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Up to 20,000 dead in Iran quake
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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22 00:00 Jennie Taliaferro [] 
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8 00:00 Rivrdog [1] 
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20 00:00 Jennie Taliaferro [] 
Arabia
Unrest at Yemen University
Three security guards have been wounded, one of them seriously, in clashes with armed students in the capital, where security was beefed near the university yesterday.
Wonder what course of study they're enrolled in?
Clashes broke out at the University of Sanaa on Wednesday when a group of lunatics students, mainly members of the opposition Al-Islah Islamic party, tried to force union elections to be held without referring to official organizing bodies or unions.
That confirms my hunch. "Look out! The theology department's at it again!"
Eyewitnesses told AFP that tough guys armed men had entered classrooms and started to shoot in the air and fire off teargas canisters. Three guards who tried to arrest the group were wounded, one seriously. Three members of the group were arrested and questioned by the security services.
Civil, well-reasoned discourse, Islamic style...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "... entered classrooms and started to shoot in the air and fire off teargas ..."

Fred I was going to crab your edit but see this is an exact quote. Sounds like a stinky mess. Rhetorically, was this an attempt to rally support, or intimidation?

"... questioned by the security services." At what voltage? Or are those gentlemen into hand tools?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  It is well known that modern Yemen is rushing pell-mell from the 13th to the 15th century.
Posted by: Tancred || 12/26/2003 10:15 Comments || Top||

#3  At a steady trot.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "... tried to force union elections to be held without referring to official organizing bodies or unions."

I can be dense at times... and those are my better moments.
What this means to me is they want to have an election without telling anyone whom they're voting for. I thought their preference is to have an election, then tell everyone whom they voted for.
...hmmm...
Sounds like the same thing. Never mind.
Posted by: Larry Everett || 12/26/2003 13:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I think it was more along the lines of having an election and not telling the other parties.
Posted by: Fred || 12/26/2003 14:22 Comments || Top||

#6  "I won!? I didn't even know I was running..."
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 14:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Was it Lenin or Stalin?

"Is not votes that count, is who counts votes."
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 15:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Tancred, post #2
I'm assuming you mean B.C.E.
Posted by: Larry Everett || 12/26/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Glenn #7: Stalin
Posted by: ed || 12/27/2003 2:26 Comments || Top||


Europe
EU’s "Proxy War" on America
EFL
European Union Parliament member Ilka Schroeder delivered an address entitled, "The European Union, Israel, and Palestinian Terrorism" at the Center for German Studies of Ben Gurion University on Monday. "The Europeans," explained MP Schroeder, "supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor, and through this, challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power. Therefore, the Al-Aqsa Intifada should be understood as a proxy war between Europe and the United States."
The EU doesn’t have the guts to wage a real war against us, so they use a bunch of terrorists to kill Jews. Sort of kills two birds with one stone, thrown by someone else.
"It is an open secret within the European Parliament that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority has not been spent correctly," MP Schroeder said during a recent address in New York. "The European Parliament does not intend to verify whether European taxpayers’ money could have been used to finance anti-Semitic murderous attacks. Unfortunately, this fits well with European policy in this area."
Gee, my surprise meter seems to be stuck at zero.
MP Schroeder, a twenty-five-year-old former member of the German Green Party,
Damn! First time I heard of the Greens being good for anything.
began her political career protesting the war in Kosovo and denouncing globalization. A year ago, MP Schroeder set her sights on an issue long avoided by members of the radical Left - the diverting of some of the 250 million in annual aid for the Arabs of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) to corrupt officials and terrorist groups bent on Israel’s destruction. MP Schroeder managed to initiate an inquiry by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) into the issue despite significant pressure from her colleagues and fellow parliamentarians to ignore it. MP Schroeder has derided her colleagues who wish to ignore the issue of EU money funding terrorism against Jews as "simple-minded anti-Semites." She has also accused EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten of "winking approval of terrorist attacks funded by the EU." In her Ben Gurion University address, MP Schroeder argued, "The primary goal of the EU is the internationalization of the conflict in order to underline the need for its own mediating role," warning that renewed European calls for a multinational force in the region — heard most recently by the head of the largest political bloc in the parliament — combined with heightened levels of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Arab world, could spell disaster for Jews everywhere. "The Palestinians are playing the ugly role of being the cannon fodder for Europe’s hidden war against the U.S.," she adds.
It's the Euro version of Great Gaming...
"There is no difference in the consciousness of an average member of the European Parliament and an average German peace demonstrator, and I consider this to be a mixture of naivete, moralism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and an altogether serious danger," she said during her U.S. speaking tour. "It is against these trends that my efforts are directed."
Thank you, Ms. Schroeder. Now if we could just get a few of your fellow citizens to think that way, or just to think, period...

There are those who do actually think. But Europe is no different from anywhere else — half of everyone you meet will be below average. Among politicians it's amplified. Anti-Americanism, and by extension anti-Zionism, has become a tradition. Tradition doesn't even need justification.

By the way, congrats on your first post. Nice job!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut bskolaut@hotmail.com || 12/26/2003 2:30:35 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn. I think my surprise meter's broken. The needle's wrapped around the left-hand peg.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 15:25 Comments || Top||

#2 
By the way, congrats on your first post. Nice job!

Aw, shucks - 'twern't nothin'.

Forgot to credit The Puppy Blender™ for the pointer.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/26/2003 17:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Robert, get yourself a digital suprise meter. Got me one last month and haven't had a problem so far.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/26/2003 17:17 Comments || Top||

#4  As I just said on my 'blog, one of the things that gets me is whether the Europeans have really asked themselves why they want a war with the US? Is this something they're only going to ask themselves after the full-scale war?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/26/2003 17:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Phil, you're assuming they wouldn't blame it on us. Look at, for example, Japan and the whole "the US forced Japan into WWII" school of thought.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 18:07 Comments || Top||


Turkey smashes 'group behind blasts'
Turkish authorities say they have broken up the Istanbul cell behind last month's truck bombings and have linked the group to the al-Qaida network. The four blasts, which targeted two synagogues and British interests in Turkey's commercial capital, killed 61 people and wounded several hundred others. "The suicide attacks were carried out by elements trying to organise for al-Qaida in Turkey," city governor Muammer Guler told a news conference in Istanbul held on Friday to announce progress in the investigation. "We can comfortably say that we have broken up the organisation's Istanbul activities," he said.
There should be a second, parallel network that's not involved in these acts. They'll be wave two, or the nucleus of it...
The governor said 35 people have been charged so far in connection with the attacks and that a further 10 people were sent on Friday to a state security court which will decide whether they too should be charged. One of those sent to court on Friday, Harun Ilhan, was also taken to the site of the Neve Shalom synagogue in the city, where one of the blasts occurred, to help recreate what had happened. Media reports said Ilhan had confessed to being a member of Usama bin Ladin's al Qaida network and said he had lived for a year in Afghanistan after evading military service in Turkey.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 13:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OOOOO, Murat...
Posted by: Ernest Brown || 12/26/2003 23:36 Comments || Top||


Perfidious Gaul Update: French Question, Release Terror Suspects
Link found via Steven Den Beste. Edited for length and content.
The French authorities say they have found little evidence of plans to use US-bound aircraft to launch attacks against US targets over Christmas. Air France services to and from Los Angeles remain suspended on Thursday because of fears of a possible repeat of the 11 September hijackings. US security said earlier that a number of suspicious people were planning to board Air France planes. But French officials said seven men had been freed after questioning. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the men - one French, one American and several Algerians - had been briefly questioned late on Wednesday.
Read the whole thing, and SDB’s comments. I’m speechless. I almost put this in Fifth Column...

If a couple Air France planes demolish a bowl game or two, and the Frenchies have pooh-poohed warnings like these, Americans are going to be a lot less happy with them than they were when the NY Post was putting weasel pictures on Page 1.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/26/2003 12:17:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US officials said they fear Air France has been infiltrated by Islamic extremists and have criticised French co-operation in providing details of passengers on US-bound flights.

One explanation. Solution: allow no Air France flights into the U.S. period.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/26/2003 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Personally, I'm not sure why we even consider france a friendly nation at this point. We should isolate them just like we do cuba or n. korea; no direct transport, no commerce, nothing. It's not like cutting off trade with those smelly b*stards would make any difference, they have nothing we can't source elsewhere. Problem is, what do we do with the scum quebecois to our north? They're quite the pro-al qaeda mob.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 0:43 Comments || Top||

#3  God, Phil, let's hope and pray that you and the others are wrong...but you may not be.
This is extremely shocking on the part of the French, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it's not, given the bad behavior they've already shown.
My gut feeling is that their role in this escapade was for the benefit of *their* Islamofascists, to assure them that they'll give them a pass and was nothing but posturing for our benefit, to be seen to be going through the motions of fighting the WOT, but giving this AlQ cell a heads up to change their MO.
Otherwise, I'm almost struck dumb, too.
What a world we live in.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/26/2003 1:28 Comments || Top||

#4  IF they were doing this to satisfy their islamofascists, or others, but if so... paying them danegeld hasn't worked for Musharraf, it hasn't worked for the Saudis... what makes them think it's going to work for them?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/26/2003 1:42 Comments || Top||

#5  It may only be an urban myth that some wonk in the Billary Clinton State Dept. said, "Y'know, it's a shame that Hitler guy gave appeasement such a bad name."
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 2:13 Comments || Top||

#6  I read an article here in Belgium (at wifey's for Christmas)that one of the suspected AQs was a trained pilot and he never showed up for the flight. Tipped off by the Frenchies? Non-moi!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/26/2003 4:29 Comments || Top||

#7  This is disgraceful behaviour, the link at SDB's site to the Telegraph (non-tabloid, generally very good) gives more information - and it's not good news.

You're quite right Phil, paying danegeld never works...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/26/2003 6:20 Comments || Top||

#8  at least we played hardball with the Frog bastards:
"M Raffarin's spokesman added that the United States had threatened to refuse the planes permission to land if they took off."

Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 10:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Suspending Air France flights into the US won't work so long as they can fly into Canada and Mexico.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 11:07 Comments || Top||

#10  It's hard to escape the conclusion that France wants another major attack on the US, but want to do just enough to give the impression it's not their fault.
Posted by: rkb || 12/26/2003 11:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Far be it from me to defend the French, but I still feel something stinky about this entire Al Queda Christmas attack. I think they bumped up the chatter hoping to sew terror when they had no way of implementing the terrori itself. To me the Bin Laden personally approved bit is the key because I don't believe one can talk to the dead.

If it was a real plan, and I was France, I would have turned the guys over and then let the news know that I let them free. If anyone claims their missing you say they must have fled. Sew confusion with the enemy, create deniability with your own Moslims. Of course if I was France I'd really be looking for a way to stick it to the US and scratching my head wondering why my foreign policy is in total disarray and why Americans are no longer buying French wine and visiting France when we are such good buddies and all.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/26/2003 11:23 Comments || Top||

#12  I think I don't want to see an Air France plane anywhere near North America that doesn't have two US fighters locked up on it.
Posted by: Matt || 12/26/2003 11:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh, and if I was Al Queda, I'd be trying to grab some Africa to Beirut flight filled with Christian Arabs heading home for the holidays and slam it into Tel Aviv. I doubt that's what happened in this case but its about what I was expecting and I wouldn't be surprised.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/26/2003 11:28 Comments || Top||

#14  However, a French interior ministry spokesman said little evidence of a terrorist plot had been found.

What little evidence there is is of no importance I guess. I shrug.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 11:45 Comments || Top||

#15  At the very least, no American citizens should be flying Air France. Anywhere.
Posted by: Tresho || 12/26/2003 12:04 Comments || Top||

#16  All in all, I would say this was a very clear, voluble demonstration of French pique.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/26/2003 12:06 Comments || Top||

#17  Gregory Djerejian of the Belgravia Dispatch points to a Le Monde article on the matter, and quotes a passage saying, essentially, "Zose stupide Americains, always zey suspect anozer 11 september. Pooh pooh! Feh feh! Tish tosh! We should remember zat in future when zey come to us wis zere petty security concerns."

At least, that's what I made of it. Djerejian seems to regard it as a minor improvement that the French even remember there was a September 11.

Here's the article from Le Monde (en francais, naturellement).

Ten men on a list on two flights, and it all meant nothing?
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 12/26/2003 15:42 Comments || Top||

#18  Jennie---do not be shocked by the French behavior. They have consistantly looked after their interests only and not the big picture. Hell, they backed Sammy until the bitter end. The have a huge restive muslim population that is heading for critical mass, and their actions have been appeasement appeasement appeasement.
France is an enemy, not yet a shootin' enemy, but they are an enemy.

Matt--- a couple of US interceptors flying near Air France planes heading near US borders is a prudent thing. They will have to stand off a ways because of North Atlantic air traffic control requirements ( you cannot just cruise around ATC routes). Any deviation in AF flight paths will provoke an intercept. France needs to know that we are not playing games here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 15:42 Comments || Top||

#19  ...a couple of US interceptors flying near Air France planes heading near US borders is a prudent thing.

So might having them land at non-major airports, away from metropolitan areas (as the Canadians did with the Israelis).
Posted by: Pappy || 12/26/2003 20:46 Comments || Top||

#20  Paul, I guess I quit being shocked after their performance in the UN on the Iraq war, but I keep hoping against hope that they'll see the light and come around...knowing that's not going to happen.
Depending on how egregious their behavior in this incident was, the US may be forced to ban all direct flights to France until further notice. Given the fact that most of us have scratched France off of our list of tourist destinations anyway, this wouldn't be a big hardship for Americans.
France needs us a lot more than we need them.
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/26/2003 22:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Flushed out, ULFA cadre land in ISI pan
Top intelligence sources have confirmed that militants, mostly belonging to the ULFA, have entered Bangladesh and the ISI has already extended a helping hand to them. Even though the Bangladesh government denies it, reports say these insurgents have set up at least 25 new camps over the past one month. ``The biggest worry is that while ULFA leaders and cadre used to earlier take shelter in Bangladesh or stay for sometime on way to Pakistan, courtesy the ISI, the Assamese outfit has of late started establishing training camps. This is a dangerous trend,’’ officials said. The new rebel camps have come up close to the international border in Sylhet, Habibganj and Sherpur in Bangladesh. The presence of such rebel camps in Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachar of Chittagong district had been reported earlier. Throwing further light on the ISI link, recently-captured ULFA publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary has told the police that several senior ULFA leaders visited Pakistan in separate batches in 2002 and were trained in the use of explosives and time-programmed devices. The RBA had handed over Daimary to the Indian authorities last week and a local court had remanded him to five days of police custody. Daimary has reportedly even named the ULFA leaders who had flown to Pakistan last year. They include Ashanta Baghphukan and Raju Barua - both second-rank officials in the ULFA’s armed wing. Sources say that ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and armed wing chief Paresh Barua have been travelling on Pakistani and Bangladeshi passports for several years.

Before this is all over, one of the things that'll have to be done is to have the ISI dismantled. There's way too much Great Gaming going on, with way too little actual, coherent, thought behind it.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/26/2003 1:21:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Seven militants killed near Bhutan border
At least seven militants were killed by the forces on Thursday while trying to enter Assam from Bhutan, where a military offensive against the militants has entered a crucial stage. Meanwhile, Bhutanese troops have blocked all supply lines leading to militant hideouts. "The rebels are now being pushed deep inside the jungles and very soon we expect them to give up as all possible routes for food supplies have been blocked by our troops," the Royal Bhutan Army commander said. "Any Bhutanese national found helping the militants would be punished severely."
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/26/2003 1:17:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Has anyone heard about the condition of the Royal person who was wounded a few days ago? Is he still working the operations?
Posted by: SamIII || 12/26/2003 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  'Welcome to the Jungle.' Heh.
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 11:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Samlll, Bhutan gov says he wasn't wounded, error in press report. I believe them, would have been great PR for the Royal family if he had.
Posted by: Steve || 12/26/2003 11:47 Comments || Top||


Jihad and loss of internal sovereignty
According to a Foreign Office spokesman in Islamabad, investigations show that “certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed” in facilitating possible nuclear technology transfers from Pakistan to Iran. The government says it will take to task anyone found involved in such activity. In another interesting report, we learn of a top Chinese ‘terrorist’ by the name of Hasan Mahsum who was shot dead in Pakistan’s South Waziristan area during a military operation last October. Two conclusions can be immediately drawn from these news items. First, that the sale of our nuclear secrets was probably more a result of lack of state control over individuals working in our nuclear establishment than any conscious or permitted state policy. Two, the killing of Hasan Mahsum should surprises us about the extent of penetration of our country by persons accused of terrorism by the countries of their origin. Both cases point to a lack of internal state control and jurisdiction in the past decade.
Three fifths of Pakistan — i.e., most of Baluchistan, most of NWFP, all of the FATA — loudly proclaims its autonomy, to the extent that government writ doesn't extend to its territory. Allegiances through all of the country extend to religion first, tribe second, and the nation a remote third. What the hell did they expect?
Pakistanis often bemoan the lack of sovereignty in our foreign policy. But the truth is that no foreign policy is entirely free in the world. External sovereignty is always under constraints for one reason or another. But it is internal sovereignty that a state must guard at all cost. In our case, Pakistan adopted a policy of proxy wars on two fronts at the cost of internal sovereignty. Internal control was lost after the compulsion of importing warriors led to their immunity from the law inside Pakistan.
Members of the Arab Master Race aren't subject to the same laws applying to mere mortals, even the rickety laws of Pakistan...
Once such immunity was granted through special agencies handling jihad, larger sections of the state began to be included in it. Jihad, when it is not declared by the Islamic state, tends to eat at the fabric of the state’s sovereignty.
The fact that the jihadis deny the legitimacy of the state doesn't help, does it?
Just as foreign mujahideen had a free run of the country, the personnel involved in the strategy of jihad gradually assumed immunity. In this context, the nuclear programme became an integral part of the strategy of deniable proxy jihad. In 1999, for example, when scientists from our nuclear establishment were decorated on Pakistan Day, most of them were proud to sport flowing beards, overtly displaying their political and religious viewpoint!
They were regular guests of the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s mammoth annual conventions, alongside Hamid Gul and Islamists from all over the world. These conventions have been toned down a lot since 9/11, but prior to it, it was probably the biggest annual terrorist convention in the world.
News always trickled in about tactful Chinese protests at the mujahideen linking up with the insurgents of Sinkiang and helping them seek refuge and training inside Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Islamabad acted slowly and with not a little confusion, given the diarchy between the ISI and the Foreign Office. But it is this year for the first time that Pakistan has clearly acknowledged what has been going on in the days of jihad. During his recent visit to Beijing, General Pervez Musharraf minced no words when he said that Pakistan would not tolerate any organisation interfering in Sinkiang or giving shelter to terrorists fleeing from there. We recall how, in 2000, Tajikistani terrorist Juma Namangani and his hundred soldiers were active in Kyrgyzstan when they took a number of Japanese nationals hostage.
Actually, I think he was an Uzbek, but go on...
It was alleged that some Pakistanis too were among his fighters, but this was not proved. Nonetheless, the Japanese government did hold parleys with Namangani’s representatives in Islamabad, after which the hostages were released. But in 2001, Namangani was reported as entering Tajikistan clandestinely from Karachi on a chartered plane! In due course, the Uzbek president Karimov was to complain bitterly to Pakistan after Namangani tried to kill him.
This was back in the day when Pakistan had managed to alienate every country in her region, except for Afghanistan, and was on the edge of bankruptcy, kept affloat only by charity from Saudi Arabia.
In her second tenure, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto got the ISI to register the ‘foreign’ mujahideen in Peshawar in the wake of Egypt’s complaint that Mohammad Shawky al-Islambouli, a brother of the killer of President Anwar Sadat, was being sheltered there. The ISI came up with 5,000 names: 1,142 Egyptians, 981 Saudis, 946 Algerians, 771 Jordanians, 326 Iraqis, 292 Syrians, 234 Sudanese, 199 Libyans, 117 Libyans and 102 Moroccans. The world now knows how Pakistan became the bridge between Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and the ‘takfir’-based Algerian-FIS breakaway organisation called the GIA whose terrorists had lived in the guesthouses in Peshawar. There is also an established connection with Iraqi Mulla Krekar’s Kurdish organisation whose members also came to join the jihad in Peshawar. Krekar, originally Najmuddin Feraj Ahmad, taught at Islamabad’s Islamic University where he also met Abdallah Azzam, Osama’s man in Peshawar. The University routinely employed Egyptian fundamentalist clerics in its faculty. Ramzi Yusuf, the first bomber of the Trade Center in New York, frequented the hostel of the University and this appeared in the Pakistani press. Similarly, one can explain how the Indonesian terrorist Hambali, the Bali bomber, and his brother wound up in Karachi. There are hundreds of examples of how the country simply gave away its internal sovereignty. Pakistani scientists and doctors began going to Afghanistan and meeting Osama bin Laden in the wake of the international terrorists. Just like the jihadi leaders who vowed divine rage, most of them were in it for money. Doctors were found in Lahore with huge amounts of dollars in their possession.
In ’Who Killed Daniel Pearl’, a Saudi businessmen in Dubai told the author that most of the financiers and leaders of the Jihadi movement don’t give a damn about Islam, and are simply in it for the money, in Pakistan above all else. But there are enough true believers around to be highly dangerous.
If 9/11 had not happened and the UN Security Council had not forced Pakistan to reimpose internal controls, more and more Pakistanis would have found their way into the toils of global terrorism. We already have our plate full. We have to clean up and return to normalcy after years of chaos. But first we must correctly grasp the enormity of the task ahead of us.
I doubt it'll happen. The words "secular state" are enough to set off rounds of explosions throughout Pakistan, while Qazi and his fellow travellers go into orbit.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 12/26/2003 1:14:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  more and more Pakistanis would have found their way into the toils of global terrorism

The fight against wahhabism/islamofascism will be long, it will be bitter at times, and in the end we may not even win. That should never, ever stop us from taking this course and fighting this fight. I hate to sound melodramatic, but we have been burdened with as much of a world war as our fathers and grandfathers faced in the 40s.

Are we up to the task?
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 1:35 Comments || Top||

#2  4thInfVet - for a while I wondered whether we would win or not. Now I am quite convinced we will. The reason is simple. The arab world is fed and gets all its technology from the West. If they start to seriously harm our capacity to run our societies then the result will be that they start to starve surrounded by stuff that doesnt work anymore.

Now if we can only a way to stop all those oil revenues flowing into arab pockets. The arab world will just become another third world basket case.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/26/2003 2:18 Comments || Top||

#3  phil_b: You're not talking about "stuff" like big turbines, are you? I'm reminded of WWII, Pacific. Oil-thirsty Japanese sweeping through the East Indies, very pleased until Royal Dutch Shell engineers torched the refineries at the last minute.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 4:06 Comments || Top||

#4  4thInfVet - yes we are up to the task.

We may well 'lose' some countries from the 'Core' to the 'Gap' (see this article http://www.nwc.navy.mil/newrulesets/ThePentagonsNewMap.htm for much more information on this concept that some in the Pentagon are taking seriously) - most people who read this blog can take a guess at what those countries may be. However, there are other countries that are moving into the 'Core' at the same time as we lose others.

My personal feeling is that it will take another attack along the lines of 9/11 before the majority of people realise what it is we are up against. In effect. In fact, it would be 'better' if that attack was not on the US as then other countries would realise what the situation is. (I feel a horrible feeling in my stomach just writing these words)

There are many ways that this war could end, see The Belmont Club for instance. But it will end, and the 'Core' countries (however they may be defined) will be victorious.

The only question in my mind is whether that old joke about why aren't there any Arabs in 'Star Trek' remains a joke - or becomes a fact.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/26/2003 8:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Very cool link T(UK)

Some favorite quotes

In sum, it is always possible to fall off this bandwagon called globalization. And when you do, bloodshed will follow.

And

If you are lucky, so will American troops

Ranks and files of Luckies!

The problem with the Core countries is PC-ism. Some of the Core countries need to grow up.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 12:46 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't buy the Disconnectedness defines danger thesis. Excluding infectious diseases a poor peasant in burundi or where ever is zero threat to me becuase he doesn't have access to money and technology needed to impact my life. The problem with islamoterror is they do have access to money and hence technology. Its like greenies not seeing the paradox of flying to conferences to worry about global warming. The Islamoterrorists don't see that if they start to win the cellphones, lancruisers, antibiotics and lamb chops will stop coming. Allah may be all powerful and all knowing, but he don't know sh** about keeping a Lancruiser running.

I've worked in 3rd world communities totally dependent on food, healthcare and technology from outside. They all want things but they have no clue how they are made or where they come from. Cut the arabs off from the money they will sit around in the sand watching people die and wondering why nothing works any more. Or they will modernize the old-fashioned way through education and hard work. They will have to figure out how to make things other people want.

The oil is the problem! The only way out of the god gave them the oil so they don't have to modernize mindset they have is to either stop buying the oil (not an option in the foreseable future) or take it away from them.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/26/2003 15:06 Comments || Top||

#7  phil_b, that's an interesting comment. We're really into 'cargo cult' land here to an extent.

The figures show that if you exclude oil revenues, the Arab world is in trouble;

"The GDP of all Arab countries combined ($531.2 billion) is less than that of Spain ($595.5 billion)"

http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr/ahdr1/presskit1/PR2.pdf (PDF)

Now then, .com - what was it about a certain 40k strip of land on the eastern side of SA?
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/26/2003 16:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Tony - I cut a comment about 'cargo cult' out of the post, but it is very cargo cult like. Their thinking goes some like - we got the oil cos we are good muslims. All religions are prone to this thinking.

Its sheer bad luck that most of the worlds oil is under moslem countries.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/26/2003 18:28 Comments || Top||

#9  It is Cargo Cultish. Perhaps we need to remind the priests that John Fromm drives an Ohio now.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 20:45 Comments || Top||


Musharraf blames 'terrorists' for attack
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf appeared on state television on Thursday hours after the second attempt on his life and blamed cowardly "terrorists" for the suicide bombing attack.
That's because they tried to "kill him."
Musharraf, who appeared well and unruffled, told state-run Pakistan Television it was unclear exactly who was responsible for the afternoon attack on his motorcade in the city of Rawalpindi that damaged his car and killed 14 people, but added: "Certainly they are terrorists, extremists...They are endangering Islam."
Perhaps you should wipe them out, then?
He said his car came under attack when he was returning home from a meeting of ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. "A suicide bomber first attacked me, but thank God nothing happened to us and we moved ahead," he said, adding that another car then tried to attack his armoured Mercedes. "I am sorry that 14 people lost their lives and more than 40 were wounded," he said. "They lost their lives because of me." Musharraf said some people had said there had been a big security lapse, but he did not want to make any hasty comments.
Somebody got paid, and somebody else is on the other side...
"These are suicide bombers and to check them is not easy. They are like mobile bombs," he said. "People protect me by risking their lives. They are loyal. If there is a lapse by some individual, we will look into it. But we should not take steps in haste."
You've been boomed twice in two weeks. I'd make a little haste, I think...
Musharraf brushed aside concerns about a security threat to regional leaders including Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who are due to attend a 4-6 January summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Islamabad.
Oh, that should be great fun. Wonder what Hafiz Saeed has on tap for that?
"It is targeted bombing and I am the target," he said. "People around me are in some danger, but others are not. We are fighting against terrorism. We will continue to fight it. It is my mission to take this country forward." He said those who planned attacks from the safety of hideouts were "cowards".
Don't worry about it too much, Perv. You only extend them moral support.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Musharraf, who appeared well and unruffled, having been dusted off and with fresh underwear,"

Oops. al-Jizz figured out how to creatively spell "terrorists" until it popped up already inside "quotes." Chokers!

"...4-6 January summit..." Does Kofi have good offices in Islamabad? That'd be the place to park the fat target conference.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 3:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred, something really weird has happened with the comment I posted on 'Jihad and the loss of internal sovereignty' - it seems to have flowed into this article.

Sorry about that...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/26/2003 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Fixed.
Posted by: Fred || 12/26/2003 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Many thanks!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 12/26/2003 11:49 Comments || Top||


‘Pakistan sanctuary for Qaeda, Taliban’
Guerrillas from Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban militia and the Al Qaeda network it once sheltered are using Pakistan as a sanctuary, the US ambassador to Afghanistan said on Wednesday. Speaking at a police graduation ceremony, Zalmay Khalizad also said senior Al Qaeda members including Osama Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar must be brought to justice. “The remnants of extremist Taliban, Al Qaeda and Hekmatyar want to take Afghanistan to the bad old days,” Khalilzad said. “They use Pakistan as sanctuary.”The Taliban and Hekmatyar have declared a “jihad”, or holy war, against US forces in Afghanistan and US-backed President Hamid Karzai.
And they want to kill Perv. Maybe that'll cause him to get off the stick and hit them hard.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't count on it.
Posted by: ScottAK || 12/26/2003 21:02 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Akron OH TV anchor reports home from duty in Iraq
From the online edition of the Akron Beacon-Journal Severely EFL, RTWT
When all hell was about to break loose in Iraq, Capt. Mansfield was called up to active duty. Suddenly, he went from sitting behind the anchor desk at Akron’s WVPX (Channel 23) to fighting a war...Nearly a year later, Mansfield is home. He’s in the midst of a two-week R&R stint that will last through New Year’s Day.

Mansfield had to spend his own money -- $1,200 round trip -- and fly for 24 consecutive hours, across eight time zones. But he considers that a small price to pay to spend the holidays with his family... he is amazed at some of the stories the media are missing.

Those stories are falling through the cracks, he implies, because most reporters would rather sit around at base camps and use material supplied by the military instead of venturing into the dangerous desert. The biggest story we’re not getting, he says, is the huge number of successes the U.S. military has enjoyed in foiling terrorists. ``We had a small ship try to ram one of our cargo ships right before I left. If it had hit and blown us up like the USS Cole, then it would have made news. But our guys were alert enough and shot the thing 75 meters off the bow. I didn’t see anything (in the news). ``We’ve got this terrorist stuff every day. We’re stopping package bombs, car bombs, people with bombs strapped to them. We’re taking caches of weapons away from people. Is it just me, or isn’t that news anymore?’’

Another story flying under the media’s radar is a technological breakthrough. ``We have this new, fancy technology called a Warlock system. Without telling you how it works, it basically knocks out the systems of the bad guys so they can’t detonate anything when we come by. We’re just now putting them into trucks. That’s a great story!’’
Some of us have heard about something like that. We probably don't want the Bad Guys to notice, though...
Another untold story, he says, is terrorists’ targeting of female soldiers. ``They want to kidnap female soldiers for the shock value of it. (Non-American) females over there don’t speak. When (Iraqis) see a female soldier, they are absolutely in shock.’’

This might have been posted under Home Front. I wish all the news coverage of Iraq were this substantial. I sent an email to the reporter to express my appreciation, maybe we will get more coverage like that. By the way, I think the example our female GIs are setting for the female Iraqis may have some very interesting long-term consequences for the liberation of Iraqi women. Talk about an attitude adjustment.
Posted by: Tresho || 12/26/2003 12:01:32 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Warlock = Israeli anti-IED system we've been hearing about?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 12:25 Comments || Top||

#2  It must be our own version of it. Or a joint project with the Isreali's.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Careful what you say there, Capt. Mansfield, if you aspire to a network job. They'd prefer you fill us in on the "quagmire" aspect of the story...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  This seems to be something different to the Israeli device previously described. The Captain says it stops IEDs denotating, whereas the Israeli device caused them to detonate. This explains a couple of earlier stories of bombs exploding after the vehicle had passed that didn't make sense to me. Also note that this is what happened in the first try at booming Musharaaf. Maybe Gaddafi was offered one as an inducement?
Posted by: phil_b || 12/26/2003 15:25 Comments || Top||

#5  If I had my druthers,I like the Isralie system.I get a great deal of satisfaction hearing about slopedopes blowing theselves up and still failing thier mission.
Posted by: raptor || 12/26/2003 17:21 Comments || Top||

#6  fly for 24 consecutive hours, across eight time zones.

Must've been a DC-3. But for $1200 British Airways would have been the better option. Hell, whatever gets you home, I guess.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/26/2003 20:28 Comments || Top||


Al Anbar 12-26-03
During the last 24 hours, Task Force All American soldiers in Al Anbar conducted 160 patrols (including seven joint patrols with Iraqis). Task Force All American soldiers cleared one weapons cache, and conducted one cordon and search. In Fallujah, Task Force 1-504 soldiers conducted a cordon and search of a nine-building complex that resulted in an additional confiscation of munitions: twenty, 120 millimeter mortar rounds; eight, 155 millimeter artillery rounds; eight rocket-propelled grenade launchers; 20 sticks of TNT, and assorted improvised explosive device - making materiel. In the last 24 hours, Task Force All American soldiers had five enemy contacts; all were ineffective. We captured 10 Iraqi insurgents and suffered no Coalition casualties. At the border checkpoints, we denied entry to 150 personnel at Trebil and four at Husaybah – all because they lacked passports. No one was turned away at Tanif or Ar Ar.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/26/2003 10:25:02 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sniper’s skills keep buddies alive
EFL
From his own rooftop position, Davis tracked the man through the sight of his M-14 rifle. He didn’t have to wait long before the enemy sniper made another mistake. "He silhouetted his rifle from the waist up, trying to look over at the guys in the courtyard." Davis fired one shot. "I hit him in the chest. He fell back. His rifle flew out of his hands."
G'bye, Mahmoud.
It was Davis’ eighth confirmed kill. Earlier, he had killed seven enemy fighters in a single day. Davis’ encounter with the rooftop sniper took place Dec. 18 on the second night of "Ivy Blizzard," a combat operation aimed at clearing guerrillas from this city of 250,000. Davis has taken most of his shote while on the move, from distances of 100-300 yards. On Dec. 20, he killed one sniper with a single shot from a .50-caliber XM-107 rifle from 750 yards away.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/26/2003 9:08:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  HooRAH! It took too long to get the shooters in place, but it's all worth it. Especially when the mutts can hide in plain sight in urban areas.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  This is great stuff! I am sorry the Army only decided to start the urban sniper training 5 months before GWII.

I wonder if the Discovery Channel will update it's Sniper series to include this type of action? Also, are the Grunt snipers undergoing this type of training?
Posted by: SamIII || 12/26/2003 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  M-14? Didn't think that was used anymore...
Posted by: snellenr || 12/26/2003 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  M-14? Didn't think that was used anymore...

The .308's plenty accurate out of the 14. Especially if they're taking shots <500m.

I like the anecdote about using the Barrett for the 'long-range' work. Talk about overkill, I bet they're still looking for the guys kidneys.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 9:36 Comments || Top||

#5  M-14? Didn't think that was used anymore...

The M-14, like all American infantry rifles, is very accurate, while not being as delicate as the M-16 and having a much more powerful round.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/26/2003 9:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Another one of the 'unsung heros'. My hat is off to him. Who knows how many of our men will now return home due to his skills.

Snipers had attacked soldiers of the 5-20 three days before the rooftop encounter. "We had been engaged by snipers in here before, so I was hoping it was the same guy," says Davis, a native of Nashville. "It's kind of a professional insult to get shot at by another sniper."
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/26/2003 10:53 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't think that the XM-109 is in theater at this point. That uses a 25mm round and they were just doing testing last summer. Probably used an M82A1M.
Posted by: Remote Man || 12/26/2003 12:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Ssss-smack!

"Somebody clean that up".

"Yessir!"
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 13:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Hmm, what do you know :)

snellenr, it was deemed too uncontrollable in full auto (as apparently .308 rifles usually are) so they accurized it, added a scope and called that kit the M21 Tactical Rifle system -- just as possible that this is what the writer of the article saw.

As seen in Black Hawk Down in Shughart's hands, the overall length of 44" and weight of 11.6 pounds makes it ideal for urban use, while the 22" barrel allows a good muzzle velocity and accuracy ( http://www.springfield-armory.com/prod-rifles-m21.shtml ), so either way this is a really heartening story about the proficiency of our troops.
Posted by: Lu Baihu || 12/26/2003 17:28 Comments || Top||

#10  Shoot a couple for me, sarge; and if we meet, I will buy you a round or two.
Posted by: badanov || 12/26/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||


CJTF7 and Coalition Provisional Authority Update
The link will take you to the entire briefing. I just had to post this one item.
In the north central zone, as part of Operation Ivy Blizzard, Task Force Iron Horse soldiers conducted 214 patrols, seven raids and captured 52 individuals in the last 24 hours. Four enemy personnel were captured following an attack on coalition solders in Samarra yesterday. One of the suspects was carrying a picture of himself in a Republican Guard uniform and was also carrying anti-coalition propaganda.
Vanity, thy name is Dumbass.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/26/2003 8:33:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Vanity, thy name is Dumbass.

Another for the quote book.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:12 Comments || Top||


AL ANBAR 12-25-03
Task Force All American soldiers in the Al Anbar region conducted 192 patrols, 11 of which were joint with Iraqis.

3rd Brigade, 82d Airborne Division conducted two cordon and search operations to kill or capture individuals involved in anti-Coalition activities east of Iskandariyah and members of former regime element cells in the Al Karmah area. The first operation was conducted without incident and resulted in the capture of one of the primary targets. The second operation resulted in the capture of nine enemy personnel, including two of the primary targets. In addition to various small arms weapons and munitions, our soldiers confiscated improvised explosive device (IED)-making materials, Fedayeen propaganda, two protective masks, and improvised mortar-making materials.

Late last night, soldiers from Task Force 1-32 received a report of a possible mass gravesite northwest of Iskandariyah. The soldiers moved in and secured the area. The CID has been notified and will conduct an investigation in the coming days.

Early this morning, Task Force 1-32 conducted a cordon and search to capture three targets involved in anti-Coalition activities. The mission resulted in the capture of one primary target.

Last night in 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment’s area, five Iraqi border guards were arrested in Husaybah for taking bribes during the course of their duties. They were evacuated to FOB Tiger for interrogation.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/26/2003 8:25:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Allright!! We are paying the border guards (at least from what I heard) more than they had ever been paid before -- no real reason for bribery other than that is the way it has been done for centuries. Make an example of them and publicize it around the new guys. Cuts way down on bribery not only in the Border Guards, but others as well.
Good going!!!!
Posted by: SamIII || 12/26/2003 9:18 Comments || Top||


Five Families Believed to Direct Attacks
Long article in WaPo. Just the first few paragraphs here.
As U.S. forces tracked Saddam Hussein to his subterranean hiding place, they unearthed a trove of intelligence about five families running the Iraqi insurgency, according to U.S. military commanders, who said the information is being used to uproot remaining resistance forces.
We know all about the Five Families. There's the Barzinis, the Tataglias, the Corleones...
Senior U.S. officers said they were surprised to discover — clue by clue over six months — that the upper and middle ranks of the resistance were filled by members of five extended families from a few villages within a 12-mile radius of the volatile city of Tikrit along the Tigris River. Top operatives drawn from these families organized the resistance network, dispatching information to individual cells and supervising financial channels, the officers said. They also protected Hussein and passed information to and from the former president while he was on the run.
Not a surprise. It’s always a family affair in the Middle East.
At the heart of this tightly woven network is Auja, Hussein’s birthplace, which U.S. commanders say is the intelligence and communications hub of the insurgency. The village is where many of the former president’s key confidants have their most lavish homes and their favorite wives. When U.S. forces sealed off Auja in late October, they separated the leaders of the insurgency from their guerrilla forces, dealing the anti-occupation campaign a major blow, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, which is responsible for the Tikrit area.
Our man Steve right in the middle again!
"It’s amazing that all roads lead to this region," Russell said. "It’s amazing who lives in that town. It’s a who’s who of families and a who’s who of Saddam’s former staff."
Much, much more at the link.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/26/2003 1:24:12 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Auja+MOAB=end of insurgency.
Unfortunately for us, the shortest path is not allowed. Ahh, well.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Army of Steves -- Is LtCol Steve Russell filling a collateral billet as 4ID spinmeister, or is his regular post just by chance where it's at?

Another Army of Steves, off topic -- Steve Mirsky (Scientific American AntiGravity) reported on a petition advocating the study of Creationism in public schools. Opponents, noting the late Stephen Jay Gould at least would have said, "scientific truth is not decided by petition," filed one of their own, by nearly 300 scientists, all named Steve.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Major rant avoided but I loath Steven Jay Gould. He is almost as much of a fraud as Chomsky.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/26/2003 4:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone notice that WaPo seems to be taking a reasonable position on our work in Iraq versus the Al-NYTimes?
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/26/2003 4:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Anon #3: well then you'll be pleased to learn he's dead.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 4:54 Comments || Top||

#6  I love the name of their new board showing the families/links/org chart a la the Mafioso: The Mongo Link
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 8:36 Comments || Top||

#7  The Five Families? That sounds familiar. Except they put Don Corleone in a hole instead of pulling him out of one. Uday and Qusay, however, did do a reasonable facsimile of Sonny's hit on the causeway.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 8:45 Comments || Top||

#8  don't you guys watch the news ? Katie says catching Saddam is just symbolic. Peter thinks it's just making the Iraqis sadder.
Posted by: Anonymous || 12/26/2003 11:26 Comments || Top||

#9  So many Steves and they're so well organized. Not like the lazy slobs I hang with.

"Hey stand up straight over there!"

Katie has got grreat hair!
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 13:44 Comments || Top||

#10  I hereby nominate Katie Couric and Peter Jennings for President and Vice-president - of Liberia. At least there they can do no lasting damage.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/26/2003 14:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Five families eh.... hmmmm.... we need to set up an ambush, maybe something in a barbershop or a parkling garage... wind this whole thing up before the middle of February. We'll need Sin@tr@ for this one.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 20:55 Comments || Top||


Japan Troops Leave for Iraq Aid Mission
Japan dispatched its first military unit for a humanitarian mission to Iraq on Friday, spearheading the country’s biggest overseas deployment since World War II. The advance air force contingent of more than 40 personnel was split between two commercial flights to Kuwait and Qatar from Tokyo international airport. The first flight left Friday morning, and one more was to leave later in the day. ``The time has come for us to go,’’ Col. Tadashi Miyagawa told dozens of reporters at the airport before going through security. ``Each individual has his own thoughts, but we’ll be unified.’’
"Banzai! Banzai! Um, never mind."
The air force units will assess security and make arrangements for a larger 276-member air force contingent charged with shipping medical and food supplies from Kuwait to Iraq. In addition, more than 500 Japanese ground troops will be deployed in southern Iraq in February and March. The contingent sent Friday was part of a total dispatch of about 1,000 personnel, including land, air and sea forces, on a mission to help restore water services, offer medical aid and rebuild schools and other infrastructure. Reflecting the government’s assurances that the soldiers would not engage in combat, the air force personnel leaving on Friday were dressed in blazers, sweat shirts or jeans and head scarfs emblazened with the Rising Sun, rather than military uniforms. Some of the families were assembled at the airport to see off the troops. The government has also been keen to avoid the kind of criticism from Washington that Japan received during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, when Tokyo sent money, but no personnel. ``We want the military to make big contributions to Iraqi reconstruction and humanitarian assistance. We expect them to fulfill their duties and make major contributions,’’ Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference Friday.
They’re stepping up this time, and we appreciate it.
The Defense Agency plans to deploy armored vehicles and up to six naval ships, including destroyers, to support its units. Eight aircraft, including three C130 transport planes, will also be dispatched.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/26/2003 1:05:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  those scarfs.... look like they got about 10,000 stiches in 'em.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Domo arigato go-zaimas, Nippon
Posted by: eLarson || 12/26/2003 10:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Apropos of absolutely nothing at all, I wonder how soon we'll be seeing the dollar gain some ground on the yen?

I notice the euro keeps shooting skyward; maybe if it gets to mars it'll find .
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 17:43 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Rebels Execute 3 Suspected Spies in Zamboanga
Gunmen executed three hunters on suspicion that they were aiding the military in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte, security officials and villagers have said. Officials said Remecito Granaderos, Hernanie Apatan, 57, and his son Herwin, 27, were seized by rebels on Sunday while on their way to hunt for wild boars in the hinterland village of San Vicente in Sirawai town. Burned remains of the trio’s bodies were found with hack and bullet wounds, said a military report. The report said the gunmen were led by a Commander Jaafar Aban, also known as Baby Aguila, whom the military tagged as a member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Soldiers and villagers searched for the trio when they failed to return home and found the corpses Monday afternoon, said Col. Fredesvindo Covarrubias, chief of the military’s 4th Civil Relations Group (CRG). Villagers told a military team investigating the attack that the trio were abducted and killed by rebels on suspicion they passed on information to government soldiers about the MILF.
And of course...
The MILF yesterday strongly denied involvement in the killing and said Jaafar Aban is not their member.
"Jaafar Aban? No, no! Never heard of him!"
“The MILF has nothing to do with the killings in Zamboanga del Norte and Jaafar Aban, whom the military tagged as the mastermind in the attack, is not a member of our group,” Front spokesman Eid (Lipless Eddie) Kabalu said in a phone interview. Kabalu noted that bandits and cattle rustlers are known to operate in the province.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 01:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asian terror network damaged but ready to restrike
Southeast Asia scored some notable successes against terrorism in 2003 but the war won't be won until governments find the political will to deal with root causes, analysts say.
We say that, too. Been saying it all along...
Thailand achieved the year's biggest coup with the capture in August by US and Thai agents of Hambali — the Indonesian who is believed to have been al-Qaeda's pointman in Asia and a key figure in its regional ally Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). He was said to have been planning to bomb embassies and use missiles to attack commercial airliners in Bangkok. In November four Thai Muslims accused of being JI members went on trial in Bangkok. Police said they plotted simultaneous attacks on embassies and tourist spots in June. "Hambali's arrest was the year's major achievement," said terrorism expert Clive Williams. "Arrests in the region have been significant, especially in relation to Thailand whose government had been in denial about having a problem."

Indonesia, blasted out of its complacency by JI's horrific Bali attack in October 2002, carried out an effective investigation into the bombings which -- with crucial Australian help — netted some 35 suspects. Most have already been sentenced after open and apparently fair trials and three are on death row. But on August 5, two days before the first of those death sentences was passed, JI struck again in the country where it is headquartered. It killed 12 people, 11 of them Indonesians, in the bombing of a US-franchised hotel in Jakarta. Armed police now guard fortress-like hotels and other centres. Indonesia will deploy more than two-thirds of its 250,000-strong police force over Christmas and New Year to prevent a repeat of JI's deadly Christmas Eve bombings three years ago. "Indonesia tended to rest on its laurels a bit, with Bali done very well," said Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Strategic and Defence Study Centre at the Australian National University. "Even now there is not a lot of will in government for rounding up those sort of people in Indonesia." JI is not a banned organisation in the world's largest Muslim-populated nation and political leaders have been reluctant to attack it by name in speeches within the country. Part of the problem is the name, which means only "Islamic community" in Arabic.

A minority of Indonesia's thousands of pesantren or Islamic boarding schools -- notably one co-founded by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir — indoctrinate the younger generation in extremism and hatred of the West. "Greater control over the curriculum in pesantrens is a necessary step," Williams told AFP. Singapore and Malaysia, which have detained dozens of suspects, say JI branches in their own countries have been contained. But Singapore's Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng has warned that the network is grooming a new generation of militants and planning more Bali-style attacks. Wong said Bashir's school, which remains open despite producing a series of convicted terrorists as graduates, is Indonesia's largest JI training centre. Williams sees Indonesia, and especially Jakarta, as the likeliest venue for new attacks. JI fugitives, including Malaysian bombmakers Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top, are believed to have enough material for two more attacks.

The Philippines has trumpeted its anti-terror successes, with the killing in October of JI bombmaker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and the arrest of his deputy Taufik Rifki. Both were Indonesians. But JI has been training since the late 1990s at camps in the southern Philippines operated by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Time magazine, quoting a Philippine military intelligence report, said in its latest issue that 600 JI members are scattered among at least three camps in Mindanao. The Front denies assisting JI and Manila, which is eager for a peace deal with it, plays down the problem. Williams said the "Philippines is a greater worry than most other areas... JI can continue to train and develop (there) and deploy elsewhere in the region." He doubted whether Manila has the political will to make major concesssions to achieve lasting peace in the south and therefore "the problem will fester."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think its time for Bush to give the Philippine president a call on the phone and tell her to get off the farking stick, quit playing footies with the devil and do something about the JI in the MILF camps.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/26/2003 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  CF, you're assuming that she can. Much of the Phillipine military is worthless. They have little transport, nothing much in logisitics, poorly trained and poorly led troops, generals who are more experienced in coup-plotting than counter-insurgency tactics, and not much in the way of funds to tix any of this. And she's consitutionally prohibited from just asking us to come in and mop them up.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/26/2003 0:57 Comments || Top||


East Asia
Burst well kills near 200 in China
Edited for brevity.
Clouds of poison gas from a burst well left a "death zone" of villages strewn with bodies in China’s southwest, with at least 191 people killed and 41,000 forced to flee, news reports said Friday. Gas spewed from the well in the Chongqing region as technicians prepared an emergency effort to seal it with cement. They were supposed to make the attempt Friday but put it off until Saturday to let rescue officials focus on rushing food and water to the evacuees. More than 290 people were hospitalized, many of them children, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Newspaper photos showed children with red faces and their eyes inflamed from chemical burns. The gas well burst Tuesday in the remote mountain town of Gaoqiao, releasing a cloud of natural gas and hydrogen sulfide, according to state media. Xinhua said the disaster occurred when a drilling accident broke open a gas well. "The poisonous gas hovering in the air made an area of 25 square kilometers (10 square miles) a death zone, as many villagers were intoxicated by the fumes in their sleep," the China Daily newspaper said. Hardest-hit was the village of Xiaoyang, adjacent to the gas field. A reporter for the Shanghai Morning Post newspaper who visited Thursday wrote of seeing at least six bodies lying beside homes and in fields. The bodies of a 12-year-old boy and his mother were found on a road, the newspaper said. Dead chickens, pigs, owls and dogs were strewn around the village, many with white foam in their nostrils. A merchant in Xiaoyang was credited with saving 400 people, using his truck to make 20 trips carrying them away from the gas, the newspaper Chongqing Economic Times reported.
Posted by: Dar || 12/26/2003 6:36:21 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't mean to sound terribly snide, as this is an entirely preventable tragedy, but just wait until the Three Gorges Dam's completed. That will make this look like A ball.
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 19:23 Comments || Top||

#2  That dam will destroy archealogical treasures and spiritual landmarks of China. When it bursts open, China won't a a population problem for long.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 20:20 Comments || Top||

#3  There was an article in Smithsonian about a natural occurence of this gas mixture killing thousands around a lake in central African.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 20:32 Comments || Top||

#4  The 3 Gorges Dam is ruining some of the worlds most spectacular natural scenery as well as countless historical sites. I've read several stories about it, and I wonder how freaked the greens in the west would be if that was tried anywhere else. The Chicoms claim its for flood control - I'm suprised they care enough about their people to do anything at all. I guess all the NIMBY'S got stood against a wall.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/26/2003 20:39 Comments || Top||

#5  #3. Ship, the African incident occurred at Cameroon’s Lake Nyos in August 1986. A cloud of carbon dioxide gas was released from the lake. (Nyos burped.) Because carbon dioxide is more dense than air it hugged the ground and flowed down valleys. The fast moving cloud traveled as far as 15 miles (25 km) from the crater lake. 1,700 deaths were caused by suffocation. 845 people were hospitalized. Mama nature can sometimes be very mean.
Posted by: Gasse Katze || 12/26/2003 22:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Dean not yet ready to pronounce Bin Laden guilty
EFL - Hat tip to Drudge
Asked about the futures of Iraq and Afghanistan, Dean said the Bush administration must work harder in both countries to achieve peace and a stable, democratic government.
"must work harder in both countries to achieve peace" = "Hell, I don't know!"
Criticizing the president for "turning four-fifths of the country over to warlords," Dean said winning the peace in Afghanistan would require "a much more serious investment in troops, time and money."
Uhhh... Howard? The warlords, with our able assistance, took 4/5ths of the country away from the Taliban, and now Bush (via Karzai) is bringing the warlords under control
Afghanistan is a model for Iraq in one sense, though, Dean said: Afghanistan’s indigenous system of representation, the loya jirga, has street credibility that will lend legitimacy to the constitution now under construction. The Bush administration, Dean said, must devise a way for Iraqis to elect an interim government to write a constitution. The election doesn’t have to be American-style, Dean said, but it must be "a natural, local selection process" that will be viewed as legitimate.

Dean said Iraq is "probably the best place" for Saddam to be tried, but "I’m willing to be flexible about that because I don’t think it’s essential to the security interests of the United States." The Monitor asked: Where should Osama bin Laden be tried if he’s caught? Dean said he didn’t think it made any difference, and if he were president he would consult with his lawyers for advice on the subject.
"he would consult with his lawyers for advice on the subject" = "I dunno. Whuddyou think?"
But wouldn’t most Americans feel strongly that bin Laden should be tried in America - and put to death? "I’ve resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found," Dean said. "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials. So I’m sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you’re running for president, or if you are president, it’s best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it’s not so great to prejudge the judicial system."

Asked to discuss his lack of foreign policy experience, Dean said he knows his way around foreign policy more than his rivals give him credit for - he’s visited 50 countries and met foreign leaders on trade missions as governor. But the larger point, Dean said, is that all presidents listen to advisers with expertise in particular areas. "The question is how to pick apart the advice and figure out what the right course is, based on the various arguments that people are making," he said. "That’s what I’ve done as governor."

Asked how he would beat primary rivals with more experience on foreign policy, Dean said he would keep reminding Democrats that he was the only major candidate who opposed the Iraq war, despite polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time. "The bottom line is, what kind of foreign policy experience do you want in Washington, in the White House?" he said. "Do you want the kind of foreign policy experience that was willing to vote for the Iraq war, or not?"
Absolutely.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 3:30:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good for you, Howard! Fair play for everybody!
Can't wait until you're president and they eat us afuckinlive!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 15:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Asked how he would beat primary rivals with more experience on foreign policy, Dean said he would keep reminding Democrats that he was the only major candidate who opposed the Iraq war, despite polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time.

"The bottom line is, what kind of foreign policy experience do you want in Washington, in the White House?" he said. "Do you want the kind of foreign policy experience that was willing to vote for the Iraq war, or not?"


Um, Mr. Dean - ANSWER THE F*CKING QUESTION!!!

Asshat...
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 15:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I keep waiting for Dr. Dean to begin his movement toward the center- but he ain't doing it.

Somehow I can't reconcile this:

Dean said he would keep reminding Democrats that he was the only major candidate who opposed the Iraq war, despite polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time.

with this:

"Do you want the kind of foreign policy experience that was willing to vote for the Iraq war, or not?"

given the continuing public support for the war, especially after Saddam's capture.

What the hell is this clown trying to do, give Bush a 50-state landslide next year????
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/26/2003 15:54 Comments || Top||

#4  What the hell is this clown trying to do, give Bush a 50-state landslide next year????

Um...yes?
Posted by: Val || 12/26/2003 16:06 Comments || Top||

#5  So I’m sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans

Unbelievable. This guy is nuts, he goes to 'meet ups' with other leftwing nuts, and they all reinforce eachother with their insanity. This idiot has no idea how Middle America feels, and in any case, he tunes out what he doesn't want to hear.

If this jackass somehow did become president, every city in the U.S. would be just like Tel Aviv and we'd be going to prayer 5 times a day.

Just keep talking, howie, you're digging deeper.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 16:26 Comments || Top||

#6 
What the hell is this clown trying to do, give Bush a 50-state landslide next year?
From your keyboard to God's ear.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/26/2003 17:17 Comments || Top||

#7  I like Howard's comments, I can't even make shit up to make them look dumber lol
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 17:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Karl Rove, wherever you are, have another glass of champagne and send Fred the bill. This is like watching a guy throw a hanging curve ball to Hank Aaron.

"I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."

What exactly is the good doctor saying here? He seems to be saying that OBL, if he's not in hell, is entitled to all the protections afforded American citizens by our legal system. But if that's what he means, then to be consistent, he's got to take it further and say that OBL is presumed innocent, just like any citizen.

Go ahead, Dr. Dean, make my day: tell the world that Osama is presumed innocent.
Posted by: Matt || 12/26/2003 17:41 Comments || Top||

#9  OBL is innocent because the Deanuts all think Dubya/Big Oil©/the Knights Templar really were behind 9/11.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 17:45 Comments || Top||

#10  "From your keyboard to God's ear."

Yeah, but I'm not too comfortable with Dean's iridescent idiocy making a blowout election inevitable: if the mental image of a shotgun-toting Karl Rove grinning broadly as he stands over a barrel of fish gains too much currency among the Democratic Party leadership, they might ditch Howlin' Howard and trot out Hillary instead. And then we've got a serious fight on our hands.
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/26/2003 18:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Which might explain why Rove et al. have been doing so little counterpunching.
Posted by: Matt || 12/26/2003 18:51 Comments || Top||

#12  From your keyboard to God's ear.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2003-12-26 5:17:11 PM


2004 is gonna be soo much fun.
Posted by: badanov || 12/26/2003 19:10 Comments || Top||

#13  SSSSsssshhhhhh
Dave D's right ;-)

Dave, you still commenting at Bill Quick's too?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 20:06 Comments || Top||

#14  Uggghh..this idiot is to much. He's going to get wiped out (if anyone is paying attention).
I may be looking ahead too much but '08 is what I'm worried about.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/26/2003 20:46 Comments || Top||

#15  Frank G:

I kinda gave up on DailyPundit; too little of Bill Quick anymore, too much of YGB and TF. I still check in there daily, but seldom comment.
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/26/2003 20:55 Comments || Top||

#16  The really, really, really good thing about Dean is that the hard core Demo's think he actually has a chance. My New Year's Prayer: "Please, God...don't burst Demo-Dean bubble."
Posted by: ScottAK || 12/26/2003 20:58 Comments || Top||

#17  Whadda dummy....he had the photo-op of a lifetime, and the chance to even the polls....all he had to do was quote the Old Cowboy and say, "Oh, he'll get a fair trial alright, first we'll try him fair, then we'll hang him fair."

No imagination, that Dean...whatta dumkopf.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/26/2003 21:24 Comments || Top||

#18  Dave - I've gotta agree on all 3 points: BQ is distracted with real life, YGB and TF need to get one
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 21:33 Comments || Top||

#19  glad to see you here though :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 21:38 Comments || Top||

#20  Aside from the fact that this reveals what a little asshelmet Coward Dean is and that should he be the Dim candidate that Bush will beat him like a red-headed stepchild, there is the reality of Clintoon's 8-year reign of terror and the reason he wouldn't go after OBL, even though he had about 12 opportunities: Clinton, ever the legal man, would hold off grabbing Osama or hitting him back because there "wasn't sufficient proof that would hold up in a court of law."
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/26/2003 21:40 Comments || Top||

#21  Uh... Frank? TF doesn't need "a life"; he needs Thorazine. Lots of it. :)
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/26/2003 21:51 Comments || Top||

#22  Dave, too funny!
Both he and YGB would benefit from a rigorous course of electroshock therapy to be followed by a cold can of Spud beer.
Whoa, Spud!
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 12/26/2003 22:16 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Saudia welcomes...
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has welcomed the historic, daring step taken by the Great Jamahiriya [Libya] by its own free will to abandon internationally banned weapons. The Saudi foreign minister said in a press conference held in Riyadh last night that this positive step is totally in line with the general trend in the Middle East region to make the area nuclear free and confirmed that this decision exposes the Israeli position. The Saudi minister said that the Great Jamahiryia's decision to abandon internationally banned weapons was taken voluntarily which is an indication of the fairness of the Arab position.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 15:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great Jamahiryia
I'll take a pass on the Great Jambolya, as it give me heartburn like you wouldn't believe
Posted by: Capsu78 || 12/26/2003 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Great support statement from Saudi Arabia. Now what about their own WMD program with Pak-land? Or are they just cranking out the usual rhetoric today?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 17:38 Comments || Top||


UN Welcomes Libya’s Decision
The UN Security Council said Tuesday it welcomed Libya’s decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs but stopped short of saying the move could serve as a model for other nations. In a statement, the council called for quick action and urgent verification of the Libyan pledge, which came Friday as Tripoli took another step towards ending its long years of isolation on the international stage. But diplomats said nuclear power Pakistan, which Tuesday said some of its top scientists may have shared nuclear secrets with Iran, blocked wording that would have called the Libyan move a “model” for other countries.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 14:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Other than the EU, who exactly is it that cares what the UN has to say about anything anymore?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/26/2003 15:03 Comments || Top||


‘US Security for Libya’
The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said the United States has committed itself to providing security for the country and that US officials will travel there soon to ascertain its needs. Seif al-Islam, in comments published Wednesday in the Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat, also said British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush would visit Libya in 2004. Islam said Washington had “committed itself to protecting us from any sort of attack” and that there had been “consultations to conclude security and military accords that would lead to joint military maneuvers in the future.”
Anybody still doubt that Muammar's in the process of changing sides?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 14:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  God, if he really is, he's going to be an intelligence source that trumps Iraq's files.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I've often wondered whether, in the days immediately following the 9/11 attacks, we had made Pakistan's Musharraf an offer he couldn't refuse- something along the lines of, "you have a choice: you can either choose to be really, REALLY good friends of ours by helping us against bin Laden and the Taliban, or you can have us as mortal, immediate enemies. Take your pick."

This Libya deal gives me those same vibes: that we talked softly while carrying a BIG bag of carrots in one hand and a BIG stick in the other.
Posted by: Dave D. || 12/26/2003 15:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Like any coward, he changed sides when he saw what the consequences could be, and which way the wind blows. The carrot-stick thing only works when you actually use the stick, which we haven't done lately. He doesn't want to stick applied to his head.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 16:38 Comments || Top||

#4  [jeez, trying to do too many things at once]

Obviously, I meant we haven't been very credible prior to 9/11; and of course "THE" stick applied to his head.

blehhh, i need more eggnog
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 16:45 Comments || Top||

#5  United States has committed itself to providing security for the country and that US officials will travel there soon to ascertain its needs

Too strange... I hear that New Hampshire's upset because Libya gonna have the first primary.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 20:30 Comments || Top||

#6  God, if he really is, he's going to be an intelligence source that trumps Iraq's files.

Who says he hasn't already? Negotiations started just before the war. Who knows how much he's already given to us.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 20:32 Comments || Top||

#7  It's a big accomplishment. And it's imperative to take strength from it. Still, there's a long way to go. Even agreements on joint military exercizes aren't the same as heartfelt non-beligerance. Perhaps now Lybia won't pursue a WMD policy, but experience with Egypt points to the possibility that they may actively pursue a s**t-disturber policy all the same...

-Vic
Posted by: Vic || 12/26/2003 21:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Re: Charles #6: and the best thing is that the islamofascists will start thinking that they're compromised and they will make mistakes. We have a window of opportunity here....
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/26/2003 23:55 Comments || Top||


Middle East
Haneyya: We did not promise to spare civilians
Ismail Haneyya, one of the Hamas Movement leaders in the Gaza Strip, has accused unnamed parties of attempting to besmear the image of the Hamas Movement through circulation of rumors and fabricated news. Haneyya said that none of his Movement cadres had met American officials in Beirut and stressed that his Movement did not promise any Arab or other party to spare civilians in the armed attacks only in return for sparing Hamas leaders.
"Quite the contrary. Civilians are much easier to kill than armed soldiers."
The Hamas official, in an interview with PIC, charged certain parties, which he did not wish to identify, of trying to smear Hamas’ stands and show the Movement as if it only cared for its leaders and cadres.
"As long as we have enough hidey-holes, we will continue showing our accustomed bravery."
He affirmed that Hamas was working for the Palestinian people’s interests and had lost along this road hundreds of its members and leaders. “We have expressed our position very clearly at the Cairo dialogue when we spoke before the entire Palestinian factions and Egyptian officials namely that Hamas would agree to sparing civilians on condition that the Palestinian civilian society was also spared,” he explained. Haneyya pointed out that his Movement was ready to make contacts with all parties, with the exception of the Zionist enemy, and would table the same position with each one of them. Such a position was based on Hamas’ wish to win support for the Palestine cause and to expose the Zionist enemy’s practices before the world, he elaborated. Haneyya said that based on such a concept a number of Hamas leaders held a meeting with Steve Cohen, member in the foreign relations council in the USA, which is a non-government organization. “We tabled Hamas’ viewpoints in detail along with the Palestinian people’s demands on the importance of ejecting occupation and restoring all usurped rights including the refugees’ right of return,” he noted. “We also pointed out that the Palestinian people’s problem was not with resistance but rather with occupation,” he said, adding that the Hamas delegates briefed Cohen on the Zionist aggressions and crimes including the assassination, sieges, incursions, demolition of houses, arrests, daily humiliations at roadblocks, denying people right of travel and others. “We asserted that our people was thus entitled to self-defense and to continue resistance against that occupation as long as it persisted in its aggressions,” Haneyya said. He emphasized that published reports that Hamas had tabled special demands such as lifting the Movement from the American list of terrorist organizations, unfreezing its assets or releasing its captives were sheer lies that were never discussed.
Good. As far as I'm concerned, they're not open for discussion. If Hamas isn't a terrorist group then there's no such thing.
Asked why did Cohen ask for a meeting with Hamas leaders, Haneyya said that Hamas was an important element on the Palestinian arena and many wished to probe Hamas’ views and future perspective. He underlined that Cohen was not an American official and only represented himself and his NGO that had meetings with various world parties and forces. Cohen did not introduce himself as a mediator and did not carry any message from the American administration, the Hamas official affirmed.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 14:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Smearing Hamas? The nerve of some people!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 14:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Israel sez they've stopped targetting Hamas, apparently as Hamas's leaders, deciding they didn't want to be martyrs, have ceased attacks....LOL - Hamas is offended/angry this got out in the public
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 15:50 Comments || Top||


Sheikh Yassin: Land of Palestine is not for sale or bargaining
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has asserted his Movement’s insistence on resistance in a telephone address to the crowds that gathered yesterday in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil to commemorate Hamas’ 16th anniversary. Sheikh Yassin said that the land of Palestine was not for sale or bargaining and that his Movement insisted on the liberation of the entire holy land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River and from Ras Al-Naqura to the Negev.
Not an awful lot of room for Jews in there...
He said that the land of Palestine was a Wakf land that none had the authority to surrender. He lauded the Hamas cadres and supporters for defending the dignity of the entire Ummah with their simple means.
Yup. Just love that "dignity," don't they?
The Hamas leader expressed conviction that the Zionist entity would be defeated one day despite its arrogance and "power".
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 14:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They have to put power in quotes. Clear sign of denial. It also sounds alot like NAZI propoganda near the end of WW2.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  sweet 16 for Hamas huh? Too bad the Mossad didn't have any candles for them to light...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 14:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, Sheikh Yassin? Is that a Zionist entity gunship up there?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 14:43 Comments || Top||


Hamas martyrs in mysterious explosion
Fadi Elwan Beni Odeh, 20, one of the Hamas Movement activists in the village of Tamon in the West Bank district of Jenin, last night martyred in a mysterious car explosion at the Ras Al-Ein suburb in Nablus.
Another one? I'm so happy!
The powerful explosion at 10.30 pm yesterday was heard all over the city. Ambulance cars and firefighters rushed to the scene only to find the martyr’s charred body thrown three meters away from the car. Identification of the body was delayed due to its severe mutilation as his limbs and head were cut off.
Boom belt went off prematurely. Dontcha hate it when that happens?
The Ford car was totally burnt and electricity cut off in the entire area, which complicated the search for possible other victims or other explosive devices on the scene. There were rumors that the body of another martyr was found in the same area but medical sources later denied the report.
"Nope. He had three lips, that's all..."
Zionist military sources denied any involvement in the incident, claiming that it was the result of the untimely blast of an explosive device carried by the martyr on his way to launch an attack on Zionist targets. The martyr was on the run for the past few months after the Zionist occupation authorities charged him of involvement in shooting incidents at Zionist targets.
I thought this was another work accident, but it's the same one we reported yesterday — it's that transliteration problem. Al-Jizz carried his name as Ilwam Beniawdi, which is you can see is very close to Fadi Elwan Beni Odeh... This adds a bit of juicy detail, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 14:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Identification of the body was delayed due to its severe mutilation as his limbs and head were cut off.

It sounds like he was either putting the bomb in the car, or taking it out. Sure wasn't riding in the car. And didn't have it strapped to his chest, since he doesn't have a torso section missing. I'm guessing he was bent over with his hands on the bomb, head above it, and torso leaning back. The position of the body only three meters away also seems to indicate this.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:21 Comments || Top||

#2  post-boom reconstructions courtesy of Charles, I just enjoyed the sublime moment....
;-) Happy 16th birthday Hamas...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 14:30 Comments || Top||

#3  You're wasting a lot of energy analyzing where somefoolone :-( won't get his 72 virgins. You can't claim to be a "martyr" [sneerquotes mine] if all you blow up is yourself. Pal-OSHA should be the ones looking into these on-the-job accidents.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 14:36 Comments || Top||

#4  The Ford car was totally burnt...

Friggin' Pintos!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 14:36 Comments || Top||

#5  How many raisins does this moron get for killing the infidel Ford?
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 17:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Fadi Elwan Beni Odeh, 20, one of the Hamas Movement activists in the village of Tamon in the West Bank district of Jenin, last night martyred in a mysterious car explosion at the Ras Al-Ein suburb in Nablus.

It just doesnt get any better than this for the IDF, folks.
Posted by: badanov || 12/26/2003 19:12 Comments || Top||

#7  This adds a bit of juicy detail, though.

That's not funnny..... that's sick. heh
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 21:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front
CIA building case Anthrax attacks were international terror plot
Hat tip to Drudge - Somebody tell the FBI guys watching Hatfill?
The CIA has been quietly building a case that the anthrax attacks of 2001 were in fact the result of an international terrorist plot.
I think we've remarked on that before...
U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports tell us the information showing a terrorist link to the anthrax-filled letters sent by mail in the weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks is not conclusive. But it is persuasive. Asked to comment, a U.S. official said, "There is no evidence at this point to suggest a foreign terrorist link or connection. But the matter is still under investigation and we’re not ruling anything out."
Occam's razor still suggests to me that it's tied in with Qaeda.
Some officials think the intelligence is at least as valid as the FBI’s "mad scientist" theory, which has produced dead ends so far for the G-men after more than two years of investigation of Hatfill and nobody in a turban. This theory says a U.S. biological weapons scientist with access to highly refined anthrax powder stole some and used it to awaken the U.S. government to the threat of deadly anthrax. Former weapons scientist Stephen Hatfill was identified by the Justice Department as a "person of interest" in the probe. Mr. Hatfill has stated repeatedly that he had nothing to do with the anthrax mailings. He is suing the federal government for investigating him.
and him alone
The deadly letters were sent to two U.S. senators and several news outlets in October and November 2001. They ended with the phrases, "death to America, death to Israel, Allah is great." Five persons were killed after inhaling anthrax spores and 22 others were sickened but survived. The spores were analyzed and found to be a virulent form known as the Ames strain. Also, the spores were milled into extremely fine powder, making it easier to disperse in the air. Investigators were hoping the Iraq Survey Group would come up with documents or evidence indicating that Iraq might have acquired the Ames strain. But U.S. officials said so far there are no signs of Ames-type anthrax in Iraq, either from samples or documents recovered from the Iraqi intelligence service. The service was in charge of weapons of mass destruction development.
I don't think it was Iraq. My guess is that the original source was Qaeda, with the starter samples originating in Kazakhstan. But it's just a guess, and I'm not an expert.
A report last month to the U.N. Security Council by its Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission concluded that traces of anthrax recovered from a bomb in early 2003 were of the same strain Iraq declared in 1991 it had weaponized. Those were not the Ames strain, U.S. officials said
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 12:31:11 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Suggested Futures topics:

1) When will Hatfill sue the FBI? (over / under at 3 months)

2) How much will he win? (o/u = $3 m.)

3) Will Alan Dershowitz defend him? (10-1 odds)
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  "There is no evidence at this point to suggest a foreign terrorist link or connection".In other words,they're just as clueless as the FBI.Don't hold your breath,folks.
Posted by: El Id || 12/26/2003 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Clint Van Zandt, former FBI profiler, at a conference I attended suggested two people, a scientist frustrated with the lack of preparedness of the U.S., and a child who did the actual writing. The "mad scientist" theory was bought into very early on by the FBI, with little or no evidence. Indeed, it is the sheer lack of evidence in any direction that is confounding this case. Bungled by the FBI? Oh, you bet!

The FBI's analysis of the Florida cases, Kathy Nguyen's death, Ottilie Lundgren's death, and baby at ABC are all questions that are unanswered. The latter three, with no other related cases, are unexplained.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/26/2003 13:40 Comments || Top||

#4  This sounds like another competition between the CIA and FBI over who gets credit for solving the case. Even though they are now required to share information ( thanks to Bush after 9/11 ), it's still not enough to make them look at it. At this rate the Anthrax Case is going to be like the JFK mystery. If it's not already, which I think it is.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:11 Comments || Top||

#5  For a sober look at the JFK case,I'll recommend Gerald Posner's Case Closed.It helped me reach two conclusions:1)Oswald did it.2)I was an idiot for believing a word Marrs,Summers,Stone,Garrison and the rest of the conspiracy theorists put out.
Posted by: El Id || 12/26/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||

#6  The CIA has been quietly building a case that the anthrax attacks of 2001 were in fact the result of an international terrorist plot.

Ah, hell. NOW my surprise meter's got smoke coming out of it. Who would have thought underflow would be that damaging?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 15:27 Comments || Top||

#7  In case anyone's interested, way back in the day, John Ringo wrote an op-ed (that didn't get published) on the subject of the anthrax attacks, and why he didn't think they were of domestic origin. You can find it at http://johnringo.com/opstrange.htm. I would speculate on motives as to why they finally decided it's worthwhile to look at non-domestic sources, but I think I'll pass. Too many broken meters. Maybe I should get some of those wind-up ones from the C. Crane Catalog or something.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 12/26/2003 17:44 Comments || Top||


Middle East
ISM morons shot at fence protest
EFL
Golani troops
-that’s not just any brigade, those are the troops who took Jenin -
open fire on demonstrators protesting security fence; Israeli man seriously wounded, foreign woman lightly hurt.


Israel Defense Force soldiers shot and wounded two people during a demonstration against the West Bank security fence Friday. An Israeli man, named as Gil Naamati from Kibbutz Nirim, sustained serious wounds, while a foreign tourist was lightly hurt.... The incident occurred close to the Palestinian village of Mahase, east of Rosh Haayin, where around 100 members of the Anarchist Movement against the Wall and the International Solidarity Movement were protesting against the construction of the security fence....
- personally I’d like to see the IDF shoot them something that gives them poisen ivy in the genitals -
Posted by: mhw || 12/26/2003 11:13:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  sorry for forgetting to put this in middle east - I'm a bit hungover; I saw LoTR last night and it wasn't as good as I had hoped and well...
Posted by: mhw || 12/26/2003 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  IDF should get some of that mud stuff the marines tested in the early 90s as a non-lethal weapon. You squirt it at the protestors and it hardens fairly quickly making it tough for them to move, even harder for them to hide later because of the mud chunks on everything. I bet it takes a bit of hair off when you wash it out as well. All plusses when dealing with protestors.
Posted by: ruprecht || 12/26/2003 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  A Nair Bomb might be fun, too. ;)
Posted by: BH || 12/26/2003 11:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "According to military sources, one live shot was fired in the direction of the demonstrators, who were attempting to cut through the separation fence with wire cutters"

that's the time to hook up the generator to the fence - 220 volts - "Power to the People!" heh heh
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  ruprecht#2 -- Why non-lethal weapons? That's just postponing the problem. The game is played for keeps.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  I say they go with Franks idea. ISM members lighting up like Christmas trees will provide light so the terrorists can be shot in the back.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 14:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Anarchist Movement against the Wall

Sounds like the right place for them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 15:34 Comments || Top||

#8  #3 A Nair Bomb might be fun, too. ;)

My, my, that brings back memories.. Agent 86 and the Nude Bomb. Agent 99, bring me my shoe phone! I have to call CONTROL.

*grin*

Ed.
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/26/2003 16:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front
Gun Sales Up This XMAS?
Glenn Reynolds notes an email about heavy sales at a gun store in the runup to XMAS. (scroll down to the 12/24 entry)
I wonder how many readers here bought or received guns as a result of the ongoing threat of terror attacks? I keep up very basic skills using the guns my husband shoots, but this year I decided I wanted a gun of my own that I could become proficient with. Santa brought me a Sig Sauer P229 9mm ... it fits my hand much better than our Beretta 92F, which I can only shoot 20 or so rounds before I start losing accuracy as my hands tire.
Fred - I hope this is appropriate for Rantburg. If not, please delete it. No news articles detailing sales for this season are available yet (that I could find), but I suspect I am not the only woman in the US who has decided to up her self-defense skills this year. Or am I???
Posted by: rkb || 12/26/2003 11:04:27 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You're not (:
Posted by: Jo Ann || 12/26/2003 12:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred's stated posting policy seems to discourage personal opinion posts, which is what this is if you're quoting yourself. 'Course, that's up to Fred. Now having said that, personal opinons are allowed in this box, so I'm allowed to let fly --
-- To cite Instapundit, scroll down to where Glenn (Reynolds not me) put the next little infinity-shaped thingie. Right-click on it and select "Copy Shortcut."
-- In answer to your ??? while I don't have any data at hand, I doubt uniqueness. But I might be an NRA Life Member prejudiced.
-- "...can only shoot 20 or so rounds..." If you're not already friendly with the household reloading press, expect to be nagged about that.
-- You'd better have kissed Santa.
-- I'd ask you to marry me but we're both already took (;-)>
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 12:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks, Glenn. The email posted on Istapundit isn't mine but it caught my attention since sales were down last year over 2001. An informal poll of friends and neighbors also suggests that at least some Americans are beginning to realize the WOT will be long and that we are in danger of other attacks here. Last year people seemed more complacent.

Friends of mine in the upper midwest are becoming more concerned about their proximity to Canada, too. On the other hand, I encounter more polarized opinion on the left ...

Re: reloading, haven't got that far yet. But Cheaper Than Dirt has our credit card on file. And Santa did indeed get kissed - we live in a heavy gun control state so he had to arrange to leave the pistol in escrow until my permit is approved, which could take months. Sigh.
Posted by: rkb || 12/26/2003 13:11 Comments || Top||

#4  concerned about their proximity to Canada

As well they should be. We Canadians are a nasty bunch. Wouldn't want to use our hockey sticks against them, but we will if we must.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/26/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  RW2004 - it's not native-born Canadians and their hockey sticks my friends worry about, as you no doubt know.
Posted by: rkb || 12/26/2003 16:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Never tried a SIG,my brother has a couple of Browning 9m's,but my all time favorite is the .45 Colt 1911.Shoot somebody in the torso and they are down.A leg/arm hit and they won't be using that limb for a long,long time.If ever.
Posted by: raptor || 12/26/2003 16:55 Comments || Top||

#7  I still dont know why the Armed Forces went with that piece of crap Beretta and the 9mm round. Been better off sticking with the m1911. Or using what the FBI, and other agancies do:

I still use what should have been the standard US Military sidearm: the Glock 23.

The glocks are indestructable, and misfire once a centrury. I have over 10K rounds trhough my original 23, and its misfed only 1 time in all of that, on and that was on cheap flatnose range reloaded rounds.

You can drop a Glock in a bucket of sand and ice cold seawater, let it sit for 30 minutes, take it out, do a quick field clean, (<1 minute) and it'll go thru 100 rounds easy.

As for the round, the 40S&W round packs a harder kinetic punch than does the 45ACP. Remember, velocity is the larger component.

If you use Silvertips or Hydrashoks (unlike military FMJ rounds required by the Geneva Convention), whatever you hit is going to be missing a big chunk. More than a few police are alive because of that.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/26/2003 18:58 Comments || Top||

#8  rkb: your friends have a good point, but the further west you go, the less they have to be concerned about.
Posted by: RW2004 || 12/26/2003 20:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Meh, .45 acp with hydrashoks, it's all good. Anyway, the pistol's only used to fight your way to your 12ga.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 20:22 Comments || Top||

#10  I like what I've read about the Glocks but they just don't fit in my hand as well as the Sig. And a .45 is just a bit too powerful for me to fire regularly (weekly or biweekly range practice).

My thinking is that I'm better off with something I can get really good with even if it's not the most powerful calibre .... given how far a round can travel, if I ever fire at someone I want to be pretty sure I'll hit him/her and not some bystander a block away. I do hope the Sig turns out to be reliable tho.

Didn't the services get stuck w/ the Beretta due to NATO interoperability ???
Posted by: rkb || 12/26/2003 23:21 Comments || Top||


Henry Ford’s ’Legacy’
Posting it all since it requires registration to link online - Hattip to the Instaguy
The quip going around nonprofit circles these days is that the Ford Foundation’s support for Palestinian extremists is the one area of funding it could defend on the grounds of donor intent—an allusion to the notorious anti-Semitism of automaker and founder Henry Ford. But Chuck Grassley, for one, is not amused. In response to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency series detailing Ford’s support for Palestinian NGOs crusading against Israel, the Iowa Republican has announced that the Senate Finance Committee will review the matter. In so doing, we hope it raises a question long overdue for Congressional scrutiny: How U.S. tax laws intended to encourage charity have had the unintended effect of spawning a foundation priesthood funded into perpetuity and insulated from public accountability. (i.e.: disclosure)
If we're looking into Islamic "charities," we should be looking into secular "charities" as well...
This lack of accountability is bad enough even when it involves small foundations that stray from their benefactor’s purposes. But with $10 billion in assets and offices that stretch from Santiago to Hanoi, Ford today has become a major player in international affairs—with the potential to run afoul of U.S. interests abroad.
George Soros’s partner in liberal mischief...both anti-Israel
That’s precisely what happened in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, where a U.N. conference ostensibly called to combat racism became a world stage for anti-Americanism and the crudest kind of anti-Semitic imagery. So ugly did Durban become that Secretary of State Colin Powell ordered the American delegation to return home.
When the State Dept is disgusted, you’ve really crossed the line
In his "Funding Hate" series for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Edwin Black quotes some of those who had witnessed the Durban spectacle as originally guessing that the funding for all this anti-Semitic propaganda must have come from, say, Saudi Arabia. In fact, he says, much of it came from Ford. In 2000 and 2001 alone, Mr. Black notes, Ford distributed $35 million to 272 Arab and pro-Palestinian organizations—with at least some of these millions going to those that transformed Durban into a circus. Among the noisiest of these recipients was the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW), which since 1997 has received $1.1 million from Ford. Mr. Black reports that LAW’s officers assumed leadership positions on the Durban steering committees that were instrumental in making the thrust of that conference an international indictment of the state of Israel. Or take PNGO--an umbrella group of 90 Palestinian NGOs that’s also received more than $1 million from Ford. Its director is quoted as admitting that PNGO gets almost no Arab support and that Ford is its biggest funder. Yet this is the same group that denounced as "unacceptable" a U.S. government requirement that Palestinian NGOs partnering with tax-exempt American charities sign a pledge promising that no funds would ever find their way to "advocate or support terrorist activities."
"If we can’t fund suicide bombers to maim and kill innocent women and children Jooooos, we’ll be irelevant in Paleo society!"
After first digging in her heels, Ford President Susan Berresford acknowledged in a November 17 letter to Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) that she and her colleagues at Ford "now recognize that we did not have a clear picture of the activities, organizations and people involved."
"we gave too much to real charities involved in good works..."
Funding for LAW, she tells us, has been cut off because of financial irregularities, and Ford is in the midst of investigating its other grantees. Not only does Ford not abhor any anti-Semitism, she says, the funding that was featured in Mr. Black’s series represents only a fraction of what is really a broad Ford effort to build a moderate Palestinian civil society in the former state of Israel.
Got caught, didn't she? Now we'll talk about it for a coupla years. Then we'll make some "tentative" adjustments. Meanwhile, the money will keep flowing until they absolutely can't get away with it anymore...
Sounds good. But it’s not as if this is the first time Ford has been questioned about its Middle East funding.
See what I mean?
The New York Sun reports that as far back as 1999 editors at the Jewish weekly Forward ran a story entitled "Latest Ford Foundation Grantees Would Sure Make Henry I Proud." Nothing happened. The difference today is a post-9/11 environment, where the combination of press exposure and Congressional pressure has made it harder for Ford to look the other way.
But not quite impossible...
Mr. Black’s articles report that State, Justice and the IRS are looking into the matter, as well they should. But Congress has a special responsibility with regard to foundations, because Congress writes the tax laws that spawned these empires. Not least of the perverse incentives here is a provision in the tax code—one that Ford lobbied hard to preserve—that allows foundations to count office expenses against the 5% of their assets they are required to give out each year to charity. We hope Senator Grassley goes through with hearings, not only to find out where all that Ford money ended up in the Middle East but also to raise the larger public issue of whether the tax code is being used to subsidize attacks on American interests. Foundations are a growing part of U.S. life and are playing an ever larger role in political debate. Under current law they are also tax subsidized for eternity. Congress hasn’t revisited that policy since 1981, and it’s about time it did.
Followup, Sen. Grassley! Ford is also a large contributor to PBS and NPR, which could be a big reason they so often downplay Paleo/Arab crimes against humanity
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 10:05:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ford is also a large contributor to PBS and NPR, which could be a big reason they so often downplay Paleo/Arab crimes against humanity

Good catch, Frank!
Posted by: Pappy || 12/26/2003 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  There are still a lot of Jews who will never buy a Ford because of his famously anti-semetic views. And I'm one of them.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/26/2003 14:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I used to wear my Chrysler allegiance proudly on my sleeve until they sold out to the Krauts.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 16:55 Comments || Top||


Korea
U.S. to give more food aid to NK
From CNN,so have your grain of salt ready
The United States will give additional food aid to North Korea now that the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) has reported fewer obstacles to monitoring distribution, the U.S. State Department says. The U.S. Agency for International Development will give an additional 60,000 tonnes of emergency food aid to North Korea through the WFP, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a written statement Wednesday.
"Marvin!"
"Yessir?"
"Toss them a crumb."
The United States had already contributed 40,000 tonnes toward the World Food Program’s $171 million appeal for North Korea in 2003. The new donation will bring the U.S. contribution to nearly 20 percent of the WFP’s total appeal for the country, Boucher said. The new aid comes amid faltering efforts by the United States and China at getting North Korea to attend six-party talks — along with South Korea, Japan and Russia — about its nuclear program. But U.S. officials have said repeatedly that food aid to North Korea is not tied to progress on the nuclear front.
Why?
In February, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would cut its aid to North Korea to between 40,000 and 100,000 tonnes, tying the final figure to the ability of donors to track distribution. Last year, the United States gave 157,000 tonnes, but Powell said the WFP had asked for less aid in 2003.
That’s alot of grass clippings and tree bark
In his statement, Boucher said the administration reached the decision fter it received two letters from WFP Executive Director James Morris, who warned about 4 million of North Korea’s most vulnerable citizens would not be fed this (northern hemisphere) winter without additional donations and emphasized the United States was "uniquely positioned to help."
That's because we're not communists, so we can grow enough groceries to feed ourselves and have lots left over...
Morris also noted some progress on the WFP’s operating conditions in North Korea, including increased access across the county, Boucher said.
Several boat loads of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children could make access even easier!
The WFP also was allowed increased monitoring and was provided information on wages and prices so it could determine citizens’ ability to receive food. However, he said that the WFP still had the same concerns about monitoring and access that the United States did.
He means he wants to make sure the groceries go to the populace, rather than to the army. But then, food is just as fungible as money. If we feed the populace, they can use the little bit they can produce to feed the army. I'd never make it in an NGO.
"We again call on North Korea to adhere to the same standards of humanitarian access that apply to other recipients of international food assistance," Boucher said.
At least Kimmy’s favorites will be eating this winter
"We will work with the World Food Program and other donor countries to achieve needed improvements." Boucher said the United States would decide at a later date how to respond to WFP’s 2004 appeal for North Korea.
This is a lesson in how not to put a rogue regime’s feet to the fire. I feel sorry for those people suffering under that idiot, but I’d feel a whole lot worse if Kimmy gave a nuke to an Islamist.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 12/26/2003 7:07:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let 'em eat enriched uranium.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 9:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope every bag of wheat and rice has a big honking 'From the U.S.A' stamped all over it.

But knowing the U.N. they would have probably relabeled it anyway.

Unfortunately this allows Kimmie-boy to give whatever was produced in NKOR to his army while the U.N. (and the US) feed his starving population.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/26/2003 10:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Boucher said the United States would decide at a later date how to respond to WFP’s 2004 appeal for North Korea.

I'd say f*ck 'em, but then that's why I'm not a diplomat.
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 11:31 Comments || Top||

#4  "I'd say f*ck 'em, but then that's why I'm not a diplomat."

Raj - in diplospeak that phrase's called: "A frank exchange of views"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 12:33 Comments || Top||

#5  I hate to see anybody starving, but it is totally due to Kimmy's rule. The Norks need to be brought down, the sooner the better. This will result in ending the atrocities committed by Kimmy and Co. and will end the suffering of the North Korean people. The US and SKor giving food aid is just enabling behavior for Kimmie and Co. We need to not give them food aid AND we need to publically say why we are NOT goving the NORKS food aid.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 16:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front
New York most popular christmas destination for Brits
Interesting given the terrrorism scare over christmas in the USA. And BTW, I also love NY - EFL of course
The British Airports Authority estimated that 4 million people will fly out of Britain over the festive season - and half of those will depart from Heathrow. "We think it will be our busiest Christmas ever," said a BAA spokeswoman. "Tenerife, Malaga and Orlando are popular this year, with skiers heading to Geneva." But sunbathing and winter sports are not the most popular holiday choices: New York remains the favourite destination for Britons taking a festive break.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/26/2003 3:26:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course the corollary to this is that (squelch your shock meters)San Francisco is the most popular destination in America for French and German visitors.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/26/2003 4:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Serendipitous Discovery of How to see San Francisco!

Some years back, on family vacation, going south on 101 I pulled off around Santa Rosa, asked Daughter, "Would you like to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge?"

"Sure!" She took the wheel whilst I rubbernecked from shotgun [front passenger seat, for non-US readers.] We got into town and she wanted to switch back, but, it being San Francisco, there was no place to park. Most pleasant visit I've ever had. Daughter decided henceforth to vacation separately from us.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 4:50 Comments || Top||

#3  I took that drive on US101 South last March, Coos Bay OR to LA-LA Land. Droped down to Hi-way One south of Oregon. There is no more twisty road on the planent then the drop from US101 to the coast Hi-way. Shotgun is like the backseat of cuortesy flight in an F-15.

But I love that drive. US101 north of Frisco to the Oregon border is driving nervana. At night following the cateyes and chasing the locals, who know the road, is the canonball.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 13:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Lucky, wouldn't want to drive that stretch at night. Much too pretty. Speaking of 101, not a wine freak but :-( about Paso Robles shaker, betcha spilled a lot of good Arciero, Tobin James, etc. Dry Creek Valley stuff. Also tons of wineries west of town we never got to.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 14:26 Comments || Top||

#5  You gotta try it Glen. It's video game cool and very fast.

BTW if you're out that way again there is a killer, best in class, greasy spoon place in Templeton CA. Just minutes south of Paso Robles, called Henry's (Harry's?). It' sits just in front of the cattle auction lot. The patrons are of the cowpoke persuasion. This is a Rantburg alert. A must eat there thing.

If you go. Templton is a one street kind of place just off US101. Breakfast is unreal, Be hungry and don't let the flies upset you. Nice people too.

Also, you golfers, Paso Robles, just off 101, on route 41 has a very tough 18 holes course, Rancho something I think. Thanks to buddy from Atascadero, that jewel of coastal Cal.
Posted by: Lucky || 12/26/2003 14:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Templeton's where my ex-wife lives...gee, thanks for bringing that up!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 15:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Some of you Damn Yankees buy them good folks a beer,an 1ft long Coney.
Posted by: raptor || 12/26/2003 16:58 Comments || Top||


Latin America
Quake Shakes Panama-Costa Rica Border
A strong earthquake shook the border of Costa Rica and Panama early Thursday, killing an infant and leaving dozens of others with mainly minor injuries, authorities said. The magnitude-6.3 temblor struck at 2:11 a.m., disrupting some late-night Christmas parties in Puerto Armuelles and cutting electricity there. Panamanian officials said it was centered about seven miles northeast of Puerto Armuelles, located on the country’s Pacific coast. Across the border in the town of Neily, Costa Rica, about 40 people sustained minor injuries from falling objects. Officials said they were treated at a hospital and released. Carlos Herrera, an official with the Red Cross in Costa Rica, said no calls had been received requesting assistance for the quake region.
Earthquakes in Iran and Costa Rica, following earthquakes last week in California and Virginia. Okay, I’m ready for the locusts and flying toads.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/26/2003 1:17:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There was an Earthquake in Virginia? I didn't hear about THAT one. And it's erupting Volcanoes that come next, Steve.
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 4:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Its Bush's fault (no pun intended).
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 12/26/2003 4:35 Comments || Top||

#3  If we get flying toads I'm gonna have to retrain my goldie. Figuring out Quail took him 3 years.. flying todays could very well end his already spotty hunting career.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 7:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Hmmmm - and all this time, I thought it was flying monkeys that kidnapped Dorothy.

Nicaragua, just north of Costa Rica, has dozens of volcanos, about half of which are still active. Costa Rica has a couple of active volcanos. There are no active volcanos in Panama - yet.

My daughter found an article online some time ago about monkeys that glowed in the dark. I'm sure that, if we can make monkeys glow, we can certainly find a way to give them wings. I'm also sure that nothing would "upset" the black turbans quite like monkey droppings on their turbans.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/26/2003 15:18 Comments || Top||

#5  OP -- either flying dogs or flying pigs would be more insulting.

Flying pigs would, however, result in a great many unlikely things being forced to occur, but would be a great boon to their natural homebase, Cincinnati.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 12/26/2003 15:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually, oddly enough, there are several species of frogs that can glide. At least two rain forest species have adapted to living in treetops, and have evolved to the point where the webbing between their toes is now large enough to serve them as mini-wings, allowing them to glide for truly impressive distances.

Nature's not just a bitch, she's a practical joker, too. Heh!

Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 12/26/2003 16:34 Comments || Top||


Iran
Major Earthquake Strikes Southeast Iran
A major earthquake struck southeast Iran on Friday, and state media said many people were feared dead.
Why, oh why, didn’t this strike the mosques in Qom?
Iranian television said the magnitude 6.3 quake hit near the city of Bam, about 630 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran. It said all houses in the quake region that were made of brick which is all of them had collapsed, and that phone lines to the region had been severed. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the newscaster said: "Many fatalities are feared."
Fox News was estimating up to 10,000 dead.
"Authorities have demanded immediate blood donations to save the lives of those who have been admitted to hospital in the provincial capital of Kerman," the newscaster said. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, big enough to cause severe damage. The survey said it occurred at 5:27 a.m. local time.
Bad for the people. Perhaps a few hundred bricks fell on Khatami’s head?

Here's more detail, from Pak Tribune...
A devastating earthquake rattled Bam, a historic city in southeast Iran on Friday, and officials said the final death toll may top 10,000. Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the quake occurred, said there was still no precise number of dead from the magnitude 6.7 quake, but officials working in Bam had given him that figure. "The quake hit the city when most of the people were in bed, raising fears that the death toll may go higher," he said.
Dropped the whole city in on them...
Reuters news service reported one official confirming that at least 2,000 had been killed. Officials surveying the city of 80,000 people from helicopter said about 60 percent of the city's houses were destroyed, Khoshrou said. Water, power and phone lines were cut. The earthquake struck at about 5:30 a.m.

10,000 dead in a city of 80,000. That's breathtaking. A quake of about the same magnitude hit California four days ago, scaring several people.
Two people killed and about 40 buildings collapsed or severely damaged at Paso Robles. At least 40 people injured in the Paso Robles-Templeton area. Buildings damaged and small fires occurred at Cambria and Morro Bay. The airport at Oceano was closed due to cracks in the runway.More than 10,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Paso Robles area.
Earthquakes have been rattling Iran for at least as long as they've been rattling California, and there have been civilized people living there much longer. The quake in Panama and Costa Rica today disrupted a few Christmas parties and there were a few minor injuries. What's the difference? Or is there something I don't know about earthquakes (there's lots) that I should?


Iran Broadcasting puts the death toll at 4000. Headlines:
  • 90% of quake victims in critical condition
  • 60 percent of Bam houses destroyed
  • Red Crescent call for aid to victims
  • IRC gear up to help quake victims

Hindustan Times puts the quake toll at 15,000.
Earlier, the state news agency IRNA had quoted Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province, as telling Iranian President Mohammad Khatami over the telephone that 5,000 to 6,000 people had died. State television had earlier said that 4,000 people had died and another 30,000 were injured.
That would be the Iran Broadcasting figure...
The tremor, which struck before dawn as most of the city's 200,000 residents were asleep, has launched a major international relief effort.
Population grew some, did it?
Dozens of bodies littered the streets of the city, built almost entirely of mud brick and ill-equipped to withstand a big temblor. Bereaved residents wandered the streets pleading for the authorities to speed up rescue efforts. "Seventeen of my relatives are buried under the ruins of my home, they've got to get a move on or all of them will die," said one, who gave his name only as Ali, as he attempted to shift the rubble with a spade. "Why is help so slow in coming? If we were in the West, all resources would have been mobilised," said one survivor.
Because we're looking at something of biblical proportions. Al Qaeda's not a patch on the Hand of God...
"We have neither water nor food," said an old woman, whose black veil was almost white with the dust that enshrouded everyone from head to foot.
It happened this morning. I assume the Iranian authorities are trying to organize aid...
But anger was beginning to kick in among the survivors, livid at the sluggish rescue mission.
I think I'd save that for later. Digging seems more to the point now.
Provincial governor Karimi said, "One thing is sure: the historic quarter of Bam has been completely destroyed and many of our countrymen are underneath the ruins. The situation is very worrying."
Yeah. I'd call 15,000 dead worrying.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi-Lari said the top "priority is to get help to the injured who are under the rubble. It is very cold in the region, and we are very concerned" for them. "Our second priority is to get the wounded to hospitals in the region," the minister said, adding that five military aircraft were shuttling between Bam and Kerman. More than 90 per cent of the old city was destroyed. Besides the flattened homes, the historic centre of Bam with its 2,000-year-old citadel, once the largest mud-brick structure in the world, was gone forever.

Fox News is now reporting the toll at upwards of 20,000. Two hospitals collapsed. EU, U.S., Russia sending aid.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/26/2003 1:12:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do we kill them with kindness by sending aid to the region?
Posted by: eLarson || 12/26/2003 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Trailer of al-Reuters sally:
"Most people think what God wills, will happen. This is absolutely wrong. This thinking is poisonous," said Bahram Akasheh, professor of geophysics at Tehran University.
He doesn't sound very Islamist. I think he was supposed to blame it on Israelis. Wonder if he'll get a talking-to.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 2:27 Comments || Top||

#3  One would think that naming a town in a known quake area "Bam" would preordain it getting it by an earthquake... that's like naming a town at the bottom of a mountain "Flatten"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Hope it got some of their al-Q guests.
Posted by: BH || 12/26/2003 11:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Allah have a bad day yesterday?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 12:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Reuters story update snippet:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters Iran urgently sought sniffer dogs, blankets and medicines from the international community.
After recent big shake in [Izmit '99?] Turkey the Muslim street didn't want sniffer dogs. Thought they'd eat their dead. Have they wised up any?

... many other thoughts best left to your imagination. Complicated.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) || 12/26/2003 13:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Israel offer any help just to tweak the blackhats?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Iran has all this oil wealth, and rather than do such non-glamorous tasks such as updating building codes and retrofitting buildings, they decide to break the bank by building nuclear reactors and uranium concentrating facilities.

Another successful paradigm by the Black Turbans. Too bad people in Iran do not look inward and boot their asses out of power. What will it take?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 16:01 Comments || Top||

#9  Fred---your profound comment was the same thought that I had with the comparison between the earthquake in Iran and the other in Paso Robles.

I used to work with USGS in earthquake research in 1970 in the Paso Robles area. Actually in the east on the San Andreas fault starting at Parkfield and heading north through Slack Canyon and up to San Juan Batista. From our regional measurements, slip on the west side of the San Andreas was 30 mm/year north (not west), steady as she goes. Much of the fault NE of paso robles moves along steadily at the surface. You can see it in the fences with up to 3 ft offset in the old ones. But get up to Gilroy and north and the fault locks up. Since 1906 equivalent strain accumulated is about 8 ft! On Roberta Drive in Woodside (just south of San Francisco) there is an old redwood stump on the fault trace that was split in two by the earthquake. The west side was 12 ft farther north than the east side of the stump! Looking at and measuring these aspects of nature was one of the most humbling and interesting jobs I ever had.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 16:15 Comments || Top||

#10  Are we sure they aren't testing nukes underground?
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 12/26/2003 16:33 Comments || Top||

#11  6.7 hits Cal. moderate to heavy damage,nobody dies.
6.7 hits Iran and levels a city 10's of thousands die....Hmmmmmm
Posted by: raptor || 12/26/2003 17:15 Comments || Top||

#12  Apparently, neither the California Building Code nor the Code of Hammurabi (see #229) are enforced regularly in Persia
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 17:29 Comments || Top||

#13  raptor, #11
That's the question that came immediatly to my mind.
California: 6.7 Richter
10,000 temporarily without power.
Iran: 6.3 Richter
10,000 permanently dead.

"...Dozens of bodies littered the streets of the city"
What killed them if they were in the street ?
I think we should apply the 48 hour(or more)rule.
Posted by: Larry Everett || 12/26/2003 19:08 Comments || Top||

#14  Where are they going to bury the dead though? My guess would be in mass graves dug anywhere they can. Iran disrespected their safety in life, they'll do it to their corpse in death.

What do you guys think?
Posted by: Charles || 12/26/2003 20:29 Comments || Top||

#15  It was the Jew H.A.A.R.P.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/26/2003 20:49 Comments || Top||

#16  #10...that thought occurred to me also.Can any commenters out there enlighten us regarding location of nuclear facilities within earthquake prone areas of Iran.Could an underground test yield enough force to cause fault release?(I'm being premptively lazy before before looking around for info myself.)
Posted by: RH || 12/26/2003 23:37 Comments || Top||

#17  The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in southern Missouri remain the largest (two) earthquakes ever to hit the contiguous U.S. (the main event is estimated at a magnitude 7.9).

The point being that to ask whether an area is earthquake prone is irrelevant cos EVERYWHERE is prone to earthquakes. What matters is the construction quality and safety mechanisms.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/27/2003 2:32 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Egypt Court Delays Verdict in Trial of Banned Group
An Egyptian security court yesterday delayed sentencing in the trial of 23 Egyptians and three Britons accused of plotting to oust Arab governments, with the defense blaming the postponement on an attack on Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher in Jerusalem. Britons Reza Pankhurst, Ian Malcolm Nisbett, and Maajid Nawaz, and 23 Egyptians, who have been on trial since October last year, stand accused of belonging to and trying to reactivate the banned Hizb-ut Tahrir Al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party), and aiming to overthrow governments in the region. The defendants deny charges they called for the establishment of a new Islamic order and have previously said they were tortured. They are accused of spreading propaganda for the Hizb, which is banned in Egypt but not in Britain.
Though it should be. It's not often an Arab nation shows better sense than Britain, but it does happen...
The court sources said it was not immediately clear why the verdict had been postponed until March 25. One of the defendants, an Egyptian, has not yet been arrested and is being tried in absentia. Egyptian officials have said Egypt investigates reports of torture and prosecutes perpetrators.
My sympathy meter didn't budge...
Security sources said yesterday police had arrested and detained more than 80 other people during the past few days who had previously been investigated in relation to the case. They were later freed without charge. The sources did not say why they had been rearrested, but added all 80 were Egyptian and were apprehended in Cairo and the coastal city of Alexandria. An Interior Ministry official told Reuters they had no information on the matter and had issued no statement. The Egyptian government has arrested and referred hundreds of suspected Muslim militants to military courts since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The group, which emerged in Jordan in the early 1970s, seeks to restore the caliphate through military coups across the region. The accused face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
Give them 11...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I see you, and raise you 10...
Posted by: Raj || 12/26/2003 11:04 Comments || Top||


Africa: East
UN Feeds Thousands of Drought-Hit Somalis
United Nations World Food Program’s director for Somalia disclosed that his agency has fed thousands of starving Somalis over the last three weeks. “We have managed to reach nearly 77,000 people affected by the most severe drought in the region for more than 20 years. We targeted those least able to cope — malnourished children, the destitute, the disabled and the aged,” he said in a statement. The statement said that WFP has delivered 732 tons of mixed food commodities, enough to last a month, to 39 villages in the Somaliland region — 15 of them through the northeastern region of Puntland. But the worst affected regions, Sool and Sanaag, are in the north of the country. It also noted that the humanitarian access to the northern regions has been guaranteed following extensive discussions of security issues between WFP and regional warlords administrations. “Thirty-two of the 39 villages we assisted were hit by rain which fell too late to relieve the food situation. The downpour brought temporary relief to water shortages, but 80 per cent of the livestock had already died.”
I don't suppose it's ever occurred to anybody to put the money going to buy arms and ammunition — I happen to know they're not free, even to Islamists — into things like desalinization and irrigation projects?... Naw. That'd never work.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 12/26/2003 00:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They must've sent the doggie bags over from those 5 star NYC restaurants they favor.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/26/2003 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  "spoiled Foie Gras for all you wogs!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/26/2003 10:09 Comments || Top||

#3  *spit* Let Islam feed them.
Posted by: BH || 12/26/2003 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  For the life of me I can't figure out why people don't drill wells,for emergencies if nothing else.
I drilled h2o wells for awhile it ain't rocket science.
Posted by: raptor || 12/26/2003 16:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Good idea, Raptor, they better test them for arsenic and other contaminants, so one good idea (well) isn't negated by another (arsenic) like Bangladesh and Nepal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/26/2003 17:36 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2003-12-26
  Up to 20,000 dead in Iran quake
Thu 2003-12-25
  Another boom attack on Perv
Wed 2003-12-24
  Air France cancels U.S. bound flights
Tue 2003-12-23
  Libya invites US oil companies back
Mon 2003-12-22
  Egyptian FM attacked by Paleos in Jerusalem
Sun 2003-12-21
  Syria seizes six AQ couriers, $23 million
Sat 2003-12-20
  Train boom masterminds identified
Fri 2003-12-19
  Libya to dump WMDs
Thu 2003-12-18
  Malvo guilty!
Wed 2003-12-17
  Big-time raids in Samarra
Tue 2003-12-16
  Izzat Ibrahim hangs it up?
Mon 2003-12-15
  Sammy sings
Sun 2003-12-14
  Saddam captured
Sat 2003-12-13
  Swiss uncover al-Qaeda cells in the Magic Kingdom
Fri 2003-12-12
  Noorani: "Rosebud!"

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