Poppy growers of some provinces were assisting the insurgents in disturbing law and order situation, an advisory office of Senlis here said on Sunday.
Earlier, Senlis has many times demanded a legal status for poppy cultivation. Senlis, with its headquarter in Paris was constituted in 2002. The body has launched certain analysis on legal poppy cultivation in the yesteryear.
Spokesman for Senlis in Kabul Almas Bawar told Pajhwok Afghan News that poppy crops were eradicated in Kandahar, Nangarhar, and Helmand province in the year past, but no assistance was offered to the growers.
He said: "Farmers were against the government, Al Qaeda and its foreign allies exploit this opportunity by helping the growers and then use them against the rulers."
He said government and international community had vowed aid in return for poppy eradication, but later did not keep its promises. He said some farmers had showed them cheques received in the yesteryear for poppy elimination, but the cheques were never honoured.
Eliminating of poppy crops by dent of force would be a tough exercise for the government, and rulers should not stir the anger of the growers, Bawar warned.
However, officials in ministry of counter-narcotics said they had constituted certain plans for banishing poppy crops, and that they had never under estimated the looming problem.
Spokesman for Counter-Narcotics Zalmay Afzali told this news agency: "Poppy is food of the terrorism." He said they were in close contact with the provincial officials, religious scholars, and national elders to control poppy cultivation in the country.
He said local people had offered them meager help in war against poppy as compared with the yesteryear. Regarding alternative livelihood programme, Zalmy said: "The programme should not be confined to only seeds distribution, we should construct roads, schools, clinics and other basic things for the farmers."
Spokesman for NATO-led ISAF forces Maj IG Clooney also expressed his concern on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. He said: "It is clear that growing of poppy crops is against the law and a great hurdle in reconstruction process."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:53 ||
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#1
You can check out Micheal Yon's latest dispatches for a report from the ground on the fun and games surrounding poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
"It was just very, very exciting to be in that room with those men with their huge white teeth."
Afghan warlords have often formed unusual alliances in times of conflict, but even by their standards holding a war council in the presence of a clearly giddy beauty queen dressed in a pink jump suit and answering to the name of Snowflake was hardly standard fare. Sitting with her was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is now formally designated by Executive Order 13224 of the United States Government as a Global Terrorist.
But in January 1984 in the Pakistan frontier town of Peshawar Mr Hekmatyar, who became perhaps the only serving prime minister in history to have bombed his own capital, was busy charming Snowflake's boyfriend.
US Congressman Charlie Wilson was, according to his excellent and apparently authorised biography, a notorious drunken philanderer. He was a man who represented everything that the hard-line Islamist Mr Hekmatyar despised. But Mr Wilson, more than any other man, was determining the course of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union.
With messianic fervour he had used his position in Congress to bully a reluctant CIA to accept and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel the anti-Soviet jihad (holy war). And the Saudi government was matching what he raised from Congress almost dollar for dollar. Men like Mr Hekmatyar and his Hezb-i-Islami group were falling over themselves to get hold of the cash.
A lot has happened since.
The guns and training camps Wilson's funding paid for drove out the Soviet troops but also radicalised and armed a generation of young Muslim men. It helped create the instability in Afghanistan that produced the Taleban and al-Qaeda. And it eventually brought America back into an Afghan war but this time with many old friends as the enemy.
Earlier this year, the BBC has been told, there was another war council and this time Mr Hekmatyar was being represented by his son, Jamalaudin. Now, though, they were talking about killing British and American soldiers, not the Soviets. They were no beauty queens but some of Mr Hekmatyar's new friends were equally as surprising.
This year's war council met in the village of Barawal Bandey in Afghanistan's Kunar province, close to the Pakistan border. The aim was to build a closer alliance to try and kill as many as possible of the 3,000 men who will form the British deployment to Helmand province next month.
At the meeting was a man calling himself Abu Khalid Al Misir, representing al-Qaeda. He brought a message from Abu Musab Al Zarqawi offering support and expertise from the militants fighting in Iraq. He also urged more suicide attacks. "We have," he said "been washing the infidels with their blood, you should do the same. If Afghans defeated the Russians why not the Americans?"
The US army has already acknowledged that the types of road-side bombs now appearing in Afghanistan resemble those used in Iraq. Last Friday, British troops were targeted for the first time by a suicide bomber who attacked their convoy as they left their base in Lashkar Gar in southern Helmand province. But at present it seems to be only ideas and techniques that are being exchanged, rather than fighters.
What was given out at this meeting though, the BBC has been told, was money.
Just like in 1994, Mr Hekmatyar and Hezb-i-Islami fighters were on the receiving end, although it was to be shared with the several factions of the Taleban attending the meeting. A leading militant group from Pakistan, the Harkatul Mujahideen, attended and would have spoken for the other Pakistani militant groups. Also taking part were two Iranian men but it is unclear who they represented.
The Kunar war council agreed to co-operate and increase attacks in southern, south-east and south-west Afghanistan. This is an approach that has already been tried in Kunar province where the American army has suffered some of its worst casualties.
The truth is that there is nothing the Western intelligence agencies would like more than to see Iran tarred with involvement in militancy in Afghanistan. And Afghan intelligence officials feel the same way about Pakistan.
This is a country where rumour and propaganda are as important a currency as the dollar bill. All intelligence services are paid to lie and disseminate false information to damage and discredit their enemies.
But the BBC's source for the information about the Kunar war council has proven to be extremely reliable in the past. However, even without this report there are other signs of outside involvement in Afghan affairs that are beginning to frustrate President Hamid Karzai and his Western supporters.
A senior member of the Afghan government told me there was growing suspicion in Kabul about what Iran was up to. At present, he believed ,Tehran was simply keeping its options and its lines of communication open with all sides. It didn't mean, he said, that Iran was actively involved now in supporting militancy in Afghanistan in the way the US has accused them in Iraq.
Another Afghan official pointed out that Iran might be more interested in preparing for options against America if there were a military attack over the nuclear row. The best way of hitting back for Tehran wouldn't be by conventional means but by targeting US troops in the countries next door, he said.
But the greatest suspicion of covert interfering in Afghan affairs is being directed at Pakistan. This was starkly illustrated when President George Bush said in Islamabad last month that "part of my mission today was to determine whether or not the president is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice".
He then said President Musharraf was thus committed. But even to ask the question was an admission of serious concern.
There is no doubt that Gen Musharraf has risked much, including his own life, by siding with the US post 9/11. But there is now a clear difference of perception between Kabul and the West over Pakistan's role in the militancy.
The West believes Pakistan must try harder to control cross-border militancy. Kabul believes Islamabad already has control of the militant groups but is simply turning a blind eye to their actions. The question, though, that will be worrying both Kabul and the Western powers most is who organised the war council in Kunar?
Who is attempting to pull together the various disparate anti-Karzai and anti-Western groups to a single focused entity? The people who will probably bear the brunt of any increased violence from this coalition of militant groups are not the Western troops, but the newly-formed Afghan National Army (ANA). They are disciplined and dedicated and the local people trust them. But they are very badly equipped. Ironically during the Soviet war some of the ANA soldiers would have fought along side those they now seek to hunt down.
What is even worse for the Afghan soldiers is that they are still fighting and dying holding the outdated Kalashnikovs Charlie Wilson's money bought them all those years ago.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:50 ||
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Russia and China are opposing proposed United Nations Security Council sanctions against four Sudanese officials over their role in the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, US Ambassador John Bolton said. Last week the Security Council's sanctions committee began a 48-hour silence procedure which, unless broken by a Council member, would mean approval of sanctions against four unidentified Sudanese officials deemed to be impeding the peace process and violating international human rights law. The procedure ends at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) Monday.
"We've been advised informally that those delegations (Russia and China) will object under the procedures of the sanctions committee," Bolton told reporters. "In light of that I have asked for a meeting of the Council this afternoon to take up the sanctions issue." The sanctions involve an assets freeze and travel restrictions on the four individuals for their alleged role in the Darfur violence, which Washington calls genocide.
Call the Soviets Russians and Chinese on it -- get a public vote in the Security Council and make them veto it. Then ask our liberal progressive buddies if we should get all unilateral over this.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Good inline suggestion. Otherwise, 2 years down the road, the "international community" will slap the blame on countries like the US who have been pushing to do something about Darfur all along. Give the world an in-your-face expose of those countries indifferent to genocide.
#3
"Call the Soviets Russians and Chinese on it -- get a public vote in the Security Council and make them veto it. Then ask our liberal progressive buddies if we should get all unilateral over this."
I think this is a good idea.
Quibble - France almost certainly wont veto. Ergo by the Kerry standard, we wouldnt be unilateral :)
The Chadian government accused neighbouring Sudan of forming a new rebel army to attack the country, but withdrew a threat to expel 200,000 refugees from the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. It also gained key tacit support from the United States as one source suggested the Khartoum regime might have been involved in an attack on Chad and the State Department issued a pointed warning to Sudan against any such move in the future.
Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami claimed the Sudanese government was "reforming a new army" to attack Chad, after the failure of an assault by insurgents on the capital N'Djamena last week which left some 400 dead. "Preparations are under way on the other side of the border. The Sudanese are reforming a new army... The Sudanese are preparing a new massacre," Allami told AFP by telephone.
The office of Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno later released a statement accusing Khartoum of conscripting young people in Darfur to join the Chadian rebels and of sending them weapons to use in a new attack. "According to corroborating sources, the Sudanese government is carrying out a forced recruitment of young people in Darfur to replace those who died during the latest combats," his office said in a statement.
Chad broke off diplomatic relations with Sudan last Friday, a day after the attack on N'Djamena by the rebel United Front for Change (FUC), which is seeking to topple Deby.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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DOHA: Staunch US ally Qatar said on Monday it would give $50 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority despite calls from Washington and European Union to halt funding unless the Hamas-led government recognises Israel. The Gulf Arab state, which hosted the command centre for the US military in the 2003 Iraq war, said the aid decision "stems from Qatar's support for the Palestinian people". A Foreign Ministry official told the state-owned news agency part of the money was Qatar's contribution to the $55 million a month pledged by Arab leaders to Hamas at a March summit.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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that's walking around money for a week or two, already spent...it's a black hole
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 0:24 Comments ||
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"...support for the palestinian people",
hmmmm, too bad it'll probably just fund the guys in charge to pay for all the weapons, fighters and such.
The children will never see this money
Posted by: Jan ||
04/18/2006 3:04 Comments ||
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Those new 10-rocket launch vehicles will cost them a lot more than that.
"Continental shelf?" Does anyone care to take a stab at the subject of the actual conversation?
Head of Iran's expediency council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Monday he discussed with the Kuwaiti Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah several important issues, including the continental shelf between both countries. Rafsanjani, in statements to reporters after meeting the Iranian community in Kuwait, said he discussed with the Amir many regional and international issues of mutual concern. He said Iran was in possession of modern technology and was using it in agricultural and industrial development.
#1
"...have modern technology" - read, we have nukes or soon will have them. Every Muslim in the ME + world is a future Shia and citizen-peon of Iran. I hope the Mullahs and MadMoud realize the 12th Imam/Mahdi can't climb out of his deep-rock well unless INDIA is subverted, as the Imam/Mahdi does NOT possess either STAR TREK:ENTERPRISE's Jolene Balock's??? or Jolene's sonic excavator from THE CORE.
Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, is expected to warn in the US that Britain faces further terrorist attacks, which although influenced from abroad could be carried out by a new generation of home-grown mass assassins.
The threat to the west from global terrorism and the links forged by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to try to deal with it will be the broad theme of his lecture today to the Citizens' Crime Commission of New York City.
A previous lecture to the same organisation by Robert S Mueller, chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after the September 11 2001 attacks boasted how the US had "taken the fight to al-Qaeda" and "taken into custody more than 3,000 al-Qaeda leaders and foot soldiers worldwide".
But Sir Ian's speech, nine months on from the July 7 London bombings, is likely to present a more sober assessment of the so-called war on terror amid emerging threats and evidence of a lack of political consensus for dealing with them.
According to a government report due to be published after Easter, the July 7 bombings, which killed 52 people, were planned and executed by four British-born extremists who lived and worked in Muslim communities.
Police and security agencies have not uncovered evidence of a wider international operational link to the plot, although the bombers were inspired by al-Qaeda's distorted interpretation of Islam and justification for human slaughter.
Two theories initially surrounding the plot - that the bombers were linked to terrorists in Pakistan and may have had help from an Egyptian-born chemist in making their bombs - have been discounted.
Two of the bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, the Leeds-born primary school teacher now believed to be the leader of the July 7 bombers, and Shahzad Tanweer were discovered to have travelled to Pakistan between November 2004 and February last year.
This raised questions over the role that may have been played by madrassah Islamic schools in providing know-how in the manufacture and use of explosives later used in the attack.
Senior intelligence officials in Islamabad said this week they had yet to find any links to the London bombings and their British counterparts have also failed to come up with any firm intelligence pointing to such a connection.
What UK investigators now believe is that Khan was radicalised before his trip to Pakistan, although along with Tanweer his beliefs might have been reinforced by the journey.
Such findings have not dispelled questions about the extent to which shortcomings in intelligence may have undermined the UK's national security after it emerged that MI5, the Security Service, and police called off a surveillance operation on Khan during an investigation into a separate suspected terrorist plot more than a year before the attacks on London's transport system.
UK police and intelligence sources say that while numerous suspect extremists are under surveillance, there remains a worrying intelligence gap about individuals who may be considering acts of terrorism but on whom there is no information due to the lack of a developed secret agent structure within the Muslim community.
Pakistan says it has banned foreign nationals from attending madrassah schools without permission from the government - a move Pakistani officials say is helping stem the tide of foreign nationals venturing into a network that western intelligence officials believe remains central to promoting militancy.
A government strategy in recent months has been based on greater engagement with the Muslim community.
Even that, say representatives of the Muslim community, might end up understating the extent to which the foreign policy being pursued by the UK's alliance with the US, particularly in Iraq, might have contributed to radicalising the July bombers.
Imayat Bunglawala, secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The problem for the governmentis that it cannot admit that its own foreign policy may have contributed to undermining national security, which is why we want a public inquiry into July 7."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:46 ||
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THE number of Australian police injured in the Solomon Islands has risen to 17 and Canberra is now likely to send the army back to the country.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer today said there was a very good chance that troops would be given the order to move in.
Fresh violence in the capital Honiara overnight, including the burning of shops and other buildings, has forced the government to consider a military deployment, with a decision due later this morning.
"We'll have to give very early consideration today to whether we send elements of the army back there to restore order," Mr Downer said on ABC radio.
"We have quite a few troops on 24-hour standby in Townsville.
"We can send them pretty quickly and we'll be looking at that during the course of this morning.
"But there's a very good chance that on the basis of the advice we've now had from Honiara that at least some troops will be sent there."
Mr Downer confirmed 17 Australian and two other members of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) had been injured in the riots.
It is understood one officer will be flown back to Australia on Friday for further treatment.
Mr Downer's comments came after the head of the multinational peacekeeping force in the islands said he would ask for extra help to be sent today.
Prime Minister John Howard had already reaffirmed the Government's intention to send troops back to the country if the situation deteriorated.
Speaking on Macquarie radio about the injured officers, he said: "There are no life-threatening injuries, but a number of officers have required surgery."
Peacekeeping chief Will Jamieson, the Commander of the Participating Police Force (PPF), said: "There were some disturbances overnight but we are now in a calm environment, and we are working through that at the moment in conjunction with the Royal Solomon Islands Police.
"We are talking to the Australian Government and the commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and looking at the numbers that we require here today.
"The situation is calm, but what we need to do now is ensure we have sufficient resources to maintain that calm, and we need to sustain our position."
The trouble began when protesters accused Chinese businessmen of bribing members of the government and backing yesterday's election of new Prime Minister Snyder Rini.
One injured AFP officer was left with a possible fractured skull and a broken jaw; another had a dislocated shoulder and others had minor injuries.
Mr Howard said: "We have a long-term commitment to the security of the Solomon Islands and we are absolutely determined that the Solomon Islands will be a stable democratic country and that can only happen if we go the distance.
"It could well be that we have to send some troop reinforcements, it will depend on obviously the attitude of the government and an assessment on the ground by our high commissioner of the situation."
Mr Howard said there was no indication that the riots targeted the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.
"The information I have is that it is an outbreak of hostility to the result of the election," he said.
"There's no evidence of any hostility to Australia."
Yesterday's violence was the worst unrest in the capital since Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific governments intervened in 2003 to end years of bloody ethnic gang conflict.
#1
THE TERRIBLE SOLOMONS
...the natives of the Solomons are a wild lot, with a hearty appetite for human flesh and a fad for collecting human heads. Their highest instinct of sportsmanship is to catch a man with his back turned and to smite him a cunning blow with a tomahawk that severs the spinal column at the base of the brain.
This is an odd duck if I've ever seen one. My guess is that there was a burglary at a German government office that was hushed up, or else a Muslim or organized crime figure infiltrated a consulate somewhere.
Beginning May 1, 2006, German temporary passports (or emergency passports) will no longer be valid for travel to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Regular, official and diplomatic German passports (with a digital photo if issued after October 26, 2005) remain valid for Visa Waiver Program travel, per the current VWP passport requirements.
Travelers in possession of German temporary or emergency passports who intend to travel to or through the U.S. must either obtain a valid, machine-readable German passport for VWP travel or apply for a visa to travel to the U.S.
Germany remains a designated country in the Visa Waiver Program, and its citizens with regular passports may continue to use the program for business and tourism travel to the U.S. Regular full-validity German passports are unaffected by this decision.
#1
Europeans on the cheap travel plan to Thailand, Bali, etc had a habit of selling their passports for quick cash. Maybe some are also selling their temp passports their embassies issued in lieu of their "stolen" passports.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 16:25 Comments ||
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Let the Hamburg allah-boyz stay in ze fatherland.
Islamic militants with ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations have been crisscrossing the Balkans for more than 15 years, according to an intelligence report focusing on their activities in Bosnia.
The 252-page analysis, compiled jointly by US and Croatian intelligence and obtained by The Associated Press, said extremists financed in part with cash from narcotics smuggling operations were trying to infiltrate Western Europe from Afghanistan and points further east via a corridor running through Turkey, Kosovo and Albania.
The report offers new evidence to support what authorities long have suspected: that terrorists have taken advantage of the Balkans porous borders and relatively lax security to meet, train and possibly plot attacks elsewhere in Europe.
Either they come here seeking logistical support, financial support or to contact certain individuals to get instructions, or to hide for a moment from those who are following them, Dragan Lukac, deputy director of SIPA - Bosnias equivalent to the FBI - told the AP in an interview.
Thousands of militants came to Bosnia to fight on the Muslim side during the countrys 1992-95 war. But militants - including some with suspected ties to Al Qaeda - were active in the region even before it dissolved into ethnic conflict, the intelligence report says.
They included Kamrud Din Khirbani, a member of Algerias Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, who moved to Zagreb, Croatia, in 1991 to set up a humanitarian aid organisation at the direct request of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the report says.
It says Khirbani used the organisation, Al-Kifah, to infiltrate GIA members into Bosnia, and contends that Iran and other unnamed Arab countries bankrolled the operation through cash transfers. The GIA was behind a series of terrorist bombings that targeted the Paris subway system in 1995, killing eight people and wounding hundreds of others.
The report made no connection between those attacks and Khirbani, although it said he was sought by the CIA.
The Algerian connection is well-known to Bosnian authorities: Bensayah Belkacem, one of six Algerian-born Bosnians detained by the US military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, allegedly made several telephone calls to Abu Zubaydah, believed to be the operations chief of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and an aide to bin Laden.
But Bosnian and international officials stressed that the Balkan country should not be considered a hotbed of terrorist activity.
What were concerned about here are the same things wed be concerned about in the United States or Western Europe or anywhere else where terror has raised its head, NATOs top commander in Bosnia, US Brig Gen Louis Weber, said in an interview.
Weber, noting that the vast majority of Bosnian Muslims are moderate and secular, said the countrys terror threat was fairly low because there isnt a large community that would support that kind of activity here.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:36 ||
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there isnt a large community that would support that kind of activity here.
That is so re-assuring! Let's thank slick Willie & NATO for bombing Serbian Christians.
EFL Jane Fonda says she would like to tour the country and speak out against everything American U.S. involvement in Iraq, but her controversial history of Vietnam War protests leaves her with too much baggage. "I wanted to do a tour like I did during the Vietnam War, a tour of the country," the Oscar-winning actress said Monday on ABC's Good Morning America. "But then Cindy Sheehan filled in the gap, and she is better at this than I am. I carry too much baggage in spite of all the exercise tapes."
Fonda said that during a recent national book tour, war opponents including some Vietnam veterans such as J. Forbes Kerry, millionaire asked her to speak out. Last month, the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly rejected a resolution honoring Fonda, an Atlanta resident, for her work preventing teen pregnancy, donations to universities and charities, and role as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. Benedict Arnold probably gave money to the poor, too.
Her political activities protesting the Vietnam War, including a trip to North Vietnam in 1972 which met the Constitution definition of treason, have long made her a target of Rantburgers veterans.
#1
Sheeeeeit. I've taken dumps worth more than both of them combined. Societal improvement-wise, of course, with all due respect
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 0:11 Comments ||
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lol, I love these photos of Sheehan, it really captures her true essence.
Posted by: Jan ||
04/18/2006 3:08 Comments ||
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Dammit, Jane's smarter than I thought. Nothing could've been better than having her out there with Cindy ensuring that the anti-war movement's most public faces are the 2 most flaky menopausal moonbats in America.
#6
At a haven of liberalism, the Univ of TX (currently national football champs), Mother Sheehan yesterday led an anti-war rally that had a whompin' 50 people in attendance!
This from the same generation of our brave warriors they were protesting! Brought a smile to my face, that in totally blue Austin, TX, only 50 people bowed to the knees for Mother Sheehan's message.
Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have criminalized the presence of illegal immigrants in Arizona, citing opposition from police agencies that want immigration arrests to remain the responsibility of the federal government.
The proposal would have expanded the state's trespassing law to let local authorities arrest illegal immigrants anywhere in Arizona, the nation's busiest illegal entry point. Congress also had considered criminalizing the presence of illegal immigrants in the country.
In a letter to lawmakers, Napolitano said she opposes automatically turning all immigrants who sneaked into the state into criminals and that the bill provided no funding for the new duties.
"It is unfortunate that the Legislature has once again ignored the officials who are most directly affected by illegal immigration and instead has passed yet another bill that will have no effect on the problem but that will impose an unfunded burden on law enforcement," Napolitano wrote Monday.
Supporters said the bill would have given Arizona a chance to get a handle on its vast border problems by providing a second layer of enforcement to catch the tens of thousands of immigrants who slip past federal agents each year.
Republican Sen. Barbara Leff of Paradise Valley, who proposed the bill, said the governor has painted herself as tough on illegal immigration by declaring a state of emergency at Arizona's border, but has taken little action to back up her rhetoric.
"I don't think the governor wants to do anything about this problem," Leff said. She said the bill would have been a means to detain illegal immigrants until federal agents can pick them up.
The Democratic governor, accused by her Republican critics of being soft on immigration, has vetoed other immigration bills from the GOP- majority Legislature within the past year, including a proposal to give police the power to enforce federal immigration laws.
While immigrants provide the economy with cheap labor, Arizona spends tens of millions of dollars each year in health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families. An estimated 500,000 of the state's population of about 6 million are illegal immigrants.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 11:40 ||
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While immigrants provide the economy with cheap labor, Arizona spends tens of millions of dollars each year in health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families.
It would be interesting to see what economic pluses verses costs that illegals rack up. I bet the taxpayers is on the loosing end.
#2
The problem is the economic benefits accrue, besides the illegals themselves, to a politically connected few while the costs are spread over the entire taxpaying population. It's always easier for politicians to listen to, and accept money from, a few hundred focused contributors than acceed to the wishes of the divied, non campaign contributing masses.
Like most behaviors, if you want to change it, then change the incentives. The illegal alien flood will only keep accelerating until the employers are consistently hit with economic losses for employing them. That means actually enforcing maximun employer fines and giving out incentives to both citzens and law enforcement for monetary benefit from ratting out and arresting illegals at their job sites. A mandatory $10,000 or higher fine to anyone employing illegals with 1/2 each going to citizens who inform law enforcement and the arresting law enforcement agency will tip the incentives to actually catching and deporting illegals, vs. the current incentive for law enforcement to just shut up and ignore the problem because the politicians come down on the side of the deep pocket employers who fund their political campaigns.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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#3
divied = divided
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 13:13 Comments ||
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#4
remember when she declared a state of emergemcy abd wanted troops on the border, yadda yadda....well, it was all for show. First chance to do something about it and....veto
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 13:22 Comments ||
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#5
Except for educational reform - an area in which she is genuinely interested - the woman is just another political opportunist...
#6
The illegal alien flood will only keep accelerating until the employers are consistently hit with economic losses for employing them.
More evidence of brilliant grass roots Republican thinking. Kill a business and put people out of work to get rid of a few illegals. Business owner starts up a new business only to find out he can't hire anybody because no American will do the same job for the same amount of pay. Wages and prices spiral upward. But hey, the illegals are gone.
while the costs are spread over the entire taxpaying population
More bullshit mantra. These costs are the same no matter who is doing the work: Americans, illegals, guest workers, aliens from Mars.
Thank God some parts of Washington appear to be smarter than the grass roots.
#7
RR (Dems good, Republicans EVIL, especially W and Rummy)
your one-note tune convinces NOBODY.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 13:58 Comments ||
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#8
Um, no. No qualms with W. Rummy is overrated and should probably go but won't. Washington Republicans have so far proved they actually have brains. Some of them at least.
#9
More evidence of brilliant grass roots Republican thinking. Kill a business and put people out of work to get rid of a few illegals. Business owner starts up a new business only to find out he can't hire anybody because no American will do the same job for the same amount of pay. Wages and prices spiral upward. But hey, the illegals are gone.
You know, I think this exact same thing was said about the end of slavery.
Come to think of it slavery was done in by another of those dastardly Republicans (Lincoln). I think that filthy Civil Rights Act was their fault too!
#12
You know, I think this exact same thing was said about the end of slavery.
LMAO! Oh God it gets better and better with you guys! Uh huh. You go dude!
Come to think of it, I think slaves got a form of amnesty, didn't they? Or were they all sent back to Africa? So those dastardly Republicans (Lincoln) were clear thinkers as well, back then. Good for them. Shame on you.
#13
Who knew RR is a fatcat, race to the bottom, wealth concentrating capitalist exploiter of the working class? Back to reeducation classes for you.
Kill a business and put people out of work to get rid of a few illegals.
Kill a business by paying market rates? Are you stupid, or do just act that way on blogs? On the contrary. It is those businesses that hire illegals that drive other local businesses to bankruptcy. You just advocated concentrating wealth into the hands of lawbreakers and exploiters of the workng man. Even worse, much of the paycheck that would circulate locally, thus creating more jobs, is sent to another country to produce economic activity there. A good deal for the recipients, not so good for communities where those $ are are leaving.
Come on RR, do you feel so comfortable regaling your exploitive illegal-alien-hiring robber baron buddies with stories about how you screwed the little Johhny and Lashawnda out of $5 an hour?
because no American will do the same job for the same amount of pay. Wages and prices spiral upward.
Perhaps you would like to show your solidarity with our uninvited friends by working for a fraction of what you make. But why show solidarity with just our southern neighbors? Come on RR, work for $100 a month like they do in China, bed and board included if your are lucky. Nah, didn't think so. All those jobs got done before the illegals invasion. People were just paid a middle or lower middle class wage. America had janitors, carpenters and cooks. For instance, 30 years ago LA janitors were paid $35,000/year (in today's money). Now janitors pay $6/hour. So now you have those who were/could be janitors now selling drugs on the street corner. Way to go RR, a friend to crack dealers everywhere.
ed: while the costs are spread over the entire taxpaying population
RR: More bullshit mantra. These costs are the same no matter who is doing the work
No RR. The cost to taxpayers are not the same. Those paid at going rate are more likely to have some kind of medical plan. Government is less likely to pay for legitimate workers than for the illegals' treatment plan, i.e. the emergency room. But more importantly, those employing illegals are often paying cash (e.g. day laborers), thereby avoiding paying taxes of any kind. That means the rest of the taxpayers pay for illegals' medical care, police, prison, birthing services, child welfare, schooling, etc.
You're just too lazy and cheap to mow your own lawn or cook your own food or pay a going rate to your fellow citizens.
PS. Let me know when you will be available to work for $100 a month. I am more than willing to hire you full time to pick up sidewalk dog poop in my town. Hell, I'll even fill out the paper work and pay SS and payroll taxes on your behalf. You can leave your resume here.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 15:45 Comments ||
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#14
One more note: More bullshit mantra. These costs are the same no matter who is doing the work
Those unemployed, drug dealing ex-janitors and carpenters are still here. They haven't been turned into Soylent Green, though that may be convenient for RR and his exploitive buddies. They still require medical care, welfare assistance, children's schooling etc. Actually, they now require much more assistance than when they were gainfully employed.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 16:00 Comments ||
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#15
Come to think of it, I think slaves got a form of amnesty, didn't they? Or were they all sent back to Africa? So those dastardly Republicans (Lincoln) were clear thinkers as well, back then. Good for them. Shame on you.
Posted by RR 2006-04-18 15:36
Every hear of the country of Liberia RR? Read up on it, you might learn a thing or two.
#16
Ed is right. The key to the whole problem is to punish those who hire illegals.
Otherwise to assert that a controlled 'guest worker' program would decrease (or increase) the numbers of available workers or their wages is simply false.
One a controlled guest worker program is in place the government (political considerations aside) can increase or decrease numbers at will (as it does with the H1B program). It can also increase or decrease the cost of these workers, and hence the wages of Americans competing for these jobs, at will by varying the fees an employer pays to hire them.
#17
citing opposition from police agencies that want immigration arrests to remain the responsibility of the federal government.
I call BS! Its the Police UNION people that called for the veto in order to provide a political figleaf for the Dem gov.
The rank and file DO support the arret of illegals - hell they get the revolving door treatment so often that being able to lock them up and deport them is what a LOT of cops want to be able to do.
This shrew watns to talk tough on the border but not do anythign that woudl jeopardize her political "base".
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#19
So how many Americans are lining up for the jobs that Mexicans do right now? Should strawberry pickers be earning $35,000/year? Maybe so, but I wouldn't want my strawberries costing $20/strawberry. And what is the difference between corporations migrating to where labour is cheap, and cheap labour being available onsite (to mainly small businesses)?
Sounds like you're against NAFTA and free trade, and you may have valid complaints there, but I do think that anyone producing $20 pencils in the US should really be out of business. Sorry. That's life.
I suggest for you that you take a few economics courses...micro not macro.
#21
She talked to Fox last year promoting Arizona as the pilot state for the guest worker program...She's not fooling anyone..and guess who Arizona's leading trading partner is..
#22
IOW, Arizona police units have to ignore the presence of persons unlawfully present within the jurisdiction and territories of the USA. Next thing you know the various Mafias and aligned will demand their rights as "legal illegals" or "lawful unlawfuls". Employers get to retain and preserve their already illegal private costs-benefits structure or arrangements, while US citizens and legal residents get the burden of seeing their taxes support illegals whom in all likelihood will stay permanently or portractively illegal and unregistered but still able to collect subsidized public benefits. GOOD OLE CLINTONISM AND POLITICAL PC = "NATION/GOVT/
SOCIETY OF LAWS" = MAFIA/MOB NATION, GOVT. AND SOCIETY", ERGO IS NOT HYPOCRISY, NOT BREAKING THE LAW, NOT EVEN RATTING OUT THE MOB. DEMOLEFT > "SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH, COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM - eeerrrr, meant ANTI-FASCISM - NOW, D*** YOU, as politicians obviously cannot trust themselves or anyone else to do 'the right thing'"!?
#23
So how many Americans are lining up for the jobs that Mexicans do right now?
At $5 and hour, very few. At $10 or $15/hour, every one that currently works at McDonald's for $8/hour. The jobs were done before your exploitive buddies figured out they could pay second world wages by importing third world illegals to a first world nation. If there is a need, it will be done again, at a wage commensurate with demand.
but I wouldn't want my strawberries costing $20/strawberry.
You've never picked fruit, have you? Not even as a teen? It takes less than a minute to pick a pound of strawberries, even less for tree fruits like apples or plums. Even at $20/hour wages and benefits, that less than 33 cents. At most 20 cents extra per pound, not $20. You sound like a Kerry Democrat. Who did you have to sleep with to get where you are?
The other thing you are forgetting is automation. For instance a super Roomba could be developed vacuum office floors. But when janitorial contractors can pay illegals $6/hour, there is no incentive to put do the R&D or spend the several thousand dollars such a machine may cost. Same for much agricultural labor. In the long run, the retardation of technology makes us all poorer.
Free trade isn't free. It tends to equalize the economies of trading partners by retarding the growth of the high wage nation and speeds up development of the poorer. One of the few areas where free trade benefits both is when economies of scale do not kick for each individual economy. There are a few, such as aircraft, but what do you know, as the largest consumer of them, the US already the dominates. In the long term, the sum of the economies may be greater, but the richer economy still ends up behind what it would be if it instead invested in R&D and automation, instead of shipping some of the most productive jobs to wage poor countries. Trade with allies, not enemies. Free trade is for like economies.
Finally, pencils did not cost $20 when they were produced by Americans. If you are going to use examples, pick some that are realistic.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 23:12 Comments ||
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#24
You won't get an argument from me regarding free trade. NAFTA is a big flop, imo.
But...
At $5 and hour, very few. At $10 or $15/hour, every one that currently works at McDonald's for $8/hour.
So where will McD's get its employees after they move to the $15/hour jobs? Okay, so they raise wages to match the $15/hour jobs. That's fine if you can afford a $10 big mac. And McD's is certainly big enough to be able to pull it off. But what about the smaller businesses? $15/hour could put them out to pasture. Higher input costs will do the same.
BTW, with less than 5% unemployment, you got a plan to replace those illegals??? With what? Super Roombas?
#25
RR, you and your ilk make me sick. You assume that everyone is stagnant in our economy, which is far from the truth. Those who leave McDonald's for that $15/hour job will EASILY be replaced by some other HS punk wanting $8/hour. Heck, it'll probably drive McDonald's to pay $12/hour just to get people in. Add in the fact that the "baby boom" will soon be retiring, and you'll have a HUGE hole to fill in VERY high paying jobs soon. Heck, the Federal Gov't did a pull on it's employees (with the exception of military, I believe) and something like 50% of the workforce is within 5 years of retirement! The baby boom retirement will leave a huge vaccuum of higher paying jobs open soon. Will all companies re-hire some college grad at the same pay the 65-year old just retired at? No way, but the earning potential for that college grad will be a lot higher soon. There will always be BODIES to fill those vacancies...just a matter of finding people who are WILLING to work (some people refuse to work, even if a $50k/year job fell in their lap). So, the baby boom, and (hopefully) even more welfare reform should get (pretty much) anyone who wants a job a job soon.
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 23:45 Comments ||
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#26
RR, are you proud that mcDonald's workers make $8/hour? Do you think that is a wage conducive to form stable relationships, raise families? I hope quite a few do move to $10-15/hour jobs and the rest of MickeyD's crew get a raise. Don't like that a Big Mac may cost 25 cents more? Then don't eat it. Again, what's your fascination with $25 strawberries, $20 pencils and $10 burgers. If you want to advance your arguement, use realistic numbers. For instance, think about how many Big Macs a worker makes in a hour and assume the worker gets a $5/hour raise. Now come up with a number and justify it. You may tell your sugar mamma that a burger costs $10, but those of us in the non-hoochy ecomomy know better.
Super Roombas?
Again, floor cleaning is the biggest time time sink for those cleaning our offices. Why not a toilet cleaning machine? Automation is what increases productivity. That allows more work to get done, higher wages to be paid and a better life lived.
Posted by: ed ||
04/19/2006 0:03 Comments ||
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#27
It used to be that caught illegal beaners were sent to prison for 2 years. Not anymore. All they have to do is come here and have little beaners and then their ticket is made for life. Sicking to anyone American.
Janet Napolitano should be run out of town with the rest of the job stealers. By the way anyone caught without a visa in Mexico is thrown out pronto.
As the author points out, this has serious implications for civilian control of the military.
Consider two hypothetical situations. In the first, a United States Army general officer in a theater of war decides by himself that he strongly disagrees with the orders of the secretary of defense. He resigns his commission, returns to private life and speaks out vigorously against both the policy and the secretary of defense.
In example two, the top 100 generals in the Army military chain of command secretly agree amongst themselves to retire and speak out -- each one day after the other.
If an officer has no confidence in his civilian superiors then he should fall on his sword, not retire and criticize.
...This may sound far-fetched, but in Sunday's Washington Post the very smart, very well-connected former Clinton Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke published an article entitled "Behind the Military Revolt." In this article he predicts that there will be increasing numbers of retired generals speaking out against Sec. Rumsfeld. Then, shockingly, he writes the following words: "If more angry generals emerge -- and they will -- if some of them are on active duty, as seems probable . . . then this storm will continue until finally it consumes not only Donald Rumsfeld."
Article continues -- read the whole thing. Holbrooke is a clintonite toad but he is, as Blankley says, well connected. We should be very, very concerned about such a possibility.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
04/18/2006 10:13 ||
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#1
The important point is the historical comparisons cited, MacArthur-Truman, Singlaub-Carter, McClellan-Lincoln. I sense a trend in who wins and looses in these match-ups. This would be a good way to sweep out the Clinton command and open up a lot of slots for Schoemaker to fill. I hope he has a black book.
#2
Good lord. Any idea how many generals there are in the US military at any given time? We probably retire around 100 every year.
You figure that right now, the last remaining Clinton appointee generals are running out their string. He had eight years to appoint turkeys, that were probably rubber-stamped by even the republican congress.
"...the top 100 generals in the Army military chain of command secretly agree amongst themselves to retire and speak out -- each one day after the other."
Ah, now there's the point. The "top" 100 generals. Would Wesley Clark's or Zinni's peer review put them at the "top" among our generals?
Most likely they were "Peter principaled", that is, promoted to their level of incompetence.
And, more to the point, what are the hotheads complaining about? How the war was conducted, at least officially. But that was a Pentagon plan, and the war went smoothly. Why are they still bitching about it?
#3
I checked. We have 266 generals on active duty. After a major double enterprise like Iraq and Afghanistan, I would expect a LOT of retirements and a LOT of promotions. And since generals have to go, to be replaced, many will be encouraged to go.
#4
That's right Dems. Its all about power. Methods don't count. Remove those self-imposed restraints the military in modern times have put upon themselves. Politicize the military. Don't worry about getting the office of President back. Cause Caesar/Cromwell doesn't share power. If you failed to notice, your desperate assaults to regain power have only undermined the people's confidence in the ability of this form of government to accomplish anything.
For retired generals the route is clear. You have an opinion, run for office. Didn't work for Clark or Macarthur. It did work for Eisenhower, Garfield, Harrison, Grant, Taylor, Jackson, Harrison, Washington. Put the money on the line and see if the people buy it. Otherwise, retire gracefully.
You know, you got to wonder if these 'critics' ever tolerated similar comments upon their performance from their subordinates?
#7
Not all, RR, ~ 6 of the retired ones don't. So, if there is about 100 generals retired annually, and from these retired in the 5 years (~500) about 6 seem to be peeved about Rumsfeld, that translates to about 1.2%.
#8
Does Rumsfeld have to prove his support? I'm puzzled. Is he running for some sort of "election"? Do the generals get to vote who their boss is? Because my guess is they would like a general to be Sec. Def. How many generals did Lincoln fire? I bet they didn't like him very much, either. Who the heck works for who here?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
04/18/2006 16:38 Comments ||
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#9
We have 266 generals on active duty.
That must be just for the Army. There are about 900 active duty generals/admirals total. Anyone know how general billets are handled in the reserve and NG? Are they classified as active duty or just for the time they are activated?
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2006 16:40 Comments ||
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#10
But twobyfour to a leftist that 1.2% a majority. The Press hares Rummy. The LL's hate Rummy. It's a useless bunch of impotent sound expressing furry.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/18/2006 16:42 Comments ||
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#11
Wonder what the LL will do if Cheney actually runs for Prez. I'd vote for him just to see the meltdown and gibbering incoherency of the left.
#13
This isn't about Iraq or Afganistan. It's about requiring the generals to do some heavy lifting, not be ass kissed by the SoD. It's about Army generals not getting their toys. It's about transformation. It's about certain generals being stuck on Cold War stupid.
Any significant transformation of such a huge buracracy as the military services is bounded to have winners and losers. The bitchers and complainers are more concerned about their own careers and preferences over what's good for the the country.
Flush!
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/18/2006 17:43 Comments ||
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#14
DoD needed a cleanout like the CIA. The DoD got most of one thanks to Rumsfled kicking the "Big Division" guys ass. CIA is still a work inprogress with the old boys network firmly entrenched and sabotaging Bush for having the temerity to challenge them.
I still say they need to dissolve CIA and assign its functions to NSA and DIA. Until you chop Langley up, you'll never get rid of the old guard thats fighting change.
#17
RE, how many NG/Reserve generals: Each state has an Adjutant General, who holds the rank of Brigadier General. There are six(?) NG/Reserve divisions in the Army, each commanded by a Major General. There are about a dozen others in various command structures. The Air Force has about 60-70 Reserve general officers in slots ranging from ANG Adjutants to Wing Commanders to Air Division commanders to the four-star at Reserve Readiness Command. I don't have any facts, but I believe the Marines have five or six reserve general officers, and I have no clue about the Navy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/18/2006 20:00 Comments ||
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ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A clinical psychologist who has studied Zacarias Moussaoui for the past four years told jurors at his sentencing trial Monday that the al Qaeda plotter is mentally ill.
I'd never have guessed...
The names we give evil these days ...
"Mr. Moussaoui suffers from schizophrenia, and is a paranoid subtype," Dr. Xavier Amador testified. Amador is the first mental health expert called by defense attorneys seeking to persuade jurors to spare Moussaoui's life.
And Dr. Amador will be Exhibit A in the Court of MSM Opinion as they begin the push to convert Islam's holy warriors into victims and objects of pity and "understanding"...
Amador began his testimony late in the day and will return to the stand when testimony resumes Tuesday. Amador said he interviewed Moussaoui, reviewed transcripts of his courtroom testimony and examined the voluminous and often rambling writings Moussaoui churned out when he was acting as his own attorney.
"And, lemme tell yez, yer honor, it was not a pretty picture!"
Several other schizophrenia experts have independently reached the same conclusion. However, two government-appointed doctors disagree.
"He ain't schizophrenic, yer honor! He's nuts!"
"He's not nuts, yer honor, he's evil."
Amador said that schizophrenics can be well-groomed and articulate, as Moussaoui has appeared in his two turns on the witness stand. About half the people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia believe nothing is wrong with them, he added. Moussaoui testified that he is not "crazy."
"And the voices in my head all agree with me! Most of them, anyway..."
Earlier, the jury heard testimony that Moussaoui's father, Omar, and two older sisters, Nadia and Djamilla, also suffer from mental illness. "All three have had hospitalizations," clinical social worker Jan Vogelsang testified. "All have been described as delusional."
"We're talkin' major loop-loops here!"
Moussaoui's father, recently homeless, is locked up in lives in a psychiatric hospital in France "too sedated to be interviewed," Vogelsang said. Nadia "believes that she turns to stone and is unable to move," she added. Djamilla has tried to set her mother's house on fire.
Other than that, they're just folks, of course...
Vogelsang told jurors Moussaoui grew up in a violent and unstable household. He was shuttled in and out of orphanages during his first six years. Moussaoui's father battered his mother for years until their 1972 divorce, Vogelsang said. He beat her even during her pregnancies. A boxer, he once crushed her jaw and tried to run her over with a car, Vogelsang said.
Mookie wanted to be just like old dad.
Jurors heard from the sisters, who testified via videotape on Monday. Both appeared calm and composed, but take anti-psychotic medications, Vogelsang testified. Nadia described her brother as an affectionate young man who idolized Martin Luther King Jr. "I don't know what he's become," she said.
Whatever it is, it ain't Martin Luther King, Jr...
Djamilla said her brother became "bizarre" after he moved to England in the 1990s, and was "tiresome" talking about Islam the last time he visited the family in France in 1997. Both sisters lamented life under their father, who beat them and their mother and left them destitute and hungry. "He traumatized us all," Djamilla said. "As an infant, he hit me like an adult."
"That was why I burned the house down."
"We were terrorized," Nadia said. "I think we all felt it."
"That's why I turn to stone, you know. And Uncle Mahmoud thinks he's a chicken. We'd get him treated, but we need the eggs..."
Moussaoui's mother, Aicha el-Wafi, has attended the trial but is not expected to testify for her son. Vogelsang testified that the mother worked two jobs to support her children, but did little to help them cope with the racism they faced as dark-skinned North Africans living in France.
Racism in France? Is that possible?
Religion was not part of their upbringing. Moussaoui's mother "wanted to leave that culture behind," Vogelsang added.
"It was hard enough being a punching bag without religious justification."
Moussaoui's conversion to radical Islam began when he moved to London, England, in 1992. He shaved his head and grew a beard. Three friends testified on videotape that before his conversion, Moussaoui loved life but endured the sting of racism in France. Nil Plant, a fellow Muslim, described Moussaoui as "a bit of a misfit. He wasn't a proper Arab, and he wasn't a proper Frenchman. He was sort of stuck in between." Imam Abdul Haqq Baker, of Brixton Mosque in London, said Moussaoui's demeanor changed when he got involved with fundamentalist recruiters. He became brash and confrontational. "You could see the disdain in his face," Baker said.
"That was when he started breaking people's jaws and turning to stone and such."
The defense will conclude with a dozen relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Defense attorneys have dropped plans to call experts to testify about how suicidal terrorists are recruited and trained, since Moussaoui testified with pride that it was his choice to become a fighter for al Qaeda, the radical Islamic terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Doesn't sound like he needed much conditioning, does it?
Moussaoui explicitly said he had no remorse for the 9/11 deaths, stating that he wished follow-up attacks could occur "every day." He said he was willing to kill Americans "any time, anywhere."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2006 0:52 Comments ||
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#3
Now, now, any "Lion of God/Islam" and "desert samuari" may just end up going mad - how else can Simba react iff his entre' for dinner is snaily over-salted, Motherly escargots, instead of John Wayne-style steaks andor any type of real meats.
Islamofascists can be seen as mentally insane. From the point of view of a decent human being who wants to live in freedom, prosperity, and the pursuit of happiness, someone like Bin Laden or Moussaoui is completely irrational.
Islamofascists can also be seen as evil beasts who deserve nothing more than immediate death. We'll soon get there with the general American Publick, by their own fault.
#5
I agree he's mentally ill. And I doubt he knew anything specific about 9-11. But I still won't shed any tears over a death sentence for him. The only good reason not to execute him is that he wants to be a martyr - let him wait a few years (and a few bars of dropped soap.)
#7
I think that if Amador had a look at more muzzies, he'd find all of Islam teetering on the edge. Splodydopes can't be sane.
We too may be in danger of going nuts if we continue to believe that some muzzies are good.
#9
With just a few billion more in discretionary social spending on prevention and treatment of mental illness, we might have save him.
/sarcasam
Posted by: Mike ||
04/18/2006 9:51 Comments ||
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#10
Vogelsang told jurors Moussaoui grew up in a violent and unstable household. He was shuttled in and out of orphanages during his first six years. Moussaoui's father battered his mother for years until their 1972 divorce, Vogelsang said. He beat her even during her pregnancies. A boxer, he once crushed her jaw and tried to run her over with a car, Vogelsang said.
Just another day in the park for that "good, old, religion of pieces," eh? Sounds like Moose's pop was just doing what Islam told him to do to his women property.
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 10:12 Comments ||
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#11
#5 exactly.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2006 17:56 Comments ||
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#12
He's suffering from Crusader syndrome, a degraded mindset that afflcts all nutjob Islamofascists.
It is terminal and irreversible, requiring his immediate death.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/18/2006 18:12 Comments ||
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#13
If you try to rationally study Islam, you'd go insane, too. It's an insane faith. The contradictions are enormous. Anyone that can rationally accept Islam is by definition "insane".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/18/2006 20:08 Comments ||
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New York, 18 April (AKI/DAWN) - The case involving Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan could be reopened following claims by Irans president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Tehran was "presently conducting research on the P-2 centrifuge, boasting that it would quadruple Irans enrichment powers". A report in the New York Times on Monday said: "Last year, Pakistan said its investigation into the Khan network was closed. But the Iranian crisis has led to renewed questioning of Dr. Khan, American intelligence officials and European diplomats say."
Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, admitted in February 2004 that he had trafficked nuclear secrets and parts to other countries, including Iran, Libya and North Korea. He was pardoned by Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf on the condition that he would cooperate with the authorities.
The Pakistani government confirmed in 2005 that Khan had supplied nuclear parts to Iran. However the nuclear scientist has not been allowed any visitors and international investigators into global nuclear proliferation have not been allowed to question him.
The New York Times report on Monday said: The new claim focuses renewed attention on Irans rocky relationship with Mr Khan, who provided it with much of the enrichment technology it is exploiting today. If Mr Ahmadinejads claim is correct, it probably indicates that relationship went on longer and far deeper than previously acknowledged. Mr Khan and his nuclear black market supplied Iran with blueprints for both the more elementary machine, known as P-1, and the more advanced P-2.
There were other indications that Khan might have been dealing with Iran as recently as six years ago, the newspaper said, noting that Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf disclosed recently that he fired Dr. Khan in 2001 after discovering that he was trying to arrange a secret flight to the Iranian city of Zahedan, known as a centre of smuggling.
Khan refused to discuss the flight, saying it was important and very secret. I said: What the hell do you mean? You want to keep a secret from me? Musharraf recalled in an interview with The New York Times for a Discovery Times television documentary, Nuclear Jihad. So these are the things which led me to very concrete suspicions, Musharraf said, and we removed him.
Officials with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say solving the mystery of the P-2 shipments has become one of the most critical issues on which they need answers in the next two weeks, before IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei issues a report to the United Nations Security Council on April 28, the Times said.
Other pressing questions include Irans reluctance to discuss a document found by inspectors one that the Iranians were not willing to let the inspectors take out of the country that sketches out how to shape uranium into perfect spheres, the tell-tale shape for a primitive weapon. Investigators say that the document, too, appears to have come from the Khan network.
It is also unclear whether Khan sold the Iranians a complete Chinese-made bomb design similar to the one Libya turned over to the United States when it gave up its weapons programme. Questions about other copies of the bomb design have been met with silence, in Iran and in Pakistan, the newspaper said. Frankly, I dont know whether he has passed these bomb designs to others, Musharraf said in the interview with Discovery Times channel. Even under a loose form of house arrest for the past two years, he said, Khan sometimes has been hiding the facts.
European diplomats said a delegation of Iranian officials is due to arrive on Tuesday in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency will press them to address the new enrichment claim, as well as other questions about Irans programme, including designs for a crude bomb found in the country.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/18/2006 08:35 ||
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The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that a case be filed under section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against the cartoonist, foreign newspapers, publishers and local government officials, including the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman, on the issue of blasphemous cartoons. The police should register the petitioners case under section 295C of the PPC in the jurisdiction where the petitioner resides, said the chief justice while ruling on a petition moved by Maulvi Iqbal Haider, the Awami Himayat Tehreek chairman. Section 295C prescribes the death sentence for offenders. Haider had moved the SC for the registration of a criminal case against the people responsible for printing and propagating cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (may his pustules cease to ooze peace be upon him).
The chief justice said, It is our religious duty to express sentiments against the blasphemous publication. A case should be registered against the people responsible at the very least to dissuade anyone blaspheming in the future, he added. Besides blaming foreign authorities, the petitioner also accused the PTA of criminal negligence for not blocking websites showing the blasphemous cartoons in Pakistan. Iqbal Haider lives in Karachi and as such a first information report would be lodged with Karachi police. Ibrahim Satti represented him in court.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that the government was well aware about the prevailing situation in Waziristan, "and the issue will be resolved very soon". The government will introduce administrative reforms in the FATA and under these reforms the political administrator will be abolished, he said. "The government has already allocated a development package of Rs 10 billion in FATA and Balochistan and the sum will definitely change the face of the two regions," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and South Africa on Monday agreed to reinforce cooperation in areas of defence and military training. An understanding to this effect was reached between Pakistani Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and visiting South African Deputy Defence Minister M. George in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, an official statement here said. "Iqbal briefed George on the capability and potential of the Pakistani defence industry and equipment, including lightweight aircraft, tanks, naval frigates and armoured personnel carriers, being produced in the country," said the statement.
Because when you want a frigate, the first place you think of is Pakistan.
Don't laugh. The Chris Craft showroom in Multan is absolutely splendid.
Pakistan annually sells weapons and military equipment worth millions of dollars to a number of countries, particularly in African, Middle Eastern and Gulf regions. The Pakistan-manufactured al-Khalid tank is currently undergoing trials in Saudi Arabia after the latter showed interest in it.
"Andres, what the heck is that?"
"Our new target drone, Jøhann. Watch what happens when we hit it."
A number of countries in the Gulf and Middle East regions are regular buyers of Pakistani Super Mushshak or Cessna aircraft, manufactured at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC).
Pakistan is also set to begin serial production of the JF-17 (Thunder) combat aircraft from next year, which it jointly manufactured with China. The aircraft has already carried out test flights in China. Later, George also met Pakistani Minister for Defence Production Habibullah Warriach. "The two sides agreed to undertake joint ventures in the areas of defence production and research and development," said the statement.
#1
China is developing the FC-1 (Fighter China 1) [redesignated for Pakistan as JF-17] lightweight multipurpose fighter based on the design for the MiG-33, which was rejected by the Soviet Air Force.
Saddam Hussein's defence lawyer Monday challenged findings of handwriting experts verifying the former president's signature on documents linked to a crackdown on Shiites and demanded a review by international specialists except from Iran or Israel.
"Eeeew! Jews! Ucky! Eeeeew! Persians! Cooties!"
The report from handwriting experts said a signature on a document approving rewards for intelligence agents involved in the crackdown in the 1980s was Saddam's, prosecutors said, reading from the report. Saddam's lawyer Khamis Obaidi disputed the experts' finding and insisted that the documents be analysed by international experts except those from Iran because of "its obvious hostility against Arabs and Islam."
And toward Sammy. Don't forget that.
"And Israel," Saddam shouted. "Because we don't consider Israel a state, you didn't mention it. But the international community recognises Israel as a state so you must mention Israel."
Even though nobody else was talking about them...
After hearing the report, Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman adjourned the court until Wednesday to give the experts time to look at more documents. In a previous session, Saddam, who appeared Monday dressed in a black suit and white shirt, had refused to confirm or deny his signature, and some of his seven co-defendants had said their alleged signatures on other documents were forgeries.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Apr 17, 2006 MOSCOW - Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the world's most popular assault rifle, says that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are using his invention in preference to their own weapons, proving that his gun is still the best.
"Even after lying in a swamp you can pick up this rifle, aim it and shoot. That's the best job description there is for a gun. Real soldiers know that and understand it," the 86-year-old gunmaker told a weekend news conference in Moscow. "In Vietnam, American soldiers threw away their M-16 rifles and used (Kalashnikov) AK-47s from dead Vietnamese soldiers, with bullets they captured. That was because the climate is different to America, where M-16s may work properly," he said. "Look what's happening now: every day on television we see that the Americans in Iraq have my machine guns and assault rifles in their armored vehicles. Even there American rifles don't work properly."
Some U.S. troops in Iraq have reportedly taken to using AK-47s in preference to the standard-issue M-16. The Cold War-era gun, renowned for its durability and easy handling, is plentiful in Iraq.
Kalashnikov designed his first weapon in 1947 and is still chief constructor at Izhmash arms factory in Izhevsk in the Urals mountains. The factory's director Vladimir Grodetsky told the news conference that around a billion rifles had been produced around the world using parts of Kalashnikovs or based on the same design, only 10-12 percent of which were made in Russia.
#4
Its no secret that the Army dev the M16 wid NATO-Europe and the Fulda Gap in mind. The AK47 as a series can be traced back to WW2 and its German origins - the M16 allows the individual US soldier to carry much more ammo than his ancestors while also engaging the enmy in LR standoff, precision or massed directed fire; whereas the AK 47 was meant to enhance the shock effect in breakthrough of a group(s) of mostly uneducated or semi-educated Commie soldiers. Commie soldiers were intended by their commanders to fight the enemy all the time, all day 24-7 wid few to no breaks in-between and wid dubious to no combat support, and espec to die to large numbers vv offensive-centric, "human wave" or massed large/multi-unit attacks. TO die in large numbers > from the former USSR in WW2, to Mao in Korean War 1, to North Vietnam + VC = the AK47 was carrried in various Wars for Communism-Socialism by so many lost generations of fathers, brothers, sons and grandfathers.
#5
I'll take this with a bolder sized chunk of salt.
That said I don't have any rifles or carbines in .223. I have several in 7.62X39 and .308
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/18/2006 2:19 Comments ||
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#6
It's a very effective weapon that very reliably does exactly what it was designed to do, and does it economically. The American weapon that best compares on those criteria (does what it's supposed to, every time, for a long time, efficiently) is the Colt 1911. The ammo may be heavy, but in an environment like Iraq those would be two of the best pieces to pack.
#7
Before it went for sucribers only, the http://www.isayeret.com/main/guide.htm website had an article on the "M16 vs ak47" controversy, and basically, from the use of both designs over the years in the IDF, the M16 was deemed a superior weapon.
I know this is a red button issue among actual gun nuts, à la 9mm vs .45, Facklerites vs. Marshall & Sanow, etc, etc,... (I'm just a poser/wannabe myself)... but the guys at that site, supposedly reliable, were saying the benefits of the M16 variant(s) the isreali are using overcome its shortcomings, while the Ak47/Akm and similar models (like the 5,56N Galil) are inadequate.
#8
Of course, both designs have flaws, and are underpowered compared to "true" rifle calibers. I can't remember which RBers pointed me to the 6,5mm grendel and other alternate calibers, but a M16 type rifle, with its versality & modularity, with a "cleaner" and more reliable gas system (like the H&K conversion here) in 6,8/6,5mm would make a pretty effective assault rifle... but then again, I'm full of hot air and just a lay person, I'll let the true professionnals and users comment here.
Excellent 1999 article by the BAS (I know, I know...) about the effects of the proliferation of Kalashnikov-type small arms.
One billion Kalashnikovs produced.
Nope, didn't reread this text to verify (I think it's mentioned somewhere in it), but actual figure is closer to 80 millions including clones, which is enormous by itself (closest contender is M16 variants, with 16 millions IIRC).
Palestinian militant groups demanded an apology Tuesday from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for condemning Monday's deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, in their harshest criticism yet of the moderate leader over his stand on violence. The criticism, including from armed groups within Abbas' own Fatah party, underscored a growing debate among Palestinians over the use of violence against Israel.
"We ask President Abbas to apologize to the entire Palestinian people because of the offense he committed," the groups said in a joint statement by a coalition of militants read by a masked gunman at an open-air news conference in Gaza.
Abbas said Monday that the attack, which killed nine people, ran counter to Palestinian interests. But he used stronger wording than usual, describing the attack as "despicable."
The militant groups objected to his wording, saying that it was insulting to Palestinian "martyrs who sacrificed their lives and souls. Abu Mazen [Abbas] should have condemned the killings of our people and fighters rather than condemning Palestinian acts of self-defense," the statement said, issued in the name of three Fatah-linked groups and the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of Palestinian militants.
#4
Hopefully this means they intend to assassinate him for being an infidel dog. About time Fatah and Hamas had a good, high-quality throat-cutting civil war.
Maybe they could use the same tactics as those Thugees down in Algeria. Ride into an opposing village and kill everyone. Would do marvels.
#9
If the Arabs would just fake it and pretend that they want peace, the Jews would surrender everything and commit national suicide.
Now the second most powerful leader in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party, Shimon Peres says that "we should negotiate with Hamas as long as Hamas does not bring their machine guns to the negotiations"
After Hamas defended a deadly suicide bombing Monday,
Israel's U.N. ambassador warned that recent statements by the Palestinian government, Iran and Syria "are clear declarations of war, and I urge each and every one of you to listen carefully and take them at face value."
Ambassador Dan Gillerman cautioned that a new "axis of terror" Iran, Syria and the Hamas-run Palestinian government was sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century.
"A dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasizing as a result of the statements and actions by leaders of Iran, Syria, and the newly elected government of the
Palestinian Authority," he said.
A Palestinian suicide bomber struck a packed fast-food restaurant during Passover, killing nine people and wounding dozens in the deadliest bombing in more than a year. In a sharp departure from the previous Palestinian government's condemnations of bombings, the Hamas-led administration defended the attack as a legitimate response to Israeli "aggression."
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Riyad Mansour, condemned Monday's suicide bombing and the loss of innocent civilians on both sides. But he attacked Israel for its latest military escalation which killed 21 Palestinians from April 7-9.
The bloodshed and Hamas' hard-line stance could set the stage for harsh Israeli reprisals and endanger Hamas' efforts to secure desperately needed international aid and acceptance.
Israel said it held Hamas responsible for the attack in Tel Aviv even though a separate group, Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility. Islamic Jihad has close ties to Israel's archenemy, Iran.
"Hamas' constant preaching for the destruction of Israel serves as a catalyst for these attacks," said David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman.
In an initial response, Israeli aircraft attacked an empty metal workshop in Gaza City early Tuesday, causing no injuries. The army said the workshop was used by the Popular Resistance Committee's militant group to manufacture homemade rockets to launch at Israel.
The Palestinian suicide attack took place just two hours before Israel's newly elected parliament was sworn into office, and Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert said Israel would react with appropriate means.
The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the rival
Fatah party, condemned the suicide bombing and said he had ordered Palestinian security forces to prevent future attacks.
"These kinds of attacks harm the Palestinian interest, and we as an authority and government must move to stop it," Abbas said. "We will not stop pursuing anyone who carries out such attacks."
But Abbas is currently in a power struggle with Hamas, and it remains unclear who is ultimately in charge of the Palestinians' security forces.
The
European Union condemned the bombing, and Russia called on the Palestinian Authority to stop future attacks. U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan told the Palestinian government "to take a clear public stand" against such acts. And the United States warned of grave consequences for the Hamas-led government.
Despite the suicide bombing, Annan announced later Monday that the four key players promoting Mideast peace efforts the
United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia would meet in New York on May 9 to discuss prospects for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The bombing was the first inside Israel since the Hamas Cabinet took office 2 1/2 weeks ago. Militants from Islamic Jihad celebrated by handing out pastries on the streets of Gaza.
The attack came amid a sharp increase in fighting between Israel and the Palestinians across the Gaza border. Militants have fired barrages of homemade rockets at Israel, and Israel has responded with artillery fire.
The suicide bombing took place about 1:40 p.m. when the attacker, carrying a bag stuffed with 10 pounds of explosives, approached "The Mayor's Falafel" near Tel Aviv's central bus station. The restaurant, which had been the target of a January bombing, was packed with Israelis on vacation during the weeklong Passover holiday.
A guard outside was checking the bomber's bag when the device exploded, police and witnesses said.
"Suddenly there was a boom. The whole restaurant flew in the air," said Azi Otmazgo, 35, who was wounded on his hands, foot and head.
The bomb, laced with nails and other projectiles, shattered car windshields, smashed windows of nearby buildings and blew away the restaurant's sign. Blood splattered the ground. Police said the guard's body was torn in half.
The explosion killed a woman standing near her husband and children, said Israel Yaakov, another witness.
"The father was traumatized, he went into shock. He ran to the children to gather them up, and the children were screaming, 'Mom! Mom!' and she wasn't answering, she was dead already," he said.
The wounded were treated on sidewalks. One man was lying on his side, his shirt pushed up and his back covered by bandages. A bleeding woman was wheeled away on a stretcher.
Police said nine civilians and the bomber were killed and dozens were wounded.
The attack was the deadliest since a double suicide bombing on two buses in the southern city of Beersheba killed 16 people on Aug. 31, 2004. It was the second major Passover bombing in four years. A 2002 attack at a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya killed 29 people and triggered a major Israeli military offensive.
Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in recent years, has largely observed a 16-month truce with Israel, but Hamas leaders defended Monday's bombing.
"We think that this operation ... is a direct result of the policy of the occupation and the brutal aggression and siege committed against our people," said Khaled Abu Helal, spokesman for the Hamas-led Interior Ministry.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav appealed to the Palestinians to reject violence.
"We want to believe that the political path of the Hamas government is not the path of the Palestinians," he said.
Islamic Jihad identified the bomber as Samer Hammad, 21, from a village outside the West Bank town of Jenin.
In a video released by the group, Hammad said the bombing was dedicated to the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. "There are many other bombers on the way," he said, wearing an Islamic Jihad headband.
Islamic Jihad was behind eight of the nine suicide bombings since the truce declaration.
The attack complicated the Hamas effort to raise money for the bankrupt Palestinian treasury. Hamas is two weeks late paying March salaries for the government's 140,000 workers.
The U.S. and European Union cut off aid to the government because Hamas refused their demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel also stopped transferring tens of millions of tax dollars it collects on the Palestinians' behalf every month.
Hamas said it would turn to Muslim countries to make up the shortfall. Iran and Qatar each pledged $50 million to the Palestinian Authority.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:59 ||
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#1
Israel's choices = America's choices = NATO/West's choices = Democracy/DemoCapitalism's chices - EITHER CONCEDE AND SURRENDER; OR BE DESTROYED. The MSM and anti-American US-Internat community may want the US-West to believe its "politics as usual", but it is NOT. Methinks that, as for America, the power-mad desperate Failed/Angry Left will give Israel up to Year 2015-2020 to adopt Socialism = Communism, or Israel will be destroyed like America, by any and all means necessary, legal and illegal, from within andor the without, by MAD nuke war iff need be. VICHY TEL AVIV = VICHY WASHINGTON - either emplace a pro-Socialist, pro-OWG/SWO, pro-Asia local gummermint, or its "total war", where Rommel's, etal. panzers will take over and lay waste to all of France = USA, Israel, etc. instead of only part(s) of it.
#3
Just announce that the declarations of war have been received and "it's on".
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/18/2006 10:08 Comments ||
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#4
The Palestinian U.N. observer, Riyad Mansour, condemned Monday's suicide bombing and the loss of innocent civilians on both sides.
How in the world can I get one of these cushy UN jobs? The loss of innocent civilians on both sides, Senor Mansour? Uh, what part of a suicide bomber is freakin' innocent??? Gawd, there truly is no hope for the UN, is there?
Posted by: BA ||
04/18/2006 10:21 Comments ||
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#6
Despite the fact that the Arab Muslims adhere to a religion, Islam, that commands them to destroy the Jews and all other non-Muslims, the Jews have spent the past one hundred years dreaming about peace and co-existence with their Nazi neighbors.
INDONESIAN authorities fear supporters of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir may attack foreigners when death row Bali bomber Amrozi makes a rare court appearance on Bashir's behalf tomorrow.
Amrozi nicknamed the "smiling assassin" because he laughed at the carnage caused by the 2002 Bali bombs will appear under heavy police guard in Cilacap court in south Java to help Bashir's lawyers push for a review of the cleric's terror conviction.
The appearance may the last in public before Amrozi is executed by firing squad.
The Cilacap court is close to the maximum security Nusakambangan island prison, dubbed "Indonesia's Alcatraz".
It is there that Amrozi and two co-conspirators Imam Samudra and older brother Ali Gufron are awaiting execution for masterminding the deadly attack.
More than 30 police will be on guard when Amrozi is driven to the court in an armoured car early tomorrow morning after making the short trip by ferry from the prison island.
Scores of former students from Bashir's Ngruki Islamic boarding college which has been denounced as a finishing school for terrorists live in the Cilacap area.
Prison officials fear they may gather in force and attack foreign court observers.
"We will have a police intelligence officer assigned to every foreigner," a senior court official said.
"We have to make sure that each foreigner is safe." Bashir was sentenced last March to 30 months in prison for his involvement in the conspiracy that led to the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians among 202 victims.
But prosecutors relied heavily on testimony from another prisoner jailed for his role in the bombings, Mubarok, who told authorities that he and Amrozi met Bashir at the cleric's home two months before the attack.
When told about the bomb plans in his role as "emir" or spiritual head of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group, Mubarok said Bashir told the pair: "It's up to you. You are the ones who know the situation on the ground".
Amrozi signed an affidavit early last year denying this was ever said.
Bashir's lawyer Ahmad Michdan said Amrozi's statement in court would be used as evidence of Bashir's innocence to be given to the peak Supreme Court in Jakarta.
"Ustadz (honoured cleric) Bashir was detained based on this," Mr Michdan said.
"If it's not true, then it's illegal to detain Ustadz." Bashir has always denied any involvement in terrorism.
Although he has only a small base of supporters, he has won sympathy from some senior Indonesians with his claims of persecution due to foreign meddling and because he campaigns for Indonesia to become a strict Islamic state.
Australia and the US have publicly accused him of being a key militant leader.
The US Treasury last week declared Bashir was a terrorist and said any bank accounts or other financial assets held by Bashir and found in the US would be frozen.
Bashir's aide Fauzan Al-Ansory, said the accusations were malicious slander and a "dirty trick aimed at making up reasons for re-arrest".
Mr Michdan said Bashir's impending release from jail in June was unimportant, because his reputation was at stake.
"It's never too late," he said.
"Ustadz Abu has been constantly challenging the case against him since he was arrested.
"This just shows he respects the legal system even though he was tortured." The Malaysian-born Bashir was arrested a week after the 2002 bombings but escaped terrorism charges and was instead jailed for minor immigration offences.
Police, citing fresh evidence, rearrested him in April 2004 amid rioting by his supporters outside the Jakarta jail where Bashir completed his sentence.
Amrozi, Samudra and Mukhlas last week moved closer to the firing squad when their families ruled out asking Indonesia's President for clemency.
The three were moved to Nusakambangan last year for security reasons after thousands of Balinese demanded their immediate execution following triple suicide bombings.
THE al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiah terror group planned to bomb a big power plant in the east of Java island last year.
According to an Indonesian security source, JI leader Noordin Mohamed Top plotted to blow up the Paiton coal-fired thermal power plant about 150km southeast of Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city.
Japanese, British and US companies have invested in the plant.
The source said JI was also investigating whether citizens of the US and its allies were working at the plant.
It is the first report of a terrorist attack having been planned by JI against Japanese-related facilities.
The plot is believed to have been aimed at throwing the region into confusion by causing a large-scale blackout on Java. Noordin ordered JI members to stake out the plant, the source said.
Two JI members who were arrested on suspicion of harbouring Noordin and are on trial told local prosecutors they were ordered to check whether foreign citizens, including Americans, worked at the plant.
Top masterminded the suicide bombings on Bali last October which killed 20 people.
He is believed to have picked the power plant as a target because it is capitalised and operated by foreign companies.
But the attack was eventually aborted because JI could not make bombs powerful enough to disable the plant, according to the source.
The security authorities found that Noordin also had his subordinates check whether Japanese and US consulates-general were located exactly where they were shown on a map JI had.
A security official warned that Japanese citizens should be aware of the dangers in the area.
The planned attack on the plant shows that JI is targeting Japanese companies' interests.
The source said Noordin was expanding terrorism targets to non-Muslims in general.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 01:13 ||
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#1
A Java power plant? Shouldn't they be implementing these in C++ or something?
(We now return you to our regular, non-geeky commentary)
TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Bush refused on Tuesday to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions. Bush said in Washington he would discuss Iran's nuclear activities with China's President Hu Jintao this week and avoided ruling out nuclear retaliation if diplomatic efforts fail. Asked if options included planning for a nuclear strike, Bush replied: "All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we're working hard to do so."
Speculation about a U.S. attack has mounted since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that Washington was mulling the option of using tactical nuclear weapons to knock out Iran's subterranean nuclear sites.
The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking atom bombs, was expected to push for targeted sanctions against Tehran when it meets the U.N. Security Council's other permanent members -- Britain, France, China and Russia -- plus Germany in Moscow. Russia and China oppose sanctions and the use of force.
Deputy foreign ministers from the six nations are meeting ahead of an end-April deadline for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on whether Iran is complying with U.N. demands that it halt uranium enrichment. Balance at the link.
Of all the claims that Iran made last week about its nuclear program, a one-sentence assertion by its president has provoked such surprise and concern among international nuclear inspectors they are planning to confront Tehran about it this week.
The assertion involves Iran's claim that even while it begins to enrich small amounts of uranium, it is pursuing a far more sophisticated way of making atomic fuel that American officials and inspectors say could speed Iran's path to developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran has consistently maintained that it abandoned work on this advanced technology, called the P-2 centrifuge, three years ago. Western analysts long suspected that Iran had a second, secret program based on the black market offerings of the renegade Pakistani nuclear engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan separate from the activity at its main nuclear facility at Natanz. But they had no proof.
Then on Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Tehran was "presently conducting research" on the P-2 centrifuge, boasting that it would quadruple Iran's enrichment powers. The centrifuges are tall, thin machines that spin very fast to enrich, or concentrate, uranium's rare component, uranium 235, which can fuel nuclear reactors or atom bombs.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements, and those of other senior Iranian officials, are always viewed with suspicion by American and international nuclear experts, because Iran has, at various times, understated nuclear activities that were later discovered, and overstated its capabilities. Analysts and American intelligence officials, bruised by their experience in Iraq, say they are uncertain whether Mr. Ahmadinejad's claim represents a real technical advance that could accelerate Iran's nuclear agenda, or political rhetoric meant to convince the world of the unstoppability of its atomic program.
European diplomats said a delegation of Iranian officials is due to arrive on Tuesday in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency will press them to address the new enrichment claim, as well as other questions about Iran's program, including a crude bomb design found in the country.
"This is a much better machine," a European diplomat said of the advanced centrifuge, which was a centerpiece of Pakistan's efforts to build its nuclear weapons and was found in 2004 in Libya, when that country gave up its nuclear program. The diplomat added that the Iranians, among other questions, will now have to explain whether Mr. Ahmadinejad was right, and if so, whether they recently restarted the abandoned program or have been pursuing it in secret for years.
If Iran moved beyond research and actually began running the machines, it could force American intelligence agencies to revise their estimates of how long it would take for Iran to build an atom bomb an event they now put somewhere between 2010 and 2015.
Robert Joseph, the Bush administration's under secretary of state for arms control and international security, who is known as one of the administration's hawks, said in an interview on Saturday that President Ahmadinejad's claim constituted "the first time I've ever heard the Iranians admit" to have a significant effort on the advanced technology. Iran, Mr. Joseph added, "has never come clean on this program, and now its president is talking about it."
The new claim focuses renewed attention on Iran's rocky relationship with Mr. Khan, who provided it with much of the enrichment technology it is exploiting today. If Mr. Ahmadinejad's claim is correct, it probably indicates that relationship went on longer and far deeper than previously acknowledged. Mr. Khan and his nuclear black market supplied Iran with blueprints for both the more elementary machine, known as P-1, and the more advanced P-2.
There are other indications that Mr. Khan may have been dealing with Iran as recently as six years ago. President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan disclosed recently that he fired Dr. Khan, a national hero credited with developing Pakistan's bomb, in 2001 after discovering that he was trying to arrange a secret flight to the Iranian city of Zahedan, known as a center of smuggling.
Dr. Khan refused to discuss the flight, saying it was important and very secret. "I said, 'What the hell do you mean? You want to keep a secret from me?' " Mr. Musharraf recalled in an interview with The New York Times for a Discovery Times television documentary, "Nuclear Jihad."
"So these are the things which led me to very concrete suspicions," Mr. Musharraf said, "and we removed him."
Last year, Pakistan said its investigation into the Khan network was closed. But the Iranian crisis has led to renewed questioning of Dr. Khan, American intelligence officials and European diplomats say.
So far his answers have been vague, investigators say. Iran, for its part, has said virtually nothing about its P-2 program. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, an arms analysis group in London, said in a report last year that Iran's failure to provide more information about its P-2 program led many analysts to suspect that the advanced centrifuges formed "the nucleus of a secret enrichment program."
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private research group in Washington that monitors the Iranian program, said Mr. Ahmadinejad's declaration, whether political rhetoric or technical reality, now gave the world "something to further investigate and worry about."
Tehran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and meant for producing nuclear power.
But the Bush administration argues otherwise. "A. Q. Khan was not in the business of civil nuclear power development," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview for the documentary. "Why, if you only intended a civil nuclear program, would you have lied about activities at Natanz?" Later she added, "Why are they still unwilling to answer some of the questions that the I.A.E.A. has?"
The P-2 mystery began years ago when Iran told international inspectors that it had received plans for the advanced centrifuges around 1994 but had done nothing with them until 2002, when it hired an Iranian contractor to try to make the complex machines.
The P-2, a second-generation Pakistani model, was the most advanced centrifuge sold by Dr. Khan's network. With superstrong rotors, it could spin faster and enrich uranium faster.
Iran repeatedly denied receiving any P-2 centrifuges from Dr. Khan, which would greatly ease the making of duplicates. Moreover, it said it did no research on the production of the advanced centrifuges between 1995 and 2002 because of management changes in its nuclear program and a lack of skilled personnel.
In report after report, the I.A.E.A. has questioned that explanation. For instance, last September it said the Iranian contractor, who allegedly first saw the P-2 plans in 2002, made considerable research progress "within a short period," which seemed to undermine Iran's claim of doing no past research.
Iran said that the research failed to produce operating machines and that it ended the experimental P-2 work in 2003 and instead focused on the easier P-1 design.
But scraps of evidence gathered by the international agency and the accounts of some members of the Khan network have cast doubt on those denials. As recently as last Thursday, when the director general of the agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, visited Tehran, he insisted on detailed answers during a private meeting, diplomats briefed on the meeting said.
Suspicions arose because inspectors knew that Dr. Khan had supplied Libya and North Korea with actual P-2 centrifuges in the late 1990's, and they repeatedly heard that he had done likewise with Iran.
B. S .A. Tahir, the chief operating officer of the Khan network, now in prison in Malaysia, has reportedly said that Iran received far more P-2 technology than it has admitted and that some shipments took place after Dr. Khan and the Iranians supposedly ceased doing business around 1995.
Speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, just hours after Mr. Ahmadinejad's claim, senior intelligence officials said they had seen nothing yet that would lead them to revise their estimate that Iran is still five to 10 years away from making a weapon.
Kenneth C. Brill, the director of the National Counterproliferation Center, created to track programs like Iran's and North Korea's, cautioned against accepting at face value Tehran's recent claims about producing enriched uranium and plans to produce 54,000 centrifuges.
"It will take many years," he said, "to build that many."
At the same time, intelligence reports circulating inside the American government, according to several officials who were granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, have raised questions of whether the Iranian government's decision to boast about its progress is part of an effort to hide more significant activity.
They suspect that a clandestine program, if it exists, would concentrate on the P-2 because it can produce enriched uranium so fast.
I.A.E.A. officials say solving the mystery of the P-2 shipments has become one of the most critical issues on which they need answers in the next two weeks, before Mr. ElBaradei issues a report to the United Nations Security Council on April 28.
Other pressing questions include Iran's reluctance to discuss a document found by inspectors one that the Iranians were not willing to let the inspectors take out of the country that sketches out how to shape uranium into perfect spheres, the tell-tale shape for a primitive weapon. Investigators say that document, too, appears to have come from the Khan network.
It is also unclear whether Dr. Khan sold the Iranians a complete Chinese-made bomb design similar to the one Libya turned over to the United States when it gave up its weapons program. Questions about other copies of the bomb design have been met with silence, in Iran and in Pakistan.
"Frankly, I don't know whether he has passed these bomb designs to others," Mr. Musharraf said. Even under a loose form of house arrest for the past two years, he said, Dr. Khan "sometimes has been hiding the facts."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 01:17 ||
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SOSDD. This is the kind of crap Saddam was pulling. It's almost impossible to make an survey of what is actually going on except to say "something."
Iran is making it's self the same kind of bed Iraq did. There must be a curse on the two countries.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/18/2006 4:07 Comments ||
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Although the US is resisting pressure to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions through direct talks with Tehran, rather than sanctions or military strikes, it still intends to meet senior Iranian officials for discussions on Iraq at which it will demand an end to Iranian meddling, according to Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad.
He is to head the US team at face-to-face talks, which will be the first formal diplomatic meeting between the two countries since the Islamic revolution in 1979 and are expected to open in Baghdad shortly.
Leading Republican and Democratic senators have urged the Bush administration to engage Iran in full-scale talks, but in an interview with the Guardian Mr Khalilzad made it clear that the talks would be limited to Iraq. The US wanted Iran to halt aid to Iraq's sectarian militias, and stop smuggling al-Qaida fighters and weapons across the border, he said.
He criticised Iranian "negative propaganda". "The Shias have been the main beneficiaries of this change, yet Iran has been very critical of the liberation and the liberators," he said. "A lot of media in Iran exaggerate the problems here ... They are inciting people against the forces that have come to liberate Iraq."
The talks with Iran have the backing of Iraqi leaders, who also insist on their own representation at the table. "We have no objection," Mr Khalilzad told the Guardian. "We're not going to negotiate on behalf of Iraq." The talks were put on hold until Iraq had a new government because "in this part of the world people always think in great conspiracy theories ... We didn't want people here to think that the Iranians and the Americans are together deciding on the Iraqi government."
Concern over Iran's nuclear intentions was heightened yesterday with the publication of new satellite photographs of its uranium conversion plant at Isfahan and its uranium enrichment complex at Natanz, showing evidence of new tunnels and underground facilities.
The satellite images were analysed by the Institute for Science and International Security, an independent nuclear watchdog group. "They seem to be burrowing away like crazy," said its president, David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector. "Taking out the nuclear weapons programme in Iran seems to be nearly impossible. They have so many underground sites now, you don't know what to hit ... The times for military strikes that could have taken out the weapons programme are gone."
Mr Albright and Paul Brannan, an expert on the nuclear black market, said the new tunnel at Isfahan was the third at the site. "Mounds of earth can also be found next to the new entrance, suggestive of recent excavation," they wrote in an analysis of the photographs. "This new tunnel entrance is indicative of a new underground facility or the further expansion of the existing one."
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iranian scientists are "presently conducting research" on an advanced centrifuge that would quadruple the country's capacity to enrich uranium. This would add weight to suspicions that Iran has a parallel, covert nuclear programme built around technology provided by the renegade Pakistani nuclear engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan.
At the forthcoming talks, the US envoy will speak to the Iranians in their own language. Mr Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan in 1951 and his mother tongue is Dari, which differs little from Farsi. The third US overlord in Baghdad since the invasion, Mr Khalilzad is considered the most successful. As a Muslim, educated in Beirut, he understands local culture. But in a constant reminder of the risks he runs, he keeps a tailor's dummy draped with his flak jacket and helmet in his office.
Mr Khalilzad is a neo-con who felt the US should have toppled Saddam Hussein after expelling him from Kuwait in 1991. His technique for countering the fall in support for the war in US opinion polls is to offer lurid scenarios for what might happen "if we were to leave prematurely before Iraq can stand on its own feet".
"One danger would be that the effort by terrorists to provoke sectarian conflict could escalate and produce circumstances in which regional states could be sucked in on one side or the other."
The second scenario was of "al-Qaida taking over part of Iraq, such as Anbar province, to found a 'mini-Talibistan'". What al-Qaida did in remote, poverty-stricken Afghanistan would seem like "child's play compared to what they could do given Iraq's location and resources".
The third risk would arise if Iraq imploded into sectarian war. "The Kurds may take matters into their own hands, saying, 'Look, Iraq isn't going to work, we'd better look after ourselves'. There are territorial disputes with a constitutional path to resolve them. They may say, 'Aha, no, it can't be resolved that way,' and from that Kurdish scenario regional powers could also be drawn in."
Without spelling it out, Mr Khalilzad is suggesting the Kurds might grab the oil-rich region of Kirkuk, which could then prompt intervention by the Turkish army to protect the local Turkoman population.
Mr Khalilzad acknowledges that the militias are now killing more people than the Sunni insurgents. "I don't want it to come across as though we want to disarm the Shias and let Sunnis have arms," he said. "Or vice versa," he quickly added.
Before the war, the neo-cons touted the benefits of regional democratisation that would flow from toppling Saddam. Mr Khalilzad now talks in terms of damage limitation: leaving Iraq would cost more than staying. It is a significant change. Whatever people felt about the invasion, he insists, "the fact that we came to liberate this country gives us a moral responsibility to make it work now". Iraq is going through "a difficult patch", but "we don't have the choice of disengaging".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 01:05 ||
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#1
Nuthing bets handwringing like NY Slimes handwringing.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/18/2006 18:17 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Fuad Siniora headed to Washington on Monday for a meeting with US President George W. Bush where he was expected to seek American political and economic support for Lebanon's efforts to extend its authority over all Lebanese territory and revive the war-shattered economy.
Siniora, a member of the anti-Syrian majority coalition, will be in the United States for four days and was invited by the American leader.
Ahead of the US trip, Hizbollah officials warned Siniora against making commitments to Washington regarding disarmament of the organisation. Accompanied by the ministers of finance, economy, justice and foreign affairs, Siniora was scheduled to meet Bush at the White House on Tuesday. He will also hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials before meeting in New York with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Saniora's talks with Bush and Annan will focus on a 2004 UN Security Council resolution that called for the Shiite Muslim Hizbollah group and Palestinian fighters in Lebanon to disarm and a UN investigation into last year's assassination offormer prime minister Rafiq Hariri. "Prime Minister Saniora will ask President Bush for political support to help the Lebanese government in asserting its authority over all Lebanese territory," a government official, close to Siniora, told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters.
The official said Saniora particularly wanted the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to vacate the Shebaa Farms, a disputed parcel of territory where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet. "An Israeli withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms will help the Lebanese government to extend its authority in the border area," the official said.
Only problem with that is that Syria has to formally renounce its claim to Shebaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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The official said Saniora particularly wanted the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to vacate the Shebaa Farms
I'm hoping, probably foolishly, that Bush has learned his lesson about Arab democracies.
Iran's top nuclear official has vowed that the clerical regime would press on with uranium enrichment work despite mounting international pressure to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities. "Why should Iran suspend its research activities?" Ali Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Enrichment can be extended from making reactor fuel to the production of warheads, but Larijani branded a UN Security Council demand for a suspension by April 28 as "not rational".
"One should not follow such propositions... which are not rational," he said, adding: "Iran will follow its nuclear programme with patience." Last Tuesday, Iran announced it had successfully enriched uranium to the level needed for reactor fuel, reigniting fears that the hardline regime would soon acquire the technical know-how to make bombs. The deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saidi, argued that the UN nuclear watchdog had failed to find any proof that Iran's programme was anything other than a legitimate effort to generate electricity. "Therefore, there is no need to continue a suspension," he told the Etemad-Melli newspaper. "These countries have to accept the reality and realise they are talking with a country that masters this tech
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2006 00:00 ||
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IRAN'S influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says the Islamic republic's Gulf neighbours will not support any United States assault on his country over its nuclear program.
"We are certain that Gulf countries will not back the United States in waging an attack on Iran," Mr Rafsanjani said on the second day of a visit to Kuwait aimed at allaying fears in the region over Iran's nuclear activities.
"The talk about a US attack on Iran is nonsense and we are sure the Americans would not want to create problems for themselves."
Mr Rafsanjani also called on neighbouring and other Muslim countries to stand by Iran and warned that any attack on Iran would have implications on the rest of the region.
"All neighbouring and Muslim states should defend and stand by Iran. Any attack on Iran would have implications on the region. The best way to avoid this is by not attacking Iran," he said.
Mr Rafsanjani, who heads Iran's powerful Expediency Council, vowed that Tehran would continue the enrichment of uranium.
"Iran wants to continue its activities in this field and does not intend to suspend the enrichment of uranium," he said, adding that the Iranian people were not afraid of American threats.
Mr Rafsanjani met Kuwaiti deputies after holding talks with emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
After the talks, Sheikh Sabah expressed cautious hope that Iran's nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, the official KUNA news agency reported.
"The state of Kuwait is cautious regarding the nuclear matters. We hope that what is going on in Iran is for peaceful and not military purposes," the emir said.
#1
IOW, they demand, DEMAND D*** YOU, to be taken over by the future Iranian empire = Global Muslim State, be it voluntarily or forcibly. SIGH-H-H, SO MANY GOD-BASED LEFTIES-BOLSHEVIKS-MARXISTS, SO LITTLE YOGURT!?
#2
IRAN'S influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says the Islamic republic's Gulf neighbours will not support any United States assault on his country over its nuclear program.
"We are certain that Gulf countries will not back the United States in waging an attack on Iran," Mr Rafsanjani said on the second day of a visit to Kuwait aimed at allaying fears in the region over Iran's nuclear activities.
#4
The one BIG mistake that Rumsfeld and Bush made in dealing with Iraq was NOT using an ARCLIGHT strike on Tikrit. It would have sent so many useful messages to so many people. I would have preferred a 30-ship cell, pickling at 1/2-second intervals in a 6-wide front, with waves 5 minutes apart. We wouldn't be having any problems with the Sunnis, Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia after that. Nor would we have any problem with Tikrit - it would have ceased to exist, both politically and physically.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/18/2006 20:28 Comments ||
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A lengthy message from Abu Yehia al-Libi was recently posted to the password-protected al-Qaeda affiliated forum, al-Safanat, in which the mujahid discusses Hamas as a political entity and its perceived failure to adhere to Islamic and jihadist principles. He argues that Hamas has fell into the same predicament as the Palestinian Authority and Fatah before it, adhering to an Arafat doctrine, which entails constant travel and meetings with infidels to mete agreements and understandings for the purpose of a national good. Al-Libi states that due to these credo-related and legislative and practical transgression, Hamas has sentenced itself to death and dug its grave with its own hands, handing its neck over to the butchers and setting itself deliberately on the path to self-destruction.
In the message al-Libi extrapolates Hamas political entry to indicate a stabbing with a poisoned dagger of the armed jihadi struggles in Palestine. He predicts that the military wing of the organization will find itself choked and suffocated by the political machinations of Hamas, and inevitably, this will lead to its rebellion against the leaders. In addition to this portent, al-Libi writes of four perversions and corrupt behaviors that have appeared through Hamas, including: its entering into an infidel legislative council, which is anathema in Islam, and Hamas granting legitimacy to such a council due to its presence. Abu Yehia al-Libi states: Hamas is truly a Muslim movement then its first mission and its biggest issue is to show the monotheistic nature of Allah and show the true nature of tyranny in all of its forms and show it to the people so that they may avoid it.
Al-Libi continues to attack Hamas for not making Islamic law and creed paramount to all other concerns, and giving back the Arab tyrants their place and position and repair their crumbling thrones and renewing their people's faith in them. He further alleges that Hamas has exposed themselves and showing their obvious and hidden deceit to destroy the Palestinian people for the survival of Israel at the cost of taxes in the form of blood, body parts, arrests and forced immigration.
Abu Yehia al-Libi escaped from the U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, the main prison for Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan, in July 2005, with three other detainees.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:53 ||
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Osama bin Laden and his top deputy remain at large, but the Bush administration's top counterterrorism coordinator says the international manhunt has limited their effectiveness.
Retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told The Washington Times that al Qaeda's "central" leader bin Laden and No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri have been forced to limit their communications and public exposure after U.S. troops "drained the swamp" of terrorists in Afghanistan in 2001.
"To say the obvious, if you want to go hide somewhere in a very difficult area of the world where you have some friends and some support, you can do a pretty good job if you don't communicate and if you basically stay out of the limelight," Adm. Redd said.
He noted that abortion-clinic bomber Eric Rudolph hid from authorities for five years until his capture in 2003 -- "and that was in the United States."
Adm. Redd said the capture of both bin Laden and al-Zawahri is "clearly important from the standpoint of symbolism."
"We're clearly still putting the pressure on the al Qaeda central leadership, and what you're seeing is the result of that," Adm. Redd said, noting that bin Laden was absent from public view all of last year and issued a statement earlier this year.
"Zawahri is a little more communicative, but just like every time you stick your head up, you're putting yourself in more danger," he said of the Egyptian-born terrorist.
Adm. Redd is directly involved in coordinating U.S. military, intelligence, diplomatic and other activities in what he called a long "generational" war against terrorism. The center was established in 2004 in a newly refurbished high-security office building near Tysons Corner and has set up a central intelligence database of 200,000 terrorists and 300,000 intelligence reports.
The effort to get al Qaeda leaders involves international teams of special operations commandos and intelligence personnel and other forces and personnel. U.S. intelligence officials think both al Qaeda leaders are hiding in a remote area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Still, several top al Qaeda members have been captured or killed. The latest was Mohsin Musa Matawalli Atwah, a bomb maker killed last week in a Pakistani military raid.
"Being in the top of echelons of al Qaeda is a pretty dangerous place to be," Adm. Redd said.
Al Qaeda's central group has "morphed" into a new group with the addition 18 months ago of the Iraq-based group founded by Abu Musab Zarqawi, he said. Additionally, the United States is battling a third strain of Islamic terrorists, who are homegrown and not directly affiliated with al Qaeda, such as the British-based terrorists who attacked the London transit system last year, he said.
Adm. Redd is President Bush's senior coordinator for strategic planning and operations in the war on terrorism and serves as the senior counterterrorism intelligence director for Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/18/2006 00:44 ||
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IOW, Zarqey = HAMAS = MadMoud = Norkies Kim > beat the incessant Male Brute Fascist drums of war and mayhem, while all the while Motherly Russia-CHina = FATAH = Hillary-Dems = stay so RINO-ish, CINO-ish, and USA = anti-USA super-PC!?
They've all been GORBY-ized and Russified.
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.
Russia and China are opposing proposed United Nations Security Council sanctions against four Sudanese officials over their role in the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, US Ambassador John Bolton said. Last week the Security Council's sanctions committee began a 48-hour silence procedure which, unless broken by a Council member, would mean approval of sanctions against four unidentified Sudanese officials deemed to be impeding the peace process and violating international human rights law. The procedure ends at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) Monday. 
The Chadian government accused neighbouring Sudan of forming a new rebel army to attack the country, but withdrew a threat to expel 200,000 refugees from the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. It also gained key tacit support from the United States as one source suggested the Khartoum regime might have been involved in an attack on Chad and the State Department issued a pointed warning to Sudan against any such move in the future. 
DOHA: Staunch US ally Qatar said on Monday it would give $50 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority despite calls from Washington and European Union to halt funding unless the Hamas-led government recognises Israel. The Gulf Arab state, which hosted the command centre for the US military in the 2003 Iraq war, said the aid decision "stems from Qatar's support for the Palestinian people". A Foreign Ministry official told the state-owned news agency part of the money was Qatar's contribution to the $55 million a month pledged by Arab leaders to Hamas at a March summit.
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- A clinical psychologist who has studied 
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that a case be filed under section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against the cartoonist, foreign newspapers, publishers and local government officials, including the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman, on the issue of blasphemous cartoons. The police should register the petitioners case under section 295C of the PPC in the jurisdiction where the petitioner resides, said the chief justice while ruling on a petition moved by Maulvi Iqbal Haider, the 
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and South Africa on Monday agreed to reinforce cooperation in areas of defence and military training. An understanding to this effect was reached between Pakistani Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and visiting South African Deputy Defence Minister M. George in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, an official statement here said. "Iqbal briefed George on the capability and potential of the Pakistani defence industry and equipment, including lightweight aircraft, tanks, naval frigates and armoured personnel carriers, being produced in the country," said the statement. 
Saddam Hussein's defence lawyer Monday challenged findings of handwriting experts verifying the former president's signature on documents linked to a crackdown on Shiites and demanded a review by international specialists except from Iran or Israel. 
Palestinian militant groups demanded an apology Tuesday from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for condemning Monday's deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, in their harshest criticism yet of the moderate leader over his stand on violence. The criticism, including from armed groups within Abbas' own Fatah party, underscored a growing debate among Palestinians over the use of violence against Israel. 
Prime Minister 
Iran's top nuclear official has vowed that the clerical regime would press on with uranium enrichment work despite mounting international pressure to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities. "Why should Iran suspend its research activities?" Ali Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Enrichment can be extended from making reactor fuel to the production of warheads, but Larijani branded a UN Security Council demand for a suspension by April 28 as "not rational". 
