The Kingdomâs nominee for ambassador to the United States said he would try to bridge a âgapâ in relations and defend compatriots accused of complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks. âOpinion polls... suggest that there is a big gap between the two peoples resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001,â in which 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi, Prince Turki Al-Faisal said. âHence, one of my top priorities there will be to bridge this gap between the two peoples... building on Crown Prince Abdullahâs (April) visit to the United States, which was successful by all standards.â
Sorry. You're not going to convince us that Binny didn't do it...
Prince Turki, who is currently ambassador to Britain, said he would seek to defend Saudis against whom lawsuits have been filed for alleged involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, and who number around 200 individuals and institutions. âWe have to follow this up with the courts... The US judiciary, like the Saudi judiciary, is independent. If these courts closed these cases, we would have achieved what we are seeking. Otherwise, we will continue to exercise self-defense,â he said. In May, a New York judge rejected a fresh set of lawsuits against Saudi officials and banks for alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks, citing a lack of evidence. Judge Richard Casey threw out a consolidation of lawsuits filed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, which were brought by survivors and insurers. His action followed a January ruling throwing out several similar suits.
Turki said the Kingdom had not formally asked Britain to extradite London-based dissidents Saad Al-Faqih and Muhammad Al-Masari. A handover âhas not been formally requested but consultations are ongoing between the two governments about what can be done,â he said. Prince Turki said his main achievement during his stint in the British capital was to restore good relations between London and Riyadh, which had previously gone through âsomething of a chill.â
Yeah, the ice really started to form when his predecessor composed an ode to suicide boomers...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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The Saudis have tossed out the sly one, and brought in the hard case. This should be interesting.
#6
Based on the McCain-Feingold case and the New London emminent domain case, I could argue that the US judicial system is not so independent either. (Or, if you're a liberal, you could argue the 2000 election case shows the same thing.)
#9
Don't worry the Bush administration will suport their Saudi masters in this travesty and order their lackeys in the SCOTUS and Congress to do the same
From the Rantburg Politix As Usual Desk:
Bahraini King Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa on Saturday issued a decree governing the activities of political groups. According to the decree, any political group founded according to the decree should "abide by the constitution and should strive to achieve political, social or economic progress in the kingdom." The decree stated that the basic principles of any political group, founded according to the decree, should not conflict with the Islamic faith, which is the "source of all legislative and national principles." The decree banned any political groups "based on class, sectarian, racist, geographical, trade or military restrictions." The decree stated that the founding member of any such political group, founded according to the decree, should be of "Bahraini birth." The decree also called on the groups to publicize their internal rules and regulations and ordered the Bahraini Interior Minister to monitor them and to "step in an interfere if their are not adhered to." In case the group's activities offend Bahraini rules, the group should be dissolved and its assets liquidated.
Yemeni security forces backed by tanks surrounded mosques and government buildings yesterday to thwart fresh protests after two days of rioting over fuel price increases killed more than 20 people. The increase, which went into effect on Wednesday, set off the country's worst riots since 1998 and drew fire from opposition parties and a leading cleric.
"Here, you people! Stop that!"
In his Friday sermon, Grand Mosque preacher Shaikh Akram Al Rukaihi, said the government should have battled widespread corruption before increasing fuel prices and affecting the country's already impoverished people. "We must crack down on corruption which has grown to monstrous proportions, for bellies have become bloated with public funds," he said, echoing critics' calls for the government to cut its budget deficit by ending misuse of public funds. But he also criticised the thousands of Yemenis who went on the rampage on Wednesday and Thursday, clashing with police and torching public buildings to protest the increase. "No religion or logic or legislation allows an individual to carry on like this ... This is not Pakistan Islam," Al Rukaihi said.
Oh, of course it is. Every time I hear the phrase "rioting in the streets" I immediately think "Islam." Only after I look at the pictures and see no turbans do I think "Leftists."
The protesters smashed and torched government offices, shops and cars.
You'd think it was Karachi or something...
On Thursday, they stormed an oil facility in the Red Sea city of Houdeida but were shot at by riot police.
Except for that part, of course...
Witnesses said the violence appeared to have eased off yesterday. Security officials said 24 people were killed in two days of protests, the heaviest toll since 1998 when 34 people died in two weeks of demonstrations against fuel and food price rises. However, agency reports quoted police as saying 36 deaths in the two days of rioting. But witnesses put the death toll at 39 which included four security forces personnel. About 65 people have been arrested throughout Yemen since Wednesday, police said, while hospital officials said at least 100 people have been wounded. Yemen, an oil-producer with declining resources, says the fuel price rises are part of reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank launched in 1995 to prevent economic collapse.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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and drew fire from opposition parties and a leading cleric.
What is really shocking is that "drew fire" was metaphorical, not literal.
Leading British Muslims last night backed the police's "shoot-to-kill" policy to tackle the threat of suicide bombers, despite a police admission that the man shot dead at Stockwell Tube station on Friday was not a terrorist.
Politicians and civil liberties activists called for a review of the policy but said that it was justified when officers concluded that a suspect posed a genuine threat.
The tactic was used against a suspected suicide attacker for the first time on Friday when a police officer shot dead a man on an Underground train at Stockwell, south London, firing five bullets into his head.
Under Operation Kratos, a senior officer is on standby 24 hours a day to authorise the deployment of armed squads to track and, where necessary, shoot suspected suicide bombers.
Last night, as the Metropolitan Police admitted that the Stockwell man had proved to have no links to the terror investigation, Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, told The Sunday Telegraph that he still supported the new tactics.
"The death of an innocent man is a terrible tragedy and we have to feel sympathy for him and his family and also the police," he said.
"But the basic principles remain the same. As long as the police have robust procedures in place then, if a suspect ignores a command to stop and is deemed to be jeopardising the lives of other people, shooting to kill is justified. Anyone who ignores a police challenge will nearly always have something to hide and will know that he is putting his own life at risk by running away.
"The civil liberties of those whose lives are threatened have to take priority over the rights of someone assessed in good faith by highly trained police officers to be a suicide bomber."
Shami Chakrabarti, a human rights lawyer and director of Liberty, the civil rights group, said: "Our hearts go out to the family of the dead man and to the officers involved in this incident.
"No one should rush to judgment. In any case of this kind - especially at a time of heightened tension - there must be a prompt, comprehensive and independent investigation into what happened and it must cover the guidelines and the training of officers."
But she said that the shoot-to-kill policy was acceptable in exceptional situations. "If the action is carried out by properly trained officers and the authority is given, based on a proper assessment of the risk that innocent people could die, then in those circumstances it could be justified," Ms Chakrabarti said.
"These are knife-edge, split-second decisions made in moments of grave danger. We have a massive shared interest in the protection of innocent lives. Our police are not trigger-happy and it could be a reasoned and proper decision to kill somebody in certain circumstances."
Some Muslim leaders, however, expressed concern about shoot-to-kill. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We accept that the police are under tremendous pressure, but it's vital that the utmost care is taken to ensure that innocent people are not killed due to over-zealousness."
Abdulhaq Addae, a spokesman for Brixton mosque, said that he was "disturbed" by the policy but would support it if the police had "clear evidence" that a suspect was a suicide bomber.
"There is a case for shoot-to-kill if it will stop nutcases blowing up innocent people, but the police have got to have more concrete evidence that the suspect is a suicide bomber before they start firing bullets into someone's head," he said.
"This is not the first time that police have shot someone by mistake - it happened in Hackney not so long ago. But if the police have good reason to suspect that someone has a bomb or is a genuine threat then of course police have to defend themselves."
The Metropolitan Police will not discuss Operation Kratos officially but it is understood that the tactics have been in place for about a year based on guidance from Israeli and Sri Lankan officers on how to combat suicide bombers or "deadly and determined attackers" as they are called officially.
The Met's anti-terrorist branch, SO13, implemented the response to dealing with suicide bombers, based on advice from the Association of Chief Police Officers, after the July 7 attacks.
Senior police officers said that tactics had changed because of the "unique problems" posed by suicide bombers - attackers who are prepared, and usually want, to die with their victims.
The guidance states that in extreme circumstances an armed officer can shoot a suspect in the head if the intelligence suggests that he is a suicide bomber who poses an imminent danger to the public or police. This is to avoid setting off any explosives that might be attached to his body. Five shots are deemed necessary to render a terrorist incapable of detonating his bomb.
The officer can open fire only if authorised to do so by a chief police officer - either at the start of a pre-planned operation, as seems to have been the case at Stockwell, or by police radio during a "spontaneous" incident.
The suspect shot dead had been under surveillance and officers from the Metropolitan Police's firearms squad are understood to have been briefed that he posed a grave risk to safety. The Association of Chief Police Officers has a rule book, the Manual on Police Use of Firearms, which says that police may use force only "when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty".
Ms Chakrabarti said that she was "concerned" that British police had been trained by Israeli officers.
She also criticised the Association of Chief Police Officers' call for new legislation to deal with terrorists, including a demand for police to be allowed to detain suspected terrorists for up to three months. "We already have enough pre-emptive legislation to combat terrorism," she said.
"If there are gaps then the law should be changed by democratically elected politicians. But I cannot see any rationale for increasing police powers of detention to three months."
Scotland Yard declined to say last night whether the tactics for dealing with suspected suicide bombers would be reviewed. The Independent Police Complaints Commission will investigate the shooting, as it does all similar incidents as a matter of course.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 12:47 ||
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Operation Kratos -- good name. Kratos was the Greek god of Strength, brother of Nike, goddess of Victory.
And what about this gem? Ms Chakrabarti said that she was "concerned" that British police had been trained by Israeli officers. Why would that be a "concern"?
Me, I'm glad they've had training from the people who have had to put up with this kind of bullshit for longer than anyone else in the world.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/24/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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Ms Chakrabarti's statement is ambiguous. Does she dislike that the police were indeed trained by Israeli experts, or is she concerned that they might be? The police receiving "guidance" from the Israelis and Sri Lankans is not the same as being trained by them.
#4
Maybe Ms Chakrabarti would rather see another 50 innocents murdered by Al-Qaeda terrorists -- than having British police be trained by Israelis. After all, she may have heard of nefarious zionist influences from her friends.
#5
I'm sick of Western intellectuals/anti-semites who can't stand hearing the words Israel, Israeli, or Jewish in a positive context. The prototype such person spontaneously spews hatred of Sharon whenever the topic of israel comes up -- even if it was just about a great Israeli dessert I was talking about. Very similar to BDS in its automated reaction. They're not thinking, just pouring out gut-felt hatred. Much pre-Nazi German philosophy encouraged exactly that type of behaviour driven by gut feelings.
FOR Omar Mohammed bin Bakri, the revolution which will reshape the world in an Islamic vision will begin in London. Born in 1958 in Syria, the father of seven lives in Tottenham where he receives about £300 a week in benefits.
Formerly a stalwart of the controversial Finsbury Park Mosque in the north of the city, Bakri now has the role of an itinerant preacher, addressing various small radical groups of Muslims.
For Bakri, heaven on earth will see the world united under a single Islamic government, the Caliphate, with those not following the faith relegated to the status of protected minorities.
London is estimated to be home to 60% of the UK's 1.7 million Muslims and is regarded by many in the Islamic world as almost their de facto world capital.
Amid Arab cafes, halal restaurants, Islamic bookshops and some of the world's most lavish and best-attended mosques, clerics can debate theology and practise with a freedom which would be unthinkable in much of the Muslim world.
In an effort to build national unity, many Muslim countries have cracked down on anything but the nationally approved version of the faith. Believers who advocate the establishment of a single Islamic nation can be persecuted.
In the UK, however, all the sects and factions of the religion are free to worship and debate. As long as they obey the law, they may be as extreme as they wish.
One of them is the Egyptian Islamist, Yasser Sirri, an opponent of the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak in his native country. Sirri, who has spent several months in Belmarsh prison accused of links to al-Qaeda, had initially fled to Yemen, then to Sudan. He found refuge in London, where he set up an "Islamic observation centre" focusing on the "holy struggle" against "ungodly" Arab regimes and their supporters in the West.
Britain's tolerance has been too much for other governments, including some friendly to the UK.
The Russian government is exasperated by the fact that Chechen separatists, such as Akhmed Zakayev, whom Moscow views as an Islamist terrorist, have been granted asylum in the UK.
And last week President Musharraf of Pakistan, pointed out that the Islamist organisation Al-Muhajiroun had called for his overthrow "and yet operate with impunity" in the UK.
For Dr Ayman El-Disouky, a lecturer in Arabic and Comparative Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London,
the question has to be how much longer the United Kingdom will be a friendly location for Muslims.
He said: "So far things look positive. The consensus in the media and in the population has been to separate the attacks from the Muslim and Arab communities. We can only hope that goes on."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:07 ||
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One of the July 7 London suicide bombers had links to a British man who planned a suicide attack on Tel Aviv two years ago, raising fears that the network of Islamist hardliners is wider than first thought.
The Independent on Sunday has learnt that Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, who carried out the Edgware Road bombing, was friendly with Omar Sharif, one of two Britons who plotted a joint suicide attack in Israel in April 2003.
The disclosure comes as police continued their investigation yesterday into possible links between the four suicide bomb attacks on 7 July and the devices used in the botched attacks last Thursday.
One theory is that the explosives used last week were either part of the same batch as those used on 7 July or made to the same formula - using commonly available chemicals to create the home-made explosive acetone peroxide.
Security experts believe Thursday's devices may have failed to explode because the explosives had degraded. Acetone peroxide is known to deteriorate quickly.
Police now have samples from last Thursday's attacks to compare to unused explosives found in Leeds 12 days ago.
Meanwhile, police attempts to uncover the 7 July bombers' network of terrorist contacts are focusing on Khan's relationship with Sharif.
Despite pre-recording a "suicide bombers" video in advance, Sharif failed to detonate his device; but his co-conspirator Asif Hanif carried out his attack, claiming three lives at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv.
Sharif ran off, but his body was later washed up on a nearby coast.
It is now thought that Sharif's family lived in Leeds before they moved to Derby and that he went to the same mosque in Beeston as Khan, who was brought up in the area before moving to Dewsbury.
A possible link emerged last week after it was disclosed that Khan had visited Israel for a day in February 2003, raising suspicions that he had been on a reconnaissance trip for Sharif and Hanif, both of Pakistani descent.
As the Independent disclosed last week, Khan is also believed to be linked to al Qaeda.
He was identified by a Pakistani-American computer expert, Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, who was arrested after attending al Qaeda summit meetings in Pakistan.
These links strengthen suspicions that Khan was the dominant influence on the other two bombers from Leeds, Hasib Hussain, 18, who carried out the No 30 bus bombing, and Shahzad Tanweer, 22, who carried out the Aldgate Tube attack.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:03 ||
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moment of weakness for me ....I haven't done it in months...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2005 16:46 Comments ||
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psst: Khan = Ricardo Montalban (pass it on..)
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/24/2005 18:38 Comments ||
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"[Khan] was identified by a Pakistani-American computer expert, Mohammed Junaid Babar, 29, who was arrested after attending al Qaeda summit meetings in Pakistan."
When did that identification take place?
Why wasn't Khan immediately arrested, tried and executed?
How many more innocents will die because our governments are not fighting the war declared on us by Moslems?
Chemical traces found around the plughole of an old bath in a terraced house in Leeds provided the first firm link between the two Underground and bus terror cells that attacked London this month.
The bath had been used to mix the compounds to make the explosives used by the first team of four bombers, who each carried about 4kg in the rucksacks they detonated to such devastating effect on July 7.
The bombmaker or the bombers had tried to disguise the traces left behind in the bath by apparently cleaning it with bleach. But forensic work pinpointed many of the materials used.
They matched the explosives found in all four of the bombs that failed to go off on the three trains and bus targeted by the second cell at lunchtime on Thursday.
In each of the latest rucksack bombs a lesser quantity of explosives was used, but this time around they were packed with nails and bolts that were designed to maim as well as kill.
Bomb-disposal experts believe the devices failed to go off because the sensitive ingredients had not been mixed properly.
The home-made detonators went off in two instances but did not trigger the devices.
Another possibility under examination is that the bombs for both cells were made at the same time but over the past fortnight the chemicals deteriorated. Reports have said the explosive used in the first wave of bombings was a favourite of al-Qaeda known as the "Mother of Satan". It was made of easily obtained chemicals, including drain cleaner and acetone.
It is too early to say whether the same bombmaker made both sets of devices or whether someone he may have tutored was involved but did not have sufficient expertise.
The terrorists' failure to explode the devices provided the greatest breakthrough so far for investigators. Described by one officer as "four treasure troves", not only did the the rucksacks contain the explosives, but also DNA, letters, notes and papers with names and addresses on.
In one case, there was a mobile telephone containing dozens of numbers and text messages and a "chip" that could be traced.
The bomb found in a Fitness First rucksack on the top deck of a No 26 bus in Hackney Road is a key piece of evidence. The bag was reportedly packed with nails, nuts and bolts, with the explosive protected by padding material including screwed-up paper, insulating foam and a pair of rolled-up socks. Lying alongside it was a 9-volt Duracell battery.
Terror groups such as al-Qaeda are known to operate separate cells so that if one is caught it does not compromise another.
However, there is likely to be a planner or mastermind. He knows the number of cells operating and their support networks but not always who all the individuals are.
Lord John Stevens, the former Metropolitan police chief, has suggested that there are up to 3 000 British-born or British-based fanatics who trained in terror camps in Afghanistan, and that many have returned as "sleepers" waiting to be activated. At least 250 are monitored by the security services, but none appeared to be linked to the suicide bombings, underlining the fears that dozens of potential bombers may be at large.
"If there are two cells, why not three or four, five or six - do they all have explosives, all have training?" said a senior investigator.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 01:50 ||
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the bombs for both cells were made at the same time but over the past fortnight the chemicals deteriorated. RB probably broke that piece of informed speculation.
Jordan and Britain will soon sign a memorandum of understanding on the joint-extradition of wanted people between both countries, Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yirfas said yesterday. Jordan and Britain have been discussing an extradition agreement for more than one year and Jordan's Cabinet will be called on soon to ratify it, said Yirfas. "The two countries ministries of interior have finalised recently the memorandum of understanding and I will submit it soon to the Cabinet to endorse it," he said. But the minister declined to say whether a wanted Palestinian extremist living in Britain, Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, better known as Abu Qatada, will be extradited to Amman, where he faces a life prison term for alleged involvement in terror plots.
By the time everything's signed and sealed and arranged the bodies from 7/7 will be cold. They'll be even colder by the time the appeals are done. But I hope they toss him and I hope Jordan finds something suitably interesting to do to him.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN and China are locked in a dispute over the fate of a British citizen who was caught up in a security investigation into the bugging of the presidentâs aeroplane and who now faces trial in Beijing on corruption charges.
People familiar with the case say the man, Zhu Xiaogong, 52, became a British national while working in London from 1993 to 2004, initially for the overseas arm of Chinaâs state-owned aviation equipment company.
Inquiries by The Sunday Times in Hong Kong and London have established from company documents that Zhu became enmeshed in complex financial dealings in Britain with the full knowledge of senior figures in China and may have fallen victim to a political witch-hunt.
The case threatens to become an embarrassment to the Chinese leadership because lawyers in Beijing believe the security services acted illegally in detaining Zhu and failed to recognise his British citizenship. It is casting a shadow over plans for a visit to China by Tony Blair in September.
Zhu was seized while on a visit to Cambodia last year and extradited to China before British diplomats could intervene. He was due to appear at the Chaoyang district court in central Beijing on May 25 but the hearing was hastily adjourned when a British consular official appeared at the building, according to Chinese lawyers and reporters who were present.
The prosecution alleges that he misappropriated public funds and took advantage of his job for personal interests. Details of the prosecution case were given in a report by the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily on May 10. Prosecutors allege Zhu had transferred more than £500,000 from the state aviation equipment company to another British-registered company between December 2000 and September 2001.
However, the charges stem from one of the most sensitive investigations carried out by the Chinese security services in recent years, which makes the case much more than a routine corruption trial.
The Communist party leadership ordered a sweeping probe into the aviation business in January 2002 after technical experts discovered a Boeing 767 plane bought for the personal use of Jiang Zemin, then president, was riddled with electronic listening devices.
Initially the Chinese suspected the CIA of installing the devices while the plane was fitted out in the United States. But Jiang suspected that political rivals were behind the bugging plot and the security services were unleashed to dig into Chinaâs aviation procurement apparatus overseas.
Zhu, who served as manager of its London office between 1993 and 2002, was not implicated in the bugging. Instead, state media reports indicate he was fingered by a senior manager in Beijing, Xu Deng Yin, who confessed about a range of alleged malpractices that came to light in the investigation.
The prosecution alleges Zhu and Xu acted together in illegally diverting public funds for their own use. Documents at Companies House in London show that both men were registered as directors of Galaxy Trade (UK), along with five other senior figures in the Chinese aviation industry, whose addresses have been identified as buildings in the management compound at Beijing airport.
The purpose of Galaxy Trade was apparently to act as a trading and investment vehicle using funds from the state aviation industry.
Zhu left the state aviation equipment company in April 2002 and the documents show he resigned from Galaxy Trade (UK) at the beginning of May. The company was dissolved in 2003. He went into business on his own account in London and did not return to China.
In December 2003, Zhu was granted British citizenship, say people close to the case. A copy of his British passport and papers relating to his naturalisation as a Briton are in the possession of the defence lawyers.
In July 2004, Zhu visited Cambodia on his British passport. There he was arrested at the behest of the Chinese embassy and rushed through an extradition process before being flown back to Beijing accompanied by security agents.
Since then, Zhu has languished in detention while his family and lawyers seek to prove that the Chinese authorities have committed an international blunder by arresting him.
People familiar with the case say the British embassy has made three formal approaches on Zhuâs behalf to the Chinese government. The Foreign Office declined to comment.
If the case comes to trial, it is understood the defence will argue that Zhu did not misappropriate the funds but invested them on behalf of the state aviation company and sent the capital and profits back to China.
The Chinese media have so far presented the case as an example of the governmentâs determination to strike at official corruption, a showpiece for the long arm of the law. Instead, it may turn out to be a perfect example of what is wrong with Chinaâs legal system.
MODERATE Muslim leaders needed to be more vocal in condemning terrorism, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Mr Downer said the Islamic community could play a key role in improving Australia's national security in the wake of terrorist bombings overseas.
"(We need to) ensure that moderate Muslims are standing up there and condemning these activities not just in the media, but in their daily lives in interaction with the broader community," Mr Downer said on Channel 9.
He said security measures such as increasing the number of close-circuit security cameras around transport facilities had proved effective in investigating the London bombings.
But he was lukewarm about a proposal to introduce a national ID card in Australia.
"We've never had an identity card in this country for the reason I think more than anything we think psychologically we feel it's Big Brother putting his hand on our shoulder to a greater extent then we'd like," Mr Downer said.
"So it would be a big step for Australia to move towards an identity card.
"I think the argument would have to be very persuasive for both the Cabinet and more broadly the community to accept an identity card."
Any expansion of anti-terror laws would also have to balance civil rights with tougher powers, he said.
He said Australians should remain alert but not alarmed about the potential for attack on local soil.
"You can see that al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-related organisations ... are prepared to continue this campaign of bombing in different parts of the world," he said.
"So in Australia we just can't be too careful - we have to make every effort we can to try and reinforce our security."
The Prime Minister says the Government will not undermine Australia's fundamental freedoms to protect national security. John Howard says the Australian way of life is what fundamentalist terrorists seek to destroy and the Government must do whatever it can in its power to stop an attack. Mr Howard has responded to concerns that introducing new laws to stop radical preaching or inciting terrorism will limit Australia's basic freedoms.
During Mr Howard's visit to London, he has said he will now consider adopting Britain's tough anti-terrorism laws. They include a crackdown on people who incite terrorism through religious teachings. Mr Howard has told Channel Ten it will not mean turning the country into a police state. "You have an obligation to the public to take whatever measures are reasonable and proper to protect the community and that is what I'm sure the overwhelming majority of Australians feel," he said. "They can rest assured and they know that no government is going to turn Australia into a police state in order to protect us against terrorist, we don't need to do that."
Mr Howard has accused some Islamic leaders in Australia of failing to denounce the latest terrorist attacks. The Islamic Council of Victoria says it accepts that Muslim leaders play an important role in discouraging extremism. A member of the Islamic Council's executive, Waleed Aly, says while Muslim leaders need to warn their communities about the dangers of extreme ideology, commonsense must prevail. "I do think though that we need to be very careful about overdramatising the situation and making assumptions," he said.
Mr Howard says he is worried that some leaders have made inflammatory remarks which have not been rebuked and he says that behaviour is unacceptable. He has criticised the Imam of Melbourne, Sheikh Mohammed Omran, describing his defence of Osama bin Laden as appalling. "I make no bones about saying it, when I hear one of the imams in Melbourne saying that in effect bin Laden is a good man and that the attacks in London were the responsibility of the Americans, I mean I think that is an appalling thing," he said.
The Sydney leader of a controversial Islamic group under investigation over the London bombings says it preaches non-violence. It has been reported that the group Hizb ut-Tahrir is being investigated by the British Home Office for having links to one of the bombers.
Al-Muhajiroun is Hezb ut-Tahrir without the mask...
Spokesman Wassim Doureihi says the British arm of the Islamic group denies having anything to do with the bombing.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
Mr Doureihi says the group would like to see the world convert to Islam but only works to achieve this politically and intellectually. "I'm describing the reality - the Hizb condemns violence as a means to achieve its aim, I state that unequivocally," he said. "This has been known for over 50 years, and we only work for intellectual and political means and I said in the outset that acts within the terms of working to achieve its aim."
"Y'want to get violent, well, we can fix you up with some people who do that sort of thing. We just don't do it ourselves..."
The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says it has no knowledge of the group.
"Never heard of 'em!"
Federation president Dr Ameer Ali says if his organisation gains any knowledge of any radical groups, the police are informed. "Whenever we come across any groups like this, who are openly, blatantly advocating violence, we bring them to the notice of the law enforcing authorities," he said. "What more can we do, we can't knock on the doors and find out who the terrorists are, because that's not our duty, we are not a policing force in this country."
Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison says the Australian community needs to take action against radical Islamic comment. Senator Ellison has told Channel Seven terror laws need might to be changed so that action can be taken against people who inflame and incite violence. "That's something which I think the Australian community has to make a very clear statement on, particularly those people who are close to those people who are making those comments," he said. "They should really say to them 'this is not on, this is un-Australian, we live in a free society, which doesn't advocate violence', and they should make it very clear to them that this is just not on. If those comments transgress the law, then of course they'll be prosecuted."
#1
I was in Sydney's CBD the other day when I saw a young bearded man driving a truck with that delightful black flag of Hezb ut Tahrir (and Al Qaeda) hung up behind his seat.
It certainly gave me pause for a second, luckily he was probably a member of the former rather than the latter.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/24/2005 0:49 Comments ||
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Mr Doureihi says the group would like to see the world convert to Islam ....
That's reason enough to dismiss anything else he says right there.
#3
I still think that black flag looks like something pilfered from an Uruk-hai standard off the set of "Lord of the Rings" ...
Oh, and in the Milan wiretaps the People Who Know call Hizb-ut-Tahrir an al-Qaeda front. I'd say that helps to clarify matters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 1:25 Comments ||
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#4
Al-Muhajiroun is a breakaway group from Hizb ut Tahrir. Both should have been put out of business a long time ago. Freedom of conscience is debased when applied to these animals.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/24/2005 1:34 Comments ||
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#5
People in the West simply CANNOT get it through their heads that lying is a fully acceptable practice among Moslems. ("No, no--we CONDEMN violence," wink, wink) Lying is admired and applauded, as well as justified because of their aim of instituting Islam as the world religion/government. That end justifies any and all means in their thinking. Using the cultural/moral mores and norms of the West against the West to further those aims is a big bragging point for the Islamists. Remember, no Moslems, as they grow up, are disciplined against lying, which is common in Western societies. Moslems grow up respecting POWER, not morality. They don't play by the rules, and I hope the West is smart enough to realize that.
Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called on the European Union to lift an arms embargo against China during an official visit to Beijing.
Zapatero said his government agreed with China the arms embargo should be lifted. He also said European Union reluctance to recognise the Chinese market system could be overcome.
Zapatero was on a short visit to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, discussed bilateral relations and trade during a meeting.
Zapatero and Wen met on the first day of the Spanish leader's official visit to China. The two leaders witnessed the signing of a contract under which European aviation giant Airbus will sell 20 A-330 aircraft to Air China for USD 3.1 billion.
Zapatero expressed Spain's admiration for his host country, which he called "the modern China, which is becoming a great global power".
The Spanish leader said he planned to discuss a number of bilateral issues with his Chinese counterpart, as well as Chinese relations with the European Union.
Wen thanked Zapatero for visiting China and said the trip would help improve mutual understanding and cooperation.
During the private meeting between the leaders, Wen, according to Spanish officials, said China did not want to maintain the enormous trade surplus it currently enjoys with Spain.
The Chinese leader said he was willing to help open the door for Spanish exports and encourage his countrymen to visit Spain, whose government has set a goal of attracting 10 million tourists from the Asian nation over the next few years.
#4
By all means, let's sell modern weaponry to the Spanish cowards so they can forward it to Red China. Maybe they can give to Al-Qaeda so they don't get attacked in Madrid again.
#5
Has Zappy ever smelt what's under those Chinese arms? Not good, no
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/24/2005 18:40 Comments ||
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#6
"Must" The Germans and the Brits, even the French do not react well to others telling them they must, rather than ought to, do something. Senor Zapatero may have lost a good chance to shut up. I wonder how his party will do in the next election?
#7
I've seen a lot of condemnation of the Spaniards since the election that ushered Zappie into the spotlight - and felt uncomfortable about it since it could happen almost anywhere if all the pieces of the puzzle fall just so. Indeed, it will be interesting to see if he survives the next one. Should he be re-elected, then I believe the harshness will be deserved. I certainly hope the AP/NMM's of our society never enjoy such luck.
Belgian intelligence and security services met on Thursday after the news of the London bombings swept across Europe.
However, there is no heightened risk posed against Belgium, the Ministerial Committee for Intelligence and Safety said.
The committee is comprised of the Belgian security, justice and intelligence services, newspaper 'Het Laatste Nieuws' explained.
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said the committee met at 6pm on Thursday to re-evaluate security and safety in response to the latest London bombings.
An initial analysis indicated that the attacks were incidents with "restricted consequences",
nope, no pattern here at all. move along folks ...
but that it was too early to obtain a clear picture of what had occurred.
The committee said there was no indication of a heightened risk posed against Belgium. It cited all of the data available to Belgian intelligence and security services to support its conclusions.
However, the situation will be monitored in the coming few days. Police and security services will remain "alert" around the public transport network and public events.
Prime Minister Verhofstadt also said the extra security measures taken after the 7 July attacks in London will remain in force.
"The analysis in the coming days and weeks will reveal whether an adjustment of these measures should be taken," he said.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said it had temporarily decided against changing its travel advice for Britain.
As investigations into the Ghislenghien gas explosion near completion, Belgian authorities are working to establish a website identifying underground pipelines and electrical cables.
The federal government, the construction industry and utilities firms reached an agreement on Wednesday to set the website up by the end of this year.
The 'land registry' will map all underground cables and pipelines. It will be called KLIM, the federal cable and pipeline information point, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported.
Anyone working in the area of above or below ground gas pipes and electricity cables cables will be able to access the information. Emergency services can also use the website.
But to maintain safety, maps will not be accessible from the website,
except to those with good cracking skills
gas network administrator Fluxys said. Instead, an appointment will be made with a construction firm to view the site.
However, the website will carry a list of utilities companies that have cables or piping at a particular location.
Sigh.
Meanwhile, investigations into the disaster have almost been completed. The investigation into the pipelines will soon be completed, while the medical and psychological inquiries are close to completion also.
Additional investigations can be conducted based on the results of those inquiries, newspaper 'Het Laatste Nieuws' reported.
Once completed, the dossier will be handed to the public prosecution office and a written indictment can then be sent to court.
The gas explosion at Ghislenghien on 30 July last year killed 24 people and left 132 people injured. The last injured victim left hospital on 16 June this year.
Insurers have already allocated EUR 28.5 million in compensation, primarily for the victims severely burned in the fireball. A commemorative ceremony will be held at the site of the tragedy on 30 July.
#2
gas pipeline locations are easily identified in the field by anyone with construction experience, and every street (unless they have propane delivered) has one. You stand more risk from the moron on the backhoe digging a trench than a terrorist attack. While gas explosions/fire usually also do more damage during large quakes than the structural damage, hard to set off largescale kabooms (like a refinery fire)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2005 15:06 Comments ||
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#3
There is a map at this link that will help you see the vulnerability.
Turkey on Friday warned Syria it would face mounting international pressure unless it took steps to enact âmore seriousâ measures to prevent foreign militants from entering Iraq, a top Turkish diplomat said.
The message was conveyed to Syriaâs Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who met Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul here as part of diplomatic efforts by Damascus to convince the international community that it is working in earnest to prevent the infiltrations.
âWe told him (Muallem) that they should do their best and that otherwise they would be in trouble since they have no credibility in the West,â the diplomat told AFP.
âTurkey also expects Syria to take more serious measures,â he added.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:42 ||
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#1
You tell 'em, Turkey! Ima sure that the Syrians are quaking in their boots now, especially since that have not had any serious consequences for their actions to date.
If one gives Syria Serious and Stern Warningsâ¢, then there better be a followup. And that means a stronger message then the head of a racehorse in the President of Syria's bed.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/24/2005 13:39 Comments ||
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#2
Let's see, Syria warning # 1,000,203...take one
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/24/2005 18:43 Comments ||
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#3
Perhaps the warning to Syria would be more effective if it was delivered with either GPS or laser guidance.
EFL
While modern cities are a long way from extinction, it's only by acknowledging the primacy of security -- and addressing it in the most aggressive manner -- that they will be able to survive and thrive in this new century, in which they already face the challenge of a telecommunications revolution that is undermining their traditional monopoly on information and culture, and draining their populations.
After a brief, welcome surge in inner-city populations in the late 1990s, most older American cities have lost more people than they gained since 2000. This is true not only for perennial losers such as Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Detroit, but also places that enjoyed a brief resurgence in the last decade, like San Francisco, Minneapolis and Chicago. What do these cities have in common? Could it be their blue hue? Their dead voters? Should Democrats consider this a coincidence? Could they be considered a fifth column?
Nor is this flight a mere American phenomenon: Inner-city population has been dropping in London, Paris, Hamburg, Milan and Frankfurt. In many of these cities, the only rapidly growing group is immigrants, most of them Muslim, including many who are increasingly targeted by and susceptible to Islamist extremism.
It's too early to tell how businesses or individuals might react over time if terrorist attacks were to become commonplace. But the historical record isn't promising. Many of the earliest cities of antiquity -- in places as dispersed as Mesopotamia, China, India and Mesoamerica -- shrank and ultimately disappeared after being overrun by more violent, but often far less civilized peoples. As is the case today, the greatest damage was often inflicted not by organized states, but by nomadic peoples or even small bands of brigands who either detested urban civilization or had little use for its arts.
The best-known example of security-driven collapse, of course, is Rome. The Roman Empire was a confederation of cities. By the 2nd century A.D., people, products and ideas were traveling quickly from urban center to urban center over secure sea lanes and 51,000 miles of paved roads stretching from Jerusalem to Boulogne, which connected scores of cities in between. Europe would not again see such a proliferation of secure and well-peopled cities until well into the 19th century.
This archipelago of cities did not fall in one cataclysmic crash, but as a result of repeated assaults by brigands and stateless hordes over hundreds of years. The attacks led to a gradual withdrawal of the Roman presence, first from the outermost parts of the empire, such as Britain, and a gradual shift of population from beleaguered cities to the rural hinterlands. By the 7th century, virtually all the great cities of the empire -- large provincial centers such as Trier, on the German frontier, Marseilles and Roman Londinium -- had either been abandoned or had shrunk to mere shadows of themselves. Rome itself, a behemoth of almost a million in the 2nd century, was reduced to a pitiful ruin populated by less than a tenth that number.
The U.S. cities that have declined most precipitously and consistently -- Baltimore and Detroit are obvious examples -- are those plagued by the nation's highest crime rates. Baltimore's Mayor Martin O'Malley has cultivated an image of coolness for himself and encouraged other "cool" people, including singles and gays, to add to his city's "creative class." Yet as one Baltimore resident suggested to me recently: "What's the point of being hip and cool if you're dead?"
Now, cities may have to face a different menace. Sadly, many metropolitan leaders seem less than prepared to meet today's current terrorist threat head-on, in part due to the trendy multiculturalism that now characterizes so many Western cities. Consider London's multiculturalist Mayor Ken Livingstone, who last year actually welcomed a radical jihadist, Egyptian cleric Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, to his city.
Multiculturalism and overly permissive immigration policies have also played a role here in North America. Unfettered in their own enclave, Muslim extremists in Brooklyn helped organize the first attack on the World Trade Center in the early 1990s. Lax Canadian refugee policies have allowed radical Islamists to find homes in places like Montreal and Toronto, where some might have planned attacks on this country, like the alleged 2000 plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport.
In continental Europe, multiculturalism has been elevated to a kind of social dogma, exacerbating the separation between Muslim immigrants and the host society. For decades, immigrants have not been encouraged or expected to accept German, Dutch or British norms, nor have those societies made efforts to integrate the newcomers. Not surprisingly, jihadist agitation has flourished in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Madrid, Berlin and Paris as well as London.
If cities are to survive in Europe or elsewhere, they will need to institute measures that encourage immigrants to assimilate, such as fostering greater economic opportunity for newcomers or enforcing immersion in the national language and political institutions. Militant anti-Western Islamist agitation -- actively supportive of al Qaeda, for example -- also must be rooted out; it can be no more tolerated in Western cities today than overt support for Nazism should have been during World War II.
The kinds of policies needed to secure their safety may pose a serious dilemma for great cities that have been built upon the values of openness, freedom of movement, privacy, tolerance and due process. Yet to survive, these same cities may now need to shift their primary focus to protecting their people, their commerce and their future against those who seek to undermine and even, ultimately, destroy them.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/24/2005 10:28 ||
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Header: Multiculturalism questioned in WaPO
To clarify - this isn't a WaPo editorial - it's an opinion article by a conservative columnist that was carried by WaPo - part of WaPo's occasional tokenism vis-a-vis conservative opinion.
#2
And even though written by a conservative, it is timid and wishy-washy compared to the open-eyed common sense dished out in this article.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/24/2005 11:01 Comments ||
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#3
So how do you explain the success and the high real estate values in NYC and LA which are the most diverse cities in the country? Another Rove trial balloon popped--hang up and dial again Mrs Davis
#4
And in a personal aside I lived in the "so-called" Arab section of Brooklyn in the 80's --it's called Cobble Hill/Atlantic Avenue-- I had great neighbors, fresh pita bread, a selection of olives, baklava and great neighbors look at real estate appreciation there before you quote some right wingnut! Smith Street is now the culinary capital of NYC--but you and people like you who have never met people from other cultures just want to deny that diversity can be interesting--so you just paint Brooklyn with your tar brush
#6
Actually, NYC and LA have gained population since the last census. That's why their real estate values are through the roof. I'm moving back to NY this fall and I'm having a hell of a time finding affordable housing.
Another thing is that Boston, which has lost population too, has crazy real estate costs. Wonder why.
Also, Atlanta and Austin, two "red" cities have had their inner cities lose population the last few years. So to suggest that only "blue" cities decrease in population is just silly.
#7
And yet within the bosom of such lovely, friendly people nestled those who plotted mass murder.
I've lived in three different countries, AP/NMM, my husband has twice had to replace his passport early because the extra pages were falling out, I had to fill out extra paperwork at the embassy because of my children was born in Germany. Both of my parents emigrated to America as adults, and my husband is also first generation American on his mother's side. Between us we speak the better part of 10 languages, and wherever we go in the world we have either friends or relatives, or both. And I am not special compared to most Rantburgers.
The Washington Postâs coverage of the techniques used to extract valuable intelligence data from terrorist suspect Mohamed Qahtami is unique for what it did not tell â not only about these techniques (which the Washington Post reporter unfairly linked to Abu Ghraib), but also about the investigation into the allegations made by FBI agents attached to the facility. What is not explained, puts these facts in context, as opposed to the distorted picture painted by the media and human rights groups. The interrogation of Qahtani helped lead to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, per Rumsfeld
First, letâs look at Mr. Qahtami. Mohamed Qahtami is a senior al-Qaeda operative who was slated to be the fifth hijacker on Flight 93 (this is the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after a revolt by the passengers), but was denied entry in August, 2001. He was captured along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in December, 2001. He was a trained terrorist sent to murder Americans (and others). Qahtami had held out against normal interrogation techniques over a period of eight months, and so permission was granted to use more aggressive techniques to get the information to engender a sense that resistance would be futile.
They succeeded, and within two months, Qahtami was soon providing valuable intelligence on al-Qaedaâs plans for future operations, how it was organized, and how the organization supported operations. The techniques were all within the limits set by Defense Department policy in and of themselves. The cumulative effect was seen as abusive by the investigators. It is also to be noted that Qahtami was the only detainee these techniques were used on. What is also worth noting was that this was one of two options that had been devised. There are no details on the other one â and it turned out not to be needed.
The Washington Post also left out three other incidents that also place the interrogation of Qahtami into perspective. The first was an incident uncovered during the investigation of the allegations from FBI agents. A naval officer threatened the mother of one detainee, a violation of Article 134 the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That matter has been referred to the Naval Investigative Service for investigation. In a second incident, an inmate who was chanting had duct tape placed over his mouth by MPs at the direction of an interrogator concerned about a potential riot. The person responsible was verbally reprimanded by a JAG in this one-time incident. The official report has recommended that a formal reprimand be given to the person responsible. In the third incident, an interrogator who was spat on, responded by smearing some red ink on the detainee and telling him she was menstruating. She was verbally reprimanded as well. Again, the report said that a formal reprimand was needed. However, since the interrogator has left the military, no further action has been taken. A number of these allegations, including use of sleep deprivation, interference with FBI agents, and denial of food and water, were found to have no basis in fact or to involve authorized techniques that remained within the guidelines (such as playing Britney Spears and Metallica, the adjustment of air conditioning, and the application of perfume).
There is also a fundamental difference between what happened at Abu Ghraib and what went on at Guantanamo Bay. At Guantanamo Bay, the special techniques were authorized and the proper authorities were informed. Abu Ghraib was the actions of some rogue military policemen. The only thing the controversies involved have in common is that when the lines were crossed, action was taken, and those who crossed the lines were punished. The Washington Post has not told this side of the story â and by failing to tell this side of the story and instead focusing on a tenuous link to Abu Ghraib, it paints a misleading picture of what has gone on at Guantanamo Bay.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2005 10:48 ||
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#1
it paints a misleading picture of what has gone on at Guantanamo Bay.
and so agitates wackos, incites further seething, facilitates confrontation, and thus serves the purposes of the terrorists.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2005 14:06 Comments ||
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#2
This kind of shit pisses me off. If you want to tell the truth about something then tell the truth and not only those tidbits which further your cause (which in this case appears to be: giving aid and comfort to the terrorists).
Freedom of the press is a right we all hold dear here. However along with that freedom is the responsibility to exercise that right properly. If you abuse that right (as WAPO as done by outright lies (I call omission of these facts a lie)) then you should not be allowed to enjoy that right anymore. In short the WAPO should be stripped of its 1st admendment protections.
#3
The interrogation of Qahtani helped lead to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, per Rumsfeld
Pure baloney.
=============
From The New York Times, June 21, 2004
... Pentagon officials ... said the techniques prompted an important Qaeda member to give up vital information. But new details of that case, which involved a 26-year-old Saudi man who apparently tried unsuccessfully to enter the United States as the 20th hijacker in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, call some of those assertions into question. Several officials familiar with the case said that for months, no one at Guantánamo even knew who the detainee, Mohamed al-Kahtani, was and that he was identified only after the Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in. The officials also said that the harsher interrogation methods used against him were largely unsuccessful, that he had little sense of other Qaeda plots, and that he had been most forthcoming under more subtle persuasion. ...
The bureau [FBI] sent a longtime counterterrorism specialist who is fluent in Arabic and worked extensively on investigations of Al Qaeda. .... Over a series of interrogations that extended into the fall of 2002, the agent slowly built a rapport with Mr. Kahtani, approaching him with respect and restraint ... Mr. Kahtani began to open up, officials said. He disclosed that he attended an important Qaeda planning meeting with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Malaysia, in January 2000. Mr. Kahtani also said he had a relative he thought might be living near Chicago. The relative, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, is believed by officials to have been planted in the United States as a Qaeda "sleeper" agent. He was taken into custody as a material witness shortly after arriving in the country on Sept. 10, 2001, and was later confined to a Naval brig in Charleston, S.C., with two American citizens charged as "enemy combatants," Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. One official said that Mr. Kahtani had admitted that he had intended to join the hijackers but that he had given up little or nothing about other Qaeda plans.
To some F.B.I. experts, officials said, his ignorance seemed credible: he had been recruited to be what the plotters called a "muscle" hijacker, someone to subdue passengers rather than pilot a plane. Officials said such lower-level operatives were generally only minimally informed even as to the details of attacks in which they would take part. But military intelligence officials were skeptical, believing that new approaches to Mr. Kahtani might well reveal plans for attacks that were to follow the hijackings or that might have involved Mr. Marri. In late November 2002, Pentagon officials informed the F.B.I. that they would take over interrogations of Mr. Kahtani, an official said. A list of 17 new interrogation techniques ... was approved by Mr. Rumsfeld in early December. Ten of the techniques were used on Mr. Kahtani before complaints from some military officials prompted Mr. Rumsfeld to retract his approval for the more extreme methods, military officials said. ...
Last month, a senior Bush administration official told The Times that Mr. Kahtani had provided information to interrogators "about a planned attack and about financial networks to fund terrorist operations." But several other officials disputed that characterization, saying he had not given any new information about plots by Al Qaeda. ...
=============
From Time Magazine (excerpted in Meades Maxim):
By itself, the log doesnât make clear how effective the interrogations were. The Pentagon contends that al-Qahtani has been a valuable source of information: providing details of meetings with bin Laden, naming people and financial contacts in several Arab countries, describing terrorist training camps where bin Laden lives and explaining how he may have escaped from Tora Bora in December 2001. Pentagon officials tell TIME that most of the intelligence gleaned from those sessions was recorded in other documents. ....
Senior Pentagon officials told TIME that some of his most valuable confessions came not during the period covered in the log or as a result of any particular technique but when al-Qahtani was presented with evidence coughed up by others in detention, especially Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or KSM, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. The intelligence take was more cumulative than anything else, says a Pentagon official. Once al-Qahtani realized KSM was talking, the official speculates, al-Qahtani may have felt he had the green light to follow suit.
=============
If he started talking after being confronted with statements from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then how did his statements lead to the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 15:57 Comments ||
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#4
Ummm ... you do know that interrogation isn't a onetime thing, right? That there can be feedback between different interrogations, statements used to locate others, whose subsequent statements are used to get more info from the first guy etc. ??
Posted by: too true ||
07/24/2005 16:01 Comments ||
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#6
Re #4 (too true) there can be feedback between different interrogations, statements used to locate others, whose subsequent statements are used to get more info from the first guy etc.
I expect that eventually when it all is revealed, then it will turn out that this kind of indirect, convoluted, dubious indication will be about all there is to this claim that the interrogation of Qhatami led to the arrest of KSM.
Or the explanation will be that the information was found on some documents in his pocket or his computer when he was arrested.
The probability that Qahtami provided information leading to the arrest of KSM because of the stupid interrogation gimmicks is very close to zero.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 16:13 Comments ||
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#7
Mike, you think next time you could condense it down to a concise paragraph? My 'editor's pen' is twitching.
#8
The NYT I can discount right away. Meade's Maxim is an interesting site -- it seems to be at a URL owned by one Ryan Miller, a high school student who aspires to be a liberal college professor. Just your kind of guy, Mikey.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 16:26 Comments ||
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#9
Lol. Mikey's from the quantity = quality School of Trollery. Sure, just posting the links with a selected point for emphasis, like a normal non-idiotarian would do, would've been just as effective - especially given his *ahem* august sources, lol - but Mikey's still trying to define some bizarre Buchanian / Deanian / State Dept Wannabee / LLL / BDS / Rummy-Hate position.
Such uber-nuance takes time. We should show "tolerance" and "patience" -- he'll have his patter down in another 3 or 4 years, methinks. Of course there is the issue of his chosen pet topics, lol, which haven't fared very well... He's had a woodie for many things during the time he's haunted RB. Most have fallen off his posting list... anyone wonder why?
Pity poor Mikey. The Don Quixote of the Tranzi Multi-Culti Diplomatic Apology Corps. Big hug, Mikey.
#10
LA Times July 13, 2005 Last month, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that information obtained during the interrogation of Al-Qahtani helped lead to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is considered the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2005 16:46 Comments ||
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#11
If he started talking after being confronted with statements from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then how did his statements lead to the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured March 1, 2003. Mohamed Qahtami was captured Dec. 2001. Given that Mo endured 8 months of Britney Spears at a mildly irritating volume, but broke after only 2 months of Christina. Add another month for tranport and he could have been singing as early as Nov. 2002, 3 months before KSM's capture.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2005 17:04 Comments ||
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#12
Re #10 (ed) information obtained during the interrogation of Al-Qahtani helped lead to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
I think Rumsfeld's statement means practically nothing. The expression "helped lead" is vague enough to mean whatever you would like it to mean. It's like saying that my taxes "help pay for" Rumsfeld's salary.
And Rumsfeld doesn't claim that this particular information about the arrest of KSM was obtained by by the stupid interrogation gimmicks. He claims that only that it was obtained during the interrogation, which included distinct proper and silly periods.
I suspect that if there is any real truth to Rumsfelds' statement, then it is that some useful information was found in documents captured with Qahtami and that Qahtami somehow confirmed the documentary information. The following statement might be significant:
Pentagon officials tell TIME that most of the intelligence gleaned from those sessions was recorded in other documents. ....
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:07 Comments ||
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#13
I believe Rumsfeld myself. That doesn't mean the guy knew his street address,but SOMETHING put us on his trail.
I don't care what we do to these people,fillet them,they're absolutely lower than whale sh.it.
Especially when we have the goods on them,not just a normal suspect,I'd execute them,go by the Geneva convention!
#14
Re #8 (Neutron Tom): Meade's Maxim ... seems to be at a URL owned by one Ryan Miller, a high school student who aspires to be a liberal college professor.
I don't know anything about the site except that it contained the TIME article's text that I quote in my comment. I found the text in a Google search, and that was the entirety of my interest in the site.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:12 Comments ||
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#15
Re #9 (.com) Mikey's from the quantity = quality School of Trollery
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:15 Comments ||
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#16
Just exactly what is your point, Mikey -- other than that you don't beleive anything Rumsfeld says? You do have a point this time, don't you? I mean, this is not just another folly like your "Kofi can do no wrong" obsession from the spring, is it?
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 17:15 Comments ||
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#17
Oh crap, you want to be an Attention Whore again. Can't afford a shrink?
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#18
Re #11 (ed): Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured March 1, 2003. Mohamed Qahtami was captured Dec. 2001.
So Qahtami had been in US detention for about 15 months when KSM was arrested. One thing is for sure. The interrogation of Qahtami didn't obtain any statement along the lines of: "I saw KSM in Place X a few days ago."
... or "a few weeks ago" or "a few months ago" or even "within the last year."
We can definitely rule out any statement like that "helping to lead" to the arrest of KSM.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:23 Comments ||
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#19
Lol! Oh, Mikey...
Mikey, I salute you for providing the link, instead of your usual full cite.
I ridicule you for the stupidity of asserting that is a typical day's comments and that you are so Kool Aid addled and obsessive that you accumulated an unusual day's posts into a single post - a magnificent strawman - par excellence. It was, waaay back then, and still is, a singular example of just how egregious a troll and remarkably fucked up you actually are.
*kudos*
Please, do continue making my points for me, Mikey. :D
#20
Re #16 (Neutron Tom): Just exactly what is your point, other than that you don't believe anything Rumsfeld says?
I generally believe most of what Rumsfeld says, but not on this issue. He personally approved these interrogation techniques for this particular prisoner, so he has a personal position to defend. His statement on this particular issue is contradicted by various other officials who are familiar with the interrogation and its results -- accordig to the texts I posted in my comment #3.
My exact point is that even if Rumsfeld's statement is significantly true (which I doubt), then it still doesn't necessarily mean that the information was obtained as a result of the extraordinary interrogation techniques that he approved. The information could have been obtained before the extraordinary techniques were applied, or it could have been obtained essentially in captured documents and then credited to the interrogation.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:35 Comments ||
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#21
Re #19 (.com)
Anytime you agree to stop making an issue about the quantities of other people's comments, then I will agree to stop making an issue about it too.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 17:39 Comments ||
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#22
Posting links is, indeed, the correct method - yet you persist in your trollery - and this thread proves that you exceed me in quantity of text whenever you decide to visit. The comparison between just this one thread today and your allegation mock you, fool. See #89 on the same thread, Mikey. It sums your actions up rather well.
#23
So Qahtami had been in US detention for about 15 months when KSM was arrested. One thing is for sure. The interrogation of Qahtami didn't obtain any statement along the lines of: "I saw KSM in Place X a few days ago."
Mike,
Intelligence does not have to as specific as "KSM will be at the Poona Jannah and Cathouse on March 1 from 2-4AM (after last call). He likes 9 year old girls named Aisha." to be valid. Mo the Pigeon could have given info such as: These people are in AQ and this is their place in the hierarchy. These are their friends. These people hid us and these people passed messages. I stayed at these safehouses. This is how we communicated. Any of them, even much less specific intel, could have led US and Pak intelligence to the people who were in contact with KSM.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#24
no Mike - the point has always been the quality of your comments - to say "lacking" does a disservice to the truly lacking. Your rhetorical questions with no answers have ALWAYS sucked. Your weakass defense of corrupt kleptocrats entitles me to say - I just don't like you, your positions, and your coterie of heroes
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2005 17:57 Comments ||
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#25
Looks like MS is near the edge. I call 1 week until total Ape Shittery per last time. Keep yur links close at hands boys MS is back with the BS posse.
#27
As I was trying to stomach read Mikey's posts (typical Dhimmicrat troll: too wordy and long. LOL), I got this little sing-song voice in my head:
"Yes, Jesus Allan loves me,
The New York Times tells me so."
He talks as if he has first hand knowledge of Qahtami's interrogations and that he speaks from that experience:
Well, Mike, are you a guard at Gitmo or not??
And the Dhimms are obsessed with bringing down someone, anyone in the Bush Administration;
if it can't be Karl Rove, then it should be Rummy.
If not Rummy, then Cheney.
If not Cheney, then Bush.
And they'll eat Tom Delay for a snack.
Rinse, repeat, and the beatings will continue until Red State America sees it their way.
#28
These f==in' nutjobs are going to get us all killed just so they can promote their propaganda: anything Bush does is bad.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/24/2005 18:46 Comments ||
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#29
Re #23 (ed): Intelligence does not have to as specific as ....
Interrogations do provide useful intelligence, often indirectly as you describe.
The pertinent question for me in this thread are whether Rumsfeld's statement proves that the extraordinary interrogation methods of this particular prisoner indeed significantly helped lead to the arrest of KSM -- or whether Rumsfeld's statement is basically just some weasle words creating a false impression that the extraordinary methods caused such this result.
The issue is specifically the unique information obtained uniquely as a result of the extraordinary methods in this particular case.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 18:52 Comments ||
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#30
Well, MS, that all depends on whether you think Rumsfeld lied and that our soldiers didn't do their jobs as members of the world's finest, and at the same time, most humanitarian military on the face of the planet.
You and your friends on the Left think Rummy's a liar and that our military are "baby killers in the manner of Jhenghis Khan."
Virtually all of the rest of us here at RB don't.
It's just that simple.
#31
Re #30 (Jennie Taliaferro) that all depends on whether you think Rumsfeld lied
The cited article (#10) says that Rumsfeld said that "information obtained during the interrogation of Al-Qahtani helped lead to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed."
He didn't say that the information was obtained using the extraordinary interrogation methods he approved. He also didn't say that the information was crucial for the arrest of KSM.
In the circumstances and based only on that article, however, it seems to me that he intended to make that impression that the extraordinary methods were crucial for the arrest. It's my opinion that such an impression is a false impression.
If that is the impression Rumsfeld intended to make, then it is contradicted by other military officials and by FBI officials. Here's some extracts from the texts I posted in my comment #3:
Several officials familiar with the case said .... that the harsher interrogation methods used against him were largely unsuccessful, that he had little sense of other Qaeda plots, and that he had been most forthcoming under more subtle persuasion. ... a longtime [FBI] counterterrorism specialist who is fluent in Arabic and worked extensively on investigations of Al Qaeda .... built a rapport with Mr. Kahtani [who then] began to open up .... He disclosed [to the FBI interrogator] that he attended an important Qaeda planning meeting with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Malaysia ....
... complaints from some military officials prompted Mr. Rumsfeld to retract his approval for the more extreme methods, military officials said. ...
... several other officials disputed that characterization, saying he had not given any new information about plots by Al Qaeda. ...
Pentagon officials [say] most of the intelligence gleaned from those sessions was recorded in other documents. .... Senior Pentagon officials [say] some of his most valuable confessions came not during the period covered in the log [of extraordinary interrogations] ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 19:39 Comments ||
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#32
Here we go! He's cranked up! Ready to rumble and lay down some baaaaaaad links.
#33
Re #29: "The pertinent question for me in this thread are... whether Rumsfeld's statement is basically just some weasle words creating a false impression that the extraordinary methods caused such this result"
Yeah, me too, because if the methods being used aren't gaining us useful information, then we need to have quick tribunals, execute these war criminals, and stop taking prisoners.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 19:47 Comments ||
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#34
Re #30 (Jennie Taliaferro) You and your friends on the Left think Rummy's a liar and that our military are "baby killers in the manner of Jhenghis Khan." ... It's just that simple.
A lot of the discussion here at Rantburg is like this.
Virtually all of the rest of us here at RB ....
... think it's a real, serious discussion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#36
Re #33 (Neutron Tom): we need to have quick tribunals, execute these war criminals, and stop taking prisoners.
I don't oppose tribunals or the subsequent execution of war criminals. If we have enough evidence to convict, then I am in favor of the tribunals being quick.
So far, though, the only tribunal underway is against a guy who was Osama bin Laden's driver.
If we stop taking prisoners, then none of our opponents will ever surrender. Do you know of any military experts who support your idea that we should stop taking prisoners?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 20:12 Comments ||
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#37
Read the memoirs and military histories of WWII, Mike. It's a place to start educating yourself on such things.
Posted by: too true ||
07/24/2005 20:13 Comments ||
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#38
Re #37 (too true): Read the memoirs and military histories of WWII,
What in particular should I learn about interrogations?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#40
Take no prisoners:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lawrence.htm
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 20:23 Comments ||
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#41
If we stop taking prisoners, then none of our opponents will ever surrender.
I was answering your last claim, cited here. Go read how many prisoners were NOT taken under certain circumstances - and why, and how it helped shorten the war significantly.
You are trying to reason your way through a topic on which you have little knowledge, either first hand or the historical record. No shame in that -- but realize that many of your claims are likely to be embarassingly off the mark as a result.
Posted by: too true ||
07/24/2005 20:24 Comments ||
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#42
Re #41 (too true): I was answering your last claim, cited here. Go read how many prisoners were NOT taken under certain circumstances - and why, and how it helped shorten the war significantly.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Which last claim? Cited where?
Do you think we should stop taking prisoners?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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#43
Hey Mike, yeah you, Mike Sylwester: If thats your real name. I'll use you, an illiberal shill, schttupping for the enemy.
How is it you guys kill 40 million human lives, and our military, thanks to you tranzi tape recorders, is supposed to be the "baby killers" here?
Got an answer for that one? I mean one that doesn't involve all 26 volumes?
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
07/24/2005 20:49 Comments ||
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#44
Mike Sybilwrester,
Just exactally how would you get critical info from AQ shiek who knew where WMD was stored here in the US.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/24/2005 20:53 Comments ||
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#45
Re #40: (Neutron Tom)
The article says that was the only time Laurence ordered that no prisoners be taken. I presume that Laurence did support the taking of prisoners in all other instances.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 20:54 Comments ||
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#46
Re #43 (an dalusian dog): I'll use you, an illiberal shill, schttupping for the enemy. How is it you guys kill 40 million human lives, and our military, thanks to you tranzi tape recorders, is supposed to be the "baby killers" here? Got an answer for that one? I mean one that doesn't involve all 26 volumes?
I do admit that I do not have an answer to that one.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 20:57 Comments ||
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#47
Mikey Sybil'ter's WOT = 0
Mikey Sybil'ter's army = one [himself]
Mikey Sybil'ter's effectiveness = 0
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/24/2005 20:59 Comments ||
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#48
Re #44 (Red Dog): Just exactally how would you get critical info from AQ shiek who knew where WMD was stored here in the US.
That's quite a hypothetical situation, Red Dog!
I suppose I would make him poop in his pants. Rumsfeld indicated that's how we got the critical info from Qahtami that helped lead to the arrest of KSM.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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#49
"...Japan was not party to the Geneva Convention and was indiscriminately torturing and killing prisoners, so our troops had orders to take no prisoners..."
http://www.burmastar.org.uk/roberts.htm
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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#50
"I suppose I would make him poop in his pants."
Rummy's right. Look at you mikey, you're full of shit, and you blather on forever.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/24/2005 21:06 Comments ||
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#51
Mike? Speechless? Well I do declare! No Washboard, nor slimes, nor Old Gray Whore rwetorts? You rwetard! No appending the omissions at these fine, venerable institutions? No addendums showing the selective omissions of agitprop? No bandwidthbusters� Cheez and crackers! For everyone!
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
07/24/2005 21:07 Comments ||
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#52
Re #49 (Neutron Tom): Japan was not party to the Geneva Convention and was indiscriminately torturing and killing prisoners, so our troops had orders to take no prisoners...
... but fewer Japs were found and killed than had been expected, so our operation was probably no more effective than the earlier Chindit operation had been.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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#53
"On D-Day, we paratroopers had no place to put prisoners... Because we were moving so rapidly under these conditions, we understood the order, 'Take no prisoners.'â
http://www.ddaymuseum.org/legacy/readstory/id=118
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 21:10 Comments ||
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Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/24/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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#56
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
Goodnight, Mikey. Sleep well.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/24/2005 21:25 Comments ||
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#57
".. but fewer Japs were found and killed than had been expected, so our operation was probably no more effective than the earlier Chindit operation had been. "
. [idiot period bandwdth and space usurper included]
what are you talking about?
Let me explain it to you, at Iwo Jima, the japanese killed 6,000 Marines, we killed 24,000 Japanese soldiers. We took three Japanese soldiers prisoner.
Say what you will about the Japanese Imperial Soldier, but he put the Jihadi scum you and your ilk mollycoddle to shame. I mean to utter shame: the jihadi is a drug addicted agent, posing as a "insurrgent", operating on behalf of your average everyday Albanian Mafia.
The Japanese soldier was the real thing, and it took only one thing to defeat him: namely the forces of Right had to be as, if notmore, ruthless than the Japanese Imperial Army. Or else there would be no victory. GetIt?
Posted by: an dalusian dog ||
07/24/2005 22:58 Comments ||
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#58
Iff one is to go by the recent commentaries and analyses on local Amerikan State TV, the response to Glaze-gate and the "abuse" at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib is to interrigate prisoners politely, humanely, and intellectually whilst dev a new investigative bureaucracy to determine the merits or demerits of their answers, i.e an Amerikan KGB thats not the KGB. The dialectical Lefties-Socies are back now differens themselves as defenders of traditional US "civil liberties", i.e. Regulators for Non-/Anti-Regulation, in contrast to alleged Regulation/Empire-mad GOP-Rightists-Conservatives!?
A recently completed federal review of U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints across the Southwest concludes Border Patrol officials need to find better ways of measuring the effectiveness of those checkpoints. Only then, the report states, will agents be able to respond to the increasingly sophisticated technology and evasion tactics used by immigrant smugglers.
Opponents of the checkpoints are using the study to further their argument that the checkpoints should be closed.
Issued Friday, the report makes the following recommendations:
* the Border Patrol develop additional performance measures for the productivity and effectiveness of interior checkpoints as they relate to operational costs.
* Include the data produced by those additional performance measures in regular reports, along with suggestions on how interior enforcement can be improved.
Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said letters from five members of Congress sparked the reviews. Three of those congressmen are from Southern California: Darrell Issa, R-Vista; Ken Calvert, R-Riverside; and Christopher Cox, R-Newport Beach.
In February 2004, Issa and Calvert wrote to the Government Accountability Office: "We believe a GAO study will find that the checkpoints operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are not an effective deterrent to illegal immigration and that the resources committed to checkpoint operations could be better utilized in other apprehension efforts."
The accountability office conducted the review of checkpoints in four sectors in the Southwest: San Diego; Tucson, Ariz.; Laredo, Texas; and McAllen, Texas. The GAO is an independent, investigative arm of Congress. The agency studies how the government spends taxpayer dollars and advises Congress on how it can make government more effective and responsive...
However, despite the report's conclusions that more efficient data needs to be generated to measure the effectiveness of checkpoints, the GAO report did not appear to agree with Issa's and Calvert's assertions... Yet, the report also acknowledged the difficulties the Border Patrol faces in attempting to control illegal immigration...
In a written statement Friday, Issa said there are better ways of stopping smugglers than by using fixed freeway checkpoints, such as the ones on Interstate 15 in Temecula and Interstate 5 in San Clemente... He said that by moving resources "closer to the border, locations where illegal immigrants are known to gather, and the routes that smugglers use to evade capture, will strengthen apprehension efforts."
Border Patrol officials could not be reached late Friday for comment. However, the report says that officials with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, stated the report is factually correct.
Investigators in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal have discovered a network of overseas bank accounts operated by Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations programme, who is the subject of a criminal inquiry by New York prosecutors.
Officials from investigative agencies, including the UN's Volcker inquiry, say that Mr Sevan has accounts in his native Cyprus, Turkey and Switzerland. The first interim report from the inquiry, published in February, criticised Mr Sevan for a "grave and continuing" conflict of interest over oil export vouchers from Saddam Hussein, which he solicited for an oil trading company in Panama. The investigators, who described his conduct as "ethically improper" estimated that it had netted the company about $1.5 million.
Mr Sevan denies the allegations that he steered Iraqi oil to the trading company as part of a system of bribes and kickbacks.
"Lies! All lies!"
The inquiry said that the origins of $160,000 received by Mr Sevan remained a mystery, although Mr Sevan said that he had been left the money by an aunt. The investigators said that the aunt's lifestyle and modest pension were not consistent with such large sums.
"She was frugal."
"How frugal?" Very frugal!"
A Volcker committee spokesman said that "new material" had been found in connection with Mr Sevan, and that his role would be a focus of the third interim report due out at the end of this month. Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney, said that he had sent a formal request to the UN for all documents relating to Mr Sevan and for the details of the foreign bank accounts.
Investigators have asked the relevant banks for details of all transactions, but because of strict laws governing banking secrecy in all three countries, have warned that they might struggle to gain access to the accounts. Mr Sevan's lawyer in New York, Eric Lewis, was unavailable for comment yesterday.
"We will say no more!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2005 16:14 ||
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#1
Oil-soaked money? Nah, I only have Nazi gold.
Posted by: ArmChair in sin ||
07/24/2005 16:39 Comments ||
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, an article by Bill Samii
Unrest among Kurds living in western Iran, which has been continuing for several weeks, has prompted a government investigation that began on 20 July. .... Kurds living in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, clashed with police after a local activist was reported killed by state security agents, Radio Farda reported on 12 July, quoting local journalist Masud Kurdpur. Kurdpur told Radio Farda that "security agents" killed activist Seyyed Kamal Seyyed Qader (known as Shavaneh) ... Qader was arrested for unspecified political activities ....
... local Kurds' angry reaction to the killing of Shavaneh is continuing. Kurdpur said that the authorities asked storekeepers to reopen their businesses, but they have yet to comply with this request. .... on 15 July that the unrest was continuing .... A total of about 15 arrests were made. The authorities in Marivan reportedly instructed local telephone call centers, from which people make international calls, to provide them with names of everyone who calls overseas.
Seyyed Maruf Samadi, the governor of Mahabad, said the problems there began when the man known as Shavaneh resisted police, "Iran" reported on 19 July. They therefore shot him. Samadi said people who protested this incident were arrested .... A police officer was stabbed to death ... Government offices, banks, and some homes were damaged, too. Samadi acknowledged that these incidents have upset locals, and he said the Interior Ministry has agreed to his request to send a team to look into these events. ....
The unrest in Mahabad is the latest in a string of incidents focused on local Kurds' ethnic identity. In mid-June, security forces in Mahabad clashed with Kurds who were celebrating the election of Masud Barzani [as president of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq]. On 6 June, joyful young Kurds in Mahabad and Piranshahr celebrated the election of Talabani as Iraq's president by setting off fireworks and displaying Kurdish flags. Fifteen police officers were injured in resulting clashes, and 40 demonstrators were arrested. According to unconfirmed reports from exile opposition groups, demonstrations and clashes also occurred in Baneh, Marivan, Saqez, and Sanandaj.
Kurds make up some 7 percent of Iran's population of 68 million, and have militated for greater attention from the central government, citing provincial underdevelopment, inadequate political representation, and inattention to their cultural needs. Before the June presidential election, Kurdish political activists' demands prompted threats from the Guardians Council. During the campaign, reformist candidates paid particular attention to the demands of Kurds and other minorities. ....
Nevertheless, Kurds' dissatisfaction with and alienation from the central government was apparent in the Iranian presidential election. Second-round turnout in the predominantly Kurdish cities of West Azerbaijan was very low: Bukan (12 percent), Mahabad (15 percent), Piranshahr (15 percent), and Sardasht (16 percent). Turnout in Kurdistan Province was quite low -- about 25 percent -- compared to the national average of almost 60 percent. Turnout in some municipalities was remarkably bad ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 08:20 ||
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From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Mu'allim met on 21 July with a number of ambassadors accredited to Syria, SANA reported the same day. Al-Mu'allim contended that Syria has "a genuine interest in establishing security and stability in Iraq," and said that direct accusations from the United States and Iraq that blame neighboring countries for the insurgency "are not the remedy for the security situation in Iraq." The minister said that Syria has implemented all that was required of it according to two security agreements concluded with Iraq, and he accused Iraq of failing to implement its side of the plan. Al-Mu'allim said that U.S. and Iraqi forces have engaged in some 100 border clashes with insurgents leading to U.S. troops firing into Syrian territory "in an arbitrary way...due to losing their nerve," thereby endangering Syrian troops. He further contended that Syria has prevented 1,240 "fanatics from various nationalities" from entering Iraq; all but 69 of those arrested were turned over to their countries. Four thousand Syrians who "left or tried to leave" for Iraq are under investigation, he added.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
07/24/2005 08:13 ||
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Syria Says It Has Arrested Over 1,000 Arabs Trying to Infiltrate Iraq
Translation: Please don't kill me! I don't want to diiiee!!
Posted by: N guard ||
07/24/2005 9:20 Comments ||
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#2
more lies - thanks MS, apologist to the Ummah
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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#5
"Al-Mu'allim said that U.S. and Iraqi forces have engaged in some 100 border clashes with insurgents leading to U.S. troops firing into Syrian territory "in an arbitrary way...due to losing their nerve,"
Yeah, right! Our guys "lost their nerve." You wish, Bashir! "Four thousand Syrians who "left or tried to leave" for Iraq are under investigation, he added."
I believe this, too...NOT.
It must really suck to be Mike.
Can you imagine combing the web all the time for this kind of crap?
#6
Self-inflicted punishment on Mike's part, Jennie. Perversity, but it's legal ..... just stupid.
Posted by: too true ||
07/24/2005 20:08 Comments ||
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#7
"due to losing their nerve" is right up there with the cough Belgian "defense" minister saying US troops lack professionalism.
It must suck to have to deal with the reality that America has fielded the most powerful AND most professional army in history -- and is using it with great restraint.
One imagines it's not what the Belgians would do, if they had an army. And if it was professional.
Been in the middle east. Know just exactly how to take these claims by Syria.
Posted by: too true ||
07/24/2005 20:11 Comments ||
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KUWAIT CITY - Despite security concerns, Kuwait and Iraq are planning to exchange ambassadors for the first time in fifteen years, al-Siyassa newspaper reported on Sunday.
Diplomatic ties between the two nations will be officially renewed as ambassadors take up their posts in early August in the respective capitals, al-Siyassa said citing political sources. Kuwaitâs former Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Ali al-Momen has been chosen to serve as Kuwaitâs ambassador to Iraq. He currently heads the Humanitarian Operations Centre in Kuwait. An emiri decree appointing him ambassador is expected to be issued in the coming days, the paper said.
Iraqi Faek al-Sheikh was identified by the paper as the new Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2005 13:22 ||
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CAIRO - The trial of three Egyptians charged in last Octoberâs Sinai bombings continued on Sunday in Ismailia, north of Cairo, with a court decision to adjourn to mid-August, MENA news agency reported. The decision to adjourn was to allow the prosecution and defence to call 29 witnesses to testify in court.
Mohammed Gaiz Hussein Abdullah, Mohammed Abdullah Rubaa and Mohamed Ahmed Salah Felaifel are charged with premeditated murder and the possession of unlicensed weapons and explosives.
Sundayâs session, the second in the trial that opened in early July, came a day after explosions in the southern Sinai resort of Sharm al-Sheikh. Egyptâs interior minister said on Saturday that he did not rule out a connection between the two incidents. Three almost simultaneous explosions occurred last autumn at the Taba Hilton and two nearby beach camping sites killing 34 and injuring 157. The casualties included many Israelis as Sinai is a popular holiday destination among them.
Abdullah and Rubaa appeared at the state security emergency court in Ismailia, 140 kilometres northeast of Cairo, while Felaifel remains at large. Six others implicated in the incidents are dead. Four died in the course of operations while the other two were killed in clashes when police pursued them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2005 13:18 ||
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AMMAN - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari warned Turkey on Sunday not to let its troops cross into northern Iraq to hunt Kurdistan Workersâ Party rebels. Zebari told Reuters that US forces in Iraq were poised to capture the rebels, who have been waging a violent campaign against Turkey for decades to win Kurdish self-determination, and have bases in northern Iraq.
âThey are in regions outside the control of the central and Kurdish government. If they move, the American forces can arrest them,â said Zebari, himself an Iraqi Kurd. âWe have an obligation to Turkey, and to control all non-Iraqi armed groups and prevent activities against neighbouring countries.â
âWe reject any regional military interference in Iraqi affairs, whether Turkish, Iranian or Arab, because it destroys confidence and shifts the focus when our priority is finishing the political process, improving the security situation and providing basic services.â
"And besides, we really don't like or trust the Turks," he added softly.
General Ilker Basbug of the Turkish General Staff said last week the United States had given orders for the capture of PKK rebels in Iraq, adding that Turkey had a right to enter Iraqi territory to attack them if no action was taken.
Although Zebari welcomed US moves to pursue PKK leaders, the rebels command sympathy among Iraqi Kurds, who see Turkey as having persecuted its own Kurdish population. Iraqis are also wary of what they regard as Turkish territorial ambitions, especially in the oil centre of Kirkuk, which was once mostly populated by ethnic Turkmens, and was included in Iraq as part of a colonial deal between Britain and France.
Zebari said the Iraqi government was not yet capable of pursuing the PKK using its own forces and had to rely on the United States. âWe have to be content with this arrangement until we complete the build-up of our own security forces to control the situation,â he said.
Turkeyâs General Staff says the rebels have crossed into Turkey more frequently and in larger numbers in the past year. It has said they now number nearly 2,000 inside Turkey, carrying out attacks on military targets in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Under Saddam Husseinâs rule, Turkey had a tacit agreement with Iraq that it could pursue the PKK into northern Iraqi territory.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2005 13:09 ||
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The coward barbarian attack that targeted tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh resort will give Egypt the full insistence to combat terrorism any way, any where.
Does that mean the al-Jamaah guys go back to jug?
Egypt, at the same time, will go on backing the Arab fair issues, particularly the Palestinian and Iraqi ones.
Whoopdy doo. That means you're gonna keep doing business at the same old stand.
Combating terrorism surely requires the gathering of all international efforts to uproot it, a matter that obliges the implementation of President Mubarak's suggestion of an international conference on terrorism.
Yeah. Hold a conference. Maybe you could have it at Sharm el-Sheikh? No, wait... That's gone...
Convening such conference would help confront that devil that threats innocent victims regardless of their religions or nationalities.
Rounding the nutbag imams up and shooting them would go a lot further...
Nevertheless, the real image of Islam would be unveiled for the all after the deformation process that infected Islam by those fanatics who thought themselves defending Islam. On the contrary, world states have an increasing insistence on fighting terrorism and unfortunately their hatred to Islam and Muslims is also growing as a result to their stupid actions. Is this the patriotism they are seeking for? Are they really Muslims? I think the answer is definitely No.
At the risk of repeating myself, they're killing people because they're Muslims, not in spite of the fact. That means Islam needs a thorough housecleaning, and so far there hasn't been a single step that we've seen in that direction. Once there are piles of holy men lying dead in the gutter things will start to get better. If it doesn't eventually happen, this will turn into a war of extermination. The bad guyz are already fighting their half of a "crusade," and we're fighting another war entirely. For now.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 11:43 ||
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The coward barbarian attack that targeted tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh resort will give Egypt the full insistence to combat terrorism any way, any where.
In other news, the brave, defensive attacks against Israeli aggression -- aggression which is unwarranted and outside the law -- will continue with the support and prayers of muslims everywhere. . .
#2
Al-Qaeda is not afraid to refer to "the apostate Saud regime" in their communiques. Our Muslims, however, refuse to declare terrorist groups to be apostate (murtad). They don't do so because they agree with most of the terrorist goals. Think of our Muslim leadership in terms the IRA used: an "Official" wing that used negotiation, while a "Provisional" wing used terror.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
07/24/2005 12:47 Comments ||
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#3
Will the 3rd Plank from the left on the Democratic platform be Arab fair? Arab true? Juden frei? Politics, poitics.
#10
Red Dog, it's about the Republic of Eastern Arabia - all .com's idea. Basically, a 40km strip of land at the eastern side of Saudi Arabia holds most of the oil (and infrastructure?) to produce it. If that is held by a government (the RoEA) that is nothing to do with the Saudis, is pro-Western, and merely wants to produce oil, then a major source of funding for Wahabism evaporates.
Perhaps .com can point to the original article(s) where it was mentioned? I'm afraid I don't know where it is now.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/24/2005 20:19 Comments ||
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#11
Bugger! - 5 minutes too late...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/24/2005 20:20 Comments ||
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#12
Tony - I finally figured out the true secret of RB... when you're in a separate article page, you'll see a Google search at the bottom which lets you search RB articles AND comments, that's how I found it again, lol! I didn't think to save it at the time - cuz the response was a tad underwhelming, to be honest.
#14
[lightbulb moment] - Google, but of course! "Goooogle, Is there nothing it can't do?"
I think the RoEA idea was probably too radical for the time (Dec 03 - GWB focussing all energies on getting Iraq sorted out and ensuring he gets re-elected to keep the momentum up) but things are different now. It seems (from what I've been reading on blogs etc) that the Democrats are going to lose more (seats?) in the 2006 elections, further strengthening Republican power. This then allows GWB some leeway to consider options like RoEA, but will it be seen as 'yet more warmongering'? And what would be the causus belli?
Horribly, it may require another attack on the US before RoEA moves onto the table - and if the assumptions we've been making about 'the ultimatum to the Saudis' is right, RoEA may not be the #1 option.
Which would be really bad news, because RoEA solves so many problems; no money for the ticks, not invading 'holy lands' (any soldiers there would be guests of the RoEA, not SA - which has gone on a crash diet), secure flow of oil (to the West *and* East - if appropriate), no money to madrassas, no money for Wahabism in other countries, no money for Mosque building in other countries and many other benefits.
It's a thought...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/24/2005 20:54 Comments ||
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#15
#13 - guffaw! :)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/24/2005 20:56 Comments ||
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For thousands of Sunni Arabs who worked for Saddamâs security apparatus, the day of judgment is getting closer. Saddamâs enforcers rarely hid their identities, and many Kurds and Shia Arabs know the names, and faces, of the Sunni Arab thugs that tormented, and tortured them, and murdered their friends and family. These thugs have supported al Qaedaâs terror campaign in Iraq, and participated in some of the non-suicide attacks on Iraqis and foreigners. For the last two years, the enforcers were able to hide out in Sunni Arab towns and neighborhoods that were free of government control. But this provided only temporary refuge, and created other problems. The lack of police meant that criminal gangs, terrorist groups and warlord militias were in charge. These three groups didnât always get along with each other. But they all left the old Saddam thugs alone. Now, with the government taking control of Sunni Arab areas, the Saddam thugs are in trouble, and getting desperate. These guys have several options. They can leave the country. Many have already done this. But there are no real sanctuaries for former Saddam killers. Syria is safe for the moment, but that is expected to change soon. Eventually, however, these guys can expect the war crimes indictments to catch up with them. If they stay in Iraq, they can either hope for an amnesty deal, or getting themselves back into power. Both of these options are being pursued, which means that violence and peace negotiations are both getting more intense. The problem here is that the Kurds and Shia Arabs are not willing to give a lot of Saddamâs killers a free pass. In response to that, the killers are getting more involved in the violence. Now Arab diplomats are being attacked. The message is clear; make a deal with the Sunni Arabs, or get more reminders of how Saddam stayed in power for so long. Playing it this way only makes more Iraqis determined to join the police and army, and go after the killers where they live, and bring them to justice (often on the spot.) The bullets are going both ways.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2005 11:06 ||
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Maybe they should come up with a Paleo version for el-Ein Hellhole
Paleo version: a spinning wheel, a roadkillmap for peace and explosive dice.
KABUL, Afghanistan --With the spin of a numbered wheel, an Afghan child might land in an ambush by turbaned gunmen. Another turn could lead a young player to the safety of a health clinic or classroom. They are all scenarios 10- to 14-year-olds must confront in The Road to Peace, a colorful new board game unveiled Thursday by the United Nations in an effort to educate local youngsters about Afghanistan's troubled past and its hopes for the future.
Some 10,000 copies of the game are being handed out nationwide to war-affected children, former child soldiers and refugee families, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The game, which comes in both the local Dari and Pashtun languages, "aims to teach children about the key events in the peace process and reconstruction of Afghanistan," Edwards told a news conference.
The foldable cardboard game is illustrated with a swirling path from one corner labeled The Past -- with tanks, explosions and a Taliban-style execution -- to The Future, which shows cheery family scenes, factories and a sweeping blue river. Along the way, up to six players take turns spinning a numbered wheel and moving improvised game pieces -- a button, twig or coin will do -- to corresponding numbers on the path representing events or trends in Afghanistan's recent past.
If a player lands on a negative scenario, such as young girls being turned away from a school by a member of the hardline Taliban regime, which was ousted by U.S.-backed forces in 2001, they must move their game piece backward toward The Past. Landing on a positive scenario, such as the signing of the Bonn agreement in 2001 that established a political process and transitional government, lets a player advance toward the brighter future. "It highlights issues such as the environment, health and education," Edwards added.
Does it make the kiddies move backwards two spaces if they encounter raving spittle?
Martin Battersby, an officer for the U.N. Office of Communication and Public Information, said the world body started developing the game about a year and a half ago and is trying to distribute it through institutions such as schools. The game should prove useful for the U.N. children's agency, which works with out-of-school and unemployed young people and former child soldiers in Afghanistan, said Edward Carwardine, a UNICEF communications officer.
Most of those children "have had quite negative experiences of life up until now," he said.
"This is a really good tool to help the discussion about possible choices -- do you join one of the militias or do you get an education and get a job?" Carwardine asked.
The Road to Peace could send encouraging messages to Afghan children and underscore "how the positive choices actually make you a better citizen -- you can earn more money, you can be more productive, you can support your family more effectively," he said.
The move comes as Afghanistan, still emerging from decades of civil war, prepares for historic parliamentary elections in September and grapples with an unprecedented rise in violence in recent months.
No source -- please include a source!
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/24/2005 10:05 ||
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Is this like the Afghan version of "Careers"? Or of "Life"? Perhaps somebody should sell an "Afghanopoly". After all, Parker Brothers has licensed that old game to everyone else.
Or, perhaps we should be more modern and introduce them to "Settlers of Catan". Whatever happens, don't send them "Diplomacy". We don't want to make the death rate any worse.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/24/2005 15:58 Comments ||
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A good if a little simplistic article where Barelvi = good and Deobandi = bad. Essentially the majority of Pakistanis in rural areas symptahise with Sufism, venerate the tombs of saints etc. After Bangladesh split away from Pakistan, their 'Hinduized' Islam was blamed, and so the purist Deobandism was supported by the Pakistan Army, the sect from which the Jihadis are mostly drawn. Saudi oil money has been helpful in this regard.
Three kilometres outside Islamabad, in a small village under wooded hills, is the shrine of Bari Imam, a local saint. If anything is a symbol of religious tolerance, this is. On the portal to the tombs are engraved slogans for both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Outside, women light incense sticks and tie tinsel to a tree. Zaid Ahmed (25) a shop worker from the city, had cycled to the shrine to ask for help with a family problem. "The bombings in London are very bad," he said. "We believe in the brotherhood of man and that Islam does not allow the killing of innocents." Men alongside him nod in agreement. The worshippers at Bari Imam, whose rites would be considered anathema by more orthodox Muslims, represent Pakistan's silent majority: the two-thirds of the country who belong to the Barelvi school of Islam. There are hundreds of shrines like this throughout Pakistan but, as they are not political, few outside the country recognise their dominance.
They, too, know about violence. Earlier this year the head cleric at the shrine was killed by drug dealers after he objected to them selling opium and heroin. Last May a suicide bomber killed 20 people at the shrine gates during a Shia festival Sectarian groups behind the attack are thought to be linked to the second biggest strand of Islam in Pakistan: the Deobandis. The movement, named after the town in India where it was founded, are characterised by their best known adherents, the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. "They are everything the Barelvis are not," said Ershad Mahmud, of Islamabad's Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank. "Their clerics are very active and very clever, and have successfully pursued a long-term strategy that has made them very fast growing." A critical element in the Deobandis campaign is the madrassas, or religious schools.
Javed Ibrahim Parachar is a tribal leader, cleric and principal of three madrassas where 500 poor children are taught for free. A heavy set man with a large beard and shaven head, Parachar, a lawyer, has represented hundreds of suspected al-Qaeda militants. He says the Taliban in Afghanistan were the "best of all Muslims". "The bombing in Bari Imam was a very good action," he told The Observer at his many-roomed home in the town of Kohat. "So was 9/11 and so were the London bombs. They are killing our wives, our children, our Muslim brothers. Is there any law for Fallujah, Kabul, Chechnya, Palestine and Kashmir? It is all because of the Jews. They control the American and British governments through the economy." Parachar said the crackdown on madrassas "will be unsuccessful. How can they control our minds and our ideas?" he said, before embarking on another anti-semitic diatribe.
The Deobandis are firmly entrenched, particularly in west Pakistan where an alliance of religious parties runs two provinces and is pushing through Taliban-style legislation. It has access to massive funding from sympathisers in the Arabian Gulf which allows the parties to build hundreds of new schools and mosques each year. Many are constructed in Barelvi areas with the express intent of eradicating the more moderate strand. Yet the Barelvis are still 'a bulwark against radicalism' and arithmetic is on their side. The urban middle classes may be critical. Almost every hardline Islamic movement in recent times has been led by frustrated pharmacists, engineers, teachers and businessmen. Though they have made some inroads in cities, most such people remain resolutely moderate. "These things done in the name of Islam are shaming and they are bad for business," a money changer in Islamabad said. The main reason the Islamists have done so poorly in Pak elections is because the Barelvis don't give them any support, they tend to vote for whoever their land lord tells them too.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/24/2005 03:32 ||
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#1
"How can they control our minds and our ideas?" Easy 2 .45's center mass should do it.Course then thir minds would no linger be under my control,but I can live with that.
#2
Osama Bin Laden's involvement in Pakistan politics began after his meeting with Mullah Omar at Banuri Town, near Karachi. Banuri is the location of Pakistan's infamous Islamist Deobandi madrassa which was then led by the mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, called the author of more than 2,000 fatwas. It is from this nexus that the Deobandi/Wahabbi poison has spread.
The Iraq Army continues to be plagued by absenteeism and equipment shortages, but at a far lower level than that during 2004.
A U.S. Defense Department report said Iraqi military and security forces have achieved significant progress over the last year. The report said this has included the easing of equipment shortages and absenteeism.
"Although there is variance in the rate of absenteeism, AWOL [Absent-without-leave], attrition, and desertion among the Iraqi Army, rates have diminished significantly and are now around one percent for some divisions," the report said. "Still, unitsthat are conducting operations and units that relocate elsewhere in Iraq experience a surge in absenteeism."
The report said the Iraq Army has obtained 60 percent of its equipment authorization. The army has more than 100 percent of its AK-47 assault rifle requirements. In all, the army has 76,000 troops.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:45 ||
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...units that are conducting operations and units that relocate elsewhere in Iraq experience a surge in absenteeism."
In other news:
Water = wet
Pope = Catholic
Bears = well, you get the idea.
By the standards of this part of the world, the IA is turning in a stellar performance. Bear in mind that the Jundis (Iraqui for private) are for the most part semiliterate dirt farmers (in my A. O. at least) who are still getting used to the idea of honorable military service. They are in addition busy fighting a conflict that is halfway between a civil war and an insurgency.
In this light, the AWOL/desertion numbers are fantastic.
Posted by: N Guard ||
07/24/2005 6:56 Comments ||
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#2
Yes, but corruption is starting to take hold again like a cancer. It needs to be cut out early and rechecked often to avoid undermining the health of the body.
#3
During the American Revolution absenteeism was also a problem (as well as equipment shortages, of course). In doing genealogical research I commonly find reference to it. Actually, I find it during the Civil War as well. I don't have any statistics, and maybe it only seems common because it's one of the few things for which documents were created. On the other hand, maybe it really was common, and it was because being on home ground made it easy.
#4
being an all volenter force will make a huge differance in the long run.Instead of an army of reluctant conscripts they will have an army of dedicated,professional patriots.
#5
The Special Forces soldiers at Balad talked frankly about the pace of progress and challenges they face with training the new Iraqi forces. They recounted that many Iraqi soldiers and police officers are apparently losing much of their salaries to corrupt superiors who skim the payroll, leaving the soldiers and police to steal from civilians. This can be attributed to culture and custom and it's bound to disturb many people in the west.
Human rights campaigners in India's Gujarat state have condemned school textbooks which they say praise Hitler. The books are issued by the Hindu nationalist state government. One includes a chapter on the "internal achievements of Nazism".
A Jesuit priest and social activist, Cedric Prakash, says the books contain more than 300 factual errors and make little mention of the holocaust.
The Gujarat government has dismissed the charges as baseless. A senior official from the state education department told the BBC that anomalies arose when the book was translated from Gujarati into English, and are being quoted out of context.
That's quite a translation error.
The books, used to teach students aged 13 to 15, were introduced last year and have been reissued for the current school year. Father Prakash told AFP news agency: "We first researched the textbooks in 2004 and pointed out some glaringly distorted historical facts to the state education board.
"Despite protests from parents, peace activists and educationists, the updated school books still contain the same objectionable text this academic year." He said it was time to take the matter to court.
In the chapter entitled "Internal achievements of Nazism," one textbook quoted by AFP states: "Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time, establishing a strong administrative set-up."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:35 ||
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We have textbooks that praise Mao and Castro. What's the difference?
#2
I would be cautious about any complaints from the Indian leftists. Most are unreconstructed marxists and maoists and are experts at exageration, lying and deceit.
There is an entire university in Delhi - JNU - Nehru university full of these communist idiots.
Its graduates populate the Indian news media.
Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time, establishing a strong administrative set-up
Technically correct. He built Autobahns, gave germans pride etc. He salvaged their economy.
He was also an evil bastard.
I hope the textbooks explicity state this.
Posted by: john ||
07/24/2005 10:05 Comments ||
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#3
Ethical treatment of pets, vegetarianism, tobacco-free, the Volkswagen, the mini-bus, flower children... Forget that last one.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/24/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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#6
Not only is this a matter of historical record, its what I was taught in school in the UK in the 60s. Whilst the demonization of the Nazis was understandable after WW2 and in light of what was done to the Jews and others, the continued mantra of Nazi = evil, is needed by the Left in order to deflect attention from the equal or worse horrors of socialism in the 20th century.
#7
When I was in history class there was a lot about American atrocities and the faults of capitalism but only briefly touched on Stalin and I don't recall them making a point of the atrocities. And of course the WWII home front unit focused on the detention of Japanese. Nary a word on blackout drills or Victory Gardens. And nothing about the Rape of Nanking. We did watch Schindler's List though(Good thing it was 3rd period, not fifth).
Taliban-led rebels have been hit so hard recently they are being forced to recruit children and their command structure has been fractured, a U.S. commander said Saturday despite a recent surge in violence.
Despite the setback -- more than 500 rebels have been killed since March -- militants are likely to step up attacks in the lead-up to crucial September 18 legislative elections, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya told The Associated Press in an interview.
"The Taliban and al Qaeda feel that this is their final chance to impede Afghanistan's progress to ... becoming a nation," said Kamiya, the U.S. military operational commander in Afghanistan. "They will challenge us all the way through September 18."
But he said the ranks of Taliban in some areas have been so devastated by heavy fighting that the rebels are forcing families "to give up one son to fight."
"They have been hit so hard they now have to recruit more fighters. They are recruiting younger and younger fighters: 14, 15 and 16 years-old," Kamiya said. "The enemy is having a hard time keeping its recruit rates up."
He said part of the reason the rebels have suffered such unprecedented losses recently was that they have been caught gathering in large groups three times and pounded by airstrikes and ground forces. Some 170 suspected insurgents were killed in a weeklong battle in June in a mountainous militant hide-out.
"There is no (rebel) organizational chain of command ... because we have succeeded thus far in disrupting their means to regroup and conduct a coordinated attack," Kamiya said. "They can no longer move around with impunity."
His comments came despite Afghanistan's government warning that the Taliban and al Qaeda have launched a campaign to subvert the elections -- the next step toward democracy after a quarter century of fighting.
Last month, militants in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, ambushed a U.S. Navy SEAL team killing three commandos, and hours later shot down a special forces helicopter with 16 troops on board. It was the deadliest loss for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban in 2001. (Full story)
Hundreds of Afghans also have been killed in recent months in near-daily ambushes, bombings and execution-style killings. The increase in violence has prompted local politicians and international observers to caution that three years of progress toward peace was threatened.
Kamiya's warning that children are being recruited into the Taliban comes two days after the United Nations said that most of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan would have been demobilized and enrolled in education programs by the end of this year.
But the program has focused largely on areas beside the country's southern and eastern regions, where the Taliban are strongest.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 02:01 ||
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Car bombs at an Egyptian resort, explosions in London subways and suicide blasts in Baghdad: the terror war seems to be drawing from an ever-growing pool of recruits bound by motives and cause rather than a single Al Qaeda mastermind, terror experts say.
With havens in Afghanistan under pressure and their finances under scrutiny, militants may take philosophical guidance from the likes of Osama bin Laden, but rely largely on themselves to carry out operations, experts surveyed by The Associated Press say.
âThey all want to be part of this phenomenon,â said Loretta Napoleoni, author of âTerror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networksâ as she explained the terror wave. âItâs not like someone is telling (the militants), âYou bomb on the first of July.â â
Though the attack Saturday in Egypt came only two weeks after bombs exploded on three subway lines and a bus in London killed 52 people, the Sharm el-Sheik operation would have been months in the making, experts said. The resort city is believed to be one of the safest places in the country - a factor, which would have made it harder to carry out any attack without surveillance, expertise and planning.
âFor an attack of this size and nature to happen in such a regionally important center destroys the image of its tight security and sends a clear message to authorities that they can be hit anywhere,â said Egyptian terrorism expert Diaâa Rashwan. âWe canât blame a small, amateurish group for this.â
However, the attackers may have taken note of the London attacks and opted to accelerate their plans of attack - hoping to make people even more afraid and the terror more widespread.
âItâs more about the timing - to overwhelm the West,â said Magnus Ranstorp, Director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He said the idea may have been to âoverstretch the enemy.â
Ranstorp said few definitive links between the attacks in London and Egypt were likely, in part because Al Qaeda itself has been long been divided into two camps - one which favored targets on secular regimes in the Middle East while the other favored targets in the West.
Whatâs more, no Arabs have been identified as having taken part in the London attacks. Three Britons of Pakistani descent and a Briton of Jamaican descent have been identified as the suspected suicide bombers in what has been seen as a âhomegrownâ operation.
However, a strange twist in the Egyptian bombing investigation suggested that while all the attacks might not be related, some of them might be.
A new video by Al Qaeda in Iraq showing a missing Egyptian envoy offered a justification for Islamic militants to focus on the Sinai, saying that Egypt lets Israelis âdesecrateâ the peninsula by entering a coastal strip stretching from Taba to Sharm.
The tape, which shows Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif, who was kidnapped this month and reportedly killed, did not mention Saturdayâs attacks in Egypt, but its release on the day of the bombings was noteworthy.
Even so, the spate of bombings - or attempted bombings - in London and Egypt can be seen as an attempt to demonstrate Al Qaedaâs prowess in the face of the US-led war on terrorism, said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at Dubai-based think-tank, the Gulf Research Center.
âTheyâre saying this war is not winnable,â Alani said. âIf you look at the map of Al Qaeda operations, they stretch from London to Bali to Istanbul to Mombasa to Saudi Arabia and Iraq.â
The devastating blasts are likely meant as revenge for Western involvement in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Alani said.
The message to Westerners is, âYou are not safe anywhere as long as your government is involved in this unjust war.â
Though US President George W. Bushâs administration argued that it was necessary to defeat the insurgents in Iraq to prevent them from being able to launch attacks on Western targets, the war has instead turned into a recruiting tool, experts said.
The constant images on Arab television networks like Al-Jazeera of dead and dying civilians - coupled with US soldiers conducting operations - has only heightened sensitivities.
âIraq has been an absolute gift to Al Qaeda,â said Paul Rogers, a professor of peace studies at Bradford University in northern England. â(Al Qaeda) seems to have no difficulty in getting more and more recruits.â
In the longer term, the attackers seek to physically isolate Muslims and the West, Alani said. Some isolation will occur if the terrorists keep up their assaults.
âAmericans will not go to the Middle East anymore. Europeans will find different destinations,â he said. âAnd Middle Easterners will be very careful in going to the West.â
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chairs the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, told reporters the fresh attacks only underline the need to study the root causes of violence.
âThe whole world is getting very disturbed. The frequency (of terrorist attacks) seems to be mounting,â he said. âYou just cannot tell these people (the terrorists) to stop.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 01:59 ||
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With only three weeks left before a deadline to complete a draft of Iraq's new constitution, work stopped Saturday on the toughest unresolved issues in the charter while Shiite and Kurdish politicians tried to end a Sunni Arab boycott of the process, delegates said.
A leading Sunni in the constitution talks, Salih Mutlaq, said the Shiites and Kurds had agreed to all but one of his bloc's demands, an international investigation into the assassination Tuesday of a Sunni member of the constitution drafting committee.
The unsolved fatal shooting of Mijbil Esa triggered a walkout by all Sunnis at the talks. Mutlaq has accused the Shiite- and Kurdish-led government of a role in the killing. But he said the Sunnis could return as soon as Sunday if the final demand is met.
"We do not want the constitution to be written by others, and we do not want to be away from the political process,'' Mutlaq said. "They must act quickly, because if we return late, there is no meaning for our return.''
Lawmakers in Iraq's interim government have committed themselves to having a draft constitution approved by Aug. 15 and a referendum on the document by Oct. 15. Delegates said they must formally notify parliament by Aug. 1 if they are going to miss the deadline.
Finishing the draft constitution on time is seen by U.S. officials and many Iraqis as vital to countering Iraq's insurgents, whose attacks have eroded public confidence in the U.S.-backed government. But including the Sunni minority in framing the constitution is seen as equally important, as a way to draw Sunnis away from the insurgency.
On Saturday, Shiites and Kurds drafting the constitution decided to postpone debate on major unresolved issues, including federalism, said Ali Dabbagh, a Shiite Arab on the constitutional committee.
Kurds and Shiites are urging a strong federal system that would shift power from Baghdad to the provinces, particularly Iraq's Kurdish north and Shiite south.
Jalaladeen Sagheer, a top Shiite member of the constitution committee, said Sunnis wrongly believe federalism is "a step toward the fragmentation of the country."
In an interview in the southern Shiite city of Najaf, Sagheer accused Sunnis of prolonging their boycott in hopes of squelching debate on federalism.
"They say they will not come back until the question of federalism, which is a major demand by the Shiites and the Kurds, is removed,'' the Shiite cleric said. But he said the issue should be resolved "through dialogue and persuasion, not pressure.''
Also Saturday, committee member Bahaa Al Arajy said the panel had rejected a Kurdish demand that the constitution specify a right to a Kurdish vote on independence in eight years. Iraq's northern Kurdistan region already is largely autonomous.
Meanwhile, a statement posted on the Internet and attributed to al Qaeda in Iraq, asserted responsibility for kidnapping two Algerian diplomats who were seized at gunpoint in Baghdad Thursday. The attack was the latest of several targeting Middle Eastern diplomats in Baghdad.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said some envoys have refused to have Iraqi guards or police escorts. The Iraqi defense and interior ministers will meet Sunday on security issues "including the protection of diplomats and the country,'' Talabani said.
Talabani spoke to reporters at his home alongside the new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, pledging, "We will cooperate to defeat the terrorists."
"Iraq will succeed,'' Khalilzad said.
Insurgent attacks reported Saturday included the killings of three policemen in Fallujah and of an Interior Ministry employee, news agencies reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 01:48 ||
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Interesting! Looks like the Shiias have bought into federalism. Since they and the Kurds have all the oil, it rather leaves the Sunnis SOL. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.
#3
They have been given every chance to participate but the Sunni just don't get it. They are about to in a big way if they impeed the adoption of a new constutition and government.
I tink the Shiites and Kurds will at sopme point say forget it and leave them to their own ends.
THE evil shadow of terrorism cast its dark light across the world last night, with a series of bomb attacks in Egypt killing at least 83 and injuring more than 200.
An al-Qaeda-linked group has claimed it was responsible for the multiple bombings in the Red Sea tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Thirty-five of the injured, 23 of them in a critical condition, have been taken to Cairo for treatment.
At least three bomb blasts ripped through the luxury Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, a nearby car park and a busy market shortly before 1am.
In the most devastating of the strikes, a suicide bomber rammed his car through a security barrier and into the lobby of the hotel, killing at least 30, mostly Egyptian staff. Guests were feared to have been trapped in the rubble.
Along with Egyptians, the dead or wounded include 13 Italians, five Britons, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Saudis, Qataris, Kuwaitis and other nationalities, police said.
Two Australians were among the survivors. It is not known if there were any Australian fatalities.
Yesterday's attack was the worst on a tourist area of Egypt since 58 tourists were killed at an ancient temple near Luxor in 1997.
The explosion turned cars into skeletons of twisted metal, blew down masonry on nearby buildings and shattered windows for hundreds of metres around.
US Secretary of State Condol- eezza Rice led international condemnation of the bombings.
"I condemn the horrific terrorist bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh," she said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and innocent victims from many nations who suffered in this senseless attack."
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan expressed his "sorrow and anger" at the bombings.
In London, police engaged in one of the biggest manhunts in British history arrested a second man last night in relation to last week's failed bomb attacks.
Scotland Yard said the man had been arrested in Stockwell, the south London neighbourhood where another suspect was detained yesterday and a man was shot dead by police in a railway station.
The first suspect, who has not been named, was being questioned at a high-security police station.
Hundreds of armed officers conducted raids across a city haunted by the echoes of 24-hour sirens.
The search for the four suspects follows revelations that the man shot dead in front of horrified passengers on the London Underground was not one of the men wanted for last Thursday's failed attempt to repeat the July 7 bombings, which killed 56 commuters.
London's Metropolitan Police expressed their "deep regret" for the shooting of the unidentified man.
It was confirmed that the dead man was not one of the bombers on the run, but senior police stressed that he had been a potential threat.
The dead man was wearing a thick blue overcoat on a warm, sultry summer day, and that probably signed his death warrant.
No bomb was found on the man's body, although one witness claimed to have seen wires coming from the overcoat.
As Britons began to fear their country might be in for a sustained series of attacks, London police chief Sir Ian Blair said his force faced the greatest operational challenge in its history.
"This is a very, very fast-moving investigation," Sir Ian said.
"We are facing previously unknown threats and great danger."
There are now fears the terrorist cell or cells are far more extensive than initially believed.
Yesterday, investigators were checking hundreds of telephone numbers linked to the bombers.
Forensic investigations have confirmed the link between Thursday's failed bombing and those on July 7.
In London, Prime Minister John Howard said Australia's Islamic leaders must do more to stamp out extremism and intolerance within their communities.
Mr Howard said he was happy to hold a summit with Australian Islamic leaders, but only on the basis "that we are talking as Australians together".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/24/2005 01:45 ||
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#1
How come such good friends of "palestinian People" as Egypt and UK have to fear Islamic terrorism?
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd led world leaders yesterday in condemning the terrorist attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh. The king sent his condolences to President Hosni Mubarak and called for rooting out those who seek to spread corruption. Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, sent similar messages to the Egyptian leader. The Kingdom strongly condemned the attacks and declared its full backing to Egypt and the international community in the war against terrorism. An official source quoted by the Saudi Press Agency said terrorism knows no religion or country and is only bent on destroying and killing.
The Makkah-based Muslim World League condemned the attacks, saying Islam rejects such acts and forbids the killing of the innocent. MWL Secretary-General Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Turki said the attacks were part of an international terrorist campaign and declared MWL readiness to work with the international community to fight violence and terrorism which he said does not belong to any particular religion.
The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference described the attacks as criminal and evil acts that contradict Islamic teachings and human values.
The White House denounced the attacks. âThe United States stands firmly with the people of Egypt at this time of national mourning,â White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement.
This is all pretty much pro-forma. You have an attack like this, you send condolences. What'll be a lot more important will be the amount and type of assistance and cooperation that's rendered.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Did I miss the similar 'outcry' from 7/07? Or is the difference that Egypt did not participate in Iraq? I've heard that BS so often, I was almost starting to believe it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2005 8:32 Comments ||
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#2
I'm very very sorry that there are any Egyptians in Sharm.
A short phrase which may or not be in the new Iraqi constitution has turned into a behind-the-scenes battleground over womenâs rights that activists say could define what kind of society Iraq will become. Whatever else was wrong with Iraq under Saddam Husseinâs secular nationalist Baath Party, it provided some of the strongest protections for womenâs rights in the Arab world. But womenâs activists say they fear the new authorities will give more priority to religious law, stripping women of rights â above all, of the right to resort to civil courts to protect themselves in divorce and child custody cases. âWe want to establish a country with a law that is devoted to equality between men and women,â lawyer and womenâs rights activist Tameem Al-Azawi told Reuters. âWe fear the new constitution would not let courts give women their rights.â Iraqi lawmakers have been busy drafting a new constitution which they are due to deliver on Aug. 15 for the country to vote on in a referendum in October.
So far no drafts have officially been made public. But while negotiations go on behind closed doors, womenâs groups have released what they say is a version that contained language revoking womenâs right to contest divorce cases in court. Instead, family disputes would be decided by religious law within a familyâs community. âWe want to see a divorce law similar to that in the West, which is not religious and applies to everyone regardless of their sect,â said leading womenâs activist Suham Al-Hassani.
The leaked draft led to a demonstration by womenâs activists in Baghdad, a story in the New York Times that became a major talking point in Washington, and stern words from US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. âI personally believe that any country that does not include half of their population in a reasonable way is making a terrible mistake,â Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.
Officials involved in the drafting were quick to offer reassurance that they had no such plans. Humam Hamoudi, head of the constitutional drafting committee, told a news conference the question of which courts would decide family cases would be decided by Parliament under regular laws and not by the constitution itself. Hamoudi said the role of Islam in the constitution would be similar to that in Iraqâs current Temporary Administrative Law, or TAL, drafting of which was overseen by the United States and Britain, which the constitution is intended to replace. The TAL explicitly excluded a line â called article 137 â that would have turned over family matters to religious courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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" It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
Please won't you be my neighbor?"
Pak-Afghan Border Guards at Torkham has impose ban on the entry of Afghan trucks, a step that led to long queues of heavy vehicles parked on both sides of the road. The restriction comes hard on the heels of a 10-day protest by Pakistani truckers against the attitude of Afghan officials, who allegedly tease them on their way to Kabul.
"O Allan, not the teasing, surely!"
Beginning their protest from July 10, many Pakistani drivers staged a noisy demonstration in Khyber Agency to denounce the hurdles created to their loaded vehicles by Afghan police.
They chanted slogans against Afghan authorities and hurled stones at the vehicles plying the road in the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal region. But Sher Ahmad, an Afghan police official in the border town, justified the roadblocks placed in Sarobi to test the trucksâ roadworthiness before they reached the bumpy mountain road. âVehicles that manage to clear the hurdles are allowed to go ahead.â He admitted the vehicles failing to climb the mound were sent back to Torkham because they could not ply the Lata Band Road, zigzagging through a long range of mountains. However, the weird arrangement has infuriated the Pakistani drivers, who have parked nearly 2,000 trucks on both sides of the road, long lines stretching from Ali Masjid to the Torkham border town. Pakistani border officials implied the ban on Afghan truckersâ entry had been imposed in retaliation for unnecessary problems created for Pakistani drivers and transporters. âThe ban went into effect from Thursday and will remain in place as long as the two governments reach an agreement on how to deal with the situation,â said Bakhtiar Momand, Torkhamâs Assistant Political Agent.
Oh, and by the way, doesn't it seem to you that the Afghans are the ones being the adults here? They correctly check the incoming trucks to make sure they won't have to haul them out of the mountain passes by donkey caravan, and the Paks make faces, chant slogans and throw rocks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
So if Mubarak guarantees stability, and all hell breaks loose, what then? Does he forfeit his life, like Lord Jim, or do we all get our money back, or what?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/24/2005 0:44 Comments ||
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#2
If you think Egypt is unstable now, wait until Mubarak Jr, becomes the Rais.
A prominent Sunni cleric yesterday denounced Kurdish proposals to transform Iraq into a federal state as a plot to deny other Iraqis "our wealth and resources".
"That's right! It's a plot! A conspiracy, hatched in a back room, among dark men of sinister visage! I seen it!"
"There are conspiracies being prepared to deny us our wealth and resources," Shaikh Mahmoud Al Sumaidaie told worshippers during a sermon at the Umm Al Qura mosque. "We don't want a constitution that leads to the division of the country. We are hearing cries for federalism, cries of those who are not honest to this country."
"... Cries of those we used to rule with an iron hand!"
The Kurds want a federal system to make sure they continue to govern themselves in the Kurdish heartland of the north, where they have enjoyed self-rule since 1991. Some Shiites have also proposed a Shiite regional, autonomous region in the south. But many Sunnis believe federalism is a first step to divide the nation. Most of Iraq's oil wealth is in the north and the mostly Shiite south.
Hmmm... Ain't that a coincidence?
"I want to say to those who want to change the identity of our Islamic country that people of this country are brothers," Al Sumaidaie said. "Iraq will remain the country of all Iraqis Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Turkomen."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2005 00:00 ||
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You have the Kurds in the North, who have been making something of themselves for a long time. You have those in the south, that have been trying to get it together, and then you have the Sunnis in the triangular middle, which have been committing murder and mayhem and Sh*tting in their messkits (who will have nothing but pounding sand if the country is split up).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/24/2005 0:53 Comments ||
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#2
But many Sunnis believe federalism is a first step to divide the nation. Most of Iraq's oil wealth is in the north and the mostly Shiite south.
As long as your kin keep trying to kill as many civilians as possible, that possibility comes ever closer.
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The Kingdomâs nominee for ambassador to the United States said he would try to bridge a âgapâ in relations and defend compatriots accused of complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks. âOpinion polls... suggest that there is a big gap between the two peoples resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001,â in which 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi, Prince Turki Al-Faisal said. âHence, one of my top priorities there will be to bridge this gap between the two peoples... building on Crown Prince Abdullahâs (April) visit to the United States, which was successful by all standards.â
Yemeni security forces backed by tanks surrounded mosques and government buildings yesterday to thwart fresh protests after two days of rioting over fuel price increases killed more than 20 people. The increase, which went into effect on Wednesday, set off the country's worst riots since 1998 and drew fire from opposition parties and a leading cleric.
Jordan and Britain will soon sign a memorandum of understanding on the joint-extradition of wanted people between both countries, Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yirfas said yesterday. Jordan and Britain have been discussing an extradition agreement for more than one year and Jordan's Cabinet will be called on soon to ratify it, said Yirfas. "The two countries ministries of interior have finalised recently the memorandum of understanding and I will submit it soon to the Cabinet to endorse it," he said. But the minister declined to say whether a wanted Palestinian extremist living in Britain, 
The Prime Minister says the Government will not undermine Australia's fundamental freedoms to protect national security. John Howard says the Australian way of life is what fundamentalist terrorists seek to destroy and the Government must do whatever it can in its power to stop an attack. Mr Howard has responded to concerns that introducing new laws to stop radical preaching or inciting terrorism will limit Australia's basic freedoms.
The Sydney leader of a controversial Islamic group under investigation over the London bombings says it preaches non-violence. It has been reported that the group Hizb ut-Tahrir is being investigated by the British Home Office for having links to one of the bombers. 
CAIRO - The trial of three Egyptians charged in last Octoberâs Sinai bombings continued on Sunday in Ismailia, north of Cairo, with a court decision to adjourn to mid-August, MENA news agency reported. The decision to adjourn was to allow the prosecution and defence to call 29 witnesses to testify in court.
The coward barbarian attack that targeted tourists in Sharm el-Sheikh resort will give Egypt the full insistence to combat terrorism any way, any where. 
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd led world leaders yesterday in condemning the terrorist attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh. The king sent his condolences to President Hosni Mubarak and called for rooting out those who seek to spread corruption. Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, sent similar messages to the Egyptian leader. The Kingdom strongly condemned the attacks and declared its full backing to Egypt and the international community in the war against terrorism. An official source quoted by the Saudi Press Agency said terrorism knows no religion or country and is only bent on destroying and killing.
A short phrase which may or not be in the new Iraqi constitution has turned into a behind-the-scenes battleground over womenâs rights that activists say could define what kind of society Iraq will become. Whatever else was wrong with Iraq under Saddam Husseinâs secular nationalist Baath Party, it provided some of the strongest protections for womenâs rights in the Arab world. But womenâs activists say they fear the new authorities will give more priority to religious law, stripping women of rights â above all, of the right to resort to civil courts to protect themselves in divorce and child custody cases. âWe want to establish a country with a law that is devoted to equality between men and women,â lawyer and womenâs rights activist Tameem Al-Azawi told Reuters. âWe fear the new constitution would not let courts give women their rights.â Iraqi lawmakers have been busy drafting a new constitution which they are due to deliver on Aug. 15 for the country to vote on in a referendum in October.
A prominent Sunni cleric yesterday denounced Kurdish proposals to transform Iraq into a federal state as a plot to deny other Iraqis "our wealth and resources". 
