Well, he unmasked himself. To the shock of the world, he turns out to be none other than---
Since the model of anonymity is failing, I'll disclose the boring details. My name is Richard Fernandez, of Filipino birth and Australian citizenship. My interest in history probably began at Harvard, from which I graduated with a Masters in Public Policy. Wretchard is the name of an imaginary cat, the symbol of that entire race of stoic, yet somewhat foolish creatures. Belmont is the name of a suburb I roomed in while at Cambridge, Mass.
In other words, he's just this guy. Kinda disappointing, if you were imagining an Australian spy or an American diplomat, or something equally exotic and connected.
#1
I suspected he was Filipino. And I'm quite proud to hail from the same place he is from. The country can produce something better than dirty politicians.
#2
I thought he was Filipino as well - he dropped plenty of hints to that effect over the last few years.
So he's not a diplomat or spy, I actually think it's better that he's not - detailed disussions of complex topics from a normal guy - hope for us all!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2005 14:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I thought he was a clever cat with diplo connections. Boy, was i wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 15:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I don't see how this is a problem. The guy is simply connecting the dots based on publicly available information, just like every other person is doing.
#5
I don't see how this is a problem. The guy is simply connecting the dots based on publicly available information, just like every other person is doing.
#6
I don't see how this is a problem. The guy is simply connecting the dots based on publicly available information, just like every other person is doing.
#7
I don't see how this is a problem. The guy is simply connecting the dots based on publicly available information, just like every other person is doing.
#8
I don't see how this is a problem. The guy is simply connecting the dots based on publicly available information, just like every other person is doing.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 16:20 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Well, this really blows my earlier theory out of the water... I had thought for a long while that Wretchard was a Filipino-American I knew in grade/high school and who had later lived in Boston, or perhaps one of his relatives. But I later got in touch with him again and found out that neither he nor any of his sibs had wound up in Ozstralia...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/10/2005 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#11
He could be Louie the grease monkey down at the Sunoco on 5th Street for all I care -- the guy's smart, and he knows how to write.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2005 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I hear he's homo sapien.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/10/2005 19:59 Comments ||
Top||
#13
What a shock. I'll bet Mr. Fernandez rode the Red Line too while attending Harvard.
Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, hailed from Belmont, MA. It is a lovely place from which to attend any Harvard School. It is normal, and almost unaware of Cambridge.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/10/2005 22:19 Comments ||
Top||
WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?
My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of Iraq regime has been completed.
Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete.
This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now to begin the reckoning.
Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short. The United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, and Poland are some of the countries listed there.
The other list contains everyone not on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.
Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war.
The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hell-holes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption.
Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.
In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. On that note, a word to terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth.
Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France, or maybe China.
I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia. Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bon chance, mes amis.
I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world. I love New York
A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change.
Mexico is also on List 2. President Fox and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra tank and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put em? Yep, border security. So start doing something with your oil.
Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA
treaty - starting now.
We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska - which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: pick a country and move there. They care.
It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, "darn tootin."
Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America. It is time to eliminate homelessness in America. To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thanks guys. We owe you and we won't forget.
To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.
God bless America. Thank you and good night.
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.
(Please forward this to at least ten friends and see what happens! Let's get this to every USA computer!)
#2
His third grand project was to set up a couple of grand research institutes (no prizes for guessing where he wants these institutes to be based), open to European researchers in physics, chemistry and mathematics.
Just what Europe needs! A couple of more elite institutions, with admission no doubt based on comprehensive exams and nothing else and guaranteed employment on state or state-subsidized projects afterward. After all, the ENArques have served France so well.
... As a practical matter, Benedict XVI stands closer to [Pat] Robertson than to [George] Bush. He did not say that Muslims worshipped idols, but he denounced the "martyr ideology of terrorists", which "turns God into an idol by which man worships his own will". Given that the great majority of Muslims, and particularly Muslim clerics, support suicide bombing, the pope in effect averred that idol-worshippers comprise the Islamic mainstream.
Unlike American evangelicals, the pope does not eschew Islam as such. On the contrary, in a May 13 speech before the Italian senate, he stated:
The rebirth of Islam is not only bound up with the new material riches of the Muslim lands, but also it is fed by the knowledge that Islam is in a position to offer a spiritual base that is valid for the life of a people. The traditional Christian basis that made Europe seems to be fleeing from the land of the old Europe, which, notwithstanding the persistence of its political and spiritual power, has come to be seen ever more as condemned to decline and crumble.
Benedict's respect for Islam does not vitiate his abhorrence of religious terror, however. Here is the full citation from the December 2004 speech:
God, or divinity, can turn into the means to make absolute one's own power and one's own interests. An image of God that has been turned thus into an instrument of partisan interests, that identifies God's absoluteness with one's own community or its set of interests, destroys law and morality, by elevating what is relative into the absolute. The good then becomes whatever serves one's own power. The actual difference collapses between good and evil. Morality and law become instruments of partisan policy. This gets even worse when religious fanaticism, the fanaticism of the absolute, informs the will to put everything in the service of one's own interests, and thus turns completely blind and brutal. God has become an idol by which man worships his own will. That is what we see in the martyr ideology of the terrorists, which, to be sure, in isolated cases simply expresses desperation at the injustice of the world. By the way, we also have before us Western sects that are examples of irrationalism and perversion of the religious, and show how dangerous religion becomes when it loses its compass.
Because Islam has no centralized religious leadership, it is hard to quantify the extent to which Muslim clergy promote terrorist "martyr ideology", but anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that the great majority of Muslim religious leaders support suicide bombings, for example. Among Sunni Muslims, the leading authority is Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque. Sheikh Tantawi has gone back and forth on the issue several times, but his most recent pronouncement (in May 2004) held that circumstances warranted Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis, adding that anyone who blew himself up while defending Islam against an aggressor died a martyr's death. [6] A survey of the debate among Muslim clerics about suicide attacks by Haim Malka appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of the Middle East Quarterly, concluding:
Since the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, in September 2000, the Palestinian resort to suicide attacks has won widespread Arab public acceptance as a legitimate form of resistance against Israeli occupation. Some Muslim clerics and other commentators justify them on political, moral and religious grounds. Even those attackers who bomb and kill women and children are hailed as martyrs for their heroism in confronting the enemy.
#1
Here is the nutshell Benedict XVI does not set out to attack Islam, but to preach to the secularized West. His mission is evangelical, not political. He warns against raising the banner of secular enlightenment against "fanatical" Islam:
I'm not sure what point Spengler is trying to make here. Is it a bad thing that the Pope is spreading Christianity, pointing out the dangers of abusing Christianity or any religion for the purposes of pursuing political power?
#2
Ignoring the original piece, and addressing the title, I think you could make a fair argument that the rather extreme veneration of the Koran is a form of idol worship.
Fer crissake, they cover it up if it's in the bedroom while they're having sex!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/10/2005 12:27 Comments ||
Top||
#3
What a waste of time trying to pontificate if muzzies worship idols.
My thesis title wouldv'e been "How stupid is islam, just a little stupid or really fucking stupid?"
#4
For one, many JudeoChristians do not understand how, iff Muslims adhere or ackowledge the various Personages and historicities described in both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible, then why do Muslims go ape over animals "speaking in tongues", e.g Pigs, as opposed to MARIAN APPARITIONS, ANGELS, or DREAMS/VISIONS OF SIANTS OR PROPHETS, aka human-like, surreal entities. Before my late father and othe relatives passed away, I swear onmany occasions I saw what I describe as a surreal, human-style or outlined, "shadow being" moving around him - this "being" wore what looked like a long white robe. covering most of its body except its hands, head, and feet. Its hands, head, and feet resembled a mortal human, but I could not see the full or concise details of its face or limbs. "It" moved around my bed-ridden father like he was trying to make him comfortable, which I believe was in effect getting my father ready for death. Call it the "Soul", "Angel/Archangel",
"Guardian Angel', the "Spirit" or just a mere "Ghost", etc. for me, like apparitions or personal dreams/visions of the Holy Mother, Saints, andor the Prophets, is NOT to ever be compared or held inferior to a four-legged animal allegedly "talking" like the infamous dog ala NYC's SON OF SAM!?
When South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo, met at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last week, the warmth between them was unmistakable. There is no leader on the African continent that either is closer to. Both recognise that, as the two most powerful countries on the continent, the failure of one will be the failure of all African countries.
Yet at the Commonwealth summit in late 2003 the two argued so bitterly that they refused to speak to each other. While a majority of Commonwealth countries - with the African component led by Nigeria - bayed for action against Mugabe, Mbeki fought to protect his northern neighbour. The meeting was described as the most divisive in the Commonwealth's history. Many, including Mbeki, said the Zimbabwe issue threatened to split the organisation apart.
Over the past six years Mbeki has been prepared to jeopardise his most vital political and personal relationships in defence of Mugabe. Even as police raze shacks in and around Zimbabwe's cities - leaving hundreds of thousands homeless - he said he would wait for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy to finish her investigation.
Mbeki did not flinch. The Sussex-educated President believes 'quiet diplomacy' - a strategy whereby he keeps Mugabe on side to bring about gradual change - will work. In more than six years of 'quiet diplomacy' Mugabe has broken every promise he has made to reform. Another excuse defence Mbeki has used for not condemning Mugabe is that he believes Zimbabwe's problems were caused by Britain. In 2003 he complained Britain failed to pay a 'measly' £9m for land redistribution.
But Mbeki travels alone. Civic leaders in South Africa - from Nelson Mandela to Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Cosatu, the powerful trade union congress, opposition parties and even members of Mbeki's cabinet - have expressed outrage at human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki and his fast-diminishing coterie in the ruling ANC have refused to budge. Even when senior South African election observers were beaten up by pro-Mugabe youths in the 2002 elections, Mbeki ensured that the team declared the election free and fair. In November last year, after Tutu questioned 'quiet diplomacy', Mbeki attacked him as having no respect for the truth. On its website the ANC sought to discredit Tutu, accusing him of having been a struggle hero of the West and white South Africans - not South Africa's black masses. Last year Mugabe called Tutu 'an angry, evil and embittered little bishop'.
Even Mandela has declared that people like Mugabe 'want to die in power because they have committed crimes'.
That's right on target.
Cosatu - the country's biggest trade union federation and an ally of the ANC - has been accused of recklessness for its Zimbabwe human rights campaign. After being kicked out of the country on a fact-finding mission last year, secretary- general Zwelinzima Vavi said: 'Nepad - the New Partnership for Africa's Development - will stand no chance if a government such as Zimbabwe willingly disregards its own laws in this manner. The continent will go nowhere if its leaders can act with impunity.'
Mbeki knows this. He knows too that he stands alone in South Africa on Zimbabwe. The business community, which backed 'quiet diplomacy', now calls on him to speak out. At the centre of this is his belief that calls for Mugabe's departure are racially motivated. He will not be lectured to by the West. 'It is clear some within Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the world, including our country, are following the example set by [Ronald] Reagan and his advisers to "treat human rights as a tool" for overthrowing the government of Zimbabwe and rebuilding Zimbabwe as they wish. In modern parlance, this is called regime change,' he said in a letter after the Commonwealth meeting.
In just the past few weeks of mass evictions in Zimbabwe about 300 people have died. More than 1.5 million are homeless. All are black. Where is Mbeki's solidarity with them?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2005 00:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The only tool in this situation is Mbeki.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
07/10/2005 7:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
corrupt buddies in power - let's see if Mbeki peacefully turns over the reins of power when time is up. Methinks he might not
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 9:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Isn't the writer stretching for a reason why Mbeki to back Bob? Wouldn't it be a simpler theory just to posit that Bob has paid Mbeki off. Hasn't money been discovered to be the overriding reason why some favoured quiet diplomacy with respect to Sadaam.
Like every rule there is a exception. I don't think Jimmy Carter is ever paid off by the thugs he supports. He's just a natural moron.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:47 Comments ||
Top||
By GENERAL (RETD) MIRZA ASLAM BEG
Former Chief of Staff, Pakistan Army
Lately, there has been a determined effort to label the freedom struggles of the Muslim world as terrorism, as the propaganda objective of the vested powers. Take the example of Afghan Jihadis, who were instrumental in the humiliating defeat of the Soviet Union, enabling the US to wear the crown of unipolar global power. They were termed as 'Mujahideen' to carry the positive image of their determination and tenacity. But there was a total reversal, the moment the Red Army retreated from Afghanistan. The epithet for them, outrightly changed into a negative one â "radicals and fundamentalists" â conveying brutish and extremist sensibility.
While they weren't without fault, the muj were primarily a guerrilla force, not a terrorist organization. The most effective fighters against the Sovs were those of Massood's Pandjir Valley coalition, plus Ismail Khan. The Taliban, who spent the war in refugee camps in Pakistan, moved in after Hekmatyar attempted to sieze power for himself and threw the country into anarchy. The Muj of 20 years ago are the "warlords" of today, except for Massood, who was bumped off by terrorists.
The tragic episode of 9/11 in 2001 humiliated the Afghan Mujahideen further, who outrightly were declared as 'terrorists', and included in the much maligned category of Al-Qaeda.
Actually, the Talibs were given the opportunity to hand over the terrorists or suffer the same fate. They chose the latter. Their choice.
A full fledged 'war on terror' therefore, was launched with superpower-ferocity, without discriminating terror from freedom movements.
We can see where this is going. Sorry. Kashmir is not a "freedom movement." It's part guerrilla war and largely terrorism, controlled from Pakland...
Posted by: john ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looked superficially it may appear that the Muslim World is helpless, but a deeper look would reveal, that it is coming out of the morass of sufferings and humiliations, of the past two centuries.
#4
Presently the Muslim world has no road map of its own to fight poverty, deprivation and their corrupt leadership which suffers from slavish mentality. Looked superficially it may appear that the Muslim World is helpless, but a deeper look would reveal, that it is coming out of the morass of sufferings and humiliations, of the past two centuries. Presently 57 Muslim countries are independent, seeking identity and struggling to achieve resilience and strength.
Pardon me, I skipped the middle part, and cut to the chase. Did he explain how wacking journalists, targeting police, terrorizing transportation, and indiscriminate murder were part of the road map to "fight poverty, deprivation and their corrupt leadership" in the "57 Muslim countries [which]are independent, seeking identity and struggling to achieve resilience and strength." Or do I hafta read the whole thing?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 9:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Command and Control facilities are another item India might find hand and maybe a payperview peek at SW asia imagery.
#6
"The organisation which claims to be a think tank, has made a deliberate effort to convey that Jihad-i-Akbar is an explicit obligation for a Muslim, as the first priority, to purify oneâs soul by total submission to Allah
The flaw here, therefore, is the current muslim fad of skipping over the "purify ones soul" sanctimony, not to mention the perfidy of it, cos how does Allah verify ones "purity of soul"? By issuing a "licence to kill, maim, and dismember?" indisciminately? But there's more...
"a Muslim remains engaged in a perpetual struggle for the âpurity of the soulâ and in this process has to endure hardships and exercise restraint so that temptations do not overpower piety"
Saddam Hussein was brutalized and abused by his uncle, he endured hardship and privation, now tell us which part of Saddams life would you CAIR to parse and characterise as a jihad? ..." . He ran an Islamic State, with justice meted out in the name of Allah, even if you disagree, so its all he said, you said; IOW one mans geeehod is another mans case in point for launching one right back at him.
And while we're on the subject, where were you or any other "jeehadi" when Saddam was gassing Kurds, killing Shia in South Iraq by the hundreds of thousands? None of you filthy, double-talking cowards would take up that fight, now would you? Therefore you make my point for me: your absence of support for Kurds and S.Iraqi Shia means that you explicitly support Saddams repression as "jeehad " with built in purity. No, instead Saddam granted asylum and sanctuary to your other favs, al zarkawri, Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, Ramzi Yousef, all most wanted terrorists, before 9-11, NTM, negotiations and money laundering for binladen
"With respect to Jihad, Allahâs commandment is very clear and explicit: âWhat hurdle lies in your way that you do not reach out to help men, women and children who on account of their weakness are being brutalised and subjected to atrocities and are calling you to rescue them from, the clutches of the tyrants.â In fact, it is a call for the defenseless and the oppressed to rise against the forces of tyranny and injustice. In other words to wage a âpeoples warâ. "
So, I ask again, just where the fuck were you, Merza Alsam Beg?
Shopping your Sophistry, and flapping your mouth, (yet again), when there was justice to be done?
"All Muslims may not get this message, but a few will respond to the call and reach out to help their fellow believers and fight against state terrorism, such as those being perpetuated in Chechnya, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir."
Yeah, (latin)Palestrina, Iraq, and Afghanistan were all state sponsors of terrorism, so that's 2, almost 3 out of the five yu complain about put out of business, courtesy of the wall and the USA, respectively. Before Musharraf, Pakiland was, and in some areas still, a state sponsor of terror.
Hashem Aghajari, an Iranian professor who dutifully fought in the Iranian army against Saddam, (which you, sir, did not) and who's leg was amputated in battle, was sentenced to death for merely criticizing clerical rule. Isn't his struggle against tyranny the only one, I mean the only one we have learned about, that qualifies as to the stict distinction and definition you make as to what is jihad, and what is terrorism? You know, the "Purity of the Soul" kind?
"They donât even have their media, which could project their cause and counter the propaganda against Islam."
The Muslim media, and the western big media, are all "projecting your cause" and promoting propaganda for Islam.
âAfghanistan will become the hornets nest of Jihadis, with the additional support from neighbouring countries(state sponsored terrorism) whose security is threatened due to foreign ingress into their perimeter of security.â
Pakistan is threatened by a liberated and democratically elected republican government?
"The tragic episode of 9/11 in 2001 humiliated the Afghan Mujahideen further, who outrightly were declared as âterroristsâ, and included in the much maligned category of Al-Qaeda. "
No, you stupid fuck, the "mujahadeen" set up the most tyrannical state sponsors of terror since Araphot, Khomeini, Assad and Saddam. and now that you mention it, just how does a mujahadeen fight for the cause of justice for Women, who were slaughtered like cattle in public executions in an Afghan soccer stadium? For, you know, working outside their home, you know, to feed their children, because their husbands throat had been slit open by the state taliban(pakiland and saudi "students"), and where BTW are you on this "gentle"?
"Presently 57 Muslim countries are independent, seeking identity and struggling to achieve resilience and strength."
No, you lying hypocritical toady, Two Muslim countries are, Iraq and Afghanistan, the 57 you refer to is close to the 60 wars being fought in the world, all of them against expanding islamic terror.
" He (the prophit, ahem) never waited for the followers of the Deen to determine whether they were all Momin or otherwise, although amongst them were many, who were hypocrites and sham believers. "
I see, after making a distinction of finest double talk and double think, He (the prophit) fudges the (your) distinction. Fudge packers. Arise! Pack your bowels! Mommin or not, here we come! Whoever kills the most, gets to plunder like a Pirate! Avast me harties!
" Hence, the need to understand the phenomenon of Jihad and the necessity to initiate dialogue. This reality seems to have dawned on the Americans, who are now in contact with the Jihadis in Iraq and want to negotiate peace through dialogue."
What, You mean Zarqawri is your idea of "purity of the soul" type jihadi? I know of 22 million Iraqis who will disagree with you on that one.
"But the fact also cannot be denied, that heinous acts of terror are being committed by elements who have joined the ranks of the Jihadis for their own selfish ends. Islam has never allowed, that innocent people be targeted for killing. How could the believers of Islam indulge in such acts of terrorism? Such persons are opportunists"
I rest my case.
Also islam does not consider 'unbelievers' as "innocent" in the first place. Furthermore Islam admires and praises anyone who propagates this lie and who feigns sympathy when he has none in the first place. so there; Hence the media angle you work for jeehad in western media.
"Since it âis a movement for changeâ, therefore it is facing resistance from the old hegemonic and colonial forces. It is a natural process of development of the human society, where Muslims happen to be at the centrestage. "
Twas colonialism that prepared the Indian subcontinent for prosperity in the 21st century, and, for that matter 'African Aid' that holds Africa back, but what's your excuse for wanting to jump back to the 7th?
Posted by: Annie War ||
07/10/2005 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
As for India, at the risk of being called a communalist, I must agree that any country that claims to be a modern, secular democracy must secularize and unify its legal system, and take power over women's lives away, once and for all, from medievalist institutions like Darul-Uloom
Posted by: john ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
On July 3, Egyptian Ambassador to Iraq Ihab al-Sherif went missing. Of course, the worst was feared. On Friday July 8, Cairo confirmed that Sherif had indeed been killed by -- if they won't say the word I will -- TERRORISTS. Not just any TERRORIST, but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The insurgent group Al-Qaida in Iraq said Thursday that it had killed Egypt's ambassador-designate in Iraq, Ihab al-Sherif, five days after gunmen seized him on a street in a diplomatic quarter in western Baghdad where he had driven alone to buy a local newspaper.
Cairo's first action was to recall mission staff.
"We're taking this step basically to protect mission staff," Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists in Cairo.
"We're taking steps to protect the mission staff???" That's fine. In fact, that is to be expected. It was the rest of the statement that we're all waiting for. How about, "We, as Muslims, are sick and tired of you TERRORIST pieces of human debris making the rest of us look horrible." Maybe, "We, as Muslims, are sick and tired of having to take time out of our busy days to explain to westerners -- not just Americans -- that not all followers of Islam are looking to blow up something or decapitate someone."
You, as Muslims, have been silent.
Terribly silent.
Perhaps you fear a Salman Rushdie-like fatwa. Or, perhaps we, as westerners, don't understand your silence. Whatever the reason, the time has come to stand up and shout that you do not support you condemn the cowardly acts of Zarqawi and his ilk.
Shortly after Cairo confirmed the murder of Sherif, the U.N. Security Council denounced the act. Great. Perhaps the World Bank can give me an answer on my home loan re-fi.
"Syria strongly denounced on Friday the killing of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq yesterday saying its is a "horrible criminal action." An official source at the foreign ministry announced that the Syrian Arab Republic "is strongly condemning the horrible criminal action that claimed the life of the Arab Republic of Egypt ambassador in Iraq Mr. Ihab al-Sharif."
Close, we are getting close. C'mon, say it.
"While Syria is expressing her sincerest consolation to the government and people of sisterly Egypt and to the late family and colleagues; she renews her rejection and denunciation of all terrorist actions wherever they occurred," the foreign ministry source said.
Finally. It has been said. Why it took this long I will never know.
A little knowledge of Unicode is your friend. Suppose you want to type the symbol for the White Chess Queen. Bring up a tool like the Windows Character Map, the Macintosh Character Palette, or look it up at the Unicode Home Page site, and see that its hexidecimal code is 2655. Insert into your comment ♕. You should see ♕.
I hope this helps. ☺
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/10/2005 20:12 Comments ||
Top||
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.
