As Afghanistan wrestles to adopt a new constitution, and the United Nations strengthens its call for more soldiers outside Kabul, Canadian soldiers are noticing dramatic changes in the security and economic well-being of the Afghan capital. "You can see buildings that werenât there a couple of months ago," said Lt.-Col. Don Denne, the commanding officer at Camp Julien, the largest Canadian Forces base in Afghanistan, as he toured Kabul on Saturday. "Iâm beginning to see new shops everywhere. Some pretty nice houses too."
Even some of Canadaâs hockey greats, in Kabul to boost the morale of Canadian troops, have recognized the impact the soldiers have had on security in the capital. "I just talked to my Afghan interpreter, and asked him âDo you want the Canadian soldiers here?â" Former NHL tough guy Dave (Tiger) Williams said Sunday. "He said âThey have to stay, they have to stay.â Every day, he says, theyâre saving thousands of lives. Williams, former Vancouver goalie Kirk McLean and Cassie Campbell, a gold medallist with the Olympic womenâs hockey team, met Sunday with Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.
Williams didnât mince words as he revealed his personal thoughts about what the world needs to do in Afghanistan. "Any countries in the Western world that are not over here supporting this, they should absolutely be ashamed of themselves," he said after touring ISAF headquarters. "If theyâre not at least contributing with some funding, I mean, they should get a kick in the ass."
On Friday, NATO formally authorized the expansion beyond Kabul of its UN-mandated operation to protect Afghanistanâs government. A German provincial reconstruction team, already stationed in the northern city of Kunduz, comes under NATOâs command Dec. 31. As well, U.S. troops plan to set up bases to provide reconstruction aid in provinces plagued by Taliban attacks. Lt.-Gen. David Barno, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said Saturday the move will make the troubled south and east safer for aid workers and open the way for Afghan elections next summer. However, no decisions on expanding Canadaâs presence beyond the city are expected until early in 2004, likely after Prime Minister Paul Martin calls an election. Most soldiers avoid discussing politics but some do express personal opinions on the benefits of moving outside Kabul. "I can only speculate that it would improve things," said Master Cpl. Stephen Hopkins of Ottawa as he met Saturday with police officers in the city. "Elsewhere in the country, if you could have the same presence as we have (in Kabul), it couldnât hurt. It could only make things better."
#1
If theyâre not at least contributing with some funding, I mean, they should get a kick in the ass."
And in his day, Tiger Williams was just the guy to administer said kick in the ass. Tiger was the Leafs tough guy in the days of Sittler, Lanny, and Palmateer.
Afghan authorities have arrested a Taliban official suspected of masterminding anti-government strikes as fresh attacks claimed the lives of up to eleven soldiers. Muhammad Yunus, former chief of the ousted Taliban's customs department at Kabul airport, has been handed over to US forces. Yunus was captured from his home in Nawzad district in the southern province of Helmand during a raid on Saturday, Helmand's intelligence chief, Dad Muhammad Khan, said. "We suspect that Yunus has been leading the attacks in various parts of Helmand. But we have to prove that and it is too early to say anything as the Americans have not finished questioning him." The arrest came amid continuing clashes in southern Afghanistan. Up to nine government troops died when they were attacked at a security post northeast of Kandahar. The ambush, by about 20 Taliban fighters, took the government troops by surprise and they were unable to react, said Fazaluddin Agha, chief of administration in the nearby district of Spin Boldak. Government sources put the toll at five but Taliban commander Mulla Rahmatullah told Reuters that all nine Afghan soldiers at the post were killed.
"Yup. Wiped 'em out. There's none left. They're all dead now."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 13:18 ||
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Muhammad Yunus, former chief of the ousted Taliban's customs department at Kabul airport - must have been a lonely job. I bet there was a whole lot of customs work out nearthe poppy fields.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 14:40 Comments ||
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#2
He was in charge of making sure no kites got into the country.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 15:44 Comments ||
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In a significant switch in strategy, U.S. troops plan to set up bases to provide reconstruction aid in provinces plagued by Taliban attacks, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Saturday in his first interview since taking charge. Lt. Gen. David Barno told The Associated Press that the move will make the troubled south and east safer for aid workers and open the way for landmark Afghan elections in mid-2004. He also predicted a sharp reaction from insurgents. Theyâre ``going to realize thatâs the death knell to terrorist organizations in that part of the country,ââ said Barno. ``Weâll be prepared for that.ââ "Want some? Come and git it. Weâre ready."
A wave of violence this year has belied U.S. claims to have brought security to Afghanistan, two years after an American-led assault drove the Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. We didnât say the place was secure, we said the Taliban were out of power.
Attacks have forced the United Nations and other aid groups to withdraw from some regions, undermining aid delivery and confidence in the reconstruction efforts of the U.S.-backed government ahead of elections slated for June. The United Nations has even accused the U.S. military of playing into the hands of Taliban agitators in its hunt for terror suspects, with two botched raids that killed 15 Afghan children earlier this month. The U.N. being masters of everything of course, especially including hindsight.
In a bid to deliver more aid to impoverished civilians, the United States and allies including Britain and New Zealand have set up nine joint civilian-military units charged with creating islands of stability across the country. So far, most of the so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams are in relatively secure regions. Now, the U.S. military is deploying teams across a broad swath of the country dominated by Pashtuns, Afghanistanâs largest ethnic group from which the hardline Islamic Taliban draw their main support. The Pashtuns thus get a chance to decide on the 21st century or the 7th.
Knowing the Pashtuns, they'll settle for the 7th...
Barno, who took command of the 11,000-strong U.S. force here on Nov. 27, said there will be at least 12 such reconstruction teams by March and more later, including dangerous missions in the capitals of Zabul and Uruzgan provinces that were shunned by aid groups because Taliban militants reportedly roam freely. Thatâs about to change.
The military teams will help distribute reconstruction aid bolstered by an extra $1.2 billion recently released by the U.S. Congress. That aid, combined with the opening of the south and east by a string of new military operations, will cause ``a dramatic change in the amount of involvement of the people in that area in support of the central government and the future of Afghanistan,ââ Barno said. Aid groups worry that their attempts to remain independent in the eyes of Afghans, including Taliban sympathizers, has been compromised by U.S. involvement in delivering assistance.
A little bit more "give them what they want, maybe they'll leave us alone" from the usual suspects...
But Barno suggested it was time for relief groups to accept that they could not be neutral after a stream of deliberate attacks on de-miners and well-diggers. He said he hoped aid workers would return to Pashtun areas. ``They probably have to, and they are, realizing that they are now operating in a different world,ââ he said. Think that message will get through the thick skulls of European U.N. staffers? I didnât either.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2003 12:45:37 AM ||
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Aid groups worry that their attempts to remain independent in the eyes of Afghans, including Taliban sympathizers, has been compromised by U.S. involvement in delivering assistance.
They ought to worry instead about:
1. Losing their credibility by fleeing at the first whiff of gunpowder.
2. Hanging around and getting killed because they don't want to "compromise" their neutrality, which isn't going to happen because they'll split first (see #1).
3. Work with people who believe in democracy and human rights and are willing to put their lives on the line for that.
#2
"Islands of Stability"? Hmmmm, don't want to rain on the Army's parade there, but this sounds suspiciously like the fortified villages we built in 'Nam, which didn't work well. While they were bases for Spec Ops forces, they also were mortar and B40 magnets, and were never as "pacified" as we made them out to be.
Spec Ops works best as a mobile concept, not a fortified one. Go out and find, engage and kill the opposition, not wait for them to come to you.
No triple canopy for them to fade into. Thermals are remarkably effective if you prepare the surrounding areas before setting up camp. Fater air and arty response, and more effective weaponry. As well as a better led and trained fighting force (Not so many restricitons and not nearly the ticket punching and micromanagement of Vietnam). All volunteers, all professionals - especailly when you consider the units involved.
These are not Spec Ops - those guys stay highly mobile. These are light infantry Army troops from the 10th Mountain, 101st, and 82nd. They are mobile but need a base to work from.
A lot different from the stuff you are envisioning.
#4
Another body check to the UN and the multilateralist NGOs. We gave them a chance, they seriously blew it & frittered away several years with little to show for it. I hope this means that the US is not going to allow the Talibani to regain power or the warlords to reconsolidate significantly - even if we have to offend the delicate feelings of the NGO world.
It's time for Afghans to see us keeping our explicit and implict promises to help. At the same time, I don't want Bush to let the rest of the world, including the NGOs and the UN, off the hook for helping in Afghanistan and elsewhere. There is a serious amount of dismantling and rebuilding needed all throughout the Moslem world and I won't be happy if the Euros get to be free-riders ... they will benefit from the increased stability and the growth of functioning economies there. They need to contribute to making that happen.
#5
Riverdog, wasn't the policy called "Strategic Village" or something like that? This will be an interesting test on whether the concept can be worked in some cases. I speculate that it will depend on the density of the population as well as the vegitation and cover.
In Somalia the insurgents that were setting up road blocks were not out in the bush where we initially looked for them. They were in the villages at night and came out each day to set up their little lemonade stands to shakedown whomever they could.
If the villages in Afghanistan are isolated enough, the only options for the Taliban sympathisers will be to travel overland and exposed to attack another village or sneak out at night and attack theirown village. I don't think attacking your own village will be popular.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:09 Comments ||
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Riverdog, wasn't the policy called "Strategic Village" or something like that?
The name was strategic hamlets. It worked pretty well at denying space and recruits to the enemy, but at some cost in US casualties. (The concept came from the successful British-led campaign against ethnic Chinese Communist insurgents in Malaya - now Malaysia and Singapore).
Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are to open their 24th annual summit in Kuwait City today amid calls for political and economic reforms in the member states. This is the first summit since the ouster of Saddam Husseinâs regime in April. âThe recent events in Iraq will push the GCC leaders to devise a strategy serving the security interests of the member states,â Kuwaitâs Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, on the eve of the summit. Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, is leading the Magick Kingdomâs delegation to the summit. According to GCC officials, the two-day summit will focus on fighting terror, ties with the new Iraq, and economic issues such as monetary union, a single currency, a common market and a railway linking GCC states. The conference is expected to endorse a joint agreement on combating terrorism. It will study a charter for educational reforms with a view to âreformulating school curriculaâ in the member states and preventing the young from being influenced by extremist ideologies. âThe chapter of the GCC that I lived through has closed. Now we are at the threshold of a new era... an era without Saddam Hussein and without the Iranian revolution,â said Abdullah Bishara, the first GCC secretary-general.âThe first thing Kuwaitâs GCC summit should do is build a Gulf security network by establishing a credible security infrastructure... We must not continue to depend on the United States,â the AFP news agency quoted Bishara as saying.
"Those Americans! They're so undependable!"
âIn order to reduce reliance on the United States, we must encourage the Iranian rational approach,â especially after signing the additional protocol on nuclear arms and establish normal ties with Iraq, he said.
"Yes! We must encourage them!"
The present situation is a golden opportunity for the GCC to relaunch itself toward realizing a âGulf confederationâ that serves all member states but keeps their individual existence intact, said Bishara, who was secretary-general for 12 years. He said the GCC must now introduce some âsteamâ into its procedures and take a number of hard decisions.
"What hard decisions?"
"Ummm... Decisions that are hard..."
Ahmad Al-Rubei, a former Kuwaiti minister and MP, said while overemphasizing security issues, the GCC had ignored internal reforms, democratization, social development and womenâs issues. âIn the past, they had excuses in regional instability and the fear from Iran and later Saddam. Now regional tension has disappeared and itâs high time for internal reforms,â Rubei said.
Did anybody see where those regional tensions went? Good thing the Merkins didn't invade Iraq. It woulda increased instability in the area and... ummm...
âIt is unfair that the situation should remain unchanged. We must get to the issues that have been ignored for a long time. We must focus on political and economic reforms,â Rubei said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 15:55 ||
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"Iranian rational approach" - hit a 9.7 on my oxymoron detector.
UPDATE: A Rant posted here on 13 Dec was based on an article in al-Guardian that left out an interesting quote, found in another paper reported same day:
... "Itâs amazing how people who were doing everything possible to derail the success" of the Iraq war now "feel they have the right" to reconstruction contracts, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan said. "It just takes so much chutzpah."...
Chutzpah?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) ||
12/21/2003 1:10:17 AM ||
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Maybe using 'chutzpah' is code for 'jewish conspiracy'?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 7:29 Comments ||
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I suspect this is part of Bandar's PR campaign in the US. And, if he is indeed as arrogant a racist as some Arab leaders, he may have intended it also as an insult ....
#6
Since the Iraqi WMD threat basically turned out to be a fairy tale, I've been wondering what's the real reason war was chosen this year.
I suspect that it comes down to the Saudis wanting us out and there being no way in hell we were going to allow Saddam to declare victory by outlasting us.
#7
Since the Iraqi WMD threat basically turned out to be a fairy tale, I've been wondering what's the real reason war was chosen this year.
The real reason was to scare Muslim leaders out of their hobby of financing or providing logistical support for anti-American terror groups (through the device of setting up limited liability corporations - aka terror groups - that provide plausible deniability). Are we scaring them yet? We'll see - I suspect it's not over yet, and could end in the flattening of a Muslim country after a devastating nuclear attack on US soil.
#8
Since the Iraqi WMD threat basically turned out to be a fairy tale, I've been wondering what's the real reason war was chosen this year.
The fairy tale is the idea that waiting until the WMD's are finished before attacking is a good one - that's an invitation for mass casualties. The time to go on the offensive is before they're finished - otherwise, we get the kind of Mexican standoff we have with North Korea.
#11
Is that yours ZF? A unique way of looking at a terrorist org.
Terrorists are just the proxy armies of the Muslim world. The beauty of these armies is that like interest groups, they support particular causes without drawing fire to the patrons who fund these causes. (I should say they used not to attract attention to their patrons - after 9/11, the game has changed, which is why Muslim leaders are crying persecution - their hobby is now hazardous to their continued hold on power, courtesy of Uncle Sam).
(EFL, but the originalâs not much bigger)
The actual building of US bases in Bulgaria could come into effect in no less that two years, Bulgariaâs Foreign Minister Solomon Passy said Sunday. Currently, US experts are consulting their NATO partners on the issue, and those consultations are most likely to continue in the beginning of next year, Passy explained. He also pointed out that the decision for stationing bases in Bulgaria was a serious one, thus required consideration. On December 19, Bulgariaâs Parliament expressed support for the future stationing of US bases in a declaration approved by 200 MPs. Only 3 MPs from the left-wing opposition "Coalition for Bulgaria" opposed it. The document vows Parliamentâs support for the US process of relocation of military bases abroad... Poland, Bulgaria and Romania are now favourite destinations for hosting US bases.
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) ||
12/21/2003 11:07:52 PM ||
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Rather than include my personal ramblings in the original posting, I thought this part more worthy of a "comment" posting.
I applaud the Bulgarians for their apparent enthusiasm, but this and the recent increase in "chatter" stokes my constant paranoia concern over "the world's mostdangerousnuclear plant."
Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Plant has six Soviet-built reactors. Most of the concern involves reactors 1 and 2, which went online in the mid-Seventies. Features of reactors 1 and 2 that are below Western standards include, but are not limited to: quality and construction of building materials, operating systems, personnel training, emergency core-cooling systems, and auxiliary water-feed systems.
Reactor 1, considered the most dangerous, was intermittently closed during the Nineties under intense international pressure, but it's been back on the grid since January of '98. Kozloduy provides 40% of Bulgaria's electrical energy, and the energy sector itself accounts for 15% of Bulgaria's GDP, making Kozloduy an economic and industrial sacred cow. The European Union has offered millions of euros in technical assistance and direct aid to Kozloduy over the last decade, but the plant won't be shut down anytime soon. An agreement reached in '98 between Kozloduy's managers and the EU promised to gradually phase out reactors 1 and 4 by '05, but little has since been done to meet this deadline (other than postponing it to '06).
Kozloduy is near the Danube River (the Romanian/Bulgarian border) and less than eighty miles east of the Serbian border. Fallout from a core breach at Kozloduy (potentially four times greater than Chernobyl) would affect all of southern and eastern Europe but mostly three countries:
* Romania (a supporter of the WoT)
* Bulgaria (ditto, only more so), and
* Serbia (fought Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo during the Nineties)
Best of all, an 18-mile no-fly zone around the reactor is routinely violated.
Keeping in mind AlQ's fondness for using aircraft as weapons, I'd start keeping an extra-close eye on all west- and north-bound flights out of Istanbul, Damascus, etc.
Word for the day "foulard"
Franceâs state-owned television channels reached their highest viewer ratings Wednesday when the nation was invited to witness what one commentator described as "an historic moment." This consisted of a 4,000-word address by President Jacques Chirac, live from the Elysee Palace. With a tricolor in the background to emphasise the solemnity of the occasion, Chirac read his text as if it were a declaration of war. A crowd of 400 "leading citizens," including the prime minister, the entire cabinet, speakers of the two houses of parliament, and heads of the various religious communities, were present in the gilded hall to provide the cued applause.
But what was all the fuss about? From the way the French media have covered the occasion, one would think that Chirac had raised the banner of national resistance against a foreign invader: something like Vercingetorix standing up to Roman conquerors in Gaul, or Charles Martel stopping the Saracens at Poitier. All that Chirac did, however, was "instruct" the parliament to pass a law under which girls wearing the Islamist foulard (head scarf) would not be allowed to attend state-owned schools. Anxious that the move should not appear anti-Islamic, the president also announced that the wearing of "big crosses", and Jewish skullcaps, would also be banned. Chirac said that the Hand of Fatma be banned too, though apparently he didnât even know what it was: He pronounced it Fatimaâs Hand, and appeared to regard it as an Islamic symbol.
Chirac presented the foulard as the greatest challenge faced by the French republic since it formulated its secular principles in 1905. Using the traditional devices of French grandiloquence, the president recalled the heritage of the Great Revolution and its rallying cry: freedom, fraternity, and equality. The truth, however, is that Chirac has decided upon â or been misled into â making a mountain out of a molehill. By doing so, he risks casting himself in the role of a modern Don Quixote, off to fight the windmills instead of the real giants.
First, it is wrong to see the foulard as a symbol of conflict between Islam and the West: The foulard in question is a political, not a religious, symbol. Designed in Lebanon in 1975 and imposed by force in Iran in the 1980s, it has never been sanctioned by any Islamic religious authority in France or anywhere else; it has, however, been adopted as a symbol by many radical Islamist groups. Thus Chirac is wrong to present the foulard as a means by which mainstream Islam is trying to extend religion into the public space. And even then, the foulard concerns very few Muslims in France, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. The French governmentâs own statistics show that no more than 2,000 out of 1.8 million Muslim girls wore it in 2002. Several studies conducted in various Muslim-inhabited French suburbs show that more than two-thirds of girls wearing the foulard do so because of intimidation by organized Islamist gangs. But Chirac isnât passing laws to protect those girls from intimidation: He is suggesting legislation to punish them at the school gates instead.
France does have a problem with its Arab population, most of which comes from North Africa. The North African minority, known as beurs, bears deep resentment about Franceâs colonial past. It also regards itself as a victim of racial discrimination, much as do African Americans in the United States. The problem of the beurs, therefore, is social, cultural, and economic â not religious. Even if all beurs converted to Christianity or became atheists, they would still feel like victims, because they cannot get good jobs and are confined to the shanty towns built by French Stalinists in the 1950s and 1960s.
Thereâs even more to refute about the "subversiveness" of Franceâs six million Muslims. Of these, for example, more than half have taken up French nationality and thus, one must presume, respect the principles on which the French republic is based. Another 1.5 million, mostly from Algeria and Morocco, are believed to have dual nationality. But there is no reason to believe that they wish to undermine the principles of French statehood. Nor is the Muslim community isolated, or self-segregating: Some 40 percent of French Muslims marry non-Muslims. To treat Franceâs Muslims as a single community is to mistakenly believe that Islam, like Christianity, has church-like structures. Islam, however, is the religion of the individual: Its chief feature is the direct line it establishes between the believer and the Creator, thus eliminating priests, intercessors, and other religious functionaries. Since there is no baptism or confirmation in Islam, and certainly no excommunication either, the only way to know who is a Muslim and who is not is an individualâs self-identification as one.
The Chirac administrationâs attempt at inventing a single "authority" for Islam is already proving counterproductive. This was made abundantly clear last year when the interior ministry decided to create a "French authority" for Islam. The ministry gathered a few beards from around the country and put them up for election as founders of the French "church" of Islam. Despite months of publicity, and some $50 million in public funds (illegal under French secular rules), the election that the ministry organized for the "church of Islam" attracted around 40,000 voters, less than one percent of Muslims eligible for the franchise. Not surprisingly, those who voted were mostly political militants who want to transform Islam into an ideology and use it as an instrument of achieving power, or at least a share in it.
Thus the battle Chirac needs to fight is not with Muslims in France, but instead with the militant Islamists that his own government has helped and financed. French Muslims have scores of non-religious organizations and associations. But the authorities never talk to them. French governments, on both the left and the right, cannot understand a simple fact: It is possible to be a believing and practicing Muslim without subscribing to communitarian politics.
Despite Chiracâs typically monarchic "instructions" to the legislature, the French parliament should not rush into hasty lawmaking on this sensitive issue. What France needs instead is a proper study of the Islamic presence on her soil. Such a study would show that France has no problem with its Muslim citizens as such. The problem it has is with fascists using religion not only against the French republic, but also, and often primarily, against Muslims. The overwhelming majority of the girls who wear the foulard is forced to do so by verbal threats or even physical violence. The small numbers that might wear it for political and ideological reasons must be allowed to do so for as long as they do not try to impose it on others through psychological terror or physical violence.
Chiracâs intervention may well be connected with the declining popularity of his government. His loose center-right coalition of half a dozen parties is facing local elections next May, and feels threatened by the rising tide of extremism from both left and right. The extreme Right, especially the National Front, which won over 18 percent of the votes in the presidential election almost two years ago, is trying to portray Islam as a religious threat to "Christian" France. The extreme Left, led by Trotskyites, claims that Islam is now the only religion that can endanger Franceâs secular traditions. By trying to make his own Islamic pitch, Chirac may well be trying to chip at the support base of both extreme-right and extreme-left parties. This may be a clever tactic in electoral terms. But it leaves the real issue untouched: France is threatened by a number of extremist groups of which the Islamists are but one â that have to be challenged and defeated in the political arena.
#1
tipper - I'd like to see you provide further commentary / fisking of articles, if you're cool with that.
That said, I think Chiraq is picking the wrong fight. As the article states, if "France has no problem with its Muslim citizens as such", why are they doing this, and leading the charge w/ banning the foulard, and throwing in the other banned items clearly as an afterthought?
Anyone? Ferris (tip to anyone who can tie this into today's MIA at BUF game)?
A TURKISH militant accused of acting as a link to suicide bombers who killed 62 people in Istanbul last month allegedly told police he received $200,000 from al-Qaida to attack US targets. Adnan Ersoz was charged with the bombings yesterday and could face life in prison. He said al-Qaida gave him $US150,000 to give to the Turkish militants for the attacks. "I followed the necessary financing for attacks which I thought would be carried out against US targets," daily Hurriyet quoted Ersoz as saying to interrogators. "I received $US50,000 from an Iranian and sent it by courier. Then I contacted Habip when another $US100,000 was needed." Ersoz said Habip Aktas was the head of the al-Qaida in Turkey.
And Iran is the place to go if you're in the terrorism business...
Reports said Ersoz regretted his role, since most of those killed were Muslim Turks.
"Gos! I'm so sorry I got caught!"
Ersoz allegedly said they initially planned to hit a Turkish military base used by the US in southern Turkey, but militants were stymied by tight security and bombed the synagogues, the British consulate and a London-based bank instead. Hurriyet also reported yesterday that Ersoz said the militants had been preparing for the attacks for about two years. Ersoz told the court he went to Afghanistan in 1997 for military training and met Osama bin Laden in Kandahar in 2001. He denied advanced knowledge of the Istanbul attacks and also denied he had received orders from bin Laden to carry out the attacks. However, Ersoz allegedly said he received orders from bin Laden to attack the southern Incirlik Air Base, used by the US military. "We had breakfast with bin Laden in the camp in Kandahar before September 11," he was quoted as telling the police. "Habip Aktas was also present. We decided to attack US targets in Turkey. Our main target was the Incirlik base. But for a reason I donât know, attacks happened in Istanbul."
"My wife told me we should stop and ask for directions, but I didn't listen to her..."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 10:04:55 AM ||
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Italian police raided an alleged hideout of the radical leftist Red Brigades terrorist group Saturday, seizing a cache of explosives weeks after arresting nine people linked to the organization.
"What he hell? These guys ain't got turbans!"
Authorities believe the basement of a building near Romeâs Termini train station was used by group members already in custody, the ANSA news agency said. There were no arrests Saturday. Police found some 220 pounds of explosives along with detonators, computer disks and documents, including a flier claiming responsibility for a 2002 killing, ANSA said. Authorities briefly evacuated the building in central Rome until bomb-disposal experts verified the site was safe. The Red Brigades carried out most of their attacks in the 1970s and 1980s, but the claimed responsibility for the 1999 killing of government labor consultant Massimo DâAntona and the 2002 killing of another labor consultant, Marco Biagi. Apparently they didnât get the news about communism falling, etc.
I think it's turban envy, myself...
In October, authorities arrested nine suspected group members during an investigation stemming from the earlier arrest of an alleged Red Brigade terrorist involved in a deadly shootout on a train. I know the Italians are a liberal people, so letâs hope the giggle juice is being pumped liberally.
The original Red Brigades became one of the most notorious terror groups in 1978 when they kidnapped former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, holding him for two months before killing him. When the group claimed responsibility for killing Biagi, it released a manifesto calling for a class war and denouncing the "imperialist bourgeoisie." Theyâve made a lot of progress, eh?
Same old hooey. Rip van Winkel is their resident ideologue, I think...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2003 1:00:13 AM ||
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In another 20 or so years we may have to really start watching for militant senior citizens.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:34 Comments ||
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... the earlier arrest of an alleged Red Brigade terrorist involved in a deadly shootout on a train.
Eight Muslim rebels and two soldiers were killed in clashes over the past 24 hours in disputed Kashmir, where India and Pakistan began a truce last month along a military control line, police said on Saturday.
A police spokesman told Reuters army soldiers banged shot dead two militants on Saturday in a fierce battle in Anantnag district south of Srinagar.
Elsewhere, six hard boyz militants and two good guys security force personnel were killed in separate gunbattles across the region since Friday evening, police said.
The army ceasefire on the frontline has held so far, but rebel groups have said they will not observe the truce aimed at building on improved relations between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, news agency Press Trust of India reported that commandants of the border guards of the two countries met at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah, the first interaction at such a level after two years, a further sign of improving relations. The two sides discussed coordination on routine affairs, the agency said. Monthly interactions at the commandant-level were suspended after the two South Asian neighbours came to the brink of war in 2002 after the Indian parliament was attacked by suspected Islamic militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:35:49 AM ||
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Bhutanese troops have captured seven senior Indian rebel leaders during fierce fighting, officials in the Himalayan kingdom say. Five other leaders, including the founder of a rebel group, have died fighting the troops in southern Bhutan. More than 130 people have died since the Bhutanese army launched its first offensive against three Indian rebel groups on Monday. The rebels have for years used Bhutan as a base to strike against India. The North Eastern states of India are crawling with literally dozens of ârebelâ groups, although in truth, all but a handful are essentially just small ethnic gangs that recruit from the myriad of different tribes in the area. The ULFA however, has been around for decades and has thousands of members, and basically operates as the main coordinator for many of the insurgent groups in the region.
All the senior rebel leaders killed and captured in the latest fighting belonged to the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa), a Bhutanese military official told the BBC. One of the dead rebels is the founder of (Ulfa), Bhimkanta Buragohain. Among those arrested is Bening Rabha, who was in charge of the Ulfa bases in Bhutan and a top leader of the groupâs military wing. Senior leaders Apruba Deka, Satish Hazarika and Ranjit Hazarika are reported to have been killed. Bhutan has rejected an offer by the rebel groups to move out of their bases if the army operation against them is halted.
Thereby presenting solid evidence they're not stoopid...
The Royal Bhutan Army has started handing over the rebels to India, the Indian army chief said. "The first batch of seven arrested militants has been handed over. The rest will follow," army chief Nirmal Chand Vij told BBC. The Red CrossThingy is sending a team to southern Bhutan to explore the situation after reports that rebel family members were trapped in the fighting. Ulfa earlier told the BBC that it had appealed to the Red Cross to intervene to protect women and children.
... and their cute little puppies, kittens and baby ducks.
The three rebel groups involved in the fighting are Ulfa, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO). Ulfa is fighting for Assamâs independence from India while the NDFB and the KLO are fighting for separate tribal homelands. About 6,000 Bhutanese troops have destroyed almost all of the 30 rebel camps in the country during the offensive, officials say. The camps were said to have sheltered about 3,000 rebels. These groups have been hanging around Bhutan for years, and the Bhutanese seem to have finally had enough of them, and they seem to be doing extremely well considering their army is tiny and inexperienced. There are said to be around 110 rebel camps located in Bangladesh, whose government turns a blind eye towards them, so the destruction of these 30 camps is likely to be a major, rather than a devastating defeat for the groups.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
12/21/2003 12:16:16 AM ||
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Under severe fire after three days of continuous operations by the Royal Bhutan Army, a desperate ULFA today appealed to the Bhutan King to stop the offensive and called for a ceasefire so that its cadres holed up in the Himalayan kingdom can at least save their lives. ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua today called up local newspaper offices here and admitted that his outfit had suffered casualties which had compelled him to call for a ceasefire. He was quoted as saying that central headquarters and general headquarters of the ULFA located at Merengphu had been smashed by the Royal Bhutan Army, and that several middle-level cadres had lost their lives. Several ULFA leaders here, in fact, have been trying to drum up sympathy by claiming that ââwomen and childrenââ are being killed in the crackdown, a claim that has few takers here.
He forgot the part about the puppies, kittens, and baby ducks who were stomped when the Bhuts overran the elementary school...
Sources said ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has even sent feelers to New Delhi expressing his desire to open up negotiations with the government of India.
"Yeah! We're ready to talk now! Make us an offer and we'll consider it..."
The pressure is intense: intelligence sources said at least 60 militants belonging to the ULFA, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had been killed until this afternoon. The break-up: eight from ULFA, 48 NDFB and 12 KLO. Meanwhile, 89 militants belonging to the ULFA, NDFB and other groups have surrendered before the army at Tezpur in Assam.
Better hurry and negotiate, before they're all gone...
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
12/21/2003 12:16:08 AM ||
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"Ummmm ..... how about...no?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 8:33 Comments ||
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Who trained the Royal Bhutan Army?
Ship - the queen of Bhutan is an American. One of her cousins is a retired Special Forces senior NCO. She asked him to "bring some of his friends" and build a Bhutan army. There are about 30 of them there, and I think they've done a bang-up job!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/21/2003 12:03 Comments ||
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What is the world coming to when 'hard boyz' aren't prepared to take their medicine?
What's the phrase? "fire for effect"?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
12/21/2003 16:58 Comments ||
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Thanks OP. Few things more dangerous than angry pacifist.
Bernd Stange, the (German) coach of the Iraqi national soccer team, in an interview with the German daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung":
I donât want to elevate my soccer to a level that it doesnât belong on.
But he's going to...
But it is a very important part of Iraqi life. Earlier the professional matches were sold out with 55,000 fans. For one year soccer has been taken away from the Iraqis. If you took football or baseball away from the Americans for a year theyâd also be missing something. Had the Americans recognized the meaning of soccer they would have given us a field to practice on long ago.
Where were you practicing before? Did they stop you from going there?
They could have transported the unwanted turf from the womenâs World Cup matches that they threw or gave away to Baghdad. It must be possible to take along a few rolls of turf if you can bring tanks weighing tons to Baghdad. That would have been possible with a little bit of heart and caring.
"They don't care! They just don't care!"
I can only advise the Americans that they must pay attention to such things if they want to reach the hearts of the people in Iraq. In so doing they can win much more than they could with their military machinery.
First the military machinery, then the soccer field. Get it Bernd? This is the second bitch on the subject I've seen from this guy. He hasn't gotten any more coherent.
#1
And here we've been worrying about keeping the lights on and providing running water. Obviously, Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Franks, et al., should be brought up on war crimes charges for not sending over a few tons of sod and turf. Further proof of what a callous, uncaring society we are in comparision to, say, THE GERMANS, who haven't sent F*CK ALL to help Iraq! (other than some america-hating commie scum soccer coach)
I hope this guy takes a few kicks to the groin during practice. I'm sure we could find a few volunteers among the troops to pull the duty.
#2
Why doesn't he ask Germany, his home country, who hasn't contributed much, if anything, to Iraq, to repair the field?
Maybe his mission is not so much coaching soccer as it is coaching the Iraqi's to hate America.
#4
"I donât want to ..." often a preface for exactly that. WTFO? Our society is founded on the tenet of self-help, Dude! What'cha been doing; cowering in a spider hole? Plant your own grass! Talk about chutzpah. Low, but irresistable.
#5
Oh I know, he asked Germany if they would repair the field, and they said yes, BUT only if they could get a contract to do it, right?
(Specifically a contract where the American taxpayers pay for it, and Germany gets good PR out of it)
#6
Weeeell, ya know, Stange was the national coach of... East Germany. And in November 2002 he signed a contract as national coach of Iraq. And you know who signed as the employer? Of course Uday Hussein, who had his own ideas about "motivating" athletes.
Oh but Stange said he was only interested in football...
Maybe this history has something to do with the lukewarm U.S. response?
That said the German Football Association has contributed quite a bit to Iraqi football after the war. It's not just grass that's lacking in Baghdad. From what I know the Albanians have hardly ever played on grass so the Iraqis might manage to do as well.
He is right about one thing: Iraqis are crazy about football and Stange managed to get Iraq into the World Championship 2006 qualifications where Iraq has to play Uzbekistan, Palestine and Taiwan. It would give Iraq an enormous boost if they could win that. You would not believe what it meant to Germany to win the World Championship of 1954 against all odds. If Iraq just manages to qualify it would be terrific for them. Soccer is baseball, football and basketball rolled in one for them and they are actually quite good at it. The U.S. never managed to make baseball popular in Germany after 1945, it simply had no tradition at all here.
Looks like we have a got a positive feedback loop working here. The more you catch, the more information you get, and this leads to more captures. Continue at an increasing pace, until not enough left to capture. I like it! :-)
The U.S. militaryâs top general says Saddam Husseinâs capture last week has led to the arrest of several hundred Iraqis, including some leaders of the anti-U.S. insurgency. In an interview with the Fox News Sunday program, General Richard Myers said Saddamâs capture gave U.S. forces information that led to a better understanding of the insurgencyâs structure. The general, who heads the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that Saddam is not cooperating with his interrogators.
Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that Saddam eluded arrest for months by moving between 20 and 30 safehouses in Iraqâs Sunni Muslim heartland.
In another development, Iraqâs Oil Ministry said insurgents have attacked and damaged facilities both north and south of Baghdad, worsening the countryâs already severe fuel shortage. An oil ministry spokesman says rebels hit fuel tanks south of the capital with rockets and set off a bomb that damaged a pipeline in the Mashada region to the north. Fires and leakage led to the loss of a reported 10 million liters of gasoline. Attacks on oil facilities have frustrated efforts by U.S. and Iraqi officials to rebuild Iraqâs oil industry. The shortages have led to long lines at gas stations and forced officials last week to introduce fuel rationing. The fuel situation is a bit of worry
#1
If "Saddam eluded arrest for months by moving between 20 and 30 safehouses..." there'd better be 20 or 30 crews out with microscopes collecting intelligence.
VOA is able to use words like rebels and insurgents without scarequotes, but even they still unable to call terrorists by name.
Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British tabloid newspaper reported on Sunday. Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddamâs son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.
Oh, well, that sounds authoritative, doesn't it?
The newspaper said the full story of events leading up to the ousted Iraqi presidentâs capture on December 13 near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, âexposes the version peddled by American spin doctors as incompleteâ. A former Iraqi intelligence officer, whom the Express did not name, told the paper that Saddam was held prisoner by a leader of the Kurdish Patriotic Front, which fought alongside US forces during the Iraq war, until he negotiated a deal. The deal apparently involved the group gaining political advantage in the region.
How sordid!
An unnamed Western intelligence source in the Middle East told the Express: âSaddam was not captured as a result of any American or British intelligence. We knew that someone would eventually take their revenge, it was just a matter of time.â
Three unnamed sources, a melodramatic blood feud, unspecified "political advantage" for a political party never heard from before... Sounds like deconstruction to me. I think I'll stick with the painstaking intelligence work and a little luck story.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 11:40 ||
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Yeah, no way the Kurds would have killed saddam if they found him. They also know where Elvis and Tupac are hiding out, but there's no 'blood feud' with them, so they remain at large.
#4
So the tribal kooks thought that it would serve the "blood feud" to drug him and use him for political advantage. Must have flipped the switch from irrational fury to rational calculation somewhere along the line. Here are some other unlikely elements of the story:
1. Tossing in the briefcase full of intelligence documents as a complimentary gift.
2. Failure to cut off Sadaam's testicles or at least his mustache.
3. No bruises in the shape of shoe heels about Sadaam's body.
4. Nobody claiming the $25M
5. Nobody ransommed Sadaam to the resistance for a $1B.
6. Nobody took counter offers from France/Russia.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 12:04 Comments ||
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Hey SH---It was a blood fued. They forgot to do all those things on your list. They just took a pint of blood and called it a day.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2003 12:55 Comments ||
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They call this a feenjahn story... huh? ...because it looks like it came out of somebody's nether orifice coffeepot.
The Sunday Times of London reports today that a day after Saddam's capture was announced last week, a combined U.S.-Iraqi operation found a car packed with 500 pounds of explosives in a Baghdad compound used by Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a prominent governing council member.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 11:07 ||
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There have been persistant reports a few weeks ago that the insurgents were turning to a kidnapping / assasination strategy after criticism re: Iraqi civilian casualties in their carbombings. Or maybe this was instigated by the 3 Council members his newspaper cut out of the photo w/ Saddam??? [smile]
U.S. forces in Iraq say they have uncovered a plot to kidnap the country's provisional leaders - in the hopes of trading them for Saddam Hussein.
Toldja this was going to happen...
A U.S. military source said supporters of Saddam planned to abduct at least one and possibly two members of the Iraqi Governing Council. The tip-off came from a Baath military officer and supporter of the ousted dictator. U.S. and Iraqi security services believe members of the governing council have been under surveillance, apparently by Saddam loyalists.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 11:04 ||
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Maybe the Elite Republican Guard⢠that has earned so much international respect is going to spring him. Do we really have any hope of thwarting such an audacious plan, carried out by such dedicated commandos? Our troops really don't stand a chance, maybe we should just start packing and haul ass. Where's Les Aspin, he'll know what to do. heh
U.S. government sources familiar with the accounts given by troops who helped capture Saddam Hussein tell TIME that the fallen dictator apparently made one feeble attempt at defiance, TIMEâs Timothy Burger and Phil Zabriskie report. As soldiers were handcuffing him after he was extracted from his "spider hole," these sources say, Saddam spit on his captor. Bad move, you old fart...
As the incident was reported by the military, according to a U.S. source, a soldier promptly slugged the old tyrant â probably the first time in more than two decades that Saddam was powerless to exact lethal revenge on someone who stood up to him. Be thankful it was only one punch, Sammy.
An official military spokeswoman in Iraq claims no knowledge of the incident. "I think this is an urban legend," she says. But the full story is yet to be told. A U.S. intelligence official, meanwhile, casts doubt on another widely reported tale: that a U.S. soldier hailed the nemesis of two Commanders in Chief named George Bush by saying: "Regards from President Bush." This person says some officials suspect the story is "apocryphal." The full text of the story will be on TIME.com Sunday evening. Give that soldier a case of Fredâs finest! And, as always, keep your pimp hand strong.
This is probably the start of the deconstruction effort on Sammy's capture. I've already seen an AFP article that Sammy was "really" captured by the Kurds, who drugged him and left him for us. The implication, of course, is that we couldn't possibly be competent enough to catch him on our own...
Posted by: Raj ||
12/21/2003 11:00:50 AM ||
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And look for all sorts of wild and improbable stories about Saddam's treatment at our hands.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 11:26 Comments ||
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Cries of abuse and brutality from the Left and U.N in ... 5... 4... 3... 2...
Looks like Reuters is getting a clue. A report remarkable for its factual tone - EFL
U.S. troops have intensified a crackdown on anti-American insurgents across restive central Iraq after score-settling killings raised fears of more violence in the south of the country. Only one U.S. soldier is known to have been killed by hostile fire since the announcement of Saddamâs arrest. Saddam loyalists and Islamist fighters have killed 200 U.S. soldiers since Washington announced an end to major combat on May 1. You mean it looks like things are improving?
Western security sources warn that the threat of attacks has not diminished. Intelligence indicates more attacks are planned against U.S. and Western targets in Iraq over the Christmas period. Of course things canât get better. They have to get worse.
A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad shortly before midnight, just missing a U.S. patrol and slightly injuring two Iraqi passers-by. Mmm! Maybe those Isreali devices really work.
Witnesses said on Sunday U.S. troops were conducting a second day of house-to-house searches in the town of Rawah, close to the Syrian border. Soldiers manning checkpoints were stopping cars from entering the town. Residents said scores, some former Baath party members, had been arrested. Witnesses in the town of Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, said five people were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on a number of houses. In the defiant town of Samarra to the east, the U.S. military said on Saturday night 111 people had been arrested within 48 hours as part of "Operation Ivy Blizzard" to flush out guerrillas. It said 15 of those arrested were targeted as prominent figures in anti-U.S. activities throughout the area. Caches of weapons and ammunition were also seized.
Keep on scrubbing. If you let up, you'll let them get their balance back and have to start all over again...
In a surprise pre-Christmas trip on Saturday, Spainâs Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar made a morale-boosting visit to Spanish troops in Iraq. "I fully back the work that our compatriots are doing here. This is a fight for a just cause, the cause of freedom, democracy, stability and respect for international law," Aznar said during his short stop at the southern Diwaniya town on his first trip to Iraq since the U.S.-led war. Despite strong opposition to the war among the Spanish public, Spain has 1,300 soldiers in Iraq who are still reeling from a huge blow in November when Iraqis killed seven Spanish intelligence officers. I am really curious about the Spanish public's current attitude to the participation in Iraq. Anzar went out on far more of a limb than any of the other military participants. I respected Bush, Blair and Howard over the decision, but I admire Anzarâs stand. He had everything to loose. Any Spanish readers of Rantburg?
Posted by: phil_b ||
12/21/2003 5:47:14 AM ||
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Anzar's got a damn big pair, although you can chalk up his support to Spain's long experience fighting the Basque separatists. Terrorists tend to sit down and swap more than just notes and elegant turns of phrases to put into their Revolutionary communiques: the IRA taught the Paleos a thing or two about bomb making, and I'm waiting for the first evidences of terrorist gangs using missile technology from the Paleos.
#2
Ptah - I think there is more to it than that. I've spent time in Spain and love the country. Get off the beaten track and its a really cool place, but the dynamic is tradition versus the future. I think Anzar is looking towards the future and sees the future as a trans-atlantic European western periphery and the Americas as core around which the future of the world is made. Spain is on the border of the (arab) world of the past and I think this makes him see things with more clarity than those of us further away from the border.
#3
Indeed. Under Anzar, Spain has been reaching out to Latin America more frequently and with greater success than his predecssors. Those south of our border have many suspicions and resentments regarding the US, some deserved and many the result of their own history. Anzar has quietly oriented Spanish foreign policy to serve as a mentor and trading partner to these countries. Combine this with the Spanish - US alliance from the Cold War and you get another reason why Spain is not in the Axis of Weasels.
I think Anzar also looks at the Alhambra and other evidences of Arab conquest in Spain centuries ago and is determined that his country will not go in the direction that France and some other European nations are drifting. But I worry about what will happen when he leaves office shortly .....
Wonder if theyâll tangle with the new Iraqi FM?
An Arab League delegation is making the organizationâs first official visit to Iraq since the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. The delegation will meet with the U.S.-appointed Governing Council and tribal leaders to discuss security, reconstruction and other issues, league spokesman Hisham Youssef said from Cairo. The four-member delegation, which arrived Saturday, is led by Assistant Secretary-General Ahmed Bin Heli. The delegation will meet the Governing Council on Wednesday. Iraqi officials are expected to show the delegation evidence of human rights violations by Saddamâs regime. Followed by some pointed questions about the complicity of the Arab League.
The Arab League, which groups 21 Arab nations and the Palestinians, objected to the U.S.-led war against Iraq and its members were split over how to treat the Governing Council. But in September, the league seated a Governing Council representative on a temporary basis. The Arab League wants bygones to be bygones. I sure hope the Iraqis donât let that happen right now. Make âem squirm.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2003 12:55:08 AM ||
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I think they call it "a frank and open exchange of views" in diplospeak...
#3
The Iraqis ought to take the delegates out to the mass grave dig for starters, then they can listen to an Arab League lecture about Saddam's humiliation by an infidel medic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2003 1:40 Comments ||
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AP - Agree. Hell have the meetings *at* a mass grave site.
#5
Wonder if theyâll tangle with the new Iraqi FM?
Hoshyar Zebari: Diplomacy through civil, well-reasoned discourse. What Rantburger could disapprove?
#6
I recommend we fire Colin Powell and ask Iraq to share Zebari with us. We get a better Secretary of State (which is what a Foreign Minister is), and the Iraqis get a gigantic ego boost.
Substantially EFL
In an apparent revenge campaign, attackers separately targeted two people with close ties to the former regime of Saddam Hussein. In Najaf, gunmen on a bicycle attacked Damiyah Abbas, a former provincial official of Saddamâs Baath Party, and her 5-year-old son in front of her home on Saturday, witnesses said. The boy was killed, and his mother was in critical condition in a hospital, police Lt. Raed Abbas said. It was the third attack in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf - apparently part of a series of revenge killings against local members of Saddamâs Baathist regime, which brutally repressed Shiites. Damiyah Abbas was believed to have participated in the repression of a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddamâs government. Sorry about the boy, he didnât do anything wrong, but momma seems to have gotten what was coming to her. Memo to the Baathists: you really ought to turn yourself in to us, rather than wait for street justice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2003 12:51:25 AM ||
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Definitely done by amateurs, although given the shame/revenge mentality these people display, killing the boy to cut off the possiblity of revenge was probably considered, in the attacker's minds, as a feature, not a bug.
Still, this sort of thing shouldn't be tolerated in a nation we're trying to get to follow laws, not the passions of men.
Malaysian authorities postponed Sundayâs planned deportation of an alleged senior leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group shortly before his scheduled flight to his home country, Indonesia, the suspectâs wife said. Mohammad Iqbal Rahman, who was in Malaysian custody for 30 months on suspicion of militant links, never showed up for the flight even though immigration officials told his family to prepare to join him at the airport. Iqbalâs wife, Fatimah Zahrah Abdul Aziz, said she learned that his deportation was delayed after she checked in to board the Sunday morning flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, where he was expected to walk free.
Could that be why he wasn't allowed to leave?
She said airline officials at the check-in counter told her that her husband had not checked in. When she called the immigration detention center where he was held, she was told he was still there. Immigration officials said Iqbalâs deportation had been postponed, she said. No reasons or new date for his departure were given.
"We just enjoy his company so much, we can't bear to let him go!"
``I feel very sad and disappointed. They told me I should come here to the airport,ââ Fatimah said. ``I had expected to be with my husband today.ââ
Life's tough, ain't it? Guess you'll have to wait.
Badaruddin Ismail, an official with the human rights group Suaram who accompanied Fatimah to the airport, said immigration officials at the detention center said they were instructed late Saturday to call off the deportation plans. Iqbal, 46, was arrested in 2001 and detained under a law allowing indefinite detention without trial for threatening national security. He allegedly wanted to wage armed holy war to build a hardline Islamic state in Southeast Asia. Officials allege Iqbal was a close associate of Jemaah Islamiyahâs alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, and of Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali. The U.S. State Department in January designated Iqbal a terrorist and called him Jemaah Islamiyahâs ``primary recruiter and second in command.ââ Malaysian officials canceled Iqbalâs permanent residency status in August and announced they would deport him as an ``undesirable immigrant.ââ
"We've got enough tough guys and lunatics of our own!"
Indonesian officials have repeatedly said Iqbal is not wanted for any crime there, and they have no reason to arrest him.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:34:20 AM ||
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Notice that this coincided with the Orange alert. Do the Malaysian authorities know something that we don't? Maybe they don't want to get thumped in the aftermath of whatever terror attack occurs.
The satellite channel Al-Arabiya has now withdrawn a tape it broadcast Saturday containing a voice claiming to be that of Osama bin Laden. Al-Arabiya gave no reason for pulling the tape, but a rival channel claimed it aired the tape two months ago. Al-Jazeera said it broadcast the same material in October. On the tape, a voice claiming to be that of bin Laden praised attacks on U-S forces in Iraq. It also said the Americans were waging a "new crusade against the Islamic world." A journalist reached at Al-Arabiya said the tape has been withdrawn and wonât be aired again. The journalist refused to elaborate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:20:08 AM ||
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We have the technology to monitor and negate the transmissions of these satellite services. Why aren't we? Bin Laden urging Jihad isn't news, it's an act of war. We need to put the owners of the satellites on notice that continued airing of jihadist messages will not be tolerated, and the satellites will be put out of action.
If ordinary computer hackers can tweak with the satellites' guidance systems and spoil the aim of their antennas, putting them off the air, I'm sure USAF Space Command can do at least that well.
We should bring down the satellites, and if the owners sue us, we'll take the chance of having to pay them (but it would be an excellent opportunity to repudiate the World Court, though).
#3
Al-Arabiyyah's a;-Nielsons are down, so the sponsors pulled the plug. Just market forces, folks, no reason to fire up the sat-killers just yet. Stand down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2003 1:49 Comments ||
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AK-Paul: It's hard to stand down when we have been in the stand-down mode all along. With the exception of a leafletting op and some C-130 psywar flights during the active war, we did little to counter Saddam's control of the airwaves in Iraq, or support for him coming from other Arab states on their broadcast systems. My guess is that senior commanders were convinced by sig-int people that Saddam was going to pass operational info via the commercial airwaves, and we stood a chance of intercepting it, so there was a deliberate hands-off policy until very late in the war. The truth of the matter is that Saddam had very little command and control outward from himself to senior commanders. He didn't have much in GW1 either.
The military history of this war, when written, will include that do-nothing stance as a US failure, count on it. I might have to research and write a paper myself, although it's hard to present anything to the War College after retirement.
#6
Actually, I think the let down of comparing Baghdad Bob's statements with reality is good for the Arab world. You let them broadcast pictures of Sadaam strutting about and then the disappointment when he crawls out of a hole is enhansed. It's probably not an intentional stratey, though.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 12:24 Comments ||
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Those satellites are on the air because we KNOW about them, their frequencies, their footprints, and every living thing about them. I'm sure by now the CIA and NSA have devised some nifty screening software to pick up anything that goes on "between the keys". Shutting down this flow of information would force al-Q to try something else - something we DON'T know about.
One of the reasons ENIGMA and the Japanese codebreaking was so carefully guarded was to keep the enemy from knowing his codes were broken. As long as they continued to think they were transmitting over a secure system, they didn't change. The result was an intelligence windfall that allowed us to shorten the war by at least a year, possibly more. Protecting "sources and methods" means sometimes NOT interfering.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/21/2003 14:04 Comments ||
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Repeat after me folks - Binny is dead. They pulled the tape because it was such an obvious replay of a earlier tape that it made them look bad. The tape earlier this week by al-zawahiri where he gasses on and on about "tora bora" tells me that binny got iced up there in the hiils.
Posted by: frank martin ||
12/21/2003 14:27 Comments ||
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Iran slammed the United Statesâ decision to transfer members of the armed opposition Peopleâs Mujahedeen in its custody in Iraq to third countries and demanded that they be repatriated immediately. Homey donât think so.
Ummm... They don't want to go home. Yet.
"The statements made by (the US civil administrator in Iraq) Paul Bremer are in contradiction with various resolutions and declarations, especially those of the European Union which has branded this group a terrorist organization," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Sunday. Hum, as far as I know we have no extradition agreement with Iran. Have to check the files of our agreements with Iran. [rumage, rumage, rumage] Oh, the file is empty what do ya know.
And the Eurounion isn't in charge in Iraq. Bremer is. They're not in charge of Bremer, either.
"It is unacceptable that the United States transfer these people to other countries." Some clarification for you Mr. Asefi. The hand I am waving at you doesnât mean that I think youâre number one.
Bremer on Friday announced that some 3,800 members of the Peopleâs Mujahedeen who have been in US custody northeast of Baghdad since the six-week spring invasion would not be sent home as Iran demands, but to third countries.
He doesn't want to do a Churchill on them.
Bremer said Iraqis would be involved in deciding where to send the Iranian rebels. Letâs not do that, please.
The US-installed interim Governing Council announced on December 9 that it intended to deport the Peopleâs Mujahedeen. Probably a good idea.
Two days later, council member Nurredin Dara suggested sending them back to Iran, a move the armed opposition group said would amount to a war crime. Didnât we do that for a short time to the North Koreans?
I suggest that we move them to Dijibouti and set them up in a training camp. Hey, itâs been done before. The we can repatriate them by parachute in a location where we think AQ is being housed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 9:42:17 PM ||
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Edited for brevity.
The son of former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore has been charged with marijuana possession. Albert A. Gore III, 21, was arrested Friday night after he was stopped for driving a vehicle without its headlights on. A Montgomery County, Md., police officer stopped the car, a dark-colored Cadillac, in Bethesda, a Washington suburb, around 11:30 p.m. Friday. The officer noticed the carâs windows and sunroof were open, despite cold temperatures Friday night. There was also a smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle, according to a news release from the police department. A search of the vehicle turned up a partial marijuana cigarette, a cigarette box containing suspected marijuana, and a soft drink can that also smelled of marijuana. This isnât huge news that I bother to post normally, but considering the flak over the Bush twinâs drinking exploits, itâs only fair!
Posted by: Dar ||
12/21/2003 6:53:03 PM ||
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#1
Democrats don't inhale.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
12/21/2003 19:02 Comments ||
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#3
This is a non-story as far as I am concerned. Name me a 21-year-old (or younger) that doesn't do stupid things. This boy (and the Bush twins) did not ask for theirs Fathers to run for office. Now if young Al marries Jenna or Barbara that would be a story. P.S. good thing my Dad did not run for office, I would have given him nightmares.
#4
Cyber Sarge: I agree it should be a non-story, but Gore's son has been in trouble before and it was basically covered up (not reported), as this time will be, by the "mainstream" press, who, when Bush's kids did something stupid, made it front-page news for days. What's sauce for the goose.....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/21/2003 20:36 Comments ||
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#5
Stupid yeah - when smoking weed while driving at night it's a good idea to remember to turn on your headlights! A rookie mistake...
#7
"...if young Al marries Jenna or Barbara..." ooh! Wouldn't that be some kind of miscegenation? I don't know if parents would approve. A non-story, excepting political context, true, but curious; driving without headlights at 11:30P sign of
1) Desire to be inconspicuous?
2) Stoned?
3) Stupid?
Sorry, folks. First original thought Iâve had in a while. Iâm inebriated inspired by all that beer I stole from Fredâs Garage. Link goes to my site so I can get some bong hits, and thatâs where I posted the original commentary.
Iâd love to see this name change catch. Maybe Iâm being vain, I dunno... Civil, Well Reasoned Discourse No, not me (natch), but Wesley Crusher Clark is taking John Kerryâs lead in using profanity on the campaign trail:
Better not mess with Clark
Moments after praising his opponents in the Democratic presidential race as worthy running mates, Wesley Clark said, in no uncertain terms, how he would respond if they or anyone else criticized his patriotism or military record.
Do tell...
"Iâll beat the s--- out of them," Clark told a questioner as he walked through the crowd after a town hall meeting Saturday. "I hope thatâs not on television," he added. It was, live, on C-SPAN.
Whoops!
The campaignâs traveling press secretary, Jamal Simmons, was with Clark at the time.
"I told you not to pull a John Kerry!"
"If anyone tries to question Wes Clarkâs character, integrity or his commitment to this country or its security, theyâre going to be in the biggest fight theyâve ever had," Simmons said.
I envision this as a potential Pay-Per-View between Clark and Kerry. Problem is, Iâd not pay more than $10 USD for it.
#1
Not even Weasley Crusher is as annoying as Gen. Wheasle. Heck Weasley would make a better president then Wheasle even if he is a fictional character.
The United States has been stunned by the advanced state of Libyaâs weapons of mass destruction and missile programs. Officials said a British and U.S. team found that Libya had constructed a centrifuge that was enriching uranium. Several other centrifuges were also found as part of what they said was a complete infrastructure for the production of nuclear weapons. The team was also led to a Libyan medium-range missile program that included the Scud C. The missiles, with a range of 500 kilometers, were said to have been obtained from North Korea.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 17:13 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmm I know this is a wild ass theory, but perhaps the nuke/uranium from Africa flap that every lefty and their brother has been yapping about MAY just have origins in Libya?
Posted by: Val ||
12/21/2003 17:26 Comments ||
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#3
Obviously, they were planted there by the CIA and MOSSAD, after the 2000 elections.
#4
I read somewhere that Libya and Iran were cooperating, that Iran basically farmed out certain tasks they knew they couldn't get away with. If so this is a major setback to Iran.
EFL
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafiâs long, strange odyssey toward international respectability took a welcome twist yesterday... that Libya had agreed to give up all efforts to develop unconventional weapons and to permit international inspections... Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are entitled to claim a large share of the credit for Libyaâs surprising announcement. To an extent that cannot be precisely measured, the fate of Saddam Hussein, who was ousted from power by the American military with British backing after endless prevaricating about Iraqi weapons programs, must have been an important consideration in Libyaâs decision... This page recommended lifting American sanctions [earlier this year] ..., but President Bush left them in place...It is now clear that he was right to do so. You were right Luke. Tell your sister you were right.
And careful where you're stepping. My jaw's down there somewhere...
#1
Its curious. Lybia joins South Africa as the only nation we know of to give up a WMD program on their own. While they may of had different reasons, the actions these nations took hopefully will act as guideposts to some of the rest of them out there. I hope some day the US can walk down this path. But for us to do so unilaterally now be insane. Unfortunately the current weapons we have will have to stay in place while their are still threats out there.
#3
For those that don't remember, Libya was one of the first country to advocate pan-arab nationalism. Col Kadaffi was the first anti-west arab leader. He was revered by most arabs for kicking out the U.S. and nationalizing the Oil industry in his country. Oh yes they have LOTS of oil there so I guess we will here about that in DU by Monday. For Bush to 'take out' Saddam and Mumar from serious threats to the world is a HUGE victory in the WOT. Libya not only financed but let terrorist base trainig camps there. The Islamofacists have to be scratching their heads on now. Kudos to Bush AND Blair for making Libya see the light. By the way, the french and germans have been the ones pumping oil in Libya these past years.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is expected to announce Sunday the raising of the U.S. security level from yellow (elevated) to orange (high), an official told CNN. Ridgeâs announcement is expected at 1:30 p.m. EST, the official said. CNN is about to televise Ridge
Televised and raised...
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said the U.S. intelligence community has received a "substantial increase" in the volume of threat-related intelligence reports. Ridge is expected to discuss concerns about continued al Qaeda threats to the United States, the department announced. Yellow is mid-level on the nationâs five-color warning system and orange is the second highest threat, lower only than red (severe). The system was put into place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There are "credible reports" of the possibility of attacks against the homeland during the holiday season and "significant concern" about al Qaedaâs continued desire to use aircraft as weapons, a homeland security spokesman said. U.S. officials were also concerned that one of al Qaedaâs top objectives is to acquire and develop chemical, biological and radiological weapons. The U.S. last raised the domestic terrorism threat level to orange on May 20, after suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco blamed on al Qaeda. That alert lasted 10 days before dropping back to the yellow "elevated" level.
U.S. officials said Friday that they were assessing the credibility of intelligence regarding possible terrorist attacks against the United States, but said then that there was no evidence an attack was imminent or any indication of a specific target. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNNâs "Late Edition" Sunday that U.S. officials have noticed an increase in the volume of communications traffic among suspected terrorists. "The greatest risk is probably abroad, but they would like nothing better than to have an attack here at home," said Bayh. The State Department on Wednesday said it has authorized non-essential diplomats and families of U.S. officials to leave Saudi Arabia because of ongoing security concerns, and urged Americans to defer travel to the Magic kingdom. "My guess is that our government is taking this very seriously, both in Saudi Arabia and here," Sen. Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told "Late Edition."
#1
I'm starting to wonder about Libya's capitulation. Does Gaddafi know about a terror attack that is about to happen, and wants to come forward before it happens so we don't flatten Libya after the attack? The timing of Gaddafi's action is really fishy.
#3
Shipman - way ahead of you. I've already backed up the truck to Fred's Garage (sounds like a Zappa remix, doesn't it?) and stole the margarine all the Schlitz and Milwaukee's Worst Best, heh heh heh...
A Muslim separatist group branded as "terrorists" by China has said it was willing to disband if the communist state offered freedom of expression and internet access to Uighur Muslim minorities.
"We need access to internet sites for titties. None of us has seen the Paris Hilton video. If that ain't oppression, I dunno what is!"
The Munich-based East Turkistan Information Centre (ETIC) was set up in 1996 by Uighurs living in Germany to provide information to Uighurs living in northwest China's Xinjiang region, its spokesman Dilxat Raxit said. Its aim was also to expose the government's abuses of Uighurs' rights, he told AFP during a telephone conversation on Sunday. "If the Chinese government thinks we're inciting activities from overseas in the mainland, we hope the Chinese government will allow press freedom, allow foreign journalists to freely report in Xinjiang and allow international rights rapporteur to investigate in the jails without any obstacles," Raxit said. "And if Uighurs can have Internet freedom, then there's no reason why we need to exist. We will then disband."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 13:21 ||
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#1
Re> internet access
The Uighurs want a piece of the international spam market.
Posted by: ed ||
12/21/2003 13:53 Comments ||
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#2
Some friends of ours worked among the Uighurs for several years. You may be interested to know that the Han Chinese are among the most racist tribes in the world, and the Uighurs have suffered under their domination for centuries. In the last century, Han,the enormous majority ethnic group in China, have moved into Uighur territory and taken most of the good jobs and housing. Communist policies suppressed a lot of the local culture.
The Uighur's brand of Islam is not yet, as far as I have heard, infected with the terrorist germ yet; but Chinese policies give the terrorists a favorable audience.
Ed, your comment on "titties" is not appropriate in this case. Other Rantburgers: Please leave the swearing to John Kerry and the invective to the other loonies. Thank you.
#4
China should declare Xinjian (East Turkmenistan) and Tibet to be semi-Autonomous areas like Hong Kong. This would solve a lot of their troubles and might bring the Dali Lama around onto their side.
Oh, they should also declare Taiwan to have the exact same status even though they don't really control the territory. That way the whole thing helps to push the fiction of one China.
#5
I've always wanted to say this (actually, I already have to my mom, and she got it):
mom - chill. It's just werdz. It's either just vibrations in the air or contrasting pixels or ink stains. It has no meaning, no heat, no impact, no offense, other that what you assign to it of your own volition. Got a problem? Find a mirror. Post your thoughts on the topic in any vernacular you desire. Save the finger wag for those over which you exercise your (if a parent as implied) God-like influence. Else you risk the same loss of communication, i.e. your message being lost in the debris of the trivial criticism, that you derided Fred for doing. It was apropos and relevant. That's my opinion and it's very very true. Just ask me.
BTW, your point regards the Han and Uighur as appreciated. Thx and Have a Nice Life.
#6
mom, dunno if Han Chinese are racist, but the govt is. They've been consistently colonial in moving the ethnic boundary outward, swamping by weight of numbers. Nothing new, really. Mao's children are just the current dynasty of the Middle Kingdom.
otoh, I'm generally in favor of titties. They're both asethetically pleasing and useful.
EFL
The White House portrayed Libyaâs promise to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs as affirmation of President Bushâs hard-line strategy on arms proliferation and suggested the U.S.-led war in Iraq helped convince Muammar Gadhafi that he should act.
Seems pretty obvious to me, but then I'm just a dumbass with a website...
Some arms control experts, however, point to what is known about how and when the agreement came about and say that Libyaâs turnaround offers proof the United States should shift tactics in dealing with North Korea, Syria and other nations. A greater commitment is needed, they say, to the kind of patient but firm diplomacy that worked with Libya. appeasement is the only way!
We should bomb Kimmy's house and kill his daughter? Seems kind of drastic...
"The president is trying hard to portray this as a victory for his strategy," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Socialist Workerâs Party Peaceâs nonproliferation project. "But when you look at this, itâs almost the opposite of the Bush doctrine." of COURSE! up is down, down is up; makes perfect sense in never-never land
"War is peace," you might even say.
Announcing the Libya deal, Bush invoked the ass-kicking of Scumbag #1 Iraq war that brought down Saddam Hussein as he issued a flat warning of "unwelcome consequences" for countries that do not follow Libyaâs lead. Uncle Sam: "whoâs next?"
White House officials promoted Fridayâs Libya announcement as vindication of Bushâs decision to make war on Saddam, even though banned weapons, Bushâs prime public reason for waging it, have not been found.
They haven't been found in Libya yet, either. But Sammy was found. In a hold. Covered with flies and shit.
As a result, Britain pushed successfully for the lifting of U.N. penalties against on Libya, a sprawling desert country in northwest Africa. thanks again to TB for helping us carry the load, and for whispering a quiet word in the mookâs ear
Many analysts say the warâs aftermath has proved so difficult for the United States that other countries probably view U.S. military force as an unlikely option elsewhere right now. QUAGMIRE!
"Right now" doesn't last forever. After we're done with the quagmire in Iraq, we'll likely find ourselves in a quagmire somewhere else, like Iran or Syria. Muammar might not have wanted us to go through the inconvenience of a quagmire in Libya.
"The plan was that Iraq was to be a message for everyone to either fall in line, or else," Cirincione said. "The problem is this threat is not very realistic." iraq is a complete failure, finding saddam is the final proof! donât you see?!?!
Iran, however, signed an important accord last week to open its nuclear facilities to international inspections. they see the writing on the wall, even if it ainât in farsi
The words were "Mene mene tekel upharsin..."
That breakthrough was the result of months of European-led negotiations that took a pro-engagement position toward Tehran. The United States had supported threatening Iran with U.N. sanctions. of course, it was the u.n., france, and sanctions that REALLY did it; just coincidence that the other regional asswipe has been hiding out in a hole
"The administration is changing the policy, in fact, without changing the words," Cirincione said. "maybe if i keep saying it, someone will buy into it"
"They relied more on carrots than sticks," Cirincione said. "And it worked." what part of âcarrot and the stickâ does this idiot NOT understand?
I hope they Carnegie Endowment's not paying this guy too much.
#1
Heh. Reading the article, I got the impression Cirincione had to work very hard to restrain himself from crediting Madeline Albright and Bill Clinton for Qaddafy's capitulation.
I also get the impression he's worked very hard to avoid acknowledging a simple reality: diplomacy with a determined adversary works a lot better when coupled with a credible threat of force. And that threat remains very credible, notwithstanding any difficulties in getting Iraq squared away.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/21/2003 13:44 Comments ||
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My mistake, of course it should have been in there. In addition, "Almost the opposite" really means 'complete vindication of', you just have to able to spin at around 10k rpm.
ps. thanks for cleaning up my sloppy markup-job, football and editing don't mix
#5
If this Carnegie guy is right, why did Col. Gadhafi call up Berlusconi a few months ago and say "Help me. I don't want to be the next Saddam"? Sounds like sour grapes to me. A guy from an organization with "peace" in it's name can't very well credit "war" with the expansion of the peace, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
Posted by: Tibor ||
12/21/2003 14:04 Comments ||
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#6
I think the ass clown misses a vital point - Mumu negotiated with the US and Britain. If soft power was the answer, the US would have been excluded from the negotiations. Kofi Annan, Mr. Charmin, would have been a party to the negotiations not a guy on the outside looking in. Anyone know what "vital role" the UN played in this?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 14:48 Comments ||
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#7
There is only one interesting question in all this: How much does the Carnegie Endowment pay this guy? Everything he says is so banal and predictable, if it's more than a dollar a year, it's gross overpayment.
#8
Tibor #5: You beat me. 4 Sep Telegrapharchive money quote:
A spokesman for Mr Berlusconi said the prime minister had been telephoned recently by Col Gaddafi of Libya, who said: "I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid."
Moaner Daffy less like Saddam than he looks? 'Course, families of Lockerbie dead probably see him as 9/11 survivors see OBL. It is just so damned tough to fix a busted rep!
#9
Iran, however, signed an important accord last week to open its nuclear facilities to international inspections.
If they say that, they're lying. Iran has pledged to sign the agreement, but hasn't yet, saying they dont want to fall into a dastardly American trap.
But, hey, lies in the service of the UN aren't lies, are they?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 15:46 Comments ||
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#10
#7 -- Cirincione is an expert on weapons proliferation. He is certainly not a person who would be employed in secret discussions with Qaddafi or anyone else in the Middle East because his knowledge of the region, its history, and its major participants is limited. In sum, he defines the term "pointy-headed intellectual".
#12
How does one become an expert on weapons proliferation without having detailed knowledge of the region and the major players?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2003 17:05 Comments ||
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#13
We should bomb Kimmy's house and kill his daughter? Seems kind of drastic...
Gotta dance with the girl that brung ya, as The Man said.
On a related note, we used to this cadence in the service: Hey Kaddhafi
look out your window
see your daughter
your french FRIED daughter
pick up your weapon
etc., etc.,
Ongoing Israeli raids in the northern West Bank city of Nablus and a nearby refugee camp have netted a local Hamas leader. Occupation forces seized Adnan Asfur in the early hours of Sunday, reported Aljazeera correspondent Hasan al-Titi. Asfur, 40, on Israel's wanted list for two years, was arrested at his father's home in the al-Massya district.
"Sonny? There's somebody here for you!"
Asfur is a political activist and spokesman for Hamas in the West Bank and is not believed to have a military role in the resistance group.
Well, nobody at the lower end of the bell curve thinks so, anyway...
Israeli troops have been conducting intensive raids in Balata camp, located near Nablus, since 16 December. "They have also occupied many houses in the camp and in the surrounding areas," added al-Titi. Places of worship have not been spared.
Well, why would they do that? It's not like the mosques are ever involved in the killings and maimings... Are they?
On Friday, troops stormed the camp's Ibad al-Rahman mosque for the second time in the operation, searching its interior and scattering its contents. "Clashes continued between Israeli forces and residents, causing more injuries among Palestinians," al-Titi reported. "An atmosphere of high tension prevails among residents of the camp who are prevented from performing their daily activities."
You don't mean they're seething? Oh, no!
The Israeli army says that the invasion is part of their campaign to root out "terrorists" in the camp.
"Terrorists" like to "kill" people.
On 16 December, occupation troops surrounded the camp and set up snipers. Around 50 residents are reported to have been forced at gunpoint into a single apartment and restrained according to Palestinian media reports.
I musta dropped this sympathy meter. It's not reacting at all...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 12:44 ||
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Israel is considering a military strike to destroy the nuclear programme of Iran, now regarded as Tel Aviv's number one enemy. The Israeli daily Haaretz cited defence minister Shaul Mofaz as telling Israel radio's Persian service last week that if a decision was made to destroy Iran's nuclear capability, "necessary steps will be taken so that Iranian citizens will not be harmed".
How do you target only the turbans?
Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, Israel has come to regard the Islamic government in Tehran as its number one enemy.
Hey, wotta coincidence! Us, too! Might have something to do with all that AQ money and tough guys flowing through there. And I think the Turks might be getting the idea, too...
This is despite Iran's acceptance of a tough new international inspections regime for its nuclear facilities last week. Meir Dagan, head of Israel's Mossad overseas intelligence service, told MPs last month that Iran's nuclear programme posed the biggest threat to the existence of Israel since its creation on the land of Palestine in 1948. Dagan said Israel had discovered in recent months that Iran was close to finishing construction of a uranium enrichment plant in the central Kashan area, which could eventually give it the capacity to build around a dozen nuclear bombs. The Iranian-born Mofaz said in a speech at a security conference near Tel Aviv that Iran was "a terror-supporting country". In a visit to Washington in November Mofaz called Tehran's nuclearisation "insufferable".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/21/2003 12:25 ||
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#1
"...a uranium enrichment plant in the central Kashan area..." Anybody know if that's on the list of sites IAEA or whomever was supposed to monitor? From context I'd guess not.
Ahmad Sakr says the last thing he wanted to do is offend anyone.
Then why go through the motions of doing it?
Over the past seven years, the Muslim scholar and director of the Islamic Education Center in Walnut built a close relationship with the Charter Oak Unified School District. The board for the Islamic Education Center helps fund an Arabic language program at Charter Oak High School. But in one day, part of the relationship between Sakr and the district crumbled.
Oh, dear! I'm sure it was all a misunderstanding...
It happened during a presentation earlier this month for a seventh grade class at Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina. Sakr, who holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, brought in ethnic clothing, greeting cards and stamps, and began talking about Islamic culture and traditions. The next tradition ended his visit. Sakr began giving his spiel on Islam, just as he says he has done in years past. "I was told, âPack up your things and leave,ââ Sakr said. "Every year they invited us to talk about our culture, our religion and how we practice it.â
"Pack your shit and get the hell out!" From a school system. Oh, I like that!
Rob Arias, an assistant superintendent and spokesman for Charter Oak Unified, confirmed that Sakr was asked to leave. "Any time a speaker comes into a school, we review their presentation to make sure it is appropriate for students,â Arias said. Arias said the principal felt the presentation focused too much on religion. Sakr says Islam is a vital part of the culture.
Islam is the culture. Such cultures as today's Islamic countries had were destroyed...
"It seems the more people attack Islam, the more people are accepting it,â he said. "Learning about it is a real eye-opener for them.â
My eyes have certainly been opened in the past two years...
Sakrâs presentation was the second time in as many months the district grappled with the delicate balance between cultural sensitivity and a state curriculum that requires seventh- graders to learn about religion as part of world history. The first flap happened when Royal Oak Intermediate history teacher Len Cesene issued an extra-credit assignment at the 1,600-student middle school. A permission slip sent home with students in November asked them to fast for one to three days during Ramadan, an Islamic practice. Students who did not want to participate could write about sacrifice and how it applies to any religion.
[Gag.] I feel so... so... multicultural.
Although Cesene stressed the assignment was extra credit, some people were offended by it. Others, including community members and Superintendent John Roach, said the district did nothing wrong. When a Christian radio station received word of the assignment, more than 300 protesters from throughout Southern California marched in front of the school. They questioned how any assignment in a public school could be so closely tied to a religious practice. A few of the protesters said they were from Egypt, where they were imprisoned and tortured for wanting to convert to Christianity in their home country.
Well, obviously they're not unprejudiced observers, like the school authorities. I mean, what to they know?
The district decided to keep the assignment.
That was oh, so sensitive of them...
Parent Becky Hernandez, whose family is Christian, said she objected to her two children participating in classroom activities and assignments about the Muslim religion. Three years ago, a guest speaker at the school told her sonâs seventh-grade class that they were all actually born Muslims, according to Hernandez.
"He was proselytizing in the classroom,â Hernandez said. "My son was disturbed by this.â Hernandez was taken aback after going to the school to discuss it with administrators. "I walked through the door and what do I see? A large Muslim prayer rug with a mosque on it,â she said. "It was very intimidating.â
"Separation of church and state, but only when it suits us."
Sakr said he donated the tapestry to the school as a cultural gift. "I love this district and I donât want to give fuel to anyone who wants to harm it,â Hernandez said. "I just want them to do the right thing.â
Sounds like doing the right thing involved throwing your ass out...
Arias says thatâs what the district is attempting to do. "Religion is a very sensitive topic and itâs something that people take very seriously,â Arias said. But religion, in the context of world history, should be taught in schools, he said.
Yeah? Then have them write papers comparing religions and their rise. Maybe the kids will learn something.
#1
"I walked through the door and what do I see? A large Muslim prayer rug with a mosque on it,â she said. "It was very intimidating.â
Is it me or should a Principal or Super be fired for allowing this in the school? I am all for understanding other cultures but if someone had even hinted at having a large cross there they would have been burned at the stake by the left. Where the heck is the ACLU or one of the other left organizations? And dont give me 'Islam is part of the Culture' bullshit either. Christianity is also a intergaral part of European culture
#3
Should have made the kids watch a typical islamozoid praying to Allah that he be able to kill as many infidels as possible. This would be factual, real history. But not PC.
#4
Did the traditional garb that he was wearing include a boom-belt?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 14:52 Comments ||
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#5
I don't understand what Sakr's complaining about. He was treated just like a Christian would be treated.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 15:50 Comments ||
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#6
I didn't notice the headline quote in the article, but if he really said that it has implications since true belivers are suppossed to kill ex-Muslims if I remember correectly. Becoming a Muslim is a one-way journey as far as the Koran is concerned.
#7
ruprecht-
"Parent Becky Hernandez, whose family is Christian, said she objected to her two children participating in classroom activities and assignments about the Muslim religion. Three years ago, a guest speaker at the school told her sonâs seventh-grade class that they were all actually born Muslims, according to Hernandez."
I was quoting the mother in my headline.(And of course I believe her)
By Dana Milbank of Wash Post - a noted Bush basher...even the WaPost has to acknowledge the successes
It has been a week of sweet vindication for those who promulgated what they call the Bush Doctrine. Beginning with the capture of Saddam Hussein a week ago and ending Friday with an agreement by Libyaâs Muammar Gaddafi to surrender his unconventional weapons, one after another international problem has eased. Arafat and the Paleos, followed by Syria next?
On Tuesday, the leaders of France and Germany set aside their long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq and agreed to forgive an unspecified amount of that countryâs debt. On Thursday, Iran signed an agreement allowing surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities after European governments applied intense pressure on the U.S. foe. On Friday, Libya agreed to disarm under the watch of international inspectors, just as administration officials were learning that Syria had seized $23.5 million believed to be for al Qaeda.
Makes your head spin, doesn't it? Makes the Bad Guys' heads spin like roulette wheels...
To foreign policy hard-liners inside and outside the administration, the gestures by Libya, Iran and Syria, and the softening by France and Germany, all have the same cause: a show of American might. Those who developed the Bush Doctrine — a policy of taking preemptive, unprovoked action against emerging threats — predicted that an impressive U.S. victory in Iraq would intimidate allies and foes alike, making them yield to U.S. interests in other areas.
Milbank means that U.S. prestige has increased and our policy has been vindicated, which means that others are more willing to accept its validity...
Though that notion floundered with the occupation in Iraq, the capture of Hussein may have served as the decisive blow needed to make others respect U.S. wishes, they say.
That notion "foundered," it didn't "flounder." A flounder is a fish. Foundering (from the French fonder, I believe) means to sink. And it didn't sink in Washington, and it hadn't even come in to port in Europe with the occupation in Iraq.
"Itâs always been at the heart of the Bush Doctrine that a more robust policy would permit us to elicit greater cooperation from adversaries than weâd had in the past when we acquiesced," said Richard Perle, an influential adviser to the administration. "With the capture of Saddam, the sense that momentum may be with us is very important."
I think it's more than that. It's mapping out a position that's designed to achieve an objective, and then sticking with the position, even while modifying details in response to ground realities. They teach that sort of thing in good MBA programs...
Perle had provoked much criticism for saying a successful U.S. invasion of Iraq would signal to other foes that "youâre next." But he said the actions by Libya and Iran prove that the threat alone was sufficient to produce action. "Gaddafi surely had to take more seriously that we would not allow him to get away with the programs he was embarked," he said.
Perle and the other "neo-conservative" hawks whose views dominate the Bush administration know better than to claim victory. Gaddafi or the Iranians may still cheat despite admitting inspectors. And other potential foes, notably North Korea and China, have shown little susceptibility to the threat implicit in the Bush Doctrine. Still, Perle allowed, "itâs nice to have a good week every once in a while."
After Iran and/or Syria goes down, the outlines will be even more distinct...
Bushâs domestic adversaries have had some trouble responding to the administrationâs diplomatic successes. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a presidential aspirant, portrayed the success with Libya as an exception to the Bush Doctrine. "Ironically, this significant advance represents a complete U-turn in the Bush administrationâs overall foreign policy," he said in a statement Saturday. "An administration that scorns multilateralism and boasts about a rigid doctrine of military preemption has almost in spite of itself demonstrated the enormous potential for improving our national security through diplomacy."
I think Bush's team could better be described as embracing pragmatism. Kerry is tying himself in knots. But then, he's always had a limber backbone...
But Bushâs supporters say it is precisely his willingness to go it alone and take preemptive action that has encouraged other countries to seek diplomatic solutions before the United States launches a military attack. The Libya and Iran concessions "show the peripheral benefit of preemption," said Kenneth Adelman, a Reagan administration arms control official who now serves on a Pentagon advisory panel. "Most of all it scares the bejesus out of rogue dictators." As for stubborn allies such as Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder, "they pay more attention when thereâs a forceful U.S. policy," Adelman said. It is unlikely, of course, that France or Germany would acknowledge that they are reacting to U.S. strength. Yet it is noteworthy that they were conciliatory on the issue of Iraqi debt forgiveness after Hussein was captured — even though they were complaining bitterly just a week before about a Bush plan to exclude them from U.S.-funded Iraq reconstruction projects.
Sammy's not coming back, the new Iraqi government shows every indication that they'd repudiate his debts, so they might as well put a good face on it and line up some lucrative subcontracts.
And it is inarguable that Germany and France have taken a more active role in winning Iranian compliance with weapons inspections since the United States invaded Iraq. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain visited Iran in October, overcoming Iranâs longtime resistance to signing a monitoring agreement. "The Europeans never would have taken these steps [in Iran] without Bush taking the steps he took in Iraq," said Gary Schmitt, who directs the hard-line Project for the New American Century. "The Europeans donât want us to do another Iraq there, so theyâre rushing in to get a deal. Bush gets an immense amount of credit for laying out what the agenda is and making others step up to the plate." Bush still has some inconsistencies to work out with his doctrine. Earlier this month, he drew rebukes from conservatives for undermining democratic Taiwan to win favor with totalitarian China. And, as Bushâs domestic opponents point out, he has been contradictory in his views of international organizations. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said the administrationâs support for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in Libya and Iran "is difficult to reconcile with the administrationâs previous ridicule of IAEA inspectors in Iraq."
Unless you assume he's being pragmatic...
But such complaints, at least for now, have been overshadowed by the results achieved with Iran and Libya. That was the clear message Bush delivered in his unusual appearance late Friday in the White House briefing room. Mentioning the fate of Hussein, Bush said, "These actions by the United States and our allies have sent an unmistakable message to regimes that seek or possess weapons of mass destruction." If Bush was oblique, a senior aide who briefed reporters after the presidentâs statement, was quicker to take credit. "The outcome today is a response [to] the policies that we have pursued," he said. The official said the secret discussions with Libya began in March — when the invasion of Iraq started. "I canât imagine that Iraq went unnoticed by the Libyan leadership," the aide said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 11:37:36 AM ||
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sorry about the length Fred, meant to EFL
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 11:39 Comments ||
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Many people called for the head of the CIA director after 9/11. He has really looked good this last several weeks. A purely politico would have hung the CIA out to dry when things were tough this summer. Bush has the guts to ride out a storm instead of sacrificing someone to calm the crowd. Scapegoating usually only puts blood in the water for the opposition sharks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:53 Comments ||
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President Bush doesn't have a doctrine -- he has a Proven Fact, which is:
"If Boosh has to come get you, he is bringing a major ass-whuppin' with him."
Posted by: Matt ||
12/21/2003 11:59 Comments ||
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Matt, perfectly put--I love it!
Almost as fab as the beauty of the workings of the Bush Doctrine/Proven Fact is seeing Dana ("Am I gay or just a metrosexual?") Milbank kissing President Bush's butt instead of trying to spank it.
#5
J: I'd guess metro. He's being grudging about it. Like some guy reacting to the vision of a Big Stick. This is starting to get twisted. I think I'm gonna just shut up.
#5
If it is the grunts who get the award thats nice and all but GW is by far the main man this year. But Time would be reluctant on that. He's so a cowboy and all.
US President George W. Bush told an Israeli journalist that "we must get rid of" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily has reported. Bushâs comments came in a brief exchange with the paperâs correspondent during a Christmas drinks party in Washington, several hours after a keynote speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday in which he outlined plans for unilateral disengagement from peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The US government has boycotted Arafat with Bush accusing the veteran leader of failing the Palestinian people. Israel has also shunned the 74-year-old, branding him an absolute obstacle to peace and confining him to his West Bank headquarters for more than two years. Oh, I donât think the Israelis are confining old Arafish: itâs just "iffy" as to whether he can return to the West Bank once he leaves.
Israelâs security cabinet approved Arafatâs "removal" in September, with one minister even suggesting that he could be assassinated, but Washington warned Israel not to attempt to expel him. Bush was non-commital about Sharonâs speech, saying that he would wait to see what happened on the ground. "Speeches are good things, but they are words. I am waiting for action," he was quoted as saying. "Now is the time to do a lot in the Middle East, and I am determined and committed to doing that. You can be sure that I have done a lot until now, but I am going to keep on doing. I am going to continue to be active and committed to my vision." Gotta love it.
Bless their pointy little Arafat-loving Lefty heads over at Agence France Presse! They make it sound as if President Bush had started drinking booze again and that instead of putting the lampshade on his head, he says this.
But I hope he means it. With Saddam in jail, Osama using old tapes, and Muammar singing like a canary, it would be the best Christmas present ever to have Arafat be "no longer a problem." Keep your fingers crossed and follow this story because this is the first report.
[Be kind. This is my first Rantburg post!]
And a nice job it is!
The Paleos are waiting for Bush's attention span to drift off Yasser's inclusion on the poop list. In the past, these things happen, then six months or a year later something else happens and it's forgotten. Bush is holding to his decision, and I hope he keeps holding to it.
Followup, from al-Jizz... Bush chided for Arafat rebuke
US President George Bush has been berated for comments calling for Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat to be removed from power. "President Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people and the US and Israel must respect that", chief Palestinian negotiator, Saib Uraiqat told Aljazeera.net. He was reacting to Bush's remarks to an Israeli journalist that "we must get rid of" Arafat. Uraiqat urged Bush to rather focus on "restoring the peace process and implementation of the road map".
The very road map the Paleos used for toilet paper...
Palestinian NGOs were even more critical of Bush saying "any interference by the US and Israel to try to get rid of Arafat will be met with confrontation by the Palestinian people".
Sounds like a threat. Oh, hold me, Ethel!
"It is a dream of Bush that the Palestinian people behave as he wills", said Amir Makhul, Director of Ittijah, a Haifa-based network of Palestinian non-governmental organisations.
Haifa's in Israel, isn't it?
"But what is a surety, is that the collective lunacy spirit of the Palestinian people is stronger than Bush's plans. Bush can think what he wants", he said. "The issue for the Palestinian people is that Bush is not the decision-maker. He can act as a superpower, but his power is not valid for the Palestinian people".
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro ||
12/21/2003 6:54:45 AM ||
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The greatest jeneration is right. A trifecta is great, but additionally, Arafat removed (I'd prefer that in a final sense) would do more for lasting Mideast peace than anything....sure there'd be a Paleo civil war, but that's a feature, not a bug
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 7:20 Comments ||
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BTW - LGF linked to an excellent David Warren essay on the Wall's benefits to the Paleos - a must read
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 7:28 Comments ||
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J, Welcome aboard! I presumptuously pontificate say on behalf of all Rantburgers that we respect the solemn event of your passage from virginity. Right, gang? Right? Right?
Now, having said that, we're reading something a French News Service translated (Yediot Aharonot is Hebrew) into English. Which explains some awkwardness.
btw Yahoo News has a message board for each article. I peeked in. Ewww! Be proud. Rantburg is the quintessence of civil, well-reasoned discourse, just like the banner says. Instead of trying to argue plausibly or poke harmless fun, they just call each other creatively spelled bad words.
#6
An excellent entrance, Jennie! Welcome, indeed! I liked your comments regards the assholes of AFP - good call.
Of course Dubya knew this was inevitable and necessary long ago, but for public consumption it was limited to the cold shoulder treatment... perhaps the time has finally come to be public about terminating The World's Oldest Terrorist - literally, I hope.
One truth we should all keep in mind is the fact that the entire ME is artificial - an artifact of British and French imperilistic shenanigans and duplicity and uber-arrogance beginning with the Sykes-Picot "treaty" dealing with the fallout of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Anything is possible if it makes more sense and if the will exists to see it through. Dubya has shown he has the stones, we must make sure he gets the time.
To stop the insanity and get off the dime, Afghanistan and Iraq have started the ball rolling - we can see it in the consternation and confusion of the Arabs regards Saddam - and the unreported hopes of some "normal" Arabs everywhere that there just might be hope, but as The Man said, there is much more to be done.
Taking the murdering terrorist Arafish out of the picture is the right next step. Then tipping the Black Hats before they come online with their foreign nukes and missiles - say within the next 3-4 months. Syria and the other satellites will wither and die on the vine with this step... and the one that should then follow...
So, there's this stolen 40km wide strip along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia that provides the funding for the vast majority of the terror in the world and removing it from the hands of turbans of any stripe would stop the insanity dead in its tracks in 90 days...
#7
Mike, I've been dying to ask and feeling like an idiot: what does EFL mean?
I see it here everywhere and feel so left out because I don't know...
And thanks, guys, for the warm welcome! You really know how to treat a lady!
#9
Jennie, Great post! I don't think Bush wants the U.S. (or Iraelis) to be the one to through Arafart out. I think he would rather see a domestic uprising and support that. Or maybe a REAL election with candidates, instead of a one person ballot. Maybe he (Arafart) will do us a favor and just die of natural causes? But I think it would be better (for the cause of freedon) if a Paleo put a bullet in him.
Arafat has to go. He (and Hamas and the others) are not interested in making peace. For Arafat and his party, why should they when they are getting millions of dollars not to? If peace ever came they would have to actually get a real job and earn their keep.
For Hamas - they are addicted to murder - having the power to order someone to their death as well as cause the death of others without getting your hands dirty (at least where anyone can see) can be a powerful addiction I think.
Unfortunately the Palistinian people only have these so-called 'leaders' (who I dont think they have had any choice in electing. Hamas and ARafish make damn sure of that.
#11
It sounds odd to me that Bush would make an offhand remark of this magnitude at an X-mas function. As the French are very pro-Arafat, could this have been a Jason Blair moment by a French journalist?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 12:17 Comments ||
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SH #11: Not completely unparanoid. I find a Yediot Aharonot site, but neither my computer nor I understand Hebrew. Supposedly there's an Arabic edition too, but that doesn't help me much either. It might read differently. Ah, but these are newspaper articles we're talking about. They're complete and accurate and unbiased and I think I gotta go to the ba...
Super Hose > They've never had a case of it in France, have they?
Jen > Welcome! :) I'm a former newbie myself *shakes your hand* how long've you been reading us?
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
12/21/2003 14:09 Comments ||
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One truth we should all keep in mind is the fact that the entire ME is artificial - an artifact of British and French imperilistic shenanigans and duplicity and uber-arrogance beginning with the Sykes-Picot "treaty" dealing with the fallout of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire.
Actually, most of the post-colonial world has artificial borders that are relics of the administrative divisions of various European empires. The truth is that countries are much bigger than they would have been in the absence of European empire - in Asia, Africa and Latin America.* But only the Mid East is a shambles.
* Would smaller nations more reflective of various linguistic or ethnic groupings have been better? Probably. For some reason, the European powers put together the kinds of polyglot and multi-ethnic countries that had repeatedly failed in Europe, repeatedly touching off devastating wars. One possible reason for setting up these unnatural countries is the fact that the most troublesome natives clamored for an empire which had never existed prior to foreign rule, figuring that their ethnic or linguistic group would get to dominate the new confederation. And the European powers gave in to their special pleadings just to avoid more problems with restless natives. As usual, the squeaky wheels got the grease. (Note that the Christian territories in Indonesia which had never been ruled by Muslims were not happy to be dragooned by the Dutch into a Javanese Muslim empire - they wanted independence, but the Dutch would not accommodate them).
This week, Israelâs Iranian-born defense minister Shaul Mofaz made the unique gesture of answering questions from listeners in Iran â in their own language - in a live broadcast over Israel Radioâs Farsi-language service... One caller from a city in central Iran asked when Israel and the Jews would finally repay their historical debt to Cyrus the Great and rescue the Iranian people from the dread ayatollahs, just as US President George W. Bush had helped the people of Iraq and Afghanistan throw off their oppressors.
Posted by: Bernardz ||
12/21/2003 4:20:35 AM ||
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We live in interesting times. You know, even though I was tremendously busy during the 90s I felt the whole decade was a write-off - the only things that seemed to be happening were superficial, people making money, dot coms mushrooming up or imploding ... ignoring the dangers associated with the disintegration of Russia and treating the rising tide of terror attacks as if they were muggings in South Central LA.
Then came 9/11 followed by Afghanistan and Iraq, clearly only the beginning. Non-proliferation intervention pushes Ghadaffi into giving up WMD (or saying he will, proof is in the pudding), NORK and Iran go public with their nuclear programs, Eurocrats try to freeze the US out, some Euros figure out that they have a serious number of terror cells and networks living among them, the Gen X and Gen Y Iranians have had it with the mullahs and call on the Israelis to intervene -
Whooo eee!! Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen - it's going to be a wild ride for a decade or more, I think.
Interesting that the Iranians (at least the ones that listen to radio israel) are expecting THE JOOOS ! to "rescue" them from the ayatollahs. It's a crazy world.
#3
...asked when Israel and the Jews would finally repay their historical debt to Cyrus the Great and rescue the Iranian people from the dread ayatollahs...
Watch your step, my jaw is on the floor somewhere!
These people...!
Sorry to disappoint, but that's actually about as Chinese as fortune cookies or chop suey. I think the original line came from a Charlie Chan movie, and is roughly as authentic as the line he who cooks carrots and peas in the same pot unhygienic.
Hat tip to Drudge. EFL.
Libyaâs promise to surrender its weapons of mass destruction was forced by Britain and Americaâs seizure of physical evidence of Col Muammar Gaddafiâs illegal weapons programme, the Telegraph can reveal. United States officials say that Americaâs hand was strengthened in negotiations with Col Gaddafi after a successful operation, previously undisclosed, to intercept transport suspected of carrying banned weapons. MI6 and the CIA had a good day, it seems!
The operation is said to have been carried out under the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), an international, American-led scheme to halt the spread of WMD by seizing them in transit. The PSI was first mooted by President George W Bush in May but was not officially launched until September. Last week, a senior official from the US State Department confirmed that the PSI had "netted several seizures", although he refused to give further details. All beware the PSI, heh-heh!
President Bush and Tony Blair had praised Libyaâs decision to give up its WMD and allow international inspectors to oversee their destruction. Let him off easy in public, bust his chops in private.
The PSI operation, however, added decisively to the pressure already brought to bear on Col Gaddafi by America and Britain as they prepared to attack Iraq in March. One Cabinet minister said: "It demonstrates that change can be brought about by standing tough. There is no question that this change of heart by Gaddafi was brought about by the fact that the US and Britain were seen to be standing up to and called Saddam Husseinâs bluff." Evidence + will = Qâduckâs change of heart.
The Travellers Club in Pall Mall, beloved of spy novelists and frequented by senior officers in the intelligence services, was the venue last week for the final breakthrough talks between MI6 and Libyan intelligence officials. If walls could talk ...
British immigration rules were discreetly changed to allow the Libyans to enter the country on visas. Three Libyan officials met a four-strong British team led by William Ehrman, the director general of defence and intelligence at the Foreign Office, and including two MI6 officers, to agree the text that would be read out on Libyan television on Friday night. Mr Blair was forced to wait until the Libyan statement had been taken down by the BBC monitoring unit, translated and its contents checked to make sure they tallied with the agreed text before he was given the go-ahead to make his announcement in Durham during the 10pm news broadcasts.
Just making sure it says the same thing in Arabic as it does in English...
At a PSI conference in Washington last week, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defence, reminded the 16 member countries - who include France, Germany, Italy and Japan in addition to Britain and America - that the threat to global security extended beyond North Korea and Iran, the focus of recent pressure from Washington over their nuclear programmes. "While PSI participants agree that North Korea and Iran are of particular concern, we know that our efforts cannot be confined to just any one or two countries alone," Mr Wolfowitz said. Weâre makinâ a list, checkinâ it twice ...
In June, John Bolton, the under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, warned that the regime was exploiting the suspension of United Nations sanctions after the Lockerbie trial. "Since the sanctions were lifted, Libya has been able to be more aggressive in pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Libyan agents are trying to acquire dual-use technology. That is very worrying," he said. Apparently thatâs been fixed.
I was just listening to an exchange between Publican and Sinner strategists on Fox News. The Dem assured me that the reason Muammar caved on the WMDs wasn't anything Bush did. It was all because of the sanctions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2003 1:07:54 AM ||
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Apparently NK and Iran while providing assistance to Libya, were also using Libya to produce parts for their own WMD programs, something Mo's capitulation will both hurt and expose. What was that about an "Axis" that was so wrong, you (Dem/Lefty/French/UN) assholes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 7:35 Comments ||
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So can we refer to the troops involved as the PSI Corps?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 9:12 Comments ||
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RC!! A fellow traveler!
A B5 quote that Bush probably liked (based on events):
"Only one human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
#4
The ships that are seized represent a large capital loss for the smugglers. I imagine that the infrastructure to transport, load and unload the contraband is now threatened.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:21 Comments ||
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SH -- look for an up-tick in piracy.
snellenr -- I almost hope the US and Britain DO form a permanent body for PSI, just so we can use the name.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/21/2003 11:23 Comments ||
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In the face of tyrant-hating skepticism, can one hope that, regardless of GâDaffyâs private thoughts and wishes, he has decided the best way to stay alive, clean-shaven, and fully lousedavoid Saddamification retain power, is to start playing nice, like real humans do?
How can one doubt that the Taliban ass-kicking, isolating Arafat, and Saddam-bagging has everything to do with GâDaffy being, well, un-GâDaffy-like over the last couple of years? He knows how easily he could be flicked off the "throne"â¦
A boy can dream, can't he? Assuming M-Gad still retains visions of grandeur, he could put his efforts into pulling Africa out of its latrine-ditch existence, and leave a legacy of Afro-Arab leadership. Whoâs holding their breath for this? No one. Iâm just sayinâ, the Bush doctrine could finally refocus the grandiose visions of piss ant tyrant wannabes away from ruling the world, and toward making the world a better place to live in for the people in the neighborhood. That would be a historic geopolitical shift. And who better than Africans to bring Africa out of the darkness? Like I said, a boy can dreamâ¦
The Air Force has dropped three counts in an espionage case against a Syrian-born airman who worked as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp for terrorism suspects. Dropped was the single count in the charge that accused Senior Airman Ahmad I. Halabi of aiding the enemy, a capital offense. Also dropped were counts that dealt with e-mailing information about Guantanamo detainees and committing espionage by transmitting information to unauthorized recipients. Halabi still faces 17 of the 30 charges filed against him following his arrest in July after nine months as an Arabic translator at the prison. They include other espionage counts, disobeying an order, making false official statements, mishandling classified documents and lying on a credit application. He is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California, his home base, where his court-martial will be held.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/21/2003 12:57:06 AM ||
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He must be singing, in a quid pro quo for the dropping of the capital offense charge.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2003 1:37 Comments ||
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typically, his defense lawyer is claiming that the "heart" of the govts' case has been gutted...he was reminded about the pesky little espionage charges....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2003 8:32 Comments ||
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Civilian lawyers in court marshal cases can be a real hinderance for the defense,
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:36 Comments ||
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A group of rebel fighters in Ivory Coast broke into a television station on Friday and declared allegiance to a new leader, casting doubt on the latest attempts to bring peace to the West African nation. The stunt by fighters loyal to exiled soldier Ibrahim Coulibaly, known as "IB", came as the rebellionâs current political and military chiefs prepared for a meeting on Monday to mull a return to a power-sharing government.
"IB"? Shouldn't he be known as "IC"? Either his supporters aren't too good at spelling, or the W is silent...
The surprise announcement also came as rebels, who call themselves New Forces, and government troops started withdrawing heavy weapons from a front line dividing the worldâs top cocoa grower and policed by French and West African peacekeepers.
"New Forces" as opposed to the same old snuffies?
"All talks, all decisions between the New Forces and third parties cannot take place without the effective presence of Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly," said a spokesman for the fighters called Bamba Kassoum, known as "Kass", in the rebel stronghold of Bouake. "Any other decision is null and void."
Ivory Coast tumbled into civil war in September last year after a failed coup by disgruntled soldiers seeking to oust President Laurent Gbagbo. Thousands of people died and more than a million were forced from their homes. Although the war has been declared over, the former French colony is still divided between a rebel-held north and government-controlled south. While calls for peace are mounting, hardliners in both camps are standing firm. A January peace deal has stalled on mutual distrust, with rebels accusing Gbagbo of back tracking while he has blamed them for dragging their heels on disarmament. "We urge the New Forces, whoever the hell their leader might be, to go back into the government of reconciliation," said West Africaâs top diplomat Mohamed ibn Chambas after a summit in neighbouring Ghana to discuss the regionâs hotspots.
The split within rebel ranks came after recent signs of divisions between the rebellionâs political and military wings. "We, comrades in arms from before and now, and fighters for the New Forces, declare with our last breath that Major Ibrahim Coulibaly is, from this day, if he wasnât already, the president of the New Forces," said the statement read by Kass.
He got promoted between paragraphs?
While IB has long been seen as the behind-the-scenes backer of Ivory Coastâs revolt, he has never admitted to it.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't me."
Guillaume Soro emerged as the rebelsâ political leader and former Ivorian officer Colonel Soumaila Bakayoko is currently the rebel chief of staff. He was the official who signed a declaration paving the way for eventual disarmament. A rebel official said the insurgents loyal to IB had tried to kill Soro on Friday in Bouake, but failed.
"Curses! Foiled again!"
A convoy of vehicles carrying Soro was stopped by a roadblock of five vehicles soon after the insurgentsâ statement. However witnesses said no shots were fired and the influential rebel commander Cherif Ousmane calmed the tense situation down.
"These aren't the 'droids you're looking for... Move along..."
IB was among a group of suspected mercenaries detained in Paris in August on suspicion of plotting to kill Gbagbo. French judicial officials said then that some members of the group had admitted to being part of the plot. IBâs adviser in Paris Mouhamed Diakite confirmed IB was still in the country. He added: "we are delighted at this courageous decision" by IBâs former brothers-in-arms.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:38:14 AM ||
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A leading Zimbabwean opposition figure pledged Saturday to intensify pressure on President Robert Mugabe to negotiate a political settlement that would restore the rule of law and democracy in the troubled southern African nation. Morgan Tsvangirai urged his Movement for Democratic Change to strengthen what he called a broad alliance of democratic forces to bring Mugabe to the negotiating table. "Zimbabwe is bleeding. A way must be found to stop the bleeding," Tsvangirai told his partyâs annual conference.
Dump Bob. That'll act like a tourniquet, only not as painful.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980, with rampant inflation and acute shortages of food, gasoline and other essentials. Talks between Mugabeâs party and the opposition collapsed last year after Mugabe demanded the opposition recognize his victory in March 2002 presidential polls. The opposition has refused to drop a court challenge on the poll results that gave Mugabe a narrow victory over Tsvangirai. "Our demand for freedom and justice is an idea whose time has come," Tsvangirai said. "Next year will be the year of the people. The people will govern. Our victory is certainly in sight. A representative and participatory government is on the way."
"I mean, that sucker's 180 years old! He's gotta die soon!"
Meeting in a Harare exposition hall, about 1,000 opposition officials from across the country burst into applause. Nathan Shamuyarira, spokesman for Mugabeâs ZANU-PF party, said on Thursday that Mugabe and his backers would not consider a power-sharing deal with the opposition. He said the opposition was "following an agenda of the imperialist powers," including the United States and Britain, Zimbabweâs former colonial ruler.
"Couldn't possibly be greed and ineptitude on our part!"
A report of the Movement for Democratic Changeâs policy-making national council, distributed Saturday, said recent informal contacts between Ncube and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa made no headway. It said Chinamasa still insisted the opposition withdraw its court challenge to Mugabeâs re-election before any formal discussions begin. "The impasse continues. At this stage, the two parties are as far apart as the North and South poles," the report said. Earlier this month Mugabe pulled Zimbabwe out of the British Commonwealth after the bloc extended the countryâs suspension over human rights and civil liberties abuses. The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe from its decision-making councils after the disputed presidential polls.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:31:47 AM ||
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Dan, MDC is a nice sounding name, but do you think that they wiil be good leaders if they gain power?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:24 Comments ||
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#2
Probably no worse than any other African regime, and possibly better. They couldn't be worse than Bob.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2003 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
They couldn't be worse than Bob.
It's Africa, yes they can.
Sudanâs peace talks have taken a major step forward with an agreement between the government and the main rebel group to share oil resources. The deal, reached in Kenya, paves the way for a comprehensive peace accord. At the moment, the government controls all the countryâs oil revenues, but the SPLA rebels have demanded a share. A final peace settlement is expected to be reached soon to end 20 years of civil war in Sudan that have left about two million people dead. Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan Peopleâs Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang have been trying to hammer out a final peace deal at talks in Nairobi.
The division of oil resources had been one of the biggest sticking-points in the peace negotiations, between the rebel-controlled, Christian and animist south and the Muslim north. There has been no word from either side yet on what the details of this agreement are, but both have indicated they will sign a deal on Sunday or Monday. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had tried to steer discussions on oil sharing away from percentage distributions to focus discussions on the financial needs of each side. But the SPLA had rejected that proposal and insisted talks must be conducted in terms of a flat percentage distribution between north and south.
Garang's not stupid, even though the WB and IMF seem to think he is...
A document put forward earlier this year by the mediators proposed that oil revenues from the south should be divided almost equally, but on Friday the two sides were still a long way apart, says the BBCâs Christian Fraser in Nairobi. At that time the government was only prepared to give 17%, the SPLA was demanding over half. The other outstanding issue on well-sharing stemmed from the SPLAâs demands for the creation of petroleum commissions, which would enable them to enter into new oil contracts in areas under their control. But the deal could well push forward talks on other outstanding issues, particularly on three contested areas in the middle of the country where there are oil deposits. The SPLA said they expected the final sticking-points to be resolved when the two sides meet again in the New Year, raising hopes that a final and comprehensive peace agreement will soon be signed, he says.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:29:25 AM ||
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#1
Dan, are they permanently partitioning the country? If so won't the Northern governement continue to raid the South for slaves?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/21/2003 11:12 Comments ||
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#2
It's not a permanent partition. I think it calls for six years autonomy, followed by a plebiscite. If they remain true to form, the central government will continue sponsoring the slave raiders and other disruptions, with occasional military raids which they'll deny.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2003 11:49 Comments ||
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Ten Russian servicemen were killed in rebel attacks in Chechnya within 24 hours, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Saturday. In the neighboring republic of Dagestan, meanwhile, Russian forces in the snowy mountains fought a band of Chechen insurgents who crossed into Dagestan early in the week. The news agency ITAR-Tass cited Dagestanâs leader, Magomedali Magomedov, as saying that one group of insurgents was trapped in a gorge, but it was unclear whether that included all the remaining fighters who entered Dagestan on Monday. Officials previously said that at least 10 of those rebels had been killed. The foray into Dagestan prompted fears that Chechen rebels would repeat previous incursions into the region during Russiaâs two wars against Chechen separatists in the past decade.
Russian troops rolled back into Chechnya in September 1999 after Chechen rebels carried out attacks in villages in western Dagestan and after the Kremlin blamed militants for apartment bombings that killed some 300 people in Russia. The current war has seen few major offensives by either side in recent years. The battle has turned into a bloody stalemate in which the rebels inflict daily casualties on the Russians with small attacks and explosions, while Russian forces pound the mountainous southern region with artillery and air attacks to uproot the rebels. During a recent 24-hour span, five Russian soldiers were killed when military positions and checkpoints came under rebel fire, an official in the Chechen administration said on condition of anonymity. Three more soldiers died when their armored personnel carrier hit a land mine, and two members of OMON, the Interior Ministryâs special troops, were killed during a clash with rebels, the official said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:27:18 AM ||
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At least six Arabs believed linked to al-Qaida and carrying what some intelligence reports estimated was $23.5 million were arrested by Syria last week, administration officials said. It is believed to be the first time in the war on terrorism that couriers have been seized with such a large amount of money. U.S. officials are trying to trace the money. But Syria has refused to turn over the individuals for interrogation and has not given U.S investigators access to them. Damascus may not have officially notified Washington it is holding the individuals. The official added that Syria will likely keep the money it confiscated.
The couriers are more valuable than the cash.
Officials in the Syrian Embassy in Washington said Friday that they were unable to locate the ambassador or his deputy to respond to requests for comment. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have not made a significant seizure of money moving to terrorist organizations outside of bulk cash shipments departing the United States, sources say. While U.S. authorities have spotted couriers leaving Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, they have not been able to stop them because U.S. officials have no jurisdiction there.
Yes, that's what frustration feels like...
If the cash Syria seized is as much as first reports indicate, it would be a significant catch. One U.S. official said it is possible the money was part of Saddam Husseinâs stockpile of cash and was being moved out of Iraq to finance terrorist attacks elsewhere. If so, the seizure would represent a serious blow to al-Qaidaâs financing. Al-Qaida increasingly relies on couriers to move money as other channels have come under scrutiny, U.S. officials have said in recent interviews. They said this is especially true in the Middle East. The reason, one official said, is that having a trusted courier carry the money "means that no strangers are introduced into the equation," which reduces risk. The recent seizure in Syria is in keeping with that. U.S. officials said that despite not having access to the couriers, it is a positive sign that Syria made the arrests. The Syrians "are doing things that we would approve of" in the war on terrorism, one of the U.S. counterterrorism officials said. "Itâs not all bad."
Depends on what they do with the couriers, doesn't it? And I notice they didn't say which way the money flow was going â from Arabia into Iraq, or from Iraq to elsewhere.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/21/2003 12:24:29 AM ||
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#1
"...it is a positive sign that Syria made the arrests."
#3
As I recall, there is around 1 bil. USD missing. So far, we have accounted for a little over a million or two....those semi-trucks full of cash from the Central Bank that were reported headed West probably made it into Syria, so their "discovery" of a little over 23 million amounts to chump change only.
#4
After we played "close the valve" on the Iraq-Syria oil pipeline, Baby Assad is going to need the semi loads of cash in the amount of 1 bill that arrived earlier to keep afloat for a while, unless Saudi and Iran keep him afloat. Syria is trying to buy goodwill with the little Al Q offering.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/21/2003 1:45 Comments ||
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Officials in the Syrian Embassy in Washington said Friday that they were unable to locate the ambassador or his deputy to respond to requests for comment.
Hmm. I wonder why.
Forget Syrian cooperation: Any other doubts that AlQ and Sammy were working together?
#6
Rivrdog #3: Supposedly Sammie withdrew that $1G in Franklins just before the bombs started falling (paranoid I guess.) Somewhere thought I'd read about all but about $132M has been accounted for. So $23M might be significant.
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.
