UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States launched a diplomatic initiative Monday to try to mark the contested border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a dispute that led to a 2 1/2-year war in an area where both countries are again massing troops. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told the Security Council that a high-powered U.S. delegation would travel to the region "to discuss how to begin implementation of the demarcation process."
"Or else."
The U.S. ambassador said afterward that he asked the council to freeze the current status of the U.N. force for 30 days "in order not to send any signals politically or otherwise that might complicate" the diplomatic initiative.
"Do not disturb the Force."
Tanzania's U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, the current Security Council president, said members agreed to keep the force's status quo for 30 days to wait for the outcome of the U.S. initiative.
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno said there was "a sense of urgency, of crisis" in the council "because, obviously, the status quo is unsustainable." But he said the council recognized "that everything has to be done to avoid increasing the risks on the front line between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and so time has to be given for diplomacy."
He called the U.S. decision to send a high-powered mission not only important but "essential." "The United States has solid relations with the two countries so it certainly has the clout, the credibility to move the process forward," he said.
"This is a very difficult mission. There is never a certainty of success. But I think it should be very much appreciated that the United States is prepared to take the diplomatic risk, to engage itself, to move the region away from war," Guehenno said.
The U.S. team traveling to the region in mid-January will be led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer and retired Marine Gen. Carlton Fulford, who directs the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Iff Barack Obama is the so-called "new face" of the Democratic Party, here is an yet another opportunity for the Dems to revitalize their Party's credibility, to save the Party of Jackson and Jefferson i.e. the one that is NOT = Marx, Stalin, and Mao, or defeatism or isolationism or...etc. Tough jobs call for tough men - Jackson, like Teddy R., would both agree that the mark of a Man = Party = Nation is measured in part by the challenges thy are able to overcome.
#2
"This is a very difficult mission, there is never any certainty in the process." The bushmen continue to collect the wooden stakes for firewood and weave the bit of orange flags into head scarves....!
LINK HERE A TOP Saudi cleric has told Muslim pilgrims marking the climax of hajj that the west was using the global phenomenon of terrorism to scare people away from Islam and discredit legitimate Muslim causes. Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, also called today for stability in Iraq and said Islam was innocent of the charge of terrorism. "The campaign against Islam has become fierce and Muslims are being described in insulting terms to distort the image of Islam and scare people away from it," he told the 2.5 million pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
He accused western countries of hypocrisy in promoting freedom and democracy, citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "When the oppressor Zionist enemy uses its war of smart bombs and tanks against our brothers in Palestine, violating our holy sites, that's not terrorism to their mind - but defending land, religion and honour is," Sudeis said. Here comes the biased rewriting of history
Israel has largely crushed a Palestinian uprising launched in 2000 and Al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of Islam's holy Al-Aqsa mosque, Isn't this the temple mount, holy to Jews and Christians too? is in Arab East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in a war started by the arabs
after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war in a move that has not been recognised internationally. Rantburg help, I thought it HAD been recognised internationally. Is this just plain wrong?
Israel says military measures taken in Palestinian areas are self-defence against suicide bombings and other attacks. The Palestinian issue is often cited by Islamic militants, including those fighting the US-backed government in Iraq. Palestinians could have had a state but Arafat chose the intifada of 2000 instead. This isn't mentioned though. And islamic militants do not cite Palestinians when they attack Hindus in India/Kashmir, women not wearing the veil in Bangladesh, Christians and Animists in the Sudan and Nigeria, Buddhists in Thailand or Russians in Beslan.
#1
When was the Mosque built ontop of the Temple Mount? If it was pre-1967 the Israeli's should have leveled it in the aftermath of the war, especially seeing as the Muslims had desicrated so many Jewish holy areas in Jerusalem.
Actually they should have removed the moslims from the West Bank and Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the war but that's another issue.
Israel was overly kind to those that nearly slaughtered them and that kindness was quickly forgotten. Israel has been dealing with that misplaced kindness since.
#2
The Six Day (1967) War was technically started by Israel. Egypt and Syria were building up for an attack but the Israelis jumped first. Israeli occupation is recognized internationally as a fait accompli, but annexation has not been.
#3
Nope. The war was started by the Arabs: blockade of international waters has ever been counted as an act of war just like attacking enemy soil. And that was what Egypt did with the Akaba Gulf.
#4
A lot of the "Mullahs that be" are scared witless by the declining numbers of Moslems, who are converting to Christianity in droves. It is noteworthy that many are not content to become "secular Moslems", but become Christians so they are "not Moslems"; not just ignoring Islam, but rejecting it outright.
#5
More importantly, why is it so difficult for our State department to sprout a set and send the Saudis a note that their government sponsorship of bile-spewing Islamist drones like Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis will result in NO MORE VISAS BEING ISSUED TO ANY SAUDIS, EVER? Enough of this sh!t. Spout all you want, but know that it comes with a price tag. Our government needs to adopt a cross-departmental approach to fighting this horsesh!t. He||, we can barely get the NSA, CIA and FBI to cooperate. Some heads dearly need knocking together.
#6
Here is what was on Brit Hume's grapvine last night. It is on the website today under his show, Special Report.
View from Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's top cleric has called the War on Terror, "a war against our creed." Delivering a prayer at Mount Arafat, Isam's most sacred site, grand mufti Sheik Abdul-aziz al-Sheik declared, "Oh, Muslim nation, there is a war against our creed, against our culture under the pretext of fighting terrorism. We should stand firm and united in protecting our religion." The Sheik added, "Islam's enemies want to empty our religion from its contents and its meaning. But the soldiers of God will be victorious."
Note that this quote lists a seperate guy (who is probably fat like the guy in the picture), so it seems there are several religous heavyweights (pun intended) spitting out a common thread of bile.
These "holy men" spread a message of hatred. The tone of their message is one of conflict and finger-pointing. This is all old news to RB'ers, but I was actually shocked to see such blatant comments reported in the western media. Unfortunately, Brit didn't have a spokesman from the US State Dept. saying such comments were despicable or anything. No, that would require sack on the part of the State Dept and admin.
#7
Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh is the Grand Mufti. He's the guy from yesterday with the bad teeth. Dental Guy is admitting that the War on Terror boils down to a war on Salafism (and to a much lesser extent its Deobandi clone), which is a point I've been trying to make for quite awhile.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 15:05 Comments ||
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#8
How DARE you infidels disturb our peace by discrediting our peaceful Religion of Peaceâ¢
We will KILL you for that!!!! We will cut off your heads and shred you to peace-es!!!
#10
Brit Hume: he's on Fox, yes? (I only ever get my news from Rantburg anymore. We's the fustest with the mostest!) I'm really surprised they let that report through, now that one of the Saudi princelings owns a sizable piece of the company, and has boasted how he's influencing their reporting.
#11
There's gotta be a rantburger out there who can set the story straight on Temple Mount. Anybody got a short history on that, beginning with earliest claims to the site, the sequence of buildings that have been there, and how many times, by which tribes, its "ownership" has changed hands? LH are you out there?
Also, just curious-about how many "Muslim holy sites" are there in Israel?
From a (sorta) pro-Chechen source, but still some good info. While warlord Shamil Basaev dominates the headlines of the Chechen conflict, a lesser-known guerrilla leader has worked his way into a crucial position in the Chechen leadership. Dokku Umarov was appointed vice-president in the new administration of President Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in June 2005. A native of southwestern Chechnya, the 40-year-old Emir has already been entrusted with the command of several fronts beyond his original post in the southwestern sector. Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel noted as recently as last July that the northern district "is controlled by Umarov."
A veteran of the 1994-96 war, Umarov served as security minister in Aslan Maskhadov's postwar government. Umarov began the current war in 1999 as a field commander working closely with warlord Ruslan Gelaev. After the dual disasters of the evacuation of Grozny and the battle of Komsomolskoe in early 2000, Umarov and Gelaev crossed the mountains into the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia, where they rebuilt their commands. Georgian intelligence reported Umarov leading 130-150 fighters in the Gorge before his return to Chechnya in the summer of 2002 (Civil Georgia, January 20, 2003). Gelaev gave Umarov several Strela missiles, which Umarov's forces used to good effect against Russian helicopters in the fighting around Shatoi in 2003 (Chechenpress, December 4, 2002).
Gelaev was killed in February 2004 after a disastrous attempt to lead a group of fighters over the mountains of Dagestan into Georgia. After Gelaev's death, many of his men joined Umarov's command. Russian security services created a scenario based on the alleged testimony of a prisoner (Baudi Khadzhiev) in which Umarov urged Gelaev to undertake an operation in Dagestan that he knew would be fatal in order to take over Gelaev's command. The allegation was part of a long tradition of Russian reports about feuding commanders and dissension in the Chechen ranks. Gelaev's family was quick to point out that their clan and the Umarov family are closely related (an important consideration in clan-conscious Chechnya).
In early February of this year, Russian security suggested that Umarov and Basaev were arranging a meeting of Chechen and Arab field commanders in Grozny to mark the one-year anniversary of Gelaev's death (Vremya no. 16, February 2, 2005). Later in the month Maj.-Gen. Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian command in the North Caucasus, claimed that Russian special forces had destroyed three units of Umarov's command on their way to Azerbaijan to wipe out Gelaev's family at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of Gelaev's death. The family's alleged declaration of blood vengeance against Umarov provided the motive. The details of this unlikely plot came from the interrogation of a mortally wounded Chechen (RIA Novosti, February 25, 2005). Several Ingush clans have also been reported as having declared blood vengeance against Umarov as a result of deaths suffered in the Nazran operation of 2004.
Like most Chechen field commanders, Umarov has been declared dead on several occasions. In the last year Russian forces have intensified their efforts to eliminate him. In January 2005, he was reported killed in a gun battle with Russian commandos near the Georgian border. In March, Umarov was reported as having been seriously wounded by a spetsnaz assassination team. After stepping on a landmine sometime later, Umarov was reported to have lost a leg, but was only injured. In April, Russian special forces destroyed a small guerrilla unit in a sevenâhour battle in Grozny after receiving intelligence that Umarov was with them, but he was not found among the dead.
Umarov struck back in an attack on Roshni-Chu in August, but in September the Russian Interior Ministry declared victory over Umarov's fighters, finding Umarov's "grave" in the process. In October, Umarov was again reported dead in the raid on Nalchik. In a new tactic designed to put pressure on resistance leaders, masked men in uniform abducted Umarov's father, brother, wife and baby. Umarov believes those responsible are members of the "Oil Regiment," a notorious loyalist unit better known for kidnappings than its nominal mission of guarding pipelines.
Chechen Duma Deputy Ruslan Yamadaev suggests that Umarov is currently part of Basaev's "terrorist wing" of the Chechen resistance, but Umarov distanced himself from Basaev after the latter claimed responsibility for the Beslan outrage (Interfax, March 9, 2005). Only a few months earlier, Umarov had played a leading role with Basaev in organizing the military assault on Nazran in Ingushetia (June 21-22, 2004). Umarov firmly refuted the value of terrorist attacks such as Beslan: "In the eyes of the resistance such operations have no legitimacy," he said. "We ourselves were horrified by what they did in Beslan" (RFE/RL, July 28, 2005). During the crisis Umarov was repeatedly identified by security services as the leader of the Beslan hostage-takers, a claim that has never been substantiated in any fashion. Umarov emphasized the military nature of his own war: "Our targetsâthese are the Russian occupation forces, their bases, command HQ's, and also their armed servicemen from the numbers of local collaborationists, who pursue and who kill peaceful Muslims. We will attack, where we think it's necessary. Civil objects and innocent civilians are not our targets" (Kavkaz Centre, July 1, 2004). I think they're being a little too credulous of Doku here.
In May 2005 , Maj. Gen. Shabalkin accused Umarov of joining warlord Shamil Basaev and President Sadulaev in planning a suicide truck-bombing in Grozny. The trio were also said to be planning large-scale civilian massacres in several towns of the North Caucasus by using cyanide "in highly populated areas, key installations and in reservoirs." A Jordanian emissary of both al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood allegedly provided the cyanide. Proof of the plot was provided in the form of a photo of a Russian in a white lab-coat holding a vial of clear liquid, identified as cyanide. The strategic advantage the Chechen leadership might hope to gain through committing such outrageous atrocities remains unexplained. The allegations came at the same time Sadulaev was trying in his public statements to distance the resistance from terrorist methods. Um, no offense but you could sorta say the same thing about Beslan or the 2002 theater hostage seige. That didn't stop Basayev from doing it ...
Four days after Shabalkin made these allegations, Umarov responded by promising large-scale military activities within Russia before the end of the year. This promise seems to have been fulfilled by the October raid in Nalchik, in which Umarov played a leading role (Chechenpress, May 9, 2005).
Umarov is one of the last veteran commanders from the 1994-96 Chechen-Russian war still alive and active in the fighting. He bears the scars and limp of multiple wounds, but his commitment to the conflict remains inflexible. He regards death in battle as an inevitability, and has publicly expressed his hope that those Chechen men who have not fully participated in the war "will all burn in the fire of Hell!" Although Umarov admits he has grown much closer to Islam during the last decade of conflict, he is openly scornful of suggestions that he is a "Wahhabi" or radical Islamist: "I have a whole [military] front," he said. "I go along that front and I don't see people fighting to bring the world Wahhabism or terror" (RFE/RL, July 28, 2005). It is unlikely that Umarov's new role as vice-president will interfere with his ongoing military operations. These days there is not a great deal of paperwork to do in the resistance government. Nevertheless, the appointment was hardly symbolic, considering the record of three successive violent deaths of Chechen presidents (four including the Russian-backed presidency of Akhmad Kadyrov). In the volatile and dangerous world of Chechen politics, Dokku Umarov now stands next in line for the leadership of the Chechen resistance, barring renewed aspirations for this role by Shamil Basaev.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:24 ||
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has traveled to China on a rare trip outside his country, a South Korean military intelligence official said Tuesday. The official told The Associated Press he received the information from intelligence inside China. The official spoke on condition his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the information. ``We confirmed he went to China,'' the official said. ``We don't know why.''
My guess would be the hookers...
Kim, who seldom travels abroad, last visited China in April 2004 for a two-on-one with the Twins of Pleasure summit with Chinese leaders. North Korea and China, both communist countries, have traditionally had close ties. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited North Korea in October.
Hu's on first?
Hua's on second?
No Won's on second. Hua's on third.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported earlier in a dispatch out of Beijing that the reclusive North Korean leader's train had crossed the border into northeastern China amid tight security. The agency did not say where it got its information.
Golly. Shucks. I hope nothing explodes when he comes back.
The visit comes at a sensitive time for North Korea, which remains at odds with the United States over stalled international talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
I still think it's the hookers...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
North Korea threatens the region, ergo is why Chinese fighters, not NorKorean, are the ones that keep trying to penetrate Japan, thus de facto proving that North Korea, NOT China, is the de facto, MSM-verified, sole??? threat.
#3
"Abbott, wait a second - Kimmie visited who?"
"Exactly." "Abbott, I'm asking you, who was the guy Kimmie visited??"
"Of course!!" "Let me try this one more time - what was the name of the guy Kimmie visited??"
"No, What's on second!" "I don't know!"
(TOGETHER)"THIRD BASE!!"
With apologies to Bud and Lou,
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/10/2006 13:08 Comments ||
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#4
ROFL, Mike. I can't believe I've never seen that schtick done before with Hu. (grumbling that I didn't think of it first ...)
Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrived here on a two-day visit for talks with Turkish officials on issues of bilateral concern. He is expected to meet tomorrow with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan where the focus of discussion will be the situation in Iraq and the course of the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis, said ANATOL news agency. Koizumi is the first Japanese prime minister to visit Turkey since 1990.
#1
I hate these messages. They make me feel that if only I'd been a little quicker, I could have a read a really juicy one. But, now I'm the one guy who doesn't know what was really said.
The Norwegian government said that it would no longer recognize the list of terrorist organizations drawn up by the European Union (EU) and other countries like the United States against groups in the Philippines and abide only by the list published by the United Nations.
According to the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the decision was made to avoid adversely affecting its role as neutral facilitator in several peace processes between the Philippines and National Democratic Front (NDF).
"Norway will no longer align itself with any other (terror) list than that published by the UN," the release dated January 6 said.
The EU added the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New Peopleâs Army (NPA) and exiled CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison to its terrorist list after the Arroyo government sent a mission led by the late Foreign Affairs Sec. Blas Ople in September 2002 to lobby for the rebelsâ inclusion.
The UN list, however, does not include the Philippine communist rebels.
Norway is not a member of the EU and has no part in the drawing up of the list.
"Norway is making an important contribution to international peace and security through its involvement in peace processes. These efforts have won the recognition of the international community, including the EU and the US," Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr StÞre said in the statement.
"The government wants to intensify these efforts and we must therefore avoid a situation that makes it more difficult for us to have contact with any of the parties to a conflict," he added.
StÞre stressed that Norwayâs decision not to recognize the EUâs terror list "does not imply any other change in our cooperation with the EU on measures against terrorism."
"There should be no doubt that Norway clearly condemns all forms of terrorism," he said.
Reacting to Norwayâs announcement, the NDF said this should make the Philippine government "look into its culpability" in the 2002 lobby.
"[The Philippine government should respond] satisfactorily to the prejudicial question raised by the NDF regarding the baseless and unjust âterrorist listingââŠto pave the way for the resumption of the formal talks between the [government] and the NDF negotiating panels," NDF peace panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said in reply to e-mailed questions seeking the rebelsâ reaction to Norwayâs position.
Formal peace talks were supposed to resume in 2004 but were suspended after the Arroyo government refused to comply with two joint statements signed in Oslo in February and April of that year that committed both parties to work for the removal of the rebels from the terror lists of the EU and other states.
Negotiations were suspended in 2002 after the NPA assassinated Cagayan Rep. Rodolfo Aguinaldo.
Jalandoni said the continued inclusion of Philippine rebels in the EU list "disregards the legitimate status of national liberation movements by arrogantly branding national liberation struggles as âterrorismâ and obstructs the political solution of the armed conflict related thereto."
He also said it "increasingly makes Europe an inhospitable place for theâŠpeace negotiations" and "contravenes the 1997 and 1999 European Parliament resolutions which strongly endorsed theâŠpeace negotiations in Europe."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:54 ||
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#1
In other news, Norway refuses to accept the fact that the earth is a sphere.
A regional prosecutor said he would not file charges against a newspaper that published contentious caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and Danish Muslim groups said Monday they would appeal. "We cannot understand the decision," said Ahmad Akkari, a spokesman for a coalition of 11 community groups, adding that they would take their complaints to Denmark's top prosecutor.
We know you don't understand. That's the problem, not the drawings.
He said the 12 caricatures, published Sept. 30 in the Jyllands-Posten daily, were a "clear offense to Islam."
Which means about the same as offending Christians, seculars, or Oriana Fallaci. That is, zero.
Yesterday the 'Burg carried a story on the witty and erudite comments of Soddy Arabia's grand mufti. Today we have a story on the witty and erudite comments of the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Both sets of comments are offensive. Kill them both and maybe we can talk. Until then, shuddup.
State prosecutor Peter Broendt Joergensen said Saturday the drawings were protected by Denmark's freedom of speech laws and did not violate bans on racism and blasphemy.
"Freedom of speech" doesn't exist when the nearest holy man can tell you what to say or not say.
Egypt has been spearheading foreign criticism of Denmark over the cartoons. While Egypt "respects freedom of opinion and expression, we also realize the borders which must never be crossed," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit as saying Monday after he was informed of the prosecutor's decision by his Danish counterpart.
Your border with Israel, for example, 'cause you'd get your butts kicked ... oh, not that border.
Somehow we manage to wander back and forth over the lines that can't be crossed all the time here in the civilized world. We have Hustler magazine, Pat Robertson, Jane Fonda and her Vaginaâ¢, all sorts of people who casually violate the rules of common courtesy, good taste, or good sense. Somehow, against all odds, the Republic lives...
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern that such images could lead to idolatry. One cartoon shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.
Yes, I can see how that might lead to idolatry among Salafists...
Another portrays him with a bushy gray beard and holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. A third pictures a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick in front of a donkey and a sunset. A fourth depicts a schoolboy near a blackboard.
Pretty tame stuff compared to what Le Monde does to GWB.
Allow me here to complain about the cost of goats to sacrifice to G.W. It's outrageous, the way the prices go up as we approach the holy day of the State of the Union address...
Twelve artists submitted cartoons after the newspaper asked 40 to submit images in what it called a test of whether people would censor themselves for fear of provoking Muslims.
Right on cue, the local Moose limbs went bananas.
The paper refused to apologize for publishing the drawings, citing freedom of speech - a right cherished in this northern European country of 5.4 million that also refused to prosecute an artist who depicted a crucified Jesus Christ with an erection.
The offense, distasteful as I may find it, merits flung fruit, mockery, and derision, not state intervention. Moose limbs, by the peculiar conformation of their arms, are incapable of flinging anything as light as fruit, preferring grenades or rocks. Lacking anything resembling a sense of humor, they're incapable of mockery or derision. The best they can do is vitriol...
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected calls that he intervene after the caricatures sparked harsh criticism from some Muslim leaders at home and overseas, saying the government has no say over media. But in a New Year's speech widely seen as an attempt to calm emotions over the issue, Rasmussen condemned "any expression, action or indication that attempts to demonize groups of people on the basis of their religion or ethnic background."
That's a nice PC statement. If he were talking to Lutherans or Jedis, that would have been enough to settle the matter.
The dispute has created a backlash against Danish Muslim groups, who critics say blew the matter out of proportion by asking Muslim countries to pressure the Danish government to act against the paper. In her weekly newsletter, Pia Kjaersgaard, the leader of the anti-immigration Danish People's Party, accused some Danish Muslim leaders of conducting a "defamation campaign against the country they live in."
That's because they're Moose limbs, not Danes...
Abdul Wahid Petersen, a leading imam in Denmark, defended the decision to request help from abroad. "When someone offends the prophet, it is not only just a local problem but affects Muslims worldwide," he said Monday on Danish public radio.
And there's just no self-control in any of them, nope, not a bit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Well let the Sith get all worked up some more. It will not do them any good. I hope it wakes the average swede up to just how unlike them these immigrants are an perhaps they will do something about it. Having more kids would be a good start.
#3
While Egypt "respects freedom of opinion and expression, we also realize the borders which must never be crossed,"
In other words, they don't really respect freedom of opinion and expression.
I bet this fellow would be nodding like a bobble head if he heard someone lecturing about how the West "doesn't have real freedom of speech" because we treat Holocaust deniers as scum.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/10/2006 8:43 Comments ||
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#4
Your border with Israel, for example, 'cause you'd get your butts kicked ... oh, not that border.
There is *my* Chuckle-O'-The-Day.
We all know that Western Civilization is mean and evil and sucky and all, but one huge thing it has going for it is the fundamental idea that you can't go around killing everyone you disagree with. This frees up a lot of time and resources that we can devote to useful stuff like inventing the future. It also makes for a lot of interesting dinner table conversation.
#5
They kinda whitewashed the description of the cartoons, hopefully not to provoke more people into looking at them. For instance, their description of the picture of Mohammed with a black rectangle over his eyes leaves out the two women in black burkas on either side of him looking through rectangles cut into the burkas that are, not coincidentally, exactly the same size and shape as the black rectangle over Mohammed's eyes.
The eyes of the women were quite expressive: "PLEASE! we're not with the nut between us" is what they seem to be saying.
#6
"We cannot understand the decision," said Ahmad Akkari
Of course, yet that does not in the least prevent you from wanting to impose you entire set of straightlaced outdated barbaric morals on the entire world, despite the fact that they, quite obviously, do not understand them, or even care to understand them.
No middle ground is being sought because there is no middle ground in dealing with Islamist "sensibilities." What remains is high ground (on the turf) and low ground (around six feet below that). It's time to make Islam comprehend what will happen when they try and take the high ground ... as in a lot of low ground suddenly getting occupied ... by them.
#9
I just finished reading Spencer. There's no negotiating with these folks. Show them the door and boot their butts out it. Denmark simply needs to tell its Muslim population that the free ride is over and that it's time to go back to their hellholes of origin. Prompt, permanent deportation is the solution to this problem and no Muslims to be allowed back until after their religion has a Reformation equivalent in magnitude to that Martin Luther set afoot. That means not in our lifetimes.
Posted by: mac ||
01/10/2006 21:02 Comments ||
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BERLIN - A German archeologist and former hostage in Iraq has denied reports that she worked for the German secret services but said she warned the countryâs embassy in Baghdad of dangers on the ground. âIf I were a spy I would no longer be alive, my kidnappers would have killed me,â Osthoff said in an interview for ARD public television recorded on Saturday that was due to be broadcast on Monday evening.
Except, of course, your government ransomed you.
Osthoff, 43, said she sometimes contacted German diplomats in Baghdad when she learnt about dangerous situations in Iraq, where she lived and worked for 10 years as an archeologist and aid worker. âThis is everybodyâs duty. In a conflict and war zone like Iraq, one must do this among fellow countrymen,â Osthoff said.
She said in the interview, one of the rare times she has spoken to the media since her release, that she had feared that she would be killed by her captors and still believed she was at risk. âMy life was in danger. The circumstances were uncontrollable. I still have visions of death,â she said, adding that she âchanged places and countries every two days.â
Not going back after all?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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"Archeologist" has been a favorite cover story for years in the Middle East. It's possible.
I'd still love to see how the congregation reacts to her at the neighborhood mosque after this story, however. She'd definitely need the burqa now.
#2
she sometimes contacted German diplomats in Baghdad when she learnt about dangerous situations in Iraq. . . . "This is everybodyâs duty. In a conflict and war zone like Iraq, one must do this among fellow countrymen,â Osthoff said.
That's a denial?
Posted by: ST ||
01/10/2006 8:55 Comments ||
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WND. Salt as needed.
A confidential memo from federal officials warns Border Patrol agents they could be the targets of assassins hired by the smugglers of illegal aliens. The memo, dated Dec. 21, states smugglers plan to bring members of the Mara Salvatruchas gang â also known as MS-13 âinto the U.S. to target the border agents.
According to the Associated Press, the alert, issued by the Department of Homeland Security, notes that illegal aliens have become increasingly annoyed by recent efforts to tighten the southern border of the United States.
Aliens from El Salvador began MS-13 in Los Angeles but also has a presence in Central America. The gang has been linked to al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. Members have been known to behead victims and attack with grenades and machetes. Federal officials estimate between 8,000 and 10,000 MS-13 members live in 31 states â the majority of them in the country illegally. Some 103 suspected members of the gang were rounded up during a seven-city operation in March.
As WorldNetDaily reported, on New Year's weekend, as many as 20 shots were fired from Mexico at agents near Brownsville, Texas, in the most recent of a series of incidents involving gunplay and other violence directed at Americans from south of the Rio Grande River. The gunfire did not appear to be a random action and that the attacker â who was not identified in reports â was most likely a trained shooter, KRGV-TV, ABC's Brownsville affiliate, said.
#1
Feds have a great way of responding to stuff like this. They take a bunch of the recalcitrants out in the desert and execute them. I know it's terribly death-squad-like, but it does send a really good message. Even more so if the local American media just don't report it.
Heck, west of Phoenix, in the past two or three years, there must have been 25-35 under-reported bodies found in a single stretch of desert. No news here, just a bunch of dead Messicans.
#2
illegal aliens have become increasingly annoyed by recent efforts to tighten the southern border
They aren't annoyed by the efforts, but by the successes. And those that are already here (illegal aliens) aren't nearly as annoyed as those that can't get in. And of course the jackels (not you, of course, Jackel! You we love!) who make their fortunes moving the wannabees to the promised land.
A federal court will soon sentence attorney Lynne Stewart to prison for "providing material support" to terrorists, among related charges. The charges center upon her assistance to Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman who, from a federal prison cell in Minnesota, has continued his quest both to install an Islamist government in Egypt and to kill Americans and Jews around the world. Stewart's case is symbolic of a corollary battle in the war against terror and highlights the need not only to counter terrorism but also the ideology of Islamism. Her infatuation with her client's cause evolved into an example of what author David Horowitz terms the "unholy alliance" between radical Islam and the American Left. Her embrace of violent jihad illustrates the growing confluence between militant Islam on one hand and non-Muslim radicals on the other. Bloody HELL YES! See the rest of the good news at the link. Lawyers take notice.
#6
*AACKKKK* MY EYES! Seared! Seared! Into my brain...thanks*
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 17:04 Comments ||
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#7
1)It's a pity she's not going to be hung. She and the sheikh deserve it.
2)Besoeker, I think you've mistaken Frank G's taste in women for that of Bill Clinton.
Posted by: mac ||
01/10/2006 17:12 Comments ||
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#8
As the FBI Agent who conducted the on-scene investigation of the terrorist attack at Luxor, it gives me great pleasure to see this fine lady get her just dessert. Nonetheless, to show that I am not bitter, I will send her a disposable razor (prison approved) once per year whether she needs it or not.
A judge refused Monday to dismiss charges against two Muslims accused of supporting terrorism, saying there was enough evidence to go forward despite defense arguments that the men were entrapped.
Yassin Aref, imam at the Masjid as-Salam mosque in Albany, and Mohammed Hossain, a co-founder of the mosque, were arrested in August 2004, accused of laundering money for an
FBI informant posing as an arms dealer.
U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy said there was sufficient evidence for a trial. He also refused to grant separate trials for the men, who have pleaded not guilty.
Aref, 35, a native of northern
Iraq's Kurdish area, immigrated to the United States with his family in 1999. Hossain, 50, a native of Bangladesh who owns an Albany pizzeria, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Prosecutors maintained that they were willing participants in criminal activity, while the defense argued Monday that the men were entrapped.
The FBI informant allegedly told the men that some $50,000 they held for him was from the sale of a missile that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. The men say they never believed the business deal was part of a terrorist plot.
If convicted of all charges, Aref faces up to 470 years in prison and $7.25 million in fines while Hossain faces 450 years in prison and $6.75 million in fines. Aref remains in jail awaiting trial. Hossain is free on bail and declined to comment leaving court.
They are accused of attempting to provide support to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group listed by the federal government as a terrorist organization.
Aref is charged with lying to federal officials by failing to disclose his former membership in the nationalist Islamic Movement in Kurdistan. The government also alleges that Aref knew Mullah Krekar, the founder of Ansar al-Islam, which U.S. authorities say is a terrorist group that has ties to al-Qaida and has been responsible for attacks on American forces in the Middle East.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:52 ||
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#1
Is it me or every time the FBI points a flashlight at one of these Islamic Holy places the cockroaches seem to scatter?
They weren't your ordinary thugs. Dressed in bow ties and dark suits, nearly a dozen men carrying metal pipes entered a corner store, shattered refrigerator cases and smashed bottles of liquor, wine and beer, terrifying the clerk but stealing nothing. The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims. In urban America, friction between poor residents and immigrant store owners is nothing new. Nor are complaints that inner-city neighborhoods are glutted with markets that sell alcohol and contribute to violent crime, vagrancy and other social ills.
But the recent attack at San Pablo Liquor - and an identical vandalism spree at another West Oakland store later that evening, along with an arson fire there and the kidnapping of the owner a few days later - have injected religion into the debate. The two episodes highlighted tensions - and different interpretations of the Quran - between black Muslims in this struggling, crime-ridden city of 400,000 and Middle Eastern shop owners, many of them also Muslims. Six men connected to a bakery founded by a prominent black Muslim family have been arrested in the Nov. 23 attacks, which were caught on store security cameras. In both instances, the vandals asked store clerks why they were selling alcohol when it was against the Muslim faith. One of the men arrested on charges that included hate crimes and vandalism was 19-year-old Yusuf Bey IV. His father, Yusuf Bey, a black Muslim leader who died in 2003, founded Your Black Muslim Bakery, which sells Malcolm X books along with baked goods. The elder Bey was accused of raping young women between 1976 and 1995. The accusations were later dropped. But his organization has been lauded for providing jobs and guidance to young black men from poor communities.
The younger Bey was arrested after police identified him as one of the men in the video. The younger Bey's attorney, Lorna Brown, suggested Bey was a victim of mistaken identity. But she also said the vandalism has prompted discussions throughout the black community. "I think it's pretty clear that the number of these stores in low-income communities is not good for people," she said.
San Pablo market owner Abdul Saleh, who has kept his store open following the attacks, said his decision to sell alcohol is "between me and God." "We're just coming here to make a living like anyone else," he said.
While black and Middle Eastern Muslims may pray at the same mosques on weekends, their worlds do not tend to overlap beyond that, said Hatem Bazian, professor of Near East and ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley. The Middle Eastern store owners tend to live in the suburbs, the black Muslims in the cities, Bazian said. The immigrant shopkeepers also interpret Islam to allow the sale of alcohol. In the wake of the attacks, community leaders have targeted the glut of corner markets selling fortified wine, malt liquor and cheap alcohol as one of the most pressing problems in Oakland, where roughly 16 percent of families live below the poverty line.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The younger Bey was arrested after police identified him as one of the men in the video. The younger Bey's attorney, Lorna Brown, suggested Bey was a victim of mistaken identity. But she also said the vandalism has prompted discussions throughout the black community. "I think it's pretty clear that the number of these stores in low-income communities is not good for people," she said.
#4
They are starting to enforce Sharia in Turkey, Aris, with tacit approval from the Erdogan government: liquor stores and non-halal restaurants vandalized, churches attacked. While your army was marching you around Greece, articles were posted here with the details. I wish it weren't so, I was one of those arguing that Turkey was the sole example of a successfully secular Muslim state, like the U,S, is successfully secular Christian, and Israel is successfully secular Jewish. Infortunately, at least under the current government, that doesn't appear to be true, although it isn't anywhere near the point of the Arab countries or the Pakistans West & East.
#5
Communities have a right to decide what type of commerce is allowed in their community. For example it is law in most states that no liquor store is within 1/4 mile of a high school. Other communities have sex shop laws and limits to bars. The point here is the community can decide and should, through zoning, and limit if it is really an issue. These idiots are just criminals and vandals and should be treated as such regardless of their being a muzzie.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/10/2006 7:19 Comments ||
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#6
They didn't in Turkey.
Yes, they did but they were countered by Mustafa Kamal who had a colossal despise of Islam and saw it as an in,strument of foreign domination. You should read the Nafik (the printed version of an autobiographical speech he delivered) before saying such sillinesses. Unforturnately he died at only 57, otherwise he would have gone farther in the unislamisation of Turkey. Today it is the fear of the army and teh fact that Erdogan knows that many of his voters have been thoroughly unislamized by decades of Kamalism and would not follow him who is preventing Erdogan of going farther and faster towards Shariah. Oh and while we are at it in your spare time you should investigate about what happenned to the Greeks of Turkey around 1955 (Hint: nowadays, there are no Greeks in Turkey). You should also read the Coran. It is ever useful to know the ideology of the enemey and the ideology in the book is one of conquest and enslavement of the whole world. There was high proportion of Resistants between those people of the invaded countries who had read Mein Kampf.
#7
"They haven't in Albania" -- not as yet. See this article dated 11/15/2005 published in a "Kosovo Albanian" newspaper, protesting the spreading influence of Saudi-financed Wahhabism in Albania and the Albanian dispora apparently written by a practicing Muslim. "They are visible everywhere with their eccentricity in every respect - long beards, Asian dresses, short trousers, wives covered by black dresses (which remind you of Slav Orthodox nuns), and extremely radical and vulgar vocabulary. God, they only need to bring camels from the deserts in order to conform completely - of course, according to them - to the "Sunnet" [practices of Muhammad] of the Prophet! For this reason, the Shkup [Skopje] citizens are justified in calling them "bearded men," "Selamalejkums" [from the Arab greeting selam aleykum], "mojahedin," "Taleban," and so on. Their eccentricity is really out of this world for our European environment and for our national traditions. Finally, their entire extreme and radical doctrine, ideology, and practice is against our religious doctrine, which has been embedded in ! our tradition for centuries since our forefathers embraced the Islamic religion. Our Wahhabists want, among other things, to uproot our traditional religious doctrine - Hanafi Madhab(Madhab is a particular system of Sharia) [religious legal doctrine] - and replace it with the rigid doctrine of "Wahhabism." What an absurdity - they want to uproot the extremely tolerant and rational teachings of our Hanafi Madhab with the extreme, stale, infantile, and irrational teachings of Saudi Wahhabism! " The author implies that he had so far delayed publishing his thoughts because he thought the USA was dealing with Wahhabism. He adds, "In Kosova [Kosovo] these Wahhabi bastards have started to desecrate our graves and our monuments 'in the name of religion.' " (Stephen Schwartz, an anti-Wahhabi Muslim apologist has stated "Destruction of tombs and cemeteries is often, in fact, the first sign of Wahhabi activity.") Most of us around here can't distinguish one form of Sharia from another, or Wahhabi from wasabi. The liquor store vandalism resembles the cemetery vandalism practiced by Wahhabis elsewhere.
#8
Yes, ma grandfather's mother had bought him "Mein Kampf" before the war IIRC, and I'm sure he understood better the stakes (he was a resistant, too).
Reading the coran is a good move, and I wish it could be done more often, in a contextualized environment (such as the difference between the Mecca and Medina verses), this would be an eyes-openers for many.
#9
Here is a quote from Mustafa Kamal (extracted of Ataturk.com): "Turkey is the friend of all civilized nations". But in the Nafik he justifies his abolition of islamic uses, garment, alphabet and laws as "a requiremnt for Turkey joining the side of civilized nations"
#10
The Oakland vandals are not Wahabi; they are from a form of Islam that would be called heretical in Soddiland (although I think the Black Muslim groups get a temporary 'bye' as long as they contribute to hatred toward Jews).
Having said that, Islam is the factor here that gives Yusuf Bey IV gives the mind set that "I don't have to obey civil law; I obey a higher law."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/10/2006 8:31 Comments ||
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#12
The Oakland vandals are not Wahabi; they are from a form of Islam that would be called heretical in Soddiland (although I think the Black Muslim groups get a temporary 'bye' as long as they contribute to hatred toward Jews).
So long as they're in Dar al Harb, the differences between the Black Muslims and the Wahabbists are ignored. If Dar al Islam were to reign in Oakland, the matter would be a bit different.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/10/2006 8:34 Comments ||
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#14
JFM> Yes, they did but they were countered by Mustafa Kamal who had a colossal despise of Islam and saw it as an instrument of foreign domination.
AFAIK Mustafa Kemal was also Muslim, and certainly so were most of his followers. This is the sentence I was disagreeing with: "Wherever Muslims have the numbers, they enforce Shariah."
Wherever Muslims have the numbers, *some* of them *try* to enforce Shariah, that's certain. Not mentioning the times that they've failed due to the resistance or unwillingness of other muslims is what makes all the difference.
Likewise with the imported Islamofascism in Albania -- said importation again indicates that the absoluteness of "whenever Muslims have the numbers they enforce Shariah" is false.
Oh and while we are at it in your spare time you should investigate about what happenned to the Greeks of Turkey around 1955
*rolls eyes*
You should also read the Coran.
Don't worry, I have; much of it anyway. But I've never had any doubt that religion was an enemy, and I'm well aware that in modern days Islam is much more unreformed and thus reactionary than Christianity is.
#15
"...the vandals asked store clerks why they were selling alcohol when it was against the Muslim faith..."
I doubt there's anything in the faith against selling alcohol to non-Muslims. After all, if you can behead them you can certainly sell them liver poison. And any Muslim who would consume alcohol is not going to get his raisins anyway. Knowing what I do about the "Nation of Islam" (aka "Black Muslims"), I suspect that there's some racism involved here too.
#16
Actually there are several verses in the Quran that deal with this. 4:43 seems to allow alcohol except before prayer; 2;219 seems to counsel moderation; 5:90-91 seems to be more prohibitionist. It took until several hundred years after Mohamot before the various judicial schools decided that prohibition was required.
With your logic Robespierre was a Catholic or Stalin an Orthodox. Mustafa was born a Muslim that is all, nothing in his actions or writings points at him keeping the faith.
BTW according to the Nafik his mother wanted to send him to a Coranic school and it was his father who insisted into giving him a Western education. I wouyld need to refresh my memories but I think it was at a French school in Turkey.
Also I have heard allegations that from the side of his father Mustafa Kamal came from a family of Jews who had converted to escape prosecutions. And for your info, in Spain, there are families who have practiced Judaism in secret for five centuries while being Christians in public and only surfaced in the 1980s. From a Jewish source. I know there were also families of secret Jews in Muslim countries.
So let's have that fascinating hypothesis: Mustafa Kamal was a Jeeeeeeeeeew.
#20
cmon guys, NOI looniness is only peripherally related to Wahabi looniness. And as stated above, its the NOI loonies who are involved here - and its ordinary muslim liquor store owners who are the victims (if the NOI wants fewer liquor stores, there are legal ways to bring that about)
#21
cmon guys, NOI looniness is only peripherally related to Wahabi looniness. And as stated above, its the NOI loonies who are involved here - and its ordinary muslim liquor store owners who are the victims (if the NOI wants fewer liquor stores, there are legal ways to bring that about)
#22
"AFAIK Mustafa Kemal was also Muslim
With your logic Robespierre was a Catholic or Stalin an Orthodox. Mustafa was born a Muslim that is all, nothing in his actions or writings points at him keeping the faith. "
not quite - I dont think Kemal ever actually apostasized, as Robespierre and Stalin did. Any turks here can confirm this?
As for being a Jew, there were some converted Jews in the Young Turk movement, but IIUC the opponents of the Young Turks exagerrated the numbers.
#23
These idiots are just criminals and vandals and should be treated as such regardless of their being a muzzie.
As much as I dislike most of the hate crime enhancements today (constitutional protections should serve the purpose on their own), I'd almost be willing to make most Islamic motivated crimes into hate crimes. Since Dar al Harb is a land of endless conflict and war, any crime committed in its name must be one of hatred.
I realize that this will require the same change-of-mind that the Pentagon is struggling to go through right now. It just makes a lot of sense to adjudge Islam as a political ideology that is at violent odds with existing culture. That violence is a form of hatred and all of the enhancements should apply.
Attorneys for a prominent Muslim spiritual leader convicted on terrorism charges told a federal appeals court yesterday that they believe he was a target of President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program and that they want a hearing to explore the matter.
The filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit by Ali Al-Timimi was among the first legal attacks on the controversial wiretapping initiative since it was disclosed several weeks ago. Lawyers in other terrorism cases said yesterday that they expect to file further challenges in coming weeks.
Timimi's brief offered no evidence that his telephone calls or e-mails were intercepted as part of the surveillance operation, under which the National Security Agency began listening to phone calls of suspected al Qaeda contacts in the United States in the fall of 2001. But the brief argued that the well-known Islamic scholar was a likely candidate for surveillance because he frequently made overseas phone calls and prosecutors tried to link him to al Qaeda during his trial last year in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
If Timimi was wiretapped without a warrant, his attorneys argued, that would be illegal and a violation of his constitutional rights. Any material gleaned from the intercepts should have been turned over to the defense, they said.
"The failure of the government to disclose the existence of material evidence in a federal trial makes the entire proceeding a pretense of the legal process," Timimi's attorney Jonathan Turley said in an interview.
Federal prosecutors in Alexandria declined to say yesterday whether Timimi was the subject of a warrantless wiretap or how they would respond to the defense motion. "The government has provided all the information and material to the defendant in this case that is required by law,'' said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth E. Melson.
Timimi's attorneys yesterday asked the 4th Circuit to halt the pending schedule for briefs to be filed in their client's appeal of his conviction. They said that if that request is granted, they will file another motion asking the court to send the case for a hearing before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria.
Legal experts said the filing could spell trouble for the government if it turns out that Timimi -- a U.S. citizen who was convicted of inciting his Northern Virginia followers to train for violent jihad against the United States and sentenced to life in prison -- was in fact part of the secret wiretap program.
Suzanne Spaulding, a former CIA assistant general counsel, said she doubted that material obtained from warrantless eavesdropping would have been introduced at Timimi's trial. But she said it could have been used to aid the investigation or to obtain warrants from the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Timimi.
"Even if it wasn't directly part of the prosecution's case, it seems to me that if it was gathered illegally in violation of law, that taints everything that was built upon it and therefore there would be legal grounds for a court to review it,'' she said.
Andrew McBride, a former federal prosecutor who has argued numerous cases before the 4th Circuit, said it would be a "dead-bang violation" of federal rules if the government possessed recordings of Timimi and withheld them from the defense. He said the 4th Circuit probably would send the matter back to Alexandria for a hearing, which could become a broad test of a defendant's constitutional rights pitted against the president's authority to fight terrorism.
Bush has argued that the eavesdropping is necessary to protect Americans and is legal under the broad presidential powers in the Constitution and under a congressional resolution passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks authorizing the president to use military force to fight terrorism.
But the furor about the wiretapping continued yesterday as a group of 14 constitutional law experts and former government officials -- including William Sessions, a former FBI director and U.S. District Court judge -- sent a letter to Congress arguing that Bush ordered the spying by the National Security Agency without "any plausible legal authority."
The group contends that Bush does not have limitless powers as commander in chief and that in a democracy, "the president cannot simply violate criminal laws behind closed doors because he deems them obsolete or impracticable."
Members of the surveillance court, which was created by Congress in 1978 to consider surveillance warrants in espionage and terrorism cases, have also expressed serious misgivings about the wiretap program.
Nine of the sitting judges yesterday received a classified briefing on the initiative, administration officials said.
Yesterday's session came after some judges questioned whether any information gleaned from intercepts by the National Security Agency was later used to gain their permission for wiretaps without the source being disclosed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:34 ||
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#1
If the taps were notto make teh arrest or used to prosecute the case they are not part of the case. That means you are SOL.
#3
The group contends that Bush does not have limitless powers as commander in chief and that in a democracy, "the president cannot simply violate criminal laws behind closed doors because he deems them obsolete or impracticable."
But when his Constitutional powers say he can do something, it really doesn't matter what the fricking Congress says.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/10/2006 9:41 Comments ||
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The British Government and Armed Forces were "weak kneed" and displayed "cold feet" over plans to arrest a radical Islamic cleric in Iraq, the former US administrator in Iraq claimed yesterday. Paul Bremer also turned his fire on organisations with a reputation for hawkishness, including the CIA, the US Marine Corps and the US chiefs of staff, who were berated for their timidity in refusing to arrest Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shia leader.
His accusations came in a long-awaited memoir of his 13-month role as governor in Iraq from 2003-4, in which Mr Bremer also denies responsibility for widely derided decisions taken during the critical months after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
In My Year in Iraq, Mr Bremer suggests that the detention of Sadr on charges of murder in August 2003 were critical to the stability of Iraq. Mr Bremer's advisers together with the fledgling Iraqi judiciary backed the arrest. But the plan then ran into heavy military and political opposition. After accusing the CIA of offering President George W Bush a "near-hysterical" account of the risks posed by Sadr's seizure, Mr Bremer writes: "Now it was the turn of the British to get cold feet on the operation.
"David Richmond [Britain's special representative in Iraq] told me the Basra riots had 'unsettled nerves' in London. They doubted we should allow the arrest to go forward."
Mr Bremer said he responded furiously. "Now everyone has their ass covered in the operation except me - the US military, the CIA, the British military and now Her Majesty's Government." He e-mailed his wife to say that the British had "gone weak in the knees".
According to Mr Bremer's military advisers in Baghdad, the US marines were furiously lobbying Washington to stop the arrest. American commanders believed Sadr's detention would provoke widespread unrest among the majority Shia population.
Heavy fighting eventually erupted between American forces and Sadr's militia in 2003 in Baghdad and 2004 in Najaf. He was never arrested and ran in last month's Iraqi elections.
Both Mr Bush and Tony Blair generally emerge with credit from the Bremer book, with both portrayed as knowledgeable and calm. But Mr Bremer accuses the Pentagon of "institutional inertia" and the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld of failing to grasp the significance of the insurgency or the need to crush it. Instead, he says, America's military leadership were desperate as early as 2003 to bring as many troops home as possible.
During a round of interviews to publicise the book, Mr Bremer repeated his assertion that he had warned American political leaders that the occupying forces were badly under strength. The Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, said yesterday: "Military commanders reaffirmed their belief that the level they had there was the proper level. The secretary relied on the judgment of the military commanders."
Mr Bremer also rejected responsibility for the much criticised decision to disband Saddam's armed forces. "It wasn't me," he said, adding that the army had already disintegrated.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 03:03 ||
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HA! So The Tater wasn't fried cause of a near hysterical account by the CIA. Does the CIA get anything right??
Proves that they should just disband the CIA and send all that money to rantburg :-)
The White House denied the United States government has been negotiating in Iraq with "terrorists" and Saddam Hussein loyalists, but acknowledged that it was "reaching out" to those rejecting the political process.
White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said the United States was "not talking" with al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "other terrorists," or loyalists of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
"But part of our strategy, a critical element of our strategy, is to broaden participation in the political process," said McClellan. "We have been reaching out to the rejectionists."
Washington wants "rejectionists" to understand that "the way forward is the political process," he said.
The spokesperson reacted to a New York Times report from Saturday that said the United States has stepped up contacts with some Iraqi insurgent groups in a bid to exploit tensions between home-grown rebels and foreign militant groups such as al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:35 ||
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The spokesperson reacted to a New York Times report from Saturday
Look where the story originated. Beleive NOTHING these ASSHATS write.
Now that's a sure sign the Democrats are out of power! But just wait. Give them and their allies over at Foggy Bottom time, and we'll be talking to the Zark Man.
#4
"We have been reaching out to the rejectionists."
I can appreciate the necessity for Diplo-speak. But just once I'd like for one of these guys to dispense with the symantics and say:
"Of course...we have always had communications with thugs of all stripes. And BTW...if we don't like what they say...we blow the shit outta 'em."
Secretary-General's Special Representative in Iraq Ashraf Qazi on Monday expressed regret over the incident at Umm al-Qura mosque on Sunday, urging "all parties" to respect the sanctity of holy sites and places of worship, it was announced here in a statement.
I call on all Paleos to respect the sanctity of Christian churches in the West Bank. There -- I'm due for a fatwa.
The US military reportedly forced their way into the mosque, prompting the Sunni Iraqis to react angrily to this "sinful assault." Qazi did not mention the US by name, but called on the responsible authorities in Iraq to ensure that the issue be "investigated as quickly and transparently as possible." He stressed that this incident, "following others in recent weeks involving places of worship, should serve as a reminder of the need to eschew violence and build mutual trust and confidence." "It was incumbent on all concerned to promote peaceful means of building a new Iraq and to support a fully inclusive political process that would increase stability and a peaceful future for the people of Iraq," the statement said.
#1
As soon as the UN decies the use of "Holy Sites" as ammo dumps, metting places and refuges for terrorists perhaps we may be inclined to pay attention.
Jordan has closed all border outlets with neighboring Iraq starting today Monday and until a further notice, by request from the Iraqi side. A statement released by the Public Security Department here said traffic to the Iraqi territories, has been suspended for Arab travelers including Jordanians, but except for foreigners and truck drivers. This applies to all border outlets by request from the Iraqi authorities starting from today.
#3
They probably noted a big shift in illegals from Syria, and since crossing the Saudi, Turkish and Iranian borders are problematic, that leaves Jordan.
It's reached the point where a good analogy is cutting off the oxygen from the insurgents.
Iraqâs powerful Kurdish Alliance has nominated Jalal Talabani to be the countryâs president for a second term, a senior Kurdish official said on Sunday. âWe had a meeting yesterday and we agreed to nominate President Talabani to one of the main posts in the country â the presidency,â Kurdish official Barham Salih told Reuters. Political sources say that Iraqâs other main parties are unlikely to try to block the Kurdish nomination. The countryâs main Shia Islamist alliance, which dominated last monthâs election, has already made it clear that it is more interested in the prime ministership, and no other party or coalition is likely to have enough influence within the new government to thwart Talabani.
However, it remains to be seen how powerful the new president will be. Talabani has repeatedly said he would not stand for re-election unless the post came with more powers. That was interpreted by some as a call for a redrafting of Iraqâs constitution, which will be reviewed once the new government comes to power. But Salih said that was not what Talabani wanted. âHe had never called for amending the constitution but rather for a political agreement in which the authorities of the president are reinforced,â said Salah, planning minister in the current government.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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Whoopdy-doo. In theory, early diagnosis can prevent anything, to include the big bang. Looks like the author has really good hindsight, maybe even better than 20-20.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received anticoagulant drugs despite suffering from a disease of the blood vessels in the brain which, if diagnosed, would almost certainly have prevented doctors from prescribing these drugs - which are known to increase the risk of strokes and brain hemorrhage. One doctor close to the situation told Haaretz Monday that the disease was diagnosed by doctors treating Sharon at Hadassah University Hospital during his current hospitalization. The disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) could have greatly increased the risk of a brain hemorrhage, following the administration of the medication that he received after his first stroke Dec. 19, Haaretz has learned.
The diagnosis ocurred after examining CT scans Sharon has undergone, according to testimony presented Monday to Haaretz by a medical source involved in the treatment of the prime minister. Ron Krumer, Hadassah's external affairs director, said in response "We are busy treating the prime minister and fighting to save his life. We are not dealing with anything else."
The doctor who provided the testimony defined the administering of the blood-thinning medication after the first stroke as a "screw up." According to the medical testimony, had the disease been detected when Sharon was admitted to Hadassah University Hospital after his first stroke, the doctors would probably have refrained from administering the blood-thinning medication, which, as doctors believe, led to the subsequent severe hemorrhaging and the prime minister's current condition. EFL. Wouldn't want to be insuring that doc.
#2
think I read it's a fine line between blood thinners administered vs strokes vs hemmorhages. Easy to second guess - if you asked this asshat what he'd recommend at the time (2 minutes countdown?) and reminded him that there would be jerks like him to second-guess, would he decide? I bet he'd wet himself instead....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 19:01 Comments ||
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Ariel Sharon started breathing on his own and moved his right arm and leg in response to pain stimulation Monday, but his chief surgeon said that despite that "very important" sign, it'll be days before doctors can assess whether the prime minister is lucid enough to return to power â an outcome considered unlikely. A medical ruling would end days of uncertainty over the fate of the 77-year-old leader many herald as the best hope for Mideast peace. Doctors said his chances of survival are better, but that he is not out of danger.
Er, when exactly did 'many' herald The Butcher of Jenin as the 'best hope for Mideast peace'? Was that one minute or one hour after his prognosis turned grim? Liars and fools.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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The Islamic militant group Hamas has launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip as part of its expansion into Palestinian politics, Hamas officials and analysts said Monday. Hamas has a 2-year-old radio station but the group wants a new medium, modeled on a Hezbollah station in Lebanon, to spread its ideas as it moves into politics, said Moheib Nawati, a Gaza-based expert on Islamic movements. "The aim of this step is to establish Islamic culture and an ideological, scientific and political vision that is in tandem with the spirit of Islam, and to spread information about important issues," Fathi Hamad, a Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters.
Can't wait 'til I can get my fatwas by podcast, that's for sure.
The station broadcast a half-hour of readings from the Quran on Sunday, but nothing else due to technical difficulties, said a Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue. The station, under development for the past six months, will have a three- to six-month trial period, Hamas said.
"While we try to figger out how all those knob thingies work."
A picture of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest shrines, filled the screen for most of the day.
Feel free to suggest some programming in the comments.
#6
Don't know wat you'll see, but here's what you won't see on Humas TV:
Episode Preview:
Sun, January 15 at 9/8c
"We're Gonna Be All Right"
After a number of bad dates, Susan finally meets Dr. Right; some old pictures of Gabrielle turn up on the Internet; Tom is alarmed when his kids come down with chicken pox -- because he's never had it; Bree gets arrested and, after months of silence, Noah Taylor contacts Mike Delfino.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 18:28 Comments ||
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#8
I have a feeling the Israelis won't be long in registering their disapproval of the Paleo MSM programming via Hellfire missile. Pity we can't do the same thing to the MSM here.
Posted by: mac ||
01/10/2006 20:54 Comments ||
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COLOMBO - Sri Lankaâs president on Monday vowed tough measures to prevent âterror attacksâ that undermine an already troubled ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels as officials reported three more deaths in the embattled east. President Mahinda Rajapakse told diplomats that his government will take âall necessary measures to deter further terror attacks,â his office said in a statement.
That's been working so well up to now.
Diplomats from the quartet known as âco-chairs,â or the entities that helped raise money in support of the islandâs peace bid, met the president in the wake of Saturdayâs suicide bombing of a navy gunboat by a suspected Tamil Tiger official. âThe ambassadors of the co-chairs expressed their strong appreciation of the restraint and responsibility shown by the government in the face of escalating attacks by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam),â the statement said.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels launched a fresh attack against the military in Trincomalee on Sunday night, killing one soldier and wounding five, military officials said. They said a search of the area on Monday found the bodies of two suspected Tiger rebels, two assault rifles and one light machine gun.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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A Falcon airplane carrying military officials of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces, including IRGC Ground Forces Commander Ahmad Kazemi, crashed Monday morning, killing all 11 people on board. The plane, which was heading from Tehran to Urumiyeh in northwest Iran, crashed at 9:30 a.m. local time in a village near the city, 10 kilometers from the Urumiyeh airport.
The Armed Forces headquarters issued a statement citing the failure of the planeâs two engines as the cause of the crash. IRGC Public Relations Office Deputy Director Yadollah Rabii told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the military officials were accompanying Major General Kazemi in a periodic visit to the region. He noted that the pilot had initially reported a technical failure of the planeâs wheels and then in its two engines, after which he failed to make a safe landing due to bad weather conditions.
Following is the list of the names of the eleven military personnel killed in the crash as announced by Rabii:
(1) Major General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of IRGC Ground Forces;
(2) Brigadier General Saeed Mohtadi Jafari, commander of Rasulollah Division 27 of the IRGC;
(3) Brigadier General Saeed Soleimani, deputy commander for operational affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(4) Brigadier General Nabiollah Shahmoradi, deputy commander for intelligence affairs of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(5) Brigadier General Abbas Karbandi-Mojarad, commander of the Qadr Air Base of the IRGC Air Force (the plane's pilot);
(6) Brigadier General Gholam-Reza Yazdani, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Artillery Unit;
(7) Brigadier General Safdar Reshadi, deputy commander for planning of the IRGC Ground Forces;
(8) Brigadier General Ahmad Elhaminejad, commandant of the IRGC Air Force Academy (the planeâs copilot);
(9) Brigadier General Hamid Azinpur, the commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Command Office;
(10) Colonel Morteza Basiri, flight engineer;
(11) Mohsen Asadi, bodyguard of the IRGC Ground Forces commander.
#4
TWIN engine failure? Sounds like water in the fuel tanks to me. The undercarriage going south was pure gravy. One has to wonder if this wasn't another purge of IRGC leadership in retaliation for their unwillingness to take up arms against demonstrating Iranian citizens.
#7
The other question is... if it was an assassination, then by whom and to what end?
It's natural to think that the loss of these men might weaken their military, but what if these men were considered a threat to Abadude? While they might not be potential US allies, they could be Populists that were worried on the course of action their leader had set their country on.
#12
One has to wonder if this wasn't another purge of IRGC leadership in retaliation for their unwillingness to take up arms against demonstrating Iranian citizens.
There does seem to be a conflict between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei for influence in the IRGC and its 'volunteer' offshoot. For example:
Other executive-branch officials are appointed without parliamentary confirmation. Some of these appointments appear to be straightforward payoffs for support during the presidential race, but they also shed some light on the connection of the Ahmadinejad administration with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and its affiliated Basij Resistance Force. For example, Ahmadinejad appointed a "Hojatoleslam [first name not given] Moslehi" as his adviser for theological and cleric affairs on 15 August, IRNA reported. This is probably Hojatoleslam Heidar Moslehi, the supreme leader's representative to the Basij Resistance Force, and the appointment is possibly his payoff for the Basij's decisive role in Ahmadinejad's victory.
Ahmadinejad also appointed Gholam Hussein Elham as his chief of staff on 15 August..., ILNA reported. Elham is a member of the Guardians Council, and he also is its spokesman. The council is tasked with supervising elections, and it also faced accusations from unsuccessful candidates in the June presidential election. So this appointment could be a payoff, too. Yet Elham also has a connection with the Basij and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) -- he reportedly performed special missions as a Basiji during the last two years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, and from 1980-84 he was a prosecutor with the IRGC's courts...
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Ali-Reza Zahedi as the new commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) air force on 25 August, IRNA reported. He succeeds Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi.
Five days earlier, Kazemi was selected to head the IRGC's ground forces, IRNA reported. Kazemi succeeds Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari-Najafabadi.
#14
Great post, Pappy. Smells like purge to me. I'd wager that the mullahs are shopping around for military commanders who don't fuss about turning their guns on the citizenry.
#15
Zen, unfortunately, I hope you are correct (for the minimal int'l damage) - they really need to settle this internally for it to stick, my hopes are for that
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 22:16 Comments ||
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#16
I have mixed emotions about this - joy and happiness. I'm ululating ........
Islam must prepare to rule the world, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd of theological students in Iran's holy city of Qom, according to a report. "We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice," Ahmadinejad said Jan. 5, according to Mehran Riazaty, a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.
Ahmadinejad, who has drawn global attention recently for his contention the Holocaust was a "myth," said: "We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world."
Riazaty, in a post on the website Regime Change Iran, said the Iranian president emphasized his current theme that the return of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi, is not far away, and Muslims must prepare for it. According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world. Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West. "We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return," Ahmadinejad said. "If we work on the basis of the Expectation of the Return [of the Mahdi], all the affairs of our nation will be streamlined and the administration of the country will become easier."
Riazaty pointed out that Iran's speaker of parliament, Mehdi Kahrubi, said Saturday that some people working closely with Ahmadinejad believe the Mahdi probably will return in the next two years, which means Iran needs to start building more hotels.
#10
"We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world."
Too bad this jerkwit doesn't realize there's a whole bunch of people with everything from handguns to nuclear weapons that simply don't agree with him on this particular topic. I'm astonished that the Sunni Arabs haven't taken exception to this Shiite upstart's endless squawking about how superior their brand of Islam happens to be.
#12
"Can you imagine how high the stack of paper for the operations order for the attack on Iran would be?"
Not very, 'moose.
How much paper would it take to say "Do it"?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/10/2006 14:29 Comments ||
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#13
Isn't anyone else remotely disturbed at the extent of this f&%kwit's obsession with apocalyptic visions? Allowing nuclear weapons to fall into the hands of this raving madman goes beyond all reason. This dirt bag needs to be incinerated with all of his fellow terror sponsors.
#14
Zenster, this guy DOES worry me A LOT. He reminds me of the guy in the Star Trek movie where Cpt. Kirk dies, the one who is willing to destroy a whole planet just so HE can gain Paradise. An otherwise intelligent person who is insane about not ever truly dieing but truly believes he will live on in eternity in Paradise. Tatally scary and he WOULD take the rest of the world, not just his own Nation, with him to do it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/10/2006 15:02 Comments ||
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#15
Notice how the Mahdi will reign for 7 years after which there will be a judgement upon the Earth by God?
Notice the correlation between what the Bible says about the End Times and this Mahdi prophecy?
To put it succinctly, this Mahdi sounds like the Antichrist who, it is written/prophecied, will rise to power over a 7-year timespan, bringing about God's judgements upon mankind and the planet - at the end of which there will be Christs' return and the great battle of Armageddon.
Ahmadinejad wants to bring about armageddon and the end of the world? He really is a lunatic. Allowing someone with this kind of psychosis to get hold of nuclear weapons would be just that -armageddon (hopefully only for Iran and Islam).
#16
Actually, FOTSGreg, Islam, Christianity and Judaism all share similar doctrinal roots in terms of Edenic legends of origin and all the way to Abraham. The Mahdi is simply the Koran's messiah.
Agreed that the concept of Iranian Islmaists as midwives for the second coming is as disturbing a notion as it gets, and well enough to arrive at the inversion over to the anti-Christ, this is not the case.
What you are really seeing if the terrifying prospect of any fundamentalist religion being given full rein.
Back in 1998 I acquired a wolf hybrid for free. My fundamentalist neighbors were also considering acquiring a pet as well. I mentioned how my animal's littermate sister was available for free and was met with the reply, "Oh, we're waiting until after 2000 to get a pet."
When I asked why, I was told, "We're concerned about any interuption in the supply of pet food with the coming Y2K crisis."
After scooping up my jaw from the ground, I told my neighbor that even if we had to run sales totals using pencil and paper, there was no way that America's economy was going to grind to a halt over Y2K.
It was simply amazing to see somewhat intelligent people buy into the apocalyptic vision of end times arbitrarily arriving in time for the oft-corrected Julian calendar's page-flip to 2000. Christ's second coming has been almost continuously predicted since his crucifixion. Thinking that he would time his rearrival for some aribitrary calendar date was simply stunning.
Consider that there are Christian groups helping the Israelis solely for the purpose of making sure that Israel is around for Christ's second coming. They really have no affection for the Jews, they just do not want to lose a vital component of the constellation that is required for the end times (i.e., conversion of the Jews).
Now take all of the above and multiply it times 10,000 and you get the danger that Ahmadinejad poses to our modern world. This guy has been breathing his own exhaust for so long that there's no way he can be in touch with reality. That whole talk about a "halo" appearing during his speech at the UN was totally blood-chilling.
Iran's drift off into total fantasy bespeaks a door opening upon the worst of atrocities. When the world is ending tomorrow, any sort of barbarity or war crime all takes a back seat. This is why Ahmadinejad needs to be deposed right away.
#17
I was talking about Ahmindeedanut this past weekend with a very good frien from my college days. He is very anti-Bush and pro- Jimmy Carter (?) and said, "You can't believe what this guy says, he's insane". I said, "We HAVE to believe him because he IS insane and DOES mean what he says. He believes what he says". He typifies to me the Liberal Democrats. They just can't believe people like him should be taken seriously.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/10/2006 16:24 Comments ||
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#18
Consider that there are Christian groups helping the Israelis solely for the purpose of making sure that Israel is around for Christ's second coming.
Consider, too, that we aren't necessarily talking about the North Coon Prairie Lutheran Church Ladies' Aid society when we mention them.
#19
He is not the only one who claims that a Golden Halo appeared around him during the UN speech. Others claim to have seen it as well. Ahmadinejad goes on to claim that he was posessed during the speech and was receiving strength and instructions from God. He says that he is preparing for the coming of the Mahdi; however, I think he truly thinks he is the Mahdi and that he will bring global destruction. No Joke Boys and Girls! The golden halo was not just a bad bean burrito! This is Germany 1934.
#20
Hmmm... S'pose the ultimate weapon is part of his fantasy? Take out the jews and get elected "Mahdi for Life"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/10/2006 18:12 Comments ||
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#21
I said, "We HAVE to believe him because he IS insane and DOES mean what he says. He believes what he says".
Deacon Blues, I agree with you totally. However much of Ahmadinejad's agenda is smoke and mirrors matters not. This wingnut will act upon his to-do list as time and opportunity permits. This we cannot allow.
I remain amazed at the number of people here and amongst the liberal set who write off Ahmadinejad as some sort of yapping Pomeranian that is annoying but can do no harm. This maggot means to do a world of hurt and his ability to do so doesn't enter into the equation. We must strip this guy of all ability to act. Preferrably by bringing his body temperature to ambient.
#22
DB, Zen et al - I'm agreeing as well. We need to believe that when someone sez he'll kill you and your family/friends, you proceed accordingly. My instinct is that he should be spread into a fine pink mist over the rest of the mullahs at their next parliament hearing
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 18:46 Comments ||
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#23
Zenster I share your fears. The other thing I hear from liberals and even members of this MB is "well, he is just playing it up for home consumption". No, he is not. This goes way beyond "home consumption". He means what he says.
#25
"Isn't anyone else remotely disturbed at the extent of this f&%kwit's obsession with apocalyptic visions?"
Uhhh... I've been disturbed by these Iranian nutbags since at least as far back as 1976, when I encountered Iranian Islamic loonies protesting the Shah when I was at the U. of Colorado.
And I've been absolutely certain push would come to shove with the Islamazoids since the hostage crisis (thanks for nothing, Jimmeh!) began in November of '79.
No, you're not alone, Zenster...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/10/2006 18:53 Comments ||
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#26
Has Ahmadinejad read our strongly worded demarche yet? Should another be sent before March?
As progress was being made in ending Lebanon's Cabinet crisis, MP Walid Jumblatt launched a fiery attack against Hizbullah Sunday, questioning the party's determination to maintain its arms indefinitely. Jumblatt indirectly addressed the resistance, saying: "To those who hold the rifle today we say, 'thank you, the South is free'; to whom is your allegiance now, Lebanon or other countries?"
Wally's on a roll. It looks like he's made up his mind...
"We don't want to be in the middle of an axis that starts in the Mediterranean and ends in Tehran," Jumblatt added, in reference to the Shiite party's relations with Syria and Iran.
What? There's an elephant in the living room? When did that get there?
.com sez it's a dead rat, and it's starting to smell.
Jumblatt demanded that Lebanon's Shiite ministers - who walked out of a Cabinet meeting in early December and subsequently suspended their participation in the government in protest against a decision to request an international investigation into the series of assassinations targeting the country over the past year-and-a-half - should explain their recent positions. "We tell them you left the meeting maybe to escape, because the Syrian regime does not want an international tribunal," he said. "We knew when we asked for an international tribunal the ruler of Damascus will not accept it. If they want the truth, why are they dodging the call for an international tribunal?"
And why are Leb factions supporting them?
The Druze leader further implied a possible link between the series of killings and Hizbullah. "There are 'security islands' that harbor a load of wired cars ... and as we all know, the state cannot investigate or interrogate people in some of the areas inside these security islands," he said. Telecommunication Minister Marwan Hamade, a member of Jumblatt's parliamentary bloc, said recently he had information proving the car used in his assassination attempt was wired in Beirut's Southern Suburbs - Hizbullah's heartland. "We tell them a party that was able to defeat Israel can help the Lebanese investigation in uncovering the truth ... Unless they have something to hide," he said. "We say if your conscience was clear, you would facilitate [the request for an] international tribunal."
Which is to say that everybody knows who dunnit and no one's admitting it. If we can guess the culprits from here, I'm sure it's a lot more obvious to the guys down the block from them.
The Druze leader also said the Shebaa Farms are not Lebanese, and condemned the recent use of the term "Shebaa area" instead of Shebaa Farms by Hizbullah in a draft agreement with the Cabinet majority. "We used to talk about the Farms, and then these farms expanded and turned into an area ... those who know the area know that the Shebaa area is a region that starts in Shebaa and ends in (the Syrian) Golan Heights, which means that there is an attempt to stretch the struggle forever under the slogan of freeing Shebaa Farms, which is not Lebanese, not Lebanese, not Lebanese," Jumblatt asserted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This fella and General Anon gotta have jooooo serious foreign protection.
#2
actually the protection is a GREAT idea, but a Lebanese co-worker sez it would have to be via druze or lebanese army to make sure they die as martyrs should teh attacks b successful. We all know how Syria responds to criticism, it remains to be seen how intolerant hezbollah is if the nation turns against it
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 19:21 Comments ||
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#3
The 'google ads' on the right side of the page contain ads for hotels.....in SYRIA????
A high level Iranian delegation is to take a taxi fly to Russia next month to discuss a Russian proposal for joint uranium enrichment with Tehran, the Itar Tass News Agency said Monday. It quoted Russian Deputy National Security Advisor, Valentin Sopolev, as saying that the talks that just ended in Tehran over the same issue had focused on an earlier Russian proposal to form a "joint foundation for uranium enrichment." "The two sides have exhaustively discussed this issue and have agreed to meet again in Moscow in February for further discussion," Sopolev said.
Iranian high officials had earlier said that any Russian proposal for uranium enrichment outside Iran would "not be acceptable." Sopolev praised the level of good relations between his country and Iran and indicated that the two countries were "cooperating together on issues related to regional conflicts and on combating international terrorism and the international drug trade." He stressed that the viewpoints of the two sides were identical with regard to the major issues and that the relations betweeen Iran and Russia have "withstood the test of time."
#1
Anyone notice the article that said Kim was headed to Russia after his China visit. And the Iranians will be there too.....Gee, what a co-incidence.......
Yeah, the meter is slowly sinking to "vexed", on its way to "perturbed".
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has warned Iran the world is "running out of patience", following Tehran's decision to resume research on nuclear fuel. Mohamed ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, yesterday condemned Iran's stance after a defiant Iranian government spokesman, Gholamhossein Elham, ignored massive pressure from the West and said: "Iran will today resume nuclear fuel research as scheduled."
Diplomats have said that if Iran did restart nuclear research and development, it would prompt a report to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, which would decide whether to call an emergency meeting of all members. That meeting could choose to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Ursula Plassnik, the Austrian foreign minister, said Iran's decision was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and a cause of very serious concern", though Wolfgang Schuessel, the chancellor, said it was too soon to discuss sanctions. Germany, France and the United Kingdom have been halfheartedly trying for more than two years to persuade Iran to scrap its enrichment project.
#1
I bet this has the mad Mullahs shaking in their boots. You know what happened the last time the UNSC issued a strongly worded letter! Boy their really going to get it now!
#3
Ursula Plassnik, the Austrian foreign minister, said Iran's decision was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and a cause of very serious concern", though Wolfgang Schuessel, the chancellor, said it was too soon to discuss sanctions.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/10/2006 8:14 Comments ||
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#5
what macro is this?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 8:55 Comments ||
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#6
"We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen, we must do something about this immediately!"
Posted by: Governor William J. Le Petomane ||
01/10/2006 9:05 Comments ||
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#7
Harumph!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/10/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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#8
What I like about the newer vehicles is that even when the patience meter reads empty, there is an emergency reserve of patience that will allow you to drive something like 20 or 30 more weeks (or is it months or years? Whatever).
#9
Does this mean we will be able to restart the Oil for Food program?
Posted by: Kofi Annan ||
01/10/2006 10:35 Comments ||
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#10
Yeah, the folks at the UN and IAEA are really riled up now. They even talking about not kissing Ahmedinejad on both sides of his face when they meet, just one side. That'll show him.
#11
Why do I have i picture in my head of aheddinenutjob holding his hands in front of his chest, mimicking the holding of a lady's handbag and going:"Oooooooooooooh"
#12
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has warned Iran the world is "running out of patience", following Tehran's decision to resume research on nuclear fuel.
I'll bet the Mad Mullahs laughed in unison when they read this.
Evidence continues to mount on the growing disaffection with the methodology of the mujahideen in Iraq. One of the most public demonstrations of this occurred on January 6 when the residents of Ar-Ramadi, considered a hotbed of support for the Sunni Arab insurgency, publicly blamed "al-Qaeda in Iraq," the insurgent movement led by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, for relatives killed and wounded in bomb blasts at a police recruiting station that killed 80. The applicants were Sunni Arabs, responding to the broadening of the recruitment drive to include all segments of the Iraqi population. Polls conducted across the Middle East, particularly following the Amman bombings, attest to a change in broad public opinion, but views on the more committed jihadi forums generally remain resilient. Yet here, too, evidence of a change in tone can be found.
An interesting, and at times quite heated, recent debate on the internet between two jihadi supporters of the insurgency in Iraq highlights some new areas of criticism. The Minbar Suriya al-Islami (latterly Minbar al-Sham) site (www.nnuu.org/vb) hosted an exchange on December 15 between participants who signed themselves Yusuf ibn Tashufin and a "senior member" of the forum Abu Umar al-Shami. Tashufin's discussion, which he opened with caution knowing the likely reaction it would excite, concerned the lack of coordination and strategy among the mujahideen. He insists at the outset that criticism is not to be continually dismissed "on the grounds that the mujahideen in the field know more than you do." Tashufin then asks whether jihadi supporters, who are now suffering from confusion, do not have the right "to know what is being done around them with reasonable transparency? Why do the infidel American whites have the right to progress reports of their armies, while Muslims are not allowed to air their fears to the mujahideen or offer their advice?" There are many mistakes being committed in Iraq, he insists, and asks the following:
· How is it that George Bush has managed to bring together the extremist Shia and the vile secularists, the atheist communists, nationalist Kurds and Sunni Arabs, these contradictory tendencies, under one roof against the mujahideen?
· How can this dog set up his throne in Baghdad, and why are all the people with him against us? After all, millions of Iraqis responded to Bush's call [to vote in parliamentary elections]âthis is a factâdo you not agree that this is a victory for the Infidel, even if we do call it a mere passing or moral victory? Why did we fail to secure a fraction of what this filthy Crusader has achieved? Is he smarter than us?
· Why do we have 20 Salafist groups fighting in Iraq? Why did the experienced leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi fail to unite these groups at a time when he is able to wield considerable material and logistic capabilities?
Tashufin then rounds off with a demand made in the name of all supporters of the jihad in Iraq: "Leaders of ours, despite all our respect for you, we do not agree in any way with this disunity and fragmentation. The [Islamic] Nation cannot accept this miserable shape of things. You must make concessions among yourselves and consult with each other so as to present us with a single leader. Enough of these fiery sermons holding out the promise of an âideal' Islamic state in Baghdad without any serious steps! The Nation, O Jihadi leaders, requires plans, not sermons!"
Al-Shami responds that jihad has three established phasesâguerrilla warfare, semi-conventional warfare and conventional warâand that activities in Iraq are still in the first phase in which a centralized command and authority would be vulnerable. Tashufin dismisses this, citing the examples of Afghanistan and Chechnya where doctrinal and political decisions "are issued from a single front." Contrasting this with Iraq, he notes a dangerous precedent in the killing last November of a member of the political bureau of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party Iyad al-Azzi. While al-Qaeda described the killing as "an aim of the mujahideen, since he was an âapostate,'" the Jami Battalions, al-Fasail al-Ikhwaniyya and the Islamic Army described the victim as "a righteous leader, and supporter to the mujahideen whose killer is a criminal." Al-Qaeda, he notes, responded with a threat to anyone wishing to contest the matter. "I may be far from the battlefield," Tashufin observes, "but I think an armed confrontation is definitely coming."
After deploring Tashufin's insult to the mujahideen and its potential effect of "discouraging youth from following the mujahideen's example and seeking God's reward in martyrdom," al-Shami issues a long, rhetorically florid diatribe against the machinations of the world media and the collaborationist ulema scholars. His point, buried in all this, is that the jihadi supporters are indeed well-informed, due to the success of the mujahideen in outflanking the media through their conquest of the internet. Furthermore, he calls for trust, rather than "believing the infidel and the hypocrites" who are concealing their true losses or "philosophizing and theorizing safely at home," and regards criticism as unseemly and un-Islamic.
Tashufin responds that al-Shami is "missing the point," and engages amid personal vilification the argument that al-Zarqawi has not united the "contradictory tendencies" under one roof against the mujahideen. Tashufin asks, "where in the long history of Islam did the forces of disbelief, polytheism, apostasy and hypocrisy not gang up against Muslim believers?" As for the "throne," and the "victory of the infidel," "why do you talk of this, when their own military and political experts in America talk in a tone of commiseration, warning about a crushing defeat for America in Iraq?"
Arguing that division, fragmentation, ad hoc and individualist decision-making, and the unnecessary opening of multiple fronts are threatening the jihad, Tashufin almost predicts the events of January 6, noting that "Sunni politicians are going to call decisively for volunteers for the army and the police, and the preachers, traders, local notables and tribal leaders will support them in this." If the National Guard, dominated by Shi'a, is to be swelled by members from the strongest tribes of the region, the Sunnis of the Dulaym and Jabur tribes, "ask yourself, brother: are we going to blow up cars among them too?" Americans, he warns, are winning politically and "will spend their time relaxing outside the towns while we fight the Sunnis in Ramadi and Falluja for decades."
The mujahideen, Tashufin continues, should "beware of believing that continuing booby-traps and explosions are an indication of the legitimate success of the jihad ⊠What do you think will be the implications for us of the elections in Iraq in the Sunni zones? Dear brother, throwing up dust in the eyes does not mean that the problem will go away. If we do not face facts and solve these problems things will not be very much different from the situation in Algeria in the 1990s."
Not only the hosting of the debate on the jihadi forum, but also the course it has taken, indicates the growing dilemma facing the Islamist mujahideen in Iraq, whose inchoate political thinking is impeding a coherent strategy with markable goals. Indeed, al-Shami's responses throughout the debate are illustrative for their predominance of tone over substance. This is because the mujahideen, while having frequently to respond to criticism, have been adept at defending their actions from the standpoint of Islamic propriety (albeit mixed with some utilitarianism where necessary). Other works attest to this, such as the extensive e-Book Tasa'ulat wa-Shubuhat hawl al-Mujahideen wa-âAmaliyatihim ("Questions and Doubts Concerning the Mujahideen and their Actions"), which dedicates a chapter to the jihad in Iraq. The subjects covered there do not extend beyond comparative tactics. Tashufin's comprehensive criticism, framed in purely realist and strategic terms, is unfamiliar ground.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/10/2006 02:20 ||
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#1
Jan. 10, 2006
TO: Mr. Yusuf ibn Tashufin
FROM: Enlightened Members, U.S. Congress
Subject: Misunderstanding.
Dear Mr. Tashufin,
Although we apreciate your support, we are surprised that you are aware of our stance regarding the Iraq "issue", as evidenced by your statement, "why do you talk of this, when their own military and political experts in America talk in a tone of commiseration, warning about a crushing defeat for America in Iraq" (we especially like that you call us "experts").
We don't really mean the things we have been saying for the last few years, since that would prove we are not patriotic American Representatives of the people, but actually pathetic treasonous scumbags.
Our intended audience is not the "enemy", but the lemmings in America who are still immersed, or newly brainwashed, by the Viet Nam experience. Please refrain from future use of our own words (this really makes us look bad to sane Americans), while we endeavor to accomplish our mutual goal of defeating BusHitler in the next US presidential election.
Best wishes for a successful and prosperous New Year!
Yours Truly,
Edward Kennedy
John Kerry
Richard Durbin
Patric Leahy
Nancy Pelosi
Jack Murtha
et al
#2
How is it that George Bush has managed to bring together the extremist Shia and the vile secularists, the atheist communists, nationalist Kurds and Sunni Arabs, these contradictory tendencies, under one roof against the mujahideen?
Bwahahahaha. Chirac, Schroeder, and Michael Moore keep asking themselves the same question.
EFL and nuggets Diplomats from Mexico and Central America on Monday demanded guest worker programs and the legalization of undocumented migrants in the United States, while criticizing a U.S. proposal for tougher border enforcement.
Meeting in Mexico's capital, the regional officials pledged to do more to fight migrant trafficking, but indirectly condemned a U.S. bill that would make illegal entry a felony and extend border walls.
"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.
"There has to be an integrated reform that includes a temporary worker program, but also the regularization of those people who are already living in receptor countries," Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said.
Derbez has called the measure _ which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month but still must go before the Senate _ "stupid and underhanded," but was somewhat more restrained on Monday, saying "it's not the Mexican government's position to tell the U.S. Senate what to do."
riigggghhhttt. Mexico is becoming their own worst enemy and PR agent
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2006 08:55 ||
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"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.
*********
One question: How does Mexico treat "illegal" or "undocumented aliens" that enter its territory from Guatemala?
#5
Well there's one country that doesn't seem to be worried about 'Brain drain' to the US. For good reason. The average education of emigres from Mexico and central america is 8th grade. Reminds me of the time Castro put his problems on boats and sent them to the US. When the elite of Mexico start complaining that only their best and brightest are heading north then maybe we can say the problem is under control.
#11
Response: US counter-offers. Move the border south 2,000 miles so the Mexican workers who want out of Mexico don't have to take risks in the desert.
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
#13
Every time Vulvacente Fox or one of his diplodinnk spikspeople open thier mouths we should launch another border observation balloon, deploy a ground interdiction (sniper) team, and unroll another 10,000 feet of razor wire.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in banning.
Posted by: bk ||
01/10/2006 13:36 Comments ||
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#16
Clean up on isle #15.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/10/2006 13:39 Comments ||
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#17
Thank you, Rex Mundi, you beat me to it. Islamists spewing that sort of bile is bad enough. Hearing it from the mouths of Americans is downright disgusting. Our soldiers are shedding their own blood to defend the right to bleat that sort of xenophobic and racist twaddle? Get over yourself, bk.
#18
"Migrants, regardless of their migratory status, should not be treated like criminals," they said.
The fact that they are here illegally being a crime, that makes them criminals. Whether the term is illegal, immigrants, or migrants as used in this piece.
When illegals are identified, they need to be sent back. No courts, just send them home to Mexico.
I want to point out that this isn't racial, it's upholding the law. Our system is being drained with supporting these illegals, and we need to stop this flow into our country taking advantage of our good nature.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/10/2006 16:28 Comments ||
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#19
We need to tell Fox, privately, that unless he immediately takes action to prevent the flow of his people into the US, we will unilaterally abrogate NAFTA, close the border permanently, immediately deport without possibility of return every illegal Mexican we can find, and disallow any and all transfers of money from the United States to Mexico. I suspect he'd see the light real quickly.
Posted by: mac ||
01/10/2006 17:04 Comments ||
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#20
I've just returned from southern Idaho where the amount of Mexicans has increased 20 fold in the past 5 years, whats up with this... we just open the flood gates and let these people come illegally anytime they want? White Anglo's and Brown Spaniards dont mix well. It's time to stem the rising tide before its too late, which it kind of is already.
Posted by: bk ||
01/10/2006 13:36 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States launched a diplomatic initiative Monday to try to mark the contested border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a dispute that led to a 2 1/2-year war in an area where both countries are again massing troops. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told the Security Council that a high-powered U.S. delegation would travel to the region "to discuss how to begin implementation of the demarcation process."
While warlord Shamil Basaev dominates the headlines of the Chechen conflict, a lesser-known guerrilla leader has worked his way into a crucial position in the Chechen leadership. Dokku Umarov was appointed vice-president in the new administration of President Abdul-Khalim Sadulaev in June 2005. A native of southwestern Chechnya, the 40-year-old Emir has already been entrusted with the command of several fronts beyond his original post in the southwestern sector. Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel noted as recently as last July that the northern district "is controlled by Umarov."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has traveled to China on a rare trip outside his country, a South Korean military intelligence official said Tuesday. The official told The Associated Press he received the information from intelligence inside China. The official spoke on condition his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the information. ``We confirmed he went to China,'' the official said. ``We don't know why.'' 
A regional prosecutor said he would not file charges against a newspaper that published contentious caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and Danish Muslim groups said Monday they would appeal. "We cannot understand the decision," said Ahmad Akkari, a spokesman for a coalition of 11 community groups, adding that they would take their complaints to Denmark's top prosecutor.
Egypt has been spearheading foreign criticism of Denmark over the cartoons. While Egypt "respects freedom of opinion and expression, we also realize the borders which must never be crossed," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency quoted Foreign Minister 
A federal court will soon sentence attorney Lynne Stewart to prison for "providing material support" to terrorists, among related charges. The charges center upon her assistance to Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman who, from a federal prison cell in Minnesota, has continued his quest both to install an Islamist government in Egypt and to kill Americans and Jews around the world. Stewart's case is symbolic of a corollary battle in the war against terror and highlights the need not only to counter terrorism but also the ideology of Islamism. Her infatuation with her client's cause evolved into an example of what author David Horowitz terms the "unholy alliance" between radical Islam and the American Left. Her embrace of violent jihad illustrates the growing confluence between militant Islam on one hand and non-Muslim radicals on the other.
Secretary-General's Special Representative in Iraq Ashraf Qazi on Monday expressed regret over the incident at 
Jordan has closed all border outlets with neighboring Iraq starting today Monday and until a further notice, by request from the Iraqi side. A statement released by the Public Security Department here said traffic to the Iraqi territories, has been suspended for Arab travelers including Jordanians, but except for foreigners and truck drivers. This applies to all border outlets by request from the Iraqi authorities starting from today.
Iraqâs powerful Kurdish Alliance has nominated Jalal Talabani to be the countryâs president for a second term, a senior Kurdish official said on Sunday. âWe had a meeting yesterday and we agreed to nominate President Talabani to one of the main posts in the country â the presidency,â Kurdish official Barham Salih told Reuters. Political sources say that Iraqâs other main parties are unlikely to try to block the Kurdish nomination. The countryâs main Shia Islamist alliance, which dominated last monthâs election, has already made it clear that it is more interested in the prime ministership, and no other party or coalition is likely to have enough influence within the new government to thwart Talabani. 
Ariel Sharon started breathing on his own and moved his right arm and leg in response to pain stimulation Monday, but his chief surgeon said that despite that "very important" sign, it'll be days before doctors can assess whether the prime minister is lucid enough to return to power â an outcome considered unlikely. A medical ruling would end days of uncertainty over the fate of the 77-year-old leader many herald as the best hope for Mideast peace. Doctors said his chances of survival are better, but that he is not out of danger. 
The Islamic militant group Hamas has launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip as part of its expansion into Palestinian politics, Hamas officials and analysts said Monday. Hamas has a 2-year-old radio station but the group wants a new medium, modeled on a Hezbollah station in Lebanon, to spread its ideas as it moves into politics, said Moheib Nawati, a Gaza-based expert on Islamic movements. "The aim of this step is to establish Islamic culture and an ideological, scientific and political vision that is in tandem with the spirit of Islam, and to spread information about important issues," Fathi Hamad, a Hamas leader in Gaza, told reporters.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankaâs president on Monday vowed tough measures to prevent âterror attacksâ that undermine an already troubled ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels as officials reported three more deaths in the embattled east. President Mahinda Rajapakse told diplomats that his government will take âall necessary measures to deter further terror attacks,â his office said in a statement.
Islam must prepare to rule the world, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd of theological students in Iran's holy city of Qom, according to a report. "We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice," Ahmadinejad said Jan. 5, according to Mehran Riazaty, a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.
As progress was being made in ending Lebanon's Cabinet crisis, MP 
A high level Iranian delegation is to 
