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Zarqawi letter sez insurgency failing
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
MP3 players for AK-47s - WHY????
A BRITISH-based company is selling MP3 players which can be attached to an assault rifle. The "AK-MP3" player is built into the ammunition clip of a Kalashnikov and can be swapped with the real magazine. The device is being advertised on the internet by a Buckinghamshire-based company set up by a group of Russian businessmen who sell audio books. It comes with enough storage space to hold 3000 audio books or 9000 songs. Former Russian rock star Andrey Koltakov, a partner in the dotcom company offering the AK-MP3 for sale, said: "This is our bit for world peace - hopefully, from now on many militants and terrorists will use their AK-47s to listen to music and audio books." The accessory costs $480 or $965 with hundreds of audio books loaded on to it. Those marketing it say the stainless steel body makes it "uniquely suitable for outdoors".
I think this is one of those things you spend money on after you've bought the swimming pool for the horses...
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/09/2004 2:21:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I dont know why.

I do know that i want one.
Cool gadget.
Posted by: Evert Visser || 02/09/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess you could always have the SHAFT theme music on!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/09/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#3  "This is the AK-47, the preferred weapon of your enemy. It makes a distinctive sound when fired. A fake clip's gonna run me over 5 bills? Where's my M-16?"
Posted by: Raj || 02/09/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Mahmoud walks warily down the street with his turban wound too tight.
Ain't no sound but his MP3s, and he's lookin' for a fight.
Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this, are you hangin' on the edge of your seat?
There ain't no bullets in that musical clip, and Mahmoud goes down to defeat!
Another one bites the dust . . . .
Posted by: Mike || 02/09/2004 15:03 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL Mike & Raj.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Get a load of the babe at the "company" website

Killah!
Posted by: R. McLeod || 02/09/2004 19:26 Comments || Top||

#7  My God! It's the "iPod of the 'Stans!" Soon, everyone and their brother's going to be walking around with one of these :)
Posted by: Vic || 02/09/2004 20:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Nice looking babe, but the MP3 player is just built into a wimpy 10 round magazine. No self-respecting Jihadi would want to be seen with anything less than a 30 round magazine MP3 player in his AK!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 02/09/2004 20:27 Comments || Top||

#9  built into a wimpy 10 round magazine

They can tape a couple of magazines together and make it look like a bad-ass MP3 player.
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 23:28 Comments || Top||


Drunken Man Enters Zoo’s Bear Compound
A drunken man visiting the Sofia zoo entered the compound of a Himalayan bear and refused to leave, the zoo director said Monday. The man survived the incident Sunday without injuries because the door to the cage that held the 330-pound female beast was stuck, zoo director Ivan Ivanov said. The 51-year-old man jumped over the fence surrounding the outside part of the bear’s compound. He sat down on a piece of lumber, taunting zoo officials and police who had rushed to the scene. "He was drinking from a bottle of liquor and shouting to the police: `Hey come on, have you got the guts to come over here?’" Ivanov said. The bear, Mila, was watching the scene from behind the bars of her cage that is in the middle of the compound.
... wondering "What the hell?"
"She is not very friendly," Ivanov said. "She eats no meat, but she could have mauled and even killed him; the guy was lucky the cage door lock had got stuck." Zoo officials entered the compound and locked the cage gate so that police could seize the intruder, who was later taken into custody pending stupidity dumbassery hooliganism charges, Ivanov said.
Should a simular episode occur, Super Hose thinks that the magic of WD-40 could give this episode a happier ending for most of the concerned parties.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 2:18:37 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whudda maroon. This guy needs to get busy on the twelve steps program before he actually wins the Darwin award.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#2  "He was drinking from a bottle of liquor and shouting to the police: `Hey come on, have you got the guts to come over here?’"

No, but we might send somebody in to fix the gate, you drunken idiot.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 15:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah yes, WD-40: One of the top three inventions from WW-II, right up there with Nuclear energy and duct tape...
Posted by: Ptah || 02/09/2004 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, I rank Nukes third... never fixed anything with piles.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:30 Comments || Top||


Norwegian Man Steals Women’s High Heels
EFL
A bold thief with a penchant for high-heeled shoes has been keeping women on their toes in the western city of Stavanger. The thief, described as a male in his 30s, boldly enters homes, sometimes when the owners are there, and makes off with women’s high-heeled shoes, the Stavanger Aftenbladet newspaper reported Monday. He knocked on the door of one woman’s home last month, and asked to check a number in her telephone book. She left briefly to get it and he jotted down a number. It was only after he was gone that she noticed all her high-heeled shoes were gone from the entryway. He apparently came back on Saturday and stole more shoes while she was in the shower and her boyfriend was in the living room. Another woman told the newspaper that high-heeled shoes had been stolen from her house five times.
If you’re really against owning a handgun, you got to think about electrifying your shoe closet with 440V or at least get a Loisville Slugger or a king-sized Maglight to knock the snot out of him. I you just can’t even bring yourself to club him in the groin or bust a folding chair over his head. Maybe after Dr Sholes burgles your footware for the tenth time, you’ll see the light and just stick with pumps.
Even though there are often valuables nearby, he only takes shoes and leaves everything else. Aftenbladet said the women had filed police complaints, but that there were no suspects.
Hey ladies, does the name Richard Reid and the initials IED give you any ideas? Think about it.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 2:13:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why steal stuff when there's this great thing called the Internet? More likely than not the objects of this person's desire can be bought from some outfit doing business online.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I think there is some import attached to the wearer of the shoe.
Posted by: Fetishesaremylife || 02/09/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#3  BAR - I think if he gets the doodoo beat out of him once, he curb his very odd appetite at garage sales.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#4  I guess that he figures, if the shoe fits, wear it. The lassie's shoes must fit his size, or he likes the style she picks and uses her for fashion consultation and procurement. Hey, it's a theory......root cause thing and all, ya know. Gotta get closure here.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#5  A friend of mine told me a story (true) about a a "shoe-bandit" in Coronado, California back in the early 60's. He would break into homes and steal only one shoe (always ladies). He got caught and they found hundreds of shoes that he had stolen. Turns out he was a Navy Commander...no joke!
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 18:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Didn't Marla Maples' ex-agent do the same to her?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 22:50 Comments || Top||


Penis-enlargement firms sued
Okay, no snickering guys. Guys??!! Oh all right, go ahead. [grin]
A California man on Thursday sued a slew of international companies, including a Greeley distributor, alleging the penis-enlargement products they market and distribute do not work.
Well, then, how do you [ungh!] explain this? [thud!]
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, seeks class-action status to represent an estimated 1 million people who ordered the products in response to advertisements on television, radio and spam e-mail. "I was wondering for a long time why no one has gotten around to suing these penis-enlargement guys, because it seems like a pretty blatant ... fraud," said New York lawyer Brad Corsello, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Californian Jeffery Horton. The lawsuit names as defendants Leading Edge Marketing Inc. of British Columbia, TechniPak LLC of Greeley and several others. The lawsuit described TechniPak as the "operational hub" of the enterprise. Officials at TechniPak did not return calls seeking comment late Thursday. The TechniPak website describes the company as an operation that handles order processing, warehousing, shipping and payment processing. Horton’s lawsuit alleges that Leading Edge promotes its enlargement products by e-mail, radio ads and television - including a half-hour infomercial starring adult-film legend Ron "Hedgehog" Jeremy.
Eeeewww! Nasty! Yucko!
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of fraud, theft and money-laundering. The lawsuit claims that oils and herbal supplements marketed by Leading Edge under the brand VigRx do not produce the promised permanent enlargement of the penis or cure for erectile dysfunction, among other things. The products cost an average of $110 apiece according to the lawsuit.
let’s see, $110 x 1 million ...,
Along with the lawsuit, Corsello filed a written declaration from his client, Horton. The California man paid $160 for an order of VigRx Oil after receiving an unsolicited e-mail touting the product, according to his declaration. "I used the products, but the products had no effect whatsoever," Horton wrote. "I now feel that I have been cheated out of my money by the sellers of the products. If possible, I would like to prevent the sellers of the products from cheating others as they have cheated me."
What's the word I'm looking for? Oh, yes! Suckah!
Also with the lawsuit, Corsello filed a written declaration from John H.J. Bancroft, a doctor at the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction at the University of Indiana. Bancroft wrote that nothing other than testosterone can increase penis size.
He ain't no real doctor! Where's his white lab coat? Where's that mirror thingy on his forehead?
Among other defendants named in the lawsuit are Unipay Processing Ltd. of Cyprus; DM Contact Management Ltd. of British Columbia; Advanced Botanicals Ltd. of British Columbia; and several individuals associated with the companies.
Why not just say "Everybody in sight"?
Mark Loewenstein, a law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said fraud lawsuits do not often get class-action status. "From a legal point of view, if you’re going to make a case based on fraud, you generally have to get people to complain publicly show that each plaintiff relied on (the misrepresentation)," Loewenstein said. "That’s why it’s a little unusual to have fraud claims that are class actions."
hat tip: Slashdot
Posted by: anon tech girl || 02/09/2004 11:42:09 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "nothing other than testosterone can increase penis size."


I've found that when my old girlfriend dressed up in that...oh, uh, never mind
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm afraid this will only be the tip of the lawsuits. They'll swell to a very large head and the drug companies will get the shaft. I hear Corsello's a stiff negotiator.
Posted by: Raj || 02/09/2004 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3  It'll last for a long time as well.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  But, but this means I won't get any more email! I was so touched by the number of people who were so deeply concerned with my, uh, Johnson and how big it needed to be and how well it must perform and how pleased my femalian counterpart should be! Gov't should not meddle in such things. The Universe will be empty, now.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 12:20 Comments || Top||

#5  ...including a half-hour infomercial starring adult-film legend Ron "Hedgehog" Jeremy.

Damn! If you can't trust a porn star, who can you trust?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  alleging the penis-enlargement products they market and distribute do not work.

That sucks, eh?
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 02/09/2004 12:35 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL,Raj. Tip? Swell? Shaft? Stiff?
SH, I do believe you have competition in the phrase spinning contest.

Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#8  GK. I left this one alone because I thought after filing it under short attention span, everything else was just piling in.

Semi-sincerely,
The Hose - Shoe-size 13 mens / as far as anybody knows.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#9  You would think men in California would worry about things besides how big they're penis is. Like how to make their wifes/girlfriends/showgirls boobs bigger.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Charles - So many worries, so little time.

I have a theory for you:
The a priori consideration for humans in this particular Universe is friction management. The key to successful FM is getting the right amount in the right place(s) at the right time. Everything else is tripe.

Just a thought.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Well, that theory would explain the mystery of Brittany Spears boobs.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#12  Me litigate you long time.
Posted by: ed || 02/09/2004 16:34 Comments || Top||

#13  First Irony... now Friction Management... it's gonna be a long week.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Hate to throw a wet blanket on this, but where's his proof? Did he have a disinterested party take before-and-after photos and before-and-after measurements to prove there wasn't a change? Or does he just expect the court to take his word for it?

Can he prove to the court that the product didn't work? Maybe he's just trying to cash in on the country's unfortunate get-rich-through-lawsuits trend.

*Snigger*

Sucker.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/09/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||

#15  I left this one alone because I thought after filing it under short attention span, everything else was just piling in.

I wondered if anyone would pick up on that!
Posted by: anon tech girl || 02/09/2004 19:24 Comments || Top||

#16  ATG, I blew it. It was supposed to be 'piling on' not in. I guess I posted prematurely :-)
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 20:58 Comments || Top||

#17  And just what does this man's lack of penis size
have to do w/national security?

(I wrote penis - hehehehehehehehehehe)
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 22:57 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Prince Abdul Aziz Raps Al-Jazeera
Now he tells us
The newly appointed assistant to the director of intelligence has accused Al-Jazeera satellite channel of inciting terrorism. Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Bandar described as “an act to incite terrorism” footage aired on Friday by the channel purporting to show the suicide bombers of a Riyadh residential compound minutes before they carried out their attack last November. “This is not surprising,” he told Okaz newspaper. “Since its launch (in 1996), this channel incites terrorism. (This incitement) is not since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but long before,” he added.
Posted by: tipper || 02/09/2004 10:19:45 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We knew that already prince. Now tell us how much funding the Magic Kingdom provides Al-Jazeera each year.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 23:00 Comments || Top||

#2 
Since its launch (in 1996), this channel incites terrorism.
Gee, nothing gets past you, does is, princey-baby?

Little slow on that one, wasn't he? Don't tell princey-poo a joke on Tuesday; he might laugh in the mosque during Friday prayers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/09/2004 23:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually Al-Jazeera is funded by Qatar... you know our new allies in the war on terrorism...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/10/2004 0:29 Comments || Top||


A Saudi Home: Al Qaeda in the Kingdom
Extracted from a longer, well-informed bio of Ayyeri on NRO...
Before his death this past summer, Shaykh Yousef Al-Ayyiri (a.k.a. "the Cutting Edge") sat near the top of this network [of Islamists who returned from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia in 2002]. Al-Ayyiri was a well-known and well-liked figure in al Qaeda who had reportedly first joined the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan at the youthful age of 18. Impressed by his enthusiasm and skills as a combatant, al Qaeda gave Al-Ayyiri a position of high importance within the organization as the commander of a training camp in Afghanistan, and also as a personal bodyguard to Osama bin Laden. Knowledgeable sources say that Al-Ayyiri was handpicked in 1993 to travel to Somalia with al Qaeda’s most senior military commander — Abu Hafs Al-Masri — in order to help instruct radical Islamic militias on how to shoot down U.S. helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades...

An authentic al Qaeda video released on the Internet in early December featured scenes of black-clad, hooded men carrying out indoor urban-warfare training exercises at a camp inside Saudi Arabia known as Al-Istirahat Al-Amana (the Guesthouse of Goodness). The footage was allegedly filmed during mid-2003, and at least one of the featured trainees was later killed during a confrontation with Saudi security forces. No matter how one chooses to characterize the Al-Istirahat facility, there can be no doubt as to the intentions of those who received terrorist "refresher" courses there. Following their recorded training exercises, the men gathered closely together, brandishing their automatic weapons and singing jihadist tunes. One of the men — Abdallah Al-Utaibi — goes on in the video to read a martyrdom will while sitting in the Al-Istirahat camp, begging God to "destroy" the United States.

The presence of these camps — and Yousef Al-Ayyiri's key role in creating them — was confirmed in an electronic communiqué issued in late December by a group calling itself "al Qaeda's Military Committee in the Arabian Peninsula." The "Cutting Edge" manual was given its name "for the great efforts of Sheikh Yousef Al-Ayyiri... One of his last blessed deeds was to establish several training camps in [Saudi Arabia] which several of the hero mujahadeen have come from." The communiqué contained articles from, among others, al Qaeda's reputed senior military commander Saif Al-Adel, lecturing to faithful supporters that "these are times of jihad and preparation for jihad." Finally, the manual suggests that those who are unable "travel to other lands" in order to "join the great camps" can instead covertly mimic their unique and demanding training regimen at home. The loyal soldiers of the late Al-Ayyiri continue to eagerly spread his message and teachings via the Internet, promising terrible revenge against the "crusaders" and the Saudi elite.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 12:44:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "An authentic al Qaeda video released on the Internet in early December featured scenes of black-clad, hooded men carrying out indoor urban-warfare training exercises at a camp inside Saudi Arabia known as Al-Istirahat Al-Amana (the Guesthouse of Goodness)."
---
"The presence of these camps — and Yousef Al-Ayyiri's key role in creating them — was confirmed in an electronic communiqué issued in late December by a group calling itself 'al Qaeda's Military Committee in the Arabian Peninsula.'"

Prince Nayef's "there are no AlQ camps in SaoodiLand" game may be coming home to bite him in the ass. But, for now, he apparently is enjoying it. I wonder if he'll still be a Top Dog in his grand game of footsie with AlQ (same for the Mad Mullahs / Black Hats) if they decide to give up on trying to whack the US and concentrate on the much much easier targets - the big fat soft oil-tick targets...

Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of As the Wheel Turns...
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||


Hajj marred by tragedy
By Taieb Mahjoub
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has ordered the holy places of Mecca and Medina to be modernized, after some 250 Muslims – half of them Asians – died during a ritual that regularly results in deadly stampedes at the Hajj pilgrimage.
“Why stop a good thing-it’s tradition ya know”
The 20-year project, announced by royal decree, establishes a committee chaired by minister of municipal and rural affairs, Mutaab Bin Abdel Aziz, and including Mecca regional governor Abdel Majid Bin Abdel Aziz, Medina regional governor Muqran Bin Abdel Aziz, and Hajj minister Iyad Bin Amin Madani.
“this should be interesting-a 20 years to do what?”
The committee will “gradually put forward proposals” on the basis of expert opinion from abroad as well as within the kingdom.
“note the word gradually”
The dead and injured were trampled or suffocated last Sunday, when vast numbers of pilgrims – almost 2 million – surged forward to lob stones at pillars representing the devil.
“The devil made me do it”
The ritual in the valley of Mina, just outside Mecca, continued for a second day on Monday.
“perhaps they could merge this activity somehow with the Bull run in Spain”
The annual Hajj is an immense logistical challenge for the Saudi authorities, who last month announced an “integrated crowd control strategy” to prevent new tragedies during the annual event.
“But it is good if Allah wishes it right?”
Pilgrims were to be released, in limited numbers, onto a two-tier bridge to take part in the ritual stoning of the devil – represented by three pillars below the bridge – with special forces deployed to disperse people in case of a stampede.
“um two tier bridge-anyone see something disastrous here? “
The faithful were also supposed to leave the area quickly after completing the ritual, while arrangements had been made to rescue pilgrims who fainted or got trapped in the crowds, with the movement of pilgrims monitored via closed-circuit television.
“OK throw your rocks and get moving”
But – as in so many previous years – strategies to prevent a tragedy at the pillars apparently failed, leading to the worst accident since 1998, when 118 pilgrims were killed and more than 180 hurt. The worst toll of the pilgrimage was in July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were trampled or asphyxiated to death in a tunnel in Mina. Most of the pilgrims who died in this year’s accident were Asian.
“Allah doesn’t like Asians?”
“We believe that most of the dead are from among illegal pilgrims,” said Hajj minister Madani, referring to those who arrived earlier in the year to perform the Umrah (minor pilgrimage) and stayed illegally, as well as local residents who had not registered for the Hajj.
“Illegal immigrants in the Kingdom? Shocking”
He said 2,000 national guard members were moved to the area following the stampede to reinforce 10,000 police already on site.
“maybe if we used paintball guns”
Despite the stampede, which lasted nearly half an hour, the ritual resumed later on Sunday, continuing for another two and a half hours.
“Ok just walk around those bodies-keep it moving”
To cries of ”Allahu akbar” (God is great), pilgrims hurl seven small stones from behind a fence or from the overhead bridge every day for three days at each of the three 18-meter (58-foot) high concrete pillars that symbolize Satan.
“I guess they have workers who much like our golf driving range attendants go in and pick up the rocks for the next round”
The pillars stand only 155 meters apart and are generally mobbed as pilgrims try to get as close as possible.
“Wouldn’t it be safer just to piss on the devils’ rock?”
You can't do that! You'd have to show your pee-pee!
According to tradition, it was on this site that Satan appeared to the Prophet Abraham, his son Ishmael and wife Hagar, who each threw seven stones at the devil.
“another (t)urban legend”
Pilgrims who were at the rite on Sunday gave varying accounts of what took place but all said they would not be deterred.
“nah Abdul had it coming anyways”
“I was there and saw 30 to 40 bodies on the ground. But I don’t know if they were dead or unconscious,” said one young Saudi, who declined to give his name.
“ya I just got my rocks out and threw them anyways.”
“What happened this morning did not stop the accomplishing of the Hajj rituals. The pilgrims continued to rush in,” said Waleed Faydullah, a 32-year-old Egyptian.
“Whittled down a few of the players though”
The first two days of the pilgrimage had passed without incident under tight security – although seven members of what the authorities described as a “terror group” were arrested on suspicion of planning an attack.
“geez wonder if they would have blown up something-cool”
Since King Fahd Bin Abdel Aziz acceded to the throne in 1982 and took the title of Guardian of the Two Holy Sites, the government has spent more than 100 billion Saudi riyals (about $27 billion) on enlarging the shrines at Mecca and Medina, which attract millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia each year.
“money well spent – is that for quarrying or what?”
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, along with faith, prayer, charity and the annual Ramadan fast, reached its peak last Saturday on the nearby plain of Arafat, where pilgrims prayed for forgiveness. They then spent the night in the town of Muzdalifa, where they collected their stones, before heading to Mina.
“Party down”
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 10:22:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Moderization: When technology and tradition clash.

In the early 70's a row of embassies were built in Riyadh to replace the ones in Jedda. A British company contracted to build a large Mosque in their midst. The firm used Polaris and other modern survey techniques to assure that the Mosque was exactly aligned with the Kaaba in Mecca. Constuction was well under way when a Mullah visited the site and determined the building was about ten degrees off from the traditional direction to Mecca. The Brits had to start all over. Mullahs and modern don't mix well.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 10:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I harbor some doubts that it's the location that needs to be modernized.
Posted by: BH || 02/09/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#3  When you are moving people through the same path and process every time it is becoming more like a theme park. So get some theme park engineers, or contact a supplier of cattle handling equipment, or something different than what they have been doing that does not seem to work. Oh, that would mean hiring infidels. I guess that change would have to be gradual. The mullahs know best. 250 people is just the price to pay, as long as the hajj-ers keep buying into it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 11:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah, the running of the Muslims in PamplonaMecca.
Posted by: wistful || 02/09/2004 11:15 Comments || Top||

#5  His wife Hagar??? A woman that ugly explains a lot about the misogyny of Islam.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#6  --Prophet Abraham?????

The JEWISH prophet Abraham?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#7  “another (t)urban legend”

Coffee Alert Required!!!
Posted by: john || 02/09/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Abraham came fom iraq. he is the father of ishmael and isaac fom which the arabs and jews are descended
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 11:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Alaska Paul has it right. Let Disney do it. You stand in line untill the next empty seat. Keep your hands and feet inside the car for safty. The people mover could get the intire process over and done within a five minute ride. Rocks and all.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 12:03 Comments || Top||

#10  A five minute ride to "It's a joooo world after all"
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Another domestic dispute, then. These are always the most dangerous calls.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Disney? Sure. Believers! Come ride "Allah's Satan Stoning Bridge of Death"! The only thing that sucks is that it opens up another role for Johnny Depp when they make the movie.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 12:33 Comments || Top||

#13  You stand in line untill the next empty seat. Keep your hands and feet inside the car for safty. The people mover could get the intire process over and done within a five minute ride. Rocks and all.

But then we'll have to read about pilgrims getting crushed while embarking/riding/debarking moving walkways, hanging themselves on the barrier ropes, falling or jumping out out of the cars, rioting and/or dying when things break down due to poor maintenance....
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 14:11 Comments || Top||

#14  A possible Classic anyone?
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 19:30 Comments || Top||

#15  Bring the Hajj-ers a third rail in their people mover system and they will fall all over it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 21:08 Comments || Top||

#16  Pappy your too cool LMAO....
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||

#17  Abraham came fom iraq. he is the father of ishmael and isaac fom which the arabs and jews are descended

If Abraham had two sons, why did God command him to take his only son Isaac in Genesis 22: 2? "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah."
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 23:41 Comments || Top||

#18  Hagar bore Abram ( as he was named originally) a son and Abram called him Ishmael.genesis 16.15. Re Ishmael he and Hagar were sent away to the wilderness of Beersheba genesis 21.14 He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. gen 21.21. Sarah Abrahams wife wanted Ishmael banished so he would not be heir along with Isaac gen 21.10 hope this helps!
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/10/2004 0:12 Comments || Top||

#19  Pappy I'm just now drying my eyes. Oh man.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/10/2004 0:57 Comments || Top||


Soddies find body of al-Qaeda fugitive
Saudi security forces found the body of Amr Mohsen Al Zaydan Al Shihri, one of the top 26 Al Qaida fugitives sought by the kingdom. Al Shihri was listed No. 23 and was wanted for unspecified attacks over the last year. Saudi authorities were said to have found Al Shihri’s body in a desert about 30 kilometers north of Riyad. Al Shihri joined Al Qaida from the kingdom’s religious police, regarded as a major source of recruits for the organization.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:25:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
joined Al Qaida from the kingdom’s religious police, regarded as a major source of recruits for the organization
That just says it all, doesn't it?

Riyahd delenda est!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/09/2004 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if Al was a skier. Or maybe a skydiver!
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 1:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh please oh please oh please allow the gloves to finally come off. I hope this mutt had a truly nasty note pinned to his chest courtesy of some Nasty Boys™ of the SEAL/SF variety.

(not to mention his gonads in his mouth and a pigskin overcoat)
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 02/09/2004 2:09 Comments || Top||

#4  What a great find. Without knowing where to look, to stumble upon the body in the vast waste of desert is extremely fortuitous.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 7:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Of course, the article doesn't say if the body was 'lost' there by dropping him out of a trunk, spinning around a couple of times and suddenly finding him.

"Oooh, lookitthat!"
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 02/09/2004 8:29 Comments || Top||

#6  SH - I detect an aroma of disbelief in your comment. Skeptical?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Frank, I think the story stinks like I'm sure the snuffies corpse did when it was found. It must have been found fairly rapidly also if the man could still be identified, unless of course the killers mummified him.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe we should get those crack security forces to come out to Oregon and help find DB Cooper?
Posted by: Dar || 02/09/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#9  Damn fine police work, if you ask me.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#10  SH:
look for the buzzards and ravens? yep, the body's right where we left it there
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 13:28 Comments || Top||

#11  Sounds like what the Mob used to do back in the 60's in Las Vegas.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Y'know, serendipity such as this is quite similar to finding Mr / Ms Right sitting right there in the next cubicle. Out of 6 billion people, who'da thunk it? The wonders of the Universe never cease to amaze me.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Ms Right sitting right there in the next cubicle.

Jeez... that's not so odd... it's happened to me dozens of times... The She's could rarely grasp the moment of the 6 billion/1.

LOL One day we're all gonna write like a cross between Lucky, .com, Fred, SH and too many othes to mention.

Hold Me Fatima! I want to write the perfect Rantburg entry. Prizes for all, trolls allowed, wear shoes. And no irony. And make sure it's not Fragile.. cause she don't live here anymore.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:01 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Haiti Rebel Uprising Spreads to 9 Towns
EFL:
Anti-government rebels had taken control of at least nine towns in eastern Haiti Monday, and the death toll in the violent uprising rose to at least 40, witnesses said. In the strongest challenge yet to the authority of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, armed rebels began their assault Thursday in the Gonaives, Haiti’s fourth-largest city, setting the police station on fire, driving police officers out of the town and sending government workers fleeing for safety. "We are in a situation of armed popular insurrection," said opposition politician and former army Col. Himler Rebu, who led a failed coup attempt against Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril in 1989.
Success builds on success, if the government doesn’t stop the spread soon, it’ll reach a tipping point.
The deaths were reported by the Associated Press, Red Cross official Raoul Elysee, rebel leaders Wenter Etienne and Jean-Yves Marcisse, and Haitian radio.
Sounds about right, still low by international uprising standards.
At the weekend, the rebels took the important port city of St. Marc, where hundreds of people looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers. Using felled trees, burning tires and cars, residents blocked entry to several towns. Rebels blocking the road into St. Marc from Port-au-Prince, the capital 45 miles away, told Associated Press reporters Monday that if they entered the city there was no turning back to Port-au-Prince. They only would be allowed to travel deeper into rebel-held territory.
Seize an area, seal it off, establish control, rinse, repeat.
The main rebel group is the Gonaives Resistance Front, formerly a gang of pro-Aristide toughs who terrorized government opponents but since have turned on the Haitian leader. In Gonaives, they were joined by some former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army. The rebels are being supported by residents who have formed neighborhood groups disgruntled by mounting poverty, corruption and political crises. In one the bloodiest clashes, 150 police tried to retake Gonaives on Saturday but left hours later after a series of gunbattles, witnesses said. At least nine people were killed, seven of them police. Crowds mutilated the corpses of three police officers, according to AP reporters. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete, and a woman cut off the officer’s ear. Another policeman was lynched, and residents dropped large rocks on his body.
It’s Haiti, you can never be too sure someone is going to stay dead.
Meanwhile, before dawn Sunday an unidentified group of arsonists torched a two-story building in northern Cap-Haitien city that housed the studio of Radio Vision 2000, destroying it, the independent Haitian broadcaster said.
Amateurs, you’re supposed to seize radio stations and broadcast your message to the masses urging them to join you.
Rebels continued to rule the streets of Gonaives on Monday, witnesses said, though it was unclear how many armed militants were in the city of 200,000. St. Marc has a population of about 100,000. Calling the violence acts of terrorism, the government has vowed to regain control, but it was unclear when police planned to return. Premier Yvon Neptune, in a Sunday interview with state television, lashed out "The violence (which) is tied to a coup d’etat under way.
Seems like it is.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 1:27:47 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It’s Haiti, you can never be too sure someone is going to stay dead.
I'd take this story with a huge helping of salt.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Bet that bartending gig at the Kennedy compound is looking pretty good right now, huh, J-B?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 16:15 Comments || Top||

#3  i'll be there on feb 20th for a mission trip. hope it cools down a little between now and then.
Posted by: brad || 02/09/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Good luck Brad, send reports or report back.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||

#5  The pro-Aristide forces battling it out with the recently pro-Aristide forces. I hope they are going with the colored bandana convention or the chances of a blue-on-blue engagement are a real possibility. I mean with all the wanton looting, launching of televisions out of 2nd story windows and gratuitous arson, somebody might accidently drop a cement block on the stricken body of a close ally. That would be a shame.

I am not a fan of human misery but I'm just glad our GI's aren't in the middle of the melee trying to referee the cage match - for once. Jimmy Carter must be asleep at the wheel.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 21:13 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm not a fan of human misery, either. You guys want some of this popcorn?
Posted by: Fred || 02/09/2004 21:48 Comments || Top||


Binny, Mugniyeh planned joint attacks from the Triple Border
If this is true, it’s the first concrete info we’ve had on al-Qaeda and Hezbollah planning joint operations and certainly ups the ante in that regard.
South American-based terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden allegedly plotted an attack on Jewish targets in Ottawa in an effort to undermine Middle East peace talks. The plan to assault unspecified landmarks in the Canadian capital, as well as cities in Argentina and Paraguay, was thwarted by authorities in December 1999, says a new U.S. Library of Congress report. The study also details how Hezbollah operatives active in South America have funnelled large sums of money through Canada in recent years to finance operations in the Middle East. The findings are among the latest to suggest Canada has become not only a staging ground for international extremists but also a potential target for attacks.
The beer in Canada's entirely too good. Many of the women have titties. Hockey is Satan's own game! The country must be destroyed!
The report, Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America, was completed last July by the congressional library’s federal research division under an agreement with the Director of Central Intelligence Crime and Narcotics Center. The centre, staffed by members of the U.S. intelligence community, reviews and analyses information about illegal drug trafficking for American leaders and law enforcement agencies.
Notice how the drug trafficking keeps nudging into the Wonderful World of Terror?
The report, drawing on an extensive range of open sources, concludes various Islamic terrorist groups have used the tri-border area — where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet — for fundraising, recruiting and plotting terrorist attacks in the region and elsewhere in the Americas. It says the tri-border area’s terrorist and organized crime activities are assisted by corruption of local officials. The region features one of the most important Arab communities in South America, numbering as many as 30,000. "Since the 1994 attack, Islamic terrorists in the TBA have largely confined their activities to criminal fundraising and other activities in support of their terrorist organizations, including plotting terrorist actions to be carried out in other countries," says the study.
You can raise a lot of funds in ten years...
Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network has reportedly had "an interest and a presence" in the region since the mid-1990s, although some are skeptical of that claim. Both bin Laden and Al Qaeda lieutenant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are said to have visited Brazil in 1995.
I doubt if it was for Carneval. Somehow I can't picture Binny doing the samba in the streets with passing pretty girls...
By mid-1999, Argentina’s Secretariat for State Intelligence was investigating Islamic extremist groups in the tri-border area allegedly operating under bin Laden’s orders. Agents began taping telephone calls to the Middle East by extremists in Ciudad del Este, the second largest city in Paraguay, and Foz do Iguacu, Brazil. They also secretly filmed meetings of the Shi’ite and minority Sunni groups of the area’s Muslim community. Co-ordinated police raids in the region’s three principal cities on Dec. 22, 1999, reportedly thwarted a plot by terrorists under the control of bin Laden and Hezbollah leader Imad Mouniagh to "stage simultaneous attacks on Jewish targets" in Buenos Aires, Ciudad del Este and Ottawa "in an attempt to undermine the Middle East peace process," the report says.
I don't know why they bothered. The Middle East peace processor seems to grind on without their help, never getting anywhere...
It provides no details about the suspected plots, which were noted in the Paraguayan media at the time but garnered little attention elsewhere, coming almost two years before the eye-opening attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Who the hell reads Paraguayan papers?
Individuals rounded up in the raids but later released included "operatives of Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as a suspected Iranian intelligence agent." Senior members allegedly involved were Hezbollah’s Assad Ahmad Barakat and Mohamed Ali Aboul-Ezz Al-Mahdi Ibrahim Soliman of the Egyptian extremist group Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya — the latter group reputedly linked to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Both men apparently fled and were later arrested in connection with other events.
I wonder, arrested by whom?
Police foiled the alleged plot to attack Ottawa and other cities just eight days after the arrest of Ahmed Ressam of Montreal, caught trying to sneak explosives from British Columbia into the United States. Ressam, the would-be "millennium bomber," was convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport. In September 2001, a Paraguayan SWAT team raided a Ciudad del Este shop run by Barakat, seizing material including training courses for suicide bombers and financial statements totalling $250,000 in monthly transfers to the Middle East. A Paraguayan prosecutor accused Barakat and Saleh of sending money to terrorist bank accounts in various countries. "Specifically, they sent half a million dollars to Canada, Chile and the United States (New York), and bank drafts of $524,000 (U.S.) to Lebanon," the report says. "Paraguayan police found a letter from the Hezbollah commander congratulating Barakat for financing activities in the Middle East."
There's another pattern: picking the most obscure place you can find and setting up shop. Afghanistan, Kurdistan, the Algeria-Mali border, Wadi Hadrammaut in Yemen, and now Paraguay...
In February 2000, Paraguayan authorities arrested Ali Khalil Mehri, considered one of the principal Hezbollah fundraisers in the region. Among the items seized in a raid on his apartment were records of money transfers to Canada, Chile, Lebanon and the United States of more than $700,000 (U.S.). Mehri was charged with funnelling the proceeds of counterfeit software to Hezbollah, but escaped from prison and fled to Syria.
Seems like if you've got a lot of cash flow, it's pretty easy to escape prison and get out of the country...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:14:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't think this country is paying near enough attention to the convergence of Hezbollah, al-Q, FARC, Chavez and the leftist nuts in Peru and Bolivia. They really could destabilize an entire continent.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 1:49 Comments || Top||

#2 
... funnelling the proceeds of counterfeit software ...

When Allah created the universe, one of his main ideas was that anybody should be able to freely copy and sell any software.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  If the article is accurate, I am impressed with the work of the Paraguayan police. The upheval in Paraguay may be an even worse eventuality than I first thought. If a pro-Chavez, pro-Castro leader takes firm control, I think we can expect Paraguay to switch sides in the WOT.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  its bolivia that had the civil disturbances, not Paraguay. And i doubt Bolivia will overtly support the islamists - even Castro hasnt done so. Chavez and FARC both seem to be under seige themselves.

Rather this seems to me an extension of longstanding Hezbollah activity in the horn of South America - remember when they boombed a Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires - (i cant forget, a friend of mine lost several of his friends there) Argetina responded firmly - and ultimately traced it to Iran.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#5  LH, thanks for the correction. I have trouble keeping Parguay and Bolivia straight. I let my wife make all travel arrangements so that we get no surprises.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 21:50 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Written Protest to Bush
I hope Bush wrote them back a nice, folksy reply. Maybe invite them to the ranch for a cookout. They can bring the tree bark and grass sandwiches...
The General Association of Koreans in China made public a "written protest to U.S. President Bush" on Jan. 26 as regards the recent ever more undisguised U.S. moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK. The protest strongly demanded that the U.S. immediately halt its moves to stifle the DPRK and provoke a nuclear war and withdraw its aggression troops and ultra-modern lethal weapons from south Korea without delay.
What do we got over there, Starship Troopers? Well they have big giant super rocks. Get rid of them and maybe we’ll talk...
Noting that the U.S., the root cause of all disaster and misfortune, has viciously tried to exterminate the Korean nation, openly putting a brake on the favorably developing inter-Korean relations, the protest severely denounced the U.S. for engaging itself in arrogant and undisguised moves to provoke a nuclear war.
"The root cause of all disaster and misfortune"? I thought that was Vegas?
We have the might of invincible unity, a harmonious whole of the leader, the Party and the popular masses, and the Songun politics, the June 15 joint declaration, a landmark for national reunification, and the firm will of the 70 million fellow countrymen for reunification, the protest said, adding: The U.S. should know this and behave with discretion.
...steel strong might, blah, blah, blah...sea of fire, blah, blah, blah,...blah, blah, blah....
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 3:44:37 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What has caused this protest? The article directly under this one.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 16:01 Comments || Top||

#2  A hole of a leader, indeed.
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) || 02/09/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What, no juche? They have songun, why no juche?
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 02/09/2004 17:38 Comments || Top||


Food aid to North Korea dries up
More than six million North Koreans will go without emergency food aid until April, says the UN. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it has run out of food and blames the supply shortfall on a funding crisis.
AKA Donor fatigue
For the next two months food rations will only be given to 100,000 people - mostly child-bearing women and children in hospitals and orphanages. A quarter of the population who normally receive food aid will have to survive winter without normal rations. Food shortages have plagued North Korea for at least nine years, after floods, economic mismanagement and the consequences of the break-up of chief donor the USSR combined to precipitate the crisis.

WFP Pyongyang representative Masood Hyder said the agency was scraping the bottom of the barrel. "If you’re going to give, please give early," was Mr Hyder’s message to donor countries. He said the crisis had come at the "wrong time", when harvest stocks were already depleted and recent economic reforms had forced up prices on farmers’ markets. Mr Hyder blamed the funding shortfall on an unfavourable political context - a reference perhaps to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, says the BBC’s Louisa Lim in Beijing - and donor fatigue with a country which has received food aid for nine years.
With no end in sight...
Mr Hyder said he hoped six-nation talks on the nuclear crisis could change this. He responded to the charge that assistance from the WFP was contributing to a dependence on aid in North Korea.
This should be good
"Whenever humanitarian action is protracted these kinds of worries arise: ’Are we the solution or have we become part of the problem?’" he told the BBC World Service’s World Today programme. "I think we’ve got to be quite robust in confronting these issues - so long as there are people in need ... there is a strong case for the WFP to assist."
Sounds like "if the glove fits, you’ve got to acquit"
What about "root causes" then?
Too sensitive an issue, maybe.

The WFP representative said the current pattern of stop-go had begun in September 2002. The worst until now had been an inability to feed half the people on the WFP’s books. "Now we’re talking of a total cutback," Mr Hyder said. "It’s graver, with deeper consequences. Right now we are in the situation where we will be unable to feed all 6.5 million, perhaps we will be able to feed just under 100,000 in February and March, but the vast majority we will not be able to help."

Mr Hyder described the consequences as a real increase in suffering and malnourishment. "People are not really expected to die because of the short-term deprivations," he said. "People in fragile and recovering health... would then again suffer a setback." Underweight pregnant mothers were more likely to give birth to poorly developed babies, and many elderly people would be unable to buy food at the markets. Though the US, Russia and other countries had pledged thousands of tonnes of grain and other food, the next shipments of aid will only arrive in North Korea in April. The WFP says it will face another crisis from June onwards.
Who would have expected that
Posted by: tipper || 02/09/2004 7:56:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe they should lower their defence spending. If Kim cared about his people, he would capitulate.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 10:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Kim will use starvation to get rid of 'suspected unloyal' classes,so this will suit him just fine.If we do send aid,that's OK too.More power to him.It's a Catch-22,NK style.
Posted by: El Id || 02/09/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, Mr. Hyder, what about the WPF cutting back on its' administration costs and using your own money to buy more food?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Hyder may have missed the news that SK is taking care of the food donations. In the Newsday version they wrote, "Hyder said that his staff of some 40 foriegn workers couldn't confirm foriegn reports that North Koreans were eating bark to ward off hunger." I guess one reporter missed the gravity of the situation, or maybe he was serious. Hard to tell.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 13:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Underweight pregnant mothers were more likely to give birth to poorly developed babies...

Reports are that such a situation has been going on for some time. Army recruits are smaller, weaker, and less physically and mentally fit.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 15:19 Comments || Top||


Defector: N. Korea Has Uranium Program
A top-ranking North Korean defector said the North launched a uranium-based nuclear weapons program in 1996 with the help of Pakistan, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday. Hwang Jang Yop, a former mentor to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, told the Tokyo Shimbun in an interview that a top military official told him eight years ago about an agreement with Pakistan to develop an enriched uranium weapons program.
All sorts of similar stories popping up!
Since 2002, the United States has contended that North Korea has been developing uranium-based nuclear weapons as a supplement to its long-standing plutonium-based nuclear capability. While there is no dispute about the plutonium program, North Korea has persistently denied U.S. allegations about the uranium-based project. "Jon Pyong Ho came to me, as the person responsible for international affairs, asking ’Can we buy some more plutonium from Russia or somewhere? I want to make a few more nuclear bombs,’" the newspaper quoted Hwang as saying. "But then, before the fall of 1996, he said ’We’ve solved a big problem. We don’t need plutonium this time. Due to an agreement with Pakistan, we will use uranium.’"
Deep-laid plans indeed.
Jon is a member of North Korea’s National Defense Committee and a secretary of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party. Hwang, who defected to South Korea in 1997, was a former chief of North Korea’s Parliament.
And he won’t get asylum in Canada, either.
According to Pakistani government and intelligence sources, equipment including centrifuges for enriching uranium were trafficked from Pakistan from 1989 until the late 1990s. Pakistani officials last week said Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the country’s nuclear program, had confessed to sending sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea. A Bush administration official said Friday, however, that China refuses to accept the U.S. contention that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons based on highly enriched uranium. The administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. diplomats have told Beijing its position is not based in reality helpful.
China, curb your dog!
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 2:17:49 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It seems funny that Hwang Jang Yop would confirm NK's program instead of breaking the story when he defected. He is somebody's tool - maybe the Chicoms.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 10:07 Comments || Top||


Down Under
New Zealand Beach Sabotaged by Unknown Moron
EFL
New Zealand officials said Monday they believe a 3,400-gallon fuel spill in a fjord listed as a World Heritage site was intentional. Environment Minister Chris Carter called Sunday’s diesel leak in Milford Sound fjord "eco-terrorism and economic sabotage" against the country’s lucrative tourism industry, but cleanup officials said the diesel would be relatively easy to contain. The fjord is a major tourist attraction, home to a rare species of penguin and flanked by mountains on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, some 700 miles southwest of the capital, Wellington. Police said someone had connected a hose to the diesel tank of a boat, pouring fuel into the water. There were no immediate arrests.

At least 2,000 tourists were turned away from the fjord for a second day Monday as workers tried to control the 1.25-mile slick from spreading into wildlife areas, officials said. So far the damage has been contained to "a few oily ducks," said Warren Tuckey, a member of a local government council coordinating the clean-up. Staff worked through the night to pump contaminated water into holding tanks. "Luckily diesel disperses quickly and does evaporate -- it’s much easier than fuel oil to handle and the effects are not as long-term," said Conservation Department spokesman Tom O’Connor.
Quite a bit of trouble and risk to go through to damage the enviroment ineffectively. Sort of a stupid attack. Maybe some psycho things he is a villian from Captain Planet.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 4:50:23 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  it was chainey and haliburton! bush knew....
Posted by: muck4doo || 02/09/2004 17:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like just a twit. But somewhat related when I was growing up my Dad used to puke at the smell of diesel/gasoline in seawater.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:47 Comments || Top||


Europe
Inquiry cancelled into missing presidential candidate
Sniff, smells like politics, KGB style
There is still no word on the fate of Ivan Rybkin, a former parliamentary speaker last seen on Thursday night when his bodyguard dropped him at his Moscow apartment. Early today prosecutors investigating the case opened a formal murder inquiry adding that it’s normal procedure for missing persons. But the Moscow prosecutors office quickly cancelled the inquiry saying there was no need yet to start criminal proceedings.
Oops, junior DA working the night shift hadn’t gotten the memo about which cases he’s not supposed to look into.
Mr Rybkin is one of seven candidates for the March 14 election which President Putin is expected to win easily. He has accused the President of improper dealings with business tycoons, and of turning Russia into an authoritarian state.
They’ll consider looking for him after the election.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 10:14:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More proof that Russia has just shed it's Iron Curtain for a Political one.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  This will give Dennis Kucinich something more to worry about.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 11:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Methinks Putin has something to hide about this.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Somebody needs to warn Kerry about the Deanie Babies, Deanie Babies, Deanie Babies, they ain't sane. Hit the Bat and win a Prize! Yes! You're very own HouseParty! Deanie Babies, Deanie Babies gotta find more Deanie Babies, Deanie Babies.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:51 Comments || Top||


Latvian govt releases 10 Pakistanis
An old article showing the terrorist case in Latvia seems to have been a mistake
Latvian Government has withdrawn its charges of terrorism against 10 Pakistani ’Taekwando players’, thanks to the persistent efforts of human rights activist Ansar Burney. The release orders were issued by the Secretary of the Ministry of Interior of the State of Latvia, J. Reksna. According to Latvian Police they had detained 10 Pakistani citizens, on November 21, fearing Pakistanis might have been preparing a terrorist attack targeting the visiting Israeli basketball team. The crime as far as Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International had come to know, on which these 10 Pakistani players were arrested in Latvia is; they had return flight to Pakistan via Russia in a plane in which Israeli team was suppose to travel.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 02/09/2004 1:22:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think that the average Pakistani must finally be getting the message that the radicals in their country have ruined the reputation of Pakistanis all over the world. Since Pakistan has become a homeland of the terrorist theology that killing people randomly is a good tactic, then the world's random people will watch Pakistanis with extreme caution.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 8:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Kerry Says He Will Repair Damage If He Wins Election
How do you fisk this load of garbage? And sent to the black-hats, no less.
The office of Senator John Kerry, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary in the U.S., sent the Mehr News Agency an e-email saying that Kerry will try to repair the damage done by the incumbent president if he wins the election. The text of the e-mail follows.
As Americans who have lived and worked extensively overseas, we have personally witnessed the high regard with which people around the world have historically viewed the United States. Sadly, we are also painfully aware of how the actions and the attitudes demonstrated by the U.S. government over the past three years have threatened the goodwill earned by presidents of both parties over many decades and put many of our international relationships at risk.

It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States to restore our country’s credibility in the eyes of the world. America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others.
OK Jimmy, pack your bags and head for Tehran and re-establish those wonderful relations we had with Iran, back when you were president.
We are convinced that John Kerry is the candidate best qualified to meet this challenge. Senator Kerry has the diplomatic skill and temperament as well as a lifetime of accomplishments in field of international affairs. He believes that collaboration with other countries is crucial to efforts to win the war on terror and make America safer.
Nothing like a bit of collaboration, is there? Just ask the French.
An understanding of global affairs is essential in these times, and central to this campaign. Kerry has the experience and the understanding necessary to successfully restore the United States to its position of respect within the community of nations. He has the judgment and vision necessary to assure that the United States fulfills a leadership role in meeting the challenges we face throughout the world. The current Administration’s policies of unilateralism and rejection of important international initiatives, from the Kyoto Accords to the Biological Weapons Convention, have alienated much of the world and squandered remarkable reserves of support after 9/11. This climate of hostility affects us all, but most especially impacts those who reside overseas. Disappointment with current U.S. leadership is widespread, extending not just to the corridors of power and politics, but to the man and woman on the street as well.
Yah, all those Arabs seething over the non signing of the Kyoto Accords and the Biological Weapons Convention
We believe John Kerry is the Democrat who can go toe-to-toe against the current Administration on national security and defense issues. We also remain convinced that John Kerry has the best chance of beating the incumbent in November, and putting America on a new course that will lead to a safer, more secure, and more stable world.

Nothing like being endorsed by the black-hats for enhancing your credibility
Posted by: tipper || 02/09/2004 7:15:33 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can you spell A-P-P-E-A-S-E-M-E-N-T?

I knew you could!

For a sitting U.S. Senator to send something like this criticizing our policy to a FOREIGN GOVERNMENT is damn near an act of treason in my book.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 19:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Dear God... please don't let this feckless wimp win the election- I don't think I can take a second Carter presidency.
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/09/2004 19:37 Comments || Top||

#3  The great Karnak devines future campaign contributions, just like Al Gore and Communist China. Maybe our French looking and acting candidate can also get an Iranian oil concession.
Posted by: ed || 02/09/2004 19:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Does this mean he's going to sign the Kyoto Accords? Well, that will really help put Americans back to work. How about subjecting our troops to the International Criminal Court? And speaking of "squandering .. reserves of support" what message does this send to the countries (Australia, the UK, Spain, Poland etc.) who have proven themselves to be real allies? (Answer: France had the right idea.)

Of course, the fact that Kerry or his staff says this today doesn't really mean anything in terms of his future conduct. He's just another whore politician trying to get elected
Posted by: Matt || 02/09/2004 19:57 Comments || Top||

#5  If true this is excellent fodder for Bush's team to use. I just think it is the Tehran Times using a form e-mail. Either way, Kerry would be a complete failure. If the black hats want him, he can't be good.
Posted by: remote man || 02/09/2004 20:42 Comments || Top||

#6  He wants to make the french like us? Do I hear the ICC knocking at my door?
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 21:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Any truth to the rumor that Kerry would appoint Jane Fonda to Secretary of State IF he's elected?:-)
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm not surprised hearing this from a man who dishonored his country and uniform with Jane Fonda et al.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 21:51 Comments || Top||

#9  This is too good to be true. Kerry is drinking poison hoping to watch Bush die. This will be a great year for the right.

See Jane and John
Posted by: badanov || 02/09/2004 22:01 Comments || Top||

#10  If true,I have to agree with #3,Ed.This reads like a fund-raising letter.There may not be an explicit request for money,but if you read between the lines,the message is Kerry is also your guy and your support(hint!hint!)would be appreciated.Despicable.
Posted by: Stephen || 02/09/2004 22:04 Comments || Top||

#11  This email has the stench of a covert SOLICITATION for CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. Someone should forward the email to the FEDS -- the FBI should definitely be brought in on this.
Posted by: Garrison || 02/09/2004 23:22 Comments || Top||

#12  Charming. Terry McAwful and the Clintoons must be so proud!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/09/2004 23:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Can someone please run Kerry up a flagpole to see if anybody salutes????
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/10/2004 0:33 Comments || Top||


Kerry and Hanoi sittin’ in a tree...
Don’t know where this was taken but here’s a picture of Jane Fonda and a former antiwar associate of hers.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson || 02/09/2004 5:28:14 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, and there you have it.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Keep it coming. I want everyone to know who this bum is.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 19:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I've been talking to my 17 year old son about Kerry lately and he has now been looking for things on the net concerning Kerry. He's going to send the text of Kerry's 70s speech to everyone he knows. Unfortunately, he won't be able to vote in November because his birthday is two weeks later. His grandfather was in vietnam and absolutely hates Kerry. Even his democrat father (my ex) doesn't like him.

Hannity and Colmes are looking at his antiwar record now. friend of Kerry's was stammering and trying to dispel the notion that Kerry was a buddy of Hanoi Jane.
Posted by: AF Lady || 02/09/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#4  My service certainly was not as distinguished as Sen Kerry's. My ship spent Desert Storm in a rat infested shipyard in Norfolk. That said, I have trouble buying his Captain America shtick.

I read an excerpt from his book in the Atlantic Monthly. In his writing there is a strong aroma of punk JO that has chosen the life on a destroyer as a safe but boring way to ride out the war while keeping all avenues open to his greatness.
He seems to have picked the swift boats as a way to be his own boss, tool around like JFK and be able to get drunk when the boat is parked. He seemed quite surprised and angered that the mission of his swift boat was changed to more dangerous duty. He caught some flak, got some bandaids and express-mailed his request for reassignment as soon as he got winged the third time.

In contrast while I was at USNA, RADM Stephen Chadwick (Navy of Steve?) served as Commendant of Midshipment. He was set for his third tour in the brown water navy - at hisown request, when we pulled out. Some men actually believed in their country and considered not letting South Vietnam become a pit of agony to be a worthwhile mission. To each his own.

As for Bush's bravery, can anybody think of any more dangerous service than to be a part-time jet pilot with a drinking problem. I rest my case.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 21:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Who cares about Kerry's war record? The only record that matters at this point is his post-war mugging for the press along with his buddy Hanoi Jane, who committed an act of treason by sitting atop an S-60 gun and posing for camera thus being used for propaganda purposes by a military enemy of the USA, against the Viet Nam war.

As long as the left wing of the democrats embraces this mugwump, the right will get a target so easy to wreck, it will be an added bonus to thoroughly discredit the socialists of the 60s who are trying to gain power.

Go Kerry! Tell us more!!
Posted by: badanov || 02/09/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||


Kerry supporter advocates dirty tricks
NY Daily News. EFL
One of [haughty, French-looking] Sen. John Kerry’s celebrity supporters is ready to pull out all the stops to get him elected. Republicans are shrieking over a suggestion by rocker Moby that Democrats spread gossip about President Bush on the Internet.
They're not doing that now?
"No one’s talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day," Moby tells us. "It’s a lot easier than you think and it doesn’t cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes." Moby suggests that it’s possible to seed doubt among Bush’s far-right supporters on the Web. "You target his natural constituencies," says the Grammy-nominated great white whale techno-wizard. "For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms in your troll suit and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion. . . ."
And of course, Bush supporters, being as dumb as he is, would believe that right off the bat. Just like we believe everything Fizzle sez...
Moby didn’t claim that he believed the abortion story. . . .
According to the story, a Kerry spokseperson declined to condemn the proposed tactics, or to distance the senator from his cetacean supporter.

Anyone got a harpoon handy?
Posted by: Mike || 02/09/2004 4:02:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  moby is a great man and smart for his idea and we know you and those imao neo-cons made fun of du.

Here

i dont link cuz thats a sexist term.
Posted by: muck4doo || 02/09/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Oooooooooooooh! Moby's talking! Let's all listen...
Last I heard of this boob, he was getting the shit kicked of him outside the Paradise in Boston last year. I wonder why anybody would want to do that?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 16:28 Comments || Top||

#3  muck4doo: WTF? ummm, hey pal...4:09 pm and you're already 3 sheets to the wind, judging by your post. Way to go!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/09/2004 16:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Looking for a harpoon, Mike? Try using Terry Garlock's Column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,1/29/04: (Kerrys)Vietnam stance irks veterans
It begins:
Now that U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is claiming the veteran vote based on his war record, both sides of that story should be told. To appreciate the dark side of Kerry's war record, you should know a few things about Vietnam veterans. The public and the press make a mistake when they divide us into decorated veterans like Kerry and then all the others....

When the very dark side of Kerry starts circulating around the internet, there may be more Bush voters than Moby anticpates.
You may have to use refresh to get the article to appear.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 16:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Rex, muck4doo is probably sober, but he is handicapped by an "Esteem" oriented liberal education, a keyboard with no shift key, and no interest in spell checking. If he denies any of that, then you must be right.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Schmuck You REALLY don't want to get into a dirty-tricks war with the Repubs.

Let's face it - in a battle of wits, the Dems are defenceless.
Posted by: mojo || 02/09/2004 17:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Good article, GK. Terry Garlock's pretty polite about Kerry's record, though.

John Kerry had just finished his military duty when I began serving mine; and I vividly remember his anti-war schtick, complete with medal-throwing and bogus accusations of atrocities committed by American soldiers.

The word that occurred to me back then was one commonly used in the military to denote one who'd turned his back on his fellow soldiers and let them down: buddyfucker.

To me, that's what John Kerry will always be.
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/09/2004 17:51 Comments || Top||

#8  You cold hearted bastards, Senator Kerry was hit by half a
C-130Vs (the Flying Vineyard) load of Agent Grape. And yet you laugh, and play and sing! You have no Hustle. Remember every private carries a Kerry in his backback. Remember to recycle your metals.

And yes! I once say a C-130V (Flying Vineyard) shot at by a SunBurn.


Posted by: Napoleon VII || 02/09/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Ah, Moby. Bought a cd once. Decent tunes, but the booklet was full of the most laughably self-righteous little essays I've ever seen. This guy is a fourteen-year-old girl trapped in the balding, pasty body of a 3x-year-old man.
Posted by: BH || 02/09/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Thanks for the AJC article. I'm sending to our local liberal newspaper in hopes of publishing it.
This is one Nam vet who hasn't forgotten.
Bill Nelson 54th Aviation Company Vung Tau S Vertnam 1967-68.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 19:28 Comments || Top||

#11  Ye Fools! Muck4doo is pretty obviously Frank J. of IMAO.US fame. He's been spending way, way too much time over at DU lately... it's obviously become some sort of sick fascination. Frank, come back to the light Frank!
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/09/2004 19:28 Comments || Top||

#12  This is really too good to be true. Kerry running on his war record, yet you gotta know his anti-war record will stick out like Hanoi Jane on an S-60 emplacement. I hope Rove and Co. holds back just a little longer. Let them get their Marxist base energized. Then go in for the kill, say, around October.

This may be the year the leftists who brought us the sixties will be finally and fully discredited.

Go Kerry!! Tell us more!!

2004 will be such a fun year!
Posted by: badanov || 02/09/2004 22:07 Comments || Top||


The Liberal Assault on Freedom of Speech
Please follow the link to a very significant speach given by Thomas G. West, a professor of politics at the University of Dallas and a member of the board of directors and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. Here are some choice excerpts:

"Those who favor campaign finance regulation sometimes claim that their primary concern is with ’corruption and the appearance of corruption’ – that is, what used to be called bribery or the appearance of bribery. But that is not the real agenda of the reformers. There is a good reason why the 2002 Act, like the 1974 law, was voted for by almost every House and Senate Democrat, and opposed by a large majority of Republicans: These laws are primarily about limiting the speech of conservatives."

"Some congressmen were willing to be even more open about the fact that the new law would cut down on conservative criticism of candidates. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Dem.-Ill.) said: ’If my colleagues care about gun control, then campaign finance is their issue so that the NRA does not call the shots.’ Democratic Reps. Marty Meehan (Mass.) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), and Democratic Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) also cited the National Rifle Association’s political communications as a problem that the Act would solve. Several liberal Republicans chimed in."
I just bet they did. Traitors.

"During the Republican Eisenhower years, the FCC paid little attention to broadcasting content, and a number of conservative radio stations emerged. After John Kennedy was elected in 1960, his administration went on the offensive against them. Kennedy’s Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Bill Ruder, later admitted, ’Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue.’"

"This strategy was highly successful. Hundreds of radio stations cancelled conservative shows that they had been broadcasting. The FCC revoked the license of one radio station, WXUR of Media, Pennsylvania, a tiny conservative Christian broadcaster. When WXUR appealed to the courts, one dissenting judge noted ’that the public has lost access to information and ideas . . . as a result of this doctrinal sledge-hammer [i.e., the Fairness Doctrine].’ The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. It saw no free speech violation in the government shutdown of a radio station for broadcasting conservative ideas."

Liberalhawk, I’d be more than happy to hear what you think abou this article.
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/09/2004 1:54:17 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I could be wrong, but it sounds like crap. I've read over and over how the Dems have been hit hardest by the ban on large donations and how the use of Moveon.org type groups allows them to circumvent much of the campaign finance laws.

I could be wrong but I don't think the NRA is tax-exempt. They truly are non-partisan (yes most pro-guns are Republicans but they've supported a handful of Dems that agreed with their politics) and chose to avoid tax exemption for some other reason. I can't see how they could be controlled by McCain Feingold.
Posted by: ruprecht || 02/09/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought that the bill should have been called the Incumbent Protection Act, But ruprecht, you make a good point. The current act is a consitutional abomination that only Sandra Dee O'Connor could provide a convoluted justification for. It would be funny if the Dems get steam-rollered repeatedly until they are forced to contitutionally challenge their own idea.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:12 Comments || Top||

#3  campaign finance reform is not my top issue. NRA is gonna be strong regardless, cause its got mass membership. Groups that rely on contributions are narrow industry lobbyists - dare i name the sugar industry as an example, which gutted our FTA with Australia? That the underlying concern, and John McCain is much concerned as are some Dems. OTOH folks do look at the partisan considerations when looking at this, and i suppose thats inevitable. Im not a constitutional law expert and im not going to get into a tussle about whether the law is in technical violation of the 1st amendment - it may well be. But crushing freedom of speech was certainly not the intention. Rather its an inevitable side effect of trying to control money in politics negatively, by limiting donations. The preferred method would be more comprehensive public financing.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 16:59 Comments || Top||

#4  LH, Japan has a decent system, but what would probably benefit the US the most would be an electorate that is curious enough to be interested in what is going on. The information is out there, but it takes a little more time to be a real citizen than most people are willing to put forward.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 17:30 Comments || Top||

#5  The preferred method would be more comprehensive public financing.

Leading to more candidates like Sharpton -- more interested in sucking off the campaign cash and publicity teat than in actually governing.

Then you get to the question of what happens to the freedom of people to support the candidates and ideas they believe in. Will I be able to contribute to candidate A? Will my tax dollars go towards, say, the American Nazi Party candidate? Isn't that forcing me to subsidize speech I don't agree with?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/09/2004 19:53 Comments || Top||

#6  No LH, raise the amount allowed. It was almost 30 years ago that the limits were set. It's like the IRA contribution, $2K doesn't buy what it did in the early 80s.

Raise the amount to $5K a candidate and each donation available for public review via all sources w/in 72 hours. And personally I shouldn't be able to contribute to a candidate which doesn't live in my state. That should really shake things up.

And get rid of the law that allows donors secrecy, a la that socialist candidate who wanted to keep her donors a secret.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 23:08 Comments || Top||


Kerry’s inevitablility index hits "Deanish" level.
ScrappleFace, of course.
(2004-02-08) -- Presidential contender John F. Kerry’s Inevitability Index hovered around 90 percent, up 10 points after yesterday’s victories over Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton in the Washington and Michigan caucuses.

The Inevitably Index is an aggregate percentage derived from media reports which portray a candidate as the "frontrunner," "dominating," "unstoppable," or "the presumptive nominee."

"A score of 90 on the Inevitability Index would put Kerry ahead of where both Clinton and Carter were at this point in their races," said an unnamed spokesman for the National Organization of Journalists Assessing Candidate Capability (NOJACC). "Everytime a news story portrays his campaign as a juggernaut , Kerry becomes that much more juggernautical. It’s eerily Howard Deanish."
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 1:39:44 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL! *sputter* Is there anyone on the 'Net who can keep up with Scott Ott? I don' teenk so. Shit, where's the phreakin' Windex...

Thx!
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#2  heh. Like all good humor, it has a grain (or more)of truth.
Hillary could still get in, to "save" the Dems.
Posted by: Les Nessman || 02/09/2004 23:37 Comments || Top||


Gore: "Shrub’s a traitor."
Hat tip LGF
Al Gore, who lost the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000, assailed the commander in chief Sunday, accusing him of betraying the nation by invading Iraq. "He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, that was preordained and planned before 9-11," Gore told Tennessee Democrats at a party event.
Preordained and planned before 9/11!? Give the man a tinfoil beanie.
The former vice president said that he, like millions of others, had put partisanship aside after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and wanted Bush to lead the nation. Instead, Gore shouted to the crowd, Bush "betrayed us."
"My legs have betrayed me too! See, they’ve shrunk!"
Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the electoral vote to Bush, likened the Republican’s administration to that of former President Nixon.
You asshat. Nixon was a liar. Bush is not.
"Nixon was no more committed to principle than the man on the moon," Gore said. "He cared as little about what it means to be conservative as George Bush does about imposing ... budget deficits.
"AAAAAAAAA! FY LIFS!
"It has nothing to do with conservatism and everything to do with his efforts to get re-elected." Gore, who endorsed Howard Dean for the nomination, complimented the former Vermont governor on his decision to speak out against the war in Iraq, for bringing new people into the party and for raising money through the Internet. "I appreciate what he’s done about giving the party its voice back," he said of Dean.
Then his harp bent like an overdrawn bow. A string snapped and it looked as though several others might give way too.
Although Gore campaigned in Iowa and other states for Dean, he did promote the Democrat’s candidacy in his home state of Tennessee. No matter who wins on Tuesday in the primary, Gore called on Democrats to unite behind their nominee, saying "any of these candidates are better than George W. Bush."
Then he turned into a pillar of salt and could say no more.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 11:37:23 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seems Mr. Pen also opened his hole promoting Mystic River down the Central/South American way and also called W a traitor.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Where did Gore stand on the regime issue? I assume that he agreed with Clinton's position.

Without the Iraq invasion proliferation of nukes from our Pakistani entrepreneur would have continued unabated. Mumar would have continued to be a pain. We would have had to keep 130,000 troops in tents on the Kuwaiti border perpetually while jihadi kooks continued attacks like birds flying into a glass window. And on, and on ...
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Oops: Quote attribution. Line about the harp from Taran Wanderer.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Since Bush is going to win again I'll probably never get my freedoms back, let alone my bong.
Posted by: Halfempty || 02/09/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#5  dangerous to our troops, that was preordained and planned before 9-11
As far as I know all missions we send troops on are dangerous. Secondly, I thought one of Al's bitches was that we had no plan for Iraq. Well Al, which is it? Plan or no plan? But hey, I'm gone back to surfing - thanks for the 'net Al!!
Posted by: Doc8404 || 02/09/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Another version of the story here. He's become quite the asshat, hasn't he?
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Gorebot's desperately flailing for relevance - his endorsement of Dean was quite the benefit to Howard, huh? Let's see, he won....um, ummmmm..
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  "He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, that was preordained and planned before 9-11,"

He's just sniveling because we didn't do like Clinton would do, and pack up after a few casualties.
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Pardon Tommy Chong!
Posted by: HalfEmpty/Overengineeredbyhalf || 02/09/2004 12:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Looks like the Global Warming is starting it's work on Al's brain. Look for his head to burst into flames soon. It'll be a better photo op then Dean freaking in Iowa.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 12:22 Comments || Top||

#11  Planned an attack against Iraq, of course, we have plans to invade Antarctica in case something comes up. Preordained? I imagine he's alluding to the paper that Rumsfield and many of the neocons sent to Clinton requesting Saddam be removed. Since most of these fellows ended up in the Bush adminstration Gore is trying to connect the dots.

Fact is, those folks were in the right place to push their world view after Sept 11, but I don't recall a military buildup in Kuwait until some time aftewards. I think Gore needs a few lessons in Cause & Effect.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#12  The timeline is the first thing to go when the revisionists get down to business. IIRC, and not being a revisionist I do, the UNSCOM boyz didn't even get to go back in to be duped and toyed with until troop strength in Kuwait hit around 50,000...
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 12:42 Comments || Top||

#13  Gee AL is that the best you can offer. Well you have a real "hero" in Kerry now. I hear you may be out of luck for VP though, I think Jane Fonda has the VP spot wrapped up.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 13:14 Comments || Top||

#14  "I think Jane Fonda has the VP spot wrapped up."
Only if she'll dress up in her Barbarella threads. I'd vote for Barbarella in a heartbeat. I would be helpless to prevent it. I'm wired that way.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 13:20 Comments || Top||

#15  and we're going to go on to MoveOn and then to Democratic Underground and then to AlJazeera and then to ANSWER and then to purgatory and then to hell - YAAAAAYYYYEEEEEE
Posted by: mhw || 02/09/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#16  Only if she'll dress up in her Barbarella threads. I'd vote for Barbarella in a heartbeat.

Never happen. She has control of her vagina now- donchaknow?
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#17  Pappy - nobody else would want it -- Yuck!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 14:37 Comments || Top||

#18  What's that on the kitchen table ? Oh, Al's pills. That explains a lot.
Posted by: Peter || 02/09/2004 14:47 Comments || Top||

#19  CF - C'mon, cut us some slack! Everybody's just looking for a little slack, y'know. Of course if it's too slack, well, I admit I'll be looking for an upgrade... Vagina v25.0 - v35.0 would do just fine, methinks. Experience (+ fertile invagination imagination) should never be underestimated.

Pappy - "She has control of her vagina now- donchaknow?"
Yeah, I remember the hot wet vagina story. But you do me an injustice, sir! I don't wanna own it, I'm not greedy, I just wanna borrow it now and then. The vagina is very very green as it is an almost infinitely renewable resource.
[You're gonna get killed for that, y'know.
Yeah, I know, but what's a guy to do? Lie to get what I want?]
;-)
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:10 Comments || Top||

#20  Interesting how Dean starting screaming and acting like he had gone off his medication at about the same time Al Gore gave him an endorsement, about the same time Al started acting as if he was on someone elses medication.
Posted by: ruprecht || 02/09/2004 15:50 Comments || Top||

#21  Not to open an old wound, but hey....

One of the commentors above mentioned that algore "screamin' al" won the popular vote and then lost the electorial vote and has been on lithium ever since.

Prior to the election I remember watching some liberal type pundants talking on TV and were looking at the possibility that GWB could very well end up winning the popular vote and loosing the electorial college.

They thought the prospect was kind of amusing.

The stopped laughing kind sudden like. Never did figure out why.
Posted by: Michael || 02/09/2004 16:11 Comments || Top||

#22  "I appreciate what he’s done about giving the party its voice back," he said of Dean.

"too bad it's using that voice to howl like a dreanged banshee..."
Posted by: mojo || 02/09/2004 18:01 Comments || Top||

#23  Secondly, I thought one of Al's bitches was that we had no plan for Iraq.
good point doc!

Ah...GW, the moronic evil genius!
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 18:20 Comments || Top||

#24  It just makes me realize how big of a disaster we dodged in 2000. Thank God the Florida voters got it right.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/09/2004 19:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Last of Portland Seven Head to Jail
The final three members of a group of Muslim men from the Portland area who tried to enter Afghanistan to join the Taliban were each sentenced to prison time Monday. They were among six men and one woman accused of conspiring to wage war on the United States. Palestinian-born Maher Hawash, 39, was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison. Ahmed Bilal, 25, was sentenced to 10 years and his brother, Muhammed, 23, was sent to prison for eight years.
Good riddance
Hawash, a former Intel software engineer, was the last of the group to be arrested. The Bilal brothers, among the original group of those arrested in October 2002, had pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to help al-Qaida and the Taliban and to firearms charges. Two other men who were allied with the Bilal brothers and Hawash have already been sentenced to 18 years in prison. The federal government has said the sixth man, alleged ringleader Habis Abdulla al Saoub, 37, was killed in a shootout in Pakistan.
Have they dug him up to make sure?
The lone woman in the group, October Lewis, was sentenced to three years in prison after she pleaded guilty to wiring money to the group to assist their efforts.
Enjoy your stay.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 3:42:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how known jihadi's fare in the prison system.
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 18:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Excellent..enjoy your stay
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 19:48 Comments || Top||


Pentagon Eases Terror Tribunal Rules
Tip o’ the hat to Phil Carter.
The Pentagon has agreed to change rules for defending terrorism suspects at military tribunals, including allowing defense lawyers to object in court if the government wants to listen to attorney-client strategy sessions. Outside lawyers say the changes will make the trials fairer.
Whew! Wotta relief!
Under revised rules not yet released by the Pentagon, defense lawyers would have much more information about whether and how the government might eavesdrop on their conversations with suspects, people familiar with the changes told The Associated Press. Neal Sonnett, a Miami defense lawyer and head of an American Bar Association committee studying tribunals, said defense lawyers no longer would have to sign an affidavit that makes it appear the lawyer endorsed the eavesdropping. "That is a major change that is going to make it a lot easier for civilian lawyers to participate," said Sonnett, who worked with Pentagon lawyers to suggest changes.
Reasonable change; don’t want the civie lawyers unduly compromised.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that rules changes will be announced soon. He declined to provide details. "We’re doing some tweaks and adjustments and clarifications on the rules that I think will be very well received and that address issues raised by our allies and also by other legal professionals and other organizations," Maj. John Smith said. Like military personnel facing a court-martial, defendants brought before a tribunal automatically get a military defense lawyer. Defendants also may hire a civilian lawyer or accept that lawyer’s services for free. Many civilian defense lawyers have been leery of agreeing to help represent tribunal suspects because of Pentagon requirements that some lawyers saw as violations of fundamental attorney-client privileges and ethical guidelines. Most troublesome is the requirement that the government may eavesdrop on conversations between a suspect and his lawyer, and that lawyers must agree up front that such monitoring could take place. The Pentagon has said the eavesdropping would only be used for intelligence or security ends, and any information picked up would not be used against a suspect at trial. The Pentagon has not dropped its insistence that agents can listen in, but the reworked rules are much more explicit about how the government chooses which suspects, if any, it will monitor, and which government agency will do the monitoring. A defense lawyer would be notified about planned electronic monitoring and could object to it at trial, Sonnett said.

The military closely monitored a defense lawyer’s first visit with terrorism suspect Yasser Esam Hamdi on Tuesday. Lawyer Frank Dunham is representing Hamdi before the Supreme Court, not at a military tribunal, but the Pentagon said the security risks of a private visit between lawyer and client are similar. In another change, the revised rules make clear that civilian lawyers could get extensive help from their home offices or other outside lawyers, even though those outsiders are not part of a Pentagon-approved pool of lawyers.
Pretty much renders that rule useless.
Twenty civilian lawyers have signed up for that pool so far, and four have passed background and other checks so they are approved to participate in any trial, Smith said. Two applicants Ramsey Clark and Johnny Cochran were rejected, and other applications are pending, he said. Defense lawyers can also sign up to represent a particular defendant without joining the general pool.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 2:02:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Trial begins for VA jihadis
Four men who are to go on trial Monday were members of a dangerous Muslim terror cell that schemed to support the Taliban and fight the United States, the government charges. Defense lawyers paint a different picture, saying overzealous prosecutors have turned legal activities, like playing paintball and buying weapons, into a sinister plot, and are inferring anti-American sentiments where none exist.
Maybe it was the turbans...
It will be up to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to decide the men’s guilt or innocence: all four defendants and the prosecution have waived their right to a jury trial. The four men were charged in June with conspiracy, firearms charges and other crimes as part of what U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty called a "Virginia jihad network." Six others charged who were also indicted have pleaded guilty to various charges and some have been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. The four — Masoud Ahmad Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Hammad Abdur-Raheem and Caliph Basha ibn Abdur-Raheem — are U.S. citizens who live in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Khan faces the most serious charges, including conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to support Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. All four are charged with conspiracy, and the government claims one of the conspiracy’s aims was to engage in hostilities against the United States. Khan’s participation is the most serious, the government alleges. They say he traveled to Pakistan in the months after the 9-11 attack to train with an organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba, and that his ultimate goal was to travel to Afghanistan and join the Taliban in its pending holy war against the United States. There is no evidence Khan ever joined the Taliban.
But there's evidence he went through Lashkar e-Taiba training...
Before Sept. 11, the government alleges that the group’s paramilitary training was an effort to join Lashkar, a Pakistani group that is seeking to drive India from the disputed Kashmir territory. Supporting Lashkar against India is a violation of the Neutrality Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from warring against countries with whom the United States is at peace. Violations of the Neutrality Act are relatively minor felonies under federal law, punishable by a maximum of three years in prison.
If they get less than the max on that charge alone we're not taking the WoT seriously...
But the group’s aims changed after the Sept. 11 attacks to include hostility against U.S. forces, the government alleges. Prosecutors’ primary evidence of the group’s anti-American intent comes from a Sept. 16, 2001 meeting in which the group’s purported spiritual leader told his followers that the time had come to defend Muslims in Afghanistan and the Taliban regime and that "American troops ... would be legitimate targets of the violent jihad in which the conspirators had a duty to engage," according to the grand jury’s indictment of the defendants."
And who, pray tell, is the group's "spriritual leader"?
Defense lawyers say it is a stretch to take that religious leader’s exhortations and impose his views on the entire group. Furthermore, defense lawyers say it’s unclear exactly what the imam said on that date. "The government’s own witnesses in various places dispute that version," said Christopher Amolsch, the defense lawyer for Caliph Abdur-Raheem. "Some people understood his comments to mean that it is no longer safe to be in this country (because of a backlash against Muslims). Some people took from that meeting, you need to go fight abroad," but not necessarily against Americans — perhaps in Chechnya or Kashmir where Muslim fighters were engaged in holy wars.
"And then we have to consider the meaning of the world 'is'..."
Prosecutors did not return calls seeking comment, but court documents show that some of the defendants who have already pleaded guilty have admitted as part of their plea bargains that they understood the Sept. 15, 2001 meeting as an exhortation against the United States. "Based on the comments of the (religious leader), Khwaja Mahmood Hasan knew that the enemy against whom help was needed was the United States," according to an admission signed by Hasan as part of his plea bargain. The religious leader, who is not named or charged in the indictment, has been identified by sources close to the case as Ali al-Tamimi, a religious scholar and doctoral student who lives in northern Virginia. His lawyers have denied that their client advocated violence against the United States.
And what was his address, again?
Bernie Grimm, a lawyer for Khan, who faces the most serious charges, said the government overplayed its case. "I don’t necessarily blame them. They believed at first that they had an actual terrorist cell," Grimm said. "But even in the best light for the government, that charge never comes to fruition." The only other person who faced charges as serious as Khan, Randall Todd Royer, pleaded guilty to lesser charges and is awaiting sentencing. But Royer in his plea never made any admission of intent to harm America, Grimm noted.
That's why he's awaiting sentencing on a lesser charge. A hundred years ago he'd already have had his cigarette and blindfold session...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:34:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe they only intended to shoot American troops with their paintball guns.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 7:43 Comments || Top||

#2  could it be this one?

solidarityus.org/p_releases/Aug03/Court.html

There are lots of Ali al-Tamini's out there on google but thought this was interesting..
http://www.geocities.com/pwhce/lenten.html
On an Islamic extremist website, Sheikh Dr Ali Al-Tamimi wrote: "Undoubtedly, the heart of every believer leaped with joy at the disaster of his greatest enemy … the name of the shuttle, Columbia, is from Columbus, who discovered the American continent in 1492 following the fall of Granada, the last of the strongholds of Islam in Andalusia. It is known that with the discovery of the two American continents, the Byzantines, that is, the Christians of Europe, exploited the resources of both these continents in order to take over the Islamic world. With the fall of the Columbia, a thought arose in my heart that this was a powerful sign that the supremacy of the West, and particularly that of the US, which began 500 years ago, is about to fall precipitously - Allah willing, as happened to the shuttle."

Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 9:41 Comments || Top||

#3  I like that they learned from the Muhhamad case to forgo the Virginia jury trial. Seems that the local populus is taking that whole pentagon suicide attack quite irrationally.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  B:

What's needed in that website is an explanation of how the Joooos where somehow responsible for Columbus' discovery of the New World, a discovery which was specifically timed to prevent the Ottoman Empire from converting the Aztecs to The Religion of Peace (tm). Now if I recall correctly, Thomas de Torquemada was secretly a Jew and that whole diaspora thing was part of a secret plot to conquer to Muslim world by giving them all of Western Europe's leading financial minds!

Hey, that sounds pretty convincing. Maybe I should go post it on Democratic Underground and watch the looneys froth!
Posted by: Secret Master || 02/09/2004 14:34 Comments || Top||

#5  SM Giving you an 8.3 with good style points. The only thing you got wrong was the Diaspora which was a cheap group vacation plan for jooos.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 14:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Mein Gott! This explains everything!

I think that Islamocity used Travelocity to book the trip. Suckers.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#7  SM - I bet you could get them to send you lots of money.
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 18:22 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Fears over ’green underwear’ beast (Jakarta - ligher side)
not EFL - off topic but on the lighter side... Feel free to delete.... (Found via Fark.com)
AS the rest of Indonesia battles bird flu and earthquakes, a new type of supernatural force dressed only in green underwear has been terrifying superstitious Jakarta residents. A mysterious half-man, half-beast, imaginatively named the "kolor ijo" or "green underpants", has been stalking the city outskirts, attacking people with its claws and allegedly raping lone women in the narrow alleys or in their homes, usually late at night. Terrified residents set up special kolor ijo patrol squads, while others draped their homes in magic talismans to ward off the creature.
My magic talismen includes a .357 Mag... and a shotgun...
The whole city has been transfixed by the rampage, with television crews and newspapers joining the hunt, uncovering a well-travelled beast that roamed from the city’s main airport in the north-west to Bogor in the south, a distance of about 80km. And to make matters worse, the beast also seemed unencumbered by some of the planet’s worst traffic snarls in between his wide-ranging attacks. Police were confident they had ended the hunt last week after arresting a kolor ijo innocuously named Andi in the southern suburb of Benkasi. Andi, 20, who was today undergoing psychiatric evaluation, apparently admitted membership of gang of burglars who wore green underwear during their crimes, with police taking into their possession a pair of his blue-green boxer shorts.

But others weren’t so sure. Many believed the beast was either still on the run, or a figment of the imagination of notoriously superstitious Indonesians, who still commonly consult witch-doctors for common problems or ailments, despite the country being a Muslim stronghold. Only recently many Jakartans swore never to use the city rail system again after a "ghost" commandeered an empty commuter train and drove it from Bogor to Jakarta. Amid the kolor ijo panic, one young woman confessed she slashed her arms with razor blades to mimic cuts from the beast’s claws to try to sell her story. One leading psychologist lamented the city’s sense of the supernatural.
This is good:
"It’s shocking that a natural disaster like bird flu doesn’t cause panic, but something so stupid spreads like this," he told The Jakarta Post newspaper.
Obviously hasn’t seen any American news outlets....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 7:01:38 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did they ever think that giving the beast a wedgie might neutralize his demon-like powers?
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 21:36 Comments || Top||

#2  As I pointed out on my 'blog's link to this piece, this is remarkably similar to New Delhi's Monkeyman hysteria of a couple years ago, or that of Spring-Heeled Jack in 19th century London. SH: If I encounter the creature, in the interest of scientific research I will attempt to give it a wedgie.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 02/10/2004 0:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Almost forgot...
My magic talismen includes a .357 Mag... and a shotgun...
"Listen up, primitives! This is my boomstick!"
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 02/10/2004 1:00 Comments || Top||


Indonesian Militant Sentenced to Life
A Muslim militant was convicted and sentenced Monday to life imprisonment for helping build and transport bombs used in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. Abdul Goni, a 35-year-old Indonesian, was found guilty of helping plan the attack and illegal weapons possession, Judge I Made Sudia said. Goni is the fourth Bali bomber jailed for life in the Oct. 12, 2002 attack. "The defendant has been proven guilty and we sentence him to life," Sudia said. "The acts committed by the defendant and his friends have resulted in the death of 202 people from 16 countries, worsened the economic situation in Bali and damaged its public facilities."
Well, at least they mentioned the dead people before the hit on their tourist trade.
Goni was silent during the proceedings, but his lawyers said they would appeal the verdict. The defendant had faced a possible death sentence but was given life imprisonment because he was not directly involved in carrying out the attack and was well-behaved during the trial, the judge said.
Wore a nice suit and was polite in court, this one listened to his lawyers.
He is the 31st defendant to be convicted in the case. Three men were sentenced to death. Other sentences ranged from three years to life behind bars.
Just keep him in the slammer, ok?
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 9:41:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting moniker ya got there, your honor. Care to tell us how you came by it? I'm all ears...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||


MILF’s ties to JI slow Filippino peace talks
Peace talks between the government and Muslim separatist rebels may be stymied by suspected links between the group and regional militant network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a top official said Sunday.
But I doubt they will be...
Government peace negotiations said JI "would remain to be a continuing major concern" that may affect the talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), military chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia said. "We have an ongoing mission pertaining to the JI," Garcia told reporters here after meeting with an MILF panel enforcing a ceasefire pact with the government.

The MILF and government panels had created a joint interim action team to prevent and address the occurrence of armed encounters between secessionist group members and government troops. Called the I-ACT, the team was created during the 15th Joint Meeting in Davao between the government’s and MILF’s coordinating committees on the cessation of hostilities. According to Garcia, the government is still trying to establish whether members of JI -- the group thought to be responsible for the Bali bombing -- were training in MILF camps in the main southern island of Mindanao, he said. President Arroyo had called on the MILF to cut off links to the JI as a precondition for the resumption of formal negotiations, which may be hosted by Malaysia soon.

Both the MILF and the government earlier agreed to a ceasefire and create a monitoring team headed by Malaysian observers to oversee violations in the agreement. The I-ACT is one such ceasefire mechanism ensuring that incidents like the Pikit armed conflict in February last year will not happen again. A series of armed encounters hit Central Mindanao last year as a result of government’s hot pursuit operations against lawless elements in areas controlled by the MILF. Garcia said the I-ACT will foster better coordination between the MILF and the government, especially during military and police operations conducted in areas identified with the MILF. Both panels reportedly agreed on the "temporary relocation" of MILF forces to a neutral place when government troops pursue lawless elements in their areas. Benjie Midtimbang, chair of the MILF committee on the cessation of hostilities, said he sees nothing wrong with the "temporary relocation" as long as government provides for their forces during the relocation.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:19:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hizb’allah Infiltrates Israeli Political Party
From Middle East Newsline....
Hizbullah was said to have infiltrated a major Israeli Arab political movement. The party was identified as the Balad movement, led by Knesset member Azmi Bishara. The sources said Hizbullah recruited and organized an insurgency cell from senior members of Balad in 2003. They said the cell was financed, trained and equipped to carry out suicide attacks against Israeli targets. On Sunday, the Israel Security Agency reported the arrest of the suspected cell, based in the area around the northern city of Nazareth. The two key operatives of the cell were identified as Ghassan and Sirhan Atmallah, arrested in January 2004.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 9:32:40 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iranian Youth Not buying the Reformist Song & Dance
EFL
They slice through traffic on their motorbikes, racing each other at breakneck speed while holding their mobile phones. They listen to heavy metal, read GÃŒnter Grass and admire Tom Cruise. They don’t go to the mosque the way their parents did, and they have given up on politics...

Now Sohrab and his friends blame the clergy for Iran’s troubles. "You cannot accuse anyone else. The revolution was in their hands, they made it happen. They were responsible. They started with a slogan of Islam, but they betrayed Islam. It was a futile revolution," says Sohrab, who is as young as the Islamic Republic. "It brought nothing but harm for the people." He worries about friends who have turned to drugs. More than a million young Iranians are addicts, and hundreds of thousands of young men are in jail for drug offences. He complains about the social restrictions that make having a girlfriend a clandestine project; the risks of speaking out publicly against the theocracy; the inflation that eats away at his wages; corruption; and his country’s pariah status. Like his peers, he wears his hair long and slicked back with gel. He has a "hidden friendship" with a girl; "people have learned to do everything they want in society behind closed doors". He adds: "We are human beings. It’s natural."

Hoping for real change, Sohrab, along with millions of other young Iranians, voted for reformists four years ago in parliamentary elections. But the reformist majority was overruled in a system that gives final authority to appointed ideologues. "They knew how to fool us" he says. "I had a lot of enthusiasm at the time. But I won’t vote again. Even if my father becomes a candidate, I won’t vote." ... Journalists say the leadership hopes to follow China’s example, easing social and economic restrictions while holding on firmly to power. Unable to contain the vast youth population, the Iranian establishment has been forced to grant a limited degree of social freedom, allowing couples to hold hands on the street, spicing up programming on state television and permitting concerts and billiard halls. Among young couples sharing ice cream at a shopping centre, there is no gratitude for the new social allowances. "It’s not a matter of tolerance. They were forced to act because society was about to explode," says Sadjad, 19, a university student. "We are not the youth of 10 years ago and we have more access to the rest of the world, so they have to give us more freedom." His girlfriend Mara says the concessions are meaningless. "Freedom is not only about going with your friend hand-in-hand. It’s being able to speak freely, even in front of a policeman."
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 5:21:02 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Ein el-Hellhole Goes Boom
SIDON: Three bomb blasts rocked Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp overnight but no one was injured, Palestinian security sources said on Monday.
"No one worth mentioning"
They said the pre-dawn explosions were the latest of a string of sporadic bombings in the southern Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, which is controlled by Palestinian factions and which Lebanese authorities do not enter.
"Cuz they’re icky"
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 8:58:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bombmaking 101: Dont touch the red wire to the black one!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  As the civil war in Gaza and the West Bank gets underway in earnest, I expect that all Palestinian territory will begin to resemble Ain el-Hilweh.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#3  I wouldn't be too surprized if some of the released Hizbollah POWs were instigators of this latest attack on a PA outpost.
Posted by: mhw || 02/09/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Its starting to look like Palestina is "in play"
Interesting times ahead.
Posted by: Evert Visser || 02/09/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||

#5  New batch of blowup stuff come in? Wonder where they got it from? Doesn't seem to work too well. Wonder why that is? Tampered with, perhaps? Or is it idiots as usual?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 16:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Doesn't matter,TU.As long as the end results are them same(Paleo jam that is).
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 18:02 Comments || Top||


Israeli Jets Draw Fire Over Lebanon
Israeli warplanes flew Sunday over large parts of Lebanon, including the capital, drawing anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese army and Hezbollah guerrillas, Lebanese security officials said. Two Israeli jets flew over the southern cities of Sidon and Tyre and the market town of Nabatiyeh, the officials said. Two other planes flew over the eastern Bekaa Valley, breaking the sound barrier over the city of Baalbek, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Hi! Remember us?"
Witnesses in Nabatiyeh said Hezbollah’s anti-aircraft units fired on the planes. Hezbollah’s Al Manar television station reported the group’s units confronted the jets. There were no reports of any hits.
"Got all the triple-A sites mapped, David?"
"Yep. All on tape. Those guys still can’t hit anything."
"Roger that."

The Lebanese army said its anti-aircraft units fired on eight Israeli warplanes that violated Lebanese airspace at midday Sunday. An army statement said the jets flew over areas in north and south Lebanon, including Beirut, breaking the sound barrier over the Bekaa Valley. In Jerusalem, the Israeli army would not comment on its air force’s activity. It said, however, that no debris from anti-aircraft fire fell inside Israel.
The triple-A gunners can’t even hit the ground.
It was not clear if Hezbollah opened fire on the jets from its positions near the border with Israel. In the past, shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire in Lebanon has fallen on Israeli border communities. Hezbollah routinely fires at Israeli warplanes flying overhead on apparent reconnaissance missions.
They haven’t hit anything then either.
It was the first time an Israeli warplane has broken the sound barrier over Lebanon since the Jan. 29, prisoners swap between Israel and Hezbollah.
Just sending a message.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 2:08:59 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probes into enemy territory usually yield some info. A few pics perhaps.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 8:44 Comments || Top||

#2  "the group’s units confronted the jets"

does this fool realize how stooopid that statement was? how about next time you "confront" the cluster bombs?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Reminding them of the prisoner swap and declarng more kidnappings. An eye for a JDAM.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 10:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't suppose the Israeli pilots do barrel rolls just to piss off the anti-aircraft gunnies a little more, do they?
Posted by: Raj || 02/09/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Debka - Bin Laden May Have Nuclear Material
Way EFL - long article

In a special investigation,DEBKA-Net-Weekly learned from well-placed intelligence sources that the millionaire terror master did procure a supply of uranium-235 six months before his Al Qaeda suicides carried out their September 11 strikes in America. The uranium was delivered following an extraordinary deal between the most wanted terrorist in the world and one of the world’s most dangerous mobsters, a shadowy Ukrainian-born Jew called Semion Mogilevich, who rules over an arms-trafficking, money-laundering, drug-running, prostitution and graft empire.

Sources who spoke to DEBKA-Net-Weekly on condition of anonymity report that for a princely sum estimated at US$40 - 75 million, Bin Laden bought between 12 and 15 kilos of uranium-235, all of which came from Russia or some Central Asian Muslim republic.

If this is true, the master terrorist has enough fissionable material to build between 3 and 5 nuclear devices.

Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 02/09/2004 1:22:03 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  HUGE grain of salt. On the bright side, Osama might die of radiation poisoning
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||

#2  maybe he already did.
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 18:37 Comments || Top||

#3  It takes about 25 kilos of Uranium to make a single bomb.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/09/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#4  They MAY have intevented time travel.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:22 Comments || Top||

#5  12-15 kilos won't even one nuke. For a gun-type uranium bomb with heavy tamper, you just have barely enough to make a bomb, and that is with some technical sophistication. Oh, by the way, boys, keep your little genie stacked in at least two piles, or things will get a little hot in the machine shop.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 22:11 Comments || Top||


Report: Al-Qaida has obtained tactical nuclear explosives
From 9/2, not the most reliable source, and it just doesn’t sound right. But make of it what you will.
Al-Qaida have possessed tactical nuclear weapons for about six years, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Sunday. The Arabic daily reported that sources close to Al-Qaida said Osama bin Laden’s group bought the nuclear weapons from Ukrainian scientists who were visiting Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1998. The report has not been confirmed.
I’ll bet.
However, the sources said Al-Qaida doesn’t intend to use the weapons against American forces in Muslim countries, "due to the disappearance of the top 1,000 holy sites serious damage" it could cause. But that decision is subject to change, the sources said, if Al-Qaida "is dealt a serious blow that won’t leave it any room to maneuver." The possibility of detonating the nuclear devices on American soil was also raised in the report, although no details were given.
C’mon, if they had them, they’d have used them on us already.
The sources were quoted as saying that Al-Qaida actvists have hidden the weapons - each of which is about the size of a suitcase - in "a safe place."
Septic tank next to Saddam’s?
In the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, serious concern arose in the West over the possibility that nuclear technology and weapons could spread to other groups, in part due to the difficult economic situation in the former communist lands. Several reports of the nuclear arsenal in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s indicated that a few dozen nuclear explosive devices had disappeared. One of the theories was that the devices disappeared in Ukraine, which claims that it handed over all its nuclear weapons to Russia.
No doubt the Uke’s were sloppy in handling lots of stuff so this is plausible. But if al-Q had one, they would have used it already.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 1:54:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't doubt that the Soviets had small nukes which could be considered tactical. However, the suitcase sized module is not so easy to build and once built, I don't think it would stay 'fresh' for a decade.
Posted by: mhw || 02/09/2004 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Without getting into great detail, two things need to be kept in mind.
First, a nuclear warhead is quite possibly the most labor intensive - and surprisingly delicate - military device ever built. That is why ours are constantly undergoing maintenance and inspection. If you don't do the M&I, the weapon goes questionable surprisingly fast. Again, without getting into much detail, there are certain aspects of the weapon that unless they are M&I'd on a regular basis will fail within months.
Secondly, the smaller the warhead, the more dificult it is to maintain. Take everything I've already mentioned and multiply it by a factor of two or three, and you can see that challenge. My call would be that Al-Q may very well have suitcase nukes.
They are nothing more than very expensive doorstops.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/09/2004 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I have to agree with mhw here. Nukes need maintenance, and I doubt the al-Q's have the capability to keep them in working order. Plus we'd know if they had them, Mecca would be a smoldering radioactive wasteland...cause they would have used it on us and we would have no choice but to reply in kind. Surely they realize that the American people would demand retribution. And ours are a LOT bigger than theirs.
Posted by: Swiggles || 02/09/2004 9:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Personally I dont think they have them - or if they do they don't work. Just more talk and no walk which is getting to be so typical of Al-Q.

Having said that we still need to take this seriously. Perhaps tell Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran that if one is used the reaction would be to turn Mecca, Medina, and their capital cities into glass parking lots -- and yes this is a threat. Just in case they are under the mistaken assumption that we would fold up and beg for mercy. See if we can get them to chase down and disarm the threat.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Each of these suitcases has a nuclear bomb inside.

Don't open them! They'll explode, damn it!!

Now, give me the five million dollars.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 9:30 Comments || Top||

#6  It is possible to have something that can go boom, be easily hidden and have a radioactive fallout result (dirty). But logic indicates that if AQ has this or even something bigger hidden in M&I intensive environment (big doubt) then why did they not use them here when we were most vulnerable (pre 9-11)?? My bet is on BS and not reality!
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 02/09/2004 10:17 Comments || Top||

#7  My feeling is that al Qaeda is extremely vulnerable to fraud. How would al Qaeda know whether what they're getting is genuine? Radioactive materials are a dime a dozen - and even if you could put together something with the radioactive profile of a mass of uranium, how do you know what you have is a bomb, and not just a blob of uranium? It's not as if al Qaeda has a nuclear testing facility available. Any country that hosted such a test - and a suitcase bomb would have a specific detectable seismic profile - would probably be targeted by American nuclear retaliation if something similar took place on US soil.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#8  This story was debunked when it first rolled around after Sept 11.

Fact is, if Al Queda had such weapons they would have used them long ago. They are not a subtle bunch. This is more attempting to sew fear through words because they are unable to actually do anything tangible any longer.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#9  Mike Sylwester,

exactly.

Btw, my favorite was the claim that AQ put out that they would only use the nukes if their existence was threatened... pretty obvious for
"holy sh-t we're getting our ass kicked! Maybe if we threaten we have and we'll use nukes they'll stop whoopin us so bad!"
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 13:40 Comments || Top||

#10  Note to Al Qaida members: Radioactive material is best stored in a confined area, in close proximity to other like materials.....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 15:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Yeah, B-a-R's right - don't worry about that critical mass stuff - it's just another Jooo plot to throw you off your game.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 15:48 Comments || Top||

#12  I highly suggest Al-quaeda follow the building instructions provided here. After all one can never be too sure of the quality of such devices unless one is thoroughly involved in the process.
Posted by: Val || 02/09/2004 16:43 Comments || Top||


Terrorists plan to build bombs in mid-flight
Now the repeated flight cancellations make sense. Presumably al Ghamdi or someone similar revealed the names of some of the operatives, which is why kids and old people with ’suspicious names’ have been enough to have a flight cancelled.
Islamic militants have conducted dry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe. The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say. Concerns that militants might assemble a bomb or another weapon on board were a key factor in the series of recent cancellations of transatlantic flights. Last weekend British Airways stopped flights from London to Washington and Miami for fear of an attack and Air France also cancelled scheduled flights.

Security agencies are now hunting scores of militants who have been trained in the new tactics. The warning, passed to Western agencies by Middle Eastern intelligence services, is based on interrogations of Islamic militants captured in the Arabian Gulf and is corroborated by intercepted communications between terrorist cells and interviews with prisoners held by the US government at Guantanamo Bay. Officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are believed to have warned that at least 12 dry runs may have been completed and to have said that the terrorists are aiming to try out their plans on flights around the Mediterranean and the Middle East before attempting to bomb a transatlantic route, where security precautions are now very tight. Militants know that individual components are far easier to smuggle through airport security than an assembled bomb.

In May 2002 nearly 100 grammes of pentrite, a plastic explosive used by the alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid, was found hidden in the armrest of a Moroccan jet when it landed in Metz, France. At the time, investigators said they thought it had been put there as a warning. Now French officials suspect the explosives were placed on the jet as a trial of the new tactics. Though some investigators fear they may be the victim of deliberate ’disinformation’, officials say that they cannot risk ignoring the warnings.

Ali Abd Rahman al-Ghamdi, alleged to be one of the masterminds of a suicide attack that killed 35 in Riyadh last May, is thought to have revealed the new tactics after giving himself up to Saudi authorities weeks after the blast. Shortly after the capture of al-Ghamdi, who is believed to be close to senior al-Qaeda figures, the US government’s Transportation Security Administration issued an urgent memo detailing new threats to aviation and warning that terrorists in teams of five might be planning suicide missions to hijack commercial airliners. An FBI bulletin last November was more specific. It warned that ’terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) assembled on board to hijack an aircraft or, alternatively, destroy it over heavily populated areas in the event of passenger or crew resistance. Components of IEDs can be smuggled on to an aircraft, concealed in either clothing or personal carry-on items such as shampoo and medicine bottles, and assembled on board. In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft’s forward lavatory.’
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 02/09/2004 1:08:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Though some investigators fear they may be the victim of deliberate ’disinformation’, officials say that they cannot risk ignoring the warnings.

What??? They found pentrite in the arm rest! Why would terrorists, who would love to blow up a plane, do this to "create disinformation"???? Who are these people who come up with these absurd types of conclusions??
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  What??? They found pentrite in the arm rest! Why would terrorists, who would love to blow up a plane, do this to "create disinformation"???? Who are these people who come up with these absurd types of conclusions??

The point of disinformation is to steer your opponent towards one angle while you're working another. This might be disinformation in the sense that terror attacks are being planned which have nothing to do with the methods being discussed - and the disclosures are simply a red herring to draw investigators away from other possibilities. These other possibilities may also include non-airline-related attacks.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  You know, with all of this talk about alQ constructing bombs midflight, and with talk of their having nukes, I think I see what's really going on :) Stay with me here for a sec :)

You take two jihadis, and place them at the front and back of the plane. Give them each a subcritical hemisphere of U235. Midflight, each pulls out his hemisphere, then starts running like "Shaytan hisself" was chasing him! They carefully collide mid-plane, and boom - you have alQ's nuke! :)

Okay, maybe I'm missing something. But remember that video footage that surfaced a few months ago of the AC130 gunship attacking a nest of alQ guys in Afghanistan? Remember how after the shooting started, these guys started running around and bumping into each other in what appeared to be just your typical scene of chaos? Was that **really** chaos? Or did months of the gueling "running and bumping into each other at full speed," drill cause them to mistakedly tip their hat too early in the conflict? :)

-Vic
:)
Posted by: Vic || 02/09/2004 14:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Terrorists are going to assemble a bomb in flight? After Richard Reid's failed attempt to blow off his own feet, I don't have a lot of confidence in the ability of his compatriots to execute this plan.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Before boarding I will start pulling off my belt and place it in my pants pocket where it will be handy for choking the living doodoo out of one of the three clowns if they line up to use the restroom in sucession.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#6  That would be impossible Vic... the two masses would have to be on rollerskates to built up sufficient speed and rollerskates are not allowed on scheduled airlines.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Watch what you say... Minetta might start having screeners check for wheels in the soles of all passengers' shoes :)

-Vic
Posted by: Vic || 02/09/2004 20:06 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Qurei calls for action on barrier
Surprise! Surprise!
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has called for an urgent international meeting to discuss the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Speaking in Ireland at the start of a European tour, he urged the "quartet" of peace sponsors - the EU, UN, US and Russia - to meet as soon as possible. Mr Qurei said the barrier threatened a key aim of the peace "roadmap" - to create a separate Palestinian state.
No it doesn't. It'll just be behind a wall.
Israel’s Supreme Court has begun hearing a case against the barrier. The case was brought by two Israeli human rights groups, who argued that sections of the barrier had been built illegally on occupied territory and therefore should be re-routed along Israel’s border with the West Bank. A lawyer for the Israeli Government replied that the challenges to the barrier were too general and should be dismissed. The hearing comes two weeks before the International Court of Justice is due to consider if the barrier contravenes international law. Israel says the 720-kilometre (480-mile) barrier is necessary to keep suicide bombers out. Palestinians say it is an attempt to grab land.

"It is time for the quartet to move,"
Qurei, you had your chance. You blew it. No one gives a sh*t about hysterical, homicidal, splodydopes anymore. Get over it,
Mr Qurei told reporters at a news conference in Dublin, after talks with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Mr Qurei urged the four to make a "very strong intervention, very serious action and immediately to stop it".
"Pull our fat out of the fire. We promise we won't give anything in return..."
Mr Ahern said the talks had been highly useful and he would be discussing the situation in the Middle East at a meeting with US President George W Bush next month. He said Mr Qurei pledged that "the Palestinian leadership would shortly make an unequivocal statement reaffirming their stated position on Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate end to violence."
"Unequivocal statement" Oh! my aching sides
Petition hearing On Monday, the two Israeli human rights groups - Hamoked and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel - presented their cases against the Israeli barrier. "There’s no doubting that Israel has the right to defend itself and build a barrier... but it is another thing to build it inside the occupied territories," Hamoked’s lawyer Avner Pinchuk said. Israeli Government lawyer Michael Blass replied that the challenges to the barrier were too general. Mr Blass also said the government was considering altering the route of the barrier. Israeli officials had said a day earlier that the route could be shortened by about 100 km (62 miles), and plans to loop it around Jewish settlements are expected to be dropped. The government is also reportedly considering painting sections of the barrier to make it less ugly. A three-judge panel spent about two hours listening to arguments. They are expected to rule in the next few days, according to justice ministry sources cited by the AFP news agency. If the court rules in favour of the petition, correspondents say a lengthy legal process could follow.
Posted by: tipper || 02/09/2004 10:03:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the ignorance of other comments on this sight astounds me...
qurei will provide the most results because he is one of the few willing to make an honest effort...he had ties to the east before the fall and he has always maintained ties to the west including - and here'e the "shocker"...some of the most educated Jews in the US
he is a "worldly" man, a peacemaker
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/26/2004 16:32 Comments || Top||

#2  the ignorance of other comments on this sight astounds me...
qurei will provide the most results because he is one of the few willing to make an honest effort...he had ties to the east before the fall and he has always maintained ties to the west including - and here'e the "shocker"...some of the most educated Jews in the US
he is a "worldly" man, a peacemaker
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/26/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||


Paleolovers go "boom!"
A Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip who helped his married lover wipe out the stain on her family's honour caused by their affair by sending her on a suicide mission has himself been killed in a mysterious explosion. Palestinians say the blast was caused by an elaborate Israeli booby trap.
Maybe it was the Zionist death ray again?
The story was reported yesterday by Israel Radio's Arab affairs correspondent based on his Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip. The woman, Reem Raiyshi, 22, detonated an explosive belt last month at a crossing point into Israel, killing herself and three Israeli soldiers in the first suicide attack by a woman ever authorised by Hamas. It was reported at the time that the attack was an act of redemption by Raiyshi, a mother of two, for having betrayed her husband. According to yesterday's Israel Radio report, Raiyshi had been intimate with the Hamas military commander in the central sector of the Gaza Strip, Abed A-Nasser Abu-Shuka. The two had met after Raiyshi, gripped by religious fundamentalism, began visiting mosques frequently and joined Hamas.
Then she met Shuka. Their eyes met across the mosque. The first time she saw him, she knew she must have him. As if by accident, she lifted her veil. His pants fell down. Her pants fell down. And then they were one. Briefly...
When the illicit romance was discovered, Abu-Shuka and the betrayed husband agreed that Raiyshi would have to pay the ultimate price for having betrayed her family's honour. She accepted her fate and it was Abu-Shuka, her lover, who provided her with the belt of explosives she would wear under her clothing and explained to her how she would carry out her mission.
"One more before you go for the last time, baby?"
"Didja ever make it with a babe wearing a dynamite girdle, Abed?"
Last week, there was an explosion in Abu-Shuka's house which took his life. Palestinians initially reported that it had been caused by a rocket from an Israeli helicopter but it soon became apparent that the explosion had been inside the house. Israeli spokesmen denied any involvement, saying that the explosion had apparently been caused by a 'work accident' as Abu-Shuka prepared a bomb. After a Hamas investigation, Palestinian sources said the explosion was caused by a booby trap in the form of a three-dimensional model of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. It had been given to Abu-Shuka last week by an Israeli Arab who was believed to be collaborating with Hamas. The collaborator had brought the Hamas operative Israeli army uniforms for use in a future operation. The Palestinian sources say that explosives inside the model had been detonated by remote control, apparently on a signal sent from an unmanned reconnaisance aircraft overhead.
Oooh! That's pretty neat! Kinda like the Trojan horse, only smaller. And with dynamite.
More than a decade ago, Israeli agents assassinated Hamas' top bombmaker in similar fashion. They arranged for a booby-trapped cell phone to be delivered to him and then detonated it when he answered their ring.
[Ring!]
"Hello?"
[BOOM!]
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 02/09/2004 21:32 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  classic!
Posted by: B || 02/10/2004 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  [Ring!]
"Hello?"
[BOOM!]

Yup.
Posted by: Anonymous3999 || 04/03/2004 21:29 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
TF “ALL AMERICAN”
During the last 24 hours, the 82nd Airborne Division conducted 260 patrols (including 14 joint patrols) and executed three offensive operations – cordon and searches in Fallujah, Mahmudiyah and Habbaniyah. Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces conducted 15 independent patrols.

The 82nd Airborne Division captured five enemy personnel while suffering one U.S. killed in action and four U.S. wounded in action. Soldiers denied entry to 10 personnel and 10 vehicles at Husaybah, 53 personnel and 37 vehicles at Trebil, and one person and one vehicle at Tanif – all because they lacked passports. Approximately 109 passengers, 18 cars and 11 busses crossed back into Iraq at Ar Ar yesterday as they returned from the Hajj. To date, 226 pilgrims have returned to Iraq in the 82nd Airborne Division’s area of operations.
Ar Ar's such a happy place to live. Lotsa laffs...
At 9:25 p.m. Feb. 7, soldiers conducted a cordon and search in Habbaniyah to kill or capture Thamer Mubarik Atruz, a known Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam leader in Khalidiyah. Although the primary target was not found, three of his associates were detained.
So we snagged some Ansar cannon fodder...
At 6:30 a.m. Feb. 8, paratroopers conducted search and attack operations north of Fallujah to capture five individuals suspected of attacking Coalition forces with improvised explosive devices. The operation resulted in one enemy captured and various rocket propelled grenades and small arms weapons confiscated. At 10:57 a.m. Feb. 8, paratroopers were attacked with an IED and small arms fire while conducting a routine patrol southeast of Fallujah. The attack resulted in three wounded. The unit secured the area, evacuated the casualties and conducted a search. At 4:30 p.m. Feb. 8, soldiers moving to clear an IED discovered another IED. As the soldier approached to render it safe, the IED detonated, killing the soldier.

Funds were approved to complete the remodeling of a primary school in Fallujah. The school’s 350 students will also receive 150 backpacks and 50 soccer balls. Civil affairs personnel working with the 82nd Airborne Division donated $8,700 for the project. Approximately 2,500 citizens residing near Ar Ramadi will receive access to new water pumps for two existing water stations. The $40,000 project will bring potable water to some of the poorest communities in Al Anbar. Civil affairs with 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division paid for the project out of the Commander’s Emergency Relief Fund.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/09/2004 7:55:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


STRYKER BRIGADE DETAINS SUSPECTS
Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) under the operational control of Task Force Olympia detained personnel suspected of anti-Coalition activities and recovered weapons and other explosives in northern Iraq Sunday. One person suspected of anti-Coalition activities turned himself in to 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment headquarters in Mosul.
I believe this is card #43
Members of the Coalition for Iraqi Unity, a concerned group of citizens in northwestern Iraq, came to the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment and turned in 750 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, 1,000 rounds of 14.5 mm ammunition, one hand grenade and one set of binoculars. A cache of weapons, consisting of one rocket-propelled grenade, 84 shotgun shells, one bag of propellant and a 10-pound stick of propellant was brought to a forward operating back in southern Mosul.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/09/2004 7:54:15 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My bad. We got #48, Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji. LINK
Posted by: Chuck || 02/09/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I show 12 of the 55 still at large.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 21:41 Comments || Top||


4TH INFANTRY DIVISION OPERATIONS FOR THE PAST 24 HOURS
  • Pilots of an OH-58D “Kiowa Warrior” were providing additional security as they searched an area 3 kilometers west of Logistical Support Area Anaconda near Balad during the morning of Feb. 7. The pilots saw two 80 mm rocket emplacements aimed at the base. The helicopter fired at the weapons, destroying them. The pilots then saw a van leaving the vicinity of the rocket site and followed the vehicle to a house located approximately 1 kilometer away. Cavalry soldiers went to that location and captured seven individuals. The individuals are being held for questioning.

  • Iraqi police discovered and reported an improvised explosive device emplacement at an east Tikrit traffic circle during the morning of Feb. 7. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps were called to the scene. The IED consisted of six 82 mm mortar rounds with wire attached to a blasting cap buried in the median. The soldiers disarmed the device and followed the wire to a nearby building. In the residence, the soldiers found a number of rounds of 57 mm anti-aircraft ammunition and captured two individuals. All the munitions are scheduled to be destroyed by an explosive ordnance disposal team.

  • During the late evening of Feb. 7, pilots of an OH-58D “Kiowa Warrior” identified two armed individuals in the village of Abayachi. The individuals were given warnings to stop, but refused to comply and attempted to flee. In response, the helicopter fired on them, killing one. Soldiers from 4th Engineer Battalion came to the scene and tried to locate the other individual, but were unsuccessful.

  • Six people suspected of having involvement in attacks on Coalition forces were captured during the evening of Feb. 7 in Samarra. The soldiers captured the individuals without incident.

  • Soldiers captured five individuals during the evening of Feb. 7 in the area outside of the town of Mukdadiyah because they are suspected of being weapons dealers. The five were captured without incident and soldiers located and confiscated two AK-47 assault rifles, two 9 mm pistols, four 9 mm ammunition magazines and nine AK-47 ammunition magazines.

  • After seeing two explosions near a forward operating base in Kirkuk, soldiers from 173rd Airborne Brigade established a checkpoint during the evening of Feb. 7 to stop the attackers. A truck approached the position at a high rate of speed in an attempt to avoid being halted. Soldiers fired on the vehicle in an attempt to disable it, wounding the driver. The captured individual was treated for a minor wound and is being held for questioning.

  • During an evening raid, soldiers located and confiscated a weapons and ammunition cache in the back yard of a Samarra dental clinic Feb. 7. Found were two 82 mm mortars, seven 82 mm mortar fuses, one round of 57 mm anti-aircraft ammunition, one 60 mm mortar round, 15 explosive primers and seven sticks of dynamite. No one was in the clinic at the time of the raid.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 02/09/2004 7:52:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good work. I love reading this everyday
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 21:48 Comments || Top||

#2  RE: last bullet. TIP: don't go to that dentist for a root canal.
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 23:07 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
The Animal-Skin Merchant’s Explanation for Missing His Flights
An Indian Muslim, at the centre of a terrorism scare on trans-Atlantic flights, is an innocent leather-garment exporter. The man, whose full name is Abdul Haye Mohammad Illyas, is based in the southern Indian city of Madras with business interests in the United States and Europe -- which requires frequent air travel, Indian investigators said.... The suspicions of international intelligence agencies seemed confirmed when Illyas failed to show up for the flight to Los Angeles, which was ultimately cancelled at the request of Washington due to fears of an attack. A similar alert was re-issued by Air France on January 7, informing the US and French intelligence that Illyas was booked on Paris-Los Angeles flight four days later. He had been expected to land in Paris January 7 on an Air France flight from Bombay and had a reservation on January 11 for an onward flight to Los Angeles. But this time too, Illyas failed to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris where French police were waiting for him to check his identity.... According to the Indian Express newspaper, Illyas had won frequent flier tickets for travel on the Paris-Los Angeles sector. When Air France asked him for his dates of travel, Illyas randomly chose December 24 without really intending to use the ticket, the paper quoted family members as saying.
This explanation doesn’t make any sense to me. Can anyone here explain it?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 7:32:09 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds perfectly logical and reasonable to me. He seems to have real papers, so since it is a zero-sum game, his timing is off on airline schedules, which freaked out security. A name like Abdul Haye Mohammad Illyas who does not show is a bad thing to have happen.

His background will have to be checked out closely to see if his excuse is real, or is a bunch of BS. Maybe Air Phrog will be insisting on asking questions of their passengers in the future to prevent cancelling flights. Maybe they can learn from El Al (nah...never happen...).
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/09/2004 20:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Wait, doesn't this guy own a cellphone? He was supposed to be in England at a trade show, according to his family. I thought that comment was odd at that time because all they had to do was call him. What trade show, where and where was Scotland Yard to check up on him? This thing's 6 weeks old.

He shows up now? And why didn't he just decline the tickets if he didn't intend to use them?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 23:16 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Engineers Race to Fix Iraq Power Plants
People in Baghdad plan their evenings by looking at the four soaring smokestacks of the al-Dora power plant, rising above an otherwise picturesque bend in the Tigris River. When three or four of the stacks are smudging the skyline with inky smoke, there will be enough power to turn on the heater, watch TV, or read. When just two are working -- the normal state of affairs in Baghdad -- dinner will probably be eaten by the light of a kerosene lantern. But for over a month, just one of al-Dora’s skyscraping chimneys has been belching. Engineers say the plant is operating at 10 percent capacity, leaving the Iraqi capital with electricity clicking on for two hours then vanishing for four.
I speculate that you can achieve 10% capacity in a four generator plant if you trash 7 of 8 Main Feed Booster Pumps and have enough soot blowers down that you have caked the firesides of the generating tubes with soot. Congratulations, you’re a moron.
The continuing blackouts have left people cynical about America’s ability to help the country after 10 months of occupation. But the reasons behind the winter blackouts bode well for the searing Baghdad summer.
Be cynical all you want asswipes. Try removing random parts of your cars engine and then poring a cup of sugar in your gas tank. Then complain that your car is in the shop for a week.
The al-Dora plant, which produces a third of Baghdad’s power, has two of its four giant steam turbine generators in the midst of a $50 million overhaul. A third generator is broken and is being repaired. The upgrades to the al-Dora plant -- expected to add 220 megawatts of power to Baghdad’s grid -- are central to efforts by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to boost Iraq’s generating capacity to 6,000 megawatts per day by June. "That’s our goal," said Tom Wheelock, who heads U.S. AID’s infrastructure work in Iraq. "The big push is for this summer."

U.S. engineers estimate Iraq needs around 7,000 megawatts of electricity on hot summer days to keep air conditioners running. If 6,000 megawatts can be generated, Wheelock figures most Iraqis will have power at least 17 hours per day. The current average is 12 to 14 hours of power a day. Residents of Baghdad and central Iraq cope with longer blackouts than Iraqis in the far north and south, Wheelock said. The al-Dora upgrade and a half-dozen other power projects will add a total of 2,200 megawatts of daily capacity to the grid, Wheelock said. Iraq also buys power from Syria and Turkey. Two of al-Dora’s crude oil-fired generators, built in 1978 by Germany’s Siemens, are currently strewn in Volkswagen-sized pieces across the floor of the massive power station. A dozen Siemens technicians, working as subcontractors for U.S. construction giant Bechtel, are scrambling to get them running by the summer. Engineers could be seen Saturday cleaning turbine blades and disassembling the massive generators. Broken parts need to be ordered from Germany, said William McCullough, a Bechtel engineer. The plant is also getting new computerized control room for the two German generators, which will eventually connect to a central distribution network for all of Iraq.

For now, the al-Dora plant is a study in decay. A third generator at the plant blew a high-pressure rotor and is being repaired. It won’t be working for another six weeks, engineers at the plant said. Al-Dora’s single operating generator produces just 75 megawatts per day, a fraction of the plant’s potential capacity of 790 megawatts. Al-Dora’s miserable story parallels that of Iraq’s electrical infrastructure. The country has an installed capacity of 10,000 megawatts per day, and was able to generate up to 9,000 megawatts in years past, said Fayik Mustafa, the site manager for the al-Dora station and a power engineer in Iraq since 1966. ... Pushed by Saddam Hussein, engineers worked like fiends to restart the plant in two months, a feat often cited by Iraqis who complain that American engineers haven’t been able to fix the power as quickly as Saddam. By the time the Americans invaded in March, Iraq’s generation capacity had slipped to 4,400 megawatts -- half its 1990 level -- due to broken or inefficiently running generators. "The country needed power," Mustafa said. "There was no time for maintenance."
I'll bet that's a single word in Arabic...
Mustafa said his Baghdad neighbors now harangue him about the slow pace of the current repairs, telling him he isn’t working hard enough. The complete overhauls are meant to modernize the plant, along with Iraq’s electrical grid, leaving it ready for the long haul.
Tell them to STFU or go back to molesting their livestock and be glad those generators didn’t shake itself loose of its mounting and try to fly out of the building. It would have been harder to fix if it broke into little pieces.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 5:59:28 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As I understand, Iraq has a population of 25 million and only uses 6000-7000Mw per day.

As a resident of Ontario, we have 7 million people and use 20000-25000Mw per day.

6000Mw would barely keep our streetlight on.
Posted by: john || 02/09/2004 18:47 Comments || Top||

#2  If you want to see the daily stats, CPA has some real nice resources: LINK
Posted by: Chuck || 02/09/2004 19:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "The country needed power," Mustafa said. "There was no time for maintenance."
And now you understand why developing nations never seem to develop.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/09/2004 20:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey toolman what do we need?

"More Power"
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 21:53 Comments || Top||

#5  i've voted republican since time out of mind. i physically can't vote for a democrat, but this is the sort of thing that will keep me at home.
"german generators". why in sam hill wouldn't we scrap these things, as soon as possible, and bring in shiny new GE turbines? american money going for american products? and more importantly, we create a shiny neon city on the hill as an example. none of this is happening.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 22:09 Comments || Top||

#6  and another thing.
http://electroniciraq.net/news/1350.shtml
tell me this isn't true. i mean, really, i would like to know this is inaccurate.
it's obviously biased as all get out, but how inaccurate is it?
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 23:20 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Another ’Race’ Problem in Africa could add to chaos.
From Africa’s sweltering heart to the warm shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile gives life as it tumbles and snakes through canyon, swamp and desert.
"It was a dark and stormy night..."
Increasingly, the mighty river also provides fertile ground for dispute. The 4,189-mile-long Nile and its African origins are governed by a colonial-era pact that angers upstream nations by giving effective control to Egyptian users far downstream. In the lands where the Nile originates -- home to some of the world’s most arid corners -- tempers are rising. "Egypt can go to hell," said Julius Juma, a Kenyan father of two who runs eight fish ponds in the village of Chemelil near Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile. "If Egyptians try to invade Kenya because of our waters, then we are ready to die for what is rightfully ours...Kenya should forget the Nile Treaty and revert to the commercial consumption of Lake Victoria waters."

Such views are spreading among Kenya’s neighbors as black Africa pushes for a fairer share of the river among the 10 countries of the so-called Nile Basin... The problem facing many countries that would like to use Nile headwaters is paying for irrigation and hydroelectric projects. Analysts say the World Bank in effect enforces the 1929 treaty. "The World Bank will not give an upstream country money and a loan to build a dams unless it has an agreement with the downstream country," said Sharif Elmusa, head of the Middle East program at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Black African countries cannot match Egypt’s diplomatic clout. The United States sees Egypt as a strategic ally in the Middle East, and as a political and cultural leader in the Arab world. Its Suez Canal is also a critical bottleneck for shipping between the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and beyond. Egyptian officials say the Nile is crucial for Egypt’s survival, and any change in its level could be disastrous. Most Egyptians live in the Nile valley on 4 percent of the country’s land. Over 95 percent of Egypt’s water resources come from the river. "This is the main source for our life here," Abdel-Fattah Metawie, head of the Nile water department at Egypt’s Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry, told Reuters.
Sounds like the UN has this one under control.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 5:00:22 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds almost like the spats in the South West over the Colorado River
Posted by: Cheddarhead || 02/09/2004 17:04 Comments || Top||

#2  It's identical CH... and in this case the Egyptians are the Mexicans. Difference to me is that I like Mexicans, I'm neutral on Egyptians.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Cut off the Nile entirely. Let the Egyptians live off all that lovely government sponsored bile they put out in their media.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 02/09/2004 18:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Always remember, Egypt:

Aswan, dirty nuke...
Aswan, dirty nuke...
Aswan, dirty nuke...

Don't make us - or Israel - come there, do that. And with nuclear weapons proliferating...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/09/2004 21:19 Comments || Top||

#5  OP -- We should never use a nuke on Egypt, at least in any way that would damage the remnants of its last great civilization. I suggest we get to work on some enhanced radiation bombs that would kill the people and leave the pyramids et.al. intact.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/09/2004 21:58 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Abu Walid: Saudi-Born Leader of Chechen Rebels
A Saudi-born warrior so zealously Muslim that he’s traumatized by even touching nonbelievers has risen to the top echelon of rebels in Chechnya, Russian officials and rebel sources say, a symbol of how a once-secular fight has come under the influence of radical Islam. To the Russian security services, the rebel commander known as Abu Walid embodies Chechnya’s place in the chain of international terrorism - a connection they stress to win Western support for their military campaign in the southern Russian region.
With good reason, I'd say...
He has surfaced as a suspect in myriad terrorist attacks in Russia, from the 1999 apartment house bombings that catapulted Russian forces back into Chechnya after they lost the 1994-1996 war to last week’s explosion on the Moscow subway. To the rebels, Abu Walid represents a growing trend toward strict Islamic practices, a tendency reflected in the appointment of a spiritual counselor as co-leader of even the smallest rebel unit.
The USSR used to appoint a political officer for the same reason, to make sure everyone followed the party line.
"That’s the one that communicates with Abu Walid," rather than the unit’s military commander, said a Muslim in southern Russia who serves as a liaison between the rebels and supporters in the West.
Wouldn't want to be traumatized be speaking to one of the lesser races?
Abu Walid, who is believed to be about 30 years old, has donned the mantle of Omar Ibn al Khattab, the flamboyant, Saudi-born rebel leader who died in 2002, apparently after being poisoned. Like Khattab, he is said to be second in authority only to Shamil Basayev, a Chechen known for a series of raids and brutal attacks. An expert in explosives, Abu Walid trained in camps in Afghanistan and fought alongside Muslims in Bosnia before arriving in Chechnya in 1995, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service. Like Khattab, he is a money man for the rebels - receiving and distributing funds smuggled in from abroad to support the Chechens’ fight. "It’s understood that he has money. Since he took over from Khattab, lots of units answer only to him and no one else," said the liaison.
A Saudi with moneybags, gee, what a concept.
"The (Chechen) military leadership has recognized him," echoed Sergei Ignatchenko, the spokesman for the Federal Security Service, adding that Abu Walid had taken over Khattab’s post of military emir.
Do you get a special turban with that?
In November, Al-Jazeera television broadcast fragments of a videotaped statement in which Abu Walid threatened to carry Chechnya’s war outside the republic and target military facilities in Russian territories with large Muslim populations. He also defended the use of female suicide bombers, saying the women were seeking revenge for the alleged killing of their husbands and children by Russian forces in Chechnya. It’s one of the few public appearances by the reclusive fighter.
That's because making public appearances can make you dead. Hiding in a cave is safer, and the money still comes in...
Russian security officials and Chechens alike say Abu Walid is far less of a showman than Khattab, who maintained a high profile in part to attract funding from abroad. But Abu Walid has inspired fear among the Russian military and won the trust of rebel leaders. After Khattab’s death, many midlevel commanders initially refused to accept Abu Walid, said the rebels’ liaison in southern Russia. "But his attitude to the war and his faith won him a lot of respect," the liaison said. He recalled a telling encounter at one meeting of rebel commanders when Abu Walid - who adheres to the conservative Wahhabi strain of Islam - embraced a journalist, convinced by his beard that he was a good Muslim. When he learned otherwise, he retreated from the world for two days, praying night and day to cleanse himself after touching an infidel.
"Ugh, unclean infidel cooties"
That extreme piety, the liaison said, has won supporters. "Lots of young people (in Chechnya) are turning to the Wahhabis. There are lots of understrength untrained battalions under the banner of radical Islam," he said. Ironically, Abu Walid’s star has risen as the role of Arab fighters in Chechnya has decreased. Heightened pressure on international terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001, has severely reduced the flow of foreign funds and mercenaries into Chechnya, and the number of foreign fighters could be anywhere from a couple hundred to just a few dozen, analysts say.
Err, what happened to those battalions?
At the same time, there’s widespread agreement that Islam is increasingly a motivating factor in what used to be a secular struggle for independence. "Chechnya used to be on the periphery of the Islamic world. That’s no longer true," said Alexei Malashenko, a specialist on Islam at Moscow’s Carnegie Center. "Here’s the paradox: They receive less money, they get less help, there are fewer Arabs, but the feeling that they’re Muslims ... is stronger."
I think we should help them feel better about themselves by cutting off all their money, ending their outside help and killing more of them. The last guy standing is gonna feel great.
That sense of Islamic solidarity has filled the ranks of fighters with men from other southern Russian republics. Of the estimated 1,500-2,000 die-hard rebels in the mountains of southern Chechnya, more than half are from neighboring Dagestan, and there are fighters from the Russian republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, as well as from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan, said Shamil Beno, a former Chechen foreign minister who heads a foundation in Moscow.
Did the local Chechen boys all get bumped off, or did they get a better offer to work outside the country?
He said the role of Abu Walid and other Arabs in Chechnya today was actually minimal. "What’s more important is that the Arabs’ mental view of resistance or struggle has begun to predominate," Beno said. "They’ve naturally played a role in the slipping of the Chechen resistance into terror, which is damaging the resistance."
Well, they’ve made certain the Russians won’t let them join the opposition party, that’s for sure.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 4:14:43 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ahhh, the Howard Hughes of the islamists.

Or Michael Jackson.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 23:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
U.S. Criticizes Palestinians Over Bombing Trial
The U.S. ambassador to Israel criticized a Palestinian trial for the suspected killers of three Americans, saying Monday it should not be held behind closed doors and the charges should be tougher. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer also said Washington should have been told in advance of the Gaza trial that began last Saturday of the four accused of involvement in a roadside bomb attack that killed the U.S. security guards in October.
The only reason it's beginning now is because we said we were going to cut off the dough we've been kicking in. Just ask Jibril.
"We don’t believe that this is the way to proceed. We want to see an open trial," said Kurtzer, when asked about the hearing at a convention of American rabbis in Jerusalem. "We’re not even sure that the charge sheet ... reflects the gravity of the crime. The charge sheet seems to implicate these individuals for involuntary manslaughter instead of what we would call first-degree murder," Kurtzer said.
"Well, how'd they know them bombs wuz gonna go off? Riddle me dat!"
Strained relations between the United States and the Palestinians have been further tested since the attack. Washington has said not enough was being done to hunt the killers of the guards, who were escorting a convoy to interview Fulbright scholarship applicants in Gaza City. A top Palestinian official accused the United States of blackmail over the investigation last week.
... immediately before they decided to have the trial. Such as it is...
Since the attack, the United States has stopped its officials from going to the Gaza Strip, a move that has hampered aid work. Kurtzer urged the Palestinians to reveal more details of the suspects, whose trial was adjourned Saturday to Feb. 29. Two have so far been identified as members of the Popular Resistance Committee, an armed group that has been involved in attacks on Israelis. It has denied involvement in the Oct. 15 bombing. Other suspects are a 22-year-old university student and a 23-year-old Palestinian. No charge sheet was made public during the trial and a military prosecutor said only that the four were involved in planting bombs to target Israeli troops that "might have led to the killing of the Americans".
"See? See? I them Merkins hadn't been there, they wouldn'ta been boomed!"
Posted by: Lorne Wilberger || 02/09/2004 3:52:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "United Stats has stopped its officials from going to the gaza strip".

I don't think the Paoes give a damn about this. The US is soo biased against them, they have yet to help their cause. If the US wants to help, stop sending Israel the military weapons, choppers, planes that drop bomb and murder these people. To hell with US one sided diplomacy.
Posted by: Lorne Wilberger || 02/09/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#2  No charge sheet was made public during the trial and a military prosecutor said only that the four were involved in planting bombs to target Israeli troops that "might have led to the killing of the Americans".

Somehow, when reading this I get: "Woops, we were supposed to kill Jews instead of Americans."
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 16:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah Lorne, I don't think that wanting to see an open trial for murders of three diplomats on their way to award Fullbright Scholarships to Palestinians is really the article you wanted to forward your one-sided diplomacy argument. Go back and fishing in the cesspool for another wrinkle-necked trout. You'll find what you seek, eventually.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh yes, try the scapegoats quickly, and in secret. Can't have them flapping their gums with loud protestations of a frame-up, can we?
Posted by: mojo || 02/09/2004 17:17 Comments || Top||

#5  All the more reason to wall them off.Ah,Wilberrrr
The Paleos used up my supply of sympathy a long time ago.
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 17:52 Comments || Top||

#6  It wasn't even my best effort Mr. Wilbarger... Latin's just not that funny anymore. You were merely a placeholder.
Posted by: McMurtry || 02/09/2004 19:17 Comments || Top||


Fatah Crisis - Details
Guardian story differs slightly from the Yahoo story that PlanetDan posted yesterday.
Hundreds of members of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement resigned at the weekend in protest at the lack of political reform, corruption and the leadership’s failure to challenge the Israeli occupation. The letter also referred to the growing lawlessness in several West Bank cities, notably Nablus and Jenin, since the Israeli army drove Palestinian police from the streets. Palestinians are killing each other in criminal violence and fights for political turf.
We want conflict and armed struggle... sort of.
The letter singled out central committee member Khaled El-Hassan, who is close to Mr Arafat, "for leading Fatah toward disaster, division, catastrophes and detrimental fate".
But I guess they still like Yasser. Fatah without Yasser would be like The Price Is Right without Bob Barker.
Mr Arafat called an urgent meeting of the movement’s leadership at his ruined compound in Ramallah yesterday to discuss the resignations. Mohammed al-Hourani, a member of Fatah’s high committee and of the Palestinian parliament, said: "We need deep and wide reforms. We need a clear political plan. This letter reflects popular demands. We are a party in crisis."
After a while you got to change top management. Yasser seems to lack the management skills to get the job done. The LA Clippers could probably use Arafat in the front office calling the shots.
Fatah’s constitution requires leadership elections every five years, but none has been held for 15 years. Many members are frustrated at what they see as an aging leadership unable to confront the Israelis, but unwilling to surrender power.
Wouldn’t it be kind of a waste of money to hold rigged elections that often? Fixing a contest that frequently might severely shrink Yasser’s rainy day fund.
The organisation has lunged from crisis to crisis during the latest intifada.
The young turks demand more organization to the total chaos. I guess I should be careful about what I Arabs. "Young Turks" might be insulting. Luckily I have no mustache to be fied upon. Have to wear a helmet to avoid shoe attack, though.
Among these were the appointment of the former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas and his cabinet. Mr Abbas refused to allow Fatah to dictate his policies and resigned from its central committee. Colleagues of Mr Abbas’s successor, Ahmed Qureia, say the new prime minister’s room for manoeuvre has been restricted by tthe Fatah leadership, which chose most of his cabinet.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said yesterday that it will shorten the controversial "security fence" through the West Bank and move parts of it closer to the 1967 border. The changes are aimed at placating American criticism of the steel and concrete barrier, expected to be 370 miles long.
I guess things are looking consistently down for Fatah. Here is more bad news from Nesday: Barak Says He Supports Israel’s Wall. If it gets worse, Jimmy Carter think about piling on with a stern word or two.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 3:51:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Calligrapher on Saddam’s bloody Koran
Edited for brevity.
Calligrapher Abbas Shaker Jawdah toiled for two years to transcribe the Koran, Islam’s holy book, on a personal commission from Saddam Hussein, writing in what he was told was the dictator’s own blood. Now a refugee in Jordan with his wife and three children, Jawdah described how he fulfilled Saddam’s strange order, which came a few months after a failed assassination attempt against his eldest son Uday in 1998. "Saddam Hussein summoned me to the Ibn Sina hospital in Baghdad where his son Uday was recovering from an assassination bid and asked me to write a copy of the Koran with his own blood," he told AFP. He explained that Saddam wanted this as a gesture of gratitude to God for sparing Uday -- who was eventually killed with his brother Qusay in a raid by US forces in the northern city of Mosul on July 22 last year.
Looks like God changed his mind the second time.
Jawdah worked diligently for the next two years to reproduce the 114-chapter Koran in a 35-by-35 centimeter (14-by-14 inches) edition which he said was displayed at the Om al-Maarek (Mother of Battles) museum of Baghdad. "It was not an easy task," said Jawdah, who is known for his calligraphic masterpieces in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world. "I was given a vial containing the leader’s blood and a week later I submitted a one-page draft to a special committee for its approval," he said. This committee was set up to "ensure that the blood will survive the ravages of time" but also to make sure that the text was accurate, he said. "It was not easy. The blood was too dense and and I could not work with it so a friend of mine, a lab technician, suggested that I mix it with a solution which he provided that looked like glucose, and it worked," he added.
The Koran of Ozymandias Saddam would look nice in the Smithsonian, dontcha think?
Posted by: Dar || 02/09/2004 3:12:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think everyone should request a copy. Time to hook em up.
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 15:24 Comments || Top||

#2  ...but when President Bush has the guts to stand up in front of the world, and describe these people in terms like "evil", and "evil-doers", the lefties (at home and abroad) snicker and call him "simple", "childish" and "naive".

What other terms fit as well for a tyrant who jails and tortures children, fills mass-graves with his own people, murders his own daughter's husband, commissions a golden "throne" with a prophecy inscribed on the back that someday soon he'll be sittng on it in Jerusalem, and carries around a koran written with his own blood?
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 02/09/2004 16:21 Comments || Top||

#3  ...a solution which he provided that looked like glucose, and it worked. I wouldn't touch the book until I made sure that the semen based substance wasn't a bodily fluid that his buddy provided as a gag.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, I meant glucose based, but you get the idea.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm usually dead set against book burning.... but...
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Shipman, do you think that he was reading an Ann Rice novel when he decided on that particular way to express his faith. Maybe Billy Bob Thorton e-mail'd him that it was a good idea.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 21:46 Comments || Top||

#7  "The Koran of Ozymandias Saddam would look nice in the Smithsonian, dontcha think?"

The 'Sonian will have to wait in line. I'm sure they'll be queueing up all the way to Berlin to see it at the Louvre...
Posted by: Hyper || 02/09/2004 22:24 Comments || Top||


Compare and Contrast: CNN, other sources on Zarqawi Memo
CNN gave a headline to the Zarqawi Memo (reported here among other places) as "Report: Iraqis Want Al Qaeda To Drive U.S. Out." I will avoid further commentary.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 02/09/2004 2:42:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CNN has long been the American Beeb, I have low expectations about their objectivity, that way I'm never suprised when they toss out intentionally slanted crap such as this.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 02/09/2004 15:12 Comments || Top||

#2  CNN must have gotten the word. The new headline is Document appears to seek al Qaeda help in Iraqand link is here.

3d paragraph of the article reads: But the writer (Zarqawi Memo) states that few Iraqis have been willing to support his fighters beyond offering them refuge, and said they will "lose the pretext" for waging attacks if a new Iraqi government takes power as scheduled at the end of June.

Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||

#3  CNN must have gotten the word.

Heh, they got caught with their little peters out. Whatever may have passed before isn't going to do so now.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 15:39 Comments || Top||

#4  beyond offering them refuge

My understanding is that offering them refuge ties into Islam somehow.

And CNN is going down the drain with Fox News wiping the floor with them in ratings. Even the Democratic debates are going for Fox News instead of CNN. Good sign that the rats are abandoning the sinking ship.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Even as they get kicked to the curb, MovinOn.org grasps the batton and commences to run with it.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 16:04 Comments || Top||

#6  BAR,are you refering to Peter Arnet?(snicker)
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 17:02 Comments || Top||


Lighter force to patrol Baghdad
I see that someone at the Pentagon is finally listening to me:
The U.S. Army division taking command of Baghdad in April will be a more mobile, less obtrusive force, tasked with patrolling a larger area with fewer troops, military officials said Monday. The 1st Cavalry, which takes over authority of Baghdad from the 1st Armored Division on April 15, will rely on armored humvees rather than tanks and fighting vehicles, Col. Mike Formica said Monday. The 1st Cavalry will have fewer troops, but will be responsible for a wider area than the 1st Armored Division, said Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling. The new jurisdiction also covers Baghdad, but extends west and north of the city as well, Hertling said. "It was a conscious decision by the part of the Army to take what was an armored brigade combat team and transform us into a motorized brigade combat team," Formica said. "The difference is we will be much more mobile and less obtrusive in many cases."
You could be more less obtrusive if you get out of Baghdad altogether.
U.S. officials have long talked of the need to make the Army less visible and less obtrusive, particularly in the capital. Part of the aim is to cut down on what are seen as "attacks of opportunity" against U.S. soldiers and to allow the Iraqi police and security forces to fill the gap.
That’s what I have been saying all along.
U.S. officials say Baghdad still needs about 10,000 more police officers. The city, which is the size of Los Angeles, has 9,000 trained police officers, Hertling said. Despite regular attacks, the military has made significant gains against improvised explosive devices -- home-made bombs that have been the weapons of choice against U.S. soldiers. In January, troops found and defused more bombs than were detonated, Hertling said.
I’ve always claimed that if US troops are not engaged in active combat, piling up dead jihadis, then they should get out of the way. The benefit is that once the jihadis start booming regular Iraqis, they will be seen for the terrorists they really are. If a US soldier is no longer the target, it’s kinda hard to call it an insurgency.
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 1:10:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey Anon ... on your millions of deaths ... Do a quick internet search on civilian deaths. Hiroshima deaths as of 1950 200,000, Nagasaki 140,000, Nicaragua 1981-90, 15,000, Iraq current, 9,000 plus. Millions? I think not.
Posted by: Jim K || 02/09/2004 13:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Woops, reply to anon posted in the wrong place. Sorry.
Posted by: Jim K || 02/09/2004 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Not to worry Jim K point taken.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 15:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Jewish Settlers Pick Beauty Queen to Boost Image
ELF
Jewish settlers have crowned their first beauty queen, a raven-haired girl of 15, in the hope of softening their militant image. Natali Mizrahi was chosen from 20 finalists at the weekend in a packed gymnasium in Ariel, a large enclave of 17,000 people in the occupied West Bank. "I’m not a settler who carries a gun," the wide-eyed Mizrahi, pictured in a tight black gown, told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth after winning a two-year modeling contract as first prize.
No pictures!!!!
Posted by: SamIII || 02/09/2004 1:06:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, whazzup with that? This out to be a Rentburg Rule for this type of post - no pic, no post.
Posted by: Raj || 02/09/2004 13:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Zero Google hits on her... Mebbe later. Of course the source is Rooters, so it may be total BS.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Grrr, I opened this article hoping to see a pic. Bad SamIII. Bad!
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 02/09/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Nu, what's the megillah?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 02/09/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#5  15 year old, I wouldn't be suprised if the settlement was filled with pedophiles.
Posted by: Lorne Wilberger || 02/09/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Just a bunch of converters to Islam, Wilberger
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Israel's government is not doing enough to come down on actions like this. This types of behaviour are forbidden. These so called moderate Jews are making mockery of the religion. Shame on them.
Posted by: Rabi Katz || 02/09/2004 19:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey NMM did you see where they Broke The Bat In A Single Day! Yes! Did you hit the bat? BTW North Carolina is still looking good for a 2 seed in ACC Tourney.... just watch... they'll slip by Wake.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Raj, Larry-- she's, uh, FIFTEEN!!! (But I'll admit, I looked too....)

Posted by: wuzzalib || 02/09/2004 20:31 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Enviromental Standards Mess Up an Economic Institution
EFL - It was bad when enviromentalists made use of DDT illegal, allowing malaria to discend on the continent of Africa again. Now they are messing with the entertainment industry.
A dowry in this sleepy corner of Gujarat often used to consist of a couple of snakes. But not any more. Such a gift in the famous snake-charming village of Vadinagar, close to the town of Bhachau, could ensure a family’s livelihood. But that was before authorities started to enforce more strictly the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Over the past few years, the snake-charming community has suffered serious economic hardship.
You hear that PETA? You are causing hardship.
Most of the charmers now work as day labourers. Some of the more elderly have grown their hair long and have dressed as ascetics to beg for food.
They're thinking of forming a band. They practice in the village garage on Wednesday nights...
Karsan Nath is the head snake-charmer. He belongs to the Nath community that hails from Jodhpur in Rajasthan but which has been in Gujarat for nine generations. "Our sole vocation used to be catching snakes and displaying them in public," he says.
Well itsa living it was a living.
"This was accompanied by various other acts of juggling. But particularly in the past decade, the government has become strict and we have lost our livelihood." Though he has forbidden his community from catching snakes, Mr Nath himself still owns a black King Cobra - just in case he is asked to prove his skills once more. He can also hypnotise his audience into believing he has converted their rupee notes into other denominations.
What about the climbing rope thing that Haji used to do on Jonny Quest.
Mr Nath still likes to dress up as the chief of his community.
One of the Village People used to like to do that also.
But that was just to impress the boyz down at the YMCA. This is different...
But as his cobra hisses at his side he laments: "It is difficult for me to even feed my snake. I have to feed it with milk and eggs on alternate days and I can barely afford it." ... Still, the elders rue the fact that they are not able to pass on the skills of catching snakes, extracting their poison and making them perform to the tune of a pipe.
It's great that the locals can not get back to exterminating the cobras for safety sake.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 12:47:58 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some of the more elderly have grown their hair long and have dressed as ascetics to beg for food.

Sounds like a gathering of the Dean crowd.
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 13:18 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
DR Congo peacekeepers ’can leave’
EFL - Sounds like the DR Congo is ready to solo.
Security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is improving so fast that United Nations troops can leave this year, President Joseph Kabila has said. He told the BBC that the peacekeepers should instead start training DR Congo’s army and police force.
Really we’re OK now. We can finish this ourselves, thank you.
Some 10,000 UN troops are in DR Congo to monitor a peace deal which ended almost five years of war. Former rebels have joined a power-sharing government, tasked with organising elections next year. Mr Kabila also insisted that these elections would go ahead as planned. In January, the head of the UN mission in DR Congo said it was possible "on a technical level" to hold the poll on schedule. Kabila insists that elections will be held next year. However William Swing said it depended on the political will, which was "less certain". Despite the peace deal, parts of eastern DR Congo in particular remain dangerous with many different armed groups killing, raping and looting. Last week, UN troops were attacked there and more than 100 boat passengers were killed in January.
Funny that they would want the UN to leave with security still a little dicey.
It'll soon be pygmy season...
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 12:35:16 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Duck Season!
Wabbit Season!
Duck Season!
Wabbit Season!
Duck Season!
Wabbit Season!
Wabbit Season!
Duck Season.....BOOM!
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 02/09/2004 14:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Well spotted, SuperHose. He'll be back, he'll be worse, he'll be Bob.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 02/09/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I wish you were wrong Rhodesiafever.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||


Commander Adama Killed
Cylons suspected:
Rebels in northern Ivory Coast are giving diverging accounts on the death of a rebel leader. A regional rebel commander Adama Coulibaly, also known as Adams, was killed Sunday outside a nightclub in the northern city of Korhogo.
Out clubbing and got popped.
The head of the rebel military command Soumaila Bakayoko says Mr. Coulibaly was accidentally killed by his own bodyguards during a dispute outside the club.
Uh huh, happens all the time.
But witnesses and other rebels in Korhogo say three armed men wearing hoods forced Mr. Coulibaly into their vehicle before he was shot.
Shot by the hoods, or by the bodyguards trying to stop them? Or were the hoods his bodyguards?
Five of his bodyguards were detained for questioning.
Sounds like a good place to start.
The reasons for the killing are unclear. Some local newspapers speculate it was linked to Mr. Coulibaly’s close ties with Liberian mercenaries, others that he was entangled in a dispute over leadership. Tensions have been high among rebels in Korhogo since late January, when a group of fighters close to Mr. Coulibaly fought against another group of rebels for control of a gas tank in the city. Adding to the tension was a weekend visit of main rebel-group leaders, during which a fire gutted the Korhogo’s markeplace.
Any connection between the two events? Hello?
A spokesman for the French peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast, Bruno Misset, says the effect of the split within the rebel group is hard to gage. He says apparent divisions within the rebel group could block the disarmament process. But he also says the death of Mr. Coulibaly could allow the process to move along faster, because he was seen as one of its most divisive members.
So if you’d kill more of the divisive rebels, logic would say that would speed things up even more.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 12:08:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was the Cylons!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/09/2004 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  CF, you beat me to that one.
Posted by: Jarhead || 02/09/2004 14:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Poor,Starbuck.
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 16:40 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope the Adama Family handles this in the usual way.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Whatever will the Galactica do without him?!
Posted by: Ed Becerra || 02/09/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Perv vows no more leaks
Hat tip LGF.
President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, pledged that Pakistan had put a stop to the covert export of nuclear weapons know-how. "Please let it not be thought that the same proliferation activity will start again," Musharraf told the NBC network in an interview in Islamabad. "Never. That will never happen."
*snap* "Shit! My harp burst three strings!"
He was responding to questions about his handling of the confession last week by Abdul Qadeer Khan, revered as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, that he had leaked secrets to Libya, North Korea and Iran as head of Pakistan’s nuclear program from the 1970s. Musharraf quickly pardoned Khan and rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the military’s role in the nuclear leaks.
"His ass needs covering."
Asked by NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw about charges that this amounted to a whitewash, Musharraf said: "I disagree with it absolutely. The dilemma is: he’s a great man, he’s a hero, and he’s a hero of every individual in the street. Yet he has done something which could bring harm to the nation. Now how do I deal with it?" Musharraf said.
Bring him to justice, you beauzeau.
"One must understand the reality. There’s an international perception. There’s a domestic perception," Musharraf said.
Rather astigmatic, if you ask me.
The Pakistani leader said he would back any move by the United States to put more troops into Afghanistan to turn up the pressure on al Qaeda. But he stressed U.S. forces hunting al Qaeda and Taliban fighters would not be allowed to cross into Pakistan.
"Merkins keep out; we need to hide the kalashnikoveros."
"Not only is it not possible, but it’s not required," Musharraf said. "We have developed a very effective quick reaction force. A mobile hard-hitting, quick reaction force. That is what is required and we are capable of doing all of that."
"... if those guys with the turbans say it's okay."
A Pakistani government official said on Sunday that Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to visit Pakistan and meet Musharraf soon to discuss the nuclear proliferation issue.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 11:00:46 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And in a carefully worded hint to Dr. Khan today:

The pardon granted to metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan relates only to his admission that he transferred nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, Pakistan said on Monday.
"The pardon is specific to the charges made so far, and about which Dr A Q Khan has made a confessional statement... this is not a blanket pardon," foreign office spokesman Masood Khan said in Islamabad. Asked if Khan could be prosecuted in future, he said, "The investigations are continuing and they have not come to a closure."


Translation: Khan needs to keep co-operating privately and quiet publicly, or else.

He said there are strict security restrictions imposed on Khan and other tainted scientists. "Khan and those who have been investigated will not be allowed to resume their duties or activities. This has to understood clearly." He said Khan "has been cooperating with our authorities. We expect he will continue to cooperate." Asked how he could redefine the conditions of the pardon granted by President Pervez Musharraf, Khan said, "This is an authorised statement I made."

Musharraf speaking through him.

Two days ago, defence ministry spokesman Major General Shoukat Sultan had said the first information report against Khan was "sealed", meaning the case was closed as a result of the pardon.

"But we can always open another one"
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Musharraf doesn't even have control over Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas and he's going to plug up further leaks in his A-bomb program? Please.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 15:47 Comments || Top||


Khan "can keep his money"
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced founder of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme can keep his ill-gotten gains the vast wealth he accumulated selling bomb-making technology to rogue states around the world.
Part of the plea bargin, keep your mouth shut, take the blame and you get to live the good life. At least until everyone is looking the other way.
A report in the Sunday Telegraph from Islamabad on Sunday quoted Gen Musharraf saying he would spare the scientist’s property or assets. "He can keep his money," Gen Musharraf said, adding that there had been good reason not to investigate the origin of Dr Khan’s suspicious wealth before 1998, when Pakistan successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. "We wanted the bomb in the national interest and so you have to ask yourself whether you act against the person who enabled you to get the bomb."
And there is the entire situation in a nutshell.
Dr Khan is believed to have earned millions of dollars from his clandestine sale of nuclear know-how, beginning in the late 1980s. Much of the money was funnelled through bank accounts in the Middle East . His assets include four houses in Islamabad worth an estimated 1.5 million pounds, a villa on the Caspian Sea , a hotel in Mali and a valuable vintage car collection.
Lifestyles of the rich and infamous.
Gen Musharraf said he understood the need for Pakistani scientists to develop a secret overseas network when building their first nuclear weapon. "Obviously, we made our nuclear strength from the underworld. We did not buy openly. Every single atomic power has come through the underworld, even India ."
Speak for yourself, we rolled our own.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 9:27:37 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!
Posted by: Unmutual || 02/09/2004 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Faisal Moore says we stole ours from Germany.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Three Infidels Cut In Cairo
An Australian and two Norwegian tourists were injured in a knife attack here by an Egyptian man who claimed to be angered by Israeli and American aggression in the Middle East, a police source said.
It made sense to him, I guess.
The Australian man, his Norwegian wife and an unspecified relative of the woman were rushed to hospital after being injured in the knife attack in a historic Islamic quarter of northern Cairo. They were said to be in stable condition and not seriously injured.
I hope for his sake the trip was her idea. Why, yes, I’m married, how can you tell?
The attacker, Hussein Ahmed Hassan, boss of an internet services company, fled but was quickly apprehended by police around the Al-Ghuriya market area. Upon his arrest Hassan was said to be in a state of extreme agitation and speaking incomprehensibly.
In full seethe mode, must have been the tall nordic blond with titties that sent him over the edge.
Posted by: Steve || 02/09/2004 9:05:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well we should really get more aggressive. Give the Islamazoids something to really bitch about. How about a JDAM on Medina.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The last time there was a tourist killing in Egypt the population rose in condemnation of the attack, because the take-in quite a bit of money in the area adjacent to the pyramids. This incident will be very crippling to the tourist trade if it receives enough publicity.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  ....attack in a historic Islamic quarter of northern Cairo....
Just wondering how many historic non-islamic quarters there are in a country that is 94% Sunni Muslim?
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 10:14 Comments || Top||

#4  An Australian and two Norwegian

The guy couldn't even stop to ask if they were the right nationality? That's just rude.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#5  The Palis don't get Holocaust II and the Iraqis are free. So this guy takews his unrighteous indignation out on innocent bystanders. Just standard operating procedure for the Turbans.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 11:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's be clear, the little 1997 anti-infidel misunderstanding at the pyramids resulted in the massacre of 58 tourists, two police, two Egyptians, and all six attackers. It not the same as a ROPer going to Oslo and finding nothing but gefilte fish to eat.
Posted by: ed || 02/09/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Ed, you are correct. There is a big difference in the severity of the events, but the first event left the tourist industry very fragile so even a minor incident may hurt. I guess it doesn't help much to see the Brotherhood in the news on a weekly and discussion of the neighbors fooling with WMD.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#8  couldn't even stop to ask if they were the right nationality?
LOL... that's mean. True, but mean.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 17:39 Comments || Top||

#9  An obviously oppressed and humiliated Muslim stabs three non-believers in the back in a bid to restore his "lost sense of dignity". Nothing to see here. Move on...
Posted by: Mark || 02/09/2004 19:24 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Army shifting focus from Baghdad to suburbs
Edited for brevity
U.S. forces in Iraq began scaling down their presence inside Baghdad with the arrival of fresh troops who are mostly moving into bases on the city’s outskirts. Brigadier General Mark Hertling, assistant commander of the departing 1st Armored Division said the arriving 1st Cavalry Division is moving into eight bases around Baghdad, with one in the center. It is a contrast to the 26 bases in the city now and down from as many as 60 last summer just after the Iraq war. The United States has said it is shifting its troop presence to Baghdad’s perimeter to ease newly trained Iraqi police officers and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldiers into their eventual role as the capital’s guardians. "This is in conjunction with the stand-up of the ICDC and an improvements in the number of Iraqi police available in Baghdad," Hertling told reporters, but added there was no firm deadline for a complete turnover of Baghdad security to Iraqis.

The eight bases on the outskirts of Baghdad will house between 25,000 and 30,000 troops, and will be the only U.S. presence in Baghdad after the 1st Cavalry assumes command on April 15. The 1st Cavalry Division will have a slightly larger area of operations, encompassing Baghdad and its suburbs. The 1st Armored Division was only in charge of the city. Besides handing more authority to the Iraqi forces, the U.S. has said it wants its presence to be less of an impediment to daily life in a congested city. Colonel Mike Formica, commander of the first unit to arrive from the 1st Cavalry from its home base at Fort Hood, Texas, said his troops have been shifted out of tanks into armored Humvees to better patrol city streets. "We’ll be much more mobile and much less intrusive in these neighborhoods," Formica said. "So we won’t have 70-ton tanks running through neighborhoods, destroying infrastructure we’re trying so hard to rebuild."
Posted by: Dar || 02/09/2004 8:43:41 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is by far the best news I've heard yet.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  George war criminal Bush and his coaltion of the silly have made a dogs breakfast out of things in iraq. They have killed more people than Saddam Hussein ever did. Besides the only reason the invasion took place was because of oil for one and because Saddam didnt kiss Dubya's self righteous hypocrite ass.The iraqis who work with the coalition are collaborators
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#3  TONY! Now that Bill's banned you, you've found a new home!

But where's your famous tag line?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks, Governor Dean. What's up after you get blown away in Wisconsin?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 11:46 Comments || Top||

#5  No, you've got it wrong. It's George W. Bush, not George W.C. Bush. Think it stands for "Warrior", whereas your remarks properly belong in a W.C.
Posted by: Highlander || 02/09/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#6  The sooner that WAR CRIMINAL is out of office the safer the world will be.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Let me try again. We normally just capitalize the first letter of a proper noun. And war criminal is not a proper noun, now is it? By the way, which war criminal are you referring to? Saddam is out of office -- you may rest easy now.
Posted by: Highlander || 02/09/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Anonymous 2004 barfs up: They have killed more people than Saddam Hussein ever did.

Hate to break it to you, but Saddam killed about 1.2 million people in his 25 years. The war to liberate Iraq was done with fewer than 9,000 civilian casualties. I'm not sure you can see the difference but intelligent people can.

Please, no need to thank me!
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 12:13 Comments || Top||

#9  WAR CRIMINAL? Didn't he have a shot at the Triple Crown a few years back? Yeah, The Belmont will usually end those dreams...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Hiroshima Nagasaki vietnam Nicaragua and Iraq ring any bells?? all had millions of people killed by the usa government doesnt matter which president and Dubya is not fit to be president
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 12:47 Comments || Top||

#11  Sigh. Myths and tools fools. The world never has been, and with the proliferation of fools weapons, never will be safe. Now put your head back in the sand, son, before you see something else to upset you. BTW, you can tell Soros that the US, unlike you and yours, isn't For Sale.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Hey anonymous, hold on a sec here...is that you al-Zarqawi? Yeah, those damn collaborators!!! How dare they want to live in a free and peaceful country? What do they all have against their children getting sodomized by mullahs anyway? These are men of god dammit and they can violate anyone they want anytime they want and those collaborators better like it or else!
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Come on Anus. Tell us how you really feel. It's a hoot. Hey, start with Haliburton, thats always good. And the awol thing is cool too. You've already hit the religious hipocrite thing, kinda over used but still has some punch. What else? Oh oh, alcoholic daddies boy, Skull and Bones. Dude get into that. WMDs "Bush Lied" or unilateral, the whole world is aghast. Get freaky.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 12:58 Comments || Top||

#14  Rantburgers! Anonymous troll comments are among the lowest form of living matter...somewhere between protists and chorophyll. Just look away and let it stew in a pit of its own filth. Eventually it bores, and moves on.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/09/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#15  Getting the Iraqi police to guard Baghdad is great partly because the Iraqi police can personnally 'thank' UN and other assorted types for their role in keeping Saddam in power.
Posted by: mhw || 02/09/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#16  But Rex, Anus has grievences. Anus, the only thing that makes somebody fit to be president is to get elected, just ask Al Gore.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Anon Trolls... This'll probably be the norm, now that Dean is finished. A catsup-swilling boy-toy (Dennis Miller) Clone like Kerry just won't excite them.

Hey, RC! Wanna do the naming thing on this phenomenon? You either make up a name or pick a winner from suggestions. To kick off the suggestions, here's some quickies:
DDOLT - Disappointed Deaniac Obnoxious Liberal Tool
DDD - Disgruntled Deaniac Disorder
DDT - Deaniac Delirium Tremens

With the RB crowd, you should get some doozies...
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 13:17 Comments || Top||

#18  Hey guys, you're all stomping on "Anons" self-esteem. Yup, victimizing him for his lack of intellect and inability to separate reality from unreality. I think a good group hug and a rousing redition of kumbyya (sp) would make the lad (?) feel more welcome. Whaddaya say? Ok, on three, one, two .... nah, just continue to fry the little bastard.
Posted by: Jim K || 02/09/2004 13:19 Comments || Top||

#19  Hello? Bush thinks Africa is a nation.Still think he should be president? well if you like your leaders stupid and dangerous i guess you have what you want.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 13:24 Comments || Top||

#20  As a NAM vet I take exception to "Hiroshima Nagasaki vietnam Nicaragua and Iraq ring any bells?? all had millions of people killed by the usa government". You dishonor any who have fought for this great country. Of course lefties only see the Unicorns romping in the fields and daisies in guns.
You know your hero Kerry shot the Cong in the back and I hope this doesn't shock you too much but is a traitor to his unform and his country after the war. God Bless George Bush.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#21  If war is the answer its a very silly question. fought for your country why? Did Vietnam invade USA? No. Did Iraq? No. Did US invade both? yes.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#22  #1 Hey Anon ... on your millions of deaths ... Do a quick internet search on civilian deaths. Hiroshima deaths as of 1950 200,000, Nagasaki 140,000, Nicaragua 1981-90, 15,000, Iraq current, 9,000 plus. Millions? I think not.
Posted by: Jim K || 02/09/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#23  Hello? Bush thinks Africa is a nation.Still think he should be president? well if you like your leaders stupid and dangerous i guess you have what you want.

Blah blah blah blah blah. Gore invented the internet and Osama may be innocent. Bush lied and people blah blah blah blah. Go back to listening to your Rage Against The Machine cds.
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 13:41 Comments || Top||

#24  Hey, this guy isn't a "lefty" he's the enemy... anyone that uses the term "collaborators" to describe Iraqis who work with the US can no longer be classified as confused or naive... they are way past that line and are the enemy. Just thought I'd point out that we're dealing with something beyond a deaniac here...
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#25  Well sanctions also killed the people in iraq. besides it doesnt matter how many were killed.It matters that these lives count for nothing in US govts eyes. US thinks it can tell other nations what to do and invades when they dont do as USA wants. tragic and true.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 13:49 Comments || Top||

#26  Hey, this guy isn't a "lefty" he's the enemy... anyone that uses the term "collaborators" to describe Iraqis who work with the US can no longer be classified as confused or naive... they are way past that line and are the enemy.

In that case....Blah blah blah blah blah...Jewish Plot...Blah blah blah blah blah...The Great Satan...Blah blah blah blah blah...
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 13:51 Comments || Top||

#27  what would you call the people who work with an invading army??? imagine if someone invaded USA . would you collaborate with them?
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 13:53 Comments || Top||

#28  I would call them exactly what they are. Patriots.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#29  Something tells me our long lost pot-head Steveey is back.
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#30  "The sooner that WAR CRIMINAL is out of office the safer the world will be."

But Wesley Clark was never IN office.
Posted by: Steve from Relto || 02/09/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#31  Ah anon, faced with facts the number dead becomes irrelavent. So why raise the issue in the first place if you didn't have facts. Now the arguement swings to sanctions. Don't blame the US for that one ... that was the UN and their Oil for food love in with Sadam. Check the new on how many folks were in bed with him. Where did the money go ... not to those "killed by sanctions".
Posted by: Jim K || 02/09/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#32  Right if someone invaded US killed your family and your home was destroyed you would work with the people who did that to you?? patriots???? i think not.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#33  Anus, Did Italy invade the US? Did Germany? Did Mexico? Did Spain? Did Panama? Did Granada? Did Afganistan(taliband)?

Who did, AQ did. Who's AQ? Take a stab at that.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 14:21 Comments || Top||

#34  9/11/2001. We were invaded and attacked. If you want to continue to be a Saddam and Al-Qaeda supporter, go right ahead.
Posted by: lil dhimmi(JC) || 02/09/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#35  Anon, I assumed you were bright enough to know I was referring to the people in Iraq working to police and stabalize their country.

See the difference between the US and Iraq is that the US is free and Iraq was a brutal autocratic regime.

If I lived in a brutal autocratic regime and another country helped remove that regime with the stated goal of working to liberate and bring democracy to my countrymen, then I would work with the "invaders" and yes I'd be a patriot. You would be a terrorist blowing up infrastructure and terrorizing patriots in the hopes of reaping chaos.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#36  Hey look, it's trying to think! Ok then Anon troll ....do you keep up with current events? Vast majority of Iraqis called the US liberators...except of course the Ba'asthists...and those with tribal affiliations to Sammy. All of your posts would tend to suggest you are at the very least a Ba'athist sympathizer, so of course you would see the US as an invader. It must just eat at you to see all the those freedom loving Iraqis rebuiliding their country without your Sammy-God. How can you stand it? For you, each new day is an exercise in defeat and futility. I love it! Looks like DPA is right in calling this guy the enemy.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/09/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#37  Anonymous: Right if someone invaded US killed your family and your home was destroyed you would work with the people who did that to you?? patriots???? i think not.

That would make the Vichy French, Germans and Japanese from WWII traitors. The fact is that they were traitors, but not to France, Germany or Japan - they were traitors to the dictatorial regimes that had brought them into ruinous wars against the United States. Iraqis who work with Coalition forces are also traitors in this fashion - they are traitors to Saddam, to whom they pledged their allegiance (failing which Saddam would kill them and their families). If Anonymous feels so strongly that Iraqis should be patriots to Saddam, maybe he should do the right thing and move to Iraq, where he can presumably be in a better position to fight for Saddam.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 14:29 Comments || Top||

#38  i never said Saddam was perfect. But you obviously think Dubya is. democracy?? tell that to the prisoners in Guantanamo. yes Saddam was a dictator but so is Bush but in a hypocritical way so he had no right to tell Saddam what to do
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 14:32 Comments || Top||

#39  "i never said Saddam was perfect."

LMAO!!! That might qualify as understatement of the decade!

Btw, are you referring to this prisoner from Guantanamo?
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 02/09/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#40  Anon

Are you Al-Gore's speechwriter by any chance?
Posted by: Evert Visser || 02/09/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#41  Anonymous: If war is the answer its a very silly question. fought for your country why? Did Vietnam invade USA? No. Did Iraq? No. Did US invade both? yes.

I guess this means WWII was a silly answer to Hitler's drive to conquer Europe, and Japan's drive to conquer Asia. South Vietnam was a treaty ally of the US being invaded by North Vietnam - the US did not invade South Vietnam any more than it invaded Britain during WWII. The idea that Vietnam's destiny was to exist under Communist rule because they had the same skin color and language is absurd - people of a given ethnic group are not fated to be under one government - just look at Europe, where linguistic groups are scattered all over the continent. Most of the world is divided that way, with small exceptions here and there.

The US invasion of Iraq had to do with the tendency of Muslim countries to fund and shelter terrorists, after which they would deny having anything to do with them. Whether Iraq had a direct hand in 9/11 will likely never be proven one way or another, not because it did not happen, but because it took the form of a well-planned intelligence operation, few of which are ever uncovered. After all, most of the spies in the US government were caught only through lucky breaks - typically a foreign defector who told all to US debriefers. Given the random nature of the people who give us information, we never get answers to the specific questions we want - whatever comes in is more like manna from heaven, which is why we're unlikely to ever find out the complete truth about Iraq's involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

But the fact is that Iraq's involvement is immaterial - Saddam had repeatedly breached the terms of the ceasefire in 1991, each occurrence of which was a good reason to resume hostilities. After 9/11, Bush finally mustered the political will to take care of the festering sore of Saddam's regime. Both America and Iraq are better off for it.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#42  Anonymous: i never said Saddam was perfect. But you obviously think Dubya is. democracy?? tell that to the prisoners in Guantanamo. yes Saddam was a dictator but so is Bush but in a hypocritical way so he had no right to tell Saddam what to do

Saddam was responsible for two wars of conquest (during which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died) and the torture and killing of 300,000 Iraqis who disagreed with him. It's hard to see how GWB has unnecessarily inflicted on Americans anywhere near the amount of suffering Saddam inflicted on Iraqis.

American democracy refers to the rule (via elected representatives) of some qualified majority. The prisoners at Guantanamo are neither those representatives nor part of that majority.

Bush certainly had the right to tell Saddam what to do - Saddam had agreed to it as a condition of the US not toppling him for his war against Kuwait in 1991 (as part of the Desert Storm ceasefire terms and conditions).
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 15:01 Comments || Top||

#43  Sounds like the call center closed early today.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 15:05 Comments || Top||

#44  All I can say is exercise your vote in November. I'll take Bush over a traitor any day.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#45  Dataman, Bush isn't better than Kerry because of treason. Bush is better than Kerry because he he keeps his promises to the American People and he's not a coward.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 15:37 Comments || Top||

#46  Anyone else have the impression that they are tyrint to communicate with a video recording?
Posted by: Highlander || 02/09/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#47  Kuwait was created in 1921 by the british colonial office and before that was part of iraq. this was to block iraqi access to the persian gulf. so while saddam should have tried a different way to get it back,it is part of iraq or was before. anyway i prefer not to see people as one dimensional i.e evil . Saddam as well as everyone is good and evil.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 19:08 Comments || Top||

#48  Got ole Ahab going pretty consistent tonight.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 19:11 Comments || Top||

#49  anyway i prefer not to see people as one dimensional i.e evil Oh yes Anon, you're so much more sophisticated than the rest of us. Highlander is right, you haven't the ability to actually engage in a constructive argument. All you can do is regurgitate on cue. Typical troll...and not a very good one at that. Nothing more pathetic than a failed troll.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/09/2004 19:46 Comments || Top||

#50  Dataman, Bush isn't better than Kerry because of treason. Bush is better than Kerry because he he keeps his promises to the American People and he's not a coward.

Charles I disagree on that, he dishonored his uniform and his country when he came back. I have no respect for him whatsoever and I believe he was traitor to his country because of his activities-Aiding and comforting the enemy.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 22:07 Comments || Top||

#51  .... well if you like your leaders stupid and dangerous i guess you have what you want.
If these were the only two criteria to be president you'd be in the oval office right now, anon. You possess a plethora of both attributes, albeit your young age might disqualify you?
Posted by: GK || 02/09/2004 22:45 Comments || Top||

#52  i speak as i find get used to it. bush is stupid he cant even speak his own language properly. No wonder he refused to debate Saddam before the war, its obvious who could have put together a coherent sentence and its not Dubya.And GW is dangerous he invades other nations and is a terrorist war criminal.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 23:07 Comments || Top||

#53  Speaking of coherent sentences:

i speak as i find get used to it
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 23:23 Comments || Top||

#54  Anonymous: Kuwait was created in 1921 by the british colonial office and before that was part of iraq. this was to block iraqi access to the persian gulf.

Heck, Iraq was created by the British in 1920 out of part of the Ottoman empire. Just because the British administered Iraq and Kuwait as one unit does not mean Iraq and Kuwait were one country - they also administered Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore as one unit, and today they are three countries.* The idea that Turkish empire in the Middle East should have been made one country is simply ludicrous. (This is like putting all of the Austro-Hungarian empire - Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania into one country after WWI). Each of the pieces wanted to revert to what existed prior to Turkish conquest. The British set up too few countries, not too many, leaving Iraq a mess of ethnic and religious rivalries. Kuwait and Mesopotamia have always been distinct, and only Iraqis greedy for Kuwaiti oil have insisted otherwise. The stuff about blocking Iraqi access to the Persian Gulf is another of the lies Anonymous spews with alacrity - the existence of the Iraqi port of Basra is living contradiction of his assertion.

* Centcom also administers Iraq and Afghanistan as one unit, but this doesn't mean Afghanistan belongs to Iraq.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/10/2004 0:30 Comments || Top||

#55  If this were baseball I'd bat Zhang 3rd, 4th or 5th. And if anus was pitching i'd be running on every pitch.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/10/2004 1:27 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Palestinians consider veering off road map
Looks like Arafat is starting to worry.
Things are starting to move outside his control, and he can’t be happy

A senior Palestinian official said today that Yasser Arafat’s government was considering declaring a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem if Israel tried to impose a boundary on the Palestinians. Zalman Shoval, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Israel could annex disputed territories in response.

The possibility of the declaration of a state was raised at a meeting of Palestinian leaders over the weekend, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is close to Arafat. Abed Rabbo said many of those present supported the idea, but did not say whether Arafat was also in favour. However, other participants said the proposal was only raised informally and was not part of the agenda. Abed Rabbo insisted that declaring independence – which would mean walking away from the US-backed roadkill “road map” peace plan – was a serious option. “We are not discussing this as an academic exercise,” Abed Rabbo told a news conference. “We are discussing this as a real possibility.”

A statehood declaration would come as a counter move to Sharon’s plan to “disengage” from the Palestinians, in the event efforts fail to revive peace talks in coming months. Such Palestinian action would pre-empt final status talks, Shoval said. “The (Palestinian) foregoing of the phase of final negotiations with Israel 
 would leave options for Israel like annexing certain territories, which is not the present intention of the government,” Shoval said. Sharon’s disengagement plan was not meant to establish final borders, which would be decided together with the Palestinians, Shoval said. Sharon has proposed redeploying Israeli troops, dismantling some settlements and imposing a boundary on the Palestinians. In such an arrangement, the Palestinians would end up with far less territory than they seek for their state.
Posted by: tipper || 02/09/2004 7:38:28 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I love how the dynamics have shifted in the region. Hamas' strength has grown to rival that of arafat. Hezbollah, through Israel's actions, has also gained in prestige and power, threatening arafat. And Israel, by building the wall and declaring the removal of settlements in Gaza, has gained a great strategic advantage as well as saving the lives of Israelis by making suicide bombings more difficult. As the car commercial says, "This changes everything."
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/09/2004 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  My regard for Palestinians, never very high, took a nosedive on 9/11 after their little street celebrations. Since then it's only gone down more with each suicide bombing. And at this point, I have extreme difficulty even thinking of them as human beings.

As far as I'm concerned, Israel can do whatever it wants with them. And I mean, WHATEVER.
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/09/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#3  declaring a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem

Yeah, it's kind of hard to do this with a freagin wall in the way. And East Jerusalem? Try getting through the most technologically advanced nation in the ME, and one of the top 5 in the world. Please, do try.
Posted by: Charles || 02/09/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  If you saw your parents killed and your house demolished before your eyes you would be a suicide bomber too. The zionist place has a lot of blood on its hands and needs to stop killing and denying the palestinians their basic human rights.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Some Egyptian historians proposed that the story of 'Mo ending up in Israel is wrong and he actually ended up in Medina. That would negate the claim of alAsqa.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Anonymous #4: A lesson in how cause and effect works:
Cause and effect in the real world: Cause: Your monstrous brood blows up a bus full of innocents with a bomb, killing scores. Effect: Your house gets demolished by the IDF.
Cause and effect in the fantasy world: Cause: Your house gets demolished by the IDF. Effect: You blow up a bus full of innocents.

By the way, the "zionist place" is called Israel. 2,500 years ago, my ancestors called bears "brown ones" (bruins) because they thought they'd be cursed if they called the animal by its real name. Please join the 21st century and start calling things by their real names. There was this thing called the "Enlightenment" about 500 years ago, and since then, we've pretty much proven that things like curses and magic don't work.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/09/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#7  I declare myself independently wealthy, healthy as a Clydesdale, and oh so devastatingly handsome.

Gee, that's funny. No effect. Mebbe if I click my heels together 3 times, face Mekkah, hold my arms above my head just so, bow my head like this, put my tongue in my cheek just so, and say some magik werdz...
F**kin Duh.

And Anonymous, you're obviously right. The Paleos have every right ever dreamed up by man, have never ever done anything wrong, were peacefully living on the land 60,000 years ago praying to the future Allah in Neando-Aramaic and had full employment in their stone industry, managed by women who had vibrant healthy sex lives and full control of their destiny. Everything that has happened since that moment of bliss, from fire to AK-47's to TNT to Sesame Street and Barbie Dolls, is the fault of the Jooos and Merika and has served to keep the "Palestinians" from their rightful homes in Jordan. We have all been so blind. Innately, I knew it was a mistake for Jack to stop making Secret Sauce, but I did nothing and said nothing. I am shamed. First I will learn to spout dogma, then seethe, then I will make a Pilgrimmage to Big J, then join a Car Swarm and gather some tasty souvenirs, then I will convert to the One True Religion, make a video blaming everything on Jack - and offer myself to be fitted for a Peace Belt of Nobel's finest. It's the least I can do to atone for not seeing the Truth - until you showed up an RB to set me straight with your vast wisdom. Thank you.
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#8  If you saw your parents killed and your house demolished before your eyes you would be a suicide bomber too.

No, I wouldn't. That would be immoral of me. And cowardly.

The splodydopes are cowards in the end -- too afraid to live and engage the world, too afraid to go up against the IDF, too afraid to think about how they got into the situation they're in.

The splodydopes are immoral cowards. If I saw my parents killed, I wouldn't commit suicide -- I'd fight.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Read your history the state of Israel was implemented in 1948 by zionists.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 12:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Yeah, Faisal, and the state of Palestine was implemented in 2004 by Zionists too. I give it about six months before it blows itself up. And it's obvious it's Faisal, still in his closet.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  I dunno... you've got to give the Palestinians a little credit. It's one thing to "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." They take it to a much higher level when they make plans to do so three or four opportunities in advance. It's a bit like playing grandmaster-level 3D chess using randomly timed hand grenades for pieces...
Posted by: snellenr || 02/09/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#12  Faisal/Anonymous #9

Read your history the state of Israel was implemented in 1948 by zionists

Actually, the two-state solution was implemented by the UN, but the arabs thought they'd have a one state solution and a lot of Jews swimming in the Med Sea. So they attacked in 48, 56, 67, 73. All that happened is that Israel was able to take land as a result. The arabs have been disappointed ever since, and can't seem to get it through their heads that Israel will remain in existence. More now, than ever before.

But you're right. It was Zionists who emigrated to the legitimate state of Israel, and it was Zionists who took a piece desert and made it bloom and it was Zionists who built a democracy there and it was Zionists who created a society where culture, intellect and science flourish. You use the word "Zionists" like it's a bad thing, Faisal! LOL
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/09/2004 13:38 Comments || Top||

#13  Read your history the state of Israel was implemented in 1948 by zionists.

Yeah, Cuba was founded by the Spanish, America by the English, and Singapore largely by the Chinese. So what? Let me ask you a question. Do you call any other country in the world by other than the name its own inhabitants call it? Is American the english place? Quebec the french place? Calling Israel the zionist place is Islamist propaganda. In case you haven't noticed, the folks in these parts don't ake too kindly to that sort of malarkey.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/09/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#14  What desert bloom? it wasn't empty before the zionists moved in. palestinians and jews (not zionists) lived there and the zionists made the palestinians move out so they could have well does the word lebensraum remind you of anything? all zionists have done is behave like Nazis with their tanks and checkpoints and settlements.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||

#15  Somewhat OT

I saw arafat in a newsflash two or three weeks ago on CNN, i cant remember the story but i am more then fairly certain that the footage was shot that day the lower half of his face looked swolen, the trembling looked out of control and had certainly worsened since i saw the last footage of the "man" and he had to be supported by two men leaving the building and advance about 10 neters to where the foto-op took place. Has anyone seen the "man" more recent then me? Maybe its time to start another deathpool.

A lot of wierd trolls tonight, must be a full moon.
Posted by: Evert Visser || 02/09/2004 14:12 Comments || Top||

#16  does the word lebensraum remind you of anything

We got ourselves a European jew-hater. Wotta surprise.
Posted by: Rafael || 02/09/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#17  Evert -- Maybe Arafat got endorsed by Al Gore? :P
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 02/09/2004 14:18 Comments || Top||

#18  Anti zionism and anti semitism are 2 different things. i am not a jew hater. anyway think of how the israeli govt behaves now and its like hitler alright. the truth can be painful.
Posted by: Anonymous || 02/09/2004 14:22 Comments || Top||

#19  zionists made the palestinians move out

hmmm. that's not what the arabs themselves said. It was the arab states who, in anticipation of glorious victory against the Jews, encouraged the arabs in the area to leave:

"The Arab state which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees."
– The Jordanian daily newspaper Falastin, Feb. 19, 1949.

"Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honor? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it."
– The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-Shay, Aug. 19, 1951.

"The 15th May, 1948, arrived ... On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead."
– The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963.

"For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... By spreading rumors of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy."
– The Jordanian daily newspaper Al Urdun, April 9, 1953.

So, faisal, your recounting of the facts of that time is mere revisionist inaccuracy, despite how much you would like them to be true.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/09/2004 14:32 Comments || Top||

#20  Here's a thought. Why don't they veer off the fuckin' planet? Anonymous can drive the bus.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/09/2004 16:03 Comments || Top||

#21  The Arabs don't NEED a country because they already HAVE two dozen countries scattered across the world's two largest continents. Even with the West Bank and Gaza, Israel is smaller than most American counties.

The West Bank Jordanians and Gaza Egyptians have a choice: live peacefully in one of the world's most modern and productive societies ... or else leave and live amongst their beloved brother Arabs (they will welcome you, right?).

Cue Anonymous:
Obviously this is a worse crime than the Holocaust, and clearly the Muslims are left with no choice but suicide bombings. To suggest otherwise is both immoral and insane. It simply ignores the facts.

After all, this same tried-and-proven pattern of historical injustice explains all of those:
Native American suicide bombings in the U.S. and Canada,
Aboriginal suicide bombings in Australia,
Maori suicide bombings in New Zealand,
Welsh and Scottish suicide bombings in Britain,
Nahuatl, Zapotec, and Mayan suicide bombings in Mexico,
Lapplander suicide bombings in Sweden and Finland,
Wendish suicide bombings in southeastern Germany,
Sudeten German suicide bombings in the Czech Republic,
Transylvanian Hungarian suicide bombings in Romania,
Ainu and Korean suicide bombings in Japan,
Zulu and white Afrikaaner suicide bombings in South Africa,
Tibetan suicide bombings in China,
African American suicide bombings across two continents,
and lest we forget,
all of those Jewish suicide bombers ... everywhere.

It can't just be some sick idiosyncrasy of Muslim serfs. Right?
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) || 02/09/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#22  Sorry Fred. Feel free to delete/edit/whatever.
(blood pressure falling, vision clearing)
Posted by: Dan (not Darling) || 02/09/2004 16:56 Comments || Top||

#23  May I quote you for a moment, anonymous?

...think of how the israeli govt behaves now and its like hitler alright. the truth can be painful.

you may be right... Israel is building a ugly wall that will separate one people from the other, just like hitler did with the ghettos in europe, but that's about all the similarity you can find. Where Hitler walled the Jews in to let them choke and die a slow, congested death, Israel is walling in the Jews (and Christians, too) as a last desperate effort so allow them to live free from their would-be murderers.

Now, if you are looking for a few ACCURATELY comparable examples to Hitler and the nazis, why not try the television programming (government-run television programming, mind you) in neighboring Egypt. Or if you have no desire to look that far, why not take a gander at the Palestinian Authority's officially approved schoolbooks for Palestinian youth? Or maybe the just the pictures of legions of preschoolers dressed like commandos with Jihad headbands, and cute little toy AK-47's slung around their shoulders. Oh, don't forget those adorable "mock explosive belts" that seem to be all the rage of the kindergarden set this year. Can you say, "Brownshirts" or "Hitler Youth"?
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 02/09/2004 17:07 Comments || Top||

#24  .com #7 - awesome display!
PlanetDan #19 - superb sir!
and
Dan (not Darling) #21 - excellent missive!

Ah, this is why I come to RantBurg - devasting *facts* delivered with wit and style!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 02/09/2004 17:23 Comments || Top||

#25  Damn.you guys left me with nothing,absloutly nothing left to add.


Oh ya,I forgot Faisal you are about one dumb ass s.o.b..But what can you expect when your opponent brings a knife to an intellectual gunfight.
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 17:57 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
The March to Baghdad: Part 3 of a frontline account
Brian Taylor, a Marine reservist, servied in Fox Company, Second Battalion, 23rd Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Wall Street Journal is publishing his diary in serial form. Parts 1 and 2 appeared in previous weeks. Here’s an excerpt from the latest installment:

30 Mar 03, 0470Z, 38RNA 90442992

Yesterday afternoon the whole battalion moved into town. Echo Company secured the bridge so Fox could push through and secure a block of sixteen houses. There were four rows of homes and Second Platoon secured rows one and three. We kicked in doors and scared some people pretty badly. But local intelligence sources had indicated that this neighborhood housed most of this town’s Baath officials. I found and escorted out a guy who turned out to be the third-highest-ranking party official found in southern Iraq. At least that’s what they told me.

These things aren’t hard distinctions to make. You pick the guy who looks at you with hate not fear, and you have your man. Baath Party officials also live better, are better fed, better educated, better dressed. And it all shows. . . .

We escorted all the women and children out of that house, then my new fan. We did some damage to door frames kicking in locked doors. Garrard shot a lock off. But when the searching was done, all but those few who were taken away were free to filter through us back to their homes. It was strange passing among them after such an invasion, but they seemed happy and grateful. A couple of men approached me and somehow indicated their gratitude, or pretended to. I believe by their gestures they were happy to be rid of Baath Party overlords and hopeful to be shut of Saddam.

We rolled through town and dug in on the other side.
Posted by: Mike || 02/09/2004 6:03:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Prince Charles Makes Visit to Iraq
Wearing desert camouflage and boots, Prince Charles made a surprise morale-boosting visit to British troops in Iraq on Sunday, the first member of the royal family to visit the country since the ouster of Saddam Hussein. At a former Saddam palace in the city of Basra, the prince mingled with about 200 soldiers, shaking hands, sipping tea and praising them for their role in keeping security in southern Iraq. "What you’re doing, many of you, training Iraqis to become almost as good a bunch of soldiers as you are, is ... of enormous importance because this part of the world doesn’t have much chance unless their armed force can learn a lot from your experience ... not only in the military but in the hearts and minds," the prince said, according to the British news agency, Press Association.

Security was tight for the prince’s 5 1/2-hour visit. His staff only allowed journalists to report that he’d been to Iraq after he had left for Iran - the first member of a British royal family to visit that country in 33 years. Charles met L. Paul Bremer, the top American official in Iraq, and Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the top Briton, during the visit. Charles arrived from Kuwait at Basra’s airport in a C-130 Hercules aircraft. Wearing desert camouflage, boots and a flak jacket, he rode a Chinook helicopter across the city to the Al-Sarraji Palace. The palace, built in the 1980s for Saddam, now serves as the headquarters of the British 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. Inside the palace, Charles met servicemen and women on a terrace. "He asked about the situation here. It’s improved a hell of a lot since we arrived, and it’s improving all the time," said Color Sergeant James Wilson, 35, after meeting the prince. "It’s an honor to have him come and find time to speak to the boys." Charles also met local Iraqi leaders, including Shiite clerics and Sunni representatives.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/09/2004 2:12:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  good for him.
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Good job Charlie...
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  But didn't he go to Iran after?
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#4  I believe he visited Bam, the aptly named site of the earthquake.
Posted by: Dakotah || 02/09/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Excellent morale booster for the Brits, and I'm glad to see him do it. Other than that it's a good thing I'm not British: my opinion of Chuck is just above that of a scum-sucking leech. He's said too many things that have caused harm to too many people. Just another royal photo-op, nothing to see here, move along...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/10/2004 0:53 Comments || Top||


Insurgents killing Iraqi intellectuals
Insurgents are killing at least one and as many as five Iraqi intellectuals every month, hoping to stop people from working with the U.S.-led coalition, American spokesmen said yesterday. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations chief, said the number of attacks against Iraq’s intelligentsia such as professors, doctors, lawyers, judges and managers has stayed in the range of 10 to 15 per month, resulting in roughly one to five deaths. However, the number "goes up dramatically" if the attacks against Iraqi police are taken into account, he said. "The focus by the insurgents ... is to break our will by isolating us with attacks against all these institutions," said coalition spokesman Dan Senor, adding that despite the attacks, more and more intellectuals and professionals are coming forward to help thwart the insurgents’ aims.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:46:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess the turbans/baathists (there is a difference?) don't want anyone who can think for themselves.
Posted by: Nguard || 02/09/2004 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  I've always believed that one of the reasons that France is so messed up is because during the French Revolution, they eliminated a good majority the people who had the ability to achieve success within an existing power structure - as opposed to the type who obtain power by going around smashing stuff and killing people. I can't help but wonder if that dilution of the gene pool is the reason that France, today, remains a mess.
Posted by: B || 02/09/2004 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Nguard, I doubt its the thinking for/to oneself that is threatening. Anyone who can speak to others with credibility or protect others from bullies is in danger.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  SH- What you said is what I meant. Its not just the thinking, it is the associated communication and leadership abilities that derive from a western education (rather than the rote memorization taught by the "holy" men). The Enemy has enough problems/frustrations from the continous bombardment of ideas from us infidels. To have a domestic source of chalenge to the social status quo...
Posted by: Nguard || 02/09/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  B: I think it goes way beyond the French Revolution.

* Napoleonic wars: 98% of a 400,000 man army lost in Russia, just for starters.
* Panama canal: A whole generation of their best engineers wiped out by malaria and yellow fever.
* WWI: Enough has been written about this.

The survival traits that you needed to survive in France for the last two centuries are cowardice, being unadventuresome, and a certain amoral ability to adapt. I'm not saying that these traits have propagated through genes, but rather through memes and culture. The bold rebels, warriors and soldiers went out and died in society altering numbers for 200 years. The weasels, shirkers, and cowards stayed behind and propagated their values.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/09/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Nuguard, this Newsday article is sort of related: Iraq's Secular Parties Try to Gain Ground. It's hard to say who is doing the killing, but I would assume that the professor killing is being done by the Ba'athists or Iranian surrogates.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 12:02 Comments || Top||

#7  11A5S - Er, i wouldnt push too hard on that. Are you at all familiar with the history to the US Civil War??? Bravery wasnt a good survival trait then, either.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 13:27 Comments || Top||

#8  I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. Intellectuals in Iraq are not known for being pro-American. These guys are likely to have gone through more years of school (and thus, more years of propaganda) in Iraq. The ones who have returned from studying abroad are probably even more anti-American than the locals. The fewer pseudo-intellectuals exist in Iraq, the better off we'll be.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/09/2004 15:14 Comments || Top||

#9  C'mon, LH. We've never taken the kind of casualties the French did, percentage-wise. And the the admitedly horrendous casualties that we suffered in the Civil War were almost immediately made up by adventuresome immigrants.
Posted by: 11A5S || 02/09/2004 16:47 Comments || Top||

#10  Plus we still had a substaintial untamed frontier.That encouraged free thinking individulists.
Posted by: Raptor || 02/09/2004 17:22 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
New intel in the hunt for Binny
Are American forces truly getting any closer to finding Osama bin Laden? Two weeks ago, Lieut. Colonel Bryan Hilferty, U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, raised hopes when he boldly announced he was "sure" bin Laden would be captured by the end of the year. His statement also prompted the inevitable speculation during an election year that the Bush Administration was somehow trying to orchestrate an October surprise: namely, the capture of the terrorist mastermind just before voters go to the polls in November.

In fact, military sources in Afghanistan tell TIME, Hilferty’s statement was not based on concrete new information. But it did reflect a sense of rising optimism fueled in part by the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and in part by recent data gathering. A knowledgeable U.S. intelligence official tells TIME that a recent spike in intelligence has given government officials greater reason for hope than at any time since bin Laden escaped U.S. clutches in Tora Bora at the end of 2001. "There are some channels that are very active," this official says, declining to give details for fear they might "dry up." He adds, "There are a lot of people very confident that they have him narrowed to a certain sector." That sector probably encompasses several hundred square miles along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which is not exactly like having him cooped up in your backyard. Nor would this be the first time that hopes of bin Laden’s imminent capture have risen, only to lead to disappointment. So no one, either in Washington or Afghanistan, is getting too giddy. Tracking bin Laden, the intelligence official says, is "kind of like trying to grab Jell-O before it solidifies."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:44:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  didn't the fox tv guy mansour hijazz swear he was in iran dressed as a cleric?--maybe islam is really a black hole in space and there's an anti-matter osama in waziristan
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 02/09/2004 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  If he is in Pakiland I'd bet he's trying hard to get to Iran.

It would be a real feather in Paki's cap to bag binie after the Khan fiasco.

And It would be a real stunner if the mullahs nabbed him if the heat gets to hot.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 14:35 Comments || Top||

#3  You may be on to something Lucky... it sure would sweeten up things tween Pakiland and the US if they nailed or confirmed the death of OBL.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  it sure would sweeten up things tween Pakiland and the US if they nailed or confirmed the death of OBL.

I wouldn't put much faith in anything the Pakis say or say they did that can't be corroborated by independent, trusted sources.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 16:44 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Sudanese attacks cause more refugees to flee west
There has been a new surge of refugees fleeing the fighting in western Sudan. Aid workers in neighbouring Chad say thousands of civilians arrived in the last few days. Many say their villages were bombed and attacked by militias. Most families have walked for days, braving the sandstorms and freezing nights to escape from Sudan. Thousands who arrived in Chad in the past few days are camping out in the open. Some came with herds of goats and camels, many with almost nothing. A six-year old boy called Dahab died of hunger just a few hours ago. He is buried in the sand which swirls constantly around this arid fringe of the Sahara. Dahab’s family are part of a new wave of refugees which has spilled over the border in the last four days, evidence of an upsurge in fighting. Many describe how their villages have been bombed by Sudanese government planes and then attacked by militia gangs on horseback.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:39:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dan, just when I'm laughing you bring a realitiy that is beyond my vision. Tribalism, Clanism, who's your buddy...
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  at least Khartoums' found something to export....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||


Russia
Russian police arrest bombing suspect
Police on Sunday detained a man wanted in connection with a 1998 car bombing in a southern Russian city that killed 22 people, authorities said. Magomed Mukhtarov, 44, was seized early Sunday during a raid on a home in the village of Kuppa in Dagestan, a Russian republic bordering war-wracked Chechnya, said Magomed Omarov, the republic’s deputy interior minister. Mukhtarov had been on the national wanted list for almost six years. During his arrest, Mukhtarov alleged threw a grenade at officers, but no one was injured, Omarov said.
Tossing a grenade normally doesn't help your case...
Authorities seized two Kalashnikov rifles, numerous grenades and a handgun. The owner of the home was also detained, Omarov said. Mukhtarov was wanted in connection with a car bomb explosion in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The attack was intended to kill the city’s mayor, Said Amirov, in a local power struggle, prosecutors have said. Amirov, who has been the target of numerous failed assassination attempts, escaped unharmed. Two people have been sentenced to life in prison and another four people have been sentenced from four to 25 years in connection with the blast.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:30:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kuppa, a morning town of newly mowed and edged lawns, the early birds washing their cars. And a few sleepy souls sipping coffee as they collect the daily paper.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that Copeland playing in the background?
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 14:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Well I imagine by now Magomed has spilled his guts. Nothing like a KGB interrogation to get to the bottom of things.
Posted by: dataman1 || 02/09/2004 19:58 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
2 dead in Chechnya
Rebel attacks killed two Russian soldiers and wounded 11 over the past day in Chechnya. Rebels fired on Russian military positions 16 times in the past 24 hours, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others. Another four were injured in a clash with rebels near the village of Zhanni-Vedeno in the southern Vedeno district. One rebel was also killed, the official said. Rebels also fired on police as they conducted a sweep operation in the Kurchaloi region, the official said. One policeman was killed and two were wounded. The rebels escaped. Russian artillery pounded suspected rebel positions in three regions of the republic, but no aviation was used due to poor weather.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:29:04 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
20 are now dead in Afghan festivities
Guess they finally got around to counting all the bodies from yesterday ...
At least 20 people were killed and 40 wounded in several clashes in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, official sources reported overnight. Hundreds of civilians have been forced to flee their homes after fighting erupted between two government commanders in several areas of Argo district on Thursday. "Twenty people have been killed and forty injured in Argo district in continuation of the clashes," the government-owned Anis daily reported in Kabul. Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said fighting had not stopped until Sunday morning over a dispute between the two commanders about who would receive a tax on poppy crop, which has been cultivated in different areas of the district. About 100 security forces have been sent from Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, to stop the fighting, authorities said, adding locals wanted the central government to step in because they do not trust provincial officials.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:21:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where do these guys get their ammo? If I was going to produce poppy, as a crop, and not to be to wordy, and also not to go on and on... Shipman I need an ending.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  I've wondered the same.... where is all the worlds AK-47 ammo comming from? A significant portion of the ex Red Army war stocks must have been sold/used up by now.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 7:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I believe that we should dispence with the ridiculous formalities and declare ammunition as legal tender in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Sudan. Larger denominations would include the "clip," the RPG round, the motar round and the shoulder fired SAM.
Many of the AK's in Sadaam's arsenal were manufactured in Eastern European countries. With the poor condition of their economies, I expect that they are producing ammo in a three shift 7 day schedule at every factory available.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Lucky, shipman - Peshawar
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||

#5  LH - Saw that coming ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/09/2004 9:48 Comments || Top||

#6  On of the smaller reasons that we see so much cultivation of poppies in a country like Afghanistan where there is a food shortage is that free aid, in the form of food depresses the price of what local farmers can grow. Food aid makes the poor farmers poorer.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 10:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Ah LH... I believe there is a direct connection between the price of AK-47s in Peshawar and the price/availability of ammunition for same. If gasoline were unavailable the price of a SUV would be related to it's metal content not it's designed function.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 11:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Ah Shipman, I think LH was utililizing the literary convention of irony. For more on the poppies there is the BBC article, Afghanistan plea in war on opium. I saw no mention of the yellow brick road in the BBC article (gratuitous Wizard of Oz poppy reference.)

I guess my strategy against the poppy crop would be to do the following (in order):
1. Curtail aid in the form of free food over an extended period.
2. Subsidize the cultivation of agriculture other than opium with a standard amount given to any arable hectare (verified) that is producing something other than opium. Any revenue from the crop itself will be pure gravy for the farmer.
4. Destroy all gum making facilities which will force bulk opium transport.
5. Make opium transportation into a capital offence (or life imprisonment.)
6. Commence to capturing trafficers and vehicles egaged in traffic to drive heroine prices up and drive opium revenue for farmers down.
7. Commence destroying opium crops in the field. So that opium production becomes a finacial gamble for farmers rather than a cash cow.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Ah! Irony!
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#10  how ilonic...
Posted by: .comrade Won Hung Lo || 02/09/2004 12:21 Comments || Top||

#11  thanks SH,and Frank. And my sympathies to Ship - I was being ironic by giving a literal, direct reply to your questions - which literal meaning i had undermined by previosly using the word repetitivly as short form (theres some technical name for that aint it) for a rhetorical question. DO I win the rantburg prize for best post modern semiotics, or what? ;)
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 13:23 Comments || Top||

#12  LH - How about RB's Dennis Miller Award for Most Arcane Reference?

Semiotics
Posted by: .com || 02/09/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#13  LH... I'm on the verge of gettin it.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 14:46 Comments || Top||

#14 
Semiotics is not a science.
Posted by: Fred || 02/09/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#15  Fred, you have added a new favorite to my list of websites.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 15:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
$300,000,000 of Sammy’s cash found
The United States believes it has found at least $300 million Saddam Hussein hid in banks, yet doesn’t have enough evidence to get countries such as Syria and Switzerland to hand over the money, U.S. and European officials told The Associated Press. The funds at stake could go to the Iraq insurgency or the country’s reconstruction -- depending on who gets to them first.
Or they could go into somebody's pocket...
What troubles investigators more is that much of Saddam’s cash may already be gone. The weak U.S. intelligence and the slow-moving investigation, now in its 11th month, have given suspects more than enough time to empty accounts and possibly transfer some funds to Iraq’s insurgency.
Or to buy real estate in Monaco or the Costa Brava...
Treasury investigators have been quick to identify leads in the hunt but have been scrambling to come up with solid evidence that could hold up in a court or get the approval of a U.N. sanctions committee. Much to the frustration of the Bush administration, countries that acted quickly on relatively weak evidence involving Al Qaeda funds have been unwilling to do the same on Iraq, partly because of growing doubts about the quality of U.S. intelligence. For months, Swiss officials have asked Washington to provide more information on an account belonging to a Panamanian-registered front company that U.S. officials believe is tied to the former Iraqi regime. The account contains the equivalent of $80 million and U.S. officials are still trying to gather enough information for the Swiss to act. Were the account held in a U.S. bank, federal authorities wouldn’t need any more evidence than they already have because the Patriot Act, passed after Sept. 11, 2001, gives them expanded powers of search and seizure. "We know a lot of countries cannot use intelligence information the way we can use it now after Sept. 11," said Juan Zarate, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. "It’s not a complete hindrance but we have to provide the right information." Swiss officials put a temporary hold on the Montana Management account but won’t hand over the money to an Iraqi reconstruction fund, as the Bush administration wants, unless it gets more details -- and none were forthcoming during a recent meeting between U.S. and Swiss treasury officials in Washington.

Zarate told AP his office would target new individuals "in the next few weeks," and submit the names to the U.N. sanctions committee, where approval is assured, giving European countries a legal basis to act. "The reality is, we want to be sure about cases when we go to the U.N. since we’re basically marking an individual or a company or an entity. We do have to present some sort of basis for it," Zarate said. But he said, "when you work bilaterally, things don’t necessarily have to be that formal or that definitive."

So far, Zarate’s office has given the United Nations the names of five Iraqi entities -- the Central Bank of Iraq, Iraq Reinsurance Company, Rafidain Bank, Rasheed Bank and Iraqi Airways Company -- plus the list of the 55 Most-Wanted Iraqis that the military presented as a deck of cards in the early days of last year’s war. European and Middle Eastern officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had peeked into accounts held by children of the 55 and found almost no money. Saddam’s daughters, who are living comfortably in Jordan, remain under scrutiny.

The investigation relies solely on interrogations and information U.S. officials are getting in Iraq. Zarate wouldn’t say whether Saddam was cooperating. No other countries -- not even coalition partners -- have offered names to the U.N. list. "The onus falls mostly on us to produce lists and to produce leads," Zarate said. The interagency investigation has been "overwhelmed" by documents and CD ROMs collected in Iraq, he said.

So far, the amount of money identified by U.S. investigators is nowhere near prewar estimates of $40 billion stashed away by Saddam. "We don’t know where it is," said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the head of France’s domestic intelligence agency. The largest sums uncovered so far are in Middle East banks. U.S. officials are hoping Syrian officials will be encouraged to hand over money once the Swiss do. But there are also concerns that pressuring the Syrians, without sufficient evidence, could hamper important cooperation on Iraq and the war on terrorism. In October, U.S. investigators went to the Syrian capital, Damascus, and Amman, Jordan, looking for hidden Iraqi accounts. Syria has frozen about $250 million but won’t give the money to the Iraq fund because it can’t be sure it belonged to the regime.

The Swiss face similar issues. In some cases, Swiss investigators have been unable to find evidence that would corroborate the information the United States has provided on accounts. In others, they are having trouble establishing whether a crime has been committed by bank clients. The largest accounts may already be emptied out, according to European, Middle Eastern and American officials. One Swiss official noted that in 1992, Libya managed to pull 425 million Swiss Francs -- or about $300 million then -- from Switzerland after it was given two weeks to cooperate with the United Nations or face sanctions for its role in the bombing of a Pan Am flight.

For U.S. investigators tracing Saddam’s money, early efforts focused on retrieving close to $1 billion stolen from the Iraqi Central Bank, including money taken by Saddam’s sons. More than $100 million is still missing and some is thought to be in the hands of insurgents. The interagency investigation, which includes Treasury, the FBI, the CIA and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is still tracing the serial numbers on $750,000 cash found in Saddam’s possession when he was captured nearly two months ago.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:17:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We don’t know where it is," said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the head of France’s domestic intelligence agency.

Did you check Chirac's mattress?
Posted by: PBMcL || 02/09/2004 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  The Swiss are pros at this shit. There isn't any downside for them. Blow something up and see what the Swiss do! Look, they make a mockery of clean cash. It's their modus. It's no laughing matter.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 1:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey Wait! Is that in hundreds? That's Mine!
Posted by: Napoleon VII || 02/09/2004 18:28 Comments || Top||


Zarqawi letter sez insurgency failing, wants to kill Shi’ites
American officials here have obtained a detailed proposal that they conclude was written by an operative in Iraq to senior leaders of Al Qaeda, asking for help to wage a "sectarian war" in Iraq in the next months. The Americans say they believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has long been under scrutiny by the United States for suspected ties to Al Qaeda, wrote the undated 17-page document. Mr. Zarqawi is believed to be operating here in Iraq.
Something picked up in that safe house?
The document was made available to The New York Times on Sunday, with an accompanying translation made by the military. A reporter was allowed to see the Arabic and English versions and to write down large parts of the translation. The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country, and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving. It even laments Iraq’s lack of mountains in which to take refuge. Yet mounting an attack on Iraq’s Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document. The aim, the document contends, is to prompt a counterattack against the Arab Sunni minority.
This could be the rationale behind the assassination of al-Hakim in the Shi’ite holy city of An Najaf, if true. Or the Sistani hit, for that matter.
The American officials in Baghdad said they were confident the account was credible and said they had independently corroborated Mr. Zarqawi’s authorship. If it is authentic, it offers an inside account of the insurgency and its frustrations, and bears out a number of American assumptions about the strength and nature of religious extremists — but it also charts out a battle to come. Yet other interpretations may be possible, including that it was written by some other insurgent, but one who exaggerated his involvement.
"Shave, sir?"
"Thank you, Occam."
Still, a senior United States intelligence official in Washington said, "I know of no reason to believe the letter is bogus in any way." He said the letter was seized in a raid on a known Qaeda safe house in Baghdad, and did not pass through Iraqi groups that American intelligence officials have said in the past may have provided unreliable information.
Oooh! First level intel! Straight from the horsie's mouth...
Without providing further specifics, the senior intelligence officer said there was additional information pointing to the idea that Al Qaeda was considering mounting or had already mounted attacks on Shiite targets in Iraq. "This is not the only indication of that," the official said. The intercepted letter also appears to be the strongest indication since the American invasion last March that Mr. Zarqawi remains active in plotting attacks, the official said.
Active operations against the Shias would also tend to downplay Iranian involvement with Qaeda...
According to the American officials here, the Arabic-language document was discovered in mid-January when a Qaeda suspect was arrested in Iraq. Under interrogation, the Americans said, the suspect identified Mr. Zarqawi as the author of the document. The man arrested was carrying it on a CD to Afghanistan, the Americans said, and intended to deliver it to people they described as the "inner circle" of Al Qaeda’s leadership. That presumably refers to Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Ayman communes with the spirit of Binny...
The Americans declined to identify the suspect. But the discovery of the disc coincides with the arrest of Hassan Ghul, a Pakistani described by American officials at the time as a courier for the Qaeda network. Mr. Ghul is believed to be the first significant member of that network to have been captured inside Iraq. The document is written with a rhetorical flourish. It calls the Americans "the biggest cowards that God has created," but at the same time sees little chance that they will be forced from Iraq.
Tough, getting rid of cowards when they're determined, isn't it?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:08:24 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It even laments Iraq’s lack of mountains in which to take refuge.

Iraq has plenty of mountains, although they are full of Kurds.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/09/2004 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Am I misrembering-- or isn't Zarqawi thought to have ties to Teheran? But how could the Mullahs be supporting someone conniving to use Iraqi Shi'ites as cannon fodder?

Makes no sense to me...

Posted by: Wide-eyed-CIA-guy || 02/09/2004 1:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Zarqawi runs back and forth between Iraq and Iran and his primary instrument in Iraq (Ansar al-Islam) was recently a participant at an Iranian terrorist summit. I don't pretend to understand for a moment the mullahs' rationale here unless maybe they figure he'll whack Sistani in the process.

Two possibilities:

1) Mullahs don't give a shit about the Iraqi Shi'ites, they're too busy keeping their own house in order and need al-Qaeda muscle to do it.

2) Zarqawi never intended this letter to be seen by the mullahs, it was meant for internal distribution within al-Qaeda's top brass alone.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 1:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Powerline via Crooow postulates this:

It's tempting to speculate, however, that Zarqawi himself may be in custody. First they raid his safe house in Baghdad; then they leak the news that they found a seven-pound block of cyanide salts there; now we have a memo written by Zarqawi to his al Qaeda bosses. It could be a coincidence, but it seems likely that the U.S. military has captured Zarqawi already, or, at a minimum, is closing in on him.
Posted by: Anonymous2U || 02/09/2004 1:43 Comments || Top||

#5  But how could the Mullahs be supporting someone conniving to use Iraqi Shi'ites as cannon fodder? Makes no sense to me...

Ethnic differences. I suspect that, to the Iranian (Persian) mullahs, the Iraqi Shi'ites are Arab and thus lesser.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 2:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeahhhhh... "ethnic" differences. Not that the 'persians' would like to see every arab wiped off the face of the planet. Nope, nuh huh. No conflict there, ever.
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 02/09/2004 2:18 Comments || Top||

#7  p.s. apparently irony is dead on Rantburg
Posted by: 4thInfVet || 02/09/2004 2:22 Comments || Top||

#8  4th, of course, Irony could never die here. Not going to happen.
Iranian Persian Shi'ites consider themselves to be different than Iraqi Arab Shi'ites.
And when it comes down to it, they're both hated by the Wahhab Sunnis (Al Queda, the Saudis and Baathists) who think that the Shiites are "polytheists" and kuffir-lovers (Jews, Christians, etc.).
So, yeah, what's a little ethnic and theological difference between Muslims when you're fighting the Great Satan?
Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro || 02/09/2004 3:12 Comments || Top||

#9  p.s. apparently irony is dead on Rantburg

Thanks 4Iv, you rang a bell... Come to think of it, haven't the Mullahs used Iranian Shi'ites as cannon fodder?

Pappy-- ethnic shmethnic. Weren't Don Corleone and Don Barzini both Sicilian? Mobsters clash because clashing is in their DNA. No small surprise then if the Iranian branch of the Shi'ite mob has "issues" with the Iraqi branch of that mob. Ethnicity will do as a pretext. But if that fails, they'll cook up some other pretext such as "doctinal differences", whose holy sites are holier, whose beards are longer or whatever. Because in the end, mobocrats only know one rule: keeping their mob on top of the heep.

Posted by: Wide-eyed-CIA-guy || 02/09/2004 3:19 Comments || Top||

#10  puhleeze--sistani comes from the quietist school of shia clergy-- believes in separation of mosque and church--he's an enemy of the theocrats from qom--who love the political power and the ability to score money from side deals with the bazzaries--islamic politics gives me a headache
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 02/09/2004 3:31 Comments || Top||

#11  SOT-- didn't say that Sistani was a mobocrat. Just said that the Iranian Mullahs are and so can be expected to cook up pretexts to oppose anybody who threatens "their" mob. If Sistani is as you describe him-- which I think he may very well be-- all the more reason for the Mullahs in Teheran to want to destroy him. Allah forbid that among the Shi'ites there be a respected cleric opposed to rule by Mullah!

Catch my drift?


Posted by: Wide-eyed-CIA-guy || 02/09/2004 4:06 Comments || Top||

#12  All the speculation ignores the elephant in the middle of the room:

Starting a war between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq would give the US a black eye and tie up -- possibly endanger the existence of -- large amounts of the US military. That's what al'Qaeda and the Iranians want to see.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/09/2004 6:53 Comments || Top||

#13  muslims targeting muslims. And then the truth is spun so much so as to make the US (and of course, Israel) the culprit in the war on the ROP(tm).
Posted by: PlanetDan || 02/09/2004 8:54 Comments || Top||

#14  I think I need to issue a fatwah against irony on Rantburg. Given your propensity to take fatwahs really seriously!
Posted by: phil_b || 02/09/2004 9:21 Comments || Top||

#15  good comments guys - youre thinking strategically. Yes 1. The iranian blackhats would probably use any cannon fodder to keep power 2. They probably value Iraqi shiites even less than their own citizens on both ethnic and ideological grounds 3. Yes, their main goal is to take down the US and keep Iraq from being the "first domino" - they'll cooperate with anyone or kill anyone to do that.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 9:46 Comments || Top||

#16  LH, I would add that the Iranian Shiites would just as soon have any credible and independent thinking Iraqi Shiite leaders take an infinite lunch break. Their puppet appears to be Al Sadr.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#17  Sistani's push for early elections is a direct threat to the Sunni's, no? Whether that is the cause of his attempted assasination or as a pretext by mobacracy types to stir up retribution against the Sunnies is interesting. So does this place AQ as an Iranian dependant and is the current conflict in Iraq the battle ground for AQ/Iran and not a baathist resurgence? Or is it all combined?
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#18  now i have a headache and am nauseous--sadr is a childish hothead and islamist theocrat--he's too young to get respect from the hawza in najaf as a scholar--its like a physics major at boston university against einstein--sistani being einstein in this tortured analogy--so the wilayat khomeini boys from qom in iran are allies with the young theocrat and would like nothing better than to give sistani an early trip to paradise--he's bad for business
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI || 02/09/2004 14:56 Comments || Top||

#19  Pappy-- ethnic shmethnic. Weren't Don Corleone and Don Barzini both Sicilian? Mobsters clash because clashing is in their DNA.

In the US, mobsters clashed only when it is/was in their interests to do so. Part of doing business. BTW, there are/were other ethnicities in organized crime.

No small surprise then if the Iranian branch of the Shi'ite mob has "issues" with the Iraqi branch of that mob. Ethnicity will do as a pretext.

Speaking from personal experience in the Middle East, you underestimate the ethnicity-factor. What ethnicity you are (Bedouin versus "fishing-Arab", for example) and where you are from is significant. I had problems in both Bahrain and Saudi-land because I "looked persian". After they found out I was of southern Italian stock, I merely had to contend with the issues a Yank faces there.

Because in the end, mobocrats only know one rule: keeping their mob on top of the heep.

I'll agree with that. But there's no familia with this group. They tend to use those they consider lesser and expendable before they use their own.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/09/2004 15:02 Comments || Top||

#20  SOT - I think you are absolutely right about the Qom - Najaf power struggle. Iraq is the real center of Shia Islam. Since Saddam was in power and shut down Najaf, all of the Shia big guys there, including Sistani, had to head to Qom. All of the money from the faithful followed them. The Iranians don't want to see that go away.

Nevertheless, I think the paramount Iranian goal is the one that LH mentioned...do anything to make the US fail, even if it means killing a bunch of Shia's.

Posted by: remote man || 02/09/2004 16:17 Comments || Top||

#21  "BTW, there are/were other ethnicities in organized crime."

Yup - even back in the heyday of the South Italian mob, there were Jews, Irish, etc. More recently there have been chinese, russians, hispanics, etc. So stop picking on the Eyetalians.



Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#22  Lucky - it looks like the main insurgency so far has been Baathist, though that is (all too) slowly fading. Zarqawi, working as agent for AQ was hoping to stir up a non-baathist Sunni arab resistance. Success has been limited. So alternate strategy is to hit Shiites and Kurds, hoping to provoke violent Shia/Kurdish backlash, which would push sunni arabs into the welcoming arms of Zarqawi and AQ. This seems clear from the memo, assuming it all survives the 48 hour rule (but this IS the NYT). It also seems pretty clear that Iran is behind Al Sadr, whose strategy is to portray Sistani as in the American pocket, in contrast to himself. This puts Sistani in the position of having to show himself tough with the americans, yet still reach the compromise the shia need. Its speculation as to whether Iran and Zarqawi are in kahoots - yet given the fact that senior AQ operatives seem to be in Iran, under some form of house arrest that seems to really be disguised permission to operate freely, its just a matter of "connecting the dots" So the question becomes - is there any reason, religious or ideological, why Iran COULDNT be working with Zarqawi to kill Iraqi Shiites? I think we've come to a consensus here that there isnt. This still doesnt prove it 100%, and i suspect that if they have theyve covered their tracks very carefuly - certainly Zarqawi doesnt seem to mention Iran support in this memo - then of course Iran might be working with senior AQ, and Zarqawi might be out of the loop on Iranian support - precisely to avoid a leak if hes caught. Of course that would mean no direct cooperation between Zarqawi and Al sadr - which makes sense to me.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/09/2004 16:32 Comments || Top||

#23  Anonymous2U,

Perhaps that is why the brass are recently so confident they will nab Binny by ballot time.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 02/09/2004 23:07 Comments || Top||

#24  LH, It would be intersting to know were the memo was going, postal wise. To say it was addressed to AQ leaves a...?
Posted by: Lucky || 02/10/2004 1:51 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Police Major, Gunmen Attack GIs
Gunmen, including a major in the new Iraqi police force, attacked a group of American soldiers, sparking a gunbattle in which the officer was killed and two other attackers wounded, the U.S. military said Sunday. The soldiers were observing a house belonging to a person suspected in rocket-propelled grenade attacks on American forces in the village of Qadisiyah, 30 miles south of Tikrit, when the gunmen opened fire Saturday evening, the military said in a statement. The Americans fired back and threw a hand grenade at the attackers, killing one and wounding two. Two more gunmen were captured. The slain attacker was identified as an active Iraqi police major.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 02/09/2004 12:04:41 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another dead 42" waist bandit. Way to go Joes.
Posted by: Lucky || 02/09/2004 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2 
The slain attacker was identified as an active Iraqi police major.
The reporter mispelled "idiot."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/09/2004 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Americans fired back and threw a hand grenade
Show 'em the American arm.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 7:33 Comments || Top||

#4  "Bad news, Mahmoud. Ali was working for the insurgency!"
"That bastard!"
"Good news--there's an opening and you've been promoted to major!"
"Praise Allah!"
Posted by: Dar || 02/09/2004 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  "Bezbol been berry good to us!"
Posted by: Fred || 02/09/2004 8:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Chico Escuela lives!
Posted by: PBMcL || 02/09/2004 11:02 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Still more on Pak nuclear program
I bet Islamabad isn’t too happy with the continued torrent of stories on their nuclear program, even after the Khan confession.
Investigators have determined that the nuclear weapon blueprints found in Libya from the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan were of his own relatively crude type of bomb — not the more advanced models that Pakistan developed and successfully tested, American and European arms experts have said in interviews. The analysis of the blueprints, which establish a new link between Dr. Khan and the underground nuclear black market now under global scrutiny, has heartened investigators in Europe and the United States because his design is seen as less threatening in terms of the spread of nuclear weapons. "If you had to have a design circulating around the world, we’d be worse off if it was a design other than Khan’s," said an American weapons expert who is familiar with the Libyan case.
So the Paks kept the good program to themselves while selling of the substandard stuff for extra cash?
Small comfort to someone who gets nuked by a substandard weapon...
Pakistani officials have focused their recent disclosures on Dr. Khan’s illicit spread of equipment to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel, and have said little or nothing of the blueprints for a nuclear warhead that went to Libya, which are considered more sensitive. To the amazement of inspectors, the blueprints discovered in Libya were wrapped in plastic bags from an Islamabad dry cleaner.
Sometimes you just can't think of anything to say. All you can do is whimper...
Dr. Khan is known in Pakistan as the father of the Pakistani bomb or the founder of its nuclear weapons program, but Western experts say the credit is not all his. A metallurgist, he is an expert at building centrifuges — hollow metal tubes that spin very fast to enrich natural uranium in its rare U-235 isotope, which is an excellent bomb fuel. His mastery of the difficult art proved vital to Pakistan’s acquiring a nuclear arsenal. But other Pakistani scientists, Western experts said, had far greater success in turning the enriched uranium into nuclear warheads. To develop the armaments, the American expert said, Pakistan ran "two parallel weapons programs, one good and one bad; Khan ran the bad one." Dr. Khan’s weapon was inferior in terms of such as things as size, power and efficiency. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the nation’s official authority for nuclear development, ran the more successful program. All Pakistan’s atom bombs resemble designs that China tested in the late 1960’s and passed on to Pakistan decades ago, European and American experts said.
This is interesting. I have read allegations in the Indian media that Paks nukes came from China, but I didn’t know how to reconcile that with what we know about AQ Khan stealing material from Holland and getting billions from Arab states. Is it possible the entire Khan nuclear project was one enormous con to gather billions of dollars from Libya, Iran, Saudi and put it directly into a handful of bank acounts; while the real nuclear program was run by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission using updated Chinese designs?
Analysts said the Libyan episode gave new life to the case of a middleman claiming to represent Dr. Khan who in 1990, on the eve of the Persian Gulf war, offered to have the Pakistani help Iraq build its own nuclear weapon. But the investigators made little headway, largely because Pakistan furiously denied there had been any aid to Iraq and refused to allow Dr. Khan to be questioned.
Thereby suggesting that there was...
Now, those denials have collapsed, bringing new interest. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, said Iraqi documents, coupled with the Libyan developments, raised the possibility that Dr. Khan’s network operated for more than a decade to offer atomic blueprints not only to Libya and Iraq but to countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. Global investigators must now carefully examine that possibility, he said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 02/09/2004 12:03:34 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BTW The nuclear scientists who went to Afghanistan to hang with Osama, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majeed, were from Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), and not AQ Khan's organisation.
Hopefully PAEC will receive as much scrutiny as the Khan Research Laboratory has.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 02/09/2004 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like Khan left an expensive upgrade path for his customers.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/09/2004 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like Khan picked up the German method of gas-centrifuge distillation of uraniun while in Holland. Until the run up to the Iraq invasion I, like many other Americans, thought that a reactor was required to produce a nuclear bomb.

Obviously, Sadaam turned down Khan's proposal because he had already purchased the centrifuge technology directly from Germany.

Even today, I think that many Americans fail to realize that the proliferation of cetrifuge technology has made the world vastly more dangerous. Where before we could follow a containment strategy and bomb the reactor before it goes operational, now we are forced into preemption. Khan has done Ummah no service.
Posted by: Super Hose || 02/09/2004 7:52 Comments || Top||

#4 
the blueprints discovered in Libya were wrapped in plastic bags from an Islamabad dry cleaner.

On the bottom of the bag was a page from a notepad:

From the Desk of Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Memo to self: Pick up dry cleaning on the way from the laboratory to the Libyan embassy.

Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 02/09/2004 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Them Pakis can't be too thrilled at all this bad publicity.... :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 02/09/2004 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Lots of disinformation being spread. D'ya think the black turbans and dear leader are going through the old packing bags to see what they got? "It's a match. We all used the same laundry!" Bwhahahahah!!!

AQK was a double agent, handled by a dry cleaner in Islamabad. Way-to-go CIA, and you wonder why we seem to know so much!
Posted by: john || 02/09/2004 13:55 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Russian Defense Ministry says al-Qaeda’s in Chechnya
RUSSIAN Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov today said al-Qaeda was operating in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, but did not directly link the group to a Moscow subway bombing last week that killed at least 39 people. "The Al-Qaeda connection is something that is there," Ivanov said, speaking on the sidelines of an annual international security conference in Munich. "This is equally applicable to financial backing. The connection of these terrorists with the Taliban and al-Qaeda has long ago been proved."

Ivanov did not speculate on the subway bombing in Moscow, saying that an investigation was under way and no further conclusions could be drawn at this point. Russian President Vladimir Putin has linked the morning rush hour attack to Chechen guerrillas. Ivanov ruled out any negotiations with Chechen rebels, saying: "Whoever hopes we will start negotiations, let them go and start negotiating with (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden and (Taliban spiritual leader) Mullah (Mohammad) Omar."
Maybe the Washington Post will. I don't think Bush will.
Ivanov said Moscow would never negotiate with the separatists and would instead "destroy these people calmly and systematically".
Posted by: Dan Darling || 02/09/2004 12:02:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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