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Morocco holds 13 suspected Jihadist group members
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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Afghanistan
'Pakistan must not harbour Taliban'
Pakistan must be persuaded not to harbour the Taliban so that the explosive situation that now exists on its shared border with Afghanistan can be brought under control and stability can come to the region, according to a panel of experts.

The experts - Marvin Weinbaum, Steve Coll, James Dobbins, Bruce Riedel and Col Richard Giguere - were on a panel organised at the two-day annual conference of the Middle East Institute at the National Press Club on Monday to discuss Afghanistan, Pakistan and regional stability.

Weinbaum, who moderated the discussion, said Afghanistan put the entire blame for regional instability on Pakistan, which, for its own part, is witnessing some disconcerting developments domestically, both for Gen Pervez Musharraf and the military. There is an insurgency in Balochistan, while in the tribal areas there is a “state within a state”. The US-Pakistan relationship is fragile in character and it is unclear if elections in the country next years would throw up a legitimate government or how the issue of Gen Musharraf’s uniform would be resolved. It is also uncertain how exactly he would be elected president. The destinies of Pakistan and Afghanistan are closely related; if one were destabilised, the other would be affected. Stability, therefore, is essential not only in the regional interest but in the global interest as well.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Stability meme.

I just love experts. Sheesh.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  bad talib! no AK! , sheeesh
Posted by: expert || 11/16/2006 12:26 Comments || Top||

#3  But, but, Perv said it's Afganistans's fault! Hmmm...who to believe...
Posted by: Spot || 11/16/2006 13:38 Comments || Top||

#4  But...what if they do????
Experts?

it is unclear if elections in the country next years would throw up a legitimate government or how the issue of Gen Musharraf’s uniform would be resolved.

I say even more sashes and sprockets. But I'm not an "expert".
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 16:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Graphics Note: Am I the only one who wants to trigger that rocket launcher while that Taleban asshole is standing in front of it?
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 17:31 Comments || Top||

#6  It would take out the fore-turban too.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 17:45 Comments || Top||

#7  TWO-FER!
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 20:28 Comments || Top||

#8  I think tu3031 has coined a new 3rd world meme: "sashes and sprockets"
Posted by: Spot || 11/16/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali Islamists dismiss UN report as 'fabrication'
Somalia’s powerful Islamists on Wednesday dismissed as “fabrication” a UN report which says they are receiving military support from seven African and Middle Eastern nations and international Islamic militants. An advance copy of the 80-page report to the UN Security Council, obtained by Reuters, paints a detailed picture of foreign interests it says are allied both to Somalia’s interim government and its Islamist rivals. Written by four security experts from the United States, Kenya, Belgium and Colombia, it says at least seven nations are providing arms and military supplies to the Islamists, who aim to rule the anarchic nation through sharia, Islamic law. It says three are arming the weak but Western-backed government.

“This is very much a fabrication and doesn’t have any credibility,” Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on a UN list of al Qaeda associates, told Reuters. “The UN will lose its credibility by releasing this kind of report and by the way they collect information,” he said. The Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June from US-backed warlords and now dominate a swathe of south-central Somalia, are vying with the government for control of the Horn of Africa nation. A third round of peace talks in Sudan between the two sides failed two weeks ago and many fear war could spread around the Horn and possibly further south into Kenya and beyond. The primary violators of a widely ignored 1992 arms ban on Somalia, the report says, are Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are respectively backing the government and Islamists.

More: al-Guardian reports on the UN report.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A diplomatic source who follows Somalia and asked not to be named said he feared the 80-page report could become a "very useful propaganda tool" for hawks in the west.

A tool for the hawks? From the UN?

That's not a 'Fabrication', that's a fantasy.

Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 6:24 Comments || Top||

#2  The UN protecting Islamic terrorists. Those shit heads hate the west so much, burning down their own house.
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  The UN will lose its credibility

Too late.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/16/2006 16:18 Comments || Top||


UN dithers mulls central Africa force as Darfur woes spread
The United Nations is considering deploying a protection force on Sudan's western borders with Chad and Central African Republic as hundreds more refugees spill over from its Darfur region. Violence in Darfur, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in political and ethnic conflict since 2003, has spread to the two central African countries, which have both called for the deployment of international peacekeepers.

"We are convinced that the deterioration in the situation in Chad and in Central African Republic could require the deployment of a peacekeeping mission," Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, told BBC radio. A U.N. delegation is due to travel to both countries next week to evaluate what form any such mission should take. "Will it be a very light mission with observers, will it be a mission with troops, that is what the evaluation mission will determine," Guehenno told the BBC's French service.

Chad declared a state of emergency across vast swathes of the country on Monday to try to halt the insecurity across its border region with Sudan, where the government accuses Sudanese Arab militia of frequent raids into Chadian territory. Central African Republic accuses Sudan of arming rebels who say they have captured two northeastern towns and are demanding power-sharing talks with President Bozize, whom they accuse of ruling the country like a personal fiefdom.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UN needs an offical instrument. I nominate the zither (close enough).
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/16/2006 20:24 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Sarkozy draws cheers, vitriol in Algeria
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy drew both cheers and criticism on a visit to ex-colony Algeria on Tuesday, winning praise for an easing of visa rules but anger at his failure to apologise for colonial misdeeds. Sarkozy, who was meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on the second and last day of his trip, is visiting the giant north African oil-exporting country, France's touchiest former overseas possession, to discuss counter-terrorism and migration.

Government daily El Moudjahid said Monday's announcement by Sarkozy, a French presidential contender, of a streamlining of visa rules would help to build trust in view of the importance for both countries of the large Algerian community in France. The measure, sure to please the estimated one million voters of Algerian origin back home, will shorten the time it takes Algerians to get a French visa by 15 days. At the moment it can take weeks or months to get the much sought after document.

The decision by Sarkozy "can only serve to further strengthen the trust and human exchanges between the two traditionally friendly countries", Moudjahid said. Algerian authorities have said they see a loosening of visa restrictions as fundamental to advancing a stalled attempt to secure a friendship treaty between the two countries, whose relations have been uneasy for decades.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What about if Algeria started by apologizing for the centuries of piracy in the Mediterranean, for the continuous harrasmment and enslaving of French citizens who were, in the first place, the main motive for the occupation.
Posted by: JFM || 11/16/2006 6:40 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Qatar's emir criticizes Western attitudes to Hamas
STRASBOURG (AFP) - Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, criticized Western countries for their attitude toward the embattled Palestinian government led by the militant group Hamas.

"The Palestinian government, formed by Hamas in accordance with the free will of the Palestinian people, should have the opportunity to work for the people who elected it," he told the European Parliament.

But "instead of rewarding the Palestinian people for practising democracy, something rarely witnessed in our region, they have been punished for it," with an international embargo, he said.

"Is this not a double standard: to demand free elections, and then object to the results?" said the emir, the first Gulf nation head of state to address the European assembly in Strasbourg.

Hamas swept Palestinian elections in January -- deemed free and fair by the EU -- but its government faces collapse under an international embargo for refusing to recognize Israel, renounce violence or accept past peace accords.

Qatar has been closely involved in trying to break the political deadlock.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2006 05:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Democracy allows people to make very bad choices when voting. It also means people are responsible for their bad choices and will live with the repercussions.

Pals elected a terrorist government. pals elected to follow a path of violence and death. Freely chosen this. So stop whining.

Or choose to change your minds.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 || 11/16/2006 8:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess he forgot about the vitriol, and the rockets and the boom-vests.

Democracy is a process, not an end-state. If you elect dirt-bags, expect a response.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/16/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "The Palestinian government, formed by Hamas in accordance with the free will of the Palestinian people, should have the opportunity to work for the people who elected it," he told the European Parliament.

They're still killing Jews. What more does he want?
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Zen, He wants us to give them money for killing Jews.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 11/16/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Glad the Schick is flapping his jaws. Now we're sure where he stands. Wrong side of the tracks.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 11/16/2006 18:26 Comments || Top||


Saudi Arabia sets up tribunal to try extremists
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz has announced the establishment of an Islamic tribunal to try Muslim extremists, newspapers reported Wednesday. “Our country has been exposed to problems but cooperation between the men of the security services, the national guard and the army has allowed the sedition to be put out,” he said in a speech Tuesday before military officers.

“Those who want the good of those close to them have returned (to the right path) but those who want evil will be judged according to Islamic norms,” said Prince Sultan, who is also the Gulf Arab state’s crown prince. Saudi authorities have been hunting down suspected members of the Al-Qaeda network that has carried out a series of deadly attacks in the oil-rich kingdom since May 2003.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "exposed" ? "returned to the right path" ? "Islamic norms" ?

YJCMTSU - no one with more than one neuron would believe you.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Where's the pic of a revolving door when we most need one?
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Wait. Did that say "tribunal"? Has the ACLU, the Dems and the UN approved of this? Can Bush use the same tribunal and avoid the Supremes from having to make a decision on the new Congressional emacted version? We turn all these guys over back to the Saudis and let them re-educate reprogram them.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 11/16/2006 15:15 Comments || Top||

#4  You've repented, yes?
Yes.
Very good. Next.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 17:00 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
US scientist: N. Korea has fuel for up to 9 nukes
An American nuclear scientist who toured North Korea this month said Wednesday he believes the North has enough fuel for as many as nine nuclear weapons and the capacity to make about one bomb's worth of fuel a year.

Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who met with chief North Korean nuclear scientists during his Oct. 31-Nov. 4 visit, said that while he learned no technical details about the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test, officials indicated the test was "fully successful." He said he and the small group of former US officials who made the trip noticed a palpable sense of national pride about the test among the North Koreans they met.

Hecker, who based his observations on meetings with the director of the North's five-megawatt Yongbyon nuclear facility and with nuclear specialists in China, said the North Korean nuclear test was most likely "at least partially successful," but the country probably was "still a long way from having a missile-capable nuclear design."
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank goodness they can't even make one device assemble.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory

...I don't suppose we can get a graphic of Bernie Kopell as Siegfried from the old Get Smart series here? That one would be kind of useful:
"KAOS does not DO short little dictators!!"

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/16/2006 6:41 Comments || Top||

#3 

Posted by: Mick Dundee || 11/16/2006 20:43 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Suspicions over new detention centre
A NEW high-tech refugee detention centre on Christmas Island would be used to hold suspected terrorists, a local official said today. Christmas Island shire president, Councillor Gordon Thompson, said today he toured the detention centre site and it was "most definitely being set up as a place" where people could be isolated very securely.

"Within the complex there are different sections, each of which can be separated very simply and very quickly by bringing down electronically controlled gates," he said on ABC radio. "The electronic surveillance is going to be totally intrusive, the control of information from the outside will be total."

Asked if the prison would be used to house suspected terrorists, Mr Thompson said "absolutely". He said US defence officials had recently visited the Indian Ocean territory. "They tell us it's so they can do good humanitarian work in our area in the event of natural disasters," Mr Thompson said.

"We think that maybe they're looking at Christmas Island from the point of view of how useful it might be in a logistical sense for their military efforts around the world but also (they) have got an eye for what they might want to do in the Guantanamo Bay-style operation."

A spokesperson for the immigration department said only unauthorised arrivals would be held at the centre. The Government has said the centre is a deterrent to illegal entrants and smugglers. The 800-bed complex is believed to have cost more than $240 million.
Posted by: tipper || 11/16/2006 16:28 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope they designed this after watching Papillon a few times.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 11/16/2006 20:07 Comments || Top||

#2  "They tell us it's so they can do good humanitarian work in our area in the event of natural disasters,"

Yes, they have a lot of experience with humanitarian assistance when disasters hit third world countries as recently demonstrated in Indonesia and Louisiana.
Posted by: Glese Angins5695 || 11/16/2006 22:42 Comments || Top||

#3  also (they) have got an eye for what they might want to do in the Guantanamo Bay-style operation."

Wow!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:12 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah 'cash' sparks inquiry
TWO Australian citizens suspected of sending thousands of dollars to Lebanon to help fund Hezbollah during the recent conflict with Israel are being investigated for allegedly breaching terror financing laws.

Australia's anti-money laundering regulator Austrac has identified at least five suspicious transactions involving two people after closely examining every financial transfer between Australia and Lebanon during the 57-day war.

Austrac's head of intelligence, John Visser, confirmed that an investigation was under way into a "network" suspected of providing financial assistance to the banned terror organisation. "One particular network was of interest," Mr Visser told a national security conference in Sydney on Wednesday. "The people in that network have been picked up."

Mr Visser revealed that Austrac's specialist financial intelligence unit had linked two suspect transaction records to a name and an address and a further three suspect transaction records to another name. But Mr Visser, citing official secrecy, refused to give further details, including whether the people had been arrested or charged with an offence or the amounts involved.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman told The Australian they had not charged anyone in relation to the matter.

Hezbollah's terrorist arm, the External Security Organisation, is proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia and supporting its political and military wings isillegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations. At the time of the conflict, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock warned the Lebanese community in Australia it was illegal to provide financial support to Hezbollah.

The latest investigation comes after The Australian revealed last year that Tamils living in Australia were supporting the Tamil Tiger terrorist group in Sri Lanka. Last year, domestic spy agency ASIO assured federal parliament's joint intelligence committee that the Hezbollah organisation had no active links to Australia.

The head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, Kamal Mousselmani, told The Australian yesterday he had also assured ASIO right at the beginning of the conflict that the Shia community would not provide any financial support to Hezbollah. He said his community often sent money to relatives in Lebanon, but not to Hezbollah. He added that he was confident there was no organised financial support for Hezbollah in Australia."That's what we told ASIO," he said. "There is no benefit in being with Hezbollah. We support our people in Lebanon, but not Hezbollah."
Posted by: tipper || 11/16/2006 09:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think we can all safely hope that they find a link back to Taj al-Hilali. Lebanon is his turf and it's almost impossible to imagine that he doesn't have his finger in this pie. Such a connection would be all the smoking gun Australia needs to slingshot this sick puppy back to his Islamic hellhole utopia.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  See also DEBKA.com > EGYPT allowing terror $$$ to come thru GAZA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 23:08 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spain unveils Mid-East peace plan
Spain, Italy and France are to launch a new Middle East peace initiative, Spain's prime minister has said. "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians means to a large extent peace on the international scene," Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

He said a plan would be put to an EU summit in December and he hoped it would be backed by the UK and Germany.

The proposal would include an immediate ceasefire and the formation of a Palestinian unity government.
Thus allowing the money spigot to be turned on.
The other three components of the plan would involve an exchange of prisoners, talks between Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian Authority president and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a ceasefire.
This means that the hard boyz currently jugged will be freed so that they can again murder Zionists. And it means that Olmert and Abbas can talk, which they can already do, and it means that someone's going to be part of UNIFIL-SOUTH. Oh boy.
Mr Zapatero, currently playing host to French President Jacques Chirac, called for a major international conference on Middle East peace. "We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes," Mr Zapatero said.
Dead Joooz didn't bother him a lot, but dead Gazans can't be tolerated.
"Violence has reached a level of deterioration that requires determined, urgent action by the international community."

For his part, Mr Chirac said the EU had to act in the face of "the increasingly dramatic situation". "We are going to act jointly with the Spanish and Italian governments, with the co-operation of the EU... to try to initiate the indispensable moral and political reforms in the Middle East," he added.
Because the EU considers itself the moral leader of the world.
Posted by: tipper || 11/16/2006 09:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did he omit the clause where the Moose-Limbs get back Al Andalus?
Posted by: eLarson || 11/16/2006 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh, eLarson. Zappy also glossed over the part about the Joos throwing themselves into the sea.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/16/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, I guess unconditional surrender is a form of a peace plan.....
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/16/2006 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Lemme guess: "Run Away!"
Posted by: mojo || 11/16/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Is this the same Spain, Italy and France that won't patrol at night becuase they are scared of muslims? Thought so.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 11/16/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||

#6  And it's printed on a roll with perforated sections!
Posted by: tzsenator || 11/16/2006 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Yes, but tzsenator, is it single or double ply? Wait a minute, I hear Gaza is nice this time of year...why don't we set up a Int'l conference there to figure that important question out?

*crickets chirping*
Posted by: BA || 11/16/2006 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  And it's printed on a roll with perforated sections!

That's a keeper and a hot contender for Snark of the Day Award™.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 17:36 Comments || Top||

#9  MARK STEYN'S article > WE ALL SPANIARDS NOW, seems relevant despite the Frenchies.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 22:19 Comments || Top||


Turkey suspends military ties with France over Armenian genocide bill

Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2006 05:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Barely a dog in this fight worth bettin' on.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Not siding with anyone - but the Turks are still lying their asses off as a matter of LAW in denying the genocide they comitted. You can go to jail in Turkey if you teach about thier genocidal putsches against the Armenians.

Its akin to holocaust denial.

So for that, I side against the turks.
Posted by: Oldspook || 11/16/2006 12:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Its akin to holocaust denial.

In fact, they even say THEY were the victims of a genocide; whenever french armenians (no issues about their loyalty or assimilation, they're a very integrated, productive part of the french population) demonstrate about the turkish denial... there is a counter demonstration by turks-living-in-France, holding signs blaming the armenians for the "3 millions turks genocided" (that and desacrating memorials and the occasional bomb threat or physical assault).

This is particularly rich given turkey's propension for ethnic cleasing or bona fide genocide, chaldeans, greeks, armenians, kurds (though they are responsible for much of the armenian killing and atrocities),... having reduced the non-muslim minorities, which used to be very important, to practically nothing nowadays.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||

#4  So for that, I side against the turks.

Exactly. I too am against the Turks but am also resolutely not for the Phrench.
Posted by: Excalibur || 11/16/2006 12:58 Comments || Top||

#5  This must be serious, they sent back the accordians.
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/16/2006 18:44 Comments || Top||

#6  end of ww1, you're army was defeated. Your response was to murder anyone in any village you passed through on your retreat. History! deal with it turks, then perhaps we will allow you into the civilised club but not until you get over your denial
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 11/16/2006 19:20 Comments || Top||


France calls for timetable for Iraq withdrawal
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  STFU.
Posted by: closedanger@hotmail.com || 11/16/2006 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  If France had any troops there, this might mean something.

As it stands, they are doinga wonderful job os showing the American people just whose side the cut-n-run Democrats are on.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  STFU

I was thinking more like 'sit down and shut up', but that's close enough.

As it stands, they are doinga wonderful job os showing the American people just whose side the cut-n-run Democrats are on.

You guys aren't leaving anything for anybody else, are you? :-)
Posted by: gorb || 11/16/2006 0:56 Comments || Top||

#4  France calls for timetable for Iraq withdrawal

They're trying to forecast deployment of their UNFIL troops.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 1:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Agree wid ZENSTER - only other scenario is make good wid RUSSIA-CHINA + SCO vv French units [stay?] in Central Asia.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 3:20 Comments || Top||

#6  A famous quote the French should understand "Nuts".

Not just stuck on stupid, stuck on stupid and thinking anyone who counts in the US government gives a shit.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 11/16/2006 3:55 Comments || Top||

#7  withdrawal is what they are best at

type in google "french military victories" and hit 'I feel lucky'

this will not turn up any results but will suggest you try typing "french military defeats" of which you will get 100's of responses , hehe
Posted by: MacNails || 11/16/2006 4:14 Comments || Top||

#8  “Personally I think that if it (the multinational force) left straight away it would be even worse but we need a timetable for retreat for the multinational force,” he said on France 2 television.

“And we also need the responsibility for security to be transferred to the Iraqis.”


Just a Democrat mouthpiece.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 6:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Ah, France -- is there an Arab ass they won't kiss?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/16/2006 7:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Macnails, you nailed it.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/16/2006 8:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Rob Crawford, the answer to your question is Yes. They will not kiss an Arab ass if it is attached to an Isaeli citizen.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 9:42 Comments || Top||

#12  France: Home of the Arab Tossed Salad, or maybe that's Tossers of Arab Salad.
Posted by: Mick Dundee || 11/16/2006 9:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Just "Tossers". Period.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 10:37 Comments || Top||

#14  America calls for stepped up car burnings in gay Pareee.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||

#15  Cheese eating surrender monkey pic?
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/16/2006 11:35 Comments || Top||

#16 

Is this what you had in mind? I hope I got the right one because there were quite a few. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 11/16/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#17  Remarkable. The French have managed to surrender in a war they have not fought.

My Granddad used to say we should have let the Germans keep the place a while longer.
Posted by: Excalibur || 11/16/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#18  Heh...that works just fine!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/16/2006 13:46 Comments || Top||

#19  Remarkable. The French have managed to surrender in a war they have not fought.

Excalibur LOL!

I'm thinking about going to Paris this spring, just to watch it keep burning.
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 16:08 Comments || Top||

#20  Yeah. Why doesn't Kofi bitch to them about all those burning cars screwing up the ozone layer...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 17:02 Comments || Top||

#21  So when will the french withdrawl.....

.... from France?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/16/2006 21:33 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
33 Pakistani Immigrants Arrested: pretend religious workers
Thirtythree Pakistani immigrants who came to the United States posing as religious workers were arrested Wednesday, as Homeland Security agents tried to close a commonly exploited avenue for illegal immigration. The aliens arrested Wednesday were held on immigration violations and could face criminal charges. Immigrants who were supposed to be teaching or conducting religious ceremonies were arrested across the East Coast, where authorities said many worked as gas station attendants, taxi drivers, landscapers and factory workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been scrutinizing the religious worker visa program, which a 2005 review found was rife with problems. Homeland Security officials found fraud in one of every three religious visas they reviewed. "What we see are religious institutions such as churches that may exist only on paper but are sponsoring people," ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said. "Our concern is we don't know who these people are. They're obviously not who they say they are and they don't have religious training."

Though most were not performing religious work, authorities said two Massachusetts imams were arrested for using fraudulent documents.

In the report released last year, officials found cases where workers could not be found and addresses could not be verified. In one incident, the address on the visa application was found to have been used by a terrorist suspect, though Boyd said there was no indication of a terrorist threat in Wednesday's case. He said the aliens paid large fees to get people or organizations to sponsor them for visas.

Arrests were made in Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

In June, Washington state pastor Dong Wan Park was convicted of helping South Korean nationals file fraudulent religious visa applications. None of the applicants was ever employed at the church.

Boyd said the agency is committed to the visa program, which is said is important for legitimate religious institutions, but said it must not be exploited
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 00:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most likely coming for economic opportunity - but how would we know?
Still, given the religion, it's probably a good sign that they were only pretending to be religious workers.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/16/2006 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd really rather have them pumping gas than spreading Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 9:44 Comments || Top||

#3  "Would you like da'wa with that?"
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/16/2006 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  We shouldn't allow a single Muslim into this country until we resolve this little dilemma about religion vs. death cult.
Control of this country is in the hands of the deaf, dumb, and blind.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Why are we letting workers of the Sand Cult into the USA?! Guess 9-11 didn't leave that much of an impression.

Let me put it another way. Anyone who thinks a god would take a 54 year old child rapist as a prophet is nuts to begin with. For that reason alone they should be kept from entering.
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 12:08 Comments || Top||

#6  "Control of this country is in the hands of the deaf, dumb, and blind."

easy there tiger, relax.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 11/16/2006 21:18 Comments || Top||

#7  the Who tours again and we get "Tommy" references....coincidence? I think not
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 21:58 Comments || Top||

#8  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been scrutinizing the religious worker visa program, which a 2005 review found was rife with problems.

Name one "visa program" that isn't rife with problems.
Posted by: Mick Dundee || 11/16/2006 22:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Who is touring? You mean they're not all dead? I really need to pay more attention to the important things!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:17 Comments || Top||


Great White North
George Galloway to speak to Syrian Social Nationalist Movement in Ottawa
Fascist Arab dictators’ favourite British MP George Galloway will be speaking on November 17 to Concordia University’s Syrian Students Association and on November 19, in Ottawa, to the Syrian Social Nationalist Movement on the occasion of its 74th anniversary which coincides with the 74th anniversary of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP).

Neither is the party name’s echo of the National-Socialist Party (the Nazi Party) nor is its insignia’s evocation of the Nazi-hijacked swastika a coincidence. It was founded in 1932 by Antun Saadeh, a Christian journalist from Mount Lebanon inspired by contemporary European fascist movements.

The secular party promotes the idea of a Greater Syria that would cover the territories of Syria proper, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian zones, and the Egyptian Sinai. Repressed since the mid-fifties, it joined the Baath-led National Progressive Front coalition in 2005 and has a bloody history of terrorist attacks.

In 1987, the Atlantic Monthly published a study of the SSNP by Ehud Ya’ari: excerpts from the article follow at link
Posted by: Grotch Flaviling7365 || 11/16/2006 11:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, so long as they're Social Nationalists and not National Socialists...

*sigh*
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/16/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||

#2  What about lifting a copy of that insignia from the link? It's very like the swastika, as they say. And the Nazi origins of Baathism in Syria and Iraq- set up by the Gestapo when they took over French colonies in WW2 IIRC- could do with a good airing.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/16/2006 16:11 Comments || Top||

#3  if you want to read a LOT about the SSNP, from a source I think most of you would like check out "Greater Syria, the History of an Ambition" by Daniel Pipes.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/16/2006 16:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Will do, LH. Thanks.
Posted by: Grunter || 11/16/2006 22:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Steny Hoyer wins House Majority Leader position
By a lot.
Posted by: Seafarious || 11/16/2006 12:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Too bad, John.
Oh, well. Back to the kickbacks...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  gawd I love the smell of a good bitch slap in the morning!


in the months to come were in for some fun... count on it!
Posted by: RD || 11/16/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#3  The Silver Lining to the '06 election.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#4  We will live in interesting times.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/16/2006 13:27 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder if the rumored threat that Hoyer would be supported by the GOP for Speaker had anything to do with this?

In any case, bitch'n bitch slap to the bitch.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/16/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||

#6  The '93 playbook had the Clinton administration described as the "most ethical people, with the face of America (Shalala, Reiche, Reno, Brown, etc)" Nice try San Fran Gran Nan on returning to the glory days of Shamalot.
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger1073 || 11/16/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#7  So, when is the election for the next speaker ?
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 13:44 Comments || Top||

#8  At least they figure out that ethics are important.

How's them Repubs doin on that front? Uh-hum. Trent Lott? WTF?
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#9  You tell me Mike M.

Is lott named as a "person of interest" in a kickback scandal (Menendez), a real estate backroom deal (Reid) impeached for accepting bribes (Hastings) unindicted co-conspiritor (Murtha).. the list goes on and on.

Inappropriate words at a birthday party are one thing, grafts and corruption liek at the top of the Dem party are another. The Repubs had their asses handed to them for scandlas and rightly so. But give the Dems their due: they are trying really hard to match the scandals.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 14:28 Comments || Top||

#10  It seems to me that although the rank and file Dems have given Pelosi a short term loss if Pelosi's candidate had won it would have been much worse for her.

Murtha's cut and run and ethical problems are not even the worst thing about him. In TV interviews with non puff journos, he is basically incoherent and disjointed - reminds people of their poor old uncle who is losing it upstairs.
Posted by: mhw || 11/16/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||

#11  O.S. I was not trying to say that Lott is as bad as surrounded by scandal, but lets face it. Trent Lott is not known as someone who fights against Federal Pork, and that's right behind ACTUALLY being a crook in the mind of the taxpayer. For most of us in fact, it is exactly the same as being a crook.

I am saying that this is a good decision by the Dems and it has not been matched by the Pubs. The Pubs would do well to have a strong anti-waste voice.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 15:55 Comments || Top||

#12  yeah for Steny!! Another victory for the DLC!

May it be the first of many.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/16/2006 16:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Pelosi owns a grape farm (winery).
Does Pelosi hire legal grape pickers ?
I think Pelosi is weak, and the right compromise candidate can beat her for Speaker.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 21:32 Comments || Top||

#14  The Republicans do indeed have a lot of work to do, but we can be grateful that the Democrats are at least sensible enough to give them someone to work with. A good omen for the next two years -- may both parties do much more of the same, for the sake of the whole world.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:21 Comments || Top||


Bolton predicts he would win Senate vote on U.N. post
John Bolton said on Wednesday that he believed a vote in the full U.S. Senate would confirm him as ambassador to the United Nations, despite opposition from Democrats and a key Republican. "The White House is continuing to search for ways to get the nomination to the floor of the Senate," Bolton told CNN. "And I think we've believed for 18 months now that if I could get a straight up or down vote, I'd be confirmed."

"So I'm glad they are continuing to push for it," Bolton said. "I'd actually like that vote." In the meantime, Bolton said he was focusing on Iran and North Korea and hoped "the situation in the Senate will take care of itself."

At the United Nations, some diplomats sigh with relief while others say they will miss his expertise and no-nonsense approach to issues if he is replaced. Everyone has an opinion on Bolton although few will speak publicly. Some diplomats distinguish between Bolton's work in the 15-nation Security Council and that in the 192-member General Assembly, which handles budgets and U.N. reform plans. "In some ways, he seems to have been more an ambassador to the Security Council than to the United Nations as a whole and I think he has done very well there," said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor and U.N. expert.

In the council, Bolton was key in negotiating two unanimous resolutions on North Korea's nuclear program, put abuses in Myanmar, formerly Burma, on the agenda, was intricately involved in peacekeepers for Lebanon and is praised for his knowledge on nuclear proliferation in current talks on Iran's programs. "I enjoy working with him," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said. "Professionally he is capable, he is effective but I don't want to get into the politics of the U.S."

But the problem, say Luck and others, is his actions in the General Assembly, which is increasingly polarized between developing and developed countries. "He is very good on preaching on reform but not good at doing it," said Luck, raising the question of "whether he wants to strengthen it or find excuses for abandoning it."

Algeria's former U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Bali, who served in the Security Council last year, said, "When you look at what he did in the reform of the U.N., he did not achieve any of the goals he set for himself -- budget reform, management, a different Human Rights Commission."

The White House could give Bolton a second recess appointment, but he would not receive a salary. Other possibilities include creating a position in the State Department that would allow him to continue his work at the United Nations, according to some U.S. officials.
Posted by: Grotch Flaviling7365 || 11/16/2006 12:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bolton's hard-drinking moustache has got to be worth five votes.
Posted by: Excalibur || 11/16/2006 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow my cookie has been reset from "ryuge" to "Grotch Flaviling7365". I tried to reset it at the O-Club but it didn't seem to take. This comment posting might do the trick, but if there is something that can be done at the moderator end, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
-ryuge
Posted by: ryuge || 11/16/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Duh. That's exactly why the Dems won't allow a vote.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/16/2006 13:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's go ahead and start a fund to pay his salary, if'n he should have to go the recess appointment route. Popcorn sales and Trailing Wife's tea and crumpets ALONE could probably pay to watch him in action another year or two!
Posted by: BA || 11/16/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks like Trent Lott should start doing his favorite job and start counting the votes.
Posted by: Anguck Gleart4401 || 11/16/2006 21:57 Comments || Top||

#6  IMO, iff the DEMS were truly interested in IMMEDIATE withdrawal of US milfors from Iraq, be it back to CONUS or for PC "re-deployment" to states surrounding Iraq, they + MSM would be publicly demanding Bolton's head ona stick by now.
By winning the Congress the Dems have what they wanna do > BLOW US SPENDING + DOMESTIC REGULATION THRU THE ROOF. BOLTON > Dems may wanna keep him so that their now RIGHTIST/RIGHT-CENTRIC
"MODERATE" CONSERVATIVE PARTY [Krauthammer, etal.][Moderate for time being] wil not get any blame for failures in MilPol/Geopol affairs. It comes down to PROSPERITY IS FOR FAILED SOCIALISTS-DEMOCRATS, REAL-WORLD MILPOL PROBS, ETC. IS FOR REPUBLICANS. THE BLAMELESS LEFT STAYS BLAMELESS COME ASTEROID OR NUCLEAR TERROR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 22:38 Comments || Top||


Kucinich Calls for Cutting Off Iraq War Funds
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Supporting the troops by refusing to fund them.

Yeah, thats the (Dem) ticket.

Why do people vote for this asshole?
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  His district in Cleveland is a little to the left of Berkeley.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/16/2006 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Have another cookie, Dennis.
Posted by: Hupart Flarong7189 || 11/16/2006 1:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Note that Kucinich invokes the left's Vietnam triumph by citing the fossilized tool George McGovern.

These craven bastards sold out tens of millions of Indo-Chinese in 1975. They did it for no better reason than the pure pleasure of exercising power without responsibility, for that is the essence of leftist power-seeking and the institutional media culture alike.

Leftists like Kucinich are devils, demons incarnate. They delight in the suffering and misery they inflict and revel in their exemption from the consequences. Their authoritarian moralizing only makes sweeter for them.

If they do it again, I cannot answer for what might happen.

The current struggle is about human evolution, nothing less. Human life has changed beyond recognition during the past few centuries. Certain long-established characteristics of human behavior have outlived either their usefulness or our ability to tolerate them and have become dangerous liabilities.

It is no accident that all the evil forces in the world, from lying rhetoriticians and compulsive power-seekers to pop-culture degenerates to violent religious puritans, are somehow gathering on the same side of a global struggle. Contrary to first impressions, we are not under attack from these creatures. It is the other way around: they are under attack from us and from the natural forces of human evolution.

This hellish alliance of leftists, media cultists, and Islamic savages is on the wrong side of the ultimate law of the universe, the law of survival. It is them or us and, in their inherent if suppressed knowledge of their own evil, these seemingly incompatible forces cling together from mutual fear of the coming wrath. We will either eliminate the elements who work against our survival or we will sink back into the barbarous abyss from which we came.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 11/16/2006 5:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Well said, as always, AC.

Now I have to be a slug, lol, and add my ugly boggle...

What baffles me, if not worse, is that obviously failed (communism, socialism, etc.) and regressive (islam) ideologies are never actually stamped out. Somewhere there always seems to be a population which will, for myriad "reasons" - all bad or simply stupid - allow the recurrence of something as truly and obviously insane as Maoism. The difference between pathogens and destructive ideologies is so small as to make no odds, IMO. So why can't Maoism suffer the same fate as the pox? Now I'll answer my own question...

Related to this take is my reaction to the opinion piece today about the confessions of a coward. Three things jumped out at me... First was that he did have proto-testicles for publishing the piece. Second was that, in spite of his life-long self-education which led him to this realization, he still got several conclusions dead wrong. Third is that he was a Post-WW-II product of our education system - 50's-60's - and the system was already obviously failing in a primary mission: why America matters. Imagine, just imagine, how that item is handled today: teaching overt anti-Americanism.

So, I guess I'm saying that we can't seem to kill off the utterly failed BS and that we are, in the person of the saboteurs of the 60's, creating the very sucker populations, the vectors, which will carry these pestilences forward for yet another generation.

If it weren't for people like AC, I'd recommend we, my generation, all be summarily killed - immediately. Think of it as a backfire...

I've now depressed myself, in spite of your excellent comment, AC. Shit.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 5:42 Comments || Top||

#6  They're all ideologies used as tools to concentrate power over the ignorant class.

From kings with nobles and serfs, thru communism, socialism, Maoism, Kimmieism, Islamism - all just kings under different names.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 6:38 Comments || Top||

#7  ...Okay, full disclosure: I knew one of REP. Kucinich's sisters, a VERY long time ago. They are a big, warm, loving family who love him to death....but THEY even think he's nuts.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/16/2006 6:38 Comments || Top||

#8  So, Mike - was she hot? Might as well toss this thread in the shitter, lol. I mean Bobby glibly dismissed my post with "ignorant class". I gots nothing left to lose.

So, spill it, was she HOT?
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 6:43 Comments || Top||

#9  We’re spending over $400 billion a year, money that's also needed for healthcare, for education, for job creation, for seniors.

So we'll quit paying the troop, Dennis? Lay them all off? Add to the unemployment lines? Remember, these are the folks Kerry said are too dumb to go to college.

And we won't buy any more Humvees, or kevlar vests, or high-tech equipment, or helicopters, or bullets. Any of that stuff made in your District, Denny? We'll just shut down those assembly lines and spend the money on .... unemployment.

It's all about choices, Dennis. I thought you were in favor of choice?
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 6:43 Comments || Top||

#10  Please, .com; I did not mean to further your depression! I didn't rain on your parade, I merely summed up.

You wondered why these -isms do not fail, I merely pointed out why they may fall out of favor, but never really go away. They're all about one guy (or a small group, in the case of the Democrats) saying, "Give me all the power and I will save you from your oppressors!"

Sometimes they have to invent oppressors. Sometimes, it's the Universal Oppressors©, the Jooooos.

Now the good news is that in the good ol' US of A, we have no oppressors, because (hat tip: Old Spook) we are a democratic republic with individual freedoms.

The cloud that goes with that silver lining? The Democrats (or at least the leftists) want to save us from ourselves, because they know what's best for us. They who would be king.

So don't depress yourself; oppress yourself!
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 7:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Uh huh. I'll survive.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 7:11 Comments || Top||

#12  If I may volunteer my impressions as a Gen-Xer, .com. The rot in your generation has been transmitted wholesale to my generation, via leftist professors and journalists seeking to make little clones of themselves (by means other than reproduction, of course).

These same power-hungry, self-absorbed assholes are the same ones who declared a "right to be happy," and had affairs, got divorces, and ruined our families. Their army of Mini-Mes will do the same thing, but Gen-X moonbats aren't gripped by it to quite the extent 60s radicals are. The Gen-X leftist outlook is profoundly empty and cynical, and many of them are totally aware of it. For the most part, they're not moonbats by conviction, but by default: "moonbot" might be a better term.

Not being leftists would make them unpopular, and there's no objective truth anyway, so they don't see any reason to evaluate things rationally and change their minds. To a significant extent, I think it's psychological, a product of the dysfunction in their families. They're sick puppies, and that's not a good situation, but most are not what you could call True Believers.

Further, our parents' narcissism has caused plenty of blowback. A lot of us grew up, evaluated their mistakes, and came to understand that simple (but hard) stuff like morality, duty, and integrity would have prevented all the pain -- both in our families and in the political sphere. It's said that morality and religious conviction and conservatism are deepening among Gen-Xers, and our fuckwit parents (and professors) are largely why.

So, cheer up! They sold us the rope with which to hang them. You know what they say, be good to your kids because one day they'll choose your nursing home. Many of us are looking forward to that, so save a few dirty hippies for us!
Posted by: exJAG || 11/16/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#13  .com-
Actually, she was kinda cute. The thing to keep in mind is that she (and the rest of the family) never, ever EVER wanted you to mention their last name in public - his reputation in Cleveland, frankly, sucks outside of his district.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/16/2006 9:30 Comments || Top||

#14  I vote for cutting off Kucinich's funding.
Posted by: doc || 11/16/2006 11:13 Comments || Top||

#15  Pay attention to what moonbat Dennis says, he and Hillary are on the same wave length, but she ain't talkin.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:30 Comments || Top||

#16  I know a lot of us boomer Vietnam vets said "Never Again!", and meant it. Kucinich is playing the same tune played in 1975. I will not allow him to destroy Iraq like the 1975 Congress allowed the destruction of Vietnam. I've already started writing letters to the editor of my local newspaper. He's going to get thoroughly sick of me. So are the editors of the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, the Pueblo Chieftan, and the rest of the newspapers here in Colorado. So is my representative in the House of Representatives (a repuglycon), and both senators (one of each). That's the nice thing about email - it's cheap, and you can harass the he$$ out of people, and make a point that otherwise would have been missed.

#14 I vote for cutting off Kucinich's funding.
Posted by: doc 2006-11-16 11:13


I vote for cutting off Kuchinich's wiener - at the neck - if he follows through on this. Just call it a slight accident during circumcision.

Some people are cynical, some people are stupid, and some people are just plain evil. I'm beginning to believe the donkey party attracts the latter like flies to sh$$.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/16/2006 13:20 Comments || Top||

#17  Is Dennis' sister still hot? Or does he have any hot daughters or wives or anything? I would love to get one of his family members on the internet. I could wear a Kucinich mask on film. That might make for some good blackmail material.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#18  I'm embarrassed that Kucinich is a rep from my home state, Ohio. (There...take that you Dixie Chicks.)

Not that it will do any good, but I just emailed a copy to Kucinich's offices in Ceveland and Washington the post in today's Opinion section captioned: "An Honest Confession of an American Coward". Kucincih will never read it because a staffer will intercept it and delete. But that post is all about Kucinich, his generation, his ilk, and what the anti-war Boomers have wrought.

Somebody, please, tell me I'm wrong: Are those of us who "get it" really in the vast minority?
Posted by: Mark Z || 11/16/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||

#19  Mike N.,
Hush.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 11/16/2006 16:16 Comments || Top||

#20  KUCINICH/McGOVERN 2008
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 17:08 Comments || Top||

#21  During the Kucinich race for the Presidency in '04 some of the impartial press noted Dennis was single and available and a real catch. :) Even had a date Dennis contest....
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger1073 || 11/16/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#22  Single, huh?
From the looks of Dennis, I expect to see him on one of those Dateline stings.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 17:33 Comments || Top||

#23  So which gay guy won the date with Dennis? And did they get to know each other in a "Brokeback mountain" kind of way?
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 17:34 Comments || Top||

#24  Frank G(ay) did of course
Posted by: Hibjobol Abjub || 11/16/2006 17:55 Comments || Top||

#25  lol Abu JibJab - you were tight great last night. sorry about the no reacharound, Homey don't do that. You don't deserve it. Nor the occasional spanking you got: "who's yer Daddy?" The correct answer ISN'T "I don't know"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 18:13 Comments || Top||

#26  Always good to break em in right :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 18:16 Comments || Top||

#27  .com: So, I guess I'm saying that we can't seem to kill off the utterly failed BS and that we are, in the person of the saboteurs of the 60's, creating the very sucker populations, the vectors, which will carry these pestilences forward for yet another generation.

exJAG: The rot in your generation has been transmitted wholesale to my generation, via leftist professors and journalists seeking to make little clones of themselves (by means other than reproduction, of course).

Credit where credit is due: Gramsci's "long march through the universities" idea was a stroke of (evil) genius.

Atomic Conspiracy: Contrary to first impressions, we are not under attack from these creatures. It is the other way around: they are under attack from us and from the natural forces of human evolution.

Reminds me of a preacher I heard once talking about the verse "And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." He was astounded at how many Christians took that as a defensive view of Christianity under siege when it is just the opposite. It's a call to offensive action against the forces of darkness.

exJAG: moonbot: I like that!
Posted by: xbalanke || 11/16/2006 18:22 Comments || Top||

#28  Are those of us who "get it" really in the vast minority?

Probably. But if it's a vast minority I wouldn't be worried about it.
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 18:23 Comments || Top||

#29  Pithy Lou, like always.
Still out of work?
Posted by: Rhoda || 11/16/2006 20:05 Comments || Top||

#30  Lou's right, especially since this vast majority knows how to live w/o modern day conveniences and has the weapons in this country, lol!
Posted by: BA || 11/16/2006 21:33 Comments || Top||

#31  exJAG - Yep - nice post! - that's why we should be aced, ASAP.

Mike K - Wow - makes a soul feel sorry for the entire family. Of course, they could fix it by poisoning him this Thanksgiving and end the pain he inflicts on the entire nation. They would be heroes, lol.

Mike N. - So, are a jerk or what? I'm not sure.

xbalanke - I take it you're in favor of those Hunter / Killer Teams?

I like OS's action plan, lol. :-)
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 23:13 Comments || Top||

#32  Some of you Baby Boomers are awfully nice, actually, and quite useful too, and I refuse to blame you for the misbehaviour of those whose mothers refused to spank them as needed. .com dear, I've a nice mug of Earl Grey to cheer you up with, and some scones with clotted cream for BA, because he's confusing them with crumpets.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:31 Comments || Top||

#33  Only, if we do end up without modern conveniences I may need a bit of help, because I really don't know how to run a dishwasher without electricity... although I can put the teakettle on a real fire if necessary.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:33 Comments || Top||

#34  Lol, tw - Thanks!

My mother used to spank my brother and me before we went to places where she'd be embarrassed, such as a department store. Poor woman, lol. We just smiled cuz she couldn't hit us hard enough to hurt...
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 23:33 Comments || Top||

#35  I hope you never told her that, .com. I'm sure she cried later because she it really did hurt her more than it did you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:39 Comments || Top||

#36  Heh, heh - no I didn't. And I doubt I was the cause of any tears. I'm pretty sure she was doing handstands and flips as I drove away leaving home, lol.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 23:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Dems attempting to scrap border security fence
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters this week that he expected to "re-visit" the issue when he becomes chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in the 110th Congress, which has a Democratic Party majority.

He said that the high technology Secure Border Initiative, or SBI Net -- essentially a set of monitors, cameras and other integrated surveillance systems to monitor the border -- was a viable alternative.

"We might do away with it, or look at (integrating it into) SBI Net," he said, "A virtual fence rather than a real one."

Virtual Fence to keep out virtual illegals. Problem is it requires real fences to keep out the real illegals. Fences are cheap compared to nebulous tech solutions, so less money available for porkers to distribute except along the border - with a virtual fences they can steer funding and kickbacks easier to "virtual" companies on the "virtual" fence in their home districts, like say, San Fran, or NY. Sad thing is the bureaucracy in DC, including immigration wimp President Bush, probably will go along with this.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 14:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
I would be willing to compromise if by virtual they mean mine fields, hellfire missiles, and remote-controlled machine guns.
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 11/16/2006 15:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Might be able to make a dent in the budget deficit by charging a tag fee (no limit) on hunting licenses.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/16/2006 15:43 Comments || Top||

#3  One word, traitors.
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 15:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Could someone explain to me how a fence will stop illegals from getting through?
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 16:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Here's a demonstration you can take part in: Choose a wall - any wall; run straight at it until impact. Report your observations back to us here at the 'burg. Thanks for playing.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 11/16/2006 17:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Lou:

It works.

You need to study WHY fences exist. They are barriers to slow and channel people away from where you do not want them to go.

This isn't you mom's back yard picket fence.

They are made from metal slats, which are nothing at all like the chain-link fences you see in most places. They have "tanglefoot" barbed wire around the bases, and razor-wire concertina along the tops. They have concrete posts and barriers that extend for yards underground to prevent digging under then.

On top of that, there a set of 3 fences, separated by space and observation areas. So you have to breach *3* obstacles.

Now if you are determined enough, you can get thru/over/under eventually. But the problem for you as the intruder is that this takes time, and it disturbs the area.

Which brings me to the last point: these fences are sensor-ed and patrolled. So not only do you have to beat the fences, you have to beat them before the patrols show up, or before the reaction force shows up because they got an alarm on the sensors. Furthermore, in most areas of the border, there are large open spaces to be crossed after you breach. So you'll be vulnerable to the patrols and reaction forces IR detection gear.

The primary function of this fences is to make it so hard to cross in these places that you try to find another way - you get "deflected" into areas where your chances of getting busted are higher (border checkpoints), or else the terrain and countryside are so hostile as to put you life at severe risk, or so difficult that your progress is very slow, and more likely to be detected (and then caught).

In all cases, it definitely deters and slows down illegals in both directions.

I suggest you ask your local Army combat engineer about barriers, breaching and security.

And there's your education for the day. You have no excuses now.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL Rex! A fine hand with the teaching moment there.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks OldSpook. A couple of observations:

An illegal's arduous journey to El Norte sometimes involves riding the rails. If you can survive that, you will not be detered by a fence. Considering that there are millions of illegals on the inside, I'm sure that a determination of that magnitude will create some breaches somewhere, even if it is a slow process. Which brings up the second point.

Does this fence come with an increased border security presence and the funds to maintain it?

We are not talking about stopping two or three people from getting through. If the shit hits the fans in Mexico even further, not even a triple decker super duper califragilisticexpialidocious fence will stop that wave.

Rex Mundi, if only we were as smart as you...one can only dream. Why didn't you run for office? I would've voted for ya!!

Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 18:17 Comments || Top||

#9  You want to stop illegals, fine employers that hire them. The fence is a dumb, expensive idea. Take the money and put it into airport infrastructure, or better yet, rail.
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/16/2006 18:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Watch out Rex, Lou tends to be sweaty when laughed at.
Posted by: Rhoda || 11/16/2006 20:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Lou, people with guns kill people, fences don't.
wink wink
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 20:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Lou's right - we shouldn't even try to stop the flood. Welcome our new 3rd world overlords

idiot
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 21:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Insisting on "enforcement" on employers to resolve the employment of illegals is just fantasy. Just drive past any home depot in the morning. You think the FBI is going to arrest the guys that show up in trucks to hire them.

Build a fence. Deport them. Illegal means that they are breaking the law to be here. Take their illegal gains while you are at it. Send them home pennyless.
Posted by: Leigh || 11/16/2006 21:39 Comments || Top||

#14  As I pointed out, the funds for the fence must include patrols and reaction forces. They have already jumped up the funding for that, and for increased number of holding beds for those the catch prior to tossing them back over the fence.

I disagree with your position regarding detterence and the ilelgal's determination to cross. The risks incurred in getting to the border are not comprarable to those involved in forcing an illegal crossing of a secured fenced patrolled border.

Riding rails against lax and corrupt Mexican police is laughable compared to getting through a properly engineered fence line. They have already proven their worth as a deterrent around several areas, including San Diego. They will be most effective in urban and suburban areas, and in completely isolated flat wilderness areas (oddly enough). Rocky areas, and rural areas will be the last place these fences woudl go. And in some places, a sensor-line backed up by QRF and patrols will be enough. Reduction of numbers crossing caused by the fences will make those remaining crossing "light up" far more - essentially lowering the background noise so that the signal (illegals) are more isolated and stand out.

The fence has a dual purpose: deterrence and obstruction. If there is enough of it, it can serve both functions well.

Think of it in terms of the way the military uses a minefield. Its not there to blow up the bad guys so much as it is to slow them down and force their advances into avenues and terrain where we can better handle them.

Fences allow us to channel and chop, and make for very good economies of force. Kinda like Leonidas used the terrain around Thermopylae to channel and chop Xerxes' Persians. Hopefully not with the same costs the 300 Spartans (and the attached Thespians) incurred.


Fences like these will shape the battlefield (border) into something that can be secured and managed.


Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 21:42 Comments || Top||

#15  Leigh -that's the other half of the problem>

the FBI *must* start hitting the Home Depots and construction sited, and carting them back to Mexico. Once the fence it up, the return will not be so laughably easy. And the employers, who are knowingly breaking the laws and endangering the nation, MUST be punished the way all criminals are.

You cannot have border security without internal enforcement, nor vice versa.

That being said, we must find a way to let honest, hard working people into the country if they have an intent to become citizens and assimilate.

If my immigrant forebears had to face the stunningly stupid array of paperwork, bureaucracy, and huge costs that now face those who wish to come in, they never would have made it. there has to be some accounting for justice in the immigration policy.

It must be firm: do not break the law, do not be a burden on the social systems in the nation, earn and contribute to our nation (pay taxes, serve in the military, etc), learn English, and assimilate. but it also must be fair: anyone willing and able to do such a thing should be allowed in as long as they can demonstrate all of the above and have a sponsor - and agree to tracking to make sure they are keeping their side of the deal.

But before that happens, we must secure the border and enforce the laws. Otherwise all the "justice" is meaningless - those playing by the rules will get screwed by the cheaters who sneak across the open borders. That's why its broken now - it rewards lawbreakers, and punishes the lawful.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/16/2006 21:49 Comments || Top||

#16  Someone here mentioned this before and I think it bears repeating: We need to make the system of financial remittance back to Mexico unavailable to illegals. If illegal aliens are unable to support those that they have left behind, it creates a strong disincentive for them to come here in the first place.

We face a similar but different problem with the Islamic halawah network. Both of these monetary export tools need to be choked off in order to improve our national security.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 22:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Get a group shot.
The Donks want to revisit the minimum wage. Considering that the unlimited labor provided by the uncontrolled border means that the natural aspect of wages rising by limited manpower has been trashed by government ignoring its responsibility to maintain the border, let us, indeed address the minimum wage. It is already tiered into non-agricultural and agricultural, let there be a new level for illegals. Make it three, hey, why not four times that of employing an American. Of course it is not expected the government to enforce it, so contract it out to torte lawyers to do the work. Triple damages for the individual and full legal costs, to include the torte lawyers hours, where the employer is found to have failed to pay to government established rate. Sic a dog on a dog. Donks should be happy cause they get to deliver a minimum wage increase. The Trucks are happy cause they don’t need to add more government for enforcement. And torte lawyers are happy just to stick it to someone.
Posted by: Glese Angins5695 || 11/16/2006 22:32 Comments || Top||

#18  If you need a example of how a wall works look at Israel's use of them to keep the palieo mass murderers out.

Work great. Doesn't stop absolutely all of them but it greatly reduces them.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/16/2006 22:39 Comments || Top||

#19  Has somebody hi-jacked the "Perfesser" nym?

Doesn't sound like our Perfesser.

Lou's never faced concertina, or likely anything else, before. Troll.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 23:22 Comments || Top||

#20  Whoo hoo! Glese Angins5695|, you have a sneaky mind! Are you perchance related to the legal profession in some capacity?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:37 Comments || Top||


CIA Agent: Don't fly any plane from Amsterdam to Minnesota
A short video of ex-CIA agent Robert Baer. Warning about,
wait, pause, you guessed it,
Muslim baggage handlers in Europe. The clip is about three minutes long. Baer has been studying Muslim baggage handlers in Europe and gets specific about not flying a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. You might ask why Minneapolis. That answer may be very simple. The Minneapolis international airport is crawling with Somali Muslims.

Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 11:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I live near Minneapolis. It is without a doubt the Smally capitol of the U.S.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 12:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Mike I'm flying from Minneapolis on Tuesday. That airport gives me the chills. I've often wondered how many of them are sleepers, and you know they are there...

Maybe I'll offer one of their taxi drivers a case of beer! Allen Ackbar.
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't fly to Detroit either. The country's largest mooslim population. Look at this story if you haven't seen it yet:

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/16/D8LE7F981.html
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 11/16/2006 12:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe but I think this guy got the story wrong. It would be a warning for flights going to Amsterdam.

Reason: A flight coming from Amsterdam would be low on fuel and a large aluminum body crashing into a building is bad but not going to cuase that much damage. 9-11 worked becuase those flights were Intercontinental flights that had just taken off with nearly Full fuel loads when they hit the Trade Centers. A aluminum gas can empty is no bid deal one full of gas with a spaker is BOMB.

Posted by: C-Low || 11/16/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#5  I would think that if the concern is over baggage handlers he is talking about bombs being brought onto the plane, not the plane being a bomb. Seems to me that a hijacking would require far less from the baggage handlers.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh, and as a lifelong resident of Minnesota I can honestly say that it's not just Hamsterslam. I would advise against flying to Minnesota from anywhere.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 13:14 Comments || Top||

#7  [hair-splitting mode]
Actually, gasoline vapor can detonate with the force of dynamite and cause much more damage than a liquid-based fire. Fuel-air bombs are a good example of this.
[/hsm]
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 13:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Good point Zen. Whenever I weld near a gas tank I make certain it is full. Thems vapors is naaughty!
Icerigger, I took a cab from MSP a couple of weeks ago. He didn't answer when I asked him if we could stop at a liquor store. And yes, I would say that it's almost a gaurantee that sleepers work there. That place is loaded with Smallies. They account for at least 75% of the employees at the stores there and at least 50% of security. It's seriously scary to think about how likely it is that terrorists have infiltrated our shithole airport.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 13:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Actually, gasoline vapor can detonate with the force of dynamite and cause much more damage than a liquid-based fire.

True. But jet aircraft do not burn gasoline, they burn JetA, a highly refined kerosine. The vapors are dangerous, but not to the same extent gasoline vapors are.

...9-11 worked because those flights were TransIntercontinental flights that had just taken off ...

There, I fixed it for you.


Posted by: Mick Dundee || 11/16/2006 14:25 Comments || Top||

#10  Combine this info with the fact that you are flying on an ETOPS aircraft serviced by strike replacement mechanics and .... hey, who needs to drink coffee to stay awake on a trans Atlantic flight. Aren't the ice formations lovely as you pass Greenland?
Posted by: tzsenator || 11/16/2006 14:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Good point, Mick.

Anecdote: When Boeing was applying for the 777's ETOPS (Extended Range Twin Operations) rating, so it would qualify for transatlantic flight routes, the standing joke was that ETOPS actually stood for; Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#12  ETOPS

I flew a 777 from Chicago to Delhi, and back, this year. I couldn't help but be unsettled as I gazed out the window at the bleak and desolate areas we flew over in North Eastern Canada and Greenland.

It sure did look cold, and isolated.

Posted by: Mick Dundee || 11/16/2006 14:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Kstp.com seems to have a bizarre broken video interface. These should work instead.


Direct link to video of Robert Baer on why we should leave Iraq now and breaking Iraq up, dealing with Iran and Syria


Direct link to video of Robert Baer on how Islamic terrorists could put a bomb on a plane from Amsterdam, Paris, or London. He does not say anything about the security at the Minneapolis airport. His concern with regard to Minnesota seems to be that we would never think Minnesota would be a target, and so they would target Minnesota. Baer also gives a warning about the Mall of America being a target.

Posted by: Snamble Spaigum6452 || 11/16/2006 15:10 Comments || Top||

#14  Could his warning be coming to fruition with the Page 1 story on the guy busted in Detroit airport (flew from Nigeria to Amsterdam to Detroit to Phoenix)????? Inquiring minds and all....
Posted by: BA || 11/16/2006 15:28 Comments || Top||

#15  Mike you are right on! Our airport is a scary place. Worst part about this Thanksgiving, I'm flying from Minneapolis to Detroit! You can bet I'm not going to be served a ham sandwich but I will order some bacon just for fun.

Ah, screw the Samaliiie cabbies. They are in America dickweed deal with it.

The bottom line here is that they are going to hit us again and giving the PC bullschit about the Religion of Pieces, there is nothing us normal Americans can do about it. Got to go Keith Ellision is at the door taking donations for CAIR...
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 15:57 Comments || Top||

#16  Who on earth would want to fly with Northwest? They're still flying 30yo planes.
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 18:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Shit, that's about as bad as Africa!
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 18:55 Comments || Top||

#18  Hence the Somali references... ah, it's all coming together now.
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 18:56 Comments || Top||

#19  The vapor concern is going to be resolved over time. Industry is moving to mil-style OBIGGS systems. True will take time, but, will not be an issue soon.
Posted by: bombay || 11/16/2006 21:06 Comments || Top||

#20  Uh oh - iff by NORTHWEST means also NORTHWEST CONTINENTAL, this airlines flies out of Guam to everywhere. PRAVDA > Radics have a plan/scheme to blow up as many as 30 airliners this holiday season. *"LOOK, MA, MY PLANE BLEW UP OVER A BUNCH OF DUTCH HOOKERS, RED-LIGHTED OVER A RED-LIGHT DISTRICT".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 22:16 Comments || Top||

#21  bombay: right on the mark w/OBIGGS reference. but need to convince airline bean counters that the cost / weight / payload loss of said system
outweighs liability of potential in flight explosion. This then re-opens the TWA flight 800 explosion / missle controversy: I work with a former Boeing QA dude who was knee deep in gathering all sorts of records related to Boeing manufacturing / accident / maintenance reports relative to the dreaded center wing box fuel cell. As far as he could tell, all was hunky dory until some non-FAA fed types showed up (the kind with narrow ties, dark glasses and driving the stripped down Fords / Chevvies), then all at once everything sorta disappeared and the miraculous wiring modification kit showed up. Funny how that stuff has all fell off the world's radar.
Posted by: USN,Ret || 11/16/2006 23:26 Comments || Top||

#22  Good lord, JosephM, I was not expecting that! You most definitely have your moments, sir!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:43 Comments || Top||


An Exodus of Hawks Follows Rumsfeld from the Pentagon
Posted by: DanNY || 11/16/2006 06:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One guy leaving and one who wants to go hardly constitute an "exodus". Journalistic license? Does the Sun have an agenda?
Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 6:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Their news reporting uses the same left wing wire services.

Their editorial staff like the Wall Street Journal is centrist/right.
Posted by: DanNY || 11/16/2006 6:52 Comments || Top||

#3  This must be the "Fantasyland" tour. Not only are they delusional about the Pentagon somehow becoming all squishy peacenik now that Rumsfeld is gone; but they also are convinced beyond any doubt that someone like Bill Clinton could bullshit and blather his way into making the Iranians not want nuclear weapons.

And thus if they make them and use them, it's the fault of the US.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2006 8:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan hardliners threaten protests after rape law reform
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2006 06:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Making it easier to prosecute rapes will turn Pakiland into a free sex society? Seems to me that is what they have now.

This is a real breakthrough, Pakistan has just entered the 10th century!
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2006 7:28 Comments || Top||

#2  This was an important gamble and a big win for Perv.

The coalition of Islamists in his parliament was the biggest obstacle to a lot of what we were encouraging him to do, like crack down on the madrassas.

So he engineered a political fight over a very popular issue, in which the Islamists would not just lose, but also lose face and political power heading into an election.

So now, if they get punished, he will be able to undermine them even more, and clamp down on a lot of the baddies. It is a process.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2006 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Who will the Islamists gang rape in order to prove this point avenge this Dire Humiliation™?
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Each other maybe?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2006 14:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Hell, they do that at the madrassahs already, bigjim. Sodding an abandoned prepubescent lad or two simply won't salve such an agonizing wound. For the Lions of Islam™ this sort of Dire Humiliation™ requires, nay, demands that a woman must suffer for it.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 16:54 Comments || Top||

#6  What's to reform? as far as pakiwaki law goes the onus of guilt in rape cases is on the female, she is by definition an adulteress. Just cos these fuckers have a worthless, barbaric code of conduct doesn't mean we shouldn't respect their laws.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 11/16/2006 19:33 Comments || Top||


India hands Pakistan list of 40 wanted criminals
(KUNA) -- At the conclusion of two-day foreign secretary-level talks, India handed over a list of 40 wanted criminals to Pakistan, said official sources on Wednesday. "Some material has been given to us, but it does not relate to the Mumbai blasts. It is about certain linkages of banned groups in India and Pakistan", said Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan at a press conference without elaborating. Official sources told Kuwait news Agency (KUNA) that a list of 40 criminals was given to the Pakistani delegation during the talks.

They said the list of 40 criminals also included Dawood Ibrahim, adding that New Delhi demanded the extradition of all the criminals. Ibrahim is wanted in India for illegal acts. Currently, he is believed to reside in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In Pakistan, this list is referred to as the ISI's "promotion roster".
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:39 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq sectarian strife imperils entire region
Imperiling Iran and Syria would be niceBAGHDAD, Iraq - While American commanders have suggested that civil war is possible in Iraq, many leaders, experts and ordinary people in Baghdad and around the Middle East say it is already underway, and that the real worry ahead is that the conflict will destroy the flimsy Iraqi state and draw in surrounding countries.

Whether the U.S. military departs Iraq sooner or later, the United States will be hard-pressed to leave behind a country that does not threaten U.S. interests and regional peace, according to U.S. and Arab analysts and political observers.
Eric Severid use to say the Middle East is like having your hand in a can of fish hooks - hurts like to leave it in and hurts like hell to take it out.
"We're not talking about just a full-scale civil war. This would be a failed-state situation with fighting among various groups," growing into regional conflict, Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the International Crisis Group, said by telephone from Amman, Jordan. "The war will be over Iraq, over its dead body," Hiltermann said.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/16/2006 14:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and draw in surrounding countries.

Surely the experts don't mean countries like Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia, which are already sending in as much in the way of men and materiel (ie jihadis, Republican Guards in mufti, North Korean forged $100 bills and non-improvised IEDs) and can be passed over the border. How much more drawn in could those countries get short of a formal invasion?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:48 Comments || Top||


General warns against withdrawal timetable
Gen. John Abizaid instead urged quick action to strengthen Iraq's government, predicting that the vicious sectarian violence in Baghdad would surge out of control within four to six months unless immediate steps were taken. "Our troop posture needs to stay where it is," he said...

Dhimmicrats must be livid.

Video:
Posted by: Icerigger || 11/16/2006 11:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  KUCINICH [spelling?] > was on FOX again this AM, very strongly stating on CAVUTO that Amer [vv Dem-controlled Congress] is gonna pull-out/leave Iraq so why not cut start cutting war funding right now.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 22:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Front page of the dead tree New York Times today, too.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:49 Comments || Top||


Abizaid: It Ain't Over Yet
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2006 – Both Iraqi and American leaders believe the Iraqi government can take control of its country and develop a stable nation that is at peace with its neighbors and an ally in the war on terror, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said here today.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, outlined the current situation in Iraq and the way forward. Violence remains high across Iraq, Abizaid acknowledged, but the Iraqi security forces consistently perform well and, with strong support from the government, can be successful against the insurgents.

“Iraqis and Americans alike believe that Iraq can stabilize and that the key to stabilization is effective, loyal, nonsectarian Iraqi security forces coupled with an effective government of national unity,” Abizaid said.

Iraqi forces can take more control and responsibility faster, but the U.S. must invest more resources into the military transition teams, speed the delivery of logistics and mobility enablers, and embrace an aggressive Iraqi-led effort to disarm illegal militias, Abizaid said. The shift of responsibility from the coalition to Iraqi security forces is still being worked out, but leaders believe that ultimately, capable and independent Iraqi forces will set the stage for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces, he said.

“Our commanders and diplomats believe it is possible to achieve an end state in Iraq that finds Iraq at peace with its neighbors, an ally in the war against extremists, respectful of the lives and rights of its citizens, and with security forces sufficient to maintain order, prevent terrorist safe havens, and defend the independence of Iraq,” he said.

The Iraqi armed forces continue to perform well, even under pressure from sectarian violence, Abizaid said. Operations against al Qaeda in Iraq and illegal militias have yielded results, he said, and security transitions to Iraqi forces continue throughout the country.

At this point in Iraq, the coalition needs flexibility with its own forces and with Iraqi security forces, Abizaid said. Any limits on force levels or specific timetables for withdrawal would limit that flexibility and therefore limit the transition to an Iraqi-led security environment, he said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government want to do more in their own country, Abizaid said. He added that the coalition wants to give them more responsibility, but that will only happen if national reconciliation is achieved.

“(Maliki’s) duly-elected, legitimate government deserves our support, and his armed forces, backed by ours, deserve his full support,” he said.

Abizaid acknowledged there will be tough challenges in the future as Iraq moves toward peace, but he stressed that U.S. and Iraqi leaders believe they can be successful and defeat the terrorists who are seeking to destabilize an entire region.

Posted by: Bobby || 11/16/2006 06:05 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Both Iraqi and American leaders believe the Iraqi government can take control of its country and develop a stable nation that is at peace with its neighbors and an ally in the war on terror, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said here today.

Crack and glass pipes were served along with the tea and cookies.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Iraq has not supported outside terror groups since the invasion, a clear win for our side. if they end up embroiling the surrounding countries to such an extent that they, too, have no resources to put to adventurism in the direction of Israel and the US, I'm not sure we'll have lost by not ensuring true peace and brotherhood throughout the neighborhood. Or am I being cynical?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 23:52 Comments || Top||


Zeyad of "Healing Iraq" blog appeals for aid in getting his brother out of the country
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/16/2006 05:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tell him to join the US Army.
He can thank Murtha and Pelosi when he gets here.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/16/2006 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect if the USA opened recruiting stations for the Army & Marines in Iraq with an offer of fast track to citizenship, several divisions of troops could be enlisted toute suite.
Posted by: Slaviger Angomong7708 || 11/16/2006 19:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, that way we can bypass that evil-looking visa lady at the American embassy in Riyad. And who needs those shoddy, fake uniforms from the tailoring district in Baghdad when you got the real thing!
Posted by: Ahmed the terrorist || 11/16/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||

#4  tout suit
Posted by: pedant || 11/16/2006 19:39 Comments || Top||


Iraqi officials clash over kidnapping numbers
A day after a mass kidnapping in the capital, Shiite and Sunni Arab government officials Wednesday bickered over the actual number of men still missing.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, said that all but two of 39 people abducted Tuesday by heavily armed men wearing police uniforms had been released. Sunni officials, including the minister in charge of the Higher Education Ministry building where the raid took place, said that as many as 150 were kidnapped and that 70 remained missing.

Higher education officials criticized Maliki's insistence that the kidnappers were not real police commandos and his reluctance to blame Shiite militias, some of whom have infiltrated the force and carried out death-squad killings and kidnappings. The ministry is run by Sunnis.

At a news conference at the University of Baghdad, Maliki emphasized the effectiveness of the government's response and pledged to punish those behind the raid at the Scholarship and Cultural Relations Directorate. Five Iraqi security officials, including the police chief and an army general in charge of the Karada district where the raid occurred, were in custody Wednesday.

But Abed Dhiyab Ajili, a Sunni Arab politician who is minister of higher education and scientific research, said Wednesday that 150 men had been abducted and that he was suspending his leadership of Iraq's 200 universities and research centers until the last hostage was freed.

Ministry spokesman Basil Ismael Khateeb said that the number of released captives proved that estimates by Maliki's office were too low, and that initial reports of more than 100 abductees were more accurate.

Khateeb said ministry officials arrived at that figure by counting the number of men who work at the building on a daily basis, interviewing released hostages and witnesses, and estimating the number of visitors who might have been there at the time of the raid.

Even by the government's estimate, the mass kidnapping would be among the largest in a battle zone where ransom demands are common. Sunni insurgents as well as Shiite paramilitary groups engage in kidnappings to intimidate opponents. Mafia-style ransom networks also abduct people with impunity.

Kidnappings by men in police uniforms, however, raise the specter of militia death-squad operations that have produced a steady flow of mutilated corpses, many of them Sunnis.

Khateeb said hotlines set up after the raid had been swamped by relatives searching for loved ones, and ministry fears were compounded by the discovery of the bodies of 55 unidentified people in the capital. By Wednesday night, however, none of those had been linked to the mass kidnapping.

"I'm very afraid that some of the kidnapped people will be among those bodies," Dr. Ala Maki, a Sunni Arab parliament member, said earlier in the day. "If that is the case, we will be in a very critical situation that will put the government and the Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry and the power of the state into question: What are their real intentions? Is this a real government? Or is there no government at all?"

In his comments at the University of Baghdad, the prime minister took pains to condemn the kidnappers and to praise his government's reaction to the assault.

"The government has shown a strong response in chasing the ignorant and undisciplined criminals who have joined hands with Satan. By doing this, these criminals proved themselves to be worse than the takfiris," Maliki said, using a term for extremists.

"We will never tolerate anyone who would dare to harm an Iraqi's dignity, especially professors and students in particular, who have regrettably become targets of assassination and intimidation."

Although the prime minister did not accuse Shiite militias of being behind the kidnappings, he suggested that the abductions were motivated by sectarianism when he announced an order banning "sectarian and ethnic activities" inside educational institutions.

Ministries in Iraq's coalition government are divided among various Muslim sects and ethnic groups.

Maliki's response to Tuesday's attack does appear to be more robust than those to previous mass kidnappings.

But Maki said Maliki was exaggerating the effectiveness of the government's response by insisting that all but two abductees had been released.

"They say they have been conducting operations against the kidnappers, but the government is avoiding even saying that the criminals are militia, that they are inside the police," said Maki, a medical school professor who is also the chairman of the legislature's higher education committee.

The attack was the latest in a series of blows to Iraq's academic community. Education officials estimate that 150 to 300 university professors have been killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and that thousands more educators have fled death threats and violence.

Khateeb said another academic was kidnapped Wednesday near his home in Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood in north Baghdad.

This month, gunmen killed the Shiite dean of the University of Baghdad's college of administration and economy, along with his son and wife.

A few days before that, geologist Issam Rawi, a prominent Sunni leader and chair of Iraq's University Professors Union, was slain.

"Unfortunately, the professors who are being killed and threatened are the most experienced and senior professors," said Suha Azzawi, a political science professor at the University of Baghdad.

"We need their leadership. I was just speaking with one of my old professors and he told me he was leaving for Egypt. He said: 'I can't take it anymore — all this killing and shooting. I cannot wait in my house for these criminals to murder me.'"
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 03:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Beeb's version certainly has a different focus:
Iraq ministry hostages 'tortured'
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 5:52 Comments || Top||


US 'broadly ready' for Iran talks
Posted by: tipper || 11/16/2006 01:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Broadly ready as in Loose trail formation of bombers or ICBM's from all directions????
Posted by: 49 Pan || 11/16/2006 14:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Ben Dover?
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/16/2006 20:23 Comments || Top||


Kurds Ousted by Saddam Returning Home
Halal Abdul Khalaq lives in a mud and cement hut behind a soccer stadium waiting for a break in the violence to start building her dream. Three years ago she returned to a homeland she and her parents fled when she was only a baby. They were running decades ago from Saddam Hussein's persecution of the Kurds. Hundreds of other Kurds have joined Abdul Khalaq in the anxious but miserable wait to reclaim their past.

Saddam's bid to turn oil-rich Kirkuk into an Arab city forced Kurds to flee by the tens of thousands during the 1980s and 1990s. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the refugees streamed back with house keys in hand -- only to find their homes sold or given outright to Arabs. Some returned to exile in Kurdish territory farther north, but others, like Abdul Khalaq, stayed and built shantytowns in which to wait it out.

"We're happy to be home, and we're safe here, but as far as living conditions, we're suffering," Abdul Khalaq, 22, said Wednesday as she cradled the child she bore two years ago in a hut without running water. This is what she knows of her fabled hometown: poverty, gunfire in the distance and occasional patrols by U.S. soldiers who pass out food and soccer balls to children. "I see my child barefoot, and I know I want a better life -- the one that was promised to us. I don't care whether it's in Kurdistan or Iraq," Abdul Khalaq said.

Kurds say they are the dominant population group in Kirkuk, but geography works against them. The city lies just south of the Kurdish autonomous region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city, but Iraq's new constitution calls for a census and referendum on the issue by the end of next year. Until then, it remains a demographics game.

The new Iraqi government has adopted a policy of "normalizing" Kirkuk -- repatriating Kurds expelled by Saddam, and resettling Arabs to outlying villages or to their ancestral homes to the south. But the process is slow: Some 100,000 claims have been filed by Kurds who have returned to Kirkuk since 2003, and local officials are processing fewer than 30 a month, said Lt. Col. Michael Browder with the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Division. Browder, 45, of Clarksville, Tenn., trains Iraqi police in Kirkuk. "Officials are learning the democratic process, but it takes time, and meanwhile the Kurds are piling in," he said.

Violence has also derailed progress. While the killing is nowhere near the level in Baghdad, bombings and shootings have increased in recent months, as Kurds and Arabs struggle for power ahead of the 2007 referendum. In the past 90 days, Kirkuk has seen some 20 car bombs resulting in about 300 civilian casualties, Browder said.

Kurds like Abdul Khalaq are, thus, in limbo -- home but homeless, and feeling betrayed. "They (Kurdish leaders) encouraged us to come back, but they don't care about citizens like us. We're just a number," she said, wringing her hands and then stopping to brush away flies from her son's face.

"We want Kurdish leaders to help us as they promised, to help us get out of this place," said Amir Mustapha, 27, who also lives in the soccer stadium's shadow. "The Kurdish government, coalition forces, the Baghdad government -- whoever. Someone has to help us."

Brightly colored laundry flaps in the breeze on a line strung between a gnarled tree and the wall of Abdul Khalaq's cement house. Raw sewage pools in an oblong ditch nearby, while children with dirty faces and blue eyes play hide-and-seek between pillars of the stadium, which hasn't hosted a game since 2003.

Across town, dozens of Kurds have also built temporary homes behind Celebration Square, where scouts used to march past Saddam and his Baath Party cronies. "I didn't think we'd live like this. I thought Mr. Talabani would give us money," said Awat Najat, 21, referring to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish.

Najat too fled Kirkuk to escape Saddam's persecution and grew up in Suleimaniyah, farther northwest. Barefoot and nine-months pregnant, she waddles around atop mats spread over the cement floor of her one-room house, and looks up at the bleachers overhead. "I will stay here and wait for my child to be born in Kirkuk, God willing," she said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/16/2006 00:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One place our blood and treasure has made a real difference is in the North. We should be pouring aid and infrastructure into settled Kurdistan and enabling them to recover their homes they lost under Saddam's regime.

[small rant]

One can only hope that our feckless State Dept. bureaucrats don't ultimately sell out the Kurds for some 'Greater Regional Paper Mache™'.
[/]
Posted by: RD || 11/16/2006 1:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen, RD, amen.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 3:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the Kurds will eventually take advantage of the chaos of the triangle and stake themselves off a country proper. I don't think there will be anything Baghdad will be able to do about it in the end. I predict a lot of pissing and moaning, but nobody willing to go the whole way to stop them. The only reason they havent done so yet is they are still getting their shit together politically. They still seem quite weak in that respect.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2006 7:37 Comments || Top||

#4  The Kurds have a 100,000 men deployable at 24 hour notice. The Sunnis aren't batting in the same league.
Posted by: phil_b || 11/16/2006 8:15 Comments || Top||

#5  the Kurds are the bright shining light in Iraq, probably due to the ten years they had under our no fly zone.
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 11/16/2006 19:42 Comments || Top||


Russia: Saddam's execution may destabilize Iraq
The lower house of Russian parliament on Wednesday warned that the execution of Saddam Hussein could lead to a further escalation of violence in Iraq.
They're prob'ly right, since I can't think of anything that won't destabilize Iraq.
The Kremlin-controlled State Duma unanimously approved a statement saying that "carrying out the death sentence would not solve the existing problems of the long-suffering people of Iraq, but may create new ones and trigger a new wave of harsh confrontation, revenge and hostility."

An Iraqi court earlier this month convicted Saddam for the killings of some 150 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in 1982. The Duma voiced hope that "further consideration of Saddam Hussein's fate would take into account possible negative consequences of carrying out the verdict for a peaceful domestic dialogue in Iraq."
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sorry, Ivan, your old buddy's gonna swing, and deservedly so. Saddam supporters and the more numerous rejectionist Sunnis in Iraq, obviously, require a dialogue involving lots of firepower and breaking of wills. Saddam's demise won't much distract them - they're quite busy organizing, abetting, and/or countenancing horrific terrorism against their compatriots to help protect them from justice or even grab a portion of the ring back from an elected government.
Posted by: Verlaine || 11/16/2006 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  The Russkies really don't have many ideological allies - who also have money, lol.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 5:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Destabilize? Oh Lordy.
I don't have my Friction Management picture handy.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 7:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Me neither, sniff.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 7:28 Comments || Top||

#5  But at least Saddam will become "stable."
Posted by: Jackal || 11/16/2006 8:37 Comments || Top||

#6  nobody else will buy their oh-so-successful GPS jammers
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Nice .jpg. It would be nice to see a side-by-side of Saddam as Saladin II with a photo of the bearded rat being pulled out of his hidey-hole.
Posted by: mrp || 11/16/2006 9:31 Comments || Top||

#8  If somehow Saddam were to escape the noose, wonder where he'd end up? A cozy little dacha in Russia? Won't he just be the wonderful new poster boy for enterprenneurial success in the weapons market of Russia.
Posted by: Jules || 11/16/2006 10:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Iraq is already destabilized ...
Posted by: doc || 11/16/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Duh !
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#11  State Duma must have talked to "accounts recievable" about who signed the PO's on those "seriously past due" invoices for the GPS jammers.
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 11/16/2006 11:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Destailize it further by removing the very last hopes that Saddam will be restored to power. A last desperate gasp by the Baathists and Saddamist Sunnis. And maybe even some Shia will finally feel they can step back now that their bete noir is swinging at the end of a rope.

Posted by: Oldspook || 11/16/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#13  So basically it can't hurt, right Ivan?
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/16/2006 13:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Me neither, sniff.
Ded network share?


Ima bin looking for it
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 16:11 Comments || Top||

#15  Abu Jibjab: Bush's execution stablises USA
Posted by: Hibjobol Abjub || 11/16/2006 18:18 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel tells the world what the US will do to Iran. When did we slip into Wonderland?
Posted by: 3dc || 11/16/2006 08:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In content, this is a duplicate from yesterday - though from a different source I think it's the same content.

"3dc" -- I didn't realize you knew President Bush better than the Israeli Ambassador. Please favor us with a non-Wonderland account. As I read it, this article makes sense and echoes President Bush's own statements.
Posted by: Phaving Glererong9756 || 11/16/2006 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Not exactly 9756. To the best of my knowledge, PGW has never said he would go sanctions then blockade then military. He has only stated that those are options. Also, the Ambassador does not say that he believes that this is wat Bush will do. He flat out says that Bush will not hesitate to use force, and as far as I can tell, he has already hesitated.
Not that I completely agree with the whole Wonderland deal either.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Hesitated? Interesting. I followed yesterday's comments and found the relatively common belief that something should have been done before now to be a projection of people's fears, not reality. I do not see anything but effort and bluster - in other words, they don't have the nuclear weapons package.

What do they have? Do you know?
When will they be ready? Do you know?

Hesitated? Seems to me that many here have a problem with premature ewhackulation.
Posted by: Phaving Glererong9756 || 11/16/2006 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Iran's going to resist to the end???

Okay, that works for me. Do you think Ahmanutjob will have both Hitlerian options, bullet or cyanide? If so, which will he choose?
Posted by: AlanC || 11/16/2006 10:36 Comments || Top||

#5  If Bush has hesitated or will hesitate is not the issue. I should not have made the comment. I am sorry. We have gone of course.

This post was about the Ambassador "knowing" what Bush will do.

As for the answers to your questions, Do you know many spots the last Lady Bug you smashed had? How many calories did it contain?
The answers matter not. We don't need to know the specifics of their program. We know it's intent. Any questions regarding specifics are nothing but irrelevant blather. All the Libs ask the exact same irrelevant questions, and I am beginning to tire of their uselessness. These questions serve no purpose beyond political talking points.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#6  My wonderland comment was of the nature -- My brother is going to beat you up.

My brother may well beat you up but my brother certainly wouldn't appreciate me making a threat in his name.

Posted by: 3dc || 11/16/2006 11:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Do you think Ahmanutjob will have both Hitlerian options, bullet or cyanide? If so, which will he choose?

Let's hope the answer to that is "all of the above".

Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  I prefer the 500lb PGM option myself, if a suitable .338 Lapua or .50 BMG cannot be arranged.
Posted by: Oldspook || 11/16/2006 12:30 Comments || Top||

#9  I hope to hell we arrange a situation where the Iranians do something blatant, belligerent, and clearly warlike, if ineffectual, towards us.

Like shooting several large missiles at one or two of our aircraft carrier's anti-missile defenses.

We could send in a few special purpose teams to capture one of their missile sites, which would then be used for a multiple launch before blowing up the site and everybody within.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/16/2006 12:49 Comments || Top||

#10  All right, all right, OldSpook. Would you be happy with a cyanide coated bullet fired from a .338 SR-8?

More than anything, I'd really love to see this turd's head blown clean off before thousands of followers right in the middle of him spewing another one of his tantrums, preferrably the precise moment after he finishes screeching "death to America!" [kablammo - splat].

Pay per view subscriptions from Rantburg alone could probably finance the whole operation.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||

#11  Hmmm. Since I was the fool with his finger in the dike, yesterday, trying to stop the Doom & Gloom Lemmings Brigade from jumping off a cliff, I guess I should give my thumbs-up to Phaving Glererong9756

He gets it.

Mike N. - How many holes does it take to fill Albert Hall? Are you always this pointlessly rude to intelligent comments?

You fucked up. PG9756 simply responded to your post. Then you retract it and gibber on about nothing.

3dc - Your response made no sense. None. Nada. Zilch.

WTF is going on, here? Fred, you spike the punch or something? Looked like we had an intelligent n00b drop by and he gets pointless friction and shit for it.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 23:02 Comments || Top||


Most Israelis want military chief to quit
Most Israelis want the country's armed forces chief to resign amid widespread public criticism of military failures during a war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday. The Yedioth Ahronoth daily found 71 percent of people polled believed that Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz should step down and 58 percent thought he should be fired if he chooses not to quit.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Olmert needs him as a scapegoat for his failed policies, he won't fire him
Posted by: Frank G || 11/16/2006 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  A wise conclusion. Dump him before the next attacks. You will need someone there who knows how to conduct operations, not this guy.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 11/16/2006 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, don't pull a Bush a wait until the last minute.
Posted by: Lou || 11/16/2006 15:22 Comments || Top||

#4  What Lou said, wait too long and you end up with Joe. Trust me, been there.
Posted by: Rhoda || 11/16/2006 17:51 Comments || Top||


Olmert vows action against Kassams
Israel's military actions in Gaza will continue, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged from Los Angeles Wednesday, adding that compromising with Hamas would be tantamount to compromising with Iran. Olmert, wrapping up a five-day visit to the US, was briefed on the situation throughout the day by Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Prior to an Israeli Bonds meeting in LA, Olmert told reporters "our actions in Gaza will continue." He said that decisions would need to be taken on what additional steps to take, but "we will continue to fight the murderous terror emanating from Gaza."

In what appeared to be a response to critics arguing that Israel has been too weak in trying to stop the steady barrage of Kassam attacks on Sderot, Olmert said that the IDF has been operating inside the Gaza Strip for a long time, and "lately an intensive operation in Beit Hanoun ended, in the course of which dozens of Hamas operatives and terrorists were killed."

During his appearance before the Bonds group, Olmert lashed out at what he said was the UN Security Council's hypocrisy, pointing out that while that body met to condemn Israel for last weeks errant shell that killed 21 people in Beit Hanoun, it did not meet to condemn the continuous firing of Kassam rockets on Israel. He said that he discussed earlier in the week with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the US veto of a UN Security Council condemnation of Israel for its actions in Gaza.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here comes a War on Rockets?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 11/16/2006 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  does he have enough balls to shut off the water?

No?

Then his vows are worthless.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/16/2006 7:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Olmert should go to the Tickle-me-Elmo factory and see if the QC will give him 2 test tickles.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:09 Comments || Top||

#4  A firmly worded letter should do the trick.
Posted by: Excalibur || 11/16/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Hasn't he done this before? Did it work? What new strategy is he going to employ?

Unless Israel goes totally midieval on the Paleos, they will continue to fire rockets at Israel. The only way to stop the paleos from firing rockets is to eliminate the paleos. Olmert doesn't have the cojones to do that, so nothing will really happen except a lot of expensive Israeli military hardware will get used up fighting a war with both feet in the same bucket. Blowing up a few acres of real estate won't do it unless you mine that real estate afterwards.

Posted by: Old Patriot || 11/16/2006 14:55 Comments || Top||


Peretz: Terror groups will pay dearly
Following a Kassam rocket attack on Sderot in which one person was killed and another seriously wounded, Defense Minister Amir Peretz planned to convene an emergency meeting of security officials on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the incident. "We will take action against anyone involved in Kassam rocket attacks, from the terror chiefs until the last of the terror operatives," Peretz said. "The terror organizations will pay a heavy price."
Here's a suggestion: Quit rolling your eyes and threatening dire revenge™. That's an Arab thing. Instead, say nothing and beat the living crap out of them with no warning.
Meanwhile, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter told Army Radio following the morning's attack that the political echelons must order the IDF to stop the Kassam fire completely and by any means necessary - artillery, aerial, or land attacks - even at the risk of endangering soldiers.
Soldiers really don't mind being "endangered" when it makes sense. Sending a "signal" doesn't make sense. Leveling a significant portion of Gaza and the bad guyz with it makes sense.
"The political echelons' instructions to the IDF should have been and still must be an absolute halt to Kassam fire from the Gaza Strip at Israel," Dichter said. "Unfortunately, there is currently no such instruction. The steps taken up to now have not been successful in putting a stop to Kassam fire. The army's activity is not sufficient. A broadening [of operations] is necessary, whether it's a ground operation or an aerial operation or other special operations. Defense forces exist to protect citizens, even at the expense of harm to the defense forces. "The reality we live in today is unthinkable, intolerable," he said.
One option is to remove the Paleos from Gaza. Or to give it back to Egypt and let them deal with it. Making faces and grimacing isn't a real option.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No they won't; anybody with any balls left will be castrated by the testicularly challenged: "if i don't have any, then you can't either." the terrs win.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 11/16/2006 14:57 Comments || Top||


EU: No change in policy on Hamas
Amid growing concern in Jerusalem that the European Union will begin showing flexibility on the three criteria for legitimizing the Palestinian Authority if a new Palestinian national unity government is formed, the EU is officially saying that nothing yet has changed. "It is too early to discuss any change," a senior EU official in Tel Aviv said this week. "If the Palestinians set up a government of experts it will be an improvement of the current situation, and must be considered. But there are no reports yet on a change of EU policy [toward the PA], and there must be some sort of assessment before this takes place." The Quartet has said it would not deal with the PA government until it recognized Israel, forswore terrorism and accepted previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

The Quartet, meanwhile, met in Cairo to discuss ways to push the diplomatic process forward and Palestinian attempts to form a new unity government. The meeting took place at the residence of the Russian ambassador in Cairo and included US envoy David Welch, UN envoy Alvaro de Soto, Sergei Iacovlev from Russia and Marc Otte from the European Union. "The aim of this meeting is to come up with a common analysis of the situation and consider the next move, in particular if and when the Palestinians form a national unity government," European Union Middle East envoy Otte told AFP. "One of the main issues will be how to respond to a national unity government," a UN official told the French news agency.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  id think this qualifies for the open jawed rabbit.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 11/16/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Words don't equal action. When the EU acts, then I'll put the rabbit in.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/16/2006 22:02 Comments || Top||


EU lawmakers criticize IDF maneuvers in Gaza
European Union lawmakers on Wednesday joined EU governments in criticizing IDF maneuvers in the Gaza Strip that killed 19 civilians last week, saying the large-scale military actions in the town of Beit Hanoun were not justified.
Pop a few rockets into Belgium from Luxembourg and see if doing something about it's justified.
"Israel is a democratic country which needs to ask questions. We should ask them how they can describe something like Beit Hanoun as an accident. In democracy people who are responsible need to be held up to their responsibilities," said Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament.

The EU has expressed strong concerns over the death of civilians and warned Israel to show utmost restraint in its military actions. "How many enemies does Israel want?" asked Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Except for us, and usually the Brits, they've already got just about all there are.
The Beit Hanoun shelling came after IDF troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know, you guys don't have any real friends, either.
Posted by: Perfesser || 11/16/2006 7:05 Comments || Top||


Arab group condemns Israeli aggression against Palestinian people
(KUNA) -- Chair of the Arab group Bahraini ambassador Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla stressed that the Arab group strongly condemns the continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people on their land the latest in Beit Hanoun against the civilian population especially women and children and represents collective punishment and "we" hold Israel responsible for all the repercussions of those aggressions and attacks. He added that the continued gross violations by Israel for Palestinian Human Rights are another proof of Israels disrespect for this distinguished Council. African group presented by Algerian ambassador chair Idriss Jazairy supported the draft resolution presented by the OIC and the Arab group and called upon the Council to rise up to the challenge of its mandate to put an end to those human rights violations.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represented by Saudi ambassador Abdulwahab Abduksalam Attar called for the convening of an international conference in order to move the peace process ahead and put and end to the continued human rights violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Palestinian head of mission ambassador Dr. Mohammad Abu-Koash told the Human Rights Special Session on Beit Hanoun that when it was struck by the Israeli artillery this was as if was struck by an earthquake. He urged the Council to stop Israeli atrocities and provide international protection to the Palestinian people. Abu-Koash stressed that manipulation of international law has been elevated to the rank of virtue.

"We are not invading Israel but it is Israel which is doing so to prolong its occupation of our land," he added. Tyranny and suppression in America , he added, gave birth to the revolution; Washington is the name of a great leader who was called a terrorist, a description that applies now to the Palestinian resistance fighters. Chair of the OIC group, Pakistani ambassador Masood Khan that some say too frequent special sessions will devalue the currency of the Human Rights Council.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  y net: Arab nations call for UN rights probe into Israeli attacks
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 3:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lahoud: US, France 'are acting the same way Syria used to'
EFL

President Emile Lahoud called Wednesday for the speedy formation of a national unity government to reduce tensions - and for foreign powers to stop interfering in Lebanon.

Emile, are you saying all foreign powers?

Lahoud denounced France and the United States, accusing them of aggravating the crisis and of "acting the same way that Syria used to act in Lebanon."

I guess not.

"It is one of the factors ... and prevents dialogue among the Lebanese," he added.

Nothing on this green planet can prevent dialogue among the Lebanese.

"We need a government of national unity which represents all parties as soon as possible or else there will be demonstrations on the streets that we are against," the president said in an interview with AFP.

And who would be doin' the demonstrating? Where's the "unity" in that?

Lahoud, who has been snubbed by visiting Western officials, reiterated Wednesday he was determined to stay in power "until the last moment."

"until the last moment." An Allende moment? A Nixon moment? A Charles Foster Kane moment? How 'bout a Nicholae Ceausescu moment?

Lahoud, who boycotted Monday's Cabinet session, repeated his claim that "the current government has lost its legitimacy" after the resignation of all five Shiite representatives and one of Lahoud's ministers.

"When it comes to the country's fateful decisions, all parties should participate," he said.

10-4, that's an invitation to an "I'll see you guys at the OK Corral" moment

Hizbullah - whose two ministers resigned Saturday - and its allies have called for an expanded Cabinet that would secure them veto power. Threats of street protests have prompted the ruling majority to warn of counter-demonstrations.

The anti-Syrian ruling majority has rejected the demand for a unity government before achieving a pledge for the ouster of Lahoud, whose term was extended by three years by a Syrian-imposed constitutional amendment in September 2004.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Wednesday that his government would not be toppled and that he would not step down as long as he enjoyed the confidence of Parliament.

Asked if he believed Syria was involved in the resignations, he refused to make any accusations, but said he wished Syrian officials would translate their positive statements on Lebanon "honestly on the ground." I think that's a request to read between the lines.

This line...

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, told CNN on Wednesday that Damascus does not interfere in Lebanon's affairs and that the resignation of the ministers was not a Syrian issue.

... and this line. Conclusion?

Siniora highlighted his government's role in ending the July-August war with Israel through his seven-point peace plan and the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which halted the fighting.

Lebanese leaders broke off national roundtable talks Saturday on forming a unity government, after months of political stalemate because of disputes between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps in Parliament.

Speaker Nabih Berri, the sponsor of the talks, said in remarks broadcast Wednesday that any Cabinet sessions were unconstitutional after the resignation of the Shiite ministers.

Speaker Berri is a charter member of the "Living Constitution" movement.

Berri, who heads the Amal Movement, had three ministers in Cabinet. He told Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya television any Cabinet session held without Shiite ministers violated a national pact designed to guarantee representation for all of Lebanon's religious communities.

Berri wrapped up a four-day visit to Iran on Tuesday. It was not clear where he headed from Tehran, with conflicting reports suggesting he went to Kuwait and/or Britain. Or Switzerland

Without Shiites from Hizbullah and Amal, the Cabinet is stacked with anti-Syrian allies of MP Saad Hariri, who heads the parliamentary majority.

The majority accuses the ministers of resigning to block the formation of a tribunal to try those accused of assassinating Hariri's father, late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in February 2005. A UN commission investigating the Hariri killing has implicated senior Lebanese and Syrian security officials.

The Central News Agency quoted a senior political source Wednesday as saying there are no indications the crisis will be solved in the near future. "The two sides have become more adamant in their demands," the source said. - Agencies

Kinda has the flavor of that outdoor cantina scene in the "Wild Bunch"
Posted by: mrp || 11/16/2006 13:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing on this green planet can prevent dialogue among the Lebanese.

Know a few do 'ya? :>
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 16:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Talk talk talk talk. I'm not the most talkative guy around, but it's a bit disconcerting to watch someone silently move their jaws waiting for me to complete a sentence.
Posted by: mrp || 11/16/2006 17:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Hahahahhahahaha!
Posted by: Shipman || 11/16/2006 17:53 Comments || Top||


Iran soon to take "final step" in atomic plan: report
TEHRAN (Rooters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday his country would soon take the "final step" in its nuclear program, Iran's official news agency reported without saying what that would involve.
Let's hope it doesn't involve a nuclear mushroom over Tel Aviv or any other western city...

The president did not explain what the "final step" was, but Iran has said it will press ahead with its atomic plans despite U.N. calls to halt uranium enrichment, which the West believes is part of a plan to build atomic bombs.

Tehran, which says its aims are peaceful, now faces possible sanctions for ignoring the U.N. demands, but there is still no agreement at the U.N. Security Council about possible penalties.

"The Iranian nation is about to take its final step in the nuclear issue," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

The president has previously said Iran would celebrate its nuclear achievements by the end of the Iranian year, which falls in March 2007.

Iran now operates two experimental chains of 164 centrifuges, which can be used to make fuel for power plants or material for warheads.

But the Islamic Republic has said it wants to develop "industrial-scale" enrichment. It plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by March and Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Tuesday Iran's ambition was to have 60,000 centrifuges.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling investigations aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says it only wants to harness nuclear power to generate electricity.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/16/2006 06:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling investigations aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.

Wow. Pins 'n needles.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 6:53 Comments || Top||

#2  So we are to see sucide bomb countries?
Posted by: 3dc || 11/16/2006 7:10 Comments || Top||

#3  It plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by March and Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Tuesday Iran's ambition was to have 60,000 centrifuges.

This guy is flaunting his arrogance in front of the whole world and we do nothing!!!!!
Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 11/16/2006 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh My Gawd!!!!!

It's all been clear enough for, oh, 'bout 3 years. Whatever they wanna anounce today, tomorrow, whenever, isn't a big deal. It's just another of the a gafrickinzillion data points - all on the same line - the one we knew about 3 years ago.

Nothing has changed. They feed their nationalist / Shia fervor with glorious martyr / power pronouncements and we tick off the data point.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 7:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Gee, I wonder what the heck is going on over there.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/16/2006 7:29 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm sorry, CC7867 - I should've said that in a comisserating fashion. Unnecessarily harsh - and I apologize for being a dick. Yesterday's endless ankle-biting BS drained my patience reservoir. Not fair to snip at you. You're right - he's flaunting it. And I assert that it doesn't change the equation - we know where this ends.

Peace, bro. I'm outta here.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 7:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Its final step. Yes, that seems about right.
Posted by: Phaving Glererong9756 || 11/16/2006 9:22 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm sure the Iranian nuclear program is exactly what they say it is. It's for domestic power production and is no threat to Israel. This will reduce thier dependance on domestic oil, and lower global demand, making oil cheaper for the rest of us. They're doing us a favor. Really.
(If you beleive that, I have a quarter to put under your pillow. All you have to do is send me a tooth.)
Anyway, all this B.S. about it being for power production has gotten me thinking about the long forgotten option of nuclear power production here in the U.S.
I swear, if Iran ends up with better nuclear power facilties than we have here, I am going to go absolutely batshit crazy.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#9 

"The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)"
Posted by: xbalanke || 11/16/2006 9:53 Comments || Top||

#10  That poodle needs a trim.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 10:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Looks more like a schnoodle to me and a far better metaphor for the IAEA as well; The end product of allowing congress between individuals who never should have met in the first place.
Posted by: Zenster || 11/16/2006 11:27 Comments || Top||

#12  Zen, sounds like you are talking about my ex and me.
Posted by: Mike N. || 11/16/2006 12:00 Comments || Top||

#13  The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report Iran was still stonewalling investigations aimed at determining whether its plans are peaceful.

Oh my. If they keep stonewalling, we'll never know!
Posted by: gorb || 11/16/2006 12:45 Comments || Top||

#14  "60,OOO centrifuges" > also reported on RIANovosti/RIAN.RU kurtsey of GLOBALSECURITY.ORG.
Several Netters, includ myself, believe that the "final step" is MOUD-speak for Iran having enuff nuklar materials for both domestic energy + quick militarized production of nuklar devices/warheads. ENERGY NOW, BOMBS/WARHEADS AFTER 2008 + NEW DEM POTUS IN WASHINGTON.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/16/2006 22:46 Comments || Top||


Ahmadinejad replaces one of his vice presidents
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaced one of his vice presidents on Wednesday, apparently as part of a redistribution of departmental authority within the government, the official news agency reported. Vice President Farhad Rahbar, who headed the Management and Planning Agency, was replaced by Amir Mansour Borghei, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.

The report gave no reason for the change, but last month the president decided to merge the Management and Planning Agency's provincial branches with the local governors' administrations. The move significantly downgraded the planning agency's responsibilities. IRNA quoted an anonymous government official as saying that Rahbar would be reassigned, but this could not be confirmed Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "You're FIRED!"
Posted by: Hupart Flarong7189 || 11/16/2006 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  What does the "Management and Planning Agency" do? Is he thinking it won't be so necessary after his precious 12th Imam climbs out of his hidey hole?
Posted by: gorb || 11/16/2006 1:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol, HF7189. From the graphic, indeed.
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 3:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Imagining a queue of VPs with one replaced everytime the word "no" is uttered.
Posted by: 3dc || 11/16/2006 7:15 Comments || Top||

#5  *Mahmoud Uncovered*

Ever since he took office, there’s been speculation that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was involved in the 1979 seizure of the American embassy in Tehran. Now, it appears the Russian newspaper Kommersant has stumbled upon more evidence to back up the rumors.


Posted by: RD || 11/16/2006 7:32 Comments || Top||

#6  How many inches per brick ?
This guy looks taller than a jacket. The tear bags under the eyes are not quite right either.
Posted by: wxjames || 11/16/2006 11:15 Comments || Top||

#7  I'd have thought that if he was one of the "heros" who seized the embassy he'd have said so during his campaign, and won himself some more votes.
Posted by: James || 11/16/2006 13:30 Comments || Top||

#8  OK ok ok..the definitive *Mahmoud* circa 1979

Posted by: RD || 11/16/2006 16:48 Comments || Top||

#9  For me, the heads didn't match when it comes to the bottom curve of the nose and the breadth of the skull at top. Not sure.
Posted by: Jules || 11/16/2006 22:39 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Al Jazeera Launches Global Broadcast Operation
Posted by: .com || 11/16/2006 03:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2006-11-16
  Morocco holds 13 suspected Jihadist group members
Wed 2006-11-15
  Nasrallah vows campaign to force gov't change
Tue 2006-11-14
  Khost capture was Zawahiri deputy?
Mon 2006-11-13
  Palestinians agree on nonentity as PM
Sun 2006-11-12
  Five Shia ministers resign from Lebanese cabinet
Sat 2006-11-11
  Haniyeh offers to resign for aid
Fri 2006-11-10
  US Rejects UN Resolutions on Gaza Violence as One-Sided
Thu 2006-11-09
  Indon Muslims on trial over beheading young girls
Wed 2006-11-08
  Israeli Forces Pull Out of Beit Hanoun
Tue 2006-11-07
  Al Qaeda terrorist captured in Afghanistan
Mon 2006-11-06
  Pakistani AF officers tried to kill Perv
Sun 2006-11-05
  Saddam Sentenced to Death
Sat 2006-11-04
  More Military Humor Aimed at Kerry
Fri 2006-11-03
  Turkey: Muslim vows to 'strangle' Pope
Thu 2006-11-02
  US force storms Allawi's Home

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