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IRGC ground forces commander killed in plane crash
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Afghanistan
Lions of Islam™ torch another school
Suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in Afghanistan's main southern city Sunday, the latest in a spate of attacks against teachers and institutions that educate girls. No one was hurt in the pre-dawn attacks against the Qabail Primary School in Kandahar, said Hayabullah Rafiqi Othak, Kandahar province's education director. A group of men tied up two security guards and made bonfires of books and wooden desks that eventually razed the whole building, he said. The school, which was on a two-month vacation, taught some 700 boys and girls.

Dozens of schools have been burned since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden. Most of the attacks have come at night and have caused no deaths. On Tuesday, however, suspected rebels beheaded the headmaster of another coed school in the region. The Taliban maintains that educating girls is against Islam and also opposes government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion.

Othak said reconstruction of the Qabail school would start immediately and some classes could resume when vacation ends in March. The attack came hours guards scared away arsonists who tried to set fire to another school in Kandahar, he said. Five suspects were arrested in the attempted attack, said deputy provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Hungar.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good, they can be made to talk, that will net us the murderers in short order.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/09/2006 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "educating girls is against Islam"
What's the point of this lunatic religion, again ?
Posted by: wxjames || 01/09/2006 7:48 Comments || Top||

#3  If you can memorize the Koran and you're a guy you get to wear a big turban and throw your weight around. If you can't meet both those prerequisites you get to labor for your betters and breed.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#4  If you can memorize the Koran and you're a guy you get to wear a big turban and throw your weight around. If you can't meet both those prerequisites you get to labor for your betters and breed.

I'm listening. How about benefits ?

72 virgins in the afterlife, baby !

Hmm, that's okay as far as that goes, but don't plan on shuffling off this mortal coil any time soon. What else ya got ?

Free AK-47s at every mosque !

Kewl ! Never a bad time for some crazy Gun Sex ! What else ?

No alcohol, lots of fasting !

Whoa, deal killer right there...
Posted by: Carl in N.H. || 01/09/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  "The Taliban maintains that educating girls is against Islam and also opposes government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion."

The Taliban are an offshoot of the Saudi mental disease called Wahhabism. If we could isolate these guys on some harmless little island in the middle of nowhere, fine. But the problem is that these Wahhabi-miseducated morons won't stay put. They cross borders, enter countries with the sole purpose of killing the infidel, i.e., you and I, and insist on imposing their way of life on the rest of us.

Seems every 50 or 60 years, some excremental waste of humanity rears its head from the cesspool and insists on imposing itself on the rest of us. Nazism, Fascism, Stalinism, Maoism, and Islamism.
Posted by: The Angry Fliegerabwehrkanonen || 01/09/2006 14:18 Comments || Top||

#6  I was under the impression that the Taliban are an offshoot of the Deobandis, which I thought was a locally developed variation of Pakistani Islam. To my uneducated eye the result is the same (beating women in the street, locking them in the back room of the house under the thumb of their nearest male relative, making sure they aren't educated beyond that necessary to remain barefoot and pregnant), but I thought the path to get there was local rather than global.

Experts: your comments, please.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 20:12 Comments || Top||

#7 
I was under the impression that the Taliban are an offshoot of the Deobandis, which I thought was a locally developed variation of Pakistani Islam.


Both are tendrils of the same slime mold.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/09/2006 20:30 Comments || Top||

#8  A lot of the Taliban behavior was motivated by Pashtun tribal culture, not islam per se.

Deoband is actually in India, 90 miles from New Delhi.

Following the Sepoy mutiny in 1857, muslim power was finally broken and the Mogul emperor exiled to Burma. The clerics set up three schools -
Darul-Ulum at Deoband , Nadawa al Ulama at Lucknow, and Darul-Ulum Manzar Islam at Bareilly.

The Wahabi influence has increased in Pakistan due to Saudi funding and the jihadis are influenced by a mix of Wahabi/Deobandi extremism.

Posted by: john || 01/09/2006 20:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank you, john. Rantburg U rules!!!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 21:04 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Gunmen Kill Senegalese Peacekeeper in Darfur
Unidentified gunmen ambushed a Senegalese peacekeeping contingent in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, killing one Senegalese soldier and wounding nine more, an army spokesman said yesterday. The attack occurred Friday near the border with Chad, said Senegal Army spokesman Lt. Col. Antoine Wardini. The troops were traveling in a convoy between the towns of Tine and Kulbus "when they got ambushed," Wardini said. "We fired back and the attackers pulled back and ran." Wardini said peacekeeping reinforcements had been sent from Kulbus to secure the area. It was not known who carried out the attack, but an investigation was ongoing.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Arabs have never ceased referring to blacks as: abds (slaves). The fact that so many blacks embrace the slave cult of Islam, is testament to a vacuum of ideas in their countries. Not that I write off all Africa. Free Africa (non-Muslim) will pick up their boots after Nigeria is lost in the next 10 years.
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 5:53 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Outlaw killed in 'shootout' with cops
Have the cops begun competing with RAB?
A top leader of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Red Flag), was killed in an "encounter" between police and his accomplices on Saturday midnight on Tangail-Baghil Road at Laojan in Tangail Sadar upazila. On information that Sohel, 25, and his accomplices were preparing for a big criminal operation, Tangail sadar police raided Laojan Chilabari area at around 1:00am, police said, adding that some 15 outlaws opened fire on police, leading to a 15-minute shootout that left Sohel bullet-hit and dead.
They didn't bring Sohel with them? No arms cache? Definitely not up to RAB standards...
Sub-inspectors Fazlul Karim and Kamal Hossain and three police constables received bullet wounds during the gun battle while the other outlaws fled the scene. The injured policemen were undergoing treatment at Tangail Police Lines Hospital. Police recovered a rifle with three bullets, one large dagger, and some used shells from the spot.
No shutter guns?
The shutter gun is still locked up in the evidence vault back at RAB HQ.
Sohel, the chief of the notorious Sohel group, was an absconder accused in nine criminal cases including eight of murder in different police stations under the district, police said. Other sources, however, claimed that Tangail sadar police arrested Sohel three days before and no police members were injured in the incident.
No! Reeeeeally?
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Competition is good, let's have a running tally from now on just how many the RAB gets and how many the police get.

It's a win-win situation.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/09/2006 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  This is the way of the Banga Lawman. All done by the numbers.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 19:44 Comments || Top||


Bangla: Grenades found from Jamaat leader
Police yesterday recovered two grenades from the house of a Jamaat leader on the outskirts of Satkhira town and arrested his son. During the raid on the house of Jamaat Rokan Moulana Yunus Ali at Dhalipara yesterday noon, they also seized some books on Jihad and Shibir. Yunus' son Abdullah Al Mamun, 21, is an activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami. Militant kingpin Asadullah-al-Galib, chief of a faction of Ahle Hadith Andolan, Bangladesh, also hails from the same area.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) Khaleda Zia's scheduled visit to Satkhira was cancelled as the government said the chopper carrying her could not land because of fog. But rumours of a planned bomb attack on her meeting venue were widely circulated in Satkhira. In Satkhira, as the news of the recovery spread, panic swept the audience at the meeting venue, 17 kilometres off the district headquarters. Earlier, the local administration and BNP had completed all preparations for different programmes including the rally. A huge number of people gathered at the playground of GKMK Pilot High for the meeting scheduled to start at 2:00pm. But soon rumours began to spread that a JMB suicide squad, which was already in the town for some time, had started for the venue. By this time, news came that the PM had cancelled her visit, fearing a bomb attack.

Officer-in-Charge of Satkhira Sadar Police Station Mohammad Shahjahan told reporters that they have recovered two grenade-like objects from the house of Moulana Yunus Ali, also a teacher of Srirampur Madrasa. Mamun, the arrestee, said the bomb-like objects were seized from under the barn of his uncle Razaul Islam and he does not know anything about it. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Khulna Range Noor Mohammad told reporters that the objects were recovered following a tip-off from National Security Intelligence (NSI). He said the objects were stuffed full of crushed stones and wrapped in ropes.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But surely such devices are commonly used in that part of the world for self-defence? ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:25 Comments || Top||


Britain
Labor MPs leaked Bush plan to attack al-Jazheera
and they want to be prosecuted so they can use the trial to attack the US and Blair's policies in Iraq.

The battlelines in the war on terror are not national ....
Posted by: too true || 01/09/2006 09:55 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the battlelines in the war on terror are not national ....

That's too true!
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Labor MPs leaked Bush plan to attack al-Jazheera and CNN!
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Reading the article, I find that part of the reason for the leak was the "hope to influence the 2004 Presidential election" - hoping to defeat Bush and elect Kerry. They need to be visited late at night by a dozen Scottish ghosts of the Battle of Culloden (or at least a dozen Marines wearing appropriate makeup and costumes). I don't know who "decided" it was appropriate for foreign nationals to interfere in our presidential elections, but the capital of the next nation that does it needs to have a nuclear sunrise some night around midnight.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/09/2006 14:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't know who "decided" it was appropriate for foreign nationals to interfere in our presidential elections, but the capital of the next nation that does it needs to have a nuclear sunrise some night around midnight.

Go ahead. Nuke the United Kingdom. I double-dog-dare you.

Though strangely enough, I don't think you'd consider it justified if people got to nuke Washington D.C. for the interference America has had on national politics worldwide, some it much more forceful than mere "leaks".
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 15:54 Comments || Top||

#5  I double-dog-dare you.


I nuke who I want when I want.

Today


Tomorrow maybe Greece
Posted by: Red Dod || 01/09/2006 16:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Aris, let me let you in on a secret: OP was using byperbole. Since I learned yesterday that you don't do research on the internet, I decided to provide an example of it.

I went to http://dictionary.com and looked up 'hyperbole' (see below). And guess what? It is a Greek in origin, so you might know it.

hy·per·bo·le P Pronunciation Key (h-pûrb-l)
n.
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

[Latin hyperbol, from Greek huperbol, excess, from huperballein, to exceed : huper, beyond; see hyper- + ballein, to throw; see gwel- in Indo-European Roots.]


So, you see, OP didn't really mean he wants to nuke the UK (your suggestion), but wanted to emphasize how displeased he (and RBers, I'd say in general) was with foreigners surreptiously interfering with US elections.

Now to the RANT.

The reason OP is upset is because US Presidental elections are important, for Americans and the rest of the world too. Unlike in Europe, where the government (EU) ignores the people's vote (Phrancistan) and just "keeps on keepin' on" as if it never happened. The "People" spoke? Huh? There have been revolutions for less.

But, what can the European sheeple do? Nothing. Bupkus. Zilch. Nil. Collectively, Europe has decided they'd rather live in a 'protected PC camp'. They have dropped their arms, removed their cajones and bent over, hoping they will be last or maybe even survive. As a famous European once said:
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.John Stuart Mill English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)

Every time I read this, I think of the EU. And you, Aris. Sitting in your ivory tower, pouting about those eevil Americans running roughshod over the world. While WE (Americans) fight, struggle, and fund this war for all of humanity.

In fact, the 'better men' Mr. Mill speaks of are Americans, Aris. It is Americans who are 'manning the watchtowers', spilling blood and facing off with an incredible Evil. An evil which would destroy the most advanced and benevolent civilization ever known, with the worst sort of barbarity ever seen in recorded history. However, Aris, no need to pout. Americans do know how to fight and crush barbarians (see Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany).

American has been fighting this war with one hand tied behind our back, all of the fingers of the other hand bound together and wearing shackles.

However, you should we suffer a mass-casualty attack, our enemies should read about a man named 'Sherman' and a place called 'Atlanta' to learn how we can wage war, total war. God might have mercy upon our enemies, but we will not.
Posted by: Brett || 01/09/2006 16:57 Comments || Top||

#7  9.8
Posted by: Glomoper Cleath8438 || 01/09/2006 17:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Brett> And people accuse *me* of being long-winded.

I indeed do research on the internet (notoriously so) -- to answer the questions *I* have, not as your slave for the questions *you* demanded of me, your majesty. But given *your* shown unwillingness to research *your own* questions, I have probably done more research on the internet this past week than you've done your whole life.

So, you see, OP didn't really mean he wants to nuke the UK (your suggestion), but wanted to emphasize how displeased he (and RBers, I'd say in general) was with foreigners surreptiously interfering with US elections.

That's cool. If I say "I hope Washington gets nuked" the next time something the Bush administration does displeases me, I hope y'all see the hyperbole behind the comment.

And yes I do indeed know the word hyperbole, since it's modern Greek as well, meaning "exaggeration".

Forgive me if I avoid to read the even more tedious anti-European blah-blah, that I now see follows the etymological blah-blah.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 17:57 Comments || Top||

#9  A last sidenote -- having just finally taken the trouble to skim the rant comments of Brett with all the unoriginal "God take mercy on our opponents because we won't" cliches...

... Brett, just for your education: it's the macho posturing that I found contemptuous, both in Old Patriot's comment and now in yours.

If I had thought OP had *meant* the nuking comments, then he'd have gotten words from me that accused him of being a genocidal murderer at heart. He got a mere "double-dog-dare" because his nuking "hyperbole" just made him a posturing macho buffoon instead, same as with many people whose words don't match their actual opinions. And posturing buffoons need to be told to put their money where their mouth is.

Your own posturing, with unoriginal cliches in addition, doesn't make you any better.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 18:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Aris, a hint:

When you slip and fall on stage, just get on with the play. Don't try to work the fall in and convince the audience that it's what you meant to do.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/09/2006 18:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Steve White, I honestly do think that OP's words don't reveal a hateful genocidal mania but a macho buffoonery that takes pride in its own arrogance instead.

I don't really care if you don't believe me. There's too many times you people have thought that I've failed to understand the existence of sarcasm when I was merely objecting to its target, and too many times when my failure to laugh has made you think that I failed to catch the intended humour.

But if you opt to think I "slipped and fell", have it your way.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 19:04 Comments || Top||

#12  :>
Posted by: Glomoper Cleath8438 || 01/09/2006 19:04 Comments || Top||

#13  Question for the mods. When are you going to ban this troll again?

I have had it with threads getting hijacked and becoming about Aris not about the topic. People just don't get it and keep feeding the trolls.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 19:07 Comments || Top||

#14  Sock Puppet, it's not me that makes threads be about me rather than about the topic at hand.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 19:10 Comments || Top||

#15  Ditto what SPoD said. This neurotic asshole was banned last year for his disruptive behavior, and he should have STAYED banned. Why the hell he wasn't, is beyond me. GET RID OF THE DAMNED JERK!!!!
Posted by: Dave D. || 01/09/2006 19:12 Comments || Top||

#16  I honestly do think that OP's words don't reveal a hateful genocidal mania but a macho buffoonery that takes pride in its own arrogance instead.

You misread him. OP's words reveal the anger of a man who gave of himself in many ways to oppose tyranny and sees some dismiss or scorn the sacrifices he and others made on behalf of many -- Greece included.

He gave his service, in uniform for 26 years; his opportunity to live a settled and perhaps more prosperous life; and even aspects of his health in that service.

And before you dismiss his opinions too smugly, IIRC that service included daily use of fluent Arabic and direct familiarity with many of the issues and players in the region today.
Posted by: lotp || 01/09/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||

#17  Quite the contrast with the downy-cheeked child who's having his first actual experience in The Big World - yet still lectures at large on every topic, lotp. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||

#18  This neurotic asshole was banned last year for his disruptive behavior, and he should have STAYED banned.

"disruptive behaviour"="not falling in line"
"neurotic asshole"="challenging hypocricy"
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 19:35 Comments || Top||

#19  And btw, Dave I have to say that I was banned NOT for general "disruptive behaviour" but for expressing the hope that Frank drops dead. Or atleast I was banned so soon after doing so that it seems the most likely immediate cause.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 01/09/2006 19:40 Comments || Top||

#20  January, a cruel month.
Posted by: Angiter Sleretle1106 || 01/09/2006 19:47 Comments || Top||

#21  Again Aris derails an important issue. Second one tonight. I agree SPOD, nix this jerk.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 20:10 Comments || Top||

#22  Beautiful read Brett. Post #7 should take post of the week! IMHO.
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 01/09/2006 20:10 Comments || Top||

#23  Thanks, intrinsicpilot!

Aris, Aris, Aris. I sure hope Fred doesn't ban you. Now to your comments on my comments....

1. I love being called a "macho posturer". That is sooo hot! I might get my

2. Is there any other kind of cliche other than "unoriginial". it can't be a cliche (yet) if I just created it.

3. Awwww. come on and be my slave, Aris. I have this nice collar you could wear.....

Aris, did you read Steyn's masterpiece on Demographics in Europe? You should read it, 'fisk' it and put the results here. She us what you have. Create a logical argument as to why you are correct. Then, we can snipe comment, just like you do.
Posted by: Brett || 01/09/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#24  Brett - I concur with IP and GC (#8) - solid truth to finger-wagging vapor. That you have to say what is blatantly obvious and then be sniped by Mr Snippy, well, there's an RB MoH and PH due. Fred? Lol. It rocked, bro.

Now about this in #1 of comment #25:
"I might get my "

Um, heh, wanna complete that thought? Lol. Just wondering. Something about your dancing shoes, maybe?

;-)
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 20:43 Comments || Top||

#25  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, .com. Coming from you, I am honored.

What I was going to type is: I might get my James Van Fleet toy soldier out and put him back in action, just like 1949-50 before he went to Korea.
Posted by: Brett || 01/09/2006 20:51 Comments || Top||

#26  Lol - I knew about Utah beach from readings and a little research some time back, but: a) didn't know he'd been in Patton's 3rd and b) had forgotten about his time in Korea. Google is my friend, er sometimes, lol. Made to 100. That's amazing...

No I'm honored - and I'm jealous, y'know - I wish I had posted it, lol. Hell I wish I had the calm and crystal clarity you demonstrated.

More, please!
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 21:08 Comments || Top||

#27  Brett, Great JSM quote. On the money.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/09/2006 21:24 Comments || Top||

#28  Well, stand back and be educated! My knowledge comes from a fascination with the Korean War (and I can name 'Rivers and Regiments') where Van Fleet followed Ridgway.

Before James van Fleet went to Korea, he was running the American effort to save Greece from Yugoslav-backed Greek Communists. From what I have read, Van Fleet trained and ran the Greek Army, defeating the Commies and saving Greece to continue as part of Western Civilization. One should consider James Van Fleet the father of the modern Greek state. Heh.

A segue to the one of my favorite quotes from the Korean War. During the battle of Chipyong, the 23rd Regiment was attacked by an estimated 2 CCF Divisions. The CCF used their 'human wave' tactics against American firepower. The best weapons were the tracked "quad-.50" (http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/50quad.htm) and napalm. After the CCF formation were broken, Corsairs dropped napalm on them. When Ridgway visited, the Commander showed him the burned chinese bodies and called them "Chink Fricase". I love the visual.

/History lesson off.
Posted by: Brett || 01/09/2006 21:40 Comments || Top||

#29  Thanks, phil_b. It is one of my favorite quotes.

Aris, please come back! I am looking for your fisking of Steyn's piece. Go for it. Maybe even take a day or two and do some of that excellent internet research you do and blow him away. If you do, I am sure the RBers will respond positively, errr, well let's just say respond.
Posted by: Brett || 01/09/2006 21:47 Comments || Top||

#30  proud of me .com?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/09/2006 22:10 Comments || Top||

#31  Wow - yer first post in the thread! My hero! Lol.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:13 Comments || Top||

#32  but I bit a half inch off my tongue LOL

I'm just tired of it, as well. I get no kick from it any more. Hold me to it
Posted by: Frank G || 01/09/2006 22:20 Comments || Top||

#33  Lol - a mutual STFU Society? Lol. I sorta practice it - working out to something like every other day, now.

But Brett has to keep posting, lol!
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:30 Comments || Top||


Captain Hook Stands Trial in UK Today
The trial of controversial preacher Abu Hamza Al-Masri, charged with soliciting the murder of non-Muslims and other alleged crimes, was to open in London today. Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, faces 16 charges, including 10 of "soliciting to murder", before a jury at the Old Bailey, London's main criminal court. He is charged also with using language aimed at stirring up racial hatred and the trial was expected to last three weeks. One of the 16 charges is under the Terrorism Act 2000 — which accuses him of possession of a document, "The Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad", which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Western Civilization's courts are dhimmi paradises. Cap'n will get an al-Arian. Any society that values the life of Islamofascist garbage, is culturally poisoned. Our leaders are sick fucks.
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Shame we can't give him the death penalty so that he sees that his promised virgins are all a big stinking lie like all religon
Posted by: A || 01/09/2006 7:17 Comments || Top||

#3  NaziFartus, you have all the sublety of an On/Off switch, but none of the utility - or sagacity. I suggest you just turn Off and stay that way, moron. You've got the SayDoom! and IToldYouSo all-or-nothing stupidity mastered. *golf clap* We've heard it, already. Fuck off.

Look what you attracted. Another moron.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 7:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Now that the Brits have had their own taste of jihad, it remains to be seen if monster raving loons like Ken Livingstone and Galloway shall set the tone or whether actual justice will prevail. Britain can either send an unmistakable notice that terrorist activity will not be tolerated or cave in like so many of their country's other commercial and municipal institutions have done already.
Posted by: Zenster || 01/09/2006 15:55 Comments || Top||

#5 
Click Me
Posted by: BigEd || 01/09/2006 18:05 Comments || Top||

#6  thar be pirates
Posted by: 3dc || 01/09/2006 22:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Lol, 3dc... you're gonna corrupt these nice honest folks, heh.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:37 Comments || Top||

#8  The problem with the UK Justice system is it is full of Livingstone's and Galloway's. This person will be luck and not serve a day more than he has already.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 23:42 Comments || Top||

#9  I blame Bush for the UK's actions and inactions. And heartburn. And hangnails. And crooked teeth.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 23:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan Protests to U.S. Over Incident
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has protested to the U.S. military in Afghanistan over firing at a Pakistani village near the Afghan border that killed eight people, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said cross-border firing from Afghanistan killed the people in Saidgi village in the tribal region of North Waziristan early Saturday, but added that Pakistan was still trying to determine whether U.S. helicopters landed there as claimed by local elders. "We have protested to the coalition forces because they are responsible for security on the other side," Aslam told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. "The Americans did not enter our territory. We did receive fire from across the border," said Aslam, without elaborating. "The Americans have denied their troops were involved in this attack, but we have initiated an inquiry into what exactly happened."

In Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said he would look into the alleged incident. On Saturday, he said he had no reports of U.S. forces firing on a village in Pakistan. About 20,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan. But neighboring Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, says they aren't allowed to operate on its side of the rugged, sometimes poorly defined border.

Residents said the firing came before dawn Saturday at cleric Maulana Noor Mohammad's home, killing eight and wounding nine, including women and children and baby ducks.

Momin Khan, a tribal elder, said he and other tribal elders complained to the area's top commander, Maj. Gen. Akram Sahi, that U.S. helicopters launched the attack, landed and took away five tribesmen, then flew toward Afghanistan. He said Sahi had assured the elders that Pakistan's military was investigating.

About an hour after Saturday's blast, suspected Islamic militants raided a checkpoint on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border 30 miles away, killing eight Pakistani security forces deployed to stop militants from entering or leaving Afghanistan. On Monday, assailants also fired rockets at a security checkpoint along the border and exchanged fire with troops west of Miran Shah, wounding three soldiers.

The area is a known hide-out for alleged al-Qaida and Taliban sympathizers and extremists, and Pakistan has deployed around 70,000 military personnel to hunt them down. Last month, a senior al-Qaida suspect from Egypt, Hamza Rabia, was killed in the area. Pakistan denied residents' claims that he died in a U.S. missile strike.
Posted by: Steve || 01/09/2006 08:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  U.S. helicopters launched the attack, landed and took away five tribesmen, then flew toward Afghanistan. He said Sahi had assured the elders that Pakistan's military was investigating.

Get used to it, happens all the time in Roswell.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 8:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Spot-on, B-man... Did they say the choppers were black? Heh, I musta missed that bit.

Presuming this isn't some disinfo or fantasy... When Pervy and the ISI get on the same page, and that page is the blueprint to end the reign of IslamoNutz in PakiWakiLand, then we'll worry more about their sensitivities regards territory. This, coming from a "country" that has little or no control (civil or asshat) over much of its claimed territory is rather priceless, IMHO.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 8:36 Comments || Top||

#3  At night, all helicopters are black.
Posted by: Jackal || 01/09/2006 19:14 Comments || Top||

#4  That's what Dad Gramps always said.
Posted by: Benny Bache || 01/09/2006 19:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmm they musta been having a UFO experience. It was jinns or something.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 20:08 Comments || Top||


Pak Army Extends Deadline for Handover of Militants
They want to do this is J&K, too...
The Pakistani Army yesterday extended a deadline for the handover of those who killed eight paramilitary soldiers in the North Waziristan tribal region. The move followed failure to make any progress in talks with tribal leaders. On Saturday, the army threatened to proceed against the Khasokhel tribe if they failed by yesterday afternoon to hand over militants who attacked a paramilitary post in the town of Mir Ali. More than a dozen paramilitary soldiers were reported missing after the ambush.

A tribal jirga attended by commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Akram Sahi, unanimously agreed to meet again and discuss the issue on the fifth day of the Muslim festival expected Wednesday. Locals said tribal chiefs agreed to hand over 10 members of the Khasokhel clan to authorities as a guarantee. “We are ready to support the government (in the operation against militants) as we did in the past,” Mateen Shah, a lawmaker from North Waziristan, told officials.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A double post from Fred, Himself? Wow! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Shaky hands and double posts are a sure sign of lack of coffee
Posted by: Steve || 01/09/2006 7:43 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Suicide bombers kill 7 at Iraqi ministry
Jan 9, 2006 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Iraq's Interior Ministry in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 35, police and ministry sources said. Police said they were trying to establish how one of the bombers managed to get through a series of checkpoints in the heavily guarded compound before detonating his explosives.

A ceremony celebrating the 84th anniversary of the formation of the Iraqi police force was taking place at the police academy next door to the ministry at the time of the blast. Among the dignitaries attending were the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the Iraqi defense and interior ministers.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson, who was at the ceremony, denied an Iraqi state television report that a mortar bomb had hit the parade ground. "The blast could be heard in the distance, but no mortar hit the parade ground," he told Reuters.

The ministry has been attacked by insurgents on several previous occasions, especially by Sunni Arab insurgents who accuse it of running Shi'ite militia who oppress the minority Sunni Arab community. The ministry denies such charges. In November, U.S. troops found a bunker run by the Interior Ministry containing 170 prisoners, mostly Sunni Arabs. Many showed signs of abuse and torture.
Posted by: Steve || 01/09/2006 07:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Zarqawi demands Sunnis shun politics for jihad
The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, criticised moderate Sunnis for taking part in electoral politics and called on them to join a holy war, according to a Web audio tape posted on Sunday.

The speaker, who sounded like Zarqawi, also denounced as US agents Arab states working for political reconciliation in Iraq. The tape, posted on a main Islamist Web site often used by insurgent groups in Iraq, could not be authenticated.

The speaker criticised the moderate Iraqi Islamic Party, viewed as the largest Sunni Arab party, for endorsing a new constitution, a move which boosted the Shi’ite- and Kurdish-led government.

“We call on the Islamic Party to leave this path ... which leads to the destruction of the Sunnis,” the speaker said, urging it to abandon the electoral “game”.

“Putting out the flames of jihad (holy war) among the people ... is surrendering them to their enemy,” he said.

“We had the power to disrupt the elections in most parts of Iraq but did not do it in order not to harm the Sunni masses,” the speaker said, referring to last month’s parliamentary polls which were mostly peaceful.

“And what you hear from ... the White House about the situation constantly improving in Iraq, the Iraqi army assuming more responsibilities and extending its control over Baghdad and beyond in a complete lie.”

The speaker noted that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called the US-led invasion of Iraq a “new Crusade against the Islamic world” and called on Muslims to join the insurgents.

“O Muslim youths ... especially in (Iraq’s) neighbouring countries and Yemen, jihad is your duty.”

The speaker said insurgents had carried out about 800 suicide attacks in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraqi and US officials say Islamists from other Arab countries were behind many of the attacks.

The speaker rejected any compromise with the US-backed Baghdad government and sharply criticised Arab countries for seeking a reconciliation in Iraq.

“The countries that met in Cairo ... were involved in destroying Iraq and cooperated with America by opening their land, air space and waters and offering intelligence to it,” said the speaker.

He was referring to an Arab League conference in November that tried to reconcile Iraqi political factions.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/09/2006 03:11 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See today's LA Times for Prof Aaron Belkin's prediction that strongman rule will be the result of Bush's quixotic $300 billion, democraticization scam. What part of the Muslimutt' sovereignty-belongs-to-allah dogma can you lego-nation-builders not understand? The West has a choice: total war on Islam now, or later. There is no workable compromise. We might as well be exporting sand to the Arabian Desert.

Says Belkin on :

...Niall Ferguson notes in his book "Colossus," the formal American occupations of Japan and West Germany lasted seven and 10 years, respectively, and it took nearly 40 years of American military presence in South Korea to nurture a genuine stable democracy there. The commitment of treasure and troops was massive.

And critically, in each of those cases, democratization achieved traction only after the cessation of violence, of which there is no end in sight in Iraq. Under warlike conditions, the country's social infrastructure can't develop — insurgency and counterinsurgency aren't the building blocks of civil society...


Let's talk nation-destruction, not building. It is time to put away the smart-bombs and dust off the nukes. Americans need to examine the national suicide mentality that followed 9-11. That event was a signal for wholesale slaughter. And the enemy that deserves it, has never been stronger.
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 5:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Nukes?

Really?

Lay out your Master Plan™. Who, Where, When.

Love to hear it.

Others here at RB have put forth rational and realistic plans, though PC-unacceptable at present, in less bandwidth than you consume with spew.

Lay it out. Be specific. Be focused. Be intelligent. Be rational. Be useful. Be constructive.

If all you come here for is therapy, you should be banned. This post qualifies you, IMHO, as yet another irrational Hater Without A Clue™. Prove me wrong - and not by quoting Prof Ding Dong. BTW, just provide a fucking link, I'll look it up - if the rest of your comment warrants and commends it.

So let's hear it. Clean. Concise. Comprehensive. Within reality.

Or go stew in your bile elsewhere.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 6:31 Comments || Top||

#3  .com, officially, props for laying it out. That alone is why I laugh at some of the more outlandish commentators here, and see that you get it.
Posted by: Edward Yee || 01/09/2006 6:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Zarq boy still tring to forment a Civil War and faild nation that AQ can run rampant in next to SA. Iran has it's hands in the same pot so it can attempt to dominate the region. Lots of crap being flung.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 7:01 Comments || Top||

#5  This would be the polysci professor Aaron Belkin who heads up the Center for Sexual Minorities in the Military, a think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a man with Opinions. Such a clever man, who hasn't noticed that we still have occupying forces based in Japan and Germany. Were that not so, both countries would have succumbed to the Stalinist madness of 1968 and the years that followed.

.com, you pegged them both -- the good professor and CaziFarkus who quoted him. CF is clearly of the ilk which believe anything in print, having once chosen which newspaper's editors to do his thinking for him. Much like some people approch religion -- with unthinking, as opposed to thoughtful, faith.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:46 Comments || Top||

#6  CF understanding takes time. No way a rational approach to Islam can be implemented before there are 6 figure Western casualties.
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/09/2006 7:48 Comments || Top||

#7  My position: if it won't work, don't try it. Bremer's new book is, apparently, field testimony against nation building without effective terror suppression. The Bushies believed Bernard Lewis' crap on Arab acquiesence to benign occupation.

Where to nuke (including use of nuclear blackmail)? Tora bora. Southern Saudi Arabia, where most of the 9-11 terrorists were rooted. Or anywhere where al-Qaeda elements - Islamic Jihad, Ikhwan Musulum, Jamaat-i-Islami, etc - had or have a stronghold, from which terror attacks are mounted. I would have used aid leverage to force the government of Egypt to liquidate (execute) the entire 19,000 Ikhwanis that they held in prisons on 9-11. A 500 mile jihadi - meaning Islamic Jihad, al-Fatah, Hizbollah, Hamas, etc - free zone would have been recognized and enforced around Israel. Ethnic cleansing of Manila's 800,000 Muslims would have been encouraged, and the terror infestations of Central and Southeast Asia, rendered. Threats of sanctions would have squelched Sharia adoption in Kosovo and Bosnia. Russia would have been given a free hand in Chechnya; and China with the Uighars.

All adherents of the Wahabi ideology should have been declared enemy combatants (the 85% of US mosques that were built by the Saudis would have been closed, and foreign born members deported en masse).

Given that Islam is primarily an Arabist enterprise, the deserved debasement of Arabs would have led to mass abandonment of the terror cult. Pakistan would have broken up by 2003. Punjabis would have turned against Jamaat-i-Islami. Most of the Maghreb would be Berber states. I would believe that a controlled cull of terrorists, on a global scale, would have resulted in about 3 million dead, with the bulk of the slaughter being carried out by other nationals.

Iran would have imploded by 2002. United Western troops - most forget that Bush invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty after 9-11 - would effectively occupy the entire Middle East oil fields, which would not be subject to terror (Iraq oil production has been cut in half since the April liberation, because of worthless limited war means used against economic terrorists).

For the first time in history, the Americas, Central and Southern Africa, China, India, Russia, Europe would be somewhat united against the common enemy. As it is, the Bushies have written off China and Russia, as insufficiently deferential to the Saudi masters. Iran has unearned leverage over all the major oil users. Nuclear proliferation is escalating, with Bush reduced to mumbling solemn platitudes, which reveal his regime's unwillingness to project real power.

I took pictures of Brooklyn, from the WTC in 1990. If those who embrace the ideology that induced the slaughter of 3,000 persons on Sept. 11, 2001, are not allowed to be declared enemy combatants, then those who indulge that enemy are aiding and abetting terror. Pseudo-democratic nation building that facilitates the inevitable formation of Islamofascist tyrannies in Afghan and Iraq, is a poison pill. The West will either fight the mortal Muslim enemy now, or later. The enemy is not afraid to kill; we shouldn't be afraid to kill disproportionately, while we can.

I don't want Islamofascists to vote; I want them to die. I doubt that Fred or Dan Darling share the inclusivist - viz Bush's let them vote (once) - policies toward the enemy. I sense a desire for a revised CENTO for the Middle East, with pro-Western strongmen ruling ruthlessly, and permanent US bases limiting national or clerical options.

What have you got? Let them eat indulgence, and spit jihad back at us? That is all I hear.

Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 8:02 Comments || Top||

#8  I'd call that a 10 IQ point advantage, grom. Still within room comfortable temperature range, however, when sampled with a reality gauge. MaGiK doesn't just happen cuz you feel like a nano-tantrum - which describes your posts perfectly.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 8:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Maybe it's time for site registration. I'm getting real tired of the nuke the muslims trash talk. It's just as cowardly as the "let's surrender to the muslims" position that we so often attack and lampoon here.

I'm tired of extremists. The problem with extreme positions are that they are so easy. Nuke. Surrender. See? Just wave a white flag or push a button. No problem.

Like .com says, what's your plan? If you are in favor of nuking, at least tell us how you'd do it. Would you concentrate on the Arab core or all of Dar al Islam? Would you attack symbolic targets, or just get it over with and take out the top 200 population centers? And how, pray tell, would you secure our strategic flanks from Russia and China while this little genocidal exercise is going on?

And that's just the beginning. Do you have any thoughts on how we'd get control of the oil fields afterwards? How we'd keep the Strontium 90 out of the food chain and out of our kids bones? Replacing the warheads? Dealing with the inevitable Euro-whining afterwards? What's your plan?
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/09/2006 8:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Edward Yee:

Stop those wheels!
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 8:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Well, there's the plan. I was writing at the same time CF was posting. See? It's all so easy. Liquidate, nuke, [fill in the blank]-free areas. Stalin would have loved it!
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/09/2006 8:11 Comments || Top||

#12  .com you know that kish mir in tuches means?
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/09/2006 8:19 Comments || Top||

#13  That's a helluva MaGiK wAnD you've got there - no wonder grom was onboard.

First, you left out the Within Reality thingy.

Second, you made a hash of it, mixing and commingling all sorts of, um, stuff. Cleaned up, organized, timelined, etc. (I don't feel any obligation to do it for you), it would amount to a couple of good ideas, alot of bullshit that no one will authorize - and yeah, that matters cuz of that pesky Constitution thingy, mucho breat-beating, ankle-biting, and Ye Olde Standy, Bile.

11A5S knows his shit - backwards, forwards, and inside-out - answer him.

You really do sound like the same old shit we've had before under different nyms, IToldYouSo - SayDoom! - Rex - et al. Lots of typed shit, when a simple link would do, puffing up the post to look important, yadda³ -- very little actionable or reality-based content.

You win the Icantypemoreshitthananyoneelsealive Award for today.

grom - WTF cares? Why don't you tell me / us. Still stuck on cryptic, I see. Still ignorable.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 8:21 Comments || Top||

#14  "seven and 10 years, respectively, and it took nearly 40 years of American military presence in South Korea to nurture a genuine stable democracy there."
In which time, did'nt we go from one of the most powerful nations in the world, to a super power. So are they saying we need to stay at least 3 to 6 more years in Iraq?
Posted by: plainslow || 01/09/2006 8:37 Comments || Top||

#15  I have to trump the let-em-vote-once pack. After WW2, the Allies implemented a de-Nazification program in Germany. Did that make sense to you? The record of the ideological suppression campaign reveals a massive shift to democratic politics in West Germany.

After the liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Allies bent over backward to include Islamofascists within the pseudo democratic processes. At one point al-Sadr, led as many as 10,000 supporters - many armed - in marches through North Baghdad. In Afghanistan, so-called "moderate Taliban" have run for office. The architect of the destruction of the Buddhas was voted to office in last year's elections. In Iraq, the outgoing US military commander noted a state of near "civil war" between Sunni and Shiite Islamofascists. His predecessors at the Coalition Provisional Authority carried out as Order #1, the "de-Baathization" of Iraq, thereby effectively abolishing Secularism and leaving a political vacuum which the Islamofascists filled.

Problem: the wheel-spinners would both support de-Nazification in the WW2 context and de-Secularization of Iraq as a phase of counter-terror, yet oppose de-Islamofascization of Iraq and Afghanistan. And you find that logically consistent with the nominal Bush' policy of placing pro-American regimes in the liberated entities. And you would refer to political dispensations based on cleric-controlled voting as: freedom. You are trumped.

I'm off to buy Bremer's book.



Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 8:40 Comments || Top||

#16  Trumped? Lol. Twaddle.

It's called democracy. It's imperfect and, in almost all cases, rank and illiberal on the first go.

How lucky we were to have the particular folks who constituted our Founding Fathers, how utterly unique they were - in their Masonic aprons and quoting Seneca, is little appreciated. To be honest, there just aren't enough Geo Washingtons (et al) to go around, methinks, and they seldom seem to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right credentials, to turn a corrupt shithole into an honest attempt at liberal democracy.

As for Afghanistan and Iraq -- You expected, um, what, exactly?

From your last posts it seems you're a BDS zoomer, full of books and bullshit and bongwater. What transpires doesn't suit you, so it's Bush's fault. Segments of Afghanistan and Iraq are still stuck on stupid, go figure - they've never known anything else, and it's Bush's fault. They didn't immediately form 4-H Clubs and build Disneyland so, yep, it's Bush's fault. They didn't drop Islam or tribalism in the dirt and follow the CaziFarkus Plan - so it's Bush's fault.

Sigh.

What is Bush's fault is that the Taliban and Saddam are sorta out of power, no matter what individual wankers you wish to present in the center ring. We have Kerry and Kennedy and Pelosi and Dean and (...) - are they any less fucked up as elected officials? Is it any less demented and moronic that people actually vote them into office?

I say No. Hell No.

Honestly, Bush had to try. He felt compelled to give them a shot. History will judge him for it - however things turn out. You get your shot to bash him than pulling a lever in the voting booth. Your screed is BDS.

You want perfection. You won't get it. Here or anywhere else on this mortal coil. You could kill yourself - or you could pull your head out of your ass and recognize that just about all emerging democracies begin as illiberal shouting matches full of ancient feuds and irrational customs. Certainly the Arabs prove the rule in spades, but that doesn't mean they won't eventually get past their tribal chiefs and imams. Time. It takes time for custom to be swept aside, if it can't survive alteration. It takes time for people to look to the nation instead of their clan or ethnicity. It is easy to draw parallels here in the US to a major portion of what pisses you off. You just don't have the horsepower or the patience to see it - and accept it.

There are no MaGiK wAnDs. Anywhere. Never have been.

If we allowed the Kurds to be unshackled from the Arabs, they'd do it right. No doubts at all about that. Mebbe an example next door would accelerate the process for the backward Arabs. Worth a try - and they deserve the shot anyway.

I don't want any more US, UK, Ozzie, or any other coalition partner to lose any more troops - in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else. When they train up sufficiently, we will draw down accordingly.

I don't want any more nation-building attempts, either. Too expensive in blood and treasure for my taste. But I do believe in asshat regime toppling. By remote control whenever possible. I've heard that it has never been done without boots on the ground and, yadda³, thus can't be done. Well, I'd say much has changed in a very short time, regards technology, so I'd like to give it a solid try before accepting the Conventional (out of date) Wisdom, thanks. The difference between Gulf War I & GW-II is mind-boggling, regards the tech available. I think we should give it a go next we desire to rid the world of an asshat regime. Iran looks prime to be our first test case.

I like the notion of toppling asshat regimes, as needed. They can try to rebuild. If they're still bad actors, then rinse and repeat.

Trumped. Sure thing, son. Go buy your book. Cherry-pick it for shit that fits your screed. Your sudden conversion to civil discourse didn't fool me - you're a Hate Junkie. Additionally, I see Other People's Wisdom being stolen and presented as your own. You get your miracles second or third hand - as Twain said, you're drunk on the smell of someone else's cork.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#17  "You get your shot to bash him than when pulling a lever in the voting booth."
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 9:39 Comments || Top||

#18  This is the largest Sunni Arab party being told to stay away from the polls, something threats of bombs could not accomplish. Now they are trying to get them to stay home "for Jihad".

The Iranians are Shia.

Is this really so hard?
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 10:13 Comments || Top||

#19  psssst .com, he's not worthy.
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 10:17 Comments || Top||

#20  If all you come here for is therapy, you should be banned. This post qualifies you, IMHO, as yet another irrational Hater Without A Clue™. Prove me wrong...

I'm down with it.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2006 11:57 Comments || Top||

#21  His predecessors at the Coalition Provisional Authority carried out as Order #1, the "de-Baathization" of Iraq, thereby effectively abolishing Secularism and leaving a political vacuum which the Islamofascists filled.

There is captured documentary evidence indicating that, in addition to sponsoring terror-training camps, the 'Secular Leader' and his ilk were quite willing to (and did) install Islamic fundamentalist precepts when it was conducive to maintaining power.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2006 12:17 Comments || Top||

#22  Re Pappy(s) Against Secularism and De-Islamofascization:

I have to trump you Pappy. Scroll down to CPA Order #1 on "De-Bathization."

http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/index.html#Regulations

No rhetorical gas-baggery can change the fact: the Bush government is encouraging political participation of Islamofascists, notwithstanding the inherent danger to the US and its allies, of the inevitable state of affairs when that aggressive and genocidal ideology holds hundreds of millions in its sway and has WMD within its jihad logistics. De-Nazification policies altered political perceptions in West Germany; only De-Islamofascization will produce pro-US regimes in Islamania. The current US temper - as exemplified by Rantburg posters (who will change course 180 degrees) - is to place the value of exercise of freedom of religion by genocidal entities, above enjoyment of security of person: your own person. Angry (bordering on murderous) posters like .com will soon finally direct said anger at the Islamofascists. He will do it when Bush does the same when he realizes the ideological Frankenstein he has created in Iraq.
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 13:27 Comments || Top||

#23  Say Mood!
Posted by: Elmaimble Spitle5035 || 01/09/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||

#24  ESpittle - lol!
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 18:55 Comments || Top||

#25  Let's talk nation-destruction, not building. It is time to put away the smart-bombs and dust off the nukes. Americans need to examine the national suicide mentality that followed 9-11. That event was a signal for wholesale slaughter. And the enemy that deserves it, has never been stronger

First use of nuclear weapons? Are you stuck on stupid? All that would accomplish is making America an instant target for any and all nuclear terrorist attacks. Open season would be declared and America would have alienated every single sane ally we have. Stop breathing your own exhaust long enough to let some oxygen circulate. What you are suggesting would cause America to abdicate all moral authority and effectively dismantle over 200 years of progress towards a model democracy.

... recognize that just about all emerging democracies begin as illiberal shouting matches full of ancient feuds and irrational customs. Certainly the Arabs prove the rule in spades, but that doesn't mean they won't eventually get past their tribal chiefs and imams. Time. It takes time for custom to be swept aside, if it can't survive alteration. It takes time for people to look to the nation instead of their clan or ethnicity.

.com, my one single concern is that there simply isn't enough time to permit such a gentle transition that you are suggesting. Yes, it is the most peaceable (for the Arabs, at least), method of converting these tribal cesspits into functioning nations.

However, time is the one thing we do not have. The advent of WMDs has changed everything. Iran is the poster child for just how little time there really is. As you know already, some abrupt regime changes are required d@mn soon if we hope to avoid a huge escalation in terrorism.

There are some very heavy-handed moves needed to prevent the sort of insanely stupid scenarios that CF proposes.

Posted by: Zenster || 01/09/2006 19:33 Comments || Top||

#26  I enjoy the joking about nuking Iran, it is cathartic, and aside from being a little extreme it has the same end .com is after. My “nuke” comments are mostly after toppling “asshat” governments like most here want, albeit exaggerated. And for exaggerating I should apologize, should. Ha!

I do disagree with you .com in your statement about nation building. One of the failings in this war with Iraq was our lack of a “post hostilities plan”. This lack of plan allowed for the insurgency to manifest while DOD built the plan. This is not Bush or Rummy bashing, this is an honest AAR of a very complicated war, “we” missed it clean. I will also grant that in my speculating we will never know if a good plan would have worked or not, I’m not that vain. Once you remove a government you must install an interim government and then build a permanent one. Otherwise anarchy will prevail and places like Somalia will be the norm. Cherry picking from Clausewitz, his book talks of both these issues. Unless, of course, you want to be a warring state all the time. To do this will always take boots on the ground. Boots on the ground will always win out over precision bombings, and nukes. Look at the postings on the Marines in Africa. They are nation building and removing threat. Not shooting and not bad for a warrior class who get it and are willing to do what it takes for peace. This is cheaper and easier in the long run and has proven to work.

Last point: Yes I do think we should be in Iraq for the next ten to twenty years. As we instill a peaceful government, like we did in Japan and Germany, we need to maintain a presence in the area to stabilize it. Then we must stay to defend it while it is weak, the reason we stayed in Germany for so many years after the war. And lastly to deter any other asshole government and to use it as a point of departure for our military in any future conflicts, like we did in Japan and the Philippines.

As for CF, La or whoever he calls himself, I tend to ignore, hoping they will go to another site.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 19:34 Comments || Top||

#27  I could not agree more, Zen.

"The advent of WMDs has changed everything."

There it is, in a nutshell, and as you point out NaziFartus would prove the point and leave you to explain it to your grandchildren. That would be harder than killing the jihadi next door.

I have no doubt that there will be (cumulatively) oceans of blood spilled and spent in the coming years to neuter / cauterize the pestilence of Islam. But the simple solutions - removing the means - seems to be a bridge too far in the PC-addled West.

Indeed, we have a convergence, a near-perfect shit storm, of Wahhabist oil-ticks - pockets full of ready cash and colons full of zeal, insane and intractable demographics in fodder-ridden shitholes run by dictators where Islam rules, Tranzi socialists with numerous sugar-daddy Moonbats who "matured" to run institutions and companies - but are still stuck on stupid in the 60's, the total victory of PCism over logic and reason in the Western institutions, the rise of distractions and soporific diversions because the social support net prevents the uncomfortable intrusion of reality, the utter abdication of the MSM and conversion to tools, and the advent and rise of the insane screechers, lost children cum conspiracists, and myopic and/or mercenary liars to "respectability" - instead of a padded cell and heavy doses of Thorazine.

Gonna be a tough row to hoe. We need many things to armor ourselves, prepare ourselves, steel ourselves for the decades-long struggle that has just begun.

What we don't need are the hate-addled.

We need focus and resolve.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 20:04 Comments || Top||

#28  I went a picked up a new Hoe today. The old ones blade was almost gone from use.

I am with you PD. Hate isn't going to help us, common sense and logic need to prevail. Too many mistake snark of hate filled venom.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 20:12 Comments || Top||

#29  man I need to proof read better "..mistake snark of for hate filled venom."
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 20:14 Comments || Top||

#30  I overlapped with you 49pan...

Regards nation-building, hmmmm. To be honest I agree with you about post-war planning. The stutter-step where Bremer was installed being an example of winging it and second-guessing ruling the process.

Why I don't want any more of it is simple... the old conventional wisdom was that if you broke it, you owned it. I'm in favor of a new CW - you fuck it up and we'll break it - and you get to put it back together. And if we don't like it, we'll break that one, too. I do not want to lose people in half-baked plans. Sure, if we have an air-tight plan, then I'd change my mind... But...

I'll offer a heavy lump to think about: most comparisons between WW-II and now, much less the moronic Vietnam BS, do not take into account thesocietal norms prevalent in the places overthrown. Our "issues", for the most part, will be in the M.E. and will involve Islam and, mostly, Arabs. That is a whole nuther reality. There's more baggage there than in Nazism orRising Sun Empire. The similarities end with the ideology of world dominion, nihilistic rage against boogeymen, and perverse arrogance. Islam, and the Arab influence within, is a pure evil self-replicating pathogen. Everything about it is dedicated to its goals. No fat. No nirvana. No simple fervent nationalism or bouncing blue-eyed babies of the Master Race. No hope. For anyone. Imams rule, life sucks, and then you die.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 20:20 Comments || Top||

#31  SPo'D - does it have a titanium blade? It's all the rage today, y'know. Titanium silverware, bedsheets, condoms, food additives. Gotta be titanium or it's shit, nowadays, lol. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 20:22 Comments || Top||

#32  Your CW is clean but it really condemns our kids to fighting these assholes over again. Now your making me think nukes ain’t so bad, just kidding. For example, we helped in the ass kicking the Mujahidin (sp) gave the Russians in Afghanistan, and then we walked. Without a stabilizing presence Anarchy festered, Pakistan took the opportunity and helped the radical Taliban into power, and ten years later we have an international terrorist training ground and 9/11. I’m not saying we bear any responsibility to Afghanistan or 9/11, we just missed a golden opportunity to influence the region. We help Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Saudi’s, all Muslim and difficult to deal with. But we are not maneuvering columns of tanks there and, albeit somewhat reluctant to help, they are supporting a Christian nation fight Muslims. I'm sure it's more for the oil money than their good worldly nature. But we need stability in the area to get the oil.

Islam in the Arab states is exactly as you say. Life sucks! They completely understand being dominated, crushing them when they get out of line is what they know and understand and we should give it to them. But I think it is much more complicated than just crushing them and leaving them to rebuild. If we do that then we will be back at my kids fighting them another time, and I have fought in wars for the last 25 years, as it seems most RBrs have, hoping my sons won’t have to. I’m not naive but if you don’t finish the war, I.E. Korea, DS 1, Kosovo, Somalia etc… you will eventually have to go back and fight it again. I would really like to see us crush them hard and then keep them down because you are right about the Arab perspective having nothing to do with western ideals, IE they will never learn. They have not matured as a people since they were crushed during the crusades and if we don’t put them in a position where they can do no harm we will just be waiting out for the next attack.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 21:07 Comments || Top||

#33  49pan - You've described the dilemma very very well. I'll have to chew on it awhile. Reading Michael Yon, as well as serious posts from OS and others here, has made me very reluctant to try it again. You will enjoy Dave D's most excellent post, if you haven't already seen it. I refer to it rather frequently as new info comes in or new ideas are floated - just to see if they meet the reality to BS criteria.

I am boggled that some can't see that we had to try. I will say that what I saw and dealt with in Saudi strikes me as beyond redemption. Cutting off the means to export it (or, perhaps, even practice it) seems our best, least costly, path. I remain committed to the Republic of Eastern Arabia, heh.

I hold out serious hope that we will have tech advances that will, indeed, do what you don't agree can be done. I'll suggest that even if we don't occupy the ground we can deny it to the asshats, if we choose to do so, via tech. I'm hoping for much more capability than that, eventually.

Thanks for the thoughtful and fact-filled reply. Gotta go think about this nation-building stuff some more. :-)
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 21:28 Comments || Top||

#34  I don't think of it as nation building. I think of it more as civil engineering along the lines of fighting diseases by installing clean water systems and sewers.

Image: a swamp of standing water, where pathologies are breeding. Typhoid, cholara start spreading to the surrounding communities. Death toll rises and something must be done.

You can spray the swamp to try to kill mosquitos, bacteria ... but that's a monumental and pretty much futile approach. Or, you can drain the swamp. It's a pretty big swamp, so you look for a few places where the water is shallower or there's some foundation to build a dike on. And you start build it ... a long, hard, frustrating task. It stinks in that swamp, the waters keep trying to come back. But if you can get those first dikes up, and drain some fields, not only is there less disease breeding there, the fields might turn out to be fertile. At least, they can hold grasses and eventually trees that keep the soil in place and the swamp from re-emerging, especially if some care is given to ensure drainage.

A wierd analogy, I guess. But an awful lot of our modern way of life is built on clean water and functioning sewers .....
Posted by: lotp || 01/09/2006 21:53 Comments || Top||

#35  and you can thank Snarky Civil Engineers™ for that!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/09/2006 22:08 Comments || Top||

#36  Lol, lotp - I like where you left it hanging - if intended as I read it, beaucoup snark, lol. Maybe it's just my twisted...

It's an apropos analogy... You were civil, but my twister responds with a slightly pointed menu of choices:
1) hand fill and teach the locals as we go
2) tell 'em to stand back and call in the Corriepillers D-9's

Recalling video of the Corpse of Eng in "action" in NO I'll add:
3) drop a coupla billion sacks of sand
4) drop a coupla billion sacks of Portland cement
5) drop all our toxic waste, medical stuff needle-down

Or a mix, as the situation demands. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:08 Comments || Top||

#37  "I am boggled that some can't see that we had to try."

What I've been wondering lately, is whether it's already settled that our "Islamic Democratization" experiment is a one-shot deal. After what George W. has had to go through politically to get it this far, can you imagine another American president ever trying it again, somewhere else? I can't-- not even if our efforts in Iraq yield fruit far beyond today's most optimistic expectations.

Which means the next time the brown stuff hits the propeller, whoever's President then will reach for one of the other options. And I shudder to think which option he might choose in retaliation for a major terrorist attack, especially if that President is a Democrat-- gotta achieve a quick fix so as to get back to pandering, and all that...

Posted by: Dave D. || 01/09/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||

#38  On the serious side - I'm afraid you're right. Since this takes a loooong time - it's automatically going to become a quagmire™ in the minds of the instant gratification / May fly attention-span krowd - and time may be a luxury we wouldn't have even without the ankle-biters and toolfools.

As for a Dhimmidonk Prez, well, you nailed it, heh. Image over content, style over substance - with the fate of Freedom in the balance - a pointless political farce.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:56 Comments || Top||

#39  I have "the list" handy and refer to it as well.
When you think about it, it is pretty sobering in a logical sort of way.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 22:57 Comments || Top||

#40  But the simple solutions - removing the means - seems to be a bridge too far in the PC-addled West.

Which is why I made such a hue and cry over that Pentagon reassessment concerning the political and ideological nature of Islam. If our military can somehow break free and finally understand the ideological nature of Islam, then appropriate action could be taken (domestically, at least) to begin containing Wahhabist radicalism and begin exporting deporting this excrement post haste.
Posted by: Zenster || 01/09/2006 23:12 Comments || Top||

#41  For whatever it may be worth, I added one option to The List.

I can't recollect which one of 'em's new right at the moment on account of the beer, but I do know that at some point the "Eight Options" became nine...

Posted by: Dave D. || 01/09/2006 23:14 Comments || Top||

#42  Both sides in this nuke non-nuke crush occupation nation something argument are too simplistic and show a lack of understanding of religous fevor. True understanding.
As a PK whose seen the underbelly of the Christian one from some practicioners... and can grok the muslim pray thingy...
Politicans and military types really don't grok what they are dealing with....

My mouth my say the Nuke word but my brain say neurons need blending and whipping - that implies Skinner and Pavlov and Lily and Leary and the greatful dead and meds in the water, meds in the food, meds in the tv shows == full metal jacket propagada sat tv.... done right and years of brain wipes...

Psych on steriods along with destruction of belief structures is on order -- BUT --- Remember that the desert trader is a Ferengi and a Ferengi without some religion to temper him is even more of a barbarian danger.

So his capitalist nature needs to be channeled in a benign way too. This will be very (maybe too) hard for a capitalist society like the US to accomplish.

just my random unwashed instant thoughts...
(I may see it differently tomorrow..)
Posted by: 3dc || 01/09/2006 23:35 Comments || Top||


12 dead in US chopper crash
A US helicopter with 12 passengers and crew members crashed in northern Iraq, killing all on board, the military command said yesterday. In addition, five Marines were reported killed in action, bringing to as many as 28 the number of American troops slain in Iraq since Thursday.

The crash of the UH-60 Black Hawk military copter late Saturday was the deadliest in Iraq since a Chinook transport helicopter went down last January near the Jordanian border, killing 30 Marines and a sailor.

A spokesman for US-led forces would not confirm the nationality or identity of those killed in the Black Hawk pending notification of next of kin. ''At this time we believe all the victims were US citizens," a spokesman said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, and it was not immediately known whether the aircraft came under fire from insurgents. A military spokesman noted, however, that the Black Hawk went down amid high winds and heavy rainfall.

The Black Hawk helicopter was one of two on night operations Saturday and had lost radio contact with the other aircraft before crashing in a sparsely populated area about 8 miles east of Tal Afar, a city near Mosul.

The military often flies missions at night, including the transport of troops via helicopter. But aviation specialists say darkness can complicate making an emergency landing, difficult in a copter under the best of circumstances.

''Helicopters are fairly unstable vehicles that need constant pilot attention," said Peter Field, a Vietnam-era Marine colonel and former director of the Navy's test pilot school in Patuxent River, Md. ''Flying over the vacant desert at night would pose a little bit more of a task for the pilot."

Field, now serving as a civil aviation consultant based in St. Louis, said investigators can ascertain quickly whether a crash was caused by mechanical error or hostile fire once they reach the fuselage.

''If the aircraft were hit by a surface-to-air missile or rocket-propelled grenade, you'd be able to tell," he said. ''The crash site won't contain the whole vehicle. There will be parts that fell along the way."

Nearby Tal Afar has long been a site of insurgent activity.

In September, US planes bombed several houses in Tal Afar, which one military official referred to as a ''terrorist incubator," after the town's residents were urged to evacuate. Weapons caches and high-tech bomb factories were uncovered by US troops.

In ground action, three of the five Marines killed over the weekend were slain by small arms fire in separate engagements with enemy gunmen yesterday in Fallujah.

The US military also reported that two Marines riding in separate vehicles near Ferris and Karmah died when they were attacked by roadside bombs.

On Thursday, 11 US soldiers and Marines were killed around the country amid bombings and other insurgent attacks. About 2,200 US military personnel have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

In other violence, gunfights broke out yesterday between insurgents and Iraqi police in the al-Adel neighborhood of western Baghdad, leaving one officer killed and 13 wounded.

A suicide car bomb targeted the convoy of Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, killing two and injuring five.

The official was unharmed.

US and Iraqi leaders have attempted to quell the insurgency by drawing Sunni Arabs into the government.

Adnan Dulaimi, a leader of the main Sunni Arab slate in last month's election, met yesterday with Jalal Talabani, interim president, and expressed willingness to bring his coalition into government ''so long as no side will dominate the government."

The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, denounced Arab countries working for political reconciliation in Iraq as US agents, according to a Web audio tape posted yesterday, Reuters reported from Dubai.

''The countries that met in Cairo . . . were involved in destroying Iraq and cooperated with America by opening their land, airspace, and waters and offering intelligence to it," said the speaker on the tape, who sounded like Zarqawi.

He was referring to an Arab League conference in November that tried to reconcile Iraqi political factions.

The tape, posted on an Islamist website often used by insurgent groups in Iraq, could not be authenticated.

The speaker denounced the Iraqi Islamic Party, viewed as the largest Sunni Arab party, for endorsing a new constitution, a move that boosted the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government.

''We call on the Islamic Party to leave this path . . . which leads to the destruction of the Sunnis," the speaker said.

''We had the power to disrupt the elections in most parts of Iraq but did not do it in order not to harm the Sunni masses," the speaker said, referring to last month's parliamentary polls, which were mostly peaceful.

Also yesterday, US-led forces raided the Umm Qura Mosque in Baghdad, headquarters of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line group of clerics the US has accused of terrorist activities.

The clerics held a news conference to denounce the action, during which coalition forces broke down doors and rifled through files.

And under heavy security, Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador, yesterday visited a pediatric hospital in Baghdad whose renovation is one of 19 such projects the US government is financing in Iraq. He said the Americans are investing in children ''because they are the future of this country."

''The goal is to get Iraq on its feet, Iraqis looking after Iraqis," Khalilzad said at the hospital located in eastern Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/09/2006 03:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


French Hostage Freed by Captors in Iraq
A French engineer taken hostage in Iraq last month was pushed out of a car near a checkpoint in a Baghdad suburb, apparently freed by nervous captors who then fled, Iraqi police said Sunday. Bernard Planche was found Saturday night near the checkpoint in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb, said Maj. Falah al-Mohammadawi.

France's presidential Elysee Palace said Planche would be received by its embassy in Baghdad and return to his home country. French President Jacques Chirac "is delighted by the happy outcome," the palace said. The president personally gave the news to Planche's daughter, Isabelle, and to his brother, Gilles.

Planche, who worked for a non-governmental organization called AACCESS, was kidnapped Dec. 5 on his way to work at a Baghdad water plant. Militants later released a video of him sitting between two armed men. Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, which broadcast an excerpt of the video, said the militants denounced the "illegal French presence" in Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the country. France has not sent forces to Iraq. The name of a previously unknown militant group, called "Monitoring For Iraq," was shown in the corner of the footage.
Guess they've been monitoring but not paying much attention...
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Frenbch del>/del>information radio France-Info (a continuous news radio a la CNN but radio not TV) reported it as having being freed by his captors thus giving the impression that it was a humatarian move from them. It was only when you listened to the detailed bulletin (not even sure it was in the short ones) that you learned they had stumbled on an American checkpoint and in their panic they had abandonned him.
Posted by: JFM || 01/09/2006 2:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Good info JFM thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Such observant terrorists: not quite sure whihc nations are involved in ravishing Mother Iraq... and clearly not at all aware at which street intersections the ravishers hang out. The tens of thousands of casualties and arrests have clearly diminished the calibre of the average hard boy in that part of the world. Hurrah for Flypaper!!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Iraqi and Ironhorse Soldiers rescue French hostage
BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 9, 2006) – Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Task Force Ironhorse Soldiers liberated a French hostage Jan. 7 in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad.

The Iraqi Army Soldiers were searching farm houses for weapons caches while U.S. Soldiers from Task Force Ironhorse manned a checkpoint as part of an outer cordon. As the Iraqi Army closed in on their location, the kidnappers fled from a nearby farmhouse and left the French hostage.

After the kidnappers fled, the hostage, Bernard Planche, a 52-year-old employee of a French non-governmental Organization, ran up to a checkpoint manned by Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 22 Infantry.

Planche was first reported kidnapped in western Baghdad on Dec 5.

Iraqi Army and Coalition forces are continuing to search the area for the kidnappers, officials said.

(Editor’s note: Information provided by 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs and Task Force Ironhorse.)
Posted by: ed || 01/09/2006 21:57 Comments || Top||


'Zarqawi' denounces Arab states
A recorded voice believed to belong to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, has denounced Arab countries working for political reconciliation in Iraq as US agents. "The countries that met in Cairo ... were involved in destroying Iraq and cooperated with America by opening their land, air space and waters and offering intelligence to it," the speaker said on a audio tape posted on the Internet.

The tape was referring to an Arab League conference in November that tried to reconcile Iraqi political factions. The tape could not be authenticated. The speaker denounced the Iraqi Islamic Party, viewed as the largest Sunni Arab party, for endorsing a new constitution, a move which boosted the Shiite and Kurdish-led government. "We call on the Islamic Party to leave this path ... which leads to the destruction of the Sunnis," the tape said. "We had the power to disrupt the elections in most parts of Iraq, but did not do it in order not to harm the Sunni masses."
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We had the power to disrupt the elections in most parts of Iraq, but did not do it in order not to harm the Sunni masses."

Just like he didnt want to harm the Sunni masses in Ramadi the other day to the tune of over a hundred dead??
Posted by: C-Low || 01/09/2006 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a Lions of Islam™ thingy.

We wouldn't understand all of the tiny nuances - such as whether one is beheaded in a left-to-right or right-to-left draw, Qu'uranic ramifications of wiping with Saudi Riyals or Iranian Rials, or the answer to the question: Just Who The FUCK Does That Old Clown In The Cave Zawahiri Think He IS, Anyway? sorta thing.

It's the little things, the confusing self-defeating things, the things that Westerners can't quite wrap their minds around, that makes a run-of-the-mill murdering swine-sucking asshole Jihadi into a True Jihadi, a creature so despicable and vile and barbaric and demented that it lies beneath snake shit at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, you know: a Lion of Islam™.

In my Western muddle, all I can say is if Zarqi wants to put the hurt on The Arab League, well, the popcorn's on me.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 5:58 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll take a bowl of that popcorn with thanks, .com. :-D And I'll pop into the kitchen in the moment to make a batch of brownies to go with it. Who woulda thunk al-Zarqawi would go Palestinian-stupid?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 6:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Another classic case of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Let's hope it's terminal.
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/09/2006 7:50 Comments || Top||

#5  If so many people weren't getting killed in the process, Zarqawi's bull-in-the-Arabic-China-shop routine would be downright hilarious. As it is, it's very difficult not to sit back and applaud while this demon shows what the logical extension of jihad actually is; Namely everybody dies.

The instant they had every infidel's head chopped off then would begin the internecine slaughter until they anihilated themselves in nuclear fury. These sick, twisted f&%ks cannot abide peace in any form. Only constant bloodshed and mayhem at all suits their tastes.

It is up to all sane people to bind these vile maggots to their barbaric lusts and kill them each and every one.
Posted by: Zenster || 01/09/2006 16:05 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli security claims Palestinian fighters, trained in Lebanon, Syria have entered Gaza
Palestinian weapons experts who have undergone training in Lebanon, Syria and possibly Iran have recently entered the Gaza Strip. According to the official, several Palestinians who were trained by the Lebanon based Hezbollah party and the Iranians, have entered the Gaza Strip recently, apparently from the Sinai. Haaretz quoted a security official claiming that, in the past, vast technological knowledge has been transmitted via the Internet or via memory chips used in laptop computers.

In a few cases, the Shin Bet security service has managed to keep Palestinian and Israeli Arab countries from smuggling instructions for manufacturing weapons into the territories. The official added that even when instructions to manufacture weapons and explosives became available to the Palestinian fighters, they decided to use the help of weapon experts. "Most of the experts are Hamas members who specialize in making explosive devices and improving high-trajectory weapons - specifically, building warheads and improving the rockets' aerodynamics", the official claimed.

The Israeli intelligence believes that Hamas is primarily concerned with upgrading its operational ability ahead of a possible renewed confrontation with Israel. Yet, Hamas has been urging the Palestinian factions to maintain calm in the Palestinian territories since the truce was declared February last year.

Also, Israeli military intelligence officials said that they received unconfirmed reports stating that improved Katyusha rockets have been smuggles into the Gaza Strip; the rockets have 20-kilomter range and 6.3 kilogram warhead. Israel claims that Hezbollah party has initiated most of the attacks in the occupied territories in 2003 and 2004 by funding several organizations and handing them general instructions for the attacks which were mainly carried by Fateh and the Islamic Jihad, according to Israeli security officials.
Posted by: Steve || 01/09/2006 08:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where is the surprise meter?
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/09/2006 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Shocking....! When will the long awaited, IDF aerial bombardment commence?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Roach Motel...
Posted by: borgboy || 01/09/2006 13:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Let the "work accidents" commence!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/09/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||


Zark sez Binny ordered rocket attack on Israel
Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an audio tape put onto the Internet that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of the network's overall chief Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said in an audio tape put onto the Internet that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of the network's overall chief Osama bin Laden.
"This commendable feat came in application by the mujahedeen of the oath by fighter sheikh Osama bin Laden, emir of the Al-Qaeda network, may God preserve him," added the recording referring to repeated statements by Bin Laden that the Israelis should not enjoy security as long as Muslims were not safe.

Israel the previous day had carried out an air strike against a base of a Syrian-backed Palestinian group on the southern outskirts of Beirut in retaliation for cross-border Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Zarqawi also said the guerrillas had carried out nearly 800 operations against "the crusader forces" since the occupation of Iraq, putting "crusader" casualties at around 40,000 soldiers.

"Since the start of mujahedeen operations after the fall of the Baathist regime and until today, nearly 800 martyr operations aimed at crusader targets and military convoys have been carried out (...). We estimate casualties among the adorers of the Cross in Iraq at no less than 40,000 soldiers," he declared.

"That's why they (the Americans) asked for help from the Arab League, represented by its secretary-general Amr Mussa, and called for the Cairo meeting," said Zarqawi, hitting out at member countries that took part in the November meeting dedicated to Iraq under Arab League auspices.

The Iraqi leaders who participated in the Cairo meeting agreed on a "road map" for national conciliation, calling for a calendar for withdrawal of foreign forces and the release of detainees who had not been charged.

Zarqawi hit out at the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Islamic Party for having taken part in the December 15 general elections, and called on it to renounce such actions.

"We call on the Islamic Party to abandon the road to perdition on which it has embarked and which threatened to cause the loss of the Sunni community," Zarqawi said, adding that the party "should have called the people to jihad (holy war)."

The Iraqi Al-Qaeda leader then laid down two conditions for giving up the jihad.

"First, chase out the invaders from our territory in Palestine, in Iraq and everywhere in Islamic land.

"Second, install sharia (Islamic law) on the entire Earth and spread Islamic justice there (...). The attacks will not cease until after the victory of Islam and the setting up of sharia," he swore.

Zarqawi concluded: "O young Muslims everywhere in the world, and in particular in the neighbouring countries (of Iraq) and in Yemen, I recommend jihad to you (...). O nation of Islam, America is today drawing its last breath."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/09/2006 03:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And I guess we can credit him with the disproportionate retaliation too.
Posted by: CaziFarkus || 01/09/2006 5:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Kinda hard for dead people to order rocket attacks, no?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 01/09/2006 21:43 Comments || Top||

#3  "Ouija board orders from the boss, sir"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/09/2006 22:25 Comments || Top||


Two More Embassies in Jordan Close
Three Western embassies in Jordan have closed for security reasons "until further notice," warning of a new threat of attacks on Western targets in the kingdom. The Canadian and Australian embassies yesterday followed Britain in announcing the closure of their missions in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The move comes two months after bomb attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda against three luxury hotels in Amman that killed 60 people plus three bombers and wounded about 100 more.

Australia warned travelers in a statement of the threat of new attacks on Western targets in the kingdom, a key US ally regarded as one of the most stable countries in the volatile Middle East. "Reports suggest terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks against Westerners and places frequented by Westerners in Jordan," the embassy said. "The Australian Embassy in Jordan will be closed until further notice due to the security situation."
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uh-Oh, it sounds like the warnings are out, next on the list is not Iran, it's Jordan.

Canada, Australia, and Britian, our three closest allies. My, My, My.

Odd, I thought the King was on our side?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/09/2006 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Australia, yes, Briton, si, but Canada ?
What was all that booing at the hockey game last week all about ? Canadians have some kind of problem ?
Posted by: wxjames || 01/09/2006 7:42 Comments || Top||

#3  wxjames, Canada was founded as a country on the proposition that American fingers had to be kept out of the various Provincial pies, lest, God Forbid, the peepul be polluted by such contact with their southern cousins. According to my immigrant Canadian friends, the attitude is incorporated at all levels of grammar school curricula.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#4  wxjames, Canada was founded as a country on the proposition that American fingers had to be kept out of the various Provincial pies, lest, God Forbid, the peepul be polluted by such contact with their southern cousins. According to my immigrant Canadian friends, the attitude is incorporated at all levels of grammar school curricula.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#5  wxjames, Canada was founded as a country on the proposition that American fingers had to be kept out of the various Provincial pies, lest, God Forbid, the peepul be polluted by such contact with their southern cousins. According to my immigrant Canadian friends, the attitude is incorporated at all levels of grammar school curricula.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Whee - a triple post! Apparently that's what happens when I hold down the submit query button, rather than just clicking.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Thanks, I heard ya the first time. (just kidding)
My uncle joined the RCAF early in WW2 before Pearl Harbor was attacked, and he was shot down over Germany and spent the ballance of the war in a German prisoner of war camp. Thanks Canada for allowing my uncle a chance to die for your....
Never mind, fuck you Canada.
Posted by: wxjames || 01/09/2006 8:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Perhaps Tehran, Damascus, and Amman are just not good places to be in for the next couple of months. Especially Tehran.
Posted by: Darrell || 01/09/2006 10:22 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
7 killed in southern Thailand
Seven people have been shot dead in separate attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive south.

Six people, including two police officers, were killed in three separate attacks in Yala province, one of three predominantly Muslim provinces in the south.

Another was shot dead in Pattani province.

In Narathiwat province, two Thai women and a Malaysian man were slightly injured when a bomb exploded at a tea shop.

The attacks came despite a call for peace from former prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda, who addressed some 2,000 civilians at an anti-violence meeting.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/09/2006 03:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Has anyone noticed, Thailand is slowly getting the same body count as Iraq.
Posted by: Shistos Shistadogaloo UK || 01/09/2006 16:44 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iraqis receive training in Iran
Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session.

Upon the return of the young man -- whose name has been withheld from this article to protect his family -- he was recruited into the armed wing of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, the uncle said.

The claim is consistent with remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who has repeatedly warned about Iranian meddling in Iraq's affairs.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- an exiled opposition group -- also charges that Tehran has been training Iraqi and other nationals in intelligence gathering and terrorist operations at garrisons across Iran.

The uncle, who agreed to be identified only as Muhammad, said the young man and a number of others were recruited from Husseiniya mosque, a large Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad. The young man told his father he was going to visit a religious site in Iran.

But, Muhammad said, "They took them to a camp and gave them a briefing on what is happening in Iraq, and what Iran is trying to do: Support the Shi'ites and help them retain power. ...

"They trained them for militia purposes -- to go out on patrol, to get people out of their houses, execute them and leave them on the street," he said, adding that his nephew had boasted about his training to the family when he returned in early December.

"He was brainwashed; he was very proud when he was talking to us. He told us all the details in order to try and make us afraid. He had an AK-47. He didn't say who arranged his passport, but he is getting his orders from one of the imams in the Badr office," Muhammad said.
Posted by: Captain America || 01/09/2006 14:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


IRGC ground forces commander killed in plane crash
A small military jet crashed in northwestern Iran on Monday, killing the commander of the ground forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and at least 12 other people, state media said.

The plane, which belongs to the Revolutionary Guards, was attempting an emergency landing at Oroumieh, located 560 miles northwest of the capital, Tehran, near the Turkish border, state television reported.

Gen. Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards, was among the 11 military officers killed in the crash, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported, quoting Guards spokesman Gen. Masoud Jazayeri.

State television said 11 passengers and two crew members were killed. However, state radio said the plane had a crew of three. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.

State television said the plane was a Falcon jet, which is the preferred aircraft of high-ranking military officers in Iran.

Iran has a history of aircraft accidents involving a heavy loss of life. The government has blamed the U.S. trade embargo which makes it impossible for Iran to buy parts for its old U.S.-built aircraft.

In December, 115 people were killed when a military transport plane crashed into a 10-story apartment building near Tehran's Mehrabad airport as the pilot was returning to the airport shortly after takeoff to make an emergency landing.

In 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people.
That crash led to an intel coup on the al-Qaeda leadership in Iran. Be interesting to see if we learn anything notable from Kazemi's sorry carcass.
In 2002, a Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 struck snow-covered mountains in western Iran, killing all 119 people on board.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 01/09/2006 04:36 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting how "pilot error" is never mentioned as a potential cause.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 6:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Any US made transport aircraft that Iran is flying are so old and popular that parts are avilable on the open market. Poor maintance and pilot error are to blame not any embargo.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 01/09/2006 6:57 Comments || Top||

#3  You mean you guys don't realize that 'pilot error' is the FAA's all purpose cover line ?
Iran is not the FAA.
Posted by: wxjames || 01/09/2006 7:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Rearangements at the top?
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/09/2006 7:42 Comments || Top||

#5  The Zionist Death Ray strikes again! Kudos to the Mossad for another success ('cause it couldn't possibly be American Special Forces fiddling with the fiddly bits at night in the hangers, or shining laser pointers into the pilots' eyes). ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/09/2006 8:00 Comments || Top||

#6  "...blamed the U.S. trade embargo which makes it impossible for Iran to buy parts for its old U.S.-built aircraft."

"...Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying ... crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran."

"...Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 struck snow-covered mountains in western Iran, killing all 119 people on board."

I didn't know the embargo worked against Russian aircraft parts too. I guess Iran didn't have an 'oil-for-food' loophole in their embargo.

Posted by: Glenmore || 01/09/2006 8:14 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm presuming this is a French plane. Can anybody confirm?
Posted by: mhw || 01/09/2006 8:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Dassault makes them. Yes, it's French. Google is your friend.
Posted by: 11A5S || 01/09/2006 8:36 Comments || Top||

#9  The Falcon is France's contribution to the WOT.

Posted by: JFM || 01/09/2006 9:17 Comments || Top||

#10  And a fine one it is, JFM. Perhaps Ahmadisnutz needs a ride somewhere soon?
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/09/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Soooo...... Enquiring minds want to knnow....who is responsible? The possibilities are endless! Let's hope that what this wasn't, was an IRGC coup planned against Ahammadaboutjihad, that crashed and burned. AhNeedMeds is mad-hatter crazy and I can see that being a perfectly valid potential scenario. But who knows?
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#12  BTW Dassault is mostly in the hands of the Dassault family and they have Jewish roots (Its creator Marcel Dassault formerly Marcel Bloch converted to catholicism during or after WWII, don't remember)
Posted by: JFM || 01/09/2006 10:19 Comments || Top||

#13  #12 is an interesting comment, JFM.
Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 10:23 Comments || Top||

#14  When you have a country run by Mad Mullahs, what do you expect? THEY are in charge of the laws of physics through Allan. Take a look at the Bam earthquake disaster. Anyone that flies or maintains these aircraft are ultimately answerable to the MMs, so heroic maintenance and procurement is going against the will of the MMs, who have other priorities with the public purse. I am sure that this systemic weakness is being taken into consideration in our war planning. It damned well better be.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/09/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#15  War planning, we don't do war planning.
The dhimmocrats would never allow it.
Posted by: wxjames || 01/09/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#16  Personally, I think God struck them dead because they didn't have enough shariah in their diet.
Posted by: Fred || 01/09/2006 11:15 Comments || Top||

#17  The Pat Robertsonian effect was it Fred? A lot of that going around lately.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#18  One possible contribution to the aircraft safety problem in Iran is the replacement of competant people by ideologically pure people. It doesn't seem like this could actually trickle down to the mechanic level but it could easily trickle down to the ispection level.
Posted by: mhw || 01/09/2006 12:21 Comments || Top||

#19  When NTSB starts including "god's will" as a possible crash cause, we'll know it's too late...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/09/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||

#20  According this, Kazemihad been head of the IRGC Air Force until last August. Then there's this,

Another Guards commander...[replaced] in the reshuffle is Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the IRGC Air Force. Kazemi replaced Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf when the latter was appointed as the police chief in 2000, but Khamenei is said to want a more robust commander to lead the IRGC Air Force to achieve faster progress in the ballistic missile development under his command.

That last part doesn't exactly square with another take:

The Islamic regime is increasing its preparation for its last stand against the Iranian Nation and the world community. Several commanders of the regime's Pasdaran Corp. (Revolutionary Guards) have been changed on the Supreme Leader's instruction. Generals Mohammad-Ali Jaffari and Ahmad Kazemi have been nominated, today, to two key posts which will allow a better control of the Pasdaran Corp. by the clerical leadership.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/09/2006 12:56 Comments || Top||

#21  What chance of Irans most competent mechanics being drafted to the nuke scheme, eg to run centrifuges.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/09/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#22  Well, RG commanders are appointed directly by Khamenei... so if this is a hit, it's Ahmadinejad's doing (I guess.)

Hmmmmmmmmm...

Posted by: Chinter Flarong9283 || 01/09/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#23  Is it too late to start the rumor that the CIA did it? It would be easy for the MM's™ to believe it, whether we had a hand in it or not.

So if the Iranian secret intel service is googling this right now, THE CIA DID IT!
Posted by: Steve White || 01/09/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#24  Well, it could have been the Mossad, too.
Posted by: Matt || 01/09/2006 13:25 Comments || Top||

#25  No big BOOM, no flames. From the photo, wreckage appeared to be pretty much in tact! Could have simply ran outta motion lotion. Pays to tap on the gauge now and then, just in case.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 13:36 Comments || Top||

#26  As an aside.... I don't know if the more embarassing aviation accident cause is "fuel exhaustion" or "controlled flight into terrain." Both are pretty stupid.
Posted by: Mark E. || 01/09/2006 14:16 Comments || Top||

#27  interesting thread from Free Republic (old) I discovered when googling Pasdaran Corp. Wish I had time to read it all.
link

Posted by: 2b || 01/09/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||

#28  Lot's of recent "one-point" landings of late.

US SF is all over this one, busy preparing the battle field.

Good work!
Posted by: Captain America || 01/09/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||

#29  I was kind of hoping Iran was right and the embargo had something to do with it, chalk one up for ol Condi and the State team. But the reality sets in, if France can get Nuclear equipment and materieal in well aircraft parts would be a no brainer. Unfortunately Poor maintenance and stupid pilots are more likely at fault here. "Fuel check? Allah be with us! We don't need no stinkin fuel check".
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 15:26 Comments || Top||

#30  I'd rather they think a dissident faction did a hit. Start the purges!
Posted by: Frank G || 01/09/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#31  Jet turbines are touchy items, and require regular attention from well-trained individuals. Also, political commissars do NOT make the best inspectors on highly-involved mechanical work. Sabotage with a "modified" part would not be that difficult under such circumstances. Not excluding the fact that an "Inshallah" approach to basic maintenance can be deadly on aircraft.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 01/09/2006 17:36 Comments || Top||

#32  They must be getting their fuel gauges and altimeters from Fred's sympathy meter supplier...
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/09/2006 17:47 Comments || Top||

#33  that was good SF!!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#34  My personal prayer in all of this is that what we are seeing now is an Iranian variation of the Night of the Long Knives : one of the power factions has cut a deal with the regular Army and Police to eliminate the IRGC leadership, in return for their support when their nut Prez crosses their Rubicon.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 01/09/2006 18:18 Comments || Top||

#35  Good lord, a civil war in the makings?? As unfortunate as it would be a civil was would set them back years in their quest for nukes and give us time on the Iraq rebuild.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 19:39 Comments || Top||

#36  Holy Extrapolation, Batman! Let's not get too excited. After all, it could have just been lack of airspeed, altitude, and ideas, all at the same time.

There is nothing more worthless than:
1. Altitude above you.
2. Runway behind you.
3. Fuel in the fuel truck.

Or it could be the fuel and altimeter aftermarket parts, like Seafarious sez. LOL, Sea!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/09/2006 21:20 Comments || Top||

#37  ...and one more AP,

4. and 1/2 second ago
Posted by: Rafael || 01/09/2006 22:12 Comments || Top||

#38  5. Some mad Mulla doing the QC on maitenance.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 22:28 Comments || Top||

#39  IM = Insh'allah Maintenance, lol.

I heard some excellent stories at the Dhahran AB in '92, lol. Terrified Saudi pilots were always a favorite topic, heh. I bought a truck which happened to have a gate pass, leaving it on was part of the deal, so I could go to the E & O Clubs, eat real food - even during prayer-time (gasp!) and hang out with regular people. Alas, I didn't have access in my later tour - and I think the US Mil had been wholly replaced by contractors, anyway.
Posted by: .com || 01/09/2006 22:36 Comments || Top||

#40  Lots of news today - REGIMECHANGE IRAN reports it believes Iran may have up to four nukes bombs already. Meanwhile our alleged good friends the Russians on PRAVDA are wondering whom killed off Kazemi and other incidents - read, Dubya and the USA. TERRADAILY.com reports that Chinese growth, espec in population and consumption, may eventually threaten the entire planet, which seemingly is in line with PRAVDA's "THE EARTH IS DEAD" artic which again is in line with Steven C Hoagland's belief on COASTTOCOASTAM show that Iran already has nukes, and that alleged "Global Gulag-ists", Socialists, Globalists, Governmentists and Poligarchs intend to PC "eliminate" approximately 5 1/2 BILLION persons, as many as necesary, for the sake of resources-control and Globalist/Global Utopia. Hoagland's "Global Gulag-ists" > America vv the WOT and 9-11 are fighting a PRE-SET, PRE-DETERMINED, PC/PDENIABLE alleged "MANUFACTURED WAR" for control of the world, or words to that effect. Both Hoagland and O'REILLY [vv ACLU and its agenda] believe that AMERICA'S SOVEREIGNTY AND ITS DESTRUCTION IS THE IMMEDIATE PRIORITY/OBJECTIVE OF BOTH [HOAGLAND'S] ALLEGED GLOBAL GULAGISTS AND [O'REILLY'S SUPER-LEFTY] "ACLU". STAY ARMED AND STAY VIGILANT, RANTERS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/09/2006 22:52 Comments || Top||

#41  OK, cut this guy's caffine ration.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/09/2006 23:37 Comments || Top||


IRGC Ground Forces Commander Killed in Air Crash
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards ground forces and 12 other officers have been killed in a plane crash in north-western Iran, says state media. The small Falcon jet came down near Oroumieh, 900 km (560 miles) north-west of the capital, Tehran. "Ahmad Kazemi was killed with 12 of his deputies and accompanying officers," said Ahmad Panahi of Iran's Emergency Centre, according to Fars news agency.

A military transport plane crashed in Tehran last month, killing 128 people. It had been attempting an emergency landing at Mehrabad airport when it came down in a residential district, hitting a 10-storey apartment building.

Mehr news agency said the latest crash was due to bad weather in Iran's snowbound north-west. State television said the plane - on a flight from Tehran - was attempting an emergency landing at Oroumiyeh, 900 kilometres (560 miles) north-west of the capital, when it crashed.
Posted by: Rory B. Bellows || 01/09/2006 03:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd love to see whatever maintenance logs there are for the aircraft. Iran's incredibly crappy aviation track record is nothing short of heartwarming.
Posted by: Zenster || 01/09/2006 18:54 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Michael Ledeen: Toe Tag for Binny
Which is announced almost as an aside in this important analysis of Middle East politix. Please read it all. Excerpts:

A:
And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.

B:
In short, both demography and geopolitics make this an age of revolution, as President Bush seems to have understood. Rarely have there been so many opportunities for the advance of freedom, and rarely have the hard facts of life and death been so favorable to the spread of democratic revolution.

The architect of 9/11 and the creator of Palestinian terrorism are gone. The guiding lights of our terrorist enemies are sitting on cracking thrones, challenged by young men and women who look to us for support. Not just words, and, above all, not promises that the war against the terror masters will soon end with a premature abandonment of what was always a miserably limited battlefield. This should be our moment.

Faster. Please?
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/09/2006 13:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks Seafarious, excellent news.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/09/2006 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  From what I've read over that past few years, Ledeen's sources in Iran have a much better record for accuracy than all other media (I know that's not saying much).

Keeping my fingers crossed...
Posted by: Xbalanke || 01/09/2006 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  So, he's dead again?
Posted by: Iblis || 01/09/2006 15:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Too bad we will have to wait until we take Iran to dig up his grave and see for sure! It would be the banner year, Binny and Arafat! I just get all funny inside thinking about it.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/09/2006 15:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Gotta watch 'em the potassium. Gotta takem 'em your phos go too.
Posted by: Elmaimble Spitle5035 || 01/09/2006 16:15 Comments || Top||

#6  I seem to recall Ledeen falling for exaggerated stories of ballot tampering in Iranian and Iraqi elections. He also systematically overstates the potential threat to the regime of the student demonstrations that occasionally happen in Iran.

I like the guy and agree with him regarding Iran, but suspect his sources -- understandably -- are feeding him self serving info sometimes and he's not great at filtering it out. So, though he's one of the 'good guys', I nominate him for a salt shaker picture on Rantburg.

That said, the idea that Iran is harboring Al Queda is widely believed and this particular story may turn out to be true.
Posted by: JAB || 01/09/2006 17:43 Comments || Top||

#7 

He's Really Most Sincerely Dead?

Link in case the pix is cut off...
Posted by: BigEd || 01/09/2006 18:01 Comments || Top||

#8  A cat has 9 lives, how many does a cockroach have?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 01/09/2006 18:04 Comments || Top||

#9 
Posted by: Glomoper Cleath8438 || 01/09/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#10  If he's still alive there's a chance, however small, taht he may yet repent. If he's dead, he's too preoccupied with misery to be of any harm to us.
Posted by: Korora || 01/09/2006 19:49 Comments || Top||

#11  This article sounds like convenient cover to me:
HREF='HTTP://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/09/zarqawi.statement/index.html'>
Posted by: Tibor || 01/09/2006 22:05 Comments || Top||

#12  No matter whether alive or dead I believe most Americans want closure as per those Terror leaders whom planned and executed 9-11 - send in SPECOPS to find and dig up Osama's corpus dilecti, and bring it back to the USA for full public exposure. Many Americans in the past wanted the Kaiser's head, Lenin and Stalin'd head, Tojo HItler and Mussolini's, etal. - why should Osama and the Burqua Boyz be "special"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/09/2006 22:59 Comments || Top||

#13  Joseph, I think that they meant it symbolically. Why would someone enjoy looking at the fugly Osama been Laid [in grave]'s head?
Posted by: twobyfour || 01/09/2006 23:25 Comments || Top||



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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2006-01-09
  IRGC ground forces commander killed in plane crash
Sun 2006-01-08
  Assad rejects UN interview request
Sat 2006-01-07
  Iran issues new threat to Europe
Fri 2006-01-06
  Ariel Sharon Not Dead Yet
Thu 2006-01-05
  Sharon 'may not recover'
Wed 2006-01-04
  Sharon suffers 'significant stroke'
Tue 2006-01-03
  Iraqi premier, Kurd leader strike deal
Mon 2006-01-02
  U.N. Seeks Interview With Assad
Sun 2006-01-01
  Syrian MPs: Try Khaddam for treason
Sat 2005-12-31
  Syrian VP resigns, sez Assad 'threatened' Hariri
Fri 2005-12-30
  Palestinians commandeer the Rafah crossing
Thu 2005-12-29
  GAM disbands armed wing
Wed 2005-12-28
  Two most-wanted Saudi militants killed in 24 hours
Tue 2005-12-27
  Syrian Arrested in Lebanese Editor's Death
Mon 2005-12-26
  78 ill in Russian gas attack?

Better than the average link...



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