EFL
Israeli forces raided Arab banks on Wednesday in Ramallah, on the West Bank, seizing millions of dollars representing hundreds of institutional and personal accounts that Israel said were financing Palestinian terrorism. Heh heh - use it to buy cement for the wall
It was by far the largest such seizure during more than three years of conflict. Witnesses said soldiers covered the banksâ security cameras with black plastic bags and herded all the employees together before ordering workers with keys to open the vaults. Sure it was the Israelis? sounds like Willie Loman
More like Willie Sutton...
Israeli officials defended the operation, which was still under way late Wednesday, as aimed carefully at terrorist financing and in line with President Bushâs call for action against such funds. But Amin Haddad, the head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, called the raid a robbery intended to "shake our banking system." He rejected Israeli assertions that the accounts were linked to terrorism. they were the personal savings of small unarmed children and rescue centers for baby ducks
In Washington, the State Department criticized the raid. "Some of these actions that were taken risk destabilizing the Palestinian banking system," said Richard A. Boucher, the department spokesman. "So weâd prefer to see Israeli coordination with the Palestinian financial authorities." A senior Israeli security official said the money, in various currencies, was still being counted. He said that the total was probably between $6.7 million and $9 million, and that the amount taken from the vaults equaled the sums held in what Israeli intelligence had identified as suspect accounts. Palestinian and Israeli security officials said the Israelis entered branches of the Arab Bank and the Cairo Amman Bank, which are both Jordanian. Palestinian officials said the Israeli troops brought bank computer experts who had been arrested overnight Tuesday to help guide them through the systems. The action, which was led by the Shin Bet security service and included Israeli police forces and the army, recalled Israelâs approach to controlling the occupied territories more than a decade ago, before the Oslo peace process began. It demonstrated the extent of the breakdown between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which was formed under the Oslo accords to govern and police Palestinians in areas like Ramallah.
Israeli officials said the raid also pointed to the changing nature of Palestinian militant groups, which they said were becoming less ideological and more entrepreneurial, with perpetrators earning specific sums for particular attacks. The senior security official said interrogations of arrested militants showed that an attack might bring its Palestinian planners a minimum of 3,000 to 5,000 shekels, or $673 to $1,122. He also said Israeli intelligence indicated that much of the seized money had come from Iran, funneled through the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. The Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, released a statement late Wednesday saying the seized money would be spent on "humanitarian goals in Palestinian society," like health services, food and "improving the infrastructure at crossing points and checkpoints." The banks were silent about the incident.
In January 2003, Israeli forces took about $7,000 from a branch of the Arab Bank in a Palestinian neighborhood just outside Jerusalem. Officials knowledgeable about the incident said the Bush administration privately rebuked Israel after Jordan complained. Mr. Haddad, the banker, was voluble in his criticism, saying: "This is against all laws and norms. They acted like gangs." Israeli officials said they had alerted Palestinian officials before storming the banks, but Mr. Haddad denied any advance warning. Mr. Boucher said, "According to both Palestinians and Israelis, the operation was not coordinated in any way with the Palestinian financial authorities." The senior Israeli security official, said the Palestinian Authority briefly froze some accounts linked to terrorism last year, but then unfroze them. He said that the Palestinian Authority was not helping Israel at all with counterterrorism and that there was no chance it would have helped in this case. Tightening the financial screws - I love it!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2004 9:53:08 PM ||
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He said that the total was probably between $6.7 million and $9 million...
Shit. That wouldn't cover Suha's Paris restaurant tabs for a year...
From geostrategy-direct.........
A senior Iraqi scientist who had been involved in Iraqâs nuclear program was found murdered in Baghdad recently, according to U.S. officials. It was the ninth assassination of Iraqi scientists in the past four months. The last killing was that of Iraqi aeronautical scientist Muhyi Hussein. Majid Hussein Ali, a professor at the College of Science at Baghdad University, was found dead in the Raghibah Khatun. He had been shot twice in the back. The assassins are believed to be former members of Saddam Husseinâs government. The killing appears to be part of an effort to systematically eliminate Iraqi scientists and technicians involved in Saddamâs nuclear program. The scientist had been involved in nuclear physics research, notably nuclear centrifugal force. They must mean separation process..
Although the reason for the assassination campaign is unclear, U.S. officials believe the killings represent an effort to conceal the scope of Iraqâs nuclear program. Former CIA weapons inspector David Kay said in October that two Iraqi weapons scientists who had been cooperating with the U.S. military were shot, and one of them was killed. The murdered scientist was shot in the head outside of his apartment. "We think it was because, in fact, he was engaged in discussions with us," Kay said. Iraqi scientists have been helping the Iraq Survey Group uncover the nuclear program, which had been on hold since 1991 with the goal of eventually being restarted.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 9:50:03 PM ||
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maybe they should take protective custody with the Marines? There's a hitch..... they need to loosen their tongues
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2004 21:55 Comments ||
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I just don't buy its Baathists and 9 in 4 mohths looks too high a number to be a coincidence. So who would be doing this? I come up with a list of one - Syria trying to cover up WMD cooperation with Saddam's regime. There is going to be one hell of a book in this WMD story.
An Iraqi who worked as a doctor in the hospital attached to Abu Ghraib prison tells me there was no shredding machine in the prison. The Iraqi, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes the prison as "horrific". Part of his job was to attend to those who had been executed. Did he ever attend to, or hear of, prisoners who had been shredded? "No." Did any of the other doctors at Abu Ghraib speak of a shredding machine used to execute prisoners? "No, never. As far as I know [hanging] was the only form of execution used there." Nobody died under torture? At all? Hmmmm...
What doctor is going to admit to committing war crimes? Are journalists in a position to provide him with confidentiality? Sickening crimes like this are exactly why Saddam's helpers are being beaten and killed daily.
#2
ZF's right there is plenty of evidence that large numbers of doctors were involved in torture and punishment amputations - ears, tongues, and who knows what else. Of course he's not going to admit to it.
#3
As I mentioned over on Tim Blair's site, the left is trying to discredit the shredder story to give themselves an out. You see, if they can cast enough doubt on it, they'll be able to respond to any mention of Saddam's atrocities with "yeah, like the shredder?"
It's the same trick Holocaust-deniers play with the few false claims about Nazi practices during the Holocaust: "X didn't happen, so how do we know Y, Z, A, B, C, D... did?"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 21:12 Comments ||
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So the Nazis didn't feed Jews to lions? What else are they falsely accused of?
I don't care about shredders as long as the Iraqis can see the mass graves.
Of course, as Saddam says, they were all thieves and criminals, right?
Which is just perfect for a man who robbed his country for decades and managed to cart away a billion dollars just on his last day.
I notice there are no trolls today on RB and this may be the reason. A major new troll honeypot.
"Seinfeld" actor Jason Alexander helped launch a grass roots peace initiative with a twist: Israelis and Palestinians are asked to vote on terms of a future agreement via the Internet. The "One Voice" campaign, backed by Alexander and several other Hollywood celebrities, seeks to gauge the feelings of ordinary Palestinians and Israelis on core issues in the conflict through an Internet referendum. Computer giant IBM will analyze the results, and organizers hope a consensus will emerge despite decades of conflict. "What this initiative wants to do is to embolden moderates on both sides," Alexander, who played the bumbling George in the hit comedy series, said Tuesday.
Fingering a thick beard as he walked onstage at Israelâs IBM headquarters, Alexander joked, "No, Iâm not Hassidic. Iâm unemployed." In an Associated Press interview, Alexander said he got involved in the project through "pure blind ignoranceoptimism." Deflecting criticism of actors who use their fame to influence politics, he said, "The only good use of celebrity is to stand next to something important ... just bring awareness to it." Alexander said he first joined the campaign after attending a gathering of One Voice organizers and other celebrity supporters at the Hollywood home of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. One Voice founders Daniel Lubetzky, an American Jewish businessman, and Mohammed Darawshe, an Israeli Arab peace activist, gave the group a presentation on the peace program. Fellow actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston, also at that gathering, also signed up to help the project. The usual suspects!
Heavy intellectual hitters, each and every one...
The One Voice initiative asks Israeli and Palestinian respondents to accept or reject a series of statements on issues at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Among them are the necessity of an Israeli and a Palestinian state, each respecting the other and upholding human rights; the 1967 boundaries between the two as a basis for negotiation; evacuation of Jewish settlements and cessation of terrorism. Voting has already begun through the One Voice Web site and will begin soon at booths in universities and other public places in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Organizers plan to present the findings to Palestinians and Israeli leaders as a document backed by broad public opinion. Alexander said the potential for a peaceful solution is evident. "Weâre dealing with two incredibly intelligent, sophisticated, passionate nations After I pick myself up from the floor
that really have more in common than what divides them," he said. "Probably what tantalizes me is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel." Why is that hollywood celebs never seem to own a f***ing dictionary. To save you the bother of looking it up. Tantalize means To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach.
At Tuesdayâs launch, an Israeli student leader, Sagiv Asualin, said the One Voice program differs from the recent Geneva Accord and other peace initiatives because it comes from the grass roots level. I wasnât aware they had grass on Hollywood streets.
On The Net:
One Voice: www.silentnolonger.org I think I will go check it out!
Long article from JPost that has a number of interesting insights. Iâve severly EFLed it, so go read the whole thing.
PA security personnel are behind some of the attacks on journalists. Explains a Palestinian editor from Gaza City: "We have every reason to believe that senior PA officials and security commanders are behind most of the recent attacks on journalists. We are victims of a fierce power struggle that is under way between top security and political officials. Any journalist who dares to report on this power struggle or on cases of corruption in the Palestinian Authority is almost immediately targeted." As one Palestinian journalist put it this week, "The attacks on the journalists are the result of a clash between the younger generation of Palestinians, who insist on living in a democracy, and a regime dominated by the older generation, which has endorsed the same tactics as Saddam Hussein and Hafez al-Assad." Iâd normally treat a statement like this with extreme scepticism, but this has a ring of truth to it.
This tyrannical mentality of the older generation of Palestinian leaders is responsible for the fact that the media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is almost entirely controlled by the PA. Besides the PA-controlled radio and television stations, the three major newspapers - al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadeeda - are the Palestinian version of the now defunct Pravda newspaper, which for decades served as the official organ of the former Soviet leadership.
Even the 30 or so "private" radio and TV stations that have popped up in different parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have long learned that the key to their survival is in the hands of the PA and its security forces. Some of the stations, such as Shepherdsâ TV in Bethlehem, which have dared to air views critical of PA officials, have been shut without delay.
That's because it's a dictatorship. That's what dictators do. What lemmings do is swarm in the streets and shakes their furry little fists, shouting how they just love their dictators.
ONE OF the first measures taken by the PA shortly after its establishment in 1994 was to order a crackdown on independent journalists and newspapers. The offices of many journalists, whose loyalty to Arafat and the PA leadership was in doubt, were stormed and shut by the various branches of the security forces. Later that year, Palestinian journalists were once again reminded of the risks facing anyone who dares to upset Arafat or any of his senior aides. Maher Alami, a senior editor at al Quds, was detained for one week in a Jericho jail for not publishing a news story about Arafat on the front page. After his release, Alami said he was never questioned about the issue while in prison and was well treated during his detention. Prior to his release, Jibril Rajoub, then head of the Preventive Security force, told Palestinian journalists that the arrest order was issued by Arafat himself, and that Arafat alone could order the release of the editor. Upon his release, Alami was brought to a meeting with Arafat in Ramallah. According to Alami, Arafat apologized, but expressed his discontent with the way al Quds was dealing with news about him. At one point, Arafat ordered the closure of the al-Jazeera offices in Ramallah after the station broadcast archive footage from Lebanon showing Palestinians beating with shoes on his portraits.
Dictators are vain, too. I didn't mention that.
SINCE THEN many of the journalists working with the Arab and Western media have been extremely cautious in their reporting. Those who deviated from the norm had to be reminded of what awaits them. Earlier this year, five Fatah gunmen intercepted the car of Saif al Din Shahin, a correspondent for the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya news channel as he was leaving his Gaza City office. The attackers beat Shahin with clubs and the butts of their rifles, injuring him moderately. His only crime, it transpired, was that he had reported on discontent among Palestinians at paramilitary celebrations by Fatah activists on the 39th anniversary of the factionâs founding. In recent years, such incidents have become almost a normal practice in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Emma Goldman must be so proud. It's kind of like government by Big Guido, isn't it?
Alarmed by the growing criticism of the PA from Palestinian journalists, the West Bank branch of the Palestinian Journalistsâ Syndicate, whose heads are known as Arafat loyalists, recently organized a show of solidarity with their leader. Scores of journalists, including some employed by international news agencies and TV stations, arrived at Arafatâs office to vow their loyalty. Some delivered emotional speeches in praise of Arafat and his role in "promoting the freedom of the media," while others read flattering poems composed especially for the occasion. Journalists who did not attend the rally said they were "disgusted" by the behavior of their colleagues. Any resemblance to Iraq under Saadam are purely coincidental.
"It was a shameful scene," said one of them. "Whatâs particularly disturbing is that none of the journalists who participated in this disgraceful show dared to ask Arafat about the campaign of terror and intimidation against Palestinian journalists." However, there is almost a consensus among Palestinian journalists that their conditions still remain much better than those of their colleagues in Syria, Egypt and other Arab dictatorships. Since the establishment of the PA, more than 150 licenses for publishing newspapers and magazines were issued by the PA Ministry of Information. Another 50 licenses were issued to private radio and TV stations. A particularly damming statement.
#1
Scores of journalists, including some employed by international news agencies and TV stations, arrived at Arafatâs office to vow their loyalty. Some delivered emotional speeches in praise of Arafat and his role in "promoting the freedom of the media," while others read flattering poems composed especially for the occasion.
Thank you Yasser
For not giving me the gasser
Hope you never have
A work accident
R.P. team for Iraq stranded; U.S. funds withheld
The deployment of 43 Filipino replacement personnel for the humanitarian mission in Iraq was deferred after US officials failed to release funds for the augmentation force. General Pedro Ramboanga, former chief of the Philippine Humanitarian Task Force to Iraq, said the US government failed to provide the funds for the airfare, meal allowances and military equipment for the 43 replacement personnel that were supposed to leave on Monday. The government had earlier shouldered the expenses and allowance for the deployment of the first batch of the Philippine contingent to Iraq in August last year. âThey are still here in the country because we donât have the money needed for their stay in Iraq. From what Iâve heard, the US has yet to find a window in their budget to fund the deployment,â Ramboanga said.
The US Command in Iraq has allegedly suffered financial problems and Washington has sought the assistance of the United Nations to help in the reconstruction of Iraq. The Department of Foreign Affairs has admitted that the Philippine contingent had difficulty getting funds from the US and it is now seeking funds from the UN. Ramboanga said the additional contingent to Iraq was supposed to leave on Monday to replace some personnel of the 96-member first contingent. He said the members of the Philippine contingent currently deployed in Iraq cannot leave their post in Camp Babylon, which is under the command of the Polish Army in Hillah, until the arrival of their replacements âThe members of the contingent who were supposed to go home will have to stay there. Their return to the country is hinged on the deployment of the replacement team. We will just have to wait for the US to fund it,â Ramboanga said.
Hat tip: Instapundit. EFL
An armed robbery went awry this morning when a store manager shot the suspect in the back and buttocks. Around 6:02 a.m., Christopher Pulley, 31, of Powell, entered the Rite Stop Mart, 441 Dutch Valley Rd., and approached the clerk at the counter, said Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk. Pulley asked for cigarettes and then demanded money from the clerk. He had what appeared to be a gun in his front pocket and pointed it at the clerk, DeBusk said. The store manager, Sam Braswell Jr., 51, approached Pulley from the back of the store with a .25-caliber handgun. The suspect ran from the store and Braswell followed, firing several shots. Braswell hit Pulley twice in the back and buttocks. Insert your own joke about "opening a can of whoop-ass," "pain in the butt," ".25 cal spanking," and/or "getting what he deserves in the end" here.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2004 7:23:58 PM ||
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Pakistani troops hunting for Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters zeroed in yesterday on the Pakistani village of Azam Warsak near the Afghan border. Some 20 suspects, including a number of foreigners, were arrested in the operation in Pakistanâs tribal South Waziristan region. .... Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat say there is a "strong possibility" that senior Al-Qaeda figures like bin Laden and top aide Ayman al-Zawahiri are hiding in the region. "Most of these stories linking some reports that Ayman al-Zawahri and Osama bin Laden have been seen there. They have been witnessed by people. ..."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 7:16:31 PM ||
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Why do I want to call these places 'Wherzatistan'?
Intelligence about possible threats to federal buildings before Timothy McVeighâs bomb exploded April 19, 1995, and information about possible conspirators that emerged afterward wasnât always fully shared among federal agencies..... FBI headquarters officials were so worried that white supremacists in Oklahoma might launch an attack on April 19, 1995, to avenge the execution of one of their leaders that they flew a reformed neo-Nazi to Washington in late March [1995] and debriefed him about a 1980s plot to blow up the Murrah building. The information, however, wasnât shared with officials at the building beforehand or given to FBI investigators afterward.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 7:06:32 PM ||
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The FBI believed Timothy McVeigh tried to recruit additional help in the days before the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and gathered evidence that white supremacist bank robbers may have become involved, according to government documents never introduced at McVeighâs trial. The retired FBI chief of the Oklahoma City investigation, Dan Defenbaugh, said he was unaware of some evidence obtained by The Associated Press and that the investigation should be reopened to determine whether the robbery gang was linked to McVeigh.
The evidence, never shared with Defenbaughâs investigators or defense lawyers, includes documents showing the Aryan Republican Army bank robbers possessed explosive blasting caps similar to those McVeigh stole and a driverâs license with the name of a central player who was robbed in the Oklahoma City plot. "If the evidence is still there, then it should be checked out," said Defenbaugh, who reviewed the documents at the request of the AP. "If I were still in the bureau, the investigation would be reopened." ....
Peter Langan, one member of the robbery gang, told the AP he plans to testify at Terry Nicholsâ trial and that federal prosecutors several years ago offered and then withdrew a plea deal for information he had about the Oklahoma City bombing. Langan said at least three fellow gang members were in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing and one later confided to him that they had become involved. The gang "had some liability problems as it related to Oklahoma City," Langan alleged in a phone interview from federal prison where he is serving life sentences for the robbery spree involving nearly two dozen Midwest banks in the 1990s.
McVeighâs ex-lawyer said the evidence obtained by the AP is the strongest to date to show what he has argued for years - that the bombing conspiracy may have involved more people than McVeigh and Nichols. "I think these pieces close the circle, and they clearly show the bombing conspiracy consisted probably of 10 conspirators," attorney Stephen Jones said. "They (government officials) simply turned their backs on a group of people for which there is credible evidence suggesting they were involved in the murder of 160 people." ....
McVeigh in 1994 stole from a quarry hundreds of construction blasting caps, some which he used to explode the Oklahoma City bomb. The FBI spent months unsuccessfully trying to locate many of the other stolen caps. Agents collected witness testimony that McVeigh had placed some of the extra caps in two boxes wrapped in Christmas paper in the back of his car along with mercury switches and duffel bags. One electric and five non-electric blasting caps were found in the Aryan Republican Army robbersâ Ohio hideout in January 1996, along with mercury switches, a duffel bag and two items described as a "Christmas package," FBI records show. Rather than analyze the caps as evidence, the FBI allowed firefighters to destroy them at the scene....
Defenbaugh said he also was concerned his investigation was never told the bank robbers had an Arkansas driversâ license in the name of Robert Miller, the alias name used by Arkansas gun dealer Roger Moore. The government contended at McVeighâs trial that Moore was robbed at his Hot Springs, Ark., home in November 1994, and the proceeds were used to fund the Oklahoma City bombing.... A few months after Mooreâs robbery, McVeigh and the gun dealer exchanged letters in which Moore went by the name Robert Miller, the same alias on the license bank robber Richard Guthrie possessed when he was arrested in 1996.... When bank robber Mark Thomas was indicted in January 1997 he told reporters that at least one gang member was involved in the Oklahoma bombing, according to a newspaper clip in FBI files. "Your young Mr. Wizard took out the Murrah building," Thomas was quoted as saying of one of his bank robbery colleagues. Thomasâ ex-girlfriend told FBI agents her boyfriend stated shortly before he traveled to a white supremacist compound at Elohim City, Okla., in spring 1995 that a federal building was about to be bombed. "We are going to get them. We are going to hit one of their buildings during the middle of the day. Itâs going to be a federal building," Donna Marazoff quoted Thomas as saying during her FBI interview....
The FBI agents said they dropped the inquiry after Thomas, Guthrie and other members of the ARA gang were captured in 1996 and 1997, denied their involvement in McVeighâs bombing and provided an alibi. The alibi, according to FBI records, was that the bank robbers left Elohim City on April 16, 1995, and went to a house in Kansas to meet with Langan three days before the bombing. But the FBIâs own records conflicted with that account. Used car sales records gathered by the FBI showed the gang purchased a truck on April 17, 1995, on the Oklahoma-Arkansas border, then returned to Elohim City to sell an old vehicle. Langan said he offered to tell prosecutors back in 1996 that the bank robbersâ alibi was bogus. "They didnât return to the house until the morning of April 20," Langan claimed.
A January 1996 FBI teletype stated the FBI had received information from an informant that McVeigh had made repeated contacts with the Elohim City compound where the bank robbers frequently stayed. The teletype said McVeigh called the compound April 5, 1995, on "a day that he was believed to have been attempting to recruit a second conspirator to assist in the OKBOMB attack." At the time, at least two banks robbers were present, FBI records show.... The documents show FBI agents first suspected a possible link in summer 1995 when Guthrie left behind at the site of two bank robberies a newspaper article about the Oklahoma City bombing with McVeighâs picture circled. Langan said the robbers became fearful Guthrie might recklessly implicate them in the Oklahoma City bombing, and in fall 1995 discussed killing Guthrie.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 6:46:49 PM ||
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From Geostrategy-direct, subscription reqâd....
Iran has secretly developed its uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz, which is now considered the linchpin of the nationâs nuclear weapons program. Since they have a domestic source of uranium.
U.S. officials said that Iran transferred research, development and assembly operations to Natanz in an effort to transform the site into the main facility for the Iranian gas centrifuge program. Iran has ambitious plans for Natanz. Currently, the site includes centrifuge assembly areas and a pilot fuel-enrichment plant slated to hold 1,000 centrifuges. A production-scale fuel-enrichment plant is being constructed at Natanz to house some 50,000 centrifuges. Those are alot of centrifuges! They want production.
Iran has designed its nuclear weapons program so that it could produce enough enriched uranium to construct a warhead within days, official says. 50K centrifuges will do the job
"Natanz could be operated to make low-enriched uranium fuel until Iran decided it wanted to make weapon-grade material," Or high grade fissle material now David Albright and Corey Hinderstein write in the March/April 2004 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "It wouldnât take long to enrich the low-enriched material to weapon grade. For example, if Natanz was operating at full capacity and recycled the end product -- low-enriched uranium [5 percent uranium-235] -- back into the feed point, the facility could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a single weapon within days." Officials said Iran possesses blueprints for the construction of the advanced P2 gas centrifuge, which can enrich bomb-quality uranium in half the time of first-generation Pakistani-origin centrifuges. Iran has acknowledged possessing hundreds of P1 machines at Natanz. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors is scheduled to meet March 8-10 in Vienna to discuss the issue. Thank you, Pakistan, for accelerating the crisis, which will result in Teheran becoming a radioactive smoking hole, which will make Bam look like a free introductory offer. Jeeze! I cannot believe the Black Turbans.
U.S. officials and analysts have assessed that the Iranian nuclear facilities the IAEA inspected are part of an infrastructure designed to produce up to 30 nuclear weapons annually. I hope that the planning for MOABS and larger to break up hardened underground blast-hardened rooms is in full swing.
The Iranian nuclear infrastructure includes both open and closed facilities, such as the Bushehr nuclear reactor, the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, the Kalaye facility and the Arak heavy water plant. Despite Iranâs pledge to the IAEA, Teheran has continued to conceal its nuclear weapons program, including designs for the enrichment of uranium as well as experiments with polonium, an element that facilitates the chain reaction that produces a nuclear explosion, officials said. Polonium will go as neutron initiators in the cores of plutonium bombs.
"Thereâs no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapons program," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said. Understatement of the week
"They have not been fully forthcoming with their arrangement with the IAEA and we need to continue our effort, along with our European friends, to gain compliance." Throwaway line for public consumption. What needs to be done is heavy duty.
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said: "The information that the IAEA has learned is certainly consistent with the information that we had, and itâs not surprising. Itâs another act of Iranian deception and not something that leads to any feeling of security, that they are carrying through on their commitment to suspend enrichment activity." Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said that prior to Iranâs suspension of uranium enrichment in November 2003, Teheran was conducting both single machine tests and small cascades with uranium hexafluoride at the pilot plant. Now 50K machines will be a big Hex operation.
Iran was assembling four-rotor machines similar to the P1 design, each with a capacity of roughly three separative work units [swu] per year, he said. Albright and Hinderstein, a senior researcher at the institute, said the pilot plant at Natanz could produce about 10 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium a year. This would be far less than the amount of enriched uranium required to provide fuel for all of the civilian power plants Iran intends to build over the next 20 years. "Alternatively, the same capacity could be used to produce roughly 500 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium annually," Albright and Hinderstein wrote. "At 15-20 kilograms per weapon, that would be enough for 25-30 nuclear weapons per year." Who needs nuclear power when you are up to the gunnels in oil AND gas. Iranâs estimated oil and gas reserves are 100 billion bbl and 26 billion cu meters, respectively. Saudis have about 261 billion bbl.
Albright said U.S. and other intelligence agencies knew of Pakistanâs contribution to Iranâs nuclear weapons program as early as a decade ago. But the agencies were hampered by a lack of knowledge of Iranâs nuclear program, particularly whether it was succeeding in procuring vital components. By the mid-1990s, Iran had succeeded in concealing its procurement of critical centrifuge components from U.S. intelligence agencies. Albright said U.S. intelligence estimates regarding the time Iran needed to build a pilot centrifuge plant proved to be reasonably accurate. "After the mid-1990s, according to former senior U.S. government officials, U.S. intelligence agencies learned little concrete about Iranâs centrifuge progress," Albright said. "As a result, there was little concerted action until 2002 to stop Iranâs secret centrifuge program or demand far more intrusive IAEA inspections in Iran. From 1995 until 2002, Iran moved relatively freely and secretly toward building a domestic centrifuge industry that could enrich significant quantities of uranium." Showtime is coming up soon, at the latest, end of 2004 if we are lucky. I have no appetite for popcorn.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 5:43:11 PM ||
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I'm sure President Kerry will.... umm....ahhh....hmmmmmm....
#2
The Black Turbans think that their ownership of a bunch of nukes will bring them respect in the eyes of the world, and will instill fear to their enemies, but this is just a high speed death wish for the people of Iran. This is just madness!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 18:07 Comments ||
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#3
After the mid-1990s, according to former senior U.S. government officials, U.S. intelligence agencies learned little concrete about Iranâs centrifuge progress," Albright said.
Yea - Ms. FuckingAlrbright - you and your boss were either aslep at the wheel or just don't care about Amercian security. I believe the latter - since clinton would rather pay tribute (ala the nkor nuke accords) than take decisive action.
Posted by: Dan ||
02/25/2004 19:09 Comments ||
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Nuclear weapons in the hands of mad mullahs doesn't bear thinking about. Someone has to stop them and I anticipate Israel will do the stopping. Wonder if they can wait until after the November election?
#5
phil_b---I am concerned that we or Israel cannot wait. The mullahs, IMHO, are pushing the timetable forward, or at least as fast as they can, in order to get something before the elections. They figure that GW does not want to launch anything until after the election, so they figure that our hands are tied for now. Kandidate Kerry is playing right into their hands.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 20:31 Comments ||
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#6
AP, strong post. Thanks.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2004 20:55 Comments ||
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EFL:
Iran said Wednesday it had told the United Nations enough about its nuclear program and had no obligation to say more, rebuffing calls for it to be more open and dispel suspicions it is building a nuclear bomb. "Iran has given enough answers to the agencyâs questions," Hassan Rohani, head of Supreme National Security Council and Iranâs chief nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA. I think thatâs answered all our questions.
Tuesday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had continued to hide from it technology and research that could be linked to a weapons program -- despite its declaration in October that it had no more secrets to divulge. "We have other research projects which he havenât announced to the agency and we donât think it is necessary to announce to the agency," Rohani said. The IRNA report gave no details on the kinds of projects he was referring to. We can guess.
Iranâs foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said in a statement sent to Reuters that outstanding IAEA concerns about Tehranâs nuclear program were "purely procedural" and did not undermine Iranâs denials that is pursuing atomic arms. "Nothing to see, move along, infidel!"
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday Tehranâs failure to disclose sensitive research in its October declaration was a "setback" and said he wanted to see "much more prompt" information coming from the Islamic republic. "I hope this will be the last time any aspect of the program has not been declared to us," ElBaradei said during a flight from the Libyan capital Tripoli to Rome. Thanks for nothing, El. Weâll take it from here.
However, he praised Iranâs overall cooperation and its decision to suspend all activities related to the enrichment of uranium. Whatever...
The IAEA said Iran had failed to declare designs and parts for advanced "P2" centrifuges, which can produce material for nuclear weapons, as well as experiments with polonium-210, a substance that can help trigger a chain reaction in a bomb. Rohani took issue with ElBaradeiâs view of the P2 issue, saying Iran was not obliged to report the centrifuge research. "Hey, you ainât supposed to know about those."
On the subject of polonium, Asefi said the issue had been misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. "What was published about an unfinished research work 13 years ago about polonium is only a misunderstanding which will be solved soon." Oh, we understand. And youâre right about it being solved soon.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 4:48:26 PM ||
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#1
C'mon. Was there ever ANY doubt this day would come?
Bush: I wanna blow it up.
Sharon: No I wanna blow it up!
Bush: No, I'm gonna blow it up.
Sharon: Not if I get there first!
Bush and Sharon: Bwahahahahahahahaha
Apologies if this is a repeat. I looked but didn't see it. From the Beeb:
[Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau] is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who will verify Mr Bush's account of his military service in Alabama in the early 70s. Accusations have been made that Mr Bush used family connections to join the National Guard and that he spent the last two of his five years' service working on the political campaign of one of his father's friends in Alabama instead of military duties. His opponents have demanded evidence that he took part in training in those two years. On Trudeau's website, he specifies that the reward is for anyone who "personally witnessed George W Bush reporting for drills at the Dannelly Air National Guard Base between the months of May and November of 1972". In any case, though, Trudeau thinks it unlikely that anyone will come forward to claim the prize, which he says would actually be donated to a charity which supports US servicemen and women overseas. What?? What a lamer. Look, jack, you gonna offer a reward, offer a real reward. If the recipient wants to give it to a charity, that'll be up to them. Ah, but Garry ain't down with this voluntary charity nonsense:
"However, if the prize does jog someone's memory, I'll surrender the money with little regret. Thanks to Bush's tax cuts for people who don't need them, I'm flush and looking for a way to give back. Huh. You know, it is possible to donate all that nasty extra money back to the government. You don't have to keep it just because they foist it on you in tax cuts. Seriously, though, is this issue really that important? Maybe he should use the reward to find those war crimes Kerry made such hay on, back in the day.
#4
In any case, though, Trudeau thinks it unlikely that anyone will come forward to claim the prize,
Unless that information conforms to Trudeau's beliefs, of course...
Thanks to Bush's tax cuts for people who don't need them, I'm flush and looking for a way to give back.
Yup. I didn't need them, nor did any of my clients for whom I prepare tax reurns and can do the two year comparisons to illustrate the savings. I'll have them forward the difference to you, Mr. Trudeau...
I had some e-mail correspondence with this asshat back in the Compuserve days. His arrogance, then as now, is astounding.
#6
yeah so let's lynch all the rich people disclaimer: sarcasm
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/25/2004 19:34 Comments ||
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#7
George Walker Bush is a rich kid, and they don't generally fight America's wars.
George Walker Bush is a rich kid, and they don't generally fight America's fires. George Walker Bush is a rich kid, and they don't generally arrest America's drug dealers. George Walker Bush is a rich kid, and they don't generally collar America's rapists. George Walker Bush is a rich kid, and they don't generally take out America's serial killers.
By Anonymous's logic, this means that the fire or police departments should be for purely ornamental purposes - after all, if the rich don't have to do it, neither should working class stiffs. The rich don't have to do my job, so my job should involve sitting around doing nothing.
#9
Nice Idea for the 10k, but what kind of proof are they looking for? Does McClellan get to collect after he should them the py records? How bout that retired Col that ACTUALLY flew with Lt. Bush? Or that crew chief that remembers strapping Lt. Bush into his Jet? There is NOTHING left to prove! I offer the same amount 10k for ANYBODY with proof that Lt. Bush was AWOL. I want somebody who has knowledge of or partipated in the Article 32 hearing that HAD to occur for this charge. Hint it had to be at LEAST three people there. So get one of them to send me a statement that I can prove and I will send you a check. Don't try to bullshit me because I was inthe service and I know what PROOF is.
EFL:
Foreigners tried to flee Haiti on Wednesday, some guarded by U.S. Marines, as looting erupted in the capital and pressure mounted for international intervention in the 3-week-old uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Panic overtook the city, although there was no sign of the rebels who have overrun half of Haiti and are threatening Port-au-Prince. Regrouping, also most likely infiltrating forces around roadblocks.
President Bush said the United States is encouraging the international community to provide a strong "security presence" in Haiti as Washington and its allies work for a political solution. Opposition leaders asked the international community to help ensure a "timely and orderly" departure of Aristide. "Or weâll take the quick and messy route."
And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the "immediate" dispatch of an international civilian force to restore order in its former colony. "This force would be charged with assuring the restoration of public order and support actions in the field of the international community," de Villepin said in a statement that stopped short of calling for Aristideâs resignation. "As far as President Aristide is concerned, he bears grave responsibility for the current situation," de Villepin said. "Itâs his decision, itâs his responsibility. Every one sees that this is about opening a new page in the history of Haiti." When the French cut loose a dictator, you know the end is near.
France also said it wants human rights observers sent to Haiti and a "long term" engagement of international aid aimed at reconstructing its economy. More potential for graft, theyâll be on board for that.
Jamaicaâs U.N. Ambassador Stafford O. Neil said at the United Nations that it might be possible to dispatch a small "interposition force" to keep the rebels and Aristide supporters apart. You go first.
One U.N. diplomat noted the rebels can only come to Port-au-Prince by two roads, so placing such a force would be relatively easy and would buy time for a political solution. Unless they walk cross country and hit your roadblock from the rear.
Roads all over Port-au-Prince were blocked by dozens of flaming barricades, shops were shuttered and hotels were barred against looters. The roadblocks were intended to stop the rebels who began the uprising Feb. 5, but militants at the barricades also used guns and stones to stop cars and loot them of handbags, luggage and cell phones. Police did not intervene. They were too busy looting.
U.S. Marines, who arrived Monday, were to escort a convoy of U.N. personnel. The United Nations on Wednesday ordered all nonessential staff and family to leave. "Run away!"
"The situation is bad and itâs becoming worse," said Francoise Gruloos-Ackermans, UNICEF coordinator for Haiti. Britain and Australia have urged their citizens to get out of Haiti, following similar warnings from the United States, France and Mexico. There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, 20,000 of them Americans. 20,000???
Canada said a team of soldiers flew into Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to aid a possible evacuation of some 1,000 Canadians. They must be down to their last squad.
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints was evacuating the last of its 120 missionaries. If the Saints are leaving, it must be bad.
"It is absolutely necessary for the international community to accompany the country in its quest for a mechanism that will allow for a timely and orderly departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide," said a statement from the opposition Democratic Platform coalition. I think they want us to loan them a rope.
In Washington, the top U.S. envoy for the hemisphere, Roger Noriega, told legislators that if a political solution cannot be reached, "theyâll consider many things, theyâll consider a whole gamut of options, but they do not want to go in and simply prop up Aristide," according to Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt"
Bush reiterated that the U.S. Coast Guard will turn back any Haitian refugees trying to reach American shores. SEE: "Been there".
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 3:23:44 PM ||
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#1
Short and sweet.
I've never met a Haitian I didn't like.
I've never met a lazy Haitian.
Is it arrival of the fittest or is there something in the damn water?
1/3 to France, 1/3 to Louisiana, 1/3 to Quebec, 1/3 to New Zealand, 1/3 to Macao.
#2
At times like this, I'm wondering if Royal Caribbean cruises are still stopping at Labadee. Of course, they always tried to gloss over the fact that it was in Haiti. But you knew, if only because there weren't any fish in the water (it'd been all fished out). Nothing spookier than a pretty coral reef with *no* fish around...
#3
Shipman -- have you ever been to Haiti? The ones who made it out of Haiti are the ones with drive and ambition. The ones ruining Haiti are the ones that have no ambition beyond running the protection racket they call government.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 20:25 Comments ||
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#4
Can Canada's military even afford to fly to Hati....probably could ship UPS at a lower rate....
Posted by: Dan ||
02/25/2004 21:33 Comments ||
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Canada said a team of soldiers flew into Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to aid a possible evacuation of some 1,000 Canadians.
A Palestinian militant group accused American and Israeli groups Saturday of hacking into its Web site and destroying it. Islamic Jihad, which has carried out suicide bombings in Israel, said the unidentified groups had destroyed the site to silence "the Palestinian voice." In a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut, the group said: "In an attempt aimed at silencing the Palestinian voice - which speaks for the resistance and defends the Palestinian peopleâs right - hostile and malevolent Zionist and American quarters have struck the official Web site of Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement." The statement said it was trying to restore the Web site. It said this was not the first time its site had been attacked by unidentified "Zionist and American quarters." Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian group Hamas have been responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel. The two groups are on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations.
#1
Whomever silenced them did not do a good job! Also there should be a bounty paid for disrupting or curtailing web-based hate. Maybe Mr. Gates could part with some of his loot to help stop the spread of hate over the Internet? Or should we just blame it on Al Gore for inventing such a terrible medium to spread hate? Maybe they could partner up and fight the evil forces in cyber space?
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 15:26 Comments ||
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#3
LOL! Purrfekt!
Only someone who is fucked up enough to send suicide bombers to kill innocent civs would so twisted and simultaneously blissfully unaware to even dream of complaining about a website being hacked.
#4
I'm no computer techie, but I wonder if it would be possible to set them up with pop-up ads to Fatwa Sams and see how many of those dumb-asses actually try to purchase stuff.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 15:57 Comments ||
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#5
Of course, you know, this means war.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 15:58 Comments ||
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#6
If I could have my way, destruction of their web site would be the least of their worries.
Turkish prosecutors indicted 69 alleged al-Qaida militants suspected in last yearâs Istanbul suicide bombings, and warned Wednesday that Osama bin Ladenâs terror network regards this Muslim country as a legitimate target. Two of the suspects met with bin Laden in Afghanistan, NTV television reported, citing the 128-page indictment. Istanbul prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for five of the suspects, and sentences from 4 1/2 to 22 1/2 years for the remaining 64, the Anatolia news agency reported. All the suspects are Turks accused of belonging to a local cell of al-Qaida. A prosecutor briefed reporters from some Turkish media organizations on the indictment, which was expected to be released in the coming days. NTV, quoting from the indictment, said al-Qaida considered this predominantly Muslim but secular country to be a legitimate site for terror attacks because it is not sufficiently Islamic. Radical Muslim groups in Turkey often criticize the governmentâs ties with Israel and the United States, accusing it of collaborating with "infidels." And we canât have that
The November attacks, by four suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks, killed 63 people and wounded about 700 others. The bombers struck two synagogues and, days later, a London-based bank and the British Consulate, killing British Consul-General Roger Short. The synagogue attacks took place during religious services, though most of the dead were Muslim Turks who happened to be at the site. Regrettable, but necessary. If the infidels hadnât been there, those muslims wouldnât have died.
According to the indictment, the militants initially planned to attack a sprawling air base used by U.S. forces in the southeastern town of Incirlik and an Israeli passenger ship during a port call to the Mediterranean resort of Alanya, NTV said. Intelligence officials have said the militants changed their targets after being stymied by high security at Incirlik. High security = targets that shoot back.
No trial date has been set for the 69 suspects, but their cases are expected to be heard soon. "Weâre working on writing the verdict right now. Soon as thatâs finished, weâll set a date for the trial."
Prosecutors demanded life sentences for Harun Ilhan, Adnan Ersoz, Fevzi Yitik, Osman Eken and Yusuf Polat, who are charged with "attempting to change Turkeyâs constitutional order through the use of force." The charge is similar to treason and was punishable by death until Turkey abolished that penalty in 2002 to help its bid for membership in the European Union. Pity.
The other suspects were charged with membership in an illegal group and abetting terrorists. An additional nine top suspects are at large and were not immediately charged, Anatolia reported. The nine - including suspected ringleaders Habip Aktas, Gurcan Bac and Azad Ekinci - are believed to be hiding abroad. Survey says - Iran.
NTV said prosecutors claim Aktas got permission for the attacks in a meeting with senior al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Mohammed al-Masri, wanted in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. Large truck bombs on soft targets are his trademark.
Ersoz and another indicted suspect, Baki Yigit, allegedly met with bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan. This meeting was several years ago.
Some of the suspects received military training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to NTV. Anatolia, citing the indictment, said Aktas gave the order for the attacks, which were allegedly financed by al-Qaida members in Europe and Iran. The name Iran keeps popping up, doesnât it.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 2:51:51 PM ||
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Iraqâs electrical system could be producing as much as 12,000 megawatts of power by the end of this year, the electricity minister said Wednesday. Speaking at the opening of the Beiji Mobile Power Plant just north of Tikrit, Ayham al-Sammarae said the new plant, which went online Wednesday, will supply 184 megawatts of power to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineersâ ongoing Restore Iraqi Electricity program. "Hopefully weâll be able to reach 12,000 megawatts by the end of the year," he told electrical workers, U.S. engineers and soldiers. As opposed to less than 3,000 megawatts before the war, most of it diverted to Baghdad.
The power station, about 140 miles north of Baghdad, is made up of eight portable diesel-powered turbine generators and is expected to push overall electricity production for the national grid to 6,000 megawatts by the summer, al-Sammarae said. The reconstruction continues. Wonder how the Democrats will spin this one?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:56:26 PM ||
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#1
What I find amusing is how things that were once loudly trumpeted by the media as sure signs that the occupation of Iraq was going horribly wrong, are now being completely ignored as they are steadily fixed.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
02/25/2004 14:05 Comments ||
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#2
Steve, the Dems will spin this as "That's money that could have been used over here to improve our grids." I hate it, but that's what they will do.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 14:08 Comments ||
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#3
"Wonder how the Democrats will spin this one?"
Well Im a Dem, and Im pleased. Nyaah! As I hope you're pleased with the good job Brahimi of the UN is doing. Winning is more important than who gets the credit.
That said, this puts me in mind of the saying by Tolstoy, all happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The point being that a happy family has to be compatible and have things go right in a wide variety of areas - while an unhappy family only has to have ONE distinctive thing wrong.
There are numerous metrics of occupation and all (or at least many) have to go right for the occupation to be successful. While i am optimistic, I wouldnt be surprised that people in the US arent jumping for joy over the electricity figures - we'll wait for it to be translated into lower US casualties (starting to happen,but slowly) lower casualties among friendly Iraqis (not happening yet) and resolution of the political issues in Iraq (not quantifiable, depends on your point of view)
#5
I just hope they can get it to be up reliably 24/7 before summer rolls in. If the malcontents have A/C, they're not going to be outside in the heat. If they don't, then they'll be outside ranting and raving for every damn Al Jizz and Beeb reporter they can find.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 14:34 Comments ||
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#6
You bastard! You posted good news about our war in Iraq!!
How can JFK jerk off about how badly 'managed' the war is now?? Dja ever think of that??
#7
the occupation can be badly managed, and still end successfully. Some of us have beleived from the beginning that the people of Iraq badly want a democracy, and are a competent hardworking people - thats WHY we supported the war - their desire for democracy, and their will to oppose the baathists and jihadis, may be enough to overcome incompetence in the admin conduct of the occupation. Or the admin may be competent in its conduct of the occupation. Success, while admittedly moving the issue to the back burner, doesnt prove the administration competent (and yes, failure would not necessarily prove the admin incompetent, although if even a competent occupation were to fail that would raise other issues)
They're DIESEL powered! They burn OIL! Burning OIL causes GLOBAL WARMING! BUSH is DESTROYING the clean Iraqi air!
There, that sounds about right, doesn't it, muck?
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 15:57 Comments ||
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#9
It's all about Diesel!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spins my turban turbine......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 16:01 Comments ||
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#10
Now if only they can increase their output of crude oil, and stem the latest tide of rising gasoline prices.... &%!@$#*...
#11
infidel pigs--all your generators are belong to us
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/25/2004 17:04 Comments ||
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#12
LH, hee-hee, I knew you'd respond :-)
I don't mind the job Brahimi is doing; I'm glad to see that one part of the U.N. is actually functional.
Love the Tolstoy quote :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 19:33 Comments ||
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#13
But these are lower-paying watts. All the high-paying watts have been exported. Plus, we have not recovered the 3 gigawatt-hours that have been lost during Bush's tenure.
Via Oxblog. EFL.
[Britainâs] home secretary will announce plans to recruit another 1,000 staff in parliament next week, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott confirmed on Sunday. It will take several years to find and vet the staff, principally to carry out surveillance and intelligence work. Previously focused largely on Cold War and IRA suspects, the move highlights MI5âs shift to recruit many more Arabic speakers and focus on the threat from al-Qaeda. The increase will bring MI5 back up to World War II staffing levels. The agency believes there are thousands of young people moving in and out of Britain with links to groups close to the terrorist network.
MI5 has been criticised in the past for failing to penetrate radical Islamic groups. "I think an awful lot of our spies might speak Russian but they are not so much for Arabic," Mr Prescott told the BBCâs Breakfast with Frost programme. "What we have got now is a readjusting to a whole different circumstance." Lots of interesting info at the link
#1
With this well-publicized campaign ("I know, M, let's troll for foreign agents in the Fleet Street rags!") the only likely penetration that will occur will be much nearer to home, methinks.
#2
Well they know where to find me. Always have, ever since that bad SandHurst year. Don't worry the tooth transmitter it isn't all that painful. Tell HalfEmpty I'll leave his bong at Smitty's, it was just a joke and I didn't know the effect it would have on him. cao, cciao! ciao! CHOW! We Gone!
Posted by: Napoleon VII ||
02/25/2004 17:12 Comments ||
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Check out this shopping network. What more could a jihadi ask for?
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 1:23:39 PM ||
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That "Camel and Wife" package is very tempting. If I could just find a coupon...
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 13:33 Comments ||
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#2
I can't afford that either. I'm gonna have to go with inflatable Palestinian Sex Doll offered on the home page.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 13:45 Comments ||
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#3
LOL! I think I've seen Banah Bint-Nana somewhere before...
Great site - Thx for the link! Rest assured it's on its way to mailboxes all over the globe. I wonder if the site's been around long enough to be blocked, heh, by the Saudi Ministry of Science and Technology's filters...
Right Wing News emailed more than a 160 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a list of who they considered to be the "Dinner Guests From Hell". Representatives from the following 54 blogs responded...
Abode Of Amritas, Absinthe & Cookies, Annikaâs Journal And Poetry, Betsyâs Page, Capitalist Lion, Cavalierâs Guardian Watchblog, Cobb, Cold Fury, Conservative Commentary, The Conspiracy To Keep You Poor & Stupid, Cornfield Commentary, Cox & Forkum, Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, Davids Medienkritik, Dissecting Leftism, Dodgeblogium, Ed Driscoll, Evil Pundit Of Doom!, Drumwasterâs Rants, Dumb Celebs, For The Sake Of Argument, Four Right Wing Wackos, Ghost of a Flea, The Greatest Jeneration, Gut Rumbles, Joyful Christian, Hoystory, Hudâs Blog-O-Rama, IMAO, Insults Unpunished, Jessicaâs Well, Jihad Watch, JunkYardBlog, North Georgia Dogma, Porphyrogenitus, QandO, Res Ipsa Loquitur, Right Thinking From The Left Coast, Right Wing News, Sasha Castel, Serenityâs Journal, Sgt. Hook, A Small Victory, The SmarterCop, The Spoons Experience, Stark Truth, Andrew Sullivanâs Daily Dish, Tacitus, Trying To Grok, Up Yours & Other Helpful Tips, The Ville, Whacking Day, The Yale Diva, Zogby Blog
All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-20 selections. Rank was determined simply by the number of votes received.
The bloggers were also told that their selections had to be currently living people from anywhere in the world that theyâd really dislike having to sit down with for a long 1 on 1 conversation over dinner. Furthermore, no dictators, terrorists, serial killers, or mass murderers could be selected.
Here are the selections that were made with the number of votes received following each choice in parentheses...
Honorable Mentions: Helen Thomas (5), Dan Rather (5), Rosie OâDonnell (5), Madonna (5), Dennis Kucinich (5), Bill OâReilly (6), Molly Ivins (6), Jane Fonda (6), Ann Coulter (6), Bill Clinton (6)
20) Al Sharpton (7)
20) Paul Krugman (7)
20) Alec Baldwin (7)
17) Michael Jackson (8)
17) Janeane Garofalo (8)
17) Robert Fisk (8)
14) Sean Penn (9)
14) Ralph Nader (9)
14) Terry McAuliffe (9)
11) Ted Rall (10)
11) John Kerry (10)
11) Jimmy Carter (10)
9) Jesse Jackson (11)
9) Howard Dean (11)
8) Ted Kennedy (15)
7) Noam Chomsky (16)
6) Al Gore (17)
5) Jacques Chirac (18)
3) Barbra Streisand (19)
3) Al Franken (19)
2) Hillary Clinton (25)
1) Michael Moore (41)
Not news, but I thought it was a fun read. I think we could add Moby to that list.
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 1:17:30 PM ||
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Weekly Standard of Feb 23/04 has got a sympathetic piece on Al Sharpton:
#4
.com, are you accusing me of being just another free spending gigolo from Boston? Ok, it's partly true. But I haven't lived in Boston--or married into money--in more than twenty years.
Read the WS piece and you'll get it. It's not the politics, it's the entertainment.
#5
CL - Oh I got it, CL, I was just funnin' ya - when someone says, "The Rev gotta eat" and the Rev in question is the one and only Big Al, well, I jes figured that would take some serious coin! If you're a gigolo, even only partially, heh, I'm jealous! Down 'n dirty serious! What a gig!
Ship - I agree - but does he know just how funny he is? Heh, he can have Haiti, too. Just imagine how much weight he'd lose if he spent a coupla years there... boggles, no? There's only one Al, but, apparently, many phools who donate money so he can live in hotels with Room Service... The end of the campaign trail must be one helluva let-down for the good Rev Al!
"Mutual of Omahaâs Wild Kingdom" meets "Trading Places". Hat tip: Drudge.
One visitor to Home Depot has been hunting for more than home improvement items. A Cooperâs hawk has been flying above the stocked shelves at a suburban Cleveland store for more than a week while feeding on pigeons that live in the rafters. The brown birdâs three-foot wing span casts a moving shadow across the concrete floor, causing customers and workers to duck and cock their heads toward the 25-foot ceiling. Time to break out the extra-large no-pest strips.
The hawk entered the store through an open door while chasing a pigeon last Saturday. It caught its prey above the electrical aisle, worker Craig Warth said. Witnesses saw the hawk rip the pigeon apart and feed until nothing was left but feathers and claws. "It wasnât a pretty sight," said Terry McGuire, assistant manager. "Some of the customers were upset. Some said it was the neatest thing they had ever seen." "Clean up on aisle 3!"
Workers said about 15 pigeons were living in the store, but since the hawk arrived, few are left. Cooperâs hawks are a protected species, so the bird canât be harmed or killed. Local wildlife experts say the hawk will likely leave when the pigeons are digested gone.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 1:12:35 PM ||
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#1
Not a bad approach to the problem of all those birds roosting in warehouse outlets like Home Depot et al.
Good for customer traffic I would reckon; anybody upset by a hawk making a kill in the lumber section really should be shopping at Linens 'n' Things, anyway.
Locally, we have a bazillion sparrows, not any pigeons that I have noticed. I doubt any self-respecting hawk would be interested in them, however.
My rule of thumb is to never buy anything from the upper shelves...
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
02/25/2004 13:36 Comments ||
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#2
Next time you shop at HD, check out where the birds are all hanging out...in the bird food aisle, of course!
#5
haha not funny. we dont save either and let them sort themself out with no human to disrupt. if it wasnt for people moving in on animals territory ther would no be this problem. its a sad day when hawks have to go homedepot to eat.
#8
I live three blocks west of the busiest street in Colorado Springs (Academy Boulevard). There's a red fox living about two streets to the west of me, in the junipers and the low branches of a fir in front of a person's house. That fox has been there for at LEAST five years that I know of. Squirrels abound, and I've rescued at least one sparrow hawk (ran into an electrical wire and broke a wing) and several smaller birds. Raccoons are a major nuisance in the city, and there's a small herd of mule deer in a city park about eight blocks to the north of us. My neighbor's a birdwatcher, and has a list of over 65 varieties seen in his yard alone, including one he hates - a large blue heron that raids his goldfish pond at least twice a year.
Most wild animals are perfectly capable of coexisting with man, even on man's terms. We shouldn't make a big fuss about it, as long as the wild things don't do any major harm. I can understand the people over in Manitou Springs getting a bit upset about the mountain lion eating dogs in that town, however...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 15:43 Comments ||
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#9
Re: #7 I was more worried about those hot dogs. They look... dubious.
WinterSoldier.com is dedicated to the American veterans of the Vietnam War, who served with courage and honor. And a place where history rises up and bites a junior Senator from Massachusetts in the ass.
On January 31, 1971, members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) met in a Detroit hotel to document war crimes that they had participated in or witnessed during their combat tours in Vietnam. During the next three days, more than 100 Vietnam veterans and 16 civilians gave anguished, emotional testimony describing hundreds of atrocities against innocent civilians in South Vietnam, including rape, arson, torture, murder, and the shelling or napalming of entire villages. The witnesses stated that these acts were being committed casually and routinely, under orders, as a matter of policy. In April, the VVAW stormed Washington in a week-long protest. At the height of it, spokeman John Kerry went before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to accuse the United States military of committing massive numbers of war crimes in Vietnam. The appearance launched Kerryâs political career. The charges he made shocked and sickened a nation, changed the course of a war and stained the reputation of the American military for decades. But the mass murder of civilians was never American policy in Vietnam. War crimes were the exception, not the rule. And the Winter Soldier tribunal itself -- which John Kerry had helped moderate -- turned out to be, in the words of historian Guenter Lewy, "packed with pretenders and liars." Massachusetts elected John Kerry to the U.S. Senate in 1984. Now he is seeking the most powerful job in the world. Kerry is going to hate AlGore for inventing the internet.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 12:30:55 PM ||
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EFL
"Give him another kick," film director Raoul Peck orders an actor playing a militiaman at a roadblock in a scene recreating Rwandaâs genocide. Urged on, a group of men give an horrific portrayal of attackers beating and hacking their victims with machetes, simulating slashing their Achilles tendons to prevent escape. "We donât waste bullets on cockroaches like this," says one of the actors, raising a club to bludgeon a man already on his knees. The scene being shot in the capital Kigali evokes some of the worst slaughter in Rwanda in 1994, when Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days. -snip-
"When itâs too near, people are still hiding from the truth or trying to hide the fact that people knew about it and did nothing to stop it," said Peck. "Ten years later, we have the tremendous chance to do a film that may stay as a witness and as a tool for others to explain what really happened here." For Peck, a Haitian-American, another motive for making a film about genocide is to show that what happened in Rwanda was driven more by politics and history than by ethnicity. (Cue the drum roll, please) And the verdict by the Hatian born American film director is....
"Belgiumâs racist policies during the colonial era are much to blame, he says, as is the Westâs failure to act once it became clear that genocide was underway. The West is totally implicated in what happened here," he said. "The United States, England and France were all pushing the U.N. to get out of Rwanda. Nobody has clean hands on this." The mystery is solved. Hutu extremists are exonerated. On to the next revisionist project.
I confess. I killed 'em all. Never liked them anyway...
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 12:11:49 PM ||
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No SH... as you know it was our Evil Zionist Masters who did it.
We had to have some way to test the Zionist Death Ray......
So, is anyone holding their breath until Hollywierd does a film about Saddam's Iraq, the mass graves, rape rooms, and rape squads? Anyone?
#2
I wonder on whon this Hatian-American intends to blame the current turmoil in his birthplace. I'll give you a hint - its not the Hatians.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 13:52 Comments ||
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#3
making a film about genocide is to show that what happened in Rwanda was driven more by politics and history than by ethnicity.
Sounds like a Oliver Stone Production, adapted from an original screenplay by Michael Moore.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 14:07 Comments ||
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#4
They were prolly Belgian Jooooos... with strong ties to the US... and Bush, let's not forget it's Bush's fault... somehow. Jooos & Bush. Yep, that's the ticket.
#6
1994? Let me think, who was President back then? Warren Harding, I think, or was it Nixon? Bush I, maybe?
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2004 16:12 Comments ||
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#7
actaully Belgium DID do a lot to accentuate Hutu - Tutsi hatred, including maintaining ethnic designations in identity docuements, and subjecting hutus to forced labor. Of course the Germans started the system, IIUC.
And the west did play a role in allowing the genocide to happen. Of course Frances role was far worse than the US - we simply failed to intervene - the French actively intervened to protect the genocidaires.
I'd think you guys wouldnt be so quick to defend US policy in Rwanda, since it was CLINTON's failure. And Maddy Albright's. Of course the GOP wasnt actively pushing for intervention either. (to the credit of Bob Dole, he was very sensitive to genocide issues,and pushed for intervention in Bosnia when both Dems and GOP were reluctant. Not sure what his stand on Rwanda was.)
So - westerners most directly implicated - Belgium, Germany, France. the entire axis fo weasels. Cant understand why you need to defend them. Criticizing them doesnt mean excusing the genocidaires, any more than attacking terrorist apologists means excusing terrorists.
#8
LH the only reason that Belgium colonized that region was to make sure that Haliburton was closed out of the deal and that Leopold would be able to build his dream hospital complex.
#9
In 1994 the French president was Francois Mitterrand. Before the genocide he had sponsored the future genociders because they kept Rwanda in the French orbit. After the genocide he sent the French Army, the Army whose uniform I had worn, to cover the retreat of the genociders. Had he had full powers the Army would have helped the genociders against the Tutsi insurgency. But he had to contend with a right wing prime minister. He is also quoted as having said "In those countries one genocide more or less doesn't matter".
The day he died I went to a shop who is near Place de la Bastille and I found it occuppied by 200,000 left wing people, mourning for the great man. Those bleeding heart left wingers ever so keen to cry upon the death of a Black or Arab provided he is killed by a Western country or Israel were mourning for Mitterrand the genocider. What a shame. What a rage.
#12
Rwanda was a United Nations (previously League of Nations) Trust Territory. Belgium was not the colonial power. It was the United Nations selected administrator. I expect the movie will make this clear.
#14
IIRC, Ruanda-Urundi (the Belgian colony's official name) was part of German East Africa, parcelled up and spread among Great Britain (Tanganyika), Portugal (Mozambique), and Belgium at the end of World War I, prior to the creation of the League of Nations. While the League of Nations (and later, the United Nations) may have been the official "grantor" of executive power, the decision was made long before.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 23:38 Comments ||
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Norfolk Southern revenues up
Norfolk Southern Corp., the No 4 U.S. railroad, keeps seeing higher cargo volumes as a rising U.S. economy buoys manufacturers and other shippers, the companyâs chief executive said on Friday. "Every indication is that the first quarter is going to be as strong a quarter for us as the fourth quarter was," Norfolk CEO David Goode said in an interview. "But, more importantly, for the economy, what that says to me is that you are seeing strength across practically every business group .... The economy is beginning to develop some strength." Norfolk Southern, whose lines thread through the eastern United States and Ontario, last month reported a 6 percent rise in fourth-quarter revenues. Quarterly profit before charges increased more than 30 percent. Goode, during an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of The Business Council organization of leading U.S. chief executives, declined to comment on Wall Street forecasts calling for the company to report first-quarter share profits of 30 cents. A year ago, Norfolkâs quarterly earnings were 22 cents a share. Other freight haulers have also reported increases in loads, with carriers tied to manufacturers coming out of a sector recession posting some of the best gains.
Union Pacific hiring up
Union Pacific Corp. expects to hire about 3,000 people this year, the high end of its 2004 hiring plan, because the economy is improving somewhat more than expected, a spokesman said Monday. In October, the railroad based in Omaha had said it planned to hire 2,000 to 3,000 workers in 2004, mostly to replace people who are retiring. "Everybody expected the economy would be a lot flatter than it turned out to be," spokesman John Bromley said. "The economyâs rebounded a little faster than we thought it would," so the railroadâs hiring should reach the 3,000 mark. Of the planned hires this year, Bromley said, 121 people will be added in North Platte, Neb., where the railroad has a major transfer point, and 15 at its rail operations in Council Bluffs. Most of the jobs will be entry-level train workers, including many conductors, with pay starting at about $40,000 a year. The other hirings will be spread across the railroadâs 22 other states, with concentrations in California, Minnesota, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado and Arkansas, Bromley said.
Freight traffic up
In spite of a small decline in carload freight, overall freight traffic on U.S. railroads was up during the week ended February 14 in comparison with the corresponding week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today. Total volume for the week was estimated at 29.0 billion ton-miles, up 1.4 percent from last year. Intermodal traffic continued to show strength with volume totaling 198,844 trailers or containers, up 6.1 percent from the comparable week last year. Container traffic registered a 2.3 percent gain, while trailer volume rose 17.6 percent from last year.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 11:27:43 AM ||
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Democrat: It is a lie. The Railroads are part of the vast Halliburton White House conspiracy..Lies I tell you lies.
#2
Traffic's up on the Live Oak, Perry & Gulf too. The Loping Gopher moved four boxcars from Foley to Mayo Junction and realized additional revenues of $92.48.
#5
I had to post this because railroads are generally a reactive business (reacting to cargo demands) and stats like ton-miles and carloads are not subject to Enron-like "artistic" accounting practices, so I think they're a good measure of real economic conditions.
That, and I just like trains. ;-)
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 18:19 Comments ||
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#6
That, and I just like trains. ;-)
There's a special waiting room for us, it's got nickel pinball machines. Ticket? Mr. Conductor I got a Life Pass!
#8
My brother was one of the yardmasters at the UP facility in north Houston before he was forced to retire last year due to a medical mistake that left him almost without a voice. He keeps me up to date on the UP, so I'm not surprised (Dad worked for the old Missouri Pacific - trains are in our blood). They've also planned to spend almost $3 BILLION to upgrade facilities at some 200 different locations - an indication they expect business to grow even more. It's going to be really, really hard for the Democrats to explain a 4+% growth rate for the next couple of quarters as being "an economic disaster".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 23:51 Comments ||
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The best comedy is based on the truth:
According to the Democrats, John Kerry was a natural jungle fighter. He was usually spotted along the Mekong, leaping ashore from his frail craft, clad only in a colourful bandanna and a loincloth, trailing belts of ammunition, firing two M50 machine guns from each athletic hip. Although repeatedly wounded, he carried his men to safety on his back, along with his boat. When his broad chest could no longer accommodate any more medals, he reluctantly limped home, there selflessly to alert Congress to the problems of the Vietnam War.
President George W. Bush, on the other hand, skulked in the safety of the Texas National Guard, until the day he slipped into womenâs clothing and deserted to Alabama, presumably in search of moonshine. Of his way with livestock in Alabama in 1972, the Democrats refuse to speculate. To describe the president as an alcoholic, transvestite hog-fancier would be to lower the tone of the election to that of their opponents. Also Bush never flew that plane onto the aircraft carrier, and he had several pairs of pantiehose stuffed down the crotch of that flight suit anyway.
According to the Republicans, Kerry only carried his men on his back in Vietnam as human shields. His "wounds" may have been obtained by slamming his thumb in a car door. Once safely back in America as an admiralâs "friend", he betrayed his former comrades by denouncing them to Congress as war criminals. Of his three in a bed relationship with the traitor Hanoi Jane Fonda, and the rumours of their "love child", the Republicans refuse to speculate, lest the election get down to the lesbian baked bean wrestling level of their opponents.
President Bush, however, served with distinction in the Texas National Guard Air Force. He appreciated immediately that with so many men like Kerry loitering overseas, attempting to blow their thumbs off with car doors, Americaâs borders were virtually undefended. To suggest that the president was at all times "out of danger" is risible. His critics are invited to try flying an F-102 upside down along the Mexican border with tequila bottles rattling around the cockpit. It is noteworthy that during President Bushâs tour of duty, the Mexican invasion of the United States did not take place. Indeed, the Mexicans withdrew their fighting forces, and the entire civilian population, from any area over which President Bushâs Starfighter might have weaved. President Bush was subsequently involved in significant undercover work in Alabama, possibly to prepare a rear defence zone against any Mexican incursion. He did so fly that plane and there was nothing down his pants but a letter from his loving and only wife (unlike some folk). A long letter. He goes on to discuss first names, hair and toasters.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 11:18:57 AM ||
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Not "Starfighter", "Delta Dagger", unless Bush also played with F-104s...
- Mr. Anal Retentive
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
02/25/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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Mr. Anal Retentive
Me too. I can't count the number of times I wanted to scream at the director when they cut between scenes in a movie and the model of the aircraft being featured changes depending on camera angle.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 12:38 Comments ||
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#3
the model of the aircraft being featured changes depending on camera angle.
The worst case I think I ever saw was when a Navy F-11 became an Air Force F-4. Can't remember the movie, but that was a farce! There was a film made about the Flying Tigers where a P-40 was shown in one scene strafing a ferry, and a Navy F8F pulled out of the dive - an aircraft that was NEVER used in China, and didn't exist until late 1944.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 23:56 Comments ||
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If anyone ever promises you the sun, the moon and the stars, just say âno thanksâ and tell them youâd rather have BPM 37093. Why? Because the heart of that burned-out star is a diamond that weighs in at a staggering 10 billion trillion carats. Never mind how much thatâs worth, just think of the lifetimes of bling you could mine from 2500 miles of diamond craters. :jawdrop:
âYou would need a jewellerâs loupe [magnifying glass] the size of the sun to grade this diamond,â said astronomer Travis Metcalfe, who led the team of American researchers who found the cosmic gem. Scientists have suspected for 40 years that the interior of a white dwarf, the hot core left in space after a star burns all its fuel and dies, is crystallised. But Star Wars fans know thatâŠ
âThe hunt for the crystal core of this white dwarf has been going on for decades but obtaining direct evidence only became possible recently,â said Michael Montgomery, the co-author of the paper announcing the discovery. By measuring pulsations from the dead star, scientists were able to study its interior in much the same way as geologists study the Earthâs core with seismographic data. The carbon core of BMP 37093, the scientists figured, had solidified into a giant diamond. Apart from the fact it canât be gift-wrapped, the gem presents another problem â it is 50 light years away in the constellation Centaurus. Thatâs around six trillion miles every year for 50 years. Amazingly, because it is burned out, this diamond does not sparkle at night. It is not even visible to the human eye. But this burned-out husk completely outshines the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa, the centrepiece of the British crown jewels. The gem was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a 3100-carat stone. Itâs my Precioussss!
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/25/2004 11:10:46 AM ||
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Think of the Death Ray you could build with a 10 billion trillion carat diamond!
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 11:25 Comments ||
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#3
Here it comes, the claim that the mouse-people have WMDs and al-Qaeda ties. They'll fight a war for diamonds and finish making America a dictatorsjip and I'll never get my bong back.
#4
It's Bush's fault. He knew all along that that star was there and could bring us incredible wealth and rescue us from our spending ways...But noooooooo he has to do something stupid like defend the USA and waste all that valuable time.
Go Dubya.
#5
By the way, there are billions of tons of booze in the Great Nebula in Orion. So we can keep our diamond miners all liquered up. Space is sounding more like the roaring twenties than Star Trek.
Posted by: David ||
02/25/2004 12:37 Comments ||
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#6
Smoove B promises to put that diamond on a ring for the girl he just screwed around on. If she does not find it suitable, he will search the cosmos for the burned-out star diamond which pleases her.
There will also be an assortment of dark chocolates. Aw girl.
#7
I'd like to see if they can find one of these rocks in a binary system with an active and bright partner.... might be something to see. Come to think of it a diamond lens might explain a few of the weirder variable stars.
#9
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of Diamonds? Diamonds are valuable because they are rare, but if we have a Diamond bigger than the planet, won't dirt be more valuable? Canada would become richer than us!
On the bright side, we won't have to wait 1,000 years before making a Death Star.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/25/2004 15:13 Comments ||
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#10
I'm thinking that's what Debeers' space program would be, actually.
#11
Hmmmmmmm... I noticed the article didn't give the gravity of that little gem. I'd suspect it's somewhere around 82 to 125 times that of Earth. If you weighed 200 pounds, you'd weigh a ton at 10 times the force of gravity - consider what you'd weigh at 100 times! I doubt DeBeers has to worry about anybody mining that rock any time soon.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 15:50 Comments ||
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#12
"I didn't forget your birthday at all, honey. There's your diamond up there. The largest one there is. Look, you can see it through this telescope. And you never have to worry about anyone stealing it."
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
02/25/2004 16:13 Comments ||
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#13
Why can't they find an oil planet for chainney to colonise?
Posted by: Napoleon VII ||
02/25/2004 16:31 Comments ||
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#14
So Lucy really was in the sky with diamonds.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 18:38 Comments ||
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#15
B- At least until she died of intoxication from the Great Nebula's lovely donation of booze. (Roar, twenties. Roar!)
Posted by: Miss Gunn ||
02/25/2004 18:57 Comments ||
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#16
Apparently it may not be very pure, it could be about 50% O, 50% C, according to these spoilsports. NS claims the solid core's mass is about 90% the mas of the Sun (0.9*1.989E30kg) & aunty beeb claim the core's diameter may be ~ 2000 km, IF they're right (& any info from the beeb's science & tech pages need to be taken with large doses on NaCl then it's gravity'll be about 3 million times that on Earth's surface. As has been said already, DeBeers don't need to worry yet.
Posted by: Dave ||
02/25/2004 19:04 Comments ||
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#17
Wonder if we'll see some Martian trying to shove this thing up his ass to smuggle it out of the solar system?
#18
Charles> Diamond is the hardest material known, I believe. That's a use that gives value to diamond besides their rarity.
In Arthur Clarke's "Space Odyssey: 2010", Jupiter is turned into a sun, and Jupiter's diamond core explodes outwards, IIRC. The pieces are then taken by humans and used to construct a space elevator, which would indeed required the hardest material known to man.
Current ideas for such space elevators try to find a substitute, like nanotubes: More Info here
From JP, EFL:
US Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, described Israelâs construction of a security barrier as a "legitimate act of self defense" after Sundayâs suicide bombing in Jerusalem, changing clarifying a position he took in October when he told an Arab American audience, "We donât need another barrier to peace." -flip-
"It is ironic that this act of terror takes place on the eve of consideration by the International Court of Justice of Israelâs security fence. The court does not have and should not accept jurisdiction over this case," Kerry said in a statement released by his campaign Monday. Today heâs against the ICJ, tomorrow, who knows?
"Israelâs security fence is a legitimate act of self defense," he added. "No nation can stand by while its children are blown up at pizza parlors and on buses. While President [George W.] Bush is rightly discussing with Israel the exact route of the fence to minimize the hardship it causes innocent Palestinians, Israel has a right and a duty to defend its citizens. The fence only exists in response to the wave of terror attacks against Israel." Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
It has been rare for Democratic candidates to issue statements on incidents like bombings in Israel over the past few months. Canât find a way to blame Bush, I guess.
Kerryâs statement, highlighting the justification for the fence, came a week before the crucial March 2 "Super Tuesday" primaries, which include New York with its high concentration of Democratic Jewish voters, some political observers noted. Yes, Iâm sure thatâs just a coincidence.
In his October speech to a conference held by the Arab American Institute in Michigan, Kerry stressed the fenceâs negative aspects. "I know how disheartened Palestinians are by the Israeli governmentâs decision to build the barrier off of the Green Line â cutting deep into Palestinian areas," Kerry said. "We donât need another barrier to peace. Provocative and counterproductive measures only harm Israelisâ security over the long term, increase the hardships to the Palestinian people, and make the process of negotiating an eventual settlement that much harder." Gee, itâs like he changes his position to fit the group of voters heâs talking to.
Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist in Washington, said he sees no contradiction.
"Kerryâs position is no different from Bushâs," he said. "The word âbarrierâ was not even in the lexicon back in October when we only talked about fences and walls. He was obviously talking about obstacles to peace, not physical fences. I donât see anything contradictory at all between then and now." "It all depends on what your definition of "barrier" is."
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 11:00:54 AM ||
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Ah and the peaceniks gather around his Lordship with wide open eyes, while his wife continues donating money to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq, demand open U.S. borders, provide the legal defense of suspected terrorists and promote the spread of Islamist ideology in the U.S.
Meanwhile in a hole in the Middle East the Imamas leap for joy for their saviour from the Infidel Devil Bush.
Yes Kerry-Fonda in 2004........what this country needs
#2
"Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist in Washington, said he sees no contradiction.
"Kerryâs position is no different from Bushâs," he said. "The word âbarrierâ was not even in the lexicon back in October when we only talked about fences and walls. He was obviously talking about obstacles to peace, not physical fences. I donât see anything contradictory at all between then and now." "
Does that guy think we're all morons or what? Only a lawyer would say something that ridiculous... this guy must have been one.
#3
On the fence about a fence - did Dr. Suess write this chapter?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 12:37 Comments ||
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#4
DPA -- Nah, that guy's right. The word "barrier" was added to the English language in November of last year. All previous usages have been struck by the ALA and NEA.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 13:27 Comments ||
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#5
Barrier has been in the language for a long time meaning both a literal obstacle and a metaphorical one. Yasser Arafat is a barrier to peace, and ive seen him as one since summer 2000. And i cant seem to recall a use of the word barrier to refer to the security fence in or before October 2003. So Rabinowitz may well be right. Of course that fails to answer WHAT Kerry war referring to as an obstacle in that speech - probably not Arafat, since it was before an arab audience. But he could have been referring to certain possible routes for the fence - whose route the Israeli govt has modified and is now looking at modifying further.
Kerry has yet to "sell" me on this set of issues, but if you think youve got a smoking gun here you're fooling yourselves.
#6
by the way, MickeyKaus, who highlights the above Kerry statement, says that even if the explanation of what Kerry says is correct then its still pandering to his audience (IE why not tell the arabs the fence is legitimate and tell the Jews the route is a barrier to peace?)
But Kaus also points out some other things - the recent Bush - Kerry dust up over military service and national security stands is distracting the media from the Edwards campaign, just before super Tuesday. The Bush support for the anti gay marriage amendment has the same effect. Could it be that the White House is afraid of Edwards, and WANTS to run againt Kerry???
#8
Well, the gay marriage amendment speech did suck all of the air out of the room, a la Clinton, so Kaus' suggestion has some merit. But my first thought was that Dubya is trying to cover his southern flank against an attack by Edwards either from the first or the second slot on the Democratic ticket. Very tough for Dubya to win without a solid South. But it's now very tough for Edwards to damage Bush in the South without coming out four-square in favor of the amendment.
Another explanation for the timing would be that Dubya had to do this at some point; and would rather take his lumps early in the compaign rather than late.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2004 15:46 Comments ||
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#9
As a southerner from North Carolina, I'd say Edwards is nothing but a low-life ambulance chasing pretty boy. He's scum. I wouldn't piss on his head if his face was on fire.
#10
As a southerner from North Carolina, I'd say Edwards is nothing but a low-life ambulance chasing pretty boy. He's scum. I wouldn't piss on his head if his face was on fire.
As another southerner from NC I second your opinion. Problem is he fooled us once and so could he the rest of the USA. See him as another Clinton - good talker with a pretty face but bad for the nation.
Posted by: AF Lady ||
02/25/2004 17:02 Comments ||
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#11
As a southerner from North Carolina, I'd say Edwards is nothing but a low-life ambulance chasing pretty boy. He's scum. I wouldn't piss on his head if his face was on fire.
I'd rather have 33% Breck Boy than JFK II. I don't recall Breckboy loving up to the Senator from SCUBA. I'm not worried tho because chainney will do the right thing. :)
#12
The latest press release from the Kerry camp, campaign speech #1025:
âIt isnât so much what is said, as it is what goes around comes around. There are many ways to give the impression that there are several different methods, or methodologies, if you will, to the thinking that there isnât much there.
As I have stated many times, and at least once, is that there OUGHT to be some form of review, rather than all out speculation that he-said, she-said ideology comes close to the target.
There is no way anybody can contradict me, when they know full well that the record states, undeniably and unambiguously, there have not been, nor have there ever been circumstances in which certain issues come to light, regardless of the fallout to those who pretend not to have any dog in this race.â
Kerry himself was not available for comment concerning his remarks.
#13
Steve Rabinowitz obviously didn't read Indy Media last August.
"EI, August 1- Israel's Separation Barrier, dubbed the 'Apartheid Wall' or 'Berlin Wall' by Palestinians, has increasingly attracted international media attention, largely due to the hard-to-ignore scale of the project." (God bless Google.)
I love it when figures just dance across the page. My accountant says he can do that, but I bet he will be green with envy when I show him how the "big boys" do it.
New Job for Kay. Let him investigate the U.N. Oil-for-Food scam.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
When David Kay recovers from his weapons hunt, thereâs another Iraq-related quest Iâd like to send him on. Itâs time a top intelligence team went scavenging for the real numbers on the United Nationsâ Oil-for-Food Program--that gigantic setup through which the U.N. from 1996 through 2003 supervised more than $100 billion worth of Saddam Husseinâs selling of oil and buying of goods. And, no, I am not talking about anything as exotic as the list of alleged bribe-takers from Saddam Hussein, published Jan. 25 by the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada, and now under investigation. I speak simply about the U.N.-supplied numbers on Oil-for-Foodâs operations. Over the past 18 months, I have periodically tried to get these figures to add up. I am starting to believe the words of an unusually forthright U.N. spokesman, who at one point told me, "They wonât."
Basic integrity in bookkeeping seems little enough to ask of the U.N., where officials defending Oil-for-Food have been insisting that it wasnât their fault if Saddam was corrupt. They just did the job of meticulously recording the deals now beset by graft allegations, approving the contracts, and making sure the necessary funds went in and out of the U.N.-held escrow accounts. Iâm sure there was some sort of logic to it. Though I have begun to wonder if maybe the same way the U.N. has its own arrangements for postal services and tax-exempt salaries, U.N. accounting has its own special system of arithmetic.
It all added up fairly neatly, of course, in the summary offered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, when the U.N. turned over the remnants of Oil-for-Food to the Coalition Provisional Authority in November. Oil-for-Food, said Mr. Annan, had presided over $65 billion worth of Saddamâs oil sales and in buying relief supplies had used "some $46 billion of Iraqi export earnings on behalf of the Iraqi people." (Keep your eye on those numbers.) In doing so, the U.N. secretariat had collected a 2.2% commission on the oil, which, even after a portion was refunded for relief operations, netted out to more than $1 billion for U.N. administrative overhead. The U.N. also collected a 0.8% commission to pay for weapons inspections in Iraq--including when Saddam shut them out between 1998 and 2002--which comes to another $520 million or so. The keen observer will see that this adds up to payouts of just under $48 billion from Saddamâs Oil-for-Food proceeds, which is about $17 billion less than what he took in. The difference is explained--near enough--by the $17.5 billion paid out of the same Oil-for-Food stream of Saddamâs oil revenues but dispensed, under another part of the U.N. Iraq program, by the U.N. Compensation Commission to victims of Saddamâs 1990 invasion of Kuwait. That gives us a grand total of $65 billion earned, and about $65 billion allocated for payments, all very tidy.
Except the U.N. Compensation Commission states on its Web site that oil sales under Oil-for-Food totaled not Mr. Annanâs $65 billion, but "more than US$70 billion"--a $5 billion discrepancy in U.N. figures. A phone call to the UNCC, based in Geneva, doesnât clear up much. A spokesman there says the oil total comes from the U.N. in New York, and adds, helpfully, "Maybe it was an approximate figure, just rounded up." OK, but in some quarters, if not at the U.N., $5 billion here or there is big money. Halliburton has been pilloried, and rightly so, over questions involving less than 1% of such amounts. One turns for explanation to the U.N. headquarters in New York, where a spokesman confirms that though the U.N. program ended last November, the former executive director of Oil-for-Food, Benon Sevan, is still on contract, still drawing a salary, but Mr. Sevanâs secretary explains he is "not giving interviews anymore." The spokesman, also still on salary, answers all requests for clarification with "I donât know," and "You have the Web site."
All right. The Web site brings us a U.N. update issued Nov. 21, 2003, when the U.N. turned over the program to the CPA, which tells us that $31 billion worth of supplies and equipment had been delivered to Iraq, with another $8.2 billion in the pipeline. That comes to $39.2 billion. Again, even if you add in, say, $2 billion for U.N. commissions, thatâs still about $5 billion short of the $46 billion Mr. Annan says was used for supplies--which might make sense if the program at the end had been swimming in loose cash, except that Mr. Sevan was lamenting toward the end that there was not enough money to fund all the supply contracts heâd already approved.
Returning to the U.N. Web site, nothing there discloses the amount of interest paid during the course of the program on the Oil-for-Food escrow accounts. That should have been substantial, because these U.N.-managed Iraq accounts in the final phases of the program held balances of about $12 billion. Or so weâve been told. I first got that number by phoning the U.N. back in September 2002. That was well before Mr. Sevan stopped giving interviews, and I spoke with Mr. Sevan himself. He told me the Oil-for-Food accounts at that point contained balances of about $20 billion. The next day, someone in his office revised that down to about $15 billion. Later that afternoon, someone in the U.N. controllerâs office revised that down to $9 billion. When I protested that these discrepancies were getting large, we ended up haggling over the phone for a while, and finally settled on an official total of about $12 billion in the Oil-for-Food accounts.
Iâm still not sure what to believe, however, given that the U.N. treasurer, Suzanne Bishopric, assured me at the same time, in September 2002, and again in early 2003, that the accounts had been diversified among "five or six" banks, and to date we have still heard mention of only one--a French bank, BNP Paribas. So, in some fit of arithmetic absent-mindedness, did Ms. Bishopric lose track of the number of banks, confusing one with five or six? Itâs a little hard to know whether oil sales were actually $65 billion or $70 billion, whether there were five or six banks or just one, whether at least that one bank, BNP, ever paid significant interest on balances that toward the end of the program totaled $20 billion or $15 billion or $9 billion or $12 billion, and whether humanitarian import contracts were funded to the tune of $39.2 billion or $46 billion. Mr. Annan assures us the program has been audited many times, even if it was done in confidence, in-house, backed up by member nations that may have had their own interests to consider, such as one of Saddamâs favorite trading partners, France.
If you want to get fancy, you can factor in the allegations that Saddam underbilled for oil and overpaid for goods via the U.N. contracts, in order to piggyback bribes and kickbacks atop the Oil-for-Food program. If true, then the two things we can bank on are that Saddam took in more than the U.N. reported, and the goods the Iraqi people received were worth less. Which brings us back to Mr. Kay, who in reference to Oil-for-Food noted recently that "a lot of people took part in what was clearly a scam." I start to wonder whether Mr. Kay, given full powers to investigate, might return to report that whatever the U.N. may be reporting, we still donât have a clue about the real numbers.
Posted by: tipper ||
02/25/2004 10:52:28 AM ||
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Interesting on the inflated goods import. If you read the Iraqi blogs, they mention that the dentist chairs they received under the program were 3 times the normal price, and were broken and didn't have the parts to repair them. Interestingly, the chairs came from Germany and China, bought by the UN and shipped to Iraq and paid for by oil. Just the tip of the iceburg I think...
In the northern zone of operations yesterday coalition forces detained Ayed Hameed Nouri (ph), a known associate of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, at the Niewan (ph) Hotel in central Mosul. A human tip led the unit to this hotel where he was apprehended without incident. Two days ago coalition forces conducted seven offensive operations in Mosul. All the targets were members of an organization known as the al-Rawfa al-Watani (ph) movement. Seventeen individuals were detained as a result of these raids, including two targets.
In the north central zone of operations, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces captured Shahab Al-Hawas. He is a suspected financier of coalition attacks and a cousin of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.
Two days ago, coalition forces supported an Iraqi police special combat unit raid on Nasir Mashur, a suspected murderer, who was captured without incident.
In the western zone of operations, coalition forces and Haswa police officers conducted a joint cordon-and-search to capture or kill members of a criminal gang that had been impersonating coalition forces while committing criminal activities. Eighteen enemy personnel, including the target individuals, were detained.
On the evening of 19 February, coalition forces received small-arms fire from a house in the Al-Jazeera area of Habbaniya, approximately 90 kilometers west of Baghdad. Coalition forces returned fire, resulting in one enemy killed in action. Inside the house, the unit discovered a large quantity of bomb-making materials, explosives and electronic components, pro-Saddam literature, pictures of Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi. The enemy killed has been identified as Abu Muhammed Hamza, an explosives expert and believed to be one of Zarqawiâs lieutenants.
Q: I was just wondering, there were some people captured in that raid as well. I was wondering what you could tell us about them.
Kimmitt: What I can tell you is that those personnel are providing information that are leading to further operations in the region.
The report that we received was that this was a group of civil affairs soldiers that were in fact conducting a different mission, handing out leaflets and such. Came to the door, knocked on the door. Hamza, for whatever reason, felt himself in danger, started firing on the soldiers, the soldiers returned fire, and in the process, lost his life. And it was in the subsequent follow-up on who this guy was, why would he be firing at soldiers, so on and so forth, that we somewhat discovered who he was and his associations.
Q: Iâm Lee from MBC TV, Korea. Yesterday in Kirkuk a car bombing occurred. From early in April, the Korean troops will deploy there. Whatâs your perspective on Kirkuk situation? Isnât it too dangerous for the Korean troops to manage?
Kimmitt: That will be a decision that has to be determined by the Korean military and by the Korean government in terms of what specific rules of engagement they are going to permit their soldiers to use and in what environment theyâre prepared to commit their soldiers. At present we have coalition soldiers operating in Kirkuk, operating through Kirkuk. And while the situation throughout the country is relatively stable, there will be times when there are individual acts of terrorism. There will be individual attacks on coalition forces.
The Korean forces have a large and long history of working side by side with the coalition. And if that is the choice of the Korean military and the decision of the Korean government to operate in that environment, we anticipate that those soldiers will perform quite well.
#1
In the western zone of operations, coalition forces and Haswa police officers conducted a joint cordon-and-search to capture or kill members of a criminal gang that had been impersonating coalition forces while committing criminal activities. Eighteen enemy personnel, including the target individuals, were detained.
Curious, that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 13:29 Comments ||
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An NYPD intelligence detective based in Israel was called back home so Police Commissioner Ray Kelly could honor him in a private promotion ceremony at Police Headquarters yesterday. Detective Mordecai Dzikansky, a 20-year-veteran now based in Tel Aviv, was promoted to detective first grade for his role in helping the NYPD combat terrorism. "Often at great personal risk, Detective Dzikansky has responded to incidents worldwide to improve the NYPDâs understanding of - and capacity to prevent - suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks," Kelly said. How does this work? Weâve got local law enforcement reps working globally? Isnât that mission creep?
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 10:52:06 AM ||
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It's not mission creep for the NYPD. New York is the (home) front line in the war on terror and his experience in Israel is very important. Boots on the ground, eyes and ears and all that.
#2
I remember reading that NYPD types were involved in raids in Pakland early in the WoT. The NYPD probably coordinates with the FBI more closely than the CIA does. Its anti-terrorism unit is almost a de facto Federal unit (I think it is funded by the Feds). And Rudy G. and former Commissioner Kerik have been advising on anti-terrorism and security matters in a number of countries (Kerik was in Iraq for months shortly after Saddam's fall). NYC (and therefore the NYPD) is on the front line in the WoT.
P.S. - I wonder if there are any donut shops in Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Tibor ||
02/25/2004 11:26 Comments ||
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If I were an islamofascist bad guy, the last people I'd want after me would be the NYPD . . . or the FDNY!
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani promises to be among the first people to walk through the doors of a building that needs to be cleaned of anthrax. Giulianiâs consulting firm is teaming up with the hazardous-waste cleanup company Sabre Technical Services to disinfect an anthrax-contaminated office building here. He then plans to use it as the headquarters for a new anti-terrorism venture called Bio-One. Giuliani said cleaning the building will be one more way to demonstrate resolve against terrorism. The arrival of anthrax in the mail at the American Media building was the first in a series of still-unsolved attacks in Washington, New York and elsewhere that killed five people. Bio-One hopes to complete the cleanup and move in by early next year. Brave stance against terrorism? Brash marketing ploy? Or both?
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 10:48:23 AM ||
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Couldn't we get someone like Michael Moore and his hollywood traitors do it 1st. Why take a chance on wasting a good man?
#2
Leadership often requires going first - this the name. When everybody was stirring the pot about the dangerous vaccine that was to be given to the military, Bush took his first.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 12:39 Comments ||
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Dataman1 we can't risk losing a National Conservative Treasure like MM.
The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of a Danish national from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for release to the government of Denmark. The decision to transfer or release a detainee is based on many factors, including whether the detainee is of further intelligence value to the United States and whether he poses a threat to the United States. The decision to transfer this detainee was made after extensive discussions between our two governments. It was based on assurances provided by the Government of Denmark that it will accept responsibility for its national and will take appropriate and specific steps to ensure that he will not pose a continued threat to the United States or the international community. We are satisfied they will do everything possible to ensure that the individual does not engage in terrorist activities. During the course of the War on Terrorism, the department expects that there will be other transfers or releases of detainees. Because of operational and security considerations, no further details can be provided.
EFL:
During a U.S. visit to discuss the use of biometric technology in the war against terror, German Interior Minister Otto Schily denied that his country knowingly passed on information on a Sep.11 hijacker to the CIA. The New York Times reported earlier Tuesday that German intelligence officials gave the CIA the above information on Marwan al-Shehhi in March 1999 and asked the Americans to track him. And, being the New York Times, they got it wrong.
The story, citing a senior German intelligence official, said that after the Germans passed on the information to the CIA, they did not hear form the Americans about the matter until after Sep. 11. "Your article was a little bit misleading," Schily told a small group of reporters including one of the authors of the New York Times article, Reuters reported. What a surprise!
The information was the earliest known clue the U.S. received about any of the hijackers and has now become a crucial element of an independent U.S. commissionâs investigation into Sep. 11, 2001. U.S. officials say al-Shehhi was the pilot who flew the second plane into the World Trade Center. A United Arab Emirates native, al-Shehhi moved to Germany in 1996 and became a key member of the al Qaeda Hamburg cell at the heart of the Sept. 11 plot. Mohammed Atta, one of the plot leaders, was his roommate. Schily added that the indication that German intelligence officials had made a link between the name and an upcoming attack "is not true. At that time we had no idea that (it) could be a thing like this (the Sept. 11 attacks)." The minister said that Germany gave the information on al-Shehhi to the U.S. as part of "routine" data exchanges, adding that authorities were unable to connect the rather common Arabic name "Marwan" to a family name. Itâs like trying to find "Buffy" in LA.
CIA director George Tennet (photo) also rejected suggestions that his agency had failed to act on the German tip. Speaking before an annual Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats on Tuesday, Tenet said, "In 1999 the Germans gave us a name -- Marwan, thatâs it, and a phone number. And we didnât sit on our hands." They checked the number, but it had been disconnected. Since they didnât have anything more than a first name, Iâm not sure what else they could have done.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 10:18:49 AM ||
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NYT got their mileage worth out of the lie, though. It's not like they are concerned about their reputation anymore. It worked to put the lie out there - so they went with it.
Face it...the USA is still full of morons who think that Gore would have won Floriduh, despite the fact that all reputable sources acknowledged he would have lost. But the parrots learned a new squawk, "selected, not elected" and they will repeat it until they die.
NYT slogan:
We get the lies out there for you!
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 10:48 Comments ||
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Retraction? What's that? We're the NYT! We don't do retractions, cuz, um, er, cuz we're the NYT!
AP's just noticing this? Geraldo was on top of it before they even knew who the dead guy was.
U.S. troops killed a key lieutenant to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant with suspected ties to al-Qaida, the military said Tuesday.
Oh, we're just talking about the deader some more...
Abu Mohammed Hamza, believed to have been a bombmaker for al-Zarqawi, was killed Thursday in Habaniyah after U.S. troops came under fire while distributing leaflets, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said. The troops returned fire, killing Hamza, he said.
Geraldo sez it was a unit of 3rd ACR and that Hamza shot one of our guys, hitting him in the face. Our guy blew Hamza away before retiring — alive, kicking, but with a massive toothache — from the field...
Kimmitt, the coalition deputy operations chief, said several people were arrested. He said troops searching the house where Hamza was killed found "a large quantity" of bomb-making materials and explosives, pro-Saddam Hussein literature and pictures of al-Zarqawi. Troops found a Jordanian passport on Hamza but were still trying to confirm his nationality, Kimmitt said.
Posted by: Geoffrey M. LaMear ||
02/25/2004 10:14:15 AM ||
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A few reactions:
1. Good shooting.
2. A "key lieutenant" is out amongst the cannon fodder, setting ambushes. Sounds like the bad guys are short on personnel.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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Mike:
Press reports indicated that Task Force 121 got him. Wasnt just a coincidence that he was there - the pamphlet stuff was probably some kind of cover for an op specifically designed to take this guy (and also Zarqawi?) out. Didnt quite work, and the guy started shooting, to save himself, or at least avoid being taken alive (he might have led us to Zarqawi) hopefully the others detained, and the info, whill help, even though the Hamza snuffed it.
I presume theres an intense hunt for Zarqawi right now.
EFL
North Korea has been offered compensation if it ends its nuclear weapons programme, on the first day of six-party talks on the crisis. South Korean delegate Lee Soo-hyuck said he outlined a three-step proposal to resolve the stand-off, offering "countermeasures" to reward the North. South Koreaâs proposal to end the impasse is believed to include three phases:
* Phase 1: North Korea states its readiness to dismantle its nuclear programmes, in return for which, the US states its readiness to provide security guarantees for North Korea Dont youi love how S. Korea makes commitments on our behalf?
* Phase 2: North Korea dismantles its nuclear programmes. This, once verified, earns North Korea energy aid and other rewards
* Phase 3: The resolution of all other issues and the improvement of relations
* Phase 4: N. Korea restarts their nuclear program for a new extortion crisis in 2010.
It was unclear whether the US, or any other party, endorsed the Southâs offer. As the meeting opened, the United Nations World Food Programme announced it had resumed food aid to millions of people in North Korea following last-minute emergency contributions.
Posted by: CrazyFool ||
02/25/2004 9:56:57 AM ||
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This reminds me of the Underpants Gnomes from South Park:
Step 1: Steal underpants
Step 3: Make lots of money!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 10:44 Comments ||
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The BBC website is running one of their "Have Your Say" pieces on the Nork Nuke Problem, and one of the comments from a UK reader is:
"The United States should show some backbone and prove to the world that they mean to rid the world of the threats posed by Rogue States in the possession of weapons of mass destruction. The US should issue North Korea with a simple choice. If they don't dismantle their nuclear weapons programmes, the US and its allies will declare war."
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/25/2004 11:38 Comments ||
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Laugh and cry, Matt. It's the only reasonable response.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 13:33 Comments ||
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It's not hard to picture the weenies at State drooling all over this... prolly planted it in the Skor's heads in the first place. The number of loonies determined to make certain Dear Leader never has to face the music is amazing. Mebbe it's time to put a total sea embargo in place - since airlift would be far too expensive, this would leave only the land route to Momma China available. We know who they shipped tech goodies to, now, so the intel value of tracking ships is pretty small. He's China's problem. Time to force them to deal with it by cutting off all other options we can. Just a thought.
#5
The number of loonies determined to make certain Dear Leader never has to face the music is amazing.
In light of the number of loonies who remain pissed that Saddam Hussein's rape squads have been shut down, it's not amazing at all. There's a certain mindset out there that appears to fall in love with third-world thugs, and he nastier they are, the better.
See also Guevara, Che and Castro, Fidel.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 15:08 Comments ||
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RC - Lol! Too true. Call me naive - or worse! 8^)
#7
Hey, if dismantle means dismantle, with the plutonium in safe hands and the uranium program taken apart Libyan-style, then I'm OK with this. There is a lot of @$$ to whoop around the world and only so much US military force.
That said, NK would only accept this offer under threat of regime change anyway.
Posted by: john bragg ||
02/25/2004 16:47 Comments ||
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(2004-02-24) -- In whatâs been billed as the official kickoff of his 2004 presidential re-election campaign, George W. Bush told the Republican Governorsâ Association last night that voters will have a "clear choice" in November.
"Itâs a choice between keeping the tax relief that is moving the economy forward, or putting the burden of higher taxes back on the American people," he said. "It is a choice between an America that leads the world with strength and confidence, or an America that is uncertain in the face of danger. The American people will decide between two visions of government: a government that encourages ownership and opportunity and responsibility, or a government that takes your money and makes your choices. I will set these alternatives squarely before the American people in a spirited campaign."
After hearing the presidentâs speech, Democrat frontrunner John Forbes Kerry said he was "still evaluating the alternatives offered by Mr. Bush and would come to a decision soon."
Mr. Kerry, who initially supported the presidentâs âNo Child Left Behindâ education plan, the use of force to overthrow Saddam Hussein and the USA Patriot Act, has become a critic of all three initiatives.
"If I continue to stand on my principles," said the Vietnam veteran war-protestor, "I will likely support President Bush for re-election until the second week of November."
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
02/25/2004 9:35:29 AM ||
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LOL.
Scott Ott's followers are also pretty good at ranting. Check out the comments to this story at the link. (Just remember to come home.)
An Indonesian court has sentenced an Islamic leader to three and a half years in prison for involvement in acts of terrorism. Abu Rusdan was found guilty of hiding one of the men who carried out the Bali bombing in 2002. Abu Rusdan was also believed to have been a caretaker leader of militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah. Caretaker leader? Does he just dust the furniture and make sure the grass is cut and the doors are locked at night?
The group has been blamed for attacks including the Bali bombing in 2002, but is not an illegal organisation.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 9:16:08 AM ||
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EFL - slightly dated (from the 13th), but relevant due to its description of a new naval concept for use in the 3rd world.
The piers at Norfolk Naval Station were filled Friday with trucks carrying food supplies and cranes hoisting ammo as a leaner battle group prepared to depart next week to support the war on terrorism. The seven-ship USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group, with about 6,300 sailors and Marines, is part of a new Navy strategy that focuses on more battle groups with fewer ships to create a more nimble force. This ESG, centered around the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship Wasp, is the second in the Navy but the first to deploy from the Atlantic Fleet. It sails Tuesday for a six-month cruise to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. "After the terrorist attacks on 9-11 ... the Navy senior leadership felt that there was a requirement to organize differently in order to provide a more responsive presence and a more flexible presence - as well as a more lethal presence," said Capt. Steven C. Joachim, commander of the Wasp ESG.
With the Cold War over and the Soviet Union no longer a threat, thereâs no longer a need for the Navyâs traditional large battle groups designed to fight big forces in deep water. "There are really not many forces that can strike at our Navy forces once weâre out on the open ocean," Joachim said. But the battlefield has shifted closer to shore, he said. Under the new strategy, aircraft carrier groups now have about half of the 10 to 12 ships they used to. And with the ESG, the fire power of two cruisers, a destroyer and an attack submarine has been added to the old Amphibious Ready Group of three amphibious ships that would transport Marines to hotspots.
The focus remains "those green guys that go ashore to do stuff" - the Marines, Joachim said. "We provide a whole lot of additional fire support for the Marines ashore with the Tomahawk missiles that the ships carry, with the naval gunfire," he said. A typical carrier is about 1,100 feet long and carries about 80 aircraft. The Wasp, an 844-foot-long primary landing ship, resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of about 1,100 sailors but also can carry about 1,900 Marines to be landed on hostile shores. Depending on its mission, the Wasp carries six AV-8B Harrier attack jets, 12 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, four CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters, three UH-1N Huey helicopters and four AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter gunships. In addition to the Wasp, the ESG consists of the Norfolk-based guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, amphibious transport ship USS Shreveport and guided missile destroyer USS McFaul; the guided missile cruiser USS Yorktown, based in Pascagoula, Miss.; the dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island, from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach; and the attack submarine USS Connecticut, based in Groton, Conn. "Having a submarine in the force is like having an invisible queen that you can materialize on the (chess) board any time, any place that you want," Joachim said.
Defense analyst Patrick Garrett said the ESG is an innovative effort by the Navy to increase the options available to the commander-in-chief in times of crisis, giving the Navy the ability to act quickly. "Itâs not exactly clear what you use this against," Garrett said. "It doesnât have the standing or presence of a carrier ... group. This is something you use to kick around Third World countries. Itâs not even clear that you would need it for that." Eventually, amphibious ships will form the core of 12 ESGs, matching the number of aircraft carrier strike groups. "By doing this weâre doubling our capacity to be places, to have a presence in the world," Woods said. "As the captain says, we have to get more bang for our buck." I think the strategy will work. The concept will be as succeful as the harriers are in gaining air superiority and in engaging in ground support. 8 harriers might be enough in some cases, but securing an airfield for significant numbers of warthogs and other planes would be advisable IMO.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 8:13:19 AM ||
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...Kinda interesting to look at the OOB here - Connecticut is one of the Seawolf class, probably the most advanced and capable SSN in the world, and Yorktown was at one time (not sure if she still is) rigged for SmartShip - where they took off a good-sized chunk of the crew and automated the heck out of her.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/25/2004 8:59 Comments ||
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#2
"Itâs not exactly clear what you use this against" Garrett said. "It doesnât have the standing or presence of a carrier ... group. This is something you use to kick around Third World countries. Itâs not even clear that you would need it for that."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement. But ...hey...build more of em!
#3
"It doesnât have the standing or presence of a carrier ... group. This is something you use to kick around Third World countries. Itâs not even clear that you would need it for that.
Come on Garret...of course that's what it's for and it's right for the job. Perfect for Horn of Africa ops. It frees up the big stuff to keep focused on Baby Assad and Li'l Kimmie.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/25/2004 14:56 Comments ||
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by Stephen Schwartz at Tech Central Station; EFL
An historic series of events is taking place in the largely-hidden world of Islam in America, and in a place many people would consider unlikely: Cleveland, Ohio. The incidents in question involve Imam Fawaz Damra, 41, a Palestinian-born religious officer of the Islamic Center of Cleveland -- described as the biggest mosque in Ohio. Damra was arrested for false statements on his citizenship application, where he failed to disclose his ties to Hamas, the Holy War Land Foundation, and other terror-supporting organizations.
Much of an unsavory nature about imam Damra had already been disclosed in the wake of September 11, 2001, when a video in which he threatened and insulted Jews was broadcast on television. They showed in on the 11-oâclock news on Channel 3. It was the usual descendants-of-apes-and-pigs, kill-them-all seethe-spew-spittle stuff you can get on the streets of the Gaza strip on any given Friday. (Youâd think the guy could at least come up with something original!)
But Damra then apologized for his remarks, and thereafter worked mightily to cultivate an image of moderation. Heâs the Slick Willie of imams, and he nearly pulled it off.
Jewish leaders nevertheless expressed shock to learn that the imam with whom they had engaged in extensive dialogue was charged with al-Qaida involvement. After seeing the video, my surprise meter was off-scale low when I heard about the al-Qaida ties.
The sincerity of the Cleveland Jewish leaders in seeking interfaith civility with the cityâs Muslims cannot be doubted. But even more interesting about the Damra case is that it has brought about a significant split within the Islamic Center. Here comes the good part.
Members of the mosqueâs board of trustees suspended Damra after the indictment was handed down. [It was sort of the least they could do from a PR/damage control perspective. Damra protested; lawyers were summoned; lawsuits were threatened; he was reinstated on a limited basis, yadda yadda yadda . . . .]
But to emphasize, the real story in Cleveland is less the exposure of an extremist imam, than the willingness of mosque congregants to stand up and call for his removal. Islam in America suffers from the domination of radical leaders, grouped in organizations I have called "the Wahhabi lobby" -- mainly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Authoritative sources in the Muslim community have long argued that up to 80 percent of the main mosques in America are controlled by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has been targeted for a tax investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as a probable recipient of funds from outside the U.S. -- i.e. from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. None of this is news to us Ranters, but go on . . .
ISNA and the mosques it controls work day and night to maintain ideological dominance over Muslims in America, in the interest of Wahhabism -- the official Saudi sect, which preaches hatred and violence against non-Wahhabi Muslims, who are the vast majority in the U.S. and in the Islamic global community or ummah, [and (2) everybody else]. A similar group, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) functions among Pakistani-American Muslims to enforce conformity to jihadist ideology. This does not mean 80 percent of Muslims in America are radicals. They are not. But even after September 11th, Muslims in America were reluctant to stand up and challenge the virtual dictatorship of the Islamist ideology. This was not because of sympathy for Wahhabism, but because of more complex sociological issues. Which are really not all that complex.
Immigrant Muslims come to America to escape Islamist radicalism, and are shocked and intimidated to discover the extent of extremist influence in their community. Most of them would never have believed, in the countries from which they came, that the American authorities would permit an Islamist conspiracy to take control of their faith on our shores. Further, they are naturally concerned that if they openly oppose extremist influence, their relatives in their countries of origin, as well as their families right here, will suffer threats and worse, since it is not unheard of for dissident Muslims in America be killed. Wahabbis are control freaks, in other words.
But the two-and-a-half years since September 11th have begun to wear down the habits of submission and conformity that have been drilled into American Muslims. An understandable fear of government sanctions and a simple weariness with having the jihadist ideology on their backs has finally induced some Muslims to step forward. I recently obtained a letter from mosque congregants in Cleveland that plaintively, but eloquently, expressed the dilemma facing the local Muslims. The authors, whose names cannot be disclosed, wrote, "our community is being tested to its limit. May Allah help us all in this time of turmoil⊠In September of 2001 when issues surfaced with the media and Imam Damra, there was a great deal of dissent and upheaval about the retention of Imam Damra as the Imam of the Center⊠The Board decided to retain the Imam and as a result a great deal of tension and upheaval occurred within our Community⊠On Tuesday, January 13, 2004, Imam Damra was arrested at his home and indicted⊠After the presentation and discussion the joint Boards voted 10 to 4 to ask Imam Damra to take a voluntary paid leave of absence until his legal issues are resolved. Imam Damra rejected the decision and the Board was then forced to place Imam Damra on an involuntary paid leave of absence. The decision to ask the Imam to temporarily step down was a difficult one for the Board to take, and when it was defied we were left with no alternative but to seek legal recourse." Most Muslims came to America seeking economic opportunity, security, and a better education for their children. Most of them want the chance to become real Americans, to affirm their loyalty and to participate according to the rules that govern the country as a whole. They should be assured of that chance. Muslims in Cleveland have, by calling for the removal of Fawaz Damra, demonstrated that they have had enough of the politicization of their faith, and deserve the support of all Americans. What he said.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2004 6:34:46 AM ||
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Cleveland: 1,345,980th Most Holy Place in Islam.
#2
Immigrant Muslims come to America to escape Islamist radicalism, and are shocked and intimidated to discover the extent of extremist influence in their community
How friggin hard is it to create grass roots organizations that expose and remove the extremists?! Even "moderate" (i.e., unarmed) muslims don't seem to want to take action. They'd rather either stick their head in the sand or point fingers. All I saw/heard after 9/11 was 1. "there's no proof it was islamic" and/or 2. "the Jews did it."
Where the hell are activist muslims who will take back their so-called "religion of peace" (and why do they have to keep telling us it's a religion of peace? mebbe cuz no one would know if they didn't point it out?)
"Boards voted 10 to 4 to ask Imam Damra to take a voluntary paid leave of absence until his legal issues are resolved. Imam Damra rejected the decision and the Board was then forced to place Imam Damra on an involuntary paid leave of absence."snicker
"The decision to ask the Imam to temporarily step down was a difficult one for the Board to take, and when it was defied we were left with no alternative but to seek legal recourse"." Huh? Don't most board directors have to be elected and have bylaw provisions for removal?? What about a special election, etc?? I'd want to know who elects their board and what their bylaws say about removing one. Somebody can do it if they want to. Who is the somebody not doing it? I don't know for sure, but if they are a public corp, it's probably public record.
Before we become too critical of our Muslim neighbors- I've seen many a story of how difficult it is to get rid of a bad priest/pastor, because the congregation rallies around no matter how obvious the ugly truth.
"ISNA and the mosques it controls work day and night to maintain ideological dominance over Muslims in America, in the interest of Wahhabism -- the official Saudi sect, which preaches hatred and violence" That the congregation is upset with the direction set by their leaders really isn't so different than paralysis we see in the Catholic Churches/perverted priests or Epsicopalian/gay etc issues.
"Cleveland: 1,345,980th Most Holy Place in Islam."
Trust me, it is. Allah alone knows how many times I left Lakefront Stadium after a Browns game going, "Inshallah", and ululuating.
Aside to Mike : I noticed your post about Channel 3 - what part of town you from? I grew up south side, down in Slavic Village.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/25/2004 8:53 Comments ||
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Mr. K:
I'm originally from Youngstown ("Proud Home of Rep. James Trafficant and Ray 'Boom-Boom' Mancini!") and I now live in Medina County and work in Akron. We get Cleveland channels on the cable system, like 'em or not, which is why I was watching Channel 3.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/25/2004 10:39 Comments ||
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#6
Actually, if you get a chance, you should read Schwartz's book The Two Faces of Islam. He gives a pretty good look at the history of Islam and Wahhabism. He also has many good points to make out on how Wahhabism is spread, and what Muslims in other countries are doing to fight it. He points out the Sufis in Bosnia and Sarajevo as two prime examples of Muslims who spit back in the Wahhabis faces their ideologies. I've read Dore Gold's book also on the subject of Wahhabism and Suadi Arabia, and I do have to say I learned more from Schwartz. Just wondering, does anyone have any other suggestions for good reads on the subject?
Posted by: Lil Dhimmi ||
02/25/2004 10:45 Comments ||
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I'm always a little suspicious of Schwartz, though he is an excellent investigative reporter. He's like Friedman (sp?) When he's good he's very good...but when he's bad...
well ok...maybe Freidman was a bit harsh...but you know what I mean.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 10:51 Comments ||
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#8
I live in Chicago now but grew up in Cleveland. I was at Municipal Stadium for a few games but I usually didn't leave ululating -- more likely was muttering something that I made sure my mother couldn't quite understand.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 11:29 Comments ||
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#9
Sounds like the Board was under pressure by a large portion of the enslaved. That shows a willingness to support damra's views. Prolly more ashamed about his being caught then anything else.
BTW I was raised in a church that got rid of their pastor. Big church too. Turns out the reverend was a part owner of a used car lot. Figures. People started boycotting the church. Took about 60 days before the deacons were able to get him to hit the road.
Now there is a self evident truth. In conflict with their women, their countries, other countries, other religions, this world. Hell if a formation showed up on Mars photo that even resembled a Star of David or a cross, they'd figure out a plan to bomb it too. Pathetic lot.
A son of Osama bin Ladenâs top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been captured by Pakistani forces, one of Pakistanâs leading newspapers reported today. The Urdu-language Jang daily said Khalid al-Zawahri was arrested in an operation yesterday against al-Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous area bordering Afghanistan. The report, quoting diplomatic sources, said Khalid was handed over to US custody soon after the arrest and flown out of Pakistan. Military and government officials declined to confirm or deny the report.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 4:55:01 AM ||
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Hope it's true. Feel the pain Ayman.
Posted by: Mark ||
02/25/2004 6:22 Comments ||
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the rotten apple doesn't fall far from the rotten tree - maybe they are close to Binny (I've thought he was dead all along). Most encouraging part was giving him up to the US
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2004 7:00 Comments ||
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Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/25/2004 7:01 Comments ||
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#4
..Actually, I'm wondering if Khalid's being turned over isn't the Waziris' way of saying, "Here's somebody important, now PLEASE go away..." because we're getting close enough that they may have to turn over Someone Bigger to save their own hides.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/25/2004 9:07 Comments ||
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Pakistan is now saying nope, from AP: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat however, denied reports that bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, or al-Zawahri's son, Khalid, were among those captured. Pakistan put the region bordering Afghanistan under surveillance last year after receiving unconfirmed reports that al-Zawahri, had been spotted there, an intelligence official told the AP on condition of anonymity. Pakistan's largest circulation newspaper, the Daily Jang, quoted unidentified diplomats Wednesday as saying that al-Zawahri's son, Khalid, was included among the people who were captured. Pakistani government officials denied the report. "Neither al-Zawhari nor his son have been arrested," Hayyat said. "It is not true."
Of course, they've denied that they had someone before and later it turned out they did. We'll have to wait for a US statement after the fact.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 9:28 Comments ||
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"Pakistani government officials denied the report. "Neither al-Zawhari nor his son have been arrested," Hayyat said. "It is not true.""
Maybe this Pak official is just being Clintonian -- Khalid's actually been kidnapped, or detained, or snatched, or (as some Rantburgers like to say) jugged.
Posted by: Tibor ||
02/25/2004 15:07 Comments ||
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#7
I kind of favor "killed" myself. Humm, he didn't deny that.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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Canadaâs army, navy and air force are facing a funding shortfall of up to half a billion dollars, defence sources told the National Post, and the military is recommending drastic measures to make up the difference, including closing some of the largest bases in the country. Then again, Canadians might not notice.
The federal government is stalling the release of internal documents that outline the looming financial crisis, but military sources said the reports indicate that in the fiscal year beginning on April 1, the air force expects to be $150-million short of funds needed to fulfill its commitments, the navy will be $150-million shy of its needs and the army will be as much as $200-million short. The military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the reports foresee a situation so dire that they recommend curtailing operations, dry-docking ships and mothballing vehicles or aircraft and closing at least four Canadian Forces bases. Further, the air force report says that unless its fleet of ageing CC-130 Hercules transport planes is replaced or modernized, the main transport base at Trenton should be closed within 10 years. "There wonât be enough Hercs flying by then to justify keeping that base open," one air force source said. Iâm sure we have some in a boneyard in Arizona we could give them.
The navy predicts it will not be able to live up to treaty obligations to NATO and other alliances and cannot carry out enough patrols of Canadian waters to comply with agreements with other government departments such as Immigration Canada or Fisheries and Oceans. "We will not be able to meet our domestic defence obligations," one naval officer said. Open season for poaching salmon.
The army is said to be in the worst financial state of all three branches of the Canadian Forces. "Everyone knows that the armyâs broke and has been for a couple of years," said one military source familiar with the reports. Colonel Howard Marsh, a former senior army staff officer now working as an analyst for the Conference of Defence Associations, said he was not surprised by the size of the shortfall. "This is a look forward ... at what they need in order to keep the army going," he said. "Nobody has ever seen a bankrupt military in a developed country.... This year I predict we will see that in Canada." I remember a day when Canada punched above its weight.
Col. Marsh said the military is saddled with ageing bases and increasingly dilapidated buildings that are fast reaching the point of collapse. "What theyâve been doing, year in and year out ... is not replace or repair those buildings, or buy new equipment," he said. "The average age of the equipment in the Canadian Forces is over 20 years and it hasnât been well-maintained." The Liberal government reduced defence spending by 23% and cut the number of regular military personnel to approximately 60,000 from 80,000 between 1993 and 2000. There were 120,000 people in the Canadian military in 1958. In 2003, the defence budget was increased $800-million to $12.7-billion, the single largest increase since the Liberals came to power. But that still left the total below that of 1991, when the Mulroney Conservatives committed troops to the Gulf War and the defence budget stood at $12.8-billion. Major-General Terry Hearn, the chief of finance for the Canadian Forces, acknowledged the military has had "issues" with funding over the past four years. But he said the department is implementing a long-term plan to stabilize its finances. "Weâll become sustainable over the next couple of years," he said. "As long as weâre not invaded this year."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 2:15:33 AM ||
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This is what would have happened if Kerry had gotten his way all those years in the Senate. And he didn't always lose. This is what WILL happen if Kerry is elected.
He is a liberal. Given a choice, liberals will always cut the military to fund their nanny state programs. That's exactly what happened in Canada and what will happen to us...if Kerry and the Dems take power again.
Why? Seems like a white elephant for a country like Canada. After all, they have alliances with foreign countries that will defend them in the unlikely event that they're ever invaded.
#3
We might want to keep an even closer eye northward--our borders. Don't want to give the jihadis easy access.
A perfect example of what happens when liberals have their way--destroy their country from within and without.
Posted by: joe ||
02/25/2004 6:44 Comments ||
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#4
I remember a day when Canada punched above its weight.
They kept a mechanized brigade/mini division in Germany for years... now they have 9(?) battalions of infantry, much of it deployed.
#5
I remember getting in a discussion with a Canadian journalist in a bar in Washington a couple of years ago and asked him whether Canada was too undercapitalized to be a country anymore; he didn't disagree with me
#7
Here's an idea - why don't they stop admitting all of those immigrants and asylum seekers who promptly go on their public dole and use the resulting taxpayers money for the taxpayers??
This worries me - Canada's decline is a far greater threat to us than France's. They better take a good look in the mirror and see if they want to be the host for a staging ground of Jihad against the US.
#8
So when does the US take over the parts that want to join us? I have often read that the Western regions feel and think more like the US than the East.
Posted by: Jim K ||
02/25/2004 9:25 Comments ||
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Watch Canada closely, this is France's future if they can't get their GNP to grow and support their own nanny state programs. With a rising islamic radical population in their own boarders, France will become the europian afganistan in ten years if they can't pull their collective heads out of their collective asses.
#11
Not trying to fuel any fires,but the Canadian Government is in process of trying a national gun registry that's going to cost between 1-2 BILLION dollars(was originally estimated to cost@3 MILLION).Think that money could have been used elsewhere?
Posted by: Stephen ||
02/25/2004 14:49 Comments ||
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#12
Gee...if China wanted a nice, big, defenseless, resource-rich foothold in N. America, I bet I can think of one for them.
A notorious rebel Chechen warlord has claimed responsibility for blowing up a gas pipeline near Moscow and expressed concern over the explosion that tore through the capitalâs metro earlier this month. Moreover, Shamil Basayev said he is ready to dispatch ââspecial subdivisions to maintain law and order in the capitalââ. It seems that Mayor Luzhkovâs agreement is the only thing needed to have them officially registered in Moscow.
Basayev failed to justify the fears of Russian special services who had anticipated new terrorist attacks on the day of the 60th anniversary of the deportation of Chechens. Instead, Basayev reminded them of his existence in a more peaceful manner, by issuing a press statement. The statement reads that the Islamic group Riyadus-Saliihin, operating under his command, claims responsibility for carrying out ââa successful sabotage operationââ that resulted in the destruction of two gas pipelines and the blowing-up of a Moscow water-heating station. In his statement, published by rebel news agency Kavkaz Tsentr, Shamil Basayev maintains that ââaltogether 60 artillery shells were used in the sabotage operationââ. The attack was aimed at temporarily cutting off gas supplies to the Russian capital and disrupting the normal operation of its heating system.
However, the rebel leader laments, not only did the Russian authorities guilefully ââclassify all information about the action as secretââ, but in fact they disrupted the rebelsâ plans by redirecting gas intended for Belarus to the capital. ââThe statement by the Russian authorities that the reason for cutting off gas supplies to Belarus is its debt is nothing but a bluff. Gas supplies (at the height of the winter season!) to Kaliningrad, Poland and other regions have been cut as well. We are hereby refuting these statements as being false and not conforming to reality,ââ Basayev said. Furthermore, Basayev claimed, the entire act of sabotage near Moscow has been videotaped, and the footage will be forwarded to the media in the near future. The Russian authorities have so far ignored Basayevâs statements.
They are most probably investigating the incident that occurred on 18 February in the Ramenskoye district near Moscow. On that day, in the vicinity of the village of Starnikovo, experts found a crater under a pipeline and 10-mm holes in a 200-mm gas pipe. On the day after the incident Alexander Alexeyev, a senior police official with the regional police directorate told Gazeta.Ru that judging by the size of the crater, either two explosive devices of about 200 grams of TNT or a bucket of petrol blew up under the pipeline. An explosive device planted by unknown saboteurs under another pipe in the same area was discovered and defused by sappers before it detonated. Local police suggested that local teenagers, who had watched too many action movies, could have been to blame. No serious damage was inflicted to the gas network and all the capitalâs heating stations are operating normally, the city authorities said. Remarkably, in his statement, Shamil Basayev expressed concern about the latest events in Moscow, including the recent blast in the metro. He even expressed his willingness to dispatch special units to protect law and order in Moscow.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:12:06 AM ||
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One Federal Security Service (FSB) officer was killed and three slightly wounded in a Monday operation to capture the Chechen rebel group led by Khamzat Tazabayev in Ali-Yurt, Ingushetia. "The rebels offered armed resistance when they were being detained. In stubborn fighting, three rebels, including Tazabayev, were killed and one captured," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Tuesday. A secret depot containing arms, ammunition, explosives and fake documents was discovered at the scene. Four other members of the same group were killed two weeks ago and three wounded. According to the FSB, Tazabayev, born in Alkhan-Kala, Chechnya, in 1979, was close to field commander Shamil Basayev. He engaged in the planning and staging of acts of terrorism, including suicide bombings. He was involved in a bus explosion in Mozdok and two acts of terrorism in Moscow in 2003.
Hereâs some more from the Moscow Times:
A Chechen rebel suspected of masterminding a series of attacks in Moscow and southern Russia last year has been gunned down in Ingushetia, RIA Novosti reported. Khamzat Tazabayev, who is believed to be the right-hand man of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, was thought to be behind the double suicide bombing at Moscowâs Tushino rock festival, the suicide bombing of a bus near the military hospital in Mozdok and the attempted suicide bombing on Tverskaya, an FSB spokesman said. He was killed in a special operation conducted by Ingush FSB forces at the village of Ali-Yurt, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:09:34 AM ||
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In testimony for a Senate panel on Tuesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller said al-Qaida has a contingent of supporters within the United States and the organization recognizes the advantages of recruiting U.S. citizens. Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee that while the bulk of al-Qaidaâs supporters raise funds and recruit, those same people have apparently also been involved in operational planning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:06:40 AM ||
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#1
I'm sure the bastards have support in the US. Y'know what's glaring like a flashbulb? The moderate Muslim folks just roll along with it instead of yelling bloody murder about how they are not the ones doing this. Can't help but hold them all as suspect can one? Something has to give here.
#2
Please PLEEEEEZE set up an effective sting operation, pretending to be AQ recruiters!!! Draw them into a plot to attack the US domestically, and then arrest every last f***er!! Then parade them in the mother of all perp walks, close enough so we can spit on 'em.
#3
PlanetDan, I think that is what they are doing and how they snared that traitor in Ft Lewis a week or so ago. He did pass information along to agents posing as AQ.
And, perhaps the moderate muslim are helping out but are keeping a low profile to prevent their relitives back home from being killed. As I recall from a story I heard on the news (with the unreliability that implies) the person from Ft Lewis first went to a local mosque and then the authorities got involved. Perhaps the mosque called the authorities....
"We're on the road again,
Runnin' round and hidin',
On the road again..."
Osama bin Laden and his No. 2 man have moved out of Pakistan and are believed to have crossed the mountainous border back into Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials tell ABCNEWS.
"Mullins! Binny and Ayman have moved from Pakland to Afghanistan!"
"Right. I'll call ABCNEWS."
"Good man, Mullins!"
The intelligence reports come as Arabic television stations aired audiotapes purportedly made by bin Ladenâs top aide, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In one of the tapes, a man said to be Zawahri taunts President Bush and threatens new attacks on the United States.
"Arrr! We're gonna getchew!"
Zawahri and his boss, bin Laden, moved out of Pakistan as that countryâs army stepped up pressure on tribal leaders in the far western area of Waziristan, U.S. intelligence officials tell ABCNEWS. The homes of suspected al Qaeda sympathizers in that region have been set on fire and there have been numerous arrests. Officials tell ABCNEWS they believe the two al Qaeda leaders have slipped across the mountainous border and re-entered Afghanistan. U.S. troops lack the authority to hunt for bin Laden in Pakistan, but they are free to operate in Afghanistan.
So Binny's accomodating us...
Among the places now targeted for a major spring offensive is the Afghan province of Kunar, where some U.S. troops are already operating, officials say. Itâs about 200 miles from bin Ladenâs last suspected hiding place in Pakistan. U.S. forces are scanning the area with satellites and unmanned predator aircraft armed with hell-fire missiles. But winter cloud cover has made it difficult to keep a constant clear eye on the area, a situation not likely to improve for at least a month.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:03:39 AM ||
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I'd love to know how senior these unnamed "U.S. intelligence officials" are. It has always seemed odd to me that bin Laden hasn't tried to put as much distance between himself and Afghanistan as possible. How tight a noose can we put around an area that is even 100 square miles? It seems to me that a determined, smart, and careful person could find a way out. Anyone with experience have any thoughts?
#2
I don't know. Why didn't Saddam leave Iraq and go spend his ill-gotten gains on some carribean island where noone would recognize him?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
02/25/2004 2:28 Comments ||
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If this is true the f****** are running from the hammer and ending up on the anvil.
The rumours of bin hidings plight are getting awfully persistent.
Oh and sludj, one or two persons should (with some luck offcourse) be able to slip from an area of a 100 scuare clicks, if they are traveling with 50 "fanatical" bodyguards in tow (according to most of the reports) things get a bit dicier.
#4
Crikey! He was surrounded by the SAS in Pakistan at the weekend.. that's one supercharged donkey he's got. Conflicting accounts of his whereabouts are becoming numerous. Fingers crossed.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
02/25/2004 4:21 Comments ||
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#5
I think the USA is preparing some credible deniability for the possibility that we might grab these two characters inside Pakistan.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 8:39 Comments ||
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#6
it's getting pretty close to the election...maybe we already have them. :-)
Ya never know!!
#7
Be assured that before this latest operation is over, there will be several varying reports pertaining to the whereabouts of UBL et al. Some will be speculative and originate from local civilian or host nation government types. Others will come from the US/UK side of the coalition and will be in response to query --or-- and this is key...may be information planted deliberately by friendlies with the intention to deceive or confuse those being sought. This is one where we will have to wait and see what shakes out. However, this certain: following the two attempts on Musharraf, the Paks are much more motivated now to do more to bring this objective to completion. Funny what a little bit of explosives and automatic weapons fire near the boss will do to further alter his outlook on life. As for UBL traversing the vaunted 100 square mile area, never forget that -- large entourage or not -- he has the home field advantage here (in several ways). He has been and will remain difficult to locate and fix.
#8
I'm not holding my breath, but this does seem to fit the pattern of events leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein. For weeks, all we heard has "He was sighted in Tikrit. No, he's in Baghdad. US Forces have him surrounded. Nope, false alarm. Raid! Raid! Raid!" I don't think OBL is long for this world, but I'll wait and see.
#11
Asia Times Online has their usual wacked-out version of the hunt for Osama:
The war in eastern Afghanistan and the tribal areas in Pakistan is barely on, but the Pentagon's spinning machine is in high gear. Who will prevail: al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman "The Surgeon" al-Zawahiri, or Commando 121? The Pentagon's creative directors ruled that Commando 121, or Task Force 121, of General William Boykin - a self-described Islamophobe and a known Christian fanatic - was responsible for the capture of Saddam Hussein, when in fact the former dictator was arrested by Kurdish peshmerga (paramilitary) forces acting on a tip by one of his cousins and then sold to the Americans, according to Asia Times Online sources in the Sunni triangle.
This week, without a blip in many a strategic radar screen, Commando 121 transferred from Iraq to Pakistan. On October 25 of last year, Asia Times Online reported that Boykin had been appointed in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. European intelligence sources tell Asia Times Online to expect the same scenario "Saddam" for the eventuality of the capture of bin Laden and Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar. Bin Laden will be "smoked out", probably on a tip by an Afghan tribal leader willing to make a cool US$25 million. And all credit will go to the secretive Commando 121, which is known to comprise navy Seals and commandos from the army's Delta Force.
----------------
The information minister insists that Pakistan has not received from Washington any satellite pictures of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri or the al-Qaeda top 50 hiding in Pakistani territory. But much more interesting is his current estimation that US forces "would never enter Pakistan". Pakistan may have "sealed the border" with Afghanistan, but how to unseal it for the Americans is a matter to be discussed face-to-face by Rumsfeld and Musharraf this week. For this meeting, Rumsfeld can draw on his experience of discussing touchy issues with former CIA asset Saddam back in Baghdad in 1983.
--------------------
And what if bin Laden decides not to follow the script? According to sources close to the Pakistani newspaper Khabrain, bin Laden has made his seven bodyguards take an oath to kill him in the event that he is in any danger of being arrested. He will try to blow himself up. Western diplomatic sources, on the other hand, prefer to insist that if bin Laden is arrested according to the current Pentagon plan, the whole operation will be kept secret - to be disclosed only a few weeks or days before the American presidential election in November.
The only thing they missed was Dick Chainy and Haliburton staging the attempt on Perv's life.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 10:33 Comments ||
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#12
I don't know, Steve. It is a bit convenient that they are telling us that BL left Pakistan and went to Afghanistan...and right after the heavy hitting rumors leaked out, no less.
Besides who cares - more power to the Bush admin if they pull that one off.
If I were going to stage his capture....hmmm...the rat hole's been used...I think I would.....find him in a bar in Florida, watching the dancing girls, drinking whiskey, driving a fast car and living large at the Penthouse mansion. heh, heh.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 11:14 Comments ||
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#13
and...(continued from above)..
for the photo-op I'd have the commandos storm in to catch a laughing, drunken, Binny giving Larry Flint a lap dance in his wheel chair,(with a backdrop of blonde dancing girls on stage exposing $1,000 bills in their g-strings)...and I'd get a good close up of Binny's face as it registers the surprise..
hahahahah. I can see it on the cover of the Enquirer now!!
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 11:28 Comments ||
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#15
B, you've got it all wrong. He'll be caught coming out of Iran with a suitcase containing a North Korean nuke, Saddam's missing anthrax and a check from Teresa Heniz Kerry. Oh, and he'll be wearing a Dixie Chick T-shirt.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 11:35 Comments ||
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#16
lol!
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 11:36 Comments ||
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#17
LOL, Steve.
Headlines required for this one.
How about
Chicks Dick Coughs Up Kerry Flu, Heat to Come.
(BillBoard)
Ali Hamaamin said he had been whipped with electrical cords, hung by his arms and kicked in the face. Because he was accused of not being religious, he was repeatedly tortured by men from the militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam. "They used to come to me at night, wearing masks, and do the most horrible things," said Mr. Hamaamin, who lives in Beyara, a village near the Iranian border. His ordeal ended with the United States-led invasion of Iraq last year, when American Special Forces and Kurdish militias routed Ansar al-Islam, which once tried to set up a Taliban-like state in the jagged mountains along the border with Iran.
But Ansar is making a resurgence, Kurdish and American officials say. According to interviews with captured Ansar members, the group is branching out from its former mountain strongholds to cities across Iraq. Its mission, too, has expanded, they say, from terrorizing local villagers to planning suicide bombings against the American-led occupation. "Weâve seen a real step up on the part of these professional terrorists from Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Islam conducting suicide attacks," L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq, said on Monday. A senior United States military official said Ansar was in "an intense period of evolution" and had recently formed a partnership with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda. "Mr. Zarqawi is the senior partner and Ansar supplies the local expertise," said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ummm... That's the way it's been since it was set up.
Ansar lives in a landscape of shadows. The contours of its operations are known but the details remain murky.
It was a dark and story night. Rain fell. Sudden a shot rang out. There was a scream. Then silence. The end.
Several Ansar members captured in recent months said the group was trying to reorganize in Erbil, one of the largest cities in northern Iraq. The prisoners, kept in a jail in Sulaimaniya in northeastern Iraq, were made available to The New York Times by Kurdish security forces. "Our leaders have been looking for men to send back to Erbil to make operations," said Muhammad Khalid, 30, an Ansar fighter captured last summer as he crossed from Iran into Iraq. "Thatâs where I was going."
"And now here I am. Didn't work well, did it? Can I have a cigarette?"
Shahab Ahmed, another Ansar prisoner, said: "Our mission has become bigger than Kurdistan. We made car bombs from rockets, and we were told that if we killed Americans we would go to Paradise."
"'Course, they told us we wuz good-lookin', too. Y'don't think they lied to us, do ya?"
Mr. Ahmed, who warmed his handcuffed hands in front of a space heater as he talked, said there were Ansar suicide cells in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Falluja and Mosul. According to a report prepared by the Kurdish authorities, Ansar recently had a pipeline of young men schooled to die. In June 2002, the report says, a 19-year-old former mechanic, Didar Khalan, was tackled at a Kurdish political party headquarters in Sayed Sadiq, in northern Iraq, just as he was about to blow himself up. Mr. Khalan told investigators that Ansarâs leaders sent him to the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan wearing a vest packed with TNT. To get into the office, Mr. Khalan was instructed to ask for Muhammad, a common name. Once inside, if 20 people or more were present, Mr. Khalan was to connect two wires in his pocket. But as soon as he arrived, guards noticed that he was acting nervously and surrounded him, the report says.
Kids, these are trained professionals! Do not try this at home!
"They put me on the ground, and they gathered around me and they took off the clothes and cut off the wire," the report quoted Mr. Khalan as saying.
Then they sent out for more toilet paper...
He said seven other Ansar yokels members in his operational cell had also been given TNT suicide jackets and trained to be human bombs. Some were Kurds, others Turkmen. All were from northern Iraq, like himself. According to the report, they were told to attack the leading Kurdish political parties because they "were working for American intelligence and were Jewish." He also said that for three days before his mission, he had been locked in a room with an Ansar mullah who had talked about Paradise and fed him a special soup that made him feel strong. Kurdish officials say Mr. Khalan is now in American custody and may be a witness against Mullah Krekar, the Ansar leader arrested in January in Norway on terrorism charges.
But I doubt it. Norway's started living on warm milk...
"Ansar is not finished," said Anwar Haji Osman, security chief for the Halabja area. "In fact, we have word they are planning another serious operation. The Erbil bombings will only encourage them." And Ansar activity seems to be increasing. Three weeks ago, Kurdish security agents said, seven wanted Ansar terrorists slipped through the porous Iraq-Iran border and were arrested, including a Palestinian, a Yemeni and a member of the groupâs fatwa committee, which issues religious-inspired edicts. Though the border with Iran is a flash point in the campaign against terror, where the American-led occupation rubs up against part of what President Bush has called an "axis of evil," it is not heavily patrolled. In many places there are no guards or even fences marking the border, just thick, muddy roads plied by sinewy herdsmen and donkeys. "This is Iran," Khalid Karim, a Beyara village official, said as he planted one boot in a seemingly arbitrary spot. "And this is Iraq," he said, straddling the frontier. There was not a checkpoint in sight. About an hour away along the border stands a tall metal gate where Iranian border guards face off with Kurdish militiamen. On the Iranian side is a large sign that reads: "Death to Israel. Death to America."
Top o' the mornin' to you, too, Ardeshir...
Kurdish officials say more than 100 Ansar fighters live just across the border in Iranian villages. Villagers in Beyara said the Ansar fighters, who included Arabs, Afghans, Turks and Chechens, imposed a strict religious code, prohibiting women to leave their homes and outlawing television, music and even backgammon. They meted out public beatings and strutted around with swords. "Sometimes they told us it was against the Koran to laugh," said Mr. Hamaamin, the construction worker who was tortured. What was curious, many villagers said, was that the Ansar fighters did not work in the terraced walnut groves or collect timber like most other people. "But they always had money, lots of American money," said Hamatofiq Abdul Ghafur, owner of a tea shop. Kurdish and American officials said interrogations of Ansar prisoners and contacts in Iran led them to believe that Al Qaeda was funneling Ansar cash through Iran. Beyara has changed since Ansar was driven out. The television sets returned. So did the music. Village elders even built a playground on the side of a mountain. But Mr. Hamaamin says he will never totally recover. "I know the Americans and the others will do their best to keep Ansar away," he said. "But I still worry." Sometimes, he said, it is hard to fall asleep. He says he still sees the masks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:01:04 AM ||
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#1
so any lefties out there - explain to me why we should not take out iran? these bastards need to be rehab via the 4th id.
Posted by: Dan ||
02/25/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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#2
A point I have been thinking of since the initial invasion, what better place than to put our forces than right smack dab in the middle of terrorville. (ie. Syria, Iran). Besides doing the right thing in taking out Saddam we now have a susbstantial presence in the Middle East. How much better now to do the pre emptive strikes against the terrorist regimes in the area. In fact I'm surprised these IMAMAS are mouthing off as much as they are. I guess two lessons aren't enough. Don't back down Dubya. Your dad was wrong not to finish it earlier. Stay the course.
#3
He also said that for three days before his mission, he had been locked in a room with an Ansar mullah who had talked about Paradise and fed him a special soup that made him feel strong.
Oh, the imagery! Getting locked up with a mad mullah and feasting on some wierd witch's brew soup will make any sane man go around the bend!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 21:33 Comments ||
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Nice title, AP.
Trinidadâs famed Carnival heated up to a climax Tuesday, with thousands of bleary-eyed and barely dressed revelers bouncing to festive music while parading through the streets of the capital. The annual festivities officially began Monday, but locals have flocked to raucous parties and concerts for the past week. Besides the tens of thousands of Trinidadians, officials said about 47,000 tourists attended, 8,000 more than last year. "Itâs the best thing in the whole entire world. You have a good time and donât worry about anything," said Marsha Simpson, 24, one of thousands of bikini-clad revelers following competing troupes of masqueraders. No photo of bikini clad Marsha at the link. AP is really slipping.
Though Carnival is celebrated in several Caribbean countries, Trinidad is seen as the heart of the celebration. Steel band groups, surrounded by masquerading dancers, passed by judges Tuesday in downtown Port-of-Spain to be scored on their costumes, creativity and musical themes. Many dancers wore revealing bikinis, others gladiator outfits, and still others stuck with traditional costumes of plantation workers or blue devils who prodded at the crowd with forks. Some costume makers complain the quality of costumes has dropped in recent years as Carnival becomes a more tourist-oriented, flesh-baring affair. Examples of these lascivious, degenerate costumes at the link. Tusk, tusk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:59:13 AM ||
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You mean asshat tourists are turning a genuine native tradition into a skin-baring tittilation for out-of-towners? Sounds like the crowd that turned Carnival in New Orleans into a grotesque parody of itself have found new grounds to spread their toxic ideas.
#2
gromky - "toxic"??? I don't mean to offend, but are you gunning for RB curdugeon? You've got a lot of competition, bro. But no sweat, I can help. Been there / fixed that! ;-)
"asshat tourists are turning a genuine native tradition into a skin-baring tittilation for out-of-towners"
Ummm, exactly how pray tell, do the tourists do this? Don't you mean that the genuine native festivities organizers who invented most of this event to draw tourists in the first place are competeing with other genuine native festivities organizers for tourists?
It's called tourism and is part of capitalism. They way it works is first you get yourself a good steak to sell. As long as you've got something in short supply, you're good to go. When everybody has a steak, well, you call in the marketing dept and add sizzle so that your steak stands out from the crowd and v'oila! N'cest pas?
GM has trashed our genuine native car shows by adding sexy wymyns in ever-more revealing outfits (shock!) and there are reports that the Internet has some sites which offer porn (surprise!) - ugghh, who wants that? I even hear they've become popular! Who'da thunk it? Well, uh, me. Cuz we're wired for it -- sex is instant sizzle, even if you're peddling rubber shoe-sole quality steak.
Nothing new there, bro. Unless you've got a short circuit in your wiring. In that case, come see me in my new Sin City digs and I'll introduce you to Chantal. She's 27, so I doubt she'd fill that peculiar fetish that NMM parades and projects onto others so often, y'know, the pedophilia thing he's so hung up on. She's a pro. She won't just clean your clock, son, she'll stop time dead in its f**kin tracks. She can fix anything, methinks. She sure as hell fixed my deprived post-Saudi condition! If this pisses you off, well, I can't help after all. Sigh. If not, hell man, c'mon down to Sin City!
Melike upgraded sexy "native" costumes and undulating Carnival dancing. Me know the whole thing is staged show for money. Me not go without something to attract me. Me wired that way.
;->
#3
Been to Mardi Gras (one of the benifits of growing up in Louisiana), been to Fasching parades and parties in Germany, been to some pretty neat shenanigans in Panama and a couple of other places. The one thing that stands out is that 90% of them are the same. That other 10% (I.E., steel bands in Trinidad, some spectacular colonial dresses in Panama, marching bands in Germany, etc.), is what makes it worthwhile to go to different ones. They're all there for one purpose - to have fun. If it brings in some extra dinero, that's a bonus, not the main prize.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 17:52 Comments ||
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#4
They're all there for one purpose - to have fun.
Thanks OP! My wife will be home in a minute or two with ... yes.. the ashes. But I do love her so much. Ah well, maybe they'll be congugal visits.
A group, Ansar Al-Sunna, with alleged links to Al Qaeda network, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the suicide bombing at a police station in Kirkuk which killed seven policemen and wounded 46 other people. "We herald you with another victory over the apostates and agents in one of their dens of evil and corruption in the city of Kirkuk," said the statement sent to the London-based Islamic Observatory Centre for Human Rights.
I'll be the rest of the day at least trying to figure what suicide boomers have to do with human rights. I'm sure it'll come to me...
"One of our martyr brothers has detonated a car bomb at the Rahimawa police station inflicting, with Godâs aid, the enemy with the following casualties: more than 30 policemen killed and 55 injured." The group said there were no civilian casualties. Police and hospital officials say 11 civilians were among the wounded in the Monday car bombing which authorities say was carried out by two suicide bombers and not one as the statement says. It was not possible independently to verify the statement, which warned of further attacks. "We have more, so isnât it high time for you to wake up and spare your lives?" said the statement signed the "military command of the Ansar Al Sunna army."
I think we've decided to wipe you out, instead. That's just a guess, though...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 1:56:02 AM ||
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INDONESIA has received "important" answers from top terror suspect Hambali which could help prevent future attacks, national intelligence chief A.M. Hendropriyono said Wednesday. Hambali, a suspected former top figure in both al-Qaeda and the regional extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah, was arrested in Thailand in August. He is in US custody at an undisclosed location. "Access to meet physically with Hambali has not yet been obtained but a series of important (answers) to questions to be used for intelligence purposes has been received by us," Mr Hendropriyono said. "So we have an idea how big the network is and how extensive (future terror) targets and plans are." Indonesia is pressing the US for direct access to Hambali, who is believed to be detained on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Mr Hendropriyono, speaking on the sidelines of a seminar, said Hambaliâs answers were received just recently and the process took place gradually. "We are still hoping for further access to Hambali," he said. Earlier this month US Attorney General John Ashcroft said Washington is "working towards" giving foreign investigators access to Hambali but set no date.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 1:54:15 AM ||
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Diego Garcia is British sovereign territory and part of it is rented as a base to the USA. The press doesn't seem to have picked up the fact that there is a mini-gitmo there.
#2
The press doesn't seem to have picked up the fact that there is a mini-gitmo there.
What they haven't picked up on is that Gitmo is the holding camp for cannon fodder, while DG is where the high ranking hard cases go. Gitmo holds tours, DG is a black hole.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 9:01 Comments ||
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U.K. Home Secretary David Blunkett said itâs inevitable the country will face a terrorist attack and the security services need greater powers to apprehend suspects before they strike, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. ``We cannot guarantee, and nor should we pretend to, that we can protect ourselves forever by security alone,ââ Blunkett told the BBCâs ``Newsnightââ program late yesterday. Al-Qaeda and its allied terrorist networks are ``geared upââ to suicide bombings that ``can take our lives at any time in ways that weâve never perceived before,ââ Blunkett said. Security services need to be able to apprehend terrorists ``before rather than after they have committed the act.ââ
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 1:52:49 AM ||
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The UK is full of jihadis waiting to move. BTW, have they got rid of Hookboy Hamza, or are they treating him still with kid gloves? And what about that Chechen chap who was denied a free trip to Russia by the govt?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 14:51 Comments ||
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A Bush administration plan to let Americans travel to Libya was thrown off track Tuesday when Muammar Gadhafiâs prime minister said his government had not accepted responsibility for blowing up Pan Am flight 103. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had demanded retraction of the ministerâs remarks, carried in a British Broadcasting Co. radio interview. Wonder if Shokri was doing this for the Arab street?
Libya last August acknowledged in a letter to the U.N. Security Council its responsibility for the 1988 bombing of the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including 181 Americans. Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem told the BBC that Libyaâs government agreed in December to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the victimsâ families to improve relations with the West and to secure the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Libya. Asked in the interview if the payment did not mean Libya had accepted guilt for the bombing, Ghanem replied: "I agree with that, and this is why I say we bought peace." Um, Shokri, remember how defenseless you guys felt last month?
"After the sanctions and after the problems we have (been) facing because of the sanctions, the loss of money, we thought that it was easier for us to buy peace and this is why we agreed to compensation," the prime minister said in the interview, which was recorded in Libya. So itâs just blood money?
Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Libya made it very clear in their letter to the U.N. that it âaccepts responsibility for the actions of its officials on that very matter. ... We would expect Libya to make clear that that remains their position." The GadflyIdiotarian Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Tuesday that he will lead a delegation of U.S. religious leaders to Libya this week to meet with Gadhafi at an African Union summit in Tripoli. Jackson said the flap over Ghanemâs remarks would not affect his travel plans, noting that the assessment did not come from Gadhafi himself or the official Libyan news agency. âcourse not, Jesse, just from the Prime Minister. Whoâs he, anyway, right? Idjit. Susan Cohen, of Cape May, N.J., whose daughter, Thea, 20, was killed in the bombing, said "The Libyan prime ministerâs statement is humiliating to the families because what he says is (that) this money is just a disgusting payoff and that they did not do it. ... This is an example for the Bush administration of what they are going to have if the administration continues the rapprochement with Libya. This is the same regime that blew up Pan Am 103, and they are totally untrustworthy." Say, Susan, could you bitch-slap talk with Jesse?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:51:32 AM ||
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Who exactly is this Jesse Jackson fellow? Is he some kind of political officeholder? Wasn't he in the news a few years back for infidelity? I only ask because it's only political officeholders who ever get in the news for infidelity.
#2
gromky - I think he's the same one that smeared MLK's blood on his tshirt to insinuate that he held King as he died...oh yeah, he's also extorted money from companies by racial hustling, and yes, had a bastard son via an affair. I think he's supposed to be a religious figure in a church somewhere, but in this instance I think he's got racial snake oil to sell Khaddaffy Duck
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/25/2004 7:06 Comments ||
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#3
By the way, that bastard son of his is a congress critter. Looks like sucking off the public teat either runs in the family.
#8
Looks like they got the message: Libya on Wednesday reversed its prime minister and confirmed that it was responsible for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 and killing 270 people. The statement by the Jamahiriya news agency could put back on track a plan by the Bush administration to let Americans travel to Libya.
The statement, which appeared on Libya's web site, said Libya had helped bring two suspects to justice "and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials." Referring to the prime minister's statement that Libya had not acknowledged responsibility in a letter to the United Nations, the Libyan news agency said "recent statements contradicting or casting doubt on these positions are inaccurate and regrettable."
Changed positions faster than Kerry, just as reliable too.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 14:32 Comments ||
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#9
Wasn't Jesse's half-brother caught accepting cash from Libya back in the late 80s? I seem to remember Libya thought it was buying terror attacks, but it may have just been straight-up corruption.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/25/2004 15:15 Comments ||
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Indian security agencies are concerned that Bangladesh is fast becoming a hotbed of international terrorism. Intelligence sources say that after 9/11, the country has become a recruiting and training ground for global terrorists with the Bangladesh army directly involved in these operations:
Nearly 100 persons have been trained to infiltrate the Indian borders by the Bangladeshi army centre at the Saidpur Army Regimental Centre, sources say.
According to security agencies, the Border Security Force has furnished the Bangladesh Rifles with a list of nearly 150 terrorist training camps in that country.
Apart from this, the Indian government has prepared a list of 13 terrorist camps and training centres that it believes are directly under the control of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. In addition to that, there are 11 madrassas, which also double up as training centres, sources in security agencies said.
The al-Qaeda has apparently shifted base to Bangladesh after facing the heat in Afghanistan and the Middle East. It has three camps in Coxâs Bazar, four each in Bandarban and Chittagong and one each in Rangamati and Brahmanbaria. Its oldest partner in the country is the Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami (HUJI), a terrorist organisation that started operating with financial help from Osama bin Laden. The US state department describes HUJI as a terrorist organisation with ties to Pakistani militants. Founded in 1992, today, it has a cadre-base of 15,000 men, led by Shaukat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. In addition, there are seven madrassas which act as Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami (HUJI) centers. Three madrassas near Sylhet, and one at Rangamati also work as recruiting centres.
HUJI has links with the Roshingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO). This came to light, when a tape leaked to a US channel showed RSO militants being trained near Coxâs Bazar.
Al-Qaeda also reportedly operates a âsleeper cellâ in Rajshahi, which was unearthed three years ago. Bin Laden had reportedly sent his private secretary to attend a HUJI meeting in Rajshahi.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 1:50:48 AM ||
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#1
I posted another article about the situation in Bangladesha while ago
Assuming the reports are correct, it looks like Bangladesh is becoming Pakistan East; with the same nexus between Islamist Generals, radical Mullahs, powerful intelligence services ISI/DGFI, and Jihadis more or less operating openly.
Although the vast majority of the 'terrorist' training camps are mostly just villagers used by various Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Commie rebel/bandit groups operating across the border in North East India.
But when you look at the country, it certainly offers a lot of potential for Al Qaeda, just like Indonesia.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 4:49 Comments ||
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#2
Well, shoot, Al-Qaeda has to go somewhere next...it might as well be a dirt-poor country like Bangladesh rather than somewhere like Egypt or Turkey or France.
Yes they do! Basically the whole country is sinking in a geological sense faster than anywhere else in the world. If rising sea levels are for real then the whole place is going to turn into a shallow bay, but then if rising sea levels are not for real then the whole place is going to turn into a shallow bay anyway it will just take more time.
#6
Bangladesh actually has more going for it than Pakistan. Although still poorer, is shows more economic vitality. More important, its birthrate, unlike that of Pakistan, has declined significantly in recent years -- largely because its women are not as repressed. Of course, the Islamists see this and want to put a quick stop to it all. And they may well do so.
#7
The jihadis will probably drink untreated water from the wells and get arsenic poisoning, because Infidels brought the Unislamic arsenic removal process to the country. Ain't in the Quoran, so it doesn't exist.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 15:03 Comments ||
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The World Food Program has resumed food aid to millions of people in North Korea, six weeks after a lack of foreign donations forced it to stop shipments, the U.N. food agency said Wednesday. Contributions from Germany, New Zealand, Canada and Norway have helped restore the flow of aid, the WFP said in a statement released Wednesday from its office in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Just prolonging the agony.
The food agency made an urgent appeal Feb. 9 for more aid to North Korea, saying the agencyâs supplies had nearly run out and it was cutting off food to almost all the 6.5 million people that it feeds there. "We can now resume cereal distributions to most - but not all - of the 6.5 million children, women and elderly identified as particularly needy," said Masood Hyder, WFP representative for North Korea. The North has relied on foreign aid to feed its isolated populace since revealing in the mid-1990s that its agriculture had collapsed after decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies. The concentration camps and the executions donât help, either.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:43:47 AM ||
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Okay. Our people are over there. Go feed them. We'd like to help, but we're kinda busy working on this nuclear thingy.
"... or I shall taunt you again!"
Two audiotapes purportedly of Osama bin Ladenâs top lieutenant were broadcast on Arabic TV stations Tuesday, one taunting President Bush and threatening more attacks on the United States, the other criticizing Franceâs decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools. The tapes, attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri, came as Pakistani forces backed by helicopters searched villages in a remote region between Pakistan and Afghanistan where bin Laden and Taliban suspects are believed hiding. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born physician, is thought to be with bin Laden in the rugged mountains. Brave little big man taunting us so.
A CIA spokesman said the agency conducted a technical analaysis on the tapes and determined that the voice was probably al-Zawahriâs. "Then again, it could be Squeaky Fromme. We canât tell."
In the past, U.S. intelligence officials have noted that some tape releases have been preludes to attacks. The latest audiotapes aired a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera networks. Officials at both stations said they broadcast only humorous newsworthy excerpts and that their full recordings were different. Both stations said they received the material Tuesday. Events mentioned in the tapes indicate only that the recordings were made no earlier than last month. Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera said they were confident the voice was al-Zawahriâs, with Al-Arabiya also saying its confidence in the authenticity stemmed from the source of the tape, which officials would not identify. The voice on both tapes sounded identical, with the tone and rhetoric similar to previous videotapes as well as audiotapes believed to be from al-Zawahri. Special delivery from Mahmoud the Weasel!
"There are rumors these days that the arrest of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri is nearing; (these tapes) are a response to that," said Mohammed Salah, an expert on radical Islamic groups and the Cairo bureau chief of the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat. Diaa Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam for Egyptâs Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said issuing both tapes almost simultaneously "requires logistical ability ... and also a central decision." A tape recorder in the boonies and a runner to deliver them. What logistical might.
In Al-Jazeeraâs tape, the voice believed to be al-Zawahri challenges Bushâs claim to have liberated Iraq and indicates al-Qaida - the group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States - is still running operations from Afghanistan. "We remind Bush that the situation is not stable in Afghanistan, or else how do we wage, with Godâs support and might, our attacks on your troops and agents?" the tape said. "We remind Bush that he didnât destroy two-thirds of al-Qaida. On the contrary, thanks be to God, al-Qaida is still in the holy war battleground raising the banner of Islam." Can you raise it just a bit higher and to the right? Youâre blocking the screen on the GPS locator. Ah, thatâs better.
"Bush, fortify your targets, tighten your defense, intensify your security measures," the tape recording warned, "because the fighting Islamic community - which sent you New York and Washington battalions - has decided to send you one battalion after the other, carrying death and seeking heaven." Yeah, sure, whatever. [yawn]
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:41:25 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, whatever...keep yawning. These are not empty threats. It is only the continued vigilance (and luck) of our security and intelligence agencies that is keeping us free from harm. They only need to succeed once.
#4
There's been an interesting shift in the whining and ranting of AQ. Before, they used to piss and moan about how the world isn't islamic enough; how muslims were gonna create a worldwide caliphate. How the west (and Israel) were doomed...DOOOOOMED because of that. Now, it's more or less: "Oh yeah? You think you're so tough? We're tougher, ya know. Just you wait!" This latest screed seems to be more the position of a piss ant on the defensive. He's ticked off that he's losing.
#5
the fighting Islamic community - which sent you New York and Washington battalions
Hey, I thought Mossad sent those guys.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 8:22 Comments ||
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#6
1. Bush destroyed two-thirds of al-Qaida.
2. Al-Qaida is still in the holy war battleground
Those two propositions are not mutually exclusive.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 8:45 Comments ||
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#7
"HEADLINE: AL-Q TAUNTS BUSH:"
"Your mother was a hanmster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
Coming up next - a reading from the Book of Armaments....
Mike
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/25/2004 8:47 Comments ||
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#8
Let's see... Here we have some pipsqueak hiding out in a cave afraid to show his face or disclose his whereabouts to anyone but a close and trusted few, who must transfer his statements by hand via tape more or less anonymously to the media, and who is living like a cockroach scurrying from hole to dark, stinking hole avoiding Arclight daylight.
Yeah, his threats of Gloom 'n' Doom⢠sure carry a lot of credibility with me. Look! I'm shaking!
Posted by: Dar ||
02/25/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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#11
gromky - dead right. I want to laugh at this pissant, too, but know that it only takes one mistake, one Border Guard or Immigation Official who's not on his/her toes, and innocents will pay for it. Hardcore application of the pre-emptive policy is the only thing that can prevent the eventuality. The election timing is, to my mind, among the list of impediments, but PC-ism is the core problem.
Recalling Lincoln's remarks about the terrible casualty numbers at Cold Harbor (to the effect that Grant was the General he had been looking for because he understood the hard arithmetic of war) gives me chills, now: the impetus for taking off the gloves - the hard arithmetic lesson which will remove the PC constraints - will be the next effective attack. Sad. Very sad.
Sorry to be morose, folks, but if you really think they will fail on every attempt forever, well, I beg to differ -- this will get very un-funny very fast. Killing every last jihadi with extreme prejudice is the only answer, of course, but our PC-challenged society is just not ready to embrace that obvious eventuality, yet. Someday they will be.
#12
.com I agree with you. At some time some idiot will detonate a dirty bomb or nuke in a major city.
The only way to prevent/postpone it is to make it very, very, clear that we *will* respond in kind and with overwealming force. We have to state clearly, loudly, and very publically that any terrorism using WMD would be met with the destruction of Mecca, Medina, and the capitals of the 'axis of evil' followed by 'total war'. Time to stop pussyfooting around with these fools.
This is why the current U.S. election is so important. A president like Kerry or Clinton or Gore would hesitate or poopah about a response (or worse yet let the U.N. decide the response) which is a weakness.
#14
Amen, CF, amen. I'm not kidding about the chills - those morons will likely get through eventually - and if we don't have Dubya or his equivalent, you're absolutely right: we'll be nibbled half to death before the next leader with the stones & vision comes along.
The Iraqi Governing Council may not meet the Feb. 28 deadline to draft a temporary law that would help govern Iraq until a formal constitution is adopted, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said Tuesday. No surprise here.
Under an agreement with the U.S.-led coalition now running Iraq, the council was to complete the drafting the temporary measure by the end of February as part of a timetable for restoring Iraqi sovereignty by June 30. But Negroponte told the U.N. Security Council that the drafting is nearing completion, but it may not be finished on time. "The Iraqis have made significant progress towards the completion of the law and continue to work hard toward the achievement of the Feb. 28 deadline, although it is not certain that that deadline will be met exactly," he said. The temporary constitution is to include a bill of rights, guarantees of due process, a federal arrangement for Iraq and assurances of an independent judiciary and civilian control over the Iraqi military and security forces. It is also to include a timetable for adopting a constitution and holding national elections. But several contentious issues have delayed final approval. A fundamentalist Sunni member of the Governing Council made an unsuccessful effort to insert language making Islam the foundation for the Iraqi legal code. U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has said he would not allow the U.S.-appointed Governing Council to adopt a basic law or constitution that was based upon Islamic law. No. I mean it. Next question."
Kurds have demanded that the interim charter include guarantees of Kurdish autonomy, something the United States and its Iraqi partners would prefer to see resolved during next yearâs convention to draft a permanent constitution. In addition, the Governing Council has been caught up in a debate over choosing a transitional government. The Nov. 15 agreement called for caucuses to choose a national assembly that would select an interim government, but following a U.N. fact-finding mission caucuses and elections have been ruled out. A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi would probably head to Iraq next month to help come up with a solution on setting up a caretaker government if Iraqis and the coalition canât find one themselves. A report Monday from a U.N. team led by Brahimi said Iraq could hold direct elections for a new government by January 2005 if preparations for them began immediately and a series of conditions were met, including establishment of "a secure environment." I canât imagine theyâll pull that off, but if it keeps Sistani quiet, fine.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:34:30 AM ||
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A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi would probably head to Iraq next month to help come up with a solution on setting up a caretaker government if Iraqis and the coalition canât find one themselves
That should light a fire under the Iraqi's to cooperate and get it done.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 18:35 Comments ||
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I wrote this. Part 1. Part 2.
Criminologist Mark Hamm has written two books about the Oklahoma City bombing â Apocalypse in Oklahoma: Waco and Ruby Ridge Revenged (1997) and In Bad Company: Americaâs Terrorist Underground (2002).
In Bad Company (page 173) he recounts that in 2001 he wrote a letter to Timothy McVeigh in prison, asking him who really had robbed gun dealer Roger Moore on November 5, 1994, a crime that had been blamed entirely on Terry Nichols. Hamm received a responsive letter not from McVeigh, but from a fellow prisoner on death row, David Paul Hammer, who named the following culprits: "Richard Lee Guthrie, Peter Langan, Scott Stedeford, Mark Thomas, Michael Brescia, Shawn Kenney, Elohim City, OK, compound, the Aryan Republican Army." This book mainly describes these culprits and their possible relationships to McVeigh and Nichols. In particular, Hamm suggests that Nichols directly arranged for those culprits to rob and also murder Moore.
There are several indications that Moore was supposed to be murdered during the robbery. McVeigh visited his sister Jennifer on November 7 and, according to her later statements, "was extremely angry and upset [because] an individual ... was to murder another unidentified individual; however, this murder had not been committed." Later that same day, McVeigh called Michael Fortier and told him that the robbery had not been carried out as planned. McVeighâs words to Fortier were: "The contract has not been fulfilled" (Bad Company, page 172).
The robbery on November 5 occurred a few weeks after McVeigh and Nichols decided to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building. McVeigh later told Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, authors of American Terrorist, that the decision was catalyzed by a law restricting assault weapons that was passed by Congress on September 13. In mid-September McVeigh wrote Michael Fortier a letter informing him that McVeigh and Nichols were developing a specific plan to attack the government and asking Fortier whether he would participate.
On September 30, McVeigh and Nichols purchased a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. On October 1 they stole a large quantity of explosive materials from a quarry business in Marion, Oklahoma, and then transported them to Kingman for storage. There, on about October 6, McVeigh told the Fortiers that he intended to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh also described the essential details about how the bomb would be constructed inside a rented truck. One month after that conversation, Moore was robbed.
The need to obtain money to pay for the bombing might explain the robbery, but what explains the decision to murder Moore? Why was McVeigh "extremely angry and upset" that Moore wasnât murdered? I suggest that McVeigh and Nichols suspected that Moore was informing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) about their activities.
Roger Moore began his career as an employee of the Social Security Administration and then served as the assistant city manager of Sioux City, South Dakota. He then moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he began a very successful business that built boats for the US military during the Vietnam War. After that he created a series of other businesses, including the American Assault Company, which sold unusual weapons. In that latter business he and his girlfriend Karen Anderson networked with a variety of radical individuals and groups that sold and purchased weapons (Bad Company, pages 165-166).
The apparent friendship between Moore and McVeigh ruptured in September 1993 at a Soldier of Fortune convention in Las Vegas. The argument began, according to the book American Terrorist (page 143), when a man wearing a police badge on his belt, obscured by his jacket, stopped at the table and talked with Moore for a while. McVeigh eventually noticed the badge and then followed, grabbed and confronted the man after he walked away. Moore rebuked McVeigh for those actions and later that night told him to leave and never come back.
In late January or February 1994, McVeigh visited Moore to try to reconcile, but they argued again. On that occasion, Mooreâs girlfriend Anderson advised McVeigh to contact a radical, named Steve Colbern, who lived near Kingman. McVeigh followed that advice and apparently collaborated with Colbern in various experiments and activities involving explosives during the following months. As McVeigh pondered his own â and perhaps also Colbernâs â experiences with Moore, he perhaps concluded that Moore was a government informant who endangered his now concrete plan to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City.
After Moore was robbed, he immediately informed the local sheriff that he thought McVeigh was involved in the robbery. He might have informed other law-enforcement officials in more detail. In the following months, Moore resumed his communications with McVeigh by mail and phone, inviting him to visit, but McVeigh played dumb and stayed away.
The culprits who actually robbed Moore â and who subsequently maintained associations with McVeigh and Nichols â also included possible informants. Hammerâs list of the robbers included "Elohim City," a right-wing cult, similar to the Branch Davidians, that was a target of infiltration by the ATF. Other writers have argued compellingly that some Elohim City members â in particular Andreas Strassmeier and Michael Brescia (the latter named on Hammerâs list) â were government agent-provocateurs who informed the ATF about the plan to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building. (See, for example, Ambrose Evans-Pritchardâs Secret Life of Bill Clinton).
In the weeks that followed the robbery, Nichols stayed away from McVeigh and watched carefully for any signs of government surveillance ("heat") of his own activities. Right before Nichols departed for the Philippines, he gave his former wife, Lana Padilla, a sealed envelope that she was supposed to give to McVeigh in case Nichols died during the trip. Inside the envelope was a note that said, "Your on your own now; Go for it!! As far as heat â none that I know."
If McVeigh was "on his own now," so was Nichols. He himself was now "going for it" in the Philippines. He had some knowledge that might be valuable â the Federal Building in Oklahoma City would be destroyed by a bomb on April 19, 1995. Although he had conspired in the plans, he felt he had been free of any "heat" during his most recent time in the United States. He certainly did not expect to be under surveillance while in the Philippines.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
02/25/2004 1:03:44 AM ||
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#2
For some reason, my tinfoil hat detector goes off every time I hear about some "Tim McVeigh and X" conspiricy. I don't mean this in a nasty way or anything, but still...
Posted by: N Guard ||
02/25/2004 18:05 Comments ||
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The federal government has ordered a crackdown on an unnamed group led by Maulvi Shahzada Khan in Northern Areas for its alleged involvement in terrorist activities. The Northern Areas are a sparsely populated region dominated by Shias, including followers of the Aga Khan. Since anti-government riots in the 80âs, there have been increasing numbers of (Sunni) Pashtun tribesmen settled there, which has lead to much seething and resentment.
âIntelligence agencies have warned the government that the group could resort to terrorist activities at any place at any time,â sources told Daily Times. They said the groupâs links with Jaish e-Muhammad, Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Shariat-Muhammadi (TNSM) and other banned jihadi organisations had been established and âits links with Al Qaeda cannot be ruled outâ, the sources added. âMaulvi Shahzada Khanâs interrogation may lead to the arrest of some extremist elements,â sources quoted a government order to law enforcement agencies and the Northern Areas administration. They added that the Pakistan Army recently raided Mr Khanâs training camp suspecting him of links with Al Qaeda, but found nothing because the trainees had fled.
Mahmoud the Weasel was awake for that one...
Sources said that Maulvi Shahzada Khan, the son of Shah Sultan of village Rim Sheikh, Tehsil Tangir in District Diamer, had allegedly been imparting military training and had links with jihadi and pro-Taliban elements. Sources said according to the investigation by law enforcement agencies, the group played a leading role during the invasion of Shia localities by a tribal Lashkar in Gilgit in 1988. âThe illegal activities of Mr Khan range from getting military training himself in Miran Shah in the North West Frontier Province to setting up a military training centre at village Rim Sheikh in 1997-98 under the Harkatul Mujahideen. Over 300 persons from Northern Areas and other parts in Pakistan were trained by him in suicide bombing and attacks with grenades and firearms,â the sources added. Sources said that he remained in close contact with the Jaish leadership and leaders of (Harkatul) Jihadi-e-Islami. âHe frequently visited a training camp at Shawal in Balakot and was closely associated with Qari Saifullah, a Jihad-e-Islami leader, to get financial aid and arms from him,â the sources said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 12:11:22 AM ||
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As followers of the Aga Khan, they are "7er Shi'ites," meaning that they think there were seven infallible Imams, rather than the 12 positited by mainstream Shiism. Today the Aga Khan is quite Westernized and moderate. In the 12th century, the same group was called the "assasins," and terrorized the Sunni world of the Seljuks with, well, lots of assasinations. Supposedly they doped up their recruits on hashish to give them a glimpse of the paradise that would be theirs' after completing the act. Probably just a story -- but an intertesting one.
A timely tip-off by Indian intelligence agency RAW helped foil a third assassination plot against Pakistanâs President General Pervez Musharraf. This collaboration and the two attempts on his life on December 14 and 24 last year, have led to a change in the mindset of President Musharraf: from reluctant and sometimes wavering support for anti-terrorism operations, to a new-found resolve to stamp out the threat.
I wouldn't count too heavily on that. His attention span's not very long...
In January, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was leaving Islamabad after the SAARC summit, he called President Musharraf and said, "Please take care." The intelligence agencies clearly picked up the cue and their leadersâ concern. In the first week of February, RAW came upon communication intercepts between jehadis opposed to President Musharraf, planning to make a third attempt on the generalâs life. The intercepts were passed on by RAW chief C D Sahay to his ISI counterpart Ehsanul Haq, enabling the latter to foil the plot.
The tip-off was only the latest, but perhaps most significant exchange of intelligence between the two agencies over the past four months. Defence ministry officials told TOI on Tuesday that India is convinced that President Musharrafâs current crackdown on al-Qaeda is for real. "We do not expect any backtracking on this," said a source. This confidence is grounded in the ministryâs assessment that the Pakistan military, which had nurtured the militants since the time of General Ziaul Haq, were united behind President Musharraf. "Even the ISI, a creation of the Pakistan Army, is going along with the military," he said, "There will only be forward movement on the anti-terrorism agenda."
Right. I think my hair's growing back, too. In fact, I'm sure it is.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 12:07:53 AM ||
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#1
Wow.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
02/25/2004 2:16 Comments ||
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#2
What duh.... Please help me out here guys. Fred? Dan D? How much salt do I need to take in along with an article from the Times of India? Should I consult my cardiologist before believing this?
#3
The Times of India is a paper that has become more sensationalist and tabloid like, so it could be true, or it could have been planted by RAW for their own purposes. We'll have to wait and see if there is any other confirmation.
But RAW regularly leaks information on Pakistan sponsorship of crossborder terrorism, so I don't see how serious his change of heart and the unity of the military behind him can be.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 4:39 Comments ||
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#4
Times of India has been all over the Khan story, most of the stuff being confirmed by other sources later. They seem to be on top of a lot of Pak news.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/25/2004 8:44 Comments ||
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#5
India, Pakistan deny sharing information Pakistan and India on Wednesday called âbaselessâ the media reports that a tip-off by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) helped Pakistanâs Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) foil an attempt on President Pervez Musharrafâs life. âIt is a malicious and incorrect report. There is no collaboration of any kind between RAW and the ISIâ, Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan said. The Indian government had a similar comment for the Times of India report. âThe governmentâs attention has been drawn to press reports which appeared today, describing alleged communications between RAW and the ISI. These reports are baseless,â the Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The Times of India report claimed that collaboration between RAW and ISI had led to a change in the presidentâs mindset.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 18:35 Comments ||
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Police interrogation of three terrorists arrested for an abortive attempt to storm the Indira Gandhi International Airport here has thrown up disturbing evidence of a renewed cross-border offensive by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The three Lashkar terrorists, Mohammad Ahsanullah, Mohammad Bashir and Rashid Ahmad, have, according to the Jammu and Kashmir police, said that at least three specially-trained fidayeen (suicide squad) groups had been sent across the Line of Control since December, when India and Pakistan began observing a ceasefire. Members of these groups carried out attacks on a bus stand in Poonch and the Jammu railway station before initiating plans to hit the Indira Gandhi International Airport. One of these fidayeen groups made its way into Jammu and Kashmir through Goi village, facing the Mendhar area of Poonch district, in mid-January. Although the Pakistan Army did not support the infiltration attempt by providing a forward launching base or fire support, local military commanders were made aware the Lashkar squad would be crossing the LoC. The fidayeen group crossed newly-installed border fencing along the LoC by lifting the concertina wire enough to enable men to crawl under it. Doesnât sound like much of a fence...
Lashkar commanders had earlier despatched a second fidayeen squad led by Rashid, also a Karachi resident, in early December. This squad carried out the December 10 attack on the main bus stand in Poonch, killing three persons and injuring 10. One fidayeen was also killed in the course of the attack. Two other Lashkar cadre volunteered for the January 2 assault on the Jammu railway station. Four security force personnel were killed in this attack, in which both fidayeen who carried it out also died. Shortly after the Jammu railway station attack, the remnants of both these fidayeen groups were charged with carrying out an assault on the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Sources said the terrorists had considered a frontal attack on any of the three departure terminals, where passengers are not screened by security staff until after they enter the buildings. A third Lashkar unit separately attempted to execute a bombing in New Delhi, but was interdicted by the Delhi police, who arrested the three terrorists involved just before Republic Day. In an effort to replace these losses, a fourth fidayeen group attempted to cross the LoC two weeks ago at Dehri, in Poonch. Troops of the 25 Punjab Regiment intercepted this unit metres from the LoC, and killed five terrorists in a brief but fierce battle. The firing almost led to a showdown with Pakistani troops, said sources who also claimed that the terrorists bodies lay on their side of the LoC.
The welter of recent Lashkar actions gives little support to the Defence Minister, George Fernandesâ recent assertion that terrorist activity in Jammu and Kashmir was now being carried out by elements outside the control of Pakistanâs military establishment. Reports from Pakistan instead indicate the government there has made no effort to crack down on fundraising by the Lashkar, which reached a high during the recent Eid festival, or to stop distribution of its magazines and propaganda material. At a recent rally in Islamabad, the Lashkarâs supreme leader, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, exhorted followers to join the fighting in Jammu and Kashmir, which he described as "the greatest Jihad in the history of Islam." Speaking to The Hindu, a top Army official described recent events as "highly disturbing." "Weâve been lucky none of the major Lashkar-e-Taiba acts so far have actually succeeded," he said, "but sooner or later, it is likely one will. If the peace process is derailed, the root cause will be Pakistanâs unwillingness act on its promises, and actually shut down terrorist organisations."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/25/2004 12:06:20 AM ||
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Israel Labor Party Leader and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that Israel has to return every inch of Palestinian lands. At a dinner last night in the U.S., Peres said Israel has no spiritual right either to the lands of the Gaza Strip or the Palestinian people. Peres stated that Israel should return all the land that it took over in the 1967 Middle East war and added, "If you keep 10 percent of the land, you continue 100 percent of the conflict." He noted that Israel should provide a state for the Palestinians in order for them to maintain their existence. Peres added however that this is not an easy thing to do and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is having a hard time with the issue. "Unless Israel withdraws from these lands completely, disaster will be waiting at the corner," concluded Peres.
I saw Peres on Fox News yesterday. I was struck again by how much I don't like him.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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"and if Israel withdraws completely, you only continue 99% of the conflict."
#2
It's amazing how Shimon Peres can remain so hopelessly clueless, even after it has been pretty evident to any sane person that any official that pushes a dovish position in the face of terrorism only emboldens the enemy.
#3
You saw what happened when Israel, willingly and peacefully, pulled out of Lebanon. The islamopukes saw it as a VICTORY!! Their "brave struggle" had driven Israel from Lebanon. AND THE ATTACKS ESCALATED. THEY CONTINUE TODAY!
This is exactly what will happen if Israel gives up ANY territory to the palestinians. The pals will see it as the first step to driving the JEWS into the sea. Their STATED GOAL is the total destruction of the state of Israel. Any concessions are seen as weakness.
What about Oslo? Israel gave away damn near everything to the palestinians and Israel is still living today, with the homicide bombings in their cities from the resultant "intifada".
shimon peres is a slimey little man. His advice is just what Israel DOES NOT need.
Posted by: Danny ||
02/25/2004 2:26 Comments ||
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#4
Peres is right. Not returning the lands occupied in 1967 will never solve the conflict. I do not see what is so clueless about that statements;
#5
Peres is right. Return every inch of land captured in the 1967 war so that this conflict can be finally resolved, 100%.
...and then of course, the Arabs can resume the old conflict from 1956, until the Israelis roll back to the original partition plan boundaries of 1947. Then the Arabs can resume the conflict against the very existance of Israel as a soveriegn state, and pursue their barely concealed true intentions: Push the jews back into the sea.
What's beyond comprehension is that Peres served in the IDF, in fact he was there before there was even an Israeli state. He fought in 1948, he was the head of the navy! How can you live in the land for it's entire short existance, watch wave after wave of unreasoning hatred crash upon your every border - from every neighboring country - and still publicly pronounce that somehow this is all Israel's fault, and can be solved instantly by returning to the pre-1967 borders, which were themselves about to overrun by thousands of ululating Arabs?
#6
Iyot,there will be no peace until the Paleos accept that the State of Israel has a right to exist.That wiill not happen until Arrafart,Hezb,Hamas and the rest are destroyed.
Peace will not happen until all the Islamic Countrys give-up the idea of Israilie Genocide.
Attackers targeted a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) office in Mosul, northern Iraq, late Monday, while separately three members of the party were murdered, officials and the police said on Tuesday. "On Monday evening, assailants in a car attacked the PDK office in the centre of Mosul," 370 kilometres (240 miles) north of Baghdad, said a PDK official. "Peshmergas (Kurdish fighters) fought back and they fled on foot," he said. "The fighters found grenades, anti-tank rockets and Kalashnikovs in the car along with pamphlets on which had been written, 'Death to the heathens who cooperate with the Americans' and 'How many gods do you pray to'," he added. The PDK official speculated that Islamist groups were carrying out the attacks against Kurds in the area.
I'd call that a pretty good guess...
Elsewhere, two PDK militants were found murdered on Sunday a few hours after they had been kidnapped, police captain, Abdallah Mahmoud, said. "The bodies were retrieved near to some dustbins," he said. Separately on Monday at 10:35 pm another member of the PDK was found shot dead in his car, the police officer said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Iranâs powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday he was open to the idea of dialogue with the United States, but that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was opposed.
Why not have him assassinated, then?
âFor me, talking is not a problem. But this is only if it was for me to decide on personally,â Rafsanjani, who now heads the Islamic republicâs top political arbitration body, said in an interview with the hard-line Kayhan afternoon daily. But he added that because Iranâs late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor as supreme leader, Khamenei, were both opposed to talks with Washington, âI follow them and I say nothing.â
"I mean, how do you dispute a Supreme Leaderâ¢, who talks to God while brushing his teeth? Y'just can't do it."
Rafsanjani was Iranâs president from 1989 to 1997, and remains a key figure at the top of the 25-year-old clerical regime. He also told the paper that there were no new developments in Iranâs relations with Washington. âThey continue to send us threatening messages and continue to raise the four questions,â he said, referring to Washingtonâs concerns over Iranâs nuclear program, opposition to the Middle East peace process, alleged support of militant groups and human rights.
"It's like we're supposed to have four answers or somethin'!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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âI follow them and I say nothing.â
LOL! Is this really the same Hojjatoleslam Behramani (he's not really an Ayatollah & he's not from Rafsanjan either..) who got Khomayni by the balls & told him that he'd have to 'drink poison' & sue for peace? The same man who likely as not had Khomayni's son Ahmad bumped off for daring to criticize his government? Well old age does mellow some people...
Posted by: Dave ||
02/25/2004 15:10 Comments ||
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#2
he's just a bazaari thief and capo da tutti cappi--he should choke on pistaccio nuts from his family's corrupt monopoly--he should be spitting out the shells when they hang him by his turban from a lamppost in north tehran
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/25/2004 17:00 Comments ||
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D'Oh, I'd forgeten about 'Rafsanjani' & the nuts! Wasn't the dear chap (& some other members of the Haqqani mafia) involved in the 'serial murders' case among other misdemeanors, IIRC that one ended up with Iran's deputy Minister for Information & Homeland Security developing a sudden & rather lethal craving for hair-removing powder in gaol.
Posted by: Dave ||
02/25/2004 19:20 Comments ||
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The 32-Down Balochistan Express night coach train narrowly escaped a disaster on Monday, when a huge bomb exploded at the railway crossing of Mouladad railway station on the Jacobabad-Quetta route , barely three minutes before the train was to arrive there. The blast blew off the railway track and left a large ditch at the place. It virtually shook the Jacobabad city, shattering window panes of houses in Mochi Basti and Lashari Mohalla. The railway authorities said the blast was caused by apparently a home-made bomb. The incident affected the railway traffic to other provinces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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It's not always a bad thing when the trains run late.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 10:59 Comments ||
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Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad condemning the operation in South Waziristan Agency has termed it part of the US conspiracy to provoke tribesmen against the army. Speaking at a function held at Jamia Arabia Hadiqatul Uloom, Al Markaz-i-Islami, on Monday, he claimed that there was no presence of Al Qaeda fugitives in the tribal belt, saying the US wanted to justify its expansionism in the entire region.
"Nope. No Bad Guys there. Trust me on this..."
The JI chief said that those who opposed the US policies were being declared supporters of the Al Qaeda network. He said that the allied forces had been deployed on the country's western borders and Pakistan had been besieged from all sides.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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"...those who opposed the US policies were being declared supporters of the Al Qaeda network."
Which is a bad thing because...?
"...Pakistan had been besieged from all sides.."
Sounds good to me.
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
02/25/2004 17:06 Comments ||
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"Nope. Nope. Ain't seen 'im. Came out February 2nd, saw his shadow, went back inside..."
Osama bin Laden's whereabouts remain a mystery to US and Pakistani forces as they crank up efforts to flush out Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters hiding near Afghanistan's eastern frontier. US military officials in Kabul have boldly predicted his capture in 2004, and Britain's Sunday Express weekly reported that the world's most wanted man was "boxed in" by US and British special forces in the rugged Pakistani mountains along the Afghan border. The newspaper said Osama was within a 10 mile by 10 mile area, being monitored by a US spy satellite. "As far as the reports of Osama bin Laden's location, I don't take much credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would go get him," US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said. "We continue to have rumours over the past two years," he told a news briefing in Kabul, when asked about speculation that Osama had been spotted.
Pakistani officials dismissed the report that located Osama in mountains north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. "That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal - you can go and see," said Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "There is no operation being conducted there and there are no foreign troops there."
"Yeah, we went and asked. They said he wudn't there."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Pakistani officials dismissed the report that located Osama in mountains north of the Pakistani city of Quetta. "That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal - you can go and see," said Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "There is no operation being conducted there and there are no foreign troops there."
Millions of Indian government, financial and industrial workers will go on strike today to protest a court's ruling against strikes, union officials said yesterday.
Uhhh... Hokay. That makes sense. I guess.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Its India, where everyone from the rickshaw drivers, to taxi drivers, to hospital workers strike on any given day they feel like it. I'd say their strikes are actually a bit stranger than even the French protests and strikes.
#4
Where's the AFLCIO when we really need them. The bucks are over there guys. Obviously making Kerry their flag bearer means that money is the issue not morals.
The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, dismissed on Monday the habeas corpus petitions challenging the detention of six Khan Research Labratories officials and scientists. The relatives of six KRL officials had approached the court to declare their detention as illegal, and set them at liberty.
"Youse can't jug them! They're important!"
The government had taken the position that the officials were detained under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952 as they had been engaged in nuclear proliferation and were responsible for directly and indirectly passing on to foreign countries and individuals secret codes, nuclear materials, substances, machinery, equipment components, information, documents, sketches, plans, models, articles and notes entrusted to them in their official capacity. The government said it was satisfied that the detention of the six persons was necessary with a view to preventing them from carrying on such activities in a manner prejudicial to the security of Pakistan. The relatives of Dr Mohammad Farooq, director KRL; Dr Nazeer Ahmad, chief engineer metallurgy department KRL; Brig (retired) Sajawal Khan Malik, retired director-general KRL; Dr Naseemuddin, currently head of Missile Manufacturing KRL, Kahuta; Brig (retired) Mohammad Iqbal Tajwar, former director-general Security KRL, Kahuta, and Maj (retired) Islamul Haq, principal staff officer of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, had approached the court for their release. Advocate Ikram Chaudhry, who represented Mohammad Farooq, and Maj (retired) Islamul Haq, said he would challenge the LHC decision before the Supreme Court. He said the issue was of fundamental rights and he would challenge it before the Supreme Court, which, under the Constitution, was the guardian of citizen's fundamental rights.
"Dat's right, y'r honor! My clients gotta right to sell national secrets to anybody dat wantsa buy 'em! Youse guys wanna buy some secrets?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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The Hizbul Mujahideen is warning voters of severe consequences if they take part in the forthcoming national elections, media reports said on Monday.
"This ain't no damned democracy! Youse keep yer asses home!"
Hizbul Mujahideen has launched a poster campaign saying that "those found participating (in the polls) will be dealt with severely," the Urdu newspaper Uqaab reported. Posters have been put up in Hizb's strongholds of southern Anantnag and Pulwama and Kupwara in the north, the Al Safa Urdu newspaper reported. "We've received information about these posters. It's routine during elections," a police officer said in Srinagar.
"Yeah. They always slaughter people when we have elections. I think it's a cultural thing."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Troops detained at least 25 suspects and blew up two houses in a new offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban today in a remote tribal area near the Afghan border, officials said. A day earlier, U.S. and Pakistani military officials said the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery, despite a British news report saying his location had been narrowed down to Pakistani mountains near the Afghan border. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters the latest operation was launched near Wana, northeast of where bin Laden was reported to be hiding. Asked whether the operation was targeting bin Laden, he said: "It is against foreign terrorists."
"And Binny's a foreign terrorist. You figure it out."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Two people were injured when an unknown assailant threw an explosive device as spectators entered a hall to hear a Turkish Kurd singer in Germany, police said on Monday. The blast took place on Sunday evening in an underground entrance to a concert hall in the northern city of Hamburg, where the singer Ibrahim Tatlisis was performing. The two people injured were members of the security team for the event. Police said the man believed to have thrown the device -- which was probably a grenade -- was seen running away, covered in blood. Despite the attack, the concert went ahead and was attended by around 1,000 people. Germany is home to a large population of Turkish immigrants, many of them Kurds. Police said they did not know what the motives for Sunday's attack might have been.
Sounds like the guy may have wanted to kill somebody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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A German social worker pocketed more than $200,000 in public funds intended for homeless people and war refugees and bought himself a brand new BMW with the money. The 39-year-old Berlin man was convicted of embezzlement and received a two-year suspended jail sentence. He was also told to repay the money. "He wasn't exactly adhering to the Robin Hood principle," said a court spokesman, referring to the medieval legend who robbed the rich to give to the poor. The defendant told Bild newspaper it had been easy for him to channel funds to his own account because he had clearance to issue individual payments of up to $2,400. "It was an enormous temptation, just a computer click away," he told the newspaper.
He's got a great future ahead of him in the NGO racket, once he gets out of stir.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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"He stole from the rich
and he gave to.........
.............himself"
Perversion of the Ballad of Jesse James
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 1:18 Comments ||
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I guess the only reason he didn't get tossed in the pokey is because he bought German. 200 large must buy some hunk of Barvarian metal thats for sure.
I'd would have went Italian myself.
#3
"..two-year suspended jail sentence." Is it just me, or do a lot of stories about crime and punishment in Europe show a pattern of rather light sentencing?
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
02/25/2004 7:43 Comments ||
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This guys got the makings of a damn good EU bureaucrat...
#5
I read the title and thought, "my, he must have shook down quite a few homeless folks every month to make those kind of payments."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 13:42 Comments ||
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Patrick, "......crime and punishment in Europe show a pattern of rather light sentencing?"
Yes, but that's for big crime, or they resign after they make an immunity law for themselves. The little ones, like the grannies who won't/can't pay Council Tax increases of 21%+ on a 3.4% increase in pension, get slammed in the jug for a few months,(UK-time). What I would like is a Retro Immunity law.
(BTW, I am OK, 'cos Amnesty Int forgave everyone involved in whatever it was).
Prospects for a settlement of the crisis in Haiti have faded, after opposition politicians rejected a power-sharing deal. The development came as beleaguered President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said rebels had attacked another city in the north of the country. President Aristide, facing an armed revolt that caps months of political protests from the opposition, warned that the violence could spark an exodus of boat people to the United States.
... so we'd better step in right now and fix things for Jean-Berty...
Rebels are now in control of half of the impoverished Caribbean country of 8 million people and have vowed to march on the capital, Port-au-Prince, within days. Civilians have barricaded roads into Port-au-Prince with buses and old refrigerators. Efforts to find a political solution stalled as opposition politicians rejected the power-sharing deal, already agreed to by Mr Aristide. US-led foreign mediators had hoped the deal could defuse the conflict. More than 60 people have died in clashes across the country since the violence began.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Aristide is playing the "prop me up or I loose the boat people invasion card."
Read a good opinion piece, Stay Until the Job is Done, on military.com that presented a conservative view on why Haiti is a special case in which we should actually engage in nation building.
Joe Galloway writes, "For me, the best argument for us fixing Haiti, even if it takes 25 years and costs us billions, is that 7.5 million Haitians are worth saving. They're not lazy or slothful, nor accepting of a hopeless future.
In the poorest village in a very poor country, on the parched Isle de la Gonave, the people built themselves a one-room schoolhouse out of the only material available to them: the thorny twigs of a bush that grows there. Every day, the mothers shoo their children, in uniforms freshly laundered and starched, off to school. Every night, under the village's lone street lamp, those boys and girls gather in a circle, reading and writing, as they do their homework.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday: "There is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing." But if that should change, the United States should plan to stay this time, and plan to pay for a long reconstruction, until a country that's a disgrace to the neighborhood is rebuilt - and those Haitian children have a brighter future."
If we can sucessfully turn Haiti around, the neighborhood might stop fiddling with socialism. It's worth a shot and will gloss up the neighborhood. If we are going to do it, it needs to be sold.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/25/2004 8:02 Comments ||
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Yes, and guess who'll be leading the flotilla parade....
#4
The problem is that we've turned Haiti around so many times they're dizzy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2004 8:23 Comments ||
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They're not lazy or slothful, nor accepting of a hopeless future.
Yeah..but if we prop them up, they will become that way.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 10:56 Comments ||
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Did I hear that the REVERAND Al Sharpton is going to Haiti? Too bad they are not cannibalistic there...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 14:55 Comments ||
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The problem is, Haiti has NOTHING. There are no known natural resources. Most of the land is pitiful, and won't grow much. A lot of it's mountainous and rocky, with short, swift rivers that can hardly be used to produce electricity. The native language is different from ALL their neighbors. The beaches are poor, and there isn't much else to attract tourists. Gambling's been played to death throughout the Caribbean, so even that's not a great possibility. "Long-term" could very well be forever for such a poor place.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 23:16 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabia and Egypt yesterday rejected outside imposition of reforms in the Arab world in an apparent reference to US calls for democracy in the Middle East. They also called for a speedy withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq.
"Yeah! Get out! Home home! Y' make us nervous!"
The leaders of the two countries âaffirmed that Arab states proceed on the path of development, modernization and reform in keeping with their peopleâs interests and values,â a joint statement said. Arab states âdo not accept that a particular pattern of reform be imposed on Arab and Islamic countries from outside,â the statement added.
"They don't accept it from the inside, either, but we won't go into that..."
The statement followed talks between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, in Riyadh. Modernization and reform must also fulfill the peopleâs needs and be compatible with âtheir Arab identityâ, said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
"No turbans, no dancing girls, no tribute, no go. So there, infidels!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Well, we do not like them setting up and financing their Wahabi hate factories mosques in our country, but since we are infidels, I guess the Saudis get a pass on that one...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 1:13 Comments ||
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They don't have to accept outside imposition of reforms. We can do it without their approval. I suspect that lots of folks in both countries wouldn't complain too loud.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:15 Comments ||
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fuel cell technology - let them eat sand.
Posted by: B ||
02/25/2004 11:04 Comments ||
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I'll bet SA really complains when Bush takes out Syria, then Iran, both from Iraq. I just love it when a plan comes together!
Now that Rumsfeld has "reluctantly" agreed that the Army needs another division, I wonder how long it will be before the Marines get another couple of independent brigades....
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/25/2004 16:10 Comments ||
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Unlikely OP... the Marine Corps is by the Law of Moses 3 divisons (and the hammering 4th in reserve) It's all part of the Marine Trinity thing. Where's Jarhead?
If the Marine Corps ever expands it'll go from 3 divisons to 9 divisions allowing 3 Corps of 3 divisons.... this is secretly known as MasterPlan Green.
The education system in Kuwait may promote Islam, which is an integral part of the Kuwaiti identity, but it does little to prepare youngsters for the job market, according to some liberal academics.
Wotta suprise.
The question of education reform is a sore point for the two main ideological constituencies vying for influence in the Gulf Arab country. "Our curricula will remain influenced by Islam and Arab nationalism; those who don't like it should leave the country," said MP Khaled Al-Adwah in December 2003, during the last GCC conference held in Kuwait. On this occasion, GCC members decided to emphasise their opposition to extremism by reforming their school curricula. At the same time, they showed the American administration that they were committed to fighting terrorism.
Except for Mr. Adwah, of course...
In parliament, however, conservatives and liberals continue to battle it out over what shape Kuwait's school curricula should take. Liberals desire a secularised society and a "Western" way of life. Conservatives, on the other hand, are promoting a state ruled by themselves Islamic tenets. Islamists have been trying to influence the education system in Kuwait for a long time. The Salafists, who seek a return to the fundamentals of Islam, have formed the majority in student unions for 25 years. Moreover, their influence has been growing stronger, especially after parliament voted five years ago to ban co-ed schools and universities. The question of Islamist influence on education in the Middle East and Gulf regions has been a priority for the US since teh September 11 attacks. Washington has been pressuring Kuwait to turn public opinion in favour of Western values. US policy-makers believe the key to defeating terrorism lies in altering school curricula, which are presumed to foment fanaticism.
It's that "hate everybody who's not holy like you are, kiddies" thing...
Dr Shlaman Al-Essa, a professor of political science at Kuwait University, believes the current curricula does not favour religious minorities, such as Christians and Jews. Speaking to Gulf News, he said the education offered to youngsters today promotes religious values, but does not prepare them for the job market.
You've got to read more than one book...
Conversely, Mohammed Tabatabei, a Salafist MP, maintains that as Islam is an integral part of the Kuwaiti identity, students must learn about their religion. "This education does not produce terrorism," he told Gulf News. "People like Osama bin Laden are enemies of Islam." A neutral position is difficult to maintain because it aggravates both camps. As such, it remains to be seen whether Kuwait will slip under American influence or retain independence.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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I swear I read that Kuwait was going to institute sharia right around 9/11 then didn't.
#2
that's true--except for their former abassador to the u.s. in 1991 who said the ungrateful pricks should've offered to pay for the costs of the pentagon rehab--but they're 'rabs so ..you know
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/25/2004 2:51 Comments ||
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This deserves a f**kin Duh! Award.
I'm even tempted to tell one of those legendary stories about the effects of Islam. There was this Aussie nurse I knew back in '92 who worked in the Family Clinic at Aramco. She told me several classics - but they were first-hand, not myths. In one story she told me about the poor Saoodi couple that couldn't figure out why they couldn't get the li'l wifey pregnant. Turns out that...
#5
Ship - Hey, bro, consider the stats... I'd love to say I'm so handsome that she told tales to keep me around... but that's not true (Lol!) and in a place with a ratio of approx 40 myns for each unattached femalian, not to mention one that was curvy and gorgeous and smart and adventurous (!!!) and had a good income (and didn't accept "gifts") and was funny as hell - she didn't need to do much of anything to keep them lined up at the door. No, sadly, her tales were all too obviously true. When all they study is the Qu'uran and when there is nothing in there to teach basic health or anything else of value or use on this Earthly plane, well... Islam is what it is, I'm afraid.
Yet stereotypes usually start out with a basis in fact. An individual might not fit the mold, but it accomodates most members...
On the contrary, this society is growing in numbers, as well as in sophistication. Gone are most of the petty restrictions that made life so miserable just a few years ago. Today, one is able to access the Internet, read various uncensored newspapers, watch a multitude of television broadcasts and, more important, speak out with relative ease. I was pleasantly surprised to engage in several heated conversations with folks who barely knew me but who felt comfortable enough to speak out.
That's a pretty pastel picture...
Visits to shopping malls and ostentatious palaces provided with useful interlocutors and insights. As I always do during my visits to the kingdom, I walked for several hours in malls to observe and, if possible, converse with young folks. After I adjusted to the visible/invisible segregation of Saudi women â one never gets used to it but one adjusts as best as possible â what struck me was the number of unescorted women going about their shopping. To be sure, there was the occasional teenage boy who escorted his female relatives, but there sure were fewer of them.
Huddled around food courts were several young men arguing happily with loud laughter. This too was different. I mustered enough courage to introduce myself and ask whether I could speak with them. I literally was besides myself when a young man not older than 22 stood up and gave me his seat. This had never happened to me in Saudi Arabia. What was on their minds? Jasim insisted that he and his friends were looking for good paying jobs. These high school graduates could only land offers that paid too little to "save face" in front of relatives.
Abdulrahman acknowledged that better paying posts required additional education and training and that he, for one, was seriously considering college. Mohammed was the more pragmatic as he pointed out to expatriate workers milling around, serving and cleaning, "we first need to abandon the notion that the work they do is menial." When I asked him whether he would consider such a job, he insisted that he would, as long as the pay was decent.
I related this encounter to a prominent member of the ruling family when I sat down with him in a crowded majlis. "Our problem," his highness underscored, "is not lack of jobs but persuading the private sector to pay decent wages to those willing to work." When I asked whether the State had a minimum wage law, he stressed that the time was ripe to have one, "lest we find ourselves overwhelmed." The kingdom's estimated unemployment rate hovers around 30 per cent with no relief in sight. "All of the security measures that are deployed," my interlocutor insisted, "will not provide us peace of mind, unless we address our society's primary concern â the state of our economy." Is this the face of the new Saudi Arabia where ordinary folks realise that they have to accept job offers â even if they are not of the desk variety â and where the ruling family reconciles with the notion of paying them decent wages? For if it is, we will surely witness a gradual evolution of the ruling family's practiced paternalism and, equally important, an awakening of internal needs as never expressed before by most Saudis.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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C'mon. That job is loud, hard, and dirty. And the pay?
#2
When I asked him whether he would consider such a job, he insisted that he would ...
One of my favorite colleagues at the U, molecular cardiologist, just got tenure, said to me once that everything she needed to learn in medicine and science she learned as a server at a restaurant as a teen. That's where she learned to keep people with impossible demands happy, how to juggle confusing orders, keep up a rapid pace, how to treat people well even when you were miserable inside, and handle change (both monetary and in the work of the day). It made sense then and it does today.
If young Jasim were to do this he just might find himself sitting in the catbird seat in twenty years, instead of lugging a rifle around in some desolate mountain range, or sitting in front of a water pipe telling everyone that he could have been a contender.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:21 Comments ||
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Yeah...the mall. Everyone knows you get a good cross-section of the entire nation at the mall.
More like a good cross-section of people who are materialistic and who don't mind paying too much for foreign goods. It speaks volumes about this journalist's internalized prejudices that he instinctively heads for the mall when seeking opinions.
#4
The sound of change you hear is that of Saudi society getting sucked under the sand. Would it be otherwise but I have absolutely no optimism about that dump.
#5
Gromky-
Actually, in the KSA, the mall does have a pretty solid cross section of people, from the TCNs to sheiks. That's one reason I went whenever I got the chance - it was the best way I knew of to meet realSaudis.
BTW, the one thing that shocks the hell out of infidels when they see a Saudi mall is the longerie stores. The window displays make Victoria's Secret look like a relgious wear supply house.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/25/2004 9:03 Comments ||
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#6
"Slow but gradual"?
As opposed to what? Slow but sudden? Quick but infinitesimal?
#7
"Slow but gradual" translates to "level in all directions" in my book. Which equals zero.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/25/2004 14:47 Comments ||
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#8
Is this like one of those koans where "the shadow of the broom sweeps over the floor, but raises no dust" things? 'Tis so subtle that my meter failed to register the hit.
The Bush administration has rejected a proposal by the U.S. military for increased freedom of action along the Iraqi-Syrian border in an attempt to halt the flow of Muslim fighters into Iraq. U.S. officials said the White House rejected a plan by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that would permit U.S. forces that operate along the Iraqi-Syrian border to pursue Al Qaida-aligned fighters into Syria and attack insurgency way-stations inside Syrian territory.
It's not time for that yet...
They said the plan identified Iran and Syria as the leading sources of Muslim volunteers who seek to enter Iraq and join the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition. The military plan was endorsed by the Defense Department, officials said. The Pentagon warned the White House that without U.S. military pressure Damascus would continue to facilitate the flow of Muslim volunteers into Iraq. They said Syrian officials have been bribed to allow the insurgents to cross the border. Officials said the Pentagon concluded that the flow of Islamic insurgents from Syria has become a key difficulty in stabilizing Iraq. They said Syria has been used by Islamic insurgents to infiltrate Iraq and join Al Qaida suicide squads.
There's probably a reason this leaked. There are some big hats sitting around Damascus right now asking each other, "But what if they are serious?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
02/25/2004 00:01 ||
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Saw John Podherotz at his book signing on Broadway/82nd, Upper West Side (Manhattan) -- despite the heckling of who I assume was a Democratic plant, the C-SPAN-filmed event went okay, and he pointed out that Iraq is not an isolated case. He did not elaborate on a Saddam-al-Qaeda connection, but noted that the "international community" is a crock when our enemies are onboard ...
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
02/25/2004 0:37 Comments ||
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Don't close the borders. We want them coming in where we have the advantage.
Restrict the flow of terrorist wannabees Syrian visitors - to a point where we can track them. And follow them to the "nest". Then kill the whole rats nest.
#3
Only problem, Spook, is that it continues to disrupt life for the Iraqis. The "flypaper" strategy was fine last year, but now we have to transition the Iraqis to running their own affairs (more or less). Continued infiltration of dumb jihadis makes that more difficult. I'd prefer we get the Iraqi Border Patrol up to speed, both in quality and quantity, and start nailing the infiltrators at the border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 1:30 Comments ||
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#4
Fred aced ya. :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/25/2004 2:06 Comments ||
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#5
I suck, please delete.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/25/2004 2:10 Comments ||
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#6
This is the problem when allies go to war with a common enemy in Iran, Iraq and Syria -- but knock off only the Iraqi regime. Why is the Ayatollah still breathing free? Why is Bashir al-Assad not hopping from spiderhole to spiderhole like a rabbit? Thank God the Allies did not fight WWII piecemeal: "We will knock off Italy -- but for Germany and Japan we shall threaten economic sanctions, apply diplomatic pressure and depend on the League of Nations for disarmament and pacification," according to FDR. Yeah..., that would have worked.
#8
Garrison - Hey, I'm there, bubba. I have a few suggestions along this line I haven't posted before, cuz I'm so shy 'n retiring... Thx for posting - 'tis definitely a step in the right direction. Methinks Dubya is there, too, just hamstrung by the timeline. '->
I'm assuming that if GWB wins (and I really hope he does), we can expect truly momentous changes in the ME, starting with toppling the Mullahs and finishing with annexing that 40km in Eastern Saudi Arabia?
That's what I'm hoping for anyhow.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
02/25/2004 17:42 Comments ||
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#10
Tony(UK) - That would float my boat quite nicely! If we added in the removal of the drug biz, by whatever means it takes - and I have to favor some variety of legalization, given the lousy WoD record - well, then they'd be bottled up rather nicely in the pig styes they've created. Rather hard to flit around the world doing jihadi deeds of derring-do without the merc-money, y'know? Dunno which would be more fitting at that point: letting them stew / wallow or whacking them in-place... ;-)
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
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