Mbeki is a moonbat, commy rascist. Wudda shithole SA is now and moving down fast. Typical tanzi protestations and meaningless blustering bellows.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday that Africa has no choice but to help bring peace to war-torn Somalia, but did not pronounce on whether South Africa was to send troops to any such effort. Go where? With the krazy killer mohamedeans? Heh.
The president made the statement in his first weekly newsletter for 2007, published on the website of his party, African National Congress (ANC), on Friday. "For the sake of both Somalia and our continent as a whole, Africa has no choice but to come to the aid of this sister African country," Mbeki said.
He said Somalia had, over time, fallen apart and ceased to exist as a viable state, adding: "This has led to the eventuality that, as the year 2007 began, Somalia put itself firmly at the top of the African Agenda." How lucky for them!
Zimbabwe will just have to try harder.
While it was true that Somalia remained an independent state, it had, for the past 15 years, been the victim of a protracted internal conflict. Typical tranzi problem definition, i.e. worthless. The problem is simply the "religion" of mohamed. Dump that and problem solved.
This had "resulted in the collapse of the state, the death of an estimated 1 million Somalis, the emigration of thousands as refugees, and the impoverishment of millions as a result of severe and sustained socioeconomic regression." Typical muzzie shithole that doesn't have oil underneath.
Complicating the situation in that country, "allegations have now been made that international terrorist groups have established themselves in Somalia." When they claim ties to jihadis, call out for help and receive planeloads of arms, well, even a dhimmi can see it even if they can't acknowledge it, it isn't an "allegation anymore", it is a fact.
Mbeki was apparently referring to the U.S. air strikes earlier this week, carried out against suspected al-Qaeda groups within Somalia. He noted that Somalia had turned into a "source of regional instability," at a time when the African Union was intensifying its efforts to ensure Africa become a continent of peace. LOLOL. Africa is the continent of death. Always has been, seems always will be. (Google Kim Du Toit)
"In many respects the deeply entrenched Somali crisis demonstrates what can happen to many of our countries if they are not governed and managed in a manner that addresses the interests of all citizens, bearing in mind the national specifics of each country," he said. In AFRICA??. Where? When? What parellel universe?
Earlier on Friday, a South African foreign affairs official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was reported to have said that South Africa was hesitant to send troops to Somalia. The official said sending troops to Somalia might result in South Africa being seen as fighting the U.S. war on terror, and that any peacekeeping there would lose credibility. "See, we are unsure who will win and we want to pick the strong horse."
A call has been made on African countries to provide an 8,000- strong troop to help with peacekeeping in Somalia. Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said earlier this week that while no countries had made commitments, several nations were considering sending personnel. He named Nigeria, South Africa and Malawi as countries considering sending troops. Ohhhh, you mean Malawian infantry might be there? That'll scare the curly-toes slippered ones. Ya. Uh-huh.
And it's not like Nigeria has problems to spare.
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was reported on Tuesday as saying that South Africa had not yet been asked to contribute forces. "So please, do not ask!"
Ya, I know it is from the "Peoples Daily". Still, lotsa fun.
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2007 1:19 Comments ||
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Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was reported on Tuesday as saying that South Africa had not yet been asked to contribute forces.
Might be difficult to muster enough well rankers. I understand nearly 50% of the Forces are HIV positive. And a follow-on comment, yes Mbeki is kak, but wait until Zuma comes on the scene. He'll give Zimbob a run for the Rand I assure you.
Jan from African Crisis reported that a friend who had recently left the SA armed forces told him that at one military hospital, roughly 90% of patients were HIV positive (which doesn't mean that 90% of SA service men are so, but, still...).
Btw, IIUC this is more or less the african norm (could be less in less afflicted countries, or with higher standards militaries like nigeria???), because armed forces there traditionally are great users of prostitution, and are one african AIDS vector, like international truckers.
Mogadishu 12, Jan.07 ( Sh.M.Network) - Hundreds of families fleeing the US air strike on Afmadow and Raskomboni southern Somalia near the Kenyan border have reached the port town of Kismayu about 500 km (310 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu.
Two cargo boats carrying at least 200 Somali refugees fleeing Raskamboni where the Ethiopian and U.S. warplanes raided have shored up Kismayu coats on Thursday and Friday.
The refugees said that they have become targets of the air strikes. Suleiman Ahmed, one of the refugees, told Shabelle reporter Farhan Lafole in Kismayu that they had to hide themselves when they heard the sounds of planes. The warplane and the helicopter gunship targeted the movements of the people. They think that anyone in Raskamboni is an Islamist, so we had to flee, he said.
You were happy to be Islamists when the Islamic Courts were in charge.
An officer, who advocates for the refugees in Kismayu, said there were extra more refugees on the way to Kismayu. He added they were fleeing the probable air strike that could happen in the area once again.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Following the United States (U.S.) air strike in Somali targeting al Qaeda suspects,
Eritrea warned the US on Friday that its involvement in Somalia would "incur dangerous consequences."
Eritrea warned the US on Friday that its involvement in Somalia would "incur dangerous consequences." According to analysts, Eritrea has in over the time gone from being a U.S. ally to one of its hardest opponents because of what Eritrea perceives as USs support for rival Ethiopia in a long-standing border dispute. "(Eritrean) President Isaias Afwerki underlined that the turmoil being created in ... Somalia by the U.S. administration through its mercenary agent (Ethiopia) would incur dangerous consequences," a statement on Eritrean Information Ministry Web site said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Eritrea (which didn't even exist not too long ago) is warning us?
What's that sound I hear?
Sounds like a mouse roaring squeaking.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/13/2007 0:16 Comments ||
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I believe US Aid provides 40% of the total calories consumed by Eritrea. Is it necessary to put up with this shit? Dangerous consequences indeed.
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2007 0:50 Comments ||
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You and whose army?
Didn't Eritrea/Ethiopia win a Nobel Prize for Violent Conflict Over The Most Worthless Real Estate?
Some Somali militias have reportedly agreed to disarm, but deadly clashes near where negotiations were held highlight how volatile things remain in the country. Half a dozen men have been killed in a gun battle outside the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Inside, agreement was said to have been reached with seven main warlords to disarm and join the national army. The dispute outside the palace is reported to have been triggered by a dispute over where to park an armoured vehicle. Somalia is back under the control of the Western-backed interim government, which managed to drive out Islamists with the help of Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the charity Oxfam is claiming that about 70 innocent civilians have been mistakenly killed in air raids aimed at Islamist fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"deadly clashes" = disarming by other means.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 7:59 Comments ||
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Somalia is back under the control of the Western-backed interim government,
Nine South Korean oil workers abducted from an oil services base in Nigeria's southern delta were freed unharmed on Friday after three days in captivity, a government spokesman said.
On Wednesday, gunmen in six boats invaded the riverside base in Bayelsa state and kidnapped the nine men after blowing up part of an office building. "The Korean hostages have been released," a spokesman for the Bayelsa state government said. "They were released unharmed this evening and they have been handed over to their employers."
The nine were working for South Korea's Daewoo Engineering and Construction <047040.KS>, which is working on a pipeline project in Bayelsa state, when they were kidnapped apparently for ransom.
Their abduction happened less than a week after five Chinese telecom workers were kidnapped for ransom in another area of the lawless delta, which accounts for all the 2.5 million barrels of oil per day output of the world's eighth biggest exporter. The Chinese workers are yet to be released.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been in Brussels as part of his week-long a tour of several European capitals. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reassured him of close cooperation to press nuclear-armed North Korea to abandon its weapons. And if you can't depend on the European Union, who can you rely on?
London and Berlin had already voiced their support for taking a firm line with Pyongyang. North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in a test last October. Abe also reiterated Tokyo's opposition for any lifting of the EU ban on arms exports to China, which some member states favour. He is on a drive to develop alliances. His country's defence arm was upgraded to a ministry this month; It has had agency status since defeat in WWII.
Promoting a bigger role for Japan in global security, Abe is also at work on changes to the pacifist constitution. This Friday Abe he will make a historic appearance at NATO headquarters in Brussels - the first such visit by a Japanes prime minister. Officials say he will stress Tokyo's growing interest in active peace-keeping, post-conflict reconstruction and disaster relief operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, then cut off Kimmie's Hennessey's and Swedish prostitute supply.
Posted by: ed ||
01/13/2007 1:27 Comments ||
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It's an insult to invertebrates everywhere to compare them to the Euroweanies.
Invertebrates, particularly insects, have some extremely admirable traits, are the dominant lifeform on this planet in terms of numbers of species, numbers of individuals, diversity of environments in which they live, and any number of other traits.
More than half of ethnic Norwegian women under age 25 choose abortion if they get pregnant, according to a new study. [...] Eskilds study marked the first time that researchers tracked the incidence of abortions and births among ethnic Norwegian women. [...] Its very surprising that its more common for women under 25 to have an abortion than it is to carry out their pregnancy, Eskild told newspaper Aftenposten.
#1
I gotta get get this off my chest. I'm going to p*** off some folk by saying it, but it needs to said. It's the truth.
Abortion is obscene. These STUPID Norse women take no precaution and apparently do not demand that their STUPID male partners wear protection to try to prevent conception. An abortion will inhibit (prevent in many cases) the ability of a woman to successfully bear children later in life which is a secret the women at Planned Parenthood don't want you to know about.
You stupid men and women in Europe are being outbreed by the enemy. We here in the USA will not be so inclined to bail your ass out of the fire when the sh** hits the fan as it most surely will in the not too distant future.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/13/2007 11:18 Comments ||
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Mark! Just take a deep breath and tell us what you really think!
#3
I wouldn't ban abortion outright, but I would certainly make it a lot harder to obtain. There should have to be a genuine need for it on health grounds.
#4
I don't want to ban abortion out right either (partial birth not with-standing). Why don't they advocate adoption of unwanted infants? I know so many folks who cannot have children of their own who would love to adopt a child.
#5
I agree, Broadhead. Although to be realistic, if you tightened up the abortion laws in such a way then people would simply travel to other countries in order to do it; a lot of Irish women came over here for that reason.
#6
I believe that abortion is a decision that is up to the woman ( and the father of the child) and not up to society to dictate. Having said that, the graphic of the hanger is, in many cases representative of the only choice a woman may believe she has if her society prevents her from seeking professional medical care and conseling. I do not think that 'drive-by abortions' should be the panecea for lack of knowledge and prevention, precautions, etc., but to condemn a woman for what she feels is her only course of action puts those that do the condemning on a par, IMHO, with the stereotypical Moslem male; the same one that makes with the acid face wash, or genital mutilation, or any other number of barbaric actions.
Unless or until you have been a party to having to make that decision, please don't force your opinions on others. It was (or is) not an easy choice to make, and one that will be carried until I die.
#7
Or use coathangers or interesting chemical combinations the way they did during the period in the US when such things were completely illegal. Those who really don't want to go through with it for whatever reason, even with the option of adoption at the end, will do so, as women have since time immemorial. USN,ret., I'm sure you and the lady made the best decision you thought you could at the time.
Oddly, there's no mention of which ethnicities are having tensions that require solving. I'm guessing it's the Walloons, myself.
The Netherlands is failing in efforts to solve multicultural problems among the nation's youth, raising the risk of Paris-style riots in poor Dutch city districts, an assessment has indicated. The measures that municipalities use barely contribute to the solution and are sometimes counterproductive. And very few municipalities believe that urgent change is needed. These and other conclusions were made by four 'intervention teams' which had studied multicultural tensions, primarily among youth, over the past two years. "If we don't look out, French situations will occur. That is uncontrollable," a chairman of one of the intervention teams said.
The teams appointed by Integration Minister Rita Verdonk after the murder of Theo van Gogh in 2004 were presenting their final report on Wednesday. The teams claim that municipalities do not have a clear picture of the complex problems that a multicultural society creates. City councils speak about racist 'Lonsdale' youths or Antilleans, failing to realise that there are large differences within these groups.
"Yass, yasss. We are quite certain there are no common threads to be found among these large groups of sullen yoots. Ask anybody!."
Due to the simplicity in reasoning, one-sided measures were taken that were often poorly carried out. As a result, the measures failed to have any effect, the teams said.
"Seeing things only in black and white is so... judgmental. Zounds!"
The intervention teams urged for an improvement in youth policies and said a more thorough study of multicultural problems should be carried out.
"We've got the grant applications filled out and on your desk for your signature. We can start two weeks from Thursday next."
They said a more balanced policy was necessary, suggesting that it should focus, for example, on behaviour rather than groups.
"Truly, all this pigeonholing of individual spirits is harshing our mellow. A little less profiling and a little more beguiling. We have to regain their trust after all our post-colonial record of ...er... Walloonophobia."
City councils should also count on cash, sweet cash support from the national government, which should stimulate efforts and provide facilities to municipalities to tackle multicultural problems. The intervention teams also urged for a national taskforce to be set up to focus on multicultural youth policies. Three of the teams want to remain in place to immediately launch efforts aimed at solving multicultural problems. They would work to reduce tension between ethnic groups, improve youth safety and improve accessibility of youth welfare officers.
#4
The Phlegms can move to the U.S. or to Commonwealth countries, and the Loonies to France.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2007 11:30 Comments ||
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What a f**king surprise this revelation is. Just wait until they start beheading your sons and gang raping your daughters in the public square. You'll be even more surprised. Are you walking around in a coma ?
The world's longest undefended border will soon have eyes in the sky. US Officials say a robot-controlled surveillance aircraft will start patrolling part of the Canadian border by the fall.
US Customs and Border Protection says the propeller-driven drones called Predators will be launched into American airspace, and will fly day and night between North Dakota and Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A Predator can cover about 1,400 kilometres in a five-hour mission and can remain airborne for up to 36 hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Army Life ||
01/13/2007 13:35 Comments ||
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US Set to Begin Robot Surveillance of Canadian Border
Hells Bells, dem robots might stop the peasants but not our family, we made our forune from smuggling.
And todays we's gots China money, Big Dig moneys too and Teddy keeps our Clan awash in plenty 'O Washington slop anyways.
/ima keep workin hard on da Governator too...
Posted by: Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. ||
01/13/2007 13:46 Comments ||
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The border of North Dakota? WTH is wrong with these people? N. Dakota is not exactly a Muzzie stronghold. Have they ever heard of Michigan or Minnesota?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 18:17 Comments ||
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A passing exchange during a Senate hearing on Thursday turned into a political flashpoint overnight as Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused one another of insensitivity in comments about motherhood and the war in Iraq.
In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, Ms. Rice suggested that Ms. Boxer had set back feminism by suggesting during the hearing that the childless Ms. Rice had paid no price in the Iraq war. I thought it was O.K. to be single, Ms. Rice said. I thought it was O.K. to not have children, and I thought you could still make good decisions on behalf of the country if you were single and didnt have children.
Senator Boxer told Ms. Rice: Who pays the price? Im not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. Youre not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."
During the Thursday hearing, Senator Boxer told Ms. Rice: Who pays the price? Im not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. Youre not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families. And I just want to bring us back to that fact.
In an interview on Friday, Senator Boxer said her comments had been misunderstood and were now being turned against her by the White House and by Republicans. What I was trying to do in this exchange was to find common ground with Condi Rice, she said. My whole point was to focus on the military families who pay the price. Senator Boxer added: Im saying, shes like me, we do not have families who are in the military. What they are doing is a really tortured way to attack a United States senator who voted against the war.
The exchange between Senator Boxer and Ms. Rice came during a hostile Senate hearing in which Ms. Rice, seeking to sell President Bushs new Iraq plan to a skeptical Congress, faced an almost solid wall of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Senator Boxer several times repeated the question, Who pays the price?
Senator Boxer read excerpts from a radio interview with an American family who had lost a son in Iraq. You cant begin to imagine how you celebrate any holiday or birthday, she said. Theres an absence. Its not like the persons never been there. They always were there and now theyre not, and youre looking at an empty hole. As is Babs' wont, she focuses on the maudlin, rather than the issue, on feelings rather than on fact.
Ms. Rice replied, I can never do anything to replace any of those lost men and women in uniform, or the diplomats, some of whom
Senator Boxer cut her off. Madam Secretary, please, I know you feel terrible about it. Thats not the point. I was making the case as to who pays the price for your decisions. The same people who pay the price for congressional decisions, which'd be all of us, of course. Babs' emphasis is on the anguish of the families of the fallen; Condi's emphasis on on the fact that we're at war with an inimical ideology that wants to destroy our civilization and enslave our children. Which has to take precedence, regardless of our tender feelings? Gee. Let me think...
During the hearing itself, Ms. Rice did not appear to take issue with Senator Boxers comments. During the interview, she addressed them only in response to a question. But the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, suggested earlier on Friday that Senator Boxers comments were antifeminist. I dont know if she was intentionally tacky, Mr. Snow said in an interview on Fox News. Its a great leap backward for feminism.
A number of members of Congress have children in the military who are serving in Iraq or are likely to do so, including Senators John McCain of Arizona and Jim Webb of Virginia.
Senator Boxers comments and the claims and counterclaims about what she meant have captivated the blogs and received extensive coverage on Fox News and other cable channels. One blog, called Swampland, labeled it Womb Wars. Conservative blogs and commentators were quick to seize on the issue. One Great Leap (Backwards) for Womankind, read one blog, Bikini Politics. They will be known by their Fruits, read another, Macsmind, which billed itself as Conservative News, Commentary and Common Sense.
Rush Limbaugh also got into the act. Here you have a rich white chick with a huge, big mouth, trying to lynch this, an African-American woman, right before Martin Luther King Day, hitting below the ovaries here, Mr. Limbaugh said on his radio show.
Deneen Borelli, a fellow with Project 21, which describes itself as a leading voice in the African-American community, said, I am deeply appalled by Senator Barbara Boxers cruel and callous attack on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The debate should have been about the war in Iraq and not a platform to demean Secretary Rice, Ms. Borelli said in a statement issued by the organization.
Some Democratic Senate staffers said Senator Boxers exchange with Ms. Rice allowed the Bush administration to turn the tables on Iraq critics and sidestep the larger issue of the almost uniform opposition to the presidents plan to send 20,000 more American soldiers to Iraq. There was no rush from Democrats to defend Senator Boxer, although one blogger on the Swampland blog called Senator Boxers comments fair, as far as it goes. During the interview with the Times, Ms. Rice said she had expected the skepticism that she received from Congress the day before. Ive been through things like this before, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 09:17 ||
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#1
Funny, that after insinuating for years now that Rice is a lesbian, all of a sudden no mention of that accusation. Which would of course mean that Barbara Boxer thinks lesbians are incapable of making hard decisions.
#2
I agree with Fred, we all will pay the price in the long run. A few, for many.
Senator Boxer can always focus on specific personal losses; if that is her only measure of cost, then she is clearly not ready to pay any price herself to make tough decisions.
Pandering is for children, not adults.
Posted by: john ||
01/13/2007 10:32 Comments ||
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The homourable Senator misses another key point: if we do not win this war in the short run, her little grandchild will have no choice but to pay the price in the long run, along with all its younger relatives, and its older ones, too. And that is what the childless Secretary of State is working to avoid.
#4
Boxer's not fit to lick the bottom of Rice's boots.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/13/2007 12:04 Comments ||
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Boxer's not fit to lick the bottom of Rice's boots.
I was thinking more along the lines of "Not fit to lick the week-old game on the bottom of Rices tennis shoes."
Posted by: Charles ||
01/13/2007 14:21 Comments ||
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If we do not win this war in the short run, her little grandchild will have no choice but to pay the price in the long run
How sad. A "mere housewife" gets it, but the honorable Senator doesn't have a clue. Of course, unlike the Senator, tw doesn't suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome and has no need to engage in partisan political posturing.
#7
*note!* I voted against this flaming bag of shit
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 17:23 Comments ||
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Dem Senators: top to bottom, useless bags of fecal matter devoid of any cognitive ability. They, as a group, are one of the best arguments for eugenics I've ever seen. And Biden deserves to be doing time in Leavenworth for treason.
Posted by: mac ||
01/13/2007 20:17 Comments ||
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You flatter me, SteveS. Unlike the honourable Senator (ha! no typo this time!), I've had the advantage of a Rantburg education -- and y'all are wonderful teachers.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday waived environmental regulations and laws restricting immediate construction of border fencing along some of the most god-forsaken land known to mankind Southwestern Arizona's Barry M. Goldwater Range.
The action was taken to circumvent a series of laws, from the Endangered Species Act to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Doing so under authority that Congress gave the Homeland Security secretary in 2005 will clear the way for construction in Southwestern Arizona of 37 miles of physical and virtual fencing, radar and other infrastructure, lighting, all-weather and drag roads, expected to cost in the neighborhood of $64 million. Chertoff voided "environmental requirements and other legalities that have impeded the department's ability to construct fencing and deploy detection technology on the range," spokesman Russell Knocke said in Washington.
The construction will be part of the Bush administration's overall Secure Border Initiative, which calls for adding a mix of fencing, cameras and high-tech surveillance and communications, vehicle barriers and other features to diminish and deter illegal crossings along the Mexican border. Another 28 miles mixing šhigh-tech virtual fencing and a physical barrier was announced last year.
For several years, Arizona has been the epicenter for crossings by illegal immigrants, often led by smugglers, though the number of Border Patrol apprehensions dropped more than 11 percent last year compared with 2005. A similar dip was reflected in known entries and apprehensions on the Goldwater Range over the same period.
With the waiver taken care of, the team planning the border initiative will begin its work on determining the precise types of fencing and technology and border infrastructure that's going to be required in the 37-mile stretch. The 2.8 million-acre range is used by the Air Force and the Marines for bombing and aviation training. The planned fencing will take in five miles to the west of the Goldwater Range. It will not include the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, which is immediately east of the range, Knocke said.
Knocke said an exception will be made to accommodate the flat-tailed horned jihadi lizard, a species previously taken off proposed listing for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Small openings will be make in fencing that is constructed to allow the lizard to continue crossing into Mexico. Knocke said it was determined that the endangered Sonoran pronghorn "would not present any major issues."
Chertoff's waivers will be published midweek in the Federal Register, but Knocke said it's not immediately clear when construction could begin.
Authorities said there were more than 17,000 known attempts by people trying to illegally enter the country on the Goldwater Range and 9,600 apprehensions in 2005. The numbers dropped to 15,200 attempted entries and nearly 8,600 apprehensions last year. Some of the decreases are attributable to use of National Guard troops assisting the Border Patrol as well as more agents and technology, Knocke said. There are more than six miles of fencing currently on the range with some vehicle barriers and Defense Department communications facilities also in place. Usual whining deleted.
This won't solve the whole immigration problem, but there can be no solution without it.
#1
Oh Christ, it is a heart attack! My eyes just went dark. I can't believe the written words. Has this horse's ass finally gotten so much pressure he has to make it look like he's doing something ?
#2
the Congressional Research dire cost estimates were complete bullshit - $70 Billion? Duncan Hunter D- Alpine, my congresscritter, showed real estimates of $3-5 billion, a sum that would be offset by savings from less illegal influx. Clearing the enviro process is huge, when the only thing to design is the generic fence type(s) and actual location...like, say...on the border? Duh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 13:43 Comments ||
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The 2.8 million-acre range is used by the Air Force and the Marines for bombing and aviation training
;) Getting in some good target practice are we?
Knocke said an exception will be made to accommodate the flat-tailed horned jihadi lizard, a species previously taken off proposed listing for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Small openings will be make in fencing that is constructed to allow the lizard to continue crossing into Mexico.
How big a hole in the fence are we talkin'? Why if it's been taken off the endangered species protection is this being considered. Flat-tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii) is a sand dweller found in the restricted area in the Sonoran Desert around the lower Colorado River where Mexico, California, Arizona, and Baja California meet. This three-inch lizard is surely the fastest horned lizard, with speeds across the sand more in line with a fringe-toed lizard (Uma) with which it shares habitat. Identification is made easy with the long flat tail and a dark mid-dorsal stripe.
If this little guy is only 3 inches long, why the need to make a hole in the fence? The hole already in the fabric of the chain link should be fine if that's what they're using. Unless someone is thinking of bigger "lizards".
Posted by: Jan ||
01/13/2007 15:23 Comments ||
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#4
I'm a closet tree hugger but could care less about whatever f*cking lizard has to adapt in order for us to secure our sovereign borders. I'd like to see a fence on our border that makes the great wall of china look like some kid's matchstick project.
A Defense Department official has stirred up a maelstrom in the American legal community by calling on U.S. corporations to boycott law firms whose attorneys represent suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Speaking to a morning radio talk show Thursday, Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, rattled off a list of some of the most prestigious law firms in the nation..."I think quite honestly when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists that hit their bottom line in 2001," he said, "those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."...Five hundred U.S. lawyers, ranging from solo practitioners to partners in major national law firms, have filed unlawful-detention lawsuits on behalf of Guantanamo detainees. A serving of the usual rationalizations follows.
I disagree. Stimson was wrong and should be disciplined for this. The lawyers are doing their jobs, and most of them are honorable people who believe in the law. That 1) the law is totally screwed with respect handling foreign jihadis we capture 2) Gitmo is necessary and should be handled outside our usual criminal law and 3) a good part of the country considers the inmates to be akin to fluffy bunnies isn't their fault. They're doing their jobs. Retaliating against lawyers who do their jobs lowers respect for the law, and we can't have that in our country.
The President and the Congress handled this correctly last term: they changed the law to reflect properly the different situation. We'll see if it survives the usual court challenges. But nobody, nobody ought to be going after the honorable lawyers.
#1
DOD official aggravates and embareasses the many entire lot of money grubbing, fame and fortune seeking, treasonus scum bag bastard lawyers by naming them and righteously exposing a whole cluster of feckless US law firms [but I repeat myself] defending America's self avowed and proud Muslim serial murdering terrorist enemies who are stealing our oxygen in Guantanameros.
#2
if it is honorable - there should be no shame in naming them. The DOD isn't "going after them", they are just asking them to be held accountable for their beliefs and actions. I don't understand why that is bad.
#3
these unlawful combatants are not US citizens. If they wish to do pro bono work, there's plenty to be had, for US citizens. I'd guess a) they expect a big Federal payday if they get the courts to rule in their favor (regardless of the danger they place US citizens in with the release of the Gitmo pond scum); and b) their politics have influenced their enthusiasm to embarass Bush.
Either way, let them stand up to public scrutiny rather than hiding behind their press releases. I say F*ck em.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 13:16 Comments ||
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#5
If their work is 'honorable" it can stand the light of day. The legal "profession" has a huge burden to prove it's not working against the constitution and the rule of law and justice.
Just one more thing to hold against the "profession" on top of the honest living wage jobs that have stolen from Amreican workers, the expensive medical system we have in this country and, the peversion of our political system due to the death lock they have on Congress and their funding of left wing anti american political groups.
Why do we have and need more lawyers than Doctors in this country?
#6
First of all, there is no "unlawful detention". These people are not prisoners of war. They are terrorists caught in the act. They have no status under the Geneva Conventions. Theirs is not a "lawful" behavior. They can be held as long as the President wishes. He can even order them killed, without committing a crime. Lawyers pushing an "unlawful detention" agenda are doing nothing but running up the government's legal bill for no purpose other than posturing. Personally, I would shoot them, but then I feel that way about 80% of the lawyers in this nation (hear that, Mike Nifong?).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/13/2007 18:20 Comments ||
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#7
I advocate that in order to avoid this type of problem in future we drain all battlefield combatants of their info and then summarily execute them (or they just disappear). Take the prison out of Gitmo and move it to Al Anbar, plenty of realestate to bury corpses and less logistics $$$ in transport.
#10
In my lifetime I have had to deal with exactly four lawyers for various reasons. After each encounter I had the same feeling when I used to employ the services of whores: I felt dirty, I was sure I paid too much, and I definately know I did something wrong but not entirely illegal. I truely think that they are a necessary evil but they could conduct their case without besmirching the U.S. or it's leaders.
#11
There are those who combine being good and principled people with being good lawyers -- I have the good fortune to have some of them as friends. No doubt the profession has about the same ratio of saints to scoundrels as do car mechanics or accountants or dungeons
& dragons gamesmasters, being fields requiring arcane knowledge applied to a specific situation by a (hopefully) intelligent mind.
#12
I disagree. Stimson was wrong and should be disciplined for this. The lawyers are doing their jobs, and most of them are honorable people who believe in the law.
Nope. You're working without a net on this one. The Lawyers and their firms have a choice, they can choose to decline the terrorists as clients. They don't, that tells me everything I need to know.
Posted by: Chuck Darwin ||
01/13/2007 23:18 Comments ||
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#1
It sounds like the effort to interdict clandestine terrorist shipments is having side effects. And golly, the price is being paid by unethical Chinese manufacturers!
after 3 p.m. [on 1/12/07], the agent was responding to a call about a group of seven people who were crossing the desert southeast of the Paul Spur Lime plant, west of Douglas and south of Arizona 80, Daniels said.
Upon arrival, the agent took six of the seven people into custody without incident but then became involved in a fight with one man and subsequently shot him to death, he said...According to Daniels, it is not uncommon for one agent to have to handle a group of seven people.
Gotta keep the search for counterfeit shoes and marijuana fully staffed at all times!
[AZ] Border Patrol agents found 2,000 pounds of marijuana in two seizures Wednesday [1/10/07] on the eastern section of the Tohono O'odham Reservation.
Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection officers at the Douglas Port of Entry seized 803 pounds of marijuana found hidden Wednesday in the walls of a tractor-trailer
#6
And not once in the article is Sheriff Joe's tent compund, or pink undies mentioned. If/when any undocumented Muzzies are captured, I bet then the fecal matter will stongly impact the rotary oscillating air movement device.
#1
Please note in the story that several lawyers have offered their services for free in order to bring some measure of justice. Could these lawyers be of the same cut as those that have been so catagated in the earlier GITMO article?
(Disclaimer: USN son is a licensed attorney)
Democratic Representative John Murtha, chairman of a House subcommittee on defense spending, said he will try to block the increase of U.S. forces in Iraq and force the closing of a military prison in Guantanamo Bay by withholding funds for those operations. Murtha said his panel will draft a set of conditions to be attached to the emergency spending legislation for military operations that President George W. Bush is to submit to lawmakers next month. ``We have a role as elected officials to exert our influence through the power of the purse,'' said Murtha. ``We're going to look at every aspect'' of the funding request.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Its time for the administration to go on the offensive against this pissant.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 0:36 Comments ||
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#5
Hmmm...just how many presidents does this country currently have anyway?
President Pelosi...no...
President Reid...no...
President Kennedy...no...
President Murtha...no...
President Biden...no...
President Boxer...no...
President Kerry...no...
President Clinton...no...
President Edwards...no...
President Bush...Yes!
STFU and die Murtha, you worthless windbag. Defund the troops and your career and that of the Democrats who vote with you won't be worth a plug nickel.
#6
please Lord, let him be greased by a truck tomorrow.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 18:23 Comments ||
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#7
This is funny because Murtha holds his job primarily by funnelling a shitload of money to companies in his district via "earmarks" every year. Someone should set fire to his porkbarrel and see how he likes it.
#8
Someone should set fire to his porkbarrel and see how he likes it.
The time to do that was **before** the last elections. Unfortunately, the f****wits who "led" the late, not-so-geat Republican majority were too damned busy feathering their own nests to pay any attention to what was right for the country as a whole. If we weren't at war, I'd have said "good riddance" to the lot of them. Unfortunately, their fecklessness and stupidity is very, very likely to give us a seven-figure body count in midtown Manhattan in the next few years.
Posted by: RIcky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
01/13/2007 23:02 Comments ||
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#1
Pakistan on Friday rejected allegations by America's spy chief that it is a refuge for terrorist leaders and demanded that his intelligence networks share information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida figures
A Special Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir has unanimously rejected the Kashmir report submitted with the European Union (EU) Parliament by Emma Nicholson as biased and against the ground realities in Kashmir, and has decided to send a delegation to Brussels to apprise the EU of the correct position.
A delegation of the Kashmir committee will go to Brussels to apprise members of the European parliament of the factual situation in Kashmir.
A delegation of the Kashmir committee will go to Brussels to apprise members of the European parliament of the factual situation in Kashmir, the committee was told by chairman Hamid Nasir Chattha here on Friday. However, some opposition members expressed their reservations about President General Pervez Musharraf running the Kashmir policy unilaterally without taking the committee into confidence.
The committee headed by Hamid Nasir Chattha met here at the Parliament House to discuss the EU report on Kashmir. In addition to Maj (r) Tahir Iqbal, the federal minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas Affairs, 20 MNAs, including federal and state ministers and four senators, also attended the meeting. Parliamentarians belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) did not attend the meeting, but members of some other component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) were present.
Responding to members queries, Hamid Nasir Chattha, committee chairman, said that there was no change in the governments Kashmir policy and the parliament and its committees would be taken into confidence at an appropriate time. Opposition members who strongly criticised President General Pervez Musharraf over the countrys Kashmir policy belonged mainly to the PPPP. They included Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naheed Khan and Imtiaz Safdar Warriach. Chattha informed the committee that so far many amendments had been proposed in Emma Nicholsons report to rationalise it and it might not come up for discussion in the plenary session. Committee members lauded the efforts of Pakistani diplomats and the Kashmir Centre for their efforts in highlighting ground realities to bring changes in the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition against Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal President Qazi Hussain Ahmed. The petition accused Qazi of selling party tickets for the last Senate election and approving disproportional nominations, leaving room for horse-trading in the NWFP Assembly. A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad rejected the arguments of the petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, and dismissed the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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A peace and friendship treaty suggested by the Indian prime minister is possible only after a dispute over Kashmir is resolved, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said on Friday. I hope that what the (Indian) prime minister (Manmohan Singh) says in terms of a peace and friendship treaty does materialise, Kasuri told the English news channel Times Now in an interview telecast on Friday. But then he would know more than anybody else that we need to resolve all our conflicts before that. I am sure that he must have been mindful of that fact, Kasuri said.
On Monday, Singh said that he earnestly hoped ties between the two estranged neighbours would improve enough to generate trust and both can agree to a treaty of peace, security and friendship. Kasuris remarks also come just a day before his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee is to arrive in Islamabad to review progress made in three rounds of peace talks launched in 2004 and extend an invite for a regional summit in New Delhi this April.
Kasuri said Singh might have made his comments against the backdrop of progress made in the back-channel talks. If that is the case ... it is a very welcome statement. But I would like to repeat, we must resolve all issues particularly Kashmir, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Al Qaedas leaders are holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan, from which they are revitalising their bruised but resilient network, US intelligence chief John Negroponte said. Negroponte told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Pakistan is the centre of a web of Al Qaeda connections that stretches across the globe into Europe. Al Qaeda is cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders secure hideout in Pakistan, he said. Pakistan is our partner in the terror war, but it is also a major source of extremism, Negroponte said. Eliminating the haven extremists have found in Pakistans tribal areas is not sufficient to end the Afghan insurgency, but is necessary. Pakistans Foreign Ministry described Negropontes comments as questionable criticism and urged him to acknowledge Pakistans role in breaking Al Qaeda. Army spokesman Shaukat Sultan said the US had not given Pakistan any information about the presence of Al Qaeda leaders in the country. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged that Al Qeada leaders had secure hideouts in Pakistan. Emphasising that Washington did not doubt Pakistans partnership in the war on terror, McCormack indicated that Islamabad was reviewing the deal in the tribal area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Brilliant Homles! How do you do it?
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/13/2007 8:46 Comments ||
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#2
In other news, scientists discover that water's still wet.
President General Pervez Musharraf categorically said on Friday that the government was not contemplating a deal or seat adjustments with any political party. The government is also not considering to allow any politician currently living abroad to enter the country, Musharraf told the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and its allies at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The president said the PML and its allies would contest the upcoming general elections as coalition partners. He said the government was committed to fulfilling its pledge of holding free, fair and impartial elections in the country, and all political parties would be free to contest them.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
If free, fair and impartial elections are held in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar will win in a landslide. And they're not "currently abroad," either.
Training camps for militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir are still functioning in Pakistan, the Indian army said on Friday, ahead of talks between the two sides. Pakistan has long denied the existence of such camps and says it is doing all it can to stop the movement of militants. But a top Indian army commander said militants were continuing to operate from Pakistan. As per information, the terrorist camps are still there. They have not been wound up, Lt Gen AS Sekhon told reporters in Srinagar. Some militant communication hubs, located on their side of the Line of Control...are still functional, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Good, long article on the changing political beliefs of the Sunnis in Iraq.
As 20,000 more US troops head for Iraq, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the only correspondent reporting regularly from behind the country's sectarian battle lines, reveals how the Sunni insurgency has changed.
One morning a few weeks ago I sat in a car talking to Rami, a thick-necked former Republican Guard commando who now procures arms for his fellow Sunni insurgents.
Rami was explaining how the insurgency had changed since the first heady days after the US invasion. "I used to attack the Americans when that was the jihad. Now there is no jihad. Go around and see in Adhamiya [the notorious Sunni insurgent area] - all the commanders are sitting sipping coffee; it's only the young kids that are fighting now, and they are not fighting Americans any more, they are just killing Shia. There are kids carrying two guns each and they roam the streets looking for their prey. They will kill for anything, for a gun, for a car and all can be dressed up as jihad."
Rami was no longer involved in fighting, he said, but made a tidy profit selling weapons and ammunition to men in his north Baghdad neighbourhood. Until the last few months, the insurgency got by with weapons and ammunition looted from former Iraqi army depots. But now that Sunnis were besieged in their neighbourhoods and fighting daily clashes with the better-equipped Shia ministry of interior forces, they needed new sources of weapons and money.
#1
It was always a Sunni-Shiite fight. The IED, RPG and sniper attacks were set up to deter US patrols. The Bush-Plan recognizes that visible patrols are an inappropriate means of victory in the type of battle that is waging in Baghdad.
If Baghdad is pacified, then the rest of Iraq will fall into place. And Baghdad will only be pacified when the al-Sadrites are tossed out of sectors West of the Tigris River.
Lt General David Petraeus wrote the following last year in "Military Review":
1. Do not try to do too much with your own hands.
2. Act quickly, because every army of liberation has a half-life.
3. Money is ammunition.
4. Increasing the number of stakeholders is a critical component to success.
5. Analyze "costs and benefits" before each operation.
6. Intelligence is the key to success.
7. Everyone must do nation-building.
8. Help build institutions, nut just units.
9. Cultural awareness is a force multiplier.
10. Success in a counter-insurgency requires more than just military operations.
11. Ultimate success depends on local leaders.
12. Remember the strategic corporals and strategic lieutenants.
13. There is no substitute for flexible, adaptable leaders.
14. A leader's most important task is to set the right tone.
T.E. Lawrence offered this wise counsel in an article published in The Arab Bulletin in August 1917.
Continuing, he wrote: Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is. It may take them longer and it may not be as good as you think, but if it is theirs, it will be better.
#6
"We have stopped using remote controls to detonate IEDs," he volunteered halfway through our conversation. "Only wires work now because the Americans are jamming the signals."
interesting. We've learned..
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 13:54 Comments ||
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#7
Standard job site safety requires shutting down all radio transmission in the area when handling electrically-detonated explosives. What would happen if the lead vehicle in a convoy was generating a constant RF sweep transmission? Might it induce a premature detonating current down the trigger wire?
#9
The fact that our jammers are now so good has forced the terrorists to go back to wire command detonation; which in turn, has lead to an increase in the discovery and disarming of IEDs. Also, as we have seen the Sunnis pushed out of their former neighborhoods in Baghdad and elsewhere, the incoming Shias are not at all hesitant in reporting IED laying teams in their new digs.
The Sunnis had a chance right after the fall of Saddam to turn their back on terrorism and barbarism, and they failed to take that chance.
So far, it has cost them a couple of million refugees, thousands of dead and maimed in battles with the US and Iraq militiaries, several smaller towns, and now whole neighborhoods in Baghdad. Also, they have nothing like the representation in the government that they would have, had they been smart enough to take the lost opportunities.
#10
I have been reading more on Lt-Gen. Petraeus. Apparently, after he left 101 Airborne to take over the Iraq Northern Command (from Mosul, a Sunni Kurd/Sunni Arab city), he relied on choke-point counter-insurgency. His use of road blocks, rather than take-give-take territorial patrols, would have been useful in the West Tigris sectors of Baghdad. As he stated in his "14 points" article, "intelligence" is paramount. When he gets it, he uses shock-and-awe surprise and overwhelming force to squelch resistance and minimize attacker casualties. He likes to set the "tone" of the campaign. What will that be? I would guess: relentless attacks, allowing no escape routes; pullback ultimatums, with a high cost should the other side chose to resist; total control of streets in combat areas, enforced by shoot on sight if necessary. Petraeus also engages local support by promising cleansing neighborhoods of belligerents, and delivering on these promises.
I am sure we have the right guy for the Baghdad job. I would forsee massive Mahdi Army and Al Qaeda in Iraq pullbacks once the new policy is implemented.
#11
"It's not a good time to be a Sunni in Baghdad"
Gee, wonder why that is, Abu?
Couldn't possibly have something to do with the previous decades when it wasn't a good time to be a Shia anywhere in Iraq, could it?
Go ahead and jihad, assholes - and get squashed like the vermin you are. Unlike Americans DemocRats, Iraqis don't give a shit what the Europeans think.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/13/2007 19:21 Comments ||
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#12
"We have stopped using remote controls to detonate IEDs," he volunteered halfway through our conversation. "Only wires work now because the Americans are jamming the signals."
Yep, that jumped out at me too, Frank. It could have a lot to do with the precipitous (and almost unreported) drop in US casualties this month though there are probably other factors as well. This conversation apparently took place in December, but it would take time to introduce a new method all over the country and it would naturally be introduced in the most critical areas first.
Past efforts to jam IED detonation signals were frustrated one way or another, as a look at the casualty reports will show.
#13
Other things that struck me: Until the last few months, the insurgency got by with weapons and ammunition looted from former Iraqi army depots...The inflation in arms prices reflects Iraq's plunge toward civil war...
I would have thought rather that the price jump reflects that so many captured ammunition caches and the former regime's storage depots have been discovered and disposed of. We've read so many reports of explosions therefrom going on day after day and night after night.
"There is a new jihad now," he said, echoing Abu Omar's warning. "The jihad now is against the Shia, not the Americans." In Ramadi there was still jihad against the Americans because there were no Shia to fight
Killing someone is clearly the first priority, and if they can't get to the one, they'll take whatever's at hand.
A good article, Spomort Greling4204. How on earth did it get past the Guardian's Keepers of the Faith?
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Days after President Bush accused Syria of encouraging the violence in Iraq, President Jalal Talabani on Sunday will become the highest-level Iraqi official to visit this country in more than 24 years.
His visit, announced on Iraqi television and confirmed by a Talabani spokesman Friday, aims to seal the ties between the two neighbors after they restored diplomatic relations in December, cut in 1982 amid ideological disputes between the Syrian government and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Iraqi president will arrive Sunday and stay for four or five days, Talabani's spokesman Kamaran Qaradaghi told the Associated Press. State-run Iraqiya television said Talabani will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad and sign security and economic agreements. Qaradaghi would not elaborate on Talabani's goals for the visit. But the Iraqi president was expected to discuss security on the country's long desert border with Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- The United States said on Friday that the five Iranians who were detained by U.S.-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, had no official diplomatic status. The "individuals, who were detained were not carrying diplomatic passports, had regular passports. And this was not a consulate. This was not an officially accredited diplomatic facility," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The building where the five Iranians were arrested was a "building that the Iranians were using, occupying, that was Iraqi territory," McCormack said.
Failing to provide any more details, the spokesman insisted that the building "was not quote, unquote, the 'Iranian consulate.'" Iran said U.S. forces raided the Iranian consulate in Iraq's northern city of Arbil and arrested five of its staff members. The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad sent a letter to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry Thursday to protest against "the U.S. illegal move" and called on the Iraqi government to help secure immediate release of the five people.
The United States has been accusing Iran of supporting attacks on American troops in Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that the United States will not "stand idly by" if Iran tries to disrupt Washington's renewed effort to stabilize Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I really think the administration did this on purpose so they can highlite Iranian involvement. They could have just blown the place up and never said anything. The heads might still be talking about this on Sunday morning. As they should be. I hope they change the ROEs they use against the press too.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 0:32 Comments ||
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Claim is that we scooped up the top Iranian
big brain in tactics to challenge the Anglo alliance as he calls it. US
Hassan Abbasi
If that turns out to be true we just captured and need to interrogate out of this jihadi the entire Iranian action plan against US. HUGE cannot even begin to describe the value of this guy upside down on a water board.
This article tells me we are not going to choke like last time and release these guys. The value is just to much to let go.
#3
Yep, Mike. You know the rhetoric has to be racheted up before we pounce and kick the shit out of the Mullahs. The fact that it's starting is significant.
#5
Hmmmm...what's the penalty for enemy aliens (as defined by the State Department's List of Terrorist Sponsering Nations aka the T-5 countries - Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, Syria) discovered operating in a war zone against the interests of both the occupying power and the sovereign state?
President Bush called a crackdown on militias critical to success in Iraq, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been noticeably silent perhaps because the plan would mean confronting the same violent radicals who have been helping Shiites expand their political dominance.
In announcing a new Iraq policy Wednesday night, Bush said earlier efforts -- three since May -- to tame the bloodshed in Baghdad had been snarled by "political and sectarian interference (that) prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the ... violence."
"This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods," Bush said. "Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."
But whatever he said in private, Al-Maliki, a devout Shiite, so far studiously has avoided making that pledge in public. Instead, he has stuck with formulaic utterances, saying that anyone illegally carrying weapons would be dealt with harshly.
Announcing his vision of the new security plan last Saturday, al-Maliki said he would fight against "safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of (their) sectarian or political affiliation."
He said the same in October, but then he ordered U.S. forces to pull back from attacks on Sadr City, headquarters of the Mahdi Army. The violent Shiite militia is headed by his key political backer, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Maliki instead has encouraged the Americans to go after rival Sunni insurgents, especially in the territory west of Baghdad where few Shiites live.
Experts say that even if al-Maliki assures Bush of support, his behavior illustrates that he's not as Bush described, a man whose primary concern is bringing peace and prosperity to his country.
"The Bush administration has one view of Iraqi reality in which Maliki is ... an honest broker," said W. Patrick Lang, a former head of Middle East intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "In my view, Maliki is one of any number of Shiite Arab activists who are seeking to consolidate Shiite control."
#3
Sounds like classic Good Cop/Bad Cop to me. Maliki is lucky he gets to be the good cop since it means that Tater's legions of armed and rabid Tots will not be calling for his head. Tsk, tsk. Those crazy Americans! What can a person do?
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has filled the top military job in Baghdad with a virtually unknown Iraqi officer chosen over the objections of top U.S. and Iraqi military commanders, according to officials from both governments.
Iraqi political figures said Friday that Maliki also had failed to consult the leaders of other political factions before announcing the appointment of Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar.
The appointment is highly significant because it is Maliki's first public move after President Bush's announcement that he is sending more troops to Iraq.
#5
Lots of little accidents can happen. Not a problem at all in an active combat zone. Do remember, he did deliver on the oil contract last week, so he's still somewhat useful. I suspect we will just ignore him now and go about the business at hand.
#6
I suspect Spec is right. The American troops in Bagdad could kill the entire city without one ounce of support from al-Maliki. Politics are such a pain in the ass. Can't Bush invite this guy to Crawford or something so the troops can go about their business without Malikis interference?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 14:14 Comments ||
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The United States could start withdrawing forces from Iraq this year if the additional troops being sent to Baghdad reduce violence significantly, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday. "If these operations actually work you could begin to see a lightening of the U.S. footprint both in Baghdad and Iraq itself," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Defending President George W. Bush's plan against intense opposition from the new Democratic-led Congress for the second day in a row, Gates cautioned that adding more U.S. forces would not end sectarian violence in Iraq. But if it lowers the violence "significantly" and the Iraqi government fulfills its promises, "then you could have a situation later this year where you could actually begin withdrawing," he said.
Still, lawmakers challenged the plan to send an additional 21,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines into the most violent areas of Iraq. The United States has about 130,000 troops in Iraq now. They argued the plan, announced by Bush on Wednesday, depended far too heavily on the Iraqi government keeping promises it had failed to keep before. "Look at the track record of the Iraqi government in meeting some of its past benchmarks and promises," said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and Armed Services Committee chairman.
He listed commitments not kept, such as a pledge from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that the government would disband the sectarian militias plaguing Baghdad and that Iraq would take over security for all its provinces by the end of 2006. White House spokesman Tony Snow acknowledged congressional criticism of Bush's troop increase, saying, "a lot of people are skeptical." But he said the plan would go forward. You don't suppose we're actually seeing bipartisanship in action here, do you? Even inadvertently? Maliki's gotta be hearing these comments and thinking that if he doesn't come through we're outta there - and he's left with Tater and the Association of Muslim Scholars.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
More bumbling. You aren't going to fool, or jawbone, anybody in Iraq into doing/not doing anything, ever. You have to directly force them, or kill them in the process.
Neither Maliki or any successor are in the position of having a wide range of options, among which are just deciding to pacify and organize the country any time they finally feel like it.
If Maliki gets in the way just bypass him, threaten him in private, damage his interests, kill his friends or political allies. Posturing in the palace rotunda a la Casey or in the Senate office buildings a la Gates has only one sure effect: it forces rational lunatics (Iraq is full of them) to hedge their bets in ways inimical to our program.
Everyone knows that improvements would lead to reduced US deployments. Dangling that in front of people is some sort of monument to the political mismanagement of the war. Sickening.
#2
Wars are increasingly fought in American living rooms. The primary combatants are the MSM and the DoD. When you put a trimmer like Gates in charge of the DoD, you're going to lose.
I hate to say it, but our only hope is a Democrat president and a Republican legislature.
#4
Nimble, I've read similar things lately in several places, but I think that's not correct. If the 90s weren't evidence enough, the present performance of the Dems WRT war and war-making should be. They are unfit for office, as a group. There is a tiny minority of adults (Bayh, Nelson, a few House members) with the sense and spine required - but even those folks have shown the last two years how useless even they are under pressure.
The unelected Dem officials, critical to the conduct and tone of any admin., would be even worse. There are even fewer bright spots among that group. Maybe Holbrooke - but recall that these people would be nearly lone voices in any Dem admin. - esp. one that will likely be seen as owing its election to a rejection of Dubya's "aggressive" foreign policy.
Geez - these people were so incompetent and risk-averse even before 9/11 that they pursued that bizarre, ridiculous Kosovo air campaign, and nearly lost it. Look at their obsession with every casualty and every negative beep from the NYT, UN, or Paris.
The flaws of the Dems go far beyond irresponsibility and partisanship - and thus if they had the keys, there would be no reason to expect much improvement. Any Dem admin. in the near future is very likely to be catastrophic for US security. These people are truly over their heads and they mostly lack character as well.
A senior cleric in Iran has condemned a raid by US forces on an Iranian government office in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. Half a dozen people were detained and computers and documents were seized. The building is described as a liaison office that was being turned into a consulate. The raid, in the town of Arbil, has been condemned by the regional Kurdish government. The head of Iran's Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, spoke about the raid during Friday prayers: "This could not mean anything but rebellion, insurgency and brutality," he said. "I don't know why they don't stop such actions. We condemn this raid."
Russia has also denounced it as illegal. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said it was "completely unacceptable that military troops of one state can storm the diplomatic bureau of another, in the territory of a third state". Washington accuses Iran of helping to fuel violence in Iraq by supplying insurgents with weapons and cash.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts approval ratings have slipped to 14 percent and his centrist Kadima party would lose nearly two-thirds of its strength if new elections were held, a poll showed on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Hamas supporters poured into the streets of the Gaza Strip after Friday prayers to denounce one of Fatah's most powerful leaders, ratcheting up tensions between the rival Palestinian factions. Both the ruling Hamas movement and once-dominant Fatah have mounted large rallies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in recent days, trying to whip up public support and project strength. At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting since President Mahmoud Abbas called last month for early elections to try to break a deadlock with Hamas.
Hamas supporters emerged from mosques on Friday waving green Hamas flags and chanted slogans accusing Mohammad Dahlan, a Fatah strongman and possible successor to Abbas, of being the mastermind of a "coup" against its nine-month-old government. "Dahlan is a traitor," they chanted. Hamas accused Dahlan in December of masterminding a plot to kill Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, a charge Dahlan denied.
Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, accused Hamas of trying to spark more fighting. "We urge Hamas to return to its senses before it is too late," he said.
The Islamic militant group, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, took control of the Palestinian government in March after beating Fatah in parliamentary elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
looks like a Paleo Jack Webb
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/13/2007 8:04 Comments ||
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I was working day shift out of South Gaza when the call from Ramallah came. It was a hot day and quiet for Gaza, which means nothing, tempers were hair trigger, but that's nothing new. My name is Dahlan, I carry a grudge.
Israel is developing the world's largest unmanned aircraft, which will be used for long-range operations and destroying ballistic missiles as they are launched.
The Eitan has been developed by the Israel Aircraft Industries and has a wing span of 35m similar to that of a Boeing 737 passenger plane the official told AFP.
According to the Yediot Aharonot daily, the drone is designed for long endurance and high-altitude flights and is equipped with an array of advanced cameras and missiles which allow it to identify and intercept long-range missiles as they are being fired on the ground.
It will make its maiden flight in the coming days, the paper said.
Israel has stepped up in recent years the development of technologies to face the threat of missile attacks, fearing most notably Iran, which has acquired long-range ballistic missiles able to reach Israel and beyond.
Coupled with President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's calls for the destruction of Israel, Iran's controversial nuclear program, which Israel claims is aimed at acquiring an atomic bomb, has become the Jewish state's main strategic threat.
Iran, which last year tested the Shahab-3 missiles which are capable of hitting targets around 2000 kilometers away, nevertheless insists the program is aimed solely at peaceful means.
#2
Picture w/ linked article shows a decidedly un-Global Hawk. Looks more like our first gen UAV (name escapes me), but it appears that stealthiness was not a big design priority. It also appears that it could be adapted to a CAS role.
#3
It looks like they took some kids boxcar racer and put wings on it.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 22:23 Comments ||
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Good reason for it looking like the Hunter : both are Israeli designs, produced by IAI. To do a CAS job, you don't need stealth as much as ruggedness, i.e., the A-10 Warthog is not stealthy by any stretch of the imagination. A parasol wing design with a pusher prop up front would allow 3 hardpoints under each side, with extra strength built-in from the cantilever support.
JERUSALEM - Two Israeli soldiers who were captured by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in a cross-border raid in July, triggering 34 days of war, are alive, former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel was quoted as saying on Friday.
Israels Maariv newspaper quoted Gemayel and a second Lebanese politician in interviews as saying the two soldiers were alive but they offered no other details. They said they hoped the soldiers would return home in good health.
The comments appeared to run counter to an internal Israeli probe which concluded that the two soldiers -- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev -- were seriously wounded during their capture and at least one of them could now be dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Show us clearly dated pictures or videos if you wish us to believe.
(Xinhua) -- Lebanon's parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri voiced Friday his rejection to any attempts to escalate the nation's crisis situation. In an interview published by local An Nahar newspaper on Friday, Berri said that the current crisis in Lebanon was caused by the pro-government parliamentary majority, expressing his concern over the ongoing unrest. The decreased number of protestors during recent anti-government gatherings was purposely done to avoid complicating matters, he said, expecting "matters to be more difficult over the next few days if problems persisted between the government and opposition."
Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, also expressed his support for the international tribunal to prosecute the killers of former Premier Rafik Hariri and its chief judge Serge Brammertz.
Lebanese sectarian tension began to escalate in November, 2006,when six pro-Syrian ministers resigned after Prime Minister Fouad Seniora and the anti-Syrian majority in the parliament rejected the opposition's demand for a new national unity government. The opposition alliance, led by Hezbollah, has been camping out in central Beirut since Dec.1, calling for the resignation of the Seniora government. However, the anti-Syrian ruling parliamentary majority has accused the opposition of doing Damascus and Tehran's bidding and seeking to undermine the formation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Hariri and related crimes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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The United States denied on Friday it was preparing for military action against Iran and Syria, after President George W. Bush issued a stern warning to them, raising concerns of a spillover from the Iraq war. "No, no! Certainly not! [Heh heh!]"
Bush, in his speech on Wednesday unveiling his revised Iraq strategy, accused Tehran and Damascus of allowing use of their territory for launching attacks inside Iraq, and vowed "we will interrupt the flow of support." U.S. lawmakers voiced concern on Thursday the Iraq war could spread to neighboring Iran and Syria if U.S. troops were to chase militants across the border. But U.S. officials insisted the plan was to disrupt supply lines from inside Iraq. "Really. Trust us on that."
White House spokesman Tony Snow said he wanted to knock down an "urban legend" that Bush was "trying to prepare the way for war with either country and that there were war preparations under way." "Oh, no. Don't let that possibility influence your thinking. [Snicker!]"
"There are not," he told reporters. "What the president was talking about is defending American forces within Iraq. There's lots of war gaming. This notion that somehow the president was announcing as a precursor to planned military action, a planned war against Iran, that's just not the case." "Really. [Snurf!]"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
He also added,
We have like 12% of our military in Iraq right now. Clearly any more troops and our forces will be stretched to the breaking point. bullshit
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/13/2007 0:47 Comments ||
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. . . "breaking point" - Wasn't it Yamamoto who had the interesting observation about our capabilities?
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.
Mogadishu 12, Jan.07 ( Sh.M.Network) - Hundreds of families fleeing the US air strike on Afmadow and Raskomboni southern Somalia near the Kenyan border have reached the port town of Kismayu about 500 km (310 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu.
(SomaliNet) Following the United States (U.S.) air strike in Somali targeting al Qaeda suspects, 
Some Somali militias have reportedly agreed to disarm, but deadly clashes near where negotiations were held highlight how volatile things remain in the country. Half a dozen men have been killed in a gun battle outside the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Inside, agreement was said to have been reached with seven main warlords to disarm and join the national army. The dispute outside the palace is reported to have been triggered by a dispute over where to park an armoured vehicle. Somalia is back under the control of the Western-backed interim government, which managed to drive out Islamists with the help of Ethiopia.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been in Brussels as part of his week-long a tour of several European capitals. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reassured him of close cooperation to press nuclear-armed North Korea to abandon its weapons.
The world's longest undefended border will soon have eyes in the sky. US Officials say a robot-controlled surveillance aircraft will start patrolling part of the Canadian border by the fall. 
A passing exchange during a Senate hearing on Thursday turned into a political flashpoint overnight as Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused one another of insensitivity in comments about motherhood and the war in Iraq.
In an interview on Friday, Senator Boxer said her comments had been misunderstood and were now being turned against her by the White House and by Republicans. What I was trying to do in this exchange was to find common ground with Condi Rice, she said. My whole point was to focus on the military families who pay the price. Senator Boxer added: Im saying, shes like me, we do not have families who are in the military. What they are doing is a really tortured way to attack a United States senator who voted against the war.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday waived environmental regulations and laws restricting immediate construction of border fencing along 
Democratic Representative John Murtha, chairman of a House subcommittee on defense spending, said he will try to block the increase of U.S. forces in Iraq and force the closing of a military prison in Guantanamo Bay by withholding funds for those operations. Murtha said his panel will draft a set of conditions to be attached to the emergency spending legislation for military operations that President George W. Bush is to submit to lawmakers next month. ``We have a role as elected officials to exert our influence through the power of the purse,'' said Murtha. ``We're going to look at every aspect'' of the funding request.
A peace and friendship treaty suggested by the Indian prime minister is possible only after a dispute over Kashmir is resolved, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said on Friday. I hope that what the (Indian) prime minister (Manmohan Singh) says in terms of a peace and friendship treaty does materialise, Kasuri told the English news channel Times Now in an interview telecast on Friday. But then he would know more than anybody else that we need to resolve all our conflicts before that. I am sure that he must have been mindful of that fact, Kasuri said.
Al Qaedas leaders are holed up in a secure hideout in Pakistan, from which they are revitalising their bruised but resilient network, US intelligence chief John Negroponte said. Negroponte told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Pakistan is the centre of a web of Al Qaeda connections that stretches across the globe into Europe. Al Qaeda is cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders secure hideout in Pakistan, he said. Pakistan is our partner in the terror war, but it is also a major source of extremism, Negroponte said. Eliminating the haven extremists have found in Pakistans tribal areas is not sufficient to end the Afghan insurgency, but is necessary. Pakistans Foreign Ministry described Negropontes comments as questionable criticism and urged him to acknowledge Pakistans role in breaking Al Qaeda. Army spokesman Shaukat Sultan said the US had not given Pakistan any information about the presence of Al Qaeda leaders in the country. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged that Al Qeada leaders had secure hideouts in Pakistan. Emphasising that Washington did not doubt Pakistans partnership in the war on terror, McCormack indicated that Islamabad was reviewing the deal in the tribal area.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Days after President Bush accused Syria of encouraging the violence in Iraq, President 
The United States could start withdrawing forces from Iraq this year if the additional troops being sent to Baghdad reduce violence significantly, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday. "If these operations actually work you could begin to see a lightening of the U.S. footprint both in Baghdad and Iraq itself," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A senior cleric in Iran has condemned a raid by US forces on an Iranian government office in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. Half a dozen people were detained and computers and documents were seized. The building is described as a liaison office that was being turned into a consulate. The raid, in the town of Arbil, has been condemned by the regional Kurdish government. The head of Iran's Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, spoke about the raid during Friday prayers: "This could not mean anything but rebellion, insurgency and brutality," he said. "I don't know why they don't stop such actions. We condemn this raid."
Thousands of Hamas supporters poured into the streets of the Gaza Strip after Friday prayers to denounce one of Fatah's most powerful leaders, ratcheting up tensions between the rival Palestinian factions. Both the ruling Hamas movement and once-dominant Fatah have mounted large rallies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in recent days, trying to whip up public support and project strength. At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting since President Mahmoud Abbas called last month for early elections to try to break a deadlock with Hamas.
(Xinhua) -- Lebanon's parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri voiced Friday his rejection to any attempts to escalate the nation's crisis situation. In an interview published by local An Nahar newspaper on Friday, Berri said that the current crisis in Lebanon was caused by the pro-government parliamentary majority, expressing his concern over the ongoing unrest. The decreased number of protestors during recent anti-government gatherings was purposely done to avoid complicating matters, he said, expecting "matters to be more difficult over the next few days if problems persisted between the government and opposition." 
The United States denied on Friday it was preparing for military action against Iran and Syria, after President George W. Bush issued a stern warning to them, raising concerns of a spillover from the Iraq war.
