbed both of their childhood and their right to a place in this world. I personally place all members of the NEA (and most other school 'unions') high on my list of people for whom a post-partum abortion would be justified.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2003 23:26 Comments ||
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Thanks to Tim Blair for the tip:
In an anonymous email posted on the Internet, the shadowy Revolutionary Cells group took credit for a September 25 bombing of a health product distributor and for an August 28 pipe-bomb attack on a biotech firm. In their e-mail, posted on the website of Bite Back magazine, Revolutionary Cells threatened to double the size of its bombs targeting the companies in the future. Hereâs the e-mail in full:
"On the night of September 25th volunteers from the Revolutionary Cells attacked a subsidiary of a notorious HLS client, Yamanouchi. We left an approximately 10lb ammonium nitrate bomb strapped with nails outside of Shaklee Inc, whose CEO is both the CEO for Shaklee and Yamanouchi Consumer Inc. We gave all of the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS. Now you all will have to reap what you have sown. All customers and their families are considered legitimate targets. Same to you, pal
Hey Sean Lance, and the rest of the Chiron team, how are you sleeping? You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom. Who knows, that new car in the parking lot may be packed with explosives. Or maybe it will be a shot in the dark.
We have given all of the collaborators a chance to withdraw from their relations from HLS. We will now be doubling the size of every device we make. Today it is 10lbs, tomorrow 20....until your buildings are nothing more than rubble. It is time for this war to truely have two sides. No more will all of the killing be done by the oppressors, now the oppressed will strike back. We will be non-violent when the these people are non-violent to the animal nations. Animal nations? Puppystan?
In memory of all of those fallen before us in the war for liberation: Jill Phipps (animal activist), Barry Horne (ALF), Olaia Kastresana (ETA), Arkaitz Otazua (ETA), Angayarkanni (LTTE), Babu (LTTE), Bobby Sands (IRA), Patsy OâHara (INLA), Carlos Guiliani (anti-globilization martyr), Lee Kyung-hae (farmer and anti-globablization victim), and many more on numerous other fronts. We wonât forget you, we wonât let your deaths be in vain. Read the list, note that itâs not just about animals anymore.
Gora Euskadi Ta Askatasuna!
Up the Real IRA!
Long live the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine!
Viva La Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia!
Long live the Frontu Di Liberazione Naziunalista Corsu!
For the creation of Revolutionary Cells!
For Humyn, Earth & Animal Liberation!
Humyn? Oh, the "man" in "human" is sexist, silly me.
Bringing the bomb and the bullet back into amerikan politics, Revolutionary Cells --animal liberation brigade----
I think they are pretty clear on what they are, but for those who still donât get it, theyâve included a mission statement.
The revolutionary cells exists as a front group for militants across the liberationary movement spectrum. We are anarchists, communists, anti-racists, animal liberationists, earth liberationists, luddites, feminists, queer liberationists, and many more things across various other fronts. Where ever there is oppression there are those unwilling to idly stand by and let it occur, and those people make up the nucleus of the revolutionary cells.
Who are the revolutionary cells? It is an anti-gmo activist destroying a gmo crop, it is a basque youth driving a car packed with explosives destined for a spanish politician, it is a queer bashing back, a rape victim putting a bullet in the rapist, a corsican nationalist planting a bomb at a french bank, it is a cincinatti riot in response to police brutality, an animal liberationist shooting a vivisector dead on his doorstep. In short it is the spirit of resistance realized. It is moving from politics to praxis. Anyone who takes part in the war against the oppressive heirarchies in this world can consider themselves a member of the Revolutionary Cells.
Revolutionary Cells Guidelines:
1. To take strategic direct action (be it non-violent or not) against the oppressive institutions that permeate the world.
2. Make every effort to minimize non-target casualties, be they human or non-human. NOTE: minimize non-target casualties = try to keep the dead bystanders to a minimum, if you can. No limit on target casualties though.
3. Respect a diversity of tactics, whether they be non-violent or not. Diversity is important, donât ya know.
4. Any underground activist fighting for the liberation of the humyn, earth or animal nations may consider themselves a Revolutionary Cells volunteer."
I think we can safely add them to the "shoot on sight" list.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 11:35:07 AM ||
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The kid must have had trouble deciding to include or exclude Jeffrey Dahmer from his list.
I remember seeing Rickie Lake interviewed years ago after she was arrested with some animal rights activists. Turns out that she didn't know much about the cause or group before joining the protest- big surprise. In the slammer RIckie discovered that some of her fellow protesters were reallly weird. They got upset with her when she asked one of them to kill a cockroach for her.
Hattip to WND
An experimental program that shipped thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants from Arizona to Texas for deportation accomplished its purpose by reducing migrant deaths in Arizona, U.S. Border Patrol officials said. Meets humanitarian muster.
They also credit the controversial Lateral Repatriation Program, which officially ended Tuesday, with discouraging hundreds of undocumented immigrants from attempting to re-enter the country illegally through Arizona. Keeps out more illegals. Looking good.
But top Texas lawmakers and other critics said the program only shifted Arizonaâs illegal immigration problem to Texas. They claim it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Utoh gutterball.
The program also is a sore subject with the Mexican government. It charged that children were separated from their families and that thousands of Mexicans were dumped far from home. Were they dumped any farther from home then they intended to go when they snuck across the border?
And it remains to be seen whether most undocumented immigrants will give up trying to illegally enter the United States. That really would be contingent on the Mexican governemntâs efforts to not have their country suck so much @#$%.
Border Patrol officials began the program Sept. 8 in response to the high number of migrant deaths in the southern Arizona desert, a popular crossing point for undocumented immigrants and smugglers. They have not decided whether to restart the program. Restart the program immediately. It seems to be making all the right people angry.
The agency moved about 6,239 undocumented Mexican immigrants arrested in Arizona to four Texas border cities - El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and McAllen - between Sept. 8 and Sept. 30. Chartered planes were used at a cost of $28,000 per flight. Did each passenger have to show a photo ID? Also, Did the flights include a meal or just a small package of peanuts?
Only 80 of the immigrants who were deported in Texas attempted to re-enter through Texas and even fewer returned to Arizona, said Mario Villarreal, a spokesman with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol. Sounds good.
He said federal officials were not surprised at the programâs success because a similar tactic deterred undocumented immigrants in San Diego and Texas. He said moving immigrants hundreds of miles away discourages most from trying to re-enter the country and results in fewer deaths.
It makes them have to buy bus tickets to get back home, too...
That would be welcome news in Arizona, where a record number of migrants - 151 - died attempting to cross the Arizona border during the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Tuesday. Does this include the illegals that got cooked in the locked semi-trailer?
In the western Arizona desert corridor, the region with the highest number of migrant deaths, only one person was found dead last month, compared to 10 who died during the same period last year, said Villarreal. He said arrests of undocumented immigrants in the Tucson sector, which includes almost the entire state, also dropped to 915 in September compared with 1,100 during the same month last year. "We think the program was extremely successful, but we will evaluate it before we take any further action," Villarreal said.
I'm still trying to figure why we're responsible when they drop dead trying to sneak into the country. Does somebody from the U.S. tell them the desert's different on the other side of the border?
GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas said top Homeland Security Department officials assured them that local officials would be consulted if the program is restarted next year. Lets shoot for December next year.
Thatâs not enough for Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, a vocal critic of the program. Sounds like there is appeasement rhetoric coming...
"The worst thing that could happen would be for this program to become standard operating procedure," he said. Appeasement rhetoric on the way...
"That's because... ummm... they have to buy bus tickets home... And it's ucky...
Bonilla, who introduced a bill last month that would effectively end the program, argues that he wants the United States and Mexico to agree on a plan under which Mexicans apprehended by the Border Patrol would be repatriated to Mexicoâs interior. Denied ... appeasement rhetoric cancelled. Respect for Mr Bonila restored.
How about patriating them to Guatamala?
Border Patrol officials said the Mexican government refused to cooperate when they suggested the same idea. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, a former Border Patrol chief in El Paso and McAllen, said he also believes repatriating Mexican immigrants to the interior would be more effective. But he says the current program is an effective weapon in the fight against illegal immigration. Bipartisan agreement. Much rejoicing.
Posted by: Superhose ||
10/02/2003 11:12:33 AM ||
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the Mexican gov't and the illegals themselves refused to be repatriated back to their home towns . The typical old pattern was to ship them back across the border they'd just violated so they could try again the next night. Sisyphus would be proud
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 11:15 Comments ||
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#2
If Texas is good - Mississippi would be better.
The program also is a sore subject with the Mexican government. It charged that children were separated from their families and that thousands of Mexicans were dumped far from home.
Boo Farking Hoo. Don't like it? Don't cross the border!
#5
The agency moved about 6,239 undocumented Mexican immigrants arrested in Arizona to four Texas border cities - El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and McAllen - between Sept. 8 and Sept. 30. Chartered planes were used at a cost of $28,000 per flight.
Hell, I would have used buses with only partially opened windows and no air conditioning. The way to discourage undesirable behavior in people that aren't mentally ill is to make the consequences unpleasant.
In the western Arizona desert corridor, the region with the highest number of migrant deaths, only one person was found dead last month, compared to 10 who died during the same period last year, said Villarreal.
I don't believe this for one minute. There's an outfit named Humane Borders that puts out water stations in the desert for illegals to use. This is probably why the death rate dropped dramatically. What is not being mentioned are figures that would shed light on the efficacy of this experimental transfer policy. Has the number of illegal crossings dropped dramatically? If so, then that explains the reduced deaths and gives some legitimacy to the program's seeming current effectiveness. But if the number of crossings has only dropped a little or not at all, then the water stations are a likely factor, and this experimental program is just another bust.
Border Patrol officials said the Mexican government refused to cooperate when they suggested the same idea.
Well of course the Mexican government is goin to refuse to cooperate! After all, $12 billion sent home by your countrymen is no small sum to be ignored. The Mexican government is going to do everything in its power to keep that cash flowing.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, a former Border Patrol chief in El Paso and McAllen, said he also believes repatriating Mexican immigrants to the interior would be more effective. But he says the current program is an effective weapon in the fight against illegal immigration.
Building a barrier would be more effective. The biggest problem is cost followed by the whining of illegal immigration advocates and the Mexican government.
Edited for new material:
A leading U.S. Muslim activist charged with having illegal dealings with Libya may have been acting as a courier to funnel thousands of dollars from that country to terrorist groups in Syria, the government alleges. Adurahman Alamoudi was headed to Damascus, Syria, last month with $340,000 in U.S. currency provided by Libya when he was detained in London, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Alexandria, Va. Terrorist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad maintain offices in Damascus and many of the al-Qaida fighters in Iraq have come from Syria, the affidavit says. Really?
Al-Amoudi contended the money was for the American Muslim Foundation that he heads in the United States. He told investigators he was given the money by an anonymous individual after he had visited the government-controlled Libyan Islamic Call Society in Tripoli. "He just walked up and handed me the cash. Really, he did."
Al-Amoudi insists that his fund-raising travels were intended for Muslim organizations in the United States, according to court papers. But the government contends that he was among a group of Muslim activists involved in a web of charities that was actually raising money for terrorist groups. Other documents filed in court by the government show that the branch of the American Muslim Foundation in Portland, Ore., provided money to Patrice Lumumba Ford and to Ahmed Bilal. The Portland Seven, remember them?
Ford is awaiting trial on charges of plotting to fight the United States in Aghanistan. Bilal has pleaded guilty to similar charges. Four have pleaded guilty, two awaiting trial, one on the run.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 10:50:21 AM ||
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Here is a link to a BBC artical about a meeting in Stockholm about teh effort to shutoff financing to terrorists.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/02/2003 17:59 Comments ||
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A few more details and background. EFL:
A translator at the federal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba who was arrested at Logan International Airport this week was carrying a computer disk that contained the names of suspected terrorists who had been mentioned during interrogations at the camp, according to two federal law enforcement officials. Thatâs damaging, the bad guys will know who weâre looking for.
Bostonâs Joint Terrorism Task Force is trying to track Ahmed Fathy Mehalbaâs movements during the past two months, when he says he was in Egypt visiting family, to determine whether he shared the classified material, according to the two officials. Mehalba, 31, an Egyptian-born linguist and US citizen who worked as a civilian Arabic interpreter during interrogations of inmates at the camp, had security clearance and had been privy to some "very sensitive" information that surfaced during questioning. Ken Kaiser, the special agent-in-charge of the FBIâs Boston office, refused to discuss details of the investigation yesterday, but said, "Itâs a pretty big investigation the bureauâs got going right now. Weâve dedicated a lot of resources in this office to this. . . . Weâve got leads out all over the country right now." During a search of Mehalbaâs luggage when he arrived at Logan on Monday afternoon on a flight from Cairo, via Milan, a Customs and Border Protection officer found 132 computer disks, including one that contained classified information, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court on Tuesday. The disk also contained the names of suspected terrorists who are being detained at Guantanamo Bay, US officials said. Before, the bad guys just knew they were MIA, now they know whoâs in the bag.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Mehalba, who worked for a private company that had a contract with the Department of Defense to provide interpreters to the Cuban base, was using the information in his work as a translator or whether he was smuggling secrets to terrorists overseas, one federal official said. Iâll take "smuggling secrets" for $500, Alex.
Mehalba, who has an ex-wife and daughter in Ipswich and has lived at various addresses around Greater Boston, is charged with making false statements to law enforcement officials by denying that he was carrying any classified material. He said the disks contained "only music and videos," according to the FBI affidavit. Heâs been ordered held without bail until a hearing Oct. 8 in federal court in Worcester. Boston attorney Michael C. Andrews, who represents Mehalba, said yesterday that federal officials have yet to disclose to him the nature of the classified documents found on the disks. "I have not been told what is on the documents," he said. "I have not seen the documents." Because theyâre secret.
In recent years, Mehalba shifted between at least five different addresses including one in Lynn, where neighbors said he went to night school, and another in Woburn, which he listed as his hometown in a personal ad he posted recently on AmericanSingles.com. Sounds like he was short of bucks and lonely, perfect mark to recruit as a spy.
Most recently, he collected mail at a condominium in North Chelmsford, a two-bedroom that belongs to the niece of a man he listed as his next of kin on a car loan application. Wonder if he really is next of kin.
Monday night, eight or nine FBI agents arrived there to question the young woman, whom one neighbor described as a student in her early 20s living with a boyfriend. 8 or 9 to question one girl? They expect to find Osama hiding under her bed?
Mehalba, who came to the United States more than a decade ago, served in the US Army from 2000 to 2001. He failed to complete a military intelligence course at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to become an interrogator and was discharged for medical reasons in 2001. He worked an array of jobs in the Boston area, including as a taxi driver and a diamond consultant. Taxi drivers are my first choice when selecting diamonds.
Two days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he applied for a job as a gatekeeper at the Massachusetts Port Authority, according to officials. Real good timing, suprised they didnât hire him
He applied for a job as an Arabic linguist at Titan Corp. last year and began working at Guantanamo Bay in January of this year, according to Wil Williams, a spokesman for the company. He said Mehalba said he had a family emergency and was granted a leave of absence in July, and remains an employee. Mehalba, like all the civilian linguists at the Guantanamo prison camp, was granted security clearance after the government conducted a background check, Williams said. Iâd say theyâre rechecking all these about now.
While linguists are authorized to work with classified material, they are prohibited from leaving the base with it, he said. Well, duh!
"Generally speaking, youâre not supposed to be in possession of classified material unless you have a need to know and clearance for it," Williams said. Itâs not "generally speaking", itâs freaking holy writ as anyone whoâs had a clearance knows.
Robert Schlabach, an FBI supervisory agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, composed of 16 federal, local, and state agencies, yesterday praised the Customs Border and Protection officer who stopped Mehalba and decided to conduct a more thorough search of his baggage. Mehalba had shown officers his US Department of Defense Uniformed Service card and said another badge on his belt was secret, according to an FBI affidavit. "Thatâs my secret badge, bet you ainât got one."
Then he showed the officers his identification card for the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. Two other employees at the base have recently been held for security breaches. And then the red flags and bells went off. Iâll bet, being overseas and in transit, he hadnât heard about the first busts.
"The Customs officer did an outstanding job of screening Mr. Mehalba on his reentry and had it not been for his actions we would have been unaware of the fact that he had been carrying the information at all," Schlabach said. "If he hadnât been a complete and utter moron, he wouldnât have been caught."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/02/2003 10:08:43 AM ||
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Robert Schlabach, an FBI supervisory agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, composed of 16 federal, local, and state agencies, yesterday praised the Customs Border and Protection officer who stopped Mehalba and decided to conduct a more thorough search of his baggage.
Uh oh. It won't be surprising if at some point in time during all this someone is going to scream that Mehalba was racially profiled and file some sort of lawsuit on that basis.
#2
132 computer disks? Whether they were CD's or "floppies", that's a heck of a lot of disks. That would tip me off at Customs right away, only as a song pirate. RIAA and all that.
EFL and from Debka Ahmed Qureiâs plan to set up a broad 24-member national emergency government under Yasser Arafatâs guidance is dead in the water. Maybe he needs a road map to a cabinet.
US secretary of state Colin Powell said in Detroit that if Abu Ala doesnât make a solid commitment to the road map and clamp down on terrorists, âit is not clear how we can go forward.â He was referring diplomatically to what are described by DEBKAfileâs exclusive sources as alarm bells jangling in several Western capitals, that forced Qurei and Arafat to back away from their first plan to set up a Palestinian administration under Arafatâs thumb with representation for terrorist factions. Terrorism apologists are OK but not terrorism operators.
In Washington, the Bush administration read with growing concern DEBKAfileâs reports that at least five of the 14 cabinet portfolios designated for Arafatâs majority Fatah faction were assigned to Tanzim militia terrorists. Hamas and the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine were also promised seats at the cabinet table. This might get Europe sued for abetting murder because they subsidize the PA.
Washington was most riled by the post awarded Hamas representative Moussa Zubut - euphemistically said to be acting on behalf of the âIslamic Bloc of Gazaâ. How about Islamic Blockheads of Gaza - that would be more accurate.
US officials were also furious over the first-time presence in any Palestinian government of Karif Faran, a member of Naif HawatmeâsPalestine Democratic Front member. Faran, better known to Palestinians as âAmar Abu Leilaâ, is an ardent supporter of the deposed Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. Also his last name in the non de guerre is too sexy of a character on Futurama
Arafat is also beset with trouble at home. Dahlan, internal security minister in the sacked government of Abu Mazen, has been on the war path in the last week, resisting Abu Alaâs many pleas to join the government. Abu Ala has also failed to bring on board another influential Palestinian, Ahmad Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who has been confined in Jericho jail since May 2002 under US and British supervision for ordering the assassination of an Israeli minister. Early Tuesday September 30, Arafat, Abu Ala and several Fatah leaders put their heads together at Ramallah headquarters to decide how to proceed from the wreckage of their national emergency government. No doubt the ISM and other pro terrorism NGOs supplied them with plenty of 3 ring binders.
Posted by: mhw ||
10/02/2003 9:14:07 AM ||
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I just don't know why somebody couldn't find a nice bullet riddles wall, line up these murderers and do the right thing.
NEWS FLASH to the BUSHIES. There is no road, there ain't no map and will be no peace as long as murderers are treated as statesmen and we paper over the obvious problems.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/02/2003 9:28 Comments ||
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--In Washington, the Bush administration read with growing concern DEBKAfileâs reports--
Oh, Really?
And how would they know that?
On the other hand, ou intel sucks and any port in a storm...
The article is too long to post in full here, edited for relevence
On Aug. 20, 2001, Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a man who would soon be named a minister of the Saudi government and put in charge of its two holy mosques, arrived in the United States to meet with some of this countryâs most influential fundamentalist Sunni Muslim leaders. His journey here was to include meetings and contacts with officials of several Saudi-sponsored charities that have since been accused of links to terrorist groups, including the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation, which was shut down by U.S. authorities last year. He met with the creators of Islamic Web sites that U.S. authorities contend promote the views of radical Saudi clerics tied to Osama bin Laden. On the night of Sept. 10, 2001, Hussayen stayed at a Herndon hotel that also housed three of the Saudi hijackers who would slam an aircraft into the Pentagon the next day, though there is no evidence that he had contact with them.
On the other hand, there are quite a few hotels in Herndon. Quite a coincidence, isn't it?
In recent months, authorities have begun to focus on the role of radical Wahhabi clerics and organizations, including some that Hussayen came to see here, in exhorting followers to violence.
Why not make that all of them he came to see?
Backed by money from Saudi Arabia, Wahhabis have built or taken over hundreds of mosques in North America and opened branches of Saudi universities here for the training of imams as part of the effort to spread their beliefs, which are intolerant of Christianity, Judaism and even other strains of Islam. What began as discrete investigations in Idaho, Michigan, New York and Northern Virginia has coalesced in recent months into a cluster of interrelated probes.
All threads in the same closely-woven fabric...
Prosecutors and FBI agents are trying to determine whether links among the groups suggest a network whose purpose is to incite violent jihad, or holy war, and recruit people to fight it, according to sources familiar with aspects of the investigation. To date, a variety of charges have been brought against 19 people associated with the groups, and seven have pleaded guilty.
That magick number again...
Authorities also are investigating the use of Internet sites, mosques, charities and Islamic conferences as possible venues for recruitment, the sources said.
I think the funnel organizations hadn't been set up completely. The "Islamic solidarity" groups, like AMC and ISNA, are for the masses. The actual funnel organizations, like al-Fuqra, haven't gotten a real toehold yet, because the Feds are watching so closely â viva Patriot Act! The solidarity groups would be responsible for propagandizing (dawa) and filtering the potential bad boyz to the funnel groups. The funnel groups would be supplying further doses of more virulent propaganda along with as much training as they could get away with. The cream of that crop would be passed off to the actual jihadi groups. So far everything we've seen involving funnel groups has been disorganized (Lackawanna) or so lacking in subtlty that they're almost laughable â al-Fuqra.
U.S. prisons, where several of the groups have mounted efforts to spread their brand of Islam with outreach programs that include distribution of Korans and other literature, have also come under scrutiny.
That's where al-Fuqra gets a lot of its membership. They're not looking for the solid citizen type...
One of the principal organizations under investigation in the United States is a group the Saudi Embassy has branded as Muslim extremists.
If the Soddies brand them as extremists, they're probably affiliated with or influenced by the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform, which sez Soddy Arabia isn't Islamic enough...
It is the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), whose webmaster is Saleh Hussayenâs nephew: Sami Omar Hussayen, a computer scientist jailed in Idaho on charges he failed to disclose his work for IANA on immigration forms. IANA, U.S. authorities have contended in Idaho court proceedings, is a powerful engine for groups that promote teachings and religious fatwas â orders that advocate violence against the United States â issued by two radical Saudi clerics. The clerics, Safar Hawali and Salman Ouda, were identified in the first World Trade Center bombing trial as spiritual advisers to bin Laden. Both were jailed for radicalism during the 1990s in Saudi Arabia. Both are also part of the âSupreme Council of Global Jihadâ. Hawali is the Security General of it, in fact.
In recent months, 19 individuals who have come under investigation as part of the probe have been arrested or indicted. They include Bassem K. Khafagi, a former IANA president, who pleaded guilty two weeks ago to bank fraud in federal court in Detroit. In Syracuse, five men tied to an IANA affiliate called Help the Needy are charged by federal authorities with sending money to Iraq in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. In Northern Virginia, 11 men were indicted in June, accused of training to wage jihad with a Pakistani terrorist group. The indictment also alleged that the menâs spiritual leader, Ali Timimi, who has long been associated with IANA, told group members in September 2001 that the time had come for them "to . . . join the mujaheddin engaged in violent jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan or Indonesia" and that "American troops were legitimate targets of the jihad." When Timimiâs Fairfax house was searched by the FBI this spring, items seized included Khafagiâs personal papers, which Timimi was holding for safekeeping. The two had been IANAâs representatives to the 1995 international womenâs conference in Beijing, where IANA argued against Western feminism and defended female circumcision, which is practiced in some Islamic societies.
Lopping off the fun part of the coozinart relegates the women to permanent breeding stock status. Making whoopee becomes a chore, like skinning the sheep for dinner...
Investigators at multiple federal agencies are trying to sort out the networkâs seemingly innumerable links, some of which lead back to the same nondescript office building at 360 S. Washington St. in Falls Church. It is there that Timimi used to lecture at Dar al Arqam, the same religious center frequented by another internationally known Salafi imam, Jaafar Idris. His lectures, like Timimiâs, are posted on extremist Web sites around the world, including IANAâs. The Muslim World League office was raided in March 2002 by Treasury Department agents as part of an investigation into a Herndon-based network of Saudi-financed charities and companies suspected of ties to al Qaeda, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Muslim World League and its offshoot, the International Islamic Relief Organization, have been the subjects of terrorism financing inquiries in the United States and several other countries.
IANA conferences in the United States began drawing the scrutiny of terrorism researchers a decade ago because of their heavy Wahhabi and Salafi bent. According to the Investigative Project, a terrorism research group that has monitored Islamic extremists, a senior al Qaeda recruiter, Abdelrahman Dosari, spoke at three IANA conferences in the early 1990s. FBI and Treasury officials said they believe some Islamic conferences, as well as Web sites that extol radical Islam, are vehicles in the United States for recruitment and fundraising by terrorist groups. Until it was modified this year, for example, IANAâs Islamway.com Web site offered Arabic-language videos with graphic scenes of jihadist combat. "Martyrs of Bosnia" contains footage of al Qaeda members, and suspected al Qaeda members are featured in a second such film called "Operation Badr." The Idaho visa fraud indictment against Sami Hussayen contends that he administered a Web site associated with IANA that expressly advocated suicide attacks and using airliners as weapons. Hussayen has a background in Saudi-backed charities. Virginia incorporation records show that during the 1990s, he was a director of the SAAR Foundation, a charitable organization that was at the center of a sprawling conglomerate of Muslim institutes, companies and religious groups that are under federal investigation for alleged ties to terrorist organizations.
Another Alamoudi link...
SAARâs offices in Northern Virginia were raided in 2002, kicking off the governmentâs most wide-ranging probe to date into suspected terrorist financing. This week, Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent Muslim activist affiliated with the SAAR network, was charged with illegally doing business with Libya. The SAAR network was founded by a core group of wealthy Egyptians and Pakistanis who had a background in the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaat-e-Islami. People with a similar background also founded the World Muslim League, with the help of Saudi money.
The most intriguing aspect of Hussayenâs journey may be entirely coincidental: his brief proximity in a hotel near Dulles International Airport to three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers the night before they crashed Flight 77 into the Pentagon. On the night of Sept. 10, Hani Hanjour, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi checked into the same hotel, a Marriott Residence Inn. After the attack, an FBI agent interviewed hotel guests, including Hussayen and his wife, but did not get very far. According to court testimony from FBI agent Gneckow earlier this year, the interview was cut short when Hussayen "feigned a seizure, prompting the agents to take him to a hospital, where the attending physicians found nothing wrong with him." The agent recommended that Hussayen "should not be allowed to leave until a follow-up interview could occur," Gneckow told the court. But "her recommendation, for whatever reason, was not complied with," he said. On Sept. 19, the day air travel resumed, Hussayen and his wife took off for Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
10/02/2003 8:07:20 AM ||
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Wasn't the Wahhabi Lobby just torn out at the Sands in Vegas? Replaced by a Sigfried and Roy Museum.
North Korea has admitted reprocessing 8,000 fuel rods from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor to boost its nuclear capabilities in response to threats from the United States. No, thatâs not why they did it. They thought the reprocessed rods were edible.
In a rare interview, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told CNN of the move, saying North Koreaâs nuclear deterrence was not intended to attack other countries, but as a means to safeguard the countryâs territory. Choe claimed Wednesday the war with Iraq convinced the North Korean government to further strengthen its military defense -- implying it may have nuclear arms in its arsenal. And I thought it was because Bush isnât giving in like Clinton did.*
"As we have clearly pointed out, since the United States is now threatening the DPRK (North Korea) with nuclear weapons to launch a preemptive nuclear attack against the DPRK, we have been left with no alternative but to be in possession of the nuclear deterrence," the minister said. Damn. I missed that White House press release.
"Thatâs why we have taken up all measures to maintain and strengthen that nuclear deterrence."
U.S. officials have estimated that plutonium obtained from the 8,000 rods could be used to build between 6 and 12 nuclear warheads. Yeah but by the time they try to launch them (assuming theyâre going to use ICBMs) Pyonyang would be toast. A rather crisp piece of toast.
Choe also told CNN that Pyongyangâs relations with the United States are at their worst level ever, repeatedly attacking Washington for not signing a non-aggression treaty with North Korea. See * above.
The minister said the treaty would enable Pyongyang to cooperate with the international community on nuclear issues. "Our proposal is modest and simple, we just want both the DPRK and the United States to put down guns at the same time and coexist peacefully." We can do that without a non-aggression treaty. Punk.
The minister refused to say if and when North Korea will test a nuclear weapon as the government has previously indicated it would. In other words, if China lets âem.
The traveling minister said relations were very good with influential neighbor China. Beijing is concerned about a nuclear North Korea and the flood of refugees should conflict erupt. Excuse me Mr. traveling minister, in case of nuclear war and given your "sea of fire" metaphor, there ainât gonna be no refugees.
Choe also attacked the United States for U.S. President George W. Bushâs statement that North Korea was part of the "axis of evil." "Weâre not part of an axis!!"
There was no indication when North Korea would agree to another round of multi-nations talks on its nuclear program. The last round was in Beijing in August. "We have never made any promises with regards to the next round of six party talks," the vice foreign minister said. "Will the talks be catered? Maybe Iâll think about it..."
Posted by: Rafael ||
10/02/2003 3:49:16 AM ||
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Choe continued his attack on Bush administration and expressed hope that negotiations could be resumed with his former counterpart, Jimmy Carter.
The Bush administration is completely responsible for our Nukes and all the problems on the Korean peninsula. We demand that they stop running amok. We demand that they send Jimmy Carter to negotiate, or at least that woman, Madeline Albright.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
10/02/2003 4:05 Comments ||
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Oh, I think they're getting really close to testing a nuke...unfortunately it'll be one of ours
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 8:19 Comments ||
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Considering relations are pretty bad and the quarters fairly close. If the Nkors really do test a nuke, the chances for miscalculation on the part of the Skors could turn this into a full scale confalguration.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
10/02/2003 9:19 Comments ||
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Choe also told CNN that Pyongyangâs relations with the United States are at their worst level ever, repeatedly attacking Washington for not signing a non-aggression treaty with North Korea.
Excluding 1950-53, of course. Although, things were ok prior to Inchon. :)
#9
Don't underestimate the NORKS in their capabilities. They can hoard what treasure they get from missile sales, heroin, contraband, etc. (less Kimmie's tasty treats that he craves) and buy Russian engineers who will work for a price. Kimmie and Co may become glass, but do not assume that he is all bluff. He is dumb enough to do it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/02/2003 20:27 Comments ||
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Iranian courts have sentenced three men to death for, in at least two of the cases, having contacts with outlawed political organizations, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said in a statement yesterday. It said Ramine Sharifi, 27, was sentenced on Sept. 7 by a revolutionary court in Saghez, in the Kurdish-dominated north, for allegedly belonging to the Democratic Kurdistan Party of Iran, though it added that he had the right to appeal. Said Masouri, 38, had his June 2002 death sentence confirmed recently by an appeals court which heard that he had contacts with the Peoples Mujahedeen, an exiled opposition group. The FIDH said it had not been able to confirm the charges against the third man, Gholamhossein Kalbi, but noted that he was in the prison of Evin, on the same death row as Masouri. The FIDH and the League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran said in the statement that they âcalled on Iranian authorities to guarantee these people the right to a fair trialâ and renewed their appeal for a moratorium on capital punishment.
That'll work. No doubt about it...
They added that they also wanted the European Union to begin lobbying against the execution of the three.
So now the ayatollahs are in real trouble...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:13 ||
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Man, if the EU protests, the Iranians are really screwed! Can we get Dominique involved in this? Just mention his name and the fascists start wetting the pants in fear!
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
10/02/2003 5:55 Comments ||
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In Spain you aren't supposed to wet your pants
when in fear, you sh.t in your pants. You
wet your pants when you are laughing real hard.
Perhaps it is different in the anglo-sph err scotto-sphere. :)
International food aid sent to ease the suffering of North Koreans is being sold on the black market for high prices, according to video footage released Wednesday by Japanese and South Korean human rights activists. The activists said the footage was secretly taken in September in Haesan, a North Korean town on the border with China. It showed a marketplace where people were selling rice and other grains that the activists said was provided by South Korea, the U.N. World Food Program and other relief organizations. Some of the grain sacks bore stamps that read, "Rice from the Republic of Korea," South Korea's official name.Lee Young Hwa, head of Rescue the North Korean People, said the video confirmed a long-standing suspicion that the North Korean police and military were selling aid to fill their pockets. "The aid has not been used for those who really need it. The aid is helping a regime of terror and dictatorship become stronger," said Lee, whose group is based in Japan.
Comes as a surprise, huh? Lord Acton, call your agent...
In a statement, the Seoul-based Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights urged the international aid donors to "establish the transparency of the distributing process" in North Korea. North Korea has depended on outside aid to feed its 22 million people since flood, drought, mismanagement and other bad weather devastated its already inefficient economy in the mid-1990s. Pyongyang says at least 200,000 people died of famine between 1995 and 1998, but blames the deaths on the economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the United States.
"If it wudn't for them imperialists, we'd be growin' all our own groceries..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:07 ||
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It showed a marketplace where people were selling rice and other grains that the activists said was provided by South Korea, the U.N. World Food Program and other relief organizations. Some of the grain sacks bore stamps that read, "Rice from the Republic of Korea," South Korea's official name.Lee Young Hwa, head of Rescue the North Korean People, said the video confirmed a long-standing suspicion that the North Korean police and military were selling aid to fill their pockets.
Suckers. Go ahead, send more aid so that the cretins can sell it.
#2
This is just sick. I always thought they were eating the stuff themselves( Kimmy and his Military), but to sell it to starving people at prices most can't possibly afford? This is just sick. Forget Syria for now, and even Iran. We need to take out Kimmy next.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/02/2003 2:43 Comments ||
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Pyongyang says at least 200,000 people died of famine between 1995 and 1998, but blames the deaths on the economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the United States.
Of course it's our fault.
How dare we not do business with a dictator?
How dare we not give away our food aid to who they think it should go to?
What gall for us to expect the government of a country full of starving people to spend funds on feeding them instead of weapons!
Imperialist pigs!
Have we forgotten that it is our duty to feed the freakin' world?
the video confirmed a long-standing suspicion that the North Korean police and military were selling aid to fill their pockets. "The aid has not been used for those who really need it. The aid is helping a regime of terror and dictatorship become stronger," said Lee, whose group is based in Japan.
Seems I remember some other nation, one that complained bitterly about sanctions. One that had leftist cursing the US for dead babies.
One that was known to sell food and medicine on the blackmarket instead of handing it out to the people.
Hmmm.....
Which country was that?
And who was their leader? Seems like he had a big, bushy moustache...
#4
You don't understand. If the imperialist running dogs hadnât put up this trade barrier against the peace-loving people of the DPRK we would have plenty of food. Itâs simple Juche economics:
- We send Missiles to Iran, they give dollars.
- Buy drugs in Vietnam/sell Australia (Mo Money)
- Dear Leader take half
- Party leaders take 35%
- Pay 10% back for missiles
- Rest go to buy new uranium
- Send villagers into PRC to steal crops!
You see simple. Even capitalist lackey can understand this. Juche in purest form. Oh me forget, to add sales of donated food and medicine. But that for Army retirement fund. Onya Nee Kas Sao!
Imprisoned American Lori Berenson's jailhouse wedding was postponed Wednesday. But her fiance — a paroled 40-year-old Peruvian she met while the two were serving time in the big house on terrorism charges — said he can wait another day, even though he is prohibited from attending the ceremony. Berenson, 33, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student and New York resident, is serving a 20-year sentence in a prison in the Andean town of Cajamarca, 350 miles north of Lima.
"I'll wait for you, baby!"
The prospective groom Anibal Apari is prohibited from leaving the capital, Lima, because of terms of his parole. He was released from prison in June after serving 12 1/2 years of a 15-year sentence for being involved with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Berenson was convicted of collaborating with the same group. It was unclear why the wedding was delayed Wednesday, but the Cajamarca municipal registrar said officials have given him permission to perform the ceremony Thursday.
Should I still send the toaster? I'm so confused...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/02/2003 00:06 ||
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"Can't leave Lima", huh? Yeah, right. He'd never dream of breaking his parole, he's a freakin' angel.
I'm starting a betting pool on how long it takes this gulag gigolo to show up in Miami or San Diego..
#2
San Diego - NFW! Neither of these Maoist freaks should be allowed in the U.S. - and her LLL parents outta be booted to for creating this monster. Hope they choke to death on their wedding cake...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2003 8:16 Comments ||
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I can guess what the honeymoon will be: A photo and a hankie.
#4
Rumor has it that Senor Apari is a second choice anyway. She originally wanted to bethroth Binny's son Saad, but the Iranians told him not to bother...that she was a real pig.
#5
I remember her 're-trial'. Mom and Dad looked ever bit the part of LLL parents. Her 'explanation' of her cell members roommates activities: âSure I saw the C4 and AK47s, how was I to make the connection that they were terrorists?â âAll I wanted was to live in the Andes among the oppressed peoples of Peru.â Even CNN could not hide the fact that she is where she belongs (they started out on her side). Sorry Lori, you are a âfreedum fighterâ no longer. Maybe Al Jeez will do a movie on you, but you have to wear a veil, change your name to âFatimaâ, and the story will be that you were fighting for Islam.
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.
