#3
I already get nostalgic rememberong 2006, it was a strange year, the Disco revival and ensuing massacre soured it for many. But for me the John Dean jumping accident stands out and makes it all better. It was like Joe Theisman all over again, and again and again.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 17:55 Comments ||
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A top Taliban commander said more than 200 rebel fighters were willing to become suicide attackers against U.S. forces and their allies â a claim dismissed as propaganda Monday by Afghanistanâs government, which said the hard-line militia was weakening.
In an interview late Sunday the commander, Mullah Dadullah, ruled out any reconciliation with the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and claimed the countryâs new parliament â its first in more than 30 years, inaugurated last week â was âobedient to America.â
Dadullah spoke to the AP via satellite phone from an undisclosed location. He said he was inside Afghanistan.
âMore than 200 Taliban have registered themselves for suicide attacks with us which shows that a Muslim can even sacrifice his life for the well-being of his faith. Our suicide attackers will continue jihad [holy war] until Americans and all of their Muslim and non-Muslim allies are pulled out of the country,â he said.
Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistanâs Defense Ministry, dismissed Dadullahâs claims of rebel strength as âpropagandaâ and said Afghanistan had enough security forces to deal with the rebels.
âThe Taliban are isolated. The Taliban have no power. They are using land mines and terror activities ... or suicide attacks. These kind of operations show they are not strong and that they are weak,â Azimi said.
Dadullah, who lost a leg fighting for the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s, is one of the hard-line militiaâs top commanders, responsible for operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan â and as such, a man wanted by the U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
In November, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said intelligence indicated that a number of Arab al-Qaida members and other foreigners had entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks.
A senior government official said 22 would-be suicide bombers were believed to be in the country waiting for orders to attack.
Dadullah implied that the Taliban and al-Qaida were working together, and said mujahedeen from various parts of the world, including Arabs, were fighting in Afghanistan. He said the foreigners made up about 10 percent of the fighters.
âBoth Taliban and al-Qaida have the same objectives,â he said, warning that anyone supporting the Americans and the government âwill be dealt with.â
U.S. military officials in Afghanistan could not immediately be reached for comment Monday on Dadullahâs remarks.
In another sign that links between the Taliban and al-Qaida have continued, a tape of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri surfaced this month in which he praised the Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
In the tape, al-Zawahri claimed the rebel leader had won back control of extensive areas of western and eastern Afghanistan, though government and U.S. officials say the Talibanâs influence is in fact waning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:36 ||
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A German woman held hostage in Iraq for three weeksbelieves a group allied to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, abducted her and yet also set her free.
"I was quite clearly told about whom it concerned, namely a grouping of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi group," Susanne Osthoff said in an interview conducted by German public television station ZDF on Tuesday and broadcast on Wednesday.
Zarqawi, who has a $25 million reward offered for his capture, is blamed for a relentless series of attacks, suicide bombings and beheadings in Iraq. His supporters have killed many, if not most, of the people they are known to have abducted.
Groups not allied to him have also kidnapped Westerners and have been more ready to free them in return for ransoms.
Osthoff, speaking from Doha and dressed in a yashmak or black veil covering all but her eyes, did not say why she believed she had been released.
The archaeologist, who converted to Islam and lived in Iraq, was seized heading north from Baghdad on Nov. 25 by gunmen who threatened in a videotape to kill her and her driver unless Germany ended all support for the Iraqi government.
She was freed by Dec. 18 after the intervention of the German government, which has declined to comment on any conditions for her release.
Osthoff, 43, has made it clear she is not rushing back to Germany, but there have been conflicting reports about whether she plans to return to Iraq.
She gave her first interview since her ordeal to Al Jazeera, telling the Arabic station her kidnappers had promised not to hurt her because she was a Muslim. Some German media wrongly referred to her saying she planned to return to Iraq.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leading government figures have strongly urged Osthoff not to go back to Iraq.
Asked by ZDF if it was indeed her intention to head for Iraq, Osthoff replied:
"That's a lie, I have the cassette here ... I have never said that, I wouldn't do so to such a dumb question and it has never been asked by the Arabs."
ZDF broadcast excerpts from the interview, in which Osthoff gives few direct answers and digresses at length.
She ended by thanking former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who made a televised appeal for her release, but pointedly declined to thank her sister who did the same.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:28 ||
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#1
The Germans have been "had" big time by this hostabitch. Germans release a killer and big dollars in exchange for an AQ ruse.
Bend over and grab your ankles Merkel!
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/29/2005 17:48 Comments ||
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Her sister's just....a woman, so her appeal on this witch's behalf was worth half of Schroeder's. Why thank her?
Known Islamic militants should be electronically tagged so their movements can be tracked, a regional German interior minister proposed on Wednesday.
âThis would allow us to monitor the roughly 3,000 Islamists who are prone to violence, hate preachers and fighters trained in terrorist camps,â Lower Saxony Interior Minister Uwe Schuenemann said in an interview with Die Welt newspaper.
âHate preachersâ is how Germans describe radical Muslim clerics. Schuenemann said electronic tagging was a viable alternative to holding suspected militants in protective custody, a proposal floated by former German interior minister Otto Schily. It would not be against Germanyâs constitution, he was quoted as saying.
âItâs practical for all Islamists who are prone to violence and who we canât expel to their home countries because they could be tortured,â said Schuenemann. Germanyâs federal and state governments share responsibility for security services. Under Germanyâs federal system, states have a great deal of control over their internal security operations and routine policing.
Britainâs government also proposed electronic tagging of terror suspects in July as an alternative to jailing them without charge.
Electronic tagging of criminals has become widespread in Britain where much of the work being outsourced to private companies such as Serco Group Plc.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:26 ||
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#5
Marlin: We've got Him!
Jim: glug
Marlin: Jim now puts on the tracking tag
Jim: glug, thrash
Marlin: I'll stay in the helicopter while Jim explains to the natives why we're removing the so called Milk Snake
Jim glub,
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 20:07 Comments ||
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ZELEZNA, Czech Republic â The old schoolhouse stands alone at the end of a quiet country road flanked by snow-flecked wheat fields. From behind the locked door, opaque with smoked glass, comes the clatter of sewing machines and, improbably enough, the babble of young female voices speaking Korean.
The elementary school closed long ago for lack of students. The entire village 20 miles west of Prague has only about 200 people.
The schoolhouse is now a factory producing uniforms. Almost all the workers are North Korean, and the women initially looked delighted to see visitors. It gets lonely working out here, thousands of miles from home. They crowded around to chat.
"I'm not so happy here. There is nobody who speaks my language. I'm so far from home," volunteered a tentative young woman in a T-shirt and sweatpants who said she was from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
But as she spoke, an older woman with stern posture and an expressionless face â a North Korean security official â passed by in the corridor. The young women scattered wordlessly and disappeared into another room, closing and bolting the door behind them.
Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this recent member of the European Union is something of a throwback to before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, when Prague, like Pyongyang, was a partner in the Communist bloc.
The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished government believed to be living off counterfeiting, drug trafficking and weapons sales. Experts estimate that there are 10,000 to 15,000 North Koreans working abroad in behalf of their government in jobs ranging from nursing to construction work. In addition to the Czech Republic, North Korea has sent workers to Russia, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, defectors say.
Almost the entire monthly salary of each of the women here, about $260, the Czech minimum wage, is deposited directly into an account controlled by the North Korean government, which gives the workers only a fraction of the money.
To the extent that they are allowed outside, they go only in groups. Often they are accompanied by a guard from the North Korean Embassy who is referred to as their "interpreter." They live under strict surveillance in dormitories with photographs of North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung and current leader Kim Jong Il gracing the walls. Their only entertainment is propaganda films and newspapers sent from North Korea, and occasional exercise in the yard outside.
"This is 21st century slave labor," said Kim Tae San, a former official of the North Korean Embassy in Prague. He helped set up the factories in 1998 and served as president of one of the shoe factories until he defected to South Korea in 2002.
This is exactly right: it's slave labor. The Czechs and other countries that participate in this program are paying blood money for cheap labor. There is no way that any person involved in this can say, "I didn't know."
It also was Kim's job to collect the salaries and distribute the money to workers. He said 55% was taken off the top as a "voluntary" contribution to the cause of the socialist revolution. The women had to buy and cook their own food. Additional sums were deducted for accommodation, transportation and such extras as flowers for the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
The women even had to pay for the propaganda films they were forced to watch. By the time all the deductions were made, each received between $20 and $30 a month. They spent less than $10 of it on food, buying only the cheapest local macaroni.
"They try to save money by not eating," said Kim, the former embassy official. He says that his wife, who accompanied him on visits to the factory, was concerned that women's menstruation stopped, their breasts shriveled and many experienced acute constipation. "We were always trying to get them to spend more on food, but they were desperate to bring money home to their families."
Kim said that Czechs often mistook the North Korean women for convict laborers because of the harsh conditions. "They would ask the girls, 'What terrible thing did you do to be sent here to work like this?' "
They were born in North Korea.
In fact, the women usually come from families deemed sufficiently loyal to the government that their daughters will not defect. With salaries at state-owned firms in North Korea as low as $1 per month, the chance to work abroad for a three-year stint is considered a privilege.
Having shed its own communist dictatorship, the Czech Republic is sensitive to human rights issues. On the other hand, the country has to employ about 200,000 guest workers, largely to replace Czechs who have left to seek higher wages in Western Europe.
At the beginning of December, there were 321 North Korean garment workers in six locations in the country, according to the Czech Labor Ministry. The North Koreans declined to speak publicly about the factories. "It is not in our interest to provide information. This is a private thing and nobody should care about it," said a North Korean Embassy employee supervising factory workers in Nachod, a town near the Polish border.
Czech officials say the North Koreans are model workers. "They are so quiet you would hardly know they are here," said Zdenek Belohlavek, labor division director for the district of Beroun, which encompasses Zelezna and Zebrak, a larger town where about 75 North Korean seamstresses stitch underwear.
Belohlavek displayed a thick dossier of photos and vital statistics of the women, most of whom were born between 1979 and 1981. All their paperwork is in perfect order, and the factories appear to be in full compliance with the law, he said.
Belohlavek acknowledged that labor investigators had only communicated with the workers through an interpreter from the North Korean Embassy. He said they were troubled by the women's apparent lack of freedom. "They have guards. I don't know why. It's not like anybody would steal them," he said.
Mr. Belohlavek, you are apparently old enough to have lived in communist Czechoslavkia. You know exactly what is going on.
Another labor investigator, Jirina Novakova, who has visited the factories, also complained that the women's salaries were deposited into a single bank account in the name of a North Korean Embassy interpreter. "Frankly, we have some difficulty with that," she said. "But if they do it voluntarily, there is not much we can do about it."
Ms. Novakova, I'm comfortably certain you know this isn't voluntary.
Jiri Balaban, owner of the Zelezna factory, said it was none of his business what the workers did in their free time or how they spent their money. "My business is that they work," he said.
In theory, the women could escape. Although the doors are locked from the inside in Zelezna, the windows are not barred. But where would they go? Few speak any language other than Korean. Zelezna has one pay phone, a mayor's office that is open once a week for two hours and a general store so small that you have to order bread a day in advance.
In Zebrak, the North Koreans only go downtown to the supermarket in groups on Fridays between 4 and 6 p.m. They live in a pleasant-looking, lemon-yellow dormitory that was recently constructed across the parking lot from their factory. Blinds are kept drawn and the doors locked. Deliverymen must leave packages on the front stoop.
The Baroque town square in Nachod, its Christmas lights, Chinese restaurant and movie theater showing "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "March of the Penguins," was off-limits for the 40 North Korean women who stitch leather suitcases and belts along with guest workers from Vietnam, Mongolia and Ukraine. "They can't go anywhere. You can't talk to them," security guard Antonin Janicek said. "The other women go to the pub and the cinema. Some get married here. But not the Koreans."
Last year, when a Czech television crew attempted to film a shoe factory in Skutec, a group of irate North Koreans broke their camera. After the incident, the factory decided it would no longer employ North Koreans because of bad publicity and human rights concerns. "They oftentimes do not even have enough [money] for food," Vaclav Kosner, financial director of the factory, was quoted as telling the CTK news agency. "They are sometimes truly hungry."
The seamstresses were first sent abroad at the height of North Korea's famine to raise money to buy raw materials for North Korean shoes and clothing. North Korea officially was a partner in the factories through two trading companies, but former diplomat Kim said that this was a front to cover the government's embarrassment about having to send workers abroad. The factories are mostly Czech-owned, but the underwear factory in Zebrak is owned by an Italian company.
By far the largest number of North Koreans working outside their country are in Russia, where they do mostly logging and construction in military-style camps run by the North Korean government. When the camps were set up in the early 1970s, the workers were North Korean prisoners. But as the North Korean economy disintegrated in the late 1980s, doing hard labor in Siberia came to be seen as a reward because at least it meant getting adequate food.
Kim Yong Il, who got a job in mine construction in the 1990s because of his brother's political connections, said he and a dozen other men were kept in a house with bars on the windows and a padlock on the door. He received no money, but his family in North Korea received extra food rations. He defected in 1996 and now lives in Seoul. He is one of about 50 North Koreans who escaped the camps in Russia and are now living in South Korea, according to the Christian North Korean Assn., a defector group in Seoul.
There have been no such incidents with the seamstresses in the Czech Republic. The fact that they come from Pyongyang, home only to the most loyal North Koreans, means that their families have privileges that could be taken away in an instant if a relative were to defect. "If they were to run away, their families would vanish into thin air and they would never see them again," said Kim, the former diplomat.
In 2002, the diplomat and his wife defected in Prague and sought asylum from South Korea. Soon afterward, their adult son and daughter were taken away. He believes they were sent to a prison camp. Kim, 53, recently asked a contact in North Korea to gather some information about relatives. "Even my wife's relatives, down to the second cousins, have disappeared," he said. "We couldn't find a trace of them."
Rat bastards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
As I understand it North Korea often inprisons entire families for the wrongdoing of a single member. It is a hell of a deterrent when you know that not only can you be sent to prison but your mother, father, brothers, children, and little sisters can be sent as well.
Even if you escape North Korea you automatically sentence your entire family to the gulags.
THIS here is little short of slavery.
The women are simply 'rented out' to the factories.
And anyone want to bet 'factory work' isn't the only thing these women are 'rented' out for?
#4
This is outrageous but, before we beat on the Czechs too much, we should contemplate some of our own businesses that use cheap foreign labor. Long hours, sub-standard conditions, and sending most of the money back home is not unique to North Koreans in the Czech Republic. We could stand to build that fence and enforce our own laws.
#6
How "involuntary" the servitude is can be rather irrelevant. If your family was impoverished in Mexico and you could only feed them by illegally entering the U.S. and picking vegetables or mowing lawns or spreading roofing tar for 70 hours a week and living in a room with eight other illegals, then you might find that you have a lot in common with these North Korean women.
#7
Oh, so sneaking across a border and working illegally is equivalent to a govt. selling their citizens into indentured servitude (and collecting a lion's share of their pay). I guess we could lock them out completely and our collective conscience would be alleved. Dude, don't "Aris" this thread.
#9
Servitude is servitude, no matter who gets the profits, wr. If we lock them out, then that's more pressure for them to change what should be changed at home. I'm not for importing North Koreans or Mexicans or even Aris, wr. They all need to get their own houses in order and stop using us for excuses.
#10
I wish I would have had more time to visit towns outside of Prague when I was there. One tour guide was especially animated and wonderful. Having grown up in Prague, he talked of "when the Russians came, then when the Germans came, (inferring not so nice conditions), but when the Americans came how wonderful it was, and that's why he wanted to learn English."
"..55% was taken off the top as a "voluntary" contribution to the cause of the socialist revolution. The women had to buy and cook their own food. Additional sums were deducted for accommodation, transportation and such extras as flowers for the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The women even had to pay for the propaganda films they were forced to watch. By the time all the deductions were made, each received between $20 and $30 a month. They spent less than $10 of it on food, buying only the cheapest local macaroni."
Are any materials made from these "slave labor via North Korea" finding there way into american stores? Granted they aren't sweat shops, but after their money is taken from them it certainly is something to look at. I wouldn't want to buy anything made from these factories to promote this type of working conditions.
The fact that they come from Pyongyang, home only to the most loyal North Koreans, means that their families have privileges that could be taken away in an instant if a relative were to defect. "If they were to run away, their families would vanish into thin air and they would never see them again," said Kim, the former diplomat
How horrible to live in such substandard living conditions. To worry about their families if they tried to escape.
This being 2005 almost 2006, that this type of crap is still happening. Unf***ingbelievable.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/29/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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#11
Servitude is servitude, no matter who gets the profits, wr. If we lock them out, then that's more pressure for them to change what should be changed at home. I'm not for importing North Koreans or Mexicans or even Aris, wr. They all need to get their own houses in order and stop using us for excuses.
Quite a statement, Darrell, espeically when it is YOU who are providing the following rationale that they use to use us for excuses:
This is outrageous but, before we beat on the Czechs too much, we should contemplate some of our own businesses that use cheap foreign labor. Long hours, sub-standard conditions, and sending most of the money back home is not unique to North Koreans in the Czech Republic. We could stand to build that fence and enforce our own laws.
Your focus, not on the choices of any of the actors, but on their working conditions, reveals you as a materialist. I reject your implied premise of equivalence between us and the Czechs because I reject your premise that their working conditions is morally relevant because their servitude would not be rendered morally acceptable if they were afforded better living conditions and more wages.
What I consider relevant is their power of choice, and the factors impinging on their choices. From what I know of Illegal aliens in the United States, they are not monitored by Mexican embassy workers, their families are NOT held hostage back in Mexico City by the Mexican government to ensure cooperation, nor are their wages (such as they are) automatically deposited in a third party account controlled by a Mexican embassy worker who pre-garnishes them before distribution. Indeed, such deposits would be traceable by US Immigration officials and be used as evidence against the factory owner who, unlike the czech factory owner in the story, would be liable for prosecution. Rather, the wages are necessarily paid in cash SO AS TO BE UNCONTROLLED AND UNMONITORED. The form of payment does not obliviate the cruciality of choice, but rather highlights it: The fact that the workers are not forced to send money to Mexico, but do voluntarily and by their own unconstrained choice, is highlighted by illegal alien rights workers. Again, your materialist worldview makes you focus on the money flow and ignore the moral content of the choices (or lack of choice) that are involved. By ignoring the choices, one is permitted to ignore the forces impinging on the actors: both sets of workers are motivated by a desire to send money back to their families, but in only one is the government actively involved.
I should also point out another difference that I hold is morally relevant, and which your materialism leads you to clearly discount: The Story plainly states that the Czechs can't do anything about this because THEIR PAPERWORK IS IN ORDER. This means that these are legal immigrant workers bound by Czech contract law. On the other hand, your moral argument attempts to map the United States to the Czechs by arguing that illegal aliens in the US are equivalent to legal immigrant workers in the Czech republic. INVALID. You, having failed to establish equivalence in the minor premises, means that your conclusion of equivalence as the conclusion is invalid. The attempt to do so is doubtless based, again, on the materialist exclusion of choice as being relevant, deliberately confusing countenance with ignorance: there cannot be any moral equivalence between the Czechs, who are aware of where these people are and cannot do anything because all their laws have been adhered do, and the americans, who would arrest a factory owner for hiring illegal aliens but do not do so because both the factory owner and the illegal alien workers conspire to keep INS authorities from knowing of their existance. I don't doubt that you, or any rantburger here, if aware of the existance of a factory hiring illegal aliens, would blow the whistle, but any failure to do so because we are UNAWARE of their existance is NOT a moral failure. "Sins" of omission have, as a precondition, the requirement that the actor who failed to act was aware of the situation.
I am, in fact, not at all sure that the Czechs are culpable at this moment: this is a "Merchant of Venice" situation where one party has manipulated the legal environment to create a situation that is personally profitable, but which the authorities did not anticipate and factor into their legislation. Again, imperfection, ignorance, and fallibility are not morally culpable: only deliberate inaction after being made aware of the situation incurs moral taint. Indeed, it seems to me that complaints that the Czechs have not FIXED THE PROBLEM IMMEDIATELY RIGHT NOW WHEN HE, DARRELL, DEMANDS IT, is to complain that they are not as efficient as a police state run by an enlightened despot.
Finally, and most obviously, other than Darrell, I do not see anybody jumping on the Czechs: I DO see them jumping on the NKors.
#14
Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns.
The Czech's really don't have a work force? A true labor shortage? I also wonder if they looked into other countries for labor help. Why North Korea?
Posted by: Jan ||
12/29/2005 16:02 Comments ||
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#15
I actually warned RBers to NOT "beat on the Czechs", Ptah.
It appears, Ptah, that you can read entire books between the lines. If you had read between the lines what I intended between the lines, you would have noted that "Dear Leader" and the Mexican leadership and U.S. employers of illegal aliens are the villains here, and they're doing what they're doing for their own materialism.
As for my "materialist world view", neither the subject North Koreans nor the Mexican illegals are awash in the food, clothing, and shelter that you take for granted sitting there on your high horse. For hungry North Korean and Mexican families, food will trump rights any day of the week. That doesn't mean rights are less important, it just means your anti-materialism tirade is misplaced. Go rant at "Dear Leader" and Vincente Fox.
Our government is actively involved in the servitude by not enforcing the laws that are on the books and by dishing out mere wrist-slaps to the few employers of illegals that it chooses to track down and prosecute.
#16
Don't be silly, Aris. People here say things contrary to the popular wisdom all the time. When you do so wisely, we listen and learn. When you do so foolishly, then the thread rapidly becomes Arisified (a horrible portmanteau term, of which I sincerely hope this is the final usage ever).
#19
Darrell, I agree with you that enforcement of immigration laws is criminally lax. HOWEVER, the article was about North Koreans in a state of servitude to their own nation, and you yourself tried to map it to US illegal immigration in an attempt to say "don't judge". Not a mention of NKor's behavior which, in my book, is a marker of a moonbat. Your simplistic "servitude is servitude" also comes out of the moral equivalence playbook as a means to evade looking at the essential differences. You waddled like a duck and you quacked like a duck, so I won't feel chastened by your injured-sounding denial that you ARE a duck...
BTW, fred, I suggest making the multiline text input box four or five times taller: I didn't realize I typed in THAT much text. eek. I will hit the tip jar in penance.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to transfer American "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla from U.S. military custody to federal authorities in Florida -- one week after an appeals court refused a similar request.
In a filing to the high court, Solicitor General Paul Clement asked for Padilla's release so he can stand trial on charges of being part of a support cell providing money and recruits for militants overseas.
Padilla was indicted last month in Florida for conspiracy to murder and aiding terrorists abroad but the charges make no reference to accusations made by U.S. officials after his arrest in May 2002 that he plotted with al Qaeda to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.
Last week, in a rebuke to the Bush administration, a U.S. appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, denied the Justice Department's request to approve his transfer from military to civilian custody.
The appeals court said the government's decision to bring criminal charges against Padilla after he had been held by the U.S. military for more than three years gave the impression the government was trying to avoid high court review of the case.
Clement told the Supreme Court that the appeals court had overstepped its authority and said the decision "defies both law and logic." "As a result of the court's order, Padilla remains in military custody even though the president has ordered that he be released from such custody ... and even though Padilla has consented to his release from military custody and transfer to civilian custody," he wrote.
The appeals court also rejected the government's request to set aside a September 9 ruling that allowed Padilla to be held as an "enemy combatant" without being charged. Wiping out that ruling would have made it virtually impossible for the Supreme Court to review the case.
The Supreme Court already is deciding whether it will review that ruling, which had been viewed as a key victory in the government's controversial policy of holding "enemy combatants" in prison for long periods of time without charging them with any crimes. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the "enemy combatant" issue before the Supreme Court should be moot since Padilla has now been charged in civilian court.
I continue to be unhappy over this. He should never have been declared an enemy combatant. He's an American citizen; if he's providing material aid and comfort to an enemy and we have two bonafide witnesses to that, charge him with treason. If the evidence won't hold up then charge him with what will stick and get it in front of a jury. He'll either be convicted or, like Johnny Walker Lindh, cop a plea that will jug him properly and for a long time. But jugging him indefinitely in a military prison as a combatant is, in my mind, wrong -- a key benefit of citizenship is habeas corpus and civilian review. It's precisely why we have a treason law. Charge him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Or transfer him. Mid-Atlantic will do.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/29/2005 18:15 Comments ||
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An Oregon man pleaded guilty to using a "worm" program to take control of 20,000 computers via the Internet and launch an attack on auction website eBay in 2003, US prosecutors said. Anthony Clark, 21, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of at least 250,000 dollars, according to Luke Macaulay of the US Attorney's Office.
I don't suppose they could hang him?
That would be too good for him.
Clark and accomplices unleashed a "worm" program that burrowed into computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems and turned the machines into obedient "bots", Macaulay said. When Clark gave the commands, the bots launched online attacks on eBay and other websites, according to prosecutors. The drone computers jammed the websites with requests, overloading them in what is called a denial-of-service attack, because it results in legitimate users being shut out, according to prosecutors. Clark was arrested as part of a "Botnet" investigation by the US Secret Service and the US Attorney's Office, Macaulay said. Clark pleaded guilty in a federal court in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose on Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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Make him manually delete all the spam sent to AOL, Comcast, Earthlink, etc. No delete, no food.
In which the Associated Press tries to wrap its tiny little brain around this whole "InterWeb" phenomenon...also a not-quite-backhanded slap at "a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States."
Rantburg, of course, also uses cookies. I put them on so you can download them to your machines at home and at work. When you're not looking, they crawl out of the machines and root through your underwear drawers and steal your liquor. NSA's do the same thing, but they're not as slick as Rantburg cookies.
#2
There is a "discuss" link at the bottom of the story. As expected, the comments are largely the mindless ejaculate of the paranoid, perverse, and ignorant.
Pet peeve: Every moron commercial that advertises a URL tell you to "logon at ...". Duh. Surf to, perhaps, but logon? LOL. It's a Luddite world.
To bad reported are like 90% dumber than the average turd. The sites that carry AP put cookies on you machine too. But they don't tell the reporters that stuff. If I dumped my cookies I prolly would be screwed. It's been years since I have. They do useful thing like keep me logged in, keep me "trusted" along with other stuff. I must be fun to track as if they do that. heheheh
#9
Double standards at it's best. So it's alright for all of these spammers to use cookies, but not our government. GEEEZ.
Now regarding my underwear drawer, thanks for the tip, I'll have to change my hiding place for my bourbon. heh.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/29/2005 10:03 Comments ||
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#10
Fred, if one of those damn cookies gets into my Sauza.....
#11
The Gremlins in my computer are warring with your cookies. I went to the great Oracle, Bill Gates, for guidance but he said the UN was taking over the internet and it was their problem. So I went to the self proclaimed father of the internet, Al âI built itâ Gore, and he said cookies were a right wing evil that Bush is secretly sneaking into our computers in an effort the keep the truth seeking Gremlins down. I went to the UN and they informed me I had to not only pay for their help but I also had to pay a 30% kofi tax. When I went to the government for help the NYT sued me claiming I was infringing on their 1st amendment rights. When I sent in the Cookie Monster, Amnesty international sued me in the world court for human rights violations. Taking my cue from Columbia and the Philippines I offered the renegade cookies their own spot in the computer safe from attack and off limits to the Gremlins. The gremlins are trying their best to no to enter the cookieâs files but the cookies are getting stronger and stronger. Pretty soon the computer will slow to a stall because there are too many cookies in the file and they are too taxing on the computerâs resources. But when those Damn cookies snuck out of their safe area at night and drank all my JD and Coke, well that was the last straw and I envoked executive powers and hit the delete cookies button!
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/29/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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#12
When you're not looking, they crawl out of the machines and root through your underwear drawers and steal your liquor. NSA's do the same thing, but they're not as slick as Rantburg cookies.
Do tell! I guess I need to apologize to Chris.
I'd love to google bomb this thread. :>
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 15:40 Comments ||
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#13
Course I don'[t know how. I think I may have stepped on a NSA cookies last nite late in the hall, it was slow and mush. Like a diseased cockroach.
When you're not looking, they crawl out of the machines and root through your underwear drawers and steal your liquor. NSA's do the same thing, but they're not as slick as Rantburg cookies.
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#14
In the UK, they're called tracking bisquets...
#16
They have a word for this symptom, I think it is âParanoid Delusionalâ and it fits just about EVERYONE on the left. BTW I want my Snoopy boxers back PRONTO!
#20
No, .com, I don't think it's that. I'd take time to explain, but I have to do some paperwork for this guy in Nigeria who's gonna send me lots of money.
Posted by: Phil ||
12/29/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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The suspected terrorist strike at IISc in Bangalore has brought alive the intelligence agencies' worst fears that the country's IT hub, along with vital economic installations, has emerged as the prime target for jehadi terror groups.
The assault came just three days after a terrorist module confessed to a plan to attack IT companies along with other targets assigned to them by their Jaish-e-Mohammed commander.
According to intelligence officials, Wednesday's incident in Bangalore prima facie appeared to be a terrorist attack.
The surmise is derived from two reasonsâfirst, the choice of automatic weapon, either an AK-47 or AK-56, and the confessions made by terrorists arrested by security agencies during the year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:38 ||
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#1
So maybe outsourcing all our IT support to India isn't a good long-term solution?
ISLAMABAD - Pakistanâs Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday inaugurated the countryâs third nuclear power plant, calling it an important step forward in securing âenergy securityâ. Known as Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASHNUPP-2), the facility is located some 280 kilometers southwest of Islamabad and is being built with Chinese assistance at the cost of 700 million US dollars under an agreement signed in March 2003.
âThe project is a milestone in the history of our nuclear technology and yet another landmark in Pakistan-China friendship,â Aziz said at the concrete-pouring ceremony.
âChashma-2 symbolises the deep interest China has in Pakistanâs development,â the prime minister said, and added it is a concrete manifestation of the resolve of Pakistani and Chinese peoples to further enrich their traditional and well-established partnership for peace and development. âWe need nuclear power, which is a cheap, reliable, and environment friendly source of energy,â the prime minister said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI - India successfully tested its nuclear-capable, short-range Dhanush ballistic missile on Wednesday, defence officials said. The locally-developed missile, a naval version of the surface-to-surface Prithvi, was tested from a ship in the Bay of Bengal off the east coast of Orissa state, the Press Trust of India said, quoting official sources.
Dhanush -- which means bow in Hindi -- has a range of 250 kilometres (156 miles) and can carry a payload of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds), the news agency said.
India, which conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998, has already developed and deployed two ballistic missiles and a surface missile. It hopes to cap the programme with a 5,000-kilometre (3,125-mile) range ballistic missile to give it the capability of striking beyond South Asia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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I believe it's modeled on the Europarliament. Eventually there will be a bureaucracy in Damascus, complete with expense accounts, Nordic hookers, and lots of jobs for relatives. What there won't be anytime soon is elections — the members are appointed by their respective governments.
The Arab world's first regional parliament held its inaugural meeting in Cairo on Tuesday but officials say it could be many years before the new institution gains enough clout to influence events in the region. The 88 members, four from the parliaments or advisory councils of each Arab League member, met at the league's Cairo headquarters for a session addressed by Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The interim parliament has no binding legislative authority and can give its opinion only on matters referred to it by the Arab League council, which represents Arab governments. Based in Syria, it will meet twice a year.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Nasser's United Arab Republic ? A bit later than he would have liked.....
Gammel, Gammel bright has a Camel
where did your tankers go?
Posted by: Leon Clavin ||
12/29/2005 15:45 Comments ||
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#3
So the delegates are selected, not elected; they haven't even advisory power to the various Arab governments involved; and, the delegates may not even choose the items to be debated. Sounds like they've got a real exercise in democracy going there!
Not.
Who do they think they're fooling with that silliness?
Can anyone tell me what an Arab Interim Parliament might be? I can guess at its aims, but who's running it and what power can it wield? I particularly like the bit about total diplo immunity. And what role do the holy folk play in this venture?
Speaker of the Arab Interim Parliament (AIP), Kuwaiti lawmaker Muhammad Jassem Al-Saqer, on Wednesday said that "the Arab summit seeks an AIP with an advisory role but we, lawmakers, insist on a lgislative role." "I will quit if the Arab parliament was given an advisory role," he warned as he addressed a news conference here, adding that deliberations will be held within the parliament on that issue.
Strike a pose, just like Qazi!
He said the parliament's 22-member executive committee would convene here on February 9 to study the draft regulations and bylaws suggested by the Arab League. A period of 3 to 6 months is necessary to thoroughly study these drafts, he added. He also said that discussions will also cover allowing members of the Arab parliament to maintain immunity in all Arab countries, not only in their own countries of origin. Al-Saqer also hoped the Arab parliament would be able to contribute to resolving inter-Arab disputes.
Lessee if they have designs on Iraq's new US-trained army...
From CNN...believe it or not. This must be one of the "atrocities" John F'n Kerry was talking about.
When troops from the Georgia National Guard raided a Baghdad home in early December, they had no idea that their mission in Iraq would take a different turn.
As the young parents of an infant girl nervously watched the soldiers search their modest home, the baby's unflinching grandmother thrust the little girl at the Americans, showing them the purple pouch protruding from her back. Little Noor, barely three months old, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column fails to completely close. Iraqi doctors had told her parents she would live only 45 days.
But she was tenaciously clinging to life, and the soldiers in the home -- many of them fathers themselves -- were moved. "Well, I saw this child as the firstborn child of the young mother and father and really, all I could think of was my five children back at home and my young daughter," Lt. Jeff Morgan told CNN from Baghdad. "And I knew if I had the opportunity whatsoever to save my daughter's life I would do everything possible. So my heart just kind of went out to this baby and these parents who ... were living in poverty and had no means to help their baby. I thought we could do that for them," he added.
"We ... collectively decided this is going to be our project," said Sgt. Michael Sonen. "If this is the only contribution we have to defeating the war on terrorism, this is going to be it."
The soldiers brought Noor to a U.S. military base for medical examinations and got friends and charities in the United States to help get her the surgery that could save her life.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and his office are working to speed up the process of getting a visa for Noor's grandmother, who will accompany her to Atlanta. Dr. Roger Hudgins, the chief of neurosurgery at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, has promised to perform the delicate operation for free.
"We need to get the back closed," Hudgins said. "The concern here is meningitis. If the baby gets an infection on the back, that infection can spread to the coverings all over the brain and the baby may die, so time is of the essence."
There are three types of spina bifida. Baby Noor has the most severe type, in which the spinal cord's protective covering and the spinal nerves come through the opening in the spine. The neurological damage that can come from this type includes full or partial paralysis, bladder and bowel control difficulties, learning disabilities and depression.
Dr. Hudgins said that while the surgery will probably help baby Noor, there's no guarantee that it will cure her of her condition. "Our hope and expectation ... is that we can get the child through the surgery and save the life, then we can work on the quality of life," he said.
Back in Baghdad, the news that Noor's journey may happen soon is heartening for both her family and the soldiers who have become involved.
"This just gives ... the courageous men of Charlie Company, it gives them a focal point outside of the normal day-to-day routine of trying to catch the insurgency," Morgan said. "It gives them something even more positive to focus on."
The lieutenant said that while his unit's main mission is to put down the insurgency in Iraq, it is also trying to help the country's citizens. But for all of their help, the soldiers realize they're also possibly endangering the little girl and her family.
"We did a lot of things to protect the identity of these people," Morgan said. "We visited them when we could, which was usually in the middle of the night, as covertly as possible," he added. "Because the insurgents in Iraq like to find people that we're trying to help sometimes and either terrorize them or sometimes worse."
Picture of the little girl and donation page is here. And BTW, if any of them are reading this, thank you, Charlie Company!
British officials confirmed that the 24-year-old woman worked in Gaza for the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza City, which has criticised recent kidnappings of foreign nationals in the Palestinian territory.
I did a little looking at the Al-Mezan Center. Their name keeps coming up as the documenters of the Jenin 'massacre'.
Staff there named her as Kate Burton, the group's co-ordinator for international affairs, who began work for the centre when she arrived from Britain four months ago. Residents said Ms Burton had been showing her parents around town when they were seized by gunmen who approached their car at 4pm.
"... and over here, Mum, is the lovely tribute to Yasser -- HEY! Get your hands off of me! Hey! Stop that! Mum! Someone! Call the police! oh these are the police ..."
They were said to have been bundled into a white Mercedes security vehicle by the kidnappers who sped off northwards pursued by a security vehicle which provided cover. The car escaped and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"Wudn't us."
The co-ordinator of Al Mezan in Gaza City, Samir Zakout, said: "She knows the security situation in Gaza. It's strange she went alone [without Palestinian acccompaniment]. I think her parents arrived yesterday. They may have gone to Rafah to see demolished houses."
Hey Ma! Let's go look at some rubble!
Another Al Mezan spokesman said she had taken time off since Thursday to be with her parents: "Her parents were visiting her. She was taking them around to show them the area. We heard there had been a young person kidnapped and two older people with her. From the description it seems the one kidnapped is our employee. We are trying to communicate with police and the political parties, but we don't have any clear information about what's going on. We are trying to call her on her mobile but it's closed.
"We're sorry. The number you are calling has been abducted!"
"We are searching all the areas to find her and have her safe. You try to protect everybody here but sometimes you cannot control everything."
"In fact, in Gaza you cannot control anything."
Recent kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza have ended with hostages being released unharmed. In most cases, the kidnappers sought to pass the Paleo civil service exam jobs in the Palestinian security forces, the release of jailed relatives, or resolution of personal matters. But the kidnapping is another embarrassment for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Poor Mahmoud's lost track of his many embarrassments by now...
Is this an embarrassment or an accomplishment?
His critics have accused him of giving in to kidnappers' demands, and so encouraging more abductions. Gaza has seen a rash of kidnappings since Israel quit the coastal territory in September after 38 years of occupation, a move welcomed internationally as a potential spur to peace but which left the Palestinian Authority struggling for control.
Actually, it demonstrated that they're no more capable of governing anything than they are of sprouting wings and flying to Hoboken...
Recent kidnappings of foreigners have tended to end with the hostages freed within hours, usually for a ransom.
I'll bet there are guys sitting around in the hills of Yemen, scratching their turbans and saying "Damn! Those guys are primitive!"
The Foreign Office confirmed there had been a kidnapping but gave no details or hostages' identities. A spokesman said: "We confirm reports of three Britons missing in the Occupied Territories. At this stage we have no further details."
"We know nothing! No-thing! Tell them, Hogan!"
Palestinian security spokesman Adnan Barbach confirmed that the three were British. John Strawson, a reader in law at Birzeit University in the West Bank and a Middle East expert, said it was likely the trio would be released unharmed. "Unlike in Iraq, kidnappings are not so much aimed at the foreigners themselves as at embarrassing the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and trying to show he has no control over the Gaza Strip," he said. "The main aim is just to demonstrate that no-one is safe. I suspect they will be released unharmed - it will be a big change to the situation if anything happened to them."
Well, it's not like the Euros would do anything about it.
Five days ago the Foreign Office tightened its travel advice against visits to the Gaza Strip after the kidnap of two westerners by gunmen. British nationals are "strongly advised" against all travel to the Gaza Strip. Earlier this month the Al Mezan Centre condemned the kidnapping of the principal of Gaza's American School and his assistant. In a statement the group said it considered the kidnapping of foreigners "a continuation of the state of insecurity and disrespect of the rule of the law" and said it reconfirmed its "condemnation of such incidents".
#1
John Strawson, a reader in law at Birzeit University in the West Bank
Is that man truly studying to become a lawyer in the West Bank? How does he differenctiate between the written laws not being enforced and the unwritten laws being enforced in blood? Does he not realize passing a Palestinian Bar exam will not well prepare him to sit exams for the British Bar?
Intelligence officials in Indonesia say plans by militant groups to kidnap politicians, business leaders and foreigners may be more about boosting their depleted funds than acts of terrorism in themselves. The head of Indonesia's state intelligence agency (BIN) has told reporters that Islamic militants had plans to use ransom money to fund their terrorist activities. Syamsir Siregar told reporters that BIN had intercepted communications from a meeting held by terrorist groups. He said they wanted to get money from the kidnappings. A week ago he warned that terrorist groups were planning to switch tactics over the Christmas-New Year period from bombings to kidnappings, and police have confirmed that 18,000 extra police have been put on the streets including 3,000 specifically assigned to protect the homes of prominent people and diplomats.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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One of the many arms deals Iran has recently done with Russia, is one to allows Iran to do licensed production of the RPG-7. Iran is believed to be producing over 10,000 RPG-7 launchers a year, as well as a variety of rockets for them. Several countries produce unlicensed knock offs of the RPG-7, but Iran wants to stay on the right side of one of the few countries that will sell it weapons. RPG-7s are favorites with terrorists and rebel movements, because the rocket launcher is cheap and easy to use.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2005 09:38 ||
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#1
This is unacceptable. Bomb the factory the minute it starts up, because we KNOW where the damn things will end up.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/29/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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From Defense Industry Daily
Back on December 8, 2005, DID ran a story about Forecast International's market forecast for the $5.33 billion man-portable anti-armor and bunker buster weapons market over the next decade. We mentioned that the Russians were poised to dominate production with the RPG-26/27, and that the market itself was bifurcating into state-of-the-art, high cost designs (mostly from Europe) and cheaper, simpler weapons (mostly Russian and ex-Soviet) - but there was also a piece of interesting information embedded deeper in the report.
"Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO) will be the most significant player involved in RPG-7 production during the forecast period. Iranian licensed production of the RPG-7 will account for 4.25 percent of all new man-portable anti-armor and bunker buster weapons production, worth 2.88 percent of the total market value, through 2014."
That translates into a production total of over 80,000 weapons, with half of that estimated production occurring in the 2005-2008 period. Three guesses where many of those RPG-7s will end up. Link
TEHERAN - Iran said on Wednesday it would âseriously and enthusiasticallyâ study a Russian proposal aimed at reducing international fears about its nuclear programme, the ISNA students news agency reported.
The remarks by Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iranâs Supreme National Security Council, were the most positive yet by a senior Tehran official about Moscowâs offer to form a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium in Russia. The Russian proposal, âwill be reviewed seriously and enthusiastically,â Vaeedi told ISNA.
Of course, Vaeedi has no power, so this is just part of the dance.
âIn our opinion the Russian proposal could revive some of the unimplemented regulations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for transferring nuclear technology to countries which do not have access to this technology and break the scientific monopoly of this issue,â he said.
Striking a much softer tone than recent comments by other Iranian officials, Vaeedi said the Russian proposal could be studied in the framework of an existing agreement with Moscow on supply of enriched uranium for Iranâs first atomic reactor at Bushehr, due to come onstream in late 2006. âThe new proposal could be studied and its economic, technical and scientific dimensions clarified. The amount of participation of the Iranian side in this plan will be an important indicator,â he said.
"Yes, we could do all those things, and in the end throw it back into the Europeans' faces, once we have our bomb."
âWhatever meaning the Russian proposal has, it does not mean depriving Iran of its rights,â he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Many in the Iran business class (which includes many clerics who have been bribed to support them) would like to sell natural gas to Europe and want Russian cooperation. These folk are pushing hard to prevent the Iranian nuke issue from screwing things up.
However, the PM doesn't seem motivated in this direction.
#2
Iran said on Wednesday it would âseriously and enthusiasticallyâ study a Russian proposal aimed at reducing international fears about its nuclear programme, the ISNA students news agency reported.
Paris yesterday indirectly declined that there is a probable deal between Syria and the USA as regards Lebanon. Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that he can not confirm such predictions.
Which tells us nothing. I'd guess that any deal between the U.S. and Assad would involve bus tickets...
Meanwhile, reliable French sources said that contacts with Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been intensified with the aim of "protecting Lebanon and taking measures in order to ease tension while waiting the results of the international investigation". In reply to a question about the reason behind the retreat of the French interest of what is happening in Lebanon and Syria and with the French Ministry considers the case finished, the ministry spokesman said:" the case has not been solved yet .We will continue according much attention to what is happening there .As you know, there are a number of decisions which were adopted .Anyway, we are much concerned and vigilant over the local situation".
They put marbles in their mouths to learn how to talk like that. I think he said: "It ain't over yet, and we're still paying attention, so don't get too big for your Levantine britches, or maybe the Americans will do something unspecified but terrible."
Concerning a possible deal between Syria and USA ,the spokesman addressed journalists by saying:" I ask you to put this question to them .As for France, we have firm ties with our main partners over the set issues .We have been making consultations with them months ago. So we can not confirm you assessments about (an American-Syrian deal)."
'Nother words, he doesn't think there's a deal, and he thinks he'd have heard about it if there was one...
Meanwhile, a reliable French source
That's kind of a rarity, isn't it?
told "As-Safir" that contacts about Lebanon have recently been intensified. President Jacques Chirac himself made part of these contacts with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Hariri family.
Trying to broker his own deal, is he?
Chirac believes, according to the paper, that a clear message should be sent to Syria to inform it that Lebanon is not alone and the international community will not give up investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
a reliable French source
JFM? That's about the only one I'd trust.
Posted by: Jackal (from Moms house, like people on DU) ||
12/29/2005 8:39 Comments ||
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#2
Don't let's forget our dear anon5089. Although he is up there in the hills near the Swiss border, so I suppose it isn't likely he's deeply involved in nefarious doings... ;-)
BRITAIN, Egypt and Jordan suffered their worst terrorist attacks this year and hundreds more lives were lost in bombings elsewhere, making 2005 a good year for groups like al-Qaeda, analysts said.
At the same time, police and intelligence authorities also enjoyed success, arresting hundreds of suspects in numerous operations over the past 12 months.
But more violence looks likely in 2006, with Italy seen as a prime target as it hosts the Winter Olympics and prepares for an election, analysts warned.
This year began fairly peacefully on the attack front, aside from the daily carnage in Iraq, which is still an effective war zone nearly three years after the US-led invasion.
The relative serenity was shattered on July 7 in London when four presumed Islamist suicide bombers blew up rucksacks packed with explosives on three rush-hour subway trains and a bus killing themselves and 52 other people.
Hundreds more commuters were injured, some horrifically, in Britain's deadliest terrorist strike and the first suicide bombing in western Europe.
Two weeks later, a second band of four would-be bombers failed in an attempt to repeat the July 7 carnage.
The alleged attackers and a number of presumed accomplices have been arrested, charged and are awaiting trial. But questions remain about whether the two strikes were linked and if a mastermind is still roaming free.
The Al-Qaeda network, headed by the world's most wanted man Osama bin Laden, claimed responsibility for the London blasts as well as a string of others.
Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was ripped apart on July 23 when three suicide bombers unleased a trail of destruction that left some 70 people dead, including more than a dozen foreign tourists.
The al-Qaeda Organisation in the Levant and Egypt said it carried out the multiple bombings â the worst it Egypt's history. They struck the area less than one year after a previous attack further up the Sinai peninsula.
Separately, the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed a triple hotel bombing in Jordan's capital Amman on November 9 in which 59 people died.
Summing up 2005, Robert Ayers, a security expert for the London-based think tank Chatham House, described it as a victory for terror groups over democracy. "I think it is a win for the terrorists," Mr Ayers said.
"We are seeing democratic governments becoming increasingly non-democratic with regard to their people and their response to terrorism," he said.
Following the London bombings, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government compiled tough new laws to crack down on Islamic extremism in the country after it emerged that the July 7 attackers were home-grown Islamists.
However, Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at St Andrews University in Scotland, noted that the government had to water down its proposals because of opposition to their impact on human rights.
He said the authorities this year, particularly in Britain, learned a lot about how to handle Islamic extremism.
"While it was a good year for the terrorists it was also a good year for the authorities," Mr Ranstorp said.
Britain's counter-terrorism policies following July 7 had become a model for the rest of the world, he said.
Despite better intelligence-gathering and awareness, attackers still slipped through the net.
On October 1, 20 people were killed by three suicide bombers on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali. The bombings came almost three years after a nightclub attack there that left 202 people dead.
Both blasts were blamed on the Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah.
India also became the target of a major terrorist onslaught, this time linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based guerrilla group.
Sixty-two people were killed in the Indian capital New Delhi on October 29 when two bombs tore through markets and a third was detonated on a bus.
Turning to next year, Mr Ayers and Mr Ranstorp predicted more of the same.
"Pressure will continue to be brought to bear on western Europe and the United States," said Mr Ayers.
Mr Ranstorp was more specific. "I think Italy â given that it is host of the Olympic Games and given the Italian elections â is likely to be the next front line in the war on terror," he said.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush since the unprecedented September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:44 ||
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#1
Good year?
More died this year than any year past. Like lemmings they come to Iraq and get gunned down.
Terrorists dont do well when confronted by well trained professional soldiers, which is why all their "successes" cited were against civilians guarded by police.
So.. a good year? Nope. More AlQaeda and Al Zarqawi's guys have died than US troops, their cash sources are being hunted down and dried up, they have worn out their welcome in a lot of the arab world (the wedding bombing in Jordan was a huge mistake for AlQ). The only places they have any native support left are in Pakistan, Syria and Iran, and Saudi for the money. And the rats nest in Syria is looking to fall this coming year.
So a Good year for terrorists? Nah, too many died and they are on the wrong end of the curve; without their allies in the US and foreign press and UN, they'd not have the publicity and apologists they need.
Nobody had a "good year" except the brave people of Iraq who managed to vote 3 times, and have their first freely elected democratic government ever.
It's as inane as saying, "1944 was a particularly good year for Germany as they killed far more American soldiers than ever before."
For all the blood that Al Qaeda has shed since 2001, they are ever further from accomplishing their military and political goals even with the tacit and not-so-tacit support of Mssrs. Kerry, Rather, Dean, Carter, etc.
#3
I'll have to disagree with the headline. 2001 was an excellent year for terrorists. They killed 3000 Americans. In 2005, they killed about 1000 Americans. This is progress, but not the kind of progress the terrorists want. Any which way you slice it, 1000 is less than 3000.
#6
When terrorists kill Iraqis don't they count in this absurd tally?
Z.F. is not obligated to care.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/29/2005 20:40 Comments ||
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I was musing a similar "Hey, wotta 'bout the civilians killed by the asshats?" response, sans the My Morality is Bigger Than Yours quotient, when I saw Aris' post. Made me pretty sure I'd need some nitroglycerin pills. While I was considering which Pharmaceutical stock to buy, Rafael came along, split and doubled up. Too rich for me, now.
Combined moral outrage score 8.5.
*applause*
Though it's not about you guys, it's about the (mostly) innocents of Islam, killed by Islam, in the name of Islam. Waaay too many. My thought processes boggle at the subdued response to the slaughter.
#8
frankly, it's obvious not enough Greeks have been targetted, Otherwise you wouldn't be arguing. You'd be beaten to a pulp by somebody's widow or daughter.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2005 22:08 Comments ||
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AK: What about Iraqi civilian lifes? When terrorists kill Iraqis don't they count in this absurd tally?
Not to me. Besides, the terrorists in Iraq used to do the exact same thing when they were in power under Saddam. The only difference today is this - they are killing fewer Iraqis and their targets are shooting back, for a change, with the help of overwhelming American firepower. Funny how AK sympathizes with them today in a way he did not when they were being slaughtered by Saddam.
Moral and legal aspects aside, conventional wisdom is that torture simply isn't practical: that someone who is being tortured will say anything to make the torture stop, and that information gleaned through torture is therefore not reliable.
Some former military and intelligence officers say, however, that physically aggressive interrogation techniques that some human rights groups consider torture can be effective in the short term. When asked for specifics, the technique they cite is "waterboarding," in which water is poured over a subject's face to create the sensation of drowning.
Consider Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 39-year-old former al-Qaida operative who was the Sept. 11 mastermind and bearer of many al-Qaida secrets.
If anyone had a motive for remaining silent it was the man known to terrorism investigators as "KSM." But not long after his capture in Pakistan, in March 2003, KSM began to talk.
He ultimately had so much to say that more than 100 footnoted references to the CIA's interrogations of KSM are contained in the final report of the commission that investigated Sept. 11.
Not that everything KSM said was believable. But much of his information checked out in separate questioning of other captures al-Qaida figures.
What made KSM decide to talk? The answer may be waterboarding, to which KSM was subjected on at least one occasion, according to various accounts.
Intelligence operatives point out that while waterboarding can break through a suspect's initial resistance, it isn't effective for long-term interrogation.
Once a suspect begins to communicate, however, an interrogation specialist can put into action a wide range of far more subtle techniques, which include playing to a subject's ego or pretending to be his friend.
It could not be learned exactly when KSM was "waterboarded," or whether the technique was used more than once. But only 12 days after being captured in Pakistan, on March 1, 2003, KSM made his first reported major revelation.
As part of his initial proposal for the attack on America, he had "considered targeting a nuclear power plant," KSM said. But al-Qaida chieftain Osama bin Laden "decided to drop that idea," evidently concerned about a Chernobyl-type fallout that might threaten countries adjacent to the United States.
There are no footnotes keyed to the next 12 days. But on March 24 KSM began talking again, this time about assistance provided by al-Qaida to Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested in Minnesota three weeks before Sept. 11 and later pleaded guilty to planning to fly a hijacked airplane into the White House as part of a separate plot.
On April 17, KSM spoke about the abortive 1995 plot in which several U.S. airliners were to have been brought down simultaneously over the Pacific by bombs smuggled onboard.
On May 15, KSM began divulging something of the inner workings of al-Qaida. From that point onward, according to the commission's footnotes, KSM became a veritable fountain of information.
It was Osama bin Laden, he said, who had argued for increasing the number of Sept. 11 targets and planes beyond the four ultimately selected.
The 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa had cost less than $10,000, KSM continued, adding that after the success of those attacks al-Qaida had decided to focus on "soft targets" in the West like oil refineries, embassies and airliners.
The Sept. 11 report reflects five productive interrogation sessions during the last two weeks in May 2003, four in June, eight in July, four in August, three in September, three in October and four in November.
The interrogations continued through the winter and early spring of 2004, producing increasingly detailed information about al-Qaida.
KSM said bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, opposed the Sept. 11 attacks, disagreeing with bin Laden over whether to honor the request of Afghanistan's Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, not to attack the United States.
In early April 2004, KSM revealed that the 15 young men who joined the hijacking plot for the express purpose of subduing the airplanes' passengers and disabling their crews hadn't known they were to become part of a suicide mission until a month before Sept. 11.
The last footnote, dated June 15, 2004, reflected KSM's annoyance with hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar, who left the United States without al-Qaida's permission in the summer of 2000 to visit his family in Saudi Arabia.
The commission's report was published in July 2004. But for all the world knows, KSM may be talking still.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/29/2005 01:32 ||
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I don't believe that KSM had a major role in al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is an Arab supremacist group, and KSM is a Balochi. His arrest in Islamabad, terrorist entity of Pakistan, did not precede major terror charges by that country's authorities. The terror entity makes noisy arrests of nominal terrorists, in order to keep the US aid coming. Still Musharaf finances Kashmir terror, while conducting a war of national oppression against Sindhis, Balochis, Waziris, Pashtos, etc. The US yield from relations with the terrorist entity: greater American insecurity.
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