(SomaliNet) While addressing the southern Sudan cabinet meeting, President Omar al-Bashir stressed that prevalence of security in the south is a major step in implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sudan Tribune reported Sunday.
Al-Bashir affirmed the importance of a mechanism for coordination between the Armed Forces and Sudan People Liberation Movement, adding that the two parties are jointly responsible for the prevalence of security in the south. He stressed the importance of security at the oil production and the investment areas, which is the responsibility of the joint forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
..Epaulet Guy has spoken!!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/20/2006 6:27 Comments ||
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Police arrested a blogger Sunday in Cairo, less than a week after rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Egypt for detaining the writer of another personal Web log. Rami Siyam was detained in downtown Cairo early Sunday for questioning. He is at least the fifth blogger Egypt has detained this year. Later he was transferred to the Delta Nile city of Belbeis for further interrogation. "Police want to know if he is involved in criminal activities," the officer said.
Siyam has been running his blog since May 2005 and usually he posts material critical to the government such as police torture and operation of political opponents. The officer did not say whether Siyam's detention had any connection with anti-government items Siyam had posted on his blog.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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The Saudi threat was made in September after the royal family became alarmed at the latest turn in the fraud inquiry. Sources close to the investigation say the Saudis hit the roof after discovering that SFO lawyers had persuaded a magistrate in Switzerland to force disclosure about a series of confidential Swiss bank accounts.
The BAE kickback is small potatoes. What has them worried is losing the confidentiality of their Swiss bank accounts.
By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter, Sunday Telegraph
They are both British and in their 50s. One is a City financier, the other an ex-member of the Armed Forces. And 18 months ago they became the unlikely financiers of a secretive organisation that, alongside BBC journalists, last week revealed how a cleric banned from Britain is using pseudonyms to broadcast his support for terrorism into the UK.
The two "patriots" who set up Vigil keep their identities secret, but others from the organisation agreed to talk to The Sunday Telegraph.
Vigil's founders believe that the police, security and intelligence services are so overstretched that they need help.
The organisation seeks to make Britain a safer place by disrupting and exposing terrorist activity. It is also working with media groups to highlight the threat from Muslim extremists. Last week it teamed up with BBC2's Newsnight and Radio 4's File on 4.
Vigil is non-profit making and does not charge for its services. It operates from a discreet office in London, but the address is kept secret in case it is, in turn, targeted by Muslim extremists.
It has five paid staff and a further 25 workers, many with military, security, intelligence and financial experience who charge only their expenses.
The group says it is non-political and non-religious: it has Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists working for it.
Only two of its staff are willing to be identified. One is Dominic Whiteman, its director and spokesman. Mr Whiteman, 34, who has a business background, said: "We are motivated by the scale of the terrorist threat in the UK: 3,000 people living here have been through Osama bin Laden's training camps and 16,000 people in the UK are al Qaeda sympathisers.
"Vigil was formed because we realised that there were a lot of recently retired ex-military and intelligence personnel who had a stack of contacts around the world and who knew a lot about the war on terror. We also learned that some individuals working on their own were getting some amazing raw intelligence. We felt some of this expertise was being under-utilised.
"We are vigilant but we are not vigilantes. We are also aware of our boundaries: we gather evidence that can be used in a court room but we don't meddle. If necessary, we also liaise with the FBI and US anti-terrorist units."
Vigil carries out an estimated 70 per cent of its work on the internet. It monitors extremists groups and tries to infiltrate them. However, if it obtains details of protest rallies and other meetings it also attends them. Some of its operators are fluent in Arabic, while others are banking and financial experts who try to trace terrorist funding around the world.
Vigil's two sponsors originally provided tens of thousands of pounds each for the group. Mr Whiteman said: "They are both real patriots who want to do their bit to make Britain a safer place."
Vigil's running costs for the past 18 months have totalled less than £200,000. As well as its two original sponsors, other donors have provided funding.
The other Vigil operator willing to be identified is Glen Jenvey, 42, a freelance counter-intelligence investigator from Wiltshire. He set up the internet sting which last week saw Omar Bakri Mohammed praise the London 7/7 bombers on the internet. Bakri, who now lives in Beirut, also appeared to advocate a terrorist attack on Dublin airport.
Bakri was excluded from the UK in August on the grounds that his presence was not conducive to the public good. He ran the radical al Muhajiroun group in London until it was proscribed last year.
Mr Jenvey also helped to uncover last week's allegation that an immigration worker at the Home Office is a senior member of Hibz ut Tahrir, an extremist Muslim group that Tony Blair wants banned.
Before working for Vigil Mr Jenvey infiltrated the Tamil Tigers while working for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London in the 1990s.
More recently, he set up an internet sting that provided evidence linking Abu Hamza, the British radical Islamic cleric, to terror camps. Mr Jenvey had set up an Islamic internet site using a fictitious name. Hamza sent him propaganda films designed to attract recruits for jihad training in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
Earlier this year Hamza was jailed for seven years for inciting murder and race hate. Hamza, 47, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque in London, was convicted of 11 of the 15 charges against him but is seeking to have them overturned.
Scotland Yard confirmed it was "working closely with Vigil, particularly its director and spokesman who has made officers aware of chat-room material. This material will be considered and appropriate action taken."
Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman for homeland security, has also worked with Vigil.
He said that he had been impressed by the group's professionalism. "Anything of this nature that helps the security services has to be encouraged," he said.
#1
Very good to know. Thanks, a5089! I know we've got some individuals Stateside who do this kind of thing, who've passed actionable information on to the authorities.
#4
Maybe, and I'm being all serious in this, we 'burgers can help Vigil out. I'm still completely amazed at the LEVEL of info I find here every single day on corners of the world that I'd never be able to point out just 5+ years ago. Fred's thugburg name search thingy alone should be of interest to the FBI, CIA, MI5/MI6, NSA, DoD, DoM, etc. Of course, I don't like the "law enforcement" approach, I'd rather see 'em dead, but if it slows down or stops a network/cell in the homeland, all the better. Great to see there's still patriots across the pond, even though I knew that from our posting cousins here at the 'burg.
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 10:59 Comments ||
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#5
This is most encouraging. Brits who still care about Britain and its values. This is important work. Americans as well as all true Brits should applaud their efforts. Bravo.
#6
Jihad training sites must be banned. However, some of their news sites yield useful information. I consult the attached al-Qaeda in Iraq site a couple of times a week. If it goes, then we would have to rely on piecemeal, translated press accounts.
North Korea responded with the threat of nuclear war Sunday to comments from air force professors that South Korea should consider a pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang. The pre-emptive attack on the North means provocation of a nuclear war, a spokesman for Pyongyangs Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The comments came in response to remarks by South Korean air force academy professors, who told a seminar in Seoul earlier this month it was time for Seoul to consider a pre-emptive attack on North Korea as an option to incapacitate Pyongyang. The Norths spokesman repeated on Sunday Pyongyangs nuclear deterrent was actually targeting what he called the US nuclear threat, not South Koreans.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Everyone knows that even as the NORKS would target 'with all their might', the US aggressive, hegemonic provocation of preemption; one would accidentally fall short on a shocked Seoul, as she went up in the plume! The gall of the Norks!!
#2
MVARIETY.com > the NK's are complaining [AGAIN]about B52 flights from Guam, plus also mentioned suppor flights from elsewhere. TAIWAN, VIETNAM, TIBET, GUAM, JAPAN, PARTS OF INDIA, Missle tests near HAWAII, threats agz US West Coast CITIES - no doubt about it, Boyz, ITS ONLY "LOCAL".
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Sunday for North Korea to immediately dismantle its nuclear weapons. "The Islamic Republic demands the demilitarization of the entire world, including the Korean peninsula," Ahmadinejad told reporters at a press conference with a representative of Pyongyang. On Saturday, Iranian and North Korean officials held meetings intended to strengthen the ties between the two nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Damn, well isn't that "tha pot callin tha kettle black"!! I'm sure he said that with a straight face (with his fingers crossed behind his back)!
#5
Consistent wid what was labeled "making the world dafe for Communist armies", ala GORBACHEV, and by extens also for Radicals, Anarchists, Mercs + Terrorists. AKS vs PKM, Revolutionary "People's War" versus Islamist Jihadism, "Blanks" vs. non-consensual Suicidists, SPETZNATZ vs MICHAEL JACKSON/
TERRORISTS IN WOMENS' CLOTHING??? Ode for the [post-Amer/West?] day when the love affair btwn Commie Secularist + Radical Islamists finally ends ala IVANA TRUMP'S > DON'T GET MAD, GET EVERYTHING.
#6
"Say something nice Ahmed. Stall them for a bit. We gots a problem with the NukeMaker 3000"
"The Islamic Republic demands the demilitarization of the entire world..."
#7
Aw, come on, guys! Doncha read the papers? Iran wants the whole world to be free of the Satan-inspired nuclear demon. They only need centrifuges 'cuz Putin won't sell them the fuel they need for electricity at a good price.
Do I really nead to put a sarcasm off note here?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2006 7:18 Comments ||
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#8
The Islamic Republic demands the demilitarization of the entire world, including the Korean peninsula...
"It'll make it easier for us to make you all our slaves."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/20/2006 7:33 Comments ||
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#9
I guess they want the ones they're buying to be shipped as kits. It's almost Christmas, after all, ready for those dreaded words: Some Assembly Required.
SMITHFIELD, N.C. -- A Spanish teacher at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School resigned this week after handing out an assignment that some students and parents said teaches hate. Khalid Chahhou, who was in his first year of teaching in Johnston County, gave students a worksheet in which they were to translate words and find them within a word-search puzzle.
A Spanish teacher named Khalid. My Spanish teacher in high school was named Maria. How times change.
Some students started uncovering strange words in the process. "There were words like 'kill,' then I saw it said 'destroy America,'" Eric Herrera said.
As they read on, students found the puzzle contained a paragraph that contained the following phrases: "Sharon killed a lot of innocent people," a possible reference to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Palestine is not a terrorist group."
"Allah help destroy this body of evil making humanity miserable."
"It was kind of scary at first to think about, you know, your own teacher in your own school that is teaching you," Herrera said.
School administrators said they confronted Chahhou about an unidentified concern Wednesday and he resigned. "The situation surrounding the resignation has prompted us to call the proper authorities," said Crystal Roberts, the spokeswoman for Johnston County Schools. The Johnston County Sheriff's Office reviewed the complaint, but investigators said they don't see any reason to file criminal charges or contact other agencies.
Chahhou, who also teaches Arabic at a religious school affiliated with the Islamic Association of Cary, told WRAL in a telephone interview that students got the wrong message from the assignment. "When I made the assignment, I was upset and angry about a story I recently saw on the news. If any message appears, it is more of a message to myself, not to my students. I never meant to hurt or upset any students or parents," he said.
#3
I wonder if the folks around Cary might want to put a little pressure on that religious school right about now. NASCAR season is wrapped up, so they should have a little extra time one their hands Sunday afternoons.
#4
Going deeper, I wonder if we should really investigate this guy. With all the speculation of al Qaeda and other terrorists sneaking in, posing as illegal Mexican immigrants from Central America, mewonders if this guy's tied up with a group like that. Probably not, but a lil' snoooping couldn't hurt. When muzzies pose as Mexicans (including learning to speak Spanish, which I assume this goon does, as he was teaching it), and we STILL don't lock down our southern border, we're just askin' to get hit again.
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 11:10 Comments ||
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#5
I agree BA, I'd investigate the hell out of this bitch. Why is this bastard teaching in a public high school if he's affiliated with an Islamic madrassa ? We'd better start getting real serious. It's unbelieveable what's happening right under our noses while we play stupid.
#6
Now I would be very interested on the guy whi hired him: unlees he was a Mexican who converted to Islam I find very oddd that simeone would even consider a Muslim applying for teaching Spanish. Specailly when you have all kinds opf South Americans at hand (even if their Spanish is say a little differnet of classic Spanish.
So who hired him has to answer a couple questions.
#7
True, JFM, although I'd imagine it was all in the name(s) of "Diversity" and "Multi-culti".
But, that's an important point. Who in the world would hire a muzzie to teach Spanish? It's not as if the U.S. has a shortage of spanish speaking folks who could teach it, especially in N.C.
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 14:38 Comments ||
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U.S. congressional Democrats said on Sunday Iran and Syria need to be made part of a Middle East meeting on Iraq, but Republicans insisted the United States' adversaries should first agree to conditions.
Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is expected to head the Senate Armed Services Committee in the new Congress in January, said a solution in Iraq required the involvement of the two neighbors "whether we like it or not. And we don't."
Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition," Levin said it was likely a bipartisan group examining options for Iraq led by James Baker, the former U.S. secretary of state, would call for Iran and Syria to be included in the diplomatic efforts on Iraq.
Baker's group has already met several times with Syrian officials to discuss how they could cooperate. The move would force the U.S. administration to deal with Tehran and Damascus, which it has resisted. President George W. Bush is under pressure to change his Iraq policy after his Republican Party suffered a severe setback in Nov. 7 elections.
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said Iran must first agree to drop its nuclear ambitions, while Syria should agree to stop insurgents from crossing the border into Iraq and fomenting a Sunni insurgency. "I think it depends on their behavior if they would be a positive force. But it does take prerequisites," she added.
Still, Hutchison said it was important other countries in the Middle East are brought together to help end the violence in Iraq. "I think it is time for the others in the region to start taking some responsibility on Iraq," Hutchison said. "I think we can have a good solution there."
But Levin, who backs a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq starting within four to six months, said getting Tehran and Damascus to agree to conditions would take time. I would notify the Iraqis and the neighbors that we're going to begin that phased reduction because I believe that is the pressure point on the Iraqis," he said. "That is the pressure point on the neighbors who do not want Iraq to disintegrate."
As the Dhimmicrats do their level best to blow their new majorities even before they get started.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars. ``There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way,'' Rangel said.
Then why did the majority of your party vote for it? Either you thought it was right, which means now you're spineless, or you were afraid for your seats, which means you're hypocrites (and spineless).
Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, has said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families.
Even though that isn't true and he ought to know it.
Rangel said he will propose a measure early next year. While he said he is serious about the proposal, there is little evident support among the public or lawmakers for it.
Wonder why? Perhaps Speaker Pelosi can shepherd this baby through.
In 2003, Rangel proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. It was defeated 402-2 the following year. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42; it went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress. Democrats will control the House and Senate come January because of their victories in the Nov. 7 election.
Let's see the Dems vote for this and make clear to our young people just exactly who is for the draft.
At a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, ``I don't see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft,'' said Rangel, who also proposed a draft in January 2003, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. ``I think to do so is hypocritical.''
You want to support the military, vote to increase the size of the volunteer army back to early 1990s levels. We've already proven we can do that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
There shoud be a pic of a snake bitting its own tail.
#2
There shoud be a pic of a snake bitting its own tail.
Well, for now the snake is looking at its tail. Might even nibble on it a bit while gauging public opinion. If they actually go for it, we'll have to find a pic like that.
Kinda makes you wonder if this is just Rangel's doing, or if the Donks are floating a trial balloon.
#3
"...if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.
Strange.... When my kid joined the Marine resereves six years ago, Mother and I were supportive, even tho Mother thought he'd get killed in Bosnia. (Wow, that was a long time ago!)
We supported the President when he joined, and when he went to Iraq, and when he got back. I guess that makes us tools; he's the fool (right, Jawn?)
Apparently, we failed to properly educate our son, like the good democrats would have us do. Apparently Rangel thinks a draft is the only way intelligent folks would be in the military. He and Jawn F Kerry are on the same page.
I like the idea of universal service, but Rangel is an idiot.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2006 6:12 Comments ||
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#4
Oh, and it's only The Guardian that says Rnagel is a "Key" Democrat.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2006 6:14 Comments ||
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#5
Well, when I really want to know what's going on in US politics, I always turn to alG first. Next I go to the Psychic Lefty Network, they're kinda pricy, but it's more personal and a feel better about being raped.
#6
This is the one big way the socialists feel they can actually get the majority of the public back to the 70s "hate the military" mindset (the one guys like Rangel calls his own).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/20/2006 8:36 Comments ||
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#7
Bobby: the reason that Rangel thinks that the only way an educated man would end up in the Army is by being drafted is that it's how *he* ended up in Korea. He was caught up in the big rout in late 1950 from the Yalu. That obviously left him kind of bitter about the institution.
Wake me up when someone other than Rangel in Congress is pushing hard for the draft. The draft is his idee fixe, I'd be more surprised if he suddenly stopped agitating for it.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/20/2006 9:19 Comments ||
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#8
I'ma just wonderin' if he'll vote for his OWN proposition this go-round? Remember, when he brought it up last time, he pushed it, but when it came to the actual vote, he'd voted "Ney."
Rangel and sKerry more alike than ever: "I voted for the draft before I voted against it."
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 10:53 Comments ||
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#9
"universal service" is working for a living.
It does not require state slavery, just the removal of welfare state idiocies
A reinstatement of the military draft, being pushed by a senior Democrat, will not be slated for consideration in the House of Representatives, the chamber's newly elected top leaders said on Monday.
"We did not include that" in legislative plans for early next year, said Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be House majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January under Democratic control for the first time in 12 years.
New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who is in line to chair the House Ways and Means Committee next year, has renewed his call for the draft, saying the war in Iraq is being fought by American soldiers who disproportionately are from low-income families and minorities.
Over the weekend, Rangel said he would seek passage next year of the universal draft legislation he has long sought. "If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft," Rangel said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters on Monday that she does not support reinstating the draft, which was suspended in 1973 near the end of the Vietnam War and replaced by the all-volunteer army.
As Ways and Means panel chairman, Rangel will have a significant role in U.S. tax and health-care policy. That post will not necessarily give Rangel an effective forum for pursuing his military draft legislation, Pelosi observed.
Instead, Pelosi said Rangel was trying to underscore that the U.S. war effort should be a "shared sacrifice" and his legislation was "a way to make that point."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2006 13:41 Comments ||
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#11
Le stunt. Rangel's mush like Kimmie: a one-trick pony. And a stupid, pointless, inane politically transparent trick at that.
#14
I agree with Charlie Rangel - we should reinstate the draft. The first people that need to be drafted are all registered Dummycritters. Send them all to Marine Corps boot camp. Those that succeed in graduating can be transferred into the inactive reserve and allowed to go back to their daily lives. The rest should be banned from political office forever - at any level. I'm sure Chollie can handle that...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2006 16:01 Comments ||
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#15
Arggg!!! Could you imagine 100 San Fran fruitcakes in basic training. Retention rates for DI's will plummet.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/20/2006 17:54 Comments ||
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#16
"The first people that need to be drafted are all registered Dummycritters. Send them all to Marine Corps boot camp."
And skip the weapons training. It might give 'em ideas. I think two years of KP would be good for 'em, though...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/20/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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#17
I like the idea of universal service as well. If not the mil, then they can do 3C's type service, habitat for humanities or whatever.
As for Rangel, I can't stand the duplicitous s.o.b. - he lied about minority representation within the combat arms MOS's. He said more than 30% of blacks are in the infantry when it's closer to 10%. On the contrary, poor and middle class white boys make up roughly 73% of the combat arms - pretty much equal to our representation demographically as a whole in the country. He's a lying, conniving idiot. I know he's a combat wounded KWV but not sure how much good he's done for the country since 1953.
#18
tu: As far as I knew, I thought you still had to register with Selective Service when you turned eighteen. Has that changed?
Well, every able-bodied male American of draft age used to be subject to a draft lottery. This was strictly a post-WWII phenomenon. (It was abolished sometime after the Vietnam War - not for all eternity, but until some national emergency revives it). The King spent some time in Germany at the height of his music career - in uniform:
By December of 1957, Elvis Presley was twenty-three years old, healthy, rich, and more famous than he could ever dreamed. Everything he touched turned to gold. It was as if nothing could get in his way. That is, until December 10, 1957, when Elvis received a letter from the Memphis Draft Board notifying him that he was up for the next millitary draft. Army, Navy, and Air Force recruiters immediately called to offer him special enlistment opportunities if he signed up before being drafted. The Navy even offered to form an "Elvis Presley Company" that would include soldiers from the Memphis area. Elvis declined all the enlistment offers and decided to take his changes with the draft. On December 19, nine days after he received his initial draft notification, Elvis got final word from the Memphis Draft Board; he was to reort for induction into the Army on January 20, 1958, the very same day he was scheduled to start filming King Creole. Things suddenly got very quiet around Graceland. Elvis was sure that after two years in the Army and being out of the public eye his career would be over. Hal Wallis and Paramount were equally distressed about Elvis being drafted. They had already invested $350,000 in King Creole and were now faced with the possibillity of shelving the project, if not canceling it entirely. Wallis and Colonel Parker contracted the Memphis Draft Board, requesting a deferment until March 20, when shooting of the film would be complete. The Draft Board had alredy been deluged by letters from angry fans who saw the conscription as a government attempt to sabotage Elvis's career. They argued that Elvis Presley was a national treasure and therefore should be exempt from the draft. The president himself ecen received letters regarding the "Elvis Presley draft situation." In order to ebb the tide of criticism, the draft board agreed to grant Elvis a sixty-day deferment. Elvis went to Hollywood in January to film King Creole as planned. On March 24, 1958, Elvis reported to Local draft Board 86 to begin his service in the United States Army. The enlistment process turned into a media circus, instigated no doubt by Colonel Parker. Dozens of reporters and photographers as well as a film crew were there to document the historic event. Flash bulbs popped constantly as Elvis went from station to station. He was asked questions, examined, tested, issued his equipment, and designated his serial number-53310761. He then boarded a bus for Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, to continue the processing.
Newspapers immediately announched the downfall of Elvis Presley. They predicted that two years out of the limelight was too much for even Elvis to overcome. Suddenly, his income was cut from $400,000 to $78 a month. Although Elvis tried to take evrything in stride, deep down he was afraid for his career. Elvis knew his fans were dedicated, but two years seemed like an awfully long time to wait. Colonel Parker, however, knew better. Elvis had plenty of recorded material that had not yet been re-released, as well a lot of material recorded at Sun that was still to be re-released. If RCA spaced out the releases properly, there would be more than enough to keep Elvis on charts while he was in the Army. Colonel Parker quickly put his promotional machine in motion. If anything, Elvis joining the Army was a public-relations boon. He could now be seen as a patriotic young man who would willingly serve his country with great pride. Nearly everybody thought that Elvis would request the Special Services Branch of the Army. Indeed, the Army hierarchy was hoping that that would be the case. In the Special Services, Elvis could sing his way through his service as well as appear on print and television commercials to help the Army boost enlistment.
At Parker's insistence, however, Elvis turned down Special Services and announched that he did not want any special treatment. Parker knew that if Elvis went through basic training, carried his own gear and rifle, marched, and went on guard duty, all just like a normal soldier, that it would help his public image.
Instead of Special Services, Elvis was assigned to a Company, Second Medium Tank Battalion, Second Armored Division. After four days of processing at Fort Chaffee, Elvis was shipped to Fort Hood, Texas, to begin basic training. According to Elvis, he was kidded and chided quite a bit by his fellow soldiers at the beginning of boot camp; however, once they saw that he didn't expect to be treated any differently and that he was just another grunt, they soon grew to like him. While he was stationed at Fort Hood, the Army allowed Elvis to live off base with his parents and his grandmother, Such as practice was not unusual for a soldier with a dependent family. The Presleys originally lived in a trailer, but later moved into a four-bedroom house at 906 Oak Hill Drive in Killeen, Texas. While Elvis was in the middle of basic training, Gladys grew increasingly ill. She tried to hide her illness from her family until Vernon came home one day and found her collapsed on the kitchen floor. After seeing a doctor, it was agreed that Gladys would go back to Memphis and check into a hospital for tests. Gladys had not been very healthy for some time now. She had always dreamed of the best for Elvis and wanted his singing career to take off. However, as his popularity grew, he was home less and less, and Gladys sank into depression. To deal with her loneliness and fears, Gladys drank heavily while Elvis was away, and even began taking diet pills in order to loose weight.
Gladys Love Smith Presley died at 3:00 a.m. on August 14, 1958 of a heart attack. She was forty-six years old. In September, 1958, Elvis Presley and the 1,400 other members of his company boarded a train to New York, where they were to have a brief layover before being shipped off to West Germany, where Elvis would finish the final year and a half of his service. As had become commonplace, the train was greeted by throngs of fans, reporters, and photographers. An Army band played "Hound Dog" and a press conference was held.
On September 22, Elvis and his fellow soldiers were shipped out of the Brooklyn Navy Yards aboard the USS General Randall, bound for Bremerhaven, West Germany. On the eve of their departure, Elvis was promoted to Private First Class. Unbeknownst to Elvis, he was nearly as popular in West Germany as in the United States. In fact, he had looked forward to his foreign service to provide a break from the media scrutiny and fan obsession. Peace and quiet were not to be found, however. Nearly 2,000 screaming German fans greeted the USS General Randall when it docked in Bremerhaven on October 1st.
As in Texas, Elvis was permitted to live off base with his family. He rented a modest four-bedroom, two-story house in Bad Nauheim where he lived with Vernon, his grandmother Minnie Mae, as well as a few members of the Memphis Mafia.
Elvis was assigned duty as a jeep driver-the perfect assignment for a man who loved cars as much as he did. On June 14, he was rewarded for his dilligence by being promoted to Corporal.
Elvis behaved just like any other soldier, he carried a gun, and he pulled KP and guard duty. At night, however, he returned to his home in Bad Nauheim, where he invited a vast array of family, friends, and fellow soldiers over practically every night. The parties consisted mostly of a number of people just hanging out, talking, with the occasional jam session taking place. On one such night late in 1959, one of Elvis's army buddies, U.S. Airman Currie Grant, brought over a young girl named Priscilla Beaulieu. For Priscilla, meeting Elvis Presley was a dream come true. Like millions of other teenagers, she had bought all of Elvis's records and followed his career closely in the fan magazines. Just as she became used to the idea that she was dating Elvis Presley, however, it seemed as if the whole romance would come to an abrupt end. Only a few months after they met, Elvis's tour of duty with the Army was over.
One night some military genius decided to post Elvis on guard duty. That was completely fair, of course, but also seriously dumb. Because Elvis was huge in Europe and the fans must have had some kind of radar, because whenever Elvis was exposed where the public could get him, they appeared in droves. And this night a huge crowd gathered , with Elvis doing guard duty at some gate. There he was standing like he was supposed to, but surrounded, absolutely surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of fans. It took platoons to rescue him. That was the last guard duty Elvis pulled.
Elvis army MOS was tank gunner. Which I guess, looking back, was a pretty appropriate assignment. Elvis loved guns, and these were big guns. But there was a problem, because those guns were loud. And one day Elvis came home and I asked him how it went that day and he walked rtight on past me. I followed him into the bedroom and said, Hey, didnt you hear me? What are you talking about? Elvis answered, and I realized he hadnt heard a word Id said. I asked him if he was all right and he said, My ears are ringing so loud I cant even hear. I immediately got Colonel Parker on the phone in the states and told him we had a problem. A big problem. Colonel Tom knew a guy at the Pentagon, and he just wore this mans butt out until they reassigned Elvis out of that damned tank.
With the exception of an impromtu jam session with Charlie Hodge on the troop ship to Europe, Elvis did no public performances while he was in the army. At home, in his apartment in Gruenwald, West Germany, however, music was a big part of his life and over the years several tapes of sessions in his apartment have surfaced and been released, mostly, as bootlegs.
Priscilla waved a tearful goodbye to Elvis as he boarded the plane leaving Germany for the United States. Elvis searched her out of the large crowd before he got on the plane and waved to her. In the press, she became known as "the girl he left behind." When questioned at a press conference back in the States, Elvis denied that any type of romance was going on between him and Priscilla. He simply described her as a young girl he met and befriended, that it was nothing special.Well before he came home, America had already begun preparing for the return of Elvis Presley. Even though he had spent two years without making a record or a public appearance, Elvis Presley still ruled the record charts on the radio. Elvis Presley was coming home to the United States as an even bigger star than when he had left.
#19
ZF: Well, every able-bodied male American of draft age used to be subject to a draft lottery.
Correction - actually, I believe it applied to both citizens and green card-holding* non-citizens as well, the latter of which are also required to register for Selective Service.
* In other words, legal immigrants with Permanent Residence status.
#20
Good find ZF, thanks. If Colonel Parker was really sharp, he would've collected up all Elvis' hair clippings from his initial boot camp hair cut - he could've made tons of cash off that.
#21
all young men 18 or older must register for a Selective Service registration. My 18 yr old son got his notice after he'd already signed up for the Army - took 5 or 6 phone calls to get him off the registration list LOL. They send the mailers out a month or so after you turn 18. You can register at the Post Office IIRC
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2006 21:04 Comments ||
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#22
he would've collected up all Elvis' hair clippings from his initial boot camp hair cut
Heh, all Parker needed was some brown hair. Man had no scruples.
RUDE immigration officials and long delays in processing visas have turned the US into the world's most unfriendly country for international travellers, according to a global survey released today.
The survey showed the US was ranked "the worst" in terms of visas and immigration procedures by twice the percentage of travellers as the next destination regarded as unfriendly - the Middle East and the Asian subcontinent.
The survey, of 2011 international travellers in 16 countries, was conducted by the polling firm RT Strategies for the Discover America Partnership, a business-backed group launched in September to promote travel to the US and improve the country's image abroad.
More than half of the travellers surveyed said US immigration officials were rude and two-thirds said they feared they would be detained on arriving in the US for a simple mistake in their paper work or for saying the wrong thing to an immigration official.
"The entry process has created a climate of fear and frustration that is keeping foreign visitors away," said Geoff Freeman, executive director of the Discover America Partnership. "The survey shows there is more fear of our immigration officials than of terrorism or crime."
#4
Shouldn't this be called the "who has the longest immigration lines" poll or something as opposed to "most unfriendly country"?
I mean, the courthouse isn't "unfriendly" because they make me go through the metal detector. It is "secure". Moreover, just like the courthouse metal detectors, you know you are going throught them, so take a sec and make sure you aren't carrying anything which would slow you down and that all your arrangements are correct.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
11/20/2006 16:02 Comments ||
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#5
We aren't unfriendly.
Now get off my damn lawn, you flat-land foreigner!
#6
Nonsense. My wife and I have had 2 visas each in the last few years, for 2 then 4 years, and both were turned around virtually overnight. ICE staff at LA, SF and NY are always polite, focused and, with hundreds of people always waiting, very businesslike.
#7
Just had a friend visit from overseas (European nation reknowned for producing Nazi Fuehrers and schnitzel, not much else), and she could not get over how much friendlier people are here than back home. That assessment included immigration officials.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
11/20/2006 16:29 Comments ||
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#8
Discover America Partnership® Leadership Committee
Chairman: Stevan Porter
President, the Americas
Intercontinental Hotels Group
Joseph A. McInerney
President and CEO
American Hotel and Lodging Association
Steven C. Anderson
President and CEO
National Restaurant
Association
Bud Nocera
President and CEO
VisitFlorida
August A. Busch III
Chairman of the Board
Anheuser-Busch
Jay Rasulo
Chairman
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Roger Dow
President and CEO
Travel Industry Association
Andrew C. Taylor
Chairman and CEO
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Michael D. Gehrisch
President and CEO
Destination Marketing
Jonathan M. Tisch
Chairman and CEO
Loews Hotels
Travel Business Roundtable
J. Willard Marriott, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Marriott International
#11
"The survey, of 2011 international travellers in 16 countries, was conducted by the polling firm RT Strategies for the Discover America Partnership."
2011 people from 16 different countries. What 16 countries? Let's see:
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
Yemen
Sudan
Indonesia
Lebanon
Norway
Somalia
Iran
Bangladesh
Syria
France
Canada
Mexico
Germany
Belgium
I'm sure it's true. We're not a friendly country. Breaks my heart. Really. We need to learn not to spit at the enemy. If only we could be as tolerant as the Saudis and French. We've so much to learn from our betters.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
11/20/2006 19:44 Comments ||
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#12
Visity we did elliss island, America we lov you
#13
DEATH to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Yemen, Sudan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Norway, Somalia, Iran, Bangladesh, Syria, France, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Belgium!!! Now it feels just like the old country.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2006 21:10 Comments ||
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A team of federal air marshals was prevented from protecting a recent flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport because a gate agent erroneously said they did not have the correct paperwork, say marshals familiar with the incident.
Officials with Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) were called in to remove the marshals from US Airways Flight 3464 departing Nov. 8 for Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn.
"Right now we know, obviously, that federal air marshals were denied boarding," said Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) spokesman Conan Bruce.
Marshals knowledgeable about this case and others told The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity that the gate agent demanded paperwork which is required of other law-enforcement officials, but not from federal air marshals who are on duty to protect the plane from a terrorist attack.
The flight arrived late, and passengers were immediately boarded while marshals showed their identification to the gate agent and head flight attendant. They asked to brief the captain then boarded the plane.
The marshals were first rousted from their seats to report to the jet bridge, where the gate agent demanded paperwork intended for off-duty law-enforcement officers carrying weapons. The marshals told the gate agent that they were on mission status and the paperwork was not required, and they returned to their seats.
The marshals were called to the jet bridge a second time to speak with the captain, and the marshals then returned to their seats.
Minutes later, the marshals were called again to the jet bridge a third time, where MWAA officers ordered the marshals to exit the plane. Even the intervention of higher-ups in the Homeland Security Department could not persuade the airline to allow the armed law-enforcement agents aboard, and the plane departed unprotected an hour and a half late, the sources said.
Calls for comment to Republic Airlines, which owns US Airways, were not returned.
Air Marshal Director Dana Brown has pledged to rewrite the boarding rules, which marshals say are defined differently by airlines and often exposes their undercover identities.
Mr. Bruce said the agency is working with the airline to review the incident, "get the facts and find out what happened."
Asked whether similar situations have occurred in which airlines barred marshals from boarding, Mr. Bruce said "I'm sure it has in the past five years; it isn't the first incident. I would not say it's a regular occurrence. After we expanded the program and added so many thousands of marshals, it was a learning process for the airlines and us. I would not say it was a regular occurrence, maybe early on, but not a regular occurrence now," Mr. Bruce said. "It is important to point out we work hand in hand with the airlines. It's a cooperative effort; that's why we have a liaison division," Mr. Bruce said. "We'll figure it out, we'll review it, but I don't want to speculate until we have all the facts."
Marshals say this isn't the first time they have encountered animosity from airlines and the flight crews whom they protect. "There were hundreds of incidents like this," one air marshal said of the period shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks. "Air marshals finally stopped filing reports because the air marshal usually ends up being investigated for not being able to cooperate."
A 59-year-old Guantanamo Bay detainee has refused to have a required heart procedure at the U.S. military base in Cuba, one of his attorneys said Sunday.
Saifullah A. Paracha, a Pakistani multimillionaire, will not agree to have a cardiac catheterization done at the base because he thinks its medical facilities and backups are inadequate, said Zachary Katznelson of the London-based human rights group Reprieve. "This is a completely new procedure for Guantanamo. Mr. Paracha very well might need open heart surgery, and that has never been done before at Guantanamo," Katznelson said. Paracha, who is accused of laundering money for al-Qaida and plotting to smuggle explosives into the United States, already has had one heart attack while in U.S. custody and has recently suffered chest pains, according to his lawyers.
Cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic procedure used to detect blockages or other heart problems. A doctor inserts a thin plastic tube into an artery or vein in the arm or leg and pushes it into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries to measure blood pressure within the heart and blood oxygen levels. Sometimes the procedure involves injecting a dye and using radiology to get images of any blockages. Treatment options for blockages can include anti-clotting drugs and balloon angioplasty to open the artery. Heart bypass surgery is often the preferred solution when there are many blockages. A motion filed by Paracha's legal team to block the medical procedure, which doctors have scheduled for this month, is expected to be heard Monday in a federal court in Washington. Government lawyers have asked the court to reject the motion.
Continued on Page 49
#4
Fly him out to a carrier for the procedure. Chuck his stretcher out the door on the way over.
Oh, and don't forget to send any lawyers and "human rights" types with him into the drink, too.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/20/2006 7:34 Comments ||
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#5
Step one into bringing GITMO back into the public's eye.....expect the required wringing of hands, h=gnashing of teeth by the MSM and attendant demo-sound-bites....
#8
I'll do it, no really! pakistani multimillionaire you say, in gitmo, geez a sec i'm sure i've got some boiling tar and a scalpel, no problem, i'll do it free.
Tony Blair was accused of squandering taxpayers' cash on a failing war on terror last night after a weekend of handouts worth nearly £1billion to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Prime Minister announced an extra £250million of aid for the reform of Pakistan's Islamic schools, which have been accused of breeding terrorists. He also confirmed a £500million aid package to Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been under pressure to crack down on Islamic schools, or madrassas, the privately-funded institutions believed to play a key part in radicalising potential terrorists. Three of the four suicide bombers in the July 7 attacks last year that killed 52 people in London travelled to Pakistan and two are believed to have attended a madrassa. Several other suspects arrested in Britain in connection with terror plots are known to have attended madrassas.
The Pakistani government banned foreign students from attending such schools two years ago, but the estimated one million British citizens of Pakistani origin enjoy dual nationality and are exempt from the restriction.
We need a Marshall Plan to beat the Taleban, Pakistan tells Blair
· Musharraf warns of threst to troops
· War on terror 'to last a generation'
Tony Blair has been urged by the Wests closest Muslim ally in the war on terrorism to change course in Afghanistan and back a Marshall Plan to prise the country from the grip of the Taleban. At the same time the Prime Minsiter predicted that Britains already embattled troops were set to face a resurgence from Taleban fighters.
Mr Blair flew to Pakistan on a mission to step up the battle against terrorism and gave warning that that it was a global battle that would take a generation to win.
In talks with President Musharraf of Pakistan in the regional governors mansion in Lahore, Mr Blair offered £480 million to combat the preaching of hatred in Pakistani religious schools and the two leaders agreed further co-operation against Taleban militants in Afghanistan.
While Mr Blair was on his way to Pakistan, Gordon Brown made his first visit to Iraq on Saturday. Meeting British troops in Basra, he said that it was crucial for the country to be seen to be running its own affairs. He pledged £100 million of aid for economic reconstruction.
Mr Musharraf attacked the Wests strategy in Afghanistan yesterday, and said that the task could not be achieved by military action alone. He added that only Pakistan was implementing the right strategy. He called on the West to implement a plan of billions of dollars of aid to rebuild Afghanistan, just as the US spent billions of dollars rebuilding Europe after the Second World War.
British troops were sent this year to Helmland province in southern Afghanistan to help with reconstruction, but have become embroiled increasingly in bitter fighting with the Taleban. Since the invasion in 2001, 20 British troops have been killed by enemy action, of whom 18 lost their lives in Helmand this year.
Mr Musharraf said the war cannot be won through military action alone, you have to come up with a broader strategy. This strategy must involve a political element and reconstruction or development. Reacting angrily to accusations that he was not doing enough to stop the Taleban crossing the border to safe havens in Pakistans largely lawless northwest provinces, Mr Musharraf turned the tables on Britain and America by declaring:
We are the only one who are trying to implement the whole strategy, which means military, political, and also reconstruction. More action is required on the Afghanistan side, because the war will be won on the Afghan side, because the Taleban problem is on the Afghan side. He added: I have indicated to the Prime Minister also that we believe there is a requirement for a massive inflow of developmental funds there, some kind of a Marshall Plan, some billions of dollars.
Mr Blair agreed that reconstruction had to go hand in hand with the military action, but said that despite suffering enormous casualties at the hands of British troops, the Taleban would still try to take back control of some parts of the country. The Taleban will try to get a foothold back, they will, that is what we expect, but our will has got to be superior to theirs, he said.
He insisted the strategy was right, declaring that in the War on Terror, we begin to win when we start fighting properly, and I think we are now fighting properly, but we have got to do more. But in a gloomy prognosis, he said that the global battle against terrorism took a generation to grow and will take a generation to defeat.
His spokesman said that the amount of aid was not the problem in Afghanistan, but that the fighting made it difficult to carry out reconstruction. Britain alone had given £500 million while $10.5 billion was pledged at the International Donors Conference in London in January The problem is not the lack of financial aid available. The problem is getting the physical infrastructure and government infrastructure in place to spend that money, Mr Blair said. He added that in Helmand province, Britain had built 13 health clinics, 89 reservoirs, 423 wells and eight classrooms.
Mr Blair also visited the Saudi-financed Faisal mosque in Islamabad to talk to moderate Islamic leaders about ways to combat the growth of religious extremism and to stop it being exported to Britain. The earthquake money ran out weeks ago...
#2
Mushy's September pullback deal in Waziristan was not signed by Waziri officials; it was signed by hitherto wanted Taleban terrorists and Pakistan officials. Supposedly, the deal would tacitly permit NATO hot pursuit operations, while allowing Mushy the ability to bleet about Pakistan's cherished sovereignty.
BHUBANESWAR - India test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable missile on Sunday, a top defence official said, days after a similar test by Pakistan. The indigenously built single-stage missile, Prithvi II, which has been test-fired at least 10 times, was launched off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa.
On Thursday, Pakistan successfully fired an intermediate range Hatf 5 (Ghauri) ballistic missile. India had been informed of the test and Pakistans Foreign Ministry said at the time it expected New Delhi to carry out a test shortly. Todays test-fire appears to be successful and more trials of the missile will be conducted later this month, a top Defence Research and Development Organisation official told Reuters.
Future tests would be more exhaustive, he said, with scientists aiming to fire two missiles from different locations and have them collide to test the Prithvis accuracy. The Prithvi II normally takes 300 seconds to reach a target located at a distance of 150 km (90 miles).
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
...have them collide...
Yeah, right. Methinks the reporter misread his notes. Or something. Story says the Prithvi is a SRBM. Unless it is also an anti-missile missile with terminal guidance, chances of a collision with anything but the ground are vanishingly small.
#2
India has been testing missiles and claiming them to be Prithvis.
They also test "Lahshaya" pilotless drones quite often.
Many of these tests may be cover for ballistic and cruise missiles.
The Prithvi is liquid fueled with a long logistic chain and essentially a dead end program.
The Indian military doesn't want it, they much prefer the solid fuelled Agni.
Some of the Prithvi tests have been cover for new solid missiles. There are rumors of work on an ABM system. These "Prithvi" tests may be as targets for an interceptor (either indigenous or something India is buying from Israel (Arrow) or Russia (S300) or a prototype Indian ABM interceptor.
Posted by: john ||
11/20/2006 5:55 Comments ||
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#3
Thanks, john! Sounds like you should have written this story. Rantburg U rulez!
(KUNA) Pakistan Sunday, calling for the need to address root causes of terrorism, said that there must be a timeframe for withdrawl of foreign troops from Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz addressing a joint press conference with his British counterpart, Tony Blair, said that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. The world community must address root causes of the terrorism menace, he said, adding that the world was needed to go for measures aimed at the economic betterment of people living in areas affected but this terrorism. There must be a time frame for foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, said Prime Minister Aziz.
Prime Minister Blair said that both the countries were cooperating to defeat those elements bent upon disrupting world peace. To a question about winning battle against terrorism, he said "you begin to win the battle when you begin to fight it, and of course when you fight it you get some blow back." He said prior to 9/11 western world was ignorant of what was happening in different parts of the world. Blair said, one way to address terrorism and extremism was through reconstruction and development and to solve the grievances that were being exploited and used to promote radicalism. Prime Minister Aziz said there was a need to engage hearts and minds of the people to give them a sense of hope and to address the issues, which face them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
calling for the need to address root causes of terrorism,
Let's address them, then.
Hello, Islam.
Hello, dictatorship.
Hello, national socialism.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl MPs have submitted their resignations to the partys chief Fazlur Rehman to send them to the National Assembly speaker whenever he thought fit, said JUI-F Information Secretary Maulana Amjad on Sunday.
"You'll be sorry when we're gone, apostates!"
"How sorry?"
"Very sorry!"
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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SHAKAI: A jirga (tribal council) here on Sunday warned people against shelter to foreigners, a private television reported. The jirga in Shakai, a town in North Waziristan, was presided over by Ahmad Zai Wazir tribe chief Malik Noor Muhammad and participated in by several tribal chiefs and locals. The jirga told the locals to expel all foreigners from the area and cooperate with security forces and the local political administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair says, success in the war against terrorism depends primarily on providing strong support for Islamic moderates. The British leader is in Pakistan, where he met with President General Pervez Musharraf. Counter-terrorism and regional security dominated the talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Human Rights Watch is much smaller than Amnesty International. It is US-based, whereas Amnesty is UK-based. Human Rights Watch's main products are its crisis-directed research and lengthy reports, whereas Amnesty focuses on mass letter-writing campaigns, adopting individuals as "prisoners of conscience" and lobbying for their release. Human Rights Watch will openly lobby for specific actions for other governments to take against human rights offenders, including naming specific individuals for arrest, or for sanctions to be levied against certain countries, recently calling for punitive sanctions against the top leaders in Sudan who have overseen a killing campaign in Darfur.
Its documentations of human rights abuses often include extensive analyses of the political and historical backgrounds of the conflicts concerned, some of which have been published in academic journals. AI's reports, on the other hand, tend to contain less analysis, and instead focus on specific abuses of rights.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2006 7:13 Comments ||
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#4
How do you give someone that EVERYONE KNOWS FOR A FACT is a mass-murderer a fair trial? Especially when it's presided over by it's victims? Come on, there was no way he was going to get a fair trial. And there's now way in hell he deserved so much as a lawyer either. Iraq has gone beyond generious to Saddam in this trial. Would have been better off handing him to the Kurds hours after we captured him.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/20/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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The Pentagon's closely guarded review of how to improve the situation in Iraq has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out, according to senior defense officials.
Insiders have dubbed the options "Go Big," "Go Long" and "Go Home." The group conducting the review is likely to recommend a combination of a small, short-term increase in U.S. troops and a long-term commitment to stepped-up training and advising of Iraqi forces, the officials said.
The military's study, commissioned by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, comes at a time when escalating violence is causing Iraq policy to be reconsidered by both the White House and the congressionally chartered, bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Pace's effort will feed into the White House review, but military officials have made it clear they are operating independently.
The Pentagon group's proceedings are so secret that officials asked to help it have not even been told its title or mandate. But in recent days the circle of those with knowledge of its deliberations has widened beyond a narrow group working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2006 18:42 ||
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#2
How about Go Home Now by way of Saoodi. Just run the 140,000 men & women over there and TELL THEM (Our towel head friends of the desert) we'll be guarding the oil terminals for an indefinite period. Any backlash will be handled expeditiously.
Iraq's premier said Monday he will not let country become a proxy battleground for Syria's differences with the United States, as Tehran called for a three-way summit with the Syrian and Iraqi presidents.
Amid the stepped up diplomacy, more than 100 deaths were reported since Sunday morning and gunmen attacked the convoy of a second Iraqi deputy health minister.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's comments to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem came as the US military claimed that as many as 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month.
"If Syria or any other state has differences with the United States, it's their own business," Maliki said.
"It should settle these differences, but not at our cost," the premier told a joint news conference with Moallem, the first Syrian official to visit Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
But Moallem insisted that he was not in Iraq to "please the United States."
"I am nobody's godfather and not a mediator for the United States," he told a joint news conference after talks with powerful Iraqi Shiite Islamist leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.
"In this current situation there is no dialogue between Syria and the United States," he said.
Maliki said Iraq aimed to improve its relationship with Syria, but that "this requires a strong desire from both the brother countries."
"What goes on in Iraq is a threat for everybody," he said. "The interest of Syria is to contribute in the stability of Iraq."
Maliki told Moallem that many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq are being planned in neighboring countries and that this must stop.
Moallem denied Syria wanted to see instability grip its eastern neighbor.
"Danger to Iraq is danger for the entire region," he argued.
A government spokesman said that diplomatic relations between Syria and Iraq will be restored this week during Moallem's visit.
There has been increased talk of diplomatic efforts to involve Syria and Iran in helping to end the violence Iraq.
An official in Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's office said he had accepted an invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Tehran this weekend.
An MP for the main Shiite bloc, Bassem Sharif, said that there was a possibility that President Bashar Assad might join the talks.
"There is some expectation that the Syrian president may be present," he said. "There is a real desire to have such a three-way summit and there could be a surprise."
But a Syrian official said "there are no plans for such a [tripartite] summit."
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey voiced skepticism that any meeting between Iran, Syria and Iraq could help to reduce the violence and said similar meetings in the past had not resulted in that happening.
"In those contacts, we have seen public statements from the Iranian government, expressing their desire to reduce the violence and to respond positively to the situation in Iraq," Casey told reporters in Washington.
"As I've said, unfortunately, those positive statements - and this applies to the case of Syria as well - have not been backed up by actual, concrete steps," he added.
Concerning Damascus, Casey said, Washington is still waiting for action to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq from Syria.
In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell said Monday that up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month.
"We don't know how much they [the Syrians] are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.
"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.
He said US and Iraqi soldiers had killed 425 foreign fighters so far this year and captured 670. Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
The past week has seen bitter sectarian tensions come to a head inside Iraq's national unity government.
At a news conference uniting ministers who have been openly at odds over the fate of dozens of civil servants kidnapped last week, Defense Minister Abdel-Qader Jassem said the security forces were hunting the kidnappers: "We are in a state of war and in war all measures are permissible."
Maliki, who is preparing a Cabinet reshuffle, warned political leaders they had to abandon sectarian, partisan interests and pull together.
"We cannot be politicians by day and with the militias or terrorists ... by night," he told generals, whose own loyalties are in question.
Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamily said gunmen attacked his convoy and killed two guards near a Sunni rebel stronghold. Zamily was the second ministry deputy targeted in two days. Ammar al-Saffar, a member of Maliki's Daawa party, was kidnapped from his home by gunmen in uniform.
In all, 21 Iraqis were killed Monday in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi, Baqouba and near the Syrian border, and the bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been tortured were found on the streets of several cities across the country, police said.
US military data showed less violence in Baghdad in the past four weeks than at any time since the government was formed but it spiked last week, Caldwell said. - Agencies
Allawi believes that if the militias refuse to halt their violence they should be wiped out. We need to have a strong core of military and police loyal to the country with a clear cut leadership who can implement law and order in the country and take the militias out by force if necessary, if dialogue fails, he said.
I think that the sooner we implement his suggestion, the better. Start with sending Muqtada on his 72 virgins tour.
Man, I miss this guy. The only prominent Arab politician who gets it and wants a nation of Iraq. IIRC, Saddam sent a team of assassins, armed with axes, to kill him - and they wounded him and succeeded in killing his wife. He was, probably, the only real hope Iraqi Arabs had. And they threw him out for Jaafari. If the DhimmiDonks hadn't won... But they did, so Allawi should get out before one of the sect factions manages to kill him. There won't be anything in the Arab areas but more of the same. The Iraqi Arabs are fucked, utterly, self-fucked.
#3
The Iraqi Arabs are fucked, utterly, self-fucked.
RE: Arab self-fuckededness; the Islamic autoerotic dynamic.
It is disheartning to Read and Observe Iraqi [mostly Sunni] bloggers rant/rag/rave about our Prez. & the War etc. while they post turds from the MSM's 24/7/365 Sewer Works in order to smugly bolster and satisfy their Hate American & Israel catechism.
At times it renderes me speechless that
these same Iraqi fools who are so proud of their multicultural edumacation are UTTERALLY IGNORANT OF THE FACT OR WILLFULLY REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE that their families and Sunni country men are as good as Dead-Meat if we pull out tomorrow and if they refuse to reconcile it won't matter how long our troops are stationed in Iraq.!
Ugh... bad idea, I'd say. Note this is afp reporting here, I hope this is heavy spin & wishful thinking, putting emphasis on the village's idiot to float the EU "peace" plan.
I'm not sure the "Today's Idiot" submissions should be opened to statesmen; if we did no ordinary human could possibly compete. AoS.
An Israeli cabinet minister has raised the possibility of deploying an multinational force in the Gaza Strip to prevent persistent Palestinian rocket attacks on the Jewish state.
"For the moment there is no military solution to the Qassam (rocket) fire problem on Israel from the Gaza Strip and therefore the deployment of a multinational force needs to be considered," minister without portfolio Yitzhak Cohen, from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told public radio.
"This model has worked in Lebanon... We went to war this summer in Lebanon and an average of 180 Katyusha rockets were fired against our territory every day. That stopped only thanks to (UN) Resolution 1701," he added. I think there's a slight confusion, here...
"The Tsahal (Israeli army) is a strong army which should deal with strategic threats and not Qassam rocket fire. It would be better if Israel initiated this idea," Cohen added, referring to the international force. Yeah, let in the Mighty Blue Helmets!
Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan also said on the radio that Israel should try to reach a truce with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. "We don't want to dominate another people and we left the Gaza Strip... We need to make a ceasefire agreement and need to see if Abu Mazen (Abbas) is capable of implementing it," he said. Shouldn't that be a prerequesite, instead? Why ask for something he can't implement? Diplomacy for the sake of diplomacy? But former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the opposition Likud party, called for another strike against Gaza to halt the missile attacks. "I recommend a massive military operation against the northern Gaza Strip to halt these rocket attacks, and another against the southern region to block contraband weapons coming in from Egypt," he told public radio.
"It is very difficult to live with this constant menace of rockets and we must do something," he added.
The Palestinian Authority's ambassador in Jordan announced Sunday that Fatah's Badr Brigade was making final preparations to enter Gaza, following the IDF shelling in Beit Hanun that resulted in the accidental deaths of 19 Palestinian civilians, Israel Radio reported.
No final decision has been made yet, the ambassador said, but he expressed hope that the troops would be sent to Gaza by the end of the year. The Badr Brigade is comprised of some 1,500 Palestinian soldiers. In October, PA President Mahmoud Abbas requested permission from Israel to mobilize the PLO force in PA areas. Due to Fatah-Hamas clashes that were threatening to spin out of control, the government said it would consider the request.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Fearing Palestinians will create human shields around every terror target in the Gaza Strip, the IDF, a high-ranking officer said Sunday, was prepared to launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings that could not be destroyed in airstrikes. The warning came less than a day after hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the home of a known terrorist to prevent its bombing by IAF fighter jets.
Late Saturday night, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, surrounded the home of Mohammedweil Baroud - head of the Popular Resistance Committees' (PRC) Kassam rocket cell - after he received a warning from the IDF late Saturday night giving him 30 minutes to leave his house in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Out of fear that innocent bystanders would be injured, the IDF called off the air strike.
Calling residents ahead of airstrikes on suspected weapons-storage and manufacturing sites is a routine tactic the IDF employs in the Gaza Strip and also used over the summer during the month-long war in Lebanon during which thousands of targets were struck by Israeli missiles. The incident in Beit Lahiya on Sunday however, was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an air strike and represents, officials said, a change in tactics to try and prevent the IAF missile strikes. "These human shields will not stop us from reaching every target of ours," an IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "If we can't get to the target by air due to the human shields, we will reach it by ground and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price."
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Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I've got a solution!
Call these bozos every night to say they are getting attacked! Eventually, the Innocent Civilians(TM) will get tired of it and wander off to bed. Or maybe call here, then there, then somewhere else, all at random, until they get tired of it and wander off to bed.
Then call your main target and bomb the crap out of him.
Eventually, they will only surround the houses of known terrorists, so you can separate the men from the boys that way. Send in ground forces on the real terrorists, or do the call/call again thing.
#3
The preachers noted that the IDF always phones the owners of the houses and warns them that they must leave within 15 to 30 minutes.
Why risk israeli lives to demolish an empty building?
Either stop it altogether (buildings don't kill peopel, people kill people), or simply stop phoning warning! This is pure non-sense. Do terrorists phone warning to evacuate israeli buildings their boomers will explode into?
#4
You could just go ahead and bomb, regardless of the subhuman shields. You will get blamed, anyway. The Paleo use of civilians to guard military targets is a war crime and according to international law, that means Israel is not responsible for their deaths.
Of course, the actual international law and the phoney "international law" cited by the transies are two different things.
instead of announcing that ONE building will be attacked and should be vacated, announce that 5-10 will be attacked and should be vacated -- all suspected of housing legitimate targets. If they coalesce around a single target, that's the one to go after!!!
#6
I thought that their artillery was pretty effective against human shields. I would continue to use it.
Note the drop-off in suicide bombers against coalition forces and Israelis. After awhile they ran out of martyrs. It would take even less time to run out of willing human shields.
#7
I don't see what the problem is for the IDF. They're going to get blamed anyway for "civilian" deaths, so why should those human shields matter?
Posted by: Charles ||
11/20/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#8
I'd be calling the building around the corner from the main target. When the 'civils' still run to the target, that would be a real clue that an industrial work accident is overdue.
Besides, a "heavy price" is a heavy price, whether it comes from the air or the ground.
Posted by: john ||
11/20/2006 13:33 Comments ||
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Israel should declare that the entire Gaza Strip is a military target, and demand the civilians and fluffy bunnies evacuate. If they don't, it's THEIR failure, and no reason to condemn Israel. Follow up by using direct arty fire on every structure in Gaza City. Continue until Hamas/Fatah/Hezbollah/whatever other funky pieceofsh$$ organization in Gaza begs for surrender terms. Then target the "peace" delegation. Sooner or later the paleos will get the message and move to Darfur, where it's friendlier.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/20/2006 16:21 Comments ||
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#10
Turn off the water and electricity and let them stew in the dark. Let Egypt, the EU, and/or the UN take care of this literal and figurative cesspool.
The IDF also needs to let these fools surround the house and send a jdam either concrete or HE right though the stovepipe of the house. The Paleos see the Israelis humanity as a weakness to be exploited. So that little loophole needs to be closed.
The US is in the same boat in Iraq.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/20/2006 21:54 Comments ||
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After a cabinet meeting during which the ministers' frustrations at the country's inability to stop Kassam fire on Israel surfaced, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not tolerate a continuation of the rocket fire.
The Peretz-Abbas telephone conversation came in advance of a security cabinet meeting on Wednesday where operative decisions on how to deal with the continuous fire are expected to be made. Peretz urged Abbas to use his presidential authority and do everything to stop the Kassam attacks. Earlier in the day, at the cabinet meeting, Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin characterized Abbas as "a general without soldiers."
While Prime Minster Ehud Olmert and Vice Premier Shimon Peres have warned that there was no "quick fix" to the Kassam problem, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter sparked a maelstrom in the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday by suggesting that the IDF could stop the attacks if simply given the green light by the political echelon. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz told Dichter that if he knew of such a plan, he should bring it to the cabinet for approval. "If you are in favor of occupying all of Gaza, say so," Mofaz said. Dichter did not reply.
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said that if the army had any such magic solutions, it would not wait for a directive from the political echelon but already have put them to use. Peretz urged the ministers not to create an impression that there were magic solutions that the IDF was not willing to implement.
Peres, meanwhile, urged proportion and perspective in dealing with the Kassams. "Until now thousands of mortars and rockets have fallen, and since disengagement only 15 people have been killed. We are cabinet ministers, and not rabble-rousers in the square - our job is to give operational suggestions," Peres said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"If you are in favor of occupying all of Gaza, say so."
#4
Um, aren't you doing a little painting yourself there, 2x4? Sounds like you're painting all Muzzies with the Paleo brush - just so you can put words into Darrell's mouth.
Suggesting all Muzzies are equivalent to Paleos is damned harsh, doncha think? These screechers are the sorta like the natural SS recruiting pool of IslamoNazism, from what I can see. Irredeemable seems to fit.
I doubt Darrell would disagree, in general, either. They proved who and what they were in an election. 90+% of Muzzies have never had that opportunity - and that is the sort of proof missing from the genocide thingy that puts some people in a quandary. Right?
I recommend credit where due, blame where due, and argumentative shenanigans and bullshit be flushed. Just my take.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
May as well forget the "try again" part: this clown has used more than two dozen nyms in the last two months, and Fred has banned him.
#12
I read the average age in Gaza is 15.8 years.
That would indicate either a huge number of children running around, or a short life expectancy. Either way, there is a lack of intelligence and experience in Gaza. Therefore, I believe the IDF does have a plan for the taking of Gaza, and removal of weapons therein. Some men kids will die. And let's not forget, it's more PC to let your own kids die than those enemy combatants.
Israel is struggling with the same thing we have. Soft leaders. Blind opposition parties. Selfish politicians. If I wasn't positive that Islam is led by retarded cavemen, I'd bet on them to win this thing.
Jordan rejects calls by Israel's deputy prime minister to ignore the moderate Palestinian president walk away from international peace efforts, the chief government spokesman said Sunday. Nasser Judeh said the government "rejected" the remarks, saying they "don't make any sense."
Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio Saturday that the Jewish state should assassinate Hamas' leadership, ignore Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and walk away from international peace efforts. He said he believed the Palestinians are not interested in setting up their own state, but rather in destroying Israel.
Judeh told The Associated Press, "The only solution that guarantees security and peace in the region ... is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The only way to achieve this is through direct negotiations with the concerned party, which is the Palestinians. Threats to use force and violence will only lead to more violence."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Abbas The Moderate. Lol. The favorite Paleo Meme, now that Arafat's gone.
"The only solution that guarantees security and peace in the region ..." Lol, the math on this one is purdy simple.
I figure there are four facts to consider:
1) The Paleos will never accept Israel's existence and never stop trying to kill them. It is their entire identity. They have perfected the Hate Machine and it has been running full blast for 3 generations - the Nazis were amateur pikers, in comparison. Everyone over the age of about 3 is doomed.
2) None of the Arab "states" will take them. They know who and what they are.
3) The Israelis, a stubborn lot, refuse to march into the Med and drown themselves. Spoilsports.
4) We will never reach the point where people will accept forcibly taking the Paleos' children away from them before they're indoctrinated by the Hate Machine. It would take at least 2 generations of this, allowing the current losers to die off, for these new "Paleos" to ever peacefully coexist with anyone.
So, it appears one "side" must be wiped out for there ever to be anything resembling peace. I have an opinion on the matter: the wipees should be the Paleos, since they have nothing else to offer, nothing to lose, and wipers should be the Israelis.
And the Harley Guy Kingy Thingy, who mumbled this idiocy for public consumption by his own Paleo problem, should go fuck himself, lol.
A Western push to deny Iran technical help in building a plutonium-producing reactor has gathered enough support to be approved by the 35-nation board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, diplomats said Sunday.
Still, differences both within the Western camp and more broadly among different factions on the International Atomic Energy Agency on how harshly to punish Iran for its nuclear defiance persisted on the eve of the opening meeting Monday, said the diplomats.
Normally, the United States takes the lead in demanding tough action against Tehran for defying U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms.
But with council agreement on sanctions mired down because of Russian and Chinese efforts to block tough punishment, diplomats said the Americans have taken a back seat to the France at the upcoming Vienna meeting in calling for harsher penalties.
Like, their European allies, the Americans were calling for Irans request for help in building the Arak research reactor to be denied when the IAEA board meets in committee starting Monday and later in the week in full conference to formally approve committee decisions.
But France was demanding even more, said the diplomats all accredited to the IAEA, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing strategies ahead of the meeting. They told The Associated Press that Paris was asking the IAEA to probe the seven other projects Iran had submitted individually and possibly reject any or all of them, if they were found to be risks to nuclear proliferation.
Even countries traditionally supportive of Iran were likely to want to deny some help to Iran probably through a compromise that defers a decision on the issue. Both the Security Council and the IAEA board have issued resolutions urging Tehran to stop construction of the facility. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
11/20/2006 19:20 ||
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#1
So, in essence 35 people can agree that the dog just shit on the carpet but cannot agree that it's a good idea to shovel it up before it stinks up the whole house.
#3
I nominate that for snark o' the day, BH6! Concise, well written, succint and to the point. Obviously, you've never writte a term paper memo for the UN, eh?
Posted by: BA ||
11/20/2006 21:09 Comments ||
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#4
sounds like the Royal Bank of Scotland ads...I love those
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2006 21:10 Comments ||
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Iran plans to use 100,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.
Ahmadinejad, speaking during a visit to the Tehran offices of state-run television, dismissed reports of possible Israeli strikes against Iran as "media warfare," ISNA reported.
"The Israeli regime will presently not attack Iran because it faces many problems" and is currently "weak," said Ahmadinejad, pronounced I'm a nut job ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD.
#1
the thing is, unlike arab/muslim countries, Israelis self-reflect and are self-critical. They analyze. And they self-correct. So even if Israel IS "currently weak," it doesn't necessarily mean that she will remain so.
Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hash out ways to cooperate in increasing curbing the runaway violence that has taken Iraq to the verge of civil war and threatens to spread through the region, four key lawmakers told The Associated Press on Monday. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has accepted the invitation and will fly to the Iranian capital Saturday, a close parliamentary associate said.
The Iranian diplomatic gambit appeared designed to upstage expected moves from Washington to include Syria and Iran in a wider regional effort to clamp off violence in Iraq, where more civilians have been killed in the first 20 days of November than in any other month since the AP began tallying the figures in April 2005. The Iranian move was also a display of its increasingly obnoxious muscular role in the Middle East, where it already has established deep influence over Syria and Lebanon. "All three countries intend to hold a three-way summit among Iraq, Iran and Syria to discuss the security situation and the repercussions for stability of the region," said Ali al-Adeeb, a lawmaker of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party and a close aide to the prime minister.
Both Iran and Syria are seen as key enemies players in Iraq. Syria is widely believed to have done little to stop foreign fighters and al-Qaida in Iraq recruits from crossing its border to join Sunni insurgents in Iraq. It also has provided refuge for many top members of Saddam Hussein's former leadership and political corps, which is thought to have organized arms and funding for the insurgents. The Sunni insurgency, since it sprang to life in late summer 2003, has been responsible for most of the U.S. deaths in Iraq.
Iran is deeply involved in training, funding and arming the two major Shiite militias in Iraq, where Tehran has deep historic ties to the current Shiite political leadership. Many Iraqi Shiites spent years in Iranian exile during Saddam's decades in power in Baghdad. One militia, the Badr Brigade, was trained in Iran by the Revolutionary Guard.
In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met privately with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Monday during the second and final day of Moallem's visit to Iraq. Afterward, government spokesman Ali Al-Dabagh told reporters the meeting was successful. "There is a very strong Syrian desire to develop relations between the two countries. Stability and security in Iraq means stability and security in Syria and other countries in the region," Al-Dabagh said. "There are tremendous fields of cooperation between the two countries, and they will be started once all bribes security issues and other problems are solved."
When Moallem arrived on his groundbreaking diplomatic mission Sunday, the highest Syrian official to visit Iraq since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, he called for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath.
Syria and Iraq share a long and porous desert border, and both Baghdad and Washington have accused Damascus of not doing enough to stop the flow of foreign Arab fighters.
Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hash out ways to cooperate in curbing the runaway violence that has taken Iraq to the verge of civil war and threatens to spread through the region, four key lawmakers told The Associated Press on Monday.
The Iranian diplomatic gambit appeared designed to upstage expected moves from Washington to include Syria and Iran in a wider regional effort to clamp off violence in Iraq, where more civilians have been killed in the first 20 days of November than in any other month since the AP began tallying the figures in April 2005.
"All three countries intend to hold a three-way summit among Iraq, Iran and Syria to discuss the security situation and the repercussions for stability of the region," said Ali al-Adeeb, a lawmaker of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis Dawa Party and a close aide to the prime minister.
"We have seen statements like this many times in the past," and there have been several high-level contacts between Iran and Iraq, Casey said. But Irans statements of a desire to reduce violence in Iraq "have not been backed up by facts," the U.S. spokesman said.
Both Iran and Syria are seen as key players in Iraq. Syria is widely believed to have done little to stop foreign fighters and al-Qaida in Iraq recruits from crossing its border to join Sunni insurgents in Iraq. It also has provided refuge for many top members of Saddam Hussein s former leadership and political corps, which is thought to have organized arms and funding for the insurgents. The Sunni insurgency, since it sprang to life in late summer 2003, has been responsible for most of the U.S. deaths in Iraq.
An Ahmadinejad spokesman said that Talibanis visit was scheduled several weeks ago for late November to work on improving bilateral relations. But Majid Yazdi told the AP that he had no information on a coming visit by the Syrian leader.
JERUSALEM The parents of a Brooklyn-born Israeli soldier who was captured by Syrian forces 23 years ago solemnly marked the birthday of their missing son this weekend, petitioning the Israeli government to do more to work for the release of the soldier, whom they believe is still alive.
Zachary Baumel, captured in Lebanon in 1982, turned 46 on Friday, surpassing the milestone at which he has spent more time in captivity than in freedom if he is indeed still alive. "We are just trying to bring Zachary home," said Yona Baumel, Zachary's father. "I just want my son back. I wish the Israeli government would do more but so far they have largely done nothing."
As WND reported last year, new information was released indicating Baumel is being held in Syria. Baumel, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was taken along with two Israeli members of his tank crew, Yehuda Katz and Tzvi Feldman, during Israel's foray in the Lebanon War. All three were photographed in Damascus on the day of their capture, and several eyewitnesses, including a Time magazine reporter, said they watched a parade in which the tank and crew were led through a major street in Damascus and flaunted to cheering crowds. The ceremony was the last occasion the soldiers were seen publicly.
In March 2005, Yona Baumel told WND that sources he cultivated in Syria told him they visited his son that year at a Syrian military installation just north of the border with Iraq. Baumel was also given a book from a confidante of a family in Syria that contains coded messages Baumel says could have been written only by his son.
#1
Let us suppose he IS alive. The Syrians will never admit it for the simple fact that it would make them look bad. I don't think Isreal has the leadership to go to war over this.
Baumel was also given a book from a confidante of a family in Syria that contains coded messages Baumel says could have been written only by his son.
How would a Syrian family get ahold of encoded messages by a 23-year POW? If anything this sounds more like somebody leaking false info to provoke Isreal in some way.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/20/2006 12:27 Comments ||
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#1
According to the French official, such a strike would at best delay the completion of Iran's nuclear program by two years.
The attack would also result in Iran cancelling its membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, cause a great deal of agitation in the Arab world, lead to a rise in oil prices, and could result in a major Iranian military response that would not target Israel alone.
So in two years, hit 'em again. And anyway, when they get the bomb, they probably won't use it on us (France) 'cuz there's too many brother Muslims here.
This is the typical Democratic argument: "That's not the perfect solution, so we can't do it." No alternate, no options, no better plan, just whining.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/20/2006 7:08 Comments ||
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#2
What a difference from March 2006: "we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
#3
He said that less than two weeks ago, Kalle. And he's said this before, as well - when we sold Israel the bunker busters, IIRC. I'm trying to figure out where this fevered swamp stuff is coming from. Is this the natural result of Info Overload? Alvin Toffler's Future Shock doing the amok thingy?
Look, I can understand questions, but jumping to an inane conclusion does not strike me as an answer to any of them. Sigh. Okay, nasty sarcasm alert...
#4
"In recent talks with their Israeli counterparts, French government officials estimated that Iran would reach the "point of no return" in its nuclear program by spring 2007, in approximately five months."
When's the last time "French government officials" and international nuclear officials did lunch? When is the last time they reached a consensus?
#6
"In recent talks with their Israeli counterparts, French government officials estimated that Iran would reach the "point of no return" in its nuclear program by spring 2007, in approximately five months."
That's about the same time it's estimated that Hezbollah will attack the Israelis again.
ROME - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi rejected a military option against Iran, stressing instead the need for dialogue, in an interview to be published Monday by Egypts leading Al Ahram newspaper. On the Iranian nuclear program, the recipe is for dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue, Prodi said in the interview, disseminated by Al Ahrams press services Sunday. The Italian leaders remarks come ahead of a two-day visit to Cairo that begins Monday.
Prodi rejected as unthinkable the recourse to military force against Teheran to force it to abandon its nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful, energy-generating purposes, while world powers fear Teheran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Prodi said Teheran had no need for a nuclear program to be recognized as a regional power -- that was already a factual reality, he told Al Ahram.
Iran doesn't want to be just a 'regional power'; they want to exterminate the Joooz and be the single, major Islamic power. That's why they want the bomb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Sub POPE for QUEEN LIZ > FREEREPUBLIC.com > People.com.UK > INTERNET MOSQUE allegedly is trying to inspire middle-school aged Muslim youths = KIDS to KILL THE QUEEN, besides TO HATE. Graphic images of violent, horrific "crimes" agz Muslims routinely depicted.
Refresh my RAM please... did anyone ask them about their opinion on the matter or asking for a contribution of military personnel in the case force would be used?
Prodi jumps up and down, hollering: "I am so important!"
That's okay, let the grownups handle the problem (as you likely will and then bitch about it later).
Sorry-assed buncha' wasted skin...ungrateful for the thousands of American lives lost to free them from ruthless dictatorships and keep them free in the last century...who needs 'em...
Iran has summoned the Buenos Aires envoy to Tehran to protest over arrest warrants issued in Argentina against top Iranian officials over a deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish charity, the government daily Iran reported Sunday. (Iran) criticises the irresponsible action of the Argentine judge and strongly objects to the issuing of such warrants, Safar Ali Eslamian, a foreign ministry director, was quoted as telling Argentine charge daffaires Mario Enrique Quinteros.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday afternoon that people should be "psychologically" ready to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"psychologically" ready for peaceful demonstrations?
No decapitations? Whoa! What about trampling? Ranting? Seething? I gotta sit down!
#2
He means just to see if they can pull off the coup by intimidation rather than by starting chopping heads off. Head hackings can be done at any point later, no rush, there will be a plenty available whenever the need for sacrifices to B'aallah arises.
Syria's foreign minister called Sunday for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath, in a groundbreaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for the U.S. to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 112 people were killed nationwide, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths.
Walid Moallem, the highest level Syrian official to visit since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, denounced terrorism in Iraq even as Washington mulled its own overture to Damascus for help in ending Iraq's violence. Moallem spoke at the end of a day that saw suspected Sunni Muslim bombers kill at least 33 Shiites and the kidnapping of a deputy health minister believed the senior-most government official abducted in Iraq. Many Sunni attackers are believed to have infiltrated from Syria.
A suicide bomber in the predominantly Shiite city of Hillah south of Baghdad lured men to his KIA minivan with promises of a day's work as laborers, then blew it up, killing at least 22 and wounding 44, police said. Babil province police Capt. Muthana Khalid said three suspected terrorists, two Egyptians and an Iraqi, were arrested on suspicion of planning the suicide attack with the bomber, a Syrian. Within hours, a roadside bomb and two car bombs exploded one after another near a bus station in Mashtal, a mostly Shiite area of southeastern Baghdad, killing 11 and wounding 51, police said. Besides the victims of the bombings in Hillah and Baghdad, at least 23 other people were killed nationwide. In addition, the bodies of 56 murder victims, many of them tortured, were dumped in three Iraqi cities, 45 of them in Baghdad alone.
Continued on Page 49
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
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(SomaliNet) While addressing the southern Sudan cabinet meeting, President Omar al-Bashir stressed that prevalence of security in the south is a major step in implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sudan Tribune reported Sunday. 
Police arrested a blogger Sunday in Cairo, less than a week after rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Egypt for detaining the writer of another personal Web log. Rami Siyam was detained in downtown Cairo early Sunday for questioning. He is at least the fifth blogger Egypt has detained this year. Later he was transferred to the Delta Nile city of Belbeis for further interrogation. "Police want to know if he is involved in criminal activities," the officer said. 
North Korea responded with the threat of nuclear war Sunday to comments from air force professors that South Korea should consider a pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang. The pre-emptive attack on the North means provocation of a nuclear war, a spokesman for Pyongyangs Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The comments came in response to remarks by South Korean air force academy professors, who told a seminar in Seoul earlier this month it was time for Seoul to consider a pre-emptive attack on North Korea as an option to incapacitate Pyongyang. The Norths spokesman repeated on Sunday Pyongyangs nuclear deterrent was actually targeting what he called the US nuclear threat, not South Koreans.
U.S. congressional Democrats said on Sunday Iran and Syria need to be made part of a Middle East meeting on Iraq, but Republicans insisted the United States' adversaries should first agree to conditions.
A team of federal air marshals was prevented from protecting a recent flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport because a gate agent erroneously said they did not have the correct paperwork, say marshals familiar with the incident.
Tony Blair was accused of squandering taxpayers' cash on a failing war on terror last night after a weekend of handouts worth nearly £1billion to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Prime Minister announced an extra £250million of aid for the reform of Pakistan's Islamic schools, which have been accused of breeding terrorists. He also confirmed a £500million aid package to Afghanistan.
Tony Blair has been urged by the Wests closest Muslim ally in the war on terrorism to change course in Afghanistan and back a Marshall Plan to prise the country from the grip of the Taleban. At the same time the Prime Minsiter predicted that Britains already embattled troops were set to face a resurgence from Taleban fighters. 
BHUBANESWAR - India test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable missile on Sunday, a top defence official said, days after a similar test by Pakistan. The indigenously built single-stage missile, Prithvi II, which has been test-fired at least 10 times, was launched off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa.
(KUNA) Pakistan Sunday, calling for the need to address root causes of terrorism, said that there must be a timeframe for withdrawl of foreign troops from Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz addressing a joint press conference with his British counterpart, Tony Blair, said that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. The world community must address root causes of the terrorism menace, he said, adding that the world was needed to go for measures aimed at the economic betterment of people living in areas affected but this terrorism. There must be a time frame for foreign troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, said Prime Minister Aziz.
SHAKAI: A jirga (tribal council) here on Sunday warned people against shelter to foreigners, a private television reported. The jirga in Shakai, a town in North Waziristan, was presided over by Ahmad Zai Wazir tribe chief Malik Noor Muhammad and participated in by several tribal chiefs and locals. The jirga told the locals to expel all foreigners from the area and cooperate with security forces and the local political administration.
The Palestinian Authority's ambassador in Jordan announced Sunday that Fatah's Badr Brigade was making final preparations to enter Gaza, following the IDF shelling in Beit Hanun that resulted in the accidental deaths of 19 Palestinian civilians, Israel Radio reported. 
Fearing Palestinians will create human shields around every terror target in the Gaza Strip, the IDF, a high-ranking officer said Sunday, was prepared to launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings that could not be destroyed in airstrikes. The warning came less than a day after hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the home of a known terrorist to prevent its bombing by IAF fighter jets. 
After a cabinet meeting during which the ministers' frustrations at the country's inability to stop Kassam fire on Israel surfaced, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not tolerate a continuation of the rocket fire. 
ROME - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi rejected a military option against Iran, stressing instead the need for dialogue, in an interview to be published Monday by Egypts leading Al Ahram newspaper. On the Iranian nuclear program, the recipe is for dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue, Prodi said in the interview, disseminated by Al Ahrams press services Sunday. The Italian leaders remarks come ahead of a two-day visit to Cairo that begins Monday.
Syria's foreign minister called Sunday for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath, in a groundbreaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for the U.S. to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 112 people were killed nationwide, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths. 
