#2
How about sending some equipment/instructors to Ethiopians instead?
We're already doing that, grom. That's what part of those 1600 SF folks are doing in Djibouti. What we want are 50,000 boots on the ground in Baidoa, driving toward Mogadischu with tanks and APCs. I'd like to see some surprise navy action, with F/A-18s blowing up mosques in central/southern Somalia at 3AM. Catch the bad guys while they're napping, more or less.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/02/2006 17:15 Comments ||
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Morocco is to scrap compulsory military service in a move analysts said on Thursday was aimed at blocking infiltration of the military by Islamists hatching an anti-monarchist plot.
Morocco has been on alert over religious hardliners since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca. Analysts said the security concerns had deepened since the discovery in August of a group, Ansar Al Mehdi (Mehdi Partisans), accused by government of planning to launch a holy war to establish a caliphate Islamic state. The group infiltrated the army and police to recruit at least nine of their members.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Wouldn't courts martial and executions provide a more comprehensive solution?
RIYADH, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said there was no truth in an article by a Saudi security adviser suggesting the world's top oil exporter would back Iraq's Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict.
"He's talking out of his head! Needs a drive in the desert, that boy does!"
Nawaf Obaid, a security adviser to the Saudi grand high poobah government, said on Wednesday the kingdom would intervene with funding and weaponry to prevent Shi'ite militias attacking Iraq's Sunnis once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq. He also suggested Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, could bring down world oil prices to squeeze Shi'ite power Iran, which Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries accuse of meddling in Iraq.
Um, oh, okay, gee yeah, lower oil prices for a while. I dare you. See how easy it is to fund the overseas madrassahs.
Saudi state news agency SPA issued a statement on Friday attributed to an "official source" who rejected Obaid's ideas.
"There is no basis in truth to the article by the writer Nawaf Obaid in the Washington Post of Nov. 29, 2006," it said. "The writer does not represent any official body in Saudi Arabia. What he published only represents his personal opinion and does not in any manner at all represent the policy or positions of the kingdom," it added.
"(Saudi Arabia) continually affirms its support for the security, unity and stability of Iraq, with all of its sectarian groups."
With the ones they favor on top, of course.
Obaid stressed in the article that the views were his own and not those of the Saudi government.
"I know this article doesn't represent Saudi policies," said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday. "I am in contact with the Saudi government and they realise the necessity of protecting the democratic process."
And you can always a trust a Saoodi royal when they tell you something face-to-face, it's part of their culture.
A Western diplomat in Riyadh said the official denial confirmed diplomats' belief that the substance of Obaid's article does not reflect Saudi policy. He said at most the article may have been intended as a "warning".
In that case, it worked well.
Diplomats say Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, is worried that Washington has lost control of Iraq and developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Arab governments say is driving Islamic extremism and anti-U.S. sentiment in the region.
Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian violence is threatening to descend into a full-scale war in Iraq, which Saudi Arabia fears could spill over onto its borders. Saudi Arabia has a Shi'ite minority, and some Saudi Sunni militants have gone to Iraq to join insurgents fighting the U.S.-backed Baghdad government. Saudi willingness to back Sunnis has been tempered by fear of al Qaeda militants in the Sunni insurgency who also oppose the Saudi government.
Get to know Saudi Executioner Abdallah al Bishi. Just a regular guy, a pious guy, a guy who swings a sword with the best, a guy following in his Daddy's curly-toed slippers. He's taken over 100 heads. He is just one of at least 6 Executioners in Saudi. But Abdallah rates, since his stomping chopping ground is Mecca - though sometimes he plays an away game. As the Lebanese TV interviewer says, "There is no negotiating with him, once the heads have ripened." In addition to heads, he also handles lopping off hands and feet. An all-around kind of guy.
When he was told he would be carrying out his first execution - he didn't know why he had been summoned - he said, "No problem." ("mafi mushkila")... though he did admit, "Every person is a bit worried when he starts a new job... and is afraid he might fail.". He's beheaded many friends, he says, but those are the breaks. He sez knocking off 3, 4, 5, or 6 in a sitting is no big deal, nor does it matter if they be wymyns or myn. See his children, not the wifey - I'm sure she's tied up somewhere out back - his son Badr will soon be following in his slippersteps in Riyadh... hear his tale of pride. Insh'allah.
Worthy. Not something you see everyday. Thank your lucky stars.
China has tightened controls on nuclear exports with global terrorism in mind, Xinhua news agency said on Friday, the latest effort to ease proliferation concerns in the West.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2006 00:00 ||
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I found this article in Occidentalis to be...uh, just a bit troubling, don't you think? Or am I worrying over a trifle?
The Danish government said it was shocked to learn that a Koranic school is teaching its pupils that the only way to obtain peace in the Middle East is to exterminate all the Jews.
The school, situated in Odense, in the suburbs of Vollsmose, in the center of Denmark, is also supposed to be teaching pupils in the elementary grades that the Jews are Nazis and that the American president George W. Bush ought to be electrocuted... Teach them how to get back where they came from.
#3
Shut down the school, expel the entire staff, the school board and the financiers. Give the families a choice of placing their children in public schools until they graduate or emigrating, because those who have imbibed such things cannot be allowed in the community without deprogramming.
#4
Anyone want to bet that there is a link between this jihadist school and Ahmad abu Laaban of Cartoonifada fame? Vollsmose, jokingly known as "Voldmose" ("vold" being the Danish word for "violence"), distinguishes itself by having the highest crime rate in all Denmark. It's no coincidence that it also has the highest "immigrant" population as well.
Denmark is only slowly coming out of denial and an ostrich-like posture regarding lack of Muslim integration. Much like America, Denmark has been among the most tolerant of all European nations regarding issues of religious freedom. For this reason, it is also having the greatest difficulty in comprehending the habitual lack of assimilation and violent attitude its Muslims are showing towards their host culture.
One must hope that Denmark will reflect upon its honorable and decent past in the process of deriving sufficient moral authority to label Islam for the intolerant and dangerous ideology it is. The difficulty a nation which serves as the model of societal openess has with one, count it, ONE single group and only that group should serve as a prime indicator of where the real blame lies.
WASHINGTON - Liberals cheered the announcement Friday that Los Angeles Democrat Rep. Jane Harman will not lead the House Intelligence Committee next year, while military analysts called the decision a loss for national security.
"I think Harman would have been one of the worst choices for this position," said author and popular liberal commentator Glenn Greenwald. "It's very refreshing to see Pelosi choose someone who will take oversight seriously." And all of Glenn's sock puppets agreed, doncha know.
But Dan Goure, a national security expert with the Lexington Institute think tank, described Harman as a well-respected expert on intelligence matters and called her removal a mistake. "I think that it is a mistake for Democrats newly in power after a decade of being in the wilderness to not go with their strongest team, and that was Jane Harman," Goure said.
Security experts credit Harman with creating the position of a national intelligence director - calling for the creation of the post several months before the 9/11 Commission recommended it. Not sure that centralizing intel even more than it was is a good idea, and centralizing is the default position of any Democrat, be it national security or health care.
She also was an early voice for a comprehensive assessment of intelligence on Iraq. "She's very plugged into the professionals and the agencies," Denis McDonough, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress liberal think tank in D.C.
Harman, for her part, issued a statement Friday congratulating Reyes and vowing to help make his transition a smooth one. "I leave this position with incredible respect for the women and men of the intelligence community," Harman said. "I pledge to them that I will continue to look after their interests and the interests of the intelligence industrial base that is largely centered in my congressional district in California." Well, that proves their point. Respect for the people who keep us safe? Neocon Bitch.
#4
Methinks that a couple dozen decent Donks backed by the Trunks in the House could appoint a new Speaker come January. Just not Madame P. Been done elsewhere. Then its a payback new round of appointing committee chairmanships.
#5
Isn't Daschle demanding power sharing...oops. Nevermind. And isn't the power sharing score 49-R's, 49-D's and 2-I's in the Senate? If it wasn't for Dennis "You can't investigate Dollar Bill Jefferson" Hastert, Procopious2k has the correct strategy for the House leader selection..... unfortunately, Rodney King is still advising the Reps.
Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, an Iraq war opponent, will become chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.
In choosing Reyes, a former border patrol agent and Vietnam War veteran, Pelosi skipped over two more senior Democrats to head a panel that oversees the conduct of U.S. national security policy and counterterrorism efforts. The panel's top-ranking Democrat, California Rep. Jane Harman, has had strained relations with Pelosi, and the next in line, Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, is a former federal judge who was ousted from that post after allegations of corruption. Pelosi said of Reyes: "When tough questions are required, whether they relate to intelligence shortcomings before the 9/11 attacks or the war in Iraq, or to the quality of intelligence on Iran or North Korea, he does not hesitate to ask them."
The incoming Democratic-led Congress is expected to be more aggressive next year in challenging the Bush administration on security and intelligence matters, after six years in which Republican lawmakers who controlled the House and Senate were accused of rubber-stamping the White House.
But the Bush administration on Friday said it welcomed Reyes' appointment. "Congressman Reyes' lengthy service on the intelligence committee and his comprehensive understanding of the intelligence community and the challenges it faces ideally qualifies him for this important chairmanship," said John Negroponte, director of national intelligence.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Not jumping to any rash conclusions. He could turn out to be decent. Certainly a better choice than Hastings.
Link was pretty slow but may be better now. More interesting links at article link such as original police report, passenger complaint letter, and some blogging. Verrry interesting indeed.
The case of U.S. Airways flight 300 gets stranger by the minute. When six traveling Muslim clerics were asked to deplane last week, it looked like another civil rights controversy against post-9-11 airport security.
Now new information is emerging that suggests it was all a stunt designed to weaken security .
Yesterday I spoke with a passenger on that flight, who asked that she be only identified as Pauline. A copy of airport police report, which I also obtained, supports Paulines account - and includes shocking revelations of its own. In addition, U.S. Airways spokeswoman Andrea Rader also confirmed much of what Pauline revealed ..
The passenger, who asked that she only be identified as Pauline, said she is afraid to give her full name or hometown. She is spending the night at another location because she does not feel safe at home. She credits reports that one imam is apparently linked to Hamas. It is scary because these men could be dangerous.
Everybody is entitled to their religious beliefs but stay in your damn seat and pray quietly.
The last thing I want to experience during an airline flight is a bunch of arab men standing up and prostrating themselves chanting about allah...
I'm sorry.. I used to be far more tolerant.. until I read more about islam..
And this is post 9-11
Posted by: john ||
12/02/2006 10:12 Comments ||
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#7
The "media" appears to be deliberately omitting facts that are unsympathetic to the Mohammedans. The media are the enemy also. We'll have to clean out that nest of vipers at some point.
There has to be some way to force the media to adhere to some kind of standards, that do not violate the First Ammendment. If not, then the media will need to be on the receiving end of some direct citizen action. Traitors.
A side note: An acquaintance sent his intelligent level-headed daughter off to college (Journalism School) and four years later got back a foaming at the mouth Liberal with a head packed with insane notions. Just sayin'.
#8
Dry run. Testing for openings. Pushing for relaxation of security practices. Also at Reagan? Target-rich environment real close. And remember, AQ likes to repeat until they succeed - WTC had to be hit twice, and somewhere in DC (White House?) was not hit on 9-11. Five years is pretty standard cycle time for them.
My definition of 'Press' (as in freedom of the press) includes presenting unbiased reporting. It does not include being a government announcer (that's Snow's job) nor does it include being an enemy propaganda outfit who spew unfiltered and unverified 'news' from enemy sources as the MSM has proven time and time again all to willing to be.
I don't think the allies would consider Tokyo Rose as part of the press. She would have been arrested on sight (and indeed was tried for treason wasn't she?). Neither should we consider most of the MSM sources and outlets as part of the 'press' (nor should they enjoy the additional benefits)
#11
There is no doubt at all that this was premeditated. Probably cooked up at the conference they attended. The good news is this has backfired on the f**kers. Most people now days know they can not rely on MSM for any reliable information. I fully expect that shortly, incidents of this sort will result in brawls, whereby the "peaceful" muzzies will be beaten to within an inch of their worthless lives. And, when the cops arrive, no one will have seen anything.
#13
I heard Pauline on Hannity this week. Pretty composed & well spoken lady. She talked about the seat belt extenders and the passengers cheering when the six klingers were escorted off that bird.
As for the MSM, I wish there was a way to sue them for everytime they publish a story that omits key pieces of info - like the passengers cheering the removal of these clerics from the plane.
#14
like the passengers cheering the removal of these clerics from the plane.
Don't leave out the important details, Broadhead6:
Other Muslim passengers were left undisturbed and later joined in a round of applause for the U.S. Airways crew. It wasnt that they were Muslim. It was all of the suspicious things they did, Pauline said.
I'm confident that this important fact will be omitted in the media's rush to paint this as yet another case of Muslim profiling.
We are rapidly approaching the time when a government sponsored "Media Fairness" agency will need to be set up whereby commerically broadcast media can be assessed for bias or omission of fact. The government can rightfully use its own channels to disseminate accounts of when and where mainstream media has distorted or left out vital details that skew the public's perception of key issues, especially those related to national security.
Dan Rather's utterly biased and untruthful (to be polite) attempt to smear Bush during a presidential election cycle must forever stand as a watershed moment in when the media became a public enemy.
#16
CrazyFool: My definition of 'Press' (as in freedom of the press) includes presenting unbiased reporting.
Thank You! That is a very interesting distinction, and one that I think the courts needs to define. What I wouldn't give to be able to classify most of the MSM as "Not Press", but Infotainment/Opinion Mongers/Propagandists.
The harm that the media does is appalling, and you know they'll scream loudly when it all starts to come back on them.
#19
To date, the best we can do is boycott those news sources which we deem as untrustworthy. The reduced viewing numbers and loss of advertising revenues will eventually result in replacement of those news anchors who prove unpopular and finally reach down to the programming teams and script writers who come up with this unadulterated horseshit.
Farther downstream, there may well be much more serious repercussions at the hands of a betrayed and angry public when the unmitigated treason committed by these talking heads finally comes to light. Then the price will likely be far more costly than just job security.
#20
IIRC the price of biased reporting was 20% drop in NYT stock, no?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2006 18:45 Comments ||
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#21
Not everyone knows about Rantburg, sad to note.
Knowing that most americans vote based on what they read in the local papers and local TV is frightening.
Yes the media should be held accountable for reporting the whole truth, without embellishments.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/02/2006 21:13 Comments ||
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#22
Zenster, I was unaware of any other muslims on board. I only heard about the imams.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official and a close ally of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, will step down at the end of the year, becoming the first key department member to leave in the wake of Rumsfeld's resignation. It had been widely speculated that Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, would resign as the Pentagon prepares for the expected Senate confirmation of a new defense chief -- former CIA director Robert Gates.
The Pentagon's intelligence-gathering has come under fire during Cambone's tenure, with critics accusing the Defense Department of trying to take expanded control over the nation's intelligence activities.
Cambone was in charge of intelligence when it was disclosed a year ago that a Pentagon database of suspicious activities contained the names of anti-war groups that had been found not be security risks. Cambone ordered a review of the program.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said Gates did not request Cambone's resignation. "This was an independent decision," said Vician. "Dr. Cambone decided that now is a good time for a change to enable him to spend more time with his family."
Cambone came to the Pentagon with Rumsfeld in January 2001, and served in three other top level posts before taking over the intelligence job in March 2003.
The local Taliban have lifted a ban on the sale of newspapers in North Waziristan that was imposed following an erroneous news report, which claimed that four tribal militants were killed in a clash with security forces. A journalist in Miranshah told Daily Times that news stalls reopened on Friday after the Taliban lifted the ban late on Thursday evening. The two-day ban was imposed on Tuesday after a private news agency carried an old report that was posted on a foreign news organisations website as fresh news.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Great! That means our enemies now can go back to reading the New York Times to get their Intel info.
One third of rebuilding contracts under criminal investigation Not enough.
BTW - Massive Merry-Go-Round Spin Alert. The gist and the facts are important. alG's Editorial hacking, flacking, and hi-jacking isn't. alG at it's, um, "best". Another BTW - sorry, but most of the money comes from the US, alG. We'll get hinky about the thievery, thankyouverymuch, you can fuck off. The Iraqi government is in danger of being brought down by the wholesale smuggling of the nation's oil and other forms of corruption that together represent a "second insurgency", according to a senior US official. Stuart Bowen, who has been in charge of auditing Iraq's faltering reconstruction since 2004, said corruption had reached such levels that it threatened the survival of the state. "There is a huge smuggling problem. It is the No 1 issue," Mr Bowen told the Guardian. The pipelines that are meant to take the oil north have been blown up, so the only way to export it is by road. "That leaves it vulnerable to smuggling," he said, as truckers sell their cargoes on the black market.
Mr Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Sigir), cites Iraqi figures showing that the "virtual pandemic" of corruption costs the country $4bn (£2.02bn) a year, and some of that money goes straight to the Iraqi government's enemies. A US government report has concluded that oil smuggling abetted by corrupt Iraqi officials is netting insurgents $100m a year, helping to make them financially self-sustaining.
"Corruption is the second insurgency, and I use that metaphor to underline the seriousness of this issue," Mr Bowen said. "The deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, told Sigir this summer that it threatens the state. That speaks for itself."
The Bush administration's strategy in Iraq hinges on the survival of the government run by Nuri al-Maliki, despite US reservations about the prime minister's readiness or ability to confront extremists in his own Shia community.
But Mr Bowen's office has found that the insurgents and militias have also been abetted by US incompetence. A recent audit by his inspectors found that more than 14,000 guns paid for out of US reconstruction funds for Iraqi government use could not be accounted for. Many could be in the hands of insurgents or sectarian death squads, but it will be almost impossible to prove because when the US military handed out the guns it noted the serial numbers of only about 10,000 out of a total of 370,000 US-funded weapons, contrary to defence department regulations.
Jim Mitchell, a Sigir spokesman, said: "The practical effect is that when a weapons cache is found you're deprived of the intelligence of knowing if they were US-provided, which might allow you to follow the trail to the bad guys."
Mr Bowen's inspectors are among the few US civilian officials who still venture beyond the fortified bounds of the Green Zone in Baghdad into the rest of Iraq, to see how $18bn of American taxpayers' money is being spent. Much of the money has been wasted. Sigir officials have referred 25 cases of fraud to the justice department for criminal investigation, four of which have led to convictions, and about 90 more are under investigation.
A culture of waste, incompetence and fraud may be one legacy the occupiers have passed on to Iraq's new rulers more or less intact. Mr Bowen's office found that nearly $9bn in Iraqi oil revenues could not be accounted for. The cash was flown into the country in shrink-wrapped bundles on military transport planes and handed over by the ton to Iraqi ministries by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) run by Paul Bremer, a veteran diplomat. The money was meant to demonstrate the invaders' good intentions and boost the Iraqi economy, which Mr Bremer later insisted had been "dead in the water". But it also fuelled a cycle of corruption left over from Saddam Hussein's rule.
"We know it got to the Iraqis, but we don't know how it was used," Mr Bowen later told Congress.
In the Hillah region a defence department contract employee and two lieutenant colonels were found to have steered $8m in contracts to a US contractor in return for bribes. The Pentagon contract employee, Robert Stein, pleaded guilty earlier this year, admitting he and his co-conspirators received more than $1m in cash, help with laundering the funds, jewellery, cars and sex with prostitutes. Stein also admitted that they simply stole $2m from the construction fund, accounting for the money with receipts from fictitious construction companies.
Hillah just happened to be the district Mr Bowen's inspectors examined in depth. It is still far from clear how much reconstruction money has gone missing around the whole country.
A potentially far more serious problem has been the way the US government decided to give out reconstruction contracts. It split the economy into sectors and shared them out among nine big US corporations. In most cases the contracts were distributed without competition and on a cost-plus basis. In other words the contractors were guaranteed a profit margin calculated as a percentage of their costs, so the higher the costs, the higher the profits. In the rush to get work started the contracts were signed early in 2004. In many cases work did not get under way until the year was nearly over. In the months between, the contractors racked up huge bills on wages, hotel bills and restaurants.
According to a Sigir review published in October, Kellogg, Brown and Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company) was awarded an oil industry repair contract in February 2004 but "direct project activity" did not begin until November 19. In that time KBR's overhead costs were nearly $53m. In fact more than half the company's $300m project costs from 2004-06 went on overheads, the audit found.
Iraq also represented a grey zone beyond the reach of the US civil courts. KBR was found to have overcharged the US military about $60m for fuel deliveries, but that did not stop it winning more government contracts.
A California company, Parsons, had its contract terminated this year after it was found to have finished only six of more than 140 primary healthcare centres it was supposed to build, after two years work and $500m spent. However, the contract was ended "for convenience", meaning Parsons was paid in full. In a police college Parsons built for $75m in Baghdad the plumbing was so bad that urine and excrement rained down from the toilets on to the police cadets. Parsons left a sub-contractor to do repairs but in general there is little punitive action that can be taken for shoddy work.
Part of the reason big US contractors have been able to get away with so much is that there has been limited proper supervision. CPA employees were picked not for their financial expertise but for their political loyalty.
Mr Bowen would have passed the test. He campaigned for George Bush in Texas and was one of the small army of Republican lawyers called in to Florida in 2000 to oversee the vote recounts on Mr Bush's behalf. When he started the job in March 2004 few expected he would do anything to embarrass the administration.
However, Mr Bowen has emerged as the scourge of the big corporations who are among the Republican party's biggest donors. Earlier this year a clause extending his mandate was stripped from a military spending bill just before a vote. Sigir, however, seems to have been saved by the Democratic victory in last month's elections.
Mr Bowen bristles at the suggestion that Mr Bush might have had a hand in the attempt to close his office. "I'm doing exactly what the president expects me to do," he said.
#2
WE taught THEM how to be corrupt? What is this idiot smoking? Has he never heard of the "Oil for Palaces" program? The UN supervised almost $100 billion in graft, fraud, kickbacks, and plain out and out thievery. Al-G must be hiring mentally defectives if they believe this is a story.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/02/2006 19:03 Comments ||
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Heavily edited because it's typical SeeBS / AP hash it all together pseudo-journalism.
(SeeBS/AP) As Sunnis and Shiites continue to target each other in Iraq, top leaders from each group will be meeting with President Bush.
First up will be one of the most powerful Shiite politicians in Iraq, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. He will meet Mr. Bush on Monday to discuss ways to improve the deteriorating situation. Al-Hakim is leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, the largest party in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing coalition. He is a rival of al-Maliki, and many consider al-Hakim an even more powerful political figure because of his party's electoral strength among Shiites and its Badr Brigade militia. U.S. intelligence sources tell CBS News that al-Hakim's forces were the first to send death squads against Sunni targets, CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.
SCIRI runs the Badr Brigade, a militia that is widely blamed for some of the sectarian killings that have been tearing Iraq apart since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine north of Baghdad in February. Al-Hakim repeatedly has denied the involvement of the Badr Brigade in the violence, arguing the militia has been turned into a political organization. Before succeeding his slain brother as leader of SCIRI, al-Hakim was in charge of Badr, which was trained and armed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and fought on the side of Iran in its eight-year war against Saddam Hussein's army in the 1980s.
The empowerment of Iraq's Shiites following the ouster of Saddam's Sunni-led regime in 2003 has been a source of alarm to many governments in the overwhelmingly Sunni Arab world and sparked fear of Iran's growing influence in the region.
Bush will meet with al-Hakim in Washington on Monday in a bid to find a new approach in Iraq, said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "President Bush looks forward to an exchange of views and a discussion of important issues facing Iraq today," Johndroe said.
#2
Wait a minute, the WAPO yesterday reported that the Bush Administration was re-considering it's "reach out and touch the Sunnis" program. Now we read this nonsense about continued meetings with Sunni officials? Which way is up, which way is down, Mr. President?
#3
Secret Service must be excreting large bricks over the Monday meeting. A violent death of the principals would likely set off a pogrom in Iraq and I am not confident Cheney would have enough backing in Congress, and especially among the American people to do anything about it.
#4
Now there's a good thought. Let GW inform the ragheads, after spewing their nonsense, that they will be going "hunting" with the VP, who wants to test his new Christmas present...a new "bird" gun.
#5
Cheney would do what he deemed best, and damn the consequences. He isn't going to run for office ever again, he knows as much as anyone what's been happening behind the scenes as well as in front, and he is a very, very intelligent and decisive man. I have no worries about such a promotion.
Al Qaida in Iraq reportedly published a message on its website on Friday urging members to assassinate King Abdullah of Jordan. The message called on "Jordanian partisans" to take action, and addressed the king as follows: "Patience, your fate will be the same as your traitor great-grandfather's."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Whatever he done to them? Ah, forgot. Hashemis are pretenders to the Saudi throne.
#2
The Hashemis used to rule Mecca, taking their cut from the lucrative haj traffic. The British removed them in favour of their pet desert Arab, Saud, and gave them Jordan (and I think Iraq) as compensation.
#3
psssst, Abdullah? The Paleos are AQ tools. Act accordingly
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/02/2006 18:39 Comments ||
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#4
Having Al-Qaida kill King Abdullah may be exactly what the US needs to knock some heads in that part of the world. I would recommend nukes and 500 miles on every large city (over 5000 population), and a few extra for any gathering crowds. I'm sure the entire world will be more peaceful after Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, Jedda, Aden, Bandar Abbas, Busahir, Qom, Tehran, Khartoum, Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus, Homs(Hims), Latakia, Beirut, and a dozen or so other sources of trouble are eliminated. Maybe even toss a few at Qetta, Karachi, Peshawar, Islamabad, Miranshah, et. al., for good measure.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/02/2006 19:09 Comments ||
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#5
OP - I'll admit that is a pretty complete plan and I like it but, you left out one small item.
Collect all the friendlies before your strikes commence, board them onto a ship, have it proceed 10 miles into the Med off of Alexandria,
A wide gap exists between Lebanon's Shiite and other communities in their opinion on a number of issues including the outcome of the recent war with Israel and the situation in Iraq and Iran, according to a survey released in Washington Friday.
The survey, conducted November 11-16 by Zogby International polling firm on behalf of the University of Maryland's Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, shows that more than 70 percent of the country's Shiites believe that Israel was the biggest loser in the war with Hizbullah this summer. That's in contrast to Sunnis, Christians and Druze in the country who overwhelmingly believe that the Lebanese people were the biggest losers.
Nearly 50 percent of Shiites questioned also believe Arabs should continue to fight Israel even if the Jewish state returns all territories occupied in the 1967 war as opposed to Sunnis, Christians and Druze who believe otherwise, according to the poll.
On Iraq, more than 50 percent of Sunnis, Christians and Druze believe civil war in that country will expand rapidly if the U.S. quickly withdraws its forces as opposed to nearly 50 percent of Shiite who believe that Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences if U.S. forces pull out.
More than 90 percent of Shiites also believe that Iran has the right to its nuclear program as opposed to a majority who feel otherwise in the three other communities.
The four religious communities agree on a number of issues when it comes to the United States, including their belief that their view of America would improve if it brokered a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement that would lead to a Palestinian state.
All four communities also believe that the Democratic Party's recent victory in the U.S. elections will not make a difference as far as U.S. policy in the Middle East.
As to confidence in the U.S., more than 50 percent of Shiites and Sunnis said they have none as opposed to more than 40 percent of Christians and Druze who say they have some confidence.
More than 60 percent of all those surveyed believe that democracy is not a real U.S. objective in the Middle East.
When asked which countries they preferred as a superpower, France came in first among Sunnis, Christians and Druze while Russia topped the list among Shiites.
French President Jacques Chirac was the most admired world leader among Sunnis, Druze and Christians while Shiites favored Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
When asked to name two countries that pose the biggest threat, the majority of Shiites and Sunnis identified the United States and Israel as opposed to Christians and Druze who said Israel and Syria.
"There were a number of things striking in this survey, on issues related to Syria, the role of Hizbullah and Iran," Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland who coordinated the survey, told AFP. "The line-up on these issues appears to be Shiite and non-Shiite, more than Muslim and Christian."
The survey involved 600 respondents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.
It was released on the same day that Hizbullah led a mass demonstration in Beirut in a bid to force the resignation of Premier Fouad Saniora's government.(AFP)
Zogby has not yet posted the poll's tabular results.
Just a tad shy of the 1/4 of Leb population (1Mn) the hyperventilating ass-kissers blathered about yesterday - and probably still an exaggeration. BUT... it does show just how fucked Lebanon is - these are Hezb minions. Sad - CedarGrrl has no future in her future.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to Beiruts streets today in a Hizbollah-led demonstration aimed at toppling the government of the beleaguered prime minister, Fouad Siniora.
A week after vast numbers attended the funeral of the murdered industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, Beirut was a flood of colour again as a sea of Lebanese flags blanketed the downtown area.
Hizbollah had planned demonstrations last week, but postponed them after the assassination of Mr Gemayel, the sixth anti-Syrian figure to be killed in two years.
The 200,000-strong crowds included supporters of Hizbollah, its fellow-Shia Amal party, the Christian faction led by Michel Aoun and supporters of Emile Lahoud, the Syrian-backed president.
But although the colours of various political factions were on display, the predominant symbol was Lebanons green cedar tree emblazoned on a red and white flag, a sign that Hizbollah wanted the rally to project the sentiments of a nation. Yup, don't show the Hezb flag - folks might misunderstand.
The Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shia militant group has branded Mr Siniora a puppet of the United States, and is calling for his cabinet to be replaced by a new government that will give Hizbollahs allies sufficient representation to effectively yield veto-power.
I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit, shouted Mr Aoun to the crowds, speaking on behalf of the opposition. Does this "quit" thingy include the Prez, too?
Siniora out, we want a free government, chanted the crowd in response. Free. Heh.
Mr Aoun called on the people to continue the sit-in until we reach our goals of installing a new unity government. "We want Pencilneck!"
"We want Pencilneck!"
"We want Pencilneck!"
Purdy catchy.
Demonstrators had been transported to the capital from all over Lebanon by bus and, although many returned home last night, several thousand remained for an indefinite sit-in around the prime ministers Grand Serail office.
White tents were set up on roads leading to the Ottoman-style building, and mattresses, blankets, food and water were laid on for those who planned to stay the night.
Ill stay here for as long as it takes, said Rahida Eliast, the 21-year-old students orange bandanna identifying her as a supporter of Mr Aouns Free Patriotic Movement.
I dont care where I sleep, and I dont care what I eat. I just want to see this government brought down. "I'm a Patriot! We all are! We want Pencilneck!"
Armoured personnel carriers could be heard through the streets of the capital early yesterday as hundreds of combat troops were deployed to strategic positions around the prime ministers office.
Inside the building, Mr Siniora, who has pledged he will not resign, was holed up with several cabinet ministers, attempting to go about his daily schedule and ignore the huge protests outside.
Hundreds of Hizbollah discipline men dressed in civilian clothes, and armed only with distinctive grey and white caps and walkie-talkies, were positioned alongside Lebanese soldiers at newly-laid razor-wire fences surrounding the building to ensure that the protests stayed peaceful. They've gone "pro". Might be good enough for ANSWER work, now.
Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hizbollahs deputy chief, said: This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss. We have steps if this government does not respond. Steps. I'll bet they do.
Mr Sinioras supporters claim that Hizbollah and its allies are attempting to stage a coup to bring down the government in order to torpedo an international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, last year.
Although Damascus denied any involvement, protests that followed the killing prompted Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. "Us involved? Perish the thought! We want Pencilneck! We want Pencilneck!"
Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, arrived in Beirut last night for a 24-hour visit. Try the veal, Mags.
#2
Well, you got the US puppet and you got the Iranian puppet. You were supposed to take your pick when you had that election thingy but who needs democracy when you got the guns and the Koran?
BTW, that particular girl may be cute but the look in her eyes is that of a sociopath who could get off on a violent revolution.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
RIYADH, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said there was no truth in an article by a Saudi security adviser suggesting the world's top oil exporter would back Iraq's Muslim Sunnis in the event of a wider sectarian conflict.
WASHINGTON - Liberals cheered the announcement Friday that Los Angeles Democrat Rep. Jane Harman will not lead the House Intelligence Committee next year, while military analysts called the decision a loss for national security. 
Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, an Iraq war opponent, will become chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's top intelligence official and a close ally of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, will step down at the end of the year, becoming the first key department member to leave in the wake of Rumsfeld's resignation. It had been widely speculated that Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, would resign as the Pentagon prepares for the expected Senate confirmation of a new defense chief -- former CIA director Robert Gates. 
The Iraqi government is in danger of being brought down by the wholesale smuggling of the nation's oil and other forms of corruption that together represent a "second insurgency", according to a senior US official. Stuart Bowen, who has been in charge of auditing Iraq's faltering reconstruction since 2004, said corruption had reached such levels that it threatened the survival of the state. "There is a huge smuggling problem. It is the No 1 issue," Mr Bowen told the Guardian. The pipelines that are meant to take the oil north have been blown up, so the only way to export it is by road. "That leaves it vulnerable to smuggling," he said, as truckers sell their cargoes on the black market.
First up will be one of the most powerful Shiite politicians in Iraq, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. He will meet Mr. Bush on Monday to discuss ways to improve the deteriorating situation. Al-Hakim is leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, the largest party in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing coalition. He is a rival of al-Maliki, and many consider al-Hakim an even more powerful political figure because of his party's electoral strength among Shiites and its Badr Brigade militia. U.S. intelligence sources tell CBS News that al-Hakim's forces were the first to send death squads against Sunni targets, CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.
