This is a quite different story than the other reports we are seeing. I am not sure what Debka's angle is. Hit the link for the full tale as it is worth reading for your own insight into positions.
They basicly see 3 things:
1) a war between 2 dictators who are 3rd cousins. Both claiming to be Christian.
2) a proxy war by the Sunni Arabs to test their ability to invest Iraq if the US withdraws
3) the Greater Somali Islamic angle.
#1
It's not different at all - just a wide-angle lens on the whole situation. Eritrea is sponsoring the Islamic Courts for the same reason that Israel used to support Hamas - because it sees them as a useful ally* against a traditional enemy. Christian nations do fight each other for non-religious reasons, just as Muslim nations do.
* The traditional meaning of ally is simply a nation with which you cooperate for the duration of a conflict. Allies are not friends. Besides, nations have interests, not friends.
Some Somalis danced in the streets of central Mogadishu to welcome their prime minister Friday, while others across town threw stones at the Ethiopian troops who brought him to the capital. Divisions over clan, politics and power have been the bane of Somalia. Whether the next chapter is one of unity and peace is the test for Somali leaders and their international backers as they try for the 14th time to form an effective government since the last one collapsed in 1991.
Since then, Somalia has become the archetype of the failed state, beset by anarchy, famine and a steady influx of weapons from abroad. And nowhere in the country has the competition for power and privilege brought more destruction than the pockmarked streets of Mogadishu.
There are dozens of clan factions in the capital, each making demands on the government and each a potential spoiler, capable of extreme violence if ignored. Alliances can also shift dramatically in just a few city blocks, depending on which clan controls the street. Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said Friday that he would try to unite the citys disparate clan leaders. In the coming days I will visit every corner of the city, he said.
But he acknowledged that he will need the support of Ethiopian troops for some time to come. They will stay until we agree to send them back to their country and this depends on the stability of Somalia, Gedi added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Sounds fair. It's their turn.
(Interfax) - Somalia would like Russia to be a member of a peacekeeping contingent in Somalia, as it was in the case of Sierra Leone, Somali charge d'affaires ad interim in Russia Mohamed Handule said at a press conference on Friday in Moscow. The Somali diplomat said that he understands Russia's position of not sending its citizens to a country until security guaranties are provided. The Somali diplomat hailed the position of the Russian Foreign Ministry, saying that Somalia is thankful to Russia for backing a resolution over the aggravated situation there.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
3 thoughts:
1. Heh. (tm)
2. Have fun with the skinnys, Ivan.
3. I would realy like to see pooty deal with the aftermath of his forces pulling a Grozny(c) on Mogadishu.
Posted by: N guard ||
12/30/2006 10:38 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Somalias interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed said on Friday Somalia will not be like Afghanistan and Iraq his government won in the fighting with Islamist movement with the help of Ethiopian forces. In news conference held in Baidoa city, the base of the transitional federal government, shortly after meeting with the Ethiopian foreign minister Siyoum Mesfin in Biadoa, president Yusuf said that his government could now handle the situation in Somalia, if needed it will ask for African troops to help the government establish the security.
Siyoum Mesfin, the Ethiopian foreign minister met with President Abdulahi Yusuf over the political issues between Somalia and Ethiopia and best ways to promote peace in the region in prevent of any terrorist actions in horn of Africa.
Mr. Yusuf thanked Ethiopian government for the help it offered interim government in order to stand on its feet and control whole Somalia. My government in collaboration with its neighbor (Ethiopian government) won to oust the so-called Islamic Courts and its terrorist groups from the capital and now my government is with its people working together how to restore peace and security, Yusuf said.
President Yusuf also said that he had raised with the Ethiopian foreign minister over issues relating to how to bring peace and stability in the region and disarm the militias and then promote relations between Somalia and Ethiopia. Siyoum Mesfin and his delegation went back to Addis Ababa after talks. It is the second time that Ethiopian foreign minister visited Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal government during the Ethiopian military mission against the Islamic Courts in Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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No, it won't.
Because the Ethiopians don't give a shit about "world opinion."
Unlike the white West some other countries....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 0:50 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Thirty-four people have been confirmed dead and 123 others still missing after two smugglers' boats carrying mainly Somali refugees capsized off the coast of Yemen, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. The UNHCR contacted the Yemeni authorities on Friday afternoon, and "can now confirm that 34 bodies have been found," said UNHCR spokesman William Spindler. He added that most of the 123 people still missing may have been drowned. "It's difficult to say, some of them may have climbed on shore and disappeared into Yemen."
The UNHCR had said on Thursday that at least 17 people were killed and 140 missing after the incident, which took place late on Wednesday after Yemeni security forces opened fire on smugglers trying to bring more than 500 people into the country, across the Gulf of Aden. Altogether four smugglers' boats were involved in the incident. Two boats had offloaded their passengers and were then fired upon by Yemeni security forces. The other two boats, which had been waiting further offshore in the dark, capsized when they tried to escape.
The Yemeni authorities said on Thursday they captured all 17 smugglers and their four boats. Spindler said the UNHCR staff in Yemen had received 357 survivors of the incident. A majority of them were Somalis, and 75 were Ethiopians. Most survivors said they were fleeing the conflict between Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces and rival Islamists, Spindler added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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UIC fleeing? One can hope...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 10:32 Comments ||
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It's kinda hard swimming with an AK-47 and three bandoliers of ammo. How fitting. They probably will never be found in this life.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/30/2006 15:45 Comments ||
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Yep, I bet my 20 that these were fleeing SICCos.
An influential cleric of Saudi Arabias hardline Sunni school of Islam has denounced Shia Muslims as infidels in a new religious edict that comes amid rising sectarian tension in the region. The rejectionists (Shias) in their entirety are the worst of the Islamic nations sects. They bear all the characteristics of infidels, Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak said in the fatwa, or ruling, distributed on Islamist websites. They are in truth polytheist infidels, though they hide this, the fatwa said, citing theological differences 14 centuries after the death of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), such as reverence of shrines which followers of Saudi Arabias Wahhabi school consider abhorrent.
Concern is growing in Saudi Arabia over Shia-Sunni violence in Iraq which has taken the northern neighbour to the brink of civil war. Sunni-Shia tensions are also high in Lebanon, where Shias are leading efforts to bring down a Sunni-led cabinet. The Sunni and Shias schools of Islam are opposites that can never agree, there can be no coming together, the fatwa said. Barrak, an independent scholar, has come to be regarded by many as the highest authority for Wahhabi Muslims. Clerics of the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam have long dismissed Shias as virtual heretics and Saudi Arabias Shia minority complains of second-class treatment. But Barraks fatwa was the strongest in recent years. The fatwa, which was published on Barraks website in response to a followers question, also appeared to criticise efforts by some government-backed Saudi preachers at reconciliation between Sunnis and Shias.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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South Korea on Friday termed North Korea a grave threat, a further sign of the deepening chill in relations between the two since Pyongyangs nuclear test nearly three months ago. A defence white paper used some of the harshest language to describe its communist neighbour since the South tried to set aside decades of outright hostility towards the North with the diplomacy of what Seoul dubbed its sunshine policy.
North Koreas conventional forces, its nuclear test, weapons of mass destruction and the forward deployment of its troops are a grave threat to our security, the white paper said. Two years ago, the term it used was direct military threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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"Grave threat" vs "direct military threat" equals a perfect understanding of my hatred of diplomacy and all its works. Less jaw jaw; more war war, please.
(KCNA) -- It is the will and stand of the Korean people to respond to dialogue with dialogue and to an unjust war with a just war, says Rodong Sinmun today in a commentary.
Some time ago, the commander of the U.S. forces in south Korea announced that the U.S., together with south Korea, would stage in the spring of 2007 RSOI on the largest scale ever in history with an attendance of former vice-commanders of the U.S.-south Korea "combined forces command". Commenting on it, the daily says:
Such announcement on the war exercises against dialogue partner was made as soon as it was agreed to resume the six-party talks. This is a wanton challenge to dialogue and an undisguised act of destroying peace. A dialogue and war exercise can never go together. Though calling for dialogue, the U.S. is frantically accelerating preparations for a Korean war, bringing the situation to the brink of war. The U.S. lip-service to dialogue is no more than a smoke-screen to camouflage its scheme to invade the DPRK.
As already known, the U.S. has intensively deployed means of nuclear attack in the Asia-Pacific region including south Korea and Japan in recent years. At the same time it also mobilized its satellite forces including the abovesaid countries to stage large-scale war exercises one after another against the DPRK, posing serious threat to it. The RSOI the U.S. imperialists are going to stage is very dangerous as it is aimed at rounding off military actions of the U.S. and south Korean forces to make a surprise attack on the DPRK.
The U.S. seeks to take the dialogue as an opportunity to realize its stick policy and build up an international environment needed for it, not as a field of negotiation for the solution of the problem. The Korean people hope for a negotiated solution to the problem, but will never allow the U.S. to take the dialogue as a chance for sharpening its sword of aggression. They are watching the U.S. imperialists' moves for a new war with high vigilance, fully preparing themselves to cope with any possible situation.
The bellicose Bush forces should stop reckless war moves, clearly mindful that to render the situation of the Korean peninsula strained and provoke a second Korean war will be as foolish an act as further endangering the destiny of the U.S. in a dilemma.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Yawn. But 'stick policy' does have a certain appeal. We definitely need a lot more of that!
#2
We have done these exercises every year, for the last 15 years. They are planned out a year, sometimes two years, in advance.
We dont want to invade North Korea; can you imagine how much it would cost to fix that place?
Posted by: Army Life ||
12/30/2006 5:56 Comments ||
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Well, they * do * have a lot of hot gymnastic Korean chicks in tights. If we invade we could maybe get them to spell out stadium size rude words through the art of synchronized dance.
EFL. Hat tip LGF.
Dec. 29, 2006 - In a highly unusual move, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has rescinded an award to an Islamic activist in her home state because of the mans connections to a major American Muslim organization that recently has been courted by leading political figures and even the FBI.
Boxers office confirmed to NEWSWEEK that she has withdrawn a certificate of accomplishment to Sacramento activist Basim Elkarra after learning that he serves as an official with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). After directing her staff to look into CAIR, Boxer expressed concern about some past statements and actions by the group, as well as assertions by some law enforcement officials that it gives aid to international terrorist groups, according to Natalie Ravitz, the senators press spokeswoman.
CAIR, which has 32 too many offices around the country and bills itself as the leading Muslim-American civil- rights group, has never been charged with any crimes, nor have any of its top leaders. But a handful of individuals who have had ties to CAIR in the past have been convicted or deported for financial dealings with Hamasanother reason cited by Boxer for her action. The senator directed her staff to withdraw the certificatewhich she routinely gives to community leaders in Californiaand asked that a statement she had previously made endorsing CAIR be stricken from the groups Web site, Ravitz said in an e-mail.
Ironically, just last month, Boxer had sent CAIR a letter in connection with its 10th anniversary fundraising dinner endorsing the group as a constant support system for the American Muslim community and praising it for its work on civil liberties. "As an advocate for justice and greater understanding, CAIR embodies what we should all strive to achieve," Boxer wrote in the Nov. 18 letter.
Boxer tells NEWSWEEK she never saw the letter to CAIR signed in her name or was even aware of the award to Elkarra before it was sent out. "I feel terrible about this," she says. "We just made a mistake. I was not in the loop. That was an automatic signature [on the letter]." But Boxer stands by her decision to withdraw the award and to distance herself from CAIR, saying she was influenced by previous critical statements about CAIR made by her Democratic colleagues Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Charles Schumer of New York. "To praise an organization because they haven't been indicted is like somebody saying, 'I'm not a crook,' Boxer says. I'm going to take a lot of hits for this. But I'm just doing what I think is right." More at site. It's not much, but it's a start.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 0:23 Comments ||
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According to LGF, it's a Flying Pig Moment. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 0:53 Comments ||
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The worm turns!
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
12/30/2006 6:21 Comments ||
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Seems she has very little knowledge or control over what goes on in her office and what gets done in her name. Dumber than a bucket of hair.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/30/2006 10:07 Comments ||
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Seems she has very little knowledge or control over what goes on in her office and what gets done in her name.
That probably happens more than we care to think about.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
12/30/2006 10:55 Comments ||
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Boxer seldom does anything commendable. But this stands out as one of them. When are the rest of Congress critters going to wake up and start to investigate this CAIR subversion ?
WASHINGTON - The US Treasury Department will report to Congress by the end of February whether it thinks any foreign interests are trying to acquire US companies that possess critical technologies needed for national defence.
The White House announced on Friday the Treasury will do the study, required under the Defence Production Act, and said it will be submitted to Congress in both classified and unclassified versions. The unclassified version is to be made public.
A White House official said the report, officially titled Report to Congress on Foreign Acquisition of and Espionage Activities Against US Critical Technology Companies, was last submitted to Congress in 1994. The issue of why the report had not been seen since then arose earlier this year amid a controversy over Dubai Ports World taking over management of six major US ports by acquiring Britains Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Why is this any of Treasury's business?
I would expect the logical agency to be the FBI.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/30/2006 9:54 Comments ||
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It makes my skin crawl learning about how other countries are buying up parts of our country, a little at a time.
Don't other countries own alot of the roads back east I read somewhere?
Posted by: Jan from work ||
12/30/2006 16:42 Comments ||
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Why is this any of Treasury's business?
They're the one with the information. Companies have to report to the Treasury Department whenever there's any large-scale foreign investment in their companies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/30/2006 17:21 Comments ||
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More importantly, why the hell isn't this done annually?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/30/2006 17:27 Comments ||
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I imagine it will be, from now on. The big players like working with new information, and dislike not getting it ongoing. And once the computer program has been set up, it's easy enough to publish.
#6
We have a new toll- freeway in San Diego (under construction) which has been heavily subsidizd by an Aussie company, one who will collect tolls for IIRC 30 yrs. I'm OK with that
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 20:07 Comments ||
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same as toll roads elsewhere. The Co. came up with the funds to design/permit/build it in return for the ability to toll it...if they hadn't, it wouldn't be built. Works for me
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 21:41 Comments ||
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I think the Spemble was referring to the term "freeway" applied to a toll road.
#11
ahhh oxymoron slipped by the moron. I get it :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 22:07 Comments ||
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The balance of payments may be coming home to roost. Ship so many $ overseas, and don't be surprised when furriners buy property here with the same $.
DEARBORN, Mich. A crowd of Iraqi-Americans cheered and cried late Friday outside a mosque as some Arab media reported that Saddam Hussein was executed. The crowd of more than 150 had gathered earlier in anticipation of Saddam's execution, praying for the death of the former Iraqi dictator as people honked car horns, sang and danced in celebration.
Chants of "Now there's peace, Saddam is dead" in English and Arabic rang into the night in this Detroit suburb.
Wish I there, I'd be singing (badly) with them.
Imam Husham Al-Husainy, the director of the center, said members of the center prayed for Saddam's death. Outside, traffic slowed as people drove in circles around the mosque, honking horns and flashing peace signs.
"This is our celebration of the death of Saddam," he said while standing on top of a car following reports that Saddam had been hanged. "The gift of our New Year is the murder of Saddam Hussein. "If you want to share the Iraqi people's happiness for the death of Saddam, raise your voice and your hands."
The crowd responded with cheers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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flashing peace signs
Uhh, Mr. Reporter sir, assuming you mean with their fingers, that would be a "Victory" sign, which is more appropriate to the occasion.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
12/30/2006 8:56 Comments ||
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Let's correct the verbage. These are merely Iraqis at the enclave in America called Dearborn. There is nothing American about them.
When I saw this was the Detroit News, I expected local comments, which could've been more interesting... But I thought what the hey, toss some red meat out there for your erudite scrutiny. Then I realized it was the AP... Interesting selective blend, no?
(AP) Some comments on the execution of Saddam Hussein:
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"Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops. Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."
- President Bush.
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"Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death. Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."
- National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie.
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"An execution is always tragic news, reason for sadness, even in the case of a person who is guilty of grave crimes."
-The Rev. Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See.
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Saddam's execution punishes "a crime with another crime. ... The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the state."
- Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues.
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"The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders. History will judge these actions harshly."
- Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.
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"Saddam is paying the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis. This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness. ... Nothing matches it, no festival or marriage or birth."
- Abu Sinan, a resident of Sadr City, Baghdad's impoverished Shiite slum.
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"The country is being plunged into violence and is essentially on the edge of large-scale civil conflict. The execution of Saddam Hussein may lead to the further aggravation of the military-political atmosphere and an increase in ethnic and religious tension."
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.
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"This is an unfair verdict and if Saddam is executed or not ... he will remain a symbol and no one can delete it, neither the Iraqi government nor the Americans."
- Muhssin Ali Mohammed of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
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"He got his last prayer. He got his last meal. I'm assuming he was probably able to talk to his family. And that's something my husband didn't get and something thousands of other soldiers didn't get."
- Stephanie Dostie, whose husband, Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Christopher Dostie, was killed by an explosive device a year ago.
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"Given the crime blamed on Saddam, it is unfair if George Bush is not also put on an international tribunal. Saddam was executed for killings 148 people, Shiite Muslims, while Bush is responsible for the killing of about 600,000 Iraqis since the March 2003 invasion."
- Fauzan Al Anshori of the militant group of Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia.
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"Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant and murderous dictator. Now it is time for the people of Iraq to work to reconcile their differences and to heal the wounds of the past. Only that process will end the violence that has prevented Iraq from moving forward."
- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
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Saddam has "now been held to account for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people."
- British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
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"It will not increase our moral authority in the world. ... Saddam's heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it. ... Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth will make us blind and disfigured. ... Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked."
- the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
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"It is not a great day for democracy and democrats. Barbarity has to be fought by other means than barbarity. There were other ways to punish the abominable acts of Saddam Hussein."
- Louis Michel, European Union commissioner for development and humanitarian aid.
#4
Saddam's execution punishes "a crime with another crime. ... The death penalty is not a natural death. And no one can give death, not even the state."
- Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues.
Usual Euro drivel. Jefferson wrote, so listen up "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,.."
When the state is no longer willing or able to render justice, that power reverts back to the people cause that is the basis of the power in the first place. Vendetta is a long and well practiced social mechanism that lasted well until state promised the people that they, the state, would give justice. Remove or cripple that function and watch how long before vendetta returns.
Ask this fellow if he truly believed in just what he said, then do away with the the state's means of death such as the military and police. He'll be muzzie or muzzie shoe stain before next Christmas. And if I remember correctly Padre, two thieves accompanied your savior that day. They admitted their wrongs. They admitted they deserved their punishment. They were not give a reprieve from their crosses for their earthly transgressions. Their redemption was after paying the earthly price for their earthly wrongs.
#5
"Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death. Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."
Somehow these sentences seem mutually exclusive to me. Which to believe?
BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein will probably be buried secretly in Iraq after the government rejected a request by the ousted president's family to hand them the body, an aide for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday.
"The body of Saddam Hussein will most probably be buried in a hazardous materials landfill in Secaucus, New Jersey a secret place in Iraq," Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Maliki, told Reuters.
Asked whether the body would be given to Saddam's daughter or his family, he answered: "No."
Posted by: Mike ||
12/30/2006 09:00 ||
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no reason it has to be in any one place, now is there?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 11:35 Comments ||
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Saddam likely to be buried in secret place with recipe to secrete sauce.
From Fox, just in case anyone here is forgetting.
00:05 CDT update: page 49 fixed. Sorry. AoS.
April 28, 1937: Born in village of Uja near desert town of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, Iraq.
1957: Joins underground Baath Socialist Party.
1958: Arrested for killing brother-in-law, a communist; spends six months in prison.
Oct. 7, 1959: Participates in Baath team that ambushes Iraqi strongman Abdel-Karim Kassem in Baghdad, wounding him. Saddam wounded in leg, flees country.
Feb. 8, 1963: Returns from Egypt after Baath takes part in coup that overthrows and kills Kassem.
July 30, 1968: Takes charge of internal security after Baath seizes power and authority passes to council headed by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam's cousin.
Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging. American and Iraqi officials met to set the hour of his death. Lawyers for Saddam Hussein asked a U.S. judge to block his transfer to the custody of Iraqi officials poised to carry out his execution. Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for a stay of execution. The 21-page request was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Attorneys argued that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Oops.
Didn't work out too well, did it? :-D
Schade.
(Or not.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 0:48 Comments ||
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Media whore Ramsey Clark now moves on to the next circus. Too bad he didn't join his hero on the gallows.
#4
#2: Media whore Ramsey Clark now moves on to the next circus. Too bad he didn't join his hero on the gallows.
Got paid i'll bet.
Now that would be facinating fact to make public, just who paid him?
If we can't get him Disbarred perhaps we can get him so publicly humiliated he'll never get another "Client."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/30/2006 10:02 Comments ||
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As I said in yesterday's post about this....First, he is charged with crimes IN IRAQ, he is Iraqi, and was tried by an IRAQI court. The US courts have NO jurisdiction over this one.
And, second, filing this motion on late Friday afternoon right before New Year's Day (a Federal Holiday)? I'd bet even the union mailworkers weren't working to "shuffle the paperwork" on this one, lol! A day late and a dollar short, Ramsey, baby!
Posted by: BA ||
12/30/2006 11:14 Comments ||
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#6
As I said in yesterday's post about this....First, he is charged with crimes IN IRAQ, he is Iraqi, and was tried by an IRAQI court. The US courts have NO jurisdiction over this one.
When has that ever stopped some federal PrinceDukeBaron judge from issuing a decree?
Oh. Well. In that case we might as well not have it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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This was far more important then presidential approval ratings.
Posted by: Army Life ||
12/30/2006 6:09 Comments ||
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Certainly he will benefit from the actual execution, as did we all.
As for the "analysts" - may they eat worms three meals a day, every day, and live forever.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/30/2006 6:24 Comments ||
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Barton suggested Friday that Saddam's execution be postponed to prevent potential outbreaks of violence. Barton's view was echoed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who called on the United States to push for halting Saddam's hanging.
Could play the race pimp card on that one could Rev?
#8
BDS at its finest - you see, EVERYTHING comes back to bashing Bush for them. Nevermind that a dictator was tried justly and hung for crimes against humanity by the very people he committed the crimes against. No mob rule, no lynching, just slow inexorable justice in a land that had not see such a thing in decades and a culture that is not known for it (Arab culture).
And they wonder why there is eroding trust int he media. Sheesh, idiots need to look in the mirror and be brutally honest with themselves about what they have become: adversarial instead of informing, and a moutpiece for terror, suppressors of positive news depending on politics. IN short just opportune propagandists, not news reporters.
"They way I see it, Bush isnt up to the task. Hell he's wasted chance after chance to explain things inthe past, why would he start now? I expect nothing from the shrub." Posted by OldSpook 2006-12-29 19:37
There are so many very deserving "blamees", from Self-Serving Cowardly Congress Critters to the Lobbyist Pimps to the State Sedition Dept to the Central Insecurity Agency to the PC Goons and Old Boy Network of the Fibbies to the Nabobs of Guilt [insert almost any org with a social agenda] to the Social Stalinists [MSM, ANSWER, Hollyweird, et al] to the Power (Corp) Scammers of the OWG Vampire Vulture Elite to the Deep Pockets Enablers [Soros, et al] of all of the above. So much Truthy anti-America triangulation, so little Truth.
The rise and rage of BDS signifies that Reality is too complex for most people to absorb, sort out, and stick with - when times get rough, when faced with placard-carrying twits who couldn't parse three sentences on a good day. It's unsatisfying to accept long convoluted answers, no matter that it's the honest answer, the truth, to the gut's demand for blame, here and now. For the simple-minded focus feels better. The social Occam's Razor of Conventional Wisdom.
Bush is not The Emperor, but if folks don't look too closely or think too hardly (lol), and damned few do these days, he makes a spiffy stand-in. It is all the easier to do when he has proven that he's not your clone, or mine. He actually holds opinions and views that you, and I, don't agree with. The prick. But he was all we had to vote for, given the choices. And we're pissed about that. Really pissed. I voted for you, sumbitch, now dance. To my personal tune. Our universal "I'm fucking right and the world should work as I demand cuz By Gawd I voted."
Yup, that's the real pisser.
So Blame Bush. That's the ticket. Got a problem? There's an easy solution. Perfect Storm of the Simple Mind.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 18:10 Comments ||
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#14
.com: My statement stands. If you had seen the policy changes that came down, and thier effects, you'd have doubts as well. Not to mention it is pretty much factual that Bush has done a terrrible job communicating the causes, the necessity and the efforts involved in this war. He's failed to place the nation on a war footing, and by that failure he has only encouraged opposition domestically and overseas.
.com your commenst to me were rude, snide and wrong.
If its your goal to turn this place into your echo chamber - and Ive seen youre snide remarks in that direction - you are welcome to it.
I'll jsut stay away. Fred, he's all yours. I view .com as an asshole with his recent comments inthe O-Club and his continued and incessat snottyness and harping. He should NEVER have been made a moderator.
#15
"Oldspook" - You're a flaming hypocrite. Rude, snide, and wrong? No, not wrong. I posted a fact - it's right there for everyone to see for themselves. Hell, I left out the dumbest bit: "I have lost almost all my respect for the man, he is a gutless eunuch."
It's your opinion. Nothing more. When combined with your comment today, <24 hrs later, where you decry such BDS, it's hypocrisy. Fact.
The other terms are value judgments.
Snottiness and harping? Coming from you, after you went on a week-long rampage over the November elections is precious. Best imitation of a three year old I've ever seen. All of us who aren't fools worked for success, donated money to candidates, and voted. But you played the outraged martyr - to the extreme. Dunno why - we will all suffer equally over the next X years.
You want my ass, huh? You want Fred to save you from your own fuckup by dumping me? Hey, what happens happens. You posted your blatant hypocrisy, I didn't - I just noted it, then posted what I consider a thoughtful view, unlike your tantrums.
In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis." "Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, the dominant party in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
God's gift - broght to you by the men and women of the Multi-National Force. We thank them for their courage and sacrifice.
The execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein sent many Palestinians into deep mourning Saturday as they struggled to come to terms with the demise of perhaps their most steadfast ally.
Unlike much of the rest of the world, where Saddam was viewed as a brutal dictator who oppressed his people and started regional wars, in the West Bank and Gaza he was seen as a generous benefactor unafraid to fight for the Palestinian cause - even to the end.
Purportedly, Saddam's final words were, "Palestine is Arab."
"We heard of his martyrdom, and I swear to God we were deeply shaken from within," said Khadejeh Ahmad from the Qadora refugee camp in the West Bank. "Nobody was as supportive or stood with the Palestinians as he did."
During the first Gulf War in 1991, the Palestinians cheered Saddam's missile attacks on Israel, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," as the Scud missiles flew overhead.
Saddam further endeared himself to the Palestinians during the recent intifada with Israel by giving USD 25,000 to the family of each suicide bomber and USD 10,000 for each Palestinian killed in fighting. The stipends amounted to an estimated USD 35 million.
His support for the Palestinians was at least partially aimed at gaining widespread support throughout the Arab world.
Saddam's downfall was seen as a great tragedy by Palestinians, who lionized Saddam and praised his willingness to stand up to America and Israel.
"Saddam was a person who had the ability to say, 'No' in the face of a great country," said Hosni al Ejel, 46, from the al Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.
"He wanted the Palestinian people to have a state and a government and to be united. But God supports us, and we pray to God to punish those who did this," said Ghanem Mezel, 72, from the town of Saeer in the southern West Bank.
Others were happy to hear of Saddam's alleged final words, believing that his support for them remained unshakable until the end.
Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem opened a "House of condolences" where people can gather to mourn Saddam. The organizers hung Iraqi flags, pictures of Saddam and broadcast Iraqi revolutionary songs.
Mohammed Barghouti, the minister of labor in the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet, said that although his Islamic group was often at odds with the secular Saddam, his execution was wrong. "The Palestinians had bonded with Iraqis in brotherhood," he said.
In Israel, where Saddam was seen as an enemy, there was little sadness. But Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh expressed concerns about Iraq's path in the post-Saddam era.
According to Sneh, Israel was concerned about the strengthening of Iranian influence in the Shiite sections of southern Iraq and in the central government.
Iraq had also become a regional "power station" for terror that could spread chaos throughout the Middle East, he said. "We have to be worried about what is going to happen now," he said.
#2
Tell me again why we are sending money to these people and trying to get statehood for them? I thought Bush said that people who supported terrorist were our enemies.
Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the United States has distributed $1.3 billion for Palestinian programs in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in humanitarian and economic assistance.
Congress has appropriated $125 million for Palestinian programs for 2003.
I don't think we have to worry about the Palestinians thanking us anytime soon.
#6
Purportedly, Saddam's final words were, "Palestine is Arab."
or, more accurately: "Ackkk"
same/same
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2006 10:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"Palestinians mourn execution of Saddam"
Figures.
As usual, the paleos never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
*spit*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 11:23 Comments ||
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#8
Made up final words for a made up group, there is no such group as Palestinians. They are Arabs from Jordan, the press has been pimping for this "victim group" since day one.
JERUSALEM - Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians in 2006, well over three times as many as the year before, an Israeli human rights group said on Friday.
BTselem, an independent busybody that monitors Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said at least 322 of the dead Palestinians were not taking part in hostilities at the time they were killed.
It said Palestinians had killed 17 Israeli civilians in the West Bank and Israel during 2006 as well as six members of the security forces. It was the lowest toll of Israelis killed by Palestinians in a full year since an uprising broke out in the West Bank and Gaza in September 2000.
So the terrorist:innocents ratio is improving. Excellent!
Responding to the report, the Israeli army said it had no intention of targeting civilians and that its only aim was to protect Israelis. Unfortunately, Palestinian militants often hide behind their wimmin folk use civilian compounds and buildings as a platform to carry out deadly attacks toward Israeli population centres, it said in a statement. Uninvolved Palestinians are being used by various armed groups as human shields for terrorist activities.
And BTselem, strangely, didn't have a word to say about that.
Most of the Palestinians were killed during an offensive into Gaza, which was launched after militants captured a soldier in a cross-border raid and fired barrages of rockets from the territory that Israel had abandoned in 2005.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Awwwwwwww.
Ain't that just too bad.
My heart bleeds.
No, wait - it's just indigestion.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 0:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Too much popcorn?
In 2007, I'm betting on the Paleos to kill more Paleos than the Israelis do. They should be able to break 660 easily.
#3
Mods - not to complain about the graphic, but wouldn't the dancing virgins be better? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/30/2006 11:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
We've been getting dancing virgins an awful lot lately, along with a few absolutely gorgeous fat ladies singing; stacked coffins is a nice change... given that the murderous idiots refuse to become less murderous and less idiotic.
The General Staff convened to hear former chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Dan Shomron's findings on Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's performance during the war in Lebanon this past summer. Shomron's report did not detail steps to take against specific individuals in the IDF. Instead, the findings detailed a list of shortcomings in the transfer of orders from commanders to the soldiers in the field. Shomron also criticized the many changes made in operation plans during the war. The report faulted the "late" decision to enlist reserve soldiers, the non-function of the Kirya military headquarters' top command room, and the delayed declaration of the state of war.
On Monday, IDF officers holding the rank of colonel or higher will gather for a two-day conference during which Halutz and his generals will present the conclusions of the war as well as his plan for rehabilitating the IDF. Shomron did not call for Halutz's resignation, although he did criticize the chief of staff's conduct during the war. Shomron raised concerns over the belated process of declaring war and of the call-up of reservists, among other criticisms. Halutz was not expected to resign from his post, and was going to wait for the publication of the interim findings of the government-appointed Winograd Commission, military sources said.
Former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak told Army Radio on Friday morning that he did not think that Dan Shomron was afraid of addressing senior IDF officers' behavior; rather, he thought Shomron was going to allow the officers to decide for themselves about their future. "While personal decisions are more emphatic in people's eyes, the real issue is garnering lessons related to what needs to be done in the military in order to ensure that if fighting is again necessary, then the army is ready to do so at higher standards than we saw this summer," Lipkin-Shahak said.
Probes conducted by Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amiram Levine and Maj.-Gen. Udi Shani-Shinotar, which were presented recently to the General Staff, reported that failures during the war stemmed in large part from deficiencies in overall planning and battle doctrine. Levine, who investigated the Northern Command's performance during the war, held Halutz personally responsible for its failures, claiming that the IDF's battle doctrine was flawed. Shani-Shinotar went even further and accused Halutz of issuing confusing and contradictory orders that were in some cases changed on an hourly basis.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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The Muslim religious holiday Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, is meant to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's orders. But now the holiday could also be associated with something else: the execution of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Now it can be seen as Iraq's willingness to sacrifice its son for the public order. Sounds appropriate to me.
The Iraqi government's push to hang Hussein this morning, when much of the Muslim world was celebrating Eid, drew criticism from Islamic leaders in the Middle East and America. "Executing any individual during this holiday period indicates poor judgment and a lack of sensitivity," the Muslim Public Affairs Council said in a statement. Even if it were true, weren't "poor judgment and a lack of sensitivity" the hallmarks of Saddam's regime?
As the Hussein drama played out Friday in Baghdad, millions of Muslims gathered in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage, a pillar of the Islamic faith that every Muslim is required to perform at least once if able. "Connecting this to a religious occasion will just widen the gap between the factions in Iraq," said Muhammad Eissa, a University of Chicago professor of Arabic and an Islamic scholar. "This is a time when Muslims in particular are supposed to be forgiving, are supposed to be closer to God. Why are they using this occasion to take revenge? They couldn't wait one more week? The jihadis had no time to prepare their revenge!!" This is the perfect test of Muslim forgiveness. Sunnis can forgive Shi'ites for having had to execute one of their leaders for the common good, and Shi'ites can forgive Sunnis for foisting such a monster upon them, knowing that he can never rise again. This can be an opportunity for Muslims in Iraq as well as a challenge. Are they up to it?
On Friday, pilgrims performed a daylong vigil of outdoor prayer on Mt. Arafat (aka Suha) outside Mecca. Traditionally Eid is meant to begin the following day, but disagreements ... (what a surprise)
... over the Islamic calendar have created a dual holiday. Saudi religious scholars declared Eid to be today, with much of the Sunni Muslim world following suit. However, most Shiite Muslims and some Sunni groups consider Sunday the true start of the four-day holiday.
Some view the execution's timing as a deliberate slap by Iraq's Shiite-led government at the country's Sunnis, who benefited from the reign of Hussein, a Sunni, and who make up much of Iraq's insurgency. "The Sunnis are going to see this as an insult," said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. "The reaction is going to be very, very negative." And they've been so positive so far otherwise.
Sabih Maryati, a Shiite and a board member of Ahlul-Beyt Mosque in Pomona, also criticized the timing. "This is supposed to be a time of reconciliation. But this timing is definitely going to make the situation much worse. All it's going to do is increase the violence and make the country more unstable. When the sky falls, tell them you heard it here first. AoS at 10:19 CDT: formatting fixed.
#2
You guys might want to check your Surprise-Meter on this one. I think mine is broken because it didn't register anything; not even cosmic background surprise radiation.
#3
Traditionally Eid is meant to begin the following day, but disagreements over the Islamic calendar have created a dual holiday
These losers literally cannot agree on what day it is. I hereby issue a fatwah declaring Saddam's bloated fly-blown corpse the 65,535th Most Holy Place in Islam.
Good thing the UN put those sanctions in place, huh?
TEHERAN - Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar on Friday dismissed UN sanctions imposed on Iran as psychological warfare and suggested they would not affect Irans missile production capability.
The UN Security Council banned Iran from importing or exporting sensitive nuclear materials and technology as well as ballistic missile delivery systems in a move aimed at stopping it from nuclear enrichment activities that can be used in nuclear weapons.
We see these sanctions as a psychological warfare that will have no effect on the output of Irans defence industries, Najjar said in an interview with state television. We produce several items of defence industries in various fields. They are all indigenous and need no (assistance from) abroad, he added.
I bet that's not true, but I also bet they have ways of getting what they need.
Najjar did not specifically refer to missile production, but said anything that the Iranian armed forces needed can be made in the Islamic Republic.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Mining their ports will do a LOT to disrupt their militry capabilities, as well as the money to develop them. When can we start?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/30/2006 17:33 Comments ||
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In other news, water is wet, but Walid gets points for speaking publicly.
BEIRUT - Prominent Lebanese MP Walid Jumblatt has accused the Shia militant group Hezbollah of being involved in a string of political assassinations, according to an interview aired on Arab television. The accusations marked the first time that Jumblatt, a leading MP from the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, pointed the finger at the Teheran- and Damascus-backed group which is spearheading an opposition protest to topple the government.
In one manner or another, they (Hezbollah) are implicated in certain attacks, if not all, Jumblatt told Al-Arabiya television late Thursday. The fog over my eyes dissolved once and for all after the assassination of journalist and MP Gibran Tueni on December 12, 2005, said the Druze chief, who has previously accused Syria of being involved in the killings.
Six prominent anti-Syrian figures have been slain in the past two years. A UN investigation into the 2005 bomb blast that killed ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri has implicated senior Syrian officials and Lebanese accomplices.
Jumblatt equally accused Hezbollah of fearing an extension of the UN probe into Hariris assassination that could cover other bomb and shooting attacks against outspoken Damascus critics. Hezbollah pulled out of the government saying they were in favour of an international tribunal (in the Hariri slaying) but against any extension of the probe, Jumblatt said, referring to the resignations of six pro-Syrian ministers, including two from Hezbollah, last month.
That is because in one way or another, they are implicated in the attacks that killed Tueni, Samir Kassir, Georges Hawi (all in 2005) and Pierre Gemayel (2006) and which targeted journalist May Chidiac and minister Elias Murr (2005), Jumblatt said.
Echoing an accusation voiced by anti-Syrian Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh on Thursday, Jumblatt said the the car bomb that targeted Marwan (on October 1, 2004) was prepared in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Hariris assassination was prepared high up, Jumblatt said in an apparent reference to Syria, but the other crimes, or some of them, took place here in Lebanon.
There, I dont want to say more, but I said it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Speaking publicly in Lebanon is not a life enhancing move
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/30/2006 0:32 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator and Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani said on Wednesday he had appointed a special committee to study restricting Iran's ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official IRNA news agency reported. "Following the ratification of a bill to revise Iran-IAEA cooperation relations by Majlis (parliament), based on which the government is required to expedite the country's nuclear program for peaceful purposes, the SNSC appointed a committee to conduct the necessary studies on making appropriate decisions in accordance with the current conditions," Larijani said.
The statement was made after Larijani's meeting with visiting Iraqi Minister of Economy and Finance Bayan Jabr. The committee would work under the supervision of the SNSC, and would present with a report on the results of their studies, he added.
Iran's parliament earlier on Wednesday passed a bill urging the government to reduce its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, in an reaction to the UN sanctions imposed on Tehran, the state radio reported. The bill was approved by the powerful Guardian Council immediately and formally became a law, and it would be effective 15 days after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad affirms it.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1737, adopted unanimously on Saturday, demanded that Iran "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and developments on all heavy water-related projects." The resolution also called on all states to impose a ban on trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear programs and ballistic missile delivery systems. It demanded that "all states shall freeze the funds, other financial assets and economic resources" owned or controlled by officials and companies in the country's nuclear and missile programs. Shortly after the UN Security Council's unanimous vote, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement lashing out at the resolution, calling it an "illegal measure."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told pilgrims on the annual Hajj to Mecca that those who sow discord among Muslims are mercenaries of the treacherous enemy, Iranian media reported Friday. Those with a grudge call some Muslim groups infidels... to please the US and the Zionists they speak of the dangers of a Shiite crescent, and they kill people to destabilise the popular Iraqi government, he was quoted as saying in his message marking this years pilgrimage.
Whether knowingly or not they are criminals, and future generations will remember them as such with hatred as mercenaries of the treacherous enemy. King Abdullah II of Jordan coined the phrase Shiite crescent in December 2004, when he accused Shiite Iran of trying to influence the Iraqi elections in a bid to create a crescent dominated by Shiites extending from Iraq to Lebanon. In a speech in Dubai on December 20 this year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused Iran of being an obstacle to peace and urged moderate countries in the region to form an alliance to oppose Tehrans support for extremism.
But Khameneis Hajj message dismissed such concerns as illogical and vindictive. The West, headed by the US with its bullying and arrogant deeds, has become a demerit in the world of Islam, Khameneis message said. Their behavior towards the Palestinian people and the bloodthirsty Zionist regime, their stance towards the Zionist regime declaring it has nuclear weapons and towards Irans peaceful nuclear program, their support for those who insult the sanctity of Islam, including the Pope, while considering research into the Holocaust a crime is both illogical and vindictive behavior, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I am the treacherous enemy. Fight Muslim doggies!
#5
I am the utterly trustworthy friend; if they refuse to play nice with the world, I am the one they should fear most, should they continue their drive to make me do what must be done for the good of all.
#6
Hey! He's flippin' us off! Cut off his flippin' finger so he can't pluck yew any more.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/30/2006 17:06 Comments ||
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#7
I'm just mean, evil, wicked, bad, nasty, cruel and heartless, and I don't like people that speak badly of me. I have a tendency to curse them, and then work my a$$ off to see that curse becomes reality. Go hide under your bed, Khamenei, you're #3 on my list. Saddam Hussein was #1. Pleasant dreams...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/30/2006 18:15 Comments ||
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#8
Whether knowingly or not they are criminals ...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Some Somalis danced in the streets of central Mogadishu to welcome their prime minister Friday, while others across town threw stones at the Ethiopian troops who brought him to the capital. Divisions over clan, politics and power have been the bane of Somalia. Whether the next chapter is one of unity and peace is the test for Somali leaders and their international backers as they try for the 14th time to form an effective government since the last one collapsed in 1991.
(Xinhua) -- Thirty-four people have been confirmed dead and 123 others still missing after two smugglers' boats carrying mainly Somali refugees capsized off the coast of Yemen, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Friday. The UNHCR contacted the Yemeni authorities on Friday afternoon, and "can now confirm that 34 bodies have been found," said UNHCR spokesman William Spindler. He added that most of the 123 people still missing may have been drowned. "It's difficult to say, some of them may have climbed on shore and disappeared into Yemen." 
An influential cleric of Saudi Arabias hardline Sunni school of Islam has denounced Shia Muslims as infidels in a new religious edict that comes amid rising sectarian tension in the region. The rejectionists (Shias) in their entirety are the worst of the Islamic nations sects. They bear all the characteristics of infidels, Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak said in the fatwa, or ruling, distributed on Islamist websites. They are in truth polytheist infidels, though they hide this, the fatwa said, citing theological differences 14 centuries after the death of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), such as reverence of shrines which followers of Saudi Arabias Wahhabi school consider abhorrent. 
South Korea on Friday termed North Korea a grave threat, a further sign of the deepening chill in relations between the two since Pyongyangs nuclear test nearly three months ago. A defence white paper used some of the harshest language to describe its communist neighbour since the South tried to set aside decades of outright hostility towards the North with the diplomacy of what Seoul dubbed its sunshine policy. 
(KCNA) -- It is the will and stand of the Korean people to respond to dialogue with dialogue and to an unjust war with a just war, says Rodong Sinmun today in a commentary. 
DEARBORN, Mich. A crowd of Iraqi-Americans cheered and cried late Friday outside a mosque as some Arab media reported that Saddam Hussein was executed. The crowd of more than 150 had gathered earlier in anticipation of Saddam's execution, praying for the death of the former Iraqi dictator as people honked car horns, sang and danced in celebration.
JERUSALEM - Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians in 2006, well over three times as many as the year before, an Israeli human rights group said on Friday.
The General Staff convened to hear former chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Dan Shomron's findings on Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's performance during the war in Lebanon this past summer. Shomron's report did not detail steps to take against specific individuals in the IDF. Instead, the findings detailed a list of shortcomings in the transfer of orders from commanders to the soldiers in the field. Shomron also criticized the many changes made in operation plans during the war. The report faulted the "late" decision to enlist reserve soldiers, the non-function of the Kirya military headquarters' top command room, and the delayed declaration of the state of war. 
(Xinhua) -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator and Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani said on Wednesday he had appointed a special committee to study restricting Iran's ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official IRNA news agency reported. "Following the ratification of a bill to revise Iran-IAEA cooperation relations by Majlis (parliament), based on which the government is required to expedite the country's nuclear program for peaceful purposes, the SNSC appointed a committee to conduct the necessary studies on making appropriate decisions in accordance with the current conditions," Larijani said. 
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told pilgrims on the annual Hajj to Mecca that those who sow discord among Muslims are mercenaries of the treacherous enemy, Iranian media reported Friday. Those with a grudge call some Muslim groups infidels... to please the US and the Zionists they speak of the dangers of a Shiite crescent, and they kill people to destabilise the popular Iraqi government, he was quoted as saying in his message marking this years pilgrimage.
