Granada, 30 Nov. (AKI) - From next year Arabic will be taught in secondary schools throughout the southern Spanish province of Granada. Students can choose to study the language, along with Arabic culture, thanks to an agreement between the Council of the Andalucia region and the University of Granada. The initiative is an effort to meet the needs of the numerous Muslim students attending local schools and boost the study of more languages in Andalucia's schools.
A committee of professors from the university will be given the task of gathering the requests for the study of Arabic as a second language from the various schools in the province. Several of these professors, together with colleagues from the North African and Middle Eastern colleges with which the university has an exchange programme, such as Morocco, Iran and Yemen, will teach the language classes. The idea of adding Arabic, to the current options of English, French or German, goes back a couple of years, and was initially due to start this year.
The rector of Granada University, David Aguilar said: "The project will not only widen the knowledge of young people, but will allow them to get closer to the Arab world and get to know the culture, promoting tolerance and respect between the students."
When did tolerance and respect matter to the Arab world?
Eight centuries of Moorish rule left Granada with a rich cultural heritage and a significant Muslim community. The education councillor for the region, CÃ ndida Martinez, said a key aim of adding Arabic to the second language options is to help the increasing number of Muslim students whose mother tongue is Arabic, so others can better understand both their language and culture.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/30/2005 12:55 ||
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When did tolerance and respect matter to the Arab world?
#2
Let me put this a plainly as possible so there's no misunderstanding:
Are the Spanish out of their fucking minds? :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/30/2005 13:55 Comments ||
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Yes, Barbara S., apparently so. They did not learn from the train bombings. They are taking the frence route to surrender, capitualate, and wet one's pants.
BERLIN - Germany will not be intimidated and is not open to terrorist âblackmailâ, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in delivering her new governmentâs statement of policy to the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.
A crisis over the abduction of a German aid worker by terrorists in Iraq overshadowed the first major speech by the new chancellor, the first woman to head a German government. âWe are not open to blackmail,â Merkel said to applause from across the Bundestag. âWe cannot relent in the fight against international terrorism. It targets that which is important to us and forms the core of our civilization,â she said. âIt targets our entire value system. It targets freedom, tolerance and respect for human dignity, democracy and the rule of law. If we were to surrender these values we would surrender ourselves,â Merkel told the Bundestag in her first major speech.
No new details regarding efforts to free aid worker and archaeologist Susanne Osthoff were made public Wednesday by the crisis team working to secure the release of her and her driver. Osthoff, a 43-year-old archaeologist by training who had worked in Iraq for years and has long been active in the aid sector, was abducted along with her driver on Friday or Saturday. Kai Hirschmann of the Institute for Research into Terrorism in Essen drew a link between the installation of Merkelâs broadly-based government in Berlin and the abduction. He said the terrorists, whom he linked to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the self-styled head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, wanted to send a message to the new German government not to cooperate with the United States or with the government in Baghdad.
Maybe that's true, maybe not. So Angela, what are you going to do besides talk?
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/30/2005 10:47 ||
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The Euros have shown a remarkable talent for talking and doing nothing. It took them 300 years to respond to the invasion of Spain by the Muslims with the Crusades.
So, with regard to hostages, do what you do best, talk, and DO NOTHING.
Oops, some of Saddam Husseinâs henchmen have been found, hiding out from war crimes prosecution, as âwar refugeesâ in Western Europe. Thousands of men (and a few women) who had done Saddamâs dirty work, hastily fled Iraq after the American 2003 invasion. Some had developed âescape plans,â while others just grabbed all the cash (American hundred dollar bills were a favorite) and portable valuables they could, jumped into the Mercedes, and headed for Syria or Jordan. With enough cash, new identification can be bought, and asylum sought in Europe. Given the European hostility to the American invasion of Iraq, these Iraqi âwar refugeesâ were welcomed, and giving a parking spot for the Mercedes, welfare benefits and a place to live. Credentials were not closely scrutinized, at least not at first. Now some of these refugees have been revealed to be, well, rather unsavory. Sweden, which has 60,000 Iraqi refugees (most of them Kurds, from earlier rounds of repression by Saddam), has uncovered a dozen senior officials in Saddamâs government, among the more recent Iraqi refugees. Two of these are cousins of Saddam, and were last employed as generals in the Iraqi army. The Swedes are investigating the situation, and whether they have allowed in anyone who was possibly involved in war crimes, or is still supporting terrorism. Some of the earlier Iraqi refugees apparently recognized some of the 2003 ones as bad people, and got the attention of the authorities. Some of the Saddam supporters who fled Iraq in 2003, have been found setting up terrorist support operations in the countries they found asylum in. Even before Saddam was driven from power, he had a network of trusted aids outside the country who acted as spies and agents for his smuggling operations (which included weapons, but mostly consisted of luxury goods for Saddamâs best supporters.)
Posted by: ed ||
11/30/2005 09:43 ||
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In other news, water is wet.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/30/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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The prison camps at Guantanamo Bay have been the subject of controversy for over three years. The latest flap involves photos used by the media when reporting on the detainee camps. This has become the latest bone of contention between the military and the media. The images most commonly used are of Camp X-Ray, a temporary camp that was replaced by Camp Delta in April, 2002. The newer camps are going to be on the level of the latest correctional institutions anywhere in the world.
This has not been the first time this sort of media deception has been used. Earlier in 2005, there were questions raised about the treatment of the detainees. In July, Senator Richard Durbin compared the treatment of the detainees to Nazi concentration camps. This is despite the fact that out of over 24,000 interrogations, incidents of abuse were rare (32 involving interrogations â 6 of which were corrected on the spot, with the rest dealt with through normal channels). Of the 10,000 troops at Guantanamo Bay, only ten have been disciplined for not meeting standards â and in many of those cases, the disciplined soldiers had been provoked by the detainees.
One of the other bones of contention was the release of an interrogation diary involving a high-value detainee. The methods used during the detaineeâs interrogations were portrayed as routine. They were not â the techniques had been authorized as part of a special protocol. Naturally, human rights groups have been complaining about this, and their concerns are amplified by sympathetic news reports â which generates heat from politicians, who will rush to impose new rules.
That said, there is more than one way to distort things. Slanting facts, as has been done in the case of Mohammed al-Khatani, is one way. Another, more effective, means of distortion is to omit facts altogether. At least a dozen detainees that have been released have gone back to fighting with al-Qaeda. What also is not revealed is the intelligence gained. In many cases, this intelligence has given the United States information on how al-Qaeda is organized, where some al-Qaeda cells are, and on future operations. The media has also neglected to point out that al-Qaeda manuals instruct members to make false claims of being tortured if they are captured.
This latest incident is going to make relations between the military and media even worse than they already are. Already reporters are perceived as not telling the full story with regards to Iraq (a justified perception). Now, the use of outdated photos of Guantanamo Bay will only add to the perception that the media is undermining their efforts to defeat al-Qaeda.
Posted by: ed ||
11/30/2005 09:54 ||
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Now, the use of outdated photos of Guantanamo Bay will only add to the perception that the media is undermining their efforts to defeat al-Qaeda.
I wouldn't say it's perception. FACT would be more like it.
The liberal political group MoveOn.org has yanked a video ad from its website after being criticized for using images of British soldiers to represent Americans in Iraq.
The 30-second ad, which also began running on CNN and cable stations during the Thanksgiving weekend, stated that "150,000 American men and women are stuck in Iraq" this holiday season.
But the ad showed soldiers who were "not wearing U.S. uniforms," according to a Pentagon spokesman who was interviewed by Cybercast News Service Wednesday, approximately two hours before the Internet version of the ad was pulled from the MoveOn.org website.
"Some folks won't be home this holiday season," the 30-second spot declared before showing a video pan of a group of soldiers getting military rations. The narrator then stated that "150,000 American men and women are stuck in Iraq."
Todd Vician, a spokesman with the U.S. Defense Department, told Cybercast News Service after viewing the ad that none of the men featured in the photograph was wearing U.S. uniforms. "We don't have that style of desert camouflage," he said.
Vician noted that combat fatigues worn by the Marines and the Army have "a pixilated design," and Air Force BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) have a different pattern than the uniforms shown in the spot.
In addition to the men wearing foreign uniforms, Vician stated that he had never seen U.S. soldiers using meal containers like those shown in the ad.
A Nov. 21 press release from MoveOn.org Political Action indicated that the advertisement "echoes Democrats' calls for an exit plan from Iraq" and attacks Republicans for "failing to offer a plan to end the U.S. occupation" of that country.
The video ad itself concluded with the following: "Tell your representative. Support our troops. Bring them home."
Along with running nationwide on CNN, the spot was being aired on cable stations in the districts of GOP members of the House of Representatives who, according to the MoveOn.org press release, "launched personal attacks on Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a decorated Vietnam veteran who last week called for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."
MoveOn.org did not return repeated telephone calls from Cybercast News Service seeking comment for this article. It was unclear Wednesday afternoon whether the ad had also been pulled from television.
But the television ad has already reportedly drawn a sharp reaction from an Army captain who just completed his third deployment in Iraq, according to OpinionJournal.com.
James Taranto, the author of the OpinionJournal.com column, wrote that the Army captain was "an old friend" of his who emailed with his criticism. The captain was quoted as calling the MoveOn.org TV ad "completely offensive" and "a Bush-bashing ad" that "shows turkey and crying wives and blames Bush for it all."
As "the idiots from MoveOn.org ... pretend to argue on my behalf, they show a group of soldiers standing around a table in the Middle East," the captain reportedly wrote and added that the individuals in the photo were "actually British soldiers.
"One is in shorts (we don't have shorts as a normal combat uniform), and the others are all clearly wearing British pattern fatigues," the Army captain wrote, noting that people at MoveOn.org "don't even know what an American soldier looks like!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/30/2005 17:01 ||
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The 30-second ad, which also began running on CNN and cable stations during the Thanksgiving weekend, stated that "150,000 American men and women are stuck in Iraq" this holiday season.
Well, Moron.Org, military enlistments are up. How do you explain that? Unlike the Demo dimwits and their ilk, there are people with principle who are willing to lay it on the line rather than just carp, whine and counsel defeat.
#6
MoveOn.org has now photoshpped camo pants on the shorts wearing British soldier and changed to the colors so the uniforms are closer to US BDU shades. MoveOn.org is a bunch of unprincipled, lying scumbags. Michelle Malkin: THEY DON'T SUPPORT OUR TROOPS
Posted by: ed ||
11/30/2005 22:15 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her vote to authorize war in Iraq amid growing unease among liberal Democrats who could determine the potential 2008 presidential candidate's future. ``I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war,'' the New York senator said in a lengthy letter to thousands of people who have written her about the war.
At the same time, she said the United States must ``finish what it started'' in Iraq.
The 1,600-word letter was sent, mainly through e-mail to her potential contributors, on Tuesday - a day before President Bush was to deliver a speech on his Iraqi policies. In her letter to voters, the senator cited prewar assurances from the White House that the United States would use the United Nations to resolve the issue of Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction.
And as you doubtless can't recall, that's just what Dubya did, until the UN proved itself useless and ineffective.
``Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have been asked to give the president authority to use force against Iraq,'' she said. Clinton stopped short of saying her vote was a mistake, the political path chosen by two other potential Democratic candidates - former vice presidential candidate John Edwards and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.
``Given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their 'last throes,'' this administration was either not being honest with the American people or did not know what was going on in Iraq,'' she wrote.
The constitution is done, elections for a new government are coming, the security forces are improving -- what part of 'improving' did you miss?
``It is time for the president to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor,'' she wrote.
Bush did. We win, the terrorists lose.
Clinton, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said earlier this month it would be a ``big mistake'' for U.S. troops to pull out immediately. She stuck with that line Tuesday. ``America has a big job to do now. We must set reasonable goals to finish what we started and successfully turn over Iraqi security to Iraqis,'' she wrote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/30/2005 10:25 ||
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We must set reasonable goals to finish what we started and successfully turn over Iraqi security to Iraqis,'' shethe sorry wench wrote.
duhhh, isn't that what 'W' has been saying? What did I miss?
#4
"Given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their 'last throes,'' this administration was either not being honest with the American people or did not know what was going on in Iraq,'' she wrote.
The constitution is done, elections for a new government are coming, the security forces are improving -- what part of 'improving' did you miss "
#5
Hil is trying to do what Bill did, that is, convince two or more factions of supporters that she is on their side.
Rantburgians are not her target audience. Her target audiences are: 1. potential financial donors who are don't feel comfortable with the cut-and-run and 2. potential financial donors who advocate cut-and-run. Whether she succeeds or not will be measured in how much her PAC (HILLPAC is the only one I know about) or her future exploratory committee is able to raise and the financial resources of her opponents.
The Washington Post, which carried Evan Vucci's AP photo, noted that at a protest the same day Sheehan had addressed a crowd of only about 100. âIn the morning,â the Post observed, âSheehan signed copies of her new book, being published this week, for an even smaller crowd,â although it cited bad weather as a possible factor.
But in a statement today, Sheehan accused âright-wingâ sites of âspreading a false story that nobody bought my book at Camp Casey on Saturday. That is not true, I sold all 100 copies and got writer's cramp signing them. Photos were taken of me before the people got in line to have me sign the book. We made $2000 for the peace house.â
Her publisher, Arnie Kotler at Koa Books, meanwhile released a letter to her supporters, charging that âAP and Reuters posted photos - I can't imagine why - of Cindy sitting at the book table between signings, rather than while someone was at the table. And now the smear websites are circulating an article, with these photos, that Cindy gave a signing and nobody came. It's simply not trueâŠ. the benefit books signing in Crawford, Texas on November 26, 2005 was well attended and a huge success.â
Asked for a response, an AP spokesman commented this afternoon:
"Photographer Evan Vucci, queried about the incident today said that he was present at the book signing from about 10 a.m. to about 11 a.m. During that time, he said, people were coming in to have their books signed in small groups of a few at a time.
"At the time the photos were taken 'maybe 5 people had come in,' Vucci says, and Sheehan was waiting for more to stop by, which they did individually as well as in very small groups. Therefore the wording of the caption is accurate in that Sheehan was waiting for people to show up at her signing."
Posted by: Tater Tot ||
11/30/2005 09:56 ||
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If there was ever any question that the liberal press is nothing but a mouthpiece of the DNC, this sudden turn on Cindy Sheehan proves it.
Glenn Reynolds said said "Funny, but not long after Rep. Murtha's outburst on the war, we're seeing a bipartisan consensus that a cut-and-run approach would be disastrous."
Hillary was given the blue light special on Drudge today, looking stately and with the caption: "finish the job". Liberman is touting all of his trips to Iraq and now sees "real progress".
The democrats have stuck their finger in the wind and decided they are now for the war, after they were against it.. after they were for it. Got that?
So now you will now see the WAPO, NYT, Reuters, etc, all simultaneously pulling the rug out from under their little Side-Show Cindy. No more rent a crowds compliments of Ben and Jerrys. And we even get to see Reuters photos that prove no one really likes her anyway.
That's why I won't vote Democrat for a long time, even though I don't think the republicans are a heck of a whole lot better. For the dhims, it's all about image and perception. The concept of conviction is unknown to them.
And if there is any question that they are going for an extreme makeover...here's an article from the Boise Statesman that gives a clue to how they will look when their new makeover is done. Dem's New Image No more wine-sipping, tree-hugging, hybrid driving ...the new dems are gun-totin', huntin', truck driving, mountain men.
Watch out gays...you're next to be axed from their invite list. And with somewhere between 75-85% of Americans identifying with Christianity, you can bet they are all going to find Jesus real soon too.
For some reason,that song by the Village People, MEN, MEN, MEN, MEN.. keeps going through my mind.
#6
it's the right link, but it won't get you there.
Key passage... It's exactly this Western demeanor that helped Schweitzer unseat a Montana Republican governor in 2004. It helps his approval rating â a startling 69 percent, according to a November poll.
And it makes him one of the rising stars of the Democrats, big enough to be the lead of a New York Times story this past Sunday as a "gun-loving, pickup truck-driving, church-going, jeans-wearing governor."
Anyone who really wants to read it all can go here, and scroll down to Today's headlines. But I digress, back to Cindy.
#7
I think that the Dems will still stick with the PC term of Mountain Persons, though, 2b. Old habits die hard, ya know....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/30/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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Persons of Elevation
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/30/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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I'm just really looking forward to the pictures of Hillary's hunting trip. And maybe some photos of John Kerry standing behind her, holding her real close, showing her how to shoot.
#11
I can't imagine why - of Cindy sitting at the book table between signings, rather than while someone was at the table. When I worked at a bookstore the next person was perhaps 10 feet back at the most. Well within the frame of the photos I saw on Drudge.
If they did keep the signers back even further one has to wonder why. Perhaps Cindy was passing along secret instructions to each minion and didn't want anyone to overhear.
#18
WaPo is generally liberal hawkish, support Joe and Hilary (and dislikes Bush) and has little use for Sheehan, esp now that shes turned on Hilary. NYT, LAT, are more dovish than the Post, and less enthused about Hilary. Networks are simply not that smart, and more reactive. Wire services simply put up pictures - the loonies around Sheehan may think there was an agenda to it, but thats cause theyre loonies - dont see why folks here would buy off on that.
#20
Her publisher, Arnie Kotler at Koa Books, meanwhile released a letter to her supporters, charging that âAP and Reuters posted photos
Kinko's Guy: "Let's see... 5 cents a copy.... that will be $1.25, sir."
ASHINGTON - Airline passengers will be allowed to carry small scissors and tools onto planes, reversing a rule that led to confiscation of many thousands of sharp objects at airports since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a omeland Security Department official said Wednesday.
Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley on Friday will announce changes to the list of items prohibited in carry-on luggage and to the airport screening process, according to the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be announced.
With federal air marshals on planes, bulletproof cockpit doors, armed pilots and 100 percent screening of checked baggage, the threat of a terrorist taking over an airplane has lessened since the 2001 attacks, the official said. The biggest concern now is explosives.
Though the new list of prohibited items hasn't been finalized, certain sharp objects won't be on it, the official said, including scissors less than 4 inches long and wrenches and screwdrivers less than 7 inches long.
Air Transport Association spokesman David Castelveter said the industry has been briefed on the plan and supports it.
"What we believe, as does the TSA, is that we should be focusing on what poses the greatest risk," Castelveter said.
#4
Can of soda from attendant station in a sock.
Credit card with a finely sharpened edge in your wallet.
Ther are more but it wouldn't do to publish them here or elsewhere.
Their rules have meant very little else than inconvenience for years.
House of Representatives Minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday backed a call by Democratic Rep. John Murtha to quickly start the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. "I will be supporting the Murtha resolution," Pelosi said of Murtha's resolution calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the earliest practicable date. Okay, Denny, let's vote again. All in favor...
#1
calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the earliest practicable date
That could mean almost anything depending on who is calling the shots. Total polispeak, designed to appeal to the moonbats without genuinely promising anything.
#3
W has said teh same thing - she just means it as "immediately" without having the courage to say that - same goes for 99% of the donks too - Lieberman is the only one with backbone and a sense of history, it seems
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/30/2005 15:23 Comments ||
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I always figured Murtha was just her supposedly bulletproof frontman on this anyways. But after 30 years in Congress, I look at him more as a political hack then Vietnam veteran.
403-3, Nancy. You can look it up.
#5
He's a f***! Out with him.
Voted NO on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)
Voted NO on banning gay adoptions in DC. (Jul 1999)
Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit burning the US flag. (Jun 1999)
Voted NO on ending preferential treatment by race in college admissions. (May 1998)
Supports anti-flag desecration amendment. (Mar 2001)
Rated 50% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Voted NO on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism. (Sep 2001)
Voted NO on subjecting federal employees to random drug tests. (Sep 1998)
Voted NO on vouchers for private & parochial schools. (Nov 1997)
Rated 91% by the NEA, indicating pro-public
education votes. (Dec 2003)
Voted NO on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary prayer. (Mar 1994)
Voted NO on reducing Marriage Tax by $399B over 10 years. (Mar 2001)
Voted NO on federalizing rules for driver licenses to hinder terrorists. (Feb 2005)
#6
Consider this scary thought -- if the Dems get control of the House in 2006, Pelosi will be after Cheney in line to become President! Maybe the ABC hit, Commander in Chief is to promote Pelosi rather than Hillary...
Forget complaints against Repubs, we got to get Repubs elected to the House. I don't think my ears can stand hearing even more from her.
November 30, 2005: The U.S. Department of Defense revealed that most of the military services made their recruitment goals in October. Actually, all the active services exceeded their goals (the army by five percent). Recruiting was less successful in the reserves. The marines and army beat their goals for their reserve components, but the navy fell 11 percent short, and the air force reserves were short a third of their numbers.
The air force reservists, who operate a lot of aerial tankers and transports, have been worked particularly hard over the last three years. Most of these reservists have been mobilized at least once, and many have been sent overseas several times. While their work is not very dangerous (compared to what army and marine reservists must face), it does take you away from home, and that is not popular in the air force (which has its people do three and six month tours overseas, rather than 12 months, like the army.)
Posted by: Steve ||
11/30/2005 11:59 ||
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I breathlessly await the front-page story in the WaPo on this subject.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
11/30/2005 12:24 Comments ||
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Funny, I was just reading an al-Reuters article this morning, gloating about the Army's allegedly vain efforts to get people to come back on AD:
The U.S. Army, fresh off missing its latest annual recruiting goal . . . blah blah blah . . . The Army fell about 7,000 short of its goal of sending 80,000 recruits into basic training in fiscal 2005 . . . About 80 percent of the letters went to people who served in services other than the Army.
Posted complete with this endearing and totally unrelated photo.
Posted by: ST ||
11/30/2005 12:35 Comments ||
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#3
It's clear, the only reason the military made its recruiting goals in October was because the economy is so bad no body could get a job any where else. That's why Chimpy McBushitler had Halliburton create the recession we're in.
That's a riot! Does Halliburton have an Inflation Creation Division, too?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/30/2005 15:11 Comments ||
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ST - as a matter of fact, the Army ended up with 10,000 more personnel in the Regular Army [excluding activated Reserve and National Guard]from its year end strength of 482,000 in Fiscal Year 2004. That is 492,000 at the end of FY 2005. Some short fall there al Reuters.
A defense contractor charged with failing to register as a Chinese agent admitted passing data on U.S. Navy arms technology to China for 22 years, including information on next-generation destroyers, an aircraft carrier catapult and the Aegis weapons system, according to new court papers in the case. Two federal judges in Los Angeles on Monday reversed earlier rulings and ordered the contractor and his brother held without bond. The rulings followed testimony from FBI agents in the case.
Court papers released Monday, including a detention motion filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Staples, also identified the Chinese military intelligence handler who received the information from defense contractor Chi Mak and his brother Tai Mak, who also is in the Chinese military. The court documents shed new light on what U.S. intelligence officials say will be one of the most damaging cases of Chinese technology spying on U.S. weapons, even though the information compromised was not secret.
According to court papers, Chi Mak, an electrical engineer who worked on more than 200 Navy contracts, told investigators two days after his Oct. 30 arrest that he had been sending sensitive but unclassified documents on weapons research to China since 1983. According to the papers, Chi Mak admitted passing to China information on:
⢠Direct current-to-direct current (DDC) converters for submarines.
⢠A 5,000-amp direct current hybrid circuit breaker for submarines.
⢠Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), a new system to launch aircraft from carriers using magnets instead of steam.
⢠The power distribution system for the Aegis weapons system and its Spy-1 radar, used on the Navy's most advanced guided missile destroyers and cruisers.
⢠A study that reveals the methods used by U.S. warship personnel to continue operating after being attacked. Officials said the paper is a blueprint for attacking and disabling warships.
⢠Modifications and Additions to Reactor Facility (MARF), a nuclear reactor located at the Navy's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory that's used for testing prototype nuclear reactors. Investigators found a detailed, hand-drawn map of that facility in Chi Mak's house.
Prosecutors argued in court that Chi Mak planned to retire to China in March and thus posed a flight risk. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who ordered Chi Mak to be held without bond, dismissed a defense lawyer's claim that the charges were exaggerated. "You're talking about billions of dollars of technology that puts our country at serious risk," he said. Investigators found data on the DDX destroyer program on encrypted files carried by Tai Mak, a Phoenix television engineer, when he was arrested along with his wife Oct. 28 at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to China. The documents were labeled "proprietary" and "restricted," the court papers stated.
Chi Mak and his wife also were arrested Oct. 28 and initially charged with theft of government property and conspiracy. The charges against Chi Mak, his wife and Tai Mak were later reduced to failing to register as government agents. Tai Mak's wife was charged in a separate indictment with running a marriage fraud business.
According to the papers, Chi Mak, who was recently fired from his defense contractor job at Power Paragon, initially traveled to Hong Kong and gave the stolen information to his brother. Tai Mak then passed it to Pu Pei-Liang, identified by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) as a research fellow at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies (CAPS) at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China. Later, Tai Mak served as the courier for the data.
During an intercepted telephone call to Mr. Pu on Oct. 19, Chi Mak stated he was part of the "Red Flower of North America," the code name that the FBI thinks was used to identify the spy ring. The NCIS said the center in Guangzhou is run by the Chinese military and conducts operational research for it, including acquiring U.S. Navy technology.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/30/2005 11:22 ||
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"The charges against Chi Mak, his wife and Tai Mak were later reduced to failing to register as government agents."
The prosecuter will surely give the ole "complexities of such cases make it improbable to secure a conviction" line. Lets hope they spilled their guts for bigger carp to fry.
#2
"You're talking about billions of dollars of technology that puts our country at serious risk,"
A U.S. attorney actually said that? Active mole for 22 years eh? Well I'm glad to see Naval counterintelligence is on top of their game.....yawn. Hey Joe, can you pass me Chi Mak's last security clearance update packet? More minority engineering recruitments please.
#4
Sheth Dickweed - who said this pair of asstards were on Clintoon's tab? Nah, the ChiComs have been after us for a long time. Clintoon was just the first total whore gutless fuck sellout President they could buy.
#5
Let's see if these latest revelations are enough to make Washington sprout a set and impose some severe penalties on communist China. Anyone who continues to maintain that China is a valued ally has sh!t for brains. We need to choke off trade with China until they singlehandedly resolve the North Korean issue and palpably demonstrate a defensive military posture instead of the unabated offensive buildup we are seeing.
#6
Zenster: My father would never knowingly buy anything labeled 'made in Japan.' I would prefer to never buy anything made in Communist Red China, but it's no longer possible thanks to the wonks in Washington that still believe China is our friend. We were up to our ass in those buggers in the 50's during Korea. Unless we cave, it will be same again in a placed they used to call the Island of Formosa.
#7
Golden Dragon High is working hard on its offense - and has scouts at every More Science High game, filming, taking notes, stealing playbooks, kidnapping and substituting their own cheerleaders and assistant coaches, mugging the souvenir stands and filling 'em with junky knockoffs. But everyone knows their defense is for shit. They'll try to flood the field with 20 Gazillion tackling dummies and hope the Refs don't notice they have too many guys on the field. Give the points.
#9
Lol, O. I did take a quick look at pronetobabble's site, but there wasn't much to see that differed from the hand-wringing it posted here. I'm sorta distracted - playing Civilization (the game) right now, lol.
#11
Too bad we don't have a death penalty for espionage. This case certainly warrants it. Aside from our nuclear launch codes and targeting strategy, this stuff is right at the top of our Christmas list.
Extremely heavily EFL
A group of influential Sunni clerics called Wednesday for the release of five Westerners taken hostage last week in a wave of kidnappings, saying they should be granted their freedom as a humanitarian gesture. And so the dance begins. Insert minuet graphic here --->
The Association of Muslim Scholars, believed to have contacts with some Sunni insurgent groups, has helped mediate the release of other Western captives in Iraq. The association said releasing [German archaeologist Susanne] Osthoff would recognize Germany's "positive" stand toward Iraq. Germany strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The statement also noted that Osthoff is married to an Iraqi Muslim, "who is a member of the Shammar tribe from Mosul and she works as an archaeologist." The Shammar tribe is one of the largest in Iraq and includes Shiites as well as Sunni clans. Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer is a senior figure in the tribe. The Association of Muslim Scholars said the release of the Christian aid workers would recognize their "good efforts in helping those in need." And in other Ummah news:
In Ramallah, in the West Bank, Mufti Ikrema Sabri, the Palestinians' top Muslim clergyman, also called for their release. "These aid workers have stood beside (the) Palestinian people and it's our duty now to stand beside them," he said. Palestinians in several towns said they had worked with the activists and asked Sabri to issue the appeal.
#2
The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) was founded by Mennonites. they are also heavily involved in Gaza and the West Bank (guess which side) and have called the September 11 atrocity as "chickens comming home to roost" for US support of Israel. Funny how they can read Al Qaeda's mind when even bin Laden made no mention of that until well after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was destroyed and he needed some quick support in the Arab world.
CPT also adopts terrorist prisoners and agitates on their behalf. They are not "Peacemakers", but mass murdering dicator and terrorist sponsors.
Posted by: ed ||
11/30/2005 22:46 Comments ||
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November 24 2005 during early morning, in position 20:38.1N - 106:52.6E, Haiphong anchorage, Vietnam. Robbers boarded a container ship and stole ship's stores. Port authorities informed.
November 20 2005 at 0600 LT at Bontang anchorage, Indonesia. Robbers boarded a LPG carrier and stole two life rafts and escaped. There were numerous small fishing crafts in the vicinity.
And from the 'We Found These Behind a Desk' Department:
October 24 2005 at 0430 LT at Lagos anchorage 15 nm from port, Nigeria. Ten robbers armed with knives boarded a bulk carrier at stern from a speedboat during heavy rain. They threatened duty A/B and escaped with shipâs stores. Port control responded after three hours and asked master to contact agents.
September 03 2005 at 0400 LT at Total jetty, Douala, Cameroon. Three robbers armed with knives and spears boarded an offshore tug. They confronted duty A/B and bosun and stole ship's property and escaped.
Counterterrorism Blog link. Had some interesting correspondence on the Saudis and the makeup of foreign jihadis. Excerpt: According to the latest figures I've obtained from a European intel agency, as of September 2005, 150 European fighters had been located, arrested or killed in Iraq... 90% of the terrorist attacks in Iraq were carried out or led by foreign fighters.
Of course those are who have been identified as from Europe. Those killed without passports or love letters addressed to their favorite goat probably will be passed off as Iraqi or from their ethnic homeland.
Posted by: ed ||
11/30/2005 09:57 ||
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#1
..Define - for these purposes - European.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/30/2005 21:52 Comments ||
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A PEACE group blamed the US and Britain yesterday for the abduction of four activists shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq. Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that has had activists in Iraq since October 2002, said it was saddened by the video tape of their workers. It listed the names of those abducted as Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Virginia; Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto, Canada; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, of Canada.
"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and UK governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the group said. "We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people."
On Tuesday, the Al-Jazeera satellite network broadcast video of the four men held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group claimed the activists were spies.
Mr Loney, a community worker, was leading the Christian group's delegation. Mr Fox, from Virginia, has two children, plays the bass clarinet and the recorder and worked as a professional grocer and at a Quaker youth camp, says the statement. It said Mr Sooden was studying for a master's degree in English literature at Auckland University, in New Zealand, while Professor Kember was a long-time peace activist who once fretted publicly that he was taking the easy way out by protesting in safety at home while British soldiers risked their lives in Iraq.
He and his wife of 45 years have two daughters and a grandson, the group said. Christian Peacemaker Teams emerged in 1989 out of the Mennonite Central Committee, the Quaker Friends Society and the Church of Brethren to send teams of Christians trained in techniques of non-violent action to conflicts around the world.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/30/2005 09:31 ||
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Christian Peacemaker Teams blames the US and Britain because Christian Peacemaker Teams send people to Iraq and their teammates get abducted.
#3
What exactly do "peace activists" do in a place like Iraq? Anything useful, or just dig around for dirt they can forward back home? (Hmm, maybe they are spies.)
Posted by: James ||
11/30/2005 10:02 Comments ||
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#4
..while Professor Kember was a long-time peace activist who once fretted publicly that he was taking the easy way out by protesting in safety at home while British soldiers risked their lives in Iraq.
Looks like he got what he wanted, maybe more than he bargained for.
#5
Why does this remind me of the old 1953 War of the Worlds movie where the three local dudes carrying a white flag walk towards a Martian ship thinking they could communicate only to be 'rayed' to oblivion leaving nice little white outlines on the ground?
They don't want to talk. They want to kill you. You are a kaffir to them.
#6
The irony is that the same coalition troops they denounce have the respnsibility of risking life and limb to rescue their asses. Just a guess, but if their heads arn't already lopped off they will most surely accept the assistance.
#11
Did the US and UK prevent these people from leaving Iraq? Even if they walked it wouldn't take 2 years to cross the border. They stayed because they wanted to stay, laying blame elsewhere is just pathetic.
#12
Yawn... terrorist fund-raising (or favor-exchanging) effort, just like those two Italian activists, and Sgrena, the propagandista. Wait and see, Rantburgundians...
Although I am savoring the potential irony of this quartet being rescued by US forces, after spending all this time vilifying them. Hope they can swallow their pride long enough to choke out a grudging "thank you".
Syria and Iran instigated the latest flare-up by Hizbullah along the northern border to stave off international pressure on Damascus and Tehran, IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Zeevi Farkash told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday. Smart man. He must read Rantburg.
Farkash noted that both Syria and Iran have an interest in heating up Israelâs northern border, with Damascus on the spot, as the final report of a United Nations probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is due in December and Tehran narrowly escaping referral to the Security Council over its nuclear activities. âHizbullah planned the latest flare-up in the north. It is a strategic plan. They hoped we would hit civilians in order to fire Katyusha rockets and they prepared themselves for the scenario along the border,â Farkash said. He added that the IDF had intelligence tips about the Shiite groupâs plans and prepared an ambush in the borderline village of Ghajar where a Hizbullah elite unit tried to kidnap soldiers last week. âIn the last confrontation, Hizbullah fired 330 shells at 25 IDF posts along the northern section. It is certainly a plan to kidnap soldiers,â Farkash said. The group will continue to try to kidnap soldiers or Israeli citizens abroad and even display its capabilities by launching an unmanned drone over Israel, he said.
Addressing the Iranian issue, Farkash noted that Iran is in a better position to deal with international pressure over its nuclear ambitions, with the International Atomic Energy Agencyâs decision not to refer Tehran to the Security Council and to explore a Russian compromise on the issue. If international diplomacy fails to place the Iranian nuclear file on the discussion table of the Security Council by March, the diplomatic process would have failed, he said. Farkash said the military was concerned over an IAEA report on Iranâs nuclear activities citing connections between the Islamic theocracy and Pakistani nuclear experts.
Beirut, 30 Nov. (AKI) - A bloody feud that broke out between families in a Lebanese town over 60 years ago has been further exacerbated by the warring sides' decision to stand on opposite sides of the pro and anti Syrian divide that has dominated politics in Lebanon for the last three decades. "Rival families have been at war in Zghorta for decades. Every family home has a cellar filled with guns," says Shawki Duwayhi, 60, a journalist based in this mountain settlement of 40,000, some 90 kilometres northeast of the capital Beirut.
In the latest violence to hit the mostly Christian Maronite town, two men were injured on Tuesday in a gunfight between members of the Frangie and Muawwad family clans.
"Git yur shooting irons, boys! We'ums gonna go git us sum Frangie!"
Tensions between Zghorta's most powerful families, the Frangies and the Muawwads, is at a high in the wake of Lebanon's June elections, the first in almost 30 years to be held without a Syrian military presence in the country.
"In the 40s and 50s the main rivalry was between the Frangie and the Duwahys," explains Shawki Duwayhi - himself a scion of the same named family - "At that time the Muawwad were allies of the Frangies but during the [Lebanese] civil war [1975-1990] the latter sided with the Syrians while the Muawwad chose the other side. This division has lasted to this day."
In the last decade the Frangies and Muawwad's have dominated public life in Zghorta, forcing the other major families in the town, the Duwayhis, the Karams and Makaris to choose sides in the feud. "Everything is divided up between the Frangies and Muawwads, the shops, the banks, the pharmacies and even the parking lots," Duwayhi says. "In Zghorta guns are seen as necessary, an nobody will get rid of the ones they have because besides needing them for self-defence, it [posession of guns] is a question of honour.
Sounds like the plotline from "A Fistfull of Dollars".
Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday. The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, features most of the details of the original, which victims' relatives helped select after a worldwide design competition. But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a "Crescent of Embrace," a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees.
After the original design was unveiled in September, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., criticized it in a letter to the National Park Service director, saying many questioned the shape "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam _ and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists." Paul Murdoch, president of Paul Murdoch Architects, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an "unfortunate diversion," but said they were sensitive to the concerns.
In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes would welcome visitors to the site, where they could then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims' names inscribed.
Gordon Felt, of Remsen, N.Y., whose brother, Edward Felt, died in the crash, said he didn't believe the original design honored the hijackers but is nonetheless pleased with the changes. "My concern is that we have a memorial that honors my brother and the 39 other brave Americans that were on Flight 93 in a respectful way that not only respects their lives but respects the topography of the land," Felt said Wednesday.
In the Flight 93 National Memorial's newsletter, Murdoch described the new design as an "evolution" of what was announced two months ago, reflecting input from the public, the competition's jury and others.
The circle enhances the earlier design by putting more emphasis on the crash site, officials said in the newsletter. A break in the trees will symbolize the path the plane took as it crashed.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/30/2005 12:31 ||
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Koorosh Nehchiri, a colleague of Ed Felt's at BEA Systems, emailed us with this information and added: "He is mourned and remembered by family and friends alike as he was truly an example of a noble, kind, respectable and intelligent human being. ... Let us keep his memory alive as long as it is possible."]
Ed Felt was a technical director for BEA Systems, a software firm in Liberty Corner, New Jersey. He was one of their "first employees, best engineers, and most respected and loved colleagues."
Born in Utica, NY, he graduated from Colgate and Cornell universities. He had lived in Matawan, New Jersey for the past 20 years.
He leaves behind a wife, Sandra Valdez Felt, two daughters, Adrienne, 14, and Kathryn, 11, his mother, two brothers -- Larry Felt of Syracuse and Gordon Felt of Remsen, NY -- three brothers-in-law, five sisters-in-law, five nieces and four nephews.
#2
Crescent of embrace? 40 wind chimes?, 40 trees?
All bullshit.
How about a 40 foot high bronze statue of the passengers trying to breakdown the cockpit door.
#4
JerseyMike, I'd prefer a statue of them having already broken in. ONe is screaming, getting his neck snapped by one passenger, while the other is glaring at the intruders with a look on his face that says, in that unmistakeably liberal look of offense, "How DARE you FIGHT BACK!" (I'm sure Aris can provide the PERFECT look that is required.)
#5
ptah - the hijackers were not liberals, but were part of an assault on all that liberalism stands for. Liberalism, far from expecting people not to fight back, is more at fault for not being tough enough when people do fight back unlawfully.
#7
The Flight 93 memorial should not be wind chimes and groves of maple trees and stuff like that. Hey, I love maple trees as much as the next person, but all this stuff is pablum, it is pure crap in this situation, and is not approptriate.
We need something like a wall, with names of the dead passengers and crew listed, in columns. We need a fresco-like centerpiece of bronze that shows the scene of the Flight 93 people fighting back. Then some simple statement over or under the centerpiece pulling it all together. Think about the impact of the Iwo Jima memorial bronze statues on people who approach it.
Crescent of Embrace my ass. This is a memorial to those people that did a great service to their fellow Americans, even though they knew that they were done for. In doing what they could to thwart the hijacking, they probably saved lives of hundreds or thousands of others.
They ought to fire the existing architect and get some imaginative architectural design students to go and listen to the survivors of Flight 93 heroes and build something appropriate. The half-baked design is what you get when you involve the National Park Service in something like this. This is a memorial to a battle against terrorists, not an interpretive center.
[/rant]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/30/2005 14:15 Comments ||
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#8
At the very least, eliminating any crescent symbology is a good start. I'm beginning to hope that this might become a global trend.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BERLIN - Germany will not be intimidated and is not open to terrorist âblackmailâ, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in delivering her new governmentâs statement of policy to the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her vote to authorize war in Iraq amid growing unease among liberal Democrats who could determine the potential 2008 presidential candidate's future. ``I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war,'' the New York senator said in a lengthy letter to thousands of people who have written her about the war.
November 24 2005 during early morning, in position 20:38.1N - 106:52.6E, Haiphong anchorage, Vietnam. Robbers boarded a container ship and stole ship's stores. Port authorities informed.
A PEACE group blamed the US and Britain yesterday for the abduction of four activists shown in an insurgent video, saying the kidnapping was the direct result of the occupation of Iraq. Christian Peacemaker Teams, a group that has had activists in Iraq since October 2002, said it was saddened by the video tape of their workers. It listed the names of those abducted as Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Virginia; Norman Kember, 74, of London; James Loney, 41, of Toronto, Canada; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, of Canada. 
Beirut, 30 Nov. (AKI) - A bloody feud that broke out between families in a Lebanese town over 60 years ago has been further exacerbated by the warring sides' decision to stand on opposite sides of the pro and anti Syrian divide that has dominated politics in Lebanon for the last three decades. "Rival families have been at war in Zghorta for decades. Every family home has a cellar filled with guns," says Shawki Duwayhi, 60, a journalist based in this mountain settlement of 40,000, some 90 kilometres northeast of the capital Beirut.
