The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has urged Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse the rising tension between the two neighbours. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary-general of the world's largest Islamic body, said on Sunday that the two countries should "demonstrate self-restraint and calm the situation", after Chad's accusation that Sudan was trying to destabilise its government.
Precisely why would you exercise self-restraint when your neighbor's myrmidons have attacked you and the bastards are trying to subvert your country? I really can't think of any good reason...
He appealed to the two members of OIC to "resort to common sense and mature reflection to resolve this passing conflict through peaceful and brotherly way". The African Union said on Saturday that it had sent a delegation to Chad and Sudan to try to ease tensions as Chad declared that it was in a "state of belligerence" with Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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I am personally looking forward to a Chadian assault on Khartoum and the scumbags running the Sudan - hopefully, the Southern and Northern rebels will form a united front and expel the present Islamist bastards from the country, utilizing the Chadian incursion as cover.
This is another example of that subtle reasoning for which the Arabs are justly famous. Just because they called it a myth, y'see, doesn't mean they deny that it happened.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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A prominent western intellectual to explain that statements like this is not a sign of antisemitism in 5..4..
#2
Gromgoru, I think the best they're going to get is a third-stringer from the Daily Kos to defend this argument. Maybe someone who teaches deconstructionism at a community college in the Bay area, but that would be about it.
#3
They're pulling a fast one, relying on a little ambiguity in English. One meaning of the word "myth" is something like "a story that resonates." The popular meaning is "a big fat lie." I think we all know which meaning the Muslim Brotherhood really had in mind.
Posted by: James ||
12/26/2005 10:47 Comments ||
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It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is....
who said the Arabs were the only ambiguous liars?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 11:10 Comments ||
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I assume their thinking is that "myth" part of the semantic is that the Holocaust was a bad thing.....
Local sources reported that more than 4 were killed and many injured in clashes between two tribes in Al-Houthi area (where the tribe of the rebel clerk Bader Al-Deen Al-Houthi resides) on Sunday 18th December 2005. The clashes were reported to have been started on Saturday between Thukera from Al-Osimat tribe and Al-Samout form Bani Surim tribe because of an old revenge™ case. The case was started when a tribesman was hanged in Khear area that belongs to Bani Surem tribe. The road between Sanaâa and Saada was blocked because of the festivities clashes between the two tribes. Witnesses said that security forces are not trying to resolve the conflict and that the number of killed people may increase.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Yemeni democracy activists requested President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday to honor his pledge not to stand in next yearâs presidential vote. In an appeal memo announced yesterday, the activists called on Saleh to ignore calls from his General Peopleâs Congress (GPC) party to retract his position. The message urged Saleh to âpush ahead in strengthening democracy and demonstrate the peaceful transfer of power to be recognized as one of the worldâs greatest personalities.â
Saleh had declared publicly in July 2005 that he would not stand in the presidential election next year. He said his motives were to encourage other younger potential candidates to take charge and to set an example in being the first-ever Arab leader who steps down voluntarily, allowing a peaceful and democratic transfer of power to take place in his lifetime.
Analysts believe that Saleh had changed his mind and decided to run for another 7-year term in office, particularly after his party insisted on nominating him to run in the elections on its behalf. Saleh requested from his party to hold an extraordinary conference to announce its candidate. A victory in the elections for Saleh, who has remained in power for 27 years, would give him a total of 35 years, making him as one of the current longest serving presidents in the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Following the exoneration of Saudi businessman Sheikh Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi by a Swiss court earlier this month, Saudi businessmen have expressed their happiness over the news. âI am very happy to know that my friend Al-Qadi has been cleared of all charges by the Swiss court,â Zuhair Fayez, a Jeddah-based architect, told Arab News yesterday. He described Al-Qadi as a reputable businessman with international fame. Fayez said the individuals and agencies that falsely accused Al-Qadi of funding terrorism must be held responsible for damaging his reputation and interests.
âThe truth will certainly prevail even if it takes time,â Abdul Rahman Al-Khereiji, a local business leader, told Arab News. âThank God for the court verdict, which has once again proved Al-Qadi had never involved in any terror funding.â
The Federal Criminal Court in Berne cleared Al-Qadi of any wrongdoing in a case stemming from the 9/11 attacks, his lawyers announced on Dec. 12. The charges alleged that Al-Qadi gave money in 1998 ostensibly to construct student housing at Al-Iman University in Yemen while knowing that the funds may have ended up supporting Al-Qaedaâs plan to attack New York City. âI am delighted by this judgment, which categorically concludes that the transfers being investigated by Swiss authorities â which were all bona fide donations for the purposes of benefiting a university in Yemen â had nothing whatsoever to do with the Sept. 11 attacks,â said Al-Qadi in a statement issued through his lawyers.
Al-Qadiâs assets were frozen by the US and the UN shortly after the Twin Tower attacks and an investigation was opened in October 2001. In four years no charges were ever filed against Al-Qadi. The Saudi businessman headed the Muwafaq (Blessed Charity) Foundation. The organization ended up on a CIA list of suspected Al-Qaeda front organizations following the 9/11 attacks. The group also received funds from the United Nations in 1997 for its famine-relief work in the Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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AN OFFICIAL ceremony involving three Asian school children pretending to blow-up a high street has been condemned as "unbelievably insensitive". Fierce criticism has been levelled at an Eid lights switch-on in Rochdale which featured the three children pressing a mock detonator with the word "BOOM!" prominently displayed. The council-backed ceremony presided over by Rochdale Mayor, Councillor Ashley Dearnley, has been condemned by Asian community spokesmen and councillors.
The annual event took place in Rochdale's Milkstone Road, which is lined by Asian restaurants, takeaways and other businesses. Said Mohammed Shafiq, the spokesman for the Ramadan Foundation, which tackles crime, including drug dealing, in the area: "If this was some kind of joke, it's the sickest I have ever heard. It was unbelievably insensitive, in today's climate, after 7/7, to have Asians, and Asian children at that, pretending to blow things up. Eid is a time of peace and charity, to introduce the theme of violent explosions in the midst of a Muslim community simply beggars belief. It shows the organisers of this event are completely out of touch with the feelings in the Muslim community, especially the young."
Councillor for the area, Mohammed Sharif, joined in the criticism.
He said: "I think to have a pretend explosion was very wrong, especially at a time when we are all mourning over the loss of life in the Pakistan earthquake. Personally I did not attend because I think the lights celebrations should have been cancelled this year in favour of further fundraising for the victims."
Councillor Zulfiqar Ali, who represents central Rochdale said the 'joke' set a "very bad example" to young people. "This should not have been done. It sends out entirely the wrong message. What has explosions got to do with Eid? After what happened last July this was a very offensive thing to do."
But Councillor Dearnley said the critics of the ceremony were being "oversensitive". "Sometimes we can see things that are just not there. These children were just switching on the lights they did not have explosives strapped to their bodies in preparation for blowing something up."
Posted by: john ||
12/26/2005 09:34 ||
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Remember, Asian in the UK means Pakistani. Otherwise, that article makes no sense to the American mind.
"Our intelligence had under surveillance a few religious types [in Singapore]. One of them left for Karachi and went on to Afghanistan, soon after the country was bombed by the Americans [in late 2001]. He was captured by the [anti-Taliban] Northern Alliance. He was of Pakistani descent. So we found that this wasn't just a religious study group. If that fella had not gone off to Karachi to fight with the Taliban, we would have been hit with seven truck bombs. The nitrates were sitting [across the causeway] in [the Malaysian state of] Johore.
At the same time that this Pakistani, born and bred in Singapore and English-speaking, was caught by the Northern Alliance, another Pakistani born and bred in Bradford, U.K., was caught in Iraq and sent to Guantánamo Bay. I watched his father on the BBC, and thought to myself: two Pakistani families left Pakistan, one for Bradford, the other for Singapore, produced children, brought up in two totally different environments, quite distant from the Islam of Pakistan, and yet they both end up fighting in Afghanistan. This Islamist pull is more powerful than that of communism. The communists never fully trusted one another across racial boundaries. The Vietnamese communists never trusted the Chinese communists and so on. But with the Islamists there is total trust : You are a warrior for Islam, so am I: We swear to fight together.
Posted by: john ||
12/26/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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Wow CrazyFool's all over the M-Speak.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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gotta think like a Clinton attorney. Good job CF. You've gotta wonder how this will all play into the Paki "oppression" claims scam
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 14:33 Comments ||
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From East Asia Intel, subscription.
North Korea is using a bank in Austria for international financial transactions after Washington imposed sanctions on a bank in Macau, South Korean government sources said. Our staunch ally, Austria.
North Korea recently asked Hyundai Asan, the South Korean company that manages an inter-Korean joint tourism project in the North Korean Mount Kumgang resort to transmit sightseeing fees to a bank in Austria instead of Banco Delta Asia in Macau, they said. Since the Macau bank was no longer accepting transactions.
Hyundai Asan officials acknowledged they were wiring money to North Korea through an Austrian bank, but refused to identify the bank saying out of "respect" to their business partners. The Mount Kumgang tourism program, which Hyundai Asan launched in 1998, has served as a major cash cow for the impoverished regime in Pyongyang. Out of respect, hell. Afraid of sanctions on that bank.
Under an initial contract, Hyundai Asan was to send $942 million to North Korea by early 2005 in tourism fees. Hyundai has sent only $400 million so far due to a shortage of tourists. Heh. Currently, the South Korean company is sending an average of $1 million to the North in monthly tourism fees or $70 for each tourist who takes the three-day trip. What a trip, maybe a neat place to ring in the new year. Book a trip on line.
U.S. financial institutions suspended transactions with Banco Delta Asia in September after the Bush administration accused the bank of distributing counterfeit U.S. dollars printed in North Korea. One way to get on the US SH*T List
Banco Delta Asia has denied the allegations, saying its relationships with North Korean clients were legitimate and purely commercial. But the bank has cut off transactions, causing reported cash flow problems for the communist state. Make the Chicoms foot the bill and all the hassles for the NORKS.
Intelligence sources in Seoul said North Korea used the Macau bank as its main channel for private financial transactions for leader Kim Jong-Il. Banco Delta Asia provided financial services to North Korean government agencies and their front companies for more than 20 years, they said.
Stepping up pressure on North Korea, the U.S. Treasury Department warned the U.S. banking sector that North Korea "may be seeking banking services elsewhere" following the determination that Banco Delta Asia was a "primary money laundering concern."
[...snip...]
North Korea "may be seeking" to establish new or exploit existing account relationships for the purpose of conducting illicit activities, such as counterfeiting. Ya think?
North Korea has maintained overseas bank accounts mainly for laundering money and raising slush funds for Kim's family in Switzerland, Austria, Singapore, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and others, according to South Korean intelligence sources.
The sources quoted the CIA as estimating Kim's wealth at $4.3 billion, part of which is deposited in bank accounts in Switzerland. Ah, yes, Switzerland. The neutral country, keeping good company in clients for so many years.
Kim has used the money to buy luxury items, such as Swiss watches for his loyalists. Kim has employed his unique ruling technique by using âgift politicsâ to win the loyalty of core groups.
The Northâs ruling Workers' Party runs "Office No. 38" to managed Kim's private funds, according to intelligence sources in Seoul. "Office No. 39" is in charge of earning hard currency through illegal means such as narcotics and counterfeit currency trafficking, the sources said. Office 39 needs a MOAB.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/26/2005 16:16 ||
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Just trying to get closer to Kimmie's source of Hennessy VSOP and hookers.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 19:48 Comments ||
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boy, those Austrians are sure morally superior to Gov. Schwarzenegger, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 20:06 Comments ||
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North Korea criticized the United States' top envoy to Seoul for making provocative remarks about the communist country, calling the ambassador a "tyrant," a news report said Sunday. U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow labeled the North a "criminal regime" this month, citing Pyongyang's alleged arms dealing, money laundering and counterfeiting.
Ummm... That's okay, I guess, but it doesn't really approach KCNA levels of vitriol. We can prob'ly do better...
Since then, North Korea has repeatedly called on the South to expel Vershbow for slandering the North. "It is clear (Vershbow) is a tyrant wearing the mask of a diplomat," the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary Sunday, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Bet that one's a corker...
In Beijing, meanwhile, a Japanese envoy said Japan and North Korea have agreed to set up three working groups to resolve sticking points preventing the two countries from establishing diplomatic ties. Talks will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and on Japanese abducted and taken to North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, said Akitaka Saiki, Japan's chief negotiator at talks in Beijing. He said the next round of negotiations would take place in late January.
They are expected to last until the next NKor temper tantrum...
U.S. allegations of the North's counterfeiting have been a major obstacle to the resumption of six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arms program. North Korea has dismissed the allegations as lies and threatened to boycott the talks with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia unless Washington lifts financial sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Fred : Where's the Nork cartoon of the Ambassador posing like a T-Rex with blood dipping from his fangs?
#3
SM-3's are already deployed on US Navy Aegis destroyers off the Japanese coast. The Japanese also have the Patriot PAC-3 for local missle defense. The Japanese and the US will go halfsies to develop the next generation.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 22:11 Comments ||
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Former secretary of state Colin Powell has defended the US administration arguing there was "nothing wrong" with President George Bush's not seeking warrants before engaging in domestic spying.
"I see absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorising these kinds of actions," Powell told ABC television Sunday after revelations last week that Bush authorised the National Security Agency to intercept communications by Americans with no approval from a special foreign intelligence court.
"The president made a determination that he had sufficient authority from the Congress to do this in the way that he did it, without getting warrants from the courts or reporting to the courts after doing it," Powell said.
"And the Congress will have to make a judgment as to whether or not they think the president was using the law correctly or not."
Though Powell said he was not aware of the operations, he said "my own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants.
"Even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it. The law provides for that. And then, three days later, you let the court know what you have done and deal with it that way," Powell said.
But "for reasons that the president has discussed and the attorney general has spoken to, they chose not to do it that way."
Asked if such spying should continue, Powell said: "Yes, of course it should continue."
US media also reported that the government runs a secret program to monitor homes, workplaces and mosques of Muslims in six US cities for signs of possible nuclear radiation.
Both programs involve surveillance without search warrants or court orders, and agents who questioned the legality of the practise were allegedly rebuked, according to the news magazine US News and World Report.
The federal government had previously said it had installed radiation-detection equipment at ports, subway stations and other public sites. The reports revealed that surveillance of private property was also under way.
Bush and his top aides have stressed that the order for eavesdropping was limited to those suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda. But the latest reports about vetting vast amounts of data indicate the spying is more far-reaching.
In its effort to track terrorist threats, the Bush administration has secured groundbreaking cooperation from major telecommunications companies, which have passed along information on calling patterns from a large volume of telephone traffic to the NSA, according to US media reports.
Similar revelations about domestic spying led to legislation in the 1970s that allows for wiretapping but requires government agencies to obtain a warrant from a special court.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/26/2005 08:52 ||
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Well, kinda sorta..
As with much Colin says, his comments are loaded with caveats. As in his saying that Bush should have gone to FISA afterwards.
There is absolutely no obligation to report surveillance to FISA and to voluntarily do so would be to give up presidential authority needed to fight the war on terror.
Just consider the judge who quit in disgust from the FISA court-- a lefty from the Clintonoid Era.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/26/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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This issue is a big time loser for Democrates. This makes Democrates look like the "we will only fight with one arm tied behind our back" party. The real question for the average voter is: Do you feel safer if we give those people who want to kill you the full rights of an American citizen.
#3
We can only hope that the donks make this a campaign issue. Every poll I have seen indicates this is a non-issue as far as the general public. Of course the fever swamp is whining about impeachment, but I really doubt that it will get any traction outside their echo chamber. It will be fun to listen to them whine for the next three years.
WASHINGTON // The nation's new spy chief is planning for a "relatively flat" intelligence budget in 2007, after a number of double-digit percentage increases in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to government officials. The 2007 spending request, which President Bush will unveil in February, will be the first intelligence budget under John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence.
According to Patrick Kennedy, a senior official in Negroponte's office, the country needed to "ramp up" spending on intelligence after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Now, Kennedy said, the government needs to decide how to best use that bigger budget.
Some recently dismissed intelligence professionals, though, say that without continued budget increases, efforts to enhance the nation's intelligence capabilities will stall.
The current intelligence budget is $44 billion, according to one of Negroponte's senior aides, Mary Margaret Graham, who let the classified number slip at a conference in October. That is an increase of nearly 50 percent over the estimated $30 billion spent on intelligence five years ago, said John Pike, who tracks the intelligence budget at Globalsecurity.org.
Some intelligence veterans say $44 billion a year is not enough to meet the growing demands placed on U.S. intelligence agencies since Sept. 11. Cutting growth in spending for the intelligence agencies would stunt the growth of a nascent intelligence reform effort, they contend. "This is so incredibly short-sighted," said Mark Lowenthal, who served as a top manager at the CIA until earlier this year when he was let go. The proposed reduction in growth of intelligence spending is a sign that the Bush administration is paying for the Iraq war with money that should be going to intelligence, particularly for the hiring and training of spies, he added.
So Mr. Lowenthal, why aren't you still at CIA? And what was the best contribution you made that you can talk about?
About 80 percent of the intelligence budget comes from the Defense Department, which has been ordered by the White House to cut $32 billion over the next five years. "Intelligence is the bill payer for the Defense Department," he said. "We've all seen it before, and it's a mistake."
But others, including Pike, say the intelligence agencies need to take a breather to absorb the recent influx of cash. "The intelligence community has got a bad case of indigestion with the sudden influx of an enormous amount of money," Pike said. Over the next five years, he added, the intelligence agencies' challenge "is going to be to hang on to what they have."
With the combining of different agencies, I'm betting there's a fair bit of middle management and fluff that can be cut. A leaner CIA isn't a bad thing at all.
With spending for intelligence leveling off, former officials say, Negroponte will have to make tough decisions: Which of the nation's 15 intelligence agencies will get more money, and which programs will lose out if the government is to achieve Negroponte's goal of creating "a capacity to innovate faster" than America's enemies?
"It's going to force people to look at what is it within the intelligence programs we want to emphasize and what is it we believe we can cut back on," said Burton Gerber, who spent 39 years at the CIA and recently co-edited a book on intelligence reform.
The initial test of Negroponte's power will come in the next few weeks, when he sends his spending recommendations to the White House. His most formidable foe in internal budget battles is likely to be Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, former intelligence officials say.
In a meeting with reporters last month, Negroponte's top deputy, Michael V. Hayden, said the government wants to invest more in human spying, build a new center to improve intelligence analysts' access to public information and take steps to connect the FBI to intelligence gathered around the world. Hayden, a former director of the National Security Agency, said the budget would probably call for spending cuts at agencies more dependent on expensive technology, such as the NSA, which eavesdrops on communications worldwide, and the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds satellite systems.
For the 2007 budget, Kennedy said there would be no "massive shift" of funds from technical to human intelligence collection, though there will be changes in the allocations within the two broad categories. According to Pike, technical intelligence collection represents about two-thirds of the national intelligence budget.
But it might not be possible to significantly reduce spending for technology, said former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat who chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence. "Once you put a satellite up, you don't have the opportunity to say, 'I'm going to turn it off for three months to save on the electric bill,'" he said.
That is why intelligence specialists such as Graham and Lowenthal worry that the planned expansion of human spying could suffer. "I don't think you can build and diversify and deepen the quality of human intelligence without continuing to make some additions to the budgets of the intelligence agencies," Graham said.
"Spies! All spies!"
Money for training new spies and analysts is likely to get caught in the intelligence budget squeeze, Lowenthal said. Training is "seen as a piggy bank," he said. "Given the fact that we have all these brand-new analysts, if that's where the agencies make up their shortfalls, it's going to hurt tremendously." One note of solace, said Lowenthal, who served as the top Republican aide on the House Intelligence Committee, is that the president's budget is just a request. Congress makes the final decision, he said, and "they can always spend more."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2005 12:28 ||
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a severe weeding out of leakers and malcontents will free up personnel money
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 14:41 Comments ||
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I would shrink the budget and size of whatever shops and projects are inhabitted by malcontents.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/26/2005 15:39 Comments ||
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Once again, another piece for "the MSM never told me this" file (which keeps getting bigger and bigger).
WASHINGTON, Dec. 25, 2005 â Servicemembers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are re-enlisting in high numbers, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today said he thinks he knows why.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace spoke with Chris Wallace on the Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday," making his first appearance on a Sunday talk show as Joint Chiefs chairman.
"(The high re-enlistment rate) shows their pride in what they're doing and their understanding of how important it is," the general said. "It is absolutely true that for those units that have served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, that their re-enlistment rates are the highest of all of our armed forces."
Pace said servicemembers know they're doing important work, and also know it's appreciated. "I think Pfc. Pace understands the value of what he or she is doing, and they know that what they're doing is appreciated by the Iraqis and the Afghan people. They know that the support here at home for the armed forces is very, very solid and very strong. They're proud of what they're doing, and they want to continue to do it." Jibtrim
#2
gee, sorry Nancy and Harry - the troops have spoken with their vows. Duty, Honor, and Country still have a place outside Academia, the DNC and Kos kids.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 20:33 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces have killed some 100 people in a crackdown on tribal rebels fighting for provincial autonomy and a greater share of natural resources in the troubled south-western Balochistan province, reports said on Sunday. Residents and Baloch rebel leaders said government forces backed by helicopter gunships raided several sites where rebels were suspected of hiding. Nawab Balach Marri, a Baloch rebel leader, told reporters in the provincial capital, Quetta, that 80 civilians had been killed in Kohlu in the operation launched earlier this month in the gas-rich region. The operation also reportedly claimed at least 20 lives in nearby Dera Bugti. âThe entire town (of Dera Bugti) has been surrounded by military forces,â another rebel leader, Nawab Foster Brooks Akbar Khan Bugti, said. âWe are not traitors. We are not against Pakistan. We are fighting for our rights and will continue until we get them,â Bugti said.
"That makes us .. something else."
There was no word from the Pakistani government or military on casualties in the operation. The government said it had launched a âlimitedâ military operation in the area to halt rebel attacks on military camps and officers. An army spokesman said earlier this week that rebels had fired rockets at camps in Dera Bugti and Kohlu. All mainstream political parties, except the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, have all opposed the military raids in Balochistan.
That figures.
It also means nothing, since the opp parties reflexively oppose anything Perv does, especially if it involves stifling somebody's violent impulses...
The military operation follows the unveiling of plans by the federal government for the exploration of oil and gas reserves in Kohlu, 200 kilometres east of Quetta. Baloch nationalists have accused the federal government of exploiting the regionâs natural resources without sharing the benefits with local people.
That also figures.
So Fred, who do we like here, the Paks or the Balochis? And do I have to give points?
I gotta get me one of those county fair medals...
Oh, gosh. Wotta choice. On the one hand the fabled Pak military, victors in the Battle of... ummm... Balochistan. On the other hand we have the Bugtis, whom we've come to know and love, and the Marris, the Bugtis' occasional opponent and sometime partner in mayhem. There's no overt Islamist involvement that we've seen, though there are enough turbans running around the region. I wouldn't trust Akbar Bugti any further than I could throw him and his family.
I guess on due reflection, I'd hope for an eventual Baloch victory, but only after alarmingly high casualty counts on both sides, as long as Admiral Akbar is assassinated somewhere in the process...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 9:32 Comments ||
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Actually, I am hoping for 2 to 3 decades of low-level warfare with huge losses on both sides, the elimination of large numbers of young adult males on both sides, and a weakly held Baloch zone still inside Pakistan. The better to bleed it by {Indians should put a Kashmir on the Pakis via Balochistan}. Also a restive Balochistan will keep any Paki military adventures internal.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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I believe Balochistan straddles the border with Iran. It would be nice to see the iranians dealing with some uppity provinces as well.
I also believe the Balochi's are crazys that have been one of the possible hiding spots for Bin Laden so this might be a sign of something else going on behind the scenes.
Second Amendments launch tour (I thought this was cool.)
Everyoneâs favorite (and only) congressional rock band, the Second Amendments, is packing up its amps and hitting the road.
As part of a congressional delegation, or codel, traveling to world hot spots between Christmas and New Yearâs, the five members of the band will be throwing up a wall of sound for American service members.
Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.), chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, is leading the codel. He plays the keyboards. Joining him are Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) on lead vocals, Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) on lead guitar, Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) on bass and Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) on drums. Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.) has to settle for âAlmost Famousâ status as the only non-Amendment traveling with the codel.
âThey have lengthened their days so that during their downtime they can perform for the troops,â said T.J. Crawford, press secretary for Porter.
The band will play six shows in Europe and the Middle East. For security reasons, The Hill has been asked not to reveal more specific information about the membersâ itinerary.
âItâs going to be fun,â Peterson says. âThe military is very excited about it.â
Fox News will be joining the band and covering its performances. Asked if the band would be dressing up in flashy rock-star outfits, Peterson said the band members would be wearing matching T-shirts.
Playing to a crowd is nothing new for the Amendments. In September, they played to 6,000 at the Tweeter Center outside Chicago as part of the Farm Aid benefit. And in August, they played before 40,000 at the WE Fest country-music festival in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Heck, I'd like to check them out if they make it to TQ. Hopefully they'll bring Uncle Ted with them - Nugent I mean, not that other one.
Israel yesterday edged away from a ban on voting in East Jerusalem in next monthâs Palestinian parliamentary election in order not to give leader Mahmoud Abbas a pretext to delay the ballot. The polls, to take place on Jan. 25 across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are the first legislative elections since 1996 and could dramatically redraw the political scene with the Hamas group to participate for the first time. Last Wednesday, a source in Sharonâs office said Israel would bar those in occupied East Jerusalem from participating in the vote, triggering a furious Palestinian response and speculation that the vote may be delayed.
But following a call from the United States for both sides to resolve the dispute, a senior Israeli official appeared to be backing off the hard line. A Sharon aide told AFP yesterday that the administration âwill contemplateâ the possibility of Palestinians voting at five polling stations in East Jerusalem.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 11:13 ||
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Israel is prepared for a possible "collapse" in the Palestinian Authority that could render Mahmoud Abbas incapable of imposing law and order.
Whatever they paid for that study, anybody here could have done cheaper...
A senior Israeli official, speaking to AFP on Sunday, said: "We are prepared for a possible collapse in the Palestinian Authority that could risk seeing Mahmoud Abbas unable to impose law and order on the ground as well as within his own Fatah party. "At this point, Mahmoud Abbas is so weak in relation to Hamas that he is unable to implement the smallest decision."
He's so weak with respect to anyone that he can't implement the smallest decision. His mother tries to avoid talking about him. His kids slap him around. His wife cheats on him and sends him videotapes. His cat poops in his shoes.
The powerful Hamas movement is gearing up to contest its first Palestinian parliamentary election on 25 January, posing a serious challenge to Fatah's decade-long death grip on power. The official accused the Palestinian leader of being content to point the finger at Israel. "We cannot always blame others for our own weakness," he said. Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper on Sunday quoted senior military officials as saying that Abbas was at an all-time political low since succeeding Yasser Arafat, who died in November 2004.
... and remains in stable condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
.. that could render Mahmoud Abbas incapable of imposing law and order.
#2
My hunch is, we will see Mahmoud Abbas step down and maybe go into exile (ala the Shah of Iran), and ride out the storm until the crisis with Iran is dealt with; afterward, he could ride back in on his tall white steed!
#3
Oh la la!! Chaos in Gaza & the WBank. Let Egypt take care of Gaza (& the Muslim Brotherhood=Hamas) and Jordan on the remains of WBank........(King Abdullah is married to a Palestinan lady).........the plot thickens and it is getting better and better.........oom! Palestinian state..........oom!!I doubt that.
#4
a Hamas-run Paleo state would provide excellent clarity on just who Israel's "peace" partner is. Expect larger Paleo arms usage (bigger than Qassama) and Israeli artillery to provide adequate response, baby ducks and kittens look out!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 11:06 Comments ||
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#5
If the PA collapses, then Oslo is null and void, as there is no PA to negotiate with. Also, agreements between Israel and the PA are moot, so that means no water and electricity sold to the PA in Gaza as there is no PA. That should get rid of most of the irritations pretty fast, unless Iran brings in desalination equipment and generators. Good luck on that scenario.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/26/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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#6
Ah, but Alaska Paul, you forget - Western nations have to abide by every stupid decision whether or not the nation they made it with still exits. Primary example of this, President Kennedy's secret agreement with the Soviet Union about Cuba. We are still held to it even though the Soviet Union went away years ago. Also, the mofo Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that the Left kept insisting that we honor - once again, NO Soviet Union.
#7
Shieldwolf---good point. It is really up to the signatories of the treaties. If the LLL of one of the signatories wants to make a political stink out of it, then it is up to the government to acquesce or not to the LLL. I doubt that Israel would bag Oslo if there was no PA. But I would. I would offer to renegotiate. Once. With the new paleo authority. There would be some tough terms, like shutting the whole shebang down from terrorist attacks on Israel.
Maybe Israel needs to start giving some warning of what they will do if the PA goes away. Hell the terrorists have water, sewer and electricity provided while they plan for Israel's destruction. That is insane.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/26/2005 16:36 Comments ||
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#8
Let's also not forget the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963) that outlawed not just nuclear weapons tests, but other neat technologies such as Orion (proven, off the shelf) and nuclear salt water rocket engines (also proven, off the shelf).
Orion could have men on Mars in 6 months or less (one study I've seen says 3 months from orbit) and the NSWR could achieve speeds of 3.63% of light speed giving us the stars (on generation ships, of course, but physics says that's the only way we're going to get there right now) and certainly the solar system.
Maintaining ancient treaties with non-existant nations is not only stupid, it's foolish and suicidal.
After three years of work, the conversion of the ballistic missile submarine Ohio (SSBN 726) to a cruise missile submarine (SSGN), has been completed. The Ohio just completed itâs sea trails, and will enter service early next year. The Ohio now carries 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and provides space for 66 commandos (usually SEALs) and their equipment. The second of four SSBNs to be converted, the USS Florida, will be ready for service later in 2006. The other two subs to be converted will begin work in 2005 and 2006.
The idea of converting ballistic missile subs, that would have to be scrapped to fulfill disarmament agreements, has been bouncing around since the 1990s. After September 11, 2001, the idea got some traction. The navy submariners love this one, because they lost a lot of their reason for being with the end of the Cold War.
The United States had built a powerful nuclear submarine force during the Cold War, but with the rapid disappearance of the Soviet navy in the 1990s, there was little reason to keep over a hundred nuclear subs in commission. These boats are expensive, costing over a billion each to build and over a million dollars a week to operate. The four Ohio class SSBN being converted each have at least twenty years of life left in them.
The idea of a sub, armed with 154 highly accurate cruise missiles, and capable of rapidly traveling under water (ignoring weather, or observation) at a speed of over 1,200 kilometers a day, to a far off hot spot, had great appeal in the post-Cold War world. The ability to carry a large force of commandos as well was also attractive.
In one sub you have your choice of hammer or scalpel. More capable cruise missiles are in the works as well. Whether or not this multi-billion dollar investment will pay off remains to be seen. But it's certainly a bold move, and the navy already knows that Tomahawks and SEALs work. If they are going to have any extra ballistic missile subs they were planning to scrap, I've got a great "plan B" for them. Convert it into a "noisy boat" for research purposes. That is, a de-militarized international research vessel. In short, it would be for oceanography what the Hubble telescope has been for astronomy. In just a few years of operations, performing hundreds of missions per voyage, we would quadruple our knowledge of the seas. It could also pay for itself a million times over *just* by plotting high-grade mineral ore deposits.
#1
how many tubes? same as when it had ballistic missiles? seems it frees up space
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 17:20 Comments ||
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#2
Conversion of one of these boats must be mind-boggling. First of all, the Tridents were originally over-designed, on the concept that both their computers (and computer refrigeration systems) and missiles were going to get increasingly large--then just the opposite happened.
Their missile tubes actually have adaptors in them for the smaller missiles, and they have lots of empty space inside, so much so that they have to carry an inordinate amount of lead ballast just to sink.
Again, as a research ship these could put the Glomar Explorer and Challenger to shame. I'm talking literally quadrillions of dollars of mineral wealth underseas, that is just too valuable to pass up. Once it's mapped, it would be irresistable to mining companies, worth far more than undersea oil.
#3
Manganese nodules worth jillions, right out there for the taking. Course you gotta cut the dolphins in for 25% right off the top, then there's the Orca problem... still there's money to be made, if you can find any use for an additional 500,000 tons of manganese a year.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 18:20 Comments ||
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#4
22 missile tubes are replaced by 154 vertical launch Tomahawk tubes (7 per). They also modified 2 missile tubes as airlocks for the seals. That also leaves 2 decks under the tomahawks for extra crew/seals/equipment.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 19:45 Comments ||
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#5
Leon Clavin: mining is a peculiar proposition. Surface mining today for non-ferrous metals is almost exclusively for low and very-low grade ores. The high, medium, and most of the low-grade stuff has been gone for a long time.
But, if you *could* mine high and medium grade ores, your profits for a whole series of minerals would be exceptional. It is literally the difference between mining a few thousand tons of rock vs. mining several MILLION tons of rock, to get the same amount of product at the end.
Platinum, for example, is highly valued for car catalytic converters. The amount of platinum molecules coughed out by car exhausts makes roadside dust have about the same concentration of platinum as is in raw, low-grade platinum ore. At about $950/oz., you mine it where you can get it, be it in the Congo or half a mile underwater.
In copper mining, gold is a by-product. That is, so much ore is smelted for the copper, that significant amounts of gold is recovered, too. It exists in trace amounts in the ore. At times, when the price of copper is low and gold is high, some copper mines actually make more money off of the gold than the copper.
I've no idea how manganese figures into this, but it is probably only suggested because it would be relatively easy to recover with a "scooping", rather than a real mining operation.
A real undersea mining operation would first require a whole series of core drilling operations, followed by the use of tons of explosives to break up the sea floor. Then, something either like a dredging operation or a vertical conveyor belt would be used to pull the ore up to a waiting ship.
Inherently expensive, they wouldn't want any ore that wasn't high or medium grade, which is why they would want a thorough mapping of the resource ahead of time, something a research submarine would be well-equipped to do.
MIAMI (AP) -- Albert L. Weimorts Jr., a civilian engineer for the Air Force whose designs included a satellite-guided weapon known as the "mother of all bombs," has died, his son said. He was 67. Weimorts died Wednesday of brain cancer at home in Fort Walton Beach, his son Todd said Sunday.
The Air Force Research Laboratory honored Weimorts after he retired in 2003 for his role in developing two powerful bombs as chief engineer for the lab's Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base. One was the 5,000-pound GBU-28 "Bunker Buster," created and deployed in a record-setting 28 days to target fortified bunkers during the first Gulf War.
The other was the 21,500-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast, the largest satellite-guided, air-delivered weapon in history and nicknamed the "mother of all bombs." It was developed for the second Iraq war, but never used.
"Time after time, Weimorts has put weapons in the warfighter's hands and has made a difference in the national defense of our country," the laboratory said in a 2004 statement.
Weimorts (pronounced WEE-morts) received the Air Force Award for Meritorious Civilian Service and a career achievement award. "He was teasingly known here as 'the father of the mother of all bombs,'" Todd Weimorts said.
His father raced to develop the GBU-28 within a month at the Air Force's request, he said. "The joke was it took one month to design, build and deploy in combat, and over one year to fill out the paperwork," he said.
In addition to designing big bombs, Albert Weimorts developed small, hand-held munitions, such as grenades, his son said. Weimorts also served two tours as a weapons inspector in Iraq for the United Nations in the 1990s.
Born in DeFuniak Springs, Weimorts grew up in Mobile, Ala., and received a degree in mechanical engineering from Mississippi State University. He began working for the Defense Department in 1962. He is survived by his wife of 45 years and three sons. Farewell, mighty wizard, and know that the jihadist devils tremble at the very thought of your works.
Communist guerrillas in the Philippines have said they are open to joining forces with disaffected military and police units to topple Gloria Arroyo, the country's president. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which rejected a Christmas ceasefire with the government after peace talks collapsed, also said seizing power remained its ultimate goal. In a statement issued on the eve of its 37th anniversary, the CPP said it had ordered its 8000-member New People's Army (NPA) to "intensify guerrilla warfare on a nationwide scale".
In September, Arroyo was politically weakened after the communists rebuffed her peace offer. Arroyo, however, overcame an impeachment vote in parliament, arising from opposition allegations that she cheated her way to victory in the presidential election in 2004. Rumours of a coup plot by military and police officers swept the capital earlier this month and a retired general was arrested on sedition charges.
The CPP central committee said: "At the appropriate time, the party would be willing to openly enter an alliance that includes the anti-Arroyo military and police forces not only for the purpose of ousting the Arroyo regime but also for the purpose of resuming the peace negotiations." The rebels said they were approaching the final year of a three-year plan to build up the weaponry and fighting skills of the NPA, which the statement said now "operates in more than 100 guerrilla fronts" in most of the country's 79 provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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Lebanon's influential Maronite Patriarch advised President Emile Lahoud to restore the presidential position to its former significance saying that "history will record the stand that you, the president, will take for the sake of the nation."
I'd guess Emile's probably toast. The only question is whether he steps down or he's chased out...
During Christmas Mass at Bkirki Sunday, attended by the president in the front row, the prelate indirectly suggested that Lahoud should reconsider whether remaining in office would serve the interest of the country and the reverence of the presidential post. For the first time, Sfeir - who unofficially has the last word on who becomes the next president - publicly implied that he backed Lahoud's early departure from office. "It is your responsibility, your Excellency, as the head of state, to lead Lebanon and the Lebanese to safety and preserve the Constitution and national unity. If the president is not up to the task, then it is up to him to judge whether remaining in his post or resigning would honor this position or dishonor it." He implored Lahoud "to avoid self interest and take a decision that is in the interest of the nation."
It's pretty clear what Sfeir regards as the right decision...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
This is a lot nicer way of saying "Get Out" than the Syrians have been employing.
Iran said Sunday it is holding a German man and a Frenchman whose boat strayed into its territorial waters while they were on a sailing vacation last month. The men were detained for "illegal entry into Iran's territorial waters," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. He said the men were healthy and had spoken to their embassies by telephone but were still being questioned. Asefi said their case is in the hands of the Iranian judiciary and that the men's rights were being maintained.
Germany's government said Thursday that Iranian authorities were holding the two men. The Rheinpfalz newspaper reported that the 52-year-old German had been on vacation with his wife and a French friend in the United Arab Emirates. The two men were arrested on Nov. 29 during a fishing trip in the Straits of Hormuz, apparently after straying into Iranian waters, it said. On Dec. 13, the German Foreign Ministry called in the legal attache from the Iranian Embassy in Berlin to insist that German diplomats be allowed access to their citizen, Germany said. The man, whom German officials have reached by telephone, was in good health and had not been mistreated during questioning, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
If Germany and France knows better, they should 'Tit for Tat' this one. Grab the first two Iranians on the street, wait for the swap request. And by the way, pull ALL your people out of Iran when you hear reports of Israelis returning home quietly and in mass this summer!!
#2
The background to this Iran has been occupying islands in the gulf over the last 20 years in a grab for sea territory thought to contain large amounts of oil/gas.
#3
Pawns to be used in the Blackmail of the phrench and hun's who the MM's know will do anything to prove their dhimmi status to the Iranian's. They want more German and French help with their A-bomb quest.
#4
The body snatchers back at it again. Let's hope there is a quick and safe return for these individuals.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/26/2005 9:40 Comments ||
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#5
sounds like a Mullah took a liking to their boat. Say bye to the boat, boyz
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 11:24 Comments ||
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#6
If Germany and France knows better, they should 'Tit for Tat' this one. Grab the first two Iranians on the street, wait for the swap request
No, they shouldn't. Grabbing innocents and then using them as hostages is what terrorists and terrorist regimes do.
It's what *Russia* did when she imprisoned some innocent Qatari athletes as leverage to demand her agents returned from Yemen. And I'd rather die than see Western Europe devolve to the status of Russia or Iran.
#8
And I'd rather die than see Western Europe devolve to the status of Russia or Iran.
Would you kill or is dying a better salve?
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 12:51 Comments ||
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#9
Western Europe devolve to the status of Russia or Iran. Would that really be devolution?
Hello, moral equivalency. Yes it *would* be a devolution, similar to America using the methods of Saddam Hussein. If you don't know that, then you are not worth speaking to.
And I'd rather die than see Western Europe devolve to the status of Russia or Iran.
Would you kill or is dying a better salve?
False dilemma. But if the real dilemmas is between killing *innocents* and dying, then yes, dying would be a thousand times better. This atheist-leaning agnostic that ain't expecting any afterlife heaven already knows it. The supposed Christians of this forum don't?
#10
AK, always changing things in mid stream. Who said anything about killing anybody? Tit for tat does not morally equalize killing and kidnapping as you do. It says kidnap a couple of Iranians and trade them for the frog n kraut. It's the only way to deal with bullies like the Iranians. Instead the uros want to be victims and make the Americans come over and rescue them yet again. I say we let them die this time as that is the clearly stated preference.
Leon Clavin did, when he asked "Would you kill or is dying a better salve?" Your complaints to him.
Tit for tat does not morally equalize killing and kidnapping as you do. It says kidnap a couple of Iranians and trade them for the frog n krau
Yes, it indeed says kidnapping. And I say that kidnapping innocent civilians is what terrorist regimes do.
And btw, what in damnation's name makes you think that Iran even fucking cares about its civilians? Isn't the very *point* that fascist regimes don't care about their own people except as tools?
And quit it with the fucking ethnic slurs. "frog" and "krau" are as bad as "kike" or "nigger", and the only reason you can't see it is because America doesn't have large populations of "frogs" and "kraus" leaving inside your society: it's the kind of ideology where it doesn't matter if you insult non-voters.
Instead the uros want to be victims
Better to be victims than to be victimizers, you fascist wannabe. The moment that my government starts kidnapping civilians, no matter what nationality, will be the moment for true patriots to take to the hills and declare guerilla war against it. It'll be the moment that there'll be nothing left to lose, because we'll have lost it all already.
#12
I'm afraid our "atheist-leaning agnostic that ain't expecting any afterlife" is in a very foul mood today. The family Hanukkah gathering must be taking a turn for the worse.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 14:01 Comments ||
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#16
I'll ask you not to use my name, or even half ymy name, not even in such joke posts, because not everyone will be able to understand whether it's something that *I* posted as a joke on you, or something that you are posting as a joke on me. If you want to make your joke about "Aris Fudd" you should have done it like this:
"Oooooh! I'll get that fascist if it's the wast thing I do!
-Aris Fudd
Posted by [your real identity]"
The concept of "personal responsibility" that conservatives pretend to support makes me sign all my posts with my own name, even when most other participants of this forum fail to do likewise and cowardishly use multiple identities.
#19
It's what *Russia* did when she imprisoned some innocent Qatari athletes as leverage to demand her agents returned from Yemen. And I'd rather die than see Western Europe devolve to the status of Russia or Iran.
You will. Words spoken by a member of a truly dieing people (Greeece: 1.33 births/woman). A population kept up by large immigration from moslem countries who will return Greece to the moslem crescent from Anatolia to Albania. Cowards who will see the day their barren women are sold in the markets of Istanbul and Riyadh. Good riddance.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#20
a hypersensitive self-esteem and low actual life productivity can lead to delusions of grandeur: "To the batcave, Robin Aris!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 14:28 Comments ||
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#21
You laugh Frank, but I worry. It's my nature.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 14:30 Comments ||
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#22
Ed, perhaps you have genocidal fascism as your idea of bravery, but allow me to differ.
You laugh Frank, but I worry. It's my nature.
And likewise it's my nature not to laugh but to worry over the expressions of fascistic ideology. Perhaps we're not that different after all, Leon.
#26
What I find amazing is that Aris tosses around "fascist" on a whim, but carries a chip on his shoulder over a word that means "a person one dislikes or finds extremely disagreeable".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/26/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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#27
Only a moron considers teh Straits of Hormuz an appropriate place for a fishing expedition. The place is full of smugglers. The Iranians probably did these clowns a favor.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/26/2005 16:07 Comments ||
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#28
Robert, no worries, I only bring up your usage of the word "cunt" whenever Frank pretends to be shocked, *shocked* at my usage of the word "fucking".
As regards my usage of the word "fascist" to describe the ideology recently supported by a poster here, wouldn't *you* consider as fascistic the practice of a government kidnapping innocent civilians?
What other word would you use to describe it? Because it sure as hell isn't the modus operandi of most democracies.
#30
The problem is, Aris, you resort to "fascist" anytime someone suggests -- however lightly -- anything you dislike. Fascist has a specific meaning, Aris. Tossing it around as a synonym for "things I don't like" doesn't change that meaning. That habit of yours is one of the things I find particularly disagreeable -- along with its companion of claiming to know what's going on in the minds of others.
As for smn's suggestion, I'd say it's unwise and too broad. Germany and France should declare a whole raft of Iranian diplomats (assuming they have some) persona non grata, round up and expel any Iranian agents they've been trailing, and then freeze Iranian assets until two are freed.
Now, see, isn't that more likely to get a positive response than spitting out "fascist"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/26/2005 16:33 Comments ||
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#31
Robert, why escalate? Simply pick up two spies and swap. If you one up them, the mullahs have to then one up you and it becomes a game of chicken the uros won't play or win. Cause their sensitive, like AK.
#32
isn't that more likely to get a positive response than spitting out "fascist"?
Double standard, Robert. If only many here would follow your example. Why should Aris be the sole target?
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/26/2005 16:51 Comments ||
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#33
The problem is, Aris, you resort to "fascist" anytime someone suggests -- however lightly -- anything you dislike.
No, Robert, I don't. I strongly dislike the death penalty, but I've never called fascists those who support it. I strongly dislike restricting marriage to hetero couples, but I've never called fascists those who believe it should remain such as long as the public opinion is with them. I strongly disliked the stupidity of launching the war on Iraq, but I've never called fascists those who supported said war for democratic principles. I dislike the naivety and unaware arbitrariness of the libertarian belief-system, but I've never called libertarians fascists.
I call fascists only those who echo very clearly the arguments of fascist ideology and seek to empower the state over the very fundamental individual liberties upon which Western democracies are based.
The people who would seek to make government unaccountable to the public.
The people who feel that "national emergencies" justify all and any abuse of power by the emperor-like president.
The people who believe in finding other people guilty by association, for reasons of ethnicity or creed.
The people who consider punishable traitors all those who dare criticize or condemn government policy.
The people who would destroy the presumption of innocence.
The people who would abolish the right to trial within a reasonable amount of time.
The people who would restore torture as a means of interrogation and extracting confessions.
Those people I unhesitatingly will indeed call fascists.
Tossing it around as a synonym for "things I don't like"
if you don't like him, don't vote for him...oh wait, you couldn't, could you. It must be so hard to be the shining light in your small circle and to know you'll never be of consequence. Toodles
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 16:57 Comments ||
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#35
The people who feel that "national emergencies" justify... pursuing terrorists and their allies, even if it means listening in on their conversations and doing unpleasant things to them.
The people who believe in finding other people guilty by association, for reasons of ethnicity or creed... bomb-making Islamo-fascists for example.
The people who consider punishable traitors all those who dare criticize or condemn government policy... by leaking classified information in violation of their oaths of office and/or civic responsibility.
The people who would destroy the presumption of innocence... for foreigners rounded up on the battlefield.
The people who would abolish the right to trial within a reasonable amount of time... for un-uniformed combatants who should have been killed on the battlefield.
The people who would restore torture as a means of interrogation and extracting confessions... from foreign un-uniformed combatants and self-declared terrorists who would terrorize civilians.
#36
How do you measure who is of consequence, Frank and who isn't? Each man is a universe and a point of intersecting universes. The prince who's nothing but an instrument of the reigning ideology of his time and his family connections, versus the poor man who's best achievement is being a good parent to his children -- who is of most "consequence"?
Such a *silly* concept to think of. I'd rather follow this: "Honour and shame on no condition rise... do well your part, there all your honour lies".
And if by "shining light in your small circle" you mean what you think I mean, you couldn't be more wrong. There's not one of my closest circle of friends who agrees with me in most of my political positions, and I rarely discuss them with them anyway (though they all know them, since I never keep them hidden either). There's a difference between a political forum and a circle of friends, Frank, and I hope you'll one day find out the difference too.
#37
Sure, Darrell, keep on dreaming. There are official US reports of people that were tortured to death, innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever other than being Muslims. But keep on dreaming that they were all terrorists.
#38
Each man is a universe and a point of intersecting universes.
Well said, we are at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 18:14 Comments ||
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#39
Sorry, I don't believe in astrology. I was more inspired from the "If you save a man, you save the world entire" expression (from the Talmud I think). A passage from a later Hitchhiker's book may have also crept in there.
#42
Aris likes to talk about fascists since the Greeks are so good at fascist and communist coups. The only people, other than muslims, who are committing genocide are the Greeks. They are committing auto-genocide, replacing each generation at only 60%. Not even the Germans lost that many in WWII. You have to go back to the 30 Years War or the plagues to even approach that figure. 10 million -> 6 million -> 3.6 million -> dhimmis to Turks, then extinction. Though I don't think Greece as an independent nation will make it down to 3.6M, but will be taken over at 4.5-5M or by 2050. By a bit over 200 years of independence, the Greeks will have pissed it all away.
What a waste of a people with 3000 years of history, a people that should number many hundreds of millions, but who throw away any future as soon as they can. Pity the sacrifices of the Russians and others in the 1800's Balkans. I conclude Greeks just like being under the Turks.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 18:46 Comments ||
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#43
I feel a strong disturbance in the Wiki.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/26/2005 18:57 Comments ||
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#46
The diaspora is offset by all those Turkish genes, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
I adore Greece as much as they deserve. You don't need to worry over my concern for Greece. The Turks will do that just fine. All hail Greece, a shitty, insignificant province of the Turkish Empire.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 19:13 Comments ||
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#47
What I don't understand is how you think your rabid words will affect me, ed? Other than once more confirm what I think of you, I mean.
As a sidenote, why are so many Rantburgers inordinately obsessed with the supposed "significance" and "consequence" of nations and people, as if big empires are by definition better than small villages? In bashing Canada, you'll usually attack it of being weak and insignificant compared to USA, in bashing me Frank called me "of no consequence", in attacking Greece you call it "of no significance"...
This seems connected with the whole macho psycho-obsession penis thing where bigger=better. Should perhaps give it some thought, ed. :P
And I do wish you occasionally showed some more interest on nation's qualities instead. If you did that, our systems of values might have some common point of reference upon which we could launch a discussion.
#48
There you go bringing up your penchant for pederasty again. It's all about your pecker isn't it Greek boy?
When you put show some consideration for the US, I will consider showing you some consideration. Instead you begin by comparing the US to Russia, Iran, and Saddam Hussein. Well, up yours, you clueless asshole. Instead, it seems Greeks and Russians have much in common. You both do nothing when large numbers of children and women are slaughtered by muslims.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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#49
You're right: "no consequence" was too much. "Pissant" I like better. nite
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 20:30 Comments ||
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#50
Instead you begin by comparing the US to Russia, Iran, and Saddam Hussein.
No, my darling ed. Read again the first posts of the thread. I said that what smn suggested would be to have *Western Europe* devolve to the point of Russia or Iran. United States weren't mentioned at all up there.
Then some funny guy said "Would that really be a devolution", and I said that *yes* it would be a devolution, same way that it would be a devolution to have the United States use the methods of Saddam Hussein.
So, in short, ed, my darling and utterly illiterate moron, I put *Western Europe* and the United States on the same comparable level, and I placed Russia, Iran and Saddam Hussein on the opposite much lower level.
But I understand that illiteracy is a very big problem in the United States, so I can't really blame you personally for reading my posts 180 degrees reversed. It must be the public education's fault I guess.
Business as usual for the Rantburg Illiterates. But it would have really saved time, ed, to have you complain about what actually angered you about my post, instead of babble on and on about Greece and birth rates instead. Then I could have straightened you out much sooner. Perhaps they ain't teaching you your letters, but ain't they teaching you some directness in your approaches atleast?
#53
"...why are so many Rantburgers inordinately obsessed with the supposed 'significance' and 'consequence' of nations and people..."
I dunno, Aris. I guess the Italians and the Germans weren't significant to Greece in WWII, so your folks didn't learn anything from that experience. I guess you Greeks can shrug it off after being conquered so many times. You apparently don't recall any problems with those Nazi "people", so I'm sure you'll get along splendidly with the Islamo-fascists. We'll try not to be so obsessed with nations and people when your time comes again. A mosque on the Acropolis is going to clash a bit, but I'm sure they'll get that old stuff cleared off in time. Ever done any rock breaking?
I call fascists only those who echo very clearly the arguments of fascist ideology and seek to empower the state over the very fundamental individual liberties upon which Western democracies are based.
The people who would seek to make government unaccountable to the public.
The people who feel that "national emergencies" justify all and any abuse of power by the emperor-like president.
The people who believe in finding other people guilty by association, for reasons of ethnicity or creed.
The people who consider punishable traitors all those who dare criticize or condemn government policy.
The people who would destroy the presumption of innocence.
The people who would abolish the right to trial within a reasonable amount of time.
The people who would restore torture as a means of interrogation and extracting confessions.
Those people I unhesitatingly will indeed call fascists.
No, you use the accusation "fascist" as a way of making a straw-man argument of all of the above and attributing it to your opponent-du-jour and then accusing them of illiteracy if they don't like it. Or equating defensiveness with some sort of confirmation.
Posted by: Phil ||
12/26/2005 21:15 Comments ||
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#55
Aris, you are a weasel.
Hello, moral equivalency. Yes it *would* be a devolution, similar to America using the methods of Saddam Hussein. If you don't know that, then you are not worth speaking to.
Read your words again, you less than mediocre scholar. I know Greek universities have a less than stellar reputation, but I did not know far they had fallen for them to accept the likes of you. That explains why the job market is so crappy for the inadequately educated likes of you.
Your whole schtick here is to sbring down the US. You keep trying, in post after post, to lift yourself by dragging down the US. Your whole Rantburg persona is comparing the US to the moslem countries, Russia, China, Nazis, the worst of the lot. If you try to lift yourself by bringing Americans down, then don't be surprised if a hand reaches out and slaps you back into the muck you came from. You keep talking about America as a fascist nation, but the nations source of dictatoriships, fascism, communism, socialism is Europe and your land has been at the forefront of it all.
The difference is I stand by my words. Greece is dieing and it is you and your countrymen's fault. No one else.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 21:16 Comments ||
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#56
No, you use the accusation "fascist" as a way of making a straw-man argument of all of the above and attributing it to your opponent-du-jour and then accusing them of illiteracy if they don't like it. Or equating defensiveness with some sort of confirmation.
Phil, I'm the man here who's been more willing to stand behind his words than anyone else. I'm also the man who's been more willing to answer plain questions posed him. In contrast and comparison, I note that not anyone has yet had the guts to plainly answer the question I plainly posed many posts previously: "Is not having the government kidnapping innocent people the tactic of fascist regimes?"
I guess the Italians and the Germans weren't significant to Greece in WWII, so your folks didn't learn anything from that experience.
Well, for starters, Darrell, unlike the people here who are absolutely *wowed* by significance, and don't seem to think there's anything worse than being insignificant, most Greeks still believe that Italy and Germany played a *negative* role in WWII. Thusly "significance" and moral quality: *orthogonal*. Better to be an insignificant nobody than a significant bad guy. You should know that by now and stop using "insignificant" as an insult against Greece. I've myself used much worse terms to attack Greece in this very forum, so your insults are puny in comparison indeed.
Secondly, dudes, over here in Greece we have a proverb that loosely translates "He who has the guilt always feels accused." When I'm accusing America, I assure you I'm being very clear about it. In this thread however I was likewise very clear in saying that it would be a *devolution* to have the United States use the methods of Saddam Hussein, just like I said it would be a devolution to have Western Europe use the methods of Russia and Iran.
And lastly, ed, your illiteracy remain. Read the dictionary definition of "devolution" for starters, and then we can try to resume.
#57
And as a sidenote, since I've myself repeatedly said that Greece is worse than the United States, I'm not exactly getting what it is that all y'all are trying to achieve by repeating that Greece is worse than the United States.
Well, d'uh. Insulting my country for insulting yours, when I've already insulted my own country worse than I've insulted yours, doesn't that seem to you a bit ludicrous?
#58
Aris, you could easily have said, "Yes it *would* be a devolution to use the methods of Saddam Hussein.". But no, you had to drag America into your little moral superiority play. Folks in Peoria no longer buy tickets to that. Make your point concisely and people will respond to that. If you gratuitously drag the US into it, then expect to be insulted in response.
Insults aside, what are you doing to improve Greece and stop the death slide of your country? If it were Greeks seized, instead of a German and Frenchman, or if a Greek school massacre is perpetrated by muslims, what would Greece do about it?
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 21:57 Comments ||
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#59
ed, gee it's not as if anyone haha so funnily commented that it wouldn't be a devolution to have Western Europe become like Iran.
It's really nice how you strained to find an insult against America where one was not meant, but don't bat an eye at the very clear and explicit insult against Western Europe.
Insults aside, what are you doing to improve Greece and stop the death slide of your country?
Since your basic description of the "death slide" is the birth deficit, I suppose I should be going and having unsafe sex with as many women as possible.
If it were Greeks seized, instead of a German and Frenchman, or if a Greek school massacre is perpetrated by muslims, what would Greece do about it?
Unlike the countries of the deep West, Greece is in the Russian pocket and thus on the philo-Iranian axis, so you aren't likely to see that happening any time soon, any more than you are likely to see Venezuelans seized or Zimbabweans massacred. It'd be all hugs and kisses, and the Greeks seized would be sent home with gifts of Iranian-Greek friendship.
Now you understand what I mean by saying that I insult my own country much more than I insult yours?
#60
And with that note, I bid you all a goodnight. It's already past 5 am over here, and though I am on leave, I still need to wake up relatively early tomorrow. Bye-bye for now.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2005 22:19 Comments ||
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#62
Aris, if you are referring to Europe then do so. Do not substitute America in your when you mean to refer to Europe.
Make light of it if you want, but Greece is danger if being swallowed into a New Turkic Empire. As the muslim influence increases, you can see increasing intimidation, murder and massacres happening in your Eruopean neighborhood, let alone in African muslim-christian-animist borderlands. Your incredibly low birthrate, short sighted socialist policies, covetous muslim neighbors, and strained relations with your non-muslim neighbors will ensure no one comes to your aid. The falling population is the key to continued independence or absorption of Greece.
Posted by: ed ||
12/26/2005 22:30 Comments ||
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Despite the denial Mussa is up to his lips in deceit.
CAIRO - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Sunday rejected accusations he was concocting a deal to clear Damascus of the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hari. He described as âcompletely unfoundedâ accusations in Lebanon that the Arab League was working on an initiative whereby the probe into the February murder would be closed in exchange for an end to assassinations that have been blamed by many on Syria.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
On Thursday, Anti-Syrian MP Wael Abu Faour had warned Mussa who is attempting to ease tensions between Lebanon and Syria that he was not welcome if his mission was aimed at clearing Damascus. âA deal that would conceal the truth in this affair was never even considered,â Mussa said in a statement.
"Nope, nope, never considered it, 'specially not in public."
An investigation led by the United Nations has correctly implicated a number of Syrian and Lebanese security officials in Haririâs assassination.
Earlier this month Mussa went on a fence-mending mission to Beirut and Damascus, in the aftermath of the assassination of press magnate and anti-Syrian MP Gibran Tueni. Many Lebanese blame the murder on Damascus, which has denied any involvement in it or three others that began with the February assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
"Wudn't us. It was, um .. someone else."
Mussa added that he would continue his efforts to âdefuse the dangerous tension in Syrian-Lebanese relationsâ and said talks were under way on the issue of the two countriesâ borders.
Border? Since when have the Syrians recognized that?
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I don't want to see the Syrians have to give up assassinations "cold turkey." Isn't there some kind of 12 Step program available to help them?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/26/2005 16:21 Comments ||
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#2
Mussa should be on somebodies target list. He's been a general pain to lots of players for a long time. That means his bodyguard bill has to be expensive. Who or what pays for his bodyguards?
The questions were unusual for Sgt. 1st Class Jerry Wolford: Did you play with GI Joe action figures when you were a child? What if you could be one?
"Usually, it is not something good when the sergeant major calls a platoon sergeant into his office," said Wolford, 29, of Oakland, Oregon.
This time, it was good. Wolford, who used to own about 200 action figures, will now become one. He will model for a new line of figures based on the sequel to "America's Army," an online video game released by the Army in 2002 as a recruiting tool.
The "America's Army: Real Heroes" sequel allows players to fight as actual decorated soldiers, such as Wolford. The game will feature nine soldiers, including a woman, said Lori Mezoff, a spokeswoman for the game venture. The soldiers also will be used to create a line of action figures based on the game.
Wolford, as a member of the Fort Bragg-based 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, received a Silver Star for a firefight in the southern Iraqi town of Samawah. According to the award citation, Wolford put himself in harm's way to help the wounded, redistributing weapons and equipment and coordinating fire for the machine guns.
"I didn't think my actions stood out above anyone else," he said.
Game developers may incorporate a mission that mirrors Wolford's experience, but no decisions have been made on how the characters would be incorporated. Each action figure will feature a biography card and a brief narrative on how the soldier earned the medal. Wolford hopes his character shows leadership.
Production on the video game and the action figures is slated to begin early next year, Mezoff said. Wolford and his two children are looking forward to the process, but Wolford has some concerns about what he will look like as a plastic figure.
"I hope they don't make me look like a freak," he said.
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.
The 
Local sources reported that more than 4 were killed and many injured in clashes between two tribes in 
Yemeni democracy activists requested President 
North Korea criticized the United States' top envoy to Seoul for making provocative remarks about the communist country, calling the ambassador a "tyrant," a news report said Sunday. U.S. Ambassador 
WASHINGTON // The nation's new spy chief is planning for a "relatively flat" intelligence budget in 2007, after a number of double-digit percentage increases in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to government officials. The 2007 spending request, which President Bush will unveil in February, will be the first intelligence budget under John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces have killed some 100 people in a crackdown on tribal rebels fighting for provincial autonomy and a greater share of natural resources in the troubled south-western Balochistan province, reports said on Sunday. Residents and Baloch rebel leaders said government forces backed by helicopter gunships raided several sites where rebels were suspected of hiding. Nawab 
Israel is prepared for a possible "collapse" in the Palestinian Authority that could render 
Communist guerrillas in the Philippines have said they are open to joining forces with disaffected military and police units to topple Gloria Arroyo, the country's president. The 
Lebanon's influential Maronite Patriarch advised President 
