Sneer quotes are mine.
A Pakistani student at a New York City high school was charged with a hate crime on Friday, accused of cutting the waist-length hair of a 15-year-old Sikh.
The Sikh religion was founded more than 500 years ago in the northern Indian region of Punjab. Adherents do not cut their hair or beards and wear turbans.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Umair Ahmed, 17, was charged with unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, menacing as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon.
He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. "The defendant is not accused of some schoolhouse prank but an attack on the fundamental beliefs of his victim's religion and his freedom to worship freely," Brown said in a statement. "Crimes of hate can never be tolerated here."
Prosecutors said Ahmed approached Vacher Harpal in a school hallway on Thursday armed with a pair of scissors and told him, "I have to cut your hair."
When Harpal asked why and told him it was against his religion, Ahmed allegedly displayed a ring with Arabic inscriptions and stated, "This ring is Allah. If you don't let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring," according to prosecutors.
Once inside the bathroom, officials said, Harpal removed his turban while crying and begged Ahmed not to cut his hair, which had never been cut. "The defendant is then alleged to have used the scissors to cut the (the boy's) hair to the neckline and thrown the hair into the toilet and onto the floor," Brown said.
Late last year, six teenagers in northern India reportedly cut a Sikh boy's hair. The incident sparked street protests and caused lawmakers to disrupt the Indian parliament. Sikhs constitute nearly 2 percent of India's 1.1 billion population.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2007 19:39 ||
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It seems a bit odd that none of the school staff noticed the ruckus at the time. Oh, and lock young Mr. Ahmed up for the maximum time, then deport him back to Pakistan, since it sounds like he isn't a citizen. Consider sending back the rest of the family, too, unless they turned him in.
Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hit by a wave of defections and betrayals that has resulted in a witch-hunt within the militant movement.
Two of the Taliban's most senior commanders have now been killed after being betrayed by close associates. Up to a dozen middle-ranking commanders have died in airstrikes or other operations by Afghan, Nato or Pakistani forces based on precise details of their movements received from informers. Few details have been publicly released, but senior military sources speak of 'major hits' that they wish they could talk about openly.
The successes may be the result of the more sophisticated strategy now employed by coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, say observers. 'There have been desultory efforts over several years to penetrate the Taliban and to play off the various factions within the militancy and along the frontier against each other, but now that has become the keystone of the intelligence effort,' said one Pakistan-based source. 'That's paying off.'
Last week three Central Asian militants were killed in a Pakistani army operation against makeshift training camps and Nato airstrikes in western Afghanistan are thought to have wiped out a dozen mid-ranking Taliban members returning from a meeting. 'There is a feeling that there are spies everywhere,' said one tribal leader speaking by telephone from the violent and anarchic North Waziristan 'tribal agency' along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. 'People are very worried and no one is trusting anyone any more.'
There are spies everywhere. Honest. Keep looking, you'll find them.
One suspected spy in North Waziristan, Saidur Rehman, 50, was shot dead 10 days ago after being tortured. A note pinned to his body accused the victim of 'working for the Americans'.
Nope, he was one of yours. It was his brother. Ask him.
Taliban sources have confirmed that two men had been arrested for betraying Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a brutal and powerful terrorist military commander who was killed earlier this month. 'We have captured the spy who helped US forces kill Mullah Dadullah, said Shahabuddin Atal, a Taliban spokesman speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Wudn't him. Someone else. There's more. Keep digging.
Atal said Dadullah had stopped at the suspect's house in the Bahramcha district of Afghanistan's Helmand province when he came under attack from coalition forces. Those accused of spying are brutally executed.
One suspected traitor accused of betraying senior commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani last December was decapitated with a knife by a 12-year-old boy before cameras. Such scenes revolted even some members of the Taliban as well as local tribesmen who try to navigate a careful path between the Pakistani army and government and local Afghan, Central Asian and Arab militants.
However, Hassan Abbas, a retired police chief on the Northwest Frontier and an expert on radical Islam, said that many were unjustly accused of spying. 'A lot of those killed are just local maliks [chiefs] who have had contact with the government,' he said. 'They are not spies.'
Damned shame. Guess you'll just have to kill all the Talibunnies.
According to Taliban sources, Dadullah's body was recovered by his fighters after the airstrike, but further information passed to coalition forces by a spy allowed the corpse, later displayed to the media, to be retrieved. 'Each time there was a [coalition] strike the man would disappear and then reappear after the bombing was over,' Atal said. 'He has now confessed.'
Bad tradecraft. That's one we can fix.
The Afghan national intelligence department in Kabul said that Dadullah had been tracked 'with [the] most modern intelligence technology from the Pakistani border before being killed'.
The Paks helped us too. Honest.
According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban, 'suspicion is now falling even on trusted men and is creating tension in Taliban ranks'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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If you Talibunny jackoffs promise not to tell anyone, I'll let ya in on a little secret. Any one-eyed SOB's you see are US spies fer sure. Gun em down, cut off the testicles and stuff it in the mouth, then cut the head off just to make sure. Don't want those spies talking after you've shot them ys know ?
#4
The real spy is 6'4" and has kidney problems. He has been known to ride camels and dress in the burka to hide himself from public view. Information suggests he meets regularly with a several male-lovers, among which is a one-eyed man with a beard.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/27/2007 5:35 Comments ||
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Charles, there are too many people around here who think that Osama bin Laden was a US pupprt; let's not encourage them.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/27/2007 6:33 Comments ||
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Eric and Charles - I never thought of that! Bush blows up the World Trade Center so he can go to war and get re-elected, but he has to have some patsy take credit, so Karl Rove has bin Laden "confess". It's perfect!
I guess I'm a little slow....
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2007 7:22 Comments ||
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Bobby, even Rosie is ahead of you on this one! :-)
Uncovered by a restless wind, skulls and bones poke above the thin dirt in this corner of Darfur, lying surrounded by half-buried, rotting clothes.
A short, bearded man named Ibrahim, 42, scratches through the sand. He is quiet and serious, close to tears. There are other, bigger grave sites elsewhere, he says, but the bones he is looking at are those of 25 people who he is sure are his friends and fellow villagers.
Some of them were dragged from the prison where he was held and were axed to death, he says.
Ibrahim is showing the burial ground to an Associated Press reporter and photographer, the first Western journalists to visit this remote town in more than a year. The western Sudan region is about to enter a new phase in its four-year-old conflict one that villagers fear may encourage more killing.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2007 19:46 ||
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From the NYY/IHT. The womens' revolution in the Arab world is exactly what is needed long term, so this article is intriguing.
ALGIERS: In this tradition-bound nation scarred by a brutal Islamist-led civil war that killed more than 100,000, a quiet revolution is under way: women are emerging as an economic and political force unheard of in the rest of the Arab world.
Women make up 70 percent of Algeria's lawyers and 60 percent of its judges. Women dominate medicine. Increasingly, women contribute more to household income than men. Sixty percent of university students are women, university researchers say. In a region where women have a decidedly low public profile, Algerian women are visible everywhere. They are starting to drive buses and taxicabs. They pump gas and wait on tables.
Although men still hold all of the formal levers of power and women still make up only 20 percent of the work force, that is more than twice their share a generation ago, and they seem to be taking over the machinery of state as well.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Yikes! No wonder those Salafist barbarians are so desperately lopping off heads and setting off bombs.
NOW and other American feminist organizations will undoubtedly launch a massive campaign of solidarity with their besieged Algerian sisters any day now. Feminist minded college students and their professional handlers will no doubt march by the million to condemn the Salafist/AQ atrocities. Human rights organizations will mobilize all their resources against the terrorists and leading Hollywood liberals will certainly organize glittering fund-raisers for the anti-fanatic forces.
LONDON - Britains prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown refused on Saturday to rule out military action against Iran over its programme of nuclear enrichment, the BBC reported. Brown, seen as less hawkish than outgoing premier Tony Blair, said he believed that the Iranian nuclear row could be settled through multi-lateral pressure.
Good luck with that.
Speaking in Bristol, western England, at a hustings event for the Labour party leadership, which he has already won, and deputy leadership, Brown was pressed on whether he would rule out military action. But he would not give such an assurance, the broadcaster said.
The Press Association news agency reported Brown had called for a peaceful settlement to the situation and replied that multilateral action and economic sanctions were the best way forward when asked about the military option.
And what the Left and Labour want him to do is to say that if 'multilateral action' fails, he'll just throw up his hands and accept a nuclear Iran.
Brown is due to replace Blair on June 27.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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North Korea test-fired only one missile on Friday rather than the multiple launches earlier reported, according to South Korean media reports.
One short-range missile was fired into the Sea of Japan, Yonhap quoted an intelligence official as saying.
Initial reports from the region said that two or more anti-ship missiles were fired off North Korea's east and west coasts. But there were no launches off the west coast, the official told the agency. Some South Korean media reports now say that only one missile was fired. Daily JoongAng Ilbo said that the missile - a land-to-ship type called the Silkworm or HY-2 - landed 100km (62 miles) from North Korea's eastern coast.
However, a further test was possible, another source said, citing an ongoing ban on North Korean fishing boats from entering western coastal areas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Anti-ship missles that don't hit ships are called "Failure".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2007 14:21 Comments ||
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"N Korea 'only tested one missile'"
"'Cuz that's all we've got."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/27/2007 19:44 Comments ||
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Some 25,000 asylum-seekers whose applications for refuge were rejected will be allowed to stay, the newly installed Dutch government said Saturday, reversing the previous administration's hardline immigration policy.
The Cabinet approved the plan crafted by Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak, the country's top immigration official, in the early hours of the morning after a marathon session Friday. Who was the genius that thought allowing a muslim to decide Holland's immigration policy was a good idea?
"The foreigners who will be granted a permit on the basis of this ruling must find a place in Dutch society," the Cabinet said in a statement. "That means not only education and work, but also integration and housing."
The amnesty will apply to asylum-seekers who arrived before April 1, 2001 and were found not to qualify but who remained in the country anyway. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2007 19:58 ||
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After a contentious, three-month battle with the White House over Iraq, congressional Democrats limped out of Washington Friday with their sights trained on July for the next round -- but antiwar activists are spoiling for a fight far sooner than that.
The Democratic rank-and-file left for the week-long Memorial Day break with a slate of talking points on Congress's accomplishments whose top bullet point boasts of "working responsibly to end the war." In the past 100 days, virtually every Democrat has voted to demand troop withdrawals, and a majority of them effectively voted Thursday night to cut off funds for the war.
But to antiwar groups, the only tally that mattered was Congress's easy approval of a $120 billion war spending bill that was stripped of timelines for troop withdrawals. A majority of House Democrats may have voted against it, but the Democratic leadership in both chambers facilitated its passage.
"Voters elected this Congress to lead the country out of the mess in Iraq," and anything else I say, said Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org Political Action. "We expect great political fallout for all of the representatives -- Republican and Democrat -- who stood in the way."
Democratic leaders argue that for the first time Congress had required the Bush administration to track military and political progress in Iraq in 18 prescribed areas and to report back to Congress as soon as July. Horsehocky. Reports are currently being made weekly and quarterly (26 pages long)
Some nonmilitary aid could be jeopardized if the Iraqi government fails to make progress.
The funding bill's passage "was the start of a whole new direction in Iraq," declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). "I think that the president's policy is going to begin to unravel now." But that message was undermined by her vote against a measure she herself had dismissed as "a fig leaf" and "a token." Pelosi praised the 140 Democrats who voted against the bill. She said the "no" votes communicated "No more funding."
But the praise struck a dissonant note, since she was flanked by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (S.C.) and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), all of whom had voted for the funds. {snicker}
"There are 232 Democrats in the House of Representatives," Hoyer said. "There are 232 Democrats that believed that our policies in Iraq are failing."
92 of whom covered their own hides.
Activists declared they would remain focused on Republicans but would hold Democrats accountable. Television advertisements, financed by an antiwar coalition, will target Sens. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), both up for reelection next year. And MoveOn organizers said Democrats also are likely to see skirmishes in their districts. MoveOn asked its members Friday to send Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) protest letters in the form of tea bags, reminders that he had called the Iraq bill "weak tea" before he voted for it. Maybe Ned Lamont will run again?
"This is not partisan anymore. This is not about staying away from Democrats to make them look good or attacking all Republicans to make them look bad," like it has been up until today, and will be again tomorrow said Susan Shaer, co-chairman of the Win Without War coalition. "We don't care who you are or whether we usually like you. This vote was wrong."
Such sentiment is only being compounded by Democratic presidential candidates who are reveling in their opposition to the war funding bill as they appeal to core Democratic voters. Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) established a Web site to encourage voters to mobilize during Memorial Day weekend. And when Republicans hit front-running Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) for their votes against the war spending bill, the Democrats hit right back. "Governor Romney and Senator McCain are still supporting a war that has cost us thousands of lives, made us less safe in the world, and resulted in a resurgence of al-Qaeda," Obama said, after Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and the Republican National Committee all accused him of abandoning the troops. "It is time to end this war."
Eager to address other issues, such as soaring energy prices, and to complete unfinished business on homeland security and ethics bills, House leaders hope to give Iraq a rest. Chairman John P. Murtha (Pa.) of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense plans to strip Iraq issues from the 2008 defense spending bill when it comes up in July and prepare a separate war funding measure for consideration in September, when Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, is to report to Congress on the war's progress. The Dems won't believe his report, just like in his first briefing, which they almost didn't bother to attend.
But the Senate will return to the war in late June, when it is scheduled to take up a defense policy bill. The Armed Services Committee released the legislation Friday, and although it includes no Iraq withdrawal language, Chairman Carl M. Levin (Mich.) said Democrats would seek to require troops to begin leaving within 120 days of the bill's passage. "The Iraqi leaders will realize that their future is in their hands only when they are forced into that recognition," Levin said. There are some signs Carl is right - the Iraqis do seem more motivated of late. Maybe Karl is behind the whole thing?
Another Senate war bill, expected to be introduced early next month, would adopt the Iraq Study Group recommendations as official policy. The group was headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.). The legislation, which has gained bipartisan backing, ...
Really? Who? The ISG report was a crock and a sham, and I'd like to see the Republicans who are now standing behind it.
... would establish conditions for a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and require specific steps to be taken by the Iraqi government. The list is similar to the benchmarks in the funding bill, but more detailed in its requirements.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2007 07:56 ||
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Upset that you realize you're only a tool of the entrenched power brokers?
Should have figured that out when even in New England you couldn't defeat Joe which was the one and only real contest based upon the war. You think the Donks want to give up their recently reacquired power by playing to your losing strategy?
They don't exist for you, they exist for power and while you help them in achieving that, you can also destroy that. They're not going to place themselves voluntarily back out of power.
Yeah, it much more fun and enjoyable not to be a tool, but that is what you chose. Now have a hissy fit.
#2
MoveOn was running VERY specific radio ads (on conservative talk radio!) explicitly calling on Steny and the dems to vote moveOn's way, "brought to you by the 3.2 million members of MoveOn".
I was thinking "only 3.2 mil?" I thought there were a lot more of them than that...
#5
There's a part of me that wants to register over at DU and Kos and start posting comments like this:
For all their rhetoric, Pelosi and Reid have always been reliable stooges for BushCo and the neocons. They voted for the war, and they've voted for every funding bill Shrub asked for ever since. They're as much the enemy as BushCo.
If I did that, would that make me a bad person?
Posted by: Mike ||
05/27/2007 11:39 Comments ||
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If I did that, would that make me a bad person?
Well, maybe from their perspective, but certainly not mine.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
05/27/2007 11:49 Comments ||
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Proves Dems stupidity, that they actualy want this rabble?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/27/2007 14:28 Comments ||
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"Anti-War Left to Turn on Democrats" resonates with "Hunt for 'traitors' tears Taliban apart"
Indeed.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/27/2007 15:42 Comments ||
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The big news this week is that Hillary sold out the troops as her way of celebrating Memorial Day. May buy her the Democrat nomination, but she just lost the vote of any American that gives a damn about this country.
#13
Bright Pebbles and Mike (#9 and 11) - Ya think it's easy writing headlines that resonate?
The Washington Post headline was Democrats Prepare for Another Funding Battle - How boring is that?
Anyway, if resonates means you liked it, I am pleased to be in your service!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2007 17:35 Comments ||
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whenever I think of media resonating, I'm drawn to "what's the frequency, Kenneth"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2007 17:44 Comments ||
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I'm clearly overtired. I read the headline properly earlier today, but this time I flashed on poor dear Antiwar from Australia, who was so proud of her reading list. Some of you old timers will remember her trollery, and how she and that Turkish lad seduced the previously gallant Mr. Davis from the side of his loving wife.
The rest of you will either disappear into Fred's archives (is 2004 the right year?) or think me mad. ;-)
Thousands of military veterans from towns across the country cruised into the nation's capital yesterday on polished Harleys and Hondas, filling the air with the unmistakable leonine rumble that, after 20 years, has become an intrinsic part of Memorial Day weekend in Washington.
The Rolling Thunder motorcycle legions, expected to reach several hundred thousand for today's parade from the Pentagon to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, carry an annual message of moral support for U.S. troops fighting abroad, readjusting back home, and imprisoned or missing in action -- a message as relevant today as it was when a handful of Vietnam veterans founded the group in 1987.
"We want to make sure that the soldiers coming back now from Iraq or Afghanistan, whether full or maimed or dead, are being honored and respected in a way that we never were," said Ed Geoffrion, 62, a semiretired auditor and Navy veteran from Chicopee, Mass., with a tattoo of an eagle clutching an American flag on his left biceps. He has ridden his Harley-Davidson Road King to Washington every Memorial Day weekend since 1991.
Many of the bikers were Vietnam vets in their 60s, wearing gray ponytails and black leather vests crammed with badges, patriotic patches and military insignia; some were accompanied by their wives, sporting similar regalia. There were also several elderly Korean War vets in the crowd and a young Marine representing vets from Iraq and Afghanistan.
For some participants, the event had a theme of carefully nursed grievance, a permanent wound kept alive so future generations would not forget. Many Vietnam vets spoke with deep bitterness of being neglected and scorned after returning from combat 40 years ago, of having fought hard to win a war that they said politicians gave away to get re-elected lost.
For other veterans in the crowd yesterday, riding to Washington with Rolling Thunder every year has become a ritual of renewed, cathartic healing, a chance to feel unabashedly patriotic and to revel in the friendly welcome they receive as they travel to the capital.
Milo Gordon, 63, a disabled vet and counselor from Wisconsin, said he felt lost and depressed for years after he came home from Vietnam. In 1993, he recounted, he happened to visit Washington and found himself at the Wall, sobbing uncontrollably over a wreath that said "thank you."
"At that moment, I quit wanting to die and started to get involved," he said. Now, Gordon joins a group of several hundred bikers each year in California in a Ride for the Wall. They travel east for 12 days, first on interstate highways and then on smaller roads, stopping at towns in West Virginia, where they distribute donations for schools. Residents eagerly await and celebrate their arrival.
"It is the parade we never got," Gordon said. "When everyone wants to feed you and kids are asking for your autograph, it really pierces that emotional brick wall vets carry with them."
"When we first started out, we had maybe 2,000 bikes, and nobody knew who we were. Now we are respected, and the police say we bring down the crime rate," said Teddy Shpak, 60, a retired Veterans Affairs Department worker from Connecticut who has been to Washington every Memorial Day since 1987.
But the showpiece of the Rolling Thunder contingent this year is Flashback, an exquisitely painted three-wheel Boss Hoss motorcycle covered with scenes depicting the Vietnam War. "None of us likes to go to war," said Lew Winters, 56, a Vietnam vet and trucking company owner from Tennessee who designed the scenes and had them professionally airbrushed on his bike last year in Florida. "But someone has to keep our freedom. This is our tribute to all of the 3.7 million who served in Vietnam."
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2007 07:33 ||
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#3
Too bad ACLU is not for civil liberties. Who was the law firm that stepped forward to assit the persons who reported the Flying Immams a couple of months ago?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2007 10:41 Comments ||
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hopefully the McIntyre Law Firm of Tampa Bay will soon be seeking new employment. Their current client list should be interesting to see. Discovery should be fun
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2007 11:06 Comments ||
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Uhhhh....the discovery phase is going to be interesting.
It seems they really don't cair about that. I think they just want to intimidate people with the threats of lawsuits and expect their deep Saudi pockets to wear down any defense of those that don't fold right away.
The case of the Islamic Society of Boston is a good case in point. After 3 1/2 years the intimidation process is still ongoing despite losses in court.
NEW YORK (AP) - An American student arrested last year in London on allegations of providing al-Qaida fighters with equipment to attack American soldiers was in federal custody Saturday.
Syed Hashmi, 27, arrived in the U.S. late Friday, said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia. Hashmi is the first terror suspect extradited to the United States by British authorities.
"Syed Hashmi aided the enemy by providing military gear to al-Qaida."
Hashmi, known to his associates as ``Fahad,'' was indicted in May 2006 on charges of supplying the unspecified equipment for al-Qaida ``to fight against United States forces in Afghanistan.'' He was also charged with agreeing to help others provide military gear for al-Qaida to use in Pakistan, the indictment said. The conspiracy to support the terrorist group behind the World Trade Center attack operated between January 2004 and May 2006, the indictment said. ``Syed Hashmi aided the enemy by providing military gear to al-Qaida,'' said Mark Mershon, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York office.
The Pakistani native, who is an American citizen, had lived in Britain for three years before his June 6, 2006, arrest as he boarded a flight to Pakistan at Heathrow Airport. He only spoke to confirm his name and date of birth at a subsequent London court hearing where he refused consent for extradition.
In March, the British High Court ruled against Hashmi in his legal battle, rejecting his claim that the U.S. arrest warrants were flawed.
Hashmi is to be arraigned Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska. The former Queens resident faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted of all charges in the three-count indictment, including the top count of conspiring to contribute funds, goods or services to the terrorist group.
Law enforcement officials said Hashmi was associated with another Queens man, Mohammed Junaid Babar, who pleaded guilty in August 2004 to smuggling night-vision goggles, money and military supplies to an al-Qaida official establishing a ``jihad training camp'' in Pakistan. The Hashmi indictment referred to the prior arrest of an unidentified co-conspirator.
Babar, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, acknowledged meeting with the terrorist official near the Afghanistan border - in the same area where the gear provided by Hashmi was brought, according to the pending indictment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: The United States Embassy has warned its citizens to defer travel to Pakistan because of recent information indicating terrorists may be plotting attacks on Western interest in the country.
Recent information indicates that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks against Western interests in Pakistan. These interests may include NGOs and companies. No further information is available regarding the exact timing, location, or specific targets of these attacks. US citizens should defer travel, and are reminded to examine their personal security practices, says a warden notice issued by the US Embassy in Islamabad.
The embassy would like to remind the American citizen community of the need to stay alert, to reduce travel to minimum acceptable levels, and to act self-defensively at all times. American citizens should avoid areas where Westerners are known to congregate, vary their routes and times, and maintain a low profile. We remind American citizens that protests and demonstrations may occur throughout Pakistan without prior notice and to avoid all demonstrations and protests.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Dang, have to change my vacation plans. And I heard Waziristan was so nice this time of year.
#2
Damn, that puts the hurt on the booming tourist industry there doesn't it ? Did you consult with the new Pak Tourism Minister before you issued this fartwa ?
#3
Pardon me if I seem a little unclear on the subject, but shouldn't all travelers to Pakistan be monitored, period? Who the fuck in a civilized world would want to visit that shithole? Keep in mind the Kurd who revisited Iran only to receive lashes for drinking beer in public. Anyone stupid or hateful enough to voluntarily visit Pakistan needs to be monitored on a permanent basis. Any questions?
PESHAWAR: Pro-Taliban militants have warned music and video shops as well as clandestine hashish and alcohol outlets in a Frontier town to close down, local residents said on Saturday.
'cause it'll lead to unpure thoughts, and you know what happens next ...
The threat came in pamphlets distributed in Darra Adam Khel town, some 25 kilometres from Peshawar, the main town in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. At least 10 music shops in the region have suffered grenade attacks by militants over the past eight months. The latest threats also warned shopkeepers to stop downloading songs as mobile telephone ring tones. The Taliban have set July 1 as a deadline to abandon all un-Islamic business in the area, local resident Murtza Khan said.All music shops in this area are closing now, shopkeeper Jan Alam said.
Similar threats have been made periodically in other tribal territories where militants, emulating the ultra-orthodox Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, strive to impose their own brand of Islam.
Emulating?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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If the Talibunnies think they are going to push around the locals in Pesawar boy are they in for a surprise.
THREE people, including a soldier, were wounded as special balloting opened today in 13 Muslim towns in the southern Philippines amid blasts and gunfire. The soldier was wounded when troops exchanged gunfire, with armed men trying to snatch ballot boxes. Five thousand soldiers and armed police were sent to guard the elections after officials did not show up to elections on May 14 due to threats and intimidation.
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon - The United States sent more ammunition on Saturday to Lebanon whose army is struggling to defeat a group of heavily armed Islamist militants holed up inside a Palestinian refugee camp.
Three US Air Force cargo planes landed at Beiruts airport and unloaded ammunition and other equipment bound for the army, airport sources said. Six planes carrying similar military aid from the US and Arab allies had arrived on Friday. The shipments, promised months ago but rushed after fighting erupted between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants on May 20, arrived as Lebanese soldiers beefed up their positions around Nahr al-Bared camp, the main base for the militants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Daymn! We ought to send over a C-130 and kick out a MOAB on Hahr al Bared camp. Then see if the Lebs still need more ammo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/27/2007 2:58 Comments ||
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#2
Just to be fair, somebody should give ammo to Paleos.
#4
Next time make the ammo air-delivery one round at a time (closely spaced), via AC-130 'cargo' plane. And skip the Lebanese Army middle-man and deliver direct to Fatah al-Islam.
#5
Personally, I'd prefer the "ammo" to be delivered special delivery by multiple B-52s - about 86 750lb unguided bombs per aircraft, aimed at the center of their "refuge" camp. No matter deeply the FatIsts have dug down, it won't have been deep enough. One "mission", delivery by a dozen aircraft, and the rest of the paleostains in Lebanon, paleoland, Egypt, Jordan, and Soddy aRabida will think twenty times before attacking ANYBODY. Won't have to worry about Nahr al-Bared camp, it won't exist. Neither will anyone caught inside it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/27/2007 21:53 Comments ||
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Iran's moderate press and economists Thursday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as "incomprehensible" and risking "economic suicide." The rate cut, which economists said could overheat an already inflationary economy, appeared to have been taken without the knowledge of Iran's economy minister, who had said exactly the opposite just hours earlier.
"Economic suicide for banks," the Mardomsalari (Democracy) newspaper said of Tuesday's move.
"The economy minister and the head of the Central Bank have to explain this decision since this decree is incomprehensible for economists," Saeed Shirkavand, economy minister in the previous reformist government, was quoted as saying.
The government spokesman said Tuesday state bank interest rates were being cut to 12 percent from 14 percent and rates at private banks to 12 percent from 17 percent in a bid to create fair competition among lenders.
The former head of the Tehran stock exchange, Hossein Abdo Tabrizi, said "this ad-hoc decision will not benefit the investment market at all and will only terrify investors. "They will start to worry that maybe tomorrow there will be such decisions to control and create a price ceiling for shares," he told the Kargozaran newspaper.
The centrist Ham Mihan daily said that hours before the decision was announced, both Economy Minister Davoud Danesh Jafari and Central Bank chief Ebrahim Sheibani vowed rates would stay the same. "They were unaware that [the president] was pouring cold water on the economic commander of his Cabinet in order to increase the temperature of Iran's economy," the daily said. Ham Mihan's front page showed a picture of a tired looking Danesh Jafari, holding his head in his hand. "Shock on the Tehran bourse," its headline said.
Masoud Nili, a prominent economist and a director of the Iranian planning organization, cast doubt on the wisdom of bringing state and private interest rates in line. "Bringing private and public bank interest rates to the same level will not lead to competition since the public banks can rely on the government's assistance, which does not exist for the private ones," he told Kargozaran.
Ahmadinejad has been repeatedly criticized by the press for stoking already-high inflation in the Islamic Republic with high spending and promising lavish local investment projects on provincial tours. The Central Bank has predicted that inflation will rise to 17 percent in the year to March 2008, a 3.5 percentage point rise from the previous year. But many economists expect the number to be even higher. Money-supply growth is running at a huge 40 percent and the government is beginning to implement a gasoline rationing plan that has already seen pump prices rise by 25 percent.
However, the president, elected in 2005 on a platform of distributing the country's riches more evenly, insists inflation is under control and the government is doing all it can to reduce poverty.
Ham Mihan compared Danesh Jafari's present situation with that of ex-planning organization head Farhad Rahbar, who resigned after the president made a surprise move to weaken the body's power. The Economy Ministry vehemently denied its minister was planning to resign, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
#8
"However, the president, elected in 2005 on a platform of distributing the country's riches more evenly, insists inflation is under control and the government is doing all it can to reduce poverty."
Poverty is the natural state of humankind. Creating wealth destroys it. Wealth is created when something is done more productively than before or when something brand new is created (creating wealth is NOT a zero-sum game). You need a human mind to do this, and the mind has to be free to think of these things. Therefore all wealth is a product of a free human mind.
Is it any wonder Iran has a poverty problem?
Mind you, I think this is a story from the Halliburton mess-with-their-minds (tm) division. It's certainly put them in a tizz, hasn't it? (heh!)
ps Governments are awful at reducing poverty (unless they keep right out of the way, in which case they're very good...)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/27/2007 20:51 Comments ||
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#9
Interest at 12%, inflation at 17%. Sweet deal for borrowers. Bet my paycheck the mullahs took out loans on the entire money supply.
Posted by: ed ||
05/27/2007 21:12 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hit by a wave of defections and betrayals that has resulted in a witch-hunt within the militant movement.
LONDON - Britains prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown refused on Saturday to rule out military action against Iran over its programme of nuclear enrichment, the BBC reported. Brown, seen as less hawkish than outgoing premier Tony Blair, said he believed that the Iranian nuclear row could be settled through multi-lateral pressure.
NEW YORK (AP) - An American student arrested last year in London on allegations of providing al-Qaida fighters with equipment to attack American soldiers was in federal custody Saturday.
LAHORE: The United States Embassy has warned its citizens to defer travel to Pakistan because of recent information indicating terrorists may be plotting attacks on Western interest in the country. 
PESHAWAR: Pro-Taliban militants have warned music and video shops as well as clandestine hashish and alcohol outlets in a Frontier town to close down, local residents said on Saturday. 
THREE people, including a soldier, were wounded as special balloting opened today in 13 Muslim towns in the southern Philippines amid blasts and gunfire. The soldier was wounded when troops exchanged gunfire, with armed men trying to snatch ballot boxes. Five thousand soldiers and armed police were sent to guard the elections after officials did not show up to elections on May 14 due to threats and intimidation.
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon - The United States sent more ammunition on Saturday to Lebanon whose army is struggling to defeat a group of heavily armed Islamist militants holed up inside a Palestinian refugee camp.
Iran's moderate press and economists Thursday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as "incomprehensible" and risking "economic suicide." The rate cut, which economists said could overheat an already inflationary economy, appeared to have been taken without the knowledge of Iran's economy minister, who had said exactly the opposite just hours earlier. 
