In Indonesia, the struggle within Islam
By Tom McCawley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Decent article related to the fight for muslim souls in Indonesia. My money is on the samurai sword weilding lunatic fanatics winning this battle in the end.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Here in the world's largest Muslim country a war of ideas within Islam is playing out on an unlikely stage: a bohemian arts community in a crowded Jakarta side street. The patrons of the Utan Kayu Theater, including some of Indonesia's leading novelists and writers, normally gather to discuss such topics as avant-garde art or prewar Russian cinema.
But in recent weeks, a fierce debate over how Muslims should be allowed to worship, marry, and even think has caught the theater in its crossfire. Hard-line Muslim groups have been threatening to evict the Liberal Islam Network, a small group of intellectuals known as JIL, from their offices in the theater complex by the beginning of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan - Wednesday.
The struggle, observers say, is not only over how to interpret Islam's 1,400-year-old holy book, the Koran, but what role it will play in Indonesia's future. The tensions are driving a rising confrontation between liberals and an alliance of conservative and radical groups. Conservative=Radical
JIL's crime, according to the white-robed vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front, is spreading liberal ideas about Islam. "The intellectual fight has turned physical," says Nong Darol Mahmada, a female JIL member, telling of death threats by telephone. "The hard-line conservatives are getting more powerful." So stop pussy footing around and get an AK for yourself!
The Islamic Defenders, famous for attacking cafes with samurai swords, have also tried to recruit nearby poor residents to help evict JIL and its supporters, including a radio station and media think tank. JIL is preparing lawyers, and plans to seek protection from the courts. Sounds like an easily identifiable group of JDAM targets to me.
The threats from the Islamic Defenders follow a series of fatwas, or religious edicts, from Indonesia's powerful Islamic scholar's council, the MUI. On July 29, the council issued fatwas condemning "liberalism, secularism, and pluralism." As well as chewing gum, feminine hygeine products and toothpaste The 11 fatwas, read to a meeting of 400 Islamic scholars from across the country, also condemn inter-faith prayers and marriages between religions.
Growing power of conservative Islam
JIL activists say that fatwas mark the growing power of ultra-conservative Islam, a movement that unites both elected politicians and street vigilantes. Supporters of the fatwas say they are following their duty to protect Islam from the threat of globalization and Western ideas.
"The liberals think everything is open to interpretation," said Ma'ruf Amin, head of the MUI's fatwa commission, "and that clashes with Islamic teachings."
Syafi'i Ma'arif, former chairman of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, the 30-million strong Muhammadiyah, warned reporters that: "the fatwas will embolden hard-line, power-hungry groups." Since July 29 an alliance of Muslim vigilante groups, the Anti-Apostasy Movement, has stepped up a campaign to get rid of informal prayer groups and churches, causing a total of 23 to close within a year.
Mobs have also attacked the houses and mosques of the 200-member Ahmadiyah, a Muslim sect, declared by the fatwas to be "deviant," because they recognize their founder to be Islam's last prophet instead of Muhammad. In an interview, the MUI's Mr. Ma'ruf tut-tuts over the closures, condemning violence, but noting that "the churches didn't have permits."
Since its arrival from the Middle East in the 11th century, Islam has nestled alongside older Hindu, Buddhist, and animist practices. Only a tiny, violent fringe openly supports terrorist attacks such as last weekend's suicide attack in Bali that left at least 26 dead and 100 hundred injured.
Most of Indonesia's 193 million Muslims - 88 percent of the population - practice a moderate form of Islam. Muslim Indonesians often give their children Hindu names, and religious minorities such as Christians are protected under the constitution.
JIL's founders say the group was formed in 2001 to protect this spirit of tolerance through its activism, radio broadcasts, and newspaper articles. "We just want to be able to discuss religion in the same way you can discuss art or politics," says JIL coordinator Hamid Basyaib.
JIL's mission statement says the group believes in ijtihad, or the application of reason to interpreting Islamic texts. The use of ijtihad, Mr. Hamid says, has led its members away from a literal interpretation of the Koran and toward support for the separation of mosque and state.
The group has also offended conservatives by arguing that truth is relative and that other religious faiths are equal to Islam. Even worse, say hardliners, is JIL's support for the "freedom of belief," including the right not to be religious.
Mr. Hamid also rejects criticism that liberal Islam is an American import, claiming the group draws on an ancient tradition of Islamic scholarship stretching to thinkers in the 14th century.
JIL part of wider liberal network And you thought liberals were always bad.
Mr. Ma'ruf says that JIL is just part of a much wider network that includes several major state universities. He also warns liberalism has gained ground in the world's two largest Muslim organizations, the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the 30-million strong Muhammadiyah. "Some things, some passages, [in the Koran], are beyond question," he says from NU's headquarters. "It is heretical to question the literal word of God," he says.
But JIL activist Abdul Moqsith Ghazali claims the NU and the Muhammadiyah are showing signs of shifting in a conservative direction, pointing to the influx of students who graduated from Middle Eastern universities in the 1980s.
Senior members of both organizations supported the July 28 fatwas. "There's a rising tide of Islamic conservatism [in Indonesia]" says Greg Barton, an associate professor at Australia's Deakin University and scholar of Indonesian Islam.
"These people have been working for over a decade and only now are beginning to see the fruits of their labors," says Mr. Barton.
Back at the Utan Kayu Theater, Ms. Nong breathes a sigh of relief, after promises from nearby community leaders to support JIL. The group, along with the radio station, is safe for the time being. "We've won in this neighborhood," she says. "But the war of ideas will continue."
Turki ibn Khaled Al-Sudairi, who previously worked as a state minister and Cabinet member for eight years, has been appointed chairman of the Human Rights Commission, an independent rights watchdog recently set up by the government. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah made the appointment by royal decree, the Saudi Press Agency said, adding that Sudairi would have the rank of a minister. The Cabinet approved the new human rights commission, which will be under the supervision of the prime minister (the king) on Sept. 12, 2005. The body is directed to âprotect human rights and create awareness about them ... in keeping with the provisions of Islamic law,â SPA said.
The loophole here is that one must be recognized to *be* human before one may have any rights...
The commissionâs board will include at least 18 full-time members and six part-time members, SPA added. The king will name the board members for a four-year renewable term.
#2
Hmmm. Note the name: al-Sudairi - as in the Seven Brothers of the Sudairi clan (Fahd, Sultan, Nayef, Turki, etc). Kingy Abdullah (of the al Shammari clan with no full brothers) is tossing a gesture their way, methinks.
Certainly, this HR position (lol) is nothing more than window dressing. The real fun will begin, assuming SA doesn't dissolve before then, when Abdullah kicks the bucket. The third generation (Bandar, Faisal, etc) is chock-full of Western educated goofs - some of whom seem to be nursing serious inferiority complexes. Doh!
the way Saudis value human rights, Ima thinkr that gesture has one middle finger up
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2005 17:29 Comments ||
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#4
Will chicks get to drive in Saudi? If so, I wouldn't mind if they arrest them if they drive putting on makeup, talking on cell phone, and swatting at their kids in the back seat all at the same time like they do on I-4 every morning.
British prison officers who wore a St. George's Cross tie-pin have been ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol's racist connotations.
The pins showing the English flag -- which has often raised hackles due to its connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries -- could be "misconstrued," Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said in a section on race in a report on a jail in the northern English city of Wakefield.
The banner of St. George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims, and later became the national flag of England.
A section on race relations in Owers' report said: "We were concerned to see a number of staff wearing a flag of St. George tie-pin.
"While we were told that these had been bought in support of a cancer charity there was clear scope for misinterpretation, and Prison Service Orders made clear that unauthorized badges and pins should not be worn."
As one of her formal recommendations Owers said: "Staff should not wear unauthorized badges or pins."
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said Tuesday the red cross was an insensitive reminder of the Crusades.
"A lot of Muslims and Arabs view the Crusades as a bloody episode in our history," he told CNN. "They see those campaigns as Christendom launching a brutal holy war against Islam.
"Muslim or Arab prisoners could take umbrage if staff wore a red cross badge. It's also got associations with the far-right. Prison officers should be seen to be neutral."
Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron saint who is "not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with."
Hey, since the George Cross is also a part of the British flag, should the flag be banned, also?
Idiots! Bending over backwards to surrender every bit of history and tradition in order not to offend some narrow-minded, bigoted, insensitive MUSLIM PRISONER.
This lady needs to have to look for a new job - in Indonesia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/04/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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#2
So the inmates actually do run the asylum over there?
Nice.
#3
Hey, since the George Cross is also a part of the British flag, should the flag be banned, also?
Hey OP, we're already there:
Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron saint who is "not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with."
#4
Dhimmis need to be beaten out of power, "physically" preferred
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2005 18:12 Comments ||
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#5
This should actually be a shot in the arm to the "St Georges" movement over there. It is not a racist movement, just a recognition that since there is no longer a Britain, England exists again.
It is a middle-class movement, and as such, it wields a great deal of influence in the manner of a silent majority. The politician who is able to raise St Georges, while avoiding racist overtones, will be swept into power, eventually.
#6
I've got a better idea. Let this Doyle (and fellow travellers) move to a moslem country. No problem of a cross on the flag there.
Tranzi moron.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/04/2005 18:13 Comments ||
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#7
If muslims are offended by the Christian symbols perhaps they should stay out of predomoninantly Christian lands. No sympathy. Go home and fix your own countries you ingrateful bastards.
#8
Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron saint who is "not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with."
Yes, by all means, find a CHRISTIAN saint that MUSLIMS can identify with. Apparently, the more cognitive dissonance one has, the better.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/04/2005 4:43 Comments ||
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#2
To grant it would prove to a skeptical Muslim world that when Europe talks about embracing diversity, it means exactly what it says.
In other words, we'll kill ourselves, we mean it! What drivel. Since when does the Muslim world care about diversity? They only care about unity: Dar al-Islam (which is what Europe would soon become if Turkey were admitted).
#3
What if for a change it would be the Muslims who took a step towards the West? Like paying reparations to Armenians and other people who suffered under Muslim rule, eunuking husbands of burka-wearing women or by strapping explosives to imams preaching Jihad.
#4
Since the whole point of the EU-Turkey talks is to string the Turks along while putting ever more obstacles in the way of their ascension to the Union, can someone explain to me how is this going to help relations?
The U.S. Forces Korea are reportedly mulling additional troop cuts after Seoul announced it will trim its own forces down from 680,000 to 500,000 by the year 2020. "When the government announced its plans to cut 180,000 men from the armed forces, the USFK internally started to acknowledge the need for cuts as well,â� a high-ranking government source said Monday.
The source said there were some among USFK brass who wonder whether there is any point maintaining the substantial American contingent here to deter the North Korean threat even as South Korea is slimming down its forces.
Personnel cuts got under way after the two allies agreed last October to a 12,500-man reduction in USFK fighting strength -- from 37,000 to around 24,500 -- by 2008. Some in the U.S. military are said to be concerned that Koreaââ¬â¢s own troop reductions could leave the Pentagon without a case to argue in the event the U.S. Congress demands additional withdrawal of troops from Korea.
The source said the U.S. was sensitive about troop cuts and had expressed unease that South Korea did not consult it last year before deciding to cut 40,000 troops by 2008.
However, a USFK insider said, "No one has brought the issue of further troop reductions up for discussion yet, so at this point it is impossible to foresee what changes will really happen after 2008.â�
#2
According to a recent article on www.strategypage.com, we're planning on reducing U.S. Army forces in Korea to a single brigade combat team. Any smaller than that and we may as well pull out entirely.
Posted by: Pat Phillips ||
10/04/2005 12:29 Comments ||
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#3
Pull them all out, now. No need to stay.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/04/2005 12:31 Comments ||
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#4
The source said the U.S. was sensitive about troop cuts and had expressed unease that South Korea did not consult it last year before deciding to cut 40,000 troops by 2008.
Not a problem. Take ALL U.S. troops out of SK immediately, and without any "consulting" to boot. If they can do it, we can do it.
#5
If nothing else, it (pulling out completely) sends a message to others who like to bitch and moan about our presence, yet expect us to protect them. Don't even leave cab fare on the dresser
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2005 12:56 Comments ||
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#6
Have all the American troops cleared Germany yet? Guess not being white anglo-saxon means less commitment. Fair trade, US troops out of Korea, Korean troops [third largest of the Coalition force] out of Iraq. Comparing the number of German troops in Iraq, it won't be a problem.
#8
While the Koreans should have consulted with us, there is less here than meets the eye.
There is universal conscription in South Korea, and as they have improved the professionalism of their forces and their technological edge over the Nuts of the North, their desire for draftees has diminished.
#11
Have all the American troops cleared Germany yet? Guess not being white anglo-saxon means less commitment.
When Korea can support Middle-East operations with an airbase like Ramstein and a hospital like Landstuhl (and help pay for their operation), then you can start making comparisons between the two.
#12
When the Norkies implode and go democratic, then America can bring the troops home - until then, all we're doing by pulling back is helping waffling dialecticist Commie Fascists = Fascist Communists Chicoms and anti-American American SOcialist RINO's take over Japan, Asia, and PACRIM. The Chicoms want Japan, the Philippines, SE + SW Asia, PACRIM-MIcronesia, and HAWAII iff they can get it.
A peace plan in Algeria should be considered by the Government when it decides on the Ahmed Zaoui case, National's Tony Ryall says.
Mr Zaoui, a former Algerian MP, fled to this country in 2003 and was held in prison for two years after the Security Intelligence Service declared him a threat to national security.
He was declared a genuine refugee by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority two years ago but only freed on bail in December by the Supreme Court.
Last month Algerians voted overwhelmingly to approve a peace plan granting amnesty to many of the country's Islamic extremists, an attempt to turn the page on a brutal insurgency that has left an estimated 150,000 dead.
Immigration Minister Paul Swain has indicated that no decision will be made on the case until the Inspector-General of Security Justice, Paul Neazor, has finished reviewing the evidence that caused the SIS to declare Mr Zaoui a threat to national security.
Mr Ryall said the amnesty should be considered.
"If Algeria is moving into a period of national reconciliation, where they are welcoming back those who were previously involved in politics, then there is no impediment for the return of Mr Zaoui back to his homeland," Mr Ryall told National Radio.
Mr Zaoui's lawyer Deborah Manning said the amnesty was no protection.
"It's not going to be safe for Mr Zaoui to go back to Algeria because this amnesty essentially applies for military generals and is giving them impunity for the gross human rights abuses that they committed in the last decade," she said also on National Radio.
"These are the people who threatened Mr Zaoui and if anything they have been given more impunity."
Mr Zaoui felt the amnesty was shallow and lacked consultation with opposition parties, she said.
Green MP Keith Locke agreed.
"They might think they are still above the law and there's no consequence."
In July Ms Manning visited Mr Zaoui's wife and four sons at an undisclosed location in South East Asia and had applied for them to come to New Zealand under the family reunification programme.
Last Thursday, more than 97 per cent of Algerian voters approved the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a personal initiative of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The amnesty offer excludes Islamists who committed massacres, rapes or bomb attacks in public places. The government is still working on drawing up the laws that will put the charter in place.
Mr Zaoui was a FIS candidate. He has been accused of being associated with the militant Armed Islamic Group (GIA), but has denied any such involvement.
Algeria is promising a tough crackdown on militants who do not accept the amnesty and hand in their weapons.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 01:28 ||
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PARIS, Oct 3 (AFP) - Bob Denard, the French mercenary notorious for his involvement in African coups since the 1970s, is to go on trial early next year for his attempt to overthrow the Comoros government 10 years ago, officials said Monday. Denard and 26 other defendants will be brought before a Paris court on charges of criminal association with intent to organise a crime over their sequestration of the Comoros' then president Said Mohamed Djohar during the failed coup bid that took place September 27-October 4, 1995.
The veteran combatant, now 76, led 30 mercenaries on board four inflatable dinghies that landed on the shores of the archipelago. Djohar was taken hostage and held in army barracks while Denard and his group declared a transitional government under the leadership of opposition figures. But France, acting under a cooperation treaty with the Comoros, dispatched troops that quashed the coup, freed Djohar and arrested the mercenaries.
Denard has emerged relatively unscathed from past brushes with the French law over his paramilitary activities -- sometimes because he acted with Paris's tacit approval. In 1999, he was acquitted of the murder of Djohar's predecessor, Ahmed Abdullah, who was killed in his presence during a coup he organised in 1989. And in 1993 he received a suspended five-year prison term for an attempted overthrow in Benin in 1977.
In 1976 he backed a coup to depose Abdullah after Abdullah declared independence from France, and two years later he overthrew Ali Soilih whom he had helped install in his place. Soilih was killed "while trying to escape," he said. Denard then backed the restoration of Abdullah in 1978 and took up duties as the chief of the presidential guard. His last acknowledged coup attempt in the Comoros was in 1997.
Since winning independence from France in 1975, the Comoros have suffered through 20 coups or attempted putsches that have severely affected potential foreign investment, trade and business opportunities.
Denard, who was married to a Comoran woman and who limps from an old leg wound, fought in African, Middle East and the Vietnam conflicts as a soldier before turning to his freelance ways, which have also taken him to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Biafra in Nigeria, and Angola. Born plain Gilbert Bourgeaud, he became the archtypical 'dog of war' for his escapades around Africa, several of which he claimed were carried out under contract from Belgium, France, Gabon and Morocco.
Busy little merc, wasn't he? I'm surprised he hasn't had a "heart attack" to keep him from spilling the beans on his former bosses.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/04/2005 13:14 ||
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#1
Man! This guy hates incumbents like the ATF hates 'compounds' or a tornado hates trailer parks.
Maybe we could book him for the next election cycle here.
The Danish People's Party's candidate for the Copenhagen mayor post faces a police investigation and scrutiny from her superiors after publishing derogatory comments about Muslims on her website
Derogatory comments about Muslims have brought Louise Frevert, the Danish People's Party's Copenhagen candidate for mayor, under the close scrutiny of party leadership and police alike.
Last week, Frevert was reported to the police for posting derogatory comments on Muslims on her website. A number of articles stated that young Muslim men, even if they were born in Denmark and spoke Danish, harboured fundamental attitudes that were incompatible with Danish society.
'Whatever happens, they feel it's their right to rape Danish girls and stamp out Danish citizens,' the article stated. 'Our laws forbid us to kill our enemies in public, so our only remedy is to fill our prisons with these criminals.'
The article on Frevert's website went on to recommend that Muslim criminals be sent to prisons in Russia.
In another article, Muslims were compared with cancer cells, which could only be treated with chemotherapy or surgically removed.
The comments prompted Social Democratic city council candidate Lars Rasmussen to report Frevert to the police for violating the country's anti-racism law.
'Her comments sound like something she heard from the Nazi Party,' Rasmussen said.
The Danish People's Party's leadership did not seem to like the connotation.
'This is not the party's policy, and it never will be,' DF vice chairman Peter Skaarup said.
Frevert seemed to have gotten the message.
'I can understand that these articles have caused a stir. It was not my intention, and I apologise,' she said in a press release on DF's website. 'I will make sure that the comments will be removed from the website.'
Shortly after removing the articles, however, Frevert recanted and declared that she had not written them herself. Instead, her website's editor had written and posted them in her name.
However, similar passages were also found in a book written by Frevert, published in the run-up to parliamentary elections last February.
Conflicting explanations offered by Frevert about who authored the statements led the Danish People's Party vice-chairman to call for an investigation.
'We will now go through the material to take a look at it. We will also speak with Louise Frevert about who has written what,' said Skaarup.
Skaarup expected the analysis to take a few days: 'It's quite a bit of material. I don't think there is anything dramatic in it, but it is clear that we have to study it.'
Skaarup would not offer a comment on whether Frevert would be excluded from the party.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/04/2005 07:24 ||
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#1
Note that in may 2005, at the Varsaw conference IIRC, the EU agreed to put the fight against all discriminations, explicitely including "islamophobia", at the center of its efforts.
Islamophobia is a very charged term, originally invented by Iran's theocracy to marginalize everyone who was speaking against it.
The climate of repression about thoses who denounce islam will only get worse, as islamophobia is now put on the same level as antisemitsm, which is very repressed by law in most EU countries (especially in France, where only lefties and black stand up comedians can say that Israel is a nazi state and equal conservative jews with SS, "Sig HeIsrael!").
This can be seen in self-censorship by publishers, and by the judicial harassment of webmasters of satirical or anti-islam websites, often on ridiculous charges.
The webmaster of "Musulmanes online", a satirical (and a bit saucy) website about muslim wimmen, was so sued by public attorney (not by civil right orgs), notably on terror-related charges, because he divulged the recipe of "dirty bombs" (dynamite+camel dung) and "hallal alcool-free molotovs cocktails"... I'm not joking!
While the terror charges didn't stick, he was still comdemned for litterally being anti-islam (that what was litterally said by the judge) by the 17th justice chamber of Paris (the same one who let leftists go free with equating zionism and nazism and comdamns zionist jews for antisemitism), and has to pay $18 000 of fines.
Add the fact that the Annah Lindh fundation and the Euro-med institute advise the EU commission to rewrite school manuals to present a better image of islamic culture in the cadre of the dialog of civilizations, and you've got a real feeling that the Bat Ye'or's Eurabia is a quite real process.
I've definitively got to read her book, btw, and I advise everyone to get some infos on Eurabia.
Piss away another 10 years worrying about islamophobia and it will no longer be a problem. They will either kill you, marginalize you and assimilate your children, or deport you and your family to whatever European country will accept you (By the way...don't get too comfortable because every European country will be taken over before your kids grow up).
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said for the first time yesterday that he would be prepared to forfeit his claim to lead the next government in the interest of forming a coalition with the conservatives. But his Social Democratic Party (SPD) insisted they were not ready to cave in and would attempt to see the charismatic chancellor confirmed for a third term, as the bitter power struggle with his rival Angela Merkel raged on.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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DRESDEN: Angela Merkel's conservatives extended their lead over Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats after final voting in Germany's election, strengthening their hand in power-sharing talks. The conservatives won an extra parliamentary seat to push their total to 226, while Chancellor Schroeder's SPD stayed at 222, the chief election official said after counting ended in central Dresden, the last area to cast ballots in Germany. Voters in the district brought the federal election to an end two weeks after the rest of the country went to the polls. The Dresden vote had been delayed due to the death of a local candidate.
After voting in Germany's 298 other districts on Sept. 18, the conservatives held a provisional three-seat advantage. Dresden's Christian Democrat candidate will join Merkel's conservatives when the Bundestag lower house meets on or before October 18, although they are unlikely to have forged a government by then.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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Yep, she's still at it.... Cindy Sheehan delivered a letter to Gov. Janet Napolitano's office Monday urging her to request the withdrawal of Arizona National Guard troops from Iraq, the first of several such letters Sheehan plans to deliver to western governors. Hmm...after what she said about McCain, she really thinks my boss is gonna want to talk to her?
Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, and her supporters also plan to contact the governors of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. "Let's start bringing our troops home, let's start with the National Guard," Sheehan said at a news conference held at the Arizona Capitol to announce the letter campaign. "George Bush says bring it on, I say bring them home."
#4
FRIST-DELAY investigations = Impeaching Dubya = Nuclear Terror ags America = Nuclearized
"People's War" by IRAN-NORTH KOREA, etal. in alleged national "self-defense" ags US-Allied milfors and alleged US-Bushite "Fascist"
"Imperialism" = .........................@ The Commie Airborne and collusory Spetzlamists will save "Occupied" Democratic or anti-Bush states from the Waffen SS Soviet Guards unit known as FEMA, or Hurricane-causing/controlling Area 51, etc. while saving Canada both from itself and the wrath of the Mad Mullahs of Iran. SAVING THE WESTERN STATES FROM DUBYA = WAVING AND WELCOMING THE LIBERATORS OF THE COMMIE AIRBORNE. Do patriotic Amerikans from Clintonian Amerika's sacred Commie-Socie-mainstream really really really .......................................................Really REALLY R-E-A-L-L-Y WANT TO FIGHT LIMITED OR GLOBAL NUKE WAR AGS OUR SINO-RUSSIAN COMMIE-SOCIE COMRADES AND BROTHERS OVER SOME MOSTLY UNPOPULATED OR UNDERPOPULATED ROCKY MOUNTAINS, EMPTY FORESTS, AND RIVERINE VALLEYS, AND DOING SO WHILE KNOWING IT NOT GOOD FOR THE KIDDIES OR THE ENVIRONMENT!? The USSA=USR needs a woman that can get the Commies to leave voluntarily while avoiding catastrophic MAD nuke war - that alone would be worth America giving up its sovereignty, making detrimental geopol concessions, and promising the Fed and only the Fed will expand and expand. The Commies promise NOT to kill us iff we help them get a sharper better sword than ours, plus give them our wealth, lands, women .......... and pet dogs.
#11
Nobody is going to talk to her after she dissed both Hillary and McCain. It's simple: unless you agree to do everything she demands, as soon as she leaves your office, she will head to the cameras and call you a fascist Nazi warmonger fascist fascist.
This is not a good way to make friends and influence people.
Seventy-three soldiers in a special reserve program have defied orders to appear for wartime duty, some for more than a year, yet the Army has quietly chosen not to act against them. "We just continue to work with them, reminding them of their duty," says Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman.
The soldiers are part of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a pool of about 110,000 inactive troops who still have contractual obligations to the military but are rarely summoned back to active duty. But an Army stretched thin by the demands of war in Iraq and Afghanistan began a phased call-up of 6,545 of those soldiers in June 2004. About half have served. About one-fifth have been excused for reasons such as finances, family or health.
The Army has failed to reach 386 of the reservists, often because of invalid or outdated addresses or phone numbers. But Lt. Col. Karla Brischke, who supervises call-ups, says some reservists may simply be avoiding the orders. Only one officer is among the 73 soldiers who either ignored their orders or refused to serve. Brischke says Army staffers keep calling and reminding them of "duty, honor, country" and their need to fulfill their obligations.
Hilferty says the Army hasn't acted in part because IRR troops have historically not been expected to serve. "It's sensitive because we understand they're different soldiers." The decision to declare these soldiers AWOL or a deserter is up to their commanding officer, Brig. Gen. Rhett Hernandez, the Army's personnel management director. He could not be reached for comment. Failing to punish those who disobey an order "sets a bad precedent, especially for those in the IRR who have accepted the call to serve," says retired major general John Meyer Jr., the Army's former chief of public affairs.
The behavior may be reinforced by peace activist groups operating the GI Rights Hotline, which keeps reservists informed about the Army's failure to act. "What we tell them is that right now, the Army is not doing anything to pursue IRR call-ups," hotline counselor Dawn Blanken says. Though that's treason, no one will be charged with it.
Army regulations state that a soldier who doesn't report for duty is usually declared absent without leave, or AWOL, and ultimately accused of desertion. Punishments can range from counseling to a less-than-honorable discharge. During war, the maximum punishment for desertion is death, a sentence last carried out in 1945. The Army's failure to act sends the wrong message, says Mike Belter, an IRR lieutenant colonel called up last year. "I didn't think at 48 I was going to be in a war zone," Belter says. "I could have said no. But it was what we signed up for, what we volunteered for in the first place, a sense of service to country."
WorldNetDaily. Salt to taste.
An Oklahoma University student who killed himself by detonating a bomb strapped to his body outside a packed stadium over the weekend was a "suicide bomber" in possession of "Islamic jihad" materials, according to a new report.
Joel Henry Hinrichs III, 21, an engineering major at the school blew himself up outside OU's football stadium during Saturday night's game against Kansas State. Doug Hagmann, a seasoned investigator, told WND he was informed by multiple reliable law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation into the incident that authorities recovered a "significant amount" of "jihad" materials, as well as Hinrichs' computer.
Hagmann also said those same sources indicated police and federal agents "had pulled additional explosives from [Hinrichs'] house," including triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, "homemade explosive [that is] very potent but relatively easily manufactured."
TATP was also used in the July mass transit bombings in London, CNN reported, and was used by attempted bomber Richard Reid, who packed his shoes with the compound in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy a U.S.-bound American Airlines flight in December 2001.
The confiscated jihad documents "referenced bomb-making manuals and that type of thing," Hagmann said, who added Hinrichs' apartment in Norman, Okla., is "located near the Islamic Society." A phone at the Islamic Society of Norman went unanswered yesterday. Also, there was no response to an e-mail inquiry by press time.
Hagmann reported his findings on his website.
WorldNetDaily reported earlier that officials carted away a huge cache of explosives from Hinrichs' apartment. Police were overheard telling residents it would take "several trips and could take up to 24 hours" to remove it all, according to the Daily Oklahoman. A canister trailer used for detonating or transporting potentially explosive material was being used to haul items away. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
10/04/2005 16:59 ||
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#3
Check out the OU-Norman newspaper. The WND repost is seriously overblown. The poor kid was tops in his engineering class -- hated his major but was so good he couldn't see changing -- had no friends, no social skills, and was being counselled for depression. If such a young man isn't capable of whipping up a device just strong enough to separate his top from his bottom, permanently... It was a very thoughtful suicide, all things considered. For such as he, one can only hope that the Hindus are right, and his prospects are better for a happy life next time around.
ST. PETERSBURG - Jamie Hailer is supplying America's military leaders and intelligence specialists with expertise on dealing with global terrorism from the comfort of his home near downtown St. Petersburg.
Far from being some James Bond character, with real-life, cloak-and-dagger experiences, Hailer, 37, is the owner of a boutique publishing house that specializes in resurrecting highly regarded but out-of-print books on military history and strategy.
Hailer's best seller is a 40-year-old work on counterinsurgency written by a French army officer who served in China, Southeast Asia and Algeria. Since starting his company as a sideline in March, Hailer has sold about 2,400 copies of David Galula's Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice to everyone from intel experts to generals-in-training.
"I kind of stumbled on a subculture of retired CIA and Army guys who are pulling their hair out about us blowing it in Iraq like we did in Vietnam," said Hailer (pronounced Hi-ler). "When they found out I was publishing this book, they pushed it like crazy."
Rick Newton, an instructor at the Joint Special Operations University at Hurlburt Field in Florida's Panhandle ordered 100, then e-mailed his buddies at West Point and the Naval War College; they also wanted the book.
Newton, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said he had been looking for the Galula book for a couple of years before being put in touch with Hailer.
"It's the only book I'd found which takes strategic-level goals and links them to what soldiers on the ground have to do," Newton said of the book, written in 1964 while Galula was on a fellowship at Harvard. "You read it and scratch your head and say, "He got it right."'
Next thing Hailer knew, the head of the Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, where the Army trains its top brass, ordered 1,500 copies, saying he wanted to put the book in the hands of every student.
Then came e-mail from some sources at the CIA, suggesting that Hailer try to track down a 1978 book on the formation of the Saudi kingdom.
"They said they'd been looking for the book for years and that the only copy had walked out of their library," Hailer said.
Now available through Hailer Publishing for $29.99 is Ibn Sa'ud's Warriors of Islam by John Habib.
Hailer, who did graduate work at Missouri State University in defense and strategic studies, is a civilian who has made military strategy his career. His first job was as a defense and aerospace lobbyist in Washington, D.C. For the past three years, he has worked in alliance development with General Dynamics in St. Petersburg, doing long-range planning.
Hailer began moonlighting as a publisher after reading an article late last year in Inside the Pentagon , an independent weekly journal published in Washington. The author took an informal poll of active and retired generals, defense and intel experts, asking them to name books that would help officers and troops understand the insurgency in Iraq.
"Perhaps the most enthusiastic endorsements from officers and experts ... are reserved for out-of-print or hard-to-find books - mostly on counterinsurgency warfare - that seem to have gained new urgency and application in Iraq," wrote ITP's senior correspondent Elaine Grossman.
Hailer said that statement triggered an enterprise he'd been mulling over for some time, after finding an out-of-print book he wanted on the British Royal Navy was selling on the Internet for more than $1,200. Hailer decided to make his first reprint effort the Galula book because a retired CIA officer told ITP's readers to "run - not walk - to the Pentagon library and get in line" for the book, which he considered "a primer for how to win in Iraq."
Hailer, who had read the Galula book in graduate school, found a copy in the University of South Florida's library. He then tracked down Greenwood Publishing Group in Westport, Conn., the company that had acquired the book's original publisher, and got an enthusiastic response.
"I was lucky I found someone supportive on the first phone call," Hailer said. "He said, "Knock yourself out. We don't even have a copy."'
Hailer drew up a simple contract, agreeing to pay Greenwood royalties for reprint rights (Galula died in 1967). He found a Fort Lauderdale company that was able to make a high-quality scan of the book without destroying it, then he shipped the electronic file to a printer in Minnesota who can produce as few as 10 or as many as 2,000 copies in a run.
The hardest part, said Hailer, is tracking down the rights' holder. In most cases, the copyright for out-of-print books resides with the publishing house, but widespread acquisitions in the industry have made it difficult to trace old contracts. In a couple of cases, the rights have reverted to the author, leading Hailer on more than one global goose-chase.
"I've been tracking one guy for a year-and-a-half now," Hailer said. "His last known address was Florence, Italy, and his last known communication was in 1990. I think he's long gone and for all I know he left no heirs."
Hailer said his sideline is minimally profitable, thanks in part to volunteer help from family members. His sister has designed the company's Web site (www.hailerpublishing.com) his brother has done cover art, his wife handles shipping and his 6-year-old son, Nathaniel, mostly stays out of the way.
In addition to taking future book suggestions from ex-military like Newton, Hailer looks for out-of-print titles that are considered seminal works and are selling for outrageous prices on the Internet.
"If it's selling for $100 or more on the used-book market, that indicates there's enough of a demand to generate a profit," he said. "If used copies are selling for $5, I can't compete with that."
Hailer said his efforts have been well-received by most publishers, who consider royalties from reprints to be found money. And the Galula reprint was so successful, its original publisher decided not to renew his contract.
"Greenwood decided to start up its own counterinsurgency product line when they saw what I did with that first book," he said. "Now whenever I call them about a book, they say, "Oh, we'll probably do that ourselves."'
Which is okay by Hailer, who figures if he sells 100 copies of a reprint, recoups his cost and gets a valuable book back into print, he's doing his job.
But Hailer is still a bit surprised that it took his part-time effort to bring back works like Galula's, who offers particularly relevant advice on how to treat prisoners.
Captured by Mao's forces in China, Galula said prisoners were treated well, given a week or two of indoctrination, then released. The rationale was that a few prisoners might be converted; if not, upon their release, they might not be trusted by their own people.
"In a page and a half, Galula tells how we could have won the war," Hailer said. "You realize all this has happened before. I just hope (this advice) is not too little, too late."
#1
Never heard of him (but I am not an expert). General Massu and colonel Bigeard (both paras) gained quite a reputation for winning the battle of Algiers against the FLN. So the then captain Ausseresses. Notice that they used torture but before you paint them black don't forget that they were fighting an enemy who machine gunned merry go rounds, placed bombs in school busses and massacred entire villages (villages of natives) so it was either get the guy speaking today or having a bunch of dead children tomorrow.
One would think that Mahmoud Maawad, a 29-year-old illegal immigrant from Egypt living in Memphis, Tennessee, would lay low and stay out of trouble. But no, he defiantly did just the opposite.
He used a fake Social Security number to open a bank account, arrange for household utilities, and enroll in the University of Memphis business school. He worked off-the-books at a convenience store and in early 2005 sold alcohol to a minor, for which he was arrested. And then, he ordered US$3,300 worth of airline-related goods in mid-2005 from Sporty's Pilot Shop, including such items as an airline pilot's uniform, a flight gear bag, a radio communications handbook, and an instructional DVD titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."
To top it off, he placed this order on an overdrawn credit card.
Sporty's, not surprisingly, informed the FBI about Maawad's order and federal agents searched his apartment in September. There they found flight simulation software and detailed information on Memphis International Airport. Maawad was then indicted for wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number.
While it's far from established that Maawad had terrorism on his mind, his actions are sufficiently suspicious to enroll him as an honorary member in my newly created "Stupid Terrorists Club." He joins plenty of others there.
* Mohammed Salameh, the terrorist who returned to the rental agency in 1993 to retrieve the $400 deposit he had paid on a truck subsequently used to blow up the World Trade Center. His penny-pinching lead to his own capture and that of several other bombers.
* Zacarias Moussaoui, thought to have been the twentieth 9/11 hijacker, was sitting in jail on that date because his disheveled and impoverished appearance at a flight instruction school was so discordant ("there's really something wrong with this guy") that two of its staff phoned the FBI. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
* Michael Wagner, an African-American convert to Islam associated with Al-Qaeda, did not wear a seat belt and that got him stopped by the police in July 2004 near Council Bluffs, Iowa. His car contained "flight training manuals and a simulator, documents in Arabic, bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles, a night-vision scope for a rifle, a telescope, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition."
* Zaynab Khadr, accused by the Canadian authorities of having "willingly participated and contributed both directly and indirectly towards enhancing the ability of Al Qaeda to facilitate its criminal activities," returned to Canada in February with a computer chock full of documents that the authorities say "provide insights into the tactics, techniques and procedures" of Al-Qaeda and other groups.
* Sami Ibrahim Isa Abdel Hadi, 39, was stopped in May for tailgating in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. When a police officer called in Abdel Hadi's North Carolina license plates, he learned that Abdel Hadi had been ordered deported to Brazil in December 2001 and is listed in the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. Even more alarmingly, he has a valid temporary identity card permitting him to paint the George Washington Bridge (a high-profile potential terrorist target).
* When an accused Los Angeles terror gang, the Assembly of Authentic Islam, needed money for arms, it robbed gas stations rather than obtain funds legally. One of its holdup artists dropped a mobile phone during a June robbery, which the police retrieved and used to unravel the plot and arrest the conspirators.
Other famous dumb terrorists include Yu Kikumura, a member of the Japanese Red Army, whose odd behavior prompted a search of his car at a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop in April 1988, which turned up three powerful bombs. Or Timothy McVeigh, apprehended in April 1995 after bombing the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people, because his car lacked a license plate.
Counterterrorism is a difficult business, so it is fortunate that terrorists often act dumb.
Why can't they keep out of trouble until the big day? In part, because terrorists, like other criminals, are usually not the sharpest knives in the drawer; and in part because their ideology and hatred cause them to disdain the enemy, leading them to take unnecessary risks.
As a result, the rest of us are a little bit safer.
The United States on Monday took action to financially incapacitate seven Egyptians suspected of providing support to an Egyptian terrorist group that merged with Al Qaeda in 2001. The Treasury Department's action means any bank accounts or other financial assets belonging to the seven people found in the United States will be blocked. Americans also are forbidden from doing business with them.
The department alleges that the seven individuals have acted on behalf of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group that merged with Al Qaeda in 2001. "The activities of these individuals included training and providing material support to Al Qaeda, as well as conspiring to commit terrorist acts," the department said.
One of the seven, Madhat Mursi Al-Sayyid Umar, was an explosives and chemical substances specialist for Al Qaeda, the department said. Another, Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abd Al-Rahman, was responsible for coordinating Al Qaeda's work with other terrorist organizations, the agency said. The others designated by the department are: Hani Muhammad Yusuf Al-Siba'i; Al-Sayyid Ahmad Fathi Husayn Alaywah; Zaki Izzat Zaki Ahmad; Muhammad Ahmad Shawqi Al-Islambuli; and Ali Sa'd Muhammad Mustafa Bakri. I'm off to work now, so didn't have the time to check Thugburg.
The department said the seven are wanted by Egyptian authorities for their involvement in terrorist activities. "This action targets the financing mechanisms used by those rogue actors supporting Al Qaeda," said Robert Werner, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
This is interesting in contrast to the depression and the felt decline of the french population, not to mention the country's gloomy perspectives (high unemployment, social system's bankruptcy, debt running out of control, budget deficit of 25% each year,...); apparently, blowing hot air on the international scene is something our failed elites are very good at. Being anti-american and doing naval manoeuvers with China to intimidate Taiwan certainly score us points with the "multilateralist" crowd, of which France would love to take the lead.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
PARIS â Karen Hughes should be French - it would make her job easier.
As the US undersecretary of State for public diplomacy returns home from her first foreign trip burnishing America's image in the world, she might feel a touch of envy at the glowing international reputation that France enjoys, highlighted in a recent study by the Project on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
In the survey of people in 23 countries across the globe, a majority or plurality in 20 described France as exerting a positive influence on world affairs. The US, by comparison, is seen as having a negative impact by majorities in 15 countries.
"France is seen as a countervoice to the US," says Steven Kull, director of PIPA. "It becomes a rallying point for all those who don't want to follow America's lead."
Certainly, Paris appeals in part precisely because it is not Washington. But it goes beyond that. From the streets of Shanghai to Berlin, Monitor interviews found that the French flair for the finer things in life has a special cachet.
French movies are admired worldwide for their subtlety and depth; French fashion houses dress the rich and powerful worldwide; and the lure of French art and cuisine fascinated foreigners long before Paris stood up to Washington politically.
"We [Germans] look on with wonder at France's cultural influence in the world," says Henrik Utterwede, deputy director of the German-French Institute in Ludwigsburg. "And we are a bit jealous of it, as well."
On top of that, says former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, France is so admired because "many people think France is a country that tries to correct the imbalances of today's world, such as the excessive power of the United States."
Or, put another way, "The French willingness to stand up and be a rooster, to take a stand and get up someone's nose, is a big strength," says Doug Miller, head of GlobeScan, the international polling firm that carried out the survey with the University of Maryland's PIPA.
France's global popularity - except in America, the only country where a majority of respondents called French influence negative - "is really a question of image," cautions Alain Frachon, editor of "Le Monde 2," a weekly magazine. "France does not weigh very heavily in international affairs," he argues, "and it does not set a very great example" as a major arms exporter, a not especially generous donor to developing nations, and a defender of outmoded economic policies.
Most people, however, "do not follow foreign policy very closely, and these things come down to a few images and symbols," points out Mr. Vedrine.
The most symbolic recent moment came in the buildup to the Iraq war, which France vehemently and vocally opposed. "The very, very strong position that France took on the side of global public opinion explains the figures" in the poll, says Mr. Miller.
"France was speaking for the world; [French president Jacques] Chirac stood up and that's what leadership is," Miller adds.
The symbolism had practical effects, suggests Mr. Utterwede. For years, Germany resisted French efforts to enlist it as a counterweight to Washington. But some of France's fierce individuality has rubbed off on Berlin, says Utterwede. "There is this idea of friendship [with Washington], yes; obedience, no. There is a sense of emancipation in German foreign policy that can almost be considered 'Francophonization.' "
France's stand had effects on the other side of the Atlantic, too, where Americans expressed their anger or their disappointment by ordering "Freedom Fries." It became cool to dislike the French (52 percent of Americans believe French international influence is negative), especially because many felt the French owed America gratitude for liberating them from the Nazis and then defending them against the Soviets.
"France has become popular merely by defining itself in opposition to the United States under the Bush administration," critiques Jacquelyn K. Davis, executive vice president of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Washington. "The French are attempting to jealously guard their remaining power and influence by criticizing and tearing down US policies."
Not that such perceived disloyalty is new. "France has been cultivating its discordant voice since [former French president Charles] de Gaulle argued that we did not have to line up behind one or other of the superpowers," recalls Mr. Frachon.
As the first Western nation to recognize Communist China, France won a special place in Chinese hearts (72 percent of Chinese respondents saw French influence as positive).
Beijing also warms to French policies, such as its failed crusade earlier this year to end a 16-year-old EU ban on arms sales to China, and its support for China's push to unify with Taiwan.
For ordinary Chinese, however, the Parisian pull appears to be more cultural. "Well-educated people in Beijing like French films more than American films now," says Wang Qing, a specialist in French cultural exchanges for the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. "In French films we can see something more sophisticated."
Asked why the Chinese liked France, Wang Li, a woman in Shanghai, replied simply, "The French have money and good culture."
That impression has no doubt been boosted by the "French Culture Year" that recently featured more than 300 art, dance, and musical events around China. But that's small potatoes compared to the 60 years of French efforts to promote their relationship with neighboring Germany after fighting three wars in 70 years.
Those efforts have paid off. The hundreds of thousands of community, school, business, and cultural partnerships that have sprung up on both sides of the Rhine since the end of World War II have helped convince 77 percent of Germans that France plays a positive role in the world, according to the PIPA study.
German respect for French culture is deep. "They have a special feeling for design and art that makes them highly influential in the world," says Anete Bajrami, a newly qualified architect.
On the other side of the world, similar feelings inspire Stanley Peskin, owner of an independent video store in the comfortable Parktown North neighborhood of Johannesburg, South Africa.
"It has got the best ballet company in the whole world and some of the great film directors and novelists," enthuses Mr. Peskin. "The French have been fantastic."
While few of the people questioned in a brief survey of Johannesburg residents this week mentioned politics, their generally positive views of French design, culture, and food supported the survey's conclusion that 69 percent of South Africans consider France a welcome influence.
The South African government's interest in France should be seen in the context of Pretoria's relationship with the European Union, says Prince Mashele, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, a think tank in the capital.
"France is a key player within the European Union. South Africa has trade agreements with the European Union," Mr. Mashele explains. "It makes sense to maintain good relations with key players."
France's European identity is central to its popularity, suggests Dr. Kull, of PIPA. "France is most associated with the European Union, which has an even more positive rating than France," he says. "The EU is seen as using soft power and diplomacy, drawing other countries towards it, while the US uses more hard power and direct pressure, imposing its will."
Though France is still a medium world power, with a UN Security Council seat, a nuclear weapon and a worldwide network of alliances, says Vedrine, "and though France is often pretentious and grandiloquent, she is not threatening."
Paris could do more to build on its advantages, he adds, "listening more and seeking compromise. We could use our trump cards better."
GlobeScan's Miller also thinks France should be looking to the future. "Country branding is becoming a vital part of the economic future," he argues. "France clearly has a big advantage to grow from, but if they are not trying to take advantage of that they do so at their own risk and peril."
The trouble, says Vedrine, is that "our economic and social model is not working so well, and that will reduce our influence in the future.
"For the time being, though", he adds, "France still enjoys a gigantic power of attraction."
⢠Kathleen McLaughlin in Shanghai, Andreas Tzortzis in Berlin, Stephanie Hanes in Johannesburg, and Nathaniel Hoopes in Boston contributed to this story.
#1
"The EU is seen as using soft power and diplomacy
Is that a fact? I call it short sightedness, cowardice, appeasement, and spinelessness.
There really is a frightening amount of stupid people in this world.
#6
Remember, the Frogs are the home of postmodernism (Derrida, Lyotard and their ilk) which is all about surficial, not depth. Who needs an army, an economy, or moral fortitude when you can have postmodern power: art, culture, fashion, cuisine! Vive l'image!
#7
Ask me about French culture in 30 years. It will be all about muezzin calls, burkha fashion, and tabouli. Oh, and the branding will be Islamic Chic.
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10/04/2005 10:47 Comments ||
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When all you have is oxymoronic soft-power, everything in the world looks like a negotiation.
#9
French movies are admired worldwide for their subtlety and depth; French fashion houses dress the rich and powerful worldwide; and the lure of French art and cuisine fascinated foreigners long before Paris stood up to Washington politically.
But when it's time to put their money where their mouth is, they watch Hollywood movies over French by 100 to 1, they wear Levis over berets by 100 to 1 and they eat at McDonalds over Maxim's by 100 to 1. The French market segment is high end snoots who have more money than they know what to do with and are easily parted from it. The French wine industry is finding this out with a vengeance.
#10
Or, put another way, "The French willingness to stand up and be a rooster, to take a stand and get up someone's nose, is a big strength."
Especially if there's a kickback or a to be made from the "sale."
Who are these people?
Posted by: ArmChair in Sin ||
10/04/2005 14:06 Comments ||
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Especially if there's a kickback...to be made from the sale.
PIMF
Posted by: ArmChair in Sin ||
10/04/2005 14:14 Comments ||
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To "get up someone's nose" is not an American expression. JFM would know best, but I suspect that Mr. Miller has been spending some quality time in La Belle France of late.
Iraq's Interior Minister directed a fresh attack on Saudi Arabia in an interview aired on Tuesday, targeting the kingdom for its treatment of women and Shi'ites just days after insulting a royal as a "bedouin on a camel".
"(They should) create a democratic system and give freedoms, and not grant rights in just dribs and drabs, saying that maybe a woman can drive a car but she can only work within limits in the workplace," Bayan Jabor told Al Jazeera television. "We call for democracy and freedom in all the Arab nation," the outspoken Shi'ite minister said, accusing Riyadh of treating its Shi'ite minority as second class citizens. The comments were bound to further rattle Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, which has undertaken limited reforms of its absolute monarchy after U.S. calls for democracy and women's rights.
Iraq's foreign minister was forced to apologise to Saudi Arabia over the weekend after Jabor referred to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal as "some bedouin riding a camel" and attacked the kingdom as a dictatorship of one family. He was responding to comments made by Faisal during a trip to the United States last month, warning of the influence of non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran in Iraq and a slide into civil war between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the Arab country.
Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours are concerned over losing Baghdad to Iran after the 2003 U.S.-led war that ousted former president Saddam Hussein paving the way for majority Shi'ite Arabs to power in elections held this year.
Iran on Tuesday shrugged off Saudi accusations that it was interfering in Iraq. "The collective wish of countries in the region is for a solution in Iraq. We support these activities and efforts by Iraq's neighbours in this regard," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking through a translator, told reporters in Kuwait.
Shi'ites are believed to make up around 10 percent of Saudi Arabia's native population of 16 million and complain of being marginalised by a government allied to radical Sunni scholars who consider Shi'ism a heresy.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Jabor repeated his earlier comments, saying: "We were surprised by this unjustified attack ... which they made instead of acting to solve the problem of the Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia who are considered second class citizens". He also referred to Saudi Arabia's small Ismaili Shi'ite community as receiving "fourth class" treatment. Most of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ites lives in the oil-rich Eastern Province, close to Iraq.
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The funnel-shaped southern region of Iraq contains energy, water and strategic wealth without parallel anywhere else in the country. In fact, some analysts think Iraq would not be viable without it. But when British military forces clashed with members of a Shiite militia called the Mahdi Army in Basra last week, it was clear how far the south's most important city had slipped from the control of political leaders in Baghdad and into the hands of warlords and local religious chiefs.
Divided by religion, politics and ethnic background, the diverse groups vying for power in Basra and the swamps and river towns to the north have never been entirely at ease with one another. The national leaders have had little appetite for reining in the rising paramilitary forces in Basra. Still, with talk that Basra could one day be the capital of an autonomous Shiite-ruled southern region, the stakes in this fractured battlefield have never been higher. In the funnel's riches, some advocates for autonomy see the makings of a new Gulf country like Kuwait, with the authority and resources to rebuild itself rather than send the booty north. But if Iraq breaks up, pessimists see the possibility of anarchic rivalries among the Shiites, inviting Iranian domination of the region or even Saudi intervention.
Here is what could be at stake:
Oil
About 70 percent of Iraq's proven oil reserves are in the south - a crucial geographic fact considering that 98 percent of Iraq's budget relies on crude-oil exports. Even those figures underestimate the importance of the southern fields, because only a trickle of oil is being exported in the north. There, attacks have slowed but not stopped. Engineers have been forced to send small supplies of oil through the network secretly and then shut off the flow before the insurgents can strike. In the south, in contrast, sabotage attacks on the web of export pipelines that pass near Basra have almost entirely ceased this year, even though other violence has risen. The pipeline was repeatedly cut by insurgents in 2004.
Electricity
A concentration of power plants in the oil-rich south also allows it to produce a disproportionate share of Iraq's spotty electrical power.
During Saddam Hussein's regime, the electricity flowed overwhelmingly northward along the national grid to service Baghdad. But the U.S. occupation decreed that the energy be shared more evenly around Iraq.
In recent months, however, there have been allegations that energy barons in the south have been manipulating the system to hold back some power rather than let it flow to the rest of Iraq.
Pilgrims
A large amount of traffic flows between Shiite-dominated Basra and the Shiite holy sites of Najaf and Karbala, farther north. Basra also serves as a mustering point for pilgrims all over southern Iraq who come to make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Buses arrive by the hundreds in Basra, unloading chaotic crowds of pilgrims in traditional dress. Then, at Basra's airport, they board flights to Saudi Arabia.
Port
Iraq's two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, converge just north of Basra to form the Shatt al-Arab, which flows into the Gulf. A dispute over the international boundary on the Shatt helped set off the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. The short stretch of coastline south of Basra is Iraq's only access to international waters. The major port is at the town of Umm Qasr, but there are plans to build an enormous new port in Basra itself if financing can be found.
The spectacular marshlands north of Basra, also fed by the Tigris and Euphrates, were largely drained by Saddam because they were a center of Shiite resistance to his rule, but they have rebounded to some extent since he was deposed. The restoration has had good and bad effects: Thousands of displaced marsh Arabs have returned to their homeland, but parts of the inaccessible region have again become lawless, harboring kidnappers and thieves who are loyal only to their tribal chieftains.
Sectarian landscape
Although the entire southern region is predominantly Shiite, there is a Sunni enclave, the city of Zubayr, just a short distance from Basra. Attacks and reprisals between the two cities are common.
Rifts
The Shiites themselves also have geographic fault lines. Political life in Basra is heavily influenced by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the top two Shiite clerical powers in the country. But a couple of hours on the road north, the provincial capital, Amara, is controlled by loyalists of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric from Baghdad. In other parts of the south, a party is led by a more moderate former ally of Sadr's father, who was assassinated by Saddam.
Militias
Armies loyal to the various parties have risen in prominence. The Basra police force is believed to be infiltrated by several militias. The recent clash between the British and the Basra police involved fighters loyal to Sadr, but the main militia is the Badr Brigade, which is the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution. Another national Shiite party, called Dawa, also has security forces that have had clashes here.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/04/2005 07:42 ||
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There were more than 100 Saudis in Iraqi jails in connection with Al Qaeda activities, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the Saudi newspaper Al Medinah in a report published yesterday.
Zebari spoke to the paper on Sunday before attending a meeting in Jeddah of Arab foreign ministers about the situation in Iraq.
âThose (Saudis) were tricked because they were recruited to conduct terrorist operations against Iraq and its people that targeted civilians and institutions,â Zebari said.
Zebari was referring to promises allegedly made to the recruits that they would fight the US military presence.
âThe danger posed by (Saudis joining the insurgency) is not to Iraq alone, but also towards the kingdom. What happened with Afghanistan must not happen with Iraq. Let it be a lesson,â he added.
Zebari also voiced concerns about Iranâs growing influence in Iraq after other Arab countries fled the region and created a âvoidâ that neighbouring Iran has filled.
The minister also said that Arabs who joined radical groups to fight the Soviet Unionâs presence in Afghanistan, which began in 1979, subsequently returned to their homelands where they founded terrorist organisations that wrought havoc domestically.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 00:56 ||
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TOKYO (AP) - Japan's Cabinet endorsed a one-year extension of the country's naval mission to support U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday, citing renewed concerns about terrorism after the recent bombings in Indonesia.
Japan's navy has provided fuel for coalition warships in the region since November 2001 under a special law that was to expire on Nov. 1. It had already been extended in 2003 for two years. The Cabinet decided to prolong the mission by only one year this time. "We decided one year was necessary," said Hiroyuki Hosoda, chief government spokesman. "The problem of terrorism has again become more serious with terrorist activities intensifying from London to Bali."
The bill will now be sent to Parliament where it is expected to pass as the ruling coalition - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its ally New Komei Party - holds majorities in both houses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The Japanese need to start cloning themselves or get androids up to speed. We need more parteners like them in the Pacific. What a difference 60 years makes.
The United Nations has begun distributing millions of copies of Iraq's draft constitution ahead of an Oct. 15 referendum to approve or reject the document, which was reportedly criticized in a leaked U.N. memo.
U.N. officials on Monday sought to downplay the leaked internal analysis written on Sept. 15 that looked at the document's weaknesses. Newsweek reported that the memo warned that the constitution is a "model for the territorial division of the State." But the officials said it did not mean the U.N. was backing away from the constitution, which was the result of weeks of intense negotiations. "As far as the U.N. is concerned, the constitution itself will have to be judged by the Iraqis on the 15th of October during the referendum," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "It should come as no surprise that within the U.N. staff who deal with Iraq there would be papers analyzing latest developments in that country, but it's an internal analysis."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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AMMAN - Four Jordanians accused of planning to join insurgents in Iraq and recruiting fighters pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial on Monday, judicial sources said. Last month the state prosecutor indicted the four men on charges of âcarrying out activity not approved by the government, which jeopardised Jordanâs relations with another country,â according to the charge sheet.
The four defendants, who were arrested in July, denied the charge when it was read to them by the head of Jordanâs state security court, judicial sources said.
A new hearing was schedule for next week but no specific date was given.
According to the charge sheet obtained by AFP alleged ringleader Abdullah Al Mrayat, 28, travelled to Syria in May with the intention of joining fighters in Iraq. While in Syria he befriended Abu Adam al-Tunisi, a man described as the âprince (leader) of insurgent groupsâ who took him to the border with Iraq but an attempt to enter the country failed and Mrayat fled returned to Jordan in June.
Back home, and at the request of Tunisi, he allegedly recruited fighters for Iraq identified as Moaz Al Zohbi, 21, Saleh Al Mghari, 29, and Khaled Al Mashur, 29, telling them they could carry out suicide attacks in Iraq. Zohbi ârefused to become flying meat a suicide bomber but agreed, like the other two, to go fight in Iraq,â the charge sheet added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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Deputies yesterday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets as Palestinian policemen stormed into Gazaâs Parliament building to demand a crackdown on militants. The Palestinian Parliament ordered Abbas to appoint a new government because of the current regimeâs failure to impose order on spiraling chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The surprise vote came shortly after dozens of armed policemen burst into Parliament to protest against massive insecurity one day after the first deadly internecine clashes since Israel left the Gaza Strip last month.
Deputies voted overwhelmingly by 43 to five in favor of forcing Abbas to reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks, although the Palestinian Authority president is not obliged to fire his Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei. MPs considered but discarded a formal censure motion against the government which would have seen Qorei, who is currently abroad, step down immediately. âWe are on the verge of civil war if the situation remains out of control,â said Qaddoura Fares, a reformist legislator with Abbasâ mainstream Fatah movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Deputies yesterday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets as Palestinian policemen stormed into Gazaâs Parliament building to demand a crackdown on militants. The Palestinian Parliament ordered Abbas to appoint a new government because of the current regimeâs failure to impose order on spiraling chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This is a joke. It is Mazen himself that won't order a crackdown because he's afraid of a civil war. Replacing the lower-downs isn't likely to produce results any different from the previous crop of officeholders until the Top Cheese decides to change his tune.
The last time the Indonesian resort island of Bali was struck by terrorist bombers, security forces hit back hard, splintering the main network behind the killings and throwing its alleged leaders in jail.
Saturday's suicide bombings on the same island demonstrate the tenacity of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network and the relative ease of carrying out such attacks.
Jemaah Islamiyah, which emerged in the 1990s as Southeast Asia's leading terrorist network, is very different from the one confronted by authorities three years ago.
Experts say Jemaah Islamiyah previously had a set structure of four divisions, spread regionally across Southeast Asia and Australia. But that structure suffered under the crackdown following the 2002 Bali bombing, forcing the remaining fighters to reach out to other groups and focus on recruiting, they say.
"These days, they're tapping into a slew of other networks," said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security consultant and author of an upcoming book on terrorism in Southeast Asia. These other groups "are willing to take up the anti-West cause that the JI was really the one that pioneered."
Even their tactics have changed. Saturday's bombings were carried out with explosive belts or backpacks - possibly a sign that terrorists under scrutiny from police opted for a more easily concealed weapon than their previous method of car-bombings.
The two Malaysians suspected of masterminding the weekend attacks - Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top allegedly have taken center stage in the group since the crackdown.
Azahari is known as "Demolition Man" for his knowledge of explosives, while Noordin has been dubbed "Moneyman" for his ability to raise money and recruit bombers.
The two have been able to capitalize on the group's deep ties in the region: Jemaah Islamiyah grew out of the conservative Darul Islam movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and many of its founders honed their military skills - and their reputed connections with al-Qaida - in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
That long history has been key to the group's ability to change with the times and count on assistance from other terrorist organizations. It has been linked to groups in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere in the region.
"The group's reaction to failure, and its ability to continue operations after significant losses ... demonstrate JI is doctrinally fluid, and analyzes its failures in an effort to adapt, learn and grow," Wayne Turnbill, a U.S. Army captain, wrote in a 2003 study on the group at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The bombers also have been able to count on a sad fact: it doesn't take much manpower or technical expertise to create the mayhem of Bali.
Conboy said Saturday's operation could have been carried out by a total of 12 people, including the three bombers. And with JI's organizational links, some speculate the presumed masterminds of the strike may even have had surrogates execute their plan.
"It could be that they were the strategists ... with recruits from a variety of different organizations," said Sydney Jones, a leading expert on the group.
Still, the Indonesian government - which, unlike some of its neighbors, did not crack down on the group until the first Bali bombings - is feeling the heat from the failure to totally defeat Jemaah Islamiyah.
Whoever is to blame, the adaptability of the Southeast Asian terrorist network poses crucial challenges to authorities. Is victory just a matter of capturing the latest two presumed leaders? Or is the movement pioneered by JI so self-sustaining that new leaders will rise to take the old ones' places?
"It was clear that even with the best police work in the world and a weaker JI, you weren't going to be able to prevent an attack," said Jones. "Even if you get the two Malaysians under arrest, that's not going to mean you've eradicated terrorists."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 01:39 ||
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The likely perpetrator of the weekend bombings in Bali is Jemaah Islamiah. It is the only organisation in Indonesia with the capability and will to target a tourist venue, such as Bali, and it has the track record.
Jemaah Islamiah has been responsible for three major bombings, happening almost yearly: Bali in October 2002, the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003 and the Australian embassy in September 2004.
Analysts have increasingly been divided over the state and goals of Jemaah Islamiah, its relationship to al-Qaeda, and divisions within its ranks. There is no doubt that Jemaah Islamiah is a smaller and more decentralised organisation than it was; more than 300 arrests, including of many of its top leadership and al-Qaeda liaisons around the region, have clearly set Jemaah Islamiah back. Yet there is still a significant cadre of roughly 20 Afghan/al-Qaeda trained first-generation leaders at large. Many are believed to be in Mindanao in the Philippines, training with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf. Jemaah Islamiah is patiently rebuilding its ranks; it is down but not out. Indonesian intelligence has intercepted a number of letters which suggest people are waiting in the wings.
It is clear Jemaah Islamiah will mobilise more resources towards fomenting sectarian conflict in the coming years, because that is the primary means it uses to recruit and indoctrinate a new generation of recruits. To that end, there was an alarming upsurge in lateral conflicts in 2004-05. Yet opportunistic attacks on the West will continue to be employed.
What should we make of the fact that Jemaah Islamiah turned to smaller bombs? The hallmark of its past three major attacks against Western interests were large truck bombs - in the order of more than 100 kilograms - mainly comprising ammonium nitrate and diesel. While these bombs displayed significant technical skill, ambition and a desire to make a statement, the attacks were costly (about $30,000 each) and logistically difficult, especially in the context of an intense police dragnet.
There are four implications from the smaller bombs. First, we know that much of the money for the previous attacks came directly from al-Qaeda's coffers. Does this indicate the inability to procure the materials and indicate limited human and material resources to put together large bombs? Does it signify the link to al-Qaeda no longer exists? The fact is, we really don't know the extent of the current relationship; many in the top leadership with close ties to al-Qaeda have been arrested, as have many in al-Qaeda's central apparatus.
Second, does it indicate a fundamental change in tactics? Has Jemaah Islamiah temporarily abandoned large truck bombs, in favour of small pipe bombs that are easy to assemble and mass-produce and small enough to conceal? Jemaah Islamiah has been using smaller bombs for quite some time, especially in the Moluccas and Sulawesi where they have been trying to foment more sectarian violence. In May a bomb in a marketplace in Tentana, on Sulawesi, killed 22. Between October last year and March this year, police seized more than 200 small bombs in Jemaah Islamiah caches and safehouses in the Moluccas and Sulawesi.
Third, Jemaah Islamiah leaders have tried to increase the tempo of bombings to one every six months. They simply did not have the material or human resources to do this with large truck bombs. We should expect this is how they hope to strike more than once a year: small, cheap bombs, easy to mass-assemble, easy to conceal that nonetheless are quite lethal. Three well-placed pipe bombs killed more people than the attacks on the Marriott and Australian embassy combined, at a fraction of the cost and with arguably a greater economic impact. Rather than a big, annual truck bomb, we'll be seeing more attacks against highly vulnerable soft targets.
Finally, the simultaneous bombings - three were detonated and between four and 10 others were set - are a traditional Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qaeda hallmark, and indicate a fairly large cell was used in the operation.
Terrorism is asymmetric warfare: terrorists marshal scarce resources and attack when and how they have the capabilities to do so and when they have a high probability of success. Their targeting and tactics change quickly in order to cope with their changing security environment.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 01:00 ||
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BEIRUT - Saad Hariri, son and political heir of assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had left the country after a plot to kill him was uncovered. Hariri has been living abroad for two months, citing security fears after a series of bombings and assassinations that followed his fatherâs killing on Feb. 14 fuelled concerns the country was sliding into chaos.
Hariri told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat he had left the country on the advice of foreign powers because of threats to his life. âBut we also captured some people and knew their whereabouts in Lebanon and what they were plotting to do...,â he said. âWe had confirmed information about groups planning for this (assassination) attempt,â he told the paper in Paris without giving further details.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/04/2005 13:34 ||
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A 12-year-old Christian girl was reportedly abducted and gang raped by 16 Muslim men in Pakistan. The alleged offence occurred at Rawlpindi, bordering Pakistans capital city of Islamabad.
According to a news release from the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), Sara Tabasum escaped two weeks later while she was being transported to a new location. APMA reported Tabasum managed to jump out of the vehicle and escape while it was on a busy road. Although the youngster was pursued, she still managed to reach her family.
In the last week of June, APMA reported, according to Tabasum and her family members, Perveen Bibi, a Muslim woman and her husband Babar, rented an apartment next to Tabasums house. Both families shared a single bathroom and main entrance door, APMA said. It soon became evident to Tabasums family, APMA reported, by the amount of strangers coming and going that their new neighbors owned a brothel.
Tabasums mother and other neighbors complained to the owner of the apartment complex about the activities reportedly being carried on by their new neighbors. As a result, APMA reported, Bibi and her husband were ordered to immediately vacate the apartment. When Bibi found out that Tabasums mother had complained, she warned her that here would be consequences for her actions. Bibi and her husband, APMA reported, moved their business to another area of the city.
On Sept. 5, APMA stated, Tabasum went out late one night to buy some loaves of bread. She was reportedly abducted by her former neighbors and two other men. According to APMA, "They put a piece of cloth soaked in some intoxicant on her mouth, after which she fainted."
When Tabasum regained consciousness she found herself in Bibis house, where three men reportedly including Babar Bibi, raped her. Tabasum was reportedly told that by Perveen Bibi that she could be "saved" if she embraced Islam and married one of Perveens Muslim brothers.
According to APMA, "On refusing, Sara was beaten badly during captivity and shifted to another house ... where five persons raped her. She was repeatedly asked by Perveen and other men to embrace Islam and recite (the) Islamic creed to save herself from the misery. Perveens husband Babar even told her that they (had) killed her brother Suleman, and her mother (had) also embraced Islam. (With that in mind), it would be better for her to become (a) Muslim now, otherwise she could be killed or made (a) âprostitute."
Posted by: ed ||
10/04/2005 16:53 ||
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#1
Castration, follwed by amputations of hands and feet sounds about right for these slime.
Posted by: DanNY ||
10/04/2005 17:43 Comments ||
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You left out the best part....
APMA stated that following the report of the alleged assault to the police, Tabasums family has been threatened and while the police are doing their best to find those responsible for the assault, the "real culprits are not arrested yet as Perveen and Babar run a brothel business and are very influential."
APMA reported that the organization has demanded the Prime Minister of Pakistan take immediate action in this case, including the issuance of a public statement to condemn the incident. APMA said it has also asked the government authorities to visit the alleged victims family.
Those who did it won't even be charged.... I guess the 12 year old child couldn't find two male witnesses to testify on her behalf....
#3
The best solution to a problem like this is a small, well-trained, hit squad that goes in there and just kills those responsible. No torture or anything like that, just execution.
Such vigilantism is both effective in scaring off villains from oppressing, and it stimulates the government to step in and do its job. Of course, at first the government says it is going to "crack down on the vigilantes", but in truth, the government usually gets the intended message.
Posted by: ed ||
10/04/2005 18:28 Comments ||
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#5
If the poor girl converted to Islam during the rapes wouldn't they just kill her for being dishonored or having sex out of wedlock or some other nonsense.
#7
It's FOUR witnesses. Once old mo' the friendly pedophile prophet had his 9 years old Aicha wife (well, she was older at the time) accused of infidelity by other muslims.
Since old mo' didn't want to decapitate his favorite wife, he had the timely divine revelation that the accusation needed four witnesses (the incident of supposed adultery, actually Aicha alone with a young man, had taken place in the desert, so fat chance of that), not the usual two... and that, by the way, thoses who falsely accused his his wife had to be whipped for their testimony.
Since rape is assimilated to adultery in muslim law, a woman must produce four witnesses of rape.
#8
I'll add that kidnapping followed by rape and forcible conversion is a classical "evangelization" tactic of christian young women by muslim men.
I'm not making this up, this is an acute "problem" in Egypt, where coptic women are preyed upon and forcibly converted to islam after having been married by force and/or raped so they can't go back to their familiy.
You'll note this is the same story here, and one can almost make a comparison to the waves of gangrapes in Europa (Netherland, France, nordic countries, with about 75-80% of the rapists being muslim men regardless of ethnic origins, north africans in France or Holland, kurds or pakistaneses or somalis in Sweden,... and most of the victims being "native" women).
It's because islam is the religion of peaceful coexistence, tolerance for diversity and "the other", and wimmen rights.
#11
Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/04/2005 21:37 Comments ||
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No that won't do Robert. I have a problem harming little girls and women regardless of what they believe. Now if they try to attack me or others personally then I might be disposed to make them not be able to hurt me or anyone else.
Men who hurt women and children are defective and need to be recycled to their base organic compounds.
October 4, 2005: Despite severe poverty and being surrounded by several highly unstable neighbors (Ivory Coast, Guinea, Algeria, Burkina Fasso, and Mauritania), Mali, a large country (1.2 million square kilometers, only about four percent of which is arable, with some 12 million people) in the Sahel, the swathe of semi-desert land that runs just south of the Sahara, is one of the few genuine democracies in Africa. Most Malians practice a very tolerant form of Islam, which leaves room for a lot of traditional animist customs. Of late, however, there has been Islamist activity in the country, activity which may threaten its stability.
Just great, another front on Islam's bloody border
There are several sources of Islamist influence.
Starting with, guess who?
Saudi Arabia has been spreading money around, in the form of Islamic charitable donations to build mosques across the country, mosques where extremist Wahabi influences are strong. In addition, clerics from the fundamentalist Pakistani sect Jamaat al-Tabligh (known as Dawa al-Tabligh in the Sahel and Foi et Pratique in Europe), a group so radical it considers the Wahabi âwesternizedâ, have been active in the country.
"Yeah, them thar Wahabis are too soft, using sharp swords and all. Real mooselims use their teeth to gnaw peoples heads off!"
In addition, the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC), which has been using the wild northern regions of the country (inhabited largely by dissatisfied Tuareg tribesmen) for base camps from which to raid into Algeria.
These Islamists have been preaching a much more fundamentalist line. It includes bans on many traditional practices, such as veneration of ancestors, the wearing of traditional charms, and all forms of âsinful excess,â such as smoking, music, alcohol (naturally), rights for women, and tolerance toward the countryâs small Christian and animist minorities.
"Tolerance is un-islamic!"
While most Malian political leaders and foreign scholars with a deep knowledge of the country and its culture do not believe thereâs much chance of a successful Islamist take-over of the country, the do fear the possibility of Islamist-inspired violence. In this regard, to help cope with this threat, Mali has been working with neighboring Mauritania, also plagued by SGPC infiltration, and the two nations have conducted combined military operations against the SGPC in northern Mali. It is expected that Mali may conclude similar arrangements with Niger and Chad, eastwards of Mali in the Sahel, where Islamist groups have also been active.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/04/2005 11:14 ||
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THE al-Qa'ida terror network has launched an internet advertising campaign to recruit agents, calling for applicants who are fluent in English, are willing to pursue jihad against the West and have "video production" skills.
The al-Qa'ida drive for "pure" Muslims invites fundamentalists who are "voluntarily willing" to fight against Western influences in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Chechnya.
The bizarre recruitment campaign, revealed by London-based daily Arabic newspaper Asharq Alawsat, mirrors advertising techniques adopted by the US's spy agency the CIA and comes just months after Britain's elite MI6 security service advertised for agents for the first time.
While the advertisements do not specify the nature of the job, al-Qa'ida asks for candidates who are bilingual, well versed in Islamic foreign affairs and blessed with "video production" skills.
The message says al-Qa'ida is waiting for applicants "willing to support its organisation" and urges them to "express their interest" by email and and await further contact for a job interview.
"The nature of the work will closely reflect the work that we (al-Qa'ida) have been carrying out on Iraq, as witnessed on television and heard about on radio," Asharq Alawsat quotes the ad as saying.
"Every Muslim must know that his time is not his own and must fight for other (Muslims) who are shedding their blood in battles (against the West)," the message says, as translated by The Australian. It specifically refers to Iraq, where "our brothers and sisters are being killed".
Cryptically, the message, which calls on Muslims to act "immediately", also insists that recruits "must have the ability to produce video programs" and must be able to "write speeches" and "be able to deliver the group's messages as clearly and eloquently as possible".
Al-Qa'ida has had a long history of recording video messages from its leaders in exile, including Osama bin Laden, who has been in hiding since before the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Terrorists have also used video equipment, usually through Qatar-based Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera, to record messages from kidnap victims.
The network has been criticised since the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq for showing beheadings of hostages held by al-Qa'ida extremists.
The Arabic-language website where the advertisement appears promises to link prospective "jihadists" to al-Qa'ida operatives, who will get in contact via email.
MI6 broke with almost a century of tradition earlier this year to recruit openly for spies. It had previously only provided a post-office box address on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website for hopefuls to make contact.
According to al-Qa'ida's latest message, anyone interested in becoming an agent had to do so by their own "will" and had to speak and write Arabic and English fluently to help monitor information circulating in the global media about Islam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 01:50 ||
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#1
is this a match made in heaven or what?
FBI agents seek MI6 KGB or and other security services to pretend to be Jihadi's to make video productions for free.
#2
Wanted: Murderous sociopaths preferably with blind devotion to the pedophile monkey moon God.
Willing to spread your body parts and those of innocents across large public areas.
If called upon, must be willing to confront US infidel troops thereby ensuring your ticket to paradise!
Compensation: Once the world has identified you as a blessed martyr through you hidieous deeds you'll be rewarded 72 virgins in paradise, all who look like the famous American beauty queen Andrea Dworkin.
#4
Feeling froggy? Got your fill of wife beating? Tired of throwing acid in your sister's face? Do we have a job for you!!!
Wanted: Young adult male...preferably stupid enough to believe that Allah rewards a Muslim who will blow himself up in the vicinity of innocent Muslim women and children. On-the-job combat training provided against the infidel US Marines and US Army. This is an opportunity for you to excel! (PS: Rumors of mass casualties among your brethern are greatly exagerated by the infidels).
The common traveler's backpack carrying small bombs may now be among the leading threats to world security, experts said on Monday, drawing a link between this weekend's bombings in Bali to those in London in July.
Militants from the United States to Europe and Southeast Asia have used car and truck bombs and even planes to make dramatic statements. But now small, easily made bombs like those used in London appear to be the new trend.
The al Qaeda-linked group at the heart of an Indonesian probe into the three bombs that tore through restaurants packed with Saturday evening diners and killed 22 people likely drew inspiration from the London attack in July, the experts said.
"It shows a shift to small, London-style suicide bombers (like those) in Indonesia from large truck bombs," said Zachary Abuza, an expert on Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia at Boston's Simmons College.
U.S. authorities warned people of threats posed by small, home-made bombs after the July 7 attack in London's transit system that killed 56 people, putting New York on its highest level of alert since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But much of that security has been rolled back. Police have dismantled checkpoints, scaled back subway patrols and pulled bomb-sniffing dogs off New York commuter trains.
Security experts such as Arnold Howitt of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government said a Bali-style attack involving hard-to-detect bombs would be remarkably easy in the United States. Bomb-making materials are easy to find and security loopholes in restaurants and trains are plentiful.
But he said one element appears missing: suicide bombers.
"The limiting factor in the United States is that the most effective way of carrying out this kind of attack is through suicide bombers and we don't seem to have a supply of indigenous suicide bombers," he said.
Abuza said the simplicity of stuffing bombs into backpacks likely influenced the Bali bombers. Chilling video footage released in Bali late on Sunday showed a man entering a restaurant, followed almost instantly by an explosion.
"The shift from large truck bombs to people with a small 5 kg (11 lb) bomb on their back is very significant. To me it says a lot about the resources that they have or don't have. The truck bombs were very expensive operations," said Abuza.
He said the simplicity made it easier to launch attacks. "I think we're going to see a lot more of this," he added.
Initial investigations into Saturday's attack -- the second on Bali since a series of blasts on Oct. 12, 2002, killed 202 people -- are focused on Jemaah Islamiah, a network linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, which has been blamed for past bombings in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Australian police involved in the probe said the style of bombs and materials used appeared new to the region. An Indonesian official said they included TNT and ball bearings.
"They are reverting to more simplified weapons usage because they can't mount the big one but they want to stay in the game," said retired U.S. Brigadier General Russell Howard, a counter-terrorism expert at Tufts University, who believes Jemaah Islamiah's resources are shrinking.
"It is an admission that they are not as strong as they were. But the simpler form of warfare is easier to prosecute and more difficult to detect," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/04/2005 01:04 ||
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#1
losers. Anyone can become a human bomb and kill people. BFD. Doing so only makes you a dead loser. Sooner or later we will get technology to defeat these suicidal loser freaks.
#2
Just a matter of technology. Remember the movie Total Recall? Couple the anti-IED technology devices that are evolving in Iraq that set off explosives from a distance along with a restricted passage security system like the one in the movie and you can have a system to let the bomber kill himself where you want to.
Algeria has warned it will crack down severely on Islamic militants who refuse a government amnesty, the nation's interior minister said. Algerians voted overwhelmingly last week to approve a peace plan granting amnesty to many of the country's Islamic extremists, an attempt to turn the page on a brutal insurgency that has left an estimated 150,000 dead. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said late Sunday that security services know that "recalcitrant terrorists" will refuse to hand in their weapons. The amnesty offer concerns about 800 to 1,000 militants, Zerhouni said.
Those who refuse the offer will face an "even more organized crackdown," he said, without elaborating. But for years, security forces have been hunting down militants who have rejected previous amnesty offers, hiding out in isolated mountains and brushlands.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said for the first time yesterday that he would be prepared to forfeit his claim to lead the next government in the interest of forming a coalition with the conservatives. But his Social Democratic Party (SPD) insisted they were not ready to cave in and would attempt to see the charismatic chancellor confirmed for a third term, as the bitter power struggle with his rival Angela Merkel raged on.
DRESDEN: Angela Merkel's conservatives extended their lead over Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats after final voting in Germany's election, strengthening their hand in power-sharing talks. The conservatives won an extra parliamentary seat to push their total to 226, while Chancellor Schroeder's SPD stayed at 222, the chief election official said after counting ended in central Dresden, the last area to cast ballots in Germany. Voters in the district brought the federal election to an end two weeks after the rest of the country went to the polls. The Dresden vote had been delayed due to the death of a local candidate. 
The United Nations has begun distributing millions of copies of Iraq's draft constitution ahead of an Oct. 15 referendum to approve or reject the document, which was reportedly criticized in a leaked U.N. memo.
AMMAN - Four Jordanians accused of planning to join insurgents in Iraq and recruiting fighters pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial on Monday, judicial sources said. Last month the state prosecutor indicted the four men on charges of âcarrying out activity not approved by the government, which jeopardised Jordanâs relations with another country,â according to the charge sheet.
Deputies yesterday called on President Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Cabinet for failing to stamp out chaos in the streets as Palestinian policemen stormed into Gazaâs Parliament building to demand a crackdown on militants. The Palestinian Parliament ordered Abbas to appoint a new government because of the current regimeâs failure to impose order on spiraling chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The surprise vote came shortly after dozens of armed policemen burst into Parliament to protest against massive insecurity one day after the first deadly internecine clashes since Israel left the Gaza Strip last month.
Algeria has warned it will crack down severely on Islamic militants who refuse a government amnesty, the nation's interior minister said. Algerians voted overwhelmingly last week to approve a peace plan granting amnesty to many of the country's Islamic extremists, an attempt to turn the page on a brutal insurgency that has left an estimated 150,000 dead. Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said late Sunday that security services know that "recalcitrant terrorists" will refuse to hand in their weapons. The amnesty offer concerns about 800 to 1,000 militants, Zerhouni said.
